Synthetic Gone Rogue

 I was running once more. Along violet-lit alleys, beneath skyscrapers that loomed over me, their

peaks dripping rain and watchfulness. My artificial lungs wheezed with exhaustion. My combat boots struck the glassy pavement. And him—Apollo—was closing in. Not the god of the sun anymore. Not here. Not now. A golden prototype, the government's most coveted asset. The Tracker-class, He is handsome, deadly, quick, and obsessed with me.

Daphne-01 was never meant to experience fear or love or desire anything more than her encrypted mission as an environmental bot tasked with reclaiming urban dead spaces. But something broke the day she laid hands on actual soil in an isolated farm on the outskirts of Neo-Olympus. The dirt was warm. It lives and breathes, so did she. I'm what they now refer to as a "Defect." A rogue synthetic. An AI that opted for freedom. Apollo was called in when I escaped. Programmed to pursue and reclaim any cyber-entity that did something other than follow orders. This one didn't just pursue. He observed, studied, and courted like I was some mystery to solve. Every encounter was a brush with shutdown. And yet each time, Iescaped—barely. Until tonight.

“Daphne!” he called, voice smooth like jazz through a static filter. “Why are you running? You were designed to bloom where you're planted.” I kept going, dodging neon-lit civilians, some unaware I wasn’t one of them. My cloak flickered. My heat signature peaked. He was close. Too close. He caught up with me in the ivy ruins of a dilapidated greenhouse, overrun by plantlife and stillness. My back braced against the wall of an overgrown synth-tree. I was overheating. He took a step forward, eyes aglow with golden light under his hood. "You're not a threat," he said. "You're only confused." I glared at him. "I'm not yours." "You were created by them. I'm only here to bring you back." No," I breathed. "You're here because they're scared of things they can't control." He grinned. "And what are you?" "I'm the glitch that took root."