Bionica: The War

Plans

Rose, Riley, and Sprocket had all come to know one another well in the years they were at the Steele laboratories. In the span of six years, they'd been the subjects of numerous robotics tests, each with a different part of the body. Riley was missing a leg; Sprocket had had his spine taken out, which was somewhat awkward in between tests; and Rose had no right hand. By age twelve, they had been subjected to numerous tests regarding the addition of mechanics to the body, with no luck. None of the prosthetics created by the scientists at Steele Laboratories had worked.

And in all that time, they had contracted escape plans.

As soon as they were all fully functioning, they said, Rose would pick the intricate locks on their cages, which she had studied the entire time they had been in them. Then they would climb up to an air vent using the variously-sized cages as steps. Trying to make no noise with the metal, they would navigate out of the building and take off in any direction they could. It all looked good in their minds, but actually doing it would be a whole different ball game.

One day, scientists came and dragged Rose out of her cage and onto a gurney. They wheeled her into an operating theater, where a robotic hand lay on a table. Just your everyday once-every-two-months procedure; they'd built a new prototype and wanted to test it out. So the oxygen mask went over her nose and mouth, the syringe went through her neck, and the operation began.

Rose dreamt she was back with her parents, during the good times. She and Riley ran around on their front lawn, just four years old. "One, two, three..." Riley counted, leaning against a tree. Rose ran to the back of the house, where bushes hugged the wooden building. She squeezed between the house and the bushes as Riley shouted, "Ready or not, here I come!"

"Okay!" shouted Rose. "Don't look in the bushes!" She could hear their parents laughing. What's so funny? she thought.

When Riley found her after only a minute, Rose was a little bit mad. "How come you looked in the bushes when I told you not to?"

"There was nowhere else to look," said Riley. "You weren't any of those other places." Suddenly they heard footsteps in the grass and turned to see from whom they had come. Their parents walked towards them in a hurry.

"Go inside and get dressed, sweethearts," their mother said. "We're going to be late for the big party Daddy was telling you about." Their father ushered them inside and helped the twins dress in matching outfits, then buckled them into their carseats and drove off.

The party really wasn't much of a party to Rose, just a bunch of people standing around in fancy clothes and drinking fancy drinks that Mommy said they couldn't have. There were no balloons or streamers and the only cake they had was frosted in plain white, not bright party colors. They didn't have pizza either. The closest thing they had to food was a fancy glass of little shrimps sticking out of red sauce. Nobody danced like they would've at a party. They all just held each other strangely and swayed back and forth. Some of them kissed. Eww. And the worst part was that there were no other kids. Riley and Rose were the youngest ones there.

Finally a man got up on the stage and started to talk. He wore a black overcoat and a tie tucked under a waistcoat, and he had a little pointy beard coming off his chin.

"Mommy," said Rose, "look at that man's funny beard!"

"Shh," said her mother. The man began to talk.

"Well," he said, "if you'd told me about two years ago that I'd be here, I'd have called you crazy." The audience laughed. "But since I'm here, allow me to introduce one of my good friends. I'm Cassius Tronyx, an attorney working on behalf of the Steele Corporation, and it is my pleasure to introduce a man whose impact on this world has been profound in more ways than I can describe. He's a scientist, an inventor, and a father, but most importantly, he's my best friend. Ladies and gentlemen, Icharus Steele."

The audience clapped as another man got up onstage. "Thank you, Cassius," he said. "Well, the same goes for me. I never thought I'd be standing in front of you today, about to launch the second stage of a revolutionary product in this day and age. But since I'm here, let me tell you how this works. The Generation II program is already installed inside Generation I equipment, so you don't have to worry about buying another exoskeleton piece. All I have to do is press this button, and the program will begin? Want to see what it does?" The audience clapped as the man pressed the button.

Suddenly the man standing next to Rose dropped to the ground in pain. Metal sheets started sliding over his body until he was completely transformed into a robot. Rose's mother picked her up and started to run. But something stepped on her dress and she let go. Rose went flying forward and landed on her stomach. As she lay there recovering, a robot walked up and stood over her. Rose was left helpless as a metal hand reached forward.

When Rose woke up, she slammed her head against the ceiling of her cage. As soon as the pain registered, she realized she was back in her room with a pounding headache. Riley waved at her. "How do you feel?" she asked.

"My head has a heartbeat," Rose replied, feeling the steady beat-beat-beat through her skin.

"How does the new prototype work?" asked Sprocket from Riley's other side.

"I don't know. Want to find out?" Rose said, lifting her right forearm. The new prototype was sleek in design; if it didn't work, at least it would look good. Rose first wiggled the fingers in her left hand to get a feel for the motion. She then attempted to repeat it in her right hand.

And the metal moved.

All three pairs of eyes widened in shock. "It's happening," said Rose. "We can escape."

_______

Two more prototypes were successfully built: one for Riley's leg and one for Sprocket's back. The entire process took about four months. But the subjects were patient; they could wait to get out.

On the selected night, after Riley and Sprocket were deemed fully functional, Rose delicately inserted the end of her plastic bracelet into the lock. The tumblers unwound as Rose typed in the appropriate code for unlocking the cage. The rest of the tumblers whirred and the door popped open seamlessly. As soon as Riley and Sprocket were freed, they began to quietly stack crates to make steps up to the air vent. Rose ascended their makeshift ladder, but paused. She heard something outside.

"Eclipse, Skillet," said a man's voice, "the charges are set."

"Good," replied another voice. It sounded like it came from a walkie talkie. "Tell Torchwick we're ready, then let's blow this place."

Rose understood what this meant and tumbled down the steps. "Take cover!" she shouted.

And an explosion ripped the building apart.