In which Joe looses everything, including his consciousness. Again.

"Stella!" Joe exclaimed happily, getting up and beaming at the tense blonde girl on the doorstep, "Hey, I want you to me–"

Stella's eyes narrowed to slits, effectively freezing everybody in the room; black lashes framing her bright eyes sharply as her hands raised to cross her torso in a pose that made all Joe's alarm bells go off, his voice trailing off into an inaudible whisper.

"Don't you tell me what to do, Joseph Lucas," her voice was cold like the ice-berg that sunk the Titanic, the Albatross, the Islander an probably the Endymion… –because yes, Joe did pay attention during history class—

In his peripheral vision, Joe saw Nick tense at the annoyance in her voice, probably remembering Coler, but Joe could hear more then anger in her words.
He knew Stella, had known her for years; they grew up together, were attached by the hip since they were in pre-school.

Joe could hear the doubt and the hurt in her voice, though the reason for it puzzled him.
Even her eyes weren't simply sparkly like they normally were. They were tear-stained.

It made him wonder how long she had been standing there.

"Stella?" He said, cautiously, "This is Nick, he's a friend…"
He walked towards her, approaching his best friend like she was a wounded animal.
He was only mildly surprised when she backed away from him.

"Don't, Joe. I'm fed up with this," She shook her head, her ponytail flipping behind her.
She stared up at him as he came closer nonetheless. Her arms lowered to wrap around her own waist. She glowed in the light of the evening, but at the same time she seemed lost in the house she grew up in.

Joe felt the gazes of both Kevin and Nick on his back, but put the Nick-related alarm bells on hold, focussing only on Stella.

"Fed up with what?" He questioned, his mood having dropped from ecstatic to nervous in just those few seconds, plummeting in his stomach.

Then, a tear actually rolled over her cheek, and it made Joe feel even more helpless as he sadly flung his hands back and forth; he had no idea what in the world was going on.
One moment he was on the floor with his brothers, jamming happily and finally feeling relaxed. The next he felt the urge to gently wipe a tear from Stella's cheek.
What the heck?

She gestured towards where his brothers were standing, "This, Joe. All of the secrets you keep from me." She whispered, pausing to look around the room, though her focus never really lost him, "I've been waiting for you to go back to normal, to just being my friend, for weeks. I waited for my Joe. But you just keep lying to me, keeping things from me."

Stella shook her head again, a silent sob rocking through her, "I guess I really lost him."

Joe still didn't get it, looking back helplessly at Kevin and Nick, who weren't of much help, both looking as lost as he was.
What had set her off like this? What had made her hurt? Usually, he would strangle everything and everything that hurt her, but he wasn't dense enough not to understand that it was him who had hurt her and he had no idea what to do.

"Stella, I–"

"Save it, Joe, I don't want to hear it," She said shakily, turning on her heels –new ones, ones Joe didn't recognise— and running back down the stairs.

"Stella!"

He wanted to follow, but he already heard her speeding towards the door, so he sighed and ran to his pole.

"Take care of him!" he yelled to Kevin –or to Nick, he wasn't sure— before he slid down and twirled once dizzily.

"Stella, please," he called after the whizz of blonde that disappeared through the door.

Luckily for him, he was taller, with longer legs and in the luck she was wearing heels. He didn't once stumble as he ran after her, stopping her somewhere in the middle of a street, halfway between their homes.
Quite ironically the place where they would always meet up to walk to school together.

"Let me go! Joe!" She yelled at him, but trying to get closer to hit him at the same time, attempting to hit him.
He expertly dodged the arms flailing his way and grabbed her wrists.

"Stella, calm down!"

But she wouldn't, she struggled against him, pulling at his hands and kicking at his shins.
He sighed. One long, exhausted sigh and pulled her into his arms. Locking his wrists behind her back and burying his nose in her hair.
Her head was now tucked in the crook of his neck and he felt the tears stain the collar of his –technically her— shirt.

"Shh," Joe whispered, ignoring the smiles and curious stares they were receiving, stroking her soft hair. Why did sad stuff always happen to him in the evenings?
At least she hadn't changed conditioner without his knowledge.

Her sobs quieted down eventually, though it took quite a while, but she smiled softly in satisfaction as Joe, who had removed his jacket earlier and hadn't bothered grabbing one when he ran after her, shifted uncomfortably at the nails dug in his back, only covered with a thin tee.

"Hey," he said softly, pulling back a little and trying to catch her eye, succeeding, "please tell me what's wrong. I sorta lost your trail of thought there."

"Exactly," the fashionista whispered, "Just like I lost yours."

Joe frowned in confusion, softly rubbing up and down her back, but she stopped his hand and instead cradled it in two of hers, only barely fitting around it, but fitting.

"You've been so distant, for a long time now. You stopped telling me everything, every last one of your secrets," She finally confessed, her voice still hitched, "and I miss your random phonecalls in the middle of the night and the way you always know something is wrong with me. But now you didn't even notice!"

Her voice wasn't even accusing, though Joe would've rather had it angry. The disappointment and hurt in her voice was worse then any angry rant she'd ever given him.

"You passed our monthly shopping-trip, you forgot my mother's birthday and I was just so confused."

Joe could easily identify that; he didn't get what he was doing half the time.

"And then, when I come to visit you, again, and I find you actually at home, you're on the floor, having a great time with someone I don't know," she had clenched her teeth by now, staring up at him again.

"Stella," he whispered, almost desperate. For once in his life, he had no idea what to do with her. For her. To make it better.
And that, apparently, was the whole problem.

"Who is he, Joe?" She questioned when he didn't finish or answer, "You two looked awfully cosy."

"He's a friend…"

But she didn't let him finish; "Just a friend! You two look like you've known each other for years, the way you were dancing around him!"

Damn Stella and her perfectionist eyes and love for figuring out people's relationships. Damn it all.

"I–"

"Is he that big secret you couldn't tell anyone? Is he what you've been hiding? You've never had anyone I didn't know too. Is it really that bad?"

Right. Spot on as always. He had almost forgotten about that.
All he could do was gape now, like a fish on land, anxious for the oxygen he could only get from water.

"You could've just told me you know? That you had a boyfriend... You know I don't judge…" Her voice trailed off.

Joe took a double-take, finally stepping away from her; "I– What!"

She blushed now, fiddling with the hem of her shirt-dress, "I just… the way you were moving around him, the secrets, that you couldn't tell your family."

"He– I— Nick's not my boyfriend!" Joe exclaimed, "God, no, Stella. How could you think that? He's just a friend and…"

He went silent when the smaller of the two bowed her head, almost in shame, but with a, for him, noticeable expression of relief, "You were jealous!"

Her head snapped up, staring at him in offense, crossing her arms again, "Why thank you, Mr Obvious, of course I was jealous! I'm not used to you keeping secrets from me, you know? I mean, what was I supposed to think?"

"Anything. But. That!" Joe scoffed, nearly toppling over in silent laughter.
The grin was quickly slapped from his face when Stella, very quickly got back in her game.

"Who is he then, Joe?"

Joe stared at her, faced with a dilemma that was already decided and distracted by the shine of her hair in the setting sun. He opened his mouth and proceeded to close it just as fast, hanging his head in shame this time.
"He's… a friend."

"Yeah, I thought so," Stella said, remorsefully.

"If you knew…"

"But I don't," she said softly, and he could hear the tears running over her face, "so is this where it ends? Are you going to pick your secrets over me?"

His head snapped up, making him pull a muscle in the back of his neck, feeling the pain flood through his throat like the mental coursed through his entire body at her words.

"You're kidding, right?"

She couldn't do that! She couldn't make him pick between her and Nick! He was his brother; she was his… soulmate-best friend!
If only she knew that.

"Stella, I want to tell you, but I literally can't!"

Her expression was sad but determined as she straightened her back and almost seemed to look down on to the now hunched, but still taller form of Joe.

"Your answer is clear, then," her voice was thick, "goodbye, Joe."

With that, she turned around and walked away.

****

"Honey, calm down!" His voice spoke through the speaker in a hushing manner, "What's wrong?"

She pressed the earpiece closer to her ear as she sobbed into her pillow, "I did what you s-said, Ben, I stood my ground."

"That's good, how did it work out?"

"I think- I think I just broke up with him…" Another entourage of sad little cries was emitted at the receiver.

"This confuses me."

"I mean our friendship," she explained to him, "I- I told him it couldn't go on like this if he was lying to me."

"It really does sound like you two were in a relationship… Do you, I don't know, want me to come over with... err— ice-cream?"

She nearly laughed, quickly dissolving into sobs, "God, no. That's what he would do."

"Is there anything, honey, that I—"

"No. There isn't," she whispered, "but it's nice to know you're there for me. You're such a great person, you know?"

He merely listened to her.

"I'll go cry this off, get it out of my system. I'll call you later, okay?"

"Okay, get some sleep too, you sound exhausted," he nearly ordered.

"Yes, dad. Bye."

"Goodbye."

****

"Talk to me."

"It has been done. The girl is pried away from the source-family."

"Good, send them. Play time is over. A Coler always gets what he wants."

"Not always, father, not always."

****

Joe sauntered home, his pace slow and agonising, as if trying to prolong his own silent suffering.
He screwed up. Big time.
To think this all started out so innocent, as innocent as him just trying to help people! Like he was still doing?
Why did all this bad stuff happen when he'd done nothing but be of help.

Karma sucked. Big time.

But he couldn't blame it on the unknown glitzes of the universe. He knew he was responsible for his own doings, but when he agreed to secrecy, he never thought he would've been involved in something so deep and ugly.
Because that was what it was.

He didn't trust Coler and his scientists. Doing nothing but pointless, harmful things to Nick. Nick who had so many possibilities, so many things he could be doing. Things they could make progress with.
But no, Nick was stuck in this almost passive state, with just boring old Joe to talk to.
Whoop-tee-doo.

And now, because he had somehow gotten involved with Coler –whom he'd helped go unmask his traitorous daughter!— and was loyal to him, all the while betraying those he loved the most.
Loosing the one thing that made life make sense for him half of the time.

He didn't think he was ready for that, but he was unable to make a choice. He couldn't pick either Nick or Stella, it was impossible.
He loved both of them too much.

He found himself in front of the fire-house way too soon. Way too soon to have cleared his mind. Or to have cleared it. Or to have made it realise what exactly just happened.

His head was a haze. A haze like on that cloudy Monday morning where everything you see is seen just a little too late, because one can't look farther then a feet all around.
That's what it felt like.

It also felt numb. Joe wasn't sure if he was happy, surprised or worried about that.

He remembered to close the door behind him and managed to climb the stairs without just letting himself tumble back, but wished he had walked straight out again when he was faced with Kevin's worriedly widened brown eyes.
Another pair of brown eyes a more appropriate distance away behind him.

"Did she hit you?"
Kevin had never really been one for subtle.

"No, she didn't. She just left," he answered shortly, not really feeling like 'talking about it'.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair, surprised at the uncontrolled movement involving his hair. He was more cautious about that, normally.

"I just want to be alone right now," he managed, hurriedly walking past Kevin, but locking eyes with Nick, who nodded shortly.

He looked, guilty? Poor thing. He had never really witnessed anything like this. Everybody always kept their emotions in control around him. Everyone except Joe, which was probably why Nick stopped Kevin when he wanted to go after him.
The Humanoid had gotten to know him; knew how to read him like the books he could basically recite.

Once he had slid down the firepole and was back downstairs, he just stood in the middle of the room for a second.
He had really wanted to throw himself on his bed and lie there until he knew what to do, but that was apparently no option, since he wanted to be alone and upstairs was not alone.

He kicked at a chair that annoyed him when the fact that Stella had really, actually just walked out of his life settled in a little.
She didn't want to be friends anymore.

How was that even possible? How could someone suddenly stop being your friend?
She couldn't do that to him, he needed her. She was his other half, his best friends since basically forever!

He picked up the chair he toppled over and sat down on it, hands rubbing his face.

He didn't want this, none of it. He just wanted all of it to go away.

The haunting image of Robert Lincoln Coler constantly nudging the back of his mind, the fear for his newly found, not-quite-human-brother, the sudden change in his life and, heck, the sudden change in himself!

When had he stopped caring about his hair? When had he begun to protect everyone around him?
He was the clumsy one, everyone had always protected him!

He wanted Stella to come back, his father to trust him again, his mother to start asking him to do stupid tasks again. He wanted Elvis to just be Frankie's dog again. Just a normal, leash-pulling, pooping-on-the-carpet dog! Was that too much to ask?

He was nearly shocked when he found a tear running over his face.

He quickly wiped it and sat up straight in his chair.

Sobbing about things wasn't going to help him solve all those things.
He slumped; it still sucked. Hard.

Then he shot up again at a loud noise from upstairs, startled at the unusual sound and a gurgled yell that could only belong to one person; his elder brother.

"Kevin?" He called, hesitating halfway out of the chair.

It was silent for a few moments, before he heard more crashes, a louder ones caused by clearly bigger things.

Joe ran for the stairs, shoving all his previous thoughts and a new one of 'what now!' into the back of his mind.

This had also changed; a few weeks ago, he wouldn't have taken this initiative.

"Kevin!" He called again, running up the stairs two steps at a time, the worrisome noises never stopping, and halting in the doorstep to overview a scene that was shocking at the least.

Kevin wasn't there, but he saw a group of men, at least eight of them and dressed in black, surrounding Nick, who was backed up into the empty space of the room on Joe's right hand.
There were at least three more black-dressed, but (hopefully) unconscious men at his feet.

The look in Nick's eyes was indefinable, a mixture of ferocious anger and an icy calmth.

"Nick…?" Joe started, terrified by the faux-calm atmosphere in the room. He was ignored.

The Humanoid's attackers advanced on Nick and his body crouched back, as if scared, before he lunged forward in one smooth jump for their throats.

Joe watched in horror as Nick's right hand clamped around a man's throat in what Joe knew was an iron-grip and said man was thrown against a wall like a ragdoll, arms sprawled out and his right knee bend awkwardly.

Nick's body continued mercilessly, his right foot slashing out in his turn and hitting two men straight in the face.
Nick's shoe was covered in their blood, as the first one immediately crumpled and the other's hands reached for his accurately broken nose, blood streaming down his neck, crying out in pain as Nick elbowed him backwards, where he tumbled over one of his fallen mates, landing with a loud 'oompfh'.
This all happened in less then five seconds and Joe felt nauseous and slow, like after a rollercoaster-ride.

Even Joe's scream when the last four masked men pulled out automatic weapons and aimed at Nick seemed slowed down. Too late and too human.
He took a few steps forward, but stopped again when Nick went for them fearlessly, scurrying them and Joe's eyes widened as the smaller boy violently ripped a gun from one man's hand and hit him in the stomach with his own weapon, before he pulled it to rip over the unfortunate's chest and hit his face.
One more fallen.

In Joe's mind, the words 'they have no idea what he's capable of. They have no idea.' Were repeating themselves like a broken record, when Nick fearlessly walked towards the rest, grabbing another gun, but instead of pulling it like the man expected, he pushed him backwards with more force then even Joe had thought him capable of, so the guy was slammed against a pole with an odd, crushing sound and a scream and fell through the hole.
Joe heard bones break from ten feet away.

Then, as Nick turned for the remaining two men, Joe saw that his eyes weren't their familiar brown anymore.
Instead, they were glowing with a fluorescent blue, pulsing colour Joe recognised immediately.
It was the colour of his wires, the lights inside of his robot-body.

Robot, Humanoid, ice-cold killer.

He pushed himself back against the doorpost when the two men started shooting at the Humanoid, but he didn't budge an inch.
It simply jumped for them again, its once fitting, human clothes stained with the blood it had caused and ripped because of the attacks and the bullets that didn't kill it.

It grabbed the wrists of the two men and bend them, breaking both their arms at multiple places so they screamed out in pain before it took a gun and fired the remaining bullets at their knees.
They crumpled before it. Kneeled before what had single-handedly brought a unit of twelve men to their doom, not uttering a sound as they went down with pained yells.

They were unconscious before their heads even touched the ground.

Joe's hand covered his mouth as he stared at the Humanoid's back. It didn't move, not even to breathe.
He should be out of oxygen. Wheezing. But it wasn't.

Hesitantly, Joe walked towards it, death scared as he stared at his brother on the floor.
Did it do that, too?

He raised his hand cautiously, meaning to put it on Nick— the Humanoid's shoulder, but before he had so much as touched the skin exposed by an unfortunate rip, it whipped around, it's face contorted in a grimace and it's hand like steel, wrapped just below Joe's elbow as he pulled Joe down, slamming him against the ground.

His body crashed to the floor and he cried out in pain as all the air left his lungs. Pain shot through his nerves like a flood.

He couldn't believe it, his mind refused to. This was insane! This wasn't what they tested; it had been holding out on them!
It was a killer. A killer-machine, just like Coler told him. Just like the man wanted it to be.

Suddenly, he heard a gasp above him and whimpered as it crouched down beside him, the glowing blue leaving its eyes until they were brown again. A fake, make-do brown.
But it couldn't fool him.
'They had no idea. None."

"You stay away from me!" he yelled, trying to scoot backwards, but crying out again as his arm buckled beneath him, sending him straight back to the floor as he tried to get away from the Humanoid.

The expression on its face was shocked, guilty and not-understanding as it watched Joe struggle to his feet, its hand reaching halfway towards Joe.

"Don't– stay back!" he warned the robot, tears now running over his face.
He couldn't believe what had just happened. His head had to be messing with him.

Then he ran, his feet wobbly, but efficient as he ran for the stairs and down.
The Humanoid didn't follow.

He ignored the crumpled form of the defeated man lying by the poles and stumbled straight out the door he had only entered so shortly ago.

'They had no idea. Absolutely no idea.'

He ran, kept running, ignoring everything around him as his mind had gone blank, except for that one goal. The only thing that would— had to make sense!

When he finally reached the small house, just a few blocks over, he nearly hung on the bell and fell to his knees in front of the caramel-white door. Cradling his hurt-hand to his chest.

The door opened and all he heard was another startled intake of breath from above him.
Only this time, he recognised it with relief. This was safe. This was her.

"Joe!" She questioned, her hands cupping his face, "what happened to you?"

"I'll tell— I'll tell you everything, just please, please…" he nearly chocked on the air he was trying to gasp in, "I'll tell, just don't leave me."

"I won't," she whispered, sounding like she had been crying, too, "Oh god, I won't."

"Please," he whimpered, finding his face buried in her vaguely perfumed neck, breathing in.

He was safe now, in her arms.
After that, everything went black.

****

Sorry for the gruesome fight, the totally opposite direction this is going and the fact that I haven't updated for so long.
I'm having a love-affair with glee, so my attention is taken by the fictions I write for that, most of the time, but I haven't forgotten about my precious little Humanoid!
Plus, we (meaning Chibiyugixyami, Snowfallxo and Destined Jonas) have thrown out all of the pitchforks, so you can't chase me.

You can yell at me in reviews, though. *hints at button*