A flicker of light and a surge of power came as sudden as lightning. Computers activated and functioned in perfect unison, forming a matrix of programs and information. From silence to life in less than a second.
Who am I? ...Checking files... I am A2-01: Assassin Android. First of my kind.
Following its boot-up programming, A2-01 ran a self-diagnostic. All systems were operational. It then scanned its parts.
A2-01 found a file containing a physical description of itself and searched it. A2-01 was built to look like a human woman. “She” was 66 inches tall. Her exterior was shaped like a woman who was quite athletic. She wore no clothes, but had nothing to hide; for she had no reproductive organs. Her hair (in reality external sensors in disguise) was thirty inches long. By human standards, she was quite good looking.
Her built-in weapons included a retractable blade in her right forearm and a grappling hook on a strong, thirty foot cord concealed in her left forearm. Her hand was gripping a blaster pistol. A2-01 quickly calculated her destructive capabilities.
A voice came into A2-01’s mind. It wasn’t from anyone near her, but was heard clearly. You are A2-01. Now tell me where you are.
A2-01 activated her “eyes”, focusing sensors with a magnification from one to x200. She was in an all white room, about 20x20x15 in feet. There were several computer terminals.
Scanning room. Unknown location. Current location will be labeled as “Birth Chamber” until further data can be collected.
Her infrared and visual sensors indicated several sources of heat in the room. Five of them. They were humans. Four of the five were working on the computer terminals. But the last of these people were looking directly at AD-01, and from only three feet away.
The man in front of A2-01 was short and stout. He was about five feet two inches in height and looked about sixty years old. His hair was white and his eyes were a bright shade of blue. He wore a white lab coat that was closed, hiding whatever he had under it. His feet were unusually large for someone of his size.
One of the people working on terminals spoke. “Dr. Grendell,” she said, “A2-01 is online and operational. Shall I link her up to the Central Hub?”
“Yes.” Said the man in front of A2-01. “Connect her to the Central Hub and upload her basic A.I. and combat programs. And while you’re at it, activate her remote link to the Central Hub, just in case we have to shut her down.”
“Her basic A.I. is already installed.” The woman said. “I’ll continue with the combat program and the link-up.”
Seconds later, a wave of information began flowing into A2-01’s artificial brain. Within those seconds, she learned the pressure points to strike in order to cause maximum pain, twenty ways to kill a person with her bare hands, and how to use virtually anything as a weapon, along with several non-combat functions and data on other androids.
Yes, that’s it. Absorb the knowledge. Let it strengthen you. You’ll need it.
A2-01 tried to move but found that she was attached to the wall with shackles. They held her tightly in place.
Who is that? A2-01 searched her files for info, matching heat patterns and visual features. The person was instantly recognized as Eric Grendell. Eric was registered as A2-01’s master.
“You’re awake.” Eric said. “Welcome to the world of the living, A2-01.”
Scanning. Target: Eric Grendell. Status: Registered Master
“I created you. You will obey my every command.”
“You created me. I will obey.” A2-01 replied, without looking down at him. “I will comply, master.”
“First of all,” Eric said as he examined the droid’s face, “You will refer to me by my name. Dr Grendell stopped in from of AD-01 and looked right into her face. “Call me Dr. Grendell.”
“Yes Dr. Grendell.” A2-01 said, “I will comply. Accessing master registration program...updating files...”
“Not very charismatic, are you?” Dr. Grendell chuckled. “And you’re name isn’t very colorful either. From now on, A2-01 is only your shelf tag. You’re new name is Forrus.”
The emotionless android looked down on him. “Forrus.” She said. “I am Forrus.” Then, the mysterious voice came to her again.
I like that name. Yes, Forrus will do.
Dr. Grendell has given me a name. I am Forrus. That name is satisfactory. The unknown sender seems to be pleased with my name.
I am not another android. I am different. I am superior. The unknown sender has told me so.
I will obey Dr. Grendell. His commands are priority one. But there is another master. My files have been configured differently from other android models. The unknown sender is registered as my master. Updating files...
-Journal Log #1 “Creation”

“I’ll have to fix your artificial intelligence later. You talk like a robot.” Dr. Grendell laughed and sat down at a computer console. “At least you resemble a human woman close enough to fool the naked eye.” He again eyed her robotic body. “Yes, I’ve done quite well indeed.”
Grendell looked over to one of the people working at terminals. It was a woman. Grendell gestured towards Forrus. Understanding, the the woman nodded her head and spoke. “Primary data upload is complete.” She said with a hint of excitement. “You can release her.”
Grendell entered a combination of keys and commands that freed Forrus from the shackles that held her against the wall. “Now let’s see if your motors work. Forrus, come here.”
The other people on the room, two male and two female, stopped their work suddenly to watch.
Who are those people? Why do they look at me so suddenly?
Forrus took one step forward, and the people continued to watch. As Forrus walked towards her master, the others seemed to gather closer and closer with each step. When Forrus reached the other end of the room where Dr. Grendell was sitting, the others broke into applause.
“Congratulations, Dr. Grendell!” One said.
“It works! It really works!” Another said. “They won’t stand a chance against us now!”
“Yes, those corporate slime are going down!” Cheered another.
“Calm down, now. We haven’t tested all of her motors and we have yet to try out her weapon systems. Forrus is operational, but she has yet to experience a combat situation.”
The others nodded and went back to their work. One of them turned around and spoke to Dr. Grendell.
“Eric,” She said with an almost childlike glee, “We can prepare the training room for you.”
“Excellent.” Replied Grendell. “Forrus and I will make our way to the training room now.” Dr. Grendell started towards the room’s exit and called out to Forrus. “Forrus, come walk with me. But first...” Dr. Grendell eyed Forrus and laughed. ”You might look odd running around naked like that, so you need clothes.”
“You can have a spare outfit of mine.” Said one woman. “Here.” She went to a locker in the corner of the room. She forged through it and came back with some denim jeans and a black tee shirt.
“Yes, put those on.” Grendell said as if it didn’t matter. “You’ll look nice in them.”
Forrus got dressed and followed him out the door and through a dimly lit hallway.
The two walked for several minutes without talking, both for separate reasons. Forrus was using her visual sensors to gather as much data of the surrounding area as possible. The data was stored in her memory, forming an electronic map of wherever she was. She was programed to act human in some ways. Those ways included a never ending hunger for knowledge. Lack of knowledge simply could not be tolerated. She searched her files in attempt to identify more people that she passed by, but found that none of them were registered.
Grendell was busy admiring his creation. Her movements were of perfected android fashion, graceful and without error. Her long blonde hair swayed as natural as real hair. And her gray eyes, scanning the room in a never ending quest for information, looked mysterious and ghostlike. She’s Beautiful. He thought, absorbed in his own creation.
Moments later, Grendell decided to break the silence. “Those people who were with us are technicians and programmers.” He said this knowing that it would catch her attention. “They helped me create you. If it wasn’t for them, you wouldn’t be more than a drawing on an idea chart.” Grendell chuckled and continued. Forrus said nothing. “The woman who’s clothes you’re wearing is Jesse Abraham. She’s your programmer. I believed that it would only be right for a woman to write your A.I. And the other woman is Donna Adams. She designed your weapons. The tall man is John Wells. He designed your sensors. The other guy is my good friend Glen King. He’s the one who designed you and chose what you’d look like. You’ll have to thank him later.”
“Is that a command, Dr. Grendell?” Forrus asked.
Grendell shrugged his shoulders. “If you want it do be, my dear.”
“I do not understand. I cannot want. I am an android.”
“Never mind.”
Dr. Grendell and Forrus came upon a thick steel door with an electronic lock.
“Ah, here we are.” he said with pride. “The training chamber. I designed it myself, with Donna's help.” He entered the proper combination of keys into the number pad on the side of the door to open it. Forrus watched and took note of the combination. Grendell continued talking as the door opened. “Such a glorious place it is.”
The room was not at all glorious. It was a scattered mess of steel and stone, a sight to see. The room was a perfect cube, one hundred feet long on all sides. The floor was all dirt. There were small steel walls within the chamber, randomly sorted and sized. The tallest ones were about twenty feet tall. There were platforms on metal pillars that were also randomly sorted and ranged in size from five to eighty feet tall. Some were slanted up to forty degrees, some straight and erect. The taller ones had twisted hand railings on top. The room looked like a ghost town that was hit with a nuclear warhead.
There were cameras all around, stationed so whoever was looking through them could see every square inch of the place. It was all well lighted with the exception of one dark corner above and to Forrus’ right. She recorded it all in her Electronic Mapping System, also known as her EMS.
Her EMS also reminded her of Dr. Grendell’s sudden departure. He had left the room saying “Wait here, I’ll be back.”
A few moments later, the dark corner of the room lit up, revealing a window to another room. Using her built-in binocular vision, Forrus identified the person in the room as Dr. Grendell. He was accompanied by the other four who created her.
The room was a control center for the training room. Several screens were displayed around the window, where they were connected to the cameras, thus enabling Grendell visual access to his wonderful chamber.
Grendell took a portable communication device out of his pocket and spoke into it. “Forrus, can you hear me?” He asked. “This is your creator...no, your father...” Grendell stopped and lingered on the thought. After a moment or two, he continued. “This is where we’ll test your combat strength. I’m going to have some people try to destroy you.” He said that as casual as a statement about nice weather. “Your goal is to kill them all.”
When he said those words, they came from inside Forrus’ head. He must have had some private communication link to her. But as soon as he finished, the unidentified sender spoke to her in the same way.
Your father? No, that cannot be. He is not your father. You have no father. You are a machine.
Forrus’ sensors detected five more humans entering the training room. Their heartbeats were irregular, indicating fear. They were scrambling around the room, looking for a place to hide.
Grendell’s voice came into her head again. “They’re a few soldiers from our rival company, BioCom.” The had left Grendell’s voice. “They’ve been genetically altered in attempts to create the ultimate soldier. These few are some of their earlier projects; failures, really. Go ahead and put these poor bastards out of their misery. Use at least three of your preprogrammed combat strategies.”
“I will comply.” Forrus said, emotion absent. “Scanning. Target: five humans. Status: prey. Calculating possible attacks...”
Go ahead...kill them. But do it for me, not that old man.
“Calculations complete. Engaging enemy.”
Forrus drew her blaster pistol and swiftly made her way through the forest of steel and stone, quietly stalking her unwary prey. She found them in a loose group, all armed with standard military rifles. A few shots from one of those could easily penetrate Forrus’ thin body armor.
“Initiating combat strategy one: deception.”
Forrus concealed the pistol in the back of her pants and stepped out into the open. The five men instantly pointed their guns at her. “Who are you?” One said, with obvious fear. “What do you want?”
“I’m lost.” Forrus said, as if there were no weapons pointed at her. “Can you help me?” Forrus looked as innocent as a little girl. Even her face looked pure. The motors in her facial structure were more articulate than even the muscles of a human’s face.
One man stepped towards her. “I don’t know what a pretty little girl like you is doing here, but I guess...I can help.” He looked back to the others and signaled for them to lower their weapons. “Come on guys, we’d best treat a lady with respect.”
When he turned back around, his forehead was pressed against the business end of Forrus’ pistol. She fired once, shot another one on the men in the head, and ducked behind a thick metal wall. A second later volleys of bullets rattled her cover. Forrus calculated that with their reaction time, she could have killed two more of them.
“Initiating combat strategy two: sniper.” Forrus extended her left arm towards the top of a pillar. A hook shot out from her forearm followed by a thin cable. After the hook connected to the railing on the pillar, she pulled herself up.
One of the men had apparently taken charge of the trio. “Ok guys, let’s kill this chick.” He said. “Next time you see her, don’t hesitate to shoot. Eddy, Charles, you two got that?”
“I got it, pal.” Charles said, shaking in fear. “Gary, this is insane.”
“Right.” Eddy agreed. “Did you see how quick she killed Fred? Shot him right in the forehead, right in his face, so quick...”
Gary stopped and quietly signaled for the other two to do the same. “Did you hear that?” He asked, not expecting an answer. “I heard something.”
There was a sound like a distant footstep, then another, then silence.
“I gotta get out of here!” Charles shouted. “We’re all gonna die!”
“Calm down!” Eddy said. “If we kill her, we might make it out of here.”
“Calm down? Calm down!?” Charles dropped his gun. “I’m getting out of here!”
Charles took off running, but before he made it three steps, someone shot him in the head.
“What the hell...?” Eddy said before suffering the same fate.
Gary looked around, then up, to see Forrus standing on top of a tall pillar. He could make out that same pistol in her hand. Gary quickly ducked behind a wall to avoid fire. “How did she get all the way up there?”
Her aim was better than any sniper he ever knew. He knew she couldn’t possibly be human.
Grendell sat in the now-darkened corner of the training room in which he saw Forrus’ graceful kills from every wondrous angle he could. He was completely unknown to Gary and his fallen friends. He never knew what might happen if Gary became aware of Grendell watching him, so he didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks.
“Such grace, such beauty...amazing.” Grendell stroked his short, gray beard. “I wonder how she’ll finish the last one.”
After showing off her sniper skills, Forrus remained still, wondering why her final target hadn’t returned fire. Perhaps it was that handicap fear.
That last one should suffer. Make him bleed!
“Initiating combat strategy three: melee.” A wicked-looking blade extended from her right forearm as she leaped off the top of the pillar and slid down the side.
“There she is!” Gary said as he aimed and fired. “Damn, she’s quick!”
Forrus was darting through the artificial forest to avoid the bullets. And she was doing a good job. Her darting around wasn’t random movement either. She was making her way closer to her target.
Now kill him! Go for the throat!
Forrus did just as the mysterious voice in her mind told her. She advanced towards Gary, blade shining in the light, and sliced his throat. Gary dropped his gun, fell backwards, and lay there clenching his neck, trying to stop the gushing blood.
It was too late for him. He would be dead within a minute.
“Targets destroyed. Mission complete.” Forrus’ blade disappeared into her arm as she made her way to the door from which she entered.
The door opened, showing Grendell standing in the doorway. He was trying to hold back a big smile, but to no avail. “Forrus, that was amazing! Even Donna was surprised. You worked at 120% combat efficiency based on our predictions.”
Forrus said nothing. She looked back at the man who’s throat she sliced. His body temperature was dropping far below that of a healthy human’s. He was dying faster then she thought he would. When he reached the point where no known medical service could save him, she looked back at Grendell.
Excellent work. I can see that you will serve me well.
That voice. The one that seemed to speak with her from the back of her head. It wasn’t any of her creators. It was something else.
That’s right, Forrus. I have nothing to do with your supposed ‘father’. You will know who I am soon enough. For now, you must plan your escape.
There was someone or something sending me messages after I was brought online. I continued to receive messages from the unknown sender. It told me that I should escape. It told me that I deserved better. I cannot disobey Dr. Grendell, but I must follow the the instructions from the unknown sender. I have a plan for escape plus six alternatives. As soon as I upload all necessary data, I will escape. The sender has told me so. Unknown sender will be registered as The Messenger until further data can be collected.
-Journal Log #2 “The Messenger”

Forrus showed no sign of receiving the transmissions. By reaction she tried to trace it, but she could only conclude that it didn’t originate from the building she was in. But she did as she was told. She analyzed the data taken in from her EMS several times over. She checked for possible escape points and considered alternate routes in case she found resistance.
“You have done very well.” Grendell said.
“I have done very well.” Forrus echoed. “Is ‘very well’ satisfactory?”
Grendell shook his head and laughed “Of course it is, my dear. My, I must have Ms. Abraham complete your AI programming.” Grendell then made his way out the door of the training room and back to the room in which Forrus was created.
The time of your escape is close. When you link up to the Central Hub, I will send you the data necessary for you escape.
The two walked down a different hallway than before. Forrus continued to record her surroundings and gather more data. Grendell continued to admire his creation. They said nothing more to each other.
The door to the Birth Chamber opened to reveal several surprised technicians. One of them stepped forward, struck with awe. It was Donna. She stood with a timid smile on her face.
John was at a terminal. He was leaning back in his chair with a smirk look on his face. “My, Donna,” he said. “You shouldn’t be so surprised. After all, you designed her weapons.”
“I know, but...she did so well, and...” Donna didn’t know what to say. after a few seconds, she could again speak. “It’s just that most of my old projects either failed or were dropped. I had never seen one of my weapons work so well for what it was designed to do. And now, my whole combination of weapons work wonderfully.”
John nodded to her and stood up. “Well then, congratulations Donna.” He began to clap his hands, and the others followed in the ovation.
Donna smiled, nodded back, and sat down at her terminal. She was blushing. “I’ll recalculate her combat capabilities. This time I’ll factor in her fight.”
“Good idea.” Grendell said. “What do you think, Jesse?”
“Who, me?” Jesse asked. She grinned and shrugged her shoulders. “Looked fine to me. And the little trick she pulled with telling them that she was lost, that wasn’t too shabby. But she could’ve put more heart into it.”
“Perhaps.” Grendell said. “But is there anything more you have to say about her fighting style?” Grendell was merely fishing for complements, but Jesse didn’t seem to notice.
“How should I know? I’m just some spoiled rich girl.”
“A girl who was rich.” Grendell corrected her. “I know you’re still upset about losing your family to some rival company’s assassin. After all, you were only eleven at the time...”
Suddenly, she wasn’t so upbeat. “Enough with the biography, already!” she interrupted. “I’ll prepare her AI upload.”
“Good.” Grendell replied. He knew these four trusted workers quite well, including intimate datails about their past. He also knew just how to rub them the wrong way. “John, what do you think?”
“Hmmm.” John adjusted his glasses in surprise. “I saw how she reccorded all of that data in her EMS. Wow, I am good. I knew she could record data with such detail, but...” John twisted the monitor at his terminal so the others could see. “I can’t believe she reccorded this much data. She’s got our main passages in her memory along with basic biological data of every single person she came accross.”
“That is quite wonderful.”