Chapter 003: The Dimensional Express
"Hey, officer, what's going on up ahead?" Mason slumped back in his seat, concealing the blade still embedded in his chest.
The bio-reactor was compromised; if he rashly pulled out the knife, the core's reactive fluid would leak everywhere. Cleaning that up would be a nightmare, and it might leave forensic evidence he couldn't afford.
The spotlight shone directly on Mason's face, making him squint. "Citizen, present your identification now." Against the glare, Mason couldn't see the officer's face clearly, but he noticed the cop's voice had become noticeably harder.
He raised his hand to shield his eyes, using the movement to quickly scan his surroundings for a possible escape route.
To his left was a narrow alley, barely wide enough to squeeze through with the car. He was fairly familiar with this sector; turning into that alley should lead him to a scrapyard, where he might be able to use the terrain to lose any pursuit.
The problem was the cop standing directly in front of his vehicle. If Mason wanted to escape immediately, he'd have to run this guy down!
Vehicular homicide on a cop? Mason hesitated, the weight of that decision crushing down on him.
"Hands where I can see them, exit the vehicle! I need to verify your ID now!" When Mason didn't respond immediately, the officer grew suspicious. At his signal, several other cops took strategic positions around the vehicle, forming a complete perimeter.
A savage look flashed across Mason's face; survival instinct overrode everything else. He gritted his teeth and was about to floor the accelerator when a massive explosion suddenly erupted from the far end of the street. A police cruiser was flipped over and crashed into a pile of refuse on the roadside.
In the darkness, a slender figure appeared like a phantom, breaking through the police blockade in a blur of motion!
"All units! We have a rogue synthetic on the loose. Subject is equipped with military-grade exoskeleton armor and is extremely dangerous. Authorization granted for lethal force!"
A rapid transmission crackled from the comm unit on the officer's tactical vest, followed by a holographic display that materialized in the air. Within the projection, a woman with glowing red facial indicators was shown sprinting toward the end of the block, throwing aside several officers who tried to intercept her like rag dolls.
Although it was only a brief glimpse, Mason recognized her face—it was the same android who'd stabbed him! The combat plating on her limbs gave her superhuman strength; several heavily-built cops were tossed aside like children as she disappeared from sight in a series of impossible leaps.
"All units, pursue!"
The officer blocking Mason's path shouted, ripping off his jacket sleeve to reveal a chrome-plated cybernetic arm that gleamed menacingly under the streetlights. He gestured sharply, leading his fellow officers in hot pursuit of the fleeing android, completely forgetting about Mason.
Mason sat frozen in terror.
"Holy shit...!" Mason exhaled shakily, his back drenched in cold sweat.
A wave of delayed fear washed over him; if he'd hit the gas even one second earlier, he would've been torn apart by that metal arm. That cop was a cyborg—someone who'd replaced their original limbs with military-grade prosthetics, granting them strength far beyond human capability. Even if Mason had floored it, the guy probably could've stopped the car with his bare hands.
Starting the engine again, Mason turned into the side alley and made his way home without further incident.
He lived on the outskirts of the border city, in what looked like a run-down tenement building from pre-War America. Although the security was virtually nonexistent, the rent was dirt cheap, and no biometric registration was required.
To be honest, most of the people living here were like Mason—off-grid outcasts trying to survive in the cracks of society.
Kicking aside the garbage blocking his door, Mason stumbled inside, locked the deadbolt, and collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud. His artificial heart was racing, his mouth felt like sandpaper, and critical warnings scrolled across his vision; his power reserves were on the verge of complete failure.
With a violent tear, he ripped open his shirt, revealing a circular aperture embedded in the center of his chest—like something straight out of Iron Man. A gleaming combat knife was still lodged in it. Mason struggled with it for several moments, only to discover that the blade had damaged the reactor's access mechanism. He had no choice but to wrench the knife out with brute force.
Splurt!
A slightly viscous, chemical-smelling fluid spurted from the damaged core. Mason was now intensely grateful that he hadn't pulled out the blade in Mr. Hansen's apartment; otherwise, just from this distinct odor, forensic investigators would've definitely been able to trace it back to him.
"WARNING! WARNING! CRITICAL POWER LEVEL!"
"RECHARGE IMMEDIATELY!"
The glaring text flashed across his vision. Mason's hands trembled as he pried open the reactor housing and extracted the ruptured bio-battery. The device was leaking electrolyte fluid, sticky to the touch, like liquefied organs.
"I need to recharge this thing fast, otherwise if the power runs out completely, I'm actually dead!" Mason fumbled for his charging cable and examined it helplessly.
On the reactor housing, there was originally a triangular port that could feed electrical energy into the bio-battery implanted in his body. The battery would then distribute power throughout his system through a specialized neural interface.
Now the bio-battery was destroyed, and the charging port on the reactor's surface was torn to shreds. Mason stared at the charging cable in his hand, momentarily stumped.
"Should I just... plug straight into the mains?" Mason shook his head and quickly abandoned that suicidal idea. If he connected directly to wall current, he'd probably fry his circuits instantly—assuming he had circuits.
Just then, his smartwatch emitted a sharp buzzing sound. Mason flinched and hurriedly pulled a blanket over himself. Immediately afterward, a holographic screen popped up, and a burly man with a shaved head and a glowing cybernetic eye appeared in front of Mason.
"Mason, where the hell are you? Didn't you finish today's delivery?"
"Hey, Vic, package was delivered to the client. Just got home. What's up?" Mason wiped the sweat from his forehead and tried to sound casual.
As the lowest-tier Runners, they served various criminal syndicates and black market organizations, and were required to report back immediately after each delivery mission. This was partly to verify their couriers hadn't been killed, and partly to prevent them from running off with valuable merchandise.
The smartwatch on his wrist doubled as a GPS tracker.
"Since the goods are delivered, hurry up and close out the job. I thought you'd made off with the merchandise after taking this long. Be faster next time!" Vic growled, a red light pulsing in his cybernetic eye as if he were running a lie detection algorithm on Mason's biometrics.
"You got it," Mason assured him. He closed the comm channel and pulled up his mission interface, rapidly submitting the completed job.
In his frantic button-mashing, Mason didn't notice that he'd accidentally opened a strange new interface that he'd never seen before. On it, several glowing words were clearly displayed in retro-futuristic neon lettering:
"DIMENSIONAL EXPRESS COMPANY!"
Below that, in smaller text:
"When it absolutely, positively has to get there... across space and time."
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[+10 Reviews = +1 Extra Chapter]
If you enjoyed this chapter, leave a Review!
P*atreon/DarkFoxx (20+ advanced chapters)