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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 The Mark
“You are so young. How come do you have those eyes?” once she asked me. I was not sure what she was referring to. Later, I found out, and I had been using them as my weapons. I scared them: that was good. Scare or be scared.I remember my first murder. Vividly. How could I ever forget? I killed him. Again. Again. Again. Again. And again. I finally lost my c
Subject 0025 Chapter 1: Twenty-five
(( Playlist: Burn it Down by Linkin Park))Have you ever seen betta fish tanks? The smallest ones in the market? They are the size of water bottles, with each containing a single fish. Despite being tiny itself, the fish could not swim around in such a tank. Sometimes, a large tank is divided into multiple compartments of that size.Now Imagine rows and rows of those rectangular glass compartments, increase the scale of the size and replace each betta with a human, more accurately, a small human, and there you have it home sweet home for nameless children.The entire floor comprised a hundred of those transparent coffin rooms. It was bedtime, and the light was dim. They were all supposed to be sleeping on their narrow beds in their rooms. Unlike betta fishes, they were not expected to bump into the wall or go into a fight with another male. They were as obedient as a human could be.The walls were not ordinary
Subject 0025 Chapter 2: No Longer Human
((Playlist: My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark by Fall Out Boy)) They were at the end of the endlessly long corridor before the row of elevators. The man and the boy: the former in flawless skin, perfectly proportionate body, and gray scrubs and pants, and in sneakers, while the latter was sickly, lanky, and in white pajamas and barefoot. The younger one was hesitating to take one more step. Something flashed past in the man’s eyes: visible alertness. He went unnaturally stiff before uttering, “Get in, son. We don’t have all day.” His chilling tone filled the silence, but the boy did not seem to have heard. Always this one in the middle, twenty-five thought. There were other six elevators but always this one. Like other things that had always been the same. Like his behavior. Once or twice a year, he would hear that creepy gentle voice since he had arrived on this floor. Every time, he would be frightened. Non
Subject 0025 Chapter 3: A Rare Commodity
(( Playlist: The Arena by Lindsey Stirling))Typically, the metropolitan area was a riddle of establishments, multiple layers of roads, and flying vehicles and devices. Buildings rose miles above clouds, tall, thin, round, twisty, flat; they were in various shapes and forms. Different types of flying vehicles: cars, buses, trucks, or ambulances, some running at almost lighting speed and some lazing around in their respective air lanes. Smells of smoke, oil, dishes, and indistinguishable stuff filled the air. Sirens blared in the distance.A voluptuous hovercar, looking a lot like an upside-down bowl, was heading in the opposite direction of civilization. All the paint works had peeled off, covered in dents and scratches, it was one ugly machine. It exited the city of light and sky behind and was on the way to another city that was everything the first one was not.As it had gained around a hundred kilometers, the lan
Subject 0025 Chapter 4: Example
((Playlist: Psycho by Muse))Two voices. One voice was deep. Another was slightly high-pitched, like younger. At first, those were muffled indistinguishable noises with silent intervals. Maybe it was hours later or another day when twenty-five could make out the words. They were talking about someone. Something phenomenon, they said.
Subject 0025 Chapter 5: An Unexpected Visitor
((Playlist: Radioactive by Imagine Dragons))“Please give us another chance, sir.” Dr. Gable Raciti, Clinical Research Scientist,—as his virtual name card read—broke the silence. “I have a plan in my mind. I am certain it will produce a result. If it doesn’t, I will take full responsibility for that.”The rest of the group that comprised mostly scientists and a few surgeons, glanced at one another.“Go on,” commanded the director.The other man stood up from his seat before giving a bow to the smaller man.“Subject 0025 is over the age limit and he is showing no result,” he paused and then open slideshows in the place where Dr. Lance had stood. The series of pictures that depict a variety of animals such as monkeys, guinea pigs, and cows and brief notes caused a few people to raise their eyebrows.“It would be a waste if we let him die
Subject 0025 Chapter 6: The Birthday Gift
((Playlist: Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana)) When he left, twenty-five repeated the word ‘gift’ silently. It was an unfamiliar word. Strange. The gift stung his skin. He might have found his palm bleeding if he looked at his palm. He did not open his palm until lunch, just as the doctor had instructed.
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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
- Subject 0025
