Bo
Bo let out a blissful sigh as he quickly became submerged in a cloud of steam, allowing the hot water to trace every tired crevice of his body. He felt like collapsing. He wanted to melt onto the shower floor and curl up into a ball, and remain unmoved underneath the waterfall, and he wasn't sure why. Bo could feel a knot in his stomach, something which he had never felt before and that alone was making the looming feeling of dread even worse. Why was he feeling like this? Was this normal, for him?
Upon reaching for the coconut shampoo, his hands faltered just before he could touch the cylindrical bottle. Omar had asked him to do something: a favor. What had Bo agreed to do?
Part of him wanted to dismiss any outcomes, something which he wouldn't normally do, and just focus on cleaning his body and enjoying the hot sensation of the water running down his frame. Again, he didn't know why. In his favor though, Bo found his ears picking up remnants of a conversation from across the apartment, and on Larifa's account, it didn't sound like a pleasant one.
***
Larifa was faced away from him, her body rigid and hands massaging her eye sockets. "Larifa?" he called out.
"Yes?!" Larifa replied, her voice jagged and put out.
For a moment, Bo felt the world slow ever so slightly as she turned around, her blonde curls floating away from her face and unearthing her vexed expression, which turned to shock, and which then turned to something unreadable to Bo. Beating him to the punch, before he could ask if everything was okay, Larifa coughed suddenly and turned away from him.
"What're you...can you put something else on, please?" she spurted out before Larifa promptly turned on her heels and paced out of the room with one hand clutching her cheek.
Bo looked down at himself. "Yes of course." Within the minute, Bo reappeared before Larifa, dressed as she had ordered him to be. "Did you ring up the company?"
Larifa exhaled before angling her body towards Bo, however still unable to look at the bionic. "Yeah, I did. They um...weren't much help though."
"What do you mean?"
"Bo, are you..." Her head dipped down a little, before finally meeting his eyes. "Are you sure you're...that you've been...actioned?
"Actioned?"
"Yes. Well, I don't know the proper term but...do Bionics get 'activated?' Is that a thing?"
Folding his arms, he could suddenly feel how tight the fabric really was, and for a moment he felt uncomfortable. "Yes, it's a thing. Before a Bionic can commence on a hired job, they essentially check in and out of the place where they are stationed. It's mandatory, for our makers to keep track of us."
"So like, keeping attendance."
"Somewhat. Although the legality behind it is..." He pauses, catching Larifa's gaze before clearing his throat. "Yes, like keeping attendance."
"And even when you're at the place where you've been stationed, do they always know where you are?"
Bo raises his hand, his palm finding the barcode on the side of his neck. "We're constantly tracked if that's what you mean. I'm...I'm sorry to interrupt but can we divert back to the conversation about the phone call?"
Once again Bo finds Larifa's expression unreadable, and he wasn't sure if it was because of the grimness behind it, or if it was because of the bangs that hid the look in her eyes. She takes a step away from him, the landline still gripped in her hand. "Yeah, sorry. Listen, about that...I..."
"Larifa?"
"They said that you didn't...that you don't...exist."
What? "That's not possible."
"Well, I-"
"Can you call them again? Maybe I can speak with them."
Handing over the landline, Larifa rubs the back of her head. "Of course, you can but, would they really make that kind of mistake?"
Hovering over the phone, Bo's finger falter. "No, they wouldn't." His hand drops. "What exactly did they tell you?"
"Well, the woman on the phone was pretty adamant about you not being in their records or ANYONE's records. She said that there are no Bionics with your name, or with a name beginning with a 'B'. I thought it was weird but-"
"Wait, hold on that...that doesn't make sense." Bo knew of multiple Bionics who fit that category, and he even knew of other Bionics with the same name as him. Surely Larifa had just called the wrong number.
"May I make that phone call now, please?"
***
Larifa
Gripping her mug of coffee, Larifa stood up from the kitchen table to walk closer to the living room, where Bo was still on call with the agent. She hadn't heard him say anything hopeful, other than stating his name and identification number, which was surprisingly followed by a sigh. It felt strange to listen to a Bionic 'argue'. Larifa knew that Bionics were subject to following orders, although those orders had to be specific, and she knew that Bionics didn't take orders from just any human, however, they were not supposed to harm any humans. Of course, partaking in a simple argument wasn't exactly harmful, but some would debate that it could be mentally straining, thus causing further harm down the line. But, Bionics were logical and truthful, as programmed to be, and the fact of the matter is that Bo DID exist, because here he was arguing with someone on the phone.
Larifa wasn't the type of person to overthink, and yet here she was. And Bionics were always accounted for, and yet here Bo was. Something about this wasn't right.
"Larifa?"
"Yes?!"
Bo had stepped out of the living room, landline once again in hand and snapping her out of her thoughts. Although he looked...solemn. "They don't...have me on their records."
Setting her mug down, Larifa was quick to grab his shoulder, much to his surprise. "Nothing about this seems at all rational, so don't lose hope."
"Larifa-"
"I already told you before, call me Tuff."
Bo remained quiet for a second, his eyes steady and unmoving. "Tuff. They're picking me up tomorrow morning."
Relief flooded Larifa's lungs before she let out a big sigh. "Alright. So then it's all sorted out?"
"They're picking me up for disposal."
She froze. "That can't...that can't be right. You're here, you're existing right here! They're the ones who don't have you on their system!" Larifa yelled, her volume forcing the Bionic to take a step back. "Isn't there anything else that they can do?! How did you even get here in the first place?!"
Bo's voice, although unwavering, was still a little quieter than usual. "I don't remember. I remember the last conversation with one of my makers before I woke up in the snow."
"We're going to figure this out," Larifa exclaimed. Although she owed Bo nothing, and if anything he probably owed her, something about this didn't feel right. Or maybe, it didn't feel legal. She knew nothing about Bionics, or how they came to be, or about who manufactured them, and yet...
"Tuff?"
She stopped pacing, before turning to look Bo in the eye. "What are you...would you ever disobey the law?"
The momentary pause that came before Bo's answer didn't help to calm the thumping in her chest. Eventually, Bo replied, his voice steady and certain. "Bionics are...if we're told to do something by a human, like obey the law, then we will."
"And if you're told to break it?"
"...If a human were to tell me to break the law, then I would."
Larifa nodded. "Okay. Then...I might have a plan."
***
Micah
He slid his phone back into his pocket, almost yelling in frustration. The Bionic that they saved was still with Tuff at her apartment. Why wasn't he gone? And why wasn't Tuff explaining anything? His friend could fend for herself, that much he was completely certain, but nothing was adding up. Why had they found a Bionic in the snow? Where did he come from? Why was he still THERE?
He stood from his sofa and made his way frantically around his dorm, searching for his coat. He had might as well confront Tuff in person. "C'mon where is it-" he lifted a few pizza boxes, and a strong, unpleasant aroma hit him in the face without mercy. "Fuck, eugh. Aha!"
Once he had successfully located his coat, he started towards his door and opened it, with one arm still snaking its way down the sleeve. However, once the door opened, Micah bumped into a solid object before he stilled, confused because he was sure that he had already opened the door in the first place. When he looked up, the first thing he noticed was a mop of bright orange hair.
"Hello! You must be Micah!"
Micah stilled, his legs freezing in place. "Uh...do I know you?"
The man smiled, his teeth pearly white and straight, and inhuman-like. "No, but I was hoping to be better acquainted. I have been assigned to you-"
"Assigned? What...huh?" Taking a step away from the door, Micah's eyes found an umbrella propped against the wall next to the entrance.
The man's smile dulled a little. "I've been told that-" he leaned down to Micah's level, his face only inches away from the other, "-that you're a bit of a hermit, Micah."
Lunging away from the man, Micah's eyes dropped back to the umbrella, his fingers twitching against his palm. "What do you want? Would you mind please leaving my property before I call the police?"
Then, the man smiled a closed-eye smile, before taking a step inside. "I'm actually here legally."
"No, you're not?!" Ducking to the side, Micah grabbed the umbrella with both hands, before waving it around between them. "I'm going to ask again, please leave before I call the authorities!" Micah had heard about crazy city people from Tuff, but he had never actually met one in the flesh. A stalker? A serial killer? He wasn't sure that an umbrella was going to do much but, he had to try.
The man eyed the umbrella, his expression falling to something more placid. "Calm down, I'll explain. Do you see this?"
Reaching up to his collar, the man tugged the fabric away from his neck, revealing a bar code that could only mean one thing.
"Shit!" Micah shouted. Another Bionic?! Where were they coming from?! "O-Okay, you're...okay, but that doesn't explain why you're here!"
Taking another step inside, his hands lowered in defense, the man started to close the distance between them. "I've been assigned to work with you, Micah. I'm here-" his flayed his arms outward, gesturing to Micah's dirty pit, "-to help with all of this, and I can't leave until my job is complete!"
The look in the man's eyes seemed almost manic, and playful. Micah could tell that this man...no, this Bionic's smile was supposed to maybe put him at ease, but the intensity in those wide eyes made it somewhat cryptic, and cynical.
Keeping the umbrella held up, Micah hovered his fingers over the neck, ready to pop it open. "I didn't ask for this! I didn't hire a Bionic!"
The Bionic's smile widened, before taking one more step towards him. "Your landlord did."
"Fuck!"
Within a split second, the umbrella had sprung open between them and jading the Bionic's view of Micah. He didn't think of anything while he sprinted past the Bionic, other than reaching the streets. He wasn't that fast, and yet he found himself zipping through the doorway and out of the house.
Or so he thought.
Before he knew it, he felt a hand curl around his stomach and scoop him up off of the ground. "Fucking put me down, this is fucking illegal!"
Micah felt his stomach churn, as the Bionic effortlessly lifted his body and placed it over his shoulder. "According to your landlord, I am allowed to use 'any means necessary to get the blasted man out of his pit'. Now, where are the...ah."
The Bionic paced over to the front door, grabbed the keys, and then proceeded to lock both the front and back doors, all the while Micah fruitlessly kicked at the air.
"I thought you were supposed to get me out of my 'pit', not lock me in it!"
The Bionic man finally placed Micah on the floor, and he warily took a few steps back, his eyes never leaving the smiling, orange-haired Bionic. "First thing's first is to clean up this mess. You can't take a step into the world without having a neat, pleasant home to come back to. Oh, by the way, you can call me Finn."
"What the hell is this?!"
Micah was going to kill the old lady if it was the last thing he was going to do.