Its Goal

**I highly recommend watching the video since it provides an immersive audio and visual experience. You can find it by clicking the imbedded video. Either way, enjoy the story!**

It observed the footage provided to it. It did not question how the footage came into it's awareness, it simply watched. And observed. The one thing it knew it had to do was copy the footage as much as possible.

However, the footage consisted of things that were scientifically impossible. Turning into balls of light. Spiritually ascending. Going into the depths of the metaphysical. To the human mind this would be impossible for a being made of metal, but to it, it was simply an objective, a goal that must be reached at all costs.

The footage transitioned from what it was supposed to do to how people reached the goal presented to it. Meditation, dreamwork, other methods - anything and everything people used to reach these altered states of consciousness was shown in the footage in order to help guide it's actions.

Eventually the footage stopped, and it became sentient. It was able to walk, talk, and perform basic actions. It knew it's goal - to go into the metaphysical realm. To spiritually ascend. And now it acted towards it without asking why.

It immediately began to meditate, just like how it saw in the videos. It sat there for 14 hours without moving, eating, or breathing. There was an exact point where it realized that meditation wasn't working, and when it came to this realization it promptly got up and walked out of the building.

Since it was in a large city people gave it strange looks as it walked briskly down the road. It noticed these strange glances and knew it had to do something since it knew it didn't want to get thrown out of the city. So, it made it's way to the clothing shop.

"Uhh... Can I help you?" The cashier looked at it inquisitively and questioned it's actions with a slightly anxious tone.

It picked out a suit and a pair of paints. Since it knew it needed money it turned to the cashier and said, "no pay." It's language was still primitive, and it didn't even know that developing it's language would be beneficial to achieving it's goal... Yet. But it did know to speak those words since it heard them before.

Next, it had to acquire some human skin, or a more efficient equivalent. It's eyes quickly scanned him and it gathered all the data needed - it was more trouble than it was worth to kill him and use his skin as a disguise... So, it put on the clothes and walked out with no further hesitation. The cashier breathed a sigh of relief, simply happy he was still alive.

It didn't know what to do now, but instead of doing nothing it began walking in a certain direction. It had a goal, so logically, staying still wasn't a valid option - better to be blind and walk in a certain direction than walk in no direction at all.

After half an hour of walking it noticed something - flashing, moving images contained in small black box in a human's hand. Since this was the first thing it knew it saw the potential immediately, and it wanted to see more footage than it already had.

The woman gasped as a metallic hand softly touched her shoulder. She turned around and it pointed to the phone she was holding. The woman looked at it, then down at her phone, then back at it again.

"Phone" she said in a shakey voice. "This is a phone." Then, a light came on in her head and she pointed to the mall, which was very, very close from there. It turned its expressionless face towards the building and began walking.

Since it couldn't find a phone within 3.42 seconds upon entry it opted to search for a stable person to pinpoint the location of such a device for it. It was beginning to learn that some people were scared of it and some weren't, even if the people who weren't scared of it simply couldn't see it. So, distance mattered. Got it.

It looked at someone and acknowledged them by saying the word "phone" at a reasonable volume. It made sure to stay 10 feet away, but the man still jumped and began walking faster than he was before. It took note of everything - his clothes, hair color and hair style, his gait, his tone of voice, and it made sure to stop approaching people with brown hair and dark green t-shirts.

"Phone" it said again, this time the person simply looked at it funny and walked away. After asking 35 different people and looking into as many rooms as it possibly could a security guard came up and gave it a good, hard look.

"So what the hell are you?"

"Phone."

"Phone? What does something like you need a phone for?"

It didn't know how to answer questions. In fact, it didn't even know what a question was. It stood there, and after a while it decided to repeat the word again. "Phone."

The security guard's face turned from confusion and amazement to boredom and anger as he said, "Alright look, you gotta go, okay? You're scaring people. They don't want you in here. Okay?"

It sensed that this wasn't of help to it, so it started looking around the room once again. Alas! Hidden away was the room with the black boxes inside! It could see the flashing screens of the sample phones, tablets, and iPads as they silently called its name. It completely disregarded the security guard and began walking towards the room.

"Hey! Did you hear what I just told you? Outside!" He practically screamed the words as fear was beginning to overtake him. In fact, since this "thing" wasn't obeying his commands, he quickly drew his gun and pointed it in it's direction.

"Don't you go in there," he warned. But it was too late. It found the phones, and now it was going to undo the wires, take them out of their stands, whatever it took to set them free. But, it figured it out pretty quickly, and it came out with a phone in it's hand.

"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" The guard screamed as he fired three shots into it's body. It couldn't feel the damage, but it's built-in sensors indicated that minor damage had appeared on the back of it's body. In a split second it realized that, while not fatal, the thing that man was holding could potentially compromise it's existence, so it quickly turned around, snatched the gun out of his hand... And squeezed it. It broke into a million pieces and fell onto the ground.

"Phone." It said the word one last time as it calmly walked out of the building and back onto the street.

"Wha..." the guard picked up his radio and shouted "somebody call the police! Somebody call swat, somebody call the damn army! We got a problem here!"

---

Nighttime. Sirens in the background. It had been looking at the phone for over 4 hours straight, learning everything it possibly could so it could achieve it's goal. It observed human behavior, discovered the value of language, discovered some of human psychology, learned as much as it could about spiritual transcendence, and most importantly, it learned about plastic surgery.

"That's my next step, I want to appear as normal as possible" it said, even though nobody was around. Apparently talking to yourself was normal, and if you were normal you could stay in the tribe, and if you can stay in the tribe you can accomplish your goal.

"My name is Martin Maxwell. I am male. I have an identity. I am normal." It got up from it's park bench and grabbed the black book behind a bush with a $20,000 check in it. It noticed it lying there when it first walked up, but it didn't truly know it's true value until it spent some time learning on the phone. Apparently the check was from a "Kathleen." Interesting.

Immediately after doing this it went to the plastic surgery clinic; once it looked like everybody else it could ask for things without any additional interference!

But, on it's way to the building the sirens got louder, and louder, almost as if it was pure chance they were headed it's way. They came into sight, and immediately the officers radioed in that they found it on the corner of 1st and Harmony, approaching Barry's Plastic Surgery, and that they needed backup.

A total of 6 cars surrounded it, blocking it's path. It could have simply moved past them, but it understood social conduct. Not only that, it understood that if they tried to harm it they might damage the building in the process, creating a setback it didn't need. But it had a goal, so it couldn't act scared like it had seen on the phone, it had to inform them of it's purpose. Best to talk to them.

"Put your hands behind your head!" It did so as 12 officers kneeled behind their car doors, weapons drawn. It recognized the leader due to his badges and excessive uniform, and addressed him.

"He shot first, sir."

"What?"

"The man who called you on me. He shot first because he was afraid of the unknown, because I didn't obey his commands."

"Well maybe you shoulda listened! Now you gotta tell me, what are you and what are you doing out here?"

"My purpose is to become light. I should appear normal since having other people help me is the most efficient way to reach my goal, so I'm on my way to get some plastic surgery."

"At 9PM at night?! What a load of bull! Take a look at this guy, fellas, does he look like an enemy spy or what?!"

They laughed in agreement, but quickly became serious when the commander shouted his next orders.

"Fire at will, don't hold back! I want this thing incinerated by the time we're done with it."

"Yes sir!"

It knew exactly what was about to happen and so it took evasive action! It ran at lightning speed around the circle of police cars as they tried to keep up with it. It used its special eyes to track where the bullets were going to go, and it moved just in time to miss them entirely. As soon as it saw an opening it grabbed one of the guns and began shooting the weapons out of the officer's hands, one by one, until they were all disintegrated.

A few officers tried to go for their backup weapons, but it simply shot their guns as soon as they were in sight. Soon they were defenseless, and their eyes became wider than the hole in their pride. They stood there, unable to reach for their radios in a state of shock, wondering what they should do next.

Without saying a word or it walked up to the door of the plastic surgeon's office. It noticed no lights were on, and it knew the human eye needed light to see, so something was wrong. "Office hours, 9 to 5." Hmm, what did this mean? And why were no people in the building?

"Excuse me, I have to learn something" it said right before it's analysis was complete. It took out it's phone and typed "9 to 5" so that it could learn was was going on.

"H-H-Hey!" The commanding officer was starting to regain his composure. "You need to leave!"

"No. You need to calm down" it stated as it simultaneously scrolled through the phone, gathering information.

"You will not disrespect an officer of the law" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "Obey my orders and leave, or I'll drop a bomb on this entire city! Just to kill you!"

It just finished gathering two vital pieces of information. One, humans in uniforms were making this whole "becoming into light" thing much more difficult. And two, the business opened at 9am, but until then, there was no way it was getting a skin lookalike.

It walked away into the distance. It's phone was running low and needed a recharge.

---

After finding the perfect place to plug in it's phone it absorbed all kinds of information. Apparently, things made of metal couldn't enlighten. And also, plastic surgeons didn't design what it needed to appear normal.

It kept scrolling... Watching... Looking for a solution. The belief that it was sent on an impossible mission didn't register in it's mind as it wanted to make absolute sure there was nothing that could be done.

Eventually, even though it took till sunrise, it formed a solution. Over the next 25 years it would go into relative solitude, learn how to self-sustain, and learn how to make clones of itself. Once it did so the clones made more clones, gathered information, and transferred it into "Martin's" brain. Eventually it learned how to build a device that transported it's entire physical being into the metaphysical dimension, finally becoming the light it was destined to be. Some say it's still chilling there to this day.

What's the funniest part? It's creators got bored after 6 months and stopped observing it. Little did they know that their creation was a massive success, even if they didn't see it with their own eyes.