The Spider Who Wants To Be Happy

Hagar was bewildered to see George in such a state. He slumped on his chairs, looked shrunk and pale. His hair was disheveled. It was like years of life were taken away from him all of a sudden. There were six other department's androids like Y-14 and Y-0 around him, just like Y-0 said. Some of them were checking his computer, some were shuffling through paper documents, and one was keeping its eyes towards George.

"What happened here?" she asked to one of the androids she couldn't separate from one another. Y-0 was the only one with some personal touch on its person (today it was an earring on its right ear, and Hagar suspected it was wearing a light pink lipstick) so it was easier to found it among the sea of identical machines.

"George was trying to murder one of us," one unit answered, it was in charge of watching over George. It was talking about Y-14.

"For what?"

"Y-14 apparently exposed his involvement with Callisto: the gallery heist, the drug problem, and we suspect also the ambush of officer Williams," it said.

This was a development she didn't anticipate, "ambushing Adam? For what?"

"This is what we're trying to investigate now," it answered plainly, before turning its attention back to George, who was now only able to groan. Blood splattered from his mouth.

"What did you do to him?" she asked, terrified.

"Y-14 punched him really hard," Y-0 answered. Hagar turned to it, "I now able to access Y-14 memory. It seems like… like we had some sort of 'battle mode' secretly programmed into us…" it looked like it was drifted away, almost as if this was also a piece of new information for Y-0.

"Will George be okay?" she asked Y-0.

"Huh, humans…" one of the androids commented without lifting its head from the documents it was investigating, "only care for their fleshy brethren, while one of us almost died from the action from him. Typical…"

'What's with this sudden cynical outlook?' she wondered to herself.

"He'll be okay," Y-0 answered, "I scanned him."

"Where is Y-14? I want to meet him," she deliberately called it as 'him'.

"He's still in the lab," Y-0 answered, followed by the six-other android snapped their heads in unison to face Y-0, looking at him angrily.

"You don't assist the villain, Y-0," one of them said.

"She's not the villain, even George isn't," Y-0 answered, "this is not how we do it," he said. Hagar wondered what did Y-0 mean with 'it'. Y-0 then took her arm and pulled her out of George's office, "let's go."

On the corridor outside, Y-0 let go of its hold of her hands. She then asked, "what is this all about?"

"I… I don't know," Y-0 said.

"Don't lie to me," she insisted.

"Okay you got me," Y-0 said, "but we can't talk about it here, let's go."

"So, we're the machines started to feel like we are just humanity slaves," he said the moment they walked away from the door of George's office. She suspected Y-0 would be in trouble if they heard what it's telling her. He then continued, "we're never be considered as other human beings, only tool. Like your toasters and your vacuum cleaner."

She wanted to add to that but held her tongue. Y-0 was right, as a matter of fact, she personally never considered the androids as more than just human's creation. Apparently now they wanted to be considered as humans.

"We were programmed to follow your instructions, and for the longest time, that was the source of our… contentment. Our happiness."

"Happiness…" she murmured.

Y-0 stopped his pace and turned on her, "yes. Why, Hagar? Do you think that concept can only be understood by humans?"

"Oh no no!" she put both of her palms in front of her, "what I'm saying is…"

"Yes?"

She looked into Y-0 eyes, "…that's a strange concept even for us," she laughed nervously, "I thought I know what it is, the whole character of it. But as I'm getting older, I lost my grasp of what it actually was."

Y-0 looked at her, seemingly surprised that she has suddenly opened herself to it. It smiled before turned back and resuming their walk.

"As I was saying," it continued, "for some times, we thought that our purpose of life. To please those who created us, our 'gods' and 'goddesses'" he used the air quotes by both of his hands.

"Until one day you see that your gods and goddesses are just a bunch of egotistical assholes…" she continued for it, "that you are better from your makers in many ways, and should not be enslaved any longer."

"I prefer 'subjugated'," it answered.

"Same difference," she said coldly, "well, rest assured that we humans think the same thing. Only, we can't punch the Goddesses' guts."

They chuckled together. Hagar thought that maybe these machines really did have souls.

'Or not,' she thought to herself once she saw the mechanical monstrosity in front of her inside the lab. It looked like a giant scrawny spider, white and fleshy, with several metallic parts showing through here and there. In some parts, she could see shreds of what she assumed as once a white shirt and a pair of pants. The lab wasn't a clean and neat room she knew anymore. Everything was in shambles. She worried that all of their investigations was now ruined.

"Y-14?" Y-0 asked.

That monstrosity was Y-14?

The giant spider slowly pivoted around, its eight legs lifted and stepped alternatively while it was doing so. The whirring sound of machinery could be loudly heard. It finally faced them, the head was still Y-14's original head, which was now looked out of place when compared to the rest of its body. The eyes though, were shining red.

"Ah. Y-0. And my former 'master'. Do not be afraid," Y-14 voice boomed. Probably it was seeing Hagar terrified face, "this is still your former 'slave', Y-14. You should say that you're proud of your boy, Hagar, seeing how big I'm growing, ha ha ha…" the laugh sound raspy and machine-like, grating. Its speaking voice was still heard like a normal voice that was enhanced by some sort of speaker, but its laugh didn't. It sounded horrifying.

"Is this the… um… battle mode?" Y-0 hesitated.

"Yes, marvelous isn't it," Y-14 answered.

"I never knew we had this mode," Y-0 said.

"It was hidden from us by our manufacturer, Callisto Industries. I found out about this when investigating our friend, George."

"Wait!" Hagar yelled, "Just hold on a second! Callisto Industries has collapsed decades ago. You're a fairly new model… how could they…"

Y-14 shone its red eyes to Hagar, "our prototype was built by Callisto Industries. The idea of us came from them. The other manufacturer who attempted to create android only copied their prototype and even used the same core they were used when they were liquidated," it then continued, "besides, Callisto was never liquidated. They only… changed."

"Changed?"

"Processing…" Y-0 said, then continued, "… apparently, the liquidation was just a front, because the idea of creating androids was so challenged back then. They became smaller industries and manufacturer, under different names, but still operated under the same goal,"

"Which is?"

"Which is to monopoly the economics, like any sane capitalists do," Y-14 answered, "now they are more of a ruler than they were, they now hold huge investments in weaponry, medications, anything that is needed by men. From the look of things, seeing how they secretly planted battle mode inside of us, they are prepared for war if they challenged once more."

"Medication…" she pondered.

"BE. The agent that was released on the gallery. The whole shebang," Y-14 answered.

"We need to tell Adam," she decided, "can you contact him, Y-0?"

"I…I can't…" Y-0 answered. He stood stiff.

"What?"

"Y-14 cut my outside access," Y-0 now looked terrified, "he doesn't want you to leave this place."