Humanity or The Lack Thereof// WIP Rough Draft

[Suchgo]

Hello! This is where I will work on my on going sci-fi novel, Humanity or The Lack Thereof. It's about superheroes and supervillians, and where you draw the line between the two. ^^

Please note that so far this is the rough draft, and I have not edited it, nor does my mobile device (which I am writing it entirely on) have spell check! Please bear that in mind when you post, thank you~

I do hope you enjoy it but, like most writers, I am writing this for myself, not anyone else. I do not require your approval, though it is very much appreciated! <3

Here's the synopsis from NaNoWriMo-

A story following the adventures of an ex-supervillian, A.I. Halona Hawthorn, and her struggles in a city called Rhapsody. She meets a young hero, Kavely Oleander, or Technetium, whom had been sent in a feeble attempt to assassinate Halona by Rhapsody's 'hero's' association, and was even expected to fail and be killed by Halona, because of her ever shortening lifespan due to a rare form of radiation poisoning in her blood from when she tried to give herself powers. Halona takes Kavely under her wing, trying to help Kavely become a better hero and prove that she was no longer a villian, while on the run from the law and all the other 'heroes' in the city that want her head. This story challenges the fine line between the traditional villain vs. hero story.

Despite how this synopsis may sound, this is going to be a book for pre-teens and teens(though older than that might enjoy it too), and won't be any more graphic than a Harry Potter book. ^^

[Suchgo]

//Chapter Directory//

WIP

[Suchgo]

//Chapter 1a//

Deep in the back streets of the metropolis that was called Rhapsody, a single figure laid in a crumpled heep. Their leg was bent at an impossible angle, and what looked like the remains of one of their arms laid on the ground a ways away. Anyone who saw them surely thought they were dead, though that wasn't entirely true. They were dead in a way, but like a cell phone or computer, they could come back. After hours of lying there, drawing electricity from the buildings and even air around them, a small barely audible click sounded inside them, then a small whirling noise, like a fan. Fingertips wiggled and a hand reached out for something to grasp onto, electricity coming back into their remaining limbs. The figure struggled to sit upright, and after a few tries succeeded. They took laborious breaths, trying to fight off the pain from a broken leg and missing arm, along with many other injuries. Pushing back their long inky black hair, deep magenta eyes looked around. With a sigh they confirmed that this indeed was not where they were last, and had no recollection as to how they got there in the first place. Everything was a blur to them, nobody would think that a robot would need glasses, sadly their 'mother', the head scientist on the team that made them, wasn't exactly in her right mind. They felt around and found a pair of small clear rectangular specticals, that were broken to bit. They could only fix parts of them and other electronics, so the glasses were truly broken. Putting a hand on their head to ease the spinning, they glanced down at their body, observing all the visible wounds. They had deep cuts, bruises where you could see their frayed and ruined wires, and pieces of glass embedded in their pale silicon skin. Their brow furrowed and they closed their eyes. Concentrating, they focused on the traumas and slowly they pieced back together. The silicon knitted back together, the wired connected once again, and the glass shards were forced out of their skin. They took a few deep breaths, gulping in air. Boy, healing yourself took a lot out of you! Feeling confident they could do more, they reached out and straightened their leg. It popped back into place with a sickening crack. They cringed, then tested it out by wiggling their toes. That worked fine, and the android was very pleased with themself. Gingerly pushing themself onto their feet, they took a few wobbly steps towards where the mangled remains of their arm lay. It was a very funny sight, a authoritative, serious looking, extremely human-like, six foot five, robot trying to walk then falling to the ground like a baby deer trying to stand for the first time. The automaton however thought this was less than funny, when they fell ungracefully to the ground. "Shoot!" They exclaimed with a decidedly female voice.

[Suchgo]

//Chapter 1b//

Landing close enough to reach the pieces of her arm, she reached out and scooped the loose fragments. Remembering an extra pair of goggle-like glasses that were made from a near unbreakable plastic-like polymer, that she had made in place of safety goggles, that wouldn't break if she was near a small explosion, she reached around her neck and unhooked them. Placing the pare of bright red glasses on her eyes she blinked a few times to get used to them. Unfortunately the specticals had pink tinted lenses, so everything she looked at, though clear, was a shade of magenta. 'This must be what they mean by 'looking at the world through rose tinted glasses'.' She thought. Concentrating, set settled down on the ground. She sat there crosslegged for a good fifteen minutes, building her arm back piece by piece. A small smile appeared on her face as she finished and attached her arm back in its socket. Rolling her shoulder a couple of times to make sure everything was correctly in place, with a huff she slowly got to her feet again. This time she had more success, and managed to stumble out of the alley, before having to lean heavily into the wall. Her gloved hands ran over slick lacquered bricks, and grasped onto a window ledge. Sticking her head out and peering down the back road that went on for as long as she could see. A cold winter wind chilled her face, and she rubbed her hands on her arms. "Where to go, where to go?" She muttered, trying to decide on a direction to go in.

[Suchgo]

//Chapter 1c//

Turning, she decided with the left, and made her way down the deserted street. As she walked her mind seemed to clear up and now she could remember why she was injured. She had fallen off a building after a fight, she remembered, and died. Where she had woken up earlier must have been the nearest respawn point, she reasoned. Yes, that made sense, after she died she respawned, like she was made to do. She was a special type of artificial intelligence, an unbelievably advanced and sentient one, who could take control of electronic equipment, even other robots and such. There was also that strange but nifty backup she had going for her, if she was severely injured or killed she could 'respawn' in a number of places around the city. A motorcycle sped past her, startling her badly. "People need to be more- Oh. People. Right then." She said to herself. She had forgotten all about the fact that there were actually more living creatures in the world besides herself, for a moment, and also the fact that they would remember her as a, and I quote from one of the news articles. "A egotistical tyrant calculator who torrtured the city before it was heroically defeated by our own local hero squad." Bringing up all recent headlines mentioning herself with her internet database as she walked, she snorted. 'Egotistical calculator? Really? Might as well call me a vain toaster oven while you're at it!' She thought angrily. Well, she really would have to do something about the whole population out for blood, her blood specifically. A disguise would work maybe, she could grow her hair out, and change her clothing? 'That just might work!' She thought excitedly, mind set into focus on extending the thin black wires that made her hair. The ends of her hair split, allowing small thin strands to extend from them, the fill outward to the correct thickness of her hair. She ran a hand through her inky black hair, which went down to the backs of her knees now.

[Suchgo]

//Chapter 1d//

Satisfied, she trudged onward, hoping to find someone who was fortunate enough for her to have some how been absent that month. "Hah." She laughed dryly, "Like I'm going to be lucky enough to find someone like that." Seeing a decent sized crowd of people, she rushed ahead. Taking care to stay to the sides and to not bump into someone, doing so would cause them to look closer at her, and that wouldn't be good at all. Eyes darting around, she looked for a clothing store, or the nearest Walmart. Nearly stepping on a small child in a stroller, she pressed her back against the nearest building, and tried to make it- to put it bluntly- weird. Thankfully no one seemed to notice her hugging the skyscraper, and she continued on her way. Spying a small custom taylor, which she honestly had thought they didn't have anymore, she hurried inside. A nice warm gust of wind blew her inside, and she stretched subconsciously. 'Hmm?' She thought. 'I never knew Mother programmed me with cat-like traits. Though, that would explain the laser pointers.' She glanced around. It looked like she was the only one in the store, besides the owner, who she heard in the back. Metal racks with many gorgeous oufits that hung from them, lined the walls, and fancy jewlery and accessories sat on glass shelved by the window. "Hello?" She called out easily making her voice louder by toggling her volume settings. She herd a shuffling in the back, and an, "I'm coming!" A tall woman, still shorter than herself, who looked to be possibly ten years older than her. The lady had very, very long black hair, that pooled on the floor behind her and trailed all the back where she came from, was a deathly pale, had bright green eyes, eye shadow, and eye liner, and wore a short very fashionable dress that looked like you could cut yourself on it since it had such sharp edges.

[Suchgo]

//Chapter 1e//

The lady giving her a once over, huffed. "Yes yes, you need something better than," her nose crinckled up in a disgusted look, "that." She said waving a hand at her suit. The maroon eyed lady tried to hide her rather obvious offense at the woman's comment. "What's your name dear?" She asked leaning up against the counter. The ex-villain thought hard about that. 'Hmm, I can't say my real name, she's recognize that. A code name would be great.' She thought to herself. 'It's not like Halona Hawthorn is a easy name to forget.' Halona looked at the woman, with a grin. "Halo Hateya, pleased to meet you." She says sticking a gloved hand out for her to shake. The woman takes her hand, and while her grip is strong, she's holding Halona's hand daintily. "Failover Sysnios, likewise." She says with a nod. Without asking questions or anything, Failover ushers her into the back. "I take it you are partial to red?" She states, positioning Halona in front of a small room lined with mirrors. Halona is mildly stunned for a moment, and dully nods. "Hmm, alright." She mumbles, reaching out the door and snatching up a note pad and pencil. You can hear the rhythmic scratching of her pencil against the textured paper, as she makes a quick, rough sketch of Halona. She grabs Halona's shoulder, and leads her out the door and to an other room across the hall. Unlocking the door she gestures for her to enter it. "You'll need you to put on something you're able to wear underneath your new clothing." She says. "Fine." Is all Halona says in response. She enters the dressing room, locks the door with a click, and quickly changes into the tightly fitting cut off jumpsuit-like undergarment. Opening the metal door she is met with Failover holding up a roll of sleek grey fabric. It has a slightly plastic, rubbery look to it and seems very durable. She holds the edge of it up to Halona's face and smiles. "Yes, this will be great with your eyes." She says. Pulling a tape measure out of her dress pocket, Halona wasn't aware dresses could have pockets, and wrapped it around her waist, then shoulders. Checking the numbers, she scribbled them down on the notepad. Halona followed Failover's movements with her eyes, not daring to move, as she didn't know what the consequences would be. As if she could feel Halona's tension she gave her a small smile. "You are doing wonderful." She purred. "I'll be right back." With that she scurried over to a wall lined in large rolls of different fabric on it. She slid a roll of large paper out, tore off a long piece, and began drawing on it. In a few minutes she was finished with patterns for two outfits, cut them out, and took out some fabric. Whipping a pair of scissors, she sliced the fabric with such precision, that Halona could tell she was an expert at making clothing. She flicked her wrist and her pointer finger slid open reviling the needle and some of the equipment of a sewing machine. She effortlessly strung the clothing together in minutes, then stopped to show off her work. "This," she began holding up the first set, "is a casual style, that you can wear all the time." It was a medium length sort of dress jacket, that was cut up the middle to the hips in the front, while the back and sides of the dress were in tacked. The dress was buttoned up the middle with pockets on the sides. There was a pair of long black slacks to accompany it, as the dress was certainly too short to be wore by itself. Though the most eye catching part of the aunsamble was the clear cable outlining it. "Um, what exactly is that?" Halona asked cautiously. You could just see the amount of restraint Failover put on herself as she bit back the urge to snap at the other woman. "Once you have power going to it..." She said, taking a short stray wire from her hair and holding it to one part of the cable. The dress was suddenly outlined in a glowing bright red light, and Halona was stunned for a moment. Once she regained her composure, she loved it. Oh, it was just perfect for her, she could tell. "For a more formal setting, I have this one." The seamstress said. With some difficulty she managed to hold up a long, heavy-looking grey dress, with what looked like an extremely long and flexible plug box thing that was light grey, that came around the dress like a skeletal system. Out of parallel outlets on the backbone were power cords, that Halona guessed would do something when plugged in, perhaps maybe move. That would be wonderful. A small grin appeared on her face, as she reached towards the dress, to feel the fabric between her fingers. Her hand was promptly stopped though, by the dressmaker. She put a hand up. "Not yet, payment first." She stated.

[Suchgo]

//Chapter 1f//

Oh? Oh. Halona mentally slapped herself for not thinking about that sooner, or even before she started. She had no type of currency on her whatsoever! Just in case though, she felt in her pockets, finding nothing but a few lint fibers. This really wasn't about the dresses anymore, it was about keeping all her limbs attached, and not getting a broken nose. Who knows what the tailor would do to her after all that work had been waisted. "Well, I... I don't have any money on me right now but..." She said sheepishly, somehow managing to look smaller than Failover. The latter' eyes narrowed, and Halona's heart was in her throat, beating nervously. A voice in the back of her laughed at her. 'You are Halona Hawthorn, greatest supervillian this city has ever known!' It said, and while this was indeed true, she was lacking in both confidence and strength at the moment. 'You shouldn't have to listen to this lady! Just take the dresses and get out of there!' Often that small voice had no common sense whatsoever, doing so would certainly end up with trouble on her part. "Bu-but, I can get you something! Practically anything you want! Classified information, blackmarket goods, foreign money, things like that." She said quickly, rubbing her hands together. This seemed to please the tailor, and a mischievous smirk appeared on her features. "Anything?" She asked, and Halona just knew that that was a bad idea. "Y-yeah! But I'll need to change into those." She said pointing to the casual dress and pants. Failover nodded, and handed an outfit to her.

[Suchgo]

//Chapter 2a//

Next thing Halona knew, she was once again in one of the many back alleys of Rhapsody, approaching the city's main superheroes' team headquarters. The target was virtually unmissable, with the disc shaped building floating in the air above a tall building with a platform. Boy was that going to make it even harder to break into. With a huff she crouched down on the corner near the ground level of the building. She had formed a rough, half baked idea of a plan on her way there, but it was pretty much just get in the building, get out, and don't get caught. Halona swore Failover was just doing this to spite her, why else would she send her to infiltrate one of the most high security places in the world to steal some plain old spandex from the costume room that she could just buy on the streets, or order from a catalogue online? She shook her head with a sigh. Downloading blueprints of the building she concluded that the easiest way in was either through the top, or through one of the many windows on the sides. Recalling how to make anti-gravity discs, she formed two on her feet, and two for her hands. The latter she had come up with a good while ago, after many trial and error attempts.