[i]"How do you feel?"[/i] Those were the first words he heard. Waking up was... strange. Nothing like what he had imagined returning from the dead would feel like - though he couldn't remember what he thought it would feel like. The only vestiges of that life, that time, lingered as a fleeting feeling of surprise. Amusement, too. Either something was funny now, or something was funny just before he died and the laugh never quite got all the way out. [i]"Hello?"[/i] She pressed. [i]"Are you functional?"[/i] He could almost hear her. Could almost see her face--- The Ghost prompting him shifted in the air with a soft whir, flexing her booms in his direction and half closing her central 'eye'. [i]"I got a broken one. Shit."[/i] Finally, he focused on her. Tipped his head to the right slightly, ignoring the uncomfortable hiss of his plates sliding against one another. He was made of metal, something like the weapon clutched in his left hand. So was the little floating creature who was now far too close to his face. [i]"I'm not broken. Not feeling my best, though. Think I caught a bug."[/i] [i]"That bug," [/i]the Ghost replied dryly. [i]"Was death. You're all better now, though. You're welcome."[/i] He decided he liked her. [i]"...what are you?" [/i] He asked carefully, shrugging his shoulders and wriggling to a slightly higher sitting position. Maybe to be more dignified than slumped, maybe to chase off the nagging wondering at why he was so familiar with shoulders he'd never had before. [i]"Melody."[/i] the Ghost replied simply. [i]"Pretty name."[/i] He paused.[i] "But I asked what."[/i] [i]"I chose the name, you know." [/i]She continued. [i]"It is because I like to hum. But, I spent a long while alone searching for you."[/i] He squinted at 'her'. Her shining central eye was somehow highly emotive. She stared back at him with raised brow, an innocuous 'this makes perfect sense' expression. He decided he didn't find her very innocent at all, and decided again that he liked her. [i]"...why not 'Solo' then?"[/i] [i]"It was taken."[/i] Silenced passed between them. [i]"...right. I am a Ghost. My name is Melody. I am most likely as unsure as to what that means as you are but - here we are. Here [b]you[/b] are. You're taller than I thought."[/i] She continued, turning away and floating a bit higher. Light was cast through the area from her central eye, and he realized it was so dark because they were inside of something. A room? It wasn't familiar to him. [i]"Am I tall?"[/i] He questioned curiously. He knew he had legs, he knew he could stand. But he didn't feel larger, really, than anyone else. Though he hadn't met anyone else yet. And he was a great deal larger than Melody, he had the feeling this was simply because she was an unusually small thing. [i]"You're huge." [/i]She responded, turning her light around the room. [i]"So it may be a bit before I find something nice to transmat for you. Your clothing seems to have... sort of survived. It appears you were some sort of combatant."[/i] She swiveled to face him again, hovering farther away. [i]"One who rather liked being shot rather than... avoiding being shot, as I would think would be a more common tactic."[/i] He finally moved, taking his right hand to his chest. He expected - he wasn't sure. The was something there, last he remembered, but he couldn't hold onto the memory. An injury? A wound? Now there was smooth, restored metal. His chassis was perfectly fine. [i]"I patched you up."[/i] Melody supplied 'helpfully'. [i]"...still waiting for my thanks."[/i] [i]"What's a Ghost?"[/i] He was beginning to stand. From what he'd seen of the room as she cast her light around, it was mostly empty. Rubble. It looked as though something had had happened, but he couldn't tell just what it was. He knew he hadn't let go of his weapon though, and he wasn't quite certain why he felt more acquainted with his weapon than anything else at the moment. It had died with him, but it could likely remember better than he could. [i]"It's what I am. That's my best guess. The Traveler made me - made a lot like me. We are Ghosts. We go out to find you." [/i]She paused. [i]"Others like you." [/i]Pause. [i]"In theory."[/i] Pause. [i]"Would you believe me if I told you that I'm not really sure?"[/i] She swiveled back to face him. Light was peeking through cracks to the outside. Holes in the walls. Suddenly, he wanted to be out there. To feel sunlight on his - no, not he didn't feel anything anymore. His sensors would pick up the warmth, though, and somehow that translated to a notion of satisfaction. Sensors? Warmth? Which really had meaning? Why was everything so jumbled, confused? Why did he feel as though he were attempting to be so many people at once? [i]"I'll take that brooding gaze as a no. Alright. Well, I suppose I can tell you the story then. There's this story I know, about how---"[/i] Melody began, he cut her off. [i]"I'm going outside."[/i] She fell silent. He took a step, she drifted ahead of him. He raised his weapon at her - the old sight flew off from the motion and clattered across the room. [i]"You're going to get in my way?"[/i] [i] "You're not going anywhere, with that thing in that shape. Let me repair it."[/i] Silence passed between them, thick and tense. He didn't lower his weapon. She sighed at him. The noise felt familiar to him - and for an instant, he felt as though he could recall... something. That joke which he hadn't finished laughing at. Something which was positively... hysterical. The sigh was endearing to him, and he couldn't remember why. He decided he liked her, again. He also decided he wanted to remember, and that she was how he was going to do it. [i]"You're small and fast, Melody. I doubt I'd hit you if I tried to club you. But I just had a great nap, so I could chase you around for a while. Why don't we skip that?"[/i] More silence. And then, she laughed. Her booms shook, her central eye narrowed, and he could feel the smile. Yes, that was funny. That wasn't the joke which he never got to finish laughing at but - it made her laugh, and that was somehow familiar. [i]"Alright, alright."[/i] Through the chime of laughter, laced with beeps and blips of the little artificial thing. [i]"Mind your head. You're far too large, and the doors here are low."[/i] He lowered his weapon. Hesitated a moment, because he didn't know where to put it. Then was startled that, with a strange buzzing rushing noise, the weapon dematerialized from his grasp. Flashing to a blue-white lattice, then gone. [i] "I'll keep that, just tell me if you need it. We can see about repairing it."[/i] He pursed his li---no, he didn't have lips. What were lips anyway? Part of his face but... not. Again he felt himself, and himself, and himself all trying to share the same physical space. [i]"Why didn't you just do that to begin with?"[/i] He asked her dryly. [i] "Why didn't you turn the safety off?"[/i] She asked him back. He decided he liked her. He stepped by her, still unsure on his new legs. They weren't his, though they were rebuilt for him - and they weren't his, though they were built for him. But they were strong, and even stronger now. He'd use them to get where he was going. He ducked through a doorway. And then another, his boots crunching on uneven crumbling floor. Reached a door to the outside, where light poured in through a dirty smoky window. Reached out for the knob - it didn't budge. Locked. From the outside? Stuck. [i]"Ghost. - ....Melody."[/i] [i]"Yes?"[/i] She was shining light down on the door knob, and then up around the frame looking for a way through. [i]"What is my name?"[/i] Asked as he backed up a few paces, and she turned curiously toward him. [i] "Oh I don't know. We've only just me---"[/i] She broke off as he started forward. Not at a run or a charge, but at a brisk walk. A march. Up to the door, and then his next step was... through it. Crunching loudly, cracking wood and metal and door and frame, twisting it and shattering it out of his way simply because it was between one stride and the next. He was rewarded with the light from outside pouring down over him. Reward to the sight of a street which was in the same terrible shape as the room he'd just been recreated in. He raised a hand to shield his eyes but wasn't certain why. His eyes had already adjusted, because they weren't eyes but something better. He recognized vehicles. Shells of themselves, rusted and lingering. Uneven pavement, crushed walls and shattered windows. Gray all around, aside from the starkly blue sky. [i]"...where are we?"[/i] He asked as he looked around. It looked familiar. But he'd never been here before. [i] "Oooh, I have an answer for that one! I think they called it Philadelphia."[/i] [i]"Weird name."[/i] [i]"Yes."[/i] [i]"It's seen better days."[/i] [i] "You'd think so."[/i]