Part 1

Hi! My name is Alise Rachel Hayes and I am… different than most kids. When I said different, you’re probably perceiving it as “I don’t wear makeup and I have no friends,” nope. I mean, “I have wings and a horn and can turn into a pink leopard.” I know, I know, you don’t believe me, maybe you think I’m crazy. You’ll see. You’ll see.

My brother, Octavious hates me. Hates that I can constantly get him out of trouble. He would rather get us both in trouble so that I have to deal with my parents. Every day, it seems like nobody understands me. However, nobody knows how smart I am. Actually, “smart” isn’t the best way to describe it. In the english language, “smart” means something else. I don’t think like other people do. I can understand their thought process, but I still don’t think like that. I don’t think of computers being made of ones and zeroes. If you cut up a computer and showed me the parts, I wouldn’t understand a thing. However, if you gave me paper clips and wires, I could build you a working computer in no time. Then again, it wouldn’t be compatible with the internet. It wouldn’t be compatible with any accessories made by other people. As I said, I’m different. I’m still working that stuff out. However, nobody knows that I can turn into a pink leopard with a pair of glowing white feathered wings and a shimmering golden horn. If I told them, they would think I’m crazy. You probably do too.

I can figure out anything. Tell me to resurrect your pet dog, all I would need is a strand of their DNA and they would be reborn as a puppy, but with their same memories. Though, as I said before, it’s in my way of thinking. I’ve even created zombie robots, or zombots, made for combat. My zombots are simple, but effective. The undead army protects, repairs, and builds my underground lab. Only I know they exist tough. They all look like they are made of rotten flesh wearing torn clothes, but they each have a different appearance. They can kill easily. Why did I make them? Who knows. Maybe I was predicting the future. Maybe I knew something bad was going to happen and I would need them. Only I know they exist. They can do combat, but have other purposes too. For example, their second purpose is to roam the streets on halloween, making sure that everyone stays safe.

Zombots are organized into sections. Each squad moves as one because of the connection between members and their leaders. If Squad A had to split up for a scouting mission, unlike humans, their leader, Norbert would know exactly what one of the bots saw before it went offline. This is also an easy solution to endangering human lives in combat. These could be peacemakers… or the workings of a tyrant.

I was prepared for war… or so I thought. The only issue so far with my tech is that I have to use my special watch that connects to a simple robot we like to call Karin to enable combat mode. That way people like the mailman don’t get attacked.

Today was different. Today, an enemy came forth that no security system could ever counter. End of the year grades.

We still have one week of school left, but that’s all fun stuff. Today, the end of the year grades came out. I had mostly C’s, but my brother on the other hand… I was responsible for both of our grades, according to our parents, and his were terrible. His highest grade is a D. I’m in big trouble, but not as big as tomorrow. Not. Even. Close. I must have spent too much time on my pet projects. This was going to be bad.

After walking home from our bus stop, I did my chores when my stepmom, Radiance, came in. She punched me in the face, with enough force to send me flying into a wall. She may seem like the most wonderful, kind person to someone who only knew her through parties, but when you lived with her, it was a whole other story.

“Your brother got bad grades! You little runt! Your job as a big sister is to get him good grades! You’re sleeping outside tonight! ” She yelled, my brother staring at me with an evil look in his eyes, his little smug face was one of a rich kid. He was treated like a god. If I did anything, or didn’t do anything, I got punished. If he got suspended from school, I got blamed. He threw a chair, I got blamed. Radiance always found new ways of torture, “get out of my sight, you stupid little *** ****.”

I ran outside, going to my shed. Any time that I did something... not perfect, she sent me to my shed to sleep in that night. I would have to find my own food. My own water. My own everything. I no longer cried. My body was used to the abuse. I simply went away.

“Karin, is it complete?” I said,

“Yes, but I’m not sure about it’s stability,” my AI replied. I was having her use a small section of zombots to make a special lab miles underground. She was building a lighted, heated, and furnished lab for my technology experiments. The zombots that I was having her use could change chemical compounds, and, atoms in general. That’s how she made the wood, carpet, chairs, etc. out of nothing but dirt. I can’t take the credit for her. I made a simple robot that could learn things easily, but then she quickly knew a lot more about quite a few things than I did. She programmed herself to be able to do hundreds of searches per second. Whenever she didn’t understand something, she looked it up. I wanted to continue making technological advancements. She helped me. She made it all possible.

I took the elevator down to my new base of operations. It had over fifteen timed locks to the elevator alone. If you didn’t undo the locks in time, then the room would bake you alive. All the doors would close before you could open the next one, so I found it highly unlikely that anyone would get to the elevator but me. The types of locks go in this order: fingerprint, handprint, combination, voice, key, key, repeat.

This was going to be the one and only place that I could express myself without a cruel family stopping me. My lab. My true home. Home is where the heart is, they say. Well, this is where my heart is.

The next day, I woke up with a Karin-prepared meal, finally, a meal that was more than table scraps. It didn’t bother me at all that I was basically eating nutritious, delicious dirt, it was still better than anything I got inside “my” house. I picked out an outfit made by Karin, another thing that was more than leftover scraps, and had Karin use a zombot to do my hair. Then, I went up the elevator. This is when it all went south. When I got through all sixteen doors, back into my shed, standing there was my stepmom.

Radiance screamed in fury, punching me in the gut. It wasn’t far, but I flew into what was left of the walls of the shed. She continued the attack, punching me again and again. If I cried, she punished me, if I even let out the tiniest whimper, she would punish me, so I let her continue beating me up in absolute silence.

“You idiodic girl! Where did the door come from?! It wasn’t here last time!” She screamed.

“I built it… actually, Karin built it. Karin capture mode!” I replied.

With lightning speed, two of my zombots grabbed each of her arms. She screamed. A guttural cry of raging fury.

“Stop her screaming,” I commanded. One of the robots injected a fast-acting serum that made her vocal cords temporarily stop working. It was like she was whispering screaming, making virtually no sound.

“What did you do?!” She whisper-yelled.

“This isn’t nearly what I could do with these maximum-efficiency combat robots. I could crush your bones one by one. You break one of my bones almost every day. One of them has to fix it,” I nodded to the zombots, “you would do well to remember that I have complete control over these. Let her go and return to your posts.”

With that, the zombots were gone. Radiance stood up and ran into the house, whisper-screaming all the way. I turned to what seemed to be part of the wall, “Karin, please cover up these bruises and fix all the broken stitches on my dress.” The dress was a maid’s gown. I presumed that this would please Radiance and the guests. I also had a head dress that matched. My hair was in pig-tails.

Radiance was hosting a party and told me, her servant to look presentable. I did all of the cooking and cleaning, and anything else needed. Over time, I started to excel at it. Most of the guests at her parties pitied me, and collectively gave me as much food as a normal person would get for a normal meal. Usually. Sometimes, guests cared a lot, other times, they joined in with the cruelty. The party today had no special reason, but Radiance invited some celebrities and their children so that my brother, Octavious could find a girlfriend of “high stature.” My job? To make sure all the celebrities had whatever they needed the whole time. I was to make nutritious,delicious meals and be there carrying trays and running this way and that, making everyone enjoy themselves. Oh, how wonderful.

Now I stood at the door, awaiting the guests. I would take their coats and bags, and carry anything they wanted carried in, and then at the end, I would have to remember whose things were whose and gather their belongings so that they could leave in a timely manner.

The party went well, various celebrities coming in and out throughout the day, and that night. My brother got tons of presents and had girls hanging all over him the whole time. It was my job to serve them food, drinks, and anything else they needed. Most of the girls pulled my hair and treated me like trash. They were annoyed that I didn’t squeal or cry when they did it. I was used to it.

“So, ugly servant,” one of them said, “what do you do ro fun? Clean?” She let out a squeaky laugh.

“Actually, I build and program zombots,” I replied, sassily.

“Sure. Let’s pretend that’s true!” She shrieked, her face turning red.

“Fine. Karin, show them Ilene,” I said with a straight face. Almost immediately, Ilene appeared. The girl shrieked.

“WHAT IS THAT?!” she asked.

“Meet unit 009, combat unit 009, I call her Ilene,” I said, leaning on the robot like it was my friend.

“Get it away!” She hid behind Octavious, obviously distressed at the rotting, undead look of the thing.

“Ilene, go charge,” I said, smirking at the girls, all their mouths were hanging open and their eyes were filled with fear and disgust. “Now, is there anything I can get you?” I asked with a smile.

“N-no you beast,” one of the other girls said hesitantly.

“Very well, mistress,” I replied with a bow, leaving.

As the last of the guests from our party left, Radiance walked up to me. “How dare you attack our guests! Now they are probably afraid to come back here!” She yelled. She pulled her arm back, readying for a punch attack.

“011, self defence mode,” with that, unit 011 blocked her punch, appearing just in time. Radiance tried punching and kicking the robot, but using it’s speed, it blocked her every time.

“Stop hiding behind your bodyguard! Now!” Radiance demanded.

“No,” I stayed calm. Though, these robots were stopping me from being hurt. I wasn’t going to lower their guard. I really felt better not being crushed every day, even though I was used to it.

“NOW!” Radiance was infuriated.

“011, we’re leaving,” I told him, “to the shed!”

“Affirmative,” he agreed.

We went to the shed. Radiance trying to land at least one hit on my robot.

“I don’t suggest following. You’ll be fried to a crisp in here, also, 011, stay here and defend the shed with squad leader Norbert,” I commanded.

“Affirmative,” he replied, Norbert appearing too.

“Karin, make me something to eat please,” I told my AI, changing into some more comfortable clothes as Karin had her specialized food zombot ready with a chocolate cake, it was my birthday today, and she knew it. For once, someone had remembered my birthday, even if it was just an AI. My AI. She had the technology to make anything out of anything using a zombot. She changed the protons, neutrons, and electrons around all the time. She then placed them in whatever order she wanted. She can make uncooked meals that have no difference from normal meals except the process she uses to make them. Hers are even safer because she tears apart the very atoms of any bacteria or viruses. This was the first time in ten years that I had sugar. Even fake sugar. I wouldn’t waste it. I turned fourteen today, so the last time I had sugar was when I was four. Now though, I could have as much sugar as I wanted. Awesome. After a slice, I went to bed. Tomorrow was a big day. Not that I knew it yet.

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