A writers cluttered desk

Sundays were Harolds favorite days. On sundays him and his parents would go hiking. His mother and father were named Clarice, and John. Harold was mentally handicapped and wasn't as big as the other boys in school. It was warm out witha good breeze, the green of the trees seemed to radiate and the cacophny of insects was like a twenty member orchastrae. Harold marvelled his still imafture face slack jawed and awestruck. Mother pushed him forward and laughed at him, "Get movin' Harold." She loved Harold a lot, more than daddy, she told him once.

His father was an important doctor, he smiled around harold and avoided mommy, besides these sunday walks. The forest had an earthy smell of wet leaves and moist soil. It had rained the night before. Trees towered over Harold, sentinels of the forest. Mommy lit a cigerette. She offered Daddy one and he took it, saying thank you. Harold clapped when a frog jumped onto the path. It was green and spotted, as big as harolds little hand. Harold said something that sounded like "hello", and "who are you" at the same time. Daddy walked into Harold and kocked him foreward. "Dammit Harry, you can't just sit in front of people like that!" Harold cried whe he saw the frog leap into the bushes.

They had walked for a while and Harold had marvelled over a hundred diffrent things each as spellbinding as the last. Mother had begun to yell at Father. "Dammit John! I just want some space!" Daddy stood a little taller and spat back. "A little space to fuck your secratary. I saw the way you looked at him!" Harold covered his ears and walked down the path, he hated it when they fought. The path branched, the black soil ended in a group of large Elm's thick with leaves and blocking the sun. He went left and saw a deer. It was huge and beautiful, covered with brown fur and almost vibrating with energy. It looked like a small horsey with branches coming from its head. The deer kicked the ground and bounded down the path. Harold was fascinated and seduced by the creature. Hands out he stumbled on feet too crooked for a boy his age. He heard Mommy yell his name. Harold lifted his head up and yelled about the deer. The path sloped down and turned to dirt. Harold swung his arms and yelled, a root was sticking up in the path. Foot catching and snapping Harold screamed over the shocking pain. Falling on his side he hit the edge of the path and fell down the hill. Heart pounding with fear and pain Harold grabbed out a shrill scream keening from his mouth.

something stopped him, it must have been a tree, the wood cut his back. Sitting up Harold touched his swollen ankle, the pain was making him dizzy. The wood of the tree cracked and harold fell backwards. He twisted and saw a large black log at the base of the hill. He rolled, ground, hill, sky, log. The log gave in and Harold landed in something that felt like shaped cardboard. Harold mewled like a hurt ktten and pulled him self slowly from the log. The air was hot and sweat stuck to the little boys furrowed brow. A high buzz assaulted Harolds ears and he Kicked forward in fright, They landed on him from behind, little pointed legs than the sharp pain in his back. Flash points of pain running from his back to his lower neck. The small, crippled, handicapped boy thrashed inside the broken log his back and neck covered in hornets the size of pinecones. His neck stiffed up and Harold yelled one last time as froth filled his lungs and throat.

John stood smoking a cigarette, he looked at Clarice and looked away. Her smooth china doll face was covered in tears. John dropped the cigarette, "Well the screams stopped, your plan worked. Now you'll get your damn divorce. Let me call the police, you can find the body."

 I'm not crazy or anything and yes i realized I've writtne two stories about children getting killed by nature. I'm not sorry

Who am I? The one question that sets humankind apart from all other living creatures on the planet. A chemical imbalance and a mutated brain all add up to one very confused monkey staring into a pool of water wondering not just who he is, but why he is. It's inevitable that all free thinking forms of life will have one of these private arguments with themselves. Just hope that when you begin to question your existence and your purpose you arent riding a sleek black hover-cycle as it tears through a storm cloud, sudden death only a few miles behind you.

 "You're saying our DNA was similar? That the only way that those nano-bots could work is if they were being used to protect someone like me."

And by me, Joseph meant a trained, brainwashed, half machine, more animal than man, killer.

His skull wirred and clicked, "Not you per-se but yes at one point whatever that hunter killer was it resembled you, or more precisely it was your brother, or sister. Don't think it wont want to kill you any less because the messages its sending to me even now are pretty explanatory as to how it wants you to die."

The hover-cycle hummed and flew gray clouds parted and shot past, the sun was high above being captured by solar panels, used to power giant sun lamps and the excess was used to power the city. The spires twisting and reaching high into the clouds, cone hives for the subjugated and content.

Joseph pushed down on the handle and dropped with a loud hum. The clouds opened and he saw the tops of warehouses and dilapitated houses, the ground as a cold gray, all land covered witha dull cement. Something caught his eye ad he spun the bike towards the glare, a large caliber revolver was held in front of him, a beast of a hand cannon gleaming chrome it stretched nearly a foot and weighed six pounds. The front sites stared down at an old looking soldier cradling a shotgun and standing on the roof of a warehouse a black bike parked behind him. He was motioning Joseph down with his free hand.

Joseph squeezed the trigger, a bang cracked the dawn sky louder than a piece of steel breaking in two the .60 caliber bullet cut through the air humming like a piece of artilerie. Andrew eyes went wide a split second before the bullet struck. The hover bike exploded, shrapnel and fire picked him up and tossed him nearly across the roof. Joseph slipped the gun into his belt and pulled on the throttle in the same motion.

Inside his mind odds were calculated and scenarios were plotted and ran through, sterile numbers telling him which course of action would keep him alive the longest. A thousand battes stretching across time, simulated and safe, his mind drugged to think each fight was his first. A spartan throws a javelin at him, the spear cutting through the air at the speed of death. He circles an opponent around a line in the sand, it is night and he must duel this Arabian mercenarie if he has any chance of escaping alive. Scimitars flash and blood is drawn. The air vibrates and the wind chills him even behind the thick scarf, his biplane circles along with eight others in his squad, suddenly a battalion of british Royal Air Force break the cloud line barking bullets and screaming fire. Andrew blinks and pulls the bike into a steep ascent.

 Nicole was folding towels and thinking of a way to get her job back when the east wall of the brothel exploded inward. Everything was smoke and confusion, her ears ringing from the bang she grabbed several towels and ran. The hallway was dented and people milled about, mainly Johns wondering what the commotion was about. Pushing open a door she choked on the thick smoke dropping to her knees Nicole hacked and coughed. Standing slowly she stumbled forward and grabbed a limp body. Pulling by the arm she drug thec orpse back into the hallway, some of the girls screamed when she propped up the crushed corpse of a prostitute. One of the girls, Nicole recognized her as Katharine, ran forward and into the smoke filled room. Nicole grabbed one of the towels and handed it to the weezing Katharine her curved body doubling over. The towels blocked some of the smoke but for the most part they were blind. Groping in a tear filled darkness there lungs coated with a thick layer of smoke and rock the two women looked for any survivors.

Outside, twisted and broken at the bottom of a crater a non organic sentinent life form seethes with hate and waits as a hundred pieces of itself come together. Turning over it noticed the absence of a leg, the force of the explosion had-   The air pushes it down and a thousand pieces of shrapnel dent and tear its metal hull. The red eyes scan the sky its back stitching the crack clse. The leg is a problem for only so long. Scittering to the lower portion of the Mech the metal spider holds the broken shard of metal to the dura-steel armor. The leg is slowly pulled back, the wires and plating of the upright tank seem to melt and grab the leg. Slowly the hunter-killer mark 7 pulls a new leg from the bubbling and now corrosive metal. Nano-bots skttered all over it, on the molecular scale the thing was a constant buzz of movement, each robot with the brain of the H-K. A perfect mind, a singular collective of dedicated supercomputers. And they all hated Joseph, its skills and programing were backed by something more deadly than all the guns in the world, human ingenuity and human ignorance.

Shrapnel, a piece of metal, usually broken and sharp. Fire, used to cook meat and burn things. Both of these objects caused Andrew much distress and pain. The little reject had taken him out of the game, and he was planning on helping the bastard too. Always felt bad for him ever since the day he had hacked the compounds computers and read the timetable for the project. He had watched the boy over the security cameras, a scared and angry twelve year-old. His young body filled with unlearned nano-bots and his mind still soft from forced simulation. The child stood and ran out, the look on his face a mix of dread and confusion. It was then Andrew relized the were dealing with more than just shells for what they really needed, but human beings. By then it was too late and Joseph couldnt stop it, only gather some of his friends and make a run for the forest. Andrew tried to focus on the past to forget the pain of the present, a group of gangly kids, boys and girls running towards the looming dark trees. The pain in his back washes over him and he blacks out as the children stop and bright spot lights stop them in their tracks.

The sword was never meant to be made. The concept of making a blade so thin it could slice between the atoms of any object, cutting anything in its path, was brought up in an orbiting space station that was experimenting with sub-atomics. All the cosmonauts had thought on it and said it was feasible but the potential for harm was too great. As they sat and discussed how the atom blade could theoretically be made and what it would take to power it, a little camera recorded them and took detail notes. The sword proved to be dangerous indeed, able to slice even diamond like bread, the thing had been impressive when it was first shown to the admiring press. Then  the scientist had fumbled the blade and cut himslef in half, the blade fell in an arc into, and through the stage passing through the floors and pipes, cutting wires and killing people the sword picked up more and more speed and fell faster and faster. Then the power ran out and it landed blade first into the bottom floor of the spires basement. An open room on the ground floor, it only took two days for Griffith to find out about it and buy it. He had yelled at joseph and locked it in the room telling him if he messed with it he'd have to buy it. Joseph had smiled and thought about how much money he had on him.

 Her arms burned from the exertion and the smoke still bothered her lungs but Nicole kept pumping, her arms pushing the mans chest down in a rythm. "Come on." She breathed in to his bloody mouth. Nothing. Another one lost. The door opened again ad Katharine set down a moaning girl, he face painted whte and her arm shattered, bone cut through skin and the shock was killing her. Nicole shook her head, "No hospitals down here? No ambulances?" Katharine smiled sadly, "Sorry girl, but down here we have to take care of ourselves and yes we do have hospitals, just none around here. Can you set Linettes arm?"

A map spun in front of his left eye, a spire bejeweled in holographic perfection. Joseph concentrated and a collection of red arteries flowed up the model. Power lines, and sitting outside the spires absorbing and transfering the discharge of airborn electrons were the power converters. A single bolt of lightning is hotter than the surface of the sun. Joseph banked the bike right and avoided a knot of thick pipes. The atom blade required a high energy input, higher than any batterie Joseph had on hand. But if he could tap into the power converters, he might just be able to turn the thing on.

The target was escaping on a hover-cycle. The H-K climbed an abandoned skyscraper and followed the red dot that meant Joseph, betrayer, target. Stepping back, the mechanical monster flung itself over the edge of the building, A capture strand shot out and attached to a long drain pipe, the weight nearly snapped in two but the hunter killer used the change in momentum to spin and fly higher. Rolling through the air it's long metal legs folded in and giant metal wings sprouted from its back. Ponderously it buzzed through the air, the target was in sight, there would be no escaping.

The spires were over two miles high, the energy needed just to bring electricity to all those people was enourmous, but as Joseph stood in front of a large square box, the heat nearly blistering his skin he was awestruck by the power output. A bolt of lightning crashed into the absorbtion panel behind him. If he messed this up, if he couldn't hook the sword to this correctly it would destroy him. The nano-bots worked miracles but all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't do a damn thing about being vaporized. Unrolling the tarp Joseph got his first good look at the atom blade. It resembled an early chinese long sword, or katana. A long curved blade that met a two handed handle, most people wouldn't recognize it but Joseph was trained in it. The use of every weapon was beat into his brain, room was needed so they cleared out other non-essential pathways so they could fit all the knowledge of death into his mind. Picking up the heavy sword he looked at his reflection in the steel and smiled.

The bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, the mass proprtionite to the wing size makes it an impossibility. Imagine a house with eagle wings, able to do sudden stops, turns, and hovers. Your brain won't let you see it because its impossible, yet the bumblebee can fly, and well. This doesnt explain how a five ton robot can fly on large gosammer wings but it helps.

Joseph is closer, he stopped moving. Rerouting flight power to main weapon bays. Drop wings and fire heat missiles. Falling, redeploy wings. Continue to target.

The crash rocked Joseph but didn't knock him over. Heat missles? It was getting careless, angry. The thing that made it great would also be its downfall. Or so he hoped. Returning to the panel Joseph frowned and touched one of the switches, a blue arc singed his finger and stopped his heart for a moment. Not good, the residual electricity was keeping him from operating the thing. Repairmen must wear giant protector suits, or send special robots to fix them. An audible wirr then a click made him look up as a voice resounded through his head. "Joseph it's approaching, now or never, I'll route all nano-bots to keep your heart pumping just plug that damn sword in!" This was less than encouraging, it seemed the closer the H-k got to him the more frantic the computer became, like it was scared.

 "I kow it's coming but I wont plug this sword in until you tell me everything you know about that thing crawling up the spire." One gloved hand held the leather wrapped handle, the other clutched the wireless power spike, meant to transfer energy over distances. He felt the muscles in his arm spazm. The computer was going to take control of his motor functions! Grunting he held his arm in place and through gritted teeth spat, "What do you know?" His hand shot forward and before he could stop it he had broken the metal plating on the box and jammed the spike into the conduit.

Darkness, Pain.

I have no where else to go, there going to kill us all! The guard smiles at me and reaches for his happiness rod, meaning to seduce me into a stupor. My training flows into my brain and I grab his arm, an inhuman scream later and I'm holding a broken limb and the armored guard is lying on his face twenty meters in front of me, his blood pooling sround him. My first real kill. I can't get over the walls by myself, I'm not to sure about my chances of getting out of the compound. I run to the gym, it's the closest. My brothers and sisters practice, they flip, kick, lift weights, some of them sit in front of battle simulators helmets covering thier eyes and opening thier minds. One of them sees me, Esme one of the girls. She stops doing back flips and runs up to me, she knocks something from my hand, I didn't realize I had been holding the arm. "Joseph, What the hell happened, did you kill someone?" By now they are all gathered around me asking questions, a few of the boys are looking around for the guards. I tell them everything I saw, the files I stole and the timeline. They don't believe me for a moment until they see the look in  my eyes. Esme gathers the rest of the girls and didvides them into four groups, I do the rest with the boys, I'm not the oldest or strongest there but they all fall in line. "We are getting out of here, they made us to be killers, soldiers, heroes. Or so we thought. They mean to use us, discard us, call us obsolete and kill us. This whole time they've lied to us!" By now they are all lined up, children between the ages of ten and fifteen our heads closely shaved and our eyes filled with steel. "But they've given us the power to escape, to turn it back on them." The lights flicker everything takes on a bright blue tint. i don't have long before the memorie escapes me again. The boys and girls salute in unison, innocence turned to stone. I turn sharply on my heels and take the first bean bag shot from the riot gun, one of my ribs snap and I scream from the pain. A squad of them rush in and open fire. When the howls and laughter stops the guards lay broken and eviserated, I stand slowly to my feet, already my rib is healed. One of the boys hands me a shotgun, I load a bean bag and walk out the door. The steel hallway with its bright blue lights and graphs on the wall shimmers, warps and escapes me like water down a drain.

"NO! I almost had it!" Joseph looks down at the sword in his hand and squints, a bright blue glow lights the dim room and a crash of thunder pops his ears. Something skitters over the side of the spire and he turns slowly. His boyish face is covered in scars and his arms feel like a hundred pounds each. He's been running the nano-bots ragged and aparently the electric surge was the last they could take, until he got something to eat and a good long rest. His eye zooms and he spots the hunter killer climb over the edge, it's still over a hundred yards away and the power plant they're in is a large place, the blow glow is cut off when he fingers a small switch on the side. The metal spider picks its head up and looks around, the grid of eyes stop when they rest on him. Joseph holds the sword in front of him like a practiced swordsman and yells, "Tonight! Tonight it ends!"

 Target spotted, firing to kill.

Joseph jumps staright up, the healing bots are out of commison but the ones keeping his body at maximum output are still going strong. Grabbing a wire he hears bullets bounce off the wall he had been standing in. The loose electrons must be throwing the things targeting computers off. With one arm he lifts himslef unto the thick metal wire and leaps, he catches another and spins, the spider stalks down the hall, directly under him. It's armor is stronger than any gun he was still carrying and the sword was only goin to get one cut in before the H-K blew him into little bits. The gatling guns that were held above it like a tarantuala going into battle must mean it was ignoring the order to bring him in alive. Good, if it was ignoring orders it was thinking like a human. Joseph smiled like a hungry fox, he knew how to deal with humans. The robot stopped and skittered around in a circle. Josephs head clicked, "NOW!"

Target lost, query: why are my targeting computers down? Answer: Power converters disrupting targeting programs. Solution: Destroy power converters.

The fall was a long one and Joseph felt one his legs break, the femur snapping in two. The pain assaulted him and almost carried him away. The computer initated the Phantom programming and everything went red. His eyes producing two lances of red light that cut through the darkness Joseph lifted the sword and thumbed the power switch. The hunter killer was already reacting and small holoes opened in its back. Mace sparayed around in a cloud. His eyes swelling shut and his nose running Joseph screamed like a wounded cougar and brought the shimmering blue katana down in a powerful stroke. The computer detected the amount of force per square inch and came to the conclusion that the force would not be sufficent, so it routed more power to the biceps, and forearms. The mace stopped spraying and Joseph gasped, then screamed, the arm holding the katana had exploded from the force, bone and tendon dripped with gore and flayed pieces of flesh and white chips of bone were splattered on his black shirt. The computer realesed endorphins and he calmed enough to look at his cut. Black metal was seperated cleanly and the pink organ lay exposed and revealed, a brain. Joseph fell to his knees, between the two halves of the petrified hunter-killer. He remembered something, a fleeting glimpse. Than a more recent memory came to mind, absorbing the leg of Nicoles boyfriend. His brain whirred loudly in protest. "No, don't do it." Jospeh smiled and nearly blacked out from blood loss. The computer didn't say he could'nt do it, just NOT to do it. Jabbing his stump into the thick brain he waited a moment then he felt a slight tingle along his elbow.

Darkness, Pain.

Esme ran out of the building, the flames had almost gotten her, and had consumed al of the kids except for her, Joseph and five others. The castle-like walls lay almost a mile in front of them, already sirens were being sounded and dogs were being realesed. She breathed heavily and wiped her bloody hands on the cold grass. Joseph sprinted forward and called out to them to run as fast as they could. Esme nodded and ran, she nearly caught up with Steven, one of the fastest runners in the compound, the walls were getting bigger the closer they got to them and a long mournful siren was hurting her ears. She was tired and scared. She was a soldier and was ashamed of her fear. Than bright white light blinded her and she heard Andrews voice over a speaker. "Lay down, put your hands on your neck and cross your feet. Non-compliance will result in death. This is your only warning." Esme looked to the rest of the children, they were caught, it was over. Maybe if they surrendered they wouldn't do the things Joseph had said they would do. The other kids looked up at the bright lights and began to kneel. Than Joseph ran, Esme screamed before a bullet tore through her back. It was dark when she woke up, she was floating in something. The lghts came on and she looked around, the room was bare white and Andrew stood in front of her, the look on his rock hard face was a mixture of anger and sadness. "Poor beautiful Esme, why did you listen to Joseph? You shouldn't have ran. We werent going to use you for the next stage but now... now we have no choice, you see you and the four others were the only survivors." Esme opened her mouth and gurgled something the red liquid bubbled in front of her but Andrew seemed to hear her. "Joseph? He escaped while we were gathering you and the others up, he won't get far though. Poor, poor esme." Andrew turned away from her and spoke to the tall man in the white coat. "This one will do for the H-K project, along with the others, Begin now." Andrew turned back to the glass and smiled.

Joseph pulled his stump from the mes of pink goo and nearly blacked out. He was bleeding out fast, and the pain had turned into a resigned throbbing. Turning over unto his back jospeh tried to wrap his head around what just happened, they were going to turn him into one of these things? Thats why he ran? The darkness of the large domed room was broken by a nearby flash of lightning. the spark of purple floated on front of his vision, than everything went dark. A loud whirring could be heard in the darkness, than the grid of red eyes flashed back on.

Damage to carapca severe, sapien brain damaged,iniating repair protocol. target identified as dead all life signs are mute. realesing nano-bots.

The hulking monster pulled itself together, the long strips of black metal flowing over and under joseph carrying his body into the round thorax. turning ponderously the hunter-killer shuddered and cracked. It's belly popped spraying blood and oil, joseph flopped out gasping like a new born child. There dna was similar, the nano-bots had mistaken Joseph for more pieces of the hunter killer and had tried to reabsorb him into the mass of the beast. The stress was too much and the hunter-killer lay still and cold. Joseph pulle dhimself to his feet, computer was reporting that some of the nano-bots had transfered from the hunter-killer to him. His arm was restored as well, looking at it through green night vision it pulsed with energy. Metal and sinew melded and twisted along each other, it was bulkier than his other one and had weird pink wrappings moving through it. Clenching and unclenching Joseph looked at the foreign limb and muttered, "Esme?"

Nicole felt good, she was exhausted but had saved lives today. Looking at herself in the broken mirror she grimaced and placed it back down, her light brown hair was nearly black from rock dust and her face was cut and bruised. A man moaned not to far off. Sitting on a bench she unscrewed her canteen and brought the warm liquid to her lips. Katharine sat down next to her, just as dirty, her curves almost bursting out of her ripped dress, a bandanna kept her hair out of her face and she smiled at Nicole. "We did good today." Katharine leaned forward and wiped her face off, "What the hell happened? Where did that explosion come from?" Katharine stood and stretched her breasts nearly ripping her red dress, "Best i can come up with is something attacked Joseph, Griffith tried to help and," She let the rest hang in the air and sat back down. Nicole shook her head, "Joseph was right, there was a lot more death, lets just hope its all over." Katharine laughed, "Girl you haven't been around Joe enough to know, with him, it's almost never over."

Andrew sat in the back of the Airborne Personall Carrier (APC) loading his long barrled sniper rifle, his back still hurt from the shrapnel and he was getting angry with Joseph. So he called in this attack squad, borrowed this APC and was on his way to vaporize the reject. "Sir, the hostilehas been tracked to power converter plant B6, should we engage?" Andrew looked at all the hardened marines sitting against the hull of the long flying cylinder and nodded. The ship flew into the bay and stopped, a bright spot light revealed a broken H-K and Joseph covering his eyes from the light, one hand holding a curved sword. "Open fire seargent."

An explosion of sound and joseph was already in the air, leaping towards a wire. He should have been tired, easy prey for the gunship, but somehow he was rejuvenated. Computer spoke to him while he jumped between two long pipes. "I detect Andrew aboard the ship along with thirty marines." The loading door opened and the soldiers filed out in an attack spread, each of them five feet away form the other. Joseph leapt down his eyes glowing bright red. The confusion was his ally and he spun and rolled, swinging the glowing sword, seperating limbs from bodies, and head from necks. Bright red blood geysered in the air as he cut three of the armored men in half with one swing. The cries of confusion turned to fear, and Joseph began to cackle like a madman. One of the men distanced himself and sprayed a burst of gunfire in his direction. A twist and a swing and joesph cut the bullets in two, his cheeks cut open by the two halves of hot lead.

Andrew snaked along the top of the ship, the men were falling to quickly, the reject should have been weakened by the fight with the H-K, he should have been easily beaten and returned to the lab. Instead he was laughing and killing like he was recharged. Not good. the scope rested against his eye and a peel of lghting revealed Joseph standing on a pile of dead marines laughing and hacking, his body covered in blood and gore, then he went silent and the room was quiet, it was just the two of them. Andrew aimed and fired. Joseph turned towards him and swung the atom blade, a flash of light and Andrew fell over, his lung sucking in air, and his lifes blood bubbling out of his mouth. Than Joseph was kneeling in front of him he huge silver revolver pushed against Andrews forehead. "Good-bye father." the hammer fell and Andrew died in a flash of light and gun smoke.

It was getting late and Nicole was wondering not for the first time how she would get home, and whether she wanted to go back. In the hospital that she worked, her job consisted of waiting for a piece of machinery to break so she could help a patient, 'human interference' was a last resort. The road was still broken and cratered, the first raindrops of the night fell and she wrapped her arms around herself and truned to go back into the bordello. She was tired and ready for bed so she didn't see the eight men approaching behind her.

Katharine closed the door behind her counting bills ad smiling, bussiness didn't stop because a wall fell down. She fell over as something struck her from behind, she stayed awake long enough to see a youn g man wearing red face paint bend over her.

The fuzz reced and Nicole came to, shge was kneeling in the rain along with the other girls, a man was standing in fornt of them cradling a flak cannon. He was overweight and wore his hair in braids, his voice was low and gravelly, "Hello girls, we heard the explosion and ecided to check it out, turns out, Griffith is dead, whcich means all these weapons are ours. And you are are all ours." He smiled a wide broken glass smile and one of the men grabbed a girl from behind and held her down. Nicole closed her eyes and looked away but she couldn't block out the screams and grunts. A peel of lighting and nicole looked up a black shape was approaching from the sky. She heard Katharines yelp as two men grabbed her and held her down. A crack of thunder and one of the men fell backwards a large piece of his head missing. Katharine used the opportunity to sit up and head butted the other man, his nose crunched and he backhanded the young prostitute. No one noticed the black shape land a few feet away from them, no one could help notice the two long laces of red light that looked like eyes, or the dull pulsing of a glowing arm. The fat man levelled the flak cannon and pulled the trigger, he fell to his knees before the gun could go off another crack and he flipped on to his back. The men stood up and dropped the girls they were holding down. It was too late for them. A sreaming red eyed vengeance fell on them.

"You okay?" Katharine leaned back letting Joseph support her, "For the tenth time I'm fine, you interrupted them before they could do any permenant damage. What about you? Where did this come form?" Katharine hugged josephs metal arm. "Not important, say is Nicole on her way home?" Katharine nodded and turned around, "Yes, but why did you send her home I thought you liked her?" Joseph leaned forward and kissed Katharine, her soft lips parting for his, it felt good to do that after all the voilence. "I did, I still do. But the first time I met her, killed her boyfriend, i led her through violence and killing, hell she nearly was raped because of me. I think the best place for her is back where she belongs." He kissed her again, flowers, even after all that happened Katharine still smeled like flowers. "And you, Joseph where do you belong?" He hugged her close and sighed, "I can do two things, stay here with you, be happy for a little while until they come after me again and risk losing you. Or I can find them, smoke them from there holes and kill them, finally end all this." Katharine stepped back and held his human hand, "Well, you do what you have to. But tonight at leats you can be with me, and at least pretend you're normal." Joseph let her lead him back into the bordello an dout of the driving rain.

                                    Epilouge

Senator Kline awoke to darkness, his heart hurt and he could feel tubes running out of his arms. He tried to sit up but felt thick metal restraints were holding him down. An oily voice reverberated around the room, "Hello Mr. Kline. Yu have been a thorn in our side for a very long time, but the good news is you'll finally be able to help us for once. See we really wanted another person for this job, but he is currently out of our reach, but you, you were convienently in a coma so we used you instead. You arent gong to die Sentaor kline calm down. in fact you'll be doin a little travelling." A wide pane of light broke the darkness and Senator kline blinked away the spots in his eyes. He was in an all white room he was strappe to an operating table, the screen flickered and he saw a large red globe floating in a starry abyss. "See that Senator, that is Mars, it will be your new home." Senator Kline screamed, but the laughter coming from the speakers overhead was a litle louder.