The hallway echoed with activity as the guards chased after them. Brad did not care he had only one thing on his mind, and that was that his best friend, Jenny Wakemen was about to die. The cold, silver walls reflected the five figures as they ran down the corridor. Gunshots fired from behind them as they ran through the restricted area.

"Stop!" shouted one of the guards through his echoing face-mask, before firing another round at the legs of the fugitives. Mr. Black turned a 180, his arm transforming into some sort of laser contraption in a puff of smoke. He fired the weapon sending volts of electricity flowing into the guard's body, blowing the man in half, showing his comrades in gore. The blood no longer effected Brad, not after this far. Not after all the blood that had been spilt, on his hands and all the blood that will be spilt if he does not stop the death of Jenny.

They turned the corner, a large metal blast door was all that stood between them and the apocalypse.

"It'll be shut tight." Said Black, his arm transforming back into a humanoid arm, and back into faux human flesh.

"Gerardo. Do you think you can crack this?" Spoke Ms. Wakemen.

"Is that a question" Spoke the grotesque Irish, half man-half machine. He lifted his mechanical arm, its four electrodes gouging into the control panel and the information flooded into him.

"Hustle up, we've got company." Spoke Black, as a squad of fully armored soldiers turned the corner. Black transformed his arm into a blast shield, deflecting the bullets and plasma bolts with ease. Gerardo grunted and the door-jam split, opening the portal to the other room. Within it, the saw a comity of observers of numerous species over- looking at the procedure take place on the other side of a bullet proof glass window. Only the human ones turned their gaze from the operation. The others stayed focused on the marvel of science that lay before them.

"Stop it now!" Shouted Brad, his voice longing for breath. "You have no idea what you're doing!"

He made a quick glance at the operating room on the other side. They had Jenny laid down, offline, and her head split open. Directly across from her was the machine that would end mankind. He had never seen on before, they were silver endoskeletons that looked as if they could stand 7ft tall.

"By Khaine." Cursed his alien friend "Stop! You'll kill us all!"

"Jenny!" Shouted Brad

A sharp pain shot up the back of his neck as the butt of a gun was driven deep into it. The others in the party were taken down in a similar method. Black didn't go down at first, the over-seers scattered to the corner of the room as the fugitives were beaten and pulled away from the scene. As Brad lingered out of consciousness, he saw a flash of bluish green light fill up the room.

"Jenny," He whispered again as he shut his eyes, and fainted from reality.

And the clock struck midnight.

4 weeks earlier

He looked up from the ashen ruins, the flames lashed out towards his body. The sky was dead, the sun was black. The people of Tremorton could do nothing without their patron goddess. He could do nothing as well. He watched as a young man had his flesh ripped off by one of the invaders. The machine-man had claws instead of fingers, used for scissoring apart bodies.

He wept as the warriors marched down the streets shooting arcs of green light from their glowing weapons. A crowd of people were reduced to ashen skeletons as their atoms were ripped from their bodies. He dropped to his knees and screamed as the fate of this once great world was shown to him in excruciating detail.

A figure now stood above him, small insect like machines flew around him. He knew exactly what he was as he looked up seeing the silhouette of the cause of all of this chaos and death. It stood, broad shouldered and emotionless. Green light of his minion's weapons reflected off of his metal body. He could do nothing but stare into its glowing eyes with scorn as it lifted him from by his neck.

Its metal claws squeezed down on his windpipe, forcing his breath from his lungs like a tube of toothpaste. As he died in the hands of this ancient, silent enemy, it cocked its head, and for the first time in millennia, it spoke proudly:

"It's 97 degrees out today so make sure you wear lots of sun block because it's going to be a scorcher in Tremorton. Now for those of you who are fans of the oldies, here's 'Behind Blue Eyes' by the Who"

"Huh?" Responded the man as his breath re-entered his lungs. The machine dropped him into blackness and the world around him faded.

Ben jolted awake, sitting straight up. Beads of sweat rolled down his pale flesh. He looked around his apartment and notice that he was still alive, and nothing was ablaze. He rubbed his face and punched the radio on his night stand blindly. He sat in a daze for a few more moments to really allow his mind to re-enter reality. He closed his lavender eyes, and began pacing his breathing in a meditative trance for a few moments.

When he opened them, his body had completely cooled, his slender, yet athletic body was riddled with goose-bumps. He looked at his clock and realized he had to be at school for the first time in 30 minutes.

"So primitive" he said to himself, and rolled out of bed. He ran a brush through his medium length, black hair and put on his clothes. For a teenager he dressed rather sharply. He wore a white, button up shirt, black jeans, and a navy blue dress jacket. He looked at the mirror, believing his own façade. He grabbed his blue sunglasses that really did nothing to protect his eyes from the sun. The sat so low on his nose and they lenses were so small that they were obviously for looks. Yet looks can be deceiving.

Ben placed the non-sunglasses on his face and headed out the door and into the north-western town of Tremorton to be a high-school student for the first time.

Brad leaned against the light pole outside of the Wakemen home, listening to his iPod, waiting for his best friend to come out so they could walk to school together, like they always did. He was glad that Spring Break had ended, surprisingly. It meant that not only his senior year was approaching its end, but that his friend Jenny had returned from Seattle. She never said why she went, only that she needed to. She had been acting weird around him lately. Actually, she's just been weird to everyone. Not that normalcy is a good thing, but being her best friend he'd hope she's tell him when something was amiss.

At last the door opened, and he saw his mechanized friend walk out her house. He could see her talking to her mom, but couldn't hear anything. He pulled turned the music off but left them in so it didn't seem like he was evesdropping, and wearing a pair of sunglasses made it look like he wasn't even paying attention.

He didn't hear much, only that her mom was yelling at her, again. Ever since she used that government funding for a body reconstruction, thing between her and her mother were never the same. Who could blame Dr. Wakeman? Her daughter got money from the federal government and she used it for plastic surgery, in a sense. He had to admit, she did look good, even for a machine. She was… curvy, seemed to be the best way to say it. And now that she was wearing normal clothing, it kind of accentuated that.

She stormed away from her mom, and walked over toward Brad. He rectified himself and pulled his ear-buds out.

"Goodbye, mom!" She said with venom in her voice. "Hey Brad."

"Hey, Jen." He looked over his shoulder, her mother just shook her head and stepped back into the house. "More issues with you old-lady?"

"Yea." She said without taking her gaze off of the ground as they began their short walk to school.

"Is there something I can-"

"I don't want to talk about it okay?" She snapped. This time looking up at him.

"Okay! Fine! Sorry for wanting to help!" He knew she hated when he tried to guilt trip her. She didn't take bullshit like that. He kind of liked having a dominant female as a friend. Jenny was the kind of girl he'd date, but he never would. He never had any good reasons, just that he never would.

"So," He spoke again, cautiously. "How was spring break?"

No response.

"Well I had fun" said Brad "You missed it. Tuck tried an Indy on his skateboard by jumping off of this ramp like three times the size of something I would jump. Landed it! Ate it on a rock though."

Jenny smiled

"Hah! So it does feel"

"What's that supposed to mean?" the smile fading away.

"Nothing it was just a joke"

"'It does feel'? What did you mean by that?" She stopped walking.

Brad tipped his sunglasses down a bit. "You're serious. Jen, you know I don't think of you as a…"

"As a what?" She demanded

"You know… a-"

"An object? A piece of fiction?"

"No, that's not what I…" Brad tried to defend himself but she wouldn't take it.

"Whatever, let's just… go." Said the young woman, stomping past Brad.

Brad followed her, but just stayed a foot behind. Maybe it's that time of the month, he thought jokingly. But sadly he knew that something was amiss. Jenny was going through something tough, and Brad doesn't see it as a rebellious phase. He sees something much more than that. But what? Why would Jenny go to have all these procedures done to her? Just to look prettier? To wear human clothing? What was going on in the mind of this teenage robot?