In which Nick separates the barrel from the handle, Joe finally seals the deal and Coler is not pleased.
While really, he's just psychologically challenged. Like Ben.
Once again, Joe found himself trying to keep up with the speeding legs of one particular CEO. He was really starting to get tired of the constant running for every other step the man took.
It wasn't that he was particularly tall or anything. (He was around Nick's height, which was slightly smaller then Joe himself, for heavens sake) He was just really… enthusiastic.
This time, however, there was a difference in the setup. This time, Joe was followed by a pair of sure legs, belonging to the Humanoid himself.
Joe threw a glance back, not knowing if he was trying to comfort the Humanoid or himself.
They stilled before a door which, as all doors in this part of the building, slid open automatically.
Their group walked through in a close formation, Coler in front, now followed by Nick, with Joe closing, his hand hovering near Nick's back.
It was an equally a test as it was a journey to yet another round of testing.
Joe was really starting to dislike the word alone, but he was curious what they would make him do, now that they, finally, were out of the monotone-coloured room of boredom.
Not that he disliked the researchers –because really, they weren't very like-able— it was just incredibly boring to watch them observe Nick and finding out things Joe felt he could've told them if only they'd just asked.
Like the fact that Nick's skin had the ability to change temperatures (constantly being close to the Humanoid wasn't that hard, you know?) or that he was able to lift things four times his weight.
That Nick had röntgen-vision, the ability to complete multiple tasks at once and learned faster, knew more, then anyone Joe had ever met.
And no-one ha even thought of the possibility to simply ask Nick what he was able to do. That he was perfectly capable of conversing, that he knew what he was able to do.
It was like these people had absolutely no clue what they were doing, had no idea of what Nick could do, while they were the ones that build him.
Joe was confused. Majorly confused.
And the strangest thing was that Nick seemed perfectly content with just talking to Joe.
He shot a look at the boy, who was stoically staring at Coler's back in what could almost be called a glare.
Then, Joe paid attention to where they were and had to look twice to be sure his eyes were telling him what he thought they were telling him.
They were once again in a room obviously meant for observing another. This time, the room-to-observe was a gym.
A gym filled with angry, strong-looking people. And Coler just closed the door behind Nick.
Joe, for a moment, could only gape at the CEO, who calmly walked towards the white, beeping desk and spoke into the intercom; "Start the test-fight."
Then, he heard himself screech; "What the hell is THIS!"
Coler turned around, calmly raising an eyebrow and pushing his glasses back up his nose.
Behind him Joe saw the lights of the observatory reflect in the glass, behind which the men and women charged on Nick, who suddenly looked smaller then Joe had ever seen him.
"Stop it! Stop it immediately." He yelled, almost lunging for the door, before a hand wrapped around his middle and stopped him.
"Joe, calm yourself!" Coler nearly screamed as Joe's fingernails scratched over the glass door.
"I WON'T calm down!" Joe yelled, clawing at Coler's hands. "You're going to hurt him! What is this?"
Coler forcefully turned him around, forcing Joe to look at him. "It's a needed test. Or do you thing helping today's world will be all butterflies and daisies?"
Joe swallowed, glancing at the gym-like room, where everyone, excluding Nick, who was still staring at the wall blankly, had stopped to stare at them.
"Look at me, Lucas!" Coler snapped and Joe stared at his glasses, rather then his eyes. "Do you think he'll be welcomed in that environment," He gestured towards the general direction of the entrance with a vague movement "with applause and unconditional love?"
"No?"
"No."
Then, Coler turned around again, towards the microphone and snapped at it angrily. "Move!"
Joe watched with squinted eyes, still unsure, but afraid of moving again as Nick once again got surrounded.
Slowly, Joe edged towards the desk, a few safe feet away from Coler, to stare at Nick with a worried expression, sucking on the pad of his thumb.
Nick still looked as calm as ever.
Joe winced when the first punch was thrown, closing his eyes, he didn't want to see.
Was this really needed? Didn't they know Nick's strength already?
He gritted his teeth. He wanted Macy back, badly.
Then he opened his eyes and widened them in the same go. All of the people that had previously threatened Nick now lay sprawled out over the floor.
Creepy.
Nick still looked stoic, but smiled at Joe, as if to say; 'calm down, I know what I'm doing. I just need you to stay with me.'
Who was Joe to say no to that?
-
His hand presses against the cold class of the tube as he gazes at the form inside of it. The lenses of his glasses light up in the soft glow it spreads.
He feels powerful, yet so worthless.
Here they are, better then ever, now that the Lucas boy's blood is added to their complexion. They're stronger; more stable then the first one, the one that's actually working.
The only one that's working, because he has no idea how to get them to work.
He has an army. An army of indestructible, hyper-intelligent slaves at his complete mercy.
But they're worthless to him as long as the woman in his cells stays silent.
She has protected her brain from his mental attacks and he can't use physical harm anymore.
More pain would surely kill her.
If only the tests they were running were of any use.
But they aren't. He's just prolonging, hoping his worthless scientists would figure out the Humanoid system.
But they have no idea.
So he's stuck with the Misa-version of a Humanoid.
The kind one. The life-changing one. He almost vomits at the idea of so much power used for a goal like that.
It's worthless, in his nicest opinion.
And boy, do his fingers itch to just press that reset-button.
But he can't. Because the Humanoid is the only thing that's keeping the boy here and the boy is the only one that has the unique DNA-composition to balance the mechanic with the organic.
He curses the Lucas boy. But plain kidnapping him wouldn't work like it did with the Misa woman.
She had no-one left.
He has a whole family, friends, people who he's attached to.
God damn it, he has a freaking dog.
He rubs the bridge of his nose, to ease the pressure of his glasses and then focuses his attention on the hundreds of tubes.
Soon. He promises himself. Soon.
-
"We just want to know what would happen with the Humanoid in the real world, Joseph."
Joe couldn't help but notice the weakness of that argument and crossed his arms stubbornly.
Coler shot him another cold glance.
"Don't sulk. It doesn't suit your features," he calmly noted and before Joe could even try to protest he went on, "Would you like to see it beaten and broken at the first step it sets out of this building?"
Joe still didn't say anything. It was wrong to attack Nick like that, for they knew Nick was ten times stronger then any human. And it was equally pointless to say he would be 'broken' by anything but a bulldozer, since he was kind of indestructible.
They were walking, again, through endless white hallways, surrounded with unknowing people in white lab-coats who looked at Nick with the same distaste Joe always found himself getting.
As if he didn't belong here.
Oh, if they even knew.
He glared at a particularly nasty looking blonde woman before following Coler into another room, grateful that this time at least, they didn't have a walk of at least half an hour through the enormous building. Seriously, they needed carts over here.
He had to swallow back the contents of his stomach as they entered what was unmistakably a shooting range.
"You have to be kidding me." He muttered, stunned.
It was once thing to teach Nick how to defend himself (as if he couldn't already). It was another to teach him how to shoot.
He knew humans did it all the time, but it just seemed wrong. Nick was still so innocent, even though he was a trained superhuman/robot. A gun in his hands was just plain wrong and unneeded.
He was starting to protest again when Coler pushed a heavy looking gun into Nick's hands, which clenched around the barrel with a metallic sound, but there was no need for it.
With a simple twist of his wrist, Nick snapped the gun in half, pushing them back towards Coler, who stared at the Humanoid with an expression that made Joe snicker.
One glance from Coler made him pretend it had been a particular high cough.
"I'm designed to build, to heal and to help. I was made to support those in need and to preserve the lives of innocent humans. I will never touch a gun, unless it is to destroy it and prevent it from doing any harm to those who don't deserve its bullet. I will never use it to release a bullet from a barrel, unless it is to empty it. I will never take aim."
Then, Nick turned around and walked towards Joe with a confident stride.
His eyes however, spoke otherwise. They looked sad, confused and exactly like those of a human at gunpoint.
Joe, out of instinct, wrapped his arms around the Humanoid and glared at Coler.
The man was still standing in the same position he'd been in since Nick snapped the gun, his eyes wide behind his glasses and his hands limply holding the broken pieces.
Then his head turned and Joe had never seen anyone so furious.
"You listen to me and you listen closely. If you don't pick up a gun and aim at least ten perfect shots at those goals. I will reset you, for it would be a flaw in your obedience-program." Coler told Nick, who'd turned around in Joe's arms, almost shrinking back into the fully human body behind him as Coler towered above him. "You are my property, do as you are told."
Then he turned to Joe, "Make him see sense. I take you are aware of the consequences."
Then he turned around, his coat billowing out behind him as he flew through the door like a bat out of his darkened cave.
It made shudders run all the way over Joe's back into his nape.
Nick was staring up at him. "I apologise, Joe, for getting us in this situation," he apologised.
Joe grabbed at his shoulders, giving him a soft shake. "Don't you dare apologise for having your own opinion."
Nick's eyes looked as if they might tear up if they could (and they couldn't, Joe had asked) and he slowly edged away from Joe.
"That's the thing, Joe. I can't have an opinion of my own. I'm just a Humanoid, mean to serve and help. I have to do what I am told to do, that's who I am. Essentially just an object," his eyes looked sad as Joe stared into them, tearing up himself, "a thing."
He couldn't think that, he couldn't seriously be thinking that. Damn Coler.
"No! You're not a thing, you're not his slave. He can't use you like a lifeless machine. You're…" Joe hesitated as he gazed at Nick, his esperated expression softening, "you're my brother!"
Joe saw the machinery behind the eyes spin and rattle as he stared into them. "Bro-ther?" Nick questioned.
"Yes, brother," Joe nearly sobbed, his hand reaching for Nick's face, cupping it, "you have my eyes."
His thumb stroked the skin on Nick's disbelieving face.
"My skin," he whispered, "my brother's blood running through your veins. Of course you are my brother."
"You can't…" Nick started to argue, but this time, Joe didn't let him overrule him with arguments he wouldn't understand.
"Yes, I can. You don't have to do this if you don't want to."
He had come to the conclusion that Nick was much more then just a machine. He had feelings, emotions and who knows what more.
He knew Joe, because he had been interested as Joe talked. He knew friendship.
He didn't like the scientists running tests on him and really, Joe'd never quite seen a computer staring someone down. He knew irritation.
"He'll delete me."
He knew sadness. He knew fear.
Joe sighed and suddenly found his arms full of Humanoid again.
"I don't want to die."
Stella rested her head on Ben's shoulder with a tired sigh.
"Aww, what's wrong, honey?" The honey-blonde questioned, running his fingers through her hair, glancing at the rain outside the car before down at her tense form again.
"It's just…" she started, before sighing again, "nothing."
He sighed too, softly nudging her up and lifting her chin with his index-finger, "You can tell me, you know?"
She stared at him for a second, in which just the ticking of the rain was heard, indicating that the summer was coming to an end.
Was everything in her life coming to an end this fall? It certainly seemed like it.
"It's Joe," she finally confessed, "I'm so worried."
He cocked his head to the side, probably trying to be nice about the guy she almost constantly talked about. He was a good man for even putting up with her and her crazy best friend.
"He still won't tell you?" He questioned.
"No, not a single word," She sat back in her seat, absent mindedly staring at the steering wheel now.
"It's awfully inconsiderate of him," he told her, putting a hand on her shoulder sympathically.
"He used to tell me everything!" She suddenly cried, "I don't get why he's being so secretive, nothing could be so bad he wouldn't tell me. Nothing! Or at least, nothing used to be."
"Could it be that, just maybe, you're growing apart? You told me how much everyone's changed since Kevin's accident. How his dad stopped working so hard at the population registration department or whatever. How his little brother is acting so much better now, like he's part of the family? And how Kevin is so much more focussed?"
Her eyes were sad, "I don't think that's reason enough to just leave me in the dark like this."
She fingered the hem of her shirt nervously. Could it be that they were growing apart?
"I'm thinking of just following him one time. To see what he's up to."
"That would be considered invading his privacy." Ben tried, but the blonde immediately turned on him.
"That's the damn point!" She cried, throwing her hands in the air, "There isn't such thing as privacy between us! There never was! No personal space whatsoever."
She threw herself back in her seat. "And now we're out of sync."
He leaned forward to kiss her on her cheek. She smiled faintly.
He held up an umbrella in front of her. "Here, go home," said Ben softly, "Take a hot bath and think about it."
she opened her mouth, but he cut her off. "I know, you did that. Just give it one more try, figure out what you want and what you think is best for you. He apparently did that. It's your life. Not his. Don't let him decide it for you. You should consider that, just maybe, your twin-umbilical has snapped."
She gave him a sad nod and took the umbrella. "Thanks, Ben, you're awesome."
"I know," he grinned. "How 'bout that hot bath, huh?"
"Sounds great, bye."
She stepped out of the car, trying not to get her dark, skinny jeans soaked in the puddles of water and closed the door behind her with a slam worthy of a diva in heat.
Then he sighed, hating his job and pulled out his xPhone.
"Hello? Yeah, it's me. They're starting to get anxious." He said, his eyes trailing after the figure disappearing into the darkness of her garden.
"Yeah, especially the girl, as you predicted. I don't think I can keep her from snooping around much longer without looking suspicious." He examined his nails.
"Do you deliberately want me to blow my cover?" He suddenly snapped, "You're lucky I got into their lives so fast and now I'm stuck here babysitting stupid, bratty, annoying and family. I don't like the mom either. Too much of a care bear if you get what I mean, sis."
He was silent for a while, as the person on the receiving end of the phone call ranted at him.
"Sure, whatever you want, your highness. Bye Penny."
Then he hung up, knowing her fury would be worse then the forced pretend at liking the snazzy blonde fashion-designer-to-be. Not that she had taste.
He lit a cigarette for himself, opening the window to the cool air.
He missed her, he missed the real her so much.
-
So many questions you must have.
If you ask them, I might just slip some clues in the next chapter. I'm feeling generous.
Nope, it's not proof-read. Sorry.
Thoughts?