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Jade

Jade closed her eyes as the bomb beeped down to one second.

A tear trickled down her cheek. She had so much to live for.

The bomb still beeped as it counted down. Jade frowned, and opened her eyes. The timer was on one second and was still beeping every moment.

Realization dawned on her face, and she turned away to warn her friends.

There was a gun pointed right at her face.

°°°°°°°°

She grit her teeth and looked at her attacker straight in the eye.

Not that it made a difference. He also wore mechanical eyes, but his possessed a jammer. Her MEs were incapable of identifying his identity.

The worst part; he donned a CCPC uniform.

She smiled wanly at him. "How can I help you?"

He opened his mouth to reply, then froze. At the same moment, Jade detected a second heat signature creeping up behind the man.

As fast as a snake, the man in the police uniform twirled the gun in his hand, spun around, and struck, aiming at the new person's jaw.

Equally as fast, the newcomer ducked; and punched right through the policeman's stomach. Jade saw a metallic fist sticking out of the policeman's back, smeared and stained red with organs and blood.

She felt sick, and, turning away, threw up on the nearest machine.

°°°°°°°°

"There is no time," the man said. "We must go now."

"NO!" Jade yelled, stumbling backwards, scratching at her waist. The blaster didn't come free, and the man simply walked towards her and put a metal hand on hers. She gulped. Until she found out exactly how much of him was human, she wouldn't be able to fight back.

"Who are you?" she whispered.

"I'll explain later. Right now, you REALLY need to come with me. I won't hurt you."

Jade was silent for a moment. Her MEs didn't detect any sign of misinformation or intentional lying.

"Jade. Please. We can't waste more time."

She opened her mouth to reply, then paused when he froze. Heavy boots were banging on the stairs, moving upstairs, and fast.

The man gave her a look that was almost apologetic, grabbed her, and placed the kicking, punching woman on his shoulders.

He turned to the nearest window, took a step backwards, and charged towards it.

°°°°°°°°

He didn't even bend his knees. He had transferred Jade to his arms instead of his shoulders, lessening the impact of him landing on his feet after a two floor drop.

As soon as the man hit the floor, he continued running, nothing as much as a grunt.

They landed before the glass shards, and were running before the remaining shards shattered on the floor behind them. After trying to escape from the man's iron grip, trying everything in vain, Jade surrendered. She decided to wait through her bouncy ride, watching the ground zoom beneath her.

°°°°°°°°

The running man (which was what Jade had begun to call him, as he seemed to do little more) slowed down after a while.

Her MEs, still on her face, told her they were going at about 42 takes per second, down from 49. Still much faster than an average human's.

The floor changed from asphalt to gravel, and Jade frowned. Gravel was the type of material that rich people wanted and poor people had, even though the rich didn't want to enter the poor areas and gather it themselves.

An upward crane of her neck showed her a dark alleyway, the floor littered with broken CyberScreens. She groaned, not even bothering to fight back.

After what seemed like eternity, the running man stopped.

'Great,' Jade thought. 'What do I call him now?'

He dropped her like a sack of computer pieces. Jade grunted in indignation, but otherwise didn't say anything. The running man walked away.

Jade rolled her eyes, sitting up and turning away to study her surroundings. She squinted her eyes as the place lit up with a powerful sweeping sound.

'I'm in a giant warehouse,' she realized, pulling off her MEs and attaching them to her PortaZone. The place mostly empty but contained a few large machines here and there. Jade had had no small amount of huge places to investigate recently, yet she was still stunned by the sheer mass of the warehouse. She was sitting in a corner and the running man was making his way back to her.

She hugged her knees to her chest and eyed him suspiciously. For a few moments they just looked at each other.

Eventually, it seemed the man became impatient.

"Jade. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Uh huh. And how do you know my name?"

"I've been watching over you for some time now. Protecting you."

"I can protect myself. Now, if you don't mind, I'll be leaving."

She stood up, raising her head, and walked away.

"The exit is on the other side," he said quietly.

Jade huffed. "I knew that."

As she tried to walk past him, his hand shot out and gripped her shoulder tightly. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying out, and stomped at his foot.

The running man growled, bending down slightly; and Jade took the opportunity, swiping her elbow at his face. It was stopped by another one of his metal hands, her elbow striking the metal and sending jolts to her shoulder, temporarily paralyzing her entire arm.

He yanked her arm behind her, cranking it, and this time she cried out.

"If you fight back, I will have to hurt you. Don't make this harder on yourself."

The man let her go, shoving her to the floor. She glared at him and he stared back, emotionless. Jade felt tears welling in her eyes, so she turned away, trying to hide the sign of weakness. She felt a hunkering presence by her as he crouched down beside her.

"I'm sorry," he said, softly.

She pushed at his chest and, surprisingly, he stepped backwards.

She looked him straight in the eye.

"How much of you is human?"

He tensed, which sent a flame of fiery triumph through Jade's chest. She had hit a soft spot.

"More than you'd expect. Please don't try escaping again. Also, I'll be jamming your PortaZone connection. Don't bother trying."

He turned away and headed straight towards where he said the exit was. Jade watched him mournfully as the door shut behind him, clicking multiple times as it locked her inside.

Who was she mourning?

Probably herself.

She screamed until her throat was raw, her frustration and panic and fear and anger and distrust and longing all mixing, reacting, exploding, EXPLODING inside of her.

Then she curled up into a ball and fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello there.

Surprise surprise, Jade's back. Who would've guessed?

I realize the chapters may be a little smaller than we'd all like; however, it seems exams will get the best of me.

Hope you enjoyed! Vote and comment what you thought of this chapter. All forms of criticism are appreciated :)

#CilyberSaturday