Hi! My name is Alise Rachel Hayes and I am… different than most kids. When I said different, you’re probably perceiving it as “I don’t wear makeup and I have no friends,” nope. I mean, “I have wings and a horn and can turn into a pink leopard.” I know, I know, you don’t believe me, maybe you think I’m crazy. You’ll see. You’ll see.

My brother, Octavious hates me. Hates that I can constantly get him out of trouble. He would rather get us both in trouble so that I have to deal with my parents. Every day, it seems like nobody understands me. However, nobody knows how smart I am. Actually, “smart” isn’t the best way to describe it. In the english language, “smart” means something else. I don’t think like other people do. I can understand their thought process, but I still don’t think like that. I don’t think of computers being made of ones and zeroes. If you cut up a computer and showed me the parts, I wouldn’t understand a thing. However, if you gave me paper clips and wires, I could build you a working computer in no time. Then again, it wouldn’t be compatible with the internet. It wouldn’t be compatible with any accessories made by other people. As I said, I’m different. I’m still working that stuff out. However, nobody knows that I can turn into a pink leopard with a pair of glowing white feathered wings and a shimmering golden horn. If I told them, they would think I’m crazy. You probably do too.

I can figure out anything. Tell me to resurrect your pet dog, all I would need is a strand of their DNA and they would be reborn as a puppy, but with their same memories. Though, as I said before, it’s in my way of thinking. I’ve even created zombie robots, or zombots, made for combat. My zombots are simple, but effective. The undead army protects, repairs, and builds my underground lab. Only I know they exist tough. They all look like they are made of rotten flesh wearing torn clothes, but they each have a different appearance. They can kill easily. Why did I make them? Who knows. Maybe I was predicting the future. Maybe I knew something bad was going to happen and I would need them. Only I know they exist. They can do combat, but have other purposes too. For example, their second purpose is to roam the streets on halloween, making sure that everyone stays safe.

Zombots are organized into sections. Each squad moves as one because of the connection between members and their leaders. If Squad A had to split up for a scouting mission, unlike humans, their leader, Norbert would know exactly what one of the bots saw before it went offline. This is also an easy solution to endangering human lives in combat. These could be peacemakers… or the workings of a tyrant.

I was prepared for war… or so I thought. The only issue so far with my tech is that I have to use my special watch that connects to a simple robot we like to call Karin to enable combat mode. That way people like the mailman don’t get attacked.

Today was different. Today, an enemy came forth that no security system could ever counter. End of the year grades.

We still have one week of school left, but that’s all fun stuff. Today, the end of the year grades came out. I had mostly C’s, but my brother on the other hand… I was responsible for both of our grades, according to our parents, and his were terrible. His highest grade is a D. I’m in big trouble, but not as big as tomorrow. Not. Even. Close. I must have spent too much time on my pet projects. This was going to be bad.

After walking home from our bus stop, I did my chores when my stepmom, Radiance, came in. She punched me in the face, with enough force to send me flying into a wall. She may seem like the most wonderful, kind person to someone who only knew her through parties, but when you lived with her, it was a whole other story.

“Your brother got bad grades! You little runt! Your job as a big sister is to get him good grades! You’re sleeping outside tonight! ” She yelled, my brother staring at me with an evil look in his eyes, his little smug face was one of a rich kid. He was treated like a god. If I did anything, or didn’t do anything, I got punished. If he got suspended from school, I got blamed. He threw a chair, I got blamed. Radiance always found new ways of torture, “get out of my sight, you stupid little *** ****.”

I ran outside, going to my shed. Any time that I did something... not perfect, she sent me to my shed to sleep in that night. I would have to find my own food. My own water. My own everything. I no longer cried. My body was used to the abuse. I simply went away.

“Karin, is it complete?” I said,

“Yes, but I’m not sure about it’s stability,” my AI replied. I was having her use a small section of zombots to make a special lab miles underground. She was building a lighted, heated, and furnished lab for my technology experiments. The zombots that I was having her use could change chemical compounds, and, atoms in general. That’s how she made the wood, carpet, chairs, etc. out of nothing but dirt. I can’t take the credit for her. I made a simple robot that could learn things easily, but then she quickly knew a lot more about quite a few things than I did. She programmed herself to be able to do hundreds of searches per second. Whenever she didn’t understand something, she looked it up. I wanted to continue making technological advancements. She helped me. She made it all possible.

I took the elevator down to my new base of operations. It had over fifteen timed locks to the elevator alone. If you didn’t undo the locks in time, then the room would bake you alive. All the doors would close before you could open the next one, so I found it highly unlikely that anyone would get to the elevator but me. The types of locks go in this order: fingerprint, handprint, combination, voice, key, key, repeat.

This was going to be the one and only place that I could express myself without a cruel family stopping me. My lab. My true home. Home is where the heart is, they say. Well, this is where my heart is.

The next day, I woke up with a Karin-prepared meal, finally, a meal that was more than table scraps. It didn’t bother me at all that I was basically eating nutritious, delicious dirt, it was still better than anything I got inside “my” house. I picked out an outfit made by Karin, another thing that was more than leftover scraps, and had Karin use a zombot to do my hair. Then, I went up the elevator. This is when it all went south. When I got through all sixteen doors, back into my shed, standing there was my stepmom.

Radiance screamed in fury, punching me in the gut. It wasn’t far, but I flew into what was left of the walls of the shed. She continued the attack, punching me again and again. If I cried, she punished me, if I even let out the tiniest whimper, she would punish me, so I let her continue beating me up in absolute silence.

“You idiodic girl! Where did the door come from?! It wasn’t here last time!” She screamed.

“I built it… actually, Karin built it. Karin capture mode!” I replied.

With lightning speed, two of my zombots grabbed each of her arms. She screamed. A guttural cry of raging fury.

“Stop her screaming,” I commanded. One of the robots injected a fast-acting serum that made her vocal cords temporarily stop working. It was like she was whispering screaming, making virtually no sound.

“What did you do?!” She whisper-yelled.

“This isn’t nearly what I could do with these maximum-efficiency combat robots. I could crush your bones one by one. You break one of my bones almost every day. One of them has to fix it,” I nodded to the zombots, “you would do well to remember that I have complete control over these. Let her go and return to your posts.”

With that, the zombots were gone. Radiance stood up and ran into the house, whisper-screaming all the way. I turned to what seemed to be part of the wall, “Karin, please cover up these bruises and fix all the broken stitches on my dress.” The dress was a maid’s gown. I presumed that this would please Radiance and the guests. I also had a head dress that matched. My hair was in pig-tails.

Radiance was hosting a party and told me, her servant to look presentable. I did all of the cooking and cleaning, and anything else needed. Over time, I started to excel at it. Most of the guests at her parties pitied me, and collectively gave me as much food as a normal person would get for a normal meal. Usually. Sometimes, guests cared a lot, other times, they joined in with the cruelty. The party today had no special reason, but Radiance invited some celebrities and their children so that my brother, Octavious could find a girlfriend of “high stature.” My job? To make sure all the celebrities had whatever they needed the whole time. I was to make nutritious,delicious meals and be there carrying trays and running this way and that, making everyone enjoy themselves. Oh, how wonderful.

Now I stood at the door, awaiting the guests. I would take their coats and bags, and carry anything they wanted carried in, and then at the end, I would have to remember whose things were whose and gather their belongings so that they could leave in a timely manner.

The party went well, various celebrities coming in and out throughout the day, and that night. My brother got tons of presents and had girls hanging all over him the whole time. It was my job to serve them food, drinks, and anything else they needed. Most of the girls pulled my hair and treated me like trash. They were annoyed that I didn’t squeal or cry when they did it. I was used to it.

“So, ugly servant,” one of them said, “what do you do ro fun? Clean?” She let out a squeaky laugh.

“Actually, I build and program zombots,” I replied, sassily.

“Sure. Let’s pretend that’s true!” She shrieked, her face turning red.

“Fine. Karin, show them Ilene,” I said with a straight face. Almost immediately, Ilene appeared. The girl shrieked.

“WHAT IS THAT?!” she asked.

“Meet unit 009, combat unit 009, I call her Ilene,” I said, leaning on the robot like it was my friend.

“Get it away!” She hid behind Octavious, obviously distressed at the rotting, undead look of the thing.

“Ilene, go charge,” I said, smirking at the girls, all their mouths were hanging open and their eyes were filled with fear and disgust. “Now, is there anything I can get you?” I asked with a smile.

“N-no you beast,” one of the other girls said hesitantly.

“Very well, mistress,” I replied with a bow, leaving.

As the last of the guests from our party left, Radiance walked up to me. “How dare you attack our guests! Now they are probably afraid to come back here!” She yelled. She pulled her arm back, readying for a punch attack.

“011, self defence mode,” with that, unit 011 blocked her punch, appearing just in time. Radiance tried punching and kicking the robot, but using it’s speed, it blocked her every time.

“Stop hiding behind your bodyguard! Now!” Radiance demanded.

“No,” I stayed calm. Though, these robots were stopping me from being hurt. I wasn’t going to lower their guard. I really felt better not being crushed every day, even though I was used to it.

“NOW!” Radiance was infuriated.

“011, we’re leaving,” I told him, “to the shed!”

“Affirmative,” he agreed.

We went to the shed. Radiance trying to land at least one hit on my robot.

“I don’t suggest following. You’ll be fried to a crisp in here, also, 011, stay here and defend the shed with squad leader Norbert,” I commanded.

“Affirmative,” he replied, Norbert appearing too.

“Karin, make me something to eat please,” I told my AI, changing into some more comfortable clothes as Karin had her specialized food zombot ready with a chocolate cake, it was my birthday today, and she knew it. For once, someone had remembered my birthday, even if it was just an AI. My AI. She had the technology to make anything out of anything using a zombot. She changed the protons, neutrons, and electrons around all the time. She then placed them in whatever order she wanted. She can make uncooked meals that have no difference from normal meals except the process she uses to make them. Hers are even safer because she tears apart the very atoms of any bacteria or viruses. This was the first time in ten years that I had sugar. Even fake sugar. I wouldn’t waste it. I turned fourteen today, so the last time I had sugar was when I was four. Now though, I could have as much sugar as I wanted. Awesome. After a slice, I went to bed. Tomorrow was a big day. Not that I knew it yet.

When I woke up, alarms were blaring. Karin had spotted about twelve men in black, invading my parents’ property.

“Karin, property defence mode!”

I watched zombot group A teleport onto our driveway, ready to intercept the men, but they all powered down. Luckily, Karin kept group B in their storage. Now that the device that had shut down group A was down, because from my information, those types of devices are one-time uses only, group B would intercept the newcomers. I decided that this would be a good time to test-drive my automated armor and weapon system, so I made sure that the zombots were on only defend setting, then I had Karin put on my lightweight automated armor/weapons , and took the elevator upstairs.

When I reached the driveway, group B was powered down as well. I stayed out of sight. I turned on my five-minute invisibility and turned the corner onto the driveway. Twelve guns pointed at me. I was invisible, how could they see me?

“Turn off your invisibility. Now,” one demanded. Who knew if they'd shoot. I didn’t even know if my armor could withstand more than fifteen shots. I did as he said, lowering the invisibility on my suit.

“Put your hands where I can see them and slowly get on the ground. Slowly,” he said. I followed his orders, going into a crouch, then laying down flat on the ground. “Handcuff her,” he ordered to another of his men.

Hey obeyed, putting cuffs around my wrists. I wasn’t going to go quietly.

“Karin, eject” the pieces of armor flew away from my body as I turned into my leopard form. I ran at the men, with a fierce roar I lunged at the man who seemed to be in charge, ready to tear some flesh with my sharp teeth. I heard a hiss, then three darts stuck themselves into my neck. I tried to finish my approach, but my world blurred and I fell to the ground.

When I woke up, I was in a cement room with bars. I was also still on leopard form. I stood up and looked around, there was a bucket in the corner, and a chain connecting my left hind foot to the wall. There was a man staring at me on the other side of the bars. I stared back at him, ears pinned against my head. While doing so, I went as close as the chain would let me to the iron bars, then, while still staring him in the eye, I snapped the chain, simply by pulling my leg out of it’s reach, narrowing my eyes as I did so.

“Impressive. She can snap the chain pretty easily,” he appraised.

“I’m not some test subject,” I replied to his statement, venom in my voice.

“Fiesty one here,” he said, smiling.

He stood up and walked away, breaking the stare, I went to the edge of the cell, putting my head through the bars. The man was conversing with a few other people. Two men and one woman. I took on a curious expression, putting my ears forward and opening my eyes to a normal size.

They were talking about me. No, not as in “The Pink Leopard,” they were talking about Alise. These people knew who I was. That wasn’t good. That was bad. The woman saw me peeking out of my cell and walked over to where the man was previously sitting and sat down. I narrowed my eyes and pinned my ears again, giving a deep growl.

“From what I hear, you’re quite the subject Alise,” she said.

“Sure, so I hear, I’ll get out eventually. I’m not some subject,” I retorted.

“Well, obviously you want to get down to business. We want you to help the military. There is a threat that only you, in collaboration with a couple others like you can protect us from,” she paused, “unfortunately, the future of humanity has to be handed over to three stupid teenagers.”

“Well, number one, I’m not stupid, and number two, give me one reason why I should care,” I lied down.

“You don't care about this world and everything in it perishes? Including you?” She asked, “I’ll leave you to your decision. Oh, and, by the way, nobody understands your robots. We can’t fix them. You are stupid because you couldn’t make them understandable.”

“It’s just beyond everyone’s understanding. If I looked at their guts, I could figure it all out within seconds. Each one is unique, that way, you can hack any two the same way,” I informed her.

“Whatever,” she said, “we want to protect. Even if you don’t, we’ll fight to the end.”

She and the men left, leaving me alone. I wasn’t selfish. However, who trusts the people that just kidnapped them? Not me. Obviously. I slept, hoping that I was safe. Hoping that Karin was too. I slept and hoped that somehow, everything would work out.

“What is your choice,” asked the woman from before. I had been lying awake for what I believed to be at least an hour.

“I’ll help you if you promise that I’d be able to quit anytime,” I paused, “I don’t know whether to trust you or not.”

“Fine,” he turned to a police officer that had all the keys to the prison cells and nodded. Only after the door to my cell was opened, did I decide to stand up, I turned to face the front of the cell and followed the woman.

“First of all, you, being underage need a weapons permit… and some clothes,” she looked down at me, “that’s why you’re still a leopard, right?” When I transformed into a leopard, my clothes came off, so now I was *****.

“Yep,” I replied.

She let out a hearty laugh, “Yeah, the other shapeshifters have the same problem. It’s the biggest downside to being able to change form.”

“I haven’t used this power much yet,” I informed her.

“Yeah, you just got it, we don’t expect you to be an expert within only a few days,” she assured me.

“Days? I’ve had this power for years!!” I was now kinda worried. Why would they think otherwise? Oh, right, the other shapeshifters, but then why had I gotten my power before anyone else? Probably just a fluke, I was kinda paranoid all the time. This was probably one of those moments.

“Wow. None of the others got it this early. Only you. It seems that all the shapeshifters got their abilities when they needed them. Why would you have needed it before anyone else?” She inquired.

I didn’t answer. I may have needed it early, but I didn’t use it much.

For a while, there was silence, but after a while, she started to speak

“We work with the government, so we’re headed to the police office upstairs. There, you will receive a permit to bring a weapon of choice anywhere. You need to practice with a weapon, whether that means a gun, or a sword, or something else. You always need to be armed. There are monsters that will come after you and the people you care about. You need to be able to protect them,” she stated in a grim tone, “we’re here.”

She opened a door. Inside, there were a few men in black.

“We’re from the federal government in DC. We’re here to grant you unlimited use of weapons while in certain places, and other areas with special permission,” one of them said.

I was nervous, I never really speak to anyone with authority beyond my teachers. Principal? Nope. Vice-principal? Nope. A probably high-ranking official from DC? Definitely not. I stayed quiet. I wasn’t a pushover that always followed the rules, but that didn’t stop me from getting nervous. Around people who were at the top of the food chain.

I tried to calm my nerves. After all, this guy came all the way from DC to just speak to me, so I must be important enough too, right? Now, what should I say?

“What would be your weapon of choice, Alise? You need a short range and long range weapon,” the man who had spoken before said.

“A pair of swords. Swords can be of use against ranged weapons, and in close combat,” I replied without a moment's thought. I was fairly good with swords, though I had only ever used wooden and heavy duty wooden swords.

“How do you use swords against ranged weapons? It’s not possible,” He asked

“I’ve used them against bullets before. Granted, they were heavy duty wooden swords against my AI, Karin’s homemade guns and bullets, but still. I have plenty of good experience with swords,” I replied.

“Well, that’s something, mind showing us?” He seemed intrigued now.

“Well first, I need opposable thumbs,” I replied, raising what in normal circumstances would be my eyebrows.

“Ah, yes, I almost forgot,” he gestured to one of the men, who walked over to me with a harness “this harness is very hard to break, but will switch into clothing when you transform into human state. It will also turn back to a harness with you too,” he paused, “it’s already test driven.”

“Fine, but still, I need opposable thumbs to put it on,” I stared.

“Agent F, put it on her,” said the man.

“Thank you,” I replied. Once the harness was on, I transformed back into a human form. Luckily, the device did transform into clothes, “unfortunately, I don’t know how to use a metal sword, but if you have a wooden one I can use for the demonstration-”I was cut off.

“Yes, we have a pair you can use, and Agent F will fire one bullet. He won’t tell you where he’s aiming, but you should deflect it if your sword skills are as good as you claim,” he said, gesturing to two wooden swords in sheaths.

“Okay, that’s... fine,” I said, picking them up. I slung them on my back making an “X,” and faced the one I presumed to be Agent F. “I’m ready, fire anytime.”

In one swift motion, Agent F aimed his gun and fired. There was no way to tell where he was aiming before the shot, but the manner in which he raised his gun showed me where he was aiming. As he raised the gun, just as all people do, he went quick, then, near his ideal aim, he slowed down, almost bearly not enough to notice. He was aiming at my left thigh. I grabbed the right sword, and put the blade facing towards Agent F as he shot the round. Even though this wooden sword was fairly dull, I used the angle in which I had placed it to slice the bullet in two. One of the reasons that I was better at swordsmanship than anything else, is because a sword is like an extension if the body, you constantly are able to control it in every aspect. I have fast reaction time, which was the only way I would have ever been able to slice that bullet, but, for me, bullets aren’t fast enough, for me, an arrow shot from a bow isn’t fast enough. Handheld Items like scythes, swords, and others are my strongpoint.

Everyone gasped as they saw my swift block. How I perfectly executed my maneuver to use even a dull wooden sword to slice a metal object going at least 25 miles per hour at close range. The man who had done most of the speaking recovered first.

“Well, that was indeed… interesting,” he commented, “however, we don;t want you to be stuck on the defensive. We’ll give you a smaller gun, if you’d prefer, but, you will have a gun.”

“I don’t know how to use one,” I stated simply.

“Then how did you train your ‘Karin’ to use them?” He asked.

“I didn’t. She was bored, so I had her go web-surfing. She figured out how to manufacture and use all sorts of guns,” I replied.

“Only people can search on search engines. Computers aren’t capable of learning things that aren’t programmed in their own systems,” he challenged.

“Yeah. Some people tell me I’m weird. Karin used to be the simplest of robots. However, I made her like a human. She can learn.”

“Fine then.”

I am now able to carry and use weapons at my discretion. Great. Another thing to worry about. I was going to be an outcast. As if I didn’t already have enough problems.

“What’s wrong? You seem down,” the girl walking me out of the station commented. She was the one I talked to before. I had gotten a pair of swords, now held on my back by sheathes. The girl’s name is Matilda. She would be my instructor for sword fight. She had mastered almost every weapon.

“I was always so popular. Everyone likes me. Now I will never see the school again,” I said, “not to mention that my lab is at my house.” I was informed that I would no longer live in my house. There was a very slim chance that I would ever see the school again.

“What about your family?” she asked.

“Honestly, I would have run away if I decided not to build my lab there,” I replied. I wanted to keep my inventions though.

“Your… contraptions will be saved. Some agents are heading in to your lab and retrieving them.” She said. Uh. That was bad. They could die. I had also gotten Karin’s watch back.

“Karin, undo all security programs.” I said, hoping it wasn’t too late.

“Of course! What about the gravity reverse engine?” She said. Once you stepped out of the elevator, you would have to get your feet above you because I reversed the gravity as a last security protocol. However, If it were shut off, then all of my inventions would be crushed under the tables they were on.

“Send them a warning in the elevator,” I said, “give them the video.”

“Yes ma’am!” She replied.

“Also, tell them where to find your mainframe. Prepare for transport!”

“Well… if you say so.” She said, sounding sad.

“What are you doing?” asked Matilda.

“Well, if I didn’t do that, then your ‘agents’ would be burned alive. Even if they got past that, they’d be crushed in the elevator. If they got past that their heads would be crushed by the ceiling as soon as they stepped out of the elevator. If they got past that, then my inventions would be crushed.” I informed her.

“Oof. ``why?” she inquired.

“Security protocol.” I replied. By now, we had reached a car outside of the station.

“Well. I can tell that you’re serious about protecting your stuff.” she said, climbing into the vehicle. It was a popo car. We were headed to a school where you learned about weapons and how to use them. I would have my own house near it, my own salary, and would have to take care of myself. Well. It was better than what I had at my house. I was a good cook. I was good at cooking. I could take care of myself. Hey, it would be kinda like college.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Matilda asked.

“Well, nothing, I just look upset when I’m deep in thought,” I replied.

“Okay…” she trailed off. We rode the rest of the way to the “school” in silence.

Once we reached the place where I’d be living, Matilda and I climbed out of the vehicle.

“Welcome to your new neighborhood,” she said, “the rest of these houses belong to other shapeshifters, though most aren’t too friendly. We made your basement like a lab, and your stuff should be here soon. We will pay the electricity and water bills, but you should be able to take care of yourself otherwise,” she gave me an envelope, “Here’s your house key and the keycodes to the garage and front door. You can use Either the key or the code to unlock the front door.

“Thanks,” I replied. I didn’t expect to be given an entire two story house so that I could learn how to use my powers.

“No problem. The house is pretty self-explanatory, you’ve got a closet of clothes with the same ability as those that you’re wearing, a kitchen, dishes, and a bedroom. You also have a TV and recreation room. We already put a double bass, clarinet, television, couch, pool table, and weight set in your recreational room,” she said. Wow. I wonder how they keep from going broke.

“Cool,” I replied.

“Well, I gotta go, hope you have fun here,” she stated, climbing into the car, “oh! Almost forgot! If you need anything, here’s my phone number, we also got you an A-phone 11 pro plus,” she handed me a box, “it’s already set up.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Bye!” she said.

“Bye,” I replied.

She left, and I went into the house. It was amazing! So much better than the crushed shed I used to live in. There were reclining couches, actually, they were a lot more than anyone would really need. They even had chargers in the armrests, and thy had drawers holding soft blankets. The television was huge, especially compared to the tiny one that Karin made. I hoped she liked living here with me. The bathroom was simple but elegant. There were gold paint accents, but the rest of it was white, but tinted a little bit blue. The bed was like a big marshmallow. I was used to sleeping on a carpet at most, but with an actual bed, I couldn’t sleep better. This was amazing. I hoped that the actual school would be even a quarter as pleasing. That would be amazing. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

After a few minutes of exploring, there was the sound of a doorbell. Ding Dong. I opened the front door. Some of the agents who captured me were there. They were holding boxes of stuff. Probably my inventions.

“We retrieved all of your stuff,” one of them said. Yup I was right. They were the ones who went to get my unfinished inventions. They looked tense, I could attack them at any time, and they were carrying things. I could kill them. However, we’re friends now, so I wouldn’t.

“Come in,” I told them. They relaxed visibly, then walked in.

“Where do you want us to put your stuff?” One of them asked.

“I need Karin’s core, then she’ll have the zombots move everything in,” I said. One of the agents set down his box and dug out a metal sphere. That was her.

“Reactivation sequence,” I said to the sphere.

“Reactivating…” it said in the robotic tone that I had made it with. It had adopted a more human tone, “reactivating…”after the next “reactivating…” there was a click, and Karin’s voice emanated from the sphere. “Dang. I never expected the reactivation sequence to be so... weird.”

“Karin, can you still connect to the zombots?” I asked

“Yes!” she said, “they’re close.”

“Please have them load everything into here.” I said.

“Oh… wait… The connection isn’t doing so good. It seems that Norbert and Ilene are far away. Probably still at our house.” she delivered the bad news.

“Give them a command to teleport here.” I replied.

“Got it!” she said. Within seconds, the two leader robots were in front of the house. After that, the zombots in the truck moved things downstairs into the so called lab. I finally got a chance to see the basement. The zombots didn’t use their full speed to move things because my inventions were fragile. The lab was amazing. It had plenty of tables on which the zombots put things, and where I could work, the lights were long and efficient. They effectively covered the whole room in light. I also had a storage room.

Within the next hour, the zombots had unpacked and organized my stuff, including their chargers, and were currently charging.

Tomorrow was my first day of school. I was very nervous.

I went to bed after plugging Karin into the house. She manipulated the electricity system to integrate her into the house. The speakers, tv, even the chargers for the robots- anything plugged into the electrical system was now controlled by her.

I woke up to Karin’s voice.

“Hey, Alise, you should probably wake up, it’s 6:00 already. You would have already been up and cleaning by this time,” Karin informed me.

“Okay,” I said lazily, getting out of bed. I took a quick shower, and put on a jumpsuit. That was all I had. They would be able to turn into a harness as I transformed into a leopard. I put my hair in a tight bun and went into my lab. I grabbed some binder clips, tacks, and paper clips, and started working on my lightweight flight suit. It would allow people to fly, as if using a jetpack, and it would have a lightweight pressure sealer suit. It would have wings so that you could glide if the flight part of the suit fails, and would allow for a controlled flight. I was still working on the flight part, not the wings. I bent some of the paper clips and started to place them in my invention when I heard another one of Karin’s alers.

“Intruder alert!” She said, way too loud, I was so focused on my invention, it made me jump and drop the things I was working with, luckily the tiny jetpack was still on the table.

She pulled a video of the person on my watch. It was another agent. “Let him in,” I commanded. She unlocked the door, using the front speakers to tell the agent I was in the basement lab. He came down to meet me.

“It’s time to go to school,” he stated as I finished placing my out-of-shape paperclip.

“Alright, coming,” I replied as I stood up and walked over to him. He turned and went upstairs. We left the house and Karin locked it. Then, I followed him down the street. One by one, who I presumed to be the other kids slowly joined us. I got a lot of “jeez another one?” and “look at the newbie,” I ignored it. We soon reached our destination. At the end of the neighborhood was a huge building. Standing in the doorway was Matilda. All the other kids stopped around me, and the agent walked around the building.

“Hey students! Guess what, we have a new student! Her name is Alise Rachel Hayes, come here Alise,” she said, waving me up towards her. I came. “Do you mind showing us your animal form?” She said as I made my way to the front.

“The last one was a black turtle,” one of the kids said.

“Yeah, I wonder what it is this time,” another responded.

“It’s probably not the leopard. We won’t be fooled by this ‘exciting’ attitude of hers this time,” another said.

I was now up next to Matilda. I transformed. As my body morphed and changed colors, there was quite a few gasps. I shook my head. Everyone’s jaws dropped open. What was wrong? Is there something special about being “the leopard”?