She leaned.

“Stop!” I pleaded.

The harbinger of death’s maw alit once more.

“P-please,” Vasc’s strength had finally absconded my knees, “no!” All my conviction was melted in an instant, liquefying more each bullet soaked in.

She leaned to her right, no longer capable of controlling her body. That video immediately replayed in my head, resurfacing forcefully by the scene in front of me.

Again? Had this really happened again? Had I just lost yet another loved one? Was Anna, gone? These were the questions stampeding through my mind whilst Cennet simply walked away. All I could afford to do was keel over and puke. This time, there were no visual effects or dolls to give me the benefit of the doubt. The dripping blood was a testament to the reality of the situation as well as one of the many geneses of a metamorphosis lurking around.

Blood.

What’s worse, that transformation was also assisted by the blood stains on my hands as well.

Someone’s arm wrapped around me, saying something unintelligible into my ear. Police flooded the building whilst the person who supported me was escorting me out, away from a sight that barrelled me down a steep slope. Everyone just looked faceless to me. I couldn’t make sense of what anyone was saying.

I sat in the police station with dozens of other UGO employees, desperately trying to drink from a bottled water with shot nerves. It just kept replaying in my mind with nauseating precision. The cinders in the back of my mind had caught and was burning. Rage. But a slow, persistent rage was being birthed from the embers.

Finally, the tears paraded down; I could almost hear their maniacal laughter. I hunched over, wailing haplessly, not particularly because Anna was gone, but because I’d finally come to realise, she would never come back. She was never coming back. It was as frightening as it was dismal. My mind was warping into itself, being diminished to more primal and instinctive mode with every passing second. With each sundering, my grip on composure was slowly disappearing. How I wished someone would protect me from reality, shield me from my own thoughts and perhaps my own convictions. I was, horrified.

My phone rang and I answered without much thinking, “Yeah?”

“Jared?!” Rosa spoke, “It’s happening!” Her voice was hectic. “There were reports of robots and gunmen storming into over fifteen schools, and the reports are still coming in! Squads are on their way, but…”

A long pause infiltrated.

“Send me the locations,” I answered and hung up. Had I really the resolve to play hero after seeing Anna die with my own eyes? No, I did not. Still, I made my way over to the lab to gear up. Perhaps this was my way of running from reality, or maybe it served to satiate another hunger completely; a hunger of vengeance.

With a meagre eight androids, I’d no idea how I would be able to do this. But I refused to think negatively; I couldn’t afford to anyway. By the time I activated the TS, the locations came through to my phone, all thirty-eight. So, it’s increasing. We hurried off to the nearest school.

There were a few corpses of kids around my age on the ground out in the open. It was sickening, but it was truth. A truth I couldn’t bury my head in the sand to. I flew into the hall and a hail of bullets welcomed me. Luckily, they only hit the TK’s reinforced exterior before it put up its shielder. It blasted away the two shooters with its cannons; I’d given the go-ahead to use lethal force. Two other men ambushed us from the back, getting in a couple shots that would thankfully only graze me. One went with my earlobe, the other bruised my flesh at the ribcage. After those two, the rest hit my shielder. I flew forward with the shield up, smashing it into them and causing them to lose balance. My Z-21 would seamlessly tear through their torsos from there. A scream was heard off in the distance, out our line of sight. When we finally got there, one of my TS was pulling its knife out the neck of yet another mercenary.

Extrapolating, and hoping, that other schools would have a squad of no more than five men wreaking havoc, I split our team up. The TK would lead four TS, and I would lead the other four. I needed to see how well they performed despite knowing they had the same experience as the TK. Variables still existed and I couldn’t chance them.

My next target was a primary school. Even there, full of young children, was stained with bloodshed. Where’s the damn police? I asked myself, flying through the grounds. A cry for help turned my attention to the left at the cafeteria. A young girl, screaming her lungs out, was shot right through the head the second she started up again. An image of Anna’s leaning corpse flashed through my mind; I paused for a second. The man then turned the gun to me, as did his other two associates and the two enemy TS behind the cafeteria’s counter. I brought my shielder up immediately and let them waste their bullets. Pay attention, Jared! I scolded myself. I was being torn between the creeping thoughts of Anna and my self-inflicted sense of responsibility to the innocent lives caught up in Cennet’s games. Two of them began reloading, and I used that chance to fly to their side, kick a table up, and begin blasting away with my pistol. One man was fatally shot, the other was yelping in pain on the ground from a blast to the shoulder. My TS used that chance and rushed into the third man, essentially pushing him away from his cover and giving me a clear shot; I seized that opportunity with a shot clean through the head. From there, it was simple to just walk forward with my shielder up, and finish off the injured man. I turned the power level of my pistol to six, and simply shot through the glass casing of the counter at the enemy TS. One of them lost an arm and couldn’t hold its gun properly, and the other was shot through the head, essentially rendering his ‘eyes’ useless. I hopped over and ended them, aiming for the power core in their chest.

A university was next on the list of seventy schools sent to my phone. With less hesitation, I swiped Z-21 through the campus security booth and it halved the enemy TS that used it for cover. What the hell are they doing? I asked myself as my four TS and I dispatched the threats. If his goal is to target schools, then why is he killing a specified number of pupils? I wondered where the logic was in that. But if your objective was to help protect students – even if your method was stupid – then killing all of them would be even stupider. However, killing a set number for each school showed that each school had flaws when it came to security. Objectively speaking, it was a brilliant ‘greater good’ plan, but I was blinded to any brilliance in my rage. This university was safe again after my TS’ knife ripped a hole through one of their craniums. I left there wondering why no school had more than a dozen students dead.

Before I could get to the next school, Rosa alerted me to a bomb threat at Neo-Chem. “Are you kidding me?! I’m busy! Can’t you get some specialist to handle it?” I complained, looking at yet another school right in front of me that needed help.

“A bomb squad will take quite a while to get there, and it’s on a timer. You’ve got,” she went silent, checking her watch most likely, “One minute, fifty seconds.”

“Wha–”

“Please!” she pleaded.

I’d no choice. The locations of the schools were pushed to my four TS, and so were commands to continue removing threats to those schools. I shot up into the air and put Grav on full throttle, increasing that speed with EXO’s jetpack as much as my body could handle. Going to another city was crazy, but there were even schools there that were in danger. With just above twenty seconds remaining, I arrived at Neo-Chem. It was surrounded by police and a couple people were still seen evacuating the environs. “Where’s the bomb?!” I shouted for the group of officers to hear me over the commotion.

“T-tenth floor!” a couple of them shouted. I quickly counted the glass panes going up, then flew to the exact floor, making a hole with Z-21. I grabbed it and flew right back out, hoping to god it wouldn’t explode on me because of the sudden movement. I flew up with it, past Neo-Chem, until about three seconds remained, then flung it as hard as I could upward. White was not to be underestimated. The bomb exploded, sending some shrapnel down at me but the shielder protected me.

I breathed a sigh of relief and then continued on to another nearby school. This one, thankfully, only had a couple dead students. I flew down, shot two of the men through the cover they were hiding behind. The other two took notice and decamped their positions immediately to take cover behind stronger barricades. One hid behind a corner, and the other behind a car. The one around the corner was targeted first. Without having to actually break the corner, I simply cut through it and ended him. The last man lost his nerve and ran away, whilst the enemy TS was fearlessly shooting at me out in the open. I flew to it, making sure to have my shield faced downwards. As I got close, I removed the shield, spun forward and cut through its head and torso, destroying the power core in one go and jetting off to catch the fleeing man. I tackled him into the wall and immediately pointed my gun, “Drop it.”

He obeyed readily, throwing his gun aside and putting his hands up. I grabbed him by the ankle and flew off, finding a cop cruiser and cutting in their way. The tires screeched until the vehicle stopped, “One of them,” I told the copper when he exited, dropping the gunman onto the hood of the car.

Just then, several explosions went off and no more than a minute later, Rosa was telling me about an arms factory being blown up, and wanted me there to see if there were any survivors. On my way there, a TS suddenly attacked me. I upped my speed a bit, then suddenly hit the brake and stuck my sword out, making the android fly right into it. Another two converged on the path I was travelling behind me. Then three; then three more. Their numbers kept increasing. I sighed, speeding up once again and stopping at empty plots of land near the highway. My pistol began firing off, taking out about a couple dozen of them. Since when were there so many?! I prepared my shield the minute they hit their brake. Hell, how many is that? Fifty? I estimated and took a deep breath. Behind the light of their guns’ muzzles was a frightening sight: another army of TS androids.

I panicked, but was discombobulated when the ones behind those attacking me began shooting down my attackers. They made a formation and a cerulean field of energy I was all too familiar with made an impenetrable wall. Are those, mine? The hell’s going on here?! They shot through the small spaces in the wall, massacring Cennet’s TS robots.

After the job was done, they flew toward me. “Lucky thing you kept my voice in the programming, huh?” I heard mom through one of the androids. “I hope you don’t mind, but I had the engineers produce as many of these guys as they could. The police gave them guns, I’m guessing because of Rosa. I should probably question your relationship with her, but that’s for another day. I took the schematics for your shielder and made for all eighty of these guys.” A smile formed on my face. “Oh, their ammo is limited, so they’ll eventually have to use batons or knives or whatever. Jared,” her voice turned serious, “I’m, sorry about Anna. I don’t want to lose you. Please, be careful, don’t take any risks you don’t have to, okay?”

“I gotcha. And mom, thank you.”

I immediately began forming squads of five, giving me sixteen squads. I spread them out across the country to be as efficient as possible. Looking at my phone then, there were over sixteen hundred locations sent to me. I removed the headgear and goggles to wipe the sweat off me, and took a few deep breaths before telling the last few squads what to do. Once again, I was alone.

I continued onto the factory, but it was completely destroyed, so much so that the hopes of finding someone alive was nil. My phone began ringing; Rosa was calling once again. “Yeah?”

“Jared…” she said meekly.

“Charlene Jefferson is in danger,” another voice came through. My mind halted, putting the person in danger to the side.

“Cennet, you fucking piece of shit, tell me something.” My hand trembled, “Is this a three-way call?”

His sickening laughter almost made me lose my mind, “You’re worried the Home Secretary’s in danger. No need to worry, she isn’t my target. Speak, Home Secretary, and put Ban’s mind at ease.”

“I’m fine, Jared,” she said.

“Well, that should be a long enough call to get my location, Home Secretary. I’ll see you soon, Ban,” Cennet hung up. A chill ran up my spine just thinking about the conversation. I rued even imagining how it is he had Rosa’s direct line. What couldn’t this demon do?

“I’m sending you the location now. Jared, don’t lose your composure.” Rosa avised. “You’re better than him, show him that you are. Show yourself that you are. Good luck; be safe.”

On my way there, I wondered how the TK and army of TS were doing. Sometimes, I couldn’t but blame myself for letting things get so out of hand. In what world does a boy need armed robots to neutralise terrorism? I’d grown weary of this back and forth; tired of the comic book hero and villain misadventures. Absolutely sickened that he played with real lives just to fulfil his own delusional grandiose schemes. Safety? Safety?! Reason began squirming its way out the clutches of rationale. Constant recollection of Anna didn’t help subdue to growing mishmash of chaos and wrath. I sped up.

In a few minutes I arrived downtown, lowering my altitude and choosing to fly amongst the city’s behemoth buildings. Closing in on the location, I’d notice a few armoured vans, cruisers, and just about every tactical vehicle possible. I lowered my speed and noticed a few officers signalling me to land. Mom’s warning to be careful rang in my mind once more, so I dipped and landed amongst them.

“At this point, we don’t need it, but better to be prepared,” the officer addressing me pointed to another bunch of people, and amongst them were the Andinos. They held up wires for recording audio and beckoned me over.

Samuel Andino flinched when he noticed the look in my eyes. “I’ll be frank here, we were never going to kill you,” he said to me, speaking as close as possible. “At this point, it’s fine if you don’t trust us. But know that we were always on your side. Cennet was tracking us really hard recently, so we made it look like there was bad blood between us.” He explained, then gestured for me allow him to tape the wires onto me.

“Won’t take EXO off in front of you,” I told him frankly, my eyes filled of distrust.

With an audible sigh, he nodded his head in understanding. “I can’t blame you. But please understand, he has Cindy. So, I hope you don’t blame me for the things I’m forced to do…”

A cold pain slipped in me. I was stabbed in the back, literally. And without a chance to even look back, Samuel swung a knife to my throat, but I pulled back just enough to avoid him totally severing half my neck. Needless to say, the wound – if inflicted on someone sans-Vasc – would definitely be fatal. My jugular was punctured. I kicked Samuel off, then turned around and smashed my elbow into Ferris’ inner thigh. I slipped the knife out my back. By then, other TEOs and police noticed and began rushing in, however, the Andinos weren’t finished. In fact, they had a strange fervour in their eyes. Their recuperation made it obvious, Vasc flowed through their veins. That elbow should’ve definitely shattered the bone of a normal person. Yet, he rebounded like a listless demon. A right piston rocked my head back, flooring me and pushing me aside. A blur was all I could see as one of them were airborne, ready to stamp down onto my neck. I put my shielder up, but his stamp smashed my shoulder onto the pavement’s concrete and dislocated it. But there was no choice other than keeping it up. However, Samuel gripped the shield at the edges and forced me up, causing me to yelp out in pain because it put all the strain on my shoulder. He spun me around so I could be vulnerable to attack from behind, so that Ferris could finish the job.

Right then, another beacon had dimmed for me, one that I held onto in hopes that maybe I could be saved from my past sins. Yeah, I’d killed before, but steeling myself to take the lives of those I might’ve called friends was, numbing. I was becoming something I detested.

I recalled the blue shield and ducked, dodging Ferris’ knife and unsheathing Z-21 in one go. His torso was severed, from his left hip to his right shoulder. My eyes then shifted to Samuel; he winced, realising he was truly in danger and I had no hint of reluctance buried in me. He felt the cold stares of death boring through him. Despite seeing the fear in him, Z-21’s blade was still on a warpath. Another TEO tackled him out of the way, just in time.

A lot of guns were pointed at both me and Samuel at that point. “Try some shit like that again and I’ll kill you before Cennet gets a chance to kill Cindy.” I proceeded to walk forward, where most people were facing before I got on the scene. By the time I’d broken the corner, my wounds had already healed up.

I finally saw Cennet. But something was off. Why would he have Charlene Jefferson tied up on the ground with a bomb strapped to her body without the authorities taking action? The man sat comfortably on a chair in the middle of the road with no weapons on his person, yet he was untouchable.