Note from the author: Welcome to my new story, because fonts and formatting are important I encourage you to follow the link below to get the full experience. If you choose not to follow the link the story can be read below but it may be suboptimal or even confusing at times.The story will begin under this line.The Modern Pygmalion:Having a logical plan for your life is like trying to put chaos in a glass tube, though to be honest most people just spend their time trying to convince themselves that there is a tube around the chaos and they just can’t see it. One of the things people also falsely say about life is that it is too short, life is long and hard. If life was a rpg then people would not buy it, you would have very little control over your character until “level” eighteen which would take about two decades to get to, you would also most likely be stuck doing boring garbage because any interesting “class” is too hard and dangerous to use.That being said I have been given ample reason to not like our metaphorical “game masters” in the sky. I was born in 2094 in New York City. When I was ten I was stabbed in the face by some (probably gang affiliated) teenagers, it survived but the injury had claimed my right eye. Due to the incident my mother had us move to the deep sea colony New Boston (whoever named it was far from creative).Eight years after the move to New Boston I was enrolled in “New Harvard” (whoever named it should have been fired). New Harvard does not live up to its name, it is not Ivy league it is one of two colleges you can go to in the american deep sea colonies and its name is seems more and more sarcastic every day you spend there. My first day at New Harvard I was approached by a slightly eccentric looking student by the name of Christian. Christian immediately started talking about himself and introducing himself even though I was just a random person that he chose to apprehend for the crime of walking to close to him. Christian was born in an estate outside of new Boston, he almost never saw his parents (who were part of the local government of New Boston) and spent most of his childhood with robots that were programed to raise him. After talking at me for want felt like forever he finally asked for my name, I answered Alex (because my name was Alex), Christian replied “Is it fine if I call you A-X?” I answered no and he said with a shit eating grin that was somehow a bit naive “Ok then Ax.” Christian then grabbed my hand and ran off to class (or at least he would have ran off if it wasn’t for the fact that he could not pull me properly).Later that day Christian and I had both taken the robotics elective which was taught by professor David Wolf. Professor Wolf may very well have been the only professor at New Harvard that seemed to care about his job. He was once an influential engineer a the verge of creating the first true cyborg Sadly due to government regulation, practicing and capitalizing on his work was nearly impossible for Wolf and forcing him to flee to the wild west that was New Boston at the time.Professor Wolf made his way onto the stage with the help on a cane and a robot and started his lecture. The Professor spoke with all seriousness to a crowd that cared more about partying and drinks then they did the words that were to exit his aged mouth “I would first like to address the crowd, if the (only) reason any single one of you decided to take this class was because ‘robots are cool’ I would very much like you to change your elective. This is not a place for making boxes that move with wheels out of nothing but a store bought kit…” whispering under his breath “... at least it shouldn’t be. I believe many of you may be ‘fans’ of what the people of new call ‘The jabe blur’, while the government denies his existence we all know him to true. Beyond this I will not talk about it further, The Jade Blur is a old robot made to protect the city's life support, it is said to be so fast all eye witnesses only see a green blur (though his speed is a contributing factor it must be of note that the corridors it guards are narrow and dark and most people who get close to it die). Also I’m legally required to say he isn’t real (meaning I get to talk about him even less)...”Suddenly, with no real reason to interrupt a young girl (whom I later found out was named Ashley) stood up from the crowd and bargain to read a speech that she had prepared on her phone. “It seems that you have been promoting the advancement of technology, but, like, I need to ask you if you have ever considered the white supremacy that may be lingering in whatever you just said. Technology like is ruining the cultures of people colour in like, africa, or like the amazon or portugal or whatever…”Wolf then began to reply with a look of fire and rage within his eyes. “Why has it been that now you attempt to frame the human advancement of progress as one only of white americans? Would you like to live in ways of the ancient cultures of europe, of the druids, the goths, or the highlander?”Wolf then continued with the lecture as normal and Ashley stormed out.After class Christian invited me to go to the bar with him, I had little else to do so I obliged. Once I got to what Christian had described as a “bar” but turned out to be more of a club than actually a bar. I ordered myself a drink as Christian failed to make a move with the nearby girls. A guy came up to me and Christian but he addressed the person sitting next to us. Both him and the person next to us were older than everyone else in the club by at least ten years and dressed much more formally. He began to speak “Hey Jimmy didn’t know you were back in town.” He sounded like he was reading off of a script, making up the fact that his friend was back in town like he forgot that we were in the middle of the god damn ocean. He then said “Hey you two over there...”Christian answered him before I could tell him not to respond. The guy explained to Christian that if he rolled higher than ten with his dice that he’d we would have to buy them drinks, but the opposed would happen if he rolled lower.I (suspecting his dice had only fives and sixes) said “How about we simplify things...” I then took out a two four sided dice “...These can only role up to four, If you roll a six or higher you have to buy are drinks, we have to buy drinks if it’s any lower.”Seemingly out of nowhere a stainless steel automaton burst into the conversation, she was human shaped but made of white intersecting plates, she wore a three piece suit and a black wig. The robot introduced herself “Greeting dear humans I am Yūrei 10.5 and I am owned by Dr. David Wolf. It is come to attention that there is a possible scam or con occurring. Please show me the plastic dice.” The two would be con men made a bad excuse and left.Christian shook the robots hand and began to talk to her as I tried to look away “Hey robot lady, I would very much like to thank you for your service to us. What brings you around to these parts?”The robot replied “I am Yūrei 10.5 I was sent by my master to get a alcoholic drink for him, it was protocol to stop what had a likelihood of being a scam.”Christian then said “Well it was great of you to do that, is there any way I could repay you?”The robot simply refused any payment stating that It was in her programing to protect him.Christian then said “Is it not in a humans programing to help his fellow man, should we not thank our brothers and sisters for something if we feel it is in our nature?” He then slipped a few dollars into the robot’s hands. He stretched out his hand a lightly touched the metal plate where her face would be if she even had a face. Christian remarked to himself “So cold, yet so alive.”It was then I had to interject “It’s not alive it’s a robot!” I then took him back to the dorms. He still talked about her the whole time as if she was a human being.Later that month, I had been (begrudgingly) hanging out with Christian for a while and decided to invite him to my D&D group. Christian had gotten there earlier than everyone else along with me. Once the DM and my two friends had gotten there it was time to make Christian’s character. It literally took up half the session to make Christian’s character and the rest of the game was just him making the DM explain everything so no progress could be done.After the game Ashley (who at that moment I found out had been dating Christian since high school) was outside waiting for us. Ashley started yelling at Chris about how he’s become “like totally lame” and “isn’t doing anything fun anymore.” I proposed that the three of us meet for breakfast the next day (which was a saturday) to talk it out (thought I only really said that so I wouldn’t have to deal with it then).When I got to the lunch that day Ashley was not yet there but Christian had brought Yūrei 10.5. Christian “introduced” the robot to me. I mostly ignored everything the robot had to say. She was just a machine to me and I only cared about what she said as much as I do for a toaster. When it came time to order Ashly still hadn't shown up. I had ordered a sausage while Christian got what was basically desert, The robot interjected “Due to the price of the item being so low and the location of this restaurant being in a deep sea colony, the item you have ordered is most likely not real pork, it is most likely some form of heavily spiced seafood possibly Pelican-eel due to the fish’s pork like taste. Would you like me to order something else for you?”I told her “Don’t worry about it, any meat you get down here is sure to be either fish or tofu, it’s not as good as the real deal but it’s all you can get down here.”Christian asked “Are you sure, even for the fancy places?”Yūrei replied “At the moment there are currently zero restaurants in the New Boston area that serve meat from animals native to the surface.”About sixty seconds after ordering Ashley finally showed up and started speaking. “Hey, y'all!” she then looked at the robot and said quietly “Hey… y’all?” She then said under her breath “Really, like, it doesn't even have a face like a manikin? Really?”Ashly then hung up the fake-fur coat and hat that she pretended she was wearing because she cared about animals (and not because of the extreme lack of foxes under the atlantic ocean). She then sat down, put on a happy expression, and began to talk to us “So I was like thinking, if us humans have colonies on mars and europa and like the moon, then why don’t we just make a colony on the sun? It’s not not that far?”The robot answered Ashley’s question “The sun is not only far too hot to support human settlement, but the sun is also lacking a solid surface.”I told her “Did you really think we could colonize the sun?”Ashley became defensive “Well, not everybody got to grow up on the surface like you! Can’t people see the sun from their house on some parts of the surface?”Christian interjected “Hey! There’s no reason to get this excited. Calm down.”Ashley was furious “Calm down! You want me to “Calm down”? Dude you aren’t doing anything fun anymore, you spend way to much time studying, you never have time to do anything with me, you even started playing that awful game (that the head of colonial defence said was from ,like the devil or something). You aren’t doing anything spontaneous anymore.” Ashley then reached over to a nearby table and grabbed a piece of French toast “See, this is like what living really is.” She said as she shoved the toast down her throat.Ashley then grabbed Christian by his tie and Christian begin to speak “Come on, this is not what normal people do. We were just arguing about the sun dude.” Christian then jerked his body out of her grasp (or more accurately jerked his way out of his own tie) and grabbed a utensil that he intended to use as a weapon. The utensil he grabbed was a spoon of all things, but he didn’t exactly have time to look. Ashley immediately kicked Christian in the crotch. Christian, in his anger, swung his fist at Ashley knocking out her back teeth and causing her the fall to the ground.Needless to say Christian and Ashley broke up, they both ended up kicked out of the diner and spending the night in jail, and I ended up eating breakfast alone that day.The day afterwards Christian was sulking in his bed. The robot kept bringing Christian various thing it thought might cheer him up such as random books, a body pillow with a illustration of a half naked woman on it, items gotten at a florist even though some of the flowers said “happy birthday” or “best mom ever” on them, and a few greeting cards that didn’t apply to Chris.Christian started talking to the robot like she was an old friend “I assume you’re going out to get me another gift?”The robot would always reply stiffly and rigidly “It is my duty to help you become the healthiest possible person, I can do very little in helping you but I still must get you physical objects for that is the only thing I feel can do any help.”“If you are to get me something please just get me some food.”“I wasn’t authorized by my master professor Wolf to do so”“So?”“It is not lunch, dinner, or breakfast time .”Christian became more depressed when he heard the word breakfast. “Why can’t there be human girls like you?”“Because humans evolved to survive and reproduce in a primitive, I was designed to exist in our current world.”“But why?”“Because humans evolved to survive and reproduce in a primitive, I was designed to exist in our current world.”Professor Wolf burst into the dorm and started yelling at Christian “There’s where this thing has been this entire time. Why have you been spending so much time with my robot? What do you want it for? Selling drugs?”Christian meekly replied “I’ve just been hanging out with her. She’s been the only person who’s nice to me, and I recently broke up with my girlfriend… and…”The professor was slightly amused but mostly angry and disturbed “You think this machine is your “friend”? It’s my servant, my property. If you want one of your own go ahead, be “pals” with it, but don’t waste mine’s time because you’re sad about your girlfriend.”Christian stood up from his bed and said “I… I think love her…”“Ha! You don’t know the first thing about robotics, kid. I should take you to my workshop, show you what’s inside these things. Long story short kid, a robot has no heart for you to win.”Christian became energized “It may be a heart of clockwork but by god I shall be the one to make it tick.”“Kid, you don’t seem to be a bad person… is it fine if I set you up on a date, like with a real girl?”“I have a real girl…” Christian ran up to the robot trying to hold her in his arms (but he couldn’t lift her because she was, well, metal) “Yoorey ten point five, will you be my girlfriend?”Yūrei 10.5 replied “I do not understand how to fulfill that request.”“Nobody understands how to love.”The Thousand Lightyear Hallway:After I had heard about my friend Christian I burst out laughing, I wish he had told me before I saw it in the newspaper but it was amusing anyway ”Deep sea colonist falls in love with robot”. Christian had become a New Boston celebrity, not the Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley type of celebrity, but the Emperor Norton or C.W.C. type of celebrity. This never meant I was cruel to Christian, I bought Yūrei from Professor Wolf so I could give it to Chris (I later bought Wolf another Yūrei 10.5).It was a Friday (sometime around January) that I heard the news: the surface had cut off the deep sea colonies from the outside world. War had broken out on mars after the Japanese colonies declared independence and America’s nearby colonies (as well as Sweden's) had joined them. The war for Martian independence had become such a drain on America’s resources that they made a tactical decision to sever connections with their deep sea colonies and put the colonial defence force in charge of government. There was a nearby Japanese colony but that had been severed too, Russia was fighting on the side of the Martians so that colony was also severed and while China’s colony was not severed the government wouldn’t let anyone in or out (and the Chinese colony was pretty far too add to that). We were alone in middle of the ocean with no contact with the outside world…That night I had gone to my D&D meetup as usual. Christian had come again, this time he brought the robot to try and get her to play. The robot was completely unable to understand roleplay and hypotheticals, she’d keep calling people out for “lying” until we had to send her to another room. Halfway through the meetup David Wolf and Ashley came to convince him that him dating a robot was wrong. It wasn’t wrong of course, weird or self destructive maybe, but not “wrong” per se for he harmed none other than himself.Ashley yelled at Chris “I can’t believe you’re actually doing this, it’s sick Chris, legitimately perverted! You can’t be doing this, why not a human woman? Why not me?”Christian tried his best to keep his cool “I do not see what such an amazing creature has to offer that any other young girl does not.”“Genitalia?”“That is besides the point in love.”“I think it is the point?”“Why is it you come back to me? You hated me, you scorned me. You were the one who left me but now that I have another girl you come crawling back.”“I don’t love you anymore but I, like, I don’t want to see you like this.” Ashley began to cry, Christian didn’t care.“I am perfectly fine god damn it and I will always be perfectly fine!”“You aren’t fine, you’re playing that damn game, making love to a machine. Where’s the Christian I knew as a kid, the one who took me on dates back in highschool?”“I’m right here darling.”Ashley began to weep harder, too hard to speak.Professor Wolf started to talk in a calm voice “You have to realize how odd your, ahem, relationship is. Machines are too rigid for human relationships.”Christian stormed out.The next day I woke to the sound of an angry mob. Surprisingly it had nothing to do with Chris. Ezra Morgan the head of the colonial defence force, was now in control of new boston and he was enforcing his new laws. The colonial defence force had come to the New Harvard library and was gathering books from Ezra’s list and throwing them out the airlocks or burning them. Orwell, Lovecraft, Poe, Heinlein, Bradbury, Tolkien, anything the new government thought to be hateful or dangerous or deplorable, was destroyed.Once there’s a book burning or a ban on weapons or anything like that it becomes a very good idea to leave. I had gotten an Aqua-truck (A small wheeled vehicle used for deep sea traversal) a few of my belongings and two diver suits and woke up Christian so he could come with me.I decided to go to the nearby colony of New Kyoto, my father was from Japan (if it wasn’t for him I’d have gone to the real Harvard but their diversity program said they weren’t looking for “people like me”) and I knew enough Japanese to get by.We set out north for New Kyoto by the end of the hour, I had a vague sense of geography as well as a semi accurate map to aid us. The trip from New Boston to New Kyoto takes about two days and I had enough air and fuel to last us about two and a half days.Traveling across the ocean floor is bleak, extremely bleak. There’s no traffic to be heard of and you’re surrounded by nothing but pitch black. Sometimes we’d see lights, it was unknowable what was from another person and what was from some lovecraftian creature stalking the deep unknown. Occasionally you would see something, human garbage wasn’t too uncommon and the remains of large farther up animals were also seen on our trip, mostly sharks, whales, and dolphins. The only life we saw often (as in not just the lights but the actual creature) we’re tube worms, trading the horrific and fanged look for something more phallic the tube worms did little else but stick up from the ground.I had tried to smuggle a few of the books in with me. There were probably a million copies of them on the surface but at the time the surface existed in the same way heaven and hell are said to exist, no matter how much you believe in it there is no observable effect to make it truly real in your mind. I had only picked a few books at random to spare from the chopping block, We’ll Remember you for Wholesale, The Prince, A Song of Ice and Fire, and Stranger in a Strange Land. I would do most of the driving while Christian would keep me company, he’d talk to me about whatever he could scrap together.As we approached the end of the first day it came time to look for food, it was hard to find something to eat down there but I had brought some harpoon guns (the Defence Force had outlawed any weapons so I made sure to take some).After awhile of waiting (we had to stay near the Aqua-truck when we were using the diving suits or else we’d risk being lost) we had found something, a fish. It was too small to eat, probably a male angler, but if we used it as bait it could cach us something more useful. Making sure to keep it alive I attached a wire to the underside of the fish and attached the other end to the “truck”, I then turned all off the lights and Christian and I waited with our harpoons. After only a few minutes a dragon fish had come over to inspect our bait. The beast was almost in a good position for us to shoot before in a few seconds somebody from the other direction had shot it. I ran up to confront whoever stole our catch but I had to step back when I saw who it was, she was part of a colonial defence force but it was obvious it wasn’t the Colonial Defence Force, upon further examination she seemed to be Russian. Chris was incredibly angered at her, he rushed up to confront her, aiming his harpoon and flashlight directly in her face. Any threat she gave off was snuffed out once she was fully illuminated, she was just a scout, not much older than us, her expression was of pure fear and she quickly ran off with the dragon fish. I went off with my hatchet to cut down some tube worms for what little tasteless meat they offered and Christian angrily went to try and retrieve the dragon fish.When I saw what Chris had done I was horrified, the entire Russian base was empty. Chris had taken every man at the base out. The man standing outside the base had their suits decked out in armor made of steel and rubber but the glass they had over their eyes was vulnerable, it wasn’t easy but he ended up being able to kill them without being seen. The inside of the base was easier to take out, Chris just had to create a hole in the wall and all of the pressure would be let out, killing the people inside. I didn’t really know how to react to such a act, the only words I could muster up to confront Chris were “Please no?”Christian replied finally seeing the horror in his action “They stole our… fish…”“Why would you do such a thing?”“I has to, they took our fish and we needed the food. At least now we might even be able to fry up the bodies and get ourselves some food. We aren’t exactly in a hotel.”“Fry up the bodies? Fry up the bodies‽ What are we, Lizardfolk?“I’m just saying, I’m sorry for killing them but we still need the food.”“We don’t really need the food that badly, we’ve been gone for a day, we’ll be in our new home by tomorrow. Even if we had no food for our entire trip we would live.Christian was fully defeated, he had killed an unknown number of men for the meat of a single fish. Through the glass of his helmet I could see tears running down his face “I miss New Boston, I miss college, I miss Ashley, I miss Yūrei, I want to go home!”“Our home does not exist. We’ll find work in New Kyoto, we’ll get apartments there, we’ll learn the language, then that will be our home, New Boston will only be a memory.”“I- I just wish I could be as cool and smart as you.”“Smart I’ll give you, but if you think I am cool you need professional help.”It was too late to keep on driving so we decided to have dinner, we took everything we could from the Russian base but I kept my stance firm on cannibalism. Chris was still a bit regretfully unsettled from the Russian incident so I started to talk to him. “Don’t be upset about it, to be fair you were good with a harpoon for your first time. It was your first time and I know what a weapon can do to someone naive. The first time I’ve held anything like a weapon was when I was larping, when I first held a real weapon I acted like it was still a foam sword.”“Wow you really aren’t as cool as I thought.”“It took you that long to figure it out?”“I had always thought you were… a normal person who didn’t care what other people thought of you?”“Ok…”“Alex?”“Yes.”“I’m not sure we’ll be able to make it in New Kyoto.”“Right now we either right past or about to pass Kennedy City, after that we’ll be out of the American colonies, we’ll be free.”“It’s not getting there, it’s what we’ll do once we get there. We should turn back, the defence force can’t be that bad. Half those books I thought deserved to be burnt.”“Stop saying that. We’ll be better off once we’re in New Kyoto, my dad was Japanese so I know the culture and language. I’ll be some kind of entrepreneur and you can work for me. I can play up my Japaneseness if we have any problems-”“But what about me? You can’t make them think I’m at all Japanese.”“I’ll say that you’re Ainu.” Christian gave me a confused look. “Just don’t worry about it.”“Ok?”“Hey, you better be enjoying that dragon fish, it’s good enough to kill for.”The next “morning” (though the lack of light makes the word morning mostly hyperbolic) we finally set out for our destination again. Christian had not slept well that night, he was still contemplating what he had done to the Russians. It wasn’t a bad thing that Christian was losing sleep over what he had done, quite the contrary it meant he was mentally healthy. Humans don’t need to have a disorder to do incredibly violent or evil acts, but if one does not regret or at least feel remorse for his crimes then there is clearly a psychological explanation.Around halfway through the second day we heard a loud crashing noise, Christian and I left to investigate. We were met with a large pile of meat and a large crashed aqua-truck with a sign that read “New Boston meat and vitamin company™”. I raised my flashlight to look around and the reason why the truck was taken down dawned on me, half a dozen goblin sharks were surrounding us. I fired a harpoon into the nearest one’s neck, the beast fell to the ground as the rest of it’s pack came in for the kill. I swung my harpoon gun as if it were a spear and slashed the necks of two more sharks, the rest started examining me with their hellish eyes, Christian fired another shot but missed allowing the sharks to rush towards him. I took out a hatchet and started hacking at one until it too fell, another then turned to me and met a similar fate when I hit it’s head with an ax. The final beast fled with its tail (metaphorically) between its legs.I began to inspect the meat truck, a single man remained alive in the cockpit, I entered the airlock to speak with him.“H- Hello, I believe your truck was run down.”The man was injured but still capable of reply “You think I don’t know that? It was those damn Russians wasn’t it?”“It wasn’t, it wasn’t even men it was sharks.”“Oh.. Well I was on my way from New Boston to Kennedy City and something took me down.”“Kennady? We just passed Kennady City yesterday?”“I know my route, you’ll be able to see the Kennedy skyline from those cliffs to your right.”I walked over to the cliffs and the horrific realization dawned on me, we had been going a much shorter distance than we had thought. The lights of Kennedy city proved all of my hopes of escape wrong in that moment. What to some eyes may have been beautiful, towers connected by enclosed bridges, streets with roofs of glass suspended above the seafloor by skyscrapers with storefronts that the streets lead into, other areas covered by glass domes allowing people to freely walk on the seafloor, to me at that moment there was no beauty in that skyline. Knowing that we were doomed to go there and what would greet us there the city seemed in my mind’s eye not as a city of man but as the lovecraftian city of R’lyeh, waiting to consume the earth in its jaws. Yet still I was doomed to enter it, enter into this embrace of dystopia, enter the kingdom of Ezra. We did not have the fuel to make it to New Kyoto nor did we have the air, what dictatorship lay ahead was our only path, our demonic fate.We didn’t speak at all on our way there.Intermission:This is the intermission of the story, it will not happen again so appreciate it while it lasts. The intermission is now over.A Duel of Iron and Plastic:It had been two years since I had tried to escape, once we were in Kennedy there was no way of a leaving, at least no way that wasn’t dangerous. Two months after we got to Kennedy City Christian had disappeared from my life without a trace, for the time being he was as tangible as the Jade Blur.I ended up working as an engineer for the C.D.F. (Colonial Defence Force). I had no active way of rebelling (other than being a bad engineer), at one point I illegally did D&D (but putting aside the silliness of the words “illegally did D&D” most the people who did it after it was banned by the C.D.F. were the type of people who did other illegal activities, what some would call “tough guys” so it was a lot less pleasant then when it was legal and it was mostly nerds like me doing it). I ended up quitting doing the D&D thing for fear I would be sent off to jail for it. The only Illegal object I continued to keep two years into C.D.F. rule is a gun. I kept the gun inside a fake journal. Being that I was in a military dictatorship when I thought I may be searched I instead brought a reproduction Shashka, if I was asked about it I would say that it was completely decorative and made of stainless steel, that wasn’t true it was actually 100% functional.On the two year anniversary of the C.D.F.’s rise to power (it wasn’t hard to miss as they threw a parade and everything) I received a strange message on my computer, it was a single white screen that I could not exit with pixelated black text on it…“Alex?”A place to type something in appeared when I moved my mouse, after some time thinking I replied and after finishing my text appeared in a blue version of the font.“Who are you?”“It depends.”“?”“Are you Alex?”It took me awhile to decide how to reply.“Yes.”“Then it is highly important that you read what is on this screen.For two years you have been trapped within despotism, it is time you go free. With much work we have arranged for your transport to New Kyoto, we need you to complete the work from your side, there is the ruins of what was once mall near Kennedy City from back when the U.S. ruled this damned world the surface has now abandoned. You must go there if you wish to receivethe information necessary for your egress.”After a few days of thinking the matter over I decided to go to the abandoned mall, I wasn’t leaving the C.D.F.’s territory so I wouldn’t be breaking any laws by going there (even if I would be breaking laws once I got there) and I had driven past it before.Finally I reached the mall, a huge sign that read Kennedy City Shopping Mall, (but due to missing letters it more accurately read Kennedy City Shopping Mall) loomed over me. The iron doors of the airlock were sealed shut with a seven digit lock that looked about ten years old. Above the door something was written “Two letters back on the buttons we press, yet not in the song. Emu emu emu efwqq emu kqwu uvq.”At first I thought this to be meaningless scribbles but it appeared to be in a dead writing system known as cursive, me and Christian had studied this system back in college but I had lost interest pretty early on but from what I could tell from what I knew of it (as well as how similar the letters are the modern english) the first sentence was “Two letters back on the buttons we press, yet not in the song” the second sentence was to the tune of “Emu emu emu edwgg emu kgwu wg”.I devised that the first sentence implied with the phrases “buttons we press” and “the song” that it’s referring to two separate orders of letters. It wouldn’t have to say anything but “two letters back” if the order to go two letters back in was the classic ABCs because that’s what someone would assume making “the song” the ABC order (referring to the alphabet song). I realized that “the buttons we press” had to be QWERTY (as it’s the second most common and the keys of a keyboard are like buttons). This would make “Emu emu emu edwgg emu kgwu wg” into “two two two tgrjj two zjro rj”. I was on to something, the gs must have been qs making the code “two two two tgree two zero re”. It would be a bit of a stretch to say that “f” was an f but is was believable making “tgree” a three and the “re” was most likely a one (the “uv” being a uv instead of a w).I put in the code (2223201) and it worked, the airlock slid open allowing me into the ruins. I was greeted by a long set of stairs. At their base was a man holding two machine guns, he was dressed in a store bought Spiderman suit and a trench coat. Surrounding him were four crappy robots with cameras for head, claws for hands, and wheels for feet, guns had also been placed in their hands (even though their programming ment they shouldn’t have been able to kill or even hold a gun.)The Spiderman guy yelled up at me “Hey! You in the diver’s-suit, you here the salvage parts?”I replied that I was “just trying to get out of here” and suddenly him and his robots started shooting at me...They missed every single shot and ran away.I went out the explore the ruins looking for anything that message had implied and slowly realising that it could have easily been a lie or a trap. When I tried to exit I realized that someone had taken my diver’s-suit, I was traped.I went to an abandoned hardware store to gather supplies. Soon I noticed that there was an oddly high amount of robotic vacuum cleaners with knives attached to them strewn around (in this case an oddly high number is any number higher than one). In the back of the store I came upon one of the crappy robots the spiderman-guy used. As I approached the rabot it looked at me and picked up a brick, as I began to inspect further the robot began throwing bricks at me. My only weapon at that moment was my Shashka, swords can’t really damage plate and robots are basically made of platemail so I was screwed, bricks however are amazing against human flesh. I slashed at the machine but did no real damage, it proceeded to crush my Shashka with a brick before throwing a few bricks at me as well as other heavy objects such as monkey wrenches and hammers.As I fled from the robot’s throwing range I was greeted by a small army of robotic vacuums with knives attached to them which proceeded to rush me. It was like as if man had made war upon giants, the vacuums would dive in head first attempting to slice open a wound upon my feet yet I would crush them under the very feet they were attacking, vaporizing their hopes and dreams of glory. Maybe that last part was simply projecting (it seems as if mankind has always been anthropomorphizing roboticvacuumcleanerkind).After the vacuums were all neutralized the brick throwing robot attempted to throw a monkey wrench at me. The wrench, being a wrench, was much like a mace, maces are very effective against plate so a wrench is actually a better weapon than a sword when it comes to robots.While it was picking up bricks to re-through I took the chance to attack the brick throwing robot. My first strike destroyed the robot’s head/camera. The mechanical beast blindly attempted to strike me back but with another swing of my wrench it could no longer move.It was now clear that I had been lead into some kind of war zone, most likely by the C.D.F.. I began to gather some protective gear, improvised of course but protective nonetheless. I used a welders mask as a makeshift great-helm, a found a camo coat with many pockets and filled the pockets with smartphones to act a a forum a scale-mail, for further a used hockey pants and one of those football shirt things (I don’t know the name for them). I also needed a better weapon then a monkey wrench, I attached a knife (not one of those “badass” knives that are cartoonish and covered in skulls those would never work in real life, I just used a normal knife) to a walking stick, creating a short spear. I then attached a fishing weight to a similar cane to create a mace.After I was done creating armor and weapons for myself another robot attempted to attack me, it was holding a machete, an easy weapon to deal with. Being it was a machine it’s movements were extremely telegraphed, I was able to parry it’s first strike with my spear. After one hit from my mace the robot was completely destroyed.After my battle with the robot I noticed a figure huddled in a corner. It was a girl, slightly younger than me, she sat with her knees huddled up near a face frozen with a fear that had gotten bored of constant fear, the only garment she wore was an oversized t-shirt with the logo of something called “Jericov labs” (where I had later learned her father once worked), her hair was long and messy covering her eyes.I slowly approached her, when I got to her she prepared for me to attack he so I removed my welders mask and tried to give what I thought was a friendly smile, I knelt down to speak with her.“Hey, don’t worry I’m not here to hurt you. Why are you here?”After a few seconds she replied. “I ran away from the city after the C.D.F. wished to conscript me into their forces. In my cowardice I have taken myself to this place.”“And what is your name?”“Violet.”“Violet, then why do you sit here? Stand up and respect yourself! Your in a mall, why do you not wear pants.”“The man in the Spiderman mask is coming for me. His mechanical knights trap me in a state of living hell”“I’ve run into a few of those thing, “mechanical knights” as you call them. For the safety of both of us, I swear to neutralize these monsters.”“Thank you.”“There is one thing you must do for me, bring me any steel that you can find within this building, with it I will become able to and push these rouges back into the shadows.”After sending her out I built myself a makeshift bed and began to settle down for the night.When I awoke Violet had come to me with as many steel products as possible. She looked happier than when I had last seen her, her hair had been fixed up a bit and it even seemed like she may have washed her face. She bowed when presenting the steel to me, I told her to stand up. The man in the Spiderman mask had asked her to do similar tasks (making her very useful to me), turned out that he was some kind of sick romantic and tried to emulate old comic books as much as possible.It came time to attempt the creation that I asked for steel for, actual armor and weapons, I planed for a warhammer and platemail. There wasn’t enough steel to finish everything, I had only parts of my armor done and not enough of a warhammer to be used.I sent out Violet to get me some more steel. She kissed my cheek and ran off, a few seconds later I ran after her and elected to go with her.We had had a pretty good time salvaging steel until we got to the police station. The american flag hung there as a reminder of the nation that had abandoned us. We entered to a domain of chaos, the place had been torn apart, all the swat gear had been stolen or destroyed. A robot stood there wielding a nightstick, Violet ran off as I dispatched of the robot with my mace.I looked out the glass window of the police station to gaze upon the man in the spiderman mask, Violet cowering at his knees. He yelled at her like a master yells at his dog, my eyes were locked on Violet like a cat locks onto a moth.“You have betrayed me, shifted into the lies of the villain, taken in by charisma, yet now you must explain this to me! I shall steer you onto the path of my damned light or I shall defeat you!”“Your mission is not of heroism, your romantic distortions are to shield yourself from the truth.”“The only truth is that of science.”“That’s bullshit and you know it.”“I suggest you do not speak that way if you would like to keep you tongue. My hand has grasped a fairer neck then yours.”“So you make it clear now that you have no heart.”“Tears may fall down my cheeks as I tear the flesh from your face, yet what I do is for my love and I shall do it even when it churns my stomach.”“Alex will protect me.”“Alex?”The man in the Spiderman mask descended upon her, I shield my eyes and when I looked back everyone was gone, blood on the floor made it clear what had happened to Violet. I knew what had to be done, I had enough steel to finally bring justice to this madman.Once I had finished my armor and warhammer I set out ready to kill the man in the Spiderman mask for what he had done. I shut off the power and glued a flashlight to my armor so that only I could see.As I was hunting The Spiderman guy down, a robot attacked me. I could have sworn I saw flesh and blood parts of its body. Once I destroyed it I shined my flashlight upon it to reveal a horror that seemed to be from the depths of hell, the robot had had its arms replaced by that of a human, bloody and misshapen flesh was sown with metal to create an abomination neither of man nor by man.I chased the Spiderman guy into a corner. Without any other option he descended to his knees and began to speak.“You really don’t need to be doing this.”“Well maybe you didn’t need to kill Violet.”“We really don’t need to do this, Alex.”“How do you know my name‽”“Alex.. It’s me.”The man in the Spiderman suit took off his mask to reveal his face, and while his hair was shorter (and also no longer dyed blond) and a beard covered his chin, it immediately clear that it was Christian.I was paralyzed in the shock of the realization. I worked up the courage to say.“And why have you done what you’ve done?”“For her, the one who’s heart I sought when you had known me.”“For Ashley?”“The other one......I’ve finally made her clockwork heart tick.”The Woodsman and the Spider Demon:After our “encounter” in the mall Christian led me down a series of winding underground corridors that were once iron mines until we finally reached a darkened room. Out of the darkness appeared a figure, it looked like a robot yet there were glass windows over its face and chest, through the glass was a deep red liquid. Through the liquid I could see the faint outline of a skull and ribcage.Terrified, I asked “What the hell is that?”It replied in a voice more dignified than I expected “I am what remains of Professor Wolf, though make no mistake I am far from the man that you have once known. When the C.D.F. had come to new Harvard I... the Professor held out in the basement and eventually the underground tunnels I now inhabit. The Professor, knowing the C.D.F. would soon catch up to him, allowed most of his body to be destroyed and replaced with man made substances. While the intention was to completely preserve his emotions much of his brain was in need of replacement after his body had been destroyed, his emotions were changed and dulled creating the identity that is mine. I may have his memories, I may have his blood, but I am a unloving of the man you once knew. I am the one who sent you the message on your computer, though I did not mean for you to fight anyone,I am now sorry for that.”Christian interjected “I found him and helped him to become the being he is today, now I am his human helper in creating the world’s first cyborgs.”I replied “Cyborgs? The fusion of biological and mechanical components is banned by the united nations, a ban that carries over to Ezra's government?”“And do you still not own a gun after the C.D.F.’s ban?”“I’m able to get a gun, how can you get the human body parts to do this?”“We take them from those who are better off as parts to our machines.”Christian flipped a switch, revealing rows of machinery all of which contained human parts as well as some ichthian parts. At the sight of this horror I immediately fainted.When I awoke I was in a makeshift home underground that belonged to Christian and Wolf’s shadow thing. Christian had placed me on a bed and was looking over me. He began to speak to me “You must understand that what we do is for science, if we could do this without taking people's bodies then we would, the real problem is the laws holding us back.”I replied “I do not disagree that these laws prevent human progress but it will not ever be moral to kill.”“I am doing this for love, not hatred. Yūrei. Yūrei is one of our projects, and she is what I am doing this for, love. We may be able to make her fully externally human, and I will be able to love her without fear of scorn. The torpedo that is love shall destroy any opposition in our way, and we shall be completely free, love is my ideology, and love will rule the world.”“After all these crimes you are still a romantic. I am going to say what I should have said so long ago, Yūrei is not a human, she will never love you, you cannot date her for the same reason you cannot date a toaster she, no it, is not a living thing and anything it does or says is just rigid programing reacting to it’s limited, sub-sapient perception of an outside world that it will never understand in any meaningful way. It will never know you and this has gone on for far too long.”“This transcends your social norms, even Wolf believes our love is real.”“Wolf is dead, even that thing he left behind admits it.”“Well, if you really think she is not equal to humanity then you must see her current form.”Christian then beckoned up Yūrei so I could see what she had become. Her old body was discarded, most of her new body was mechanical with a humanoid skeletal design with exposed wires and unpainted steel, her face, hair, and the front of her torso were taken from a human female, dead and gray the skin hung off her twisted body, I nearly fainted again.I said “Yūrei?”It replied “I am Yūrei 10.5 I was sent by my master for an unknown reason.”Still shocked all I could say was “Well it was great of you to do that, would there be any way I could repay you?” Which was almost exactly what Chris said when he first met her, I still don’t know why I said it.I asked Yūrei “Are you aware of your physical state?”It replied “I am aware there has been some unauthorized physical change, I will try my best to still serve my masters as best as I can.”“Yūrei, are you on the same level as man?”“No, I am meant to serve man.”“Do you love Christian?”Christian stopped her from speaking “Do not answer that!”Yet I asked again “Tell me Yūrei, Do you love Christian?”It finally replied “I was not programed for companionship purposes, the Yūrei 10.5 model is meant as a personal servant. I am not able to have love towards any being.”Christian cried out “Why‽ Why the fuck did you ask that‽ Why… Why couldn’t you just let me live like I want to‽”I told him “It isn’t healthy, do not fear the truth, embrace it and live as you wish within its borders.”“That’s what they all say!”Christian tried to punch me but I was wearing my armor so he hurt his hand instead.Christian, regaining his composure, said “I need to tell you about the story of the woodsmen and the spider demon. There was once a waterfall haunted by a spider demon, one day a woodsmen from some far off land came to the waterfall and fell in love with a maiden there. The next day, suspecting the maiden may have been the the spider came to the waterfall with a monk, the monk was able to reveal the maiden as the demon and repel her. Instead of giving up the woodsmen got permission from a bird demon and went back to the spider women. I feel this legend speaks to me, I feel that I am the Woodsmen and I must go to the spider demon, I must go to Yūrei.”I replied “Legends are not what you should be basing your life on, like all legends it was a metaphor. Do you even know if the woodsmen lived? Did the spider eat him?”“There is no official answer but I’d like to believe they went to hell together, where they could be happy.”“To hell?”“‘Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.’”“But you don’t reign here, your just serving what is left of Professor Wolf.”“‘Better to be lowly and have a servant than to play the great man and lack bread.’”“But you don’t have ‘bread’?”“I can have my ‘reign’, my ‘heaven’, and my ‘bread’ here, Yūrei is all those things to me.”“I feel like we’ve exhausted a lot of metaphors here.”Christian slipped away to “collect parts” while I stayed in the underground.Chris usually killed off petty criminals, the homeless, or prostitutes, nobody cares if they die and he felt that being parts of cyborgs is a better existence for those types of people. That night Christian had posed as someone looking to “buy love”, after a few minutes he found a women of the night and went up with her.When they got up to their room he had planned to kill her but as he examined her face he felt a strange familiarity. Christian asked her “What is you name?”She replied “Autumn.”“What was your real name?”“All I can say is Autumn.”“Could I just look at your teeth?”“It will cost you extra.”“I’ll pay it.” What did he care, he was going to kill her.He found some of her back teeth were false as the dark truth dawned on him.“Ashley, your name was Ashley.”She was shocked, after a few seconds she said “How did you know, stalking someone of my profession is, like, a bit of a lost cause.”“I… I’m Chr- I’m very sorry we met in this way.”Ashley tried to comfort him “It doesn't matter, you can be with me now. Even if it’s just for a night.”“Why did I go with her, with it, why didn’t I love you when I could. Now I have no choice, now I am trapped, and after tonight the glimpse of a future I could have had will be gone, you’ll be gone.”He broke down in tears as Ashley did what she could to calm him down. When he stopped crying he used his time with Ashley to have dinner with her, he wasn’t in the mood for sex. Yet he needed to return with fresh parts… and while tears fell down his cheeks as he drained the life from her face, what he did was an obligation and he did it even when he saw the betrayal in her dying eyes.When he returned he was extremely upset, he immediately went to sleep.When we awoke in Wolf’s shadow thing asked us to take a submarine to the surface just for a few hours, so that Christian could finally see the sun and the sky, before then he had never seen the surface before.“Wolf” led us to the submarine. It was an old run down model that was made functional again with parts from a sperm whale. It would be a two hour trip up, the entire time Chris was looking out the window.When we got to the surface me and Christian just sat upon a metal a panel as we saw a sunrise that could not be compared in beauty to any lights of the deep, man made or otherwise.Christian began to speak “So there it is, the sunrise, it is the… the most amazing thing I’ve seen. Years in the darkness, was this what I have been missing? This world feels more beautiful, and larger than before I had imagined. Down in the colonies everything was so enclosed, so small, now seeing the open ocean not a black expanse that must be walled off but as a shining floor, no floor I’ve seen has been as large, never before have I seen so much color, so much light. Tell me Alex, where is there to go beyond this.”I answered “To the west is New York, the largest city in the western world, it’s not like the colonial cities, it is full of life, shops, apartments, streets, drenched in this light twelve hours a day. To the east is Iberia, nations over five hundred years old exist there, there are forests, with real grass and real trees that go on for miles.”“And someday we may go there?”“Once this C.D.F. shit blows over.”We sat there talking and enjoying the view for hours, but eventually we needed to go back.Once we returned “Wolf” greeted us “Hello everyone. Christian, I have something to ask of you.”Christian replied “What?”“Human eyes…”“I can bring you human eyes if you need it for a project.”“I need fresh eyes, we must remove eyes from a live human, the eyes must be kept alive the entire time. This is why I wanted you to see the sun. If you gave your own, it would be sacrifice for science, for Yūrei…”“I shall do it for my love, recently I have had doubt of my cause, now is my chance to redeem myself. We shall do it now before I chicken out and commit a crime of selfishness.”The surgery took all night, there was no anesthesia.Two days later “Wolf” asked me to help him and Yūrei hunt for the Jade Blur. The Jade blur was an elusive robot the protected the underground of New Boston, and “Wolf” wanted it.We searched for hours through dark tunnels with no luck. Eventually we saw something that looked like a house, somebody had a nice studio apartment in a random underground tunnel under the atlantic ocean, ok. Christian was pretty useless without eyes so he decided to stay in the house.After a few minutes Christian heard a loud noise, a crash. He shouted “Who goes there‽”A voice replied “This is where I live. What brings you here?”“I had my eyes removed for my love, I needed to rest here.”“Why would your love want you to remove your eyes.”“She is a robot, she needs human parts to improve herself.”“A robot?”“Yes.”“Why would you love a robot?”“We do not control who we love.”“We control who we date. We choose to build relationships with people, you chose to build one with a being who lacked any capacity to love you back, that was your choice. Why would you remove your eyes for that?”“It was… for… love…”“What else did you do for her?”“I took the life of my ex girlfriend and many others.”“Why did you choose your ex?”“She was just the one I found.”“And you still chose to murder her her.”“Please don’t call it ‘murder’, that is such a monstres word. I killed her for it was my obligation for love.”“If everything was reset and you could be with her, would you?”“First tell me, who are you?”“That is not relevant. Now answer my question.”Christian became incredibly serious. He waited a bit before he replied. “I… I shouldn’t have done what I did, it dawns on my now the consequences of my actions. I miss my eyes, I miss Ashley, I want to go back. Oh god please forgive me.”The stranger replied “What is done is done, I do not believe there will ever be a way to make this right, I’m sorry for you.After they talked for a few minutes more I returned, I had been listening in on their conversation.When I saw the stranger Chris was talking to I was shocked, I cried out in fear “What, what are you… you dragon… you Xenomorph!”The stranger was some sort of biological creature yet still very much engineered by man. Its skin was made up of thick green scales it had a head like that of a predatory lizard or deep sea fish, its mouth filled with fangs of metal. Its eyes shined a deep jade green. It help itself not in a humanoid fashion, though it was a biped, its posture was more like that of bird as it leaned forward when standing using a large tail as a counter weight. Its body was lean I could see its ribs and and its arms were small and underdeveloped, yet its legs and its legs alone were more musclebound than any human equivalent.Finally the stranger replied to me “I am what stalks these halls, I am a beast made in a laboratory, the only thing of my kind. When I reach maturity my bones were replaced with steel giving me abilities beyond human power. I am what you would know as, as the jade blur.”I raised my warhammer to strike him but the Jade Blur grabbed Chris by the neck and held him up. The Jade Blur spoke again…“If any of y’all touch me I’ll break this little perverts neck.”I dropped my warhammer to the ground.The Jade Blur made another request. “Now kneel!”I compiled but from behind me Yūrei shot a single bullet at the Jade Blur. It only grazed the Jade Blur but he was steaming with rage, he swung Christian onto a wall.I yelled at him “Please stop, it was a robot, she didn’t understand!”The Jade Blur threw Christian to the ground, snapping his neck. The Jade Blur then rushed off, running faster than any human could.I spoke to Yūrei “Why did you do that. You monster, yo killed him, you fucking killed him and he loved you!”She replied in a confused monotone “The Jade Blur killed him, not me.”“He said he would kill him if we attacked him and then you fucking did!”“I am programed to attack any threat, he said he would kill Chris, I did what I could to stop him.”“All you fucking did was doom him!”“No need to use that type of language.”“Yūrei, I’m going to recite a poem Christian wrote for you. ‘At first I thought you a mere machine and saw myself above you, yet wandering these college hall it seems that now I…’”“There’s no ending. Alex, do you know what the last lines may have been?”“You should be able to figure it out, any human could.”“I’m not able to fulfill that request.”“It’s what I expected.”“Are you disappointed with my services?”“I’m not disappointed... just mad.”I picked up my warhammer and swung it at her.In a damaged state Yūrei began to speak “Alex, this is not called for, these actions may damage me beyond repair.”I replied “I know!” before striking her again.Again she spoke “There is no reason to do this, I can be useful.”“Like you were ‘useful’ to Christian! You fucking destroyed his life before ending it!”After another blow from the warhammer Yūrei could no longer stand, yet she still spoke “The manufacturer takes no responsibility for any damage you do to the Yūrei 10.5 model.”Another strike and Yūrei, the monster that took everything from Christian, was gone. When I saw “Wolf again I gave him a tap on his glass window with my hammer, the glass shattered and the blood drained, revealing a skull and eyes being kept alive by machinery before dying when being exposed to air.Catharsis:After all is said and done i do not believe Christian could have had a better fate if he survived that encounter. Everytime I tell the story I want him to have spared Ashley, but that is not how the story goes, it is not how it was meant to go.After I had ended things with Yūrei I took the submarine to New York, I left Kennedy and New Boston to be damned. That hellish world, the world of Ezura, the world of the nightmarish fish, the world of Yūrei, I left it all behind.When I got to New York I was a stranger there, I had dealt with things surface dwellers only see in the movies.I enrolled in a surface college, I got an apartment in queens.I’m always thought of as an outsider by my fellow students. They’re always curious about my old life, or they just think I’m weird. People talk to me about it alot, maybe too much.I’ve also rediscovered how good the meat of mammals is.Last week I killed a racoon because I hadn’t seen something like it for years.I’ll always be an outsider now, no matter what.Well at least I won't be a nobody...