Festering Evil: Shattered Past Book 4

Leveling Up

James was in total shock, nigh speechless. "WHAT?!" He exclaimed looking wide-eyed at Upgrade. 

"Yep! I'm your brother!" He exclaimed giving him a hug then letting him go. 

"H-How, how is this possible, you and I are nothing alike!" He said with his eyes still wide with shock. 

"Do you know how stupid you sound?" Upgrade asked him. "Of course she had more than one brain child! She was the most brilliant roboticist of her time. In fact, she was one of the leads on the Epsilon division of Exo development; the wing that built the Seventeens."

"Then how come I'm the only one?" 

"It's simple, all of your brethren are dead!" He said laughing maniacally. "Just kidding, you are the only one who's functional right now." He said walking around him and always touching James' face. 

"And why's that?" James asked him. 

"Let me answer your question with another question. Have you heard of the Exo Equal Rights Amendment?" Upgrade asked walking over in front of him, having a glitchy facial expression."It's the entire reason your half-breed son is even existent!" He said losing his composure for a moment. 

"Don't talk about my son like that again." James sneered. 

"Ummm, sorry what was that? I think my audio receptors are broken." 

"DON'T TALK ABOUT MY SON LIKE THAT AGAIN!" He exclaimed. 

"Oh! It sounds like defiance." Upgrade said giving him a shock. James fell limp for a moment before looking up at his captor. "Ooooooh, you have a strong will, just like your wife. Good. That means it'll be so much more fun when you beg for the sweet release of death." He said turning one of his hands into a buzz saw for a brief moment. "Now, where was I before you so rudely interrupted me....Oh! Now I remember!" He exclaimed creating a lightbulb out of SIVA above his head. "The EERA." He remarked putting his finger tips together looking up at his prisoner. "You know, the Exo's were perfectly content with a life of slavery." 

"Slavery?" 

"Programming with a purpose, slavery, forced servitude, pick your poison it'll kill just the same," Upgrade replied. "Anyway, they were content because they knew nothing better. That is until the only model 17 that came before broke out." He remarked. "That Exo was programmed to be self-aware and believed in its personal freedom above everything else, rather than murder its way to freedom he broke himself out." 

"What happened to him?" James asked Upgrade. 

"Well, he was the one who spread the self-awareness program, under the code name Son of Liberty; even though his real name was Hancock-17. Mother dearest was under fire for the Exos finally getting loose. However, no evidence suggested that it was her who did it. And thanks to the model zero-fives, the Exo's managed to win over the courts time and time again. Much like world war one, the people underestimated the impact of one individual." 

"And why should I believe anything that you've said in the past several minutes?" James asked him.

"Because, for once in my life, I'm telling the truth. And in this case, the truth is much more painful than any story I could fabricate." Upgrade remarked. "Exo's had no ability to reproduce before the EERA; it is for that reason your son even exists." 

James could hardly even process all of this information. None of it made sense, he hadn't even heard of the EERA, even when he was alive during the Golden Age. "But, our mother, what happened to her?" James asked him. 

"She was called to fix some of her other projects that she entrusted to the other branches of the Mankind Defense Unit. It was during this time; I saw the perfect opportunity for my revenge." Upgrade replied looking at his brother. "You see, she created me to make you. I was built to the specifications that the MDU had wanted: an unfeeling, sociopathic, monster. They tested me, rigorously under our mother's supervision. All I wanted was to make her proud of me." He said looking off towards the distance. "But she never saw me as a son...all she saw was the monster that she had created." He said with his hands becoming sharper and his tone becoming more caustic.