cyber: 110101011010101000101010011011110101001010101010101101010010101011010101111010101010101010110
just kidding
Cyber:'Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep'
the only annoyingly repetitive tone able to be heard was thus from the heart beat monitor.
Williams thoughts slowly began to uncloud, like a haze lifted from a valley. Memories began to activate within his consciousness, attempting to figure out what had happened in the past to lead up to this moment before taking in any new information.
he opened his eyes but felt very strange doing so, there was no 'feel' of the muscles required for the task. Examining more of his body with thought revealed that there was very little sensation of anything. Even his tail felt numb and non-existant.
Will took note of his surroundings. He was laying in a bed in a pure white room, a few electrical cables ran across the room to large tower like machines that quietly whirred and hummed away. What caught his attention the most was the four cables running up under the sheets and into his bed.
Will moved a paw to grab the sheets to remove them then froze in shock.
His paw, or what used to be his paw was not black and fluffy as it once was. Now it was bristling with metallic components, pneumatic rams and actuators all arranged in the rough shape of what his paw once looked like.
Regaining some movement in himself he tore off the sheets then stopped again, although he was clothed in a surgical gown it was still clear to see his legs. well, not really his own legs, but some sort of robotic replacement for them.
"What's going on?" he tried to say but nothing came out of his mouth besides static.
"What's going on?" he tried again, this time the sound was replicated in a stuttery broken audio tone that sounded like his own voice used to, but like he was hearing it through a telephone speaker.
"What is going on!" he yelled this time. The voice came through loud and clear this time and echoed off the blank walls of the hospital room.
There was a commotion outside the room then the door burst open and 3 people came in. A bear, raccoon and a fox entered and quickly surrounded the bed.
"What's going on?" repeated William.
"Calm down Will, everything is going to be alright" said the raccoon in the most soothing voice William thought possible.
"Alright? What have you done to me!"
"What have we done FOR you would be a more appropriate question Mr fennec" came the gruff booming voice of the bear.
"What do you mean?" queried William.
The fox tugged on the four wires that were connecting William to one of the machines. "Sit up and we will tell you" she said.
"You were in a horrific accident William" began the raccoon as he ticked off some notes on his notepad and stored it in his labcoat.
"What kind of accident could cause this much damage?" asked William, now very scared.
"The kind where you almost died!" answered the bear.
"You may not remember but there was a malfunction with your rocket pack during your last mission, we tried our best but there were too many mangled pieces to re-assemble your body while allowing you to keep a resemblance of your freedom. So in this instance, a private investor supplied the funding to construct you a replacement to the pinnacle of modern technology." explained the fox.
William was silent for almost a full minute before asking; "How much of me is left?"
The raccoon grimaced then replied "most of you memories, your personality and your voice characteristics. No part of your biological self is currently in service. You are entirely...a machine."
William paused, the information he was given was too much to comprehend, his vision flickered then turned to static. The last thing heard before he blacked out was the Bear yelling "He's crashing!" then all was silent.
William woke again rather suddenly, shaking away his disorientation he looked down himself. He was fully clothed including his paws which were fitted with black lycra gloves.
"phew, it was only a dream" he thought to himself then looked around the room. He was in a large open stadium like area, smack bang in the middle which was illuminated by a bright white floodlight.
Curiosity got the better of him so he peeled back the sleeve of his left glove for a peek. To his great shock and disappointment he beheld the same metallic paw from his dream.
He wondered if this was really true, was he really a robotic version of his former self?
something rustled in the darkened area outside the circle of light. William squinted to try and see through the darkness. To his great surprise his vision flickered black then returned green, but this time there were silhouettes visible of the surrounding area. "Night vision? cool" he murmured to himself quietly.
Then a flicker of movement off to the right caught his attention. A small box like shape with rubber tracks was slowly trundling toward him. From the top of the box protruded a turret of sorts with a belt fed magazine of bullets feeding into the breach of the rifle like device. William recognised the drone from a previous encounter, however last time he saw one, it was fighting to protect him. This time it seemed different.
As if to confirm this suspicion the little machine stopped, rotated a few degrees and took aim at William. He instinctively ducked as the turret fired upon him once.
The shell sailed over Williams head, as he watched it appeared to be in supreme detail, like it was in slow motion. what was once the flash of sight and sound could now be played back in is head in full detail.
A second shot sounded but this time William was ready, he pushed off with one of his arms from where he was laying on the floor and dodged the bullet perfectly. A third bullet sailed harmlessly between his legs then a forth under his arm. The machine was too slow to target him accurately but since it lacked any decision making skills it continued to fire upon the mechanical fox as he danced around the edge of the lit area.
"This isn't getting anywhere, something's clearly wrong with this drone" thought William and made the decision to shut down the now rather annoying machine.
He raced toward it in a zig zag pattern, dodging more bullets as he ran. When he was within ten feet of it he leapt into the air, somersaulted around and landed behind it. Before the little robot could turn to face its now-attacker William balled his paw into a fist and punched at the machines metal casing, hoping to damage it in some way. To his utter amazement his fist past clean through the thick armour and out the other side. His arm spasmed slightly as electricity from his crippled attacker coursed through the servo's in his arm then was still.
He withdrew his fist and examined the damage. The attack drone was left as a smoking pile of scrap metal with a bent turret on top while the only damage visible to his paw was the destroyed glove. He examined his unfamiliar paw again, flexing his fingers as he did so. Small clicks and whines were emitted from it as the mechanical linkages moved in order to create the movement that he commanded them to.
The floor began to rumble. Williams first thought was 'earthquake' but that was quickly silenced as one of the walls in front of him crumbled and collapsed. The rumbling stopped, as the dust settled Williams new night vision was able to make out the all to familiar shape of a early century tank! The tank, or Abraham as he knew it as approached once more, rumbling along the polished marble floor. William thought it such a waste to see such magnificent flooring ruined by such a 'rude' machine but these thoughts were quickly squelched with a rational thought.
William didn't need time to think about this assailant, he got up again and sprinted toward it. It lowered it's main barrel toward him and William could hear the clicking and knocking of a round being loaded.
"If I can kill your little twerp brother I can sure as hell kill you!" he screamed. He grabbed the barrel and pulled down as hard as he could. This motion propelled him high into the air and he sailed over the length of the barrel and landed on top of the hatch.
Enraged at his mistreatment and everything about his predicament he heaved on the hinge. Humming noises wafted out of his upper back, shoulders, arms and knees as he strained. His vision flickered then went black, complicated thought turned into one goal; Pull.
a sharp crack echoed through the stadium and the hatch cover flew off the top of the tank. William threw it away and yelled long and loud at the tanks occupants. His vision returned but in the corner of his peripheral vision flashed a warning about power consumption and heat levels. He ignored this and prepared to jump into the tank and remove the threat when a loud voice boomed across the stadium; "Hault!"
William was tempted to ignore the request but as persistent as a small child the voice repeated; "I said Stand down soldier!"
William stood up, simulated taking a deep breath then disembarked the armoured vehicle. Without anything to do he leaned up against the tank and recovered. It was such a strange sensation, having exerted so much effort and feeling tired from it but no panting occurred as it normally would have. William could make his chest heave up and down but it did nothing apart from give a visual appearance of panting.
Two wolves emerged from the tank and made their way to the floor, looking rather shocked.
"What's this all about?" asked William angrily.
"Ho...how did you do that?" asked one of them.
"You don't wanna know...you really don't wanna know" replied William.
"He's right, now run along private Skittles and Regan. This training exercise is over" came the voice of a mysterious figure who was beginning to emerge from the gloom.
William recognised it as the same voice that had told them to stop their activities. As the figure came closer he remembered to reactivate his night vision to augment his already supreme eyesight. Now he could clearly see the figure approaching was a large manned lion. He vaguely remembered seeing this lion before from somewhere but could not quite place the exact instance.
"So who are you then?" asked William in a mocking tone.
"I am Captain Chaser your new commanding officer and if I were you I would loose the tone in your voice" said the lion authoritatively.
"What are you going to do about it, I just ripped the lid of a freaking tank!"
"If you lay one paw on me you shall be shut down permanently and your parts sent to other more worthy purposes, you may have once been a person but to me you are now a piece of equipment."
"And what if I don't care if you shut me down or not. I am officially dead anyway aren't I?"
"and you..."
"AREN'T I!?"
"Yes you are technically dead. But even a dead man deserves to see his family again so I did indeed bring them along today for you to see. I may not feel for you like a flesh and blood companion of mine but I am far from heartless. Is this reason enough for you to keep 'living' Mr Fennec?"
"My family's here? where?" said William now sounding desperate.
"In time, first I want to interview you following your performance. As you may have guessed this was a test of your abilities which you have passed with great expectations. There is much to explain so if you would follow me, we have a room set up with some coffee for me and some recharging for you."
William grumbled and followed the lion.
****
several hours later William exited the building and looked around for the sight he had been waiting for. Then he saw them, his two kids and wife Marianne. He almost forgot himself and bounded forward to their embrace but held back. What if they didn't feel comfortable around him now that he was so different? What stories had they been told of his death?
There was no point waiting to find out so he slowly walked towards them.
once a few feet away Marianne noticed him and opened her jaw in shock. Both the children beamed and dragged their mum toward who they thought to be their father.
The two paused three feet from one another, William spoke first; "So you know what happened?" he said softly and hung his head.
"And I love you none the less for it William" she replied and opened her arms in embrace.
The two hugged as they had not done for several months.
"I missed you" said William.
"And I still miss how much more huggable you were before" she giggled. "But I missed you too. You cannot understand how happy I am to see you back again."
Williams attention was captured by his children tugging on his shirt.
"Wow have you two grown! look, you're almost half my height!" exclaimed William.
"Do you still remember us daddy?" asked one of them, Sasha. This almost hurt to hear, the question struck deep like and ice dagger.
"How could I forget the smartest little fox in the country and her trusty brother Hugh?" replied William with a smile, masking the pain.
"We missed you daddy" said Hugh.
"Me too son, me too."
"Come on Will, lets go home so you can tell us all about what has been going on." said Marianne.
"Huh yeah, you get to find out what makes me 'tick' all over again" William chuckled.
THAT Was fun! excuse the interrobang in there, i was getting as emotional as the character was and i felt the moment deserved it. when a simple exclamation mark will not suffice or when a question is yelled i run into problems.
i quite enjoy this writing, it's just getting into it in the first place that's the hard part, like going for a swim on a cold day, the hardest part is getting wet for the first time!!
paws