“My name is Roger Smith. I perform a much needed job here in the city of amnesia. Paradigm City, forty years ago, something happened that made everyone lose their memories. Still, despite that lost knowledge, people have still been able to rebuild their lives. However, some strange remnants of that forgotten past, giant robots called Megadeuses continue to appear and attack the city. Incidentally, I found one myself, Big O, and together we fight to protect Paradigm City. Over time I have put down more than I can count and slowly discovered parts of a puzzle that has a thousand pieces that was forty years ago.”
“Not that any of that matters now.” That’s what Roger told himself. Only minutes ago he and Dorothy had been placed in a most bizarre position even given their usual danger filled lives. They were on board a sinking submarine. Some time ago, Blue Submarine No. 6, some old relic the military police found and was put back together with the hope of reaching the foreign countries that everyone now believed existed, what with more people claiming to be from somewhere else and even foreign Megadeuses attacking now. Roger was reluctant to go, but the people behind the expedition insisted they would need a negotiator when they reached the new land. As a result, Dorothy insisted on going with him. She hadn’t given a reason, but Roger didn’t bother asking, figuring it would be nice to have one familiar face around and as an added bonus, she would be FAR away from the piano.
As luck would have it though, some kind of serpent Megadeus appeared in the sea. Surprisingly, this hunk of junk’s torpedoes were able to take out that rusted relic, but not without getting itself damaged and losing the crew in the process.
“Well Dorothy?” Roger spoke. The android in question had been pushing hard against a metal door before. During the attack, she and Roger had retreated to this room just as the sub began to flood. It had saved them from the water, but now they were trapped and Dorothy confirmed that by saying “The water pressure is too great, I can’t get it open.”
Suddenly the two felt the submarine rumble a bit and then stop. They could feel it, they had reached the ocean floor. So the good news was they weren’t still sinking. The bad news was the ship was so battered that the pressure was slowly crushing it. So not only was everyone else gone, leaving Dorothy and Roger all alone, but now there was no way out, and on top of all that, during the attack, his watch was damaged.
“So this is it.” Roger said. Sitting up against the wall, the reality of their situation fully sunk in. Surprisingly able to remain calm and accept this fate, he turned to the one whom he knew would live.
“Her name is R. Dorothy Wayneright, an android duplicate of a dead girl. Her father, her creator, got everything right except he failed to perfect her personality. However, it isn’t completely robotic. Her voice can often be misinterpreted as monotone, but even outside of drastic and therefore very emotional situations, there’s always a hint of emotion there…though most of the time it’s just sarcasm. After defeating her ‘big sister’, she came to me, claiming she had no other way to pay for the negotiation other than serving me…not REMOTELY what I meant. I wasn’t so sure, but apart from not letting me sleep as much as I’d like, again not what I meant, I really have enjoyed having her around. Now though, I wonder how she’ll feel, I mean, it’s difficult to tell her emotions, but still I wonder how she’ll react once her services to me come to a bitter end?”
“I have to be honest Dorothy, I’m glad you came to work for me.” He told her. He didn’t say the actual words, but he knew that she saw what he did. This was it, the final curtain. Roger coughed, the air was getting thinner by the minute. If the lack of oxygen didn’t kill him the water would once it came bursting through those walls. Not that an android like Dorothy had to worry about either of those things.
Most people would be screaming their heads off or crying their eyes out if they knew they were about to die, but not Roger Smith. He was no different than anyone else in Paradigm city, except that as a negotiator, he had to see things from every viewpoint, and from where he stood, there was no fighting the grim reaper, so why waste time feeling bad? He had fought the good fight, put a lot of people at peace with or without Big O, and he knew that if he shouldn’t return, the military police would indefinitely find out about his megadeus and put it to good use to protect the city. The only unresolved business he had was never telling Dorothy how he felt and for all the headaches she had given him, when it came down to it, she was always there by his side and that made him happy. Now there was nothing left to do but wait, but while he was ready for the end, someone else was anything but ready for that.
When Roger had finished that sentence, he did so with his eyes closed, making him miss Dorothy’s eyes widen upon hearing his words. Very rarely did she have this shocked expression, and right now it wasn’t going anywhere. She had seen people die before, both humans and androids and knew death came for everyone, but just the thought of Roger deceased had her hand twitching. She wasn’t sure why that happened, chalking it up to just a malfunction.
It was logical why she couldn’t allow this to happen. Roger Smith was her employer and she couldn’t work for a dead man. Thankfully, she knew a way out of this.
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