Beyond the Glass Walls

[Akira110]

Disclaimer: Flow of Time wasn't cancelled, Xenoblade X had taken up my time, I will continue work on Flow of Time shortly. Beyond the Glass takes place in the New Generation and after Balance in Ruin, it takes place in the Chronicles of Eltirana Series.

Prologue

4 Years after Balance in Ruin

A female roboticist was working in her lab, she sighed slightly as she rubbed her curled horns on both sides of her head when a Male Lupine walked over to her, "Professor Leticia, you should perhaps take a break. You've been working this entire time and you show signs of irritability and fatigue." Leticia nodded, "I know, Walthari, but..." The lupine tilted his head, "You didn't call me by my designation, Professor." Leticia smirked, "And you never call me, mother. Your designation W-four-L-T-H-four-R-one spells out Walthari, your name comes from the legendary Verbanan hero Walthari who gave his life to stop an ancient missile barrage from hitting the planet." Walthari nodded slightly, "I understand, thank you, Professor."

Another Lupine Male walked in, "Mother, I brought the tools that you require, this new robot isn't one of our models is it?" Leticia shook her head, "This one is going to be special, a prototype testbed for new technologies. Do you have the brain scan, Killian?" The male lupine nodded, he understood that his designation of K1LL14N spelled out Killian, "I have it, Mother." Leticia nodded slightly, "Thank you Killian, you're such a sweetheart." Killian nodded slightly, "If you designed us to act, look and think like the legendary heroes, then why did you make us into battle droids with capabilities that far exceed theirs?" Leticia frowned, "To give you the means to protect yourselves, Killian. That would be why."

Walthari nodded slightly, "Professor, what's it like... being born I mean?" Leticia turned to him, "I never thought an android would ask that question, your programming is truly adaptive and ever reaching to learn new things." She smiled slightly, "If you want to be technical, you were born as well, just not in the way that you might be thinking, and your brother will be born too." Walthari looked down, his tail dropped, "Why do we robots have genders?" Killian spoke up, "It's so that we'd be able to fit in more easily, that's why we were given genders. Though to be fair, I don't understand why a female android would have breasts... we lack the ability to lactate to begin with, so we couldn't feed any children if we wanted to."

Leticia smiled at the two of them, "Killian, how was talking to Balthoron." A female Kilf cut off the Lupine Android before he could talk, "Balthoron's a name I haven't heard in a good while, Leticia. Continuing your project to bring my ancestors back to this world, I see." Leticia turned to see the female Kilf, she was amazed that a woman with her features would be running a biker bar on Eltirana, "Harumi, what a surprise that you'd be here." Harumi frowned, "Not really, Leticia, you thought that you could have an android enter the family crypt and not alert everyone in the family to it. Balthoron probably has someone shadowing that thing right now." Killian spoke up, "My motion tracker was active the entire time, no one followed me. And I'm functioning as well as I normally do."

Harumi sighed, "K-One, what's the range of your motion tracker?" Killian looked at her, "Seventy-five meters." Harumi shook her head, "Someone could've followed you from beyond that range, very easily, I might add." Leticia sighed, "So what do we do when your brother gets here?" Harumi shook her head, "You'll be dealing with that, I hope that you'll be willing to explain your work to him when he gets here." Leticia nodded slightly and looked at the Data that Killian had uploaded during the conversation, "Then I'll get back to it, Harumi, way I figure, this is going to take me several months to get finished, then again, I now have two helping hands." Harumi sighed slightly, "So why did you get into robotics?"

Leticia placed her tools down and sighed, "I'm infertile, Harumi, I can't have kids and I don't want a clone." Harumi nodded slightly, "So what you're saying is that you build machines because you can't have kids?" Leticia nodded, "I do, these androids, these battle droids that I've built are like children to me, the only reason they're so heavily armed is for protection." Harumi smiled slightly and took off her sunglasses, revealing her deep green eyes, "That's not the worst reason I heard, anyhow, you take care, I gotta get back to work." Leticia nodded slightly and turned back to her own work, "I do as well." She sighed slightly and smiled, "Killian, Walthari, you can go relax in the park if you want, I don't need any help on this part." The two androids nodded slightly and left the room, leaving Leticia to her thoughts, as she started work on the new prototype android that she was building.

[Akira110]

Chapter 1

Nine Months Later


A Kitsune opened his eyes for the first time ever, he looked around the room and noticed a heads up display on his vision. A female Ram Tribe Eltiranan walked over to him and looked at him, "Welcome to the universe, you're my latest creation and the first in a new series of androids." The Kitsune watched as a readout appeared, saying, "Systems Check. Visual: Online. Weapons: Online. CPU: Online. Neural Network: Online. AI: Online. Learning System: Online. Audio: Input Only." The Kitsune looked at the woman and reached out to her, placing a finger to his mouth, she frowned, "Your audio drivers aren't working properly. I'll fix that. Hold on." She walked over to a desk and picked up some tools, she walked back over to him and smiled softly.

The Kitsune reached for one of the tools, slightly afraid and unsure of what was going to happen and the Eltiranan looked at him, "Don't worry, sweetheart, I won't hurt you, I'm just going to fix your audio drivers. I won't even have to shut you down for this one." The Kitsune nodded and relaxed as the Eltiranan worked, "By the way, your designation is Y-Zero-S-H-One-R-Zero. Do you know what that spells?" The Kitsune went to shake his head and the Eltiranan frowned and held his head still, "Don't move your head, I need you to be still." The Kitsune stayed still and watched as the Eltiranan worked, his CPU accessed a database and found the name of the woman, Leticia Slinde. He moved his eyes to look at her and suddenly the readout said, "Audio: Online."

The Kitsune's first words were, "Leticia Slinde, Robotics Professor who specializes in bionics. You... created me?" Leticia nodded, "Of course I did, you're the first in a new generation of androids. Your designation spells out Yoshiro, by the way. You were modeled after the legendary hero himself, right down to how I built your main CPU." Yoshiro looked at his hand, it was covered in fur, "I'm a legendary hero?" Leticia shook her head, "No, but you were designed to be able to think and act like him. You don't have any of his actual memories, though from what I've heard from old holovids, your voice is spot on." Yoshiro nodded, "So, I'm a fake?" Leticia shook her head, "No, you're not. How do I explain this... sometimes people need to see their heroes to have hope. Having based you off those legendary heroes, we could give hope to the people of the galaxy."

Yoshiro looked around at his surroundings, "There are no windows here. I wish to see outside." Leticia nodded, "I know you do, but first, we need to make sure that everything is in working order, do you mind if we do some tests. It'll take about a day, but I promise that when everything is done, you'll be able to go outside." Yoshiro nodded, "Affirmative. Testing would be a good idea." Leticia nodded, "Yes, by the way, you don't have to call me Professor, or Leticia if you don't want to." Yoshiro turned to look at her, "What would my creator prefer to be called then?" Leticia smiled, "Mom, Mother, Mommy, Mama." Yoshiro nodded, "Of course, creator is now registered as Mom, Mother, Mommy, Mama."

Leticia giggled, "Even Walthari isn't that difficult, though he never calls me mom. Dear, you only need to call me one of those, pick one." Yoshiro nodded, "Mother, then. Why was I created?" Leticia was surprised, Walthari had asked that question, but Killian hadn't yet, here was Yoshiro, less than fifteen minutes old, asking that question. Yoshiro looked at her, "Did I ask a bad question?" Leticia smiled, "No, not at all, you just surprised me, one of your older brothers hasn't even asked that question yet and he's been active for a couple of years now." Yoshiro nodded, "I have older brothers, what are their names?" Leticia smiled, "One question at a time, dear. As for why you were created, I'm infertile, I can't have kids." Yoshiro nodded, "Then I am grateful that you chose to build robots, I would not exist otherwise."

Leticia nodded, "Your brothers are W-Four-L-T-H-Four-R-One and K-One-L-L-One-Four-N. Their designations spell out Walthari and Killian. They were named after the younger two of the Legendary Heroes, I built the three of you in reverse order, only finding out about that, halfway through Killian's testing." Yoshiro nodded, "Understood. Tell me, do I have emotions?" Leticia nodded, "In a manner of speaking, yes. It's hard to explain, but your personality will start to emerge in the coming week. When that happens, you'll have your likes and dislikes, things will make you sad or happy and you'll feel fear and other things." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "So what's going to happen next?"

Leticia smiled slightly, "Like I said, first of all, we need to get your systems tested, first of all is the prototype technologies that you've been built with, mainly your flight system and reactor." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "So what are we going to test out first?" Leticia started to walk towards the door, "We're going to go to the flight testing hangar. This way, we'll be able to see how well you fly, before we submerge you in water to see if your reactor works the way that it was designed." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "I understand, Mother. What will happen if something goes wrong?" Leticia smiled, "Nothing will catastrophically fail, worst that will happen is that you'll shut down, you've been water proofed, except for your reactor which is a dual fusion-solar reactor. Anyhow, I'll fix you if that happens." Yoshiro nodded as he followed Leticia out of the room, he had no further questions.

[Akira110]

Chapter 2

Yoshiro walked into the middle of a flight hangar, he looked around, "Mother, this place is large and empty." Leticia nodded, "Of course, we're supposed to be testing your ability to fly, you do have a new propulsion system and different flight capabilities from the other machines that I've made in my life." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "So how do I do it?" Leticia smiled, "Just access your drivers for your flight mode and activate it." Yoshiro nodded and attempted to do as he was told, "I don't quite understand what that means, Mother." Leticia nodded, "It's simple, just tell yourself that you wish to fly." Yoshiro nodded and closed his eyes, he entered the command that he wanted to fly and his back opened up into wings, revealing four separate boosters underneath, he opened his eyes as Leticia moved out of the way.

Leticia smiled slightly, "Try to move up." Yoshiro nodded and entered the command into his CPU, the lower boosters on his back moved slightly, but he noticed an increased energy output to something he didn't recognize as he floated into the air. Leticia smiled widely, "It works, you're using what is effectively anti-gravitational technology." Yoshiro tilted his head, "But Anti-gravity is impossible according to physics." Leticia smirked, "You have a magnetic frequency controller in you that allows you to generate a magnatonic frequency field, which creates a microscopic gravimetric phenomenon that allows you to effectively hover in mid air." Yoshiro shook his head, he had no idea what she said, and Leticia sighed, "You're pushing down hard enough to cancel the force of gravity on you, creating an equilibrium, which allows you to stay in the air at you're current altitude."

Yoshiro turned his head to her and nodded slightly, "Alright, I understand that. So what's next?" Leticia smiled, but Killian walked in, "Well baby brother, it's time that you try to move forward, you're the first generation of android with flight capabilities built in. So we don't know how this is going to work." Yoshiro nodded slightly, though his personality hadn't quite kicked in, he felt a bit uneasy at this. Leticia spoke up, "Why don't you try moving forward." Yoshiro nodded slightly and sent the command to his boosters, which started pushing him forward towards the opposing wall, he adjusted his body to make himself more aerodynamic, increasing his speed." Killian barked out an order, "Hard right!" Yoshiro didn't understand what to do and slammed into the wall at high speed, his boosters shut off on their own and he dropped to the ground.

Leticia ran over to him instinctively, and Yoshiro ran a diagnostics check on himself, "All damage done to me was superficial. How do I move in mid air?" Leticia frowned, "You adjust the angle of your wings. You can also do so by adjusting your weight to put yourself into a roll. But only enough to make it so that one of your arms is parallel with the ground." Yoshiro nodded, "Thank you, Mother." Yoshiro's auditory receptors heard chirping on the other side of the wall, "What's that noise, mother?" Leticia tilted her head, "You mean through that hole you put in the wall? Those are birds." Yoshiro moved his head, "Birds, accessing database. Accessing complete, downloading knowledge of birds." Leticia smiled softly, "You're fine, Yoshiro, when the testing is done, I'll take you out for some ice cream, okay?"

Yoshiro looked around, "If we are machines, why did you give us biological abilities?" Leticia placed her hand on his shoulder, "Because the three of you are special to me, I want you to seem like you're organic, so that people will treat you like one of them, rather than as just some machine. You can eat and drink and even appear to breathe. You can blink and go to sleep and you have emotions like we do." Yoshiro looked up, "Scanners have indicated that someone has entered the building." Leticia turned around to see a pale gold dragon standing there, "Eudora, you surprised me." Eudora nodded and shifted into her Eltiranan form, "I see that you're still hard at work, Leticia. Making a new class of android, I see." Leticia nodded, "He's a prototype, don't worry, your highness, I'm testing him thoroughly."

Eudora nodded slightly, "Of course, we're both following in the footsteps of our fathers." Yoshiro looked at Leticia, "Permission to try to fly again?" Leticia nodded, "Perhaps you could show our guest." Yoshiro nodded and as Leticia let go, he floated into the air and reached an altitude that he wouldn't be a danger to any of them. He started to accelerate again and concentrated as he laid his body flat. Unfortunately for him the thrust pushed him down and he slammed into the ground and slid forward slightly. A readout appeared, "Exterior covering damaged slightly, no danger. Permission to try again." Leticia sighed, "Activate your thrust vectoring routine, don't worry about controlling it, the computer in the thrusters will detect what you're doing and make the necessary corrections." Yoshiro nodded, "Thrust vectoring, active."

Yoshiro once again floated into the air and started accelerating, he laid himself flat again, and this time, the thrusters extended and pointed back to keep him going straight. He shifted his weight, which rolled him onto his side and he moved his wings to point at an upward angle compared to him. The lift generated pushed him into a turn, however it was too sharp and he pulled a full circle before re-adjusting his wings and changing the direction of thrust to allow him to land safely on the ground, "How was that, Mother?" Leticia smiled, "He'll get the hang of it, Eudora. Alright, Yoshiro, it's time for you to deactivate your flight mode and get ready to be submerged, I want to see how well you do." Yoshiro nodded and Eudora spoke up, "So he's just basically a machine right now?" Leticia nodded, "He'll come into his own personality soon. Don't worry."

[Akira110]

Chapter 3

Yoshiro looked around as he saw a large tank of water, he was confused, "What do I do next, Mother?" Before Leticia spoke, the plank that Yoshiro was on retracted, forcing the android into the water, Leticia looked at the android that did it, "Walthari!" Walthari looked at her, "He wasn't going to do so professor. I helped him." Yoshiro watched as his optics adjusted to allow him to see more clearly while underwater, "Everything seems to be working perfectly." Leticia tilted her head and wrote on the glass, "Transmit a message, don't speak, it sounds garbled when you speak underwater." Yoshiro nodded and focused on transmitting his data to the computer in the room. He walked over to the glass and placed his hand on it and Leticia pointed up, causing him to look up.

Yoshiro reached to the edge of the wall, and pulled himself up, climbing out, "My synthetic fur is wet and heavy." Leticia smiled slightly, "Well, all that's left is weapon's testing, your waterproofing worked very well and your reactor worked perfectly, separating the hydrogen atoms from the oxygen atoms and using cold fusion to create helium that your body expels along with the oxygen. The energy released fuels you when you're not using solar, excess energy is stored in internal batteries, used when you need it. Are you ready to go to the training course. Your aunt Eudona is waiting." Yoshiro nodded and Leticia led him out of the room and into an adjacent room which was exceedingly large, Yoshiro didn't understand why. Eudona pointed to a door, "Go in there, your tertiary weapons are in there."

Yoshiro walked through the door and saw four different weapons and a metallic shield on the table. He analyzed these weapons and picked them up, the motion tracker picked up movement. He raised the sniper rifle and he looked through the scope, popping off a couple of shots as his targeting systems lined his aim up. He picked up closer movement and swapped to the submachine gun, spraying fire across all of the targets before the weapon overheated and he was forced to switch to the pistol. His targeting sensors picked up new targets and he took aim, shooting with extreme precision into the targets. Walthari walked into the room and sighed, "You do well for shooting still targets that don't shoot back."

Yoshiro turned to him, "Very well then, I wish to practice against moving targets that fire back." Yoshiro watched as old combat androids walked out and started moving around and firing at him. He dived behind cover and his CPU calculated the best method to deal with these targets, "First generation androids, Walthari. They have known weaknesses, and analyzing the output of their shots, they lack the power to damage." Yoshiro leaned out of cover and his targeting systems quickly locked onto one target and analyzed based on the target's current movement pattern where he would need to fire to hit the target. He raised his pistol and fired at that spot, hitting the first generation android in the chest, disabling it.

Walthari growled, "Impressive." Leticia's voice spoke over the radio, "I'm activating your secondary weapon. Drop the guns." Yoshiro did what he was ordered to and his wrists opened up to extend two blades that formed a sheath of energy around them, he laughed and looked at the first-generation androids, "Come at me and you'll see that I'm more than meets the eye." He rushed at them and watched as their shots stopped in front of him, splashing on a field of energy that seemed to surround him. He rushed forward and noticed the frequency of the energy on his wrist blades change as he heard Leticia speak, "I changed the energy frequency so that it can pass through your shields, which I'm sure you've noticed are active. In an actual situation, you'll have to activate them yourself."

Yoshiro impaled a first-generation android and cut through another one and he heard Eudora speak, "Your primary weapons are activated, don't be surprised." Yoshiro watched as his arms fell off just above the elbow and he looked confused, "What happened." A quick search through his databank mentioned that he had photonic machineguns in his arms. He raised the weapons and started firing at the first generation androids, quickly mowing them down. As he fired, a bar in the lower right of his vision started filling up and suddenly he stopped firing, as vents opened up on their own. He saw a warning that said, "Primary weapon system overheated, emergency heat venting active." Yoshiro looked at his arms as the training simulation stopped, he looked at bit surprised and worried that he wouldn't be able to put his arms back on.

Leticia walked in and walked over to him, "Here you go, kiddo." She picked up his arms and placed them back on, "Your primary weapons and secondary weapons are disengaged. Like I said, when you're out there on your own, you'll have to do everything on your own, so you'll have to make the decision to activate your secondary or primary weapons systems or even activate your shields." Yoshiro nodded as he moved his fingers again, "Can I put these weapons away?" Leticia placed the sword on Yoshiro's belt, "Keep this with you, and like I promised, I'll take you out for ice cream later. Maybe while we're out, we'll get to meet the Kilf that helped me build you." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "That sounds nice, Mother. Am I working at optimal efficiency?" Leticia shook her head, "I don't know that yet, but over the next few weeks, we'll learn."

[Akira110]

Chapter 4

Yoshiro followed Leticia through the city and noticed that many people were looking at him, he tapped Leticia on the shoulder, "Mother, people are staring at me." Leticia nodded, "You're new and they have never seen you before. Not to mention you look a lot like the legendary hero that I named you after, except younger." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "I understand, Mother. Do you have any creators?" Leticia sighed, "My ancestor was a Ram Tribe queen named Tamara, many people said that she was extremely beautiful." Yoshiro started to access the database and Leticia looked at him, "Young man, if you're accessing the database to find your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother, there will be no ice cream of you and I'll put you in time out."

Yoshiro stopped as he wanted to stay outside, "Sorry, Mother." Leticia sighed, "You're the most curious of the three prototypes, I'll say that much." Yoshiro looked down, "I apologize." Leticia folded her arms, "You were honest with your activities rather than hiding them. I guess I can reward that with some Ice Cream and being outside." Yoshiro nodded, "Thank you, Mother." Leticia smiled and led the android through the streets, "I forbid you from using your weapons in the city, am I clear?" Yoshiro nodded and continued following after her. Soon something caught his attention, it was a person in very regal attire and he stopped to look at the person, "Mother, what's that?" Leticia looked at the person and she immediately bowed, and Yoshiro noticed everyone else was as well, "None of this computes." The woman looked at him and smiled, "You must be the new android. I enjoy seeing what my friend creates."

Leticia didn't rise and the woman with dog ears and tail looked at her, "You may rise, my friend." Leticia stood up and looked at Yoshiro, "We bow out of respect, her highness here has earned it with her every action." The woman smiled, "You don't have to flatter me so, Leticia." Leticia looked at Yoshiro, "Will you introduce yourself?" Yoshiro nodded and looked at the woman, "I am Y-Zero-S-H-One-R-Zero. But Mother calls me Yoshiro, because she says it's less of a mouthful." The woman looked at him, her tail wagging slightly, "I'm Erika, Queen of the Dog Faction of Eltirana. It's nice to meet you, Yoshiro." Yoshiro nodded, "Likewise." He looked towards Leticia, "Um, what now?" Leticia sighed, "You'll have to forgive him, your highness, he was just activated this morning and he was a good android so I'm taking him out for the first time in his life so, he doesn't quite get many things."

Erika nodded, "He seems to understand the concept of clothing." Leticia shrugged, "To be fair, I threatened that if he didn't put clothes on, I would build clothing onto him." Yoshiro nodded, "I have no idea why, but that made me feel... like I wanted to run away from that possibility as fast as I could." Erika sighed, "You're making your androids feel fear, Leticia, you need to lighten up. There's no reason that an android can't walk around without clothing on, unless you built them to be one hundred percent anatomically correct." Yoshiro blinked, "I wonder what that means." Leticia's eyes went wide, "NO NO NO! I'll tell you when we get back home, Yoshiro. Do NOT access that in the database or you will be grounded for a week!" Yoshiro frowned, "Awww, first you won't let me see my ancestor and now I can't see that..."

Erika laughed as a familiar voice spoke up, "She's just trying to protect you." Yoshiro turned to see a blue skinned woman with long red hair and red Kitsune ears walk towards him. She had a frown on her face as she removed her sunglasses and looked at him with deep green eyes, "You really did make this thing look like my father." Yoshiro looked at her, "You seem annoyed." The kilf looked at him, "I am annoyed, by the way, hello your highness." Erika looked at her, "Hello, Harumi. I trust that everything is well with you?" Harumi sighed, "My day was going well, until I started hearing about some Kitsune android and decided to come look for myself. He's even carrying the arms of my father as well, though the pattern on the shield is wrong, as is the size. The sword is the right classification, but the rest of it is wrong."

Erika sighed, "Harumi, please do not." Leticia sighed, "He was designed this way to be able to give people hope, being able to see a hero walk once more." Harumi shrugged, "I'm not the one that you have to be worried about. It's Klaartje. Once she catches wind of this machine, she's going to be none too happy, not to mention my twin brother and baby brother will be on their way to this planet to investigate. Honestly there's just no telling what's going to happen, I mean your androids that looked like my uncles was going far, but this..." Yoshiro looked away and Leticia spoke sternly, "Harumi, I knew the potential risks and dangers when I stated building him and I accept them." Harumi placed her sunglasses back on and smiled slightly, "That's good to hear, I actually thought for a moment that you didn't think of the possible repercussions."

Erika sighed as Harumi walked away, "I apologize, she's normally quite blunt, but not usually that aggressive." Yoshiro hugged Leticia, who hugged back, "Why are you hugging me?" Yoshiro frowned, "I accessed the database, it taught me that people who are emotional can be helped with a hug." Leticia sighed, "I didn't want you doing that while you were out here, but I'm glad you at least learned something good from it. Did you touch any of the topics that I told you not to?" Yoshiro shook his head, "No, Mother." Leticia sighed, "Are you lying to me, you know I can check your history even if you try to delete it." Yoshiro shook his head, "I'm telling the truth, Mother." Erika sighed, "You really are a mother and son, where are you trying to go?" Leticia looked at Yoshiro, "Well to get some ice cream and well I'll take him to the park where he can enjoy nature before bedtime." Erika smiled, "Mind if I come with?" Leticia shook her head, "Not at all."