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HOPE, LAST YEAR'S MODEL, Ch. 1, 2

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                                                  CHAPTER 1
                                                  Awakening

"Mom, what's wrong with you?" a teenage girl's voice demanded from behind.

Doctor Amanda Evans was considered something of a rogue in her field, a robotics genius with an eccentric flair that had most of her colleagues scoffing at her.  Only about five foot six, she wore her hair short and manageable, hair that had gone white when she was not even twenty.  She was not quite forty and had given up trying to color it, instead just keeping it snow white and short atop her head and wearing it proudly as a badge of her hard work and everything she had gone through.  This day she still wore her white lab coat, one with pens and small instruments in the one breast pocket and a few tools nestled in the other two that clanked as she walked down the steps and into the basement.  Not thin nor especially plump, she found herself somewhere between the two and had always fussed about her oversized backside, though trying to cover it up was something she had abandoned some time ago.

Watching the concrete steps that she descended through her thick rimmed glasses, she was quiet even as she heard the heavy steps of the complaining teenage voice behind her.  This day, her heart was heavy anew and she did not look back as they neared the door at the bottom of the narrow corridor.

"You're scaring me," the girl informed.  "Mom, just tell me what's wrong!"

Reaching the heavy steel door, Doctor Evans punched in her access code on the keypad to the right of the door and it slid open.  Before she could enter, a powerful hand grasped her shoulder and stopped her.

"Since when do you allow me into the lab?" the girl barked.  "Mom, what's this about?"
Doctor Evans patted the cold fingers and finally managed to say, "All of your answers are in here, Hope.  Just follow me."

They entered and the lights came on automatically.

In the center of the big room, Doctor Evans stopped and just stared at the floor, and she was silent as the girl stopped behind her.  For a moment, she could not speak again, but finally managed, "This is where you came from."

"You said I was born at Memorial Hospital," the girl corrected.

Shaking her head, the Doctor informed, "No, sweetheart.  You came from this room."  She drew a deep breath and closed her eyes.  "This will not be easy for you to hear, but you are not…  You aren't…"

"Okay, now you're really scaring me," the girl informed with a shaky voice.

"You don't need to be afraid, Hope," Doctor Evans assured.  "You don't have to be afraid of anything, not monsters in your closet, not spiders, not the creepy people I always warned you about…  Not even the cancer that… that was killing you."

The girl took a step back and breathed, "What?"

Half turning, Doctor Evans looked up at the robot behind her and pointed across the room to where a full length mirror was against the wall.  "It is best that you see for yourself."

Hope looked toward the mirror, and approached with hesitant steps.  When she saw what looked back at her, she shrieked and raised a hand to her mouth, a mechanical mouth!  She was naked—and metal.  Maroon paint accented her around the chest and hips and the articulated plates that made up her midriff were silver.  At six feet tall, she still was slender for what she was and still had the curves of a girl, but her forearms were disproportionately large.  Her hands looked normal and were coated in some kind of black rubber.  Her legs were built much as her arms were with her lower legs actually being larger than her upper legs and her feet were much larger than she would have liked.  Her eyes were big and amber around what looked like the shutters of cameras that dilated as she saw herself like this for the first time.  Reaching to her face, she touched the rubbery covering there, a coating that was light pink.  Two maroon ridges ran over her head from right above her eyebrows all the way back.  Her neck was also articulated metal, almost skeletal and about the length a girl's would be.

Touching her body, she turned slightly and noticed that this was the form of a mechanical girl, and fairly accurate.  The maroon around her chest and metal hips gave one the impression that she was wearing something, almost like a bathing suit, but it was still just paint.  Similar paint covered the heavy plates of her forearms and lower legs, and the thin plate over her shoulders.

Slowly shaking her head, the robot breathed, "This isn't happening."

"I'll tell you everything you want to know when you are ready," Doctor Evans said as she approached with hesitant steps.  "You were not supposed to find out this way, but—"

"What did you do to me?" Hope demanded as she wheeled around.  "I'm a monster!  You've turned me into a monster!  How could you do this to me?"

Doctor Evans watched as the robot who thought she was a girl darted from the room and she heard her crying as she bounded up the stairs.  Fighting back her own tears, she slowly followed.  She knew where the girl would go, knew that she would retreat to her own room, a place where she would find comfort.

Upstairs, she saw the door to Hope's room ajar.  That door had not been opened for years, and entering would bring back all kinds of painful memories.  She pushed the door open fully and peered in.

Right across the room with the headboard between the two windows was the twin bed that still had the white and pink comforter covering it.  The headboard itself was made of an arch of white tubing connected by a web of thinner white tubing that ran vertically and disappeared behind the mattress.  To the right was the girl's neatly organized desk and a small table.  To the left was a dresser and vanity, and beyond them the closet door that sat closed.  The walls were white and still had pictures of unicorns, kittens, and some rock star hanging on them.

And there, on the bed hugging a huge white teddy bear was the robot.  With her chin resting on the teddy bear's head, she stared with wide eyes across the room.  Once in a while, and purely by human reflex, she would blink, her thin eyelids closing over the lenses that covered her eyes, and each time this happened, the lenses were cleaned.  Aware that Doctor Evans was standing just inside the door, Hope's eyes slid that way and she hugged the teddy bear a little tighter.

The Doctor stopped about halfway to the bed, staring at the robot with pity in her eyes, and finally she turned her gaze to the floor.  With a slow shake of her head, she informed, "You were not supposed to become self-aware, not yet.  You weren't ready."

"I'm not a robot!" the girl insisted, looking back to the floor across the room.  "I'm not!  I'm a normal girl.  I'm…"  Robotic eyes danced about as memories began to emerge.

"Doing this was your idea," Doctor Evans informed.  When the robot's attention snapped to her, she raised her brow and continued, "We knew that sooner or later you would succumb to the cancer.  We knew we would..."  She closed her eyes to collect herself.  "We knew we would have to say good-bye.  You just could not bear the thought, so when it came time to program the robot's quadinary brain to give it some kind of personality, you insisted on being the subject it would draw from."

Ever so slowly, the robot raised her head and finally turned her full attention to the Doctor.  "I was really sick, wasn't I?"

"Yes, you were," Doctor Evans said just over a whisper, her eyes closing again.  "We did the transfer from your cerebellum to the robot's in four stages, and on the last, you…"  She bowed her head and reached for her eyes, pushing her glasses up as a broken gasp shook her body.

Hope hesitantly stood and, still clutching the teddy bear, she approached Doctor Evans, stopping a couple of feet away.  "I died during the last transfer, didn't I?"

Unable to speak, Doctor Evans just nodded.

Watching her mother weep, Hope felt in her heart, in every particle of her being, and what she felt was the raw emotion that she knew would come at that time.  Memories continued to surface, but in this moment, so did emotions.  Gently taking her mother's arm, she just as gently pulled the shorter woman to her and, still holding the teddy bear, she hugged the Doctor in a firm but policed embrace.

"I'm sorry, Hope," the Doctor sobbed.  "I'm sorry.  It was so hard to let you go.  You were so weak, so tired that last day, and I transferred your entire consciousness into the quadinary cerebellum, and you didn't survive it."  She pulled away and fled the room, leaving the robot standing in the middle of the room to stare after her.

                                                    CHAPTER 2
                                                     Purpose

Hope slammed the metal front door of their big house and stormed down the walkway toward the sidewalk, her mind scrambling and her thoughts too disorganized to bring order to.  Stopping at the sidewalk, she heard a beeping sound, but only in her head.  Her brain, her robot brain, was trying to tell her something.  It was a recall order and she felt compelled to return to the house, to the lab in the basement.  Half turning, she looked back at the stone encased, two story house, the shuttered windows and the metal roof, the two stone chimneys that reached up past the roof peak.  She had to go back inside, but she did not want to, did not want to face her mother.

Next door, a little girl screamed and this drew her attention to the house that sat to the right of where she lived, past the attached garage as a girl who held some kind of plastic gun ran from between the houses and screamed again.  About ten years old, she was wet and wearing a red, one piece bathing suit.  Her black hair was long and clung to her back and shoulders as she ran.  As she smiled and looked over her shoulder, Hope could see that she was wearing braces over her teeth.  She knew this girl, recognized her in an instant, but something was amiss.  The girl she knew was not that old, only about seven years.

Running behind her in long red shorts was a boy who looked to be about fifteen.  Sandy brown hair was very short and flat against his head as it was also wet.  He was a thin lad and was also carrying a plastic gun, this one lime green, with a big purple bottle on the top, and his gun was spraying long streams of water at the fleeing girl.

Hope watched as the girl dodged behind a tree and took aim at the boy, both laughing as they shot water at each other, and Hope was not aware that she was smiling.  She knew them both, considered them to be her dearest friends, and the urge to go and greet them was overwhelming.

Striding toward them, she raised her hand toward them and bade, "Hey, guys!"

They looked to her and froze, staring back with wide eyes.

Hope stopped halfway there, seeing the horrified looks they gave her, and her heart sank.  Distress was in her eyes as she looked from one to the other, and sadness took her robotic face.  "Guys, it's me," she assured, placing a hand on her chest.  "It's Hope."  When the girl circled around the tree, seemingly to hide, Hope looked to her and begged, "Penny, don't be afraid of me, please."

"It knows your name," the boy said in a low voice, his attention still locked on the robot before him.

Backing away a step, Hope shook her head and whimpered, "But it's me.  It's Hope.  Chase, don't you…"  She looked down at herself, at her robotic body, and her heart broke further.  "I guess you wouldn't recognize me, would you?"

Daring to step closer to her, Chase kept his water gun held ready as he studied the robot, then he raised his chin and announced, "I know that voice."

Slowly, Hope turned her gaze back to him and informed, "We've known each other since we were little kids.  We grew up together.  We used to all play together."

"Chase!" Penny declared as she stepped around the tree.  "Do you know who this is?  This is the GDR-8, the Global Defense Robot that's been fighting off the Hive robots for the last two years!"

Drawing her head back as the girl approached her, Hope asked, "Two years?  And what's the Hive?"

"You don't know about the Hive?" Penny questioned.  "You've been fighting them for two years and kicking their butts!"

"Maybe this one's new," Chase guessed, looking the robot over again.

Hope looked to Chase and demanded, "What's going on?  Two years?  How long was I…  Chase, tell me what happened!"

He approached to about ten feet away and leaned his head, his eyes narrow as he asked, "You really think you're Hope?"

Looking away from him, she folded her arms and grumbled, "I guess I don't look the same, do I?"

Chase informed, "Hope died three years ago."

Turning her eyes down, Hope nodded and confirmed, "Yeah, I heard."  She looked back to him.  "I had cancer or something.  Mom and I wanted to give some robot brain my personality or something like that and we spent the last few days of…"  Her eye widened.
So did Chase's, and Penny's.

"I died during the last download," the robot mumbled absently.  Her eyes darted about again, then turned to Penny as the girl giggled.

Pointing to Hope, Penny looked to her brother and observed, "Hope used to stand like that with her arms all folded when something made her mad, and she wouldn't look at you, remember?  She always did that!"

Hope and Chase locked their gazes on one another.

And Chase smiled, resting his water gun over his shoulder as he observed, "It looks like you've been successfully transferred into a robot body, Hope.  Looks good."

A little smile curled Hope's robotic mouth and she timidly said, "Really?"

Raising his brow, Chase looked her up and down again and nodded, adding, "We need to do something with the paint scheme, but you look good."

"This is so cool!" Penny declared with a more noticeable lisp.  "GDR-8's our neighbor and she's been our friend all this time!  And she's a girl!"

"So," Chase started as he slowly strode forward, "what's it like to wake up after three years and realize you're a super hero?"

"I'm a super hero?" Hope questioned as she drew her head back again.

A thump in the distance drew their attention and they all looked down the street behind Hope.  Another followed, sounding like far away thunder, and the robot turned fully, lowering her arms to her sides.

The door to her house burst open and Doctor Evans ran toward the robot, shouting, "GDR-8!  There is a Hive robot attacking the DRI facility at the edge of town!"

A nervous crawl started in the robot's belly and she looked to her mother, shakily asking, "What do you want me to do?"

"Go get it!" Chase barked.  When she turned and just looked to him, he rubbed his eyes and reminded, "You're a superhero robot, Hope.  We're all counting on you."

Penny added, "It's not like you've never kicked a Hive robot's butt before!"

"I haven't!" Hope barked.  "Have I?"

"I was afraid of this," Doctor Evans said.  "Your personality traits have completely overridden your combat programming."  Another thump in the distance drew her attention and she looked that way, then back up to the robot girl.  "Hope, do you think you can tap into your battle systems?"

Drawing her head back again, Hope asked, "I have battle systems?"

Chase rubbed his eyes and grumbled, "We're doomed."

Doctor Evans grabbed onto the robot's shoulders and said, "You have to find the subsystems inside of you and turn them on!  We don't have much time!"

A series of thumps in the distance drew everyone's attention again, and this time billows of black smoke began to rise.

With her attention toward the distant battle, Hope desperately cried, "I don't know how!"

"Close your eyes," the Doctor ordered.  When Hope complied, she turned the robot girl around and reached to the back of her head.  An armored panel opened to reveal the girl's quadinary brain.  Flashing lights were in there, but only on one side.  Working quickly, Doctor Evans sighed loudly and impatiently, grumbling, "Why won't this reactivate?"
"What are you doing?" Hope asked nervously, her wide eyes cutting to one side.

"I am trying to get your combat systems back online," the Doctor replied.  "The girl you are is not supposed to be alert and aware during battle.  You are supposed to operate only off of your programming."

"Can't the army handle what's going on over there?" the robot girl asked nervously.  "I don't think I'm ready for anything like this."

"You have to be!" Doctor Evans cried.  "Be still.  I think I can…  Here we go!"  She threw a switch, then she closed the back panel and ordered, "GDR-8, respond."

"It's still me, Mom," the robot reported dryly.  "Wait a minute!" she suddenly declared as she stepped away from the doctor.  Looking down at her hands, she turned them over a few times, then she looked to her right forearm and two panels opened to allow a thin barreled weapon to emerge.  Looking to her other arm, she clenched her hand into a fist and spikes protruded from her knuckles.  Lenses slid down from her brow and in front of her eyes, heavy lenses that seemed to be clear, armored protection for her eyes.  "I've got this," she breathed.  "I have all kinds of stuff!"  Looking over her shoulder, panels about half the length of her back opened toward each other and two small jets emerged, and she smiled.  "I can fly, too!  This is totally awesome!"

Another series of thumps sounded and the robot girl spun around, locking her eyes toward the horizon as more smoke billowed upward.  "You guys sit tight," she ordered.  "I'm going to go kick some butt!"

Her jets whined to life and fire emerged from them, and in an instant she was airborne.
Gaining altitude, she flew as fast as she could toward the besieged complex and directed both fists in front of her.  Her eyes narrowed as she saw the cause of the problem, and she discovered she was able to refocus her eyes and zoom in on the menace that was attacking.  It was as big as a city bus and propelled by six thick mechanical legs that were mounted in its sides.  A triangular head was at the front and panned back and forth, firing lasers and other weapons from below and directing other weapons that fired from its back and from turrets between its legs.  Dark gray in color, it looked like it was heavily armored, and security forces, police and what appeared to be soldiers were retreating from it, firing their weapons in vain.  Nothing they shot at it had any effect and everything seemed to simply bounce off, and did not even slow the attacking armored monster as it relentlessly closed on the buildings of the DRI complex.  Hope did not even know what DRI was, but for something like this to be attacking it, it had to be important.

Directing her path downward and her fists right at the assailant, her eyes narrowed and she focused on bringing her weapons to bear on the attacking thing before it could draw any closer.  That first weapon she had deployed emerged from her arm and she fired a barrage that slammed into its back with sharp bursts of light and fire.  As she drew closer, she kept firing at it, and did not realize it had locked its weapons on her until it was too late.  Laser fire and some kind of plasma weapons slammed into her and hit her over and over and she shouted in surprise as she tried to shield herself with her arms.  In a moment she was falling from the sky and did not react quickly enough to even control her crash.

Hope slammed into the ground somewhere beyond the giant attacking bug and rolled another fifty feet or so before she stopped in a cloud of dust and smoke, coming to rest sprawled on her back.  For a moment she just lay where she was, even as she heard the sounds of the battle resume.  Slow to sit up, she raised a hand to her head as smoke rose from her from several blast points, and she struggled to get her wits about her.  Her robot sensors reported slight damage from many places, but her human thought processes interpreted this data as soreness.  Internal systems were scrambling to make repairs to compromised systems and she could feel all of her systems quickly recharging.  Shaking her head, dirt and grass cascaded from her and she looked down to find her body blackened by the hits, but her armor not breached.

Hope turned her narrow eyes to the attacker that was only a hundred yards away and she stood brushing herself off as she snarled, "Okay, pal.  I guess round one goes to you."  A quick inventory of the weapons revealed that her left arm was packing something far more powerful and she raised that arm and took careful aim at one of the gun turrets between its legs.  This weapon was bigger and the barrel was a much larger bore, ending in black rings around the end of the barrel.  A glow from between the rings lit up as she powered the weapon, and when she felt it was at full charge, she fired and stepped back into the recoil.

This time, the results were different and the blast destroyed the weapon turret she aimed at in a powerful explosion that made the attacking robot lurch over and stumble.  Fire and smoke belched from the hole left behind and for a moment the machine was still.

"Yeah!" Hope shouted.  "Take that!"  Her eyes widened as it began to turn—toward her!  "Uh, oh," she mumbled as she backed away a few steps.  Raising that left arm again, she realized that much of her power was now very low, though she felt something in her chest working hard to restore everything to full.  "Guess I can't use that too often," she said to herself.  She aimed with her other weapon, firing in rapid bursts and pelting the big robot all over, but as before she was doing little to it with this weapon.
The alien fired again, and once again she was slow to react and took the impact square to the chest.  Blown from her feet, she barked a scream as she was knocked back another thirty feet or more where she impacted the ground rather hard and slid to a stop.  Sitting up slowly again, she looked toward the big robot, and gasped as she saw it taking aim at her again.  This time, she rolled out of the way, thwarting its aim just as it fired.  Simply by reflex, she deployed her jets and took to the air, narrowly avoiding another burst from its weapons.

"Okay," she said as she turned hard to avoid another barrage, "time for a new plan."  She could feel the jets drawing power, and this slowed the recharging of her bigger weapon.  "Think, Hope, think!"

Looking back down at the alien robot, she first noticed that it was turning its damaged side away from her, and her eyes narrowed.  Knowing it would take a little more time for her big weapon to charge, she turned hard and dodged to and fro as her opponent fired at her with every weapon it could bring to bear on her.  She nimbly avoided everything fired at her and swept in around the alien's damaged side, then she turned and took careful aim with her right hand gun, firing into the burning hole that was left.

New explosions rocked the inside of the robot and the withering fire it was sending at her stopped, and the whole robot shuddered.  A massive explosion from within engulfed the back end of the alien robot, opening its hull more and blowing the back leg off of that side.  With five more still holding it up, the robot turned with speed it did not seem like it should possess and fired on her again.

Hope dodged away as it fired on her with everything it had and she swept fast toward the ground, then back up, then she turned hard the other way, continually thwarting the alien's aim on her.

It stopped firing.

Also stopping, Hope hovered for a moment, looking down at the big, burning machine.  It was not moving at all, and waiting.  Slowly, she descended, and in a moment she gently touched down in front of it and about twenty yards away.  Keeping her weapons at the ready, she watched as the invader just stood there.  With her big weapon now fully charged again, she was confident that she could hold her own against it.

With groans and creaks, the big machine settled to the ground.  Its head lifted up and a ramp lowered from the front of it to reveal a blinding white light from within.
Hope held herself ready, her eyes narrowing as she watched a shadow darken the light that was cast from within the alien beast.

It walked upright, but on four legs and strode with a menacing purpose toward the maroon and silver robot that faced it.  A little over six feet tall, it was mostly yellow with black joints and big eyes.  It was built like an insect, and at the same time like a machine.  Its arms were almost human like, think in the forearms like Hope's and clearly it was armed, though not walking in a threatening way.

Raising her chin, Hope stood ready and demanded, "What do you want?"

The other robot also raised the chin of its triangular head, its big eyes locked on the robot girl as it replied, "So, it would seem you can talk after all."

Hope could not tell if it was male or female and was not interested in venturing a guess.  Narrowing her eyes, she had a little snarl on her face as she informed, "Yeah, I can talk.  I can also kick Hive butt, and I think it's time for you to get back on your bug bus over there and leave."

"Oh," it drawled, "must we be so rude and uncivil?  I thought, perhaps, we could talk for a moment."

"Okay," Hope accepted.  "You can start by telling me why you keep attacking us."

"Us?" the alien countered.  "You mean the flesh people, and it is an easy question to answer.  This world is to be the next of our conquests, and this world and its inhabitants added to the Hive."  It leaned its head.  "You, however, are not one of them.  You are one of us, a perfect, mechanical being.  We just weren't sure if you were a person or just another one of their toys.  It would seem that you are worthy to be one of us, and not a subject."

"What if we don't want to be part of this Hive?" Hope demanded.  "What then?"

"Then," the alien robot replied, "we take over by force.  Be assured, GDR-8, that the attacks the last couple of years have only been probing strikes.  When the real invasion comes, not even you will be able to stand against us.  Also be assured that you have not seen the best that we have to offer, not by far."

Her eyes narrowed again and she challenged, "Then bring 'em on."

"In time," it warned, "Today, I have been sent with an invitation from the Hive Queen.  You are worthy of us, and I am sure it can be arranged for you to rule this world once we take over."  It raised its head.  "So what do you say, GDR-8?  Would you like to rule this world as one of the Hive?"

Hope's eyes shifted to the big attack robot behind the emissary she spoke with, into the bright light within, and she asked, "Would you move over to the right a couple of steps?"
Hesitantly, it complied, but it looked perplexed.

"Thanks," she offered politely, then she raised her left arm and fired her plasma cannon right into the gaping maw of the bus sized attack robot.

The attack robot exploded into thousands of bits and large chunks of its plate armor and legs were blasted in every direction, and the emissary was thrown to the ground.

As the fireball rolled upward and darkened to black smoke, the emissary uncovered its head and looked over its shoulder, then it scrambled to its feet and backed away from the girl robot who now had her eyes on it.

Hope smiled, then she raised the barrel of the weapon to her face and gently blew over the muzzle of the barrel.  "Well, now," she chided.  "I sure hope you have another ride home.  You do, don't you?"  When it nodded, she continued, "That's good.  Now go and tell your Hive Queen that this world is off limits.  Tell her I'll never join your stupid Hive and I'm going to kick the butt of every invader that comes here.  You got that?"

Its eyes narrowing, the emissary held an arm out to its side, opened its hand and fired a bright light from its palm.  This opened a rift of light, a doorway to its waiting, orbiting ship and it turned to walk through it, pausing to look back at her and warn, "This isn't over, GDR-8."

She folded her arms, raising her chin as she corrected, "The name is Hope."  She watched it disappear into the rift, then watched as the rift collapsed into nothing.  Looking back at the burning wreckage of the attack robot, she suddenly felt a certain sense of pride in a way she had never felt before.  For the first time in her memory, she had won the game, won the day, and a little smile curled her mouth as she set her hands on her hips.

"Superhero," she said to herself.  "I think I can live with that."

**

Though well lit, the lab downstairs in the basement was not a cheerful place.
Doctor Evans sat in a chair behind her desk as she stared down at the unfinished paperwork and reports in front of her.  The desk was rather messy, cluttered with neglected work.  The door still stood open.  She only rarely bothered to close it while she worked these days and she was too lost in her thoughts to even think about it.
Movement at the door drew her attention and her eyes slid that way to see the robot peer in and focus on her.

Hope entered timidly, her eyes on the Doctor, and finally she looked around her and strode casually to the work bench across the room.

Doctor Evans watched the robot as she folded her hands behind her and studied the parts and gadgets on the bench.  Her feelings were a whirlwind and words could not be found.
Leaning her head, Hope picked up an unfinished robotic arm and looked it over.  It was a raw piece with exposed wires and hoses, chrome plated metal bones beneath and hydraulic pistons that operated the various movements of it.  As she studied the arm she hesitantly started, "So, um… So I have a few spare parts down here."

The Doctor turned her eyes back to her desk.  "That one is a work in process, something of an upgrade.  It will have a few features your current arm does not."

With a nod, the robot put the arm back down and picked up something else, something small.  "So what is this?"

"It's an actuator," the doctor replied.

"Do I have any of these?" Hope asked.

"You have thirty-four of them," was Doctor Evans' reply.

"Cool," the girl mumbled.  She set this down as well and picked up something else, looking it over as she said, "I got a lot of my memories back.  Not all of them were pleasant."  She set the instrument down and turned toward the Doctor, leaning back against the work bench as she grasped the edge of it with both hands.  "My cancer was really bad and I didn't always tell you when it hurt.  The medicine did not always help and I didn't want you to worry any more than you were already."  She looked to the floor.  "I really hate that you had to go through all of that with me.  I wish I hadn't been sick and we could have just…  Well, you know."

"Yes," Doctor Evans confirmed.  "I know."

"Mom," the robot summoned.  When the doctor looked to her, she raised her head and assured, "I don't hurt anymore.  There's no more pain and I don't feel sick all the time."  A little smile curled her mechanical mouth.  "This is the best I've felt in, like, forever!  And I won't ever get sick again.  Mom, it worked!  You cured me!"

"In a way, I suppose," Doctor Evans agreed.

"I'm still your little girl," the robot insisted, "just way taller and I'm kind of a robot now.  So, on that note, have you figured out how to make me look, well, more like I used to?  Oh, and I'd like some upgrades for fighting bad guys.  I have a few ideas.  I kicked butt out there, by the way.  It was awesome!  This big alien robot thingy was all shooting at people and they couldn't stop it, and then I came flying in and it was all shooting at me then…  Are you listening?  I'm telling you about some really awesome stuff!"  She folded her arms and a smug little smile curled her robotic mouth.  "And you said all those video games I played would never amount to anything."

"I'm glad to see it wasn't all wasted time," Doctor Evans said absently, still staring down at her desk.

Something was bothering her mother and Hope did not want to say something to make it worse.  She stared at the floor for a moment, then she looked back to the Doctor and asked, "So, is it okay if I go out and play with Chase and Penny?"

Doctor Evans' eyes snapped to the robot girl.

"And we should also talk about me going back to school," Hope continued.  "I've wanted to go back since I got sick and I think I can handle it now.  What grade am I in now, anyway?"

Finally, a little smile curled the Doctor's mouth.  "I guess my little girl has truly returned."
Being released in June for the Texas Comicon in San Antonio, I give you Hope, Last Year's Model, a story about the adventures of a girl robot, and the boy robot she hates. Enjoy, and let me know what you think

The cover artwork is by :iconxchess88:

Here she is on Kindle: [link] And here on Nook: [link]
© 2013 - 2024 Brawrloxoss
Comments5
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Unit-ZER0's avatar
Welp, just finished the first couple chapters, and here's my verdict so far: It's got potential. The story is a unique one, and the overall structure, the concept of a combat robot trying to reconnect to it's previous life as a human girl is a good one. I have to take issue with some of the structuring though. First, the use of excess verbiage detracts from the story's flow. there are several instances where twelve or fifteen words are used where five would suffice. Second, the treatment of Hope's mechanical systems as human. She has optics, not eyes. (It's a minor gripe, but it is off-putting) Third, the excessively detailed descriptions of some things, and the utter lack of description in others. (The descriptions of Hope's childhood friends are somewhat needlessly detailed, but the descriptions of her weapons systems and other equipment are somewhat vague, and this is supposed to be a SciFi novel...) Fourth, the pacing works, but again, falters from the verbiage. and Fifth, the dialogue. Descriptive details are added after a spoken bit, not before, at least, not often. Also, the choice of describing the emotional content of some of the lines was... jarring (Nobody "barks" in confusion. Frustration, maybe, but not confusion) All in all, what this needs is a thorough editing, to check for continuity, flow, and to make the wording more concise. That having been said, it is a good story, and I will read on with interest.