Nathen

"Why is this thing still malfunctioning? Didn't you check the wiring?" Nathen was stuck applying more medicine to his arm unable to clearly see what Tom was doing. It's been almost twenty four hours and his arm has barely shown signs of healing.

"The remote was working fine when I got it, so I can't figure out why it's not cooperating." Tom started looking at the error screen, "did you drop it or get it wet?"

"No I didn't. It did fall in the library, but that shouldn't have been hard enough for any damage. Wait-" Nathen looked up, "Carly tried to grab it and that bracelet wasn't letting her. The effect from the power of the bracelet must have clashed with the power of the remote. It has to be malfunctioning because of that."

"So what does that mean?" Tom asked.

"I don't know. When it touches our bodies it eats away at us like it did my arm. But when it touches something like the remote that's not a living thing, I don't know what's to become of it. Nothing is actually broken, just short circuiting."

"I'll do some research on the other computer to see if I can get an answer." Tom headed to grab his laptop.

"My arm isn't getting better so I can't do much right now and I'm almost out of the medicine."

"You poor thing."

"Who said that?!" Nathen turned to find the voice that spoke.

"You, you're that girl from River." He said seeing Lodia at the top of the stairs.

"Bingo." She sang as she jumped down to them.

"Nice place you got here. Reminds me of home. I was on a table just like that." Lodia was looking at the table Miku is strapped down to. For her to say she was on a table like that has to mean she isn't actually human.

"Just who are you?"

"I guess I can drop the act since you seem to have as well," Lodia spoke, "like her, my 'who' statues was removed. Now I'm a 'what'." She said referring to Miku.

"You're an android?" Nathen was in disbelief. He was told KP's people weren't creating androids yet. They had other projects they were building.

"But how? You're from River City, they aren't making you yet."

"K Pim isn't creating me yet. I was created illegally by some other doctors that do undercover work, so keep quiet," Lodia brought her fingers to her lips, "They don't know I escape- oops, I mean left for a little while."

"What do you want?" Nathen studied her. Now that he knows she isn't just an ordinary girl, she could only be here with a purpose.

"Nothing really. Just seeing the world from a new perspective. You should really talk with my owner, he could help you with this one. She doesn't look too stable. But who's to say I'm that much better. We're both just test dummies."

"You're still a prototype?" Tom said the words Nathen was thinking. She walked and talked perfectly. How is she not the real deal?

"He was supposed to do more test on me after I accidentally destroyed fifth street. But he'll have to wait until I go back."

"How did you find our location?" Tom asked.

"Oh, so it was supposed to be a secret? I don't know how K Pim hasn't found it yet. Whoopsie!" Lodia leaned over after a shot from Nathen's gun went passed her.

"Nathen! What was that for? You know you can't shoot that down here!" Tom shouted.

"This girl is no ordinary android. Not only has she found our base, she nearly destroyed half of River City and she escaped the lab she was in without problem. Your creator's name is Grey I'm sure of it. His lab had been under investigation for years. You're one of those forbidden types. I won't take you so lightly."

"I see you've done your research. Good job." She clapped her hands. Nathen doesn't know what she wants or what she plans to do, but now seems to be as good of time as any to see how far he's gotten with Miku.

"What do you plan to do?" Tom asked as he watched him go to the table Miku was on and grabbed the switch. He pressed a button on the side of the metal table that released Miku's arms, legs, and neck. The computer connecting to Miku was still showing the brain waves and her functions. He put in the code that turned the sceen. He looked back to the table to see Miku's eyes open.

"Does this mean I get to play with someone?" Miku quickly turned to Nathen and asked. He nodded while turning the switch dial to seven and watched her eyes change.

"You see her over there? You can play with her." Miku turned to Lodia and back to him.

"Is she like me?" She asked.

"Yes, so you can play as roughly as you want."

"Don't you think it's a bit dangerous to be 'playing' down here?" Tom asked.

"Yes, that's why..." Nathen turned to press a button on the computer desk.

"They'll be playing in here." The computer monitor that was displaying Miku's brain changed again revealing a window to an empty white room.

"In here, you can play as much as you want." A door opened on the far wall.

"I take it this is your way of challenging me?" Lodia asked.

"Are you up for it? I've been working with Miku day and night. Her stability has improved greatly."

"Fine. I've got nothing better to do. Don't go looking at me if your place gets destroyed." Lodia walked through the door that lead to the hidden room. Miku followed behind. Once they were both in, the door closed shut.

"Are you certain this is safe to try?" Tom asked again.

"I don't expect a serious or long fight. Just enough to gather data on that one." Nathen explained to him as he created a new file for Lodia. The cameras in the room gathered her body detail and showed it on his screen. He looked out to them. Lodia looked as if she wasn't impressed, but Miku is far stronger than she thinks.

"Miku," Nathen said through the inner come, "attack."

Miku quickly reacted to the command. Her eyes rolled up and faced her target.

"Glitch number one. That disturbing eye thing." Lodia raised an eyebrow and upper lip in disgust. Nathen did his best not to say anything and just watched.

Miku launched forward toward Lodia. It was obvious she didn't think she was that fast. Lodia didn't have time to react before being thrown against the ground from Miku's launch. The whole room shook from the strong impact.  Lodia was pinned under Miku as she pulled her arm back.

"Glitch number 2. She hasn't had much combat training, has she?" Lodia asked as she slid through Miku's legs just as she launched her fist forward. Her hand hit the ground, getting stuck in the concrete floor.

"What now?!" Tom asked. Nathen put his hand up telling him to wait. Miku isn't done yet.

Miku's head turned to Lodia, making her eyes glow red, powering up. With being at a level 7, power up time was faster than the first time. She shot towards her.

"Fast!" Lodia said as she bent backwards in attempt to doge. The shot grazed her shoulder as she narrowly misses.

"Her reflexes are great I'll give her that." Nathen said.

"Not bad. But I really should be going." Lodia stood and said, "here's something to jot down." She extended her hand toward Miku. The palm of her hand opened up, revealing a metal surface. The silver quickly turned red and shot multiple fires to Miku. She was hit head on from this sudden attack. The force of the it threw her back against the wall. The impact was much stronger than Miku's hit almost breaking through to the other side.

"Oopsie, got carried away." Lodia said. Miku was crushed into the wall with laser wounds in her head, chest, and arms.

"That's another twenty hours of work." Tom said. Nathen didn't know what to say to this power change.

"She's good," Lodia said to him, "for amateur work." She walked out the room.

"I won't tell Carly if she doesn't know, but if you want to keep your secret, you might want this to help that arm of yours." She tossed Nathen a tube of a green liquid. It was like the medicine he just ran out of.

"That generic stuff you got will kill you if you rely on that. This is straight from the source. Welcome." Lodia headed up the stairs and out the door.

"Oh, before I go. That remote is malfunctioning and sending out a massive wave of signals causing those who are effected by it to have problems. You will need to reboot it to get it to work again, otherwise everyone will end up brian damaged with the continuous interferences." She exited the room. Nathen looked back to the tube she handed handed him. The color was much darker than what he had. It was already clear this was more powerful than what he was using.

"Start the rebooting process," Nathen said still looking at the tube, "it'll take twenty four hours to reset. I'll have to work on Miku in that time." He looked into the room. Miku hasn't moved. Sparks shot from the left arm. This was going to be more than twenty  hours of work with his limited supplies.

"You think we should send her back?" Tom suggested. Even if he wanted to, they wouldn't want to take her back after what he put them through.

"We'll see in twenty four hours ."