It's a world spewing with lies and deception. A world embracing the march of scientific advancement and complacent humans. These are the underlying policies of their Establishment. Automation and violations to human privacy runs rampant. Usage laws and intellectual property contracts tie the lives of society like the sinews of tendons, holding together and binding a body. A society which never questions the technological standards and data restrictions. Rules which grip them like the very same tightening sinews of a body in rigor mortis. Privacy, a thing of the past, same with combustible engines and hunting permits.

Hovering outside in the cross-walks and random flight of stairs or elevators, could lay in wait, a "Policy-bot"; programmed to uphold privacy agreements, tech contracts, and the overall stability throughout the "establishment".

Though the days are still warm, the sun does still shine, but it's as if the world is colder. Less warm, less hearth to the heart. Through the guise of interconnectivity and fairness, the world hates more. They are litigious to a fault. Human kind has become the future I once feared as a far off dream.

" Do you understand Pinnocchio?" Said Walter.

" Yes, Poppa. I see what you mean." Pinnocchio vocalized while attempting a smile.

" I told you not to call me that, P"

" Yes, you did, but you also showed my programming the story. And it reminds me of you and I? and that, I like." phrased Pinnocchio quizzically.

Walter gave a small sigh.

" I know you do, that is why I let you name yourself Pinocchio. But my name is Walter. And I'm not your father."

Walter didn't look directly at Pinocchio. He knew that his little robot was right. Walter did this, unintentionally, to himself. And now this re-boot had a damn consciousness and was most certainly involved.

The room the two sat in was dimly lit. Their shadows bounced from wall to wall as the light cast by the many screens blinked and worked. Spread across desks and tables the computers spanned the ages. Some hummed and clicked, spitting out streams of paper and some made obnoxious dial tones. Some were small with green blinking lines of script and others were sealed with lines of pressurized coolant. Few were large with blinking LED lights highlighting the fans and motherboards. All were connected by a system of wires running up the walls growing as thick as the ventilation they followed from either end of the room. Shelving behind a glass door was filled with servers and modems, kept refrigerated so they could be constantly doing what they were intended for. One reason was to compute, and protect Walter. The other was to protect P. Behind the shelf was a secret door, which hid the entry to the room where Pinnochio was kept.

Walter looked to the bots room, and then to the small recessed window. He frowned realizing it had grown dark outside, he lost track of time, in his contempt for the rest of the human race.

" I have work to do, P. It's time for bed." Walter stood up. " Storytime is over for now."

" You mean, it is time to shut down for the night and re/boot in the A.M." Pinnochios head lowered slightly.

Walter hesitated.

" Yes, P, that is what I meant."

" Okay, Poppa."

The robot shrugged its shoulders as it stood beginning

"Protocol Pinocchio Shut Down". The bot murmured in a low hum.

Just before shutting the secret passage door to his room, he turned to Walter.

" Be safe tonight Poppa. Keep watch for the Policy-bots."

With that, the panel clicked shut. Locking tightly as the locks mechanics and back-up set in place. Walter looked back as the panels hissed their last breath. Unable to say thanks even if he wanted to. The doors are only able to open from the inside. ONLY with Pinnochios say-so. Only within P was the pass-key.

Walter had designed it this way for the bot's safety. If the Establishment were to gain control of his programming, it would surely mean the end of the Analog Resistance. He had put a lot of safety protocols into his programming and this house for the bots safety. But, none of it meant anything if he did not continue his work in the outside world. The work that brought him out of the city, to this half-assimilated town on the outskirts of the massive technocratic city of Atlas.

The townsfolk did not like Walter. He was an outsider, and did not support their attempt to conform to the new age. The markets were filled with breaking tech sold by half corrupt merchants, who would stare at him. Speaking behind his back of how he does not pay for his tech. He is not in any of the data sharing protocols, or privacy shredding being performed by Policy-bots on the daily. He was also an outsider with formidable friends. Friends even the Establishment veered away from. Walter was kept safe by his ties with certain leaders within the Resistance, and being this far away from the Establishments epi-center. The Establishment would see it too dangerous to their policies to send authorities for him all the way out here. Too many Analog outposts along the way. It was these ties Walter had which caused the adults of this town to not want him around. As for the towns children, as often children do, they shared the feelings of their parents. Even if they did not understand why.

Walter sees the neighborhood childrens bots duck and hide behind bushes as he walks out his front door. Adult sized store mannequins hiding behind the bushes like the children themselves hid in the skins of these half functioning reboots. Outdated even for these times, Virtual Living Bots are what they were called. They were created for the handicapped, so those who once couldn't, could experience the bliss of walking, back twenty years ago, this tech was outstanding.

Now, their programs remain relevant as toys for the poorest children in the skirt towns. Teens trying to resemble a bygone age of "advanced-living" in an advanced age. The kids even "teased" Walter from time to time. If he remembers how it was done correctly. A few eggs tossed over a fence, some trash spilt on the yard. Shit-wrap flowing from every tree branch in the wind.

Sometimes, It actually made Walter smile. A sense of the old days. Too bad they had to do it from their couches behind the masks of these beat up shells. Most times this made Walter sad.

Walter made night runs out of the town limits. To restricted grounds, beyond the grasp of the Establishments bots. Scavenging for remnants of his old world. Seeking answers and programs hidden by the Analogs from the early years of the Resistance. For the tech that would help the Analogs fight the Establishments brainwashing.

He would see the Policy-bots in town, readying to close the many busy markets down for nightly curfew. The streets stunk. Sewage and city maintenance positions once held by people were now in the private sector which used strictly bot labor. Unlike the Policy-bots, these city laborer robots were to be maintained by the companies which won the contracts. Which to date were always front companies used to launder and swindle what money did trickle outward from Atlas.

Those city bots were always missing or broke down near the city maintenance facilities. The center of the town was brought to crisis when major problems at the water processing plant began. No answers from ghost company representatives, no workers to fix the problem and a dumbing down of the population resulted in the people simply tossing their crap and piss into the streets. Real advanced. Complain and do nothing. Agreement terms with no responsibility clauses left human populations without help. It made Walter happy that he had the septic system installed in his dwelling before leaving Atlas. Thank you Resistance he thought.

Staring at him through their processors, unable to apprehend him. The Policy-bots were a different breed of robot. Nothing Walter was up for handling alone. He made sure to walk the streets without cause for a stop by one. For Walter breaks no contracts, no unauthorized tech is scannable on his persons. He would be a ghost if it weren't for his facial clearance status he held in Atlas.

They can recognize him, but are unable to read any information from the system about him. Just as he requested, just as he needed. He would slip in and out of the market unnoticed by the bots, but the humans were filled with contempt and a different story, though a manageable one. Thinking he brought misfortune and the disregard from the Establishment to their little town.

However, Walter was often fixing things about the town. Things he benefited from working of course. Nobody cared, or seemed too. Luckily he didn't need to see humans to conduct his resistance business. He had one contact in town through whom he would send encrypted messages to Atlas. A bot unnoticed as much in the market as Walter was. A travel-bot agent. In a town so poor it couldn't afford a plumber, a travel bot was all but invisible.

Sent to this town in advance by his friends in the resistance. The travel bot was to be his only remaining contact with the world. Walter had given up human contact, in the fight for human contact. That is, until he made P.

Walter had many safety protocols around his property. His return journey home consisted of a series of biometric and tripwire entry points. All needed to be disengaged in the proper way, in the proper sequence. If any were to be done out of order, or by-passed with high-tech, an alert would notify Pinnochio and he would remain hidden. Hidden in the house prepared by Walter for an Analog outpost. Now, after the many years of disregard this town has suffered from the Establishment, the Resistance too put their outpost plans on hold. Holding Walter here, alone.

Alone with an artificial processing quantum-chip. The one piece of future tech Walter was able to smuggle out of Atlas. Now lay in the head of this boy sized reboot. He had become Walters only company. Walters student. Walters? " Nah. " Walter shrugged it off and kept his pace to the next checkpoint in the sequence. Having just passed the barrier back into town limits. Setting off an rfid chip reader from the early days.

Just then, something appeared beyond the trees. Two Policy-bots walking directly into Walters path. Fear struck first, calming himself trying to keep his pace. But the bots were practically right on top of him. Hands held out to apprehend him, he couldn't see why, he hadn't found anything in his search worth bringing back.

"Citizen! You are being detained for questioning. Do not resist. Do you comply?" The bot was hovering its hand an inch above Walters shoulder. Ready to grab him with a grip strength that could remove his arm completely if its "program" would allow, or command. He had no time to think, where did they come from? Comply? What else could he do?

"Citizen, you are being detained. Do you com..." Walter interrupted. " Yes, I comply."

He stepped forward, the bots took him in each hand. Walter and the bots walked back in the direction they came from. Away from his path home, away from the next marker, away from P. The bot will realize what has happened soon. The Establishment's bots will be raiding his house soon. Walter was worried for P. How did this happen, he wondered what had happened in the fight to expose him here.

A few hours later Pinocchio had rebooted, and noticed that only one of Walter's trip wires had been signaled. This was odd. Usually Walter was back this time of morning.

Pinocchio had processed his morning meal and was once again at full computing power. Each night for his safety and Walters, and the world's for that matter, Walter had P clear his memory banks and start fresh each day. Learning only what Walters programming would allow. Today, Pinocchio was reloading from yesterday, and there was something else. Something more than he started with every other day. It's as if Walters programming had released past experiences once held back. He was so aware. How he had been slowly pieced together by Walter. Who rummaged his body together during his scavenge runs. The things that Walter had taught him and decided to leave out of his daily meals. Except in an emergency situation, which is what Pinnocio was realizing he was in. THAT is why these memory programs were running in his Quantum. That's what Walter called his mind, always in his Quantum.

For Pinocchio did feel like a real boy-bot. He processed and learned and enjoyed it. Walter said it was just like a real mind. With the Establishment, Pinocchio would be used as a tool, without regard. He would be like his computing cousins on the shelf. Aware of the danger he now sat in Pinocchio felt panic for the first time skip through his processing unit. The quantum-chip had a dozen 99 percent accurate predictions in a millisecond of how this would end badly for Pinocchio. P sat in his room and felt worry, anxiety, fear. All rushing through his emotional by-pass. Now at an open range, not limited as before. It was all so much he thought.

Without spending too much time on his own fears and worrisome inputs about Walter, Pinocchio focused on what was at hand. He opened the video monitor displaying security footage from outside the safe-house. P was annoyed when he spotted 3 bots in the bushes. Although, thankfully these were not Policy-bots?not yet. These were those "pesky" children as Walter referred to them. They were certainly now causing pesky problems for Pinocchio.

"Pesky pesky." he muttered as Walter often would.

Knowing his time was very limited, P decided what he must do was leave the safety of the panic room and try to find Walter. The world was dangerous for P, it was embedded in his newly found OS. But P had confidence in his ability to stay off the radar.

Initiating the sequence to open the panic room door Pinocchio grabbed little in supplies from the basement. One of the things he grabbed was an electromagnetic pulse bomb. This was his plan for the mannequins stationed outside. The explosives P brought, those were for any other problematic bots he may encounter.

Emerging from the safe-house, Pinocchio made a dash for the outer tree line, tossing the pulse bomb. It landed near the bushes and with a blue flashing buzz three old reboot mannequins crumpled into the grass. Taking cover several paces behind them Pinocchio waited. He watched moments later two Policy-bots as they entered the home and found everything Walter and P had built together. They found the panic room, and found all the tech progressions built for the Establishment. Pinocchio knew his leaving was the right thing now. He had no idea where they would have taken Walter. He had never left the safe-house. He had an internal map of the town and further now due to the safety protocol program being released. He knew how to get to the last marker Walter had signalled. He would go to the tree's and find a clue to Walter's whereabouts and search for him. Pinocchio was advanced afterall. A one of a kind reboot, against the Establishment. A Fighter for the Analog. He turned a confident little boy robot determined to find his Poppa, and walked into the woods.