My Mutant System

7. Rejection

Corine left all the HumanBot inside the hall without any more words coming from her lips. She walked out like a ghost while Neo was still trying to push his body to move like he wanted. But he couldn’t.

Neo found out that his body was controlled by someone else who was not himself. The same fate that all the HumanBot also faced. It was strange, but remembering the latest upgrade that he still didn’t know the detail, made him feel robbed. Not only him but all the HumanBot. They lose their freedom before they even realize it.

“Neo, how you doing?” Tony ran to Neo. After the metal door hidden on the wall closed entirely, all the HumanBot were suddenly free to move on their own.

Neo stared at Tony from head to toe as if he was investigating him and trying to find what’ things had changed. But as long as he could remember, Neo couldn’t see any changes in Tony’s physical.

“Do you get it too?” asked Neo, a strange feeling made his throat itchy. It feels like it’s been a while since the last time he talked to his best friend. Everything suddenly became awkward.

“What do you mean? The upgrade? Of course, everyone get that.”

It was not the thing that Neo’s trying to ask. Not the upgrade. But the thing that still bothers him till now.

“Is that your special weapon? A pair of black-metal gloves? Cool!” Tony’s eyes sparked as he saw the gloves covering Neo’s hands.

“How about yours?” he asked after giving Tony a nod.

Tony moved back and made a distant. Three steps backward before he smirked as if he was ready to show off.

Clank!

Out of nowhere, a greatsword as long as one and a half meters appeared. It has a shining silver color of the blade, while the grip was made from a metal in black color. Its appearance made Neo a bit jealous.

“Is that …”

“Yes! Cool, isn’t it?”

Neo gulped his saliva. While his best friend received a promising greatsword, he could only get the gloves. Now, Transformer looked so basic, and it felt like it was just another junk weapon that Neo could have.

“Junkies and his stupid best friend,” Aaron appeared out of nowhere, uninvited as usual. His mocking face smirked when he saw Tony just showing off his weapon. He was not alone, of course, his two puppets named Leo and Martin were coming with him. Copying his expression as if it could be made them look more intimidating.

“Aaron.” Neo hissed. He could remember every single thing that Aaron ever did to him. The reason why Aaron was so arrogant is that he was the youngest subject of the HumanBot creation. And the Creators believed that the youngest subject would have the most functional natural DNA. Giving the youngest the best quality of life. Even there was no evidence about that till now. Aaron was just similar to the others, only his anger may be on another level.

“Are those what you get?” Aaron smirked one more time after seeing those gloves that Neo was trying to hide them now. “Oh no, Junkies. Another junkiest for the Junkies. I thought that they loved you. Seemed that I was wrong.”

“Aaron stop, we are in the middle of training.” The girl, Hope, was approaching them. She came alone as if she had no friends among the HumanBot. She walked close to Neo and stood beside him. She gave a little nod to Neo.

“Hi, beautiful.” Aaron changed his tone.

“Neo, congratulations on your promotion. You’re the leader now. What’s your first order?” She changed the conversation subject. Ignoring Aaron.

Neo was confused by her question. Although he knew he had been chosen as the leader of the HumanBot, the Infinity force, he didn’t expect someone to accept it without complaining.

“Thanks,” Neo didn’t know what to say. After all, Corine didn’t say anything special to him before she left.

“A leader? What a trash. Is she crazy? Made the Junkies as our leader? What a scam.” Aaron didn’t like it, of course. But his voice was too loud, and everyone inside that hall suddenly focused on him.

“Can you all accept this Junkies to be out leader?” Aaron shouted his complaint. He tried to gather as many haters as he could and did that easily.

Aaron was a very social HumanBot. Everyone likes him, and most of them believe that everything he did was based on his ambition to free all the HumanBot. Although he was really temperamental most of the time.

“Aaron is our leader!” a girl with a ponytail shouted. She was starting a situation like a demonstration. The other HumanBots started to do the exact same thing as she did. Shouting Aaron’s name as if they were trying to choose their own leader.

Neo didn’t move an inch. But, once again, an unexpected thing happened. Tony and Hope were moved forward as if they were trying to protect Neo from the others, even though Neo didn’t need it. He was not thinking about the direct rejection that he had just got from his friends.

“Silence!” Hope's soft voice turned to a very charismatic and gentle voice when she shut everyone up.

“The choice is in The Creators’s hand. Not us. We would never be here for seventeen years without them. You should be more grateful.” She gave a speech that made everyone look at her annoyed.

As long as Neo could remember, Hope was different from the others. Not only her special brain that was the brightest, but also the belief that she had. While the other HumanBots hated their creators, Hope loved them and never forgot to show them her respect and gratitude. And that one fact made Hope have no friends. She didn’t seem to need them anyway.

“Hope, baby, it’s fine. You can hated them like us. We would just born from our parents without their hands anyway. It is called as destiny.” Aaron grabbed Hope’s hands, but the girl pushed him away.

“You know nothing, Aaron.” She hissed.

Aaron didn’t like it, but his true feelings toward her were still there. Hope was the only girl he wanted to live with forever, and that feeling made him stay calm, although so far … he could only get a rejection from her.

Neo sighed and then walked to the wall where Corine was leaving minutes ago. He didn’t like to be there with those HumanBot that clearly hated him.

He remembered the thing that Corined did before the door opened automatically. And thus, he just moved his right hand and touched the wall. But suddenly … the left eye gave him another notification. Not a warning. And not only appeared for him, but all the HumanBot in that hall also got the same notifications.

[Training Section 1]

[Preparation in progress]