Chapter 1

Cold. Deep, penetrating cold.

It was the first sensation he experienced when he returned to life. How he knew he was returning to life, and not coming to life, he had no way of explaining. Just as he had no way of explaining why he knew so much the instant his eyes opened. He could understand the words being spoken near him, fully comprehending them. And yet he hadn't been alive for more than three seconds yet. He somehow knew this was strange, although he had no memories to base normalcy and strangeness on. He just knew.

He also knew that what he was hearing from the scientists near him was not good for him.

"His brain waves are off the chart! We have a Code Two situation here!" One of them shouted.

"Deactivate higher brain functions! Terminate all process not vital to the experiment's survival!"

A scientist walked up to a small glowing panel attached to the flat, cold metal table on which Andrew was laying.

'Andrew?' He thought to himself. 'How did I know a name for myself?'

As the man at the console pressed a series of commands into the machine, an assortment of tools began descending menacingly from the ceiling, towards Andrew's head. He was not about to let them 'deactivate his higher brain functions' as they had put it, however. One of his legs flew upwards at a blurring speed, tearing through the thin steel strip that had restrained it. The leg ripped through the small pod that held onto the tools, shattering it into a thousand pieces. Its debris landed several meters away from him.

With just the barest hint of movement from his other leg, and from his two arms, the rest of the restraints holding him down were destroyed. He sat up, his legs swinging out over the side of the table. He rolled his neck around on his shoulders, stretching his muscles. If he had muscles. He wasn't exactly sure of what he was, except that he wasn't what he thought he should be. He wasn't human.

As he was looking around, taking stock of the bustling, chaotic room, he received a shock. Very literally. A security guard rushed him from behind, jabbing some kind of stun baton directly into his spine. Andrew lurched forward, impacting the ground face-first. The six hundred twenty-five thousand volt current caused many strange sensations in Andrew's body. His muscles were twitching rapidly in some areas, and he now felt somehow rejuvenated. If the guard's intention had been to damage him, he had failed.

With a quick backwards-flip off the ground, Andrew landed neatly behind the guard. He deftly disarmed the man of his stun baton with one quick movement. Unfortunately for the guard, he had been holding on too tightly, and his middle finger was broken in the process. The guard spun around and drove his open palm into Andrew's nose with a terrifying animalistic snarl emitting from his throat. He was apparently angry.

The blow, however, served to do nothing except injure the guard's hand further. That was the least of his worries at the time though, as Andrew then picked him up and tossed him a good ten meters to impact solidly with the nearest wall. The sounds of bone being crushed could be heard reverberating through the room.

Eight more guards walked into the room, rifles held tightly against their shoulders. Thick titanium doors slammed down on the entrances behind them, completely sealing off the room.

"Take him out!" The leader hollered.

The guards all aimed their rifles in unison, but they were quickly interrupted by one of the nearby scientists, who had flung himself into their firing path.

"No!" The scientist shouted, "You can't kill him!"

The leader of the guards half-snarled at the man. "Dr. Richards, it is a machine. It is also malfunctioning, and as it is built for combat, I really don't want it running loose on us."

"He is a three billion dollar prototype!" Richards shouted back at him.

The guard violently shoved Richards out of the way, while he kneeled down with three of his men, forming two rows. All of their rather deadly looking assault rifles were pointed directly at Andrew's chest. They opened fire with an unending stream of rounds.

Andrew's mind simply slowed down the time rate at which he viewed things, while speeding up his processing functions. The bullets slowed to a visible speed, which enabled him to very easily move out of their path.

The lead guard's jaw dropped. He had just seen an android turn into a blur of motion for a second, moving at impossible speeds. No android he had ever seen could do that.

The scientist that had tried to stop the guards ran in front of them again.

"You fool!" Richards yelled at the leader. "I have the codes to disarm him!"

Richards turned towards Andrew, speaking more calmly. "Deactivate, under authorization code beta, voiceprint file three."

Andrew felt his body stiffen, unable to move. He began loosing his abilities one by one, as his mind deactivated. He could feel his knowledge slipping from him, his very existence being curtailed. He began to panic, his eyes darting around rapidly, as they were one of the few things responding to him still.