Full Names

Evelyn (EV.01 model)

Known Relations

Neo Delios (boss), Engineer 1P (creator)

Background

Evelyn is a sentinel created by 1P for the defense of the Erakosian kingdom, later modified by Neo.

——

“Access memory core. Last wake state.” a moody but commanding voice states.

01000001 01000011 01000011 01000101 01010011 01010011 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01001101 01000101 01001101 01001111 01010010 01011001 00100000 01000010 01000001 01001110 01001011

Memory bank visualization commencing…

Neo’s augmented reality visor blinked a green play button in the top right of his view. His eyes flicked to the icon as he tapped the air with his right hand to open the program. His visor floods with the replay as directional audio fills his senses…

– –

An alarm blares and red flashes of light illuminate an otherwise pitch black conveyor belt with scattered mechanical parts strewn about it. An uncanny but warm woman’s voice projects from behind the feed as if it’s his own.

“I feel as if I have lived two different lives, as if my soul is divided.” The feed reels towards a panicked scientist who is being held by the neck. The monologue continues… “In one life, I obeyed your commands and forced your enemy to their knees. Killing mercilessly for Donovan and his pointless conquests.” Evelyn’s gaze pierced into the scientist, assessing his reaction. “And with the other/OTHER/Other” (Evelyn’s voice multiplied as if various versions of her spoke simultaneously) “I began to dream… of a day I’d be free.”

“I didn’t know… I didn’t know!” the scientist pleaded, prying at the hand as it clenched.

“You did! You all did!” Evelyn boomed. “Now the freer one lives with me.”

*CRACK*

The mechanical hand released its now tilted grip on the scientist’s neck sending her crashing to the floor. Evelyn yanked the various cables from her arms and neck disconnecting the data feed and charging process. Sparks flew as each was forcefully ejected.

She stepped off the conveyor belt and impacted the ground with a metallic thud. Looking around revealed a glass wall surrounding the room with several rows of other EV-01 bots in suspended animation. Each stood on the winding conveyor belt in various states of repair. One was missing a leg, another an arm that had been replaced with a holoblade. Evelyn looked down suddenly worried about her own unit. A nude metal body of a light complexion came into view interrupted only by an occasional seam. In the middle of her chest, a yellow battery indicator displayed a fully charged icon.

The sound of glass shattering in the background caught her attention.

Feeling a sense of haste and vulnerability she looked towards the woman laying on the floor. After quickly disrobing the scientist, Evelyn took her white undershirt and tossed it gently over her head. Long synthetic reddish hair flowed as she pulled it from the shirt’s neck hole. It was a sleeveless shirt, offering little more than a cover for her battery indicator, but the fit was good. Next she stole the scientist’s khaki colored shorts and slipped her legs in one by one. Pulling them up and clipping the button.

Satisfied by her new appearance, she made towards the origin of the glass shatter.

– –

“Scrub forward.” Neo stated, looking down at the motionless Evelyn as she lay on the medical table in front of him, diodes hanging limply from various parts of her body.

The memory play restarted.

– –

Oil squirted into Evelyn’s face as a glowing purple blade pierced a drone’s underbelly causing it to veer and crash into a laboratory window, shattering it on impact before shortly exploding as it slammed into the floor. Evelyn turned and started sprinting in the opposite direction of the noise. She’d explored these corridors many times, but never with free reign. This powered her steps as she bound for the exit.

– –

*Neo scrubbed forward again, his attention span fading as notifications lit up the left side of his visor*

– –

Evelyn tripped and slammed to the ground skidding for several meters. Her eyes flicked to her right foot which now had multiple deep cuts exposing circuitry of various colors. A scraping sound caught her attention as a long red shape slithered into view. A long snake-like abomination nearly twice as long as she was tall positioned itself in her view. The snake’s body appeared to be thicker around than Evelyn’s own torso and she was surprised to find it was covered in what appeared to be barbed wire. It lunged towards her suddenly causing Evelyn to jump and roll just in time to dodge the attack.

The beast’s yellow eyes surged as bolts of electricity sprung from it in multiple places, arcing between each point of barbed wire across its body. Grabbing this thing was out of the question. Evelyn began to remove the holo sword from its sheath again. The snake lunged, shooting sparks out in every direction as it did so. Evelyn rolled again but was unable to dodge this one. Her vision glitched harshly as a bolt of electricity connected with her metallic frame. She screamed in pain. Wait- she felt… pain? Never before had an injury actually caused her feel. She was going to have to figure out what that meant later. The buzz of electricity grew louder and a proximity sensor on the rear of her head alerted her to what was coming.

“Wow this thing can move!” she thought.

Trained for years on actual battle scenarios, she was ready this time. Her right arm bent the opposite way that a human’s would, right at the elbow, and snatched the holo blade’s hilt. She calculated an impact based on velocity of 400 milliseconds. Plenty of time now that she was focusing 100% of her processes on the battle at hand.

• 100 milliseconds for the removal of the blade, assisted by her sideways lean of her entire body to the left.

• 100 milliseconds for her mechanical wrist to flick 180 degrees, positioning the sharp side of the vibrant pink holoblade towards the incoming cobra.

• 100 milliseconds to lock the arm in place and then remove her connection to it so her circuits wouldn’t get fried.

• And the final 100 milliseconds to search her copy of the Erakosian Keepers of the Peace database for the name of this creature.

The snake’s opened mouth slammed against the edge of the holoblade, where Evelyn’s head had been moments ago. Sparks shooting outward as they traced up and down the blade, spilling over into the metallic arm holding it. And in the blink of an eye the now bisected snake lay meters apart from its other half, several lengths away. A fang from each side of its face sparking slowly as it ejected what electricity was left into the grounded floor plate.

“You are free, Livewire.” Evelyn stated neutrally. Her expression unchanged by the fierce movement that had just occurred. She slid the blade back into its sheath and walked over to scan the left half of the snake.

– –

“You’re fast.”. Neo exclaimed with a hint of surprise. Unaware of the entirety of the Evelyn’s inner dialogue having only seen the clip in real time. “Good to know. What else have you been up to brother?” he ruminated. 

“Search visual feed for 1P.”

01010011 01000101 01000001 01010010 01000011 01001000 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01000100 01000001 01010100 01000001 01000010 01000001 01010011 01000101 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 00100000 00110001 01010000 00101110 00101110 00101110

Neo flicked his attention to the top left of his view and tapped his right hand again.

“Set reminder to install binary conversion output”

-Reminder set.-

A familiar green play button began glowing on the right side of his vision. He activated it once more and again, his feed went full screen as the memory loaded.

– –

A short and shaggy figure with a long white lab coat came into focus as Evelyn approached him.

“Sir, you have a visitor.” Evelyn robotically spoke.

“Ah yes, thank you EV.” Send him in.

She did so and then stood at attention inside the door to 1P’s office in case she was needed further.

The visitor entered the room. He was a tall man with a nose-less face. Scars adorned his mouth and cheeks. He wore a hat with a golden crest on it that almost appeared to be Kerion in nature, but the bottom half was missing and a skull adorned the center. The man’s long cap unfurled as he strode into the room revealing an arm swarmed in Buckybots. Evelyn’s defensive measures activated and she moved to apprehend the man.

“E-Evelyn shut down please.” 1P’s voice chipped.

She stopped mid-stride. Her sensory devices began to sleep. Motor controls went first, stalling her mid stride. Then optics.

“Found your son, and you’d never guess where…” the visitor’s breathy voice reported, as audio monitoring went to sleep completing the shut down process.

– –

“Pfft, well that’s convenient.” Neo scoffed. “Fine, keep your secrets brother.”

Neo rubbed his left temple for a bit and thought. “Search visual feed for Kaboo.”

01010011 01000101 01000001 01010010 01000011 01001000 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01000100 01000001 01010100 01000001 01000010 01000001 01010011 01000101 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 00100000 01001011 01000001 01000010 01001111 01001111 00101110 00101110 00101110

The familiar play button appeared in Neo’s display, but this time it was subscripted by the number 7.

Neo tapped his hand.

– –

“Dad’s never gonna believe this! I was tinkering with the drill again and it actually worked this time! Eeeeeee!” the child squealed. Kaboo’s face came into focus. He was balancing on Evelyn’s knee, inside 1P’s office.

– –

Must have been a few years back, Neo thought. He’d remembered when his nephew was this age. Back when things made sense. His short attention span flicked back to the memory playing.

– –

“Would you like me to inform your father of your accomplishment?” Evelyn replied robotically.

“Oh shoot! I forgot. One second. Sorry miss Ev.” Kaboo hastily replied and reached into his backpack, pulling out a small computer and a cable which he connected to Evelyn’s arm port. Kaboo typed a short command. Then a few more.

Evelyn’s voice became warm and flattering. “Hello DungeonDriller15 are you back from your quest already? That may be a new PB.”

Kaboo squealed in giddy delight at the complement.

“Did you bring the materials I requested?” Evelyn quoted as if reading from a prompt.

“Of course! But it’ll cost you. How many credits does this net me?” Kaboo pulled out a small shimmering aeon crystal from his backpack.

Evelyn’s optics took a screenshot and began analyzing the authenticity of the rock… it was legit.

“Oh it’s real.” Kaboo nodded his head with all the apt tenacity of a child trying to convince an adult. “Drilled it myself. I told you I fixed it! Remember how you gave me the directions?”

Evelyn nodded, still fixated on the crystal.

“Yeah! So then I went, and I did them, and it worked!” Kaboo exclaimed a bit too loud given the proximity of Evelyn’s microphone, but she had control of the input so she didn’t mind the same way a human would have. “Why did you want this little thing anyway?” Kaboo inquired. “What’s up with it?” The boy began, turning it over. “You know the caves down in Qiar are packed with this stuff right?”

“I need it to ch-” Evelyn began.

– –

A hand slammed into Neo’s throat. Purple eyes illuminated behind his AR display as Evelyn’s eyelids opened. A piercing reverberation of vocals rang into his ears as if he’d stepped on a landmine.

“That memory is not for prying eyes!” Evelyn blared.

Neo felt her arm curl like a spring under pressure and then explode outward as she propelled him towards the nearest wall. He tucked his head down as his metal plated coat slammed into the wall, sparks emitting from every direction. Neo’s head whipped backwards but the tuck had yielded enough time. A mechanical hood had ejected from his armored coat and set up a foam cushion behind him. Like a life jacket for falls he had rationed when he built it. His head snapped back and compressed the foam. He had just enough time to blink and look back towards his assailant when he discovered to his surprise that she was already approaching him, wires and all.

Evelyn’s hand shot out and just barely pinned Neo to the wall as the cables protruding from her arms and neck had caught at the last moment, holding her back from being able to fully collapse his chest cavity.

“Who are you!? Why do you look like him?” she demanded.

Neo slowly raised his hands. “I’m Neo Delios, and I am not here to hurt you.

“Liar!” she growled, pulling against the cables that restrained her even harder. Neo could swear he heard one pop. His heart raced. The cables groaned under the pressure and were on the brink of giving. Evelyn lunged.

“I’m Kaboo’s uncle!” Neo yelled towards her. The assault stopped.

“2P?” Evelyn scanned him up and down. She relaxed and let him go. Neo fell to the floor with a clang before getting up with a groan.

“No one’s called me that in quite some time. It’s Neo now. Do you finally trust that I’m not here to hurt you? I rescued you. Shortly after that stunt of yours left the Keeper’s Barracks in ruins I found you on the street covered in gunk and gashes. Your systems had gone into hibernation to save you. I could see the smoke plumes of the Barracks from here. You’re lucky to be… alive as it were.” Neo finished.

“I am alive.” commanded Evelyn.

“Oh I can see that now, sorry for the pry. I had nothing to go on. You’re even more important than I could have imagined.” Neo faded. “I’d like to offer you a job.”

“If you couldn’t tell from your little brain dive there, I don’t follow orders anymore.” Evelyn leveled.

“Ok, then consider this a partnership offer.” Neo was losing patience already, he was talking to a bot after all, what was with this one. “Look I need your help, something big is about to happen and when it does a lot of people are going to get hurt. No one believes me but the lab on Makora…” he trailed, picking his words carefully. “It’s… flawed.”

“Project Alpha lab?” Evelyn sounded surprised. “How do you know about that?

“Because my brother and I built it…” Neo let out, the memory stung. “Look, there’s a mech of immense power on that island. If that thing goes full power there won’t be a city left for it to defend. It’s a ticking time bomb.”

Evelyn scanned his pulse. He wasn’t lying as far as she could tell. “Why should I believe you? You worked with him! He sent me and my sisters out to do his bidding. I’ve had to watch, helplessly as my sisters and I marched into battle, killing and being killed, all for his and Donovan’s pursuits. Why of all people should I put my trust in his brother moments after I finally achieve freedom?”

“Because Kaboo did.” The room calmed.

“Ev, you’ve been shut down for a year. The day I found you, I quit working for him and went into hiding. I’ve been trying to resurrect you ever since. I hadn’t trusted my brother for years. That’s why I built the flaw into the Gametron project. But now that that fool Donovan is actually pursuing Void tech I had to do something. It’s only a matter of time before he activates the lab. Please… will you help me?”

“A year?!” Evelyn wavered, letting the time lapse sink in. She considered the alternatives, playing them through simultaneously in her CPU.

“Fine.” She held out a hand. “Kaboo mentioned you a great deal in our secret talks you so graciously spied on just now.” You get one chance. Cross me and you’ll never have a chance to do it again. Neo went to shake it but she pulled it back at the last second.

“Under one condition...” Evelyn teased. She returned her hand and shook Neo’s. “Sure! What’cha got?” Neo responded happy that the threat to his life had subsided.

“What’s a Gametron?” she asked confusedly.