dodochipss
|• you will always be a little baby to me•|

"How are you, Candy?" the mechanical voice of a girl asked.

Candace sighed before answering, "It's not the same, Cathy."

"What's not the same." Her voice lacked the questioning feeling, it felt rehearsed. It was rehearsed, embedded within her system.

"You, Cathy." Candace picked up a pen. "You. I made you. I made you so perfect. I made you just like my sister, Cathy, I even gave you the same name, yet you're not the same."

"Oh Candy, I am Cathy. I am your family. Yes, you're my creator, you built me so perfectly, you gave me life." Cathy let her words run like silk, covering the creases on Candace's heart. "You built me just like Cathy."

"No, I gave you her memories, I gave you her traits, I gave you her voice. I gave you everything but there's one thing missing; her heart. I couldn't give you her heart. I'm sorry." Candace watched her tears soaking the picture in front of her. It was a picture of Cathy and Candace by the mountains, the snowy mountains, and the cloudless light blue sky. "I didn't give you a body either."

"Candy, you gave me life, you brought me back from the dead. Yes, I'm a computer algorithm, but at least I'm here, I'm the only family you have left, except for Duncan, who we are going to save no matter what and no matter the cost." Cathy carried on speaking, but regardless of what she said, it didn't change the fact that she was a machine; a mere essence of Cathy.

Cathy Specimen was the youngest of the Specimen children, the sweetest and the most loved of them. Her parents adored her, as well as her siblings. When Cathy planned on going to Mars to accomplish the purpose of being an astronaut, her heart had failed her journey. Only two lived from the fifty who were on the mission. Candace didn't even get the chance to say goodbye to Cathy before she left her; left her forever. Her loss had made Candace lose herself to darkness for months until she created Cathy. Cathy was programmed within the walls of Cortex and Candace's wrist strap. She was with her all the time. She didn't turn her into a robot because she had seen enough of them, they took away the realistic touch of creation, she preferred the voice and its intelligence.

"Yes, we will bring Duncan back, regardless of the cost." Candace scrunched the picture and threw it away. "Read out the file from 'the hundred' obtained from T.P.R.P and override the file security at exactly seventy hundred minutes to be accessed by Ekon Zwane, he needs to know that nothing can stop me."

"Reading. The hundred," Cathy began, "T.P.R.P better known as The Prime Resurrection Project is for the purpose of erecting Duncan Specimen from the deceased. One hundred patients will be used in this project, fifty with criminal obligations and fifty with modified synapses." Cathy paused and waited for Candace to confirm her to carry on. Candace nodded. "Reading. Patient A records."

"Patient one A: Lyra Zwane, affirmed dissociative identity disorder-unconscious form. Patient two A: Lincoln Solo, affirmed murderer. Patient three A: Juniper Thomas, affirmed data theft. Patient four A: Justin Thomas, affirmed illegal support. Patient five A: River Mancroft, affirmed drug dealer. Patient six A: Wes David, affirmed gun violence. Patient seven A: Elizabeth Mancrore, affirmed arsonist. Patient eight A: Hamza Abir, affirmed gang violence. Patient nine A: Anier Zaka, affirmed spy. Patient ten A: Kay Morson, affirmed knife crime. Patient eleven A: Dianne Wells, affirmed teenage pregnancy-age seventeen. Patient twelve A: Isaac Grunter, affirmed paralysis. Patient thirteen A: Jude Zumann, affirmed criminal- wanted list. Patient fourteen A: Croy Specimen, affirmed education identity theft. Patient fifteen A: Sunn Dan May, affirmed illegal investment. Patient sixteen A—"

"Enough." Candace smiled. "Their crimes make me excited, read Patient B records, those are the ones I've been waiting for. Read with the modification powers."

Cathy began again. "Reading. Patient B records. Key- mode-360 full modification, mode-180 semi modification. Patient one B: Adam Hugh, mode-360. Patient two B: Martha Hyde, mode-180. Patient three B: Alice Avery, mode-180. Patient four B: Emma Solo, mode-180. Patient five B: Rei Fivan, mode-360. Patient six B: Aneesa Islam Specimen, mode-360. Patient seven B: Amybeth Mathews, mode-360. Patient eight B: Axixa Abuzeid, mode-360. Patient—"

"Stop, Cathy, you sound like a robot." Candace laughed, but Cathy was a robot of sorts. "Now, let's start the project, grant access to the pods, I'll go to patients A and you go to patients B."

—

Her footsteps echoed behind her as she entered the atrium filled with pods. She silently counted the number of children, there were forty-eight, perfect. Lyra and Jude were missing.

"Attention Elites, Lyra isn't here yet to give you guys her future speech." She gave them all a radiant smile. "But I'm here! I know I'm not as amazing as Lyra but I have a few things to say." She raised her right hand to her shoulder. "Here's a hand, it has five fingers, if I had polydactyly, I would have six. Six would be abnormal, but not unique. Why? Because it's from a dominant allele, you're bound to have it if one parent has it. What about seven? Now that's unique. That's also two steps ahead from five. That's what we need to be, to steps ahead from the future, we need to be before it. Can you be two steps ahead?"

A chorus of yeses rung through the room.

"Great, now, this is a test run, so no need to panic, we just want to see how your bodies adapt. Just slide into your designated pod and trap up, it's time to rehearse." Candace silently watched the children follow her instructions, her words were inspiring, but they were lies, test runs didn't exist in her dictionary, it was time for T.P.R.P but not for the Elite program.

"Activating pods three A to fifty A." The robotic voice announced. Candace grinned to herself and walked out of the room.

—

"Patients one B to fifty B, it is time to see what you are capable of, Candace couldn't come as she has an important duty to attend to, but I will guide you through the procedures," Cathy spoke. "Slide in and buckle yourselves." They were used to listening to instructions from a body-less artificial intelligence, for they were modified too, Cathy was like them.

"Activating pods one B to fifty B." Announced the same robotic voice as Cathy made her way to Candace, through the hollow walls of the dead building of Cortex.

—

"Completed," Cathy said as Candace sat herself down on her armchair.

"Good." Candace sipped the blue liquid in her cup. "Time to manipulate Lyra. Grant her access to all T.P.R.P files, then block the second exit of her office. After she runs out, give Jude a message."

"What shall this message say?"

"I hate you," Candace whispered. "Send it from Lyra's wrist."

—

I don't know what to say, except, I hope, you are as excited as I am XD

Thoughts?