A Zaibatsu Ship Crashes In The Distance!

General Lee had driven the 2.4 miles from the edge of the city to where he believed the ship had crashed in his beat up Jalopy-x300. The vehicle was a worn out old thing that was putting almost as much smoke in the air that the ship had. When he arrived Lee looked back to see if anyone else had followed, he saw no one but knew it wouldn’t be long before others arrived.

“The maggots’ll be atcha before ya know it. I gotta work fast!”
Declared the General.

He was wearing a typical military uniform with the name tag “Dangerous” shining against the setting sun. He could see the ship had reduced to mostly debris and things on fire, he continued to scan the area for anything of value.

“Came down here fer nothin’!”
Lee ran around the perimeter of the crash to see what he could scavenge, picking up nuts and bolts as he moved… It was then that he saw an arm… a bandaged arm!

“Oh! A survivor? No he’s gotta be cooked… but people have…”





Telzhud’s eyes opened and he could sense the heat around its body. The metal atop its back was beginning to melt around the edges and blacken so black. The android shifted its knees beneath itself and pushed the flaming steel from his back as he stood up.

General Lee fell to his bottom in awe.

“Holy…”

General Lee’s eye was caught by a reflection of light. He turned his head slightly to see what it was and there he saw the logo “ZAIBATSU” along the the broad side of some of the flaming debris.

'Zaibatsu Corp… They were up to some funky stuff… he might be one of theirs…'
General Lee thought and thought…

“Hey! Are you alright in there?! You’re on fire!”
The General shot up to his feet and yelled at the man on fire.

The wind picked up. Telzhud stood amongst the flames and the wreckage but was not burning. His skin and bandages seemed to be flame retardant and he did not move as if the fire could not burn him.


Telzhud could sense he needed to move but wasn’t sure how.

“Hello?”

“Yea over here! Get out the fire!”

“Fire..”

Telzhud walked out from the flaming mess of the ship to where General Lee stood and looked down at the small round man.

“Hey man! You were almost a goner! I saved your behind there!”
General Lee said boastfully with a hand on his belly and another that almost touched Telzhud’s back.

“Saved me?... Danger was not a possibility… Assessing.”

“What?”

‘He must be one of those Zaibatsu experiments. This is the golden egg! I swear I couldn’t have been more lucky!!’
The General began to sweat from excitement as his mind raced with thoughts of schemes.

“Hey now no need to assess a thing ok. Lemme tell you, we gotta get you someplace nice and warm it's crazy out here. C’mon now I got a spot to take you.”

‘I can’t let anyone else find this dude. I’m sitting on a goldmine!’

Telzhud’s sensors were having trouble adjusting. It had just been booted up for the first time and had been in a major physical dilemma. Things were slow. Telzhud followed The General as the little large one pulled at his hand. As the general grabbed the bandaged hand an oily liquid seeped from underneath the bandages.

“Alright get in. I’m gonna take you to a nice spot that we can get you all figured out and get me some- I mean get you something to eat!”

The general stuffed Telzhud in the tiny 2-Seater. The nearly 7 foot frame struggled to fit in the seat but with some mechanical adjustments Telzhud was able to fit. The General ran over to the other side of the vehicle and jumped into the driver's seat. Sirens could be heard and emergency response team lights could be seen in the distance. The General shoved his foot on the gas of the vehicle so hard that the bang from the exhaust sounded like another spaceship crash landing.

---

Telzhud sat in the darkness of the warehouse while The General slept. He had knocked out hours ago and was draped over the side of the computer chair. Telzhud hadn’t stopped staring into the bowl of macaroni since the last memory had passed. Something inside of the android was pushing for another memory. The android couldn’t move on its own, it sat completely frozen until suddenly it jerked its head back and then regained its previous position.

“I.. I did it! Shhh- Yeaaaa!!!”
The android rose to its feet with both fists clenched tight as ever.

The android examined itself as if it was in a new body and had never seen it before this very moment. It began to walk about the room as if to test its ability to do so, it jumped a few times and hovered in the air.

“Hahahahaa!!! Telzhud was a success. I am a success! I am alive!!!”
The android hovered a few feet above the ground and flew about the room.

All the yelling interrupted the lullaby-like snoring of The General and he began to awake. He watched the android exclaim and float all over the room.




“You can fly?! Why am I even surprised..”

Telzhud’s attention which was completely on itself then shifted at the first sound of The General’s voice. Telzhud recognized the voice from a time long ago as if it knew the person well. Telzhud floated down and stood before The General who was now half standing, half leaning against his chair that was starting to swivel with his weight.

“Well now we gotta-”

“Shut your mouth you slimy motherless pig-dog punk!”


“Wait a… Yamada!”

“Hahahahaha! In the FLESH!”
Telzhud said with a huge grin.

“They said I was crazy Lee, they said oh old Yamada was always reaching but his arms were too short, well look at me now punks, ha!”

The General was shocked, his mouth without words and his eyes fixated on the android’s every move.

“Its.. its been a long time since uh… back then huh Yamada?”

“Yea… maybe not long enough hahaha. I can’t tell you how good I feel right now… there's no pain, I can walk and fly! This.. is power.”

“How… how did you even do this? I mean, I know you was always the brains but dang man.”

“Power… I can do so much now. I feel unstoppable. There's nothing I can’t create, nothing I cannot do. I am power. Power…”

Telzhud was sinking deeper into itself, drowning out all sensory pick up from its surroundings. Only the voice of Telzhud could be heard by Telzhud and that's all that The Program could handle at the moment anyway. The huge shift of consciousness that the android had just gone through was quickly depleting his energy reserves; but Telzhud had no idea, it was way too focused on its new emotions. Telzhud looked mad in the face, really focused with eyes more open than ever.

Telzud turned his back to The General and looked above, dazing into the night’s sky through one of the many windows. The android began to levitate off the ground and float higher and higher towards the warehouse’s ceiling.

The General could only watch in silence as Telzhud burst through the roof in a flash of energy that caused him to shield his eyes. Debris fell from above him which caused The general to dance out of the way until he was across the room a bit. He looked up into the sky through the large hole in his roof and let out a deep breath.

“Well… ok then.”
The General kicked some of the wood out of his way and found a clear spot to sit.


Telzhud flew over the city sky with his mind racing. Since the android had be first turned on it had competing priorities but not any longer. The scientist’s actual memories and intelligence had taken over entirely.

“Zaibatsu…”

Telzhud played back the memories of Yamada’s last days working at the laboratory before he fled into space. Yamada had just discovered his cancer was not going to stop spreading, that the man who devoted so much of his life to science was having his own taken simply by chance. Telzhud remembered the mad dash throughout the facilities gathering supplies and hoarding them away on one of the company’s shuttle ships.

“It has been 10 years… 10 years which gave me my life back… do I have them to thank or blame… I choose BLAME! THIS! THIS IS THE POWER THEY FEARED! THIS IS WHY THEY LABELED ME OUTCAST YAMADA! THIS IS THE AWAKENING OF THE SCIENTIFIC MIND! NOT SORCERY BUT GENIUS! PURE GENIUS AHAHAHAHA!”
Telzhud laughed confidently as he soared through the air.

The bandages that covered its body flailed in the wind behind it but held firm. The flesh of the android was adaptive and understood it needed the bandages and so ensured they stuck.

“I NEVER CLOCKED OUT FOR WORK I SHOULD GO PUNCH MY TIME CARD! AHAHAHA”
Telzhud was mad with emotion and nostalgia.

Emotions had not yet played a part in The Program's existence and so the conflict between the coexisting consciousnesses finally found its breaking point. The supercomputer of a brain that Telzhud had was useless as it fell victim to the one thing the scientist Yamada feared, the overexertion of the human spirit. Even if Yamada had input a fraction of his mental awareness into The Program he feared that even the slightest amount of the human element could prove dangerous to the fulfillment of #001 A.I.’s capacity.

… …

Scanning…

Energy Reserves… 55%...

… …

Telzhud could see the Giant Z atop the Zaibatsu skyscraper below its feet and smiled from ear to ear with an over exaggerated gesture. The android stopped his flight and hovered in place.

“YESS… LETS SHOW THEM!”

Telzhud began to lower himself towards the roof of the building when explosions started to burst all around the android. The building’s self defense cannons had activated and were all targeting the android. Telzhud was beyond itself and its sensors were having trouble seeing any shots.

*BANG!!* *BANG!!*

Telzhud was hit. The force of the blast sent Telzhud flying off into a new direction far away from the building. Black smoke plumed behind the limp body just like the spaceship had as it too had fallen towards the earth. The android crashed into a pile of junk in a dark alley sending garbage sprawling into the street.




telzhud exit.

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