The Good Doctor: Origins Ch. 03

"Well have you been able to do things in the past few days that a normal person couldn't?" Giovanni asked.

There had been now the Rob thought about it. First there were the metal restraints he forced his way out of; then he had been able to turn a locked door handle without any effort; he could see in the dark; his reflexes when Nurse Sweet attacked him; but...

"But I've had sex!" he blurted out, realizing what he said only after he said it, "Machines don't do that." he finished.

Giovanni seemed unfazed, "Anatomically and physiologically you are human. You still have all the parts of a human and all the normal bodily functions and desires as one. Your system is just more efficient. The materials you're made off are not as frail as skin, bone, and tissue and you have no need for sleep or food and water. You are 'human 2.0'; all the bugs of a normal human have been fixed in you."

Strangely what Giovanni was saying made sense. He had slept, but hadn't felt tired. He had eaten, but hadn't felt hungry. Never once had he felt thirsty, and the shower he had that morning had felt good, but he felt no cleaner than he had when he had just woken up.

"I...but...how?" he stammered. This was straight out of science fiction.

"How is not important, nor would you understand it. The important point is WHO and WHY." Giovanni said.

"What do you mean why? I thought I was just part of an experiment?"

"You weren't JUST part of anything, you ARE part of a grander plan. Engineer's success with you was just one step in the master plan of Sydney Morrison and his associate Trapjaw."

"And they are?"

"Sydney is a shrewd businessman, and Trapjaw is the proverbial 'man with the plan'. Currently I'm still trying to determine their key motives, but from what I can tell they're building a small army. For what, I'm not certain, but I AM certain it won't be good."

"How does that involve me? Building a machine and building an army are vastly different things."

"Not in this case they aren't. You've seen the movies where armies of robots take over the world...well this could be worse. An army of robots with the ability to think and rationalize...to PLAN...could potentially cause untold destruction. They'd have the best of both worlds; the mind of a human and the power of a machine. Unstoppable in large numbers..."

Things were beginning to click for Rob, "I think I understand. Engineer has now perfected the ability to transfer a human mind into a machine. Now that he can do it, these men...Sydney and Trapjaw?...want to transfer human minds to a whole army of machines. I still don't know how this has to do with me."

"These men are powerful, Rob, both monetarily and physically. They also have allies across the nation that would aid in their plot. They are not nice men, and would stop at nothing in order to obtain more power, even at the cost of innocent lives. In short; they are EVIL."

"Still...where do I come in?"

Giovanni sighed and sat bat, rubbing his temples, "Rob, all too often people with great power use it for all the wrong reasons. There are few out there who would use their power for the greater good. Nurse Sweet, myself, and a few others fight valiantly against the evil out there, but the odds against us are just too great. But now we have you! Sydney and Trapjaw have no idea just how powerful a potential enemy they have just created. With a little bit of fine tuning, you could be just the one we need to bring these people down!"

"This is starting to sound a little too 'comic book-esque' for me." Rob said with a disbelieving expression, "I'm all about good conquering evil, but this is a little too much. I mean you make me sound like a superhero."

Giovanni nodded once slowly, "Exactly."

Rob just stared at the man. Was he serious? A superhero...!?

"This is fucked up," he said, "I'm out of here"

Rob stood from his chair, and Giovanni followed suit.

"Where are you going to go? Nurse Sweet already explained it to you; you have no life to go back to, this is your life now." he said, coming around his desk to confront Rob.

"I don't know, all I know is that you're nuts." and he turned around to leave and ran straight into a wall of muscle.

"Umph." came a deep retort.

Rob took a step back and was face to face with the biggest man he had ever seen. He was about seven feet tall and powerfully built. His dark hair was buzzed short and he sported a good week's worth of stubble on his square jaw. A white undershirt that was stretched tightly over his massive chest was tucked into a pair of plain blue jeans. Around his waist he wore a tool belt which sported a number of tools Rob could not recognize.

"Pardon me!" he said giving Rob a white, toothy smile.

"Rob, meet Brick." Giovanni said.

The huge man held out a massive hand, "Pleased to meet you!"

"I was just leaving." Rob said, ignoring his gesture and stepping around him.

"Is that the guy?" he heard Brick ask Giovanni.

"I was hoping so, but apparently not." he said with a touch of disappointment in his voice.

Rob exited the library and found Nurse Sweet in the foyer, leaning against the wood banister of the stairs leading to the second floor.

"Going somewhere?" she asked, examining her nails.

"Yeh, away from here." he said, heading towards the door.

"See you." was her only response, her eyes never leaving her nails.

"That's it?"

"What do you want, a hug goodbye? I've got nothing to say to you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rob was annoyed and he didn't know why.

"It means you're obviously not going to help us, so why bother with you?"

Rob rolled his eyes and threw his hands into the air in exasperation, "Why does everyone want me to help out so bad? I'm no hero...I'm not even human!"

"We want you to help because you can, and it's the right thing to do." Nurse Sweet said, finally looking up at him, "Why waste a gift as immense as yours?"

Rob had moved away from the door and now stood facing her. For some reason he was interested in what she had to say.

"If I stayed, would it make a difference?" he asked.

"Maybe," she said, shrugging slightly, "Guess you won't know unless you do."

Rob thought for a moment. Giovanni was right; there was no life for him to run away to. He had no home, no family, and no friends, and as far as he knew a dangerous enemy wanted to capture him. At least if he stayed here there was relative safety, if nothing else.

"Alright, I'll stay." he finally sighed, although something told him he hadn't arrived at that decision through Giovanni's rationality alone.

"Fine." Nurse Sweet said, and turned to climb the stairs, but paused halfway up and turned around, "By the way, you're not the only person who can make a difference."

Suddenly her hand burst into flames and she almost smiled when Rob jumped back in shock.

"Other people have immense gifts too.", and with that she disappeared up the stairs, leaving Rob in utter shock.

"Decided to stay?" Giovanni's voice came from behind him.

Rob turned to face the man and nodded, "I guess so, what do I have to lose?"

"That's the spirit." Giovanni said, "Brick will show you to your room. Tomorrow, we train."

*

Note to reader: Please let me know how you like the story so far. Also inform me of anything that needs clarification. The storyline starts heating up (in more than one way ;) )in the next chapter. Thanks!