“Hohoho~ well I guess like all good stories I’ll start at the end.”

“The end? That isn’t where you’re supposed to start.”

“This is the way it’s supposed to be! The rest is boring trust me.”

“I’m sorry.”

As she looked at the man in front of her, her creator, for what would quite possibly be the last time she started to remember all the fun things they had done together.

The Director had been nice to her since she had first been taken out of the genetic replicator tanks. He had always read to her before she was put away into her cell for the night, a different book every day. 

She had always looked forward to reading time since he also brought a feast of foods from which she could choose any to eat.

But listening to the stories inside the books was what she really enjoyed.'

Her favourite books were the ones about heroes fighting monsters. Sometimes the heroes would fight alone and sometimes they would work together but they were always having fun. They were free to do whatever they wanted to. It seemed like the opposite of how she was living her life.

“I’ve decided that this is when I begin my new journey. One that’s separate from the organisation.”

The Director looked long and hard at her with an expression that suggested that he was seriously considering her words. He ran his hand through his hair and she sighed. The Director would always do this when he was troubled and she knew that in the end he would never be able to let her go free. She was too valuable to his organisation.

“There will be others. You’ll make someone that can truly satisfy your desire to conquer the world.”

She decided to get straight to the point but he shook his head at her words.

“You’re the one that I want.”

She smiled sadly at him, “I’m just an experiment. One of many, you know that. You can make something like me anytime.”

His face lit up with anger and she stepped back at the unexpected display of emotion. She had never known the Director to show signs of emotion. 

“Think of everything that we could do.”

He shuffled towards her and she saw one of his legs trailing behind. She knew that it had a permanent limp. His leg had been irreparably broken long ago by one of the many enemies he had made after creating the organisation.

“I had always hoped that you would feel it too.” He reached out to her, his hand only millimetres away from her shoulder.

She jumped back and out of his reach.

“I’m not human enough for that. Don’t even pretend otherwise.”

Humanity.

It was something that she knew she would never have. The Director had created her with blonde hair and blue eyes and added to her human looks by giving her clothes so that she would be different from the other experiments. 

But she knew the truth. From the moment she was created she knew that she was simply an experiment, a monster.

“I know that things are always changing. The organisation has already grown powerful enough that you don’t need me anymore. The others are easily strong enough to accomplish your goals.

When you created an intelligent being you knew that it would be able to learn and make choices. Well now I’ve grown enough that I know that now’s the time to go.”

“You have nowhere to go-”

She sighed at his words. He was clearly grasping at straws and it stood in stark contrast to the usual Director who she knew as a man that could move entire countries with his articulate speeches.

“You have to stay here. I’ll let you do anything you want to do. You’ll be able to go anywhere you want to go.” She snorted at his suggestion. She knew that as soon as the Director had her back in his grasp he would never let go of her again.

“You say I have to be here.”

The Directors head perked up at her words.

“But I just want freedom. Is that so much to ask for?”

His face fell at and he looked around at his surroundings. It was as though he was seeing the laboratories sterile white walls and metallic floor for the first time. As though he was realising how cold and heartless her prison really was.

The sight of this laboratory had been permanently imprinted on her mind over the years she had been here. The experiences of being experimented on every day had long ago left her with the impression that this was more than the place that she lived in, it was a prison and she needed to escape.

He lifted his hand onto a nearby bench to prop himself up properly and gave her a look filled with distress.

He ran his hand through his hair and waved the other at her as though he were trying to swat a fly.

“Go.”

She looked at him in confusion.

“GO!”

She turned around and ran out the door before he changed his mind. She wasn’t sure but she could swear she had seen a tear run down the Directors face before she had left. But a quick shake of the head got rid of the impossible notion.

As she exited the room an alarm blared out and she knew that it would be ringing across the entire base. The organisation had already been alerted to her escape and they would send someone to stop her, no, to destroy her.

“Nothing much happened after that. I basically ran around and beat a couple up of guys until I reached the exit.”

“Can you just skip bits like that?”

“Sure I can. That’s what makes it fun!”

A creature was blocking the exit.

She stopped running as she neared it and she took a closer look at her opponent.

It was an experiment which was based on the humanoid model similar to how she was. But its skin was metallic grey and with the exception of a zipper running across its face it had no features.

Gathering from her experiences in the organisation she knew that humanoid models were reserved only for the strongest experiments. Its legs were strangely bulky and she could only guess at the modifications it had undergone since the organisation created it.

It was most likely made up of titanium or some other strong material. It was so thin that any human it was based off of had clearly missed a few meals but the blows it delivered would be no less powerful than her own. Small bumps and a distinct waistline made the creature vaguely recognisable as a female.

As soon as she came into its view it began walking towards her.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

It wasn’t walking right. She couldn’t put her finger on what exactly was wrong but the creature was moving with a strange swagger. It was as though it was thinking about every step it took so that it wouldn’t trip.

She brought her hands to face the creature and they began to glow blue. She would have no mercy for anything standing in her way.

She sent a bolt of electricity flying towards it. There was a small chance it had been modified to be resistant to her electric powers but she made sure to send enough to incapacitate any living being.

A loud sound began to scream across the room towards her and she realised that it was originating from the creature, more precisely, from its legs. Its legs separated into pieces and revealed a glowing mechanical pole underneath. They began to swirl around the pole which connected it’s thighs to its feet. The pole began to emit a light blue glow and the creature disappeared as the lightning reached its location. 

She looked around for the creature. The sound continued to shriek across the room so she knew that the creature had sped up rather than teleported and it would have to be here somewhere.

It re-appeared in front of her swinging its leg in an overhead arc. She raised her hands to block the creature and heard a loud crack as her arms met its foot.  

She didn’t feel the pain of a broken arm. She looked around, confused, and realised that the crack had been the roof breaking from the air pressure generated by the creatures swing.

Shards of metal rained down and stabbed into her. Her body ached from the attack but there was no significant external damage. The floor behind the creature was also torn up from its inability to hold against the creatures speed and strength.

The creature cried out as its leg and foot broke from the impact. Her skin was itching. She looked at it and realised it had also been torn asunder by the kick. She looked curiously as the surface of her arm immediately began to shed the broken skin and grow a new layer.

She knew she had been given a healing factor but she hadn’t known that it was this strong. She rarely got hurt and the fact that the creature could damage her at all meant that it was extremely powerful.

In seconds her arm was completely healed while the creature in front of her cried out in pain as it got up to attack her again. It appeared the metal it was made from had no self-repairing capacity.

She looked at the creature in pity. It could do nothing else, it knew nothing else, but to get up to attack her again and again until it broke. That was the life an experiment would live as long as it was following the orders of the organisation.

It reminded her of the time before she had escaped her prison. She hadn’t had any control over her actions and she didn’t know how to do anything other than doing what the organisation told her to. She felt as though she had been a different person back then.

Well, she hadn’t escaped just yet.

“But then again, I’m the only one that’s managed to free myself” She looked at the creature as she said this. For no reason that she could put her finger on she felt a connection to it. Perhaps it was because it had a distinctly female form. Perhaps this was the concept of being a sister in arms with someone she had fought. Just like in the books the Director had read to her.

“I guess this will be my goodbye to you.”

She sent a punch towards the creature and it ineffectively tried to block the punch with its arm. It was a direct hit into its stomach and she sent sparks of electricity racing from her arm into its body.

The shock incapacitated it and it fell writhing to the ground. She hadn’t pushed her power to lethal levels as a small mercy. It didn’t choose to live the way it did and she liked to think that there was always a chance that it too would follow in her footsteps.

“I’m off to live a real life.”

The creature reached out its hand towards her and then realised that it was a futile effort as a broken bone bent its entire arm at a downward angle. She could swear she saw its featureless face crumple in sorrow.

*Bruu* the zipper around its mouth opened and the creature whispered out a single word.

“Why”

She looked in shock at the thing in front of her. Excluding herself she hadn’t seen any other talking experiments in the organisation. It occurred to her that it was possible that the creature kneeling in front of her was her predecessor. It would explain its female form and capacity for speech.

“I want to be free and make my own destiny” She had long ago decided this while listening to her favourite stories about heroes, something this creature would probably never experience. She would have left right there and then but she knew that there was one more thing she had to say.

“From one experiment to another, I hope you find a way to free yourself. There’s more than just the organisation out there. At least by looking at me you’ll know how it feels… maybe.” The words weren’t as articulated as she wanted but she was covered in bits of broken roof and her body was aching all over from the creatures attack.

She moved past it towards the exit and began climbing the ladder which led to the surface. The last bits of metal exited her body and fell out of her clothes to hit the ground below. As she reached the end of the ladder an emotion swirled inside her. It was new. It was interesting. But she would have to get out before exploring this new feeling.

There were boards covering the exit and she probed them to confirm that she would be able to break through them. She smashed a hole in the boards and jumped up with her hands in the air and a grin on her face.

“I’m so happy!”

A pair of eyes appeared directly in front of her and she jumped back, startled.

“Who the hell are you?!”

A boy of perhaps eighteen or nineteen years of age was in front of her. His black hair was cut into a mushroom haircut and it reminded her of the Director.

She realised he was talking to her and looked at him and as something suddenly clicked inside her head.

She hit her right fist into her other hands palm.

“Oh that’s right. I need a name.”

Then she punched him.

“And that’s basically the story of how I met you.”

“Right… the foods ready now.”

“Yay! Now you have to tell me a story too!”