A Construct in a Box: Godspawn - An Offer

Prompt 7

Paiko stared at the man, no, the machine standing in the middle of the forest. Or… was he a machine? There was life in him, but it was clear he had never been a creature born from the flesh. 

Whatever he was, it was clear he was in trouble. Tears streamed down his face, his eyes glowing and pulsing slowly. His fingers twitched and Paiko could hear how quickly the mechanisms inside of him were moving, the loud whirring and clicking sounding stressed on their own as he stared unseeingly into the distance, the cables coming out of his head floating gently, blown ever so slightly this way and that by the breeze. 

Paiko took a deep breath. There was something else there. Something familiar. He had been lost in these woods not that long ago and had come across….. Something. Terrible. 

Whatever it was, it wasn’t done, it seemed, and there was no one else around to save this android besides Paiko. 

So, shakily, he took a couple more steps forward. As he approached, he heard more than just the whirring and clicking of the android body. There was a voice… no, two voices coming from the same voicebox. So soft that normal people wouldn’t be able to hear it, but Paiko could. 

He twisted both of his large, fluffy ears forward to hear better. 

“Let me go,” a quiet, scared voice said, though the android’s mouth didn’t move.

=Oh, I don’t think so. You haven’t even heard me out yet.=

“Please, the smaller voice whispered. “Please let me go. Leave me alone.”

=Come on, K80. You don’t have to fear me,= the other voice said, ignoring the gargled whimper that the other voice, K80 made, as Paiko reached the android, hesitantly reaching up to wave his hands over the blank eyes. =We can remake you so you’ll never be afraid. You can have a true body of flesh. You could be a real person. Wouldn’t you like that. Not just a flesh body, but an impervious one. I’ll help you rescue your father, wouldn’t that be nice?=

More tears spilled from the android’s eyes, his head twitching like he was fighting an unseen force holding him place. 

“No, I know what you would do. I can see it. I would forget-”

=YOU WOULD BECOME STRONGER!=

K80’s body seized for a moment as his voice cried out in pain. 

Paiko gritted his teeth, grabbing onto K80’s arm and shaking him. The android didn’t seem to notice as he said, “Please, let me go. I’m not going to agree. You can’t help me. You would destroy my code if you tried to change me! I’m not meant to be flesh. I am an AI!”

The other voice, the familiar one that Paiko hoped desperately wouldn’t notice him as he shook and prodded the android body, screeched and K80 screamed again. 

The cables coming from K80’s head seemed to pulse with the flash of emotion, and Paiko swallowed hard as he realized what he needed to do. 

Paiko leapt up to grab the cables, dragging them down with his palms covering the open connectors. For just a moment he saw an abstract world, one that his brain was not built to comprehend, the monster forced inside horribly where it didn’t belong, a cluster of code curled in its claws. 

Paiko yelped, letting the connectors go as they burned into his palms, but it seemed to do the trick as K80 blinked, stumbling. He gasped, feeling at his face and wiping away the tears. He spotted Paiko, blinking hard. “What-”

“Your cables!” Paiko said quickly, his palms pressed into his tunic. 

K80’s eyes went wide, and he reached into one of the pockets on his belt, pulling out caps to fit on the ends of his cables. 

=Well, well, well. If it isn’t our little mouse. Where’s your other not so little friend?=

“Run!” K80 yelled, grabbing Paiko’s sleeve and sending him running up the little path ahead where the two could lose the awful creature.