“When am I gonna get to use this thing?”

“Focus on the job- not admiring your gun.”

She was on a vacation day. Key-word being was. Then HQ sent out a direct order. She would have normally ignored it- if not for the message footer that proceeded it.

In Mother’s name, we are reborn.

A direct order from the Gods of City- from Mother, no less.

She was lazy, not suicidal.

Rabbit watched the bodies plummeting from the sky, piece by piece, drop by drop. Somehow, all of them missed the car.

It seemed like Bear was lucky with his parking spot.

She didn’t want to sit for long. The targets were where they needed to be, unarmed and unaware. It wouldn’t be too much of a chore to dispose of them.

“When are we going in?” She nagged the Bear, who sat right next to her, observing the house. “Are you really waiting for visual confirmation of all targets?”

“Speak your mind, Rabby,” He didn’t even bother looking back at her.

“Target one’s right in the middle of the house. The other two are probably right out the back doo-”

“What if they are not?”

Rabbit turned to him. She wore a competitive smirk. Who challenged the almighty wisdom of her bored conjecture?

“Count out the targets from the list for me,” Bear said.

She recited from memory. “The blondie going inside is Forty-two. There’s the boy with the stale face. Forty-one. Finally, the girl. Marked as ‘especially dangerous’. No clarification beyond that.”

“And where are Forty-One and the girl?”

“Are you planning to wait until we can see both of them as well? From here no less? We can storm in and dispose of the two of them before anyone notices.”

Her words had truth in them. They were in a car, across the street. There was another car in front of their targets’ garage as well. While it was unlikely for them to leave so soon, Rabbit and Bear were still risking a car chase across the city if they did try to run too early. Mother would not be amused if that happened.

Not many earned the City God’s ire and lived a long life after that. She was still bothered by Mother's choice to pick the two of them for this job. Bear was an ex-Enforcer, and she herself had been out of training for just a month.

It might be best to listen to him, she thought.

The plan was simple. Do a stakeout, storm the place guns blazing, leave, and get herself a bacon and egg burger at Mac’s.

Yet, if she failed at that second step, the burger would have to wait.

“We should at least confirm Forty-one’s location before going in,” Bear said.

“Why him and not the girl?”

“I have my reasons.”

“Tell me,” she insisted. The Bear wasn’t the type to be mysterious about his motives, but he outright avoided her question. Bear avoiding something? That was a first.

“Let’s just say- my hunch tells me…” He pinched his cigarette and threw it out of the window, uncaring about the hail of body parts outside. “…he might be the one we need to worry about.”

“Whatever you say, Boss.”

“What did I tell you about calling me Boss?” Bear replied.

“That it annoys you, which motivates me further.”

“I will pay for lunch today if you shut up.”

“As you say, Boss.”

She looked back towards the house, observing potential entry points. All their targets were supposed to be there. At least, that’s what the intel said. Yet despite Mother's prediction that all the targets would be on site within minutes, two of them were nowhere to be seen.

It looked to Rabbit that it would be a long, boring day.

Until something plummeted from the sky. Like a gray and blue star, it crashed right through the house, leaving a considerable hole in the roof. Forty-two screamed in sheer fright and ducked for cover. The dust and splinters plumed inside the house, visible all the way from where she stood.

She checked the watch on her wrist. It was the exact time Mother told them someone would arrive.

“That is one way to enter a building,” she murmured.

Bear opened the car door, unveiled his gun, and beckoned toward it. She got the gist.

“And now, it is their time to leave.”

She rolled her eyes as she heard Bear. He sure liked waxing poetic.

* * *

Tears flew past her eyes as the ground drew closer.

Daughter didn’t want to face the truth. She couldn’t accept the truth.

Yet it was coming towards her. She was a bird in a cage, not a human.

You shall never touch the soil

What was the truth she learned?

What worth did she have?

She fell past the peaks of the tallest buildings in City.

You should never touch the soil

What happened here?

She was falling towards a house. She could even see what lay in the earth beneath.

Why were there bodies falling with her?

Why did she jump?

You can never touch the soil

”Who am I?”

She felt the roof tiles on her face as she crashed right through the ceiling. And the floor.

It was a one-way journey with a harsh end.

The first room she flew by almost too fast to see; a bed, a teddy bear, and a rabbit?

A bedroom?

Her body punched right through the bed. Sadly, it didn’t offer much assistance. She broke through the floor beneath and fell further.

A sofa, a lamb, and a table. Plank flooring. She felt that one.

The broken cracks rose through the house and from her body. It was unclear which had suffered the most. Likely both, definitely from her.

She opened her eyes, but there was no sight or light.

Something tickled her cheek.

There was also something in her mouth, likely dirt?

What had tickled her?

She pulled her head out with all her might, throwing herself away from the tickle monster or the bug, getting herself away from the dusty crater.

She hoped it was a monster.

”Get it off,” she swiped at her dress. “Get it off,” she swiped at her legs and shoes. “Get it off meee,” She swiped all around, to be sure. She spun around. every time, something within her dress tickled.

Common sense dictated it was likely just splinters from the fall, but she didn’t care.

She stood hunched after her twirling and cleaning. She stepped on something crispy and crackly. Was it a bug?

She begged the Mother it wasn’t bugs.

She leaned forward, slightly bowing her knees. This day had it out against her.

“Not only did you crash through my house, you also spread sawdust everywhere,” a voice said, belonging to a man. Or an unlucky woman. “Okay, first- tell me. How are you okay?”

He looked at her, thinking.

“Before you scream. Be surprised you got to meet me,” he stood straight, brimming with confident desperation. “Do I have any bugs on me?” She said.

He didn’t look her in the eye, but slightly above.

“Swear you won’t scream.”

She screamed as if her life depended on it. To show the bug who is the boss here, of course. She shook her head with all the strength she could muster, which was a lot for the poor squatter at the top of her head.

A little caterpillar who only sought a safe home.

There were strands of her gray hair and a worried blondie in her vision.

Why did he have that appeasing smile? That understanding look? Was he pitying her?

Not on her watch.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she closed the distance between them. “I will have you know it won’t end well.”

“Look like what?” Blondie answered as he took a step back.

“With pity.”

“I pity myself. I’m left without a bedroom and a living room thanks to you,” he pointed towards all the rubble behind her. “Ah, also to add, the roof.”

“Those are very valid points, but, counterpoint…” She pondered with all she had. Sparks danced between her circuits as they aspired to reach one. “… I fell all that way, injured, and you are being rude with me.”

“You're hardly the first person who fell today,” he just dismissed her aside.

“Hardly the first? What kind of town is this?” she furled her brow and put her hand to her lip.

“Actually, where am I?”

“…Dullsville,” his blue eyes narrowed as they bore a hole in her soul.

Dullsville? It wasn’t a district of Glitter City. She didn’t have access to what laid beyond in the experiment.

Which only meant one thing. She was somehow thrown away from the SkyDome.

“Tell me right now where the closest Sentinel Station is.”

“First, tell me who you are and what just happened,” he seemed to be on the edge of his patience, grasping his pants as he talked. “You barged into my house, from the roof no less, there are bodies like you raining down the sky and then you just come and order me around. Who in the name of Mother are you?”

She only looked back, aghast in this fool's stupidity. He didn’t know her. How did he not know her?

Did he live under a rock before moving here? Was he plain ignorant? Was he trying to look like an equal next to her?

Probably the latter.

This unit must learn. He, as a robot, is nothing before a true human such as her.

“Look at me and then ask that question again.”

He examined her from where he stood and asked again. “Yeah. I have no idea. Who are you?”

She scoffed. “I am the one and only… wait…” She had a name, didn’t she?

What was it again?

She had one, right?

She was a human, and an important one at that. How could she not have a name?

This was tomorrow’s problem. First, she had to deal with the moment at hand.

“... I’ve decided to not disclose it due to personal circumstances,” she sighed. It was a good save.

“So you don’t remember. Well, the fall was quite long. It was ignorant of me to assume you weren’t injured permanently. Sorry about that.”

So much for a good save.

“And you should be. I’m willing to forgive you and forget your transgression if you drive me to the closest Sentinel station.”

He opened his mouth a little and nodded. “Uh huh.” then rolled his eyes. “I must be gratuitous for your generosity, my Liege.”

“So you do know me,” the end drew closer. All she had to do was to get in this fool’s head. He might even know her name.

”I do. you're the woman who obliterated my roof.”

There was no remedy for idiocy, it seemed.

She gave up on the blondie in front of her and walked through his front door. She witnessed a world painted in red. She froze. These were human bodies. They weren’t units made out of silicon, steel, and the threads that sewed together a soulless, fake personality. The bodies there were human. flesh, blood and bones, but still lacking soul. Not because they didn’t have one- but because it was taken away from them.

Why didn’t these other humans survive the fall like she did?

They were scattered around her sight; one crashed on top of a car down the street, one impaled by an antenna, and one staring right into her with bloated eyes like fish. But the scent- even flies would avoid something this putrid, something this disgusting.

It was a scene from Hell. Two Sentinels marched towards her.

A colossal man and a petite woman walked towards the door. Both wore black jackets bearing a downwards facing white triangle. It seemed weird to her that they would wear jackets in such weather, but she wasn’t one to judge people.

Someone walked up behind her. Most likely the Blondie. Well, she got what she desired- he didn’t matter anymore. She would pay him back though. She was gracious like that.

“Sentinel Units, I command you to bring me back home,” she ordered towards the two sentinels. They must certainly know her from her appearances on TV, validating their praises and prayers all night. She remembered those cameras, lenses shining at her as she shone through people’s hearts.

She had that, didn’t she?

Yet these sentinels clearly had something wrong with them. They pointed guns at her stomach, barrels peeking out from beneath the flaps of their jackets.

“Get inside and do not make a sound,” she stared towards the gun and then the Sentinels. “What?” trying to process what was happening was too much to bear. They didn’t love her. They were prepared to hurt her. She didn’t know what they wanted from her. Were they crazed fans trying to kidnap her?

What happened and why they would do this- she didn’t know. But she at least knew one thing- she wanted to live.

She obliged. They had a gun. it made them much more convincing than they would normally have been.

She felt tremors running wild in her body. Her legs began to shake and she felt cold. She wanted to run. She had to run, she had to survive.

The woman sentinel grabbed her by the hair and slammed her to the floor. Neither her strength nor the impact were painful, but she didn’t fight back.

She couldn’t bring herself to resist.

She could die.

Wouldn’t she be at their mercy if she didn’t resist?

It was the end for her. She laid face down on the floor. Away from the side of her mother and father. All because of a minor accident that left her stranded down there.

“Since you two still have some time left before we take you out- who owns the house?” The Sentinel holding her down spoke.

“I do,” Blondie answered, barely audible while his head was being pressed down on the floor by the larger Sentinel's knee. She didn’t even get to learn Blondie’s name before the Sentinels would shoot them both. It was a shame. He was total eye candy.

“What did you use to make the flowers blossom?”

“Excuse me?”

“Your flowers and the grass. Whenever I try to make my garden look like something other than a dry plot of dirt, it ends up even worse than before.”

She was taken aback by the lady’s question. Here they were, about to be shot, and all she could think about of was her garden back home.

How many lives has she taken, to disregard their last moments so callously?

This was most definitely not their first time killing. It looked like it wouldn't be their last.

She could see gears turning round and round on Blondie’s face from where she lay. It was easy to see his fear, yet something else arose from the back of his mind.

“Let her go, and I'll give you all my gardening secrets.”

A metallic echo resounded behind his head. It was the cocking of the larger Sentinel’s gun. She struggled, forcing the Sentinel behind her to wrestle her back down. But to no avail.

”No can do, dear,” the Lady cocked her gun as well.

She struggled harder and screamed, but no one came to rescue her. She couldn’t push back the death hanging upon her.

She heard Blondie shouting. Grunts of a Sentinel.

She heard an engine roar.

Daughter closed her eyes, waiting for this to end-

A car crashed inside the house and ran her over.

* * *

Forty-Two was never happier to be part of a traffic incident.

Well, it was inside his house, but it didn't matter.

He was happy nonetheless.

The sharp, odious smell of gasoline hung in the air.

The pair of Sentinels couldn’t react to a car punching through the wall behind them. Planks, glass, and plastic fragmented forth. One of his walls was totally destroyed.

He hoped the insurance on the house hadn’t run out yet.

But it could wait. Not dying took priority.

He looked over the steering wheel. Where was the girl? What had happened to her?

Forty-Two worried for a moment, looking around for the girl who crashed inside his house. She was nowhere to be found. He did need to find something better to call her, but that didn’t matter at the moment. For now, finding her is what mattered.

Who would foot the rest of the bill for all the damages? Definitely not the Sentinels.

He breathed a sigh of relief, as the girl slowly crawled out under the car, unharmed, and in shock.

She wasn’t alone.

Forty-Two got up to see his savior and all he could say was:

“Where the hell have you been?”

Forty-one didn’t answer. He got out of the car, grabbed one of the guns off the floor, and walked towards the two sentinels who were still recovering.

He shot the large man and the smaller lady next to him in the legs. The smaller Sentinel reached for her gun, but Forty-One kicked it aside.

“Get in. We need to leave this town,” Forty-one didn’t bother looking back or helping. He just got in the driver's seat.

The grey-haired woman got out from under the car, shaking and in shock.

Forty-two couldn’t judge. He felt as rattled as she looked.

Tremors ran in waves throughout his body.

Despite his constant shaking, he managed to open the car door.

In the corner of his mind, he realized something.

His life of normalcy ended today.

A new struggle had begun to overtake him.