A Rainy Night in 2061 (Complete Story)
Coraline stared around at the meeting of various Pod Pal and Meta-Frames, including three ponies, a video game character, and a plain-clothes human whose name she did not know. She assumed the last person was the group organizer for Robots, Augments and Meta-Frames. She was the only other person who wasn’t a robot or wearing a suit. Besides her seven-year-old son of course. He shifted uncomfortably in the seat next to her and stared around at all the suits. He was told not to make them uncomfortable before he went in, so he did his best to be quiet.
The human organizer looked out the window of the quiet upper-class suburban home. He stared at the downpour and sighed. “The weather’s just too nasty out there right now. I think it’s just us tonight, guys.”
Coraline eyed the interior of the home and thought about how much more beautiful it was than her own. The furniture was soft and inviting with couches and recliners in earth brown tones. Small lamps illuminated the corners of the room with lampshades accented in small dangling crystals. Photographs lined the wall from door all the way to the kitchen. When she looked closer, there were the same lilac and mint green ponies in almost every frame. She noticed there happened to be more photo of the winged lilac pony than there were of the mint green one.
In the kitchen she saw the Princess, Twilight Sparkle, gathering two trays full of finger foods together. She walked over and set them down. Coraline smirked at the mostly-white cooking apron Twilight was wearing with a saying etched across the front in binary. She didn’t know what it said, but she was sure it was a joke meant for the robots in the group.
Coraline and her son Armin reached for the trays of food and noticed two distinctly different plates. One was metallic with small gray cubes and the other held carrots and fresh vegetables on a golden platter. “What are those cubes?” Coraline asked.
“Easily digestible nutrition packs. We can all eat them, but they’re meant for the Pod Pals, because solid foods are harder for us to break down into useful components without stomach acids and an intestinal tract,” Twilight said as she placed her apron back on the rung in the kitchen. She sat down next to the mint green unicorn, Lyra Heartstrings, and leaned on her shoulder.
Coraline saw a gray pony in a moss-green one-piece dress sitting in the corner reading a book. Her mane and tail were purple and her expression was rather neutral as she read. Coraline looked over at the only non-pony. Her body was covered in what looked like a long white dress with two white legs underneath. Her arms were forest green and ended in three fingers each. Coraline couldn’t tell if she had green hair styled into a crescent moon shape over her face and behind her neck or if it was some sort of helmet. She could only see one of her eyes underneath, and it was red and very expressive for its size. She was about to ask her son the character’s name when Armin spoke directly to them.
“Hey, what’s your name?” He asked. Coraline felt a little embarrassed. “What’s that red thing on your chest?”
The being was about to answer the first question when she looked down at a red fin shape jutting out of her chest. “I don’t know. It gets in the way a lot.”
Coraline apologized for her son. “I’m sorry. My name is Coraline. This is my son Armin,” She stood up, approached the female character and held out her metallic left hand as the being switched from her right to her left for the handshake.
“I’m Gardevoir, I mean…I’m Stacey.” She smiled. It was charming and sweet. When she turned her head, Coraline could see another red cartoonish eye on the opposite side of the helmet hair shape. “Who’s this?”
“Armin!” he said a little louder than usual.
“Nice to meet you, Armin,” Stacey said.
“Gardevoir, huh?” Lyra Heartstrings said from her seat. “I was trying to figure out the name. But there are like two thousand Pokemon now, so I couldn’t remember.” She smiled. “Are you a Pod Pal, Stacey?”
“Um, no. I’m a human. This is a suit,” she said, gesturing to her Meta-Frame. “I wish I was a Pod Pal though.”
“Oh. I wouldn’t recommend it,” Lyra said. “It’s not as fun as you think it is.”
Stacey the Gardevoir moved to say something more, but went silent.
The gray pony in the back looked up at the wall clock. Besides the usual circular face with the numbers one thru twelve, there were two glowing bars of light labeled from zero to one hundred. The green bar was near fifty percent and the lilac bar was around seventy five. Coraline deduced that this was the power charge recorded wirelessly for the two tenants of the home. Lyra could last for a few more days before recharging and Twilight almost a week.
The human at the window sighed, then looked back outside. “Um...Perhaps we should start with whoever we have.”
Coraline looked over at the human she thought was the group organizer. “So it’s just us seven?”
The human kept his eyes focused on something outside in the rain storm. “It’ll be eight when Chrys stops hesitating across the street at the bus stop.”
Coraline stood up and eyed the opposite side of the street. A black shape with a green carapace underbelly stood under the spotlight of the bus stop. She held a bag up to her chest to shield it from the rain. Her eyes were large and luminescent green with cat-like slit pupils. A jagged horn jutted from her forehead and her wings were light-blue gossamer with holes all over them. Her long blue hair dropped down over her face. She hid herself behind the mass of hair as she paced back and forth, stroking with her blue tail and hugging it to her chest.
“Does someone need to go get her?” Coraline asked.
"I was thinking that but..."The organizer suddenly looked nervous. His face was red. He moved to the door and stopped. He wasn’t staring at anything anyone could see. He finally turned the handle, opened the inner door and stared out the glass outer door. He saw the bug woman look at him as he gestured for her to come inside. She moved across the street and stood under the awning to the house, but didn’t move any further. The organizer nodded and left the inner door open.
“She’s letting her suit dry on the porch outside,” he said as he sat down. He appeared less nervous now. “Okay, we’re going to start. We can’t wait any longer. Let’s begin with introductions.”
“Done,” Stacey the Gardevoir said. She smiled.
“I haven’t,” Twilight said across the room. “I’m Twilight Sparkle. I went online five years ago in 2056. Um...oh sorry, next person?”
“Lyra Heartstrings,” the mint green unicorn said. “Online since 2060.”
They all turned to look at Maud. She was staring down at her moss-green dress. She rubbed the fabric, realized it was quiet and then looked up. “Hmm? Oh,” she said. Her voice was monotone, almost disinterested. “I’m Maud.” She then went back to reading her book.
Twilight spoke first. “When did you go online, Maud?”
“Hmm? Oh, never. I was human once,” she said. Her eyes kept focusing on what she was reading.
With the exception of Maud, they all turned to stare at Coraline. She felt a little tense, but turned to see Armin standing at the glass door, waving and gesturing to the bug woman outside. She looked scared but starting moving towards the entrance.
“Armin!” Coraline said as she stood to fetch her son. Armin kept his face pressed against the window and then opened the door. Chrysalis walked in.
“Oh…” the changeling Queen looked around. “Hello,” She was blushing. She looked down at Armin. “Thank you, sweetheart.” Chrysalis took her seat near Stacey as Coraline stood next to Armin, face down close to his.
“Armin, listen to me when I talk to you!” She said and clamped down on his arm with her metal hand.
“Ow!” Armin said as Coraline immediately loosened her grip. She stared at her robotic hand as Armin ran back to his seat.
In the moment Armin had yelped, Coraline saw something that no one else could. The ground was no longer carpet but concrete. She flexed her hand and saw it wholly organic again. There were people screaming nearby and rushing towards her. Armin had run off and she turned to find herself in a street full of running people. She stood up to prepare to run and instantly saw the interior of the suburban home again. Her face was flush with confusion and worry.
“Coraline?” the Gardevoir asked. Coraline blinked several times and refocused. She nodded. She sat down next to Armin, who was avoiding her gaze. Coraline noticed Armin had moved his seat closer towards Chrysalis and away from her. Her metal hand dug into the plush side of the seat.
The organizer stood in the middle of the group. “Now that we’re all here, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Leo Holdman. I am Director of Human and Robotic Relations at Technomancer Industries here in Austin. Let’s see, who here hasn’t introduced themselves? Well, we know Armin now.” He stood in front with his back turned to Chrysalis. She avoided looking at him, and everyone else, and didn’t introduce herself.
“Hello, I’m Armin,” Armin said.
Holdman motioned to Coraline. She hesitated, not expecting to introduce herself so soon. She stood up, even though she didn’t have to. “I’m Coraline. I’m Armin’s mother. This is my first time here. Um…” She stared at her metallic arm and flexed her fingers. “Don’t know what else to say. What do you want us to focus on?” She asked Holdman.
“Whatever is most important that you get off your chest,” he said.
“I…I’m not ready to share just yet. You mind if I sit back for a while?” Coraline said.
“No, of course. Let’s focus on someone else,” Holdman said as he sat down on a seat next to Coraline. No one raised their hand.
Lyra poked Twilight. The Princess sat up straight and moaned. “I’m not happy that I haven’t made any progress. What am I going to share? It’s been the same for almost a year,” she said. “It’s the same old thing.”
Holdman gestured to Coraline, Armin, Stacey and Maud. “You can reiterate for those who are new here. Maybe by sharing with them you can gain some new insight.”
“Well, I don’t want to be stuck in a learned feedback loop where I chose to do nothing, so it’s better I try, right?” Twilight said. She smiled a little as Lyra rubbed her arm. “For years, I was a trainer for other Pod Pals at Technomancer Industries satellite branch in San Antonio. I was really good at helping new Pod Pals learn how to work with their soon-to-be lifelong companions. But back in 2057, many of you remember we had that first combat-related death in the Middle East. One of the first Twilight Sparkle models commissioned went overseas with a US Marine, to serve as a translator and help with humanitarian efforts in the region. She…” She covered her face with her hands. “Lyra, please explain the rest. I need to focus on not regressing again.”
“Okay, sweetheart,” she said as she held Twilight’s hand. “During a training workshop at her work, they were covering the idea of working in foreign countries as an assistant to troops and peacekeepers. Part of the video demonstration displayed a news clip summarizing the deceased Twilight’s efforts in the Middle East. Well, for some stupid reason, the news anchors decided to show a video of the Pod Pal caught in the explosion.” Lyra gritted her teeth. She seemed very angry. “I don’t know if it was because the video was projected on a screen so big it looked as though the battlefield was right in front of Twilight here, or maybe because the sounds and video combination were so realistic that Twilight got confused…but whatever caused it, a glitch occurred in her system which mistakenly made her believe that she was under attack and had been caught in an explosion.”
Twilight spoke up. Her voice was shaky. “My creators never lab-tested what would happen if a Pod Pal witnessed another one of their own template die in front of them. How could they? Who could think there’d be a problem there?” She sniffled. Coraline couldn’t believe that these robotic beings could cry, but she continued watching anyways. Twilight spoke again. “For the past year since that workshop, I’ve been having what human sufferers call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder where I keep reliving that same scene over and over again. But I was never there! I know that for a fact, but my internal computer won’t accept it. Programmers and engineers haven’t been able to isolate the cause and repair me.”
Coraline wanted to say something but didn’t know what. Stacey the Gardevoir looked nervous and reached out but retracted her hand when she didn’t know what to do. Maud had stopped reading her book and kept her eyes down. Chrysalis looked weary, but attentive. Armin hadn’t taken his eyes off Twilight from the moment she started speaking. Holdman nodded and spoke.
“Twilight, has there been any progress on a solution at the labs?”
“No,” she said sadly and buried her face in Lyra’s arms. “I’m starting to wonder if they’ve forgotten about me. Or maybe they just don’t care.”
Holdman looked compassionate. “Twilight, I’ve worked at the labs in the past. When a problem comes up, they work on it right away. I’m sure they’re just swamped with other projects right now. But something like that has to be top priority.”
“Then you talk to them,” Twilight said through tears.
“I will. I promise,” Holdman said. “If they aren’t making progress, then I’ll go see them myself.” He waited. “Did you want to say anything more, Twilight?” She shook her head.
Coraline wanted to understand. She leaned forward. “Is there no way to overwrite whatever files are in your system that are affected by the glitch? I would think it’d be as simple as erasing something unpleasant and filling the gap with something nice.”
Lyra smirked. “Doesn’t work like that, ma’am. Robotic minds don’t function the way a user-controlled computer system does. Every memory, every experience is tied to the one before it and after it. And there are countless bits of association between thoughts and memories which make up the recalled information and allow it to be recaptured by the Pod Pal themselves, like recalling memories or imagining new ideas would be for you. These memories and events cannot be isolated in her head. Even if you could erase one thing, it would be like experiencing a blackout. The rest of the brain would suffer from the disconnect.”
Armin spoke up, surprising Coraline. “But what if Twilight sees videos of good things happening to other Twilights? Would that make her happy again?”
Twilight sat in silence for a minute. Lyra turned to her partner. “What do think, sweetheart?”
“I want to try it,” she said. “I’ll give that a shot.”
“Yeah,” Stacey the Gardevoir said. “Flood the system with good memories! There’s tons of videos of Pod Pals having fun online. We could show you all the good ones!”
For the first time that night, Twilight’s sadness disappeared. “Yeah…Thank you, Armin.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. “I’m pretty smart.”
Coraline sighed the good-natured motherly sigh when your child has just said something extremely confident and you have no idea where it came from. Everyone else laughed, save for Maud. She did nod though.
Twilight stood up. “I’m going to check on dinner. Everyone else please keep talking.”
“Do you need help?” Lyra asked.
“I’ve got it. Thank you,” she said as she walked to the kitchen and put on the apron again.
The Gardevoir girl raised her hand. “May I…go next?”
“Sure,” Holdman said. “How long have you been wearing that Meta-Frame?”
“Oh, for at least three years now,” she said and smiled before biting her lip. Coraline was astounded at the suits expressive capabilities. The Pokemon girl tried to keep a pleasant grin, but it seemed hard for her. “I actually got this suit as part of a…very interesting relationship I had with a previous partner of mine.” She looked down. “That’s why I’m here today, actually. I broke up with him about a year ago. But this suit is virtually permanent. I mean, I can take key components off. You could see my real face underneath if I wanted to remove the cover, but there are some parts I can’t take off since they’re attached to hardware set to my body.” She reached a green hand up to her face and stared at it. “It’s weird, to be in a totally different body for so long. Your mind gets used to it. Starts to feel wrong if you think about removing it. Even though I’ve had so many bad memories, the good ones are worth keeping. But that’s not the major issue I’m dealing with.”
She stood up and started pacing in front of the television. She wrung her hands in front of her. “I work as manager of sales at a local game store. I’m very good at what I do. I’m basically the store mascot who has sold more games, systems and accessories than anything else in the store’s twenty-year history. And I get paid really well. With the economy the way it is right now, it’s really hard to get a job, unless you want to go to the overseas markets. But I can’t afford to move. And I don’t want to leave my friends and family behind. It would be ignorant of me to think that this success isn’t due in part to the novelty of my appearance.” She gestured outward to show off her Pokemon suit. “People don’t know me as Stacey. They know me as the Gardevoir Girl. And the more I think about it, the more I’m happier with this new identity than with my old one. I get more done. I’m more respected. People care about me who didn’t before. I have tons of guys, and some girls, lining up to want to be my partner. But I’m torn because the longer I stay in the suit as Gardevoir, the more I feel I move away from being Stacey.”
Coraline had never heard of such a situation before. She was about to say something when she noticed Armin’s mouth half-open at what Stacey was saying. Coraline wanted to ask Armin what had shocked him so much, but she waited to see if he would ask a question.
Stacey kept pacing. “I think this is a good thing, right? I mean, I took what was a bad situation with my ex-boyfriend and I turned it into a money-making opportunity that’s better than anything I’ve ever had my entire life. After all, shouldn’t the point of this suit be to achieve a better life and become a happier me? So what if I have to discard an old identity to get a better one?” She stopped. Her hands were over her heart.
Holdman quickly scanned the group for reactions then spoke. “Stacey, think about what you’re saying. Do you want to discard an entire life’s worth of experience and identity just to start anew?”
“Yes,” she said with almost no hesitation. Her eyes were watering. She wiped the tears away and turned back to the group. “You know, in the past, you only really had one life. You’re born with these expectations, this path expected of you by parents and peers. But what better way to rebel against that than to totally change who I am from outside-inward? I have who-knows how many decades left of life. Can’t I choose to live it how I want?”
Armin spoke up again. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
Stacey the Gardevoir was thrown off by the question. “Um…yeah. Two younger brothers. Why do you ask?”
“I wouldn’t want an older sister to stop being my sister because she wanted to be someone else,” Armin said.
Coraline’s eyes widened. Where did that come from? she thought.
Stacey was stunned. Finally she said “I’m not going to stop being their big sister. I love them.”
“But you just said you wanted to change everything. You can’t leave them behind, even if you change. I’m sure they’d support you if they knew you wanted them to help you,” Armin said.
Coraline thought hard. She had a suspicion of where Armin’s logic was coming from, but she tried to cut-off the thought before it formed. He couldn’t be thinking about his father…could he?
“I won’t,” Stacey said. She seemed far more nervous now than before. “I’ll ask them. I’ll tell them what I want. They’ll be okay with it…I hope.”
“As long as you talk to them. I mean, my Dad never did that.” Oh no, Coraline thought. “It’s because of him…”
“Armin,” Coraline started to say firmly, but he kept talking.
“…that we were in Dallas last year, and the police…”
“ARMIN!” Coraline said.
Armin looked back, shocked. “But,” he started to say, “I thought…we were here to talk about what’s bothering us.”
Coraline couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “N…Yes, but I’M here to talk about what’s bothering me.” I can’t let him speak about his dad. I can’t. I can’t hear anything about his dad without…
Armin ran off to a bedroom and closed the door. The group heard sniffling.
Holdman stood up. “Coraline, why did you do that?”
Coraline saw all the faces staring at her and stepped back. “He was going to talk about his father! We don’t talk about his father! We never talk about his father!”
Holdman threw out his arms in a confused gesture. “But why? Why not?”
Coraline walked over to the bedroom door, tried the handle and found it locked. She knocked on the door with her metal hand. She saw the small dents and switched to her organic hand instead. “Armin! Open this door right now!”
“NO,” he said from inside. “You shouldn’t have yelled at me! I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“You didn’t listen to me when I wanted you to stop talking!”
“That’s because you don’t want them to hear the truth about Dad!”
Coraline felt her blood boil at what she interpreted to be disrespect. She wound her metal arm and pulled it back.
A firm, but unyielding grip clamped down on her arm from behind. Coraline turned to see Twilight Sparkle holding Coraline’s metal arm with her own vice-grip level grasp. Her eyes were steady and she wore the cooking apron. Her other hand had a heatproof mitten on.
“Please do not break the doors in my house, Miss Coraline,” Twilight Sparkle said.
“Let go of me,” Coraline said with more fear than anger.
“No,” Twilight Sparkle, “You are acting irrational, and I want your assurance that you will not create another outburst while you are here, or I will ask you to leave. And then if you still refuse, I will tell you to leave.” Her eyes did not have to be threatening. The lack of emotion and the cold calculation was enough to scare Coraline into compliance. Coraline nodded. The grip was released. Twilight Sparkle’s eyes instantly became more compassionate. “Let him be for now, Miss Coraline,” she said. “He’s upset. You both need time to cool down. Please come back to the room. I made cinnamon rolls.”
She stepped back a few feet but did not leave until Coraline walked past her and into the main room. Coraline avoided the stares and sat down in the farthest corner at the little book table next to Maud. She held her head in her hands.
“Let’s take a break. We’re way too wound up,” Holdman said. He stepped forward into the center of the room, between the coffee table and the couch where Lyra Heartstrings sat with a very concerned look towards Coraline in the corner. “I’ve been to over a hundred of these meetings over several years,” Holdman said. “Different cities. Different people. But some of the responses are the same. No one is asking any of you to reveal anything you don’t want to talk about. But…” he stopped and appeared to choose his words carefully. “On you own time, and in your own way, I implore you to face what you’ve been avoiding. Or else you’ll find yourself back here, again and again, with more complications and more problems, because you didn’t address something when it was small and waited until it was too much to handle.” He stood silent for a few seconds. He looked at Coraline, who still kept her face buried in her grasp on the table. Wet droplets had appeared on the glass below her face. Holdman nodded at what he saw and made sure to direct his voice towards her this time. “I have never once seen repression lead to anything good.” He sat down and sighed.
Lyra turned to Twilight who was standing with the tray of cinnamon rolls in her grasp. Little cubes of frosting rested inside tiny rolls off to the side. “I could use something sweet about now,” Lyra said to Twilight. She rested the tray on the coffee table next to the finger foods. Save for Maud and Coraline, the rest of the group started to eat. Armin stayed in the room and Twilight took a small plate of samples and one cinnamon roll. She knocked on the door. “I have some food, sweetheart.”
“I’m not hungry,” he said quietly.
“It’s a cinnamon roll. I made them myself.”
There was a brief pause.
Armin spoke. “Give me two cinnamon rolls and we’ll talk.”
In the living room, Maud put down her book and eyed Coraline, whose head was still facing the glass table she was resting on. She looked at her as if examining a sad animal from afar with a certain sense of emotional detachment while still being interested in the scene itself.
“Coraline,” Maud said. As soon as she spoke, everyone in the room stopped eating and turned to look at her. Maud, however, was busy looking at the mother. Coraline looked up at her with eyes red from her tears. Maud spoke softly. “Have you ever wondered why some Meta-Frames and Pod Pals have the ability to cry?”
Coraline stared at Twilight Sparkle. The Pod Pal pony had cried earlier that night. She had wondered why that was possible. She glanced over at Stacey. Her Garvedoir suit had eyes which watered when she was upset. Then she turned to Maud, whose eyes had never deviated from their neutral expression the entire night. She spoke to the suit-wearing human. “You haven’t cried.”
“I’ve never wanted to be able to cry,” she said. “But the other suits and Pod Pals have that feature because one of the greatest achievements of this technology is that it allows people to express themselves to one another in ways that we all understand. The eyes move and emote to show compassion, fear, or love.”
“But yours don’t.”
“I’ve never wanted to show compassion, fear, or love. But I am happy for those who do. The eyes of the suit are one of the greatest communicators and one of the reasons why people connect with them so much easier than with each other. People hide themselves,” Maud said as Coraline pulled her arms off the table and set them on her lap. “People do that because over their lifetime, they learn how to hide versus learning how to express. Humans can be cruel,” she said, nodding. “But some people are lucky. And they’re raised in environments where they learn compassion, where they learn love, and where fear is a distant memory.” Coraline put her metal hand up to her head and started to breathe a more shallow. “I wish I had been raised by a mother like you.”
Coraline’s train-of-thought stopped. She looked at Maud. “But I’m a horrible mother.” Her eyes closed at the sound of her own voice uttering the words.
“I don’t think so,” Maud so. “You’re so hard on yourself. But I see your boy and how smart he is. How well-spoken.” Coraline looked up. “That kind of intelligence only happens when it’s nurtured. When he’s loved. And even though you’re afraid, I can tell that he isn’t. He’s smart enough to see a way out of the pain that has affected both of you. And if you’d just trust his curiosity and his desire to learn, you may find the healing you’ve been looking for.”
Coraline couldn’t believe what she had heard. She sat in speechless silence as she thought about what was said.
Maud spoke again. “I can tell Armin is going to be someone even more amazing when he grows up. I can only imagine what lucky partner he will have in the future.”
“You really think so?” Coraline said as she smiled a sweet smile.
“Heck, when he becomes an adult, if he stays on the right path, I have a sister who would absolutely love him,” Maud Pie said.
“Thank you, Maud,” Coraline said. “I needed to hear that.” She walked over to the door of the bedroom Armin had hid inside. “I’m sorry, Armin,” she said. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I just want you to listen because…” she stopped herself. She was three sentences in and already she was approaching it all wrong. She tried again. “I just want you to be happy. And what your dad did was horrible. And I don’t want you to think that’s the way people are. I’m sorry,” she placed her head and human hand against the door. “Do you forgive me?”
There was silence.
“Yes,” he said. “But…”
Coraline waited.
“You have to tell them what happened. It’ll never get better otherwise.”
Coraline felt her mind start to ache. She tried to calm her breathing but couldn’t. She steadily lowered to her knees as she focused all of her efforts on staying calm. She felt an embrace from behind. The hold was soft, comforting and warm. She saw the black suit out of her peripheral. Chrysalis was holding her close, her eyes staring off to the side, half-lidded in serenity. Her smile was peaceful. Coraline felt her breathing slow and her heart settle. She clutched Chrys’s hand and immediately felt a warmth travel from it into her own.
“That feels so calming,” Coraline said. “How are you doing that?”
“It’s a soft-skin upgrade,” Chrysalis said. “Made to soothe even the most restless. Doesn’t work on the wearer, though,” she said, looking down. Coraline turned around and embraced Chrysalis. “That…that works, though.” Chrys said with a bigger smile.
Coraline sat back against the wall and noticed Stacey, Holdman, Twilight and Lyra were standing at the end of the hallway while Maud stared from her usual spot in the reading chair a few feet behind them. “All right. Let’s talk.” She exhaled as she stayed sitting in the hallway. “You know we’re all here, so let’s just stay in the hallway. I want Armin to hear me.”
“I’m here,” Armin said in the bedroom. His small fingers stretched out from under the bottom of the door. Coraline reached out with her human hand and clasped his fingers in her own. Chrysalis sat in front of her on the other side of the hallway and held her metal hand. Gardevoir and Holdman sat on the floor next to them as Twilight and Lyra stood behind. There was the sound of a chair being set behind Twilight. They turned and saw Maud sitting closer, the chair backwards, with her head and arms resting on the back as she stared. Coraline began.
“A year ago, my ex-husband and I were taking Armin with us to a citywide rally against America’s involvement in the Russian/Chinese Border War…” she stared up and felt her heart nearly stop at what she was witnessing around her. The moment she began to think about the event, her mind fell back into scene one year prior. She felt Armin's hand press on top of her own.
No, she thought. I can’t be afraid. I’m going to finish this. If I talk my way through it, the others will be there for me.
I didn’t realize that my hus…Armin’s dad had planned some things he didn’t tell me about. I thought he just wanted us to support him when he got back to the hotel room. Somehow…somehow he convinced me and Armin to go with him on a protest march. Gosh, I was so stupid…I reasoned that the marches had been safe for the past couple years with no problems. I thought Armin could learn from them. He was so excited to win his dad’s approval. I wanted to nurture that. I always tried to strengthen their relationship, sometimes at the cost of my own.
When we were preparing in the hotel to go out, Armin found something strange in his dad’s bag when his dad was busy taking a shower. It was a some sort of small pipe-like device. I thought it was a mailing tube made of metal, but it had all sorts of wires sticking out of the end. I took a picture of it with my phone and ran the photo through image-matching software online. The results came back instantaneously: it was a pipe bomb.
I later found out my ex-husband was planning to bomb one of the leaders of the pro-war movement. One of the warhawks who had been saying some horrific stuff on TV. I didn’t want any part of it and I didn’t want Armin there either. But…I had to be stubborn. I could have left the pipe bomb there. He would’ve gone on by himself and did the deed and I’d still have an my other arm. But…I couldn’t do it. I knew, holding that bomb in my hand, that it would be used for murder. I couldn’t let that happen. So I put it back in the bag, took the bag and Armin with me and ran.
Armin’s dad had the keys to the car in the restroom with him. He was so paranoid. I think he knew something might happen. So Armin and I took off on foot.
We needed a place to hide. The streets were filled with protestors and some points had both anti-war and pro-war screaming at each other. Halfway towards a police line where I thought we’d be safe, a fight broke out.
Several of the opposing protestors started hitting each other, viciously kicking and punching and stomping until more joined in. I pulled Armin with me into the nearby TruCore building. I didn’t even see Armin’s dad pulling up to the front. He had been following us the whole way.
Armin and I ducked into an elevator. I pushed the button for the topmost floor. Seconds later, Armin’s dad ran into the elevator as it was closing. He kept screaming, yelling at me to give him back the bag. I wanted to protect Armin, so when the elevator door opened to the top floor, I gave it back..
He knew I would tell police. He took away my phone and tried to lock Armin and me in an office room.
Something snapped. I don’t know what came over me. Maybe it was the thought that because of me, he would now be able to murder lots of people. I couldn’t allow him to put blood on my hands. I wouldn’t. I pushed him out of the room before he could lock it and wrestled him to the ground. He was stronger than me, but I know he married me because I was a fighter. Looks like it worked against him after all that time. We tumbled down a flight of stairs but I landed on top. I pulled the bag away from him and he threw me to the ground. I pulled out the pipe bomb. I didn’t see it before, but there were indicator lights inside it. It must have armed by accident in the fall. He pushed me into one of the rooms and I slammed the door in front of him, my hand still on the bomb. I locked it. He couldn’t get in, but I couldn’t get out. There was a window.
I opened it and prepared to throw the bomb away, but there was a crowd of people below. Thousands of protestors and police clashed on the street. I couldn’t drop the pipe bomb. It would kill hundreds of people. I couldn’t keep it in the room. It would kill me, Armin’s dad, and perhaps Armin himself plus whoever else was in the building we couldn’t see. I sat down with the bomb as Armin’s dad screamed at me from the door. I opened the casing and looked inside to see a mass of plastic explosives. I knew what they looked like because Armin’s dad and I used to watch cop shows with the fake version of the bomb materials. The shows were accurate-enough to give me the courage to try something reckless.
I didn’t know what I was doing. I was desperate. I wanted to save everyone, even if I couldn’t save myself. I saw the mass of wires and thought the only way I could stop it was by chance. I pulled out the wires from the plastic explosives, like I’d seen in those shows, and grasped all the exposed cables in my hand and pulled.
I didn’t know about the small explosive charge in the middle. If my hand hadn’t been clutched around them, the plastic explosive could’ve gone off.
It detonated. I lost my hand. But the rest of the bomb didn’t go off. I had saved everyone.
I fell back and passed out. I thought I was dead.
That bastard didn’t even call for help while I lay there dying. Armin did it. He had snuck out of the room during the fight when I pushed out Armin’s dad and found a phone to call police. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here today. My son is right. He is very smart and always has been. And I love him so much.
Armin’s dad was arrested. Dallas Police Department investigated and found out everything I just told you was true. They had evidence from the camera footage in TruCore to Armin’s testimony to the confession of his dad who at least had enough decency to be honest about what I had done and what he was going to do.
National news heard about what I did. But I asked to keep my photo out. I didn’t want them to harass me or Armin after it. I was a hero, so of course they complied, which is why I’m sure you didn’t know who I was when you saw me.
A fund was started for my hospital bills. And Technomancer Industries was contacted. They made a prosthetic for me. I love it because it’s a sign that I helped countless people, but I hate it because it reminds me of that day and how much danger I put my son in for the sake of everyone else.
“Mom,” Armin said.
Coraline broke from her trance. She was still in the hallway of the house with everyone staring at her. Her human hand had clenched Armin’s fingers underneath the door.
“You’re a hero, Mom,” Armin said. “I don’t mind being in harm’s way if it means saving everyone.”
Coraline started to cry as Chrysalis held her close. The door opened and Armin rushed to his mom’s side as he embraced her. She wrapped her arms around her son and cried into his shoulder.
Holdman pulled up his phone and stared at the screen. “Wow,” he said, looking at something on it. He turned the screen to everyone else.
Heroic Mother Saves Countless Lives, Loses Hand Disarming Bomb
“Coraline,” Holdman said, “I remember your name now. Coraline Weaver. You’re a hero!” He helped her and her son off the ground. His hand grazed Chrysalis and they locked eyes for a moment before both turning away, blushing. “Where do you work, Coraline?”
“I work at…”
“What’s the pay?” Holdman asked before she could finish. “Because I guarantee you Technomancer Industries can beat it.”
Coraline’s eyes widened. “You…you want me to work with you?!”
“I don’t know why they didn’t hire you at first. I’m assuming they never got around to it because your recovery must have been a very delicate time for you. But whatever the reason, I’m here now. I can pull some strings. I could have you working in the Austin or San Antonio branch by next week.”
Twilight smiled and gasped as Lyra nodded. “Wow,” Lyra said. “Moving up in the world, Coraline.”
“Take it,” Maud said, from her seat-side view. “Technomancer employees get augmentation and product discounts. You could upgrade that arm of yours to something even more impressive. Maybe even get a Pod Pal or Meta-Frame later.”
“I want a super arm!” Armin said. “Can I work there?”
Stacey the Gardevoir put her hand on his shoulder. “Sweetheart, you’re like ten.”
“I’m seven.”
“Wow, you’re tall for seven,” she said, nodding.
Coraline looked at Armin and then back at Holdman. She felt Armin’s grip in her human hand as he hugged her close. She smiled. “Okay.”
The group cherished the night with one another. They laughed, talked, and connected like they never had before. Coraline found friendship where she least expected it and Armin talked with everyone about their technology and what he could do to learn about it. The pair left that night with a new hope in their hearts, wondering what wheels they had set in motion which would be felt for a long time after…
“Mom,” Armin Weaver said, standing at the mall next to the cake store. He looked at the cake coupon on his phone. Happy 17th birthday! It said.
“Yes sweetheart?” Coraline said as she hugged him. Her metal hand was sleek and strong, a product of new Technomancer technology. It almost resembled perfectly-interlocking platemail.
“How much of a discount do you get for working at Technomancer?” he asked as he stared at a wall-sized advertisement. Several giant pony characters scrolled by on the screen. He reached out with his augmented fingers and tapped the screen. It stopped on a pink pony with balloons tattooed on her hip.
“Oh no,” his mom said.
“Oh yeah,” Armin said. “I want a new best friend.”
“Then go make some friends,” she said.
“She can do all sorts of cool stuff,” Armin said.
“Like bankrupt my account,” Coraline said.
“They got payment plans. And scholarships for really smart kids who plan to attend their academy after high school. Every future engineer needs an assistant,” he said, winking.
“And that assistant has to be a pony?”
“Is there nothing I can say to convince you?”
“Look, I’ll tell you what. We’re go by the Pod Pal Bay so you can meet them and satiate your curiosity before we go home. But we’re not going home with one. There is no way…”
One week later, the Pod Pal known as Pinkie Pie arrived at Armin’s house, ready to begin a new adventure…
Author's Note
Extra Story Details
Writing Time: Approx 5 hours, 27 minutes over 2 days
Draft Number: 2 Drafts
Story Settings: The Year 2061, Austin, Texas
Story Themes: Transhumanism, Body Modification, Identity, Technological Relationships
Note: This is an "A" story and I focused my whole day on it! :D
Story Background:
This story happens 11 years before the events of my current Sci-Fi Saga "Equus Metamorphosis." Wanna read that? Here ya go!
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/333408/1/equus-metamorphosis/1-the-shell-of-life---1st-floor
