Five hours later Chase sat alone in his workshop, typing away at his computer, he was muttering to himself under his breath, as all good programmers do.

 

Attached to his computer via cable, was an interesting looking, humanoid robot.

 

It's chest looked like it was made up of thousands of tiny neon muscle strands all connecting to the center, its face looked like a shark's skull, and on its head and back, were shark fins.  Now I'm not sure if I've made it clear or not, but Tech is a genius, and Chase was no different. Specifically, Chase specialized in coding, able to read most forms of code the same way any normal person would read a book. This was Chase's first real robotics project, and admittedly Tech had helped with some parts of the mechanical aspects, but this was Chase's project, it was a robot designed to smuggle supplies underwater, making it easier to get materials from one continent to another, without having to go through the whole mess of hiring outside sources, and consequently saving his father from oncoming bullets.  

 

Its name was S.H.A.R.C. Which stood for:

 

Sea-based

 

Humanoid

 

Aquatic Robot, designed for

 

Consigning

 

But Chase liked to call it Sharky. And right now, he had just about finished Sharkys code.

 

"Aaaaannnnndddddd" He drew out for dramatic effect "Now!" He said hitting the enter button twice to activate the final thousand lines of code he had just added, and/or changed.

 

S.H.A.R.C. came to life, sitting up from the charging table.

 

"Greeting I am S.H.A.R.C. how may I assist you?" It asked in a sort of robotic voice.

 

Chase smiled, he had programmed a little-hidden bit of code at this point.

 

"Hey, Sharky," Chase said,  

 

For the most part, S.H.A.R.C's personality was very straightforward, you give him instructions based on the tasks he was built for, and he does them, learning how to do the task better the more he does it. But if the person that S.H.A.R.C. recognized as Chase called him Sharky, it would open up an entirely new section of his code, allowing him to be much more conversational. He kind of gains a personality, able to hold an entire conversation about anything you want, and giving its opinions on the subject.  

 

That was what was supposed to happen, but that isn't what happened.

 

Suddenly Sharky's eyes flashed four times, "Password accepted… commencing…playing message"

 

"What the heck?" Chase asked in confusion, but before he could do anything else, the "message" played.

 

"Chase!" The message exclaimed.  Chase felt his heart skip a beat, he knew that voice, because it was his own... but he didn't record it.  "It's me… I am a past version of you, now don't speak, just listen. I've hidden this message inside of S.H.A.R.C.'s code in the event that I don't come back with all of my memory intact."

 

Chase was taken aback

 

"I have to make this fast," It continued "Everything you know is a lie, and all of this has happened before, Tech is not who you think he is. You know that feeling that you get, every time you think about the murder of Clutch and Maria Jones. The way you don't want to think about them, like there's something stopping you. Like you should be able to really think about them, but you can't? That's Tech, you were there, and you saw him kill them. But then he rewrote your memories. And all you're left with is a funny feeling that you wish you didn't have."

 

Chase had no words, he had absolutely no idea how to respond to the message coming out of Sharky's mouth, because they had a ring of truth to them.  

 

But they couldn't be true

 

"Please listen to me Chase, Tech is not the man you know. Go down to the hallway, you know the one, and go through the door. And whatever you do don-"

 

The message cut out. And Chase was left standing, trying to figure out what the heck just happened.

 

Sharky's eyes flashed three times, and he entered personality mode.

 

"Hello Chase," He said breaking the silence

 

Chase said nothing.  

 

There's no way that that could be true, no way!... But... whether he liked it or not, he could not deny the fact that that had been his voice...

 

"I am afraid I will have to advise you to listen to yourself on this matter," Sharky said

 

Chase still said nothing

 

"This is after all the…" Sharky paused as if calculating something "…Fifth time that I have been activated"

 

Chase's looked up at Sharky "What did you say?"

 

"This is the Fifth time that I have been activated" He repeated,

 

"That's not possible, this is the first time that I've activated you!" Chase shot back

 

"Hmm…" Sharky Thought, "Yes, you do seem to say that often"

 

"This is crazy" Chase repeated to himself.  

 

But no matter how many times he said that, he just couldn't shake that annoying feeling of familiarity.  

 

He had to find out what the heck was going on.