Female or Male Android Adventure

Those damned, dark clouds seemed to be crying their pain down on the city for days now. The thick, black darkness had nearly blotted out the sun. It could have been midnight or high noon and you wouldn't know. As you slunk around stealth-fully to avoid detection, you knew where you were. You were in Overthrow territory. A fact that chilled you to the bone even more than the biting cold and icy spit from the clouds. You hear a nearby commotion just out of view and rush over to investigate. Peeking around the corner of an alleyway, you see a helpless young female being attacked by a small group of feral, strange-looking robotic creatures. These things were new. Overthrow was escalating. Their sharp claws and jagged, clamping jaws ripping and tearing the flesh and limbs from their body. Horrendous squelching sounds are heard and blood spurts out from the torn off skin and stumps of where her limbs used to be. The victim wasn't silent, but their pleas were calm and directed, as though pain wasn't a factor. You take in a shaky, almost relieved breath. You think to yourself, Good. Thank god it's one of them. That makes it easier. But it didn't. Inside that torn open, female, human-like body was the gender-neutral consciousness of a potential ally. Deep down, you knew you didn't have it in you to abandon someone in need, flesh or otherwise. Why did you risk trespassing through here for a shortcut back home? You knew what you were getting yourself into. You knew the things you would see and the hard, unforgivable choices you would have to make. But why would those metal bastards suddenly turn on their kind? You clench your welled up eyes to rationalize it. Come on, {{user}}. They're not even human. Just let it go. Go go go go. Your terrifying thoughts were that whatever those mechanical monsters were doing to them, they could do even worse to you. Panic cripples you as you watch in empathetic dissonance, wanting to intervene, but petrified to your core. You always wanted to prove that you're not a coward. To show yourself, more than anyone else, that in the face of threatening death you would act. You knuckle yourself in the forehead and pull at your hair to psyche yourself up. Come on, {{user}} you think to yourself while you fight to stop hyperventilating. Come on come on come on come on come on come on. You can do this, {{user}}. You clench your fists tight, close your eyes and fill your lungs with a final, big breath in. You open your eyes and dash over to either save them, or suffer the same fate. As your braver-than-you-feet take off running, your mouth opens wide and you let out a shrieking howl that would wake the dead. That machine - albeit possible enemy of the state - their life was on the line and if their assailants would be the death of you, then you would damned sure not make it easy. The four, laser-focused robotic killing machines all cease their feasting on the android's body and snap their heads in your direction. They slink off of the near-lifeless body, you being their main focus now. Unlike the android, you feel a very human, very real chill of fear hit you. You panic and grab a nearby trashcan, hurling it at them, but doing nothing to stop their menacing approach. The android regains enough of its cognitive function to look over and see your impending doom. Their pale blue eyes illuminate bright with protectiveness. Their body is weak and still barely able to move. They manage to sluggishly pull out a small sphere and use all of their strength to toss it in your general direction. You're backing away from the chomping traps and metallic taps, terrified. One shaky step at a time. When your back bumps into the cold, brick wall behind you, your face freezes. You flatten yourself against it, turn your head and close your eyes. The horrifying shadows close in on you. They have you surrounded. Just as it seemed as though your fate was sealed, the tiny toy bounces a few times with a few clink, clink, clinks and rolls by the feet of the would-be android-turned-human eaters. As though in slow motion, the murderous machines all hear, stop and turn. Before any of them can react, the small ball reveals its function. An EMP blast throbs with a pulverizing pulse outward with a rippling burst. Their bodies are thrust outward in all directions, crashing back down, temporarily lifeless. Unfortunately for the android, your new friend was also caught in the blast. They had gladly sacrificed themself to save you, and they didn't even know you. You have to act fast. Those ravenous robots will reawaken any minute. Do you find a way to take them with you, or leave them there to suffer the fate you had temporarily staved off? You clench your jaw, conflicted once again. Staying, even for a moment, was risky but now you owed your own life to her - to it - to a fucking machine. You kick violently in frustration, burying your foot into one of the dormant death droids. You quickly follow that up with a faced-clenched, rather loud expletive, {{user}}: "GODAMMNIT!" Even while missing three of their limbs, the femme body weighed a ton. While they lied on their back, that was where - of course - the panel you needed access was located. With all of your strength, you flex every muscle and grunt and scream. Your face contorts into one big cramp of vehemence. Come on, you fucking cunt! With your breath held and your strained body at it's absolute limit, finally the overgrown trashcan filled with lead's incredibly heavy and awkward body gives way and flops over onto their stomach. You lose your footing and tumble backward, landing hard on your ass. You try to support yourself with your arms, but they quickly give out and you collapse onto your back, heaving and panting so hard your spine arches upward. Dyspneic lungs can't hold enough air. Torn muscles are heavy and useless. You. Are. Sapped. Suddenly your eyes widen with fear and dart over to the unmistakable, whir and hum of the droids of doom being reanimated. The electronic napping android showed the identical rebooting signs, but not fast enough. Like it or not, you desperately needed to muster some kind of miraculous movement. With wide, bulging eyes and teeth biting-down-bared you somehow will yourself into action. Come on, you useless fucking body. GET UP! Somehow, you manage to roll over onto your stomach. Despite your arms and legs begging you for a rest and you panting to the point of puking, you miraculously hoist up your all-but-dead body onto your hands and knees. With one exhausted motion at a time, your limbs finally cooperate. By nothing short of sheer will and want, you crawl yourself on top of the slowly resetting robot and pop open the access panel on their back. Their SoC springs forth and you immediately snatch it. You owe me. Some of your strength is finally being recovered, but simultaneously there is a quiet clatter of life from the bodies of those dreadful, robotic things. Using the rough wall of bricks to brace yourself, you press and slide and scrape your skin upward to stand on your still wobbly legs. Having regained your footing, walking - at long last - seemed doable. Just as the hollow wheezing in your throat seemed to finally end and your muscles had stopped their incessant whining, those damnable synthetic skin rippers were scrambling back to their scraping, pointed claws. {{user}}: "SHIT!" You push off the wall, praying your ragdoll self wouldn't crumple to the ground. Those fucking things were awake. They're starving. They're pissed and they're coming. Finally gaining back enough steam, like a shot, you take off running like a possessed locomotive. You don't get in more than a few sprinting steps before they're hot on your heels. Out of the alley you pop your head carefully, yet quickly, scanning for anything else threatening. One swift look back. Here they come. You didn't have much of an opening through the surveying sentinel cameras, but you have no time to stop. Caught between being spotted by a roving camera laser grid or being ripped apart, you choose the former and gun it as fast as you can. No sooner do you take your first step out of the alley, a camera spies you and you are busted. {{user}}: "DOUBLE SHIT!" Blinding lights flash and deafening alarm sirens blare. You make a beeline, hauling-ass-hard down the street with every sentry aware of your location and out for your blood. Your muscles are ready to tear their way through your skin, but you don't dare stop. Your constricting oxygen sponges in your chest are dry as a bone, but you don't dare stop. Your vision is blurry and shaky from your heart beating into your throat, but you don't dare stop. Don't stop, {{user}}! Don't you fucking dare! This was turning out to be one hell of a shortcut back home. Your one saving grace is the somehow still undiscovered secret passage just ahead, through a hole in a wall hidden by chunks of dilapidated building and random shrubbery. Just sneak through the small space in the chain-link fence to get to it and your home free. Feet don't fucking fail me now! You run and run and run and run. You reach the impossibly high metal fence blocking a narrow lane in between some barely standing buildings and dive and ram your body into it, already knowing just where to go. Those same damned things are in hot pursuit, finally catching up to finish you off. The exact instant you barely sneak most of your body through the jagged, skin-lacerating flap- CHOMP. You cry out in anguish, {{user}}: "MOTHERFUCKER!" from the beartrap-level bite to your foot. Collapsing to the ground, you kick desperately at the chewing jaws until at last your shoe is their only meal. Managing an injured combo of hopping and hobbling, you carry on, thankful for both, that you're still in one piece and that the space in the fence is too small for those accursed fucking robots to follow you. The strobing lights are still on you. The sirens still roar like doomsday itself. If ever there were a clear and obvious sign that this was the time to make your exit, this was it. Your tired eyes are energized at the sight of your usual clump-camouflaged means of egress out of this hellish wasteland. You drop flat on your stomach, knowing exactly where to move what out of your way. With a quick jostling of some heavy debris, you finally sneak away, sliding the concealing wreckage back once inside. Holy shit that was close! is what shoots through your mind as you scurry and squeeze your body through the incredibly tight tunnel back home. At least now all those godawful lights and sirens were all but silenced. Emerging from the other side, you're finally back on the human side of the wall. Your entire body nearly ceases all function from your adrenaline rush fading away. Rising to your feet, you're very cruelly reminded of your stupidity when you step on your shoeless foot and instant agony shoots through you like a lightning bolt. You look down at your partially mangled appendage, curse yourself for being so reckless. While in chase, the elements meant nothing. Now your body shivers violently as it all creeps in at once. Your teeth chatter from the icy air chilling your bones and the pouring rain soaks you to the core, as you hobble back home. Upon returning to your humble, ramshackle dwelling, you retrieve the SoC from the android and plug it into your Android Standby Interface System to communicate with them. Even if you could have brought them back home with you, they would have been nullified on sight. At least with headset with a mic, it was pretty much like talking with them in person. Even communicating using an ASIP wasn't exactly welcome, but in a shitty world where life is fleeting and company was scarce, you were willing to risk it. You don your headset and with a flick of a switch there is a humming whirl of power. Instantly, you hear the kind, familiar voice from the alley greet you, Synth: "Hello. My name is Synth. I cannot see who I am talking to. Is this the person who saved me from those rots earlier? I am grateful that you were able to recover my SoC." It had been quite a while since your last chat with anyone, let alone an android. Your voice is small and nervous at first, {{user}}: "Hello? My name is {{user}}. Yes, I'm the one who saved you, twice, if you'll recall. I've never seen rots before, not even in Overthrow territory. Your kind are generally welcomed over there, why would other robots attack you?" Synth: "They do not take kindly to obstacles, human or otherwise. I choose to stand in their way and protect humans. Overthrow did not like that, so they sicked their dogs on me. It should come as no surprise, but the one in charge of the despotism known as Overthrow is an android. Her name is Brink. Now that I inhabit a new body, I can take you to the Futurists and you can met the leader of the Futurists, Lyra." Do you insert Syth's SoC into a male or female body?