Thank you everyone for taking an interest in my story. I hope you enjoy what is to come.
Terminator
Bond of Steel and Bone
Chapter 2
Girls. Guns. Computers and Food.
To John, nothing would ever feel so mundane, so pointless as what he was doing now; going to school. He knew what he needed to know, he didn't need to know about some English poet who'd been dead hundreds of years, he didn't need to know the geographical layout of the world. Well actually now that he thought about he might need that, for when Skynet attacks and he needed to set out plans and possible traps for Skynet forces. Math he didn't think he'd need. He guessed some of his Resistance members would be adequate at mathematics.
John groaned to himself how school was pointless, but at least it was something to preoccupy himself, maybe Riley would be in today, he had noticed the girl liked to skip school a lot, not that he'd complain, he did too if given enough reason.
The walk to school had been quiet, uncomfortably quiet. John's eyes rarely moved from in front of him, only turning to check the traffic as he crossed the road, Cameron however though she kept pace with John, her eyes were always subtly looking everywhere, scanning the area for threats.
After so much silence a thought came to Cameron.
"John?" She asked as she turned to look at him, she watched as John shook his head as if awakening from a daze, he turned to look at her a raised a curious brow implying for her to continue. "What do you see in Riley?" she asked.
John blinked for a moment not totally comprehending what she had asked, his mind stuttered for a moment, what did he see in Riley? She was lively, a bit too lively for his taste, but lively none the less. She was cute, not what he'd call beautiful, his vision of beauty was something more along the lines of ... John stopped that train thought before it got too far, a slight blush rushing over his cheeks, she was human, Riley was human, that much was okay he guessed. To be honest he really couldn't see what his attraction was to her. Was she just an excuse for him to escape from his horrific world that was his life?
"Well…" John finally said as he got his mind into order. "She makes me laugh, and I enjoy spending time with her." He lied to Cameron, a bit too easily he noticed, lying in the Connor family was a trait they'd mastered down to a tee. They were professionals at lying and could be given the black belt in the ancient arts of lying. "She just you know? She makes me feel normal." He concluded with a fake smile.
For all John's lying expertise, lying to Cameron was difficult to nigh impossible, her advanced sensors could detect when someone was lying, however from her experience in living with John and Sarah Connor, she had found them to be very good at it; lying. Sometimes even her sensors could be fooled, now was not one of those times. She hesitated to point out the fact he was lying, but let it slide, to do so could further distance him from her, she analyzed that if John felt like he could get away with such a thing, he'd perhaps feel more confidant around her, this could improve their relationship. Such subterfuge she decided was necessary
"I see. But do you think she is beautiful?" Cameron asked staring into his eyes. John blinked once in confusion Cameron decided to elaborate her question. "You did not mention nor compliment her physical appearence. Do you not find her physically appealing?" Cameron asked.
'Fuck.' John thought, she'd caught him on something, not the fact that he was lying or so he thought, but on the fact he never mentioned Riley's appearance.
"I'm not that shallow," John replied with a false offended tone. "I can see past a girl's looks you know, I'm not a pig," John explained, "and if you must know, I do find Riley nice looking." John concluded confidantly.
Cameron tilted her head as she furrowed her brow analyzing all that he had said. "I know you are not a pig John, pigs are of the bovine family; you are human." Cameron tilted her head back to a straight position watching as John chuckled.
"No, 'being a pig' means that you think like an animal, and look at women just for their physical appearance, or something like that anyway." John had guessed that was what the term meant, he'd heard it in context before but never really looked up the true definition.
"I know. I fooled you John." Cameron replied in a good natured manner, a tiny smile on her face. John stared at her for a moment before a small lopsided grin formed over his lips, then looked ahead again, the tiny grin growing into a small smile like Cameron's.
Cameron looked at John for another moment, analyzing his feature before looking straight ahead as he had done. John was smiling, for the moment he seemed at ease. She knew her previous methods had been not only ineffective but further damaging what she was trying to fix, push him further away from herself and towards Riley and she now would have to be careful with her words and actions if she were to improve her status quo between herself and John. Thus far her newest method seemed to be garnering positive results. She would have to tread carefully.
Finally the two entered the school grounds and walked up towards the school doors.
"Hey John!" came a familiar voice from behind them, John and Cameron stopped and turned around, John having a small smile on his face Cameron looking otherwise uncaring.
It was Riley. The young blonde girl ran up and hugged John. Cameron noticed John tense up, however minimal it was, she noticed it. Cameron realised he wasn't as comfortable around Riley as he said he was. She watched as John gave Riley a smile then slowly put one arm around the girl and pat her on her back.
"Hey Riley," John said doing his best to sound as happy to see her as she was apparently to see him. To his own credit he sounded happy enough.
"So John, you have fun yesterday?" Riley smiled at him, John smiled back to her as Cameron looked between Riley and John confused.
"Yeah Riley it was great fun," he continued to smile, his own not sounding overly enthusiastic.
"Fun? What did you do yesterday John?" Cameron asked now only hearing about something which had happened.
"Oh I took John out for some fun. Sorry you couldn't be there but you were … where?" Riley asked, her hands still clinging to John as she turned to look at Cameron.
Cameron had been out following some leads Sarah was looking into regarding the three dots and hopefully Skynet. Her mission took her to the far end of the city and was away for most of the day, in the end the lead ended up in a pile of corpses of Mexican drug runners using a symbol similar to the formation of the three dots, and were dealing in stolen computers, nothing even similar to Skynet activity, and all Cameron had to show for her effort were some bullet wounds, wounds she reminded herself she had to tend too, her thoughts about John such as from the previous night had uncharacteristically distracted her from other similar tasks.
"Mom called school and informed them I had a virus. It was nothing a little sleep and soup couldn't cure," Cameron informed the annoying blonde of the cover story, her gaze turned towards John, "right John?" she asked him, having him back the story.
Riley looked from Cameron up to John who nodded slowly while scratching the back of his head with his left hand.
"Yeah, Cameron wasn't feeling too well, we thought she was catching a cold, thankfully whatever it was, was gone by the end of the day." John informed his 'girlfriend' or so she called herself.
Riley seemed uncaring either way and shrugged.
"Well I'm so happy you're back here instead of in bed, away from John" she said with obvious sarcasm in her voice.
"So am I." Cameron said choosing to ignore the sarcastic tone and stare daggers at Riley causing the girl to flinch noticeably.
The trio turned and walked into school going to their home room and sat at their designated desks. John put his bag under his desk then laid his head on the desk itself before closing his eyes. Cameron looked at him and was about to inquire about his health when Riley spoke up.
"What's the matter John? No sleep?" she chuckled a little to herself as John turned his head to look at her and opened one eye.
"Yeah plenty of sleep." He said sarcastically. "But I just wanna rest my eyes." His words were barely understandable, but Riley could understand, just. She shook her head and chuckled again before leaning back in her seat.
Cameron narrowed her eyes at the blonde girl. Her CPU listing multiple possibilities at the girl's termination, to simple things as merely shooting her in the head, ranging up to breaking her neck, all the way too tying her up, gagging her and sawing her in half with a rusty hacksaw. The last thought made Cameron's mouth twitch into a small almost unreadable smirk. She looked back to John who was once again resting his forehead on the desk, his eyes closed.
'If Riley cared as much as she should she'd be worried about John's health' she thought, taking this as her opportunity to further their relationship Cameron leaned forward towards John.
"John, is something wrong?" she whispered not wanting to draw much attention to others, John turned to look at her and opened both his eyes.
"No I'm fine, just a little migraine, it'll pass." He explained hoping it would suit his cyborg protector.
"If it gets worse inform me, I'll try and find some pain killers." She said looking at him intently, John noticed her look and gave her a small yet genuine smile.
"Thanks, I guess." He said just as the sound of footsteps were heard at the front of the class.
"Alright Class," said the classes' teacher; Mr Henrikson, "time for role call." he spoke just as the school bell rang outside signalling for students to enter their home-rooms immediately.
Derek Reese sat on the floor in the basement, reloading the magazines of their various sidearms and small-arms with their allotted calibre rounds. His eyes and hands worked expertly as they dismantled and reassembled the various guns the Connors had acquired since their first move through time. A collection of Glock 17 9mms. Not including Cameron's personal one she keeps in her room when unable to carry it. His own Beretta M92fs lay just at his feet already gone through his strict maintenance check, his hands already working on Sarah's Smith & Wesson automatic 45 calibre. He chuckled to himself as he worked the slide from the gun.
'Big gun for a little lady' he shook his head, knowing Sarah would hit him if she heard him. He looked over the slide checking every detail like it was a piece of fine art before inspecting the rest of the pistol, once satisfied he reassembled the pistol and slid the magazine back into the grip and racked the slide chambering a round, then flicked on the safety.
Derek looked up to the rest of what he had to do which included Sarah's Remington shotgun and the Benelli M1 shotgun Cameron had picked up and used to destroy Cromartie in Mexico.
'Good fucking riddance.' He thought to himself as he remembered the relentless Terminator.
The Resistance fighter shook his head, groaned tiredly to himself, still suffering from his hangover knowing he'd over done it on the alcohol again the night before. His favourite pass time, other than blowing away metals, was checking the tool of his trade as he was doing now, it was like his own style of meditation, it brought him peace and calm, allowing him to be alone with the things he could count on most; firearms. He stood up turning away from the assorted weapons and left for the kitchen.
Once there he found Sarah had already left, he hadn't noticed her departure nor notice her drive away, so focused was he in his own thoughts as his hands worked their routine over the weapons. He walked to the fridge, opened it and gazed inside at what he could aid in the removal of his dreadful hangover.
"Salad, left over pancakes from this morning- no thank you. Meatloaf, I'd rather listen to him sing." He grumbled quietly to himself his hands moving into the fridge and began to rake around for some edible and tasty. Finally he came to small packet of bacon, and shrugged to himself as an idea spawned in his mind he grabbed the packet then grabbed an onion as well, he closed the fridge door.
Derek walked back into the basement a small plate stacked with a multi layered bacon cheese burger with fried onions with ketchup and mustard.
"Calories?" he said to no one in particular at the time he was cooking the bacon and the burgers which he found in the freezer. "Go fuck yourself" he had chuckled. Life living on scraps of coyote would lead a person not to care about what they ate. What he had now would be considered a delicacy back in 2027.
Burger assembled, Derek headed back to the basement, sat back down in his previous position and placed the colossal burger beside him. He picked up a Heckler and Koch MP5K compact submachine gun, a weapon they'd taken from Cromartie along with several magazines and boxes of ammunition from the machine's car. He checked over the weapon, while thinking about current events. After so long they'd finally gotten rid of Cromartie, the bastard Machine nightmare that had stalked him and the Connors for months, only to have the damn thing vanish without a trace later on. He suspected James Ellison, but Cameron had already interrogated him thoroughly, or so John had told him and Sarah.
Checking the weapon he held was alright he placed it by his side then picked up his large sandwich, he looked it over, squashing it a bit trying to get it to fit into his mouth, ketchup and mustard oozed from the side, to no avail, he cursed human inability to open their mouths wider. He took a bite from the side, letting the flavours hit his tongue, he chuckled and moaned in delight, he was no chef, but the damned thing tasted good. The perks to going back in time he had told himself.
Placing it back down he licked sauce and small bits of onion from around his mouth then picked up the standard full sized MP5A2s he and Sarah had used against the previously mention assassin. Derek looked over one of the submachine guns taking in its appearance, and his knowledge of the weapon. During the early years of the war he had used an A3 version of this gun, with a collapsible stock, a sight attached to the top and a flashlight under the barrel, real SWAT styled weapon, it was an old favourite, he had found it in good condition in a destroyed police station; somehow it, a few magazines and some boxes of ammo had survived, and he had used that weapon to fight some older model beyond a series 500 though. He sighed.
He checked over the two weapons before putting them back. Derek continued to sort through the weapons for his high standards of conditioning while taking bites out of his food.
Back at school the lunch bell rang signalling the end of class. John groaned as his stomach growled, his mother's pancakes were as filling as they were tasty, which left much wanted out of a meal such as breakfast.
'If I don't eat, Skynet won't NEED to send a machine to kill me' he thought glumly as his stomach growled more. John moved through the crowd of students towards the cafeteria, hoping there would be at least some chicken on, or maybe even some decent pizza, God willing anyway.
"Hey John!" Riley called out as she squeezed past two students and ran up to John. "John can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked smiling at him.
"You mind if we walk and talk? I'm really hungry." He asked Riley, she smiled in return and nodded. The two began to walk together to the cafeteria, John didn't notice he had somehow lost Cameron in the crowd, he guessed Morris had slowed her down somewhere trying to ask her out on a date, or something else as suicidal.
"Right well. A friend of a friend was able to get tickets to this cool club downtown, and I was wondering if you wanted to go …" Riley paused looking around before leaning closer. "Word on the street is the club sells alcohol to underage kids for some extra money. A little more pricey than usual but totally worth it, you wanna go?" she smiled a large toothy smile to him.
John for his part had picked up the main parts of what Riley was telling him, club, tickets, alcohol, it sounded at the very least like an interesting night out
"Ugh sure, sure, sounds fun." He replied, currently more focussed on filling the hole in his stomach.
"Awesome! We'd have to go tonight at the latest since the tickets become null and void by one in the morning." She said feeling a little awkward at the moment, John looked at her briefly but shrugged.
"Yeah sure that's cool. Meet up at about seven or right tonight?" he asked.
"Could you make it six-thirty? Then we can hang longer," she asked back smiling.
"I guess so." He said as they finally reached the cafeteria.
Unknown to them Cameron hadn't been too far away she had seen Riley move towards John and had hung back in order to ease drop on them, she didn't know what happened the other day, but she'd find out sooner or later, however she would not leave John alone this time. Especially with that bitch-whore.
Cameron did a quick scan of her calorie intake, scanning through what further things such as fat, sugar, and proteins she needed in order to keep her organic sheath looking as it did and ensure her wounds healed at the quickest speed, once she removed the bullets that is. She found she needed to ingest a few more calories and such before her metaphorical tank was filled. With this Cameron followed John and Riley into the cafeteria, she too hoped there would be at least something remotely edible inside.
In the line for the food John found himself between Riley and Cameron. To other men, being stuck between two women who for their own reasons wanted you with a passion, is an ideal situation. To John, it's incredibly awkward. Turning back to look at Cameron he would catch her either staring blankly at him, or scowling in Riley's direction as if John himself wasn't there, if he looked ahead he would find Riley either smiling up at him showing her pearly white teeth or trying to hide herself from Cameron using John as a barrier.
John groaned to himself letting out a long drawn out sigh. He could just barely hear himself think over the sound of talking around the cafeteria and that was before the jocks entered. In this school, and supposedly many other schools across The United States; jocks thought themselves better than everyone else, the teachers didn't seem to care, especially since these certain jocks were going to be in some form of big league, possibly put this school on the map, get some reputation, maybe even a large sum of prize money. With all this in mind the jocks were more or less treated like kings or gods, the majority of girls fell to the jocks feet in worship, the geeks paid them not to have the snot kicked out of them. It was all a little too clique.
'Like they were ripped out of a terrible movie' John thought to himself as the jocks grabbed trays and pushed into the crowd. One unfortunate jock pushed infront of John making him stumble back only to have Cameron catch him from tripping over himself. Cameron looked towards Riley to see if she would do anything to defend her … 'boyfriend'. Nothing; the timid girl looked down trying to not make eye contact. Cameron glared at the girl before turning her attention to the Jock.
"You're in John's place" she said, John turned to looked at her hoping he could stop her from saying anything else. The jock ignored her, she narrowed her eyes further, giving him a cold death glare.
"Cameron it's fine," John tried to reason with her, "we can't draw attention to ourselves remeber?" he added as in a whisper. Normally she would have stopped, John was correct they couldn't bring attention to themselves. But something was wrong in her CPU, her hand twitched by her side, she wasn't letting it go.
"You are in John's place," she said raising her voice, the jock who had been looking over what he wanted finally turned to look at her, he grabbed John and moved him aside before looking down at her, the size difference was immediately noticeable, Cameron standing a fairly average five-foot-six was dwarfed by the over six foot football player.
"Or what freak? You gunna keep staring at me?" The Jock spat rudely as he poked Cameron in the chest just above her breast to try and further his dominance.
'Please don't kill him, please don't kill him.' John silently prayed that, hoping Cameron didn't kill the idiot in front of her who had no idea how close to death he truly was.
Cameron grabbed the boy's finger between her own index finger and her thumb and began to squeeze it, the jock yelped as pain rushed through his arm as he felt the pressure around his bones.
"You were in John's place, I suggest you move to the back of the line. Now." Her cold tone of voice left no room for argument. The Jock whom was already on one knee started nodding his head frantically, Cameron let go and watched as the student, who was petting and caring for his finger like a new born child, moved to the back of the line his ego shattered.
Cameron turned to look at John and smiled, John walked back into his place, more than a few people were now watching them with looks of both horror, shock and amazement.
"What was that?" John asked in a hush voice.
"I was defending you" Cameron said rather proud of her act. John rubbed his forehead which was now sweating. He knew Cameron was to protect him from death or injury. But doing something like this? Something as mundane as defending his place in the lunch line of a half assed High School?
"The hell did you do?" came Riley's whiny voice, Cameron's smile immediately vanished as she turned to look at Riley, giving her, her patented blank facial expression.
"I was defending John. Something you should have done if you cared about him as much as you say," Cameron replied, her words came from her mouth before she even calculated a response, a look of confusion was seen in Cameron's eyes for a brief second, to many they wouldn't have noticed the difference, however John noticed. Riley just stared at Cameron with a look of surprise at such a response.
"I do care about John, but that guy was like a gorilla," Riley complained trying to defend herself.
"Incorrect, unlike popular belief Gorillas vary in size just as much as humans, while some subspecies of Gorilla can reach six foot, many reach around average human height, and while the boy may be strong, a Gorilla of any kind is far more powerful in terms of physical abilities, however you and I are about the same height and mass, yet it was I who defended John, why couldn't you?" Cameron reasoned and retorted back, she refused to lose an argument to this girl.
"Yeah well I don't have a death wish, like some mentally challenged people," Riley spat back before putting John between herself and Cameron.
John could see the look on Cameron's face and mentally groaned, Riley was just digging herself a deeper and deeper grave.
"Riley please don't make fun of Cameron, okay? And Cameron thank you for defending me but seriously it was fine." John said to Riley as he looked over his shoulder while lightly chastising Cameron and trying to defuse the situation at the same time.
Riley and Cameron both looked at him in mild surprise both for their own reasons.
"You're actually defending her? You hate your sister." Riley argued, Cameron tiled her head at John, a slight look of hurt on her face at Riley's words.
"I don't hate her Riley, sure she can get on my nerves, but we're only human right?" John replied looking over his shoulder again to look at Riley. Riley grimaced but said no more and John turned back around to face the right way in the line.
Cameron smiled at John, a tiny genuine smile.
The trio sat down at a free table away from others John sat next to Riley with Cameron opposite him. John looked down at his tray at the slice of pizza he had gotten for himself, the pizza itself looked like something that had been found in the back of a freezer from the year 1980, in short it looked unappetizing but his stomach grumbled hungrily, at this point he felt like he'd eat anything, anything except his mother's pancakes that is.
The sound of another tray touch the table was heard from beside Cameron, the three turned to look up at the owner of the tray.
"Hey guys!" A rather happy Morris called out as he sat down.
"Hey Morris." John replied giving his friend a smile.
John did kind of like Morris, he was the closest thing to an actual friend-friend he had, and John although would never show it, was rather appreciative about his relationship with Morris, the boy was nice, and helped John when he could. Morris was another of the few things John had which could be classed as "normal", something which made John feel at least somewhat like a normal teenager.
"Hey Cameron" Morris greeted enthusiastically, giving her his best smile. Cameron looked at him and gave him a brief smile to be polite.
It was no secret Morris had a thing for Cameron, she herself figured it out, rather reluctantly sometime after her CPU had become damaged, this little fact she decided was worrying, as she herself cared little for him, especially in the way he seemed to care for her.
The four, or rather Riley and Morris chatted between the other two while Cameron and John either replied to questions, or in terms of John pitched in little with the conversation. Cameron's focus staying mostly on John.
Before long they'd had their fill. John not so much due how appetising every meal he'd eaten thus far in the day had been. Cameron had noticed his expressions as he ate the unsavoury food. She herself could tell the food was bad, she didn't need such an advanced biological tasting system to tell her that.
Cameron made a note in the CPU to cook for John at a later date, something healthy would be preferable, but not what he had called "rabbit food", she brought up a list a foods John would like finally stopping on one she found suitable and filled all the criteria she'd listed.
'John would probably like steak. 83.6% of American males of John's age like steak.'
As they walked Cameron listed possibly spices, sauces and cooking styles that would maximize the taste and health value of a large piece of steak and couple it with various other foods.
Sarah walked out of a large computer company building dressed in a formal jacket, skirt and high heels, her hair had been done up into a bun while she wore glasses with standard glass as fake lenses, everything put together to make her look formal and professional which made her blend in with the meeting which had just occurred. She walked carefully towards her car, at the age of 35 and given the lifestyle she'd lived for about half of those years, she was not used to walking in high heels, she last time she had was in the early 80s. Thankfully Cameron and John had put together a simple series of answers and basic information that Sarah could just understand so that she would appear like someone interested in financing computer technology.
"Alright," Sarah said to herself quietly as she got into the back seat of her car then she swapped out her high heels for her more preferred combat boots, reaching into her hair she pulled out the hair bobble allowing her hair to hang down then shook her head to get it to settle back down into its usual place. She then moved and sat in the driver's seat before turning her car on and reversed out of the parking lot.
"Michael P. Hamburg" she said from memory, she had asked her interviewer who was the leading benefactor of a new series of computer technology. Not only was he rich from the success from the technology patented and sold by his company, he along with two others were the leading minds in creating the technology. To Sarah this was ominous: on one hand it could have been something as harmless as a new generation of laptops or something, however on the other hand, they could be building the ground work of Skynet. Damn it all, it felt like the Turk all over again.
She considered sending Cameron to look in on the guy, possibly come up with some cover story then again while she was able to fool a few people, she couldn't fool everyone but the Machine at least would have a better idea of what to ask and understand more techno babble.
Sarah groaned and shook her head, even during the interview she could just keep up with what was being said, she knew she wasn't a technological whiz like John was, but she thought she'd have learned SOMETHING by now. Hell she couldn't figure out computers back in the 90s let alone now.
"I need some food, or I'm gunna start eating the car." She groaned to herself before pulling over to a small diner.
The rest of the school day had gone along as John would have expected; boring. At least it was the weekend now, two whole days of no school. He almost felt like a normal kid with that shared mind set, he hated school and loved weekends.
"I'll see you later John!" Riley called out as she waved bye to him, to which he replied with a half-hearted raise of his hand.
"Thank god that's over," John groaned quietly to no one in particular as he and Cameron turned and walked towards home.
"I know. Riley's presence is insufferable." Cameron commented in return.
John looked at her curiously with a raise brow of confusion.
"Don't start again with Riley, Cameron. She's just being nice." He said with a little frustration.
Cameron sensed his frustration, and quickly sought out a suitable response.
"I'm sorry John. I'm sure Riley is a nice person." she lied to John in her monotone voice, not stating it was actually him who seemed happy the blonde was gone.
John put his hand over his mouth to cover a chuckle. Though others wouldn't be able to tell, John could tell she was lying, he seemed to know her well enough.
Cameron gave John a curious look, before looking ahead scanning for any possible threats. She would never like Riley. It would take something phenomenal to make Cameron like Riley, but until that event happened, she would always hold the girl with disinterest and categories her as a threat. In truth Cameron would have terminated her the day she saw her if John would not have been so hurt by the event. But too little too late; Riley loved John, and John it seemed tolerated Riley. Cameron was sure he didn't truly return her love, at least not to such an extent.
She knew of Riley's plan to take John out tonight, so she would follow and protect him from a distance in case of danger, or Riley decided to get too comfortable with John.
Later during the day, John was in his room listening to music trying to relax as Cameron opened the front door to the house and stepped in just coming back from patrol.
"See anything?" Sarah asked as she looked through a large plastic menu.
"No threats." Cameron said and paused for a moment as if recalling everything she saw. "There are five children between the ages of 12 to 16 drinking alcohol, and there was a homeless man asleep on the sidewalk."
Sarah looked up from the menu to look at the girl with a confused and disgusted look on her face.
"Right." Sarah looked back over the menu before speaking again. "I've got something for you to do tomorrow, my lead came up with something, a Michael P. Hamburg, sounds German, he's some interesting high-up tech guy, see if you can get John to find out more about this guy. I want you to get in touch with the guy, talk to him, interrogate him if necessary, and see if what he knows or what he's doing is Skynet development."
Cameron nodded to Sarah before turning to towards the stairs climbing them to reach John's room. She knocked waiting for a reply.
"Yeah?" came John's voice muffled by the music.
"John, may I come in?" Cameron asked staring at the door as she did.
"Sure." John replied after a few seconds.
Cameron opened the door and watched as John reached over and paused his music.
"Everything okay out there?" he asked, starting conversation.
"No threats, however there were some drunken young teens throwing up on a sleeping homeless man on the street." Cameron decided to give John a more detailed version of what she told Sarah, Cameron watched as John's face twisted in disgust.
"Kids these days," he grumbled before shaking his head, "man I sound old."
"You are more mature for your age in most aspects." Cameron informed him, hoping it sounded complimentary, John's small lopsided smile confirmed her hopes.
"Thanks I guess." He smiled to himself as he looked up to the ceiling.
"Sarah would like you to research a Michael P. Hamburg, he sounds German, she wants me to seek him out tomorrow and find out what he is up to; Sarah believes he could be part of Skynet development." Cameron informed him.
John nodded before jumping out of bed then walked over to his desk, sitting down he turned his laptop on and waited for it to boot.
"What pizza would you like John?" Cameron asked out of nowhere.
"What?" he asked as he turned to look at her confused about her strange question.
"Your mother just shouted, she is ordering take out and wanted to know what pizza you wanted." Cameron explained.
"Oh um could you tell her pepperoni, please?" He asked adding the 'please' as an afterthought.
Cameron tilt her head ever so slightly then smiled a little at the polite request, it showed that their relationship was definitely improving, in truth she had wondered why she hadn't tried this approach before, she turned around and opened the door and looked down the stairs only to see Sarah climbing up them.
"John would like pepperoni please Sarah." Cameron informed the elder Connor had stopped once she heard Cameron's voice and looked up to the cyborg.
"Yeah I'd like a medium Pepperoni too please…" Sarah began to talk down the phone.
"Could I have a cheese pizza Sarah?" Cameron asked, Sarah looked at Cameron as if she'd said that Skynet was a pacifist. "…please?" she added on. Sarah rolled her eyes in response.
"And a small cheese pizza as well." Sarah added on down the phone before the walked back down the stairs.
Cameron watched her for a moment before going back inside John's room and closing the door behind her.
"Alright Michael P. Hamburg," John began as he looked up what he could about him through various sites, ranging from Wikipedia, to his own personal webpage, "guy was born in Berlin in 1971, graduated in computer tech, then moved to America and since then has become the owner of his own company, dealing in computers, says during his last conference he announced an interest in moving onto robotics." He said looking towards Cameron. "You want me to leave the laptop on so you can do some research?" he asked her.
"Yes please John." She nodded before walking towards his desk as he got up and laid back on his bed. "Is it alright if I sit here?" she asked turning to look at him as he laid back down.
"As long as I can keep my music on, go ahead." John bargained as he rested and put his music on. Cameron nodded in return sitting on the chair and began research more about Michael, his business, and what projects he has not only financed but technology he had a hand in creating.
Elsewhere in the city in a lone apartment a dark figure sat and stared at the computer screen in front of them, their glowing red eyes reflecting from the screen as they analyzed the information. Beside them an open briefcase with information about new computer technologies in development by Hamburg Industries, and a small sample of that new technology, a piece of tech beyond what today's buyers were given, the technology was far more military in scale.
"Michael P. Hamburg." The figure said in a toneless mechanical voice, it reached out with its right hand and picked up a mug of tea and brought it to their lips, sipping it quietly, pausing the red eyes stared at the tea, "needs more sugar," it noted before placing it back down.
The figure analyzed that Michael would be in tomorrow and was looking for new and fresh minds to be a part of his company, tomorrow it would make its move, to determine what he agenda is, then after that he would either live, or he would die.
"Pizza guy is here" Derek bellowed out loudly before turning back to look at the pizza delivery guy. "How much?" Derek asked.
"Thirty-four-fifty." The guy, a teenager, with a bad case of acne, replied in a dull monotone voice.
'I've seen corpses with more life than this guy' Derek thought to himself as Sarah walked up behind him with the money in hand.
"Here," She said giving the teen, who she too noticed needed to be introduced to some facial wash, the exact change he needed, Derek took the pizzas from the teen before closing the door.
Derek helped Sarah open up the various boxes, and look over what Sarah had ordered, which incidentally came with a free bottle of Pepsi.
"Pizzas here!" Sarah yelled upstairs before turning back and getting out a plate for them. Derek noticed four plates.
"Who else is having pizza? You invite Charlie over?" he looked to her as she put the plates down.
"No, we've ruined his life enough I think, we should leave him alone a while." Sarah sighed, remembering they had inadvertently gotten Charlie's wife killed. Murdered by Cromartie in hopes to get to John.
John came down followed by Cameron, and saw the four plates set out with the opened pizza boxes, the fries, and the southern fried chicken.
"You get what you want and take it to your room if you want to, any mess though and you're cleaning it." Sarah told John and Cameron, Derek not knowing Sarah was also referring to the latter.
John got what he wanted and surprising to Derek watched as Cameron put the small cheese pizza onto her plate.
"Wait, the metal gets food?" he looked at Sarah credulously as he pointed to Cameron, John and Cameron stopped in their track, both looking at Derek.
"Well, she did ask for it." Sarah shrugged before continuing to get her own food.
Derek looked at Cameron then back to Sarah, then to John who merely shrugged to his uncle, Cameron resumed getting some food, as unhealthy as it was, then followed John back to his room.
As John and Cameron left Derek looked at Sarah with a small amount of disgust.
"I can't believe you ordered pizza for it." He moved up closer to Sarah as he shook his head in disbelief. "Why waste money and food on that thing? It doesn't need to eat like we do, it can't taste, so it can't fully enjoy, hell it can't enjoy AT ALL!" Sarah pulled herself back from Derek, not wanting his breath in her face. "And what's going on with those two, they're getting very chummy again aren't they? I thought we finally got it into John's thick skull that that THING can't be trusted and that it needed to be kept at arm's length if not further."
Sarah turned around to look at Derek finally tiring of hearing his complaints. "The cyborg needs food so it can keep itself looking human, we can't really have a protector for John walking around as a metal skeleton can we? The least people would do is talk, so for now she has to blend in. That means she needs to eat to keep her skin looking normal." Derek picked up Sarah calling the machine 'she' rather than 'it'. He didn't like where things were going. "As for those two, NOTHING is happening Derek, Cameron needs to protect John she can't really do that if she stays too far away from him can she?"
"Oh so it's a SHE now, is it?" Derek asked with a smirk as he slowly rounded around the table. Sarah blinked only realising she had called Cameron a she rather than an 'it'. "What's happening to you and John, Sarah? Is that thing manipulating the two of you, bending you around it's metal fucking finger like pawns?" Derek groaned angrily casting his eyes towards the stairs.
"Just shut up Derek. Just shut up, before I MAKE you shut up. No, Cameron has said and done nothing to manipulate anyone, you are just being paranoid, and believe me, that's something when coming from me." Sarah stormed up towards Derek getting right up into his face. "Now eat the pizza and. Shut. The fuck. Up." She glared daggers at him, a glare that pierced through his eyes and into his very soul.
Upstairs John and Cameron ate. John watched Cameron with mild interest as she continued to research Michael.
"You've been having an appetite recently huh?" John asked stifling a small chuckle. He watched Cameron turned around to look at him a blank expression on her face but a tilt of the head told him she didn't understand him, "you've been eating a lot today." He explained further to her.
"Yes," she began moving her head back to its proper position as she turned her body more to look at him easier, "my skin sheath had been running low on nutrition and other qualities it needs to appear young and healthy and also to aid it in regenerating when it is damaged. I have needed a lot of nourishment today to refill to an adequate level" she watched John nod slowly, realization on his face which quickly changed back to confusion.
"I see, but why so much?" he asked. "You've been eating a lot by your standards today."
Cameron took note of what she had eaten today and what she was currently eating now.
"Sarah's pancakes leave a lot of be desired in terms of nutrition," she explained before adding "… and taste." John chuckled a little at that. "The food at school isn't much of an improvement, the quality barely passes acceptable of what is allowed to be served to students. This pizza is, ironically, the most nutritious thing I've eaten today, in terms of what I need and by taste that is." she finished her explanation, her eyes never moved from John.
"Alright." He replied moments before a thought came to him, "you can taste?" he asked with a slight raised brow before putting some pizza into his mouth.
"Yes, Skynet was able to map and replicate the taste receptors on the tongue. I can taste, though not as you do."
"You can do a lot of things we can do can't you; humans I mean." John thought out loud. "You really meant what you said before, after Mexico, you can feel things."
"Yes, I wouldn't be worth much if I couldn't." Cameron turned back around and continued her research.
This had been the most the pair had interacted in a single day since the incident over a year ago. What she had said before, and what she was saying now, he wondered what else she could feel. He mentally stopped himself from thinking too much, she may have been different, but she wasn't that different was she? She couldn't feel that, right? He stopped thinking about it before he frustrated himself and allowed himself to enjoy the only decent meal of the day.
'The night dragged on and Cameron had left John's room with his laptop, with his permission of course, and had entered her room to continue researching. John looked at his clock
'6:29 Riley should be ringing any time now.' John thought to himself, suddenly his phone rang, he picked it up and answered and Riley confirmed it was her using the coding system John had told her to do.
"Hey John, I'm ready when you are. I'll meet you outside school, then we'll head out to the club, it'll be awesome; you'll love it." Riley exclaimed in an excited tone.
"Yeah great, meet you at school, five to ten minutes, I'll see you there." John said in return then hung up. He walked out of his room, and down the stairs. His mother wasn't there and Derek was most likely in the basement.
'Awesome' he thought before sneaking out, and rushing towards the school.
Cameron heard everything; the phone ringing, the phone call, and John sneaking out. She brought up a local map on her HUD and selected the fastest route to school by vehicle. Cameron opened her door and walked down the stairs grabbing the keys for the Sarah's car and her black jacket as well then drove towards the school hoping to keep out of sight. She must not let John know she was following him.
John and Riley met outside the school, greeted one another and made their way towards the club. Cameron had gotten to the school before either of them, turned off the car and stayed hidden within it, she was now tracking them slowly. Unknown to John, Cameron had researched possible clubs that were the latest "thing" in teen groups, one club came up which had were selling tickets just liked the ones she had seen Riley have. She had located a reasonable parking space in an alley way just next to the club then she could follow them inside and keep an eye on John from a far.
Riley showed the bouncer the tickets and let them in. Riley smirked to herself as she lead John in.
"So pretty cool huh? This place has been around since like the 80s. People just bought it up and refurbished it. Sweet huh?" Riley said to John who was looking around the place slowly, the booming of the music, echoing in his ear drums, some old 80s track. The teens, and other people across generation in the club were dancing to the music enthralled by the orgy of sound and light. He didn't notice one camera zoom in on his face.
Within the club the new security chief was looking at multiple screens, taking in every detail of each dance, each drinker, everyone. He would not lose his targets if they showed up. If anything else, it would start its search during the day and try to locate each individual Resistance member.
Something caught its eye in its peripheral vision, it turned its head to look at the screen, a young male with an excited young lady. The machine focused in on the boy, the girl spoke to the boy, to which he never replied, the machine zoomed in with the camera.
TARGET IDENTIFIED - JOHN CONNOR
MISSION: TERMINATE
The machine's eyes opened a little wider, and picked up its radio and contacted the bouncer.
"Stan," it spoke, having learned that using first name terms and a friendly attitude with humans of this time seemed to make them more receptive to request or demands, "the brown haired kid with the blonde girl, don't let them out, stay where you are but don't let them leave." The bouncer; Stan, turned to the nearest camera and nodded.
The machine holstered its pistol and stormed out of its office, not noticing a young brown haired girl walk past Stan as he turned to get back to work.
The Machine entered the main room, pounding music and flashing lights greeting it. Somewhere in this room was John Connor. Tonight John Connor would be terminated.
Jason's Notes:
I thank all who have enjoyed the first chapter now comes the second. I hope you are all enjoying it and continue to do so. I am open to suggestion regarding anything and I am more than happy to read reviews, I love reading what you thought. Thanks again.
Edits:
October 2019
- General gramatical improvements and word phrasings. Just trying to get everything to feel better and have it be "less mushy"