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Subject 0025 Chapter 16: The Ground
((It's My Life by Bon Jovi)) ***About three weeks ago*** The Ground was probably one of the most interesting and also the most dangerous neighborhoods in CNA. Its existence had been a focus in political debates as almost every president boasted to end the poverty in this continental country but apparently, no one had not accomplished that. Jack –short, stout, and bald– who was the owner of a pizza stall or more accurately a pizza-hovercar, was making small talk with his customers. “You’re right, Jack,” one customer agreed about something with him. “Happy birthday,” the owner said to another customer, handing him a pizza box. “Thanks. You remembered,” the second customer smiled in surprise before leaving. He continued his discussion with the first customer. For Jack, it was typical. He was well known to remember details about every regular customer of his. In front of his opened-roofed colorless hovercar, half a dozen people were waiting in line. Here, walkers–people who travel
Subject 0025 Chapter 17: Haleigh DaSilva
((Black Summer by Red Hot Chili Peppers)) “What do you mean by that?” Jack hesitated. “I asked, what do you mean by that?!” she asked louder this time. “Did you just call me crazy?!” The woman appeared old, weak, and exhausted but her voice was shockingly loud and high-pitched. Jack who was twice the size of her flinched at her shout. “Maybe,” he mumbled with a sneaky glance. “Only ghosts live in that place.” His voice got even quieter. “O father in heaven! Did you hear what he just said? I can’t believe this! He thinks I am crazy! He thinks I am making it all up!” Forcefully, Haleigh pulled her hair with both hands. “He thinks they did not kill my baby! How dares he?! How could he assu…” Jack jumped up and tried to remove her wrinkled hands from her scalp. A few strands were already falling out. “Motherf--” he cursed as her head hit his jaw because she was shaking her head wildly. “It hurt!” he whined. “I did not say you were making it up. I just thought you needed to… St
Subject 0025 Chapter 18: My Apple
((Handshake With Hell by Arch Enemy)) However, there were no pay-computers where Haleigh could make a call in this complex of ground streets. Normally, there would be dark-green booths moving up and down between the sky to the earth, sliding along tall thin poles. Compared to a millennium ago when she was younger, there had been fewer and fewer computer booths. Even so, every city had a few of them for public use. It was apparent to everyone that The Ground was not any city. This was a community made of leftover bits and pieces of the old times. She had not realized she had stopped walking. She had ended up sitting in the middle of the street in a daze. Something hit her head. It fell into her lap before rolling onto the street. “Give me back my apple!” a small voice cried from above. It was from a hovercar and a little girl was looking down from the open window, above her a young woman. Loud honks from another vehicle behind it filled the atmosphere as the family’s car had halted
Subject 0025 Chapter 19: A Sudden Fury
((Chop Suey by System Of A Down)) On the way, Haleigh could not stop feeling grateful to Jack and Luke, flying the brassy hovercar. It was dark out there as the dawn had yet to come, but every hovercar had night-vision. She could not stop feeling grateful to both of them. According to Jack, this used to be a clunker before they dragged it out from a hovercar graveyard nearby and carted it to one of their friends who knew how to fix vehicles. Still, this was the kindest thing people had ever done to her, including her families that no longer existed. Thinking of the last time she had flown along this route, she kept hearing Hannah’s words. ‘I wish he becomes the president.’ That had been one of those rare moments Hannah bickered with her. The stubborn girl; she had always had her own opinions. Haleigh almost smiled. How long that had been? Mere two weeks ago. She heard someone–not sure who; it could have been Jack or Luke or a stranger on the street–talking about that: Wafford had
Subject 0025 Chapter 20: Still In Manhattan
((Welcome To The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance)) When the kids were younger, when they had to learn how to read, most vocabularies were more concepts and ideas than names of things that actually exist. Trees, birds, sunrise, sunset, house; they were nothing more than words. He had thought about why they were even learning these words. That wondering was unusual for a kid in that enormous white box; of course twenty-five was not aware of that. The way to learn was to memorize everything, word to word. If they were asked a question, they had to parrot out the exact lines they had memorized before. No changes and no deviations allowed. During their study sessions, they would sit at their small white desks in a hall, with a black wristband specially allowed. The happiest moments for them. Earth: the only inhabitable planet in the solar system where humans live. Everyone had to memorize that, but no one questioned where the Earth exactly was because all they had ever seen before
Subject 0025 Chapter 21: The Blaze
((Zombie by The Cranberries)) Three hundred meters from the ground, when the gunshot hit their hovercar, twenty-five was ready for it. He needed to know neither how to drive this flying vehicle nor anything else. One old vehicle vs Thirteen new ones: it was predictable. Before the earth could break it into pieces, he was facing the glass panel with the machine gun in the director’s office. The timing was a risk. He had not been sure when he would end up, and this was better than he had hoped for. One minute later and he would be falling from the building. This time, he did not throw away the only thing in his possession that could be useful on his route to escape. As he needed one hand to be free, to bring another one was no option. He stepped into the air; this time
Subject 0025 Chapter 22: Bloodsuckers
((Drive by Incubus))Their conversation was followed by a silent moment that was later interrupted by static noises, which warned something about the aerial mode. The vehicle dropped with an alarming speed, heading to the grey earth. He grabbed the door to not accidentally fall out of the vehicle while Haleigh was freaking out, trying to both hold on and control the vehicle.Timely, she was able to stop the breakneck speed and continue their journey on the ground. This was the second time both of them nearly dropped out of the vehicle, making him wonder all flying vehicles were like this: people danced around in their hovercars whenever their vehicles faced similar incidents. That almost made him smile.After checking the surrounding areas every few seconds and finding nothing, he tried to relax in vain. There was t
Subject 0025 Chapter 23: He Is Already Here
((Headspace by Fame On Fire Ft. Poorstacy)) “Turn the fuck around! Right now!” Hadarit Aber whisper-yelled to whoever was on the receiving end of the communication. He paced in the bathroom behind the locked door. “What the fuck are you thinking by trying to follow them outside the cage? All the police and the public are in your pocket? It will be all over the news and even I won’t be able to cover your shit!” Whatever the other side was trying to say, Aber cut them off by shouting—this time was not even a whisper—more profanities mixed with how stupid the other people were when a voice, from somewhere within the vacant bathroom, asked him to kindly unlock the door as another gentleman was arriving outside the door. The one-sided conversation ended abruptly with him. Aber tapped on his slightly loosened tie, whic
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- Subject 0025
Chapter 62: One and a Half Years Later
***AD 3028, September 28th***Noah glanced at Ivan, his hand pausing on the brake, sighting a hustling bustling rooftop. He zoomed in on the view on the widescreen. They were at the top layer of the troposphere, and this ordinary sunny rooftop less than a hundred meters away from them rather looked like…“It looks like a picnic spot. Doesn’t look like a headquarters of anything, unless it is a headquarters of ‘the Aero-volleyball Association’,” he voiced his concern.“You’ve become quite witty… and charming during the last two years, my guy,” Ivan pushed his shoulder, nearly shoving him against the curvature of the window glass beside him. He cleared his throat, straightening up and shoving him back. He’d trained like hell for two years, and he’d be upset if this scum of the earth could still take him out in a melee.“Don’t be stupid, Ivan. You know these guys. Usually, one or two of them would patrol on the roof, while the rest of their nest spent their days and nights doing their p
- Subject 0025
Chapter 61: A Mole [Volume II Ends]
The silhouette was as still as a piece of lifeless furniture as he approached. As though it didn’t belong to a human or an intelligent being. It moved, separating away from everything around, revealing the masked man who fired right at him.He had quick reflexes: by then, he had already moved out of the path of trajectory. He fired back, at the same time as his shot. Along with the explosion in the living room, the masked man slammed sideways to the shelves; in his attempt to balance himself, ornaments and devices scattered.He tipped a toy bird away. It flew up to the nearest human in its front who was aiming for another shot despite his injury in the ribcage; caught off guard, he yelped and slumped to the floor, losing his grip on his weapon. “You’re dead! You shouldn’t have snooped around,” growled he.“A message… from who? You?” “From them, motherfucker! You’d be dead soon.”He appeared to be pumped up with adrenaline. “Do you know me?” Blaise watched him clambering around bef
- Subject 0025
Chapter 60: Adopt You
He found two issues in keeping their lives intact: Macio and whoever contacted him. He had taken the photograph of the message screen while he was at it, which cloned the screen itself, including the embedded links. As he held the avatar, a tiny man in a suit smiled at him. Like a soft, flimsy object, its movements rubbed his palm. Leaving it afloat, he touched the linked name. Heads appeared out of the garage; when they sighted him near the ceiling light, their steps faltered. He waved his hand at them to mind their own businesses. He sent the first message under a false name. #B: How’s your evening, Mr. Stone? This might be your last. This was one effective way of getting a response from ‘Xavier’ if they had any connection. The page stayed blank under his message bubble. He made the hologram only visible from his viewpoint before repeating the same message until the notification would be so glaring. #X: Who is this??? Who is Mr. Stone? This confirmed he knew Mr. Stone. Peop
- Subject 0025
Chapter 59: Green
A flicker of disappointment flashed on Peter’s face, at those words. His hand went to a screen, a casual gesture, as though he was planning nothing serious. “Don’t insist on your lie. Tell me where he is.”“I can make you die faster than what you are attempting to do,” Blaise warned. The gaunt man snorted, seeing now he had a gun at his face instead of at Natalie. He halted his hand. Instead, he opened his mouth, to make a voice command instead. Wheez! Argh! He slumped to the floor, gripping his leg. Blaise made a dash and got his hand on the program controlling the weapons in the hall, in a blink. Under his eyes were simple panels of load, reload, discharge, and disable for each and all machine guns albeit without the images. Simple things had a tendency of being secretive. “NO! Don’t!” Hands grabbed his leg.[Discharge and Disable] he pressed because that was the only possible choice. Despite choosing the right button, the weapons were not shut down. Because someone else was re
- Subject 0025
Chapter 58: Crucial
They were not following her yet, he muttered to the headset, ending one communication. Although Natalie had the potential to be a crucial lead, hell might be breaking loose as Ivan informed him. That involved a few people dying, including Antonio and probably the caller since he made the call.“O-kay. We’re driving back to the den.”“Do you want to take the task?” “What do you… following her? Sure. I should get off then. I can try searching her around.” In the wristband he was holding, he selected the tracking map. [Sent] and [arrived] Noah’s hovercar was right behind his. “Her location? How convenient. I didn’t notice you put a tracker on her, Jayson.” Because he used his ability to obtain that information about her. He didn’t say it out loud. And, one of these days, he needed to stop everyone calling him by that name. The vehicle in the rear views successfully switched to a further air-lane. Later, a group of children in nursery-logo shirts crossed the air. Blaise waited to av
- Subject 0025
Chapter 57: Girlfriend
He took in the entire cafe that maintained its calm but noisy demeanor just like when a quarter hour ago. A seemingly safe spot with no sudden bursting in, nobody screeching for killers. Seeing Noah stuttered, looking in his direction, he added. “Leave. Stay in the act.”As his own advice, he was also still a lone teenager, visiting here for random browsing over a cup of coffee. In-between the rush hours, he didn’t have to look out for too much to not get hit by some vehicle whilst crossing. He spotted a white shirt in the distance. Even if they walked side by side, they would hardly look dangerous. But, he wanted a bird’s-eye view. This Hector person had something to do with Isaac, someone close to him. His/her absence was the proof itself. A girlfriend? Boyfriend? Or a close friend?He spread the map in the vision of the headset, and instructed. “Turn right. We’re going to the Fountain Plaza.”“Got it. What is there though?” the response came into his ears.“Cobblers mostly.” He di
- Subject 0025
Chapter 56: I'm Fake
The news was so insignificant that he might as well be stalking people around on his own and met an accidental death. There was no mention of an undergoing investigation. Was he on duty or not? Not included. “You were right! They don’t even care!” Noah said, as they crossed paths in the den. ‘They didn’t care?’ That was doubtful. Blaise resorted to getting into casual conversations with his former colleagues at a crime scene, a high-end restaurant at the top of the troposphere. Certain types of questions demanded casualness.Half of the staff, especially the servers, were AIs; with a borrowed suit, he made himself as immaculate as possible to pretend to be one of them. And be polite.Nobody seemed suspicious of him, not to mention they didn’t recognize him. A wealthy couple was murdered, possibly poisoned, and he answered their questions by modifying the AI’s answers.“Last week, we had fewer reservations compared to this week, officer. The majority were regulars except for Detective
- Subject 0025
Chapter 55: He's Gone
Oh, shit! Shit! Shit! Noah swore inwardly in shock. He was dead! He was not thinking straight when he made that shot. The damage was so obvious even before he broke into a run, under the dimmer lights at the ground level. He had been following him since he spotted him across the sky-lanes. Only when they got to a street market, he realized that the one behind Jayson had not been going his own way as he had first thought. He had tried to warn him, but he had nothing. That had been quite a fall. At first, he considered taking a road-elevator. That looked like a suicide but he would lose sight of him while he had an enemy so close behind him. When he got to his side, he showed no surprise at seeing him or him shooting someone to death. “You killed him.” Jayson sat down by the body. “I guess. I thought….” he blabbered. “Are you having regrets?” “No. Not really.” Jayson removed the remaining headset, a chunk of it at the back was gone. A revolting sight that was, and he did that. T
- Subject 0025
Chapter 54: Encounter
A new noise he hadn’t heard during the first visit prevented him from immediately going out of the vehicle: a usual beeping sound that didn’t belong to his wristband. Noah should have nothing on his body that gave off that sound, except…Crap! He rushed to the door; though the noise stopped, it had already alerted the surrounding. Upon his exit, he pressed his back against the vehicle and looked over to where Noah stood, who started to explain. “I didn’t—”“Get here!” he whisper-yelled. “I’ll go check,” said a cop from a distance. Noah moved, but it was too late.“Who’s there? Kevin?”The voice and the footfalls came from the other side of the vehicle line, already in proximity. He must have seen a suspicious figure. “Freeze! Hands in the air! Announce yourself?”Blaise straightened up, to intervene if necessary. “I’m a reporter.”He might not be necessary. A ray of light fell; he silently moved his leg away. “Show me your ID! You’re trespassing!”“WHO IS THAT, LIEUTENANT?!”“SAI
