Heavy Metal

Chapter 1

    It is a most displeasing environment, many folks would think, unless of course they had spent their entire lives in similar settings. Indeed, the facility tends to radiate an aura of danger and hostility, thanks to the fully-armed security men positioned like statues on either side of the entrance to the lightless tunnel. Not to mention the fact that on the inside, the scent of gas burning and the sounds of unfamiliar screeches from unfamiliar creatures tends to be unsettling.

     The cyborg scientist does not have to deal with these discomforts, though, given the fact that she was actually born in a science facility in Alert, Canada. Or, rather, created there. She is one of the infamous test tube children, herself a living, breathing experiment.

     She doesn’t typically tell people this.

     Deep under the desert-scrub terrain of Arizona, past the tunnels of initial darkness, past the observation chambers, past the chemical weapons laboratory, there is a large, dimly lit room. In the center of the room is a large titanium mechanism, and staring perpendicularly toward the mechanism is our scientist. She walks in a slow circle around it, absorbing and analyzing every inch of it. After her thorough inspection she leans over a panel, flipping switches and turning dials, and the monstrosity of a machine hums to life. The scientist smiles, feeling satisfied. Now, as she pulls the great lever, something incredible happens: Between the vertical metal needles of the machine an unstable beam forms, dull at first, but soon explodes into a crackling mass of red lightning. The scientist scrambles for a pair of tinted goggles to protect her eyes from the intensity of the light produced, and then peers closely into the lightning. Cautiously, she extends her right arm- her mechanical one, of course- which expands about twenty feet to touch the raw energy, causing a current of millions of volts of power to course through the arm. No damage is inflicted upon the indestructible bionic limb, and no pain is felt by the scientist other than warmness and a buzzing sensation in her hand as it is charged with power. These are some of the benefits of being part robot; any other person would have been charred, electrocuted, and killed by radiation upon making contact with the red power.

     The scientist’s arm retracts and, with her organic hand, she scribbles notes onto a computer tablet with a stylus. She is so absorbed in her data that she almost doesn’t hear the sound of heavy footsteps approaching the door. Just before the key turns in the lock, she pulls up from her tablet which she hides under the jacket of her uniform and neutralizes the strange red lightning until the machine looks just as it did when she first walked in. With only seconds to spare, she stands next to the machine and greets the nuclear scientist and his team with a plastered smile.

     “Miss Exordia?” the doctor asks accusingly as he stops in his tracks, his men stumbling into his back. “What in the freezing sun are you doing in my lab?” The angry man storms over and lays a hand on the machine. “And why is my reactor warm?”

     She shifts her weight nervously as she attempts to make up a decent answer. “Um, I apologize for the misunderstanding, sir, but I was simply turning your reactor on for you. Preparing it. Just trying to help out a fellow scientist.”

     The doctor scowls and stares down at the cyborg. “You are hardly a scientist, the way you nose about in other peoples’ business. Now, I am well on my way to altering red lightning, and I don’t need half-witted hybrids like you interfering!” The half-witted hybrid swallows as he continues. “Get back to the chemical lab where you’re supposed to be.”

     “Right away, Dr. Addax.” She salutes as she leaves the room. She’s not quite sure why she did, but in hostile Addax’s presence it just seems like the right thing to do. She never has figured out how to deal with him and his moodiness.