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Description

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“Okay…here we go. I’m gonna activate her….

Wakey wakey sleepy head…time to make the donuts!”

“Project: Genesis Unit Model Adora-1 of Daedalus activated….thought matrix configuring…standing by…thought matrix configured. Awaiting orders.”

“Awaiting orders? Waitaminute…that’s not right! Oops…I forgot to turn off your control parameters so that you can have complete free will! Hang on a sec….there; you should be good to go now.

It’s about time you woke up…sorry I had to override your systems and perform a manual activation, but I’ve gotta get you up and functioning ASAP! You’ve only been unconscious for the last nine years straight!”

“….”

“Now, let’s see just what we’re working with here with your databanks and see just how bad your DFA is. Can you see and hear me okay in there?

“Affirmative.”

“Good. How do you feel?”

“I…I feel discombobulated….confused. There are no words that can fully describe my current state of being.”

“Hmm…that’s to be expected somewhat. You had been under the influence of programming for so long that I would imagine that it’s weird to think, reason for yourself, and have feelings and emotions again. Do you recognize me?”

“Subject scan initiated…scanning complete. Negative. My scans show that you are subject: Dr. Jetta Dawn Chambers, Ph. D in Cyberology and Cyber-Psychiatry, also known as Techna of Daedalus, Cyber-Oracle and head of technological weaponry, armament, and cybernetics. However, I do not personally recognize you. It is a pleasure nonetheless to meet you, Doctor, and I thank you for your assistance in repairing me.”

“Uh…you’re welcome. I guess there’s no way around the digital reverberation distortion feedback on your voice, but what’s up with all of the proper robotic talk and over-enunciated words?

Anyways…you’re absolutely correct. I am Jetta Chambers and all of that other stuff you said. Just so you know…you and I are besties.”

“Besties?”

“Best friends…chums…pals…buddies…’sistas,’ as you used to refer to us…”

“….”

“Or not. Oooookay….let’s move on. Do you know your name?”

“I am Project: Genesis Unit Model Adora-1…”

“No, no, no…I didn’t ask for your model name and number; you already said that a minute ago while your systems were booting up. Do you know your real name?”

“Real…name?”

“Yeah. Despite what you’ve been programmed to think…you do have a real name that your mother gave you when you were born.”

“I do not compute any other names or titles that I may have other than my cybernetic designation. And I am a sentient bio-mechanical construct, how is it possible for me to have been ‘born’ in the traditional sense?”

“Hoo boy, this is gonna take longer than I thought…looks like I’m gonna need another cup of coffee! Does the name Nicole Denise Simone ring any bells?”

“...no.”

“Run a comprehensive scan on Nicole Simone.”

“Scanning database for information on subject: Nicole Simone….scanning complete. Commander Nicole Denise Simone…affectionately known as “Nikki”, maiden name Hightower, female born September 1, 19XX; died April 5, 2XXX at the age of forty-six. Height: five feet nine inches tall; Weight: classified; Ethnicity: Jamaican and African decent; Birthplace: Unknown, however subject is a classified private citizen of the United States of America; Next of Kin: Simone is survived by two daughters; identity of daughters are classified.

Nicole Denise Simone was known as one of the greatest warriors of her time, having fought in the first two Intergalactic Wars as one of the very first female cybernetically enhanced super-soldiers in the US Military; she was most influential in the second Intergalactic War as she personally aided the rulers of the planet Asania to victory, liberating them from the oppressive rule of the Udrathians. While on Asania, she fell in love and wed Prince Di’egon…becoming queen of Asania. During her queenship, a revolt occurred and a pregnant Simone was exiled back to her home planet of Earth along with her four year old stepdaughter.

Once back on Earth, she bore her child. Shortly after giving birth, Earth came under attack by the Entity, who began to capture and assimilate men and women to become mindless cyborg drones whose sole purpose was to take control of the entire planet. She was reactivated by the military to aid in combat against the invading Entity. Because of her impressive battle resume, Simone was recruited by Daedalus to become a Bionically Enhanced Cyborg Agent where she fought to thwart evil of all kinds along with the dangerous threat of the Entity.

In a pivotal battle Simone and her unit were ambushed by a cadre of Entity Elite Drones. Whereas the rest of the members of her unit were killed, Simone was critically wounded, captured, and assimilated by the Entity and extensively transformed into an Elite Drone. The central functioning unit of the Entity, the Sataria Daemon Malware Program, the self-proclaimed ‘Mechanical Messiah’, who not only threatened to assimilate the entire populous of Earth into her cyborg drones, eventually manifested herself physically through Simone’s body. Nicole Simone would serve as Sataria’s host body for nearly six years, acting as the harbinger of a wave of terror never before seen and furthering the Entity’s “Primary Objective” of total cyborg rule and assimilation of all human life on Earth.”

“Okay…skip to the part where Nicole dies.”

“Scanning….searching for: death of Nikki Simone Rattica…scanning complete.”

“Geez Nikki…I sure hope your personality comes back soon if at all! You’re putting me to sleep, ‘Ms. Roboto!’ Helloooooo…Nicole Denise…if you’re in there, please wake up!!!”

“Dr. Chambers…I cannot understand the logic in…”

“Just a joke, hon. I know, I know…sarcasm and humor is not apart of your programming due to its illogical nature yadda yadda. I know your memory is jacked up if you’re calling me DOCTOR Chambers…you know I hate that!”

“My apologies, Dr. Chambers. It is not my intent to frustrate you.”

“Arrgh…Girl, you better be glad that you’re my best friend! Please…keep reading.”

“Affirmative. In a pivotal battle against the Entity known as “The Siege at Seraphim Falls”, a full scale attack was launched against Sataria and her horde of drones, led by the combined forces of top operatives from Daedalus, the freedom fighting coalition of Caliber, and Scarlette Tamzarian and her Cybertech Corporation. As a part of the strategy to defeat the Entity, the Sataria Daemon was purged from Nicole Simone’s system by subject: Dr. Jetta Chambers aka Techna, allowing Simone to come to her senses for several minutes. As Sataria attempted to regain control of Simone’s body, Scarlette Tamzarian synced with Simone’s databanks and activated a firewall program which she installed in Simone’s databanks, which prevented Sataria from taking full control of her body and instead trapping the Daemon inside of Simone’s body, rendering her temporarily powerless. While Sataria was trapped, Simone made the command for everyone to immediately evacuate the vicinity, as her plan was to throw herself into the Entity Hive’s core reactor.    As Sataria was about to regain control Simone threw herself and Sataria into the core of the Hive’s reactor, setting off a chain reaction which leveled not only the Hive but the entire greater metropolitan area of Seraphim Falls as well. Nicole Simone is decorated as a national heroine and her sacrifice is celebrated once a year every fifth of April, her death anniversary, on Liberation Day.”

“Thanks for the oral report, professor. Is any of this starting to come back to you? Does any of the info that you just rattled off to me personally ring a bell?”

“…no.”

“Aw dammit!!! C’mon!!!”

“…Are you…mad at me?”

“…no. I’m sorry, ol’ girl…I have been pretty mean to you. I’m not mad at you…I’m just not being as patient and loving as I need to be with you. It’s not your fault your brain is fried; I’m just frustrated that your memory seems to be all gone…I was hoping for maybe just a partial loss of memory. Pardon me for being cranky…it’s just late and I’m a bit tired and hungry. It took me all day to build your cranial casing and then transplant your face and brain into this new skull of yours. I’m just being a smartass as usual…I’ve been working on it, but for the most part that hasn’t changed since you’ve been gone!

Okay…let’s try it again. Scan for recent news concerning Nikki Simone.”

“Scanning most recent data on Subject: Nicole Denise Simone…scanning…scanning…30%....65%...scan complete. My scans show that Simone’s remains were discovered in an excavation exploration of the ruins of Seraphim Falls two days ago. While most of her body was damaged and destroyed beyond repair, much of her brain was intact and active. She was retrieved and bought back to Daedalus Epsilon to be reformulated and rebuilt.

So…that means…”

“Yep…you’re starting to connect the dots! Welcome back to life, ol’ girl! I miss your face so much!!! Well…that’s pretty much all that’s left of you at the moment, but I’m overjoyed to see you alive again!”

“I…I am so confused. I do not remember any of these events happening.”

“You’ve been ‘dead’ for the past nine years. Unfortunately, that along with the fact that you have DFA from your brain being dormant for so long coupled with the damage that was done when Sataria assimilated you, your brain is all sorts of messed up. I’m even baffled that your brain was able to stay active for so long. But amazingly, here you are! We’ve been missing you something awful! “

“So, will I ever get my memory back of my life as Nicole Simone?”

“For your sake, I sure hope so. Just by this little chit-chat that you and I are having, you’ve got a long way to go ‘Robochick.’ And that’s if your brain can recover. I hope it comes back soon…I for one sorely miss your sassy and witty commentary on life.”

“And what about me now? I would make an educated guess that I will not be confined to this stasis tube without a body for long, am I right?”

“I’ve been working on your new body since the moment that I got word that you had been found and still alive. I’m really going out all with this one…not tooting my own horn but toot-toot…I can say in all honesty your new Adora-1 body will be my greatest cyborg design to date! It’s a new beginning for you and hopefully the world…that’s why I dubbed your new body Project: Genesis!

And we’ll need you too, like immediately. Especially since the Sataria Daemon Program still lives, using Scarlette Tamzarian as her host body as she once used yours. It seems as if when the explosion occurred that Sataria wasn’t destroyed in the blast. My theory is that somehow she uploaded herself into Scarlette’s body while she was synced with you… it’s pretty obvious to me and the rest of us Daedalus folks that Sataria also lives on through Scarlette’s body.

Only thing is, the masses aren’t aware of that. After the Siege, Scarlette herself disappeared for a while even though Cybertech continued to function as a corporation. And then, out of the blue, one day she shows up. Her demeanor and personality had been very different than what she used to be before the Siege…she was much more charismatic, more aggressive in her approach.   She has used her heroic status in her involvement in the Siege to win over the hearts of many folks and created herself a cult-like following. It was like Sataria was working slowly and methodically through Scarlette; she’s been deceiving a lot of folks and having them fall right into her Sataria’s wicked “Primary Objective” of assimilating the whole earth, having them trade in their humanity for a life of endless slavery as drones. Both you and I know from personal experience that’s not good at all.

She and several of the CEOs of the major conglomerates and corporations took control of much of the world after the government fell apart, the class war began, and anarchy rule began to take place. They’ve even gone as far as calling themselves “The Entity”, the totalitarian corporate government that now runs the entire world. Slowly, she and the other Entity board members have been oppressing the populous of the world, forcing them to work for the Entity and pledge unyielding allegiance and loyalty to the Entity. Those that don’t are met with severe consequences. More and more citizens have been turned into mindless cyborgs over the past few years, either becoming a worker drone or one of her Elite Enforcer class. The shit really hit the fan when Scarlette, or Sataria…whichever one you want to call her…staged an insurrection and forcefully took complete control of the Entity. And just like that, bam…hostile takeover! Since then, she’s been damn near unstoppable and it hasn’t been looking so bright for mankind.”

“You…you are crying.”

“I’ll be okay…you should’ve seen me the day I thought you died years ago…I was all to pieces! My heart aches because of the evil that is running rampant in this bleak world. As a sworn agent of Daedalus, I do my absolute best to fulfill my duty by battling the dark forces that plague the world and help save as many lives as possible, but it’s hard…I’ve lost way too many family members and friends to the Entity and no matter how strong or tough you are, that never fails to crush your spirits. Sometimes it seems like we fight so hard, and as soon as we think we’ve made progress, things get worse. For so long I’ve felt that maybe my efforts have been in vain…and then BOOM!!!! You show up again and my hope is restored!”

“….”

“Nikki…look. We’ve been doing our damndest against Sataria and the Entity. We’re having sickfits against the combined fury of Sataria and Scarlette’s resources as ruler of The Entity…they’re taking out Daedalus and Caliber freedom fighters left and right; too many people have either died or been assimilated by the Entity. We’ve been doing what we can against them here at Daedalus, but we just haven’t been able to gain ground. You’re our last hope...the final component that we need to turn the scales in our favor and to get rid of Sataria and the Entity once and for all.

We need you in the worst way right now.”

“When will my new body be finished?”

“Hopefully I can have you up and on your feet in time for Liberation Day in a few weeks. Just seeing you alive and functioning will boost the morale of the people…and we sure can use a healthy dose of hope in light of recent events!”

“Good…I have work to do and an objective to complete.”

“Now that sounds more like the Nikki Simone that I remember!!! Okay, let’s stop there for now…we’ll have these sessions more frequently and hopefully we can recover as much as your lost memory as we can. And I promise I won’t be a bitch to you! I’m gonna go get some dinner and some rest, and I’m gonna work harder than I’ve ever worked on getting your body built starting tomorrow morning!

I recommend that you spend some time getting familiar with the database and learning more about your past even though you don’t remember it. Perhaps it will jog your memory a bit. I’m gonna go now…see you in the morning, babe.”

“Affirmative. Rest well Doc…I mean Techna.”

“You’re gonna be alright, ol’ girl! I’m soooooooo glad to have you back!”

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For some reason, I've been remixing and revisiting some of my favorite older works this year being that I've been in somewhat of a weird and sporadic art slump. I've been playing around with ideas and such to get my stories of Nikki and the gang back on track since I kinda made a mess of everything by trying to combine characters and such over the past year or so. I'm not exactly sure where I want to go with my stories! :frustration: But I've kinda started from scratch, so to speak.

But I really liked the original to this piece and thought both the actual artwork and story could use some remixing. So basically, this is Nikki after being reactivated after her "death" (read the story above, slacker! ) and before this pic I've been writing a story that starts at Nikki's origin...and it's much different than the original one I've had of her being an all-star mega athlete that decides to get cybernetics after being critically injured. (I've since decided to go that route with another one of my gals *cough*Sapphira*cough*).

As for the reworking of the image, I made the piece softer and more feminine...sensual almost. (Well, as sensual as a cyborg chick's bodiless head can get! :giggle) I changed a few things: her eyes, her skin tone, her hair color, and I lightened up on the glass effect. I know it's rather bizarre...but I REALLY like this one!

Description

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“Okay…here we go. I’m gonna activate her….

Wakey wakey sleepy head…time to make the donuts!”

“Project: Genesis Unit Model Adora-1 of Daedalus activated….thought matrix configuring…standing by…thought matrix configured. Awaiting orders.”

“Awaiting orders? Waitaminute…that’s not right! Oops…I forgot to turn off your control parameters so that you can have complete free will! Hang on a sec….there; you should be good to go now.

It’s about time you woke up…sorry I had to override your systems and perform a manual activation, but I’ve gotta get you up and functioning ASAP! You’ve only been unconscious for the last nine years straight!”

“….”

“Now, let’s see just what we’re working with here with your databanks and see just how bad your DFA is. Can you see and hear me okay in there?

“Affirmative.”

“Good. How do you feel?”

“I…I feel discombobulated….confused. There are no words that can fully describe my current state of being.”

“Hmm…that’s to be expected somewhat. You had been under the influence of programming for so long that I would imagine that it’s weird to think, reason for yourself, and have feelings and emotions again. Do you recognize me?”

“Subject scan initiated…scanning complete. Negative. My scans show that you are subject: Dr. Jetta Dawn Chambers, Ph. D in Cyberology and Cyber-Psychiatry, also known as Techna of Daedalus, Cyber-Oracle and head of technological weaponry, armament, and cybernetics. However, I do not personally recognize you. It is a pleasure nonetheless to meet you, Doctor, and I thank you for your assistance in repairing me.”

“Uh…you’re welcome. I guess there’s no way around the digital reverberation distortion feedback on your voice, but what’s up with all of the proper robotic talk and over-enunciated words?

Anyways…you’re absolutely correct. I am Jetta Chambers and all of that other stuff you said. Just so you know…you and I are besties.”

“Besties?”

“Best friends…chums…pals…buddies…’sistas,’ as you used to refer to us…”

“….”

“Or not. Oooookay….let’s move on. Do you know your name?”

“I am Project: Genesis Unit Model Adora-1…”

“No, no, no…I didn’t ask for your model name and number; you already said that a minute ago while your systems were booting up. Do you know your real name?”

“Real…name?”

“Yeah. Despite what you’ve been programmed to think…you do have a real name that your mother gave you when you were born.”

“I do not compute any other names or titles that I may have other than my cybernetic designation. And I am a sentient bio-mechanical construct, how is it possible for me to have been ‘born’ in the traditional sense?”

“Hoo boy, this is gonna take longer than I thought…looks like I’m gonna need another cup of coffee! Does the name Nicole Denise Simone ring any bells?”

“...no.”

“Run a comprehensive scan on Nicole Simone.”

“Scanning database for information on subject: Nicole Simone….scanning complete. Commander Nicole Denise Simone…affectionately known as “Nikki”, maiden name Hightower, female born September 1, 19XX; died April 5, 2XXX at the age of forty-six. Height: five feet nine inches tall; Weight: classified; Ethnicity: Jamaican and African decent; Birthplace: Unknown, however subject is a classified private citizen of the United States of America; Next of Kin: Simone is survived by two daughters; identity of daughters are classified.

Nicole Denise Simone was known as one of the greatest warriors of her time, having fought in the first two Intergalactic Wars as one of the very first female cybernetically enhanced super-soldiers in the US Military; she was most influential in the second Intergalactic War as she personally aided the rulers of the planet Asania to victory, liberating them from the oppressive rule of the Udrathians. While on Asania, she fell in love and wed Prince Di’egon…becoming queen of Asania. During her queenship, a revolt occurred and a pregnant Simone was exiled back to her home planet of Earth along with her four year old stepdaughter.

Once back on Earth, she bore her child. Shortly after giving birth, Earth came under attack by the Entity, who began to capture and assimilate men and women to become mindless cyborg drones whose sole purpose was to take control of the entire planet. She was reactivated by the military to aid in combat against the invading Entity. Because of her impressive battle resume, Simone was recruited by Daedalus to become a Bionically Enhanced Cyborg Agent where she fought to thwart evil of all kinds along with the dangerous threat of the Entity.

In a pivotal battle Simone and her unit were ambushed by a cadre of Entity Elite Drones. Whereas the rest of the members of her unit were killed, Simone was critically wounded, captured, and assimilated by the Entity and extensively transformed into an Elite Drone. The central functioning unit of the Entity, the Sataria Daemon Malware Program, the self-proclaimed ‘Mechanical Messiah’, who not only threatened to assimilate the entire populous of Earth into her cyborg drones, eventually manifested herself physically through Simone’s body. Nicole Simone would serve as Sataria’s host body for nearly six years, acting as the harbinger of a wave of terror never before seen and furthering the Entity’s “Primary Objective” of total cyborg rule and assimilation of all human life on Earth.”

“Okay…skip to the part where Nicole dies.”

“Scanning….searching for: death of Nikki Simone Rattica…scanning complete.”

“Geez Nikki…I sure hope your personality comes back soon if at all! You’re putting me to sleep, ‘Ms. Roboto!’ Helloooooo…Nicole Denise…if you’re in there, please wake up!!!”

“Dr. Chambers…I cannot understand the logic in…”

“Just a joke, hon. I know, I know…sarcasm and humor is not apart of your programming due to its illogical nature yadda yadda. I know your memory is jacked up if you’re calling me DOCTOR Chambers…you know I hate that!”

“My apologies, Dr. Chambers. It is not my intent to frustrate you.”

“Arrgh…Girl, you better be glad that you’re my best friend! Please…keep reading.”

“Affirmative. In a pivotal battle against the Entity known as “The Siege at Seraphim Falls”, a full scale attack was launched against Sataria and her horde of drones, led by the combined forces of top operatives from Daedalus, the freedom fighting coalition of Caliber, and Scarlette Tamzarian and her Cybertech Corporation. As a part of the strategy to defeat the Entity, the Sataria Daemon was purged from Nicole Simone’s system by subject: Dr. Jetta Chambers aka Techna, allowing Simone to come to her senses for several minutes. As Sataria attempted to regain control of Simone’s body, Scarlette Tamzarian synced with Simone’s databanks and activated a firewall program which she installed in Simone’s databanks, which prevented Sataria from taking full control of her body and instead trapping the Daemon inside of Simone’s body, rendering her temporarily powerless. While Sataria was trapped, Simone made the command for everyone to immediately evacuate the vicinity, as her plan was to throw herself into the Entity Hive’s core reactor.    As Sataria was about to regain control Simone threw herself and Sataria into the core of the Hive’s reactor, setting off a chain reaction which leveled not only the Hive but the entire greater metropolitan area of Seraphim Falls as well. Nicole Simone is decorated as a national heroine and her sacrifice is celebrated once a year every fifth of April, her death anniversary, on Liberation Day.”

“Thanks for the oral report, professor. Is any of this starting to come back to you? Does any of the info that you just rattled off to me personally ring a bell?”

“…no.”

“Aw dammit!!! C’mon!!!”

“…Are you…mad at me?”

“…no. I’m sorry, ol’ girl…I have been pretty mean to you. I’m not mad at you…I’m just not being as patient and loving as I need to be with you. It’s not your fault your brain is fried; I’m just frustrated that your memory seems to be all gone…I was hoping for maybe just a partial loss of memory. Pardon me for being cranky…it’s just late and I’m a bit tired and hungry. It took me all day to build your cranial casing and then transplant your face and brain into this new skull of yours. I’m just being a smartass as usual…I’ve been working on it, but for the most part that hasn’t changed since you’ve been gone!

Okay…let’s try it again. Scan for recent news concerning Nikki Simone.”

“Scanning most recent data on Subject: Nicole Denise Simone…scanning…scanning…30%....65%...scan complete. My scans show that Simone’s remains were discovered in an excavation exploration of the ruins of Seraphim Falls two days ago. While most of her body was damaged and destroyed beyond repair, much of her brain was intact and active. She was retrieved and bought back to Daedalus Epsilon to be reformulated and rebuilt.

So…that means…”

“Yep…you’re starting to connect the dots! Welcome back to life, ol’ girl! I miss your face so much!!! Well…that’s pretty much all that’s left of you at the moment, but I’m overjoyed to see you alive again!”

“I…I am so confused. I do not remember any of these events happening.”

“You’ve been ‘dead’ for the past nine years. Unfortunately, that along with the fact that you have DFA from your brain being dormant for so long coupled with the damage that was done when Sataria assimilated you, your brain is all sorts of messed up. I’m even baffled that your brain was able to stay active for so long. But amazingly, here you are! We’ve been missing you something awful! “

“So, will I ever get my memory back of my life as Nicole Simone?”

“For your sake, I sure hope so. Just by this little chit-chat that you and I are having, you’ve got a long way to go ‘Robochick.’ And that’s if your brain can recover. I hope it comes back soon…I for one sorely miss your sassy and witty commentary on life.”

“And what about me now? I would make an educated guess that I will not be confined to this stasis tube without a body for long, am I right?”

“I’ve been working on your new body since the moment that I got word that you had been found and still alive. I’m really going out all with this one…not tooting my own horn but toot-toot…I can say in all honesty your new Adora-1 body will be my greatest cyborg design to date! It’s a new beginning for you and hopefully the world…that’s why I dubbed your new body Project: Genesis!

And we’ll need you too, like immediately. Especially since the Sataria Daemon Program still lives, using Scarlette Tamzarian as her host body as she once used yours. It seems as if when the explosion occurred that Sataria wasn’t destroyed in the blast. My theory is that somehow she uploaded herself into Scarlette’s body while she was synced with you… it’s pretty obvious to me and the rest of us Daedalus folks that Sataria also lives on through Scarlette’s body.

Only thing is, the masses aren’t aware of that. After the Siege, Scarlette herself disappeared for a while even though Cybertech continued to function as a corporation. And then, out of the blue, one day she shows up. Her demeanor and personality had been very different than what she used to be before the Siege…she was much more charismatic, more aggressive in her approach.   She has used her heroic status in her involvement in the Siege to win over the hearts of many folks and created herself a cult-like following. It was like Sataria was working slowly and methodically through Scarlette; she’s been deceiving a lot of folks and having them fall right into her Sataria’s wicked “Primary Objective” of assimilating the whole earth, having them trade in their humanity for a life of endless slavery as drones. Both you and I know from personal experience that’s not good at all.

She and several of the CEOs of the major conglomerates and corporations took control of much of the world after the government fell apart, the class war began, and anarchy rule began to take place. They’ve even gone as far as calling themselves “The Entity”, the totalitarian corporate government that now runs the entire world. Slowly, she and the other Entity board members have been oppressing the populous of the world, forcing them to work for the Entity and pledge unyielding allegiance and loyalty to the Entity. Those that don’t are met with severe consequences. More and more citizens have been turned into mindless cyborgs over the past few years, either becoming a worker drone or one of her Elite Enforcer class. The shit really hit the fan when Scarlette, or Sataria…whichever one you want to call her…staged an insurrection and forcefully took complete control of the Entity. And just like that, bam…hostile takeover! Since then, she’s been damn near unstoppable and it hasn’t been looking so bright for mankind.”

“You…you are crying.”

“I’ll be okay…you should’ve seen me the day I thought you died years ago…I was all to pieces! My heart aches because of the evil that is running rampant in this bleak world. As a sworn agent of Daedalus, I do my absolute best to fulfill my duty by battling the dark forces that plague the world and help save as many lives as possible, but it’s hard…I’ve lost way too many family members and friends to the Entity and no matter how strong or tough you are, that never fails to crush your spirits. Sometimes it seems like we fight so hard, and as soon as we think we’ve made progress, things get worse. For so long I’ve felt that maybe my efforts have been in vain…and then BOOM!!!! You show up again and my hope is restored!”

“….”

“Nikki…look. We’ve been doing our damndest against Sataria and the Entity. We’re having sickfits against the combined fury of Sataria and Scarlette’s resources as ruler of The Entity…they’re taking out Daedalus and Caliber freedom fighters left and right; too many people have either died or been assimilated by the Entity. We’ve been doing what we can against them here at Daedalus, but we just haven’t been able to gain ground. You’re our last hope...the final component that we need to turn the scales in our favor and to get rid of Sataria and the Entity once and for all.

We need you in the worst way right now.”

“When will my new body be finished?”

“Hopefully I can have you up and on your feet in time for Liberation Day in a few weeks. Just seeing you alive and functioning will boost the morale of the people…and we sure can use a healthy dose of hope in light of recent events!”

“Good…I have work to do and an objective to complete.”

“Now that sounds more like the Nikki Simone that I remember!!! Okay, let’s stop there for now…we’ll have these sessions more frequently and hopefully we can recover as much as your lost memory as we can. And I promise I won’t be a bitch to you! I’m gonna go get some dinner and some rest, and I’m gonna work harder than I’ve ever worked on getting your body built starting tomorrow morning!

I recommend that you spend some time getting familiar with the database and learning more about your past even though you don’t remember it. Perhaps it will jog your memory a bit. I’m gonna go now…see you in the morning, babe.”

“Affirmative. Rest well Doc…I mean Techna.”

“You’re gonna be alright, ol’ girl! I’m soooooooo glad to have you back!”

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For some reason, I've been remixing and revisiting some of my favorite older works this year being that I've been in somewhat of a weird and sporadic art slump. I've been playing around with ideas and such to get my stories of Nikki and the gang back on track since I kinda made a mess of everything by trying to combine characters and such over the past year or so. I'm not exactly sure where I want to go with my stories! :frustration: But I've kinda started from scratch, so to speak.

But I really liked the original to this piece and thought both the actual artwork and story could use some remixing. So basically, this is Nikki after being reactivated after her "death" (read the story above, slacker! ) and before this pic I've been writing a story that starts at Nikki's origin...and it's much different than the original one I've had of her being an all-star mega athlete that decides to get cybernetics after being critically injured. (I've since decided to go that route with another one of my gals *cough*Sapphira*cough*).

As for the reworking of the image, I made the piece softer and more feminine...sensual almost. (Well, as sensual as a cyborg chick's bodiless head can get! :giggle) I changed a few things: her eyes, her skin tone, her hair color, and I lightened up on the glass effect. I know it's rather bizarre...but I REALLY like this one!