number 2

Dave starts off by going at 90km/h and goes faster, reaching 155km/h in the next minute and still feels comfortable and is enjoying this new freedom. He has an eye on his GPS overview map the entire time and starts to get worried when he sees a different colored dot on his screen, stares at the screen to make sure his mind isn’t playing tricks on him, and it goes from seeing two to six of those dots. It takes him a few more seconds to realize that these dots could be problematic and they are coming towards his position.

Dave (getting worried) tell me something, does the government know about our existence (shakes his head) no, sorry that’s not what I want to know, what I want to know is if I have to consider the government as a possible enemy?

Stephanie (phasing out of her dream world) what….hmmm yes (shrugs) they aren’t too fond of us (she seems rather calm about it)

Dave (slows down on the road) well, that’s fine with me. I’m just the victim here, I’m sure they will understand my situation and find some bunker or secret area where I could live the rest of days (he comes to a stop and they both could see the dots converging on their position) I don’t care about what I am, I don’t want this, I want my life back, you can just leave and make a run for it and if you are as fast as you pretend to be, you should be able to get away (her door opens for her to escape)

Stephanie (laughs) Freedom? Happiness? Peace of mind? What the hell are those things? Why do every new born must think that the government even gives a damn about our race. They hate us! If you don’t believe me and go ahead… give yourself up like the last girl. She was the other new born before you that I was supposed to escort back at the fortress, she thought also the same as you did and she even ran to the military. I knew what would happen and trying to reason with her was impossible so I let her deal with the consequences. They did their part : shot her on the spot even if she was showing that she was surrendering willingly, with her hands up (she looks at him) when she was down, they rushed to her body and used special tools so she couldn’t heal herself and picked her up like she was some machine that they were about to recycle, but I could tell by her screams that she was begging them for forgiveness for being different and cried too. I, because I was unable to retrieve her back to the fortress, was accused of only wanting to protect my own hide but it’s not it: I can’t truly force someone to decide what they want but the council doesn’t believe so (she looks at the GPS that shows the dots are closing in really fast) It’s your decision, I won’t make you go there but do me a favor, do not reveal this location because many lives would be endangered (she gets off the car and bends down to look at Dave who has his head resting against wheel) what’s your choice sweetie? Should you decide to give up on your life, I will tell you what your dear government does with you: you become simply a Guiney pig in their thirst of knowledge and their excuse is simply they are doing this for the sole purpose of protecting their humanity from us or any alien potential invasion (she laughs) and our superiors refuse to fight back, only because the humans are too strong for us, or so they say (she pauses for a few seconds) if you want my opinion, it’s that they are too afraid to lose more of us, since our population has started decreasing for the past 25 years.

Dave (waits for Stephanie to be done with her speech and remains silent for a bit, he can see dots closing in even more, lifts his head) must be karma! (he has witnessed as a child how cruel humanity could become around him and hears about its cruelty on the news happening all over the world on a daily basis for even more ridiculous reasons) why me? (He looks at her) fuck this, we are leaving, I ain’t dying yet! (His car starts again, she gets in, her door closes and he screams out) I’m out of here! (The car moves and in a matter of seconds he’s already 100km/h)

Stephanie (sighing and radios her supporter) “alert the others, the house have been found out and keep looking, the council might not want to hear this but we might have a mole, it’s up to us to avenge number 6’s death” Well for a moment there, I thought I wasn’t getting through to you but thank God you actually decided to wake up (she hears a chopper and turns her head around to see it turns on its light and lights up their position) shit they are already there and it won’t be long before the vehicles show up too (she looks back to Dave, sees that he is scared and therefore cannot hit the 150 km/h like he did before and they would need to be even faster to be able to escape from them) C’mon, relax your mind, we can do it (she sees him shakes his head and he points at the screen to show her that soon the vehicles would catch up to them)

Stephanie thinks fast and can only think of one solution to her current predicament. She knows this idea is also a taboo so she wouldn’t usually dare herself but the situation forces her to make a move that could cost her a lot of headache afterwards, but the mission comes first. She grabs Dave by his shirt, pulls his face close to hers, Dave turns his face to her and is about to say something when she kisses him to unlock his system. The kiss lasts for a few seconds, a bit more than she needed it to be: the kiss is some form of link in between them, she gets glimpses of their time in bed, turning her on quite a bit and when she finally breaks the kiss, she smiles at him knowing she has turned the tides in her favor, licks her lips expecting to see something impressive from Dave to get out of this situation. She looks at him and sees he still has his eyes closes but his car hasn’t slowed down but has started to increase in speed, she lets go of his shirt and he opens his eyes.

Dave (moves back in position in his seat. He feels strange but good from Stephanie’s kiss, but this one was different from her last ones) what the hell did you do to me? (He looks straight at the road when he asks her the question and his car is now going to 165km/h) I feel really good, much better than before.

Stephanie (takes a deep breath knowing the consequences of her actions) I’ve activated you and I got some news for you: you can now use your guns as much as you want (grin on Dave’s face)missiles or bullets, it’s your choice but just like your other weapons, what you choose is what will be stuck with until your death(he closes his eyes, he feels like a little kid in a candy shop thinking about all the damage he could create with either weapon and comes back from his fantasy when the people in the chopper starts shooting at him, he feels little pinching from each bullet hitting the car) Okay I don’t want to sound like I’m asking the impossible but you need to do something about them before we can go to the fortress so show me something impressive sweetie.

Dave (nods at her) you don’t need to tell me that twice (he gets excited) let’s go Drifter!

He speeds up more so some of the bullets are missing his ride and he could see what kind of rides are pursuing him:  one car, one chopper and four jeeps, he thinks it won’t be a problem to outmaneuver these ones and he’s surprised when his GPS spot eight motorcycles coming from the back of the jeeps, making a total thirteen ground units and one airborne unit. He lets go of the wheel, winks at Stephanie, his belts comes off from him and he stands up as the top of the car opens for him to come out with his gun and aims at the chopper and keeps shooting until he hits the light and now the enemy can’t see them clearly. Drifter speeds up and Dave radios Stephanie “just hang in there” he jumps on top and the ceiling closes up, the chopper is shooting at them now, Dave makes his buster sword appear, puts it in front of him and blocks the bullets that could touch him and waits for the chopper to stop for reloading and he throws his buster sword at it. The sword hits its target, goes through it and the pilot has no luck as the sword would come at him cutting his head in half and the sword continues through the chopper, and Dave smiles because his experiment with his sword worked: he could see all happened by using is sword. The chopper, after the hit, comes crashing on one of the jeep causing all other vehicles to lose some control for a minute, adding more casualties: one jeep loses complete control by flipping over and to land upside down and explodes. The motorcycles form a line and start shooting from their guns mounted on their front, Dave calls for his sword back: it flies back, cutting through two of motorcycles that lose balance and crash on their neighbors, most of them crash and only two of them make it out alive and keep shooting at Dave that has gotten his sword back in his hand.

He goes back in Drifter and sighs, Stephanie brings out her sniper and winks at him “let me have some fun too” she points to the top and Dave opens the ceiling for her. She pops out her head and with her quick aim she takes down the rest of the motorcycle, Dave is impressed and the enemy car brings out its rocket launcher and shoots it. Dave moves fast enough at the last second to avoid getting blown away, a second rocket is launched and Stephanie shoots it down but the blast knocks her back inside. Dave looks at her and she radios “I’m alright, nothing that my body can’t heal, we aren’t done here yet so please focus on the mission”. The two jeeps starts shooting at his car, Dave slows down because the bullets are bothering him, Stephanie sits back on her seat and looks behind the car to see the jeeps are almost in range for the men to jump over Drifter to take them down. Dave smile “watch” the backlights disappear and Drifter shoots missiles through the holes: the two jeeps explode and the enemy car is surprised and loses controls, zigzags to end up off road but doesn’t explode, Dave speeds up knowing no one else is coming from them, going now at 275km/h for a bit until they reach a populated area and slows down to normal speed.

They don’t speak a word to each other, Dave has so many questions and doesn’t know where to start, and Stephanie is more worried because she got the report from her supporter about the council agreement to put an end to Stephanie’s bad behavior because people are starting to believe the council is too scared to touch her. Dave is the one to break the silence:

Dave (points at their position on the map) we are almost there now.

Stephanie (smiles and nods) I’m impressed by what you demonstrated with the military.

Dave (shakes his head) thanks I guess, but I get the feeling like it’s only beginning for me.

Stephanie (looks at him) I agree with you, my supporter has already sent a report on everything has happened and I’m sure the council will be impressed by what you done so far.

They continue their small talk until they get to their destination:  the place looks like a regular factory building. He parks across from it and shuts down the car.

Dave (takes a deep breath) we can relax now, right?

Stephanie (nods at him) sure but before we go inside the building, I’ll give you that one lesson (she opens her side and steps out of the car) you need to come out to see this (she steps away from the car and stands on the road) watch this (the metallic liquid appears in her hand and becomes a small, she lets it fall to the ground) Strife (as it hears its name, the cube expands and transforms into a bike) Now your turn to do it.

Dave (he gets out of his car) easy for you to say (he sees her bike move a bit forwards after he says that) you pet can move also without you driving it?

Stephanie (smiles as she goes to lean against her STRIFE) didn’t I say that your pet is a part of you, don’t think so limited because you will only miss on so much, but of course I’m not saying that nothing is impossible with our bodies, but start thinking outside the box a bit more(winks at him)

Dave (nods at her, closes his side, steps away from his pet, looks at his car and thinks again about Stephanie’s words) think outside the box, right…(he makes his car move slowly and believing more in himself, he has his car back faster away from him, there is now a good distance in between him and DRIFTER. Stephanie radios him “I wouldn’t do that if I were, you still need practice to be able to control your pet perfectly, you will just end up hurting yourself” Dave shakes his head and DRIFTER runs towards him and just before it hits him, the car just brakes and comes to a full stop) I’ve always wanted to do this (he’s looking at her as he says this and his car becomes a tiny cube that he picks up, it melts in his hand) this is really incredible (he points at the building) so that’s our new home (he has this impressive look in his eyes) then, it’s time to embrace destiny (he walks in the direction of the building).

When he said these last words, he sends shivers all over Stephanie’s spine, his eyes alone could say that he would leave his mark in this world. She sees Dave getting further away from her and comes back to reality. She turns STRIFE back in its cube form, picks it up and it melts away in her hand. She catches up to Dave and walks besides him now, they get to the building where the two men who were playing with dices at first glance have come to stand before the factory big door. The both of them wear sunglasses and one of them stares at Stephanie for a few seconds before recognizing her and hits his partner on the side, points at Stephanie and calls her number 32. It seems to Dave that Stephanie is actually a big celebrity, maybe to feel lucky to have her by his side and wonders if calling her number 32 would imply her commanding rank. They both welcome her back and the one who recognized her takes out a remote from his pocket and enters a code: the front door opens and they both move on the sides

Stephanie (looks at Dave) are your ready boy?

Dave (looks at her) yes and by the way, I have a name: it’s Dave.

Stephanie (shakes her head with a smile) you still have a long way to go.

Dave (shrugs) sure sure, if you say so.

Stephanie (grin on her face) you might act human for now but with time, you will change because you were never human to begin.

Dave (looks away as if it annoyed him to hear that again) yeah thanks for the reminding me.

Stephanie (radios her supporter) “we are here, let know the council that we are about to enter the fortress, I shall bring him to them now” (smiles devilishly at Dave) no problem but when we get some time alone, I’ll give you some private lesson, you won’t regret it.

Stephanie walks in and seems to have just vanished from Dave’s sight, Dave walks in the building and falls down a hole, he screams as he’s falling down that hole, and as he reaches the ground he slows down until it looks like he’s hovering over the ground and he lands on his feet, Dave is at loss and Stephanie smiles standing not far away and radios “enjoyed the ride?” Dave doesn’t know what to answer and she adds “follow me now” she walks away from him and towards a tall door guarded by a bunch of men. Dave joins her as he looks around and it looks like they are inside an underground in a cave system. He could see guard walking around, one of them as for them to follow them. They follow him without saying a word and the both of them stand in front of a scanner, she passes the scan check and everything is okay. Then it came Dave’s turn, since he isn’t in the database yet, the alarm rings, all the guards bring out their weapons and are ready to shoot, Stephanie comes in front of him and tell everything that he’s the mission. This announcement seems to calm them down as they put away their weapons, one of them say its all clear and a door appears in the wall on Dave’s left inside and slides up, Stephanie takes Dave’s hand and pulls him inside the building.

The walk through the entrance and to Dave this place comes right from a sci-fi show. Dave is impressed, to his eyes the technology displayed right before him is out of this world and Dave never thought he could see all this outside a TV box. He takes a few more steps forwards: he sees people floating in giants pipes that are all over the place above them and they seem to be using special saucers to travel inside those pipes, also is impressed by the big screens displayed all over the place with all kind of different information such as updates about the stock market and the world news in different languages. Guards are also present here and walking around the place in groups of two or more, keeping the place safe and ready to act to fast if the place *gets attacked by humans. He sees are lines of desks all over the place with people working on computer monitoring all the situations happening worldwide. Dave notices also the biggest screen with a map of the Earth with colored dots lit up throughout the map and below it individuals on computers and headsets coordinating the numerous things happening around the globe. He stays close to Stephanie and looks around him admiring the surroundings, she can see how caught up Dave is by the new place and wraps her arm around his to get his attention. Dave looks at her and she pulls him away from all this, and brings him to a less busy area. Dave encounters more guards patrolling the hallway, other individuals also are walking down the hall while discussing certain matters that seem important at that moment. Some of them look at Stephanie, recognize her and then look away as they would be afraid of her. Stephanie and Dave continue their walk until they reach a dead end, facing a wall with one of those flying saucers below one of those giant pipes and she lets go of Dave’s arm radioing “I want you to stand on top of the blue saucer resting on the floor” she points at it. Dave recognizes it as the thing he saw people were standing on to travel around the place, Stephanie is the first one to stand on it, followed by Dave that looks around it and wondering how that blue thing would start flying like he saw  earlier. Stephanie lets go of Dave’s arm as soon as the control suddenly appear before them and Stephanie touches one button. Dave is caught by surprised by the sudden movement of the saucer, jumps a little and gets his balance quickly back afterwards: they start floating and get in the pipe above them. He’s calmed down and starts enjoying this as they fly up to higher floors. It doesn’t take them long before they reached destination, the saucer comes to full stop resting on the floor not far from the deep hole and Stephanie takes Dave’s hand to pull him off the saucer.

Stephanie (lets go of Dave’s hand, turns to face him and smiles at him) Impressed I supposed, by the way, the thing that just made us fly up here is called a floating lever. Come along, we are supposed to meet with the big bosses and we are already really late.

D-ave (getting anxious) you mean the ones that take care of everything around here (he sees her nod) should I know anything about them before we go in there because I don’t want to give a bad impression on the first date, especially if there is going to be ladies.

Stephanie (chuckles) didn’t know you would be the type to dig old women: the one that is charge of the council is over 400 years old and she will probably going to give some huge speech of welcome (grin on her face) and my advice to you is to remain silent the entire time, she hates cocky people.

Dave (cracks a smile) well looks like we won’t get along after all (big smile on his face)

Stephanie (winks at him) any question you have sweetie, just asks her and she’ll do her best to answer them, but might not get all the answers you desire since you are just a newborn.

Dave (frowns) what is that supposed to mean?

Stephanie (shakes her head) you have no experience, no reputation, not even a number yet and you expect her to just answer every question like she’s an open book (she kisses him on the cheek) you are way over your head sweetie. They will appoint you a supporter and afterwards you will be given a mentor to learn in more details all about yourself and turn you into a proud number.

Dave (nods at her and starts to flirt with her, focus now on the beauty he has before him) I’ll follow you from behind (winks at her)

Stephanie (giggles) you just love my butt, don’t you?

Dave (nods) can you blame me?

Stephanie (sighs) I’ll give you some credit for being cute but you are still a newborn, built a reputation and I might show some interest in you (walks away from Dave moving her hips seductively) let’s hurry now, she’s waiting.

Dave (smiles feeling like he’s been given a challenge) yes your highness.

He follows behind her, his eyes locked on her butt, until they walk to two huge doors with a big female soldier standing guard before them and Dave comes to stand beside Stephanie, the guard looks at them and nods. The guard radios the council behind those doors “they have arrived”, then moves on the side and the doors open before the awaited guests. A female voice asks them to walk in, they do so and the door closes behind them. Dave looks around, sees a semi-circle table with five people on chairs, a woman in middle makes a gesture with her hand for Stephanie and Dave to walk to them. When the two are close enough to the table:

Black man on the far left, number 35 (serious look) Number 32, you are late (sighs)…as usual.

Stephanie (grin on her face) humans were in the way but all thanks to this new born that problem was taken care of (she looks up to Dave)

White woman on the close right side, number 30 (giggles) humans you say….we read the report and I will speak my mind when I say that the time you wasted prepping for departure is the true cause of this late arrival. If only you could work more efficiently and make better decisions, maybe than you would be part of one of the councils.

Stephanie (shrugs) and we all know too well that my way of doing things isn`t what the council needs.

White man on the close left side, number 37 (shakes his head) we don’t have time for this number 30 and 35. The report states that number 32 made the right call by alerting the other numbers in the safe house for a safe gate away but (he looks straight at Stephanie) I`m wondering how they were able to find this safe house, it’s the third one lost under your watch in the last two months.

Stephanie (tilts her head) what if I can’t. I hope you aren’t hoping that I could possibly explain how the humans know how they can smoke us out so easily, I recommend asking the technicians to look into our coms because I’m no tech support (she acts cocky)

White woman one the far right side, number 26 (sighs) everyone is seeing this wrong: another safe house destroyed just demonstrates that humans are pushing their luck again, we simply look ridiculous to them and they aren’t going to stop any time soon with the hunting, well that’s until our race is extinct. Many keep asking me how far humans will be allowed to push us around before the main council takes action and make humans pay for their wrong doings.

Black woman in the middle, number 7 (clears her throat) 35…30…26…37…please (takes a deep breath) we must focus on the matter at hand: 32 brought him here which was her objective (they stay silent for a few seconds radioing each other about their first opinions about Dave while Dave himself wonders why they refer themselves as numbers) and as you all know, we are losing this secret war and number 4 believes that this boy is the key to change the tides of this war. And so far, this man has been right in each critical key decision made for our race survival and so, we aren’t going to question his choice (pauses for a few seconds and stares down at Stephanie) but 32’s continuous notorious behavior needs to be taken care of right now. I wish for for number 32 immediate demotion, hopefully taking such action will serve as an example: even she is indeed a great warrior, she is to follow her council’s orders (the rest of council isn’t so sure about this proposition and number 7 can see it too) maybe I should remind you all that she did something that is considered taboo, and if they were in a bad spot, radioing for assistance should had suffice as they would have arrived tin time to get them out of their bad spot (Dave isn’t too thrilled to hear this part)

Stephanie (clears her throat) and maybe you should know but I was put in a position where I didn’t have the choice but to unlock him, reinforcements would have been too late and you would have to explain to number 4 why the new born was dead. I don’t believe that rules were meant to be broken but sometimes one individual has to do the unforgivable to save the day (all five stare down at her, her words being the same as the late number 6) I will take full responsibility as his mentor and assure you that…

Number 7 (gets up and screams) Silence! Do you know what you have done? Of course you don’t and this is why many of your comrades have fallen in combat your side! Do I need to remind you that already so many men died because, especially one that was loved by all of us.

Stephanie (doesn’t back down) why do you always have to bring this up number 7 (forms fists with her hands) are you using his death as an excuse to piss me off again…THE MAN I LOVED SO MUCH…(points at Dave) anyways, you said this new number will work under me, by agreement of the supreme council.

Number 26 (shakes his head to Stephanie and looks after at number 7) Number 7, his death was unavoidable and you know it too. We should be thankful that his sacrifice got many of us to live and we ….

Dave (crosses his arms getting annoyed, feeling like this is getting nowhere) Can I just wait outside while you kids finish up arguing about minor details.

Number 35 (stares down at Dave) watch your mouth when you address yourself to your council.

Dave (shakes his head not scared at all) wow, now I’m going to piss my pants now (grin on his face) care to be more convincing (sounding cocky) or I might start thinking it’s just a fucking game all this (undoes his arms and shrugs)

Number 30 (gets up from her seat and walks to Dave) we are the numbers, as you probably noticed (she stands now before Dave and lifts her head being smaller in size than him) you will know more about us in time but for now, understand for now that the higher ups are really interested in you, something about being related to the late number 6 (Stephanie’s mouth get bigger hearing these news) we are simply going to do some simple tests to evaluate your potentials and assign you a supporter (pushes Dave in the stomach, Dave flies back against the wall and number 30 laughs a bit as she watches Dave hits the door hard with his back and he slides down on the floor, his ass on the ground) if you wish to insult the council further, I’ll be more than happy to teach you some manner, but do take note that we are as stronger as number 32…some of us even strong than your girl here (Dave looks at Stephanie that looks down as what this number was speaking the truth)

Number 37 (turns on her pc, her screen lights up, touches it with a finger, an bigger version of her screen is projected in the middle of the table, showing all the information about Dave) I doubt we can get anything about the boy, as you can see he has average scores and for me a total disappointment (smiles at Dave as Dave gets up) I expect you boy to just be a mistake, maybe more like a failure and a waste of our time (he gets up and sighs) number 7, for his case a special number has been assigned to him, a certain supporter that would be perfect for our new number. If he is something of a failure, we won’t have to worry this much about what to do with him, since his supporter is quite goofy in a way of speaking (grin on his face) number 32 isn’t qualified either to have a partner…yet…not until she has proven herself dependable with whoever we put her with and is able to follow her simple orders, no matter what they could be.

Stephanie (stares angrily at number 37) back off 37! You shouldn’t forget who covered your ass so many times during so many missions in the past.

Number 26 (she smiles at the angry expression that Stephanie is giving and decides to add more) 32, I understand that you don’t feel welcomed when you present yourself before us and I heed that everyone settles down. We need to get these tests done as soon as possible, number 4 is waiting and I remembered what happened when number 32 thought she was at his level and fought him (she looks at Stephanie and Stephanie shivers scared just hearing this number, bad memories coming back at Stephanie’s mind when she was punished by this same number by getting beaten down by number 4 of the supreme council, the pain coming back to her mind. Everyone stays quiet, Dave walks back to Stephanie and a few seconds more have passed before she speaks up again) Good, it seems that you’ve calm down number 32 and now number 7, what are your orders? (She seems to have brought back the order to the room as usual)

Dave looks at Stephanie and he could read fear all over her face, troubling him a bit, thinking how much of a monster this number 4 must be to see her shivering like she is.

Number 7 (sits back down) we will proceed as planned, even if he has been unlocked too early. As for number 32, we will process to a vote for your immediate demotion, all people in agreement for make her number 103 raise their hands (they all raise their hand with a big smile on their faces)

Dave (shakes his head and sighs) just like that…(he has this itchy feeling to just draw out his gun and attack them, but figured these people must be more experienced than him in combat, which means chances of winning in a fight are 0% and figured his questions would have to wait before they are answered)

Number 7 (smiles satisfied to see that angry face) Number 103, learn to follow orders and work with whatever group we put you in, and I’m sure you will go back in ranks and be allowed a new partner, but this time you will be have to work even harder and I want you to bring this new member to the lab, his supporter will meet him there (she gets up slowly)

Stephanie (bows to her, defeated) as you wish number 7 (she looks than at Dave whSo nods to her) anything else (all five numbers shake their heads and the doors open for the two to exit, Stephanie and Dave walk out, the doors clclose down after they exit the council room)