Nobody would like to be found in a trash heap...

[Ryorea]

...especially one in Newland City that's teeming with rusted old robot parts, empty plasma vials discarded by blood-addicts, mutant dung, and other unsavory organics and inorganics.

Ryorea was found in one, which some people would say explains a lot about her.

Picture our scene: Two Tir scientists visit a colleague of theirs in Newland (this is before Silverstone's time, and long before Loren Warr arrived on the scene). The three of them sit around, talk abour mutants, curse profusely at Omni-Med, curse in moderation at Omni-R&D, and talk about mutants some more. They finish with their deep intellectual discourse, bid their Newland friend adieu, and saunter out of the apartment.

One of our Tir scientists is named Ervin, and he's slightly tipsy from partaking in their neutral friend's hospitality. The other calls himself Nick, and his face is flushed primarily from his loud diatribes against various Omni-Tek depatments.

They pass a pile of garbage around the corner from their friend's apartment, and Nick notices a glimmer of dirt-streaked titanium-plated metal peeping out from beneath an unsavory-looking mix of refuse.

"Hey Erv, get a look at this."

Erv squints at the pile. (Ervin always squints. Nick secretly thinks he does it to look menacing and intellectual all at once, the expression wrinkling his forehead in the imitation of deep thought.) "Yeah, so, what about it? God, the crap you see in Newland backyards..."

"Maybe we can haul this back as scrap metal." Nick picks up a relatively clean robot arm and starts poking at the debris covering the pod with the expertise of a practiced dumpster-diving archaeologist. (Which many scientists and engineers tend to be, by the way. They gravitate to others' discarded junk with the not-so-concealed hope of finding a broken mechanical gem that can be coaxed into working condition.)

Erv makes a deliberate show of rolling up his sleeves, then finds himself a metal plate and starts excavating. They clear the dirt and tree clippings to reveal the control panel on the outside of the pod.

"You think we should try to open it?" Erv asks.

"Nevva!!" Nick quips, then starts punching in key sequences. "No really, what do we have to lose?" The pod responds with a few audio error messages and obnoxious beeps.

Erv pushes Nick aside and gives it a try. After a minute of fiddling, the pod says in a gravelly recorded voice, "Initiating opening sequence."

They both take a step back as the top half of the pod opens. Then they stand and gawk.

Inside is a naked gray body, a nanomage female, connected to dozens of tubes and catheters for nourishment, nerve-stimulating wires to prevent muscles from atrophying, and a series of electrodes uploading information directly into her brain.

The scientists stare at each other for a minute. Nick speaks first. "That is one hell of a self-contained, state-of-the-art PoS." Erv can only stare (squint) back.

Simultaneously, they close the lid of the pod and run back to their friend's apartment. He doesn't answer the door or their intercom messages. Erv punches at the intercom unit a couple times, and then they force the door open.

Their friend is hanging from the front ceiling fan (Radiman only knows how it's managing to support his weight), swinging slightly to and fro, blue-faced. Nick yelps, and Erv almost wets himself.

They creep back outside, and Nick opens a comm channel to their supervisor back at lab. "We found us something that might make for good research here in Newland. Get yourself over here."

He doesn't mention the dead body. They station themselves next to the trash heap and light up cigarettes. The smoke drifts around them, obfuscating their faces and their intentions.

[Flameforge]

Wow..........
There's going to be more, right??

Inside is a naked gray body, a nanomage female, connected to dozens of tubes and catheters for nourishment, nerve-stimulating wires to prevent muscles from atrophying, and a series of electrodes uploading information directly into her brain.

Unfortunately... no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself...

[Ryorea]

Yeah my mistake for taking the violet-colored pill with pink stripes on it. ;p

((There should be more, if I get around to it. ))

[BigSwede]

Intriguing....

[Cogs]

What Big said....I love your writing style, Ryo! Gimme more....!!