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2024-10-29 19:42:56((I Still Burn By Fozzy))
Through his neuro-transmitter, Police Corporal Isaac Lowe communicated to his partner, ‘stop. I think I heard voices.’ And Jason stopped. They were on the ground floor again after going up for not having found a sign of the suspect. He was not sure another one was whether her victim or her partner in crime. The intel about her last victim was vague enough: an underage schizophrenic patient, and that was it. Neither age nor gender was involved, let alone personal information such as the name.
All they needed to know was if they received reports about the radioactive city, it was either the suspect’s attempt to mislead the law enforcement and the media or the imagination of the poor kid. While he had been in the force for merely a decade, it was not unusual to hide the identity of victims to protect them.
At times, even suspects’ identities were hidden as
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Subject 0025 Chapter 28: Forget About It
((Killpop by Slipknot))Even though they had agreed on their destination, they were not sure where or when they should get down from this topmost layer of the stratosphere which was both safe and dangerous for them. For some time, their vehicle hovered above The Ground, costing them nearly all gas.Fortunately, on the map, Blaise found a gas station a dozen kilometers down below. They had to take the risk unless they wanted their vehicle to crash. Haleigh complained that flying in this topmost layer wasted more gas than she had ever imagined.They took a detour to the gas station that was built on what looked like a circular disc—which was lifted by a sloping pillar that went down to somewhere else below. In their favor, it was empty, with no other customer. They could do nothing about the cameras since they were invisible.On the screens, various channels were presenting the current manhunt of PCDP. A prime suspect of heinous crimes, a deranged wom
Subject 0025 Chapter 29: Forgotten [Volume I Ends]
((The Sky Is A Neighborhood by Foo Fighters))When Blaise went into the town, the sun was still up despite it being hidden by clouds. It had been a gloomy day, especially now as the light was receding fast. The looming darkness was all over the broken vehicles lying around in various positions all over the dusty field.The humming sound of police cars above him lasted forever in his mind when it was mere seconds. As they disappeared, he exited the hiding spot to continue his race to the now ghastly structure for the twilight.He was going against the cold wind. The dried grass, dirt, and smashed pieces of unknown materials stuck to his shoes. He wished these sneakers could fly straight into the upper floors of the building, but they did not function that way. These shoes were only to hover in the air whe
Subject 0025 Chapter 30: Enough Space
---23:05, December 28, 3026---“They thought she was the one. Dumb fucks! They think everything is over. Didn’t I tell you? These people are so stupid,” a low baritone voice bellowed. Guffaws and loud agreements followed suit.The room was unlit; the only lights that existed in this dark space were from the moving figures in the air: tiny men and women formally dressed with different backgrounds and sceneries—newsrooms, conference halls, and the offices. Occasionally, bodies lying in different positions replaced the scenes.“Stupid people,” a high-pitched voice agreed, laughing.“They think an old bitch like her would have accomplished all these things,” another pitched in.The dim but colorful lights revealed the silhouettes and glimpses of half a dozen people standing and sitting, all gathering the holographic display in the center. But more people were hidden in the darker parts of the room, as mere shadows.The atmosphere was thick with red and grey smoke, which frequently entered
Subject 0025 Chapter 31: Created In A Lab
The round bumper was totally smashed in. The engine and the accelerator, among other parts, were lying about, leaving what remained of the shiny red hovercar. Dust, cement, and broken pixalates of the walls filled the hall. He breathed in the toxic, dirty air mixed with the smell of the gas as he stood right before the smashed vehicle he had robbed merely hours ago. He could not believe what he was seeing. It was another day in hell.*** Half a day earlier ***It was late in the morning, and the rooftop he had slept on for three nights straight was probably quite far away. Amidst thin clouds, he had been driving aimlessly. A loud honk got him out of his daze as a hovercar flew past. He had opened the roof at some point without him realizing it. His eyes jumped to the holographic map. Still in The Ground as he had been flying in circles. He stepped on the brake, causing the vehicle to stop mid air abruptly. “Mortherfucker!” somebody cursed loudly, and a hovercar flew past. He zoo
Subject 0025 Chapter 32: Have You Seen Jayson?
He had been sitting here since sunrise. Opposite stood a group of towers. Glazed in dark blue, with pointed tops, and replicas of one another, they seemed to be housing corporations and offices. The entire time, ads and programs were playing all over their walls. Through the 3-D function of the VW helmet, he could not only see three-dimensional shapes but also hear the audio clearly if he would channel it.Most ordinary-looking videos and recordings in the city were like this as far as he could see.Abruptly, a sullen face flashed across the walls, taking over a repetitive commercial. Thick eyebrows, dark eyes, and dark straight hair which was combed too neatly; it was a video clip of his face. He narrowed his eyes wondering when this was recorded. ‘A missing teenager. Mentally ill and had been abducted recently. The kidnapper was dead, but he was yet to be found,’ the texts read. ‘Have you seen Jayson?’They were calling him Jayson now. Through the helmet, Blaise continued to stare
Subject 0025 Chapter 33: The Safest Zone
He did think of the possibility that he could be recognized, but he decided he would find out the answer.While the shield was sliding up, he sat up straight from slouching on the road. The stranger stared at him for a few long seconds. “You look familiar,” he remarked, furrowing his brows. Blaise was staring back at him, especially at his eyebrows, one of which was cut in the middle near the edge. It was a small scar, quite faint and inconspicuous. He looked away, appearing to be uncomfortable.Something white and big jumped into his peripheral vision. He almost strangled it until he realized it was a big dog with white short fur--as he did not know dog breeds.Blaise stood up, dusting his pants, and he followed. The dog was sniffing at him. At one point, its nose touched his pants. Nearby, a woman shouted, “Gabe, baby, come back!” “Oh, right!” The guy snapped his fingers. “You look like him, the schizophrenic kid. What was his name? Jonas? Or James? Obviously, you aren’t him. He
Subject 0025 Chapter 34: Such A Busybody
***January 6, 3027***“How long have you been—you know, kidnapped?” a tenor voice asked in a hushed tone. “Dunno, man. More than a week or two?” another voice answered reluctantly.“Woah, so long. I’ve been here for two days.”Two men were talking from their bunk beds that sat side by side and were covered with filthy sheets.“Don’t look at me when you talk. Look somewhere else,” the second man warned.“Why?”“They don’t like us talking to each other.”Both were young and appeared in their early twenties. The first one had short brown hair, and blue eyes, and was clean-shaven. Another looked slightly more mature with a short beard and long dirty-blond hair. “Oh OK,” the first one lowered his eyes to the bedsheet instead. “I’m worried about Teresa.”“Your girlfriend?”“No. My cat.”The silence hung in the air. The other man didn’t respond.“Don’t lose hope. I think the cops are going to find this place soon. Or the media,” he continued on his own.“Tsk. What made you think that?”“Is
Subject 0025 Chapter 35: Spare Credits
“What do you want to do about it, Tate? Rat us out? Sorry, you can’t.” The guffaws spilled out from the sky-alley.Of course, he remembered that name. The fake guy: that was how he recalled him. He was pretending to be someone else he was not. “Sons of bitches! You all owe me at least ten grand.”They were talking over the phone. And yes, that was him. Blaise could recall images and voices in detailed precision. Besides, their conversation was clear and loud. There was nobody else around this corner: not above him, not under him. He took a glance at the street on the ground. It was empty except for a long shape on the dirty asphalt near the trash bin. Probably a person, but he might as well be dead.Blaise wanted to take a peek at the four behind him, but they might catch his movement. They were right around the corner.“Chill. Why you have to be so goddamn serious about everything? I’ve already told you like two fucking minutes ago. We searched for him everywhere. He was so slick.”
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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
