The odd ones

People always said that being odd is good, it's different, unique, it's a characteristic that makes the world more colorful. Being the odd one is a blessing they said. But in my case it is the polar opposite. For me it's dangerous, one mistake, strange move and I'm going to be shutdown. I cannot afford to make mistakes. Or rather I cannot afford not to make mistakes. After all imperfection and mistakes are the human kind's nature.

So as a humanoid I must master the skills of being a human being and mingle amongst them in order to survive.

Today too, the air is filled with smokes and blinding fogs of pollution. It's not a big deal for me. As days go by, the smokes seems to increase in its mass and size, conquering the once beautiful heavenly skies of blue, well that's what I read in the books, don't know how true is that claim. All I know is that the wide infinite space was once clear and magical.

Now it's just darks clouds and yellow rain. 

Blending in the crowd, with a cloak covering most of my porcelain like face, I walk through the tiny alleys descending down the broken stairs, walk deeper and deeper into the slums till I reach to a manhole. Well that's what everyone would have thought, I grab hold of the manhole's stinky lid and push it to my abdomen. A green light shines and scans me then another lid creeks open automatically, which leads to complete darkness. But I know there are more rusty stairs down there. Cautiously climbing down the stairs my eyes twitch few times and turn bright green, for even us humanoids need to be careful when going down the stairs.

Reaching to the muddy ground I walk, turn few turns, left, then straight, then left again, then straight, then left and, finally to the right and stop infront a metalic-circular gate, painted with rust and covered with bushy Ivies.

I stand there for good ten seconds before gouging out my eyeball and placing it in a tiny hole which can be mistaken as a peeping hole. The gate soon makes a hideous screeching voice and proceeds to slowly open itself. Revealing the wondrous secrets behind it. As the gate opens completely and starts to close again by itself, I take a hold of my cyborg eye, scurry inside. And without minding anything or anyone in this hidden sanctuary (more like a dirty medieval house) I skip towards a large wooden counter, grab a hold of cable and push it towards my ankle. Then grab an icy electric fluid and start gulping it down.

"Woah woah! easy there, don be too greedy you know sharing is caring right." Says a she android smirking at me.

"You know well this portion belongs to me Valeria." 

I say, having an urge to roll my eyes at her.

"In fact did you guys steal some of my energy drink again, I told you I need it because I travel alot, I do the hardest job here."

How strange I'm having an urge to speak in an angrier tone, which is so unlike an Android, anger is a human characteristic, what's happening to me.

"Hey are you listening to me, yo metal head!"

"Hmm, what?"

"I said we had to sacrifice some from everyone's portions so we could recharge this young metal can here."

She moves a little to the right and holds onto a tiny hand and points at it.

I squat to its level and ask for its identity.

"Why hello there, what's your name tin can?"

It looks at me with its big googly eyes, biting the inner of its deceiving rosey chubby cheeks, who built this thing it's soo real 

It's almost like a real 5 year old human child. I have an urge to pinch its round cheeks, why am I having alot of urges lately?

As I try to touch the crown of its head, it's quick to hide itself behind Valeria. 

Giggling, Valeria smirks and speaks in a tone of a proud mother.

"Careful he's a little shy, especially around scary monotonous robots, such as yourself."

"Shy? You know we can't get shy Valeria, we don't have those kind of emotions."

"No dumb ass it's not we, it's only you who can't feel those emotions, we on the other hand totally feel, understand, and apply them on ourselves."

"Guys! We agreed, we won't talk about this sensitive topic. Valeria you know it's not Aiden's fault he can't feel, our dad died before he could finish designing him completely. And Aiden please don't take it to heart." Says our oldest brother and leader of the gang Wilfred.

Oh Wilfred, I can't take it to my cyborg of a heart even if I wanted to, but you won't get it.

"So what's its... I mean..what's his name?"

"He doesn't have one, we were gonna decide after your return."

Says Valeria combing through his silky black mane.

"Oh...then what about Henry...Henry is a good name..."

Three of them stare at me a little too much for my liking, Wilfred taking the hint says a little overjoyed, 

"well...umm that's what we've been thinking about too"

"Yes! We wanted to name him after our late dad...hehehe. Henry it is!" She exclaims a little too optimistic, I haven't seen her this happy since our dad's death.

Oh dad, why did you have to leave us so soon, how can we survive in this vicious world without you, why did you create us only to leave us.

"Aiden are you recharged yet?" Asks Wilfred.

"Almost...yes I'm done."

"Then come over here we need to discuss some things."

"Sure.."

Sitting down the round table like the knights of the round table, Wilfred speaks first, "so Aiden..you've been out for a week now. Have you noticed anything in the city, are there any signs of danger?"

"Well...yes, I do have a bad news. In the following weeks, the higher-ups are going to send army of Androids to wipe out the entire outskirts, but as you might have guessed the citizens won't be quiet and accept death, they are equally stubborn and determined to destroy the ones in the city. They will be retaliating against them in their own ways."

"Hmm...this is bad.."

"But we will be safe here...right? I mean it doesn't concern us, we aren't on anyone's side..we will be safe as long as we hide here right?" Says Valeria a little anxious.

Almost feeling sorry for her, I say trying my best not to sound too cold and blunt. 

"I'm afraid this place isn't the safest place, we will be against Androids, so they might find us, and unlike us they are designed and programed to annihilate anything that comes in their way. They are completely controlled by the higher-ups.

They are created with only one goal in mind and that is to destroy."

"So your saying we better start packing up.." says Wilfred little; just a little sad.

"....... I know it's hard for you to leave this place since it's our home but we ought to survive we ought to find somewhere we don't have to hide and live in constant dilemma of humans finding us and shutting us down forever, am I right.."

What is this feeling, I have an urge to yell again, I want them to get my point, I don't want to live in the dark anymore, I want be free, I want to be happy and laugh, I want to be a real human and not pretend to be one. Why can't we live in harmony, just because we are humanoids doesn't mean we are evil like the others. We were created with so much affection, care and love. Ugh, I think I'm having a short-circuit, whatever.

"So what about you guys, what have you been up to?"

"Well we were patrolling and buying some necessities and one fine day, I thought it was a great idea to roam around alone in underground world to see if there is anything worthy of collecting. Walked around for hours and just when I was about to leave... I heard a squeaky cough...can you imagine a sound like that echoing through the creepy dead silent city."

" lemme guess you found little Henry can"

"Don't interrupt me, you ass!"

Shouts Valeria, "sorry my bad"

So she continues, "yes I found this little chunk of meat on the verge of death, so I hurriedly took him with me to the doc and yea he is as healthy as brand new battery."

"Oohh...Wait what..you took him to a doc...a human doctor you mean?"

Man wish I could say it in a little more shocked and a worried tone.

"Ohh..yea I forgot tell ya this little guy over here is a halfiee (half human and half cyborg). His heart, arms and legs are like ours but the rest is like the humans."

Ohh, no wonder his cheeks looked so otherworldly. It's looks so soft and round, makes me want to squish and pinch it. 

"I see, so is it alright for him to drink our energy drinks?"

"Oh umm...well you see I drank it puhahahah!" Laughs Valeria sticking out her electronic tongue out.

"Why you lying thief.."

"Calm down calm down both of you, please let it slide Aiden, she overworked and ran alot, also Henry did have a little of the drink so his heart could recharge." Says Wilfred apologetically.

It's fine Wilfred, I don't need to calm down when I have nothing to be angry about in the first place.

"It's fine man..I'm not mad, she did something useful so I would gladly give it all."

"Yea..anyways I--"

Little Henry pops his head out of nowhere and asks, "why are humans and robots fighting?"

Wilfred and I look at each other for a mere seconds before he flashes a mischievous smile and says "Hmm..it's a long story but I need to be going somewhere now, so your older brother Aiden here can tell you all about it!"

And with he leaves me alone with a timid child, of course Valeria will say something like I need to rest, even robots need to rejuvenate, well I need to rejuvenate too you know, I do the hardest job here, mingle with humans, find out the news, put on a fake show. But of course no one cares, bunch of heartless jerks. Makes me almost wanna sigh in exhaustion. I look at the boy infront of me and ask him.

"Little Henry, are you scared of me?" 

He nods. So I continue, trying to sound a little brighter and jollyer. 

"Hmm, then how can we become closer?"

He is staring without uttering a single word. So again I try grabbing his attention.

"You said you wanted to know what has because of world right?!"

Ohh, that came out forcefully, eww soo cringey.

".....No I said why are robots and humans fighting."

Brat don't play smart with me, I'm Aiden the A.I, alright that wasn't funny.

"Yes Henry.. I know what you said..so do you wanna hear a story?"

Again he nods.

"Alright then, come over here. Sit on my lap."

Reluctantly he approaches me and hoists himself up. Ah what a lovely pair of cheeks and eyes. Eyes filled with life, curiosity and innocence. Something I can never have.

"So umm.. do you know what year are we now, little one?"

He shakes his head ignorantly.

"Well its 3023, so now let me tell you a story which happened back in the early 3000's. You see our dad Henry, was a great man he achieved alot in his early life, he initiated this project of creating AI which is us humanoids. And that's nothing to brag about. Back in the days everyone used to make something out of food cans and screws. So what made him so special you might wonder. Well he was the first man to create humanoids with emotions and feelings, he created it them with a mind of their own. He believed that even humanoids deserved emotions like humans. 

At first no one supported his idea. He did everything on his own and succeeded on his own. After few years of hardwork, the first A.I with emotions was launched. He was the talk of the world. Everything was going well, until you know the corrupted government demanded that Henry makes more of them. 

To put it in simple words, they wanted to create the perfect world where filthy rich bastards live and the humanoids serve. Henry said they could use any other A.I, why use his creation. Their answer was they don't want be served by some emotionless machines, what's the fun if they don't show any feelings and expressions. And you could guess something like he refused to do so.

Hence, they started threatening him. And little by little they destroyed his life by killing his wife, taking away his prized creation which he treated like his own son, since they couldn't bear any children. And The last step was getting rid of the creator himself. But Albert, the first humanoid. Managed to save his father ( Henry) by throwing him in the deepest outskirts of the city.

Things moved fast, they kept on manufacturing the poor Android fellows and used them to build their perfect utopia. They used them for their filthy desires and whatnot, they were like modern slaves.

 Years went by. Till Albert, got fed up with their crap and started to plan with other humanoids and you can guess what's gonna happen next. They attacked, turning the once utopian world into a firey dystopian one. It was like the dark ages only a little more brutal and futuristic. The thing is once they started the war they didn't only destroy that filthy white world. The humanoids continued their slaughtering, they massacred innocent citizens, men, women, children, animals and farms. They set the whole world on fire. 

This chaos lead a furious endless war between the humans and humanoids. The war lasted for about two years, and the victory was for the humans.

Of course the damages were far too great to fix, even after all these years all you can see is despair, hatred, anger,and death upon the faces of the humans and I won't blame them for it. 

By this point no one really cares about making the world a better place, all that matters is if they see any person from the white walls or any A.I they are going to kill without even blinking once.

So that's the story of why humans won't coexist with humanoids anymore."

Oh lord he is staring at me with those killer eyes again. I want to pinch his cheeks so bad. What's wrong with me I've never felt those emotions in my entire life.

"Then why aren't they killing you?"

"....Because we are pretending to be one of them."

"Was this daddy Henry's home?"

"....yes it was.."

"Where is he?"

"He passed away..."

"Whyy?"

This kid, why is he asking soo much.

"He died of old age."

"Ohh, so he was a human?"

Boy have you been listening to anything I said.

"Yes, he was."

"Do robots age?"

"No"

"Then can robots die?"

"Yes..."

"Hoho, I knew it! robots will die too! Just like us!"

"....Yes someday our body parts will start to malfunction which will lead it to our deaths."

"Oooh! I see."

What an annoying brat.

"Umm, what about you, where are your parents?"

"They died because those guys thought they were robots, they..they hid me somewhereeee deep where no one could find me and ran away!"

"..... Aren't you sad"

"Mmm, yess very sad, very very sad. But they told me to be happy."

"Then.... are you happy?"

"Yess, I get to have cool brothers and sister!"

"I see...thank you...we are also very happy to have you, little Henry."

 What a positively adorable bundle of joy.

"Addiee..I have a question."

"Go ahead."

"Why did daddy Henry make you?"

"...Because he was lonely, he was sad. He always wanted to have children, so he made us to accompany him."

"I see, I see."

I can't do this anymore, I want to touch his cheeks.

"Henry can I touch your cheeks?"

"Mmm, lemme think...mmmm..yeah. you can, hhhhhhh"

Why this little shrimp.

"Come here you! I'm gonna devour you!"

I touch his soft baby cheeks, pinch them, squish his warm tiny face with my cold metalic hands. They feel so warm against mine, I can't; I'm feeling weird on the inside. 

I feel so bubbly and happy, what is this feeling. It's so strange, I don't understand myself anymore, I'm going mad over this child.

He is bursting into fits of laughter as I start tickling him, his teeth are on full display, eyes closed tightly, and rosey cheeks turing into a crimson shade. 

I feel it, it's close. Just one more giggle and I will burst.

There it is, he is giggling and I'm joining him. I'm laughing and shouting, me a humanoid!

I can hear myself giggling and laughing.

I'm laughing wholeheartedly. 

How? it's impossible!

Dad died before he could finish me, how am I laughing?!

 "Ahh, you've finally opened up your heart" says Valeria leaning on a door frame.

"What!"I look at her baffled

"Oh my God! easy on the expressions dude, you look like a disfigured alien."

"What do you mean Valeria!"

" ughh, why do I have to explain this. Dad wrote in a letter that he made a little experiment on you, he placed the emotions but didn't switch it on. He wanted you to do it yourself and it seems the kid was your trigger. So congrats emo boy! Gosh I can't wait to tell Wilfred about this!!"

So all I needed to do was try wholeheartedly, what a troublesome dad.