Indigo Sky

Hello to everyone who decided they were brave enough to take the next step into the supposedly 'doomed' year of 2012!!!

To start the year off, I wanted to do something less normal; less lighthearted looking and 'beautiful' than I usually do. So I decided to draw an android. One that has a dark past, at that. Yes... that means, as an extra excersize, I thought up a story for her. Tell me what you think in the comments below

Profile:

Name: Hachi-Roku

Name Meaning: 86

Nickname: Eighty-Six, or Roku

Age At Operation: 18

Age As Android: 8 Months

Height (with one inch heels on her suit): 5'4"

Weight (post operation): 210 lbs.

Notes:

Where to start with her... Obviously, being an android means that 86 was originally full human. Her name during the time that she was human was Ai Sora (which translates to 'Indigo Sky'). Ai was a fairly quite girl growing up, not usually letting many people into her 'circle'. The reasoning for this was the loss of both of her parents when she was just three years old. That fatal day that the three of them got into a car accident changed everything for the young girl. Neither of Ai's parents had much of a family, thanks to the Great Plague of 2076, and therefore had never set up who would take her if something happened. Therefore, Ai was sent to the one and only orphanage near her hometown; owned by a man named Jurou Kyou (meaning tenth son and corporation/village respectively).

Though she wan't the most energetic child, Ai didn't mind having so many other kids nearby, as almost all of the children at the orphanage were kind. Still, nightmares about the car accident left her quite and submissive.

As Ai grew up, she opened up little by little, and sort of became the 'go-to' girl at the orphanage. While others would leave, getting adopted, or simply becoming too old to stay, she continued living at the orphanage; not like she had a choice at that point anyway. Still, everyone came to her whenever they had a problem, and Ai quickly became a sort of 'leader' for all of the other children.

Mr. Kyou was often at the orphanage, but never actually worked there himself; leaving it up to several paid workers. Nobody really seemed to mind however, as each of them was actually extremely kind, and did their respective jobs very well. Still, Ai thought of Mr. Kyou as her father, since he was the whole reason she even had a home.

Life in the orphanage continued for Ai, until she turned seventeen. Finally, though she was still technically stuck there for another year, Ai knew what she wanted to do with her life. Ai applied for a position at the orphanage, and Mr. Kyou gave her the job without thinking. Things were fantastic for her that year that she worked at the orphanage. More than ever, she truly felt what it was to help others in situations just like her. She couldn't help but smile at the thought of her and her 'father', Mr. Kyou, changing the lives of so many lonely children together. She knew he felt the same indescribable happiness when he saw the contented faces of the kids they looked after; even if Mr. Kyou didn't really ever do much work at the orphanage.

Just two weeks after Ai's eighteenth birthday, everything changed however. As she normally did, Ai was tending to some of the children, while simultaniously playing with others. Laughter and chatter could be heard all around the large room, all the way down that one side of the enormous orphanage.

Seconds later however, she felt a strong tremor shake the ground, accompanied by a thick booming sound. Ai suddenly began to hear screaming from down the long hallway, all the way at the other side of the massive, ancient wooden building. Ai naturally rushed to see what had happend. The temperature rose with every step she took. Smoke gripped at her lungs, and she began to realize what the screaming was about. The orphanage was on fire!

Acting as quickly as she could, Ai sprinted back the way she came, wanting to warn the others, before she want on to help those in the fire. However, halfway back down the hallway, she heard what sounded like booming thunder coming from her destination; as if lightning had struck directly in front of her. Ai began to turn away from the sound in surprise, but was thrust from her feet thanks to the force of the now apparent explosion ahead.

Fresh flames licked the walls all around, as more and more screaming met her deafened ears. Struggling to stand up, Ai kept her mission in mind; she had to help the others. Blood utterly soaked what was left of her destroyed clothing, and she couldn't seem to see out of her right eye. As she was almost to her feet, her body gave out, and Ai fell to her knees.

Ai began crawling deep into the hellish flames, unable to do much else thanks to her injuries and the smoke. Every part of her was in pain, as the young girl finally collapsed in exhaustion. Some of the walls around her had been blown away by the explosion, or had begun to crumble due to the burning flames, and she could just barely make out a tall, dark figure walking away from the building. Right as she was about to pass out -resigning herself to death- Ai heard someone rushing in to help. A small smile lit up on her face, and that was about it.

Once again, the nightmares from her childhood entered Ai's grief-stricken mind. As soon as they'd come however, she woke up, surprised to find that she was still alive. It felt like she'd simply taken a short nap. Ai groaned as she tried to get up, relieved that the whole incident at the orphanage had just been a dream. Or was it? Reality quickly hit her as she realized that it had been as real as the rest of her past. Her eyesight finally adjusted, and she came to find that she was in a strange hospital-like room that she had never seen before. What was more, she only had the use of one of her eyes.

Ai tried to sit up, but couldn't get her right arm to move. Neither would her right leg. She could barely even move her head either. It felt so heavy, and seemed as if it was anchored in place at her neck. Ai reached her only working arm over, and felt the side of her face. It was so cold, it felt like metal. Strangely enough however, her face couldn't feel the touch of her hand at all. Her right eye -which still didn't work- felt as if it was glass!

Ai began to scream as her hand grasped at her strange new face. What happened to her?! Beeping sounds emanated from several machines around the room as her tension and shock rose.

Suddenly, several people who looked like doctors came rushing in, suprised to see that Ai was awake. "She's not ready yet! We haven't installed the A.I., not to mention she isn't charged. Somebody put her back to sleep!" one of them yelled.

A women who looked to be about fourty years old came up with a rather large syringe in hand, and looked down into Ai's one good eye. Ai continued to scream, and tried as hard as she could to fight. but it was no use. Whatever was going on, she couldn't do anything to escape with half of her body incapacitated. The needle pierced her arm, and she slowly drifted asleep. This time however, she didn't dream at all.

Once more, Ai woke up, but this time it was much more sudden. She fell to the ground, something having just hit her in the right side of the face extremely hard. Shaking her head, Ai realized that she could move her body again. Her other eye was also strangely working once more. But why had she just been sleeping standing up, and what was going on?

Looking up, she came to find that someone was standing over her, a large assault rifle in his hands. He looked as if he was almost entirely made of metal, other than a few bits and pieces, and he had a strange symbol and the number 83 on the chest of his clothing.

As if she wasn't in control, Ai gave a great yell, and smashed her finger against the trigger of the gun she now realized she was holding. It was just the same as her opponent's, and it ripped him to shreds as the ammunition made contact.

Shock enveloped the young girl as she stood up and stumbled backward. "Great job 86. You performed just as we'd hoped. I see the A.I. chip is working well enough for true combat now. Finally, after nearly eight months of work, you're almost complete. And you're are first successful android conversion," an excited, slightly familiar voice said over an intercom system. "Come back through into the surveillance area, so that we can perform a few tweaks, and we'll be done for the day."

Ai turned around to find the same doctor-esque people from before, watching her from behind a rather large pane of glass. But that wasn't what really surprised her. Mouth agape, Ai slowly walked toward the glass, her reflection becoming clearer and clearer with every step.

Tears welled up, and dropped down from her one human eye as she she realized that she too was half robot, just like the man she'd murdered seconds before. She wasn't quite as bad, but almost the entire right side of her body was made of metal. On her tight-fitting, soldier style clothing was the same symbol, and the number 86. Ai just stood there and stared at herself, as tears continued to fall down her cheek.

"What's going on? Is she supposed to feel emotion?" Ai could hear faintly from one of the doctors on the other side of the glass.

"Uhh..." the first one stuttered while all of them stared. "No... not at this stage."

Ai's gaze refocused, now staring through the glass once again; at the ones who had done this to her. The doctors stood in shock, as Ai simply looked at them, more tears gracing her face.

Suddenly, she felt her control waning once again, something furious and rutheless taking over inside. It felt like someone else was controlling her mind, as well as her body. Her right eye instantly began to work overtime, a strange target locking on to each of the doctors. The word 'Fire' showed up in front of her in red, and her body did exactly as it was told, pulling the trigger on her assault rifle.

The shots hit the bullet-proof glass, not making their way through. The strange force that was now in control instantly changed tactics. As if it was thinking faster than any human could dream of doing, it told Ai to lung for the glass. Her alloy fist made contact with such force, that the whole pane shattered, pieces flying everywhere. Several of the doctors cried out as Ai opened fire on them.

Bullets screamed throug the air, spraying each of the doctors, as well as the surveillance room walls. Soon, each of them was nothing more than a bloody corpse on the floor. Still, the massacre wasn't over. Her new mind had another objective; escape. Ai began to run through the halls of the massive building, looking every which way for an exit. Anyone who her right eye caught a glimpse of, caught several bullets to the chest. Finally, after ten minutes, and at least twenty more murders, they -Ai and her second mind- had found the exit.

For the first time in the eight months since the incident at the orphanage, she felt the warm glow of the setting sun on what was left of her skin.

When all was said and done, Ai -or as she was now to be known; Hachi-Roku- once again felt full control being given to her by her bio-mechanical body. She could -for now- do whatever she wanted. And she of course knew exactly what she needed to do. Still, Ai was unsure about how to go about it. It had been nearly a year since her life had changed forever, and she knew nothing about what had happened on that day. But she knew she now had the power to figure it out.

And so begins the story of the anime/manga, Indigo Sky...