I recovered from what felt like a trance and gazed out at the destruction that lay before me. Flames flickered graciously in contrast to the vast amounts of dust, ash and rubble everywhere. I don't know where I am. I don't know why I am where I am. I stumble around and call out: "Ricky! Holly!" Then I remember.
I watched them die.
It all came back to me now. Ricky and Holly were killed by Rachel Winters, who later died in an explosion. I should have died. I should not be here right now. I should have died too. The guilt of still being alive tore into my heart. Not being able to die is a curse. But I have to do something with that. Something caught my ear. A scream. Multiple screams. Is this my advanced senses at play? I sprint over at an incredible speed, faster than normal. I must have grown in strength. Underneath a pile of bricks, someone was covered in blood and bruises, crying. "It's ok, I'll help you!" I cracked my fingers and got to work. At an even more incredible speed than earlier, I removed every single brick from on top of them. In just a few seconds, I was able to lift them up and carry them. I saw some ambulances in the distance. ow far was I seeing? 10km? This building must have been important if it was so huge. In little under a second, I had sprinted my way to the ambulances. "This person needs help!"
"Thank you rescuing them!" a doctor thanked me, "Is there any chance that you could rescue any other survivors?"
"Yes I can. I'll just be a few seconds." But before I could go back to playing hero, they spoke again.
"That robotic arm must be coming in handy, eh? I'm glad, seeing as I made it."
"Robotic what now?" I looked at my left arm.
Oh my sweet Jesus! My arm is metal! But how? What was I having done to me in this building? "I don't know who you are," I said to the doctor, "but we'll have to talk later!" And with that, I sped on back to the fray. I wonder what this metal arm can do? I turn and see a small bunker just a few hundred yards away from me. I run over to there and put my hand on the thick steel wall. I concentrate and feel. I feel vibrations coming from the other side. They feel as though they run through my metal arm, all the way up my shoulder to my head. Some form of sonar vision appears in my mind, revealing people inside the steel bunker. I have natural echolocation? Incredible!
From those vibrations alone, I detect four people stuck inside. But how do I get through? Using my new arm, I start punching the wall. It leaves a huge dent. So I keep punching. And punching. And punching. But I can't get through to the other side. I think to myself: if only I had a drill. And just as that thought entered my mind, my metal arm became a drill. What is this technology? I made the thought to make it spin, and it started spinning, drilling a hole through the many inches thick steel to reach the four people who are stuck inside. They thanked me as they ran out, but one of them had a broken leg. They aren't going to get far with just their friends helping them. I went over and picked all four of them up. One on my back, two over my shoulders and the one with the broken leg in my arms. With all four secured, I ran them over to the ambulances. Putting them down to be taken care of, I take off again, getting faster each time.
The next person I came across seemed to be trying to lift a large steel I-Beam. "Please help! My fiancee is under here!" I usher her out of the way and clasp the beam. Lifting it effortlessly, the fiancee crawls out from underneath and, once he was clear, I put the beam back down again and rushed the engaged couple over to the doctors. And again, I raced back to rescue some more trapped people. As the minutes ticked by, more and more people were being rushed to hospital thanks to my vigilance and speed. After about 45 minutes of rescuing, I had finally completed my task. And now to confront the doctor from earlier.
"Hey! You said you created this arm!"
"Yes. N.A.D.A is my creation." he answered, "N.A.D.A stands for Nanotech Appendage Designed for Assault. The nanotech is what makes it amazing, when you think it responds and transforms. An arm like that is well-deserving of one such as yourself. It's just a more advanced version what mine is." He lifted up his sleeve to reveal a bionic arm similar to mine, except his is just silver and not blue as well. "Oh sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Dr Benjamin Lyons. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"Wait a minute. I know you!" I realised whilst I took and shook his outstretched robotic hand.
"You do? That's surprising."
"Yeah! Ricky and Holly told me before they.."
"Before they died?" he asked, solemnly.
"How do you?"
"Me and my colleague held a secret funeral for them after we collected your body. We carved gravestones for them and buried them in the woods they said they liked to play in when they were kids."
"That's incredibly kind of you. And I presume that your colleague is Dr Reede?"
"That would be me, yes!" she said, appearing from an ambulance, "Sorry, I was helping one of the survivors. I'm Dr Sophie Reede, pleasure to meet you."
"The pleasure is all mine." We shook hands. "Do you two know what or who caused this explosion?"
"Yes. Two people. Or beings, shall we say." Sophie replied, cryptically, "The first is A-120, or Agent 120, and goes by Shadow. I regret to say that, using my cloning technology, I was forced to create him. You see, after Operation: Guillotine, Black Star took us in as 'science slaves'. Shadow was an attempt to clone you, but we had no DNA samples of you, so he's only a near-perfect copy. The only edge he'd have on you is the fact that he can manipulate shadows. Hence the name."
"Ok, got that." I mentally noted, "Who was the second?"
"You, Flint."
"What? That's insane!"
"Well, it isn't," Ben corrected, "We had planned to free you before Black Star could obtain too much of your DNA. However, they may have taken more than we think. We did free you, then Shadow and two other unfortunate replicants of you came in to kill us. But you saved us. Subconsciously."
"That's why I felt weird when I woke up."
"Precisely. And I had no clue that you would be such a challenge, Flint."
A figure floated down behind me. He looked exactly like me, but was entirely pitch black, like a walking void. His eyes were crazily spiralled. "I assume that you're Shadow?"
"I am he." He said with soul wrenching egoism, "And I am the one who shall bring an end to your life."
"Unlikely, mate." I retorted back. Before I could take a first step, two other people stepped out from behind the rubble. One is on all fours, with what seems like a lion's mane-style hairstyle. The other is very maneuverable, with scale-like skin. What's creepy though is that they, including Shadow, look exactly like I do.
"My two associates here are also clones of you. But they have an addition: animal genes. On the left is A-118, also known as Snake. To my right is Lion, better known as A-119."
"So Black Star has brought back the Agent Project, eh?"
"Indeed we have. You two: get them." Lion and Snake both immediately came and attacked me. Snake thrusted her arm at me, stretching it with insane speed. Fast enough to rival even the likes of me. At the end of her arm were a set of snake teeth, with green venom dripping from their points. I smacked it out of the way and ran to counter attack. But I couldn't. Snake's arm shot back around and wrapped up my body. Struggling to break free, I was thrown towards Lion. He then axe kicked me straight into the ground, knocking the wind out of me completely. Lion claws went directly to my throat. Rolling out of the way, I sunk my knee into his stomach, making him fly backwards. I stood and used this opportunity to experiment with N.A.D.A. The first thing that came to my head was a counter to the claws and snake arm: a shield. When that thought came into my head, it almost instantly formed from the nanoparticles that made up my arm. It's incredible how far technology has come in the 30 years I was asleep for.
Snake went to bite me with his long arms, but I parried them and went for an attack. I smacked her across the face, then deflected Lion's claws away. When Lion got up, he looked past me and started sprinting towards the ambulances. Dr Lyons and Reede! I ran and easily caught up with him, kicking him out of the way. He recovered and scrambled back to attack me in retaliation.
"Flint! Take this! I'm sure you know how to use it!" Dr Reede tossed me a silver bracelet, and I already knew what it was. My grappling hook. I grabbed it out of the air, slapped it onto my wrist, and brought out the sword. Lion had reached me and jumped to pounce on top of me. Landing on my shield, I threw him off and sliced his lower leg off as he went.
When he landed, his leg grew back really fast. About half the time it would take for me, but still fast. No wonder he's a clone of me. From the corner of my eye, I could see Snake's arms stretch out. I couldn't deflect them in time, though, and my shoulders got bitten by the teeth. Venom began to seep into my veins, weakening me. My right arm stopped working, and the blade retracted. The venom also seemed to stop any thoughts from reaching N.A.D.A, so both of my arms are out of commission. Great. Just great. Snake then jumped and pulled herself towards me, striking me in the chest with both of her feet. I was knocked the ground and could barely lift myself up with just my legs. Lion pierced my chest with his claws and picked me up. He then began to repeatedly punch me in the stomach. I couldn't use my arms to block him, but my regeneration meant that no harm could come to me, yet being in a perpetual state of pain is agonising. But somehow, likely with my advanced senses, I could hear Snake slithering up behind me. I could feel her reach for my mask. "NO!" I shouted, in rage. And in that fit of rage, a static burst flowed back into my shoulders. My arms work again! I grab Lion by the throat and punch him in the face. Breaking free from his clasp, I turned and palm thrusted Snake before she could remove my mask. She flew back with insane force. And I knew why. I had unknowingly activated Plasmatic Mode.
"Now this is the type of power I like to see, Flint!" Shadow shouted down to me, pridefully. I decided to ignore him. It's not his turn to get bodied yet. Turning to Snake, I pointed my fingers and clicked. Just like with my fight against Rachel, lightning shot out and struck her in the chest. In anger, I sent out a barrage of lightning blasts. I could sense that Shadow was smirking at me, likely waiting for when we eventually fight. In spite of this, I kept firing at Snake. Relentlessly. Not giving up for anyone. It wasn't doing a lot of damage, though, because Snake's scales were absorbing a lot of the damage. Giving up on the finger clicking, I sprinted over to Snake, charging up energy into my fist and legs. With my fist, I uppercutted her with titanic strength and, with the energy stored in my legs, I jumped up to her and subsequently axe kicked her all the way back into the ground. And when I landed, I saw her body parts scattered across the ruins of the laboratory. Snake was dead.
When I landed back down to Earth, I collapsed from over-exertion. I gradually opened my eyes and felt Lion dragging me over towards Shadow. "What a show! I never thought you'd be able to kill her! I am genuinely impressed, Flint."
"Go to Hell, dickweed."
"Now now, there's no need for profanities. I just need something from you. Don't worry, it isn't anything bad."
"What is it then?"
"Your DNA."
"WHAT? No! There's no way I'm gonna be giving you that any time soon!"
"Oh, but I asked nicely!" He said, attempting to make his white eyes become pleading. All it did was make him look more like a pompous prick.
"Why do you need it, anyway?"
"Well, I suppose I can. I mean, there's no way that you can surpass me and win anyway." He began to elaborate on his scheme, "In this laboratory, we were experimenting to try and create a perfect clone of you. Black Star wanted to use you to take over the world, but because you had to go and play hero, we had to think up another solution. And what's a better solution than cloning you?"
"So you tried to restart the Agent program?"
"Well, aren't you a clever boy!" He answered cockily, ruffling my hair, "Yes. Black Star had Agent 97, but not Agent 98, which, of course, is you. So we created more Agents in the hope of getting. And I am the closest clone that they got. Because I was the closest, the higher ups put me into their group, better known as the Four. Lion and Snake were also close, but Agents 99 through 117 were total failures. We kept them in cryostasis in this once laboratory." He gestured to the expansive rubble, "And with your DNA, we can create an entire army of Flints!"
"That's actually a solid plan." I said in response to his monologue, "Have you ever gotten as close as you a second time?"
"Well, no. When I was created, your two new best friends over there took the chemical samples used to make me and destroyed them. Then we had to start from scratch again. And we kept failing. And failing. And failing some more. But whilst we were cloning, our grip that we had on the world tightened, and it grabbed the attention of our worst enemies: the Gods."
"Gods?!" I said, shocked, "They actually exist?!"
"Oh yes. They all do. Gods of Music, the Sea and War, Goddesses of Love, Wisdom and even of Dragons!" This was a major shock to my system. Black Star were trying to challenge the Gods? But why? "So in our attempt to create a perfect copy of you, we changed our plans. Create a being that could surpass you, and even kill Gods! We took him into our group, and the Four became the Five! He became A-150, or as we call him, Godkiller."
"A being that can kill Gods? Has he killed any yet?"
"Not yet. But he will. In time. But what we need to do right now is revive our failed experiments with your DNA! And then we will have an army to destroy the Realm of Gods for good!"
"So all you need is my DNA to do that?"
"Exactly! And all I'll have to do is make you bleed!" he punched me directly on the temple, and cut a large gash in my head. Blood poured everywhere. But Shadow couldn't collect any. Because of my incredibly accelerated healing, my blood retracted back inside my body, sealing my wound. His eyes widened in shock, and he tried punching me again. But that's how I heal. The blood is absorbed back into my body. And because my blood cells reproduce at such an alarming rate, I have so much blood that I heal almost instantly, depending on the severity of the injury. He kept punching me in different places, unable to extract any blood from me. "What? Impossible!"
"Shadow. It's 2050. I doubt that anything is impossible." I broke free of the hold that Lion had on me and then kicked Shadow in the jaw. He flinched, but barely moved. Slowly craning his neck to look back at me, he looked like he was holding a ball. He was! Shadow had charged up a dark ball of energy, and he slammed it straight into my abdomen. I flew back and was caught by someone. Shadow! He had sped round behind me, grabbed me by the back of the head, and slammed my face straight into the ground. He made a crater in the earth, making a shockwave that seemed to lift the rubble off of the ground. As he walked away from me, I lifted myself up to see where he was.
"You cannot defeat me, Flint! Especially not against my shadows!"
He then floated up into the air and flew away, with Lion sprinting behind him. What am I supposed to do to catch up?
"Sophie! Ben!" I called out, "Do you have any idea where he could be going?"
"Yes we do!" Ben shouted. I ran over to him, and he grabbed N.A.D.A, opened up a keypad on it, and entered some numbers. A screen then appeared with an arrow on it, like it's an built-in GPS system.
"It's a built-in GPS system." Ben told me, "We put trackers in all of our creations, so we can know where they are at all times.
"Ben put in the code to start tracking Shadow." Sophie added, "so what are you waiting for? Go get 'em, tiger!"
"I will!" I said back, before activating Plasmatic Mode, and sprinting in the direction of Shadow.
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