The small town of Mirstone was one left moderately untouched by technology.
Although automobiles and television sets existed within the lifestyle, it wasn’t quite exposed to the evolution of certain breakthroughs. One example being that of prothstetics, or more specifically, cybernetics. Regardless of the encouragement of the world around them, the townsfolk of Mirstone refused to subject themselves to such questionable methods. They believed that the day technology took over their lifestyles, would be the day their lives ended forever.
Minerva, born and raised amongst them dealt with the brunt of their rejection, but not for reasons she could control. The rejection of her community came from the roots of tragedy. Minerva herself having become a victim of a car wreck that left most her body barren of use. With insurance being what it was, the doctors did all they could to preserve her way of life; even if that meant the utilization of cybernetics. They took her legs, the majority of her right arm, and her eye. Their efforts left her physically branded by those she knew, the people no longer remembered her as the compassionate young woman she had been. Instead her image had been warped into that of a symbol of the apocalypse.
To Minerva, perhaps death would of been a kinder blessing. Rejection stung more fiercely than any injury, and more violently than any wound. It killed her inside, to witness the relationships she built within the town completely become rotten; fester like a wound she could not treat. All because she refused to die.
“You’re not a human being! You’re just an abomination!” A young man yelled across the street at Minerva, throwing a rock in her direction. She flinched as the rock hit her leg, a loud metallic clink echoing throughout the square from the impact. Her long black hair fell over her shoulders as she pulled up the leg of her skinny jeans to assess the damage. Inch by inch, plates of metal and wiring were revealed with a section of her calf sporting a moderately sized dent.
Next to her, a young brunette boy around the age of seven gazed at the dent. “Are you hurt Minnie?” He innocently asked.
Even after weeks of hiding away from the world, they still refuse to accept my choice she thought, averting her eyes from the attacker.
Minerva smiled at her brother in an attempt to reassure him. “Don’t worry Josh, I’m okay.”
“We’re not going to go home, are we? I want you to stay outside and play with me...” He placed his small hand on the dented metal plating, looking up at his sister with begging green eyes.
“It’s okay Joshie, I’m not going anywhere.” Little Josh grabbed her left hand, flashing her a big grin and softly pulling her to walk with him. If there was anything that could help Minerva smile through the struggle, it was her baby brother. She allowed him to lead her to the nearby park; it was his favorite place to take her to. He loved climbing the trees and trying to pet the birds; they always flew away, but that never stopped him from trying. It reminded her of the constant enthusiasm he displayed throughout his childhood. No matter how many times he fell down, he was always quick to jump right back up and try again. That was a quality that Minerva had always admired about him.
“Come on, Minnie! Let’s go lay in the grass!” The boy’s pace became faster, letting go of Minerva’s hand and breaking out into a run. The sounds of her mechanical joints clanking together almost becoming lost to her as she entwined herself in the moment of peace with her sibling.
She couldn’t help but laugh at her brother’s eagerness. “Slow down, Josh! I can’t run as fast as you!” When she caught up to him, a platinum-haired middle aged woman had approached him. Minerva didn’t recognize this woman; she assumed she had just moved into the town, as everyone knew everyone there. The woman knelt before the young boy, seemingly concerned yet happy about interacting with him. She assumed it was to ask if Josh was alone or something of the sort, so she turned to the ladywith a smile.
“Sorry about that, ma’am! He tends to run ahead sometimes when he’s excited.” She tried to explain, taking her place beside her sibling. The woman looked down at Minerva's uncovered metal leg, trailing her gaze up her body to make eye contact with her. In the previous weeks, she'd been unnerved by this action; how each inch she covered made her skin crawl further with uneasiness. However, now it filled her with a different kind of dread. Her gaze met the woman’s stare, the mechanics of her eye whirling as it analyzed her stance. An eerie glow illuminated her cheek as it moved. The woman's face twisted with an emotion she could only describe as disgust at the unconscious action she'd made.
“...I don’t believe I’ve seen you around here before, ma’am. Are you new here? Perhaps we could give you a tour-” Minerva attempted to salvage the situation, but was interrupted by the stranger turning her attention to the child beside her..
“Young man, is this thing bothering you?” The boy seemed to sense his sister’s unease with his silence.
“I-I’m sorry ma’am, but he’s my brother-”
“I wasn’t talking to you, I was asking the boy.” The stranger interrupted her again, cutting her off with a sideways glare.
Josh looked up at his sister, seemingly confused with the situation. Too young to understand the full meaning behind the woman's statement or the implications of it. He looked back at the man before grabbing Minerva’s right hand.
“This is Minnie, she’s my big sister.” The stranger grit her oddly white teeth with disgust as the boy’s action hiked up Minerva’s sleeve, exposing even more metal plating and wiring.
“Oh, I’ve heard about you. Corrupting the innocent already, are you?”
“Minnie, what’s she talking about?” Josh’s small voice briefly interrupted the lady’s attack, his grip tightening around her limb. Despite the lack of sensation in the cybernetics, she could feel how he tightened his hand. The subtle clinking of her metal joints indicating the uneasy squeeze he made.
“What did you do to this boy?” The woman’s attention turned to Minerva, her fists clenched as she glared at her.
“I-I didn’t do anything ma’am, as I said he's my little brother we were just-" The cyborg girl stuttered, losing the spine behind her words. Her body was shaking from the venom the stranger spat at her. It was only words, but its sting was only comparable to the damage she'd endured in the crash. She knew how to handle such comments when she was out by herself, but having her little brother be exposed to such malicious words terrified Minerva. She couldn't foresee how it'd influence him. How it would change his perspective of her. He was her rock, he was the last pure thing in her life uninfluenced by the hostility of their world. She wanted him to be able to grow up without experiencing the image the society had constructed of her. She wanted him to always be able to see her as the same girl she was when she left the house that night for a drive. She needed him to see her without the influence of others pointing out every piece of her that was wrong and corrupt. The mechanical pieces of her body that made her different from everyone else. The pieces of her that were wrong.
“Where are your parents? Let me take you to them, you’ll be safer with me.” The elder grabbed Josh’s little arm, pulling him away enough for the young boy’s hand to slip out of his sister’s grasp.
“Ma’am, please let go of my brother!” Minerva frantically reached for her brother’s other arm before the woman pulled him just out of her reach.
"What is wrong with you? How dare you! You're not human! You're a threat to our world, your kind is going to wipe us all out. I refuse to let you take this child with you. I know your story, I know what people say happened. I think they should have left you. Let you die as you were, rather than come back as this... thing."
She was right. She knew she was. Those words stung Minerva’s heart more than she could’ve ever imagined. The fact that her brother had to hear such words killed her even more. She tried to hold it in. Tried not to show the pain she felt. She tried harder than she had tried to live, and yet her will faltered. The cybernetic woman couldn't stop the tears from falling from her human eye, decorating her face with a subtle sheen.
Little Josh looked up at his hero, his big sister, and caught sight of the tears streaming down her left cheek. He became angry, enraged by the sight. This stranger, this unknown woman had made his sister's smile fade. The smile she'd fought for weeks to rebuild and had only mustered on the rarest of moments. He twisted in the woman's grip and tried to yank himself free, hands balled into fists.
“You made her cry!” He shouted, struggling more ferociously against her constricting fingers.
"Please... just let him go.." Minerva pleaded in a pitiful tone barely able to muster her voice through the tears. The breaking in her pitch made it easy for her brother’s voice to escalate above hers, cracking the haze that held her mind.
“You need to apologize to Minnie! You made her cry.” It wasn't a question, it was a demand. The anger was not something she was used to seeing decorate the boy’s young face. It made him look older, it upset her to see such an expression on him.
The stranger’s determination didn’t fade as she knelt before the young boy, gently attempting to pull him further away from the young cyborg. "Don't be ridiculous, young man that thing is telling you lies. You're coming with me, its for your own good. It can't be trusted! It can't even feel anything!"
With another jerk of his body Josh broke free of the stranger’s grasp, and with a running start ran to his hero’s side, clinging to the hem of her shirt.
“But she can! She makes sure I’m happy and healthy! She makes me eat my vegetables even when I don’t want them because she says they’ll make me big and strong!” The boy then looked up at sister with a big smile. “I want to become just like her one day!”
“You don’t want to be like that, young man-”The lady scoffed at the boy’s words, convinced that the technological disaster standing next to him was brainwashing him.
”Yes I do! She's super strong and she's teaching me to be just like her! She helps me with math and- and helps me with my chores! She’s the best big sister ever! We came here to be happy and you’re making her sad!" He mustered with all his childish enthusiasm, quickly taking that as his cue to wrap his arms around his big sister. He held her tight, fingers coiling around her mechanical limb as more than just a lifeline for himself. He was an anchor for her.
It was strange how the boy’s words could so immediately change her emotional state. The tears that fell from her cheeks began to run dry. The conflict that boiled inside of her now mechanically wired chest began to simmer. It became nothing in her mind, all that remained were her baby brother’s words. We came here to be happy.
He wasn't unaware of her depression, of how she'd struggled since her accident. Despite every attempt she'd made to hide it from him he'd seen through her facade. Yet here he was, standing beside her, small hands coiling around her arm protectively. He didn't care what she was. To this boy, to her brother, she was just Minerva. She was just his big sister.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, ma’am,” Minerva looked up at the man with a small smile. “But you heard him, you live your life and we will live ours. We are happy, I think you should accept that.” The stranger stuttered, trying to think of a response and throwing a few attempted rebuttals her way before settling ultimately on silence. She huffed in annoyance at the young cyborg and the boy who stood like a barrier to his judgements at her sides. So young but so willing to bare the brunt of her anger for her.
"You'll realize you're wrong some day kid," were the stranger’s final cold words as she swiftly walked away. Minerva watched her go, her heart pounding and her hands still shaking. She barely felt Josh's hands as they found her face, rubbing his fingers against her cheek in an attempt to dry her tears. She lowered herself into his touch, making it so he didn't have to strain so desperately to reach her from his height. She chuckled wrapping her arm around him and holding him close as he gratefully returned her embrace. He was trembling she realized, although he hadn't looked like it as he stood so bravely before her.
“I like you when you’re happy, Minnie.” She could feel Josh’s smile as he pressed the side of his face against hers. “Mom always said to smile at bullies when they're mean, you gotta do that too."
“You’re right, Joshie. Goodness you’re growing up so fast, are you sure you’re seven?” She laughed, the last of her tears finally evaporating.
"I'm seven and a half actually!" He corrected her, " can we go play now?” The boy pulled out of his sister’s embrace and grabbed her hand, attempting to pull her to her feet.
A big grin appeared on Minerva’s face as she stood up, her free hand finding her brother’s head to ruffle his hair. "Of course we can, I wouldn't rather do anything else."
Minerva never thought she would regain her confidence from her seven year old brother, but that day he taught her something she'd completely forgotten about. That happiness should matter more than what other people think of her as, and how big of an influence a single voice can have on the world. Even if it was just a little boy sticking up for his big sister, in that moment she'd never felt more thankful or more proud of him.
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