Chapter Text
“Sir, Cecil and Kevin have been sent to district A01, awaiting further order.” A stern voice called from the control panel on Carlos’s left, and the scientist nodded in understanding. He watched over the screen as their latest installments rose to the surface of the abandoned world. The man can still remember the days of his childhood, when they would run through fields of grass and bask in the sun’s rays. Now nearly all of humanity was wiped out, and what was left huddled underground. It was hard to imagine that this drastic change happened just three years prior. Before the angels attacked.
“Send in Kevin for distraction and have Cecil execute his base moves, wipe out the angel and collect further specimens for research.” Carlos ordered softly, never having to raise his voice within the sanction of his team.
“Yes, Sir!” They said in unison, and Cecil’s armor lit up, along with Kevin’s. On the main screen, their data and vitals were projected on real time. Cecil’s armor was a mixture of purple, black and grey, light and compact to ensure optimal movement, yet sturdy enough to resist most attacks. Kevin’s armor was the same model number of Cecil’s but changed to a yellow, orange and black.
Cecil was created there in Night Vale labs, but Kevin was constructed in Desert Bluffs labs. Essentially, they were the same. Created to fight, defend and purify. Units such as Dana and Steve where still having final tests done, ensuring they were ready for actual work. Cecil and Kevin couldn’t defend an entire world by themselves, and they didn’t. Their boarder of defense ranged in the United States, other models and projects where defending China, Russia, France and Great Brittan. Other countries still needed further funding, but would probably never get it. Humanity was on its last leg.
Carlos scanned over the screen, tapping his fingers nervously against the keys, watching as Cecil sank into the shadows of abandoned skyscrapers and Kevin trotted ahead, sinking into the inky and filthy city quietly. Security footage caught sight of the current beast invading the town, trying to find any source of life to feed off, angle 32.
It was elongated. Pitch black and bore a single, pink eye in the center of its face. Long fangs protruded from its jaw and thin, spindly appendages kept it upright. It dug through trash, gorged on the uncleansed bodies of the dead and broke into several abandoned shops with ease. This would be easy, and in and out job for Cecil and Kevin – or at least that was what Carlos was hoping for.
Kevin wasn’t in position yet, when a large, flashing warning appeared on the main screen. Kevin’s armor flickered once, twice, and then the lights finally died. “What’s happening?” Carlos demeaned, watching as Kevin’s vitals flat lined and the unit slumped against a building outcrop, legs straightened and body hunched into itself.
“Kevin’s drivers have been shut down, system in limbo!” Jerry answered urgently, bringing up more detailed information with the tips of his fingertips, the glass board in front of Carlos showed Kevin’s current state. “He’s in hibernation mode; drivers are trying to reconnect to the system – he’s in no immediate danger. The angle hasn’t noticed him, yet.” Jerry continued, looking toward the screen as the angel moved, lifting its oblong face toward the shadow of the building. “Scratch that, angle 32 has spotted Kevin.”
“Connect Kevin immediately, we can’t let the angel feed of his life force.” Carlos ordered in a surprisingly calm voice, which certainly vanished when his team franticly informed that Kevin’s driver was ignoring, or blocking their requests for re-connection. Before he could deliver any harsh criticism, the screen brought up a new view.
“Sir, Cecil acting against orders-” Lucy muttered, the entire team watching as Cecil sprung into view, standing in front of his counterpart defensively. “Attempts for re-schedule denied.”
“Impossible.” Carlos muttered, watching the angel tower of Cecil with fear. Alone, Cecil stood no chance against any angel of this category. “Re-route his system, tactics for abortion, this mission is hereby put on hold. We can’t risk both our units!”
Before anyone could initiate the new order, angel 32 made its move, slinging its oddly shaped arm at Cecil, striking the unit square in the chest. Cecil skid back several yards, his armor defending from any internal damage. As Cecil shook off the attack, the angel moved closer, looming over the lone unit in a horrifying way. Its arms seemed to snap into action, grabbing Cecil within a fraction of a second and pulling the units left arm diagonally with the intention to break the bones inside. Cecil struggled, using his right hand to claw at the angel’s wrist, making no sound of protest as his own wrist was seized, and painfully bent.
“Sensory nerves in high activation, pain registered in high amounts,” Jerry warned, making Carlos grit his teeth. Almost as quickly as the attack began, it stopped. The sound of Cecil’s wrist snapping was unheard in the lab, but the image of armor cracking and the bone jostled into a horrifying position was evident on the screen. “Left radius distal end has been snapped.” Jerry announced in an almost machine tone, watching with horror as Cecil’s vitals spiked for a second, overburdened with agony.
“Cecil’s responding quickly,” Mary, a new member of the team, muttered under her breath, pushing up her glasses as they watched Cecil’s head hang limp. The angel lifted him by the broken bone easily, holding him up and examining the unit for a tasty treat. “He’s shut down pain receptors.” She announced, somewhat amazed by Cecil’s ability to care for himself. “But no other response seems to be happening… he’s not fighting back.”
“What?” Carlos hissed, glaring at the screen as the angel suddenly slammed Cecil into the street. Repeatedly. “His armor won’t last at this rate – get them out of there – retreat.” The lead scientist growled, watching as Cecil’s helmet started to fracture from the repeated assault.
“We can’t access them Sir, both units now are unresponsive.” Jerry answered simply, taking a breath and typing in a new code, only to be denied access. The angel finally slammed Cecil flat onto his back; bony and dirty fingers began to peel at Cecil’s armor. Seeking a way in. I only had to get to soft flesh to begin the feeding.
“Insert command code 01.” Carlos growled, “Forcefully reactive their drivers.”
“But Sir,” Jerry began, looking up at Carlos with horror. “Command code 01 could have negative effects-!”
Carlos snarled, and began to raise his voice when Cecil’s vitals spiked for a second time, and stayed in the danger zone. “We’ve lost all control – Cecil’s gone into a berserk mode of defense!” Lucy shouted, earning everyone’s attention as the warning screamed at them.
Berserk mode was a dangerous situation. The unit acted without restraint, killed without mercy, and could drive itself into the ground, both mentally and physically. Cecil was prone to this kind of defense, which was the only problem they had with his unit. He refused to cooperate. But Cecil did his job. And they had no other option at this point, funding was in the negatives, Cecil and Kevin were their only option.
True to its nature, Cecil’s armor flickered off, then back on. The LED’s in his helmet turning white, then bleeding to a red as the angel tore away at his last defense. His back arched and body shuddered and when the angel hesitated, Cecil tore into action. His legs snuck between their bodies, feet planting firmly on the angel’s stomach, and kicking with enough force to send the angel skidding away. As Cecil stood, the team could only watch as Cecil tossed his head back, armor turning red as let out a silent cry of dread.
Cecil rushed at the angel in a crazed way, before jumping and successfully dodging the angels left arm. The sudden weight and force of Cecil landing on its chest caused the angel to stumble back, losing balance as it fell. Cecil hopped off again, landing behind the creature with one arm dangling, still broken. He turned around quickly, rushing at the angel again as the beast gathered itself. The unit only met the solid barrier of an AT field, snarling in a wild rush of anger.
“Angel 32 as deployed and AT field – as long as the field is up, Cecil can’t touch it!” Lucy informed, making Carlos grit his teeth, smashing the lavender gum between his molars as he racked his brain for anything. “Wait – Cecil’s … Cecil’s forcibly repairing his left wrist!”
The armor seemed to stretch out as bubble of flesh popped and writhed, Cecil clutched at his wrist in a brief moment of humanity before the flesh and bone reformed, perfectly normal. Now with both hands, the unit pried its fingers into the shield, slowly penetrating it and grasping at the edges. Now, the entire team heard the deafening cries of Cecil, his silent façade breaking with a breathy roar of anger. The muscles in his arms flexing for a moment before he actually tore through that AT field.
It was shockingly silent after the roar, every person in the room contemplating the effect it caused. It was one of the only, truly, terrifying things about Cecil. He was unmistakably the most human of all the units; Cecil was talkative, kind and even generous. But he was angry, and Cecil’s blood seemed to boil over the tiniest things.
“He just… tore through that AT field like it was nothing,” Carlos mumbled, looking upon the scene in awe. He’d give his left lung to see Cecil work in battle in the flesh, not over a screen.
Cecil, now unhindered by his broken wrist, slammed both hands forward, wrapping them around the angel’s throat. He let out another inhuman roar, each sound emanating from the back of his throat, and echoing into the speakers of the lab. The angel fought back angrily, wrapping its own, larger fingers around Cecil’s elbows, in a vain attempt to snap the bone there. But with one last cry, Cecil squeezed, and suddenly snapped the beast’s neck.
The angels arms sank to its side and Cecil easily knocked it to the ground with a harsh conformation of murderous intent. In a last ditch effort, the monster tried to lift its arms in hopes of snatching Cecil by the leg, but its movements were broken, slow and uncoordinated with the cervical vertebra broken. Cecil seemed to chuckle, grabbing the angels hand nonchalantly, and then grasping at the beasts elbow. Using both hands Cecil easily bent its appendage, increasing the amount of pressure until its bones cracked, and splintered from its skin with a bloody spurt. The angel howled in dismay, but was drowned out when Cecil slammed his foot down into its face.
The unit proceeded to crouch and tear at the angels remaining defensives .Fingers finding the soft skin of its neck to be the most appealing, and they dug into the dark flesh mercilessly. Lucy covered her eyes, shying away from the machine as Cecil let out another sound of triumph, and pulled the jugular out along with the tubed trachea. Blood spilled from its open wound, and the angel’s cries died off into wet chokes as Cecil continued to tear into it. Spilling its organs onto the driveway and bloodying his armor, Cecil dug around into the angel’s body cavity before snapping its ribs and reaching up its chest to pull out the mutilated heart. Cecil carefully cradled it and tilted his head in wonderment. His fingers trailed over the six chambered heart, pushing against busted valves and causing blood to spill from its depths. But soon he grew bored.
Cecil stood up and moved next to Kevin. There he sat there calmly; the LED’s turning from red to white, as the berserker mode washed away with the bloody touches of his enemy. “Unit Kevin is back online, Sir.” Jerry tentatively spoke, feeling sick from the display that had entranced them all.
Carlos swallowed down the urge to vomit, and nodded slowly. “Send a team in to collect the samples… bring Kevin and Cecil back down for repairs…” The team nodded silently and went about their business, one of the members comforting Lucy and ensuring that the brutality was over. Carlos had seen both Kevin and Cecil do much worse, in fact, this murder was rather kind… he’d seen Cecil and Kevin tear an angel apart together. And having fun doing so. And before their units had helmets, Carlos had witnessed horrifying acts of hunger; he can still picture the units shoveling the organs of their latest kill into their mouths. Tearing at the flesh and ripping it off the bone like they were starving, it was absolutely terrifying yet so… intriguing.
Further studies were denied, the board of directors didn’t want to uncover any cannibalistic abilities in the units, and Carlos didn’t blame them. So they were administered helmets, speakers built inside for relay of information and wires connected Cecil and Kevin the main access route.
With the occurrence of both units ignoring signals, and falling prey to the angel, Carlos and his team are forced to run tests on their circuit boards – Carlos hoped they find information quickly, and repair the problem. They would never know when the next angel would attack.
-:-
Cecil sat in his ‘room,’ a simply built white enclosure with a television, a couch and several toys. High tech of course, geared to keep Cecil’s brain sharp. When Carlos entered his card, and door slid open with a pressurized hiss, Cecil glanced up. His pale fingers pausing over a tablets instructions as he paused the game. “Good morning, Carlos.” Cecil chirped in his normal, honey coated tone. “I like that shirt, where did you get it?”
Carlos chuckled and shook his head, “From the bases store, I get a discount there…” He admitted softly, finding it amazing that Cecil fell so easily into conversation. The unit stood up and slowly moved closer to Carlos, following the lead scientist out of the room and into an examination quarter. “We’re just going to run some tests with your connection, find out why it… locked us out.”
“Is that what happened?” Cecil blinked, eyes changing to an orange with mild confusion before the default purple bleed back into place. “I don’t really remember – after it broke my arm – I was in a great deal of pain.” The unit muttered in shame, and sympathy panged in Carlos. Cecil knew what happened. He knew damn well. “I try very hard Carlos, very hard to stop that… that state of mind from taking over.”
“It’s okay Cecil, it’s not your fault; it’s ours. We need to rewire your system at some point, but for now, we have to deal with it.” Carlos answered simply, pulling up some information on the computers screen and glancing over the current data. “Hold out your arm, please.”
Cecil did as directed, holding his surprisingly thin arm out for Carlos, and watching blankly as the man plugged in a wire, directly into his ‘vein.’ The unit was much smaller without his armor on, almost looked normal if it wasn’t for the miles and miles of information packed inside. Glowing from under his skin in a mechanic fashion, the circuits giving him a mechanic look of… life.
Underneath his fingertips, Carlos could feel the cool, lifeless silicone casing, Cecil’s skin. “Am I a tool?” Cecil asked rather suddenly, glancing up toward Carlos with blue worried eyes.
“Cecil,” Carlos started, taken aback by such a question. Cecil was strongly aware, he’d always been. “You’re helping protect millions of lives – in fact, you are protecting those lives.”
“So… I’m just a tool.” Cecil answered in a whisper, moving his arm away from Carlos’s touches with a scowl. “If I were to… to die, would you miss me?” The unit almost begged, voice sounding over cumbered with emotions. That was alarming to Carlos.
“We would miss you, yes,” The scientist answered softly, looking at Cecil’s wiring. Monitoring the status. “There’s the problem… a wire route was severed in section 2A of your parietal lobe.” He mumbled quickly, seeking the change in the subject.
“I’ll try not to die then… since I’m so vital to humanity.” The unit’s cold voice gushed out painfully slow, and Carlos tried not to look worried. “May I go see Kevin?” Cecil inquired, his voice becoming light and cheerful again, defaulting to his requirements.
“Ah – yes, after I get you patched up.” Carlos answered, motioning for Cecil to lay flat against the table. Which the unit did, feet dangling over the edge as he swung them idly. Cecil and Kevin were given standard human clothes to wear, since they had no need for warmth and caring. Or at least that was what the team had hoped.
Kevin and Cecil were fast learning units, able to overcome emotions on the battlefield in favor of learning new tactics, but that adaptive learning came at a price. As each unit progressed, they were becoming more and more aware. Almost like a teenager pointing out every little flaw. So now the team had to deal with an odd mind set each unit had. Try and comfort them and learn in the process.
Temporarily hibernating Cecil, Carlos moved quickly, fixing the error deep inside Cecil’s skull and sealing him closed once more. Tapping the units temporal gently, Carlos watched as Cecil blinked back to life and sat up. “Let me see your left wrist, I need to assess the damage.” Cecil slowly extended his arm, letting Carlos’s fingers trace over the faint scar. “You reinitiated your program to fix this – how?”
“I just… closed my eyes, and let nature take over.” Cecil shrugged, clearly he had no real answer, seeing that he was in a berserk mode at the time, and Carlos let it slide. Cecil silently hopped off the table, playing with the zipper of his hoodie absently.
Shutting down the system, Carlos moved toward the door and began to lead Cecil down the many winding halls. There were no windows, only overhead lights and painted numbers. This base was held underground, and Cecil busied himself with the little things. “Kevin’s been rerouted, his system has been restored.” Carlos uttered calmly as he slide a card into a large green door, and it opened slowly, revealing Kevin’s room.
“Hello, Cecil.” Kevin smiled, waving the other unit over, to which Cecil lunged at him, knocking them both to the floor in a roll. Carlos blinked in mild alarm, but it faded when he heard Cecil profusely exclaim about the many reasons why Kevin had scared him. Before Carlos could say anything, both units paused, and turned to face him.
“We’re hungry,” They said in unison, pulling up to their feet and approaching Carlos with a happy demeanor. The man straightened his lab coat, and nodded, waving each unit into the hall and taking them down to the specialized mess hall. There they ate alongside the lab workers, but they didn’t eat the same things. Instead they had sorts of jello, packed with electrolytes and simple sugars to keep their ‘human’ portions functional.
Carlos sat across the table, watching Cecil and Kevin play with their food. Bouncing the colorful mass on their spoon and muttering sounds of playful wonderment. “Hey Carlos?” Cecil asked, tilting his head boredly and letting some blond stray locks fall into his line of sight. “Did you get a new haircut?” He asked harmlessly.
It was correct; Carlos had gotten his hair trimmed, but nothing too major. Just enough to keep his thick hair contained in the wrap of a pony, out of wiring and other equipment his genetics may harm. But he nodded nonetheless, unnerved by Cecil’s polite stare. “Yes…”
“I don’t like it.” Cecil answered softly, then went right back to eating, biting the spoon in surprise.
They were adapting too fast, becoming human at a rate their engineers had feared. Cecil seemed to be evolving faster than Kevin; he had always been more sensitive. But this was beginning to alarm Carlos. At any rate, Cecil may believe that he’s a human life form. He could sympathize and grow distant in battle.
Later that night, when Cecil and Kevin were docked in their ‘beds’ and charging, Carlos stayed up taking notes. Going over old data and huffing at the records. Just as expected, Doctor Palmer had designed their human casings out of her son’s image. The two young boys slaughtered in the first angel attack. Kevin and Cecil, the real, dead boys, were attacked on their way home from school. The angel had rose from the sewer and tore them to actual pieces, their bodies were only identified by the backpacks they wore and their mother’s bracelets.
Many more followed this first attack. Hundred’s fell overnight, thousands by morning. Now only one third of the population, worldwide, remained.
Doctor Palmer knew this; she knew the cost of creating these units… but the older woman may have fallen prey to her emotions. May have built the units too real, burned by her sons brutal death, it may have been the only way she could cope.
Carlos was just taking off his glasses when he heard the door behind him open, turning to face it, the man was shocked to see Cecil standing here. “C-Cecil, what are you doing up?” He rasped in surprise, watching the small unit approach calmly.
“It hurts,” Cecil mumbled, extending his left wrist towards the man and showing a blue fracture rising to the surface of his skin. Carlos pulled a stool over with the toe of his shoe, and let Cecil take a seat, gently turning over the wounded wrist and examining the crack with curiosity.
“Did this happen because you took a shortcut, and healed yourself in battle?” Carlos asked softly, watching Cecil’s eyes dart away at the question. “You know why you can’t do this.” The scientist mumbled, gathering his tools only to be stopped by Cecil’s soft grip.
“I’m scared. I’m scared of becoming human, Carlos.” Cecil whispered, “I’ve seen what you creatures do. And I’m… I’m just a tool.”
They were evolving.
Cecil was learning.
Carlos was falling.