142

“I hope you understand what this means for you Mr Rixon”.

The rain didn’t seem to want to stop pattering on the roof of the escort car Lucas Rixon was now in, making his dragging journey to yet another orphanage. He had heard this speech about 6 times before but it felt like more than a thousand to him, the same verbal vomit they spat at him the last time he got kicked from an orphanage, and the time before that when his foster parents didn’t want him anymore, and the time before that… and the time before that…

He had two only-child parents who both died in a car accident when he was extremely young and was sent to the nearest orphanage when he just learnt how to walk. Some called him unlucky, or sometimes even unfortunate, but Lucas didn’t really know what to think of it. All he was currently thinking about was how many kids he’d have to beat up in this next orphanage until they eventually gave up on him and gave him the ultimate freedom he so desperately needed.

Lucas was so deep in thought, imagining all the things he could finally experience and do when they let him go, eating all the luxurious types of food he always set his eyes upon on the tv when they let him watch, all the rides he could go on at all the theme parks, that he didn’t notice the large lorry that was shooting at them from his left hand side. A failing screech of car tyres and a bright white flash were the last thing he experienced in his life unfortunately and he was written off in the papers as another ‘tragic death’ just like his parents.

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“Prototype 142 is set for the final stage sir”

A young 16-year-old boy is lowered into a cocoon of wires and cables, some stapled on his arms and legs and head. Scientists surrounded this cocoon, all waiting patiently for the correct codes and information to override this humans natural thoughts and emotions, to turn him into the perfect obedient android for them, or rather for the government.

This particular prototype didn’t have much a life before to start with, as his file suggested. He was a nobody, a living vessel who was loved and wanted by no one, making him a perfect candidate to test him to become something more, something this world has never seen. A living, breathing android soldier, whose purpose is to follow instructions, obey and ultimately kill when needed.

They had attached the most advanced life-like arm, leg and eye to him, the technology so realistic it was impossible to tell his parts were fake unless you cut him open. The touch, feel, texture of them were so human-like, but the tension muscle fibres within them held the strength of about 100 men, and his eyesight was second to none to that of a human being.

But as the scientists were discussing how much to bribe the government for with their new creation, prototype 142 rose up from the cocoon, his eyes blistering red. He tore the wires off from him, the alarms around him blaring and screaming as the scientists rushed and fled, their creation destroying the lab down to a crumb, killing his creators in the process.

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“Welcome your new teacher students, Mr. Archer!”

Lyon Archer was the youngest teacher to date who applied in the Birdview college. His grades were nothing anyone had ever expected from a 20-year-old, and now at 21 he was going to teach students who were the same age as him subjects like quantum physics. He was known as the insane protege for the past five years of his life, someone with a brain that was almost “non-human”.

But Lyon didn’t really have any memory of what he was before he was the glorified genius. He woke up on a pavement one day unexpectedly when some high school kids decided to prank him by pouring water on him and the rest kind of just… happened. He didn’t know of any family, friends, heck he didn’t even have a clue about his own name. Instead, his genius brain just filled in the gaps for him whenever someone asked too many questions, making up whatever as he went along.

And now here he is, standing with another crushed pen in his hand whilst his students waited for him to say something. It appeared no matter what he did, he always underestimated his own ability. It was almost as if he wasn’t entirely human…