daylight_darknight | PROO FIC: System Crash (Reply)

WARNING: Sad and depressing fic ahead.

Title: System Crash
Characters: Mack, Mr. Hartford
Rating: PG
Summary: The creation of life by mechanical means is nothing short of a miracle, but what if Andrew Hartford hadn't been quite as successful as he'd first thought.

System Crash

It started with a dropped glass, its contents forming a Picasso pattern amongst the shattered pieces on the floor.

Mack insisted it simply slipped from his fingers.

When a plate met the same fate less than a week later, Spencer was quick to reprimand him for being careless and threatened to stop cooking for him if his meals were treated that way. The subject of his rebuke smiled sheepishly as he cleaned up his mess.

When a book and a pool cue suffered the same crash landing the next day, Dax laughed commenting to Mr. Hartford that he’d probably created the world’s only clumsy android. Andrew laughed too though he insisted Mack wasn’t clumsy, just needed to stop daydreaming and pay attention.

But things continued to fall and by the time Mack dropped his morpher, the laughter was replaced by confusion and concern.

It was daydreaming Rose thought she caught him doing when she found him staring vacantly at a wall, but it took calling his name five times for him to respond, her voice growing more anxious with each utterance. When he finally turned to look at her, he was surprised by her worry and claimed he’d merely been lost in thought, but the vacant stares soon became common place too.

Mack shrugged off the others’ concern insisting he was fine, just tired. Then he laughed at himself because he couldn’t explain how an android could be tired.

Mr. Hartford worried, but then he always worried about his son. For a couple of weeks he managed to hang onto the belief that something was simply troubling Mack emotionally, but then the stuttering started. First it was one word every few sentences, then every other sentence, then every other word. By that time, Mack decided it was better not to talk at all and grew silent.

Dragging his son down to the command base, Andrew performed every diagnostic test he could think of until Mack rebelled sick of the scrutiny and the prodding, his life being reduced to a set of numbers and flashing lights. So Mr. Hartford buried himself in the data refusing to come out of the darkness of his lab until he found the fault.

Meanwhile, Mack shut himself inside himself despite the efforts of the other rangers. An enticement for a pool game from Will was met with a shake of his head. Instead, he sat in a corner staring at his hands as if they were foreign objects.

While they waited for an answer, things grew worse. Repetitive ticks developed and Mack started to become forgetful and easily confused. Mr. Hartford explained there was a bug somewhere corrupting Mack’s systems but since he had created Mack’s programming to be self-evolving the programming had grown to such an extent that finding the code causing the problem was more difficult than finding the Corona Aurora.

Finally, a day came when Ronny went outside to find Mack lying in his hammock a forgotten book across his chest. He was completely still as if asleep but with his eyes wide open. She sat with him awhile and held his hand but there was no response. With the help of the others, she took him down to the command base where Andrew confirmed their worse fears. It was a complete system crash.

As weeks passed, efforts to restore Mack seemed useless and hope fell through for the others. The rangers began trying to find a way to say goodbye, but Mr. Hartford refused to give in determined to fix his son.

Then one day Andrew appeared from his lair, his clothing dishevelled, his eyes red, yelling excitedly “I’ve done it! I’ve done it!”

Down below in the command base, Spencer and the rangers found Mack sitting up straight and stiff on the diagnostic bed his expression vacant.

Ronny tentatively approached him. “Mack?”

The red overdrive ranger titled his head and with a painfully familiar lopsided grin, said “Hello, Ronny.” Then his face shut down, his eyes empty.

Ronny bit her lip silent tears falling down her face. Dax’s mouth opened and closed with nothing to say. Spencer sat down and covered his face with his hands. Rose grew pale and sick. Will turned away.

Tyzonn looked into the eyes where his friend once was and shook his head saying “That’s not Mack.”

The strained enthusiasm fell from Andrew Hartford’s face like an avalanche. He cast a pleading look in the direction of his android son.

The mechanical man that was formerly Mack found no response to this in his databanks so he smiled again then his face once more went blank.