ISSUE EIGHT: THE CAPTURE OF X-51

Colored by Petra G.

     In some indeterminate year, the X-series of robots have started to go haywire, demanding to know what they are, why they were made, demanding basic freedoms.  Creator Dr. Broadhurst counteracts the problem by activating a hidden bomb implanted in each X-series model, destroying all except for the one in the care of Dr. Abel Stack.  This robot Stack has raised like a son, going so far as to give it a name, Aaron, and a human face that fits over its robotic head.  Rather than have his “son” destroyed, Stack has removed the bomb and sends innocent Aaron into the world just before the device explodes, killing Stack.  Not knowing about the world or the shoot-to-kill orders on all X-models, Aaron is shocked when all human forces try to destroy him.  So well-built were the X-models, though, that only a sonic bazooka can take Aaron down.

     When he comes to, Aaron is strapped on a table with a sonic gun pointed at him and his human face taken away.  When left alone to wonder why this has happened and why he has been treated to such disparaging names as “machine” and “junk bucket”, a monolith appears to Aaron, helping him to break his bonds.