I am C.A.T.E

Prolouge

The first thing she was aware of was the darkness. Then she heard the voices.

"Do you think it worked?"

"I don't know, this project always seemed far fetched to me."

She opened her eyes and saw two men looming over her. The first of the two was short and a bit on the chubby side, with a grey beard and squinty little blue eyes. The latter was much taller and extremely thin, with a bald head and a pair of thin-wired spectacles perched precariously on his nose.

"Look, she opened her eyes!" The bald man said excitedly, he seemed to twitch constantly, as if receiving small shocks.

"So what, that just means that she can move her eyelids. She could still be dumb as a doorknob for all we know. All of the other ones were that way. Remember the one that kept talking gibberish. And the other one couldn't control their limbs." the bearded fellow said skeptically.

"Hello, I am C.A.T.E." She said

"Kate? Where did that name come from?" the short one seemed confused.

"Cerebrum Advancement Technology Experiment. CATE." She stated matter-of-factly.

"Who programmed snark into it?" the short one asked incredulously.

"What is 'snark'?" She asked seeming as confused as one can be using a monotone voice. "Searching for definition of 'snark'. Definition found, snark is making snide and sharply critical comments."

"Well, she seems to function better than the other prototypes. Cate, can you move?" The bald man asked.

Cate slowly sat up, gauging her movements before she made them, and got off the metal table she was laying on. She looked around the room, admiring the bright walls and squinting slightly when she attempted to look straight into the fluorescent light bulb above her head. There were many tools, trinkets, and strange gadgets laying all over the surfaces of the countertops, such a sight triggered a caution sensor, but was quickly dismissed. The room smelled of disinfectant and harsh chemicals that could burn the skin off a rhino and was too bright for comfort, though she didn't mind since it was all she knew.

"Well, so far this one is functioning better than the others, but she is bound to have some bugs." The short one stated grumpily.

"You mean like not understanding sarcasm or humor?" the taller one asked sardonically. The fat man opened his mouth to reply, but with a dismissive wave of his hand, the tall one said, "It was rhetorical."

"I require some information. What are your names?" Cate inquired.

"A bit rude, aren't you?" the short one sniffed in disdain.

"Well, I need a something better to call you than the Fat One and the Bald One." Cate said plainly.

"Wait a minute now, are you calling me fat?" the fat one said looking hurt.

"It is a fact that you are well over the average weight of a human, so yes I am calling you fat." Cate remarked cluelessly.

At this point the tall one was giggling uncontrollably. Between outbursts of laughter he said, "well, Curly she is not wrong. You are putting on a bit of weight."

"Oh, SHUT UP, Jeff. I think this one needs a few more modifications..." he started grumbling angrily to himself after drifting off the end of his sentence.

"Well I think she is fine just the way she is. If she is this rude her creators, imagine what she will do the Shield." Jeff remarked. That word he said, Shield, I recognized it. I did not have to search my memory banks long to find it. My prime directive was to eliminate Shield. They had gotten in the way of Hydra's plans one too many times. It was my job to terminate them.

"Let's get her into training." Curly said.