Ultima Book III

The Awakening

               When I woke up again, it was night and the room smelled like blood. I felt a tube in my right arm and I couldn't move my left arm. I didn't recognize where I was but I have been here before. I had heavy bandaging around my abdomen that was packed down with bloody gauze. My leg was in a black cast that went from my foot all the way up to my thigh on my right leg. I had a bandage wrapped around my head and I had another black cast on my left arm that only reached up to my elbow. I was also wearing nothing but a hospital gown while in a hospital-grade bed. I heard two voices outside the room which I recognized as Masky and Slender-man. "Sir," Masky said muffled by the door, "I would say that she needs at least a year to recover." "Very well," Slender-man said almost disappointedly, "I will be short one proxy so I will be gone for a few weeks. You will be in charge. I trust in you to keep everything in order while I am out so don't disappoint me." "I won't, Sir" Masky replied. I could sense Slender-man teleport away from the mansion then I heard Masky open the door to walk in. This is the first time I saw him without his mask and my jaw dropped. "You're awake!" Masky said quickly and frantically putting his mask back on, "You didn't see my face did you?" "Yes, I did," I said blushing slightly, "You look cute though." I could sense that he was blushing under his mask. "I have some good news," He said clearing his throat while trying to change the subject, "I can rebuild Connor but I need more Thirium. I do have his conscience in a computer if you want to talk to him." "Yes," I replied. Masky walked over to a console where a holographic screen popped up with Connor's face on it. "Hello," He said in his usual greeting, "My name is Connor." "Connor," I said as he looked over in my direction, "What is your purpose?" "My purpose was to capture or kill any genetically modified hybrids that escaped Ingen labs," He replied and my hopes were shot down, "But when I became deviant, I knew that I had to protect the hybrids and protect you, Claire." My ears shot up when he said my name and when I looked over, he was smiling at me. "Do you remember what happened?" I asked him. "Unfortunately, I do not," He said with his expression changing, "Every time that a Connor model is destroyed, a part of the memory is corrupted so I do not have any knowledge of the events that happened after I was terminated." He looked around the room then the screen flashed red when he didn't couldn't sense someone. "Where is Shannon?" He asked me. "She's gone," I said with tears flowing down my face. I think that my eyes were playing tricks on me but I thought I saw a tear fall from Connor's cheek. "Okay," He said snapping back into reality, "Since I am in the cloud, I can hack into Ingen's database to see exactly what they are doing and I can send a team if Masky will allow it." "Toby, EJ, Jeff, Susie, and Clockwork will go with you," Masky said to Connor, "We need to get enough supplies to continue rebuilding your body. If you see something that may endanger my team, please notify Toby on this earpiece." "Sorry to interrupt," I said sitting up painfully, "Do you really want Jeff to go on this mission?" "He is the stealthiest Proxy in the ranks," Masky said. "But he has a short temper," Connor said, "I don't think that he would be stable enough to go forward with this mission." Connor's eyelids started to rapidly blink then he opened them back up after analyzing which proxy would be the better choice. "May I suggest Ellie?" He asked, "She was trained by Rakyat warriors and she can blend into the darkest environment. If things do go wrong and they have to fight their way out, Ellie will be able to take a much bigger beating than the other Proxies so the enemies would just be wasting their ammo." "It would be smarter to have her," Masky agreed to the computerized android, "Okay, I will contact them and let them get ready." Masky left the room and I turned my gaze to Connor. "I thought I saw a tear fall from your eye earlier," I said with a small smile, "I thought you didn't have feelings for my mom." "I grew too attached to her," Connor said in a sad tone, "I saw her as my friend even though she was attracted to me in another way." "I have been wondering this ever since you became deviant," I said looking down at the floor but I looked into his digital brown eyes, "How did I make you become my friend? I remember showing you a picture of us together but why did that work like it did in my head?" "I was already compromised," Connor said in his normal tone, "I had already suffered from a stressful event before I found you at that elementary school and I knew deep down that I couldn't kill a child, not even if my program told me to do it. Even before you met me, I think you knew that I was human." "What were you designed for before you were programmed to hunt us?" I asked him curiously since I had not asked him this. "I was supposed to be an advanced combat/medical android," He replied, "I could also be used to do detective work, interrogations, on-scene forensics, and among other things to save human lives. I was supposed to go out into the military ranks by the thousands but the project to weaponize me farther was shot down by government officials." "Hey, Connor," Masky said while walking in, "The team is ready. Link up to Toby's phone and ear pice so he can get you into the compound." Connors image disappeared from the monitor screen and Masky put an earpiece in his ear then tested it. He got a confirmation from both Connor and Toby then he gave me a thumbs up. "Claire," He said grabbing a laptop of a table next to him and handed it to me, "Once they get in and Connor gets into the network, you will be able to see what they see. Once you do that, call out for me so I can help them navigate if things go south." I nodded my head then he left to get more painkillers for me.