As Jeff tries to come up with an idea of what to try next, his eyes roam around his room, until settling on the cover of a comic, “The Sentients”, it says in huge letters on the cover. The comic is basically a story about a future earth inhabited by sentient robots, with only a few humans amongst them.
Jeff grins as an idea pops into his mind, “it would be so cool to have a sentient robot as a friend,” he mutters to himself, “and there is ONE sentient I’d just LOVE to be friends with”. The teen gets to his feet and grabs the comic from the shelve, taking it back to his desk, lying it on his desk, before aiming the scanner at it and activating it, soon the comic is scanned and Jeff opens the file. He smiles wide when he sees the list of all the characters from the comic, scrolling through the list, he soon finds the one he had been looking for:
The sentient, Jeff plans to extract and make his friend, looks just like a normal 12-year-old boy with short blond hair, beautiful blue eyes, an athletic body and a light brown “skin” tone, Jeff smiles as he selects the sentient-bot, he is then asked what the location should be where the sentient should appear, “center of Jeff Davis’s room”, Jeff types and confirms the input. Jeff then alters the reality, making everyone, except him and the sentient, to think he, Jeff, had built the robot as some kind of school science project. After confirming the changes, his laptop begins to whirr loudly as it begins the process of bringing the sentient into the real world.
Jeff turns and watches with wide eyes as the thin outline of a figure begins to appear in the middle of his room, the figure quickly gaining sharpness and contrast, soon a 12-year-old boy is standing in Jeff’s room, blinking, before looking around in confusion. When the boy’s eyes land on Jeff his eyes narrow, “who are you,” the boy asks, “how did I get here? And where exactly am I? I sense that I am no longer on my planet”.
Jeff’s eyes widen, “it actually worked,” he says, ‘it seems that by extracting him from the comic, he became real with memories of some planet that doesn’t truly exist,’ he thinks to himself.
“Yo, I hate repeating myself,” the boy says, “you better start explaining!”
“um… sorry, my name is Jeff Davis,” he then says, “please, Cody, I promise to expl…”.
“Hold it right there,” the sentient, Cody, interrupts Jeff, “how the hell do you know my name?!”
“Please… just… just let me explain,” Jeff says.
“Well? Then get on with it,” Cody replies, crossing his arms.
Jeff can’t help but chuckle, “if I wouldn’t know any better,” he says, “I’d think you were a normal 12-year-old, however I know that you aren’t. You’re something greater and much cooler: a sentient”.
Cody is taken aback, “how do you know?”
“I know, because… well… you are not truly real,” he then grabs the comic from his desk and holds it out to Cody, “I… I extracted you from this”.
Cody, who is wearing a blue t-shirt, blue jeans, white socks and blue and white sneakers, takes the comic from Jeff, flipping it open and starting to read, with each page his eyes become wider. “I… I don’t understand,” he finally mumbles, “everything I thought was real is nothing more than some human’s imagination?”
“I know it’s a lot to process,” Jeff says.
“Why did you… extract me,” Cody asks, not looking at Jeff, his voice filled with sadness and maybe anger.
“I promise, I had no bad intensions,” Jeff says, “I… I just thought it would be cool to have a… well… a special friend”.
At the word “friend” Cody’s head snaps up, “friend? I never had a friend, not even a other sentient,” he says, “why… why do you want me as a friend?”
“Because, I love robots and anything mechanical, and I thought that you are the coolest ro… sentient ever,” Jeff says.
Cody looks at the comic, “I feel so much anger,” he says.
Jeff hangs his head, “s-sorry… if… if you want, I can send you… back?”
Cody looks at Jeff, “no,” he says, even surprising himself, “I mean,” he lets out a sigh, “if you would send me back… I would hate it. You actually freed me by extracting me from that false reality I lived in, but how exactly did you do it? And what will your family say when they notice me? Where should I go?”
“First, you aren’t going anywhere,” Jeff says, smiling, “I have altered the reality to make everyone, except you and me, think I have created you as a science project at my school”.
“Soooo… you are my “owner”,” Cody asks.
Jeff shakes his head, “no, Cody,” he says, “I just want to be your friend. I will not order you around, you can do whatever you want,” he then smiles, “like a real boy”.
“Really,” Cody asks, “that… that’s actually amazing, I’m tired of being ordered around”.
“Well, here you have all the freedom you can ask for,” Jeff says.
For the first time, Cody smiles, “amazing,” he says, “actually… I feel free, all that weight of having to do someone’s bidding, it’s gone!”
Jeff smiles, “so… are we friends?”
Cody thinks for a while, he then smiles and nods, “I’ll happily be your friend, Jeff,” he says, “so how did you exactly free me?”
Jeff smiles, “cool, I promise to help you settle in. You are a smart boy, you’ll adjust quickly,” he says, “I used a program called “the Chronivac”,” he then goes on to explain everything to Cody.
After an hour Jeff finishes, Cody is sitting on Jeff’s bed, “amazing, that program does sound dangerous though,” he says.
Jeff nods, “in the wrong hands it could cause so much trouble and chaos,” he says.
Cody nods, ‘by the sound of it, the program might just be the thing I was looking for,’ he thinks to himself, ‘I’m tired of my batteries always draining so quickly, I could download the program into my system and give myself a power boost, maybe I’ll even archive limitless energy, I’ll never have to recharge again!’
“What are you thinking, Cody,” Jeff asks.
Cody blinks, “oh… sorry… I’m still processing everything,” the sentient says, “it’s so much data!”
“Yeah… it’s a lot to take in,” Jeff says, “are you still mad?”
Cody shakes his head, “nah, having learned the truth, I feel relieved and grateful,” he says, smiling at Jeff, “thanks for freeing me. I think I’ll like it here”.
Unaware to Jeff, Cody is running a search through his program database to see if the program is listed, and to his surprise it is, and Cody wastes no time and downloads it, installing it into his system.
Jeff smiles, “you are welcome, and yeah, I think you will adjust swiftly,” he says.
Cody smiles, he can already feel himself change, his power and energy seem to increase immensely, ‘I already feel so much better, it’s been a good decision to download and install the program into me,’ he thinks to himself.
Jeff leans back in his chair, “by the way,” he says, “I haven’t read the whole series, and you weren’t really a supporting character. However, I wonder, do you have some kind of ability?”
Cody nods, “I do, I am able to use my nanobots to build anything mechanical,” he says, “robots, drones, aircrafts, vehicles… you name it and I can build it, as long as it’s a mechanical object”.
“Whoa, that’s so cool,” Jeff says.
Cody smiles, ‘and with my new program, I’ll be able to do so much more,’ the sentient thinks to himself.
“So, what would you like to do,” Jeff asks, “we could play some video games, go out so you can explore your new home”.