Chapter 18

Saturday, March 17th, 2029

GAVIN

The table is set full with plates and forks and the whole shebang. Iris sits down and I take the seat next to her. I hear a loud crash—it sounds like it came from far away and if that is the case it must've been something big. I turn my attention to the door, wondering what it was. "Oh, don't you worry about that, I think there's just construction going on. I heard they were making additions to the statue or whatever," Tammy says.

"You sure? That didn't sound like construction," I say.

"Don't worry about it," She says, shaking her head.

"Okaaaaay." That's definitely strange.

Tammy stands up from the stove and places a large pan onto the table, it is full with a huge pork roast. It smells absolutely amazing and has my mouth watering.

"Alright, who wants first bite?" Tammy asks.

I look back to the door and then let it pass from my mind.

"I think you should get it since you spent so long cooking it," Iris says.

"Yeah, I guess that's fair," I say, a little disappointed.

"Oh, no really, it didn't take that long you all," Tammy says, backing away smiling."

"Go on, we insist."

"Alright," Tammy says, grabbing the knife.

She goes in for the first stab on the rump of the pork and I can almost picture the once living pig screaming and welting in pain from the stab. She has some troubles with the knife going all of the way through and tries a little harder. She must have cut herself because I see a slight wince and she pulls her hand close to her faster than anything I've ever seen.

"Oh! Are you alright?" Iris asks, standing up.

"Y-Yes, I'm fine, just a cut," she says, holding her hand close to her.

"Here, let me bandage it up for you," Iris says.

"N-No need, I'll do it, you two enjoy your dinner, I'll be back," She says, running out into the hallway and then the bathroom.

"Okay, that was weird," I say.

"Yeah, but I guess that's why you have to be careful with knives."

"I'll finish cutting, give me your plate," I say, grabbing the knife.

"Put some on her plate also, for when she comes back."

"Okay."

I cut a slice of the pork roast off for Tammy and slide it onto her plate. Next I go in a bit deeper and cut out a nice section of the back and ease it onto Iris' plate.

"I was just going to ask for a piece like that, thank you." I smile and cut myself a piece. I sit back down beside Iris and stick my fork into the meat.

"So, when you were younger…" I begin.

She turns towards me, a good size section of the pork already in her mouth. She shakes her head and finishes chewing, "Oh, my bad, I'm sorry. You we're saying?"

"When you were younger…" I repeat. "What did you want to be when you grew up?"

She looks to the side for a moment and then back to me, "You're going to think it is stupid."

"I can promise you I won't."

"I wanted to be a superhero."

"Like Batman?"

"Like Wonder Woman," she corrects me.

"Ah, right."

"When every other girl wanted to be a princess I always wanted to be a superhero. I wanted to save the world and be the talk of the town."

"And this is where your ideals of wanting to be something greater came from, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, can I be honest with you?"

"Sure."

I take a bite of the pork roast and smile as it goes down my throat. "You're really quite super to me, and once this is all done and over you're going to be one hell of a hero."

She smiles and goes to eat another bite of the roast. "That is so nice, thank you, Gavin."

"Anytime."

"And what about your parents?" I ask.

She looks onto her plate for a few seconds. "Oh, I'm sorry, did something happen to them?" I ask.

"No, no, nothing like that. It's just…it's been so long since I've seen them it feels like."

"Oh, yeah, that's understandable."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm sitting here lamenting about not seeing my parents and you…" She trails off, but I know where she was going with it. You can't see yours because they're dead."Gavin…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that, it slipped out and-"

"No, it's honestly okay. You don't need to worry," I say.

"It was a pretty mean thing for me to say."

"Don't worry about it, trust me," I say. She finishes her roast and I take in my final bite and chew it thoroughly. I stand up at the same time as her, the both of us heading to the sink.

"Here, let me just wash the dishes," She says.

"Nuh-uh, I've got them, you can relax," I say.

"Okay, compromise, we both just wash our own plate."

"Okay, agreed," I laugh.

She does hers first, she turns on the water and douses the plate in and readies the dish soap right on the back of the sink. As she is washing I hear a door closing. I turn to see Tammy returning from the bathroom, a fresh white bandage covering her hand. "Oh, you two already finished?"

"Yeah, we were just washing our plates," Iris says.

"Okay, well I'll get out of your way then, I'll just take this to the bedroom," she says, grabbing the plate of pot roast and walking off.

"Okay then, enjoy!" Iris says, returning her focus to the plate.

She turns the water onto hot and grabs the sponge that sat next to the dish soap. She finishes up and I scrub my plate just as she did. As I'm about to finish I hear a door on my other side open and shut, I turn around to see Kevin walking back into the house, wracked with sweat.

"Aw, dinner all concluded with?" He asks, noticing the cut in pork-roast and the half deserted table.

"Yeah, Tammy went into the bedroom to eat, I guess she won't mind you grabbing a slice of your own?" I ask.

"Haha, I'm going to do just that, you two feel comfortable on the couch, alright? I'll see what I can do to help you for tomorrow night," he says.

"Thank you," I say.

Kevin takes the knife and cuts himself a large cut of pork and slides it onto an empty plate.

"Night, see you both tomorrow," Kevin says before walking off.

"Good-Night Kevin!" Iris says.

"Night."

I finish up my plate and set it aside to dry.

"I'm feeling quite tired, you want to retire to the couch?" Iris asks.

"Sure thing."

We turn down the lights to the kitchen and walk into the living room. Iris motions for me to lie down first, and I do. She lies down next and cuddles up right next to me, I can feel her breathing on my neck. "This is perfect," she says.

"No objections here," I say, smiling.

"Your eyes are very pretty when you smile," She says, smiling back.

A moment of silence passes as we just stare into each other's eyes. She comes closer and kisses me. I hold her in both of my arms and pull her close to me. She opens her eyes and with her free hand she grabs mine and interlocks her fingers inbetween mine. She stops kissing me and sits up.

"What's wrong?" I ask

"Hold on…" She takes off the shaul and works off her top.

"Are you sure? Out here?" I ask.

"Most guys would instantly drown out all logic and dive in head-first," She says. "Well, okay then, we don't have to go all of the way," she says, guiding my hand. "But at least let's have some fun before the storm that comes tomorrow."

She places her palm on mine and guides my hand around her body. My breathing becomes more shallow and she bends back over, kissing me more. I kiss her back, my hand still cupped around her breast and eventually I have to stop to take off the shirt I'd been wearing because it feels so hot in the room.

She runs her hand through my hair as she stares into my eyes. I wrap my hands around the back of her, undoing her bra, she doesn't seem to mind. She only asks, "You sure?"

"I'm sure."

It falls off onto the floor beside us, I keep my hands around her, exploring her body, the smalls in her back, to which she seems to shake slightly.

"Too much?" I ask.

"No, just right….all…the way?"

"All the way," I reply, smiling slightly.

She backs up slightly and moves to unzip my pants, her breasts bounce the slightest when she moves back.

"You double sure?"

"I'm double sure."

She nods and finishes unzipping. She then grabs for me. At first it feels cold and foreign, but at once she makes me at ease, and then she sits up even more. She looks straight at me as she begins. Everything from today's waking moments to now come rushing through my mind as I see the girl of my dreams here right now. In this moment I'd kill a million men for her.

I brush a stray hair out of her face and she opens her brilliant brown eyes to look at me as she goes down. Every sound is so minute and exact and I feel like time itself is slowing down.

"O-Okay, I want you to…I want to please you…" I say in between breaths. She continues for another few seconds and then stops. She lets go and sits up.

"Already? Don't you want me to finish?"

"I…I want to make you as happy as you've made me."

"Are you sure we're still talking about sex?"

"I'm talking about us. Whether that be right now or in the future, I want to make you as happy as you make me," I say.

She smiles and sits back.

"You're…perfect."

I sit up, pulling the pants down to my knees and bending over her. I kiss her on the lips as she lifts her skirt up. Underneath she's wearing light blue panties that she slides off with no second thought.

It's a hard fit at first, she squeals a little getting it in, but once I'm in I have this little voice in my head chanting "In and out. In and out." I follow the rhythm and she lets out what starts as the smallest noise I'd heard her emit to less quieted groans.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, keep going."

I do. In and out. In and out. In and out the voice chants over and over, as if it is demanding a sacrifice. I grab her leg as I go in harder, faster, I can feel the sweat form on my body, in this second I absolutely love this woman, this person I'm sharing my entire connection with. It is like the perfect twist of fate that I need to keep going, to remember that there is more to me than Radical-9. There is more to me than the past. The present, now, and what is to come, and I'm going to share it with this person, my person, Iris McCallum. Thank you.

Just then, my head begins pounding. Just as the voices called for rhythm this calls for me to let go. At first I feel the ultimate confusion, but then I remember this feeling, this is when a vision comes to me.

~...~

I'm standing in a darkened room that expands long past my field of view. Just then I see a single light come on from above, a spotlight illuminating an area below and in front of me. A second spotlight, and then a third, and then six, and then twenty, and it keeps multiplying until I'm staring at a void of figures standing in an area the size of ten football fields. The figures are human-like, all in rows as if they were toys on a factory line. Automatons.

I look around to see where I'm standing. I know it instantly as a hallway from the Sustineo-10. I remember the metal hallways of this place too well. I peek through one of the nearby doors to see a sort of docking bay. Inside lines hundreds of people I've never even seen before. Except for two. In the very front I see two familiar faces, Kevin and Tammy. They're in line with other automatons that look like everyday people.

Sirens start sounding off and I can see a figure cloaked entirely in shadow standing beside me, an outstretched arm propped up. The automatons seem to understand the figure and turn themselves around. The back wall of the docking bay begins to open up, and from the outside I can see the depths of space, earth right below.

The shadow figure begins shaking as I see a glowing energy flowing from their finger. It causes the air around the opening of the docking bay to vibrate and sparkle. The air seems to rip itself apart and creates a sort of rift. The automatons all begin synchronously marching forward. They seem to get sucked in once they reach the vicinity of the rift. I look back to the figure and see that they are no longer cloaked in shadow.

It's Micah. He's grinning wildly as he opens a rift through time to send the automatons back in time. To our time. The scene changes I'm now looking at what seems to be California. I am about two hundred feet into the sky looking at the city. I see a similar looking rift open into the sky, all of the automatons I'd seen before come flooding out of the sky. They land with little to no damage to themselves, as they do they seem to act like normal humans, walking about as if they were there the whole time. A voice erupts from the rift.

"Go! Claim this city and entertain our guests when they arrive! Prepare to terminate on my mark!" The rift disappears and the vision changes again. I'm back at the apartment, it's dinner time. I'm looking at the scene through Tammy's eyes. I look as she first sticks the knife into the pork, her difficulty in cutting the meat, and the moment the knife cuts her hand. In the instant she pulls her hand back I can see the blood that escapes her flesh isn't red, but white.

The scene plays out as normal, but she hides her bloodied hand from view. The scene changes once more and then I see the Statue of Liberty, it's in pieces. It looks like a bomb had hit the place. The overturned head remains in one piece, it lays among the rubble, staring at the arm carrying the sword. In the middle of the war zone I see John. The vision bleeds out and I return to my place in the apartment. I'm standing naked over Iris who is sitting up now waving her hand in front of my face.

"H-Hello? Are you okay? Did I do something wrong?" She asks, her voice quiet.

I wipe my face with my hands and swallow hard. "No…no," I say. I look to her. "Get your clothes on, we have to go, now," I say.

She grabs her panties off of the floor and slides them on, I hurriedly throw my pants up and tighten them with the belt. "What's the big rush?"

"We have to go, c'mon, hurry, we have no time to spare, I say, handing her the bra at my feet.

"Do you mind explaining?" She asks.

"It's much easier explained when we are out of the danger zone," I say, rushing my shirt on. "Less explainy, more dressy," I say, picking up her top off of the floor.

"Okay, okay."

She fixes her top and forgoes the shaul, in another second the entire building rocks. "What was that?" She asks.

"I have a bad feeling it is related to my vision," I say. Just then an explosion booms out from below us and the entirety of the kitchen collapses and sinks below. "What the hell?!" I ask.

"Okay, let's get out of here! Let me go get Tammy and Kevin!" Iris says.

"No! Iris, they-"

As if on cue, and who knows, they probably are, Tammy and Kevin walk out of the bedroom side by side. "Oh, thank god! We have to get out of-" Iris doesn't get a chance to finish as she is immediately rushed by Tammy who clotheslines her down to the ground. Before I can react I see Kevin lunging to do the exact same to me.

"Iris!" is all I get out before I'm hit by what feels like a freight train. I'm slammed into the back wall and have my breath knocked out of me. I hear the clang of metal as I look over to see Tammy picking up a knife that survived the kitchen bombing. She picks up Iris by her hair and holds the knife to her throat, pricking a little bit of skin causing a thin bloodline to form.

"Gavin, help!" She screams out, a tear forming in her eye.

"IRIS!" I scream out at the top of my lungs. I jump to my feet, extending my arms out. In an instant the lights from the room all go dark and I can see pure energy flowing through the room into my arms, dancing around my arms more like it.

The electricity from the television and the lights come to me as pure plasma dancing at my fingertips. There was something like this when I'd fought against Jack before I escaped my moon imprisonment. Jack had the ability to form pure plasma from his mind and I was able to use it against him. Maybe I'm developing the ability to take the electricity out of nearby objects and turn it into such?

The sole light source of the room is now coming from my arms. I turn around and smash my arm into Kevin beside me. My arm begins to glow as it burns a hole through his chest, he drops to the floor spasming. The light from my right arm grows dimmer. I turn, Tammy stands completely shocked. I use the momentary distraction to rush up to her and grab her by the throat with my left arm, it burns her throat as she gaggles for air. She too falls to the ground, flailing erratically. The light in my left arm grows dimmer as well, now equal to that of about two candle-lights.

I reach my hand out to Iris, "C'mon! We need to leave, pronto!"

"Tammy and Kevin…why would they…"

"They're automatons, we need to leave," I say.

She looks to Kevin's body and sees the white liquid pouring out from the gaping hole in his chest and then looks back up to me, nodding.

"C'mon, take my hand," I say, wiping off the light of my right hand as if it were like water. I keep my left hand lit with the plasma so we don't have to escape in the dark. She grabs my hand and without a second thought we're running out of the door.

We're out and not another second there is another shockwave that sends us off of our feet. From the neighboring apartments I see the lumbering bodies of more automatons exiting their rooms, deadlocked onto us. From one room I'm seeing as many as five automatons coming out. Iris and I stand up and begin running down the hall.

"This really feels like a horror movie," Iris says.

"You're telling me." I take her hand in mine as we run away from the lumbering automatons.

We're making way down the hallway when the building shakes once more. The wall to our right breaks away to the ground below, and then we're falling as the ground below us begins to crumble and collapse. I hit the ground hard, knocking my head off of a fallen piece of debris. My vision goes red, but I sit up slowly, keeping a hold on my consciousness. I turn to Iris, she's bleeding from a large cut on her arm, but other than being roughed up seems to be okay.

I struggle to get myself to my feet, she limps over to me and extends her hand out. "Come on, we have to keep moving. Can you get up?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm good," I say, grabbing her hand and pulling myself up.

I look around and notice we're standing in the first floor hallway. A grandfather clock in the hall shows it's five in the morning. Time has been so hard to keep track of lately. We scramble down the hall to the entrance, we're nearly tripping over ourselves.

My vision threatens to go black, but I don't let it. I feel dizzy and am positive I'm bleeding, but escape is the only thing on my mind right now. We run past the closed apartment doors which I'm certain have more automatons hiding behind them. Why they haven't joined the pursuit, I wouldn't have a clue. We arrive at the exit and burst through the doors, we're immediately greeted by the moonlight outside. It hangs high in the sky, a perfect full moon. Iris grabs my hand and pulls me out into the cold night air, I go along, knowing she hasn't seen it yet.

I know when she does, because she stops and gasps audibly. She let's go of my hand. In front of us stands what seems to be hundreds of automatons, each of them blank faced and standing in some sort of military pose.

I turn behind me to run back inside, but the automatons that were inside begin pouring out, including Tammy and a twitching Kevin.

"He…He's moving with that hole in his chest?" Iris asks.

"He isn't human, who knows what they can live through?"

"Jesus."

"Grab my hand," I say, holding it out. She does, and I close my eyes, I need to jump to get us out of here.

My head pangs and my vision goes red again. It hurts to think and I put my other hand to my head.

"I…I can't jump, not with my head being this fucked up right now," I say. "You need to get out of here."

"What? No way! I'm not leaving you."

"Iris...this is not the—" A laugh echoes through the night, it comes from every direction and I recognize it immediately.

I look to see a figure walking through the huge crowd of automatons, a figure I know all too well. "Micah…or should I call you Gavin? How many names are you willing to throw away to make yourself believe you aren't me?" I call out.

Micah makes it to the end, the circle around us. He's wearing a devilish grin, his eyes are ten times as crazy than I remember, especially since Jack overloaded his system with Radical-9. "Why, it' so very nice to meet up again! I was starting to worry that maybe you'd call it quits just to fuck the slut here day and night," He laughs.

"Who do you think you are?" Iris calls out.

"Me? I'm him. I'm him but better. That's a meme you guys liked here, right? Something to crack the old funny-bone?"

"You're very existence here is going to tear this world apart, you do realize this?" I ask.

He stands tall, his hair, my old hair, hasn't been cut, it reaches just past his shoulders. "Then I just move onto the next one! It's as simple as that! You know that there are infinite worlds for me to visit, who the fuck cares if one ends?"

"You're so messed up," Iris says.

He looks to her, "I've been waiting for this moment for a very long time, and I just can't WAIT for the bloodbath to begin. I'm going to enjoy watching every moment of it," he says.

"You're going to cower away?"

"I'm not stupid, Gavin. I know when to pick my battles, and I cannot deny the fact that you would be a formidable opponent, but only because you are me. Why give you the chance when I can sit back and watch my little friends here tear you both limb from limb? And it's even better now that you can't jump out of your problems like normal, you're here for the long run." He cocks his head to the side, "Now! Rip them apart!" He growls.

The automatons seem to roar into life one by one, a domino effect of each and every single one of them filling with a sort of life of their own.

I walk up to Iris and grab her hand tight in mine. She clasps it tight and I know we're in this together. I can only think one thing as they begin walking one step at a time.

"Help!"