Bright Lights. My submission for the past narrative contest (had a word limit) hope you enjoy.

The neon glow of city streets shimmered on the slick pavement of District 43. Ashe weaved through dark side-alleys as the rain drizzled on around her. The faint adverts and slogans echoing in her eyes and ears were frustrating, but she couldn't help feeling a familiarity and longing in the lights. They shone with a glamorous beauty she would do anything to protect; this city was home after all.

‘Avarosa, pull up the signal Ekko detected in sector 5’.

A light blinked from the drone on her back, lighting up the area before her with information gathered earlier that day, still following the map augmented into her vision the odd signal once again ran through the database for possible matches. Nothing.

‘Something's not right here. That sector was cut off from the grid a long time ago, without power there you'll only find pluggers and abandoned buildings.’

Area scans had been inconclusive so it was up to her to investigate.

Standing alone on the shady street, Ashe flicked her light shades through various vision settings and took in the surroundings. The ruined buildings that once stood here bad been long abandoned after an incident largely ignored by the press, and due to a forever pending investigation by Central; had not been refactored for reconstruction. The ever stalking darkness would make any citizen leave out of a sense of unaccustomed fear, but Ashe was no stranger to the night's embrace, and many days of moving through its cover only strengthened the resolve she always carried with her.

‘Let’s shed some light on things.’

‘Searching…’ the drone responded humming to life, smoothly gliding over broken screens and burnt furniture to illuminate small portions of the area, all the while running tests for irregularities. The gentle sound of rain was only interrupted by the low cracks and shuffling of rubble, but intent, Ashe continued the search for the anomaly she hoped would point to PROJECT’s next move. By chance she came upon a small bird neglected on the floor; the blue of its plush long blackened with dirt and its wings torn and sagging with the weight of the rain.

Ashe froze. A feeling she had long since thought gone chilled her chest and she found herself frantically moving to examine the toy closer, searching for another morsel of the feeling that had touched her heart for the faintest of moments. Was this remembering?

Her mind was forcefully snapped back by the artifacted sound of a familiar jingle ringing in her ears; In her moment of confusion, she had not properly noted the figure that lay slumped in the corner of the room. It shuddered abruptly as it flickered to life with a green glow that flooded the room and highlighted the white frozen smile on its face.

‘To heal and prote-tect’

‘Great’ she said with a nervous sigh, ‘It’s just an old medic-bot’. The edge with which Ashe clutched her bow was replaced with relief at the sight of broken android. Sharp green sparks showed its disrepair, and the lack of plating on one leg indicated it had been looted and was no longer able to heal or walk. It stared with flickering green eyes, it's circuits whirring gently. The machine eyed her movements slowly.

The search seemed fruitless and Ashe stepped out into the cold air to compose herself, trying to put together the puzzle she knew was there when a flicker caught her eye. In a moment of adrenaline, her bow was drawn and trained at the figure skulking the shadows around her. The slender silence of its movement betrayed only by the glowing green of the lights on its body. This could only be another program but Ashe knew it wasn’t here to bring her tea.

‘Did you really think you could hide from us girl?’

It’s cold synthetic voice cut through the night but Ashe had braved colder and this new obstacle could only mean she was closer to her goal. It moved slowly into the light, balancing on the two thin blades at the end of thick plated legs. Its upper body was smaller and lither and stood upright with a posture that could only be described as professional.

‘Who are you?’

Ashe wondered if her voice carried the nerve she now felt but her training held through and she quietly disengaged the endothermic safety on her bow, one shot would be enough to buy her some time should she be attacked.

‘I am the one who’s going to end your little resistance’

The machine paced as the light on its chest flicked through various colors before landing on a glowing red. A ringing from Avarosa snapped Ashe back into focus, on her HUD she now saw the slowly rising temperature reading she was getting from the Program, in the short time they had met, it had analyzed her and determined a countermeasure. She had to act fast. In the second it took Ashe to fire a volley of bolts towards the robot it had already launched itself into the air above her suspended on humming hard light cables. She felt it’s condescending gaze in the moment before it fell gracefully and swept her to the ground with a kick of its legs. ‘

‘The others will crumble without you’.

She tried a different method, attempting to knock it off balance with a blow to its upper body but the calculated dashes with the grapple were enough to confound her. She quickened her fire but any shot was shrugged off in the instant it took the machine to melt the frost of her bolts. The precious seconds she bought were enough to focus her mind. She remembered her purpose, her past and the power inside her which now flowed through her bow. She drew back and released a foggy breath through the mounting cold now burning through her final arrow; This shot would either be the program’s last, or hers.