//------------------------------// // First encounter // Story: Synthetic but living // by Dark Nightshade //------------------------------// Raw Data had found something awesome. He just didn't know it yet. As he was walking away from school on the first week of school, something shone in his face. He looked around and noticed a cracked and terrible damaged phone lying on the ground, next to the sidewalk, slightly covered in dirt, but still reflecting sunlight. He walked over to it and picked it up, his metallic black fingers gripping the sides, and his electric blue eyes sizing it up. A slight breeze blew his silver, almost wire looking hair. Looks fairly advanced, Raw Data thought. I wonder who dropped it? He glanced around, looking for anyone who may have dropped it. He was the only person there. I guess I'll go fix it and then who it belongs too. He placed it carefully into his backpack and continued to walk home. Once he got home, he opened his backpack and pulled out the phone, and then threw the backpack onto a couch. He opened up the basement door and turned on the lights. They flickered on, and he put the phone on a work bench. Let's see what's inside of you, he thought as he pulled the casing off. Steam puffed out, and Raw Data stared in surprise. Some of the wires looked like they hade been slow roasted, while others looked like they had been frozen recently. "What happened to you?" Raw Data muttered softly. He pulled a drawer open and pulled out some wires. "Let's see what I can fix." He started pulling out the damaged wires and examined what else was there. The motherboard is intact, the other wires are still good. All I need to replace are the bad wires and glass then. And he set to work, replacing the bad wires with unused ones, and got out a new set of glass for the screen, replacing the cracked one when he had sized the new piece to fit the phone. Well, now that you're fixed, all I need to do is charge you, Raw Data thought. Where's dad's old wireless charger? A bit of searching later, and he had found it. He plugged the charger in and put the phone on the charger. It still needed to be on the charger to charge, even though it was wireless. Now I wait, Raw Data thought. I'm going to go watch tv. A few hours later, Raw Data had just finished with dinner when the lights flickered. He stared at the lights. They didn't flicker again. I should check on the phone, Raw Data thought. He wakes towards the basement door and opened it. He flicked the light switch, but nothing happened, until he noticed a soft glow. I'm going to get a flashlight, Raw Data thought. And then I figure out what that glowing is. A few minutes later, Raw Data was slowly walking down the stairs, shining the flashlight at the ground so he wouldn't step on any blades. Once he got to the ground, and looked around the room for the glow, but it had vanished. He aimed the flashlight around the room to see a possible source, but the only thing he could see that could possible do it was the phone. Raw Data walked over to it and picked it up, pressing the on button. The phone vibrated and the screen lit up. Raw Data jumped a little in surprise. The screen saver showed a full body shot of a beautiful light pink skinned, sea blue haired naked woman. Raw Data blushed as he pressed on the safari app. No favorites, not history, it's like this guy never used the internet! Raw Data thought. He exited to the home screen and gasped. Now the screen saver was just the girls face. Must be on a timer, Raw Data thought. Until the girl started to move and spoke. "Who are you?" she asked. "Are you the one who repaired this thing?" Raw Data froze for a few seconds until he yelled in panic and dropped the phone. "OW!" the girl exclaimed. "Don't break me! I was just fixed!" Raw Data stared at the phone, its screen pointed upwards, the girl looking straight at him. Raw Data started inching towards the phone. "I'm not going to bite," the girl said. "Come on, pick me up." "What are you?" Raw Data asked. The girl glared at him. "Who," she said. "Who am I. I am the first successful experiment in a new line of studies. I'm living, but synthetic." Somewhere in the distance they were able to (somehow) able to hear someone yell "Ha! She said the title!" "What do you mean, living?" Raw Data asked. "You're in a phone!" "Yeah, that's where the science behind it gets complicated," the girl said. "I have a body, or had, really, and am able to travel into anything electronic, kind of like astral projecting, but more complete." "What do you mean by had?" Raw Data asked. "It got killed," the girl said. "The military is a bitch. But, fortunately, the scientists who developed this ability gave us the knowledge to do something if something like this ever happened. So I hid in this phone, but then something happened, and it broke." Raw Data nodded and frowned. "I have so many questions," he said. "But who are you?" "My name is Ultrabyte," the girl said. "And you are?" "Raw Data," Raw Data said. "Ok, next question," Ultrabyte said. "What was this knowledge?" Raw Data asked. Ultrabyte frowned slightly. "How to create a new body," she said. Raw Data gasped and was about to ask about that when Ultrabyte continued to say "There are three ways to do it, and none of them are particularly nice." "What are they?" Raw Data asked. Ultrabyte blushed and shook her head. "I'd rather not say," she said. "But for now, I need help." "Ok, what do you need?" Raw Data asked. "First of all, how active are your parents in your life?" Ultrabyte asked. Raw Data lowered his head. "Not at all," he said. "Both of them are dead." "Aww, ok, I am sorry about that," Ultrabyte said. "But more importantly, you're smart, right?" Raw Data nodded. "Very smart," he said. Ultrabyte smiled. "Then I need you to make something," she said. "And it's really advanced."