Chapter Five:

Adrian was lying in his hospital bed, working on his laptop and checking all of his stocks, bank accounts, and corporate updates. He had already checked them several times, but he was bored out of his mind and wanted some sort of mental stimulation other than just watching movies online and reading articles. It had been a week and a half since he was shot in the head, and he was recuperating at an incredible rate. Having woken up only a few hours after his emergency surgery and regained the ability to walk before the end of the day, many doctors believed that his recovery was the fastest of anyone who had ever survived such an injury, and easily considered it to be a miracle. His case was even going to be published in a medical journal and he could be seen on the evening news.

He still had to stay in the hospital, but only because his parents and the doctors wanted to be safe. If he had his way, he would have been out a long time ago. He felt completely healthy in every aspect, mentally and physically. He had regained his full strength, his mind was working at its peak capacity, and his body and brain were fully healed. Each day consisted of physical therapy and rest, then being visited by his parents and Jenny.

“Hey! How are the plates?” he heard, bringing a wider smile to his face as he looked to the doorway and saw her.

She was referring to the metal plates installed in his head to keep his skull together while it healed and cover the entry and exit points of the bullet.

“Good, I got them replaced today,” he answered as she walked over and kissed him.

“Really? Even after so little time has passed?”

“Well I actually requested it. My weapons aren’t the only thing made of Demium you know, I keep a supply of different pieces and shapes for such occasions. I had actually anticipated something like this happening and prepared plates to go over my skull. I doubt I would manage to survive the process, but I can take an armor-piercing sniper round to the forehead and it would barely break the skin.”

“Really? That’s amazing!” she exclaimed, never managing to ever become used to the things he did.

“Well when I first began trying to produce Demium, I certainly wasn’t going to half-ass it,” he joked.

The sound of Adrian’s laugh and the sight of his smile lit up Jenny’s face with tender love, and the sight of her happiness in turn warmed his heart.

Being with Jenny was now a different experience than it was before. Before, being with her was enjoyable but very confusing and next to impossible to fully integrate himself in, but now that he had combined his logical mind with his emotions and physical desires, he was better able to understand his feelings for her and her feelings for him. He loved her and was truly happy, happier than ever before in his life. This enlightenment also expanded his already proficient mental prowess, letting him enjoy the world more than he originally had, and understand humans instead of just predict their actions.

He had never been very emotional, so this was all very new to him, but by no means were his emotions blocking his sense of logic. He was able to think as clearly as before and use logic with same skill, but he could now relate to humans and know how to act in social situations. He was always in a good mood and he almost always had a small confident smile, almost like a smirk but without any smug arrogance. He looked like a very skilled but relaxed and easygoing chess player declaring checkmate, as calm and humble as could be, but also confident and enjoying the game.

Because nurses were constantly patrolling the halls during visiting hours, Jenny and Adrian weren’t able to make love for the whole time he was there, but even though he was going stir crazy, seeing his parents and Jenny every day made it livable.

Jenny was walking down the halls of the hospital with a smile on her face, excited to see Adrian after another long day of school. As she turned the corner, she saw the Dean of Medicine stepping out of Adrian’s hospital room. Once he was gone, Jenny walked over and stepped into the room.

“Hello Jenny,” Adrian said with his usual casual smile.

“Hey,” she said sweetly as she walked over.

She kissed him on the lips and sat down in the chair next to the bed. “So what did the Dean want?”

“Oh, he comes every day to test my cognitive skills and reflexes. My method of healing isn’t quite standard protocol,” he shrugged, immediately catching Jenny’s attention.

“And what pray tell does that mean?”

“I guess the cat is out of the bag. The reason why I woke up so early and recovered so well isn’t just because of luck or my will to live; it’s actually due to a precaution I set up. Every hospital has a freezer where they keep donated blood for surgeries and transfusions, but that’s not all they keep, at least not this hospital in my case. I keep a large supply of cloned stem cells at this hospital. I’ve been doing it for quite a few years actually.”

“Stem cells? How did you get those?”

“Well contrary to popular belief, the human brain actually does replenish lost neurons through the production of stem cells. I’ve been harvesting those cells and keeping them preserved in this hospital. I’ve actually left very specific instructions that state if I suffer any kind of serious head trauma or brain injury, the stem cells are to be used to replace the lost tissue. During my surgery after I was shot, the Dean of Medicine gave the order and my stem cells were finally used. They were essentially poured straight into the bullet hole where they began mimicking the surrounding brain cells and replacing the lost tissue.

Of course this isn’t quite legal, as the only way I can preserve and access stem cells is if they’re my own. Then of course there is the cloning process, and that’s always a pain in the ass…”

“Wait, you clone them as well?”

“Sure. The human brain does produce stem cells, but it’s in a very small amount spread out across the entire brain. It’s not like you can just crack someone’s head open and suck the cells out like marrow from a bone. Besides if I take too much, then my brain won’t be able to recover from the usual cell death. I can only get a very small amount and then I have to clone the rest.”

“So did you have to bribe them to perform this kind of operation? And to store something like a private stash of stem cells with their blood transfusions?”

“Well let’s just say that my past donations to the hospital have made me a welcomed guest.

The Dean was also here with some good news. You remember that large machine that I had been working on? The one that I said was taking a long time to complete? Well I finished it last month and filed for the patent, as well as getting it approved by the Surgeon General. The paperwork has finally been processed and they are ready to be used on the general public in hospitals across the country. I donated the prototype to this hospital, and since they can legally use it now, it has been fully installed in the surgical ward.

Come on, I’ll show it to you.”

Adrian stepped out of the bed and put on his hospital robe, no longer bound by handcuffs. He had pulled some strings to get his case thrown out before it ever saw the inside of a courtroom. With his connections, the law couldn’t touch him.

“Uh…” Adrian heard Jenny mumble.

He turned around and saw her holding out her hand as if she had wanted to stop him. Adrian smiled and gave a small sigh. Jenny was always worried about him, and him walking around less than two weeks after his injury made her worry the most.

“Don’t worry, darling, I’m fully healed.”

Jenny gained a warm smile, and stood up and grasped his arm. They left the room and walked down the halls of the hospital with the woman he loved clinging to his arm. He brought Jenny to the new addition of the surgical wing (paid for by Adrian’s mentioned donations), with the two of them facing a door with an electronic lock.

“This machine was just installed today, so I’m one of the few people who knows the combination to this room. This room isn’t supposed to be used for a at least a few days, so we won’t be disturbed,” he said as he typed in the combination. The door was unlocked and they stepped into the dark surgical chamber with Adrian closing the door and the lights immediately activating.

Jenny was completely breathless. “Adrian… how… did you really…”

They were facing a large surgical robot. The five-armed spider-like machine stood over a table like a giant hand reaching up over the side and three bright lights shined directly above. Each arm had a tentacle-like reach and flexibility, but with a very nimble thickness, allowing for the limbs to work very close together without overcrowding. Each arm had a different tool, such as a scalpel, surgical scissors, forceps, a flexible scope for interior observation, and a pneumatic jet that would send a stream of air to help open up the body during surgery. The arms could make steady movements in millimeter increments, had an automatic defense mechanism that would keep the arms from reacting to the surgeon’s slight tremors, and could perform tasks as small and intricate as watch repair. The machine had been built with only custom-made pieces and the best materials.

Adrian looked around at the room they were in. The surgical chamber had dark tiles, stainless-steal walls, and was illuminated solely by the three lamps over the surgical robot. While the room was kept at a comfortable 70º degrees, the dim lighting gave the illusion that it was quite cool. The darkness and the temperature gave a very relaxing feeling. Ten feet from the gurney was a table with several computers and hand-controllers for the arms.

“I bet you figured that since I built it in my basement, at least the prototype would be made of a bunch of spare parts from a junkyard. Quite the contrary, this baby was built with top-of-the-line materials and components, but cost only a quarter-million dollars. I studied the designs of its predecessors and was able to build a more affective and inexpensive model. It took months to build, but that was only due to the designing process and actually figuring out how to build it, not to mention all the time lost while at school. Now I can build one of these on my own in just a week.

I even picked the name; it’s known as the Adroid.”

Jenny moved over to the table, gazing at the five master-crafted mechanical arms. It was beautiful, awe-inspiring, and yet undeniably terrifying in its appearance and capabilities. It looked like a giant robotic spider, ready to wrap its prey in a metallic web, and the number of the tools incorporated into each limb only increased the fear it invoked. Yet this feeling of terror exhilarated Jenny and augmented her feelings of amazement and adoration for the genius mind that created.

“It’s funny, but when I showed the blueprints to the engineering consultants working for the Surgeon General, they thought it was all a joke. They couldn’t understand how I had managed to put it all together, even as just a drawing on paper. They told me that to create a machine like this would mean working decades ahead of current technology. It was only thanks to the fact that I built the surgical lasers currently on the market that they actually believed the designs were possible. It wasn’t easy to convince them to go for it; they are still struggling to understand how in the world I even conceived the design. Copies of this are being built in factories across America, but due to the precision required, it will take months to accomplish, even with modern machining tools.”

“Adrian, I don’t even know what to say. This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Do you want to see what it can do?”

Jenny turned to him with an ecstatic smile on her face, as if she was a little girl with a pony at her birthday party.

“Lie down on the gurney,” Adrian said as he sat down behind the computers. Jenny’s smile shrank and he saw nervousness in her eyes. “Don’t worry, I promise I won’t hurt you. I am more skilled with this machine than anyone else on Earth.”

Jenny regained her smile and lied down on the gurney. Adrian turned on the surgical robot and the five arms released a veering sound. Jenny shivered as they slowly lowered towards her.

Adrian was controlling the joysticks with the precision of a watch-maker, ensuring that every movement was as steady as physically possible. Through the camera on every arm, he was getting a perfect close-up view. He moved the arm with the scalpel up to Jenny’s face. She held her breath as he ran the back of the blade slowly down her cheek, almost like a shaving razor, but without leaving the faintest of lines.

Jenny’s breathing was slow and shallow, her body was trembling, and he could see goosebumps on her skin as her body temperature lowered.

“Are you scared?” he asked with a small smile.

“No,” she whispered.

He smiled again and moved the arm with the pneumatic jet. He had it move across the other side of her face, releasing a steady stream of air that caused her to shiver and her long blonde hair to shift.

“Yes you are. There is no need to hide it, enjoy the feeling…” he said, taking control of the surgical scissors.

The arm slowly moved up, slicing off the buttons of her blouse. Her shirt opened up, revealing her round full breasts, just barely being held in by her bra. Her nipples were almost poking through the fabric from the shivers running through her. She continued to shiver as her body entered the fight-or-flight stage.

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” she gasped.

“Then don’t worry, you’re basically in the palm of my hand. You’re both frightened and aroused, enjoy the feeling,” he said as he used the scalpel to cut through the sleeves and free her arms. “Enjoy every shiver that runs through your body, every tremor of fear and bliss.” He used the pneumatic jet to send streams of air running along her arms and up her chest. She gave a soft gasp and gripped the sides of the gurney with erotic anticipation. “When you are scared, your senses are fully heightened. Use this your heightened senses to fully enjoy every ounce of pleasure you will experience.”

He used the forceps and scissors to cut away her jeans, leaving her only in her underwear. With only her bra and panties covering her, Jenny became fully aroused. It wasn’t just the physical sensations exciting her; it was Adrian’s new personality. Before being shot, he had been a robot struggling to imitate human behavior, but now he had become suave and masterful. He gazed at her with a smirk of confidence and satisfaction, the combination of his knowledge and emotions granting him the knowledge of how to make her melt. Being toyed with like this, the fingers of this machine stimulating her in ways she never thought possible, she really did feel like she was in the palm of his hand, and that sensation of danger and domination was driving her wild.

Adrian could see every muscle in her body stretching and contracting as they reacted to her feelings. She licked her lips and gripped the sides of the gurney, desperate for more.

“There you go. Open yourself up to me,” he said.

He then used the forceps and scissors to cut away her bra and panties. Her luscious breasts nearly burst out of the sheared lingerie, while she kept her thighs pressed together shyly.

“I can see every single part of you, Jenny, and my god, you are so lovely.”

Using the pneumatic jet, he sprayed her breasts with jets of cool air, almost tickling her. She began running her fingertips across her chest and slim belly, breathing heavily and relishing the teasing licks of the air against her pointing nipples. She then released a mix of a gasp and a yelp as Adrian dragged the forceps across her inner thighs, electrifying her sense of touch with the feeling of the cold metal.

“You’re going to enjoy this next part, Jenny, and I know I will,” Adrian said as he took control of the last arm of the surgical robot.

Stretching from the robotic arm was an exploratory camera, able to move like a serpent through the body with its long and flexible coil-like frame. This would be its first time being used. The long coil touched down on the middle of her chest, and as the arm moved down, the camera slithered across her body and moved between her legs. Jenny released a high-pitched moan as the camera entered her pussy, moving deeper and deeper with its cold outer-frame driving her wild.

Jenny held onto the gurney for dear life as the camera moved through her pussy, and an air stream from the pneumatic jet and the forceps were dragged across every inch of her soft skin. While the camera was quite thin, Adrian was able to use its flexibility to stimulate different areas of her pussy with surgical precision. As he had the camera move back and forth inside of her, Jenny began gyrating her hips, trying to get as much stimulation as she could. She was giving a continuous moan as he overwhelmed her sense of touch with the three arms of the surgical robot. He had one eye on Jenny and the other on the monitor that was linked to the camera.

“Aha, there it is.”

The camera was staring at a small bump, easily missed by men throughout the ages. It was the legendary G-spot. Adrian moved the camera forward, prodding the spot. Jenny arched her back and released a shrill whine. Normally the G-spot would of course be touched during sex, but never directly stimulated like this with pinpoint contact. Adrian continued teasing her, pressing the spot like a button and causing her to have orgasm after orgasm. She rolled onto her side, clinging to the gurney as she lost control of her body, succumbing to the endless wave of climaxes.

Finally, Adrian backed off, and the robotic arms folded back as the machine was shut down. He walked over to Jenny, who was desperately trying to catch her breath. She was blushing so much that her whole body was red, and the light from the lamps above her was being caught by a thin film of sweat.

“So how did you like that?” he asked with a smile.

“Let’s just say that you’ll have to get me a wheelchair, because I don’t think I can walk after that.”

“Are you ready?” Jenny asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Adrian hummed.

He was finally in good enough condition for the hospital to release him and was today was his first day back.

“I’m really scared that Logan and his friends will be here,” Jenny said nervously.

“Don’t worry, he and his buddies were denied bail.”

With Jenny holding his hand, they entered the school and looked around. Everyone was jittery with excitement for the approaching end of the year, already dressed in shorts and t-shirts. As the door closed behind them, everyone turned and began applauding. Who Adrian was didn’t matter, but the fact that he had managed to survive a gunshot to the head and defeated Logan practically made him a legend.

One of the students walked up to them. “No one can believe you survived getting shot in the head; how is it possible?”

“Coming back from the dead is easy, especially when you’ve done it once before,” Adrian mused as he and Jenny walked past him.

Every teacher gave Adrian a “welcome back” and every student begged him to describe what happened in the park. He kept his mouth shut and wore only his small but confident smile, which had replaced his constant melancholic scowl. People barely recognized him now; he had completely changed from a cold-hearted machine to a happy man in love, all in the course of one year and while still retaining the intellect that separated him from everyone else.

Once the last class ended, Adrian and Jenny headed back to his house, to enjoy some alone time. After they made love, Jenny, having gotten dressed, went into the bathroom to wipe the smeared lipstick off her face. Adrian was lying in the still warm bed, a content smile on his face, unaware of the ajar wall tile in the bathroom under the sink. His heartbeat didn’t speed up even twitch to the sound of Jenny dropping her lipstick. It would have been impossible for him to hear her silent curiosity, seeing the shadowed tile hanging out of place, but he did hear her remove it. He sat up, realizing what was about to happen, as Jenny reached into the hollow space behind the tile and pulled out a metal box.

“Jenny, wait!”

The box was opened, but there was no explosion, a scream, or any reaction that might otherwise suggest something dangerous or insidious within, at least at first glance. It was filled with diamonds, varying in size from a grain of rice to sugar cube. At first, Jenny’s reaction was a wide smile of amazement, having never seen so many diamonds at once that weren’t behind glass and labeled with price tags, but as Adrian feared, that smile faded almost immediately. While far from his level of intellect, Jenny was still a very bright young woman, and she turned to him with dread.

“Adrian, why do you have so many diamonds?”

“I like to keep some liquidity in the house for dire situations. I also have gold and cash locked away down here,” he said as innocently as possible.

“And where did they come from?”

“I bought them locally.”

“Then why is it that none of them look like they have been processed? They haven’t been grinded or polished at all. It looks like they were mined and immediately fell into your hands.” She picked up the box and approached him, Adrian having never seen a look of such seriousness on her face. “Adrian, where did these come from? Please tell me they aren’t blood diamonds, because the only people who keep stashes of diamonds like these sure as hell didn’t buy them locally. How did you get them?”

Adrian took a deep breath, mentally cursing. It seemed that fate wasn’t going to let him slowly ease Jenny into his plans as he had hoped. He was going to have to let her in on everything now.

“From arms dealing. I’ve sold hundreds of thousands of assault rifles in Africa and the Middle East.”

The box fell from Jenny’s hands and the diamonds scattered across the floor. “You can’t be serious!” she gasped.

“It’s not what you think. Not too long ago, the ATF started Project Gunrunner, which involved dealing weapons under the table that were tagged with GPS trackers, as a means of discovering illegal openings in the Mexico border and finding the trails that the cartels were using, as well as finding the high-level guys. It was a dismal failure, but I’m doing something similar. Every assault rifle I’ve sold has come with a stock stuffed with plastic explosives, that can either be set off remotely or will go off if the stock is opened.

When the time comes, I’ll be able to wipe out a vast percentage of the terrorist population and no one will ever know who did it or how it happened.”

“But what about all of the people you’ve killed to do it? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?! It’s insane!”

“Let’s talk about this somewhere else.”

On an empty road where no one would find them, Jenny and Adrian sat in his car, dead silent. It took time for Adrian to work up the courage to speak.

“Jenny, you must understand, I have a plan in the works and the things I do are so that I can bring about the greater good. Those words are meaningless, I know, spoken by dictators and monsters throughout history. Perhaps I am one of them, perhaps I am only in denial as to what my plan will cause once it is completed. All I know is that it is the only answer I can find to solve the problems of this world. This is something I must do. It’s not the reason why I was born, I’m not stupid, but it is the reason why I continue to live. This is the future that I must accomplish if my life and everything I’ve achieved are to have real meaning.

The arms dealing is merely a footnote, a precursor to what I have planned. When I’m done, the world will never be the same.”

“But what is your plan? What are you trying to achieve?”

Reaching into his pocket, Adrian drew his phone and began typing on it. “I will answer everything, but first you must promise me something. What I am about to tell you, and everything you have learned so far, you must never tell anyone else. This is my greatest secret, and I can only continue if I can trust you with it. Please, I know I have no right to say such a thing, but if you love me, you will take this secret to your grave. No matter how terrible, no matter how frightening, no matter how mind-shattering it will be, you must never tell another soul of this conversation or anything you have learned. Jenny, will you do this?”

Jenny bit her lip, trembling with uncertainty. This was something completely new, the likes of which she had never even dreamed of encountering in her life. Now, here she was, the most mysterious man in the world asking her to make a verbal contract and keep secret something so terrifying that it would change her reality forever. She was literally signing the most important document of her life without being able to read it first. But regardless of her fear, she knew that she would never be happy unless she found out exactly who Adrian was and what he was planning.

“I promise,” she said, so softly that it was barely audible.

Adrian took a deep breath. “I guess I should start from the beginning. I’m looking for a piece of information, probably the deadliest information in the world if used incorrectly. I have spent years searching for it only to come up empty-handed. There is only one final option for me, and that is the possibility that this information is in the possession of a specific organization, one that I will not name. I believe that they have this information because they are the only option still remaining. I seek to use this information and start a new world order, one in which war will become obsolete.

What I am looking for is in essence the key to either mankind’s salvation or destruction, and I plan on sharing that key with the entire world. I simply want to let the people of the world create their own future while I work from the shadows to give them the resources and opportunities they will need.” He stopped typing on his phone and finally turned to Jenny, handing it to her. “In order to get this information, and in order to use it to implement my new world order, I need power and influence, and the easiest way to do that is through wealth. These are bank accounts, all of them mine that I have filled with the funds of all the corporations I have started and control.”

Jenny took the phone with trembling hands, and the second she looked at the screen, her lungs shut down. As she scrolled through the list of accounts and saw their balances, not a single breath was taken or released. Her hands soon dropped, her mind unable to continue moving through the list.

“Adrian, how much money do you have?”

“I won’t give an exact number, but I will tell you that I am the richest man on Earth… by a pretty huge margin.”

Jenny turned to him, her face pale white and her eyes wide. “Adrian, what is the information you are trying to find? What exactly is your plan?” she asked, nearly on the verge of fainting.
“What I am looking for is…”

Heavy with moisture from the changing seasons, dark storm clouds slowly rolled across the sky like thick lava. Below them, the air temperature lowered, the humidity rose, and finally, drops of water began to plummet from the gray folds. At first it was only a light sprinkle, but charged with the energy and temperament of spring, it quickly grew into a roaring deluge, pummeling everything below it and soaking the countryside.

Jenny gripped the handle of the door so tightly that her knuckles were white and she was panting raggedly, as if she had just gone running after escaping from a burning building. “How? How could that possibly end the problems of the world? How could that possibly bring peace?”

“I’ve already told you, I made it as clear as I could. There is nothing more I can say that will influence you or change your mind. I know this is a lot to swallow, but please, try to stay calm.”

“Adrian… I… I can’t…” she panted beginning to hyperventilate.

He reached out and placed his hands on her cheeks, staring deep into her eyes. “Jenny, look at me and breathe deeply, just take deep slow breaths. Stay calm, and take deep, slow breaths,” he said as Jenny’s whole body began to shake with terrifying strength.

“Adrian… I can’t… I can’t do this. I…” she said, burying her face in his chest as she fainted.

Jenny’s eyes bolted open and she sat up, gasping for air and realizing that she was soaking wet. She looked around, finding Adrian beside her and realizing that the two of them were lying on the hood of her car, which was situated at the entrance to the park. With how wet she was, it was obvious that they had been lying out in the rain. However, Jenny was fairly warm, having been covered with Adrian’s coat.

“This is where it happened,” he hummed, looking up at the cloudy sky. “This is where I realized that I love you and I realized that I could not live without you. Jenny, I truly love you with all of my heart. You have turned me into a completely different person and you’ve made me better in almost every way. But I can’t turn my back on my plans; this is something that I must do. This decision and this plan did not come easily; it took months of consideration, weighing the risks and benefits. It is the only solution I can find to end the problems in this world.”

Jenny lied back down beside him. “You know how much damage you’ll cause, right?”

Adrian slowly sat up. “I know that there will be lots damage happening almost all at once, but it will be no worse than the damage that will continue on for the years and decades ahead. You can inspire others and become an idol through peaceful practices and charisma, but you cannot truly reshape the world without getting your hands dirty. If you want something, you must reach out and take it and be prepared to suffer the consequences. I’ve come to terms with the acts I must commit in order to achieve this goal, I have acknowledged the lives I have taken to come this far, and I am ready to do what must be done to save this world.”

“I don’t know if I can go along with this. I don’t know if I can take part in your plan while knowing what will happen,” Jenny said, sitting up and placing her hand on his.

“The night we first made love, you said it was people like me who have the power to change the world. Well that’s what I’m trying to do, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you after I do it. I love you, Jenny, I truly love you, but I can’t abandon you or the world and ever be happy.”

“Still, this is like nothing else we’ve faced, this is like nothing else anyone has faced. Look at it from my view: few women in history have ever had to endure this kind of thing, have ever had to face a man like you. Do you know how much damage you’ve caused? The panic you’ve put this country in? All the lives you have changed as well as ended? Adrian, I love you as well, you are my world, but I can no more understand and agree with your plan than you can understand why I disagree with it. Maybe I’m just missing something, something I can only see and truly comprehend if I have a mind like yours. Regardless of whether or not only people like you can truly appreciate this idea, you’re trying to get me to see from a perspective that I don’t have. For all I know, you could be completely right and this could solve everything, but I just can’t see how it would work and I can’t imagine anyone else agreeing with you.”

“Then does that mean you’re leaving me?”

“I don’t know what it means. I don’t know if I have a place in this future of yours. I know that you truly see this plan as your destiny, and I can’t ask you to choose between your destiny and me, but neither can you ask me to ignore every instinct and thought and just condone or help with what you are going to do. I promised you I would keep your secret, and I certainly love you enough to do that, but I don’t know if there is anything more I can do. I don’t know if I can become your accomplice and take part in ending so many lives and causing so much upheaval.”

A span of silence passed between them, in which a desperate idea entered Adrian’s mind. “Then how about a deal?”

“What kind of deal?”

“I was planning on finishing high school for my parent’s sake before moving forward with my plan, but how about we add some real meaning to it? I propose that we stay together until we graduate, and if I can’t convince you and you can’t agree with this plan, then we’ll go our separate ways after that. Please, just a couple months, just give me a couple months to show you that my plan can fix this world. You don’t have to help with anything unless you agree that the plan could work. You’ll be completely neutral.

Whether you leave or stay, I will continue with my efforts to complete my plan, and even if you leave, the consequences of my actions will continue to take place. My plan will not stop whether we stay together or break up, you will always know of what I have done, what I am doing, and what I will do, so we might as well stay together. If I’m going to go through with my plan, then don’t you at least want a little more time to spend with me? If we really are going to be forced to break up, then shouldn’t we do everything to extend and enjoy the time we have?”

Jenny gained a small smile. “Alright, I accept your deal. We’ll have a couple more months, and if I can’t change my mind until then, then we go our separate ways. But until then, neither of us will stop loving the other,” she said sweetly before leaning forward and kissing him.

An abandoned warehouse sat on a pier at the edge of the city, with the choppy waves crashing against its concrete foundations. For years, the building had served as a hangout for high school dropouts and street gang members. They had only a few firearms, but their meth labs were top-notch. Everyone knew that this building was a gang hangout and no one dared enter the area. Inside, twenty of the city’s bottom-feeders were buying and trading different drugs from each other, playing cards, and discussing street politics. They were all sitting on worn-out and makeshift furniture. Every one of them had left school and was little more than a burden to society. All of the gang members turned their attention to the warehouse entrance as the doors opened.

They jumped to their feet when they realized it was Logan. They heard he had been denied bail and was still in the hospital from his fight with Adrian.

“How the hell did you get out?”

“My lawyer convinced a different judge to give me the chance to pay bail. If there is one thing kikes can do right, it’s pull some crafty legal shit,” he said with a sadistic smile. He walked over and sat down on a ratty sofa. “Ah, it’s good to be back and in charge.”

All of the gang members were stone silent, desperately trying to think up something to say.

“You all don’t look very happy. You all thought that if I were locked up for good, control would fall out of my hands. I got news for you retards; I’m the boss, no matter what. But it doesn’t matter now, I’m free as a bird and I got revenge in mind. I’m going to make that bastard suffer.”

Logan’s words were as true as they were chilling. While only nineteen years old, he had won the respect (but mostly fear) of the local bottom-feeders. He was known to torture those who disrespected him and had more murders under his belt than any of them dared imagination. Even the most hardened criminal would shudder in terror when exposed to the evil Logan seemed to radiate. He was a psychopath the likes of which the world rarely saw.

“What the hell can you do to that guy?” one guy laughed. “You couldn’t beat him in a three-on-one fight and you couldn’t even kill him with a headshot. When it comes to going up against that guy, you’re doomed to suck.”

Without hesitation, Logan pulled out a gun and shot him in the temple, splattering blood and brains across the gang members around him. For someone to openly mock him showed that he had to re-instill fear in his subordinates.

“I may not have killed him, but that doesn’t mean I can’t kill. That bastard busted my shoulders and nearly killed me. I’m going to put him down if it’s the last thing I do.”

“What are you going to do, wait in his car than shoot him again when he climbs in?” one guy asked with a chuckle. He had one hand in his coat and he was ready to draw his own pistol if Logan made a move for his. Logan would bury a knife in his skull later.

“No, I’m going to make him come to me. Everyone says that bastard can’t feel emotions, so I’m going to test that rumor. Let’s see if we can draw blood from stone. Tonight I will make them all suffer,” he said with a sadistic smile.

“Hey Jenny,” Adrian answered, instantly knowing whom it was as he picked up his ringing phone. Several miles away, Jenny smiled when she heard his voice. She was gripping the steering wheel tightly, trying to navigate the dark forest road.

“Hey, I’ll be there in a few minutes. I hope your mom is making something good.”

“Spaghetti with meat sauce, the best in the world. Where are you?”

“I’m just about to get onto the bridge. Hold on, some jackass is tailgating me. I’ll see you soon, darling, I— What the hell is he…”

Adrian heard the revving of an engine and his heart rate jumped. “Jenny, what’s going on?”

“He’s pulling up beside me, I don’t know what he—”

She was cut off by the sound of metal against metal and Adrian heard a loud crash.

“Jenny? Jenny!” he yelled as he heard her scream.

The line then fell dead.

Adrian sprinted out of his room as fast as he could. “Mom, Dad, something happened to Jenny!” he yelled before running out the front door.

Adrian dialed 911 on his phone as he climbed in his car and sped down the driveway so fast that smoke was billowing from his tires.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“My girlfriend has driven off the Pine Bridge. I think someone might have tried to kill her.”

“We’re on our way.”

Adrian drove down the winding roads as fast as possible with cars blaring their horns as he sped past them. He reached the bridge in three minutes and saw Jenny’s car in the river. She was near the bank, where the water was just barely at neck level, but it was slowly sinking below the surface. Adrian parked his car on the bridge and jumped off and into the center of the river, where the water was deeper. The chilly water shocked his body and instantly began to sap his strength, but he swam over to the sinking car and moved over to the driver’s side. Jenny was unconscious in the driver’s seat, with her face half-submerged in bloody water and a large gash on the side of her head.

Adrian broke through the window with his elbow, unlocked the door, released Jenny’s seatbelt, and pulled her out. He carried her out of the water and laid her down on the riverbank. Up on the bridge, two ambulances and several cop cars had shown up.

“Down here!” he hollered.

Adrian then turned to Jenny and checked her injuries. She had a weak pulse and she wasn’t breathing. As the medics tried to navigate down to the riverbank, he gave Jenny CPR, praying to any deity that he could think of that she would wake up.

“How long has it been since the crash?” one of the medics asked.

“Just over two minutes. Her heart is beating but she won’t breathe and won’t wake up.”

The EMTs lifted her onto a stretcher, and with a hand-pump hooked up to her mouth to force air in and out of her lungs, she was carried back up onto the bridge. She was lifted into one of the ambulances, and just as Adrian was about to get into his car to follow, two fire trucks sped past them. He looked towards the forest where the fire trucks were headed. The night sky was turning orange and a pillar of smoke was rising from the light.

“Mom… Dad…” Adrian muttered, instantly knowing that the smoke was coming from his house.

Adrian followed the ambulance back to the hospital, and during the whole drive, his mind was racing. Somebody definitely forced Jenny off of the bridge, and his house going up in flames was no coincidence. Somebody was doing this; somebody was targeting him, and he had a LONG list of enemies. He turned on the radio and flipped through the channels, finally stopping when he heard a clear dull voice of the local news.

“In what is considered one of the most controversial trials in Maine history, the suspect Logan Reed has been allowed on bail, drawing outcries from the public and—”

Adrian turned off the radio and cursed. Logan had gotten out and he was seeking revenge.

Adrian sat in the waiting room of the hospital while Jenny was being examined and taken care of. He was desperately waiting for word of her or his parents. He had tried calling their cell phones, but they wouldn’t even ring.

“Adrian Alexander?”

He looked up and was face to face to a police officer. “Yes, I’m Adrian Alexander,” he said, trying to keep his mind calm.

“I’m Officer Mathews, and I’m afraid that I have bad news. Now this won’t be easy to say, so I’ll just come out and say it. Your parents are dead, son. They died in a fire that destroyed your house.”

Adrian balled his hands into fists with his fingernails digging into his palms so tightly that blood was dripping onto the floor. “My parents are dead?” he asked with his voice shaking.

“I’m afraid so. Now, because of the intensity and the rapid growth of the fire, we think it might have been deliberate. We are currently investigating the possible causes. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” Adrian whispered as he bowed his head, telling the officer that he wanted to be alone.

“By the way, I was told you came here with a girl? Jenny Sinclair?”

“Yeah, she’s my girlfriend.”

“If that’s true, then I think you should be the one to tell her this; there was another fire. Like you, her house burned down and her parents were killed in the flames.”

Adrian took a deep shaky breath. “Ok, I’ll tell her.”

As the cop walked away, the Dean of Medicine approached.

“How is she?” Adrian asked.

“She is stable, but it’s complicated. Falling off of the bridge didn’t just give her a concussion, it caused near-fatal trauma to her brain. She’s fallen into a coma, and she’ll either pass away some time tonight or she’ll most likely never wake up. I’ve seen this kind of coma several times before, and it often ends in death. I doubt even you would be able to survive it.”

The words struck him like an icy knife through the center of his chest and his whole body became cold, with every cell feeling like it weighed a hundred pounds. Adrian couldn’t move or breath and his throat was as dry as sand. His parents were dead, his girlfriend soon to follow. His only connections to humanity, the people he loved, had been taken from him.

“C-can I see her?”

“Of course.”

Adrian was brought to Jenny’s room and left alone with her. She was lying in a hospital bed with bandages wrapped around her head and a white gown on in place of her clothes. She was hooked up to a respirator and a heart monitor, which was giving a soft rhythm of beeps. With his whole body shaking, he walked over and crouched down, wrapping his hands around hers.

“Jenny, I don’t know if you can hear me, I don’t even know if you’re still alive in there, but there are two things I do know: I love you and this is the last time I will ever see you. I’m going to get revenge, I’m going to avenge the deaths of my parents, the deaths of your parents, and most importantly, I’m going to avenge you. I’m going to kill Logan, I’m going to kill all of his friends, and once I get my revenge, the police will never stop hunting me.

You told me once that it was people like me who had the power to change the world, so that’s what I’m going to do. I know you didn’t agree with my plan, but I’m going to accomplish it and put and end to the endless fighting in this world. After tonight, I will set out to change the world, no matter what happens. I don’t believe in the afterlife, but if there is one and you pass away tonight, please wait for me. There is a change you and I will be reunited before sunrise.” Then for the first time in years, tears began to fall from his eyes, slowly dripping onto Jenny’s hands. Adrian stood up and kissed her on the forehead. “You were the one thing that made me human and I will always love you.”
Adrian stepped out into the hall and closed his eyes. His tears stopped and his clenched jaw became calm. He opened his eyes, which had gained an icy hue.

Adrian drove up the driveway of his destroyed house and stared at the great black scar on the earth. A strip of police tape surrounded the area, but there was no one around. He stepped out of his car and walked out into the wet ashes. He made his way through the twisted metal and burned wood and climbed down into the former basement. His laptop was on his desk, covered in ash but in one piece, having been built sturdily enough by him personally to survive these kinds of catastrophes.

Moving aside the charred bed, he revealed a floor safe and opened it. Inside, along with his lance, was a set of bulletproof clothes, including an overcoat. Every garment was made of Kevlar with armor plating underneath. There had been a number of times when Adrian had been forced to step out from behind his computer and act in the real world, times when he had to crush his enemies with his own two hands instead of relying on hired guns. These clothes had kept him alive during those times.

Adrian picked up the lance and gazed at the moonlight shining off it. The metal would soon be coated in a layer of blood. Before leaving, he scavenged for anything of use, including Demium, weapons, tools, paperwork, and several floor safes’ worth of cash, gold, and diamonds.

The room was large and dark, with colored lights shining on streamers and balloons. There were several tables, all with white table cloths and decorated centerpieces. In the corner was an unattended DJ station and no music playing. The room was empty, except for one person. Jenny was sitting at one of the tables, wearing a red sequin dress, with a slit on each side that ran halfway up her smooth thighs and a single strap that went across her shoulder, with folded lace that made it look like it was covered in roses. There were diamond clips in her hair and a light shading of makeup on her face. She looked absolutely beautiful.

Jenny gasped as her mind suddenly switched on, as if she were about to fall asleep and someone clapped their hands next to her ears.

“Where… where am I?” she asked softly, looking around the room and at her outfit.

“Hello Jenny,” she heard a relaxed voice say.

She turned around and gasped. “Adrian?” she whispered in disbelief as she stared at the man she loved.

“No, I am merely your subconscious,” the apparition said, leaning back in his chair and straightening his tuxedo.

Confusion flashed across Jenny’s face. “What the hell is going on? Where am I?”

“Why, you’re at the prom of course!”

Jenny looked around, realizing that it was the school gymnasium.

Her subconscious lost his smile. “But that’s not the answer you’re looking for, is it? In truth, you are in a dream.”

Jenny ignored him and held her head in her hands. “What the hell happened?”

“You fell, remember? That guy tailgating you pushed you off the bridge with his car?” Jenny’s eyes widened as all of the memories flashed back. “It seems you’re ready to talk.”

“Why am I here?”

“You are in this dream because something has happened to your real body and you need to make a choice in order to wake up.”
“Wait… this is…”

“This is the same kind of dream Adrian had, exactly. After he woke up, he described to you in vivid detail what happened in his dream, and now your mind is copying it and fusing it with your own thoughts and personality.”

“This decision, it’s whether to stay with Adrian or leave him, isn’t it? But I don’t understand, why do I have to make this decision now?”

“Because you finally have the ability to make the decision and the decision must now be made. All this time, you’ve been subconsciously studying Adrian, and even though you haven’t gone through the same enlightening experience as he did, you are now more aware of your potential and are beginning to reach out to it. You could say that this dream is the result of your mind ever so slowly expanding while you watch Adrian and study him. The subconscious absorbs far more information than the rest of the brain can even comprehend. By being with Adrian, you’re learning to use mind over matter.”

“All right, I understand why I’m having this dream, but why do I need to make this decision now? We were supposed to wait until graduation before I chose.”

Her subconscious sighed. “Well I can only tell you what you have already heard in your unconscious state, and the only real information I’ve gotten was from Adrian. Jenny, your parents are dead.”

“What?”

“I don’t know how it happened, but Adrian said that his parents and your parents were dead.”

“No, no that can’t be true. This is just a dream; it can’t be true! I want you to tell me the truth! Are my parents dead?”

“This is what Adrian said, word for word: ‘I’m going to get revenge, I’m going to avenge the deaths of his parents, the deaths of your parents, and most importantly; I’m going to avenge you.’ That is exactly what he said. Other than that, I have no more information than you do.”

Jenny wanted to continue demanding the truth and denying the words of her subconscious, but every time she tried to speak the words, she felt like her throat was closing up. Her subconscious wouldn’t allow her to reject the truth. If those really were the words she had heard Adrian say, then her parents really were dead.

Jenny burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably. For over ten minutes, she was inconsolable, her face buried in her hands with tears dripping from between her fingers and staining her red dress. Her subconscious was silent while she cried, not making any movements.

Finally, Jenny took a deep breath. “You still haven’t told me why I have to choose between being with him and leaving him.”

“Well, like I said, I can only tell you what you have personally already heard, whether awake or asleep. I said that he is going to avenge his parents, your parents, and you. I’m guessing he thinks you’ll die very soon and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. With his parents already gone and you supposedly not long for this world, Adrian said he will seek vengeance. He said that he’ll kill Logan and all of his friends, who I’m guessing killed your parents, and after seeing the rampage he went on the last time he faced Logan, the chaos left behind him will be unimaginable.

Now, like in Adrian’s dream, I am going to show you the results of your decisions. I told you already that this is the prom. What I meant was that this is your future if you leave. You can still have an ordinary life: finish high school, go to senior prom, attend college, get married, have a few kids, and so on. All you need to do is let Adrian think you are dead and rebuild your life while he goes on with his plan.”

“So I can let Adrian seek his revenge, and once he is out of my life, I can try and rebuild without him?” Jenny asked bitterly.

“Yes, or you can be with him. But I can’t show you the repercussions of that choice.”

“Wait, why not?”

“Because you can’t predict where that path will take you, you’re not as good at this as he is. Basically, you can go find Adrian, abandon what’s left of your life to be with him, and flee from the authorities that will surely be after him. Basically, your future will be up for grabs. You will never have an ordinary life. Knowing this, what will you do? This question originally started because you weren’t sure if you could stay with a killer. You didn’t think your love was strong enough to follow him after finding out what he planned to do. You thought you had time to make this choice, but the current predicament has made that impossible. You must now choose: will you hide yourself from the man you love and try to rebuild, or will you swallow your morals and guilt and help him possibly destroy the world?”

Several moments passed by before Jenny gave a small smile. “When we agreed to wait until graduation before my decision was made, I think I knew in my heart what my decision would be. I was scared of what he had done, and I used that time as a way to distance myself from the knowledge of his crimes and keep Adrian. But in my heart, I knew I couldn’t do that. In order to love Adrian, I must accept him, including his crimes and his plans. You said I could abandon what’s left of my life to be with him, but you of all people should know that he is his life.

My mind still tells me that his plan will not work, but considering how smart he is, I think his mind is more reliable. I don’t know if the day will ever come when I will truly accept his plan, but Adrian believes in it and I believe in him, so I will do whatever I can to make sure he achieves it, no matter how much my heart screams at me not to. He is willing to kill and die for me; it would be selfish if I weren’t willing to do the same. I will not leave him. I will follow him, no matter where it will take us. After all, he’s all I have left in this world, and I love him.”

Jenny opened her eyes and took a deep breath. She could feel the bandages wrapped around her head, the warm sheets of the hospital bed, and the respirator in her throat. She looked around at the hospital room, gazing at the machines monitoring her vitals and saw her clothes and purse in a plastic bag next to the bed. She took a deep breath and sat up, wincing as a bolt of pain shot through her skull. She slowly stepped out of the bed and stood up. Jenny took off the hospital gown and changed back into her damp clothes. Retrieving her purse, she stepped out of the room and started walking down the halls towards the exit. As she got closer and closer, people began to call out to her, but she just ignored them.

Once outside, she climbed into the backseat of a taxicab. “Take me to the pier.”

He looked at her with disbelief, knowing that it was the location of the city’s gang hideout. “Ma’am, are you sure?”

“Drive,” she ordered.

Adrian sat parked in an alley near the warehouse, trying to keep his heartbeat steady. On his way here, he had stopped off at numerous banks and emptied all of his accounts, the American ones at least. Better he get as much cash now than let the authorities freeze his assets when he was done. He could see lights in the windows, confirming that Logan and his cronies were there. He grabbed his sheathed lance and stepped out of the car, hooking up the sheath to the back of his belt and putting on his coat. He walked up to the entrance of the warehouse and kicked open the doors. In the center of the warehouse were all twenty of Logan’s cronies, lounging on ratty furniture with makeshift tables between them. They jumped to their feet, all but Logan. He was sitting in a chair with his back to him.

“Logan!” Adrian roared as he walked into the warehouse.

As the cab drove parallel to the ocean, Jenny was deep in thought, trying to prepare herself for what she would find. She wasn’t sure what to expect; she would either find Adrian dead, the scene of a massacre, or both. Her head was still aching, but she ignored the pain and tried to come up with a plan for what she would do regarding what she saw. If Adrian survived, she would run away with him as he fled the police and help him achieve his plan. But if Adrian were dead, then she would take her own life.

“Stop here,” she said to the cab driver once she spotted his car.

The taxi came to a halt and she paid the cost with a handful of damp cash. She stepped out of the car, took a deep breath, and made her way to the entrance of the warehouse. She gasped when she saw him but hid just outside of the doorway, knowing she would get in the way. With his senses focused on Logan and the other gang members, Adrian did not notice her.

“I knew you would show up,” Logan laughed as he stood up and faced him.

“You and your subordinates killed my parents and the woman I love. Before this night is over, you will all be dead and your blood will be splattered across the walls,” Adrian said coldly as he took a step forward.

“So the machine has emotions after all. It’s funny how you think you’ll leave here alive,” Logan laughed.

“Enough talk! For as long as I’ve known you, you have tormented innocent people, relishing in the pain you inflicted. You are worse than a misbehaving dog; you are an abomination that must be crushed! I should have killed you when I had the chance, but now I will correct the mistake I made and end your life once and for all!”

“Like I said, it’s funny how you think that you’re going to walk out of here alive.”

Logan snapped his fingers and all of his cronies reached into their jackets and pulled out handguns. Adrian quickly crouched down and shielded his head with his forearms as the criminals opened fire. Jenny stifled a cry of worry as she saw the bullets pelt his body. Countless rounds struck the ground around him, but many made direct hits. His clothing was made of the strongest bulletproof material money could buy and reinforced with armor plating hidden within, so small caliber rounds had no chance of even leaving a scratch on him, but without Adrian’s ability to block pain, the joined impacts of so many bullets would have been overpowering.

With many of the bullets striking the ground around him, the air was quickly filling with dust from crushed concrete, hiding him in a gray cloud. All of the gang members fired until they ran out of ammo, standing in a pool of over a hundred bullet casings, and once he heard the chorus of empty clicks, Adrian stood up. The dust cleared and everyone had a look of disbelief on their faces. Logan’s eye was twitching as he realized that aside from some bruises, Adrian was completely unharmed.

“That’s impossible,” Logan cursed. “A lot of them missed but he had to have been hit with over a hundred bullets…”

“I am going to kill every last one of you,” Adrian growled as he drew his lance from its sheath and slashed the floor, carving a large crack in the solid concrete.

“Johnny, go bash his head in!” Logan ordered.

One of the gang members was shaken from his stupor and grabbed a baseball bat, brimming with jagged nails. He charged towards Adrian with the bat above his head, trying to fight his fear. Adrian took a deep breath and used the moment to fully awaken his mind’s control over his muscles, harnessing their full strength. With only a few feet between them, the gang member brought down the bat towards Adrian’s head. Wielding nearly inhuman power, Adrian swung the lance and used it to block the bat. With his strength, the jagged bludgeon shattered into splinters. Before the gang member could overcome his shock, Adrian stabbed him through the gut, striking his left side with the spike bursting out of his right. With only a fraction of the strength in his right arm, he tore the spike out and ripped open the young man’s torso. Jenny gave a gasp of astonishment at how easily he killed him.

As his first victim died before hitting the ground, all of the gang members charged towards him, armed with chains, crowbars, baseball bats, lead pipes, and even a few cheap Wal-Mart machetes. Only Logan stayed behind, staring at him in disbelief.

“I will slaughter all of you!” Adrian roared with his voice filled with bloodlust. Jenny shuddered, realizing that his voice was completely different.

The first gang member attacked, swinging at him from the side with a crowbar. He caught the hook with his left hand as if it were little more than piece of falling silverware, then stabbed his foe through the heart with his lance. Adrian knocked body aside and pulled out his darts, throwing them at seven of the oncoming gang members with deadly aim. Three were stabbed in the eye, another three were stabbed in the throat, and the last had it imbedded in the center of his chest, decompressing his chest cavity and collapsing his lungs.

A gang member with a baseball bat charged towards him, swinging it wildly. Adrian easily dodged his attacks and swung his lance, slamming it against the back of the man’s head with enough force to shatter his skull. He turned around as an attacker raised a cheap Wal-Mart machete, and as quick as a flash, Adrian stabbed upwards, sending the spike driving through his opponent’s lower jaw and bursting out of his skull. He pulled it free as he heard the ringing of chains, followed by the tugging feeling of the metal coil wrapping around his lance with a scrawny gang member holding the other end. Thinking he had accomplished the ultimate movie fight move, his opponent tried to rip the weapon out of Adrian’s hand. With his strength, Adrian was able to keep from moving an inch, and instead grabbed the chain and pulled the gang member over to him. Before his victim could let go, Adrian stabbed him through the right side of the chest.

Five gang members grouped together, all attacking from a different angle. Not even out of breath or breaking a sweat, Adrian crouched down to dodge their weapons and swung the spike, slashing them with the needle-sharp tip. While the weapon had no edge, he was able to completely rip them open and essentially disembowel them. He looked over to Logan and saw him putting his cell phone away. Who was he calling?

Adrian ran through the crowd of gang members, moving in quick rotations and attacking as fast as a striking snake. No matter what his prey did, they could not block, dodge, evade, or survive the tornado of attacks, and Adrian was moving too quickly for them to counterattack. Bodies were knocked off of their feet from the bone-crunching strength of his bludgeon-strikes and blood filled the air from every slash and stab. Gang member after gang member came at him, either working alone or joining with others to attack, but no matter what they did, he was able to evade their weapons and kill with ease, ending their lives with a stab, a slash, or with a bone-crushing impact. After only a few minutes, every gang member was dead, with a growing pool of blood covering the floor

Hearing the sound of a revolver cylinder loaded, he turned around to Logan, his final victim. As the mortal enemies locked eyes, Logan pulled back the hammer of his gun.

‘Calculate the angle! Compensate and deflect!’

Adrian imagined a beam of red light shining out of the barrel of the gun, telling him where the bullet was going to land. In milliseconds, he calculated the angle, adjusted for recoil and distance, and swung his lance just as Logan pulled the trigger. With an instantaneous flash of ignited powder, the projectile was launched with speed greater than even Adrian’s eyes could perceive, but with his calculated prediction, he managed to deflect the bullet with his lance. For a fraction of a second, Logan was shocked beyond words, unable to believe what he had just seen, but that narrow moment was all the time Adrian needed to get his lance back into position and deflect the second round.

After successfully blocking the second bullet, Logan moved his gun to aim for a different spot, but Adrian was already in position. Two more rounds were fired, one for the corner of his gut, the other for his shoulder, but both were blocked with little effort. Finally, Logan raised his gun and fired straight for the center of Adrian’s forehead, but in the moment in which the trigger was pulled and the hammer struck the back of the round, Adrian moved his head out of the way and completely dodged the shot.

“You… you really are a machine…” Logan gasped.

As fast as his body would move, Adrian bolted over to Logan and stabbed him just above the collarbone with his hand, tearing his windpipe and almost every vein. He pulled his hand free and blood sprayed from the lethal injury like a showerhead. “And don’t forget it,” he said as the corpse fell to the ground with all of the others. Adrian swung his lance, spraying off the thick layers of blood, and removed his gore-soaked glove.

“Adrian?” he heard the soft voice say as he put the lance back in its sheath.

He turned around and his whole body froze. Jenny was standing just ten feet from him with a small smile on her face.

“Jenny,” he gasped, unable to believe it.

He had to be hallucinating, that was the only explanation. Jenny rushed over and wrapped her arms around him, holding him tightly. With her warm body pressed against his, Adrian knew that she was real.

“Jenny, I thought that I was never going to see you again, I thought you were dead,” he said as he held her, savoring the feeling of her against him, the smell of her hair, and the sound of her breathing. “How is it possible? Your wounds…”

“Don’t worry darling, I’m fully healed,” she said with a slight amount of humor.

Adrian smiled at the joke; they were the same words he had said to her before showing her the Adroid. While they both knew her injuries were far from healed, she was going to be fine. Jenny pressed her lips against his and they kissed for several seconds, trying to communicate how happy they were and how much they loved each other. They parted as the sound of sirens reached them.

“Damn it, Logan called the cops. He wanted to drag me down any way he could and he definitely told them I was the one who did this. Jenny, I have to get out of here, run before the cops see you.”

“Adrian, I’m coming with you.”

“What?”

“I had a dream, just like yours, and I had to decide between leaving you and being with you and helping you with your plan. I love you, Adrian, and I am going to be with you. I will follow you forever, no matter what happens. I don’t care where this path takes us, but there is nothing for me here. You are my life, and I just want to be with you. In my heart, I’m not sure if I will ever truly believe in your plan, but you believe it and that is more than enough for me to give my life to see it happen.”

Adrian looked down, savoring the moment. “I love you Jenny,” he said with the same soft tone before kissing her.

Adrian collected his darts they escaped the warehouse before the cops burst in. Reaching his car, they sped off, trying to get as far away as possible, as fast as possible.

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