Log entry 4

Agent: UNKNOWN

Shadow district, Halcyon city, Time: 1700 hours, Date: 19/04/2144

Status: Standby

In every city, no matter how big or small, there was always a place where people fought to make a living. The slums, cast in the shadow of the rich Elysium district, the very appropriately named Shadow district. The working class sleepwalked through life, breathing in the rotten fumes of the factories they labored in, grinding away hours of their lives in order to make some fancy machine for some lazy housewife, just to put bread on the table while.

The police were hardly ever around, but the gangs that were commonplace here each kept an uneasy alliance with one another, less the district fall into anarchy. Ironic to say the least. Dealers littered the streets, selling everything from cases of food to fully reprogrammed robots. You wanted something that you just couldn't get hands-on easy, you come here and talk to the right person, you walk away with whatever it was and anything else that caught your eye.

"Hello!" Rose exclaimed as she walked through the door.

"You're back?" a digitally filtered voice called from one of the rooms. A robot walked out and greeted the pair "Good to see that you two made it back okay"

He was an old humanoid model, designed to act as a guard and patrol areas, but he'd been outdated for nearly 2 decades now. His mechanical limbs were an obsidian black and moved with the fluidity of tissue, but his retina unit looked like a simple lens glued onto an oblong metalhead.

"Hey Cyclops," said Jason "We miss anything these past couples of weeks?"

Cyclops shook his head "Nothing worth mentioning." he replied as he helped Rose with her stuff.

"Hey, Cyclops," Rose giggled, as she searched through one of her bags "Guess what I got"

For even a robot, Rose always had a bit more energy than you could deal with, "If it's another one of those crazy attachments that you bought and want to stick on me, I'll pass"

Jason chuckled. Last time it had been a crazy comb gizmo that somehow got lodged in the wiring of his chest

"No," Rose replied as she fished out what looked to be a pad filled with various colorful designs "Stickers! So that people would stop staring at your eye"

"People don't stare at my eye"

"I know, but I still want to put stickers on you" She replied with a bright smile

Cyclops shook his head and turned to Jason "We're really allowing her to be a single mother?"

"Hey!" Rose protested, but Jason couldn't help but utter a small chuckle

He shrugged his shoulders "Rose'll be a good mother." a pause "but, we should probably keep an eye on her."

Cyclops nodded in agreement much to the irritation of a pouting Rose

"Alright, that aside," Cyclops said, turning to him "You should probably go talk to Archimedes, he's busy in his work-shop"

Jason nodded and walked down the hall as Rose began to put stickers on the hunk of metal. The apartment was bigger than most of the others, but then again, this one housed three people. Well four, if you counted the robot. He approached the door at the end of the hallway and knocked.

"Come in" a muffled voice from the on the other side

He opened the door to a dark room lit only by the light of a small lamp. An old man was hunched over an old metal workbench, his skinny fingers tinkering about with a few bits of metal that Jason assumed to be some sort of dismantled gadget.

"Archimedes," Said Jason, drawing the elderly man's attention.

His face was full of wrinkles and he wore an old coat with worn leather boots and brown trousers that had long gone out of style. One glance at him and you would assume that he was just a simple old man who spent his days fixing broken toys for his grand-kids, but if you ever looked behind those slender glasses of his and into his eyes, you'd see the fog of someone who'd lived a long life and had seen, or maybe even done, things that would stay with him forever. Things that he wished he could correct

"You look tired old man," Said Jason "You even had a bath today?"

Archimedes chuckled "I haven't had a bath since my care-taker left with my ward for a three-week trip"

"You had Cyclops"

Archimedes shook his head "Nah, his hands are too cold and hard. A father enjoys his daughter's touch, especially when his time is soon"

His last few words sent a small shiver down Jason's spine. He couldn't remember what age exactly his mother had asked Arcemedes to look after him, but the old man was practically his father. But he was right though. He didn't have much more time.

Jason shook his head clear of all those morbid thoughts. There was still time

"So old man," Jason said as he fished around in his back-pack. He pulled out a thin metal film and tossed it to him "I went and got that thing for you. Mind telling me why it's so important I had to drop everything and take Miss pregnant sugar rush with me on a three-week trip back and forward to get it?"

Archimedes smiled "She was trouble?"

"It's Rose we're talking about. Seriously, your grandchildren might have some issues with sugar, she ate like ninety of those glazed cookies they served on board" He paused for a moment to think "I don't think she slept at all during the trip. But that's not the point" He pointed to the film "What's so important about that thing?"

Archimedes said nothing, inspecting the film like a jeweler inspected a diamond, before uttering a tired chuckle "Afraid I can't answer that question for you."

Jason raised an eyebrow "What? Why not?"

Archimedes smiled "If you want to find out what this is, you're going to have to do it yourself"

It was a purposely cryptic answer, but the old man always knew how to word things in order to pique his interest

Before he could ask any further, Rose knocked on the door

"Hey dad," she said, walking over to his side

Archimedes smiled at his daughter, something that he seemed to savor for quite a few moments before turning back to Jason

"Kid, there's a credit chip in the cupboard we keep all the medical supplies in. Take it and have yourself a fun night. And take Cyclops with you as well"

"Huh" replied Jason "What for?"

Rose stared down at her father in astonishment, but a sudden look of recognition and understanding came over her before she finally looked up at him with a face half concealing sadness. "I was a bit of a pain during the trip. A nice evening is the least you deserve."

Jason smiled at her kindness, but something felt a little off, "You sure? I mean you weren't that much-"

"Just go kid," Archimedes said, his voice echoing sorrow "That is unless you want to help Rose give me a bath"

Jason shuddered at the thought, "No thank you, I'll go." He said exiting the room, his worry turned into dismay as he thought of having the scrub the old man's naked body

Taking the holographic card from the medicine cabinet, he walked into the front room where Cyclops was busy trying to remove a sticker smacked right in the middle of his optic lens

"Come on robot buddy" Jason joked as he tore off the sticker, giving the robot back his sight "We're off to the Market district"

"Why?" he asked

"To play some cards, what else" replied Jason "Plus I think Rose and the old man want to be alone for a bit"

Cyclops would've probably inquired a bit more, but the last sentence seemed to suffice for him.

Opening the door, Jason glanced back at Arcemedes' room "Well I'm off" he called out

"Be safe Jason," Rose's voice cried back "Oh, and look after Cyclops too"

"I will,"

"Take care of yourself kid!" the old man's voice this time

"Relax you two, we'll be back before.....around midnight"

They didn't answer, but Jason thought nothing of it. They'd be there when he got back. That wouldn't change. Something that he didn't want to change