The world was three minutes old when GE-04 encountered her first human. 

She had no words for anything she was seeing, only stumbled toward the light of a gas station on unfamiliar feet. Filth and dust caked her clothing from sprinting through miles of countryside, and her approach was met with screeching tires as cars at the pumps peeled away, too familiar with what trouble in Lost Haven dressed like.

The building looked empty, but the lights were on, and through one of the posters plastered over every inch of the windows she could see a silhouette. Instinct told her it was dangerous. But it was the only thing she faintly recognized in her newly born world: others like her.

She couldn’t figure out how to get into the building, and didn’t care, considering her full-force charging through trees and small boulders during her escape had left her without a scratch. She stepped right through the glass and walked, barefoot, across the shards to where the clerk stood.

The man--no, boy--scurried far to the back of his glass box and cowered there, away from GE-04. She didn’t understand his fear. Didn’t understand anything, really, but the look in his eyes was more confusing than anything she’d ever seen in the four minutes of her life. She grunted, lost, and raised her trapped hands toward him.

The boy made noises in a language she couldn’t understand, and she only responded with more fervent grunting. She raised her cuffed wrists higher and stalked towards him, desperate for his help. Why couldn’t he help? She smashed the counter in front of him to punctuate her question.

They were close enough to touch, and she grabbed the front of his shirt to drag him closer, out of the box. He wiggled desperately, and grabbed her arms in an attempt to loosen her grip. At the contact, bright light flashed from his eyes to hers, before her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

Words sprung from his mind and into her own, a flood of knowledge both conscious and subconscious. Nausea shot through her core. She grit her teeth and threw herself back, brain reeling with the influx of mental images stolen from him, before the maelstrom began to settle, and her face relaxed. He was begging for her to not kill him. In English, she now knew. She was just outside of Lost Haven, in America, on Earth. Humans like the boy controlled the planet. His name was Tyler.

[color=44ccee]“Tyler,”[/color] She monotoned. The boy paled. [color=44ccee]“Take these off.”[/color] She jabbed her hands toward him a third time.

“Oh god, how do you...? P-please, I don’t know--”

GE-04 grunted sharply, taking a step closer. [color=44ccee]”[i]Take these off.[/i]”[/color] Panic bloomed in Tyler’s eyes. His entire body shook, but GE-04 had no pity for him. She opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off.

“G-get away from him!” A man, much older than Tyler, appeared at the back of the station, leveling a shivering handgun her way. She eyed the gun silently, recalling Tyler’s knowledge on guns: they killed people. GE-04 supposed she was a person. She backed away, lowering her hands. The man’s voice shook, just like his gun. “Now get out! Out, now!”

GE-04’s face turned stony, and she raised her hands towards him. [color=44ccee]“I need to get these off.”[/color]

“That’s not our problem, freak, just get out of here!” Sweat was pooling on the man’s forehead.

Now she bared her teeth. [color=44ccee]“I need these off! [i]Now![/i]”[/color] She began to step closer when the gun fired. She expected to die instantly, as the noise was enough to kill anyone, but when she opened her eyes, she was standing, unscathed, a step closer.

“Oh, Jesus,” The man whimpered, before she charged.

Her arms were high above her head, poised to swing down and smash the man’s head. Two more shots rang out in that time, the first crumpling against her skin, the second bouncing off her wrist cuffs. She was overcome with pain and light, and fell to her knees with a scream. The man and the boy disappeared, and distantly she heard the screeching of tires.

The world was thirteen minutes old when the agony subsided. Beyond the gas station was an endless expanse of darkness, and she was alone.