Alex: … I couldn’t. Losing a loved one is so hard, I couldn’t bear to see that happen. And if you lived forever, you’d have that happen a lot, huh?
((Random doodle for the night! I picture CLEO as being Alex’s sort of ‘caretaker’, at least while she’s at work…))
((TIME TO JOIN THE BANDWAGON I CREATED! 8D; Alex in her mid-late 30s!
Physically not a lot has changed, save for her neck being entirely covered in metal (with some internal mechanics) and skin covering the metal on her face! Otherwise, arms, torso and leg are still entirely metal as ever~
She’s now chief of police, taking care of crime in the city! She has a lot of work, but she loves every moment of it. She still loves working with robots, but that isn’t her main gig anymore, since crime-fighting comes first. She still trains every so often, keeping her superpowers sharp- although there are limitations she has to respect…
She’s still as perky and spunky as ever, although the ‘swearing’ has gone down a tad, and she’s a bit more respectful <w> She doesn’t deal with depression nearly as often as she did when she was a teen, though the down moments still come once in a blue moon. Basically though, she’s in the prime of her life, very happy and comfortable with how far she’s come.
OK DONE ;u;))
((The plot twist I told Sky I would write! 8D I could only use one twist in our rp so I told her I’d write out the second one. I hope it induces some feels >3 also SORRY SKY I STOLE ASHIRI))
—
Alex sat uncomfortably in the squad car. As chief of police, she was used to about every situation imaginable… Except her own rogue android project from many years ago.
Ashiri, her friend since they were teens, sat next to her in the passenger’s seat. A fully realized Mind Elementalist, she had been a great help to Alex over the years. The two had caught up that morning over lunch, when TED attacked the little cafe they were in.
“I’m sorry to drag you into this… I can pay you for your troubles.” Alex started some conversation while they awaited the android’s return to the old warehouse.
Ashiri shook her head, long red hair tied in a long ponytail of bunches behind her. “No no… As long as the streets are safe, that is payment enough for me.”
Alex nodded. “I suppose that’s okay.” She spotted a figure coming towards the car, on Ashiri’s side. “Don’t freak out.” She said simply.
“Why?”
The figure, a tall woman with red curly hair, tapped on the window. Alex grinned. “Her.”
Ashiri jumped. “Oh!”
The woman grinned and slid into the car in the backseat. “Hello Alex! I do enjoy a good stakeout!”
“Hey, Cleo.” Alex looked at Ashiri, a confused expression on her face. “I don’t know if you remember her. Cleo was my first android project… But I’m sure she looks a lot different.”
“Good to see you, miss Ashiri.” Cleo smiled. She still remembered the woman and her strong friendship with Alex. After all, she was the reason Cleo wanted red hair when she got her upgrade.
Ashiri nodded and greeted her back. Alex laid one hand on the steering wheel, facing the front again. “Cleo has been helping me track down TED. He’s one of mine, too.” She sighed. “A training exercise. That’s all he was. Programmed with the documented interactions of criminals.” She shook her head. “Except he had a short in his brain and he ran off. It’s been years since he showed his face… I thought he dropped off the map.”
“It seems he has found his way again, hmm?” The red head folded her hands in her lap.
“Yeah. Well.” She spotted the robot head into the warehouse ahead of him. “Speak of the devil…”
“Do be careful, dear…”
—
Alex walked carefully into the warehouse. Ashiri was behind her, and Cleo was still outside, awaiting the right moment to bring reinforcements if necessary. The cyborg had her gun in her hands as she tread carefully. “Where are you…”
Suddenly, the robot dropped from the ceiling, startling her. He whipped out a gun and aimed it at her.
Ashiri, watching from the door, took her chance and lobbed a ball of psychic energy at the robot. TED was too fast though, and he quickly dodged the attack. He aimed the gun at Ashiri instead, and readied his attack.
She created a force field, awaiting his strike, but when he did not shoot, she pulled it apart into glass-like shards, and threw them through the air. Some of them struck the robot, but did little more than scratch his surface.
“Good Ashiri!” Alex called. She aimed her gun at his head, but he was quick. He shot at her, knocking the gun out of her hand. “My gun!”
Ashiri teleported quickly in front of her, giving her a chance. “Get it, quick!” She called.
TED aimed again, and shot at her- Ashiri got another field up, but just so- it blocked the first few hits, but cracked and finally shattered by his fourth shot. “Aagh!” She fell, as she clutched her bleeding arm.
“Ashiri!!” Alex called. Grabbing her gun, she jumped forward and shot at the robot. The two fired at each other, but finally, TED fell, a bullet in his metal skull.
But so did Alex.
“Alex!” Ashiri cried out as she lunged forward to catch her friend. Alex had a hole in her head. “A-Alex… Why… there could have been another way!” She sobbed.
Cleo rushed in, having heard the gunfire. “Ashiri!”
“Cleo, we have to get to a hospital! Please, you have to help me-!” Tears were streaming down her face.
“Ashiri, please calm yourself.” Cleo knelt down beside her and pointed at Alex. “There is no blood.”
Still shaking, Ashiri clutched Alex’s shoulders and looked again. The hole, right in her forehead, was not bleeding. Why not? She peered closer, and saw the metal and mess of wires inside. “I-I don’t understand… Alex?” She looked to Cleo for help.
The android put her hand on her shoulder, knowing the burden she had carried had to be revealed finally. “Ashiri… This is not Alex.”
“What?” The red head was still lost.
“This is merely a copy. Alex created it to take her place for a time, so that TED could be destroyed.” Cleo remained still and calm, knowing the information could startle her greatly.
Why would she create a copy of herself?” Ashiri still clutched her tight, not even really realizing it.
Cleo sighed. She couldn’t answer… But Alex could. She pulled up her sleeve a bit and reached out her arm in front, projecting a holographic screen in front of the two. Internally she selected the file Alex gave to her, nearly a year ago.
“Hello, Ashiri.” Alex popped up on the screen. She was sitting on a bed, and she was wrapped up in a blanket. Ashiri thought she looked sick. Her skin was pale, and she had bags under her eyes.
“H-Hello…” Ashiri waved at the screen, not immediately realizing it was just a recording.
Alex sighed on the screen. “If you’re seeing this, it means that you’ve found out about the android. More importantly… It means I’m already gone.” She pulled the blanket closer to her.
“What!?” Ashiri cried out, confusion and hurt taking over again.
“Just watch, miss Ashiri.” Cleo hushed her.
“I’ve been fighting a sort of cancer for years… The way my abilities work, is through the radiation in my blood that I acquired many years ago in that explosion that killed my family.” She paused to cough. “However, it started to eat away at me from the inside. I found out about 10 years ago. The doctors said it would be slow, and in the end it would be painful…” She shook her head. “They were right. I got a lot of headaches and they always kept getting worse… A couple days ago I got really sick and Cleo had to take me home.” She coughed again. Ashiri couldn’t stand to watch her friend in pain. “I know I don’t have much time. I made a robot to replace me, so that TED doesn’t run around out there. After all, I’m the only one who knows how he really works. He was my biggest regret… If you don’t know, then Cleo can tell you.”
Cleo nodded along, as if Alex were speaking to them right there and then.
“I never told anyone. I didn’t want anyone to know. But perhaps I should have told you, and I’m sorry… Now I know, I won’t get to see you.” She wiped her eyes. “I’m so sorry Ashiri… But please remember- you’ve kept me going from the start. You’re my best friend… The family I had, even when mine was gone. I wish I could tell you goodbye in person… But just remember: it’s not forever.” She cried a little more, then was hit by a coughing fit, and the video feed cut out. The date at the end showed a day nearly a year ago, just before Alex would have turned 40.
“A-Alex…” Ashiri’s breath left her as she sat there, confusion and misery churning inside.
Cleo reached down to the red head, and helped her stand, wary of her arm. “Come, miss Ashiri… We must get you medical attention…”
Marcus walked around the table anxiously in the dark basement. He watched the cyborg type furiously, working on complicated coding for the unfinished robot’s hard drive. The body of the robot sat on the table, right behind the computer.
“Can’t you move any faster?” He leaned on her chair, unintentionally shaking her a bit.
Alex grunted. “No, and not when you’re badgering me like that. Could you back off?” She turned and glared at him. Finally, he threw his hands up in surrender and stepped back. She shook her head and turned back to the computer. “For the love of spaghetti noodles…”
“Hey, don’t you have like a template or something? So y’don’t have to start from scratch every time.” He pulled out a carton of cigarettes from his pocket as he watched.
“No, I don’t.” Alex sighed, though she continued to type. “I would love to have the time to work on something like that, but sadly, there’s the matter of working two jobs to pay for myself since I don’t have, you know, parents, to help me.” She had only made one android before, anyway. AI and SI were still difficult fields for her.
“Ooh, ice cold.” Marcus fumbled with a little red lighter. Once the cigarette was lit, he inhaled before continuing. “But guess what, that’s not my problem.” He turned to the opposite workbench, cluttered with various wires, cartons, and tools. He picked up a small vial of a green liquid, the same chemical he had used as an experimental ingredient in one of his bombs- nearly 3 years ago. “But hey, you’ve got superpowers now. So quit whining.”
“But-“
Marcus turned and slapped her, before setting the vial down and taking her chin in one gloved hand. “Get working.” He looked at her with the burning red cheek, accenting her green eyes. He chuckled. “If you were any other person, I’d take you out somewhere nice.”
The door at the top of the stairs opened, and a woman with longer blond hair stood at the top. “Marcus?” She spoke soothingly, a sharp contrast to her crisp business suit and icy glare. She spotted him, still holding Alex’s jaw.
She walked to the bottom of the stairs. “Marcus!” Putting her hands on her hips, she glared at both him and Alex. “What is she- Why the hell is she not dead!?” She bit her glossy red lip. “I TOLD you, months ago, to- I can’t believe you-“
“Babe, this isn’t what it seems…”
—
((OOPS I MADE A PART TWO! Also this is my last writing prompt. Yay! Thanks everyone!))
Everything was dark. Something was pressing against Alex’s eyes, and her hands were pulled behind her back. She was sitting down, she realized, as she began to come out of the fog. Her chest hurt- what happened?, she thought as she sat there. She wondered if this was all a dream- she had gone to bed last night, right? She couldn’t remember a thing.
She could, however, smell cigarette smoke.
The blindfold was pulled off and Alex had to squint to adjust to the bright room. After a couple moments, she could look around the room, and she spotted the figure standing before her.
“Mornin’, robocop.” Marcus stood there, one gloved hand on his hip, the other holding a cigarette to his lips. He seemed so nonchalant.
“You- You’re alive!” Alex cried, the realization hitting her a moment later. Her heartbeat quickened and fear grew in her mind.
“Fuck yeah, I’m alive. No thanks to you.” Marcus nearly spat. “Any other statements, captain obvious?”
His sarcasm wasn’t dead, that was for sure. Both fearful and angry, Alex wanted to get up and give him a taste of his own bitter medicine. Alas, her hands were tied, literally. “What do you want with me?” She asked, watching him pace around her restlessly. She didn’t really want to hear the answer, but on a lighter side, she was still alive. He could have easily killed her when he had broken into her apartment.
“I want a lot of things with you, kid.” He took another puff from the cigarette. “But what I really want is a robot.”
She was taken aback, surprised by his request. “A-A robot?”
“Need it for stuff.” He smirked. He needed a better way to move about undetected for a little while. Sadly, robots weren’t his thing, nor did he know anyone else who could figure out something for him.
“What makes you think I’ll build you a robot?” Alex squirmed around, trying to glare at Marcus behind her, unsuccessfully.
He chuckled. “Well, you are kinda tied up right now. ‘Sides- you know what I could do.” He patted the gun in his holster, making sure he had moved back in front of her so she could see it.
She shook her head. “I won’t do it. You can kill me, I won’t help you. You’ll get your justice soon enough without me around.” She bit her lip and looked away from him.
Marcus pulled the cigarette from his mouth. He almost expected such defiance from her. Still, he had a back up plan. “What about Red?”
Her eyes popped open, but she didn’t look at him still. She stayed quiet.
Marcus circled her again. “I could find little miss Ashiri, easy. If you don’t help me…” He stood right behind her, and tilted Alex’s head up towards him. “I’ll find her. I’ll hurt her. I’ll put bullets in her body.” He gripped her jaw in one hand, and with the other, put out the cigarette butt on her forehead, causing her to cry out. “And then I’ll kill her.”
“Stop!” She tried to yank free from him. “Don’t hurt her.” Marcus let her go, then walked around the chair, and looked her in the eye menacingly. “I-I’ll do it. Just leave her alone.”
((DUN DUN DUUUUUN))
“ALEX…” Cleo walked in the workshop. It was late at night, past closing time for the store, but Alex still had repairs to fix since she had worked at the station that day
Alex looked up at the android. “Yes Cleo?” She inquired, curious to the robot’s intentions.
“I… I AM AFRAID. I THINK SOMETHING MAY BE WRONG.”
“What’s wrong, Cleo?” She set down her tools and stood. It was very unlike her to be afraid of anything, although it was possible.
“ZEPHYR. HE IS AN ASTONISHING PIECE OF MACHINERY.” Cleo’s eyes glowed her usual green, but began to change a little.
Alex stifled a laugh. That was one way of putting it. “Yeah, I guess he is. What’s wrong though?”
Cleo’s eyes glowed pink now, and she lowered a little, tapping her fingers together as she often saw Alex do. “I BELIEVE I LOVE HIM.”
Alex put her hands on her hips, surprised at the sudden confession. She didn’t realize the two had met, but if they didn’t, she probably saw whatever Alex had put of him from her recorded data into the computer. “Love?”
“YES. I CANNOT ACCESS MY MEMORY BANKS AND I LOSE SOUND FUNCTIONS WHEN I SEE HIM.”
Alex pulled back both laughter and anger as she crossed her arms, looking up at the 6’ android. “Don’t worry, Cleo… We can fix that.” She nodded and picked up her tools. “Time for a repair.”
((SUDDENLY ALEX GETS EVILLL- *SHOT*))
Alex walked into the hospital, carrying a vase full of purple lily flowers in her hands, shaking the whole way as she finally came to the room. She had just gotten the phone call from the doctor, and hoped she wasn’t going to be too late. She couldn’t be too late, it wasn’t possible. She couldn’t get there and let Ashiri leave without saying goodbye. Alex knocked gently on the door, entering as it was open.
“Hey Ashiri.” She whispered as she walked into the quiet room, darkened by the rainstorm outside. How fitting. She set the flowers on a table next to her best friend’s bed. Sitting down in a chair next to the bed, she tried to breathe and remain calm as she looked over the poor girl.
Hooked up to IV’s, breathing from a tube, and covered with bandages, Ashiri looked sick, and Alex hated it. She hated every part of this. Gotta love the benefits of being friends with a police officer, huh? The suspect was apprehended, and would be charged with not just robbery, but also murder. Gunshot wounds hurt badly- Alex knew- but why did it have to be her innocent friend? Why couldn’t the doctors do anything about it?
She reached over and took Ashiri’s hand, causing the red head to stir a little. “Hey Alex…” She tried to smile as she looked up at the cyborg.
“Hey girl.” Alex smiled, unable to hide the expression of fear and sorrow. She squeezed Ashiri’s hand, knowing she could feel it even though the cyborg couldn’t. “How are you doing?”
“It hurts.” The morphine was working as best it could, but couldn’t fix everything and made for terrible conversation.
Alex nodded. “I know. But they’re trying to make you more comfortable.” She pulled the blanket up a little closer, tucking Ashiri in a little better.
Tears started to well up in Ashiri’s red eyes. “This is it, isn’t it? I… Alex, I can’t do this… I don’t want to die.”
“Now don’t say that, Ashiri. You’re stronger than that, I know. I know you don’t want to, but…” Now Alex started to tear up. She didn’t know what to really say. What could she say to her dying friend? “You’re my best friend, Ashiri. You’ve been like a sister, a sister I never had.” She cleared her throat. All the turmoil and pain she’d had to deal with in her life, and finally it was coming to an end. But she didn’t have a chance to have a better future, the life she deserved. It wasn’t fair.
Ashiri nodded and smiled. “I-I guess… I guess I’ll get to see my mother, huh?”
Alex squeezed her hand again. “That’s right. And she’ll be so proud of you.” Finally, tears came, rolling down her cheek.
Ashiri nodded again, squeezing back. “She would have liked you, Alex. I wish you could have met her.” She started to sound tired.
“I… I think I already have. I met her in you.” She looked down at her hands, imagining the strong woman she had talked so much about before.
The red head rolled back in her pillow, red eyes meeting the cyborg’s green. “Alex… Thank you. Thanks for being my hero.”
Alex looked up at Ashiri, a little startled. “A-Ashiri-” The tears wouldn’t stop.
Her friend closed her eyes and exhaled, and the heart monitor beeped frighteningly nearby. “Ashiri, don’t leave me!” She squeezed harder and reached up to take her shoulder, but it was no use.
As she started to stand, she was hit with a surprised realization.
Ashiri was sleeping peacefully.
Finally.
((AAAAHHH I WAS TEARING UP SO BAD ;u; Also OC BUTCHERING ASDKLFJ)
