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Subject 0025 Chapter 9: In Plain Sight
((The Beginning by One OK Rock))At first, fear overtook him. This time, it was not about pain. Or even death. It was the fear of losing hope. Being trapped here forever after killing someone. After facing his own death.There they were; he saw them. It was impossible to escape the narrow path blocked in every direction. Even with his ability, what was he going to do? He would only be back in his tiny glass room. Along with other boys and girls. The ones behind these black walls. Only pain and horrifying death awaited them. Then there was this strange thought he had never had before. That none of them should be locked up in here. Not just him. They all should be free.As they were closing the distance, he stood there holding hostage to one of the people who had been responsible for his and other children&rsquo
Subject 0025 Chapter 10: The DRAs
((Bulletproof by Godsmack)) Concerning the unexpected hostage situation–though true that hostage situations are not generally expected, this one was more so than the others–, the most affected were none of the parties that were present on the basement level 3 corridor but the DRAs. That was, of course, if you would ignore the party whose head had just gotten blown off. The DRAs were people at the Department of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. Following the Managing Director, they were the second most hated in the entire building that conspired with 60 stories. Being a scientist and medical doctor himself, Dr. Hadarit Aber had no clue how AIs were programmed or designed aside from how to order them around. Thus, apart from their major responsibilities, the DRA handled everything that involved AIs, including who should have authority over the robots and who should not, unless the Director gave them a specific order. Shelves, tables, and cabinet filled the level and a mess of wi
Subject 0025 Chapter 11: Hurt A Bit
((Made of Stone by Evanescence)) He chose one of the other six elevators–not the middle one, where they had usually forced him inside. There must be a reason why the machines had always selected that one. Usually, two illuminated circles would appear when someone would show their palm before the panel but it did not work now. The smooth, plain white surface remained the same. The footsteps behind him were getting louder and louder. So close. He must get inside right now; otherwise, every single pain he had gone through would be useless. He pressed his palm around the panel; nothing appeared. With all his strength in his tired, thin body, he tried to push the white barrier aside. ‘Open! Open! Open!!’ he screamed internally. All his force was on his hands; there was nothing to grip on, not even a hairline crack. ‘Clunk. Clunk. Clunk’ the noises came from right behind him. Before he could turn around, a heavy strike landed on the back of his head. He lost his balance, feeling dizzy.
Subject 0025 Chapter 12: Shoot Him
((Eden by BATTLE BEAST)) With a gloomy realization, he swore. Right. Swearing was among other things he had picked up on this torturous path. This again! The alarms, the warning, the long pause, the footsteps, the shot, and then the headless body. The blood splashed all over him again, which gave him a new idea. He regarded the body, especially its certain part. One thing led to another, and he peeked at the babbling person and his group at the other end of the corridor. He smiled, liking his own thought. With the background of mechanical parts shifting and switching, twenty-five considered the blade in his hand. It was too small to do the job. It would take at least several minutes. There was no way he would have that much time. He even doubted if it would be possible to cut bones. If only he had a weapon bigger than this. When he ran, he had a plan in mind. These people had more than one gun on their bodies. A few people dropped the ones in their hands when the machine hands went
Subject 0025 Chapter 13: A Matter Of Minutes
((Throne by Bring Me The Horizon)) Up it was, but he realized after wasting a few seconds that would not have mattered. The door opened immediately. Twenty-five was ready to give a bullet to whoever awaited on the other side, but thankfully, it was vacant. Inside, he had to display the hand again to see the floor numbers. There were 60 circles in total, unlike in the middle elevator, including the ones combined with alphabets, such as the current floor B3. He could easily figure out how the ‘Bs’ on ten floors represented basements because of one button G. He had heard a few times some people mentioning ‘ground floor’ casually, and G could only mean that. If that was the case, B could also be something related to ‘ground’; for that, Underground would make sense, and similarly, it also meant ‘basement’. In choosing a floor, he had to gamble, since he did not know where he should go. Although they had dragged him along multiple levels while they were humiliating him, the numbers of fl
Subject 0025 Chapter 14: Bring Me There
((Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots)) He recognized her. The stern-faced woman who had a dislike for Gable Raciti. Yet, what was the difference? She was the same as him in the end. These people all had made those little treatments on them. And speaking of treatments, he had a few questions to ask. “Don’t move,” he ordered, despite knowing it was unnecessary. The scientist would not move anyway, given how she was staring at him: horrified. He was aware of how he would look like, with the guns, all the blood, and the hand. A monster was what he ended up to be while trying to escape from other monsters. He threw a glance at the numbers on the side panel. Under his instructions, the woman gave a verbal command to the system to go to level 50 and locked the elevator from the inside, preventing it from opening on other floors. Aiming the gun at her, he said to the air, “I know you people are watching this. So listen carefully. Don’t lock this elevator. Don’t break it open. Do NOTHING th
Subject 0025 Chapter 15: Identical
((21 Guns by Green Day)) He swung around and found no one was there; she was gone. The door was closing shut under his eyes; on its surface were the twirling vines he hadn’t noticed before. The metallic black vines were moving as if they were sentient. He doubted he would be able to get out of this room himself. He could try breaking the door but he didn’t. It turned out to be the right decision because while twenty-five was indecisive about what to do next, his enemies had blocked the only way out. If he broke through the door, they would have killed him, as they were already at the door when the woman exited. The surveillance team informed them how he was inside and even the exact location he was standing. In less than six seconds after the scientist’s exit, they entered the room with lethal force. He was between the desk and the glass wall when they barged in. Dozens of guns fired simultaneously; a deadly rain of bullets envelop the room in vengeance, too eager to tear their
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
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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
