The sparring room was quiet as she slipped her bare feet across the bouncy floor, the rubbery surface fit to the contours of her body as she set about warming up, executing a brief set of movements to stretch out. She rested her palms on the floor, before swinging her legs upward into the air and tipping her body forwards. She recognised the slight uncomfortable tremor in her spine. A weakness in her genetic make-up. I need that looked at, she acknowledged.

Waving a hand briefly a holographic screen rose above, a female voice ringing throughout the room.

‘Are you training alone, 40762?’ The automated machine asked the android, she nodded briefly in response and waited for the program to run.

The holographic images were harmless, ghosts of machines and former combat androids. The sparring program was the only way androids were allowed to train their supernatural abilities, it was considered too dangerous to spar with living partners. Dancing between the holograms, dodging harmless bullets and stray blades, she was in her element. It took nearly twenty minutes for her to slip up. The bullet, although harmless, was set for her heart. It was all it took for her abilities to activate. After a surge of wind, the feeling of suffocation and a crackle of electricity she found herself a foot to the left of where she’d been. With one swift movement she reached behind her, activating the sensors on her training gear, as she threw her arm forwards. The system recognised the motion and a fraction of a second later a holographic blade sliced through the air. The hologram died wordlessly, collapsing into a flash of light.

‘Simulation terminated.’ The systems robotic voice sounded loudly through the hall, as the doors were opened quietly.

His footsteps were careful as he entered, he wandered past the mat where she stood alert and settled himself on the bleachers. They watched each other wordlessly. Her eyes flattened into unreadable mercury. His eyes, which were wide and doe like, were remarkably blank.

‘You can call me, Luhan.’ He called finally, his voice cutting the thick tension in the air. Her only response was a single nod.

‘What do I call you?’ He asked, his voice breaking silence again.

‘I told you. I don’t have a name.’

‘Why not?’

‘I never needed one.’ Luhan took a break from his inquisition and stood up to stretch. A few bones in his back popped with the exertion.

‘Silver.’

‘What?’ She dragged her eyes away from his and stretched her legs out to keep warm.

‘Your name. You need one. What about Silver?’ With that he strolled down the bleachers heavily, his footsteps echoed throughout the empty space, rebounding off the walls. She watched him walk away silently and when the door shut behind him with a resonate thud she sat down on the floor heavily.

‘Silver.’ She tasted the word on her tongue, feeling the way it rolled round .

‘Do you want me to run the program again, 40762?’ The robotic voice questioned the still space.

‘No. Authorise edit file 40762, System?’ She asked softly.

‘File edit, authorised.’                                                                

‘Edit given name, System.’

‘Command confirmed. Please speak alternative given name.’ For a few seconds 40762 reflected on what she knew about humans. Every human she’d ever met had a name. It did make things somewhat easier. Especially on the communication front.

I can’t believe I’m doing this, she thought as she made her final decision.

‘Change name to Silver, System.’ With that she pushed herself upward and walked away, grabbing her clothes as she went, she’d have to move quickly to catch Luhan up.

---

He flicked through the files wordlessly. Many years had passed since he’d last seen his androids. The last time he was here had been their initial public testing when he was still a child. Since then his body had grown taller and leaner, he was no longer a chubby infant. He was a young man.

‘Young Master. They’re ready for you.’ His Guardian called to him through the open swing door. Gently he placed the files on the desk, focusing his mind and moving them into perfect alignment. It felt overzealous to use his ability for such a trivial thing, but he liked doing it. Very few people grasped their ability at such a young age, a movement as small as this would drain somebody of lesser mental strength, but Luhan had always been able to master his ability with such ease. It just came naturally to him.

He admired the bare walls and huge glass windows of the corridor he was led down. They were so clean and spacious, the place had the appearance of a hospital and the only thing that was wrong was the smell. There was something warm and welcoming surviving underneath the blank, clinical stench. The nurse who led him was silent the entire way, even after a long time of twisting through the warren like building. She gestured when he had to walk through a door at the end of their destination and then nodded silently in response to his thanks.

Eight beds were lined up in the rooms; five were filled, the occupants sleeping soundly. Bright lights shone down on their white outfits. Each body was clothed in the same uniform training gear. He wandered to the centre of the room and sat down in a white, plastic chair in front of a desk. It didn’t take long for a second nurse to enter the room. Her head was shaved, displaying the metal rivets hidden beneath the translucent skin of her skull. She seated herself opposite him, crossing her legs slowly and peering at him over her glasses.

‘How can I help you, Soldier?’ She asked.

‘I have an appointment.’ She nodded and flicked through the files on her desk.

‘Of course, Master Luhan, yes? As you can see we have five androids that qualified through training. Numbers 40760 through 40764 and Number 40767.’ She placed five files on the spotless desk in front of him.

‘What am I supposed to do?’ Brushing his fingers gently over the picture in one of the middle files he realised that the android he’d never thought to choose had qualified.

‘You have to choose.’

‘How?’

‘It’s personal preference, Luhan. Some base it on statistics. Others have been known to base it on gut instinct.’ The android waved her hand briefly. She settled back in her chair.

‘But doesn’t the Academy choose for me?’ Luhan’s eyes shot up. He was met with black, unfeeling circuitry.  

‘Only if you make the wrong choice.’ With a saccharine smile she rose from her seat and excused herself from the room.

Luhan peered over the desk, reading the large printed numbers on the front of the files hanging like strange teeth from the bed frames. 40760,40761, 40762… There she was. He stood slowly and wandered over to her allotted space. Firstly he noticed how short she was in comparison to her larger, male counterparts. Her shorter frame was slender but lean. Slightly wider in the hips and shoulders than at her waist, her skin was almost as white as the suit she wore. It was easy to see the gentle flash of wiring under her skin, particularly in the sides and back of her neck and on her hands and feet. It looked like luminous ink in her veins. Black and cropped around her jaw her hair was silken, catching impossible amounts of light. Luhan couldn’t believe how alike they were. Her eyes were closed, but he was sure the shape would be the same as his own. Large and doe-like, with long lashes and straight brows. The same could be said for her high cheekbones and upturned nose. If she wasn’t so obviously more than human, she could have passed for his sister.

‘Should I choose you?’ He asked her sleeping face. She was probably heavily sedated. Pulling the chair he had been sat in from behind the desk he settled himself next to her, flicking through the files of the other androids. He watched her eyelashes flicker, casting soft shadows below her eyes.

‘So you’re Number 40762, it says here you’ve discovered more than one ability. That’s pretty much unheard of. In case you were wondering… Brief accounts of teleportation when angered. Well, well, well.’ He reached out carefully, his fingers itching to touch the circuitry that ran under her skin. As soon as his fingertip grazed her neck a violent shock ran through his hand. Cursing loudly he nursed his burning finger. ‘I didn’t know that you could do that with a lighting ability. That’s going to hurt later.’ He muttered irritably. Luhan flicked through her progress charts. ‘Well… You’re a little volatile. But I’m sure you’ll have figured out how to control yourself in another few years.’

Luhan stood and stretched out, listening to popping sound of his back. He wandered over to the desk, dragging his chair as he went and threw four files aside. He placed one gently in the centre of the Nurse’s neatly organised desk for when she returned. He’d made his decision.

Hours later, when Luhan had long since left the facility and the Academy had acknowledged his decision, 40762 was dragged from her forced slumber. She woke up in a room on her own, where normally there were eight other beds there was only blank space. A desk had been set up in the corner, along with a chair and a few system links to allow her to train from the room. It was easy to see the tiny details on the white walls due to the large obnoxious lights secured in the ceiling. A tiny patch of scuffed paint to her left, the way dust particles hung in the sterile air, how lifelessly white and bare this whole place was. A camera in the top right corner of the room tracked her movements as she hurried round the space. She tried the door only to find it was locked from the outside. Quietly she walked to the right hand wall and slumped down on the floor, using the wall behind her to prop her up.

‘Congratulations, 40762, you’ve been chosen.’ She chuckled darkly to herself and with a thump her head hit the wall behind her. Tears slipped lifelessly down her face as she vowed to stay silent. Emotions were weak and that was one thing she couldn’t afford.

‘Never let them see how scared you are, 40762.’ She whispered, mirroring the words of 40767, one of the other androids. She wasn’t sure whether she was crying at the inevitability of her own fate, or the fact she knew the only friends she’d ever had were lying dead in a disposal facility only a few hundred feet below her.