Flashback #1, around the time of the prologue (13-ish years before)

(Laff PoV)

I watched as the experiment, B-1424, walked away, two guards by his side. Something about him is... different from the others. I'd seen T-13VG and J-00C13, and they were just all seriousness.

My dad turned to me. "So, Laff, what do you think of the work we do here?"

I shrugged. "It's cool, I guess."

Dad chuckled. "Oh, it's cool. And I have one more test I want you to see."

"Okay!" I said excitedly. I didn't necessarily like seeing Dad using his taser thing on them, but seeing the experiments train is pretty cool.

Dad pulled out his walkie-talkie and muttered something into it. Probably calling in the next experiment or something - he did this earlier, too.

We waited a little bit until two more guards came in. Walking with them was a girl about my age with long, rainbow pastel hair, half tied up with a white hair tie. She wore a black T-shirt, like B-1424, with a dark gray skirt. One of her eyes was sky blue, and the other was light pink. Both had small crosshair shapes in them.

"This is Subject A-117X," Dad said, "A-1, this is Laff."

A-117X smiled, and waved. Awfully quiet, though. I waved back. She seems nice enough.

Dad nodded to the two guards, then turned to me.

"C'mon, let's get out and watch from the command room," he said.

I nodded, and started to follow him to the door.

When suddenly I was pulled backwards by clawed hands.

I breathed heavily in fear as A-117X gripped my arms tightly. She pulled a gun from its holster on her belt, and I felt the barrel against my head.

"A-1!" Dad shouted, "Stand down!"

"What if I don't want to?" She said in a singsong tone, "What if I just wanna..."

She pulled the gun from my head and fired, and I felt a sharp pain in my left shoulder. I cried out and moved my hand to the bullet wound, where I felt blood leaking out and dripping down my arm.

"Or this?"

Another gunshot, and I felt pain in my leg. I cried out again, and fell on my knees (which also hurt. A lot).

Dad switched on his taser and started to come towards us, but A-1 dug her claws into my wounded shoulder as he came close. I wanted to scream, but I didn't want her to have that enjoyment.

Dad looked up at the control room, where there were some guards who didn't know what to do about the situation.

"Get down here, you idiots!" Dad called. All of the guards raced back out of the control room.

A-1 put her claws on my face, and raked them over my eye. At this point I just let the scream out, not having the strength to keep it down. A-1 laughed at my pain.

"Remember this, Laff," A-1 muttered into my ear, "Remember this pain as you watch us suffer at the hands of your father. And think about how similar it is to our pain."

A-1 then pulled out a small knife from her pocket, and held it to my throat. I only had the strength to whimper,

"Please... don't kill me."

"You think I'm gonna kill you?" She chuckled, "Nah. I'd have no use of killing you."

She removed the knife from my throat, and I felt the cold metal blade against the back of my neck.

"Only teach you, and your son of a scientist father, a lesson."

The blade struck deep, and I heard a snap in the back of my neck. I screamed, and fell limply to the ground. I tried to get up, but found myself immobilized.

A-1 smirked, and stood up, putting the knife back in her pocket before someone took it away. At this point the guards had come in, and were now surrounding A-1, guns poised and ready to shoot. A-1 raised her hands in the air as to signify that she surrenders.

As the guards took A-1 back to her containment, Dad rushed over and bent down beside me.

"Laff, can you hear me?" He asked, panicked.

"Y-yeah..." I stuttered. My breathing was shallow, and I saw spots on the edge of my vision. "I c-can't... move..."

"It's okay, Laff, you're going to be okay," Dad said, "Can you feel anything below your head?"

I realized I couldn't. All I felt was the pain in my eye.

"N-no..."

Dad cursed under his breath. "It's alright, there's medics on their way now, just hang tight!"

"I-I'm trying..." I said. Everything was becoming distant, and I was having trouble breathing.

That was all I remembered before everything faded into darkness.

—————————

I woke up with a start.

I was in some kind of room that reminded me of a hospital room. The walls were blank and light gray, and there were no windows. A desk lined the left side, a closed laptop sitting on it.

I slowly turned and put my feet on the ground. I found myself able to walk, despite the tragic events before I blacked out.

I rubbed my forehead, deep in thought. How long was I out? Where's Dad?

That's when I noticed something. Half of my forehead did feel like normal human skin. But the other half was cold and smooth, not feeling normal. I put my hand on that side of my face, and I realized the entire left side felt the same. Cold, metallic. Inhumane.

Is there a mirror or something in here? I thought.

I searched around the room for a minute, but found nothing. I looked back at the laptop on the desk, and felt dumb for not thinking of that first. Walking over to the laptop, I reached out to open it with my left hand.

But stopped myself in my tracks.

My left hand, unlike my right, was gray and metal. I noticed for the first time it made a tiny whirring sound when I moved my fingers - barely enough to hear. I was a bit worried about this, but at the same time curious and transfixed by the piece of machinery that used to be my hand.

I once again reached out and grabbed the laptop. When I touched it, however, the air in the room seemed to shift. My mind buzzed like static, and I could feel the mechanical connection between the laptop and my mechanized hand. I shook off the feeling and grabbed the small computer.

Honestly, I kind of wished I hadn't opened it and saw my reflection in it's blank screen.

Staring back at me was someone I truly didn't recognize. Yeah, it did look like me. But the left side of my face was completely transformed into some kind of... robot. My eye glowed bright red, contrasting to my normal dark green one. Out of shock, I lost my grip on the laptop, and it was sent crashing to the floor.

I'm not entirely sure, but I could almost hear the parts inside of it die and get smashed to bits.

I gasped and quickly picked the broken laptop off the floor. The screen was a spiderweb of cracks, and I saw some small pieces of glass on the ground where it fell.

I sighed, and muttered to myself, "Oh, dad's gonna kill me."

I looked around the empty room and quietly placed the useless electronic back on the desk as if it never happened. Dad was gonna notice, but I didn't even care at this point.

Suddenly, noises could be heard outside the door. Voices. A few male, a few female. But two voices in particular stuck out.

"Let go of me, you son of a-"

The person talking cut off their sentence with a hiss of pain.

"Believe me, I'm never letting you out of my sight until I trust you again," someone else said. It sounded like Dad.

The other person growled. "You expect me to obey you, when you, when you've trapped us in this horrid place for as long as we can remember? And as soon as I catch a glimpse of the world outside, you snatch it away like a toy from a bad child!"

She yelped in pain once again. Is Dad using the taser on her?

"If we let you put into the world, there's no telling what you'll do. Bad enough that B-1's on the loose. Nonetheless, you will always be needed here, and here only," Dad said. "Take her back to her unit. I'll have a little chat with her later. Keep a guard on duty at all times."

I heard footsteps fade away.

B-1 escaped? I have a feeling that might not end up great. I saw what he was capable of back when he was testing, and that loose in the world? Not a very good outlook.

The door to my small room opened, surprising me. I saw my dad standing at the door. He walked over and peered down at me before kneeling down to my level.

"Do you feel okay?" He questioned. Something about his voice was different. Gone was it's usual warmth, and replacing it was a cold, stoic feeling.

"Y-yeah, I think," I said. I looked into his eyes, and just tore up there, throwing my arms around his neck while I sobbed into his shoulder.

Life was never going to be normal again.

That, I knew for certain.

Dad gave me a soft pat on the back. "It's okay, Laff. You're gonna be fine, you'll get used to this," he said softly.

But yet deep, deep down...

I knew he was lying.

Never was I going to "get used to this."

I wasn't going to be fine.

This will not be okay.

——————

Since I don't wanna have to make a prequel to this, I will put flashbacks as they come to me. Here's what happened to Laff!

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