"Heart"

2

~RIN~

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PROGRAM START

🎶 When you're following an angel
Does it mean you have to throw your body off a building?
Somewhere they're meeting on a pinhead
Calling you an angel, calling you the nicest things 🎶

I checked my program again, a slight glitch between the words 'nicest' and 'things.' I frowned, stepping from my charging station and stiffly making my way out of Professor Len's room, walking down the hall and turning left twice into the main building of the SBOI, where lead scientists Meiko-LF003, Luka-LF005 and Flower-LF009, were seated, typing away on their computers. I gently poked Flower's back, grabbing her attention. "What is it, CV02?" She asked in a sigh.
"My program appears to be malfuctional." I replied, my eyes blinking rapidly. I noticed my hazard bar, lit in a bright orange, was flashing at the front of my screen.
"Impossible! Len put all his effort into you." Flower dismissed it. "He even let you have privacy while you got changed before dumping your consciousness into the metal bag you got now." I tilted my head with a loud ka-chink sound.
"L---L--Life---F--For--m--Zero---N--Nine. F---Flo---w---wer---" I managed, my orange bar flashing with a red caution sign next to it. Flower now noticed a problem, her purple contacted eyes widening. She smoothed her white and purple dyed hair into a reasonable shape and pressed the old grey button, the retro buzzing sound like an old doorbell ringing out. Moments later, Professor Len walked through the door, switching his buzzer off. "What is it, Flower?" He sighed, shrugging on his lab coat and adjusting his glasses.
"L---L--Life---F--For--m--Zero--- T---Tw---Two--- Pro---Fess---or----L---Len." My head made another ka-chink sound as I tilted my head a slight bit more, my voice box vibrating too much and glitching my words.
"What happened to Rin?" Professor Len asked, his eyebrow raising.
"She's glitching out." Professor Luka said without looking away from her computer, her fingers moving faster and faster over the keys.
"Impossible." Professor Len frowned, blinking. "I made her with the finest programs and materials."
"Tell that to Miss Glitch over here." Flower snorted, pointing her thumb back at me.
"L---L--Life---F--For--m--Zero--- T---Tw---Two--- Pro---Fess---or----L---Len." I repeated, my hazard bar flashing a more urgent orange, and the triangular caution bar blinking.
"Shit." Professor Len cursed, Taking my metal arm and leading back two rights back into his office, sitting me on the metal table. "Just hold still, Rin." He said quietly, typing on his computer once more, blue text coming up on a black screen. He sighed and extracted a blue flash drive, standing and walking around the table, brushing back my hair and inserting the drive in the port in the back of my neck. My blue data bar came up, my advanced downloading speed filling the bar instantly. My hazard bar disappeared and my song played again, the glitch repaired.
"Thank you, LF002. Professor Len." I said, blinking. Len rolled his eyes at me.
"I suppose I'd better download a colloquial language data pack for you, shouldn't I?" He gave a half smile. I tilted my head with a less noticeable clink sound, my fingers flexing on their own.
"That is unnecessary and would take up space." I replied.
"I doubt that, it's a small program, and it would make your language easier." He smiled at me. "Now, this program may take a long time to download, so please step into your charging station." He sat back at his desk and I did as I was told, my green charging battery icon appearing at the top left corner of my screen, the bars on my arms and legs filling slowly. Professor Len typed away on his computer, the only sound in the room being his typing and my slow buzzing as I replenished my battery.

"NEW DATA RECEIVED: TEXT FILE 067 DOWNLOADED VIEW NOW?"
Once again I scrolled my eyes down, clicking on the 'yes' button, to see a long list of colloquial words and slang words.
* LEN
* PROFESSOR
* MEM--ERROR
* ERROR
* ERROR
*ERROR

"There seems to be a malfunction with words proceeding 'Len' and 'Professor' There is a half word beginning with the letters 'Mem' possible suggestions are: Member, Membered, Membership, Memory, Membrane, Memoir, Memorabilia, Memorial Mem---"
"That's enough!" Len stopped me, hands up. "I guess I can't let you learn that word just yet..."
A few chinks later and another animatronic came into the room, long black hair and a mole under her right eye. The left arm on her was broken apart, revealing her wires and metal endoskeleton. She staggered forward into Len's office, her voice box almost beyond compare.
"M--M--M--Mi---Mis---T----Ter----L---Le---Len----M--Myyyyy--- Vooo-oooi---ceee---I--Iis---G---Gli--T---T---ch---ching."
"Sit down, Sakurako." Len said calmly, taking the USB from my port and injecting it into a port on Sakurako's right upper arm. Her voice stopped glitching and she stopped slouching so much, standing up straight. "Thank you, Mister Len." She said in a 8 Bit Video game voice, her voice much more childish than her actions and appearance. "And if you could, I need a new left arm."
Len nodded, sitting her down and straightening her up before rolling up her pale green t-shirt, revealing a small, circular hole. I hadn't seen anything like that before. I tilted my head, though I paid no attention to it. Len attached a cable with an oddly shaped end into this hole, connecting the other side to a port in his computer, tapping a few keys, then the space bar.
Sakurako's arm literally fixed in front of my eyes, the robotic sinews reattaching in slow, deliberate movements.  Sakurako's 8 Bit game voice spoke again, quieter and more controlled. "Thank you very much, Mister Len."
Her footsteps thumped as she stomped away, her feet obviously carrying a larger weight than my own lithe form. 

"Rin." Len's voice spoke again. "I have something for you." He said quietly while we were alone, typing on his computer while not looking at me. I wasn't curious, so I didn't question him.
"I don't know if this will work, so fingers crossed." He sighed, swallowing hard and extracting his USB drive, walking towards me with a tense, stony face. "Let's hope this works..." He injected the USB.

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PROGRAM START

The room was warmer than usual, every sound amplified. I felt a small warmth against the nape of my neck, the USB port heating up from all the download data being processed. My eyes opened and I saw Len looking at me in awe. I blinked, a small shuttering sound from my eyelids. "I-It worked?" He stammered.
"I think you have a glitch, Professor. You stuttered." I said. I didn't feel any different, though I'm sure that Len did something. 
Len's eyes widened and he smiled, pointing to the circular port he used on Sakurako when she came in. He said nothing, but just pointed. I tilted my head, confused and curious.
"What is that for?"
"It worked!" He rejoiced, jumping up and down with a wide grin. I didn't understand, so I sorted my files, searching for the newly downloaded files. I came across my "Downloaded" folder, opening it and scrolling until I found the folder labelled "CPU Driver 2496 'HPA05' CV02."
"You gave me a heart."
"I gave you a heart." Len grinned, wrapping his arms around me, a warmth spreading through my chest. "I'm so glad it worked, Rin."
"Thank you, Professor." I smiled, the metal in my cheeks creaking slightly at the irregular movement.
I had a heart.
I could feel.

LOSING POWER

LEFT AND RIGHT LEGS SHUTTING DOWN

I dropped. My left and right legs dysfunctional. I was glad I didn't bring Len down with me, instead, Len yelped, pressing the buzzer on his desk, calling for Luka. She came in a short while later with a trolley. I had also lost my arms and was about to lose energy in my torso. This heart leeched power really quickly. Luka and Len both helped me into the trolley and wheeled me down the hall.

I was curious of everything, from what some workers names were, to what some things in certain languages meant. The thing that mainly stood out though, was when I was being wheeled through sector 6 to the repair room with the spare parts, endoskeletons and quick power restoration machines. A large door with several guards standing watch for anyone. Another animatronic tried to get to the door and one of the guards pulled out a long metal rod and jabbed her in the chest with it. A taser. She fell to the ground, twitching, and two more guards took her away. But that wasn't what intrigued me. It was the words that were on the door. 

"Memory Vault."

I couldn't help but wonder though... What was a 'Memory Vault'?