TRIPLICATE #3

The Small Hours

"You cannot touch me,

You would not dare

1

I wasn't working on a timetable. Whenever I wanted to go, all I had to do was press a single red button on the remote control that I was holding in my hand. My body was covered in what I called my ninja outfit, a black cover-all suit that only left my eyes exposed. It wasn't skin tight, but it wasn't baggy. It fit me a lot like camouflage would fit a marine as he invaded a beach, or a jungle, or something else like that.

I didn't carry any weapons, I didn't need to. Once I was inside, everything I needed was already in place. Everything was ready to go, but I hesitated, nervous, knowing that if I failed here today, I would die, and my mission would fail. It was too big of a price to pay, and I couldn't let that happen.

I closed my eyes, took a few deep breaths, and tried to relax. It was hard, though, especially with the disease running through my body, and my lack of control over it.

"Michelle," I said, my voice wavering and almost cracking, "is everything ready?"

It is, Gabriel. It's showtime.

"How are the sensors?"

In place. I'll tell you when they are off.

"Okay, you ready?"

Yeah.

"Okay."

You ready?

"I'm scared."

You can do this, Gabriel. You are the best at what you do.

I smiled. "Thanks, Michelle."

Besides, you better, because if you don't, you'll probably die trying.

"Man, thanks a lot. Now I'm even more scared."

Just trying to keep you loose.
"Nice." I pressed the button, and heard the roar of the engine in the background. Next came the squeal of the tired, and then nothing. A few seconds later, I heard, and saw, the explosion fill the sky. It was deafening and also beautiful.

They're down!

I took off running as fast as I could. Five hundred feet was the equivalent of about one hundred sixty seven yards. Normally, it would take a human about twenty to thirty seconds to cover that much ground running at full speed. I had ten seconds, and I made it. I was at the entrance hatch at the far wall in just under eight seconds, and through it in three. All I did was tear off the handle, and kick the hatch open. I was inside without too much trouble.

Defense grid is back on line. It took them two seconds longer than normal.

It didn't matter, because I was inside. All that was left were some sophisticated fingerprint detectors, some retinal scans, a voice scanner, and a few key-card controlled locks. No problem.

I was on the maintenance level of the facility, the first one underground, the one in between the normal laboratories above, and the secret ones below. The hallway was bare, a long, narrow corridor with cement walls and steel doors. This hallway led to one maintenance elevator, and unfortunately, this was the bottom floor. I would half to go up to go down. I was inside, though.

"I need everything that you can give me, M."

You have it, don't worry.

"Good." I continued down the corridor, until, finally, after what seemed like an eternity I found the end. The elevator was waiting for me, a failsafe from the power outage. All the elevators returned to the bottommost floor they serviced.

The lights, which were bright when I entered, began to flicker which I took as a sign of the back-up generators kicking in and taking over from emergency power. That would probably mean that every safeguard and defense mechanism was back into effect. I would have to be cautious.

"How long before I can't go any further?"

Two hours.

"Long enough." My body would give out in two hours, but I planned on either being cured or dead by then.

I stepped into the elevator and hit L, which seemed to be the best choice for the ground floor. M was probably reserved for maintenance, 1 was for the first floor, so L had to be for the lobby. I was inside perhaps the cleanest elevator that I had ever see. The walls were so white that they seemed to give off a soft glow; the floor was a sticky substance that I imagined sterilized the bottom of the shoes. The handrails were steel, and had no fingerprints or any other smudges on them. The buttons for the floors were the same. It was spooky.

I touched the rail, and felt a slight tingling sensation. There was a slight electrical current of some kind running through it. Almost as soon as I touched it, though, the tingling sensation stopped, and the rail was normal. I let go of it and watched the oils from my fingerprints disappear. It was truly amazing.

The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. I quickly scanned side to side, but saw no one. Out the windows I could see the fire's stygian blaze still raging, it has spread to the trees along the fences. Fire trucks had yet to arrive on the scene, and from the look of it, most of the security guards were outside maintaining security.

But that's when my luck ended. A guard came around a corner and spotted me. "You there," he shouted, pulling out his gun. "Freeze!"

I had no inclination to freeze, or stop, or anything, so I took off running in the opposite direction. I heard the static of his hand held radio come on, and I knew he was calling for reinforcements. All I could do was keep running, hopefully finishing my task before the reinforcements arrived. To my dismay, they were already in the building. I had mad an error, or at least didn't have any luck. I thought there would be a smaller number of guards on duty, but there wasn't. I had ten of them waiting for me, batons out, ready to pounce.

Luckily, I was in a large hall. I was outnumbered and outgunned, but I had some space to operate and a desperation that none of these big, strong men could duplicate. The lead took out his radio, engaged the speaker, and said: "Mr. Gibson, we have the trespasser surrounded. We are ready for your entrance into the building."

Louis Gibson. I really hated that man. Someday, I would have to deal with him once and for all, and that meant that he would be dead. Maybe today was that day. Somewhere inside of me, and to my surprise it wasn't that deep inside of me, I was hoping it would be today.

If I were destined to die tonight, Louis Gibson would die with me.

The ten started to move in on me, spreading out in an attempt to surround me. They were all alpha males, none of them under six foot four and none of them with more than ten percent body fat. I bet they all could lift busses if they had to.

The first two came at me, and to my surprise, two more behind me. The two behind me hit me in the back with their batons, while the two in the front started hitting my chest. It hurt, but I had a plan. I could take this for a while longer. It was seriously tapping my resources maintaining my strength and preventing serious injury, but I since I was stopped, I wanted to get Gibson here and in my sights.

"I thought this guy was supposed to be dangerous," one of the big lugs said. "My kid sister is stronger than this chump."

They all started laughing as the four had their way with me. The others were cheering on their compatriots, spewing obscenities at me. Pretty soon, some more took their turns beating on me. I heard footsteps beyond the festivities, and saw Gibson walk into the hallway, with Aries and Jenna. I wasn't sure if she knew it was me, but I would have bet that she did. She looked a bit dismayed as I was beaten, Aries looked like he wanted to jump in. With his arm in a sling, and his shoulder bruised to the bone, I doubted that he could have swung the baton.

Gibson stood there, towering over his two other companions, and most of all of the guards, smiling at me, at his goons, at the trap he set for me.

I knew he was waiting, he had to have been waiting, especially after what happened earlier. With the diversion, he knew I was coming. But like I said, I wanted to get Gibson close.

I had five of the guards on top of me, hitting me as hard as they could, but I never took my eyes off of Gibson. He never took his eyes off of me. The guards hesitated, but he told them to continue, that he was enjoying the show.

Then I winked at him. His smile turned into a more stern expression, which turned very sour when I screamed loudly and kicked out the legs of those who were attacking me.

It was simple to do. I was already curled up almost into a ball, and as if I were about to begin that famous break-dancing maneuver the backspin, I put my hands on the ground, twisting my body around, swinging my legs and taking all five of them down.

I jumped to my feet and went after the first guard. He was on his knees, but I picked him up by his shoulders and ran him into the wall. He groaned in pain when he hit, and he dropped his baton. Another guard came towards me to save his partner, but I threw the one I was holding into him, sending them both flying down the hallway. I picked up the baton, and confronted the next guy. I quick shot to the stomach, the chin and then the knee sent him down. He was unconscious when I hit him in the chin, but a busted up knee would help me later. Three down, seven to go.

Two came at me, swinging their clubs. We dueled, they were on the offensive while I was doing everything I could to block their shots. Finally, I had an opening and I took it. I ducked, the one on my left missed with a baseball bat like attack. A shot to the kidneys put him down, and I doubted he would ever regain the use of that kidney.

The other one was easier to take out. I ended up breaking his neck. The other five hung back, seeing me run through five of their coworkers, looking at Gibson for instruction.

"Don't let him get away!" He screamed. That's exactly what I wanted to do.

I still had a goal, and I had to get their soon. I just took about twenty minutes off of my life with that little exercise, and I needed to be on my way. The doctor was calling, and I had to show.

I turned quickly, looking at the three of them. Jenna was shocked, I doubted that she thought I had this in me. Gibson was just furious, I thought his head was going to explode it was so red. I had a chance, though. I was between the five remaining conscious guards and Gibson, Aries and Jenna. I was also near a door, probably an office was inside of there. If there was a window leading anywhere, I was in good shape. Lucky for me, when I got inside there, the window was right in front of me.

The five chased me in the office, and I got a head start on them when I jumped through the window. Either way they came at me, I had a few seconds on them, that was all I needed.

I ran down the hall, and I saw my destination. In the center of the building, there were four auditoriums. In the middle of the four was the access elevators to the lower labs. All I had to do was get through one of the auditoriums and get down the elevator to the last lab, the Triplicate lab.

But not right now. I hit a stairwell and shot up the stairs, opening all the doors to each floor. No one would know where I went in, and they would have to check all of the floors. It would buy me some more time, hopefully.

I went up to the top, the fourth floor. I waited until the group was coming up, though, before I jumped to action. The stairwell was a normal stairwell, a sort of squared spiral design. There was a space in the middle of the stairwell, enough to fit me in it. When they were up there, bursting in the fourth floor, all I had to do was jump down the middle, and I was in good shape again.

And just like clockwork, they came running in, and ran right past me. I ran out and jumped into that center open area and started falling to the lobby again. But I saw Aries look up from the stairs. I tried to catch something, but I couldn't. When I was at he level, he timed it just right and pushed me back into the stairs. He twirled around and kicked me in the chest, and I wasn't prepared for it, so it hurt a lot more than it should have. I fell down the remainder of the stairs.

I have to give the guy credit, though. He ignored the throbbing pain in his shoulder and jumped at me, narrowly missing my head. He let himself fall on me, though, which took the wind right out of me. He bellowed in pain, though, as his shoulder hit the bottom stair.

That was my chance, and even as my lungs burned for air, I swung my leg around and kicked his shoulder. There was nothing behind it, though, no strength at all. It didn't matter since his shoulder had been dislocated. It added exponentially to his discomfort. I kicked again and again, his screams cut through me like a burning red poker through a block of ice. In less time than I thought, he had passed out from the pain.

I could hear the others coming down the stairs, so I continued by decent. I didn't jump down the middle, I just jumped each flight. Each time I landed poorly and fell into the wall. Maybe I would kill myself before they had their chance.

I thought I was going to run into Gibson, but I didn't. He and Jenna were nowhere to be seen. It looked like I had a bit of luck. I ran for the auditoriums, knowing that I had to make my move. They were not too far away, and I met up with no resistance on my way.

I stopped in front of the door, and reached for the handle. I saw my hand, it was shaking. I could hardly grab onto the handle, but somehow I did. "Michelle?" I called. "Can you help me?"

I heard nothing. For the first time that I could remember, I was without here. Either she was too busy fighting Triplicate to talk, or else it had overrun her. Either way she was gone, and the only way to get her back was get the inhibitor.

I pulled the door open, and walked in. In front of me was another high security door, with a cipher lock on it that required a number punched into a keypad. I walked up to it. "I need everything here, Michelle. I need this." I put my finger on it, and felt as she reached out and started her magic on the door lock. I saw the green interface flash red, then blue, then white, then red. Number combinations were flying on the keypad, I couldn't keep up with them, but I didn't have to. I just wanted the door opened. I got my wish.

The room inside was pitch black. I fumbled on the walls around the door for a light switch. I finally found it and turned them on. I should have kept them off.

2

I found myself not in an auditorium, at least not an auditorium that I figured I'd be in. It was a large room, about twice the size of a basketball court. Inside there were rows and rows of things that reminded me of aquariums. Inside each of these aquariums was a blood red thick gelatinous liquid...Triplicate. "My God," I whispered, looking at the vastness of this. There were four rooms, and I bet that they were all like this, filled with tanks of the substance that was killing me.

To each tank, a variety of equipment was attached, each pumping something inside to the tanks. I did a quick count, and saw that there were at least six thousand of these tanks alone in here. If the three other auditoriums were the same, there were twenty-four thousand.

I didn't have the time, but I walked up to one of the tanks, and tried to look inside it, to see if the only thing in it was Triplicate, or something else.

The liquid was too dark and too thick for me to see through, but from the rippled that were counteracting the ones from the pumps, I could tell that something was in it, and something was moving.

I continued to watch, waiting for something to happen. I heard something behind me, a dull thud. I turned around to see something pulling away from the glass in another tank. I watched it for a second, but I didn't see anything else.

There was a soft hum in the air from the pumps that were attached, as well as the other equipment. I heard the thud again, this time from the tank I was first looking at. I turned towards it, and I saw what I thought was a foot. It couldn't have been that big, though, because the tanks were only three feet long by one and a half foot wide.

Then it reappeared, and it was indeed a foot, a very small foot. Soon, the rest of the leg appeared next to the glass, then the hip, the torso, and then the head.

"Holy shit, what the hell is happening here?" It was a baby, no, it was a fetus. It still had its umbilical cord attached, too. It was being fed Triplicate through that, too.

As if on cue, more of the fetuses rolled up to glass. My hands were shaking still, but now I think it was more from fear than anything else. I was finally putting some of the pieces back together, and thankfully Michelle returned to me, at least to pull me together.

Gabriel, she croaked. Get moving, we don't have much time. We need the inhibitor.

"You see what's going on here, don't you?"

I see it, but I won't be able to for long if you don't get the inhibitor. Time is running out.

"I can't just leave them here like this."

You can, and you will. If you are dead, you can't help anyone at all.

That took only a second to sink in. I needed to get out of there, and get to the lower labs before I died.

I stumbled away from the tanks, and towards the front of the auditorium. I saw the door I needed, and I ran for it. When I got there, the door behind me burst open. The guards poured into the auditorium, but I was winning. I was through the door and into the elevator, heading down. The elevator doors closed before the guards made it close.

3

The elevator didn't stop until it reached the last floor, the Triplicate lab. It opened into a clean room, a staging area for the scientists and doctors that worked on it could get into their protective garments and enter the actual lab.

It was constructed from steel, at least most of it was. The floor was grated with drains located all over the place, installed to collect the water that would be sprayed from the sprinkler heads in the ceiling.

On the wall near the airlock that led into the labs were three lockers, each with a protective suit and breathing apparatus inside of them. Those were the only things that were in this room

I was pretty sure that I didn't need to put on a protective garment, and walked through the airlock that led into the lab. I waited for the airlock to do whatever it needed to do, and eventually, after a few seconds of crunching and grinding, the gears opened the airlock and let me into the lab.

Inside, the walls were covered with trays of vials. Each tray was marked with a numerical code, a code that I was unfamiliar with. These trays rested in cabinets that were locked with a very menacing dead bolt lock, and each cabinet has six shelves that held four trays each.

More inside the lab, away from the walls, were tables with the typical items one would find in a laboratory. Scales, beakers, test tubes, petry dishes, and the like were all over the place. Each lab table had computers, all of which had the same display on them, the Anderson Research logo. Then I saw it.

The inhibitor was in a cabinet by itself. Instead of the blood red color that was triplicate, the inhibitor was a chalky white substance. I could feel my heart race when I first glanced at it, and as I started towards it, I could hardly contain myself.

I was about ten feet from the cabinet, though, when all the computer screens changed, and I saw the face of the person I hated the most on this planet, Louis Gibson.

"Welcome, Gabriel, to the Anderson Research Facility. I trust your trip down was eventful?" He started to laugh. "Don't try and answer, I won't be able to hear you anyway. Just listen to me, and enjoy what I am about to give you.

"There are a few things I thing that you should know about what has gone on in the last few days. You see, you and I probably have totally different recollections of the events, the planning, the execution, everything. I figured that we might as well get on the same page right now.

"I knew exactly when you came into town, when you landed, when you picked up your rental car, when you did five drive-by's of my darling fiancée's home, when you checked into your hotel, and when you contacted my loyal partner Apollo Sambonis.

"Oh, wait a second, I bet you thought he was YOUR loyal partner, and probably friend, right? Fitting that I not only killed you and took your love, I took your friends, too.

"I knew it was you that was going to meet with Jenna that night in the park. I knew that when you would show up, you would be sicker than a dog, too. Jenna only confirmed that for me.

"I also bet, that since you probably had Jenna's place bugged when you slept there last night, that you thought that it was a surprise that I saw you with her. Nope, wrong again! It was all a carefully orchestrated plan.

"And you know what else? The FBI is here waiting to take you into custody once I bring you out to them, after I get done with you. You see, they have been doing a little investigation into your 'terrorist' activities for the last five years, ever since you started your little rampage through my underworld. Well, Gabriel old buddy old pal, tonight it all ends, because I am going to kill you once and for all."

I heard a hissing sound, and around me, I saw a red mist filling the lab. I knew immediately what it was. He was gassing me out with Triplicate.

"I have seen you do some pretty amazing things, Gabriel, and I can't claim to understand how, but I know that you have to breathe, and eventually, you will take in a lung full of this wonderful medicine I designed especially for you. As a matter of fact, I'm not going to even make it sporting, because I am going to shut off your only access to the thing that can save you."

I heard a loud crash as steel walls began closing around the exterior of the lab, isolating the Triplicate, and the inhibitor, away from me. I ran to it, but it was too late. The inhibitor was out of my reach, and I had already took in a few breaths of the mist.

"I hope you have fun dying. I'll turn your lifeless hulk of a body over to the authorities when I'm through. I've won, you know. I hope you understand that." The computer screens turned off, and I went crazy with rage. I banged on the door, but I couldn't find anything to open it. I started destroying the lab tables, knocking over the apparatuses as well as pulling out the drawers of the desks and dumping their contents. I could feel the life leaving me, and there was nothing I could do about it.

The room was a red glow, and I was losing my strength. I continued my rampage, clearing a desktop, but only to lie down on top of it. I was spent, and I was about to die. He had won, my last ditch effort to save myself had failed, and so did my mission.

I closed my eyes for the last time, and let darkness overtake me.

4

I thought I was dead, especially when the light turned on. I couldn't feel any part of my body. I didn't have the strength to fully open my eyes, but I did open them enough to see that the room was clear again, the red mists were gone, and the airlock was being engaged. I watched as the door swung open. As it did, the steel walls that separated me from my salvation disappeared back into the ceiling. I had a way out.

Three of them entered, and from their size, I figured they were security guards. They slowly approached me, each of them had a gun in their hand, just in case I had any fight left in me. But I didn't, I couldn't even move. Triplicate coursed through my veins as freely as my own blood, and there was nothing that my body could do to protect me.

The three stood over me, but I had my eyes closed, so I couldn't see anything. One of them kicked me gently in the side, to see if I was moving. I didn't, I couldn't.

He did it again, and there was no response once more. He did it a third time, though, and this time, I opened my eyes as much as I could. "Oh shit, he's alive!" I heard one of them scream. Two of them trained their guns on me, the other one, I guess in shock, stepped backwards, and stepped right on the edge of one of the drawers that I had pulled out. He continued backwards, this time in a fall. He tried to regain his footing, but that only made it worse, and he ended up hitting one of the cabinets on the wall, shattering the front glass and sending the test tubes flying across the room.

"Mr. Gibson, this is Patrol."

"Go ahead, Patrol," the familiar voice crackled through the static.

"He gave us a bit of trouble, but nothing we couldn't handle." That, I think, was the understatement of the evening. Their inability to handle the situation had resurrected me. Too bad they didn't know that. I bet they would have handled themselves differently.

"What kind of trouble?"

"He wasn't dead when we arrived on the scene. He came to, and knocked one of our men into a cabinet. We regained control of the situation and took care of him."

"Are you sure?"

"One bullet to the back of the head, sir. He has no pulse and is not breathing."

"Excellent. Bring the body up to the auditorium so I can inspect it myself before I turn it over to the FBI, will you?"

"Immediately, sir." He turned off the radio, then ordered his companions to pick me up. Their hands under my armpits and feet, then picked me up and carried me to the airlock, through it, and into the elevator. For some reason, it didn't go up immediately. "Damn piece of shit," the leader of this group said. "I hate this place."

"It pays good, though," another one chimed in. "Besides, where else can we have this much fun and get paid for it?"

"The marines," replied the leader deadpan. "I used to be in the Corps, and I felt a whole lot better about what I was doing that what I am here."

"Come on, boss, it's not that bad."
"Have you taken a look in that auditorium? Have you seen the babies in there? God only knows what they are doing to them in there."

"I don't think God has too much to do with it, boss."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

The elevator finally started moving. The three didn't say a word while we rode up to the auditorium. When we arrived, they threw me up onto a table, and I could hear footsteps approach. It was Gibson, I was sure. There was another set of footsteps, softer, crisper. It sounded like heels or something like that. That would mean Jenna was there, too. "Leave us alone, will you?" Gibson ordered the guards, and I heard the footsteps trail away. I didn't dare open my eyes, or breathe, or do anything that would give me away.

"So, my friend," Gibson started, "it comes down to this." He was talking to me, a corpse, a dead body. Maybe he was insane, or he was just looking for closure. He put a hand on my shoulder, then patted it. "I was surprised to see you resurface here, I really thought you would have been dead by now.

"But you see, Gabriel McGuire, it didn't matter that it you did, because I knew everything about you from the beginning. Did you think you could have hid your identity from me for all this time? I found out your secrets, your desires, and your loves. I took them all from you when it became obvious that you decided to try and take from me. I couldn't have someone as insignificant as you disrupt these immaculate plans that I have.

"I know about your past, your relationship with your parents, about how they died, and how you managed to fake your way through high school. I know how you met Jenna, when, where, what you were wearing, what she was wearing. I know all about how you stood her up after the prom, and how you abandoned her after you graduated.

"I know about how you got your fortune, about that old shit you left it to you. But the one thing that I don't know is why you started sniffing around me and my project. No one knows about this, except for people that I decide should know about it. How did you come to know about it, or did you just end up stumbling over something that you couldn't have possibly dream ever could happen to you.

"It doesn't matter too much now, though, doesn't it. Your fight against the disease I gave you, no matter how valiant and unexpected it was, is now over. You have succumbed to the inevitable, you have fulfilled your destiny. You have shown me that Triplicate will work, it will do whatever I want it to do.

"They will be so happy to hear of your demise. You were the one variable that they had not anticipated. They thought you might have been immune, but in the end, you aren't immune to the future, no one on this planet is.

"It's too bad you won't be around to see the new order that I will usher in. Your sacrifice to my cause is deeply appreciated." It was hard listening to him babble on and on like a pathetic spoiled bully. I always thought that no one would ever talk like that, like a damned comic book character, but there I was, dead as a doornail listening to Gibson rant and rave about his precious new order, how he was going to usher it in to humanity, blah, blah, blah. I doubted that he was sane enough to tie his own shoes.

I won't stop here, though, there is still more from our pal Gibson. "It's too bad you don't know the scope of this project of mind, that it is only one piece of a puzzle that is so near to completion. Soon, I will turn over the next generation and everything will be the way it should have been, the way that it should be.

"And it will be I that history will look back at as the savior of humanity, that I was the guiding light that brought us to the next stage, the last stage of our evolution. Humanity was but a caterpillar waiting for the cocoon to form. Now, that cocoon is being woven, and we will emerge from that a beautiful new species, ready to serve, ready to fulfill our destiny! It will be a glorious time to be alive.

"Whoops, sorry about that Gabe! Looks like you're out of luck. Don't worry, I'll take good care of Jenna for you. I know how much you loved her, but not like I do." Oh, it was going to be fun killing this guy. "It's time for you to go away for good, Gabriel McGuire. Your time has gone the way of the dinosaur. There was never a place for you in the new generation." He turned to leave, but Jenna didn't. She didn't move, I could sense that much. I wasn't sure if she was sad or happy, and I didn't want to know. I wanted to keep a grip on the hope that this was all some kind of coercion, that she didn't do this on purpose, that she was forced into it, that me and her could still be together.

"Come, Jenna, let's take our leave of this piece of garbage." She turned around and walked away from me, something that held more symbolism than anything I had ever experienced in my life. Bring the body into office number one-oh-three. I'll have the FBI brought in in ten minutes. Have everything ready."

"Yes sir," a guard responded, and I heard the heavy footsteps of the guards returning to take me to a new place. I was in the new office in less than a minute.

I was trying to decide on how I could make my miraculous resurrection. When I was sure that I was left alone in the room, I opened my eyes and looked at the ceiling. I was lucky, the ceiling had tiles, the kind that were easily removed. Within seconds, I was up in the overhead, holding onto various sprinkler pipes and the like. I saw where I could position myself outside of the office, and wait until they had entered. It was a decent plan, a lot of theatrics and the like, which would be amusing. Since I wasn't going to allow myself to be killed tonight, I figured that I could put on a show.

I waited and waited, it seemed to take Gibson forever to bring in FBI Agents Whitaker and Trammel. I could see them come in, and they looked concerned, probably thinking that I was indeed dead. They knew I was in serious shape, but I don't think that they expected me to die. Well, guess what, I didn't.

Watching Gibson lead them through the lobby was funny enough, but what he was saying was just as funny, even more. "I was deeply concerned when our facilities were attacked three years earlier, in Memphis, that's why we moved out here, to Detroit. We thought moving would stop this sort of thing."

"It's alright, Mr. Gibson, we have been tracking this terrorist for almost eight years. He's been very elusive, and since he took an interest in Anderson Research, he's been particularly active. You should feel lucky that he didn't do more damage to you or your company."

"I do, I really do. I am grateful that it ends here tonight, with nothing more than cosmetic damage to our facility."

"You must be hiding something big in here to attract this kind of attention from an international terrorist like this guy, The Asp." The Asp was a pseudonym that they had created, along with a phony background story for this terrorist. Just enough information to keep people interested.

Gibson looked at her with very suspicious eyes. He melted those back into his ego and gave her a more gracious, worried expression. "We do a lot of research into chemicals here, trying to develop better fuels, better medicines, trying to make this planet better. We have nothing to hide." When someone says that, I have discovered, it's probably because they are guilty as sin.

"Mr. Gibson, I wasn't inferring anything, I was just making a joke."

"You must forgive me if I am a little beyond humor right now, tonight has been very trying."

They were approaching the office now. Slowly, they began to file inside, Louis Gibson to be the last on in. Finally, everyone was in, and I dropped to the floor. I heard Gibson scream in the room. "Where is he?"

"If I were you, Louis Gibson," I said in a very deep, very angry voice, "I wouldn't worry about that new generation quite yet." I was behind him, and I had cleaned myself up. No longer was the fake bullet wound on the back of my head showing. My clothing had been replaced, eliminating the rips and tears it used to have. "You still have to worry about a relic like me." Funny, though, that I was born eight thousand years from now.

He turned and saw me standing in the doorway, my fist pumping as if I were trying to increase the blood blow in my arm for a blood test. I wanted a piece of him so bad I could taste it. "I don't know what's worse, the bullshit that you spew all the time, or the fact that you probably believe all of your lies." Alana was looking at me, smiling. Thomas seemed to be taking it all in stride, he was always surprisingly calm during my activities, except that first one. Gibson's look was a cross between someone scared to death and furious. He looked pretty funny. Jenna looked plan old shocked, too stunned to move or say anything. I wonder if she felt any remorse. That didn't concern me at the moment, though.

Gibson turned completely around to face me. "I don't know how you did it, but I'll finally put an end to you." He took a step for me. "I'll kill you a second time tonight if I have to."

"Need any backup, Gabe?" Alana was always one to crack a joke at the most opportune time. It got a good response out of Louis, who turned and looked at her with such venom in his eyes. It was very comical.

"What?" he shouted at her.

She just smiled innocently at him and shrugged her shoulders. "Surprise," she deadpanned.

"You planned this, didn't you, you bitch!"

"There's no need to start calling me names, Mr. Gibson. I might start calling you things. Things like The Asp."

"You have no proof of that!"

"You think that The Asp is real to begin with?" Gibson looked back towards me.

"You son of a bitch. I'll kill you with my bare hands!" He charged at me, and I dodged him expertly. He ran right into the wall.

He recovered quickly and hit me in the face, a lot harder than I thought he could hit. It didn't hurt me, though. I went with the blow, bent over a little bit, but stood right back up, looking right at him and smiling. He hit me again, harder than before. Still, all I did was take it and smile. "Don't start something you can't finish, Louis."

"Those punches should have shattered your jaw."

"Should have, yes. But you see, like you, I'm not exactly what nature had originally intended for me. I'm made some upgrades."

"You know about it, don't you. You know about the Plan."

"I know as much as you've told me." He took another swing, missed, and I belted him in the ribs. He doubled over. "I know that your little serum won't ever hurt me again. You were close, Louis, so close to winning. Closer than you'd ever know." I kicked him, but he grabbed my leg, pulled me down and jumped on top of me, pounding away at my chest and stomach. It was starting to hurt.

"I'll rip out your heart and eat it, Gabriel. You'll die watching me eat your heart." I rolled over, knocking him off of me, then got up and ran down the hall. He got up and followed.

I hid in a doorframe, waiting for him to run past. I formed a steel rod in my hand about a foot in length. It would slow him down, piss him off, but not do much more than that.

I heard his footsteps closing, and I was ready to spring. He ran right into my trap, and I nailed him in the lower leg with the rod. He went sprawling on the floor, but stood up. He was strong, and very resilient. He didn't even limp from a blow that should have shattered his leg.

He pulled out a small black cylinder, a retractable baton. He flipped it and it extended. He swung it at my like a sword, but I blocked it. We spared back and forth, each volley blocked by the other person. Occasionally, a kick would be thrown, but not too often.

"I can't let you win, I can't let it end here tonight," he said. I think he was scared, seeing that he could fail for the first time, that it was a definite reality. If he failed, he'd be dead, and it wouldn't matter to him what happened next.

"What are those children for?" I asked him, buthe only smiled at me.

"You don't know that much, then. You'll never get anything out of me." I heard Alana, Thomas and Jenna run up the hall after us, stopping twenty feet away, watching.

I looked over my shoulder, a mistake that I paid for by getting smacked in the head with his baton. The blow was countered, at least most of the force was. It still stung, and it rang my bell pretty good.

He used his momentary advantage to start pounding on my with the baton, repeatedly hitting me all over. I curled up in a ball, utilizing my ability to deflect a lot of the force that a blunt object would have on me. With each blow, the energy of the strike was absorbed and converted to my defense. The more he hit, the less effective it became. I loved that feature. It was perfect for times like this.

I could fake being injured really well, though. Michelle and I had a response already planned out for times just like this. Bruises and cuts started to appear all over my body. They were real enough, and the blood I lost wasn't all my real blood, but some of the real stuff made it out. It made everything much more convincing.

Finally, after almost three minutes of continuous beating, Louis Gibson stopped, breathing heavy, and stood over me. "Why didn't you just stay dead," he said softly, so the others couldn't hear. "You should have died years ago. Now, you'll stay dead." He picked me up and pressed me against the wall, his forearm up against my throat, choking me.

Well, at least he thought he was choking me. "Look at them, Gabriel, look at everyone you failed!" He made sure that my head was turned towards my two friends, who were watching but weren't all that concerned. They had seen this before. "They are going to watch you die, and then they are going to die.

"That's right," he continued, seeing a reaction to that last statement. He thought it was one of shock, but actually I laughed. Luckily, he didn't pick up on it. "That's right, I'm going to rip his spine out of his back and break every disk individually. I'll keep him alive so he can feel everything.

"And her, oh, she is a tasty one, isn't she. She'll be the nice girl, give me what I want from her, and then I'll tear her heart out. And the best part, it will all be your fault."

I started moving my lips like I was trying to say something to him. "Speak up!" he shouted in my face, trying to taunt me more. I moved my mouth again, getting the same reaction.

Weakly, I said "watch my face." I had a plan, it was time to show him exactly what he was dealing with.

"What?" he asked, seeking clarification. He let up slightly on my throat, although it didn't matter.

"Watch my face," I said clearer. He understood it now, because he was looking all over my face. I had multiple cuts on my face, and I started closing them up slowly. I wasn't sure that he could see what was going on, but when his eyes became wide, he knew that something wasn't right.

"You think that you know what you are dealing with," I told him with an anger and power in my voice that I didn't even know that I had. "No matter what you think, you your masters are, where this Triplicate comes from, it pales in comparison to me, to the man who is also your executioner."

His eyes were wide, and his mouth open. He knew things were bad. "You were lucky you infected me, because I haven't had me full abilities for a long time now. If I did, you would have been dead years ago. That being said, I think you should make peace with yourself and any god you believe in."

He took a step back from me. I was completely healed now. "Wha-what are you?"

"I'm a human being, just like what you used to be. And I'm your angel of death." He took another step back, and took a swing with the baton. I grabbed his wrist before it came close enough to hit me. I started squeezing it. Eventually, he dropped the baton, his face becoming red with pain, his eyes starting to water. "I can keep this up until you pass out, but I'm not going to do that." I let go and pushed him into the wall. He just stayed there, leaning up against it, holding onto his wrist. He went for his baton, but I went to step on it. It was a ruse, because the next thing I know he kicked me in the worst place I could have been hit, and it hurt. This time, I was the one that doubled over.

"I've got more to me than you know, Gabriel. No parlor tricks can stop me." He put his boot on my forehead and started applying pressure. "I think I'll crush your skull now."

The pain was subsiding, but man, did it hurt. I reached up and grabbed his ankle, twisting it as hard as I could. I heard something give a loud snap inside it. He would never use it the same way again.

He bellowed in pain and fell. I pulled myself together and lifted myself up. I looked at him, in the fetal position, grabbing his hideously deformed, dislocated and broken ankle. I felt sorry for him, like a hunter would be before taking the final shot at an animal that gave him a good hunt. It had to come to an end, though, and now was the time.

"Get up," I told him, but he didn't listen. I stepped on his ankle, and he screamed again. "Stand up!" I told him. He just looked at me.

I grabbed him by the hair and pushed him up against the wall. As soon as I did that, he fell back to the ground. Behind me, I heard Jenna scream out, obviously for her fallen love. I was there, standing over the person that she had promised to marry, the love of her life, her current life, about ready to deliver the death blow. I turned to see her running for me, furious and scared. I turned to her, looking squarely at her, sneering was more like it. She stopped dead in her tracks.

"Don't kill him, Gabriel. He's not what you think he is, he's a good man."

"He tried to kill me!" I screamed at her. "You tried to kill me."

"I never did anything like that."
"Working here, taking his side, it's siding with the enemy, my enemy. Make your choice, Jenna. Chose me, or chose my enemy."

She was crying, and I was furious, I was betrayed. I loved her with all of my heart, all of my being. But then, at that moment, I knew that it was I that betrayed her, ten years ago, when I left without explanation. I took her trust and destroyed it. Now, she was in love again, and I was about to destroy everything she had built up to replace me, and I wasn't going to stop.

"You made the choice for me, Gabriel." She was sobbing hard now. "What has happened to you?"

"More than you could ever know," I said and turned away from her. I felt, for a moment, that I should let him go, let him be with her, let them be happy. Then I knelt on his arms, pinning them to the ground. He looked up at me, the fear of his own mortality in his eyes.

"It isn't supposed to end this way. They promised me everything."

"Who promised you? Who are they?"

He looked up at me, smiling, laughing as best he could. "I'll never tell you."

I put one hand around his throat, and he was still smiling at me. I bent down and started whispering in his ear. "You'll die never knowing the truth about the one who killed you, the one who will stop everything you are trying to do." He tried to talk, but I started applying pressure to his throat, cutting off the words from him, as well as his air. "I know about Triplicate, I know what it does, and it's only a matter of time before I find the true power behind it and stop them, too."

He smiled and started coughing. "You...you have no idea." He died smiling up at me. I let go of his neck and stood up, turning towards Alana and Thomas. Jenna was crying.

"There's your Asp," I said, walking down the hallway towards the front doors. I didn't want to talk with any of them at all.

Alana and Thomas were staying at a Holiday Inn not too far from Anderson Research. I waited for Alana to return, I knew that Thomas would already be on his way to the airport on a plane back to San Diego, where his wife and three children lived.

She came in very late, obviously working at diffusing the situation that I pretty much caused that night. I think she expected me to be in the room, waiting for her return.

"Are you okay?" she asked me without even looking for me.

"No," I said evenly, "I am pretty far from okay."

"Tell me, Gabriel." She sat on the bed, taking off her shoes, then her socks. She started undoing her shirt. She didn't care if I were in the room or not, she was that kind of person.

"I realized, when she was pleading for me to spare him, just what I did to her."

"You did what you had to do, Gabriel. You did it then, and you did it tonight."

"It's hard, Alana, it's hard to do the right thing."

"It takes courage sometimes to do this right thing. You know that it has to be this way."
"Does it really, though?"

"This is a situation created by others, others that have nothing but the worst intentions for everyone. You have to stop them, no matter what the cost is."

"I just wish it wasn't me that had to do it."

"Gabriel," she said, walking towards the chair that I was sitting in, in the dark. She sat on my lap and gave me a great big hug. "Gabriel, we all have our paths. Some are harder to walk than the others, but we still have to walk them. Besides," she continued, standing up and walking back to the bed, "I wouldn't want anyone else from eight thousand years in the future and from a different planet to be here to try and save the human race from annihilation. You seem like a pretty good choice for it."

"Thanks," I said, "I think."

"Gabriel, go get some sleep, or whatever you do at night, and take a few days. You've had a very traumatic couple of years. Hell, you almost died tonight. You should have died. You forget that part, that they were trying to kill you. You just didn't let them."

"Yeah, you're right." She always had a knack for putting things into perspective.

"Did you learn anything useful tonight, besides the fact that you are a hard bastard to kill?"

"No, not really. What happened to Aphrodite?"

"She wanted to see you again, but we had to send her to a safe house. She'll be taken somewhere secret eventually."

"Where is she now?"

"Here's her address," She handed me a slip of paper. Alana was very good to me. "She'll be leaving in the morning."

"Thanks, Alana."
"Anytime, Gabriel. I'll see you around, right?"

"Yeah." I got up and left the same way I came in, though the window.

--------

She was there, sleeping in her bed. I was outside he window, watching her chest rise and fall with every breath. She was a work of beauty, worthy of her name.

It was like she knew that I was there, because she woke up after only a minute of me standing at the window. "I knew you'd show up," she said when she opened the window.

"I couldn't leave without saying goodbye."

"You look better," she said, caressing my cheek with her hand. "You feel better."

"I'm going to be okay," I replied.

She smiled warmly at me. "I didn't want to scare you off when I told you about the voices of mine."

"You can't get rid of me that easily," I told her. "Have your oracles told you anything else?"

"No, they have been quiet tonight, but I don't need them to know that you had a busy night."

"Things happened, some things ended tonight."

"I'm sorry, Gabriel, I truly am. I knew how much you loved her, and she loved you."

I shrugged my shoulder. "It doesn't matter in the end, I guess."

"Sometimes it doesn't."

I pulled away from her, but she didn't let go of my hand. "Gabriel, before you go, there is one thing I need to tell you."

"What?"

"This isn't the end for us, for you and me. That much I know."

"You're sweet," I said to her, it was all I could think of.

"That's not what I mean, you big lug! We'll meet again. There are some unfinished things."

"Should I be afraid?"

She shook her head. "Not of me." She lifted my hand and kissed it, and I caressed her cheek.

"You've always been way too good to me."

"Just do me a favor, okay?"

"Name it."

"Don't kill my brothers."

"I never planned on it."

------------------

He was asleep in his bed, and didn't hear me come into the room through the shadows. I was on top of him before he knew what had happened. My hand covered his mouth, he couldn't be able to say a word.

"Don't ever betray me again, Apollo. I'll be watching you and your brother. If you do anything to harm me, my interests or your sister I will hunt you down and kill everything you have ever held dear, and then I'll kill you."

He stayed there in his bed as I disappeared into the shadows again. I knew he was scared, because I could smell it on him.

Thank God for comic books, because they gave me so many good ideas.

-------------------

THREE WEEKS LATER

I sat back down on the bench, watching the snow fall around me. It was the first snowfall of the year, and I was going to leave in a matter of hours, probably for good this time.

I had stayed in Detroit, tying to find out more about those babies that I had discovered at Anderson Research. What I found was a perfect example of a cover-up job worked to perfection. Within days, the complex had shut itself done, and just yesterday, the last of the work was finished, AR was officially shut down. Everyone who worked there was unemployed.

If they weren't already a part of it, then they were let go. Jenna's house was up for sale. I did some investigating into that, and I learned she was moving away, far away. She was moving away tomorrow. The well was officially dried up.

I would leave town before she did, that much was sure. I came back to the bench because I had a feeling that I would never be back here. It didn't matter of Jenna saw me, or even came out, I wanted to do this for me, for closure.

I wasn't listening for it, but I heard her footsteps coming my way. I could always tell it was her. They stopped about ten feet from me, and I heard a metallic click; she had cocked the hammer of a gun. I didn't blame her for wanting me dead, I think in her shoes I would want me dead, too.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't pull this trigger and blow your head off."

I sat there for a second, not trying to come up with a reason, or stalling for time, or anything like that. In fact, I don't know why paused. "I don't think that I can, Jenna. All I can say is that I did what I had to do."

"For a higher purpose, your precious mission, right?"

"It was more than that, Jenna. He tried to kill me, you tried to kill me. How can I stand by and let that happen to me? I can't do that."

"You can tell me the truth for once. You've never done that, you've never been truthful with me, not once!" Her voice was as sharp and chilling as the snowflakes falling on the back of my neck.

I shook my head, for all the good it would do. The snow was still falling, a little harder than before, but still not that hard. I doubted it would even last the night. "I've told you what I can, what I feel. I didn't lie to you when I told you that I loved you."

"You walked out on me, you son of a bitch. You broke my heart at a time when you're supposed to be happy. You ruined my teenage life."

"I can't apologize for what I did. I had to do it."
"You didn't have to leave like that, you didn't have to leave me."

"If I told you, you wouldn't have believed me. It would have made things worse."

"So you just left, just like that."

"It was the easiest way to do it."

"Easiest for whom?"

"For me."

"It's always been about you, hasn't it?"

I sighed. This was the end, I knew it, the end of us, of me and her. Never again would we look at each other with any kind of feeling for each other except for hate and pity. I pitied her because she didn't know the truth, at least the truth about me. She could never know, not now, not never. There was one thing that she could know, though. "It has never been about me. Never."

"Yeah, right. You used me."

"I didn't use you, I loved you."

"You never loved me."

Finally I turned to her, and I saw tears running down her cheeks. She had been crying, from the looks of it for a long, long time. She held the gun, still trained on me, with a death grip. It hurt me to see her like that.

"It's the one thing in this world I am sure of."

"You killed my fiancé, you wanted to kill him."

"We had a history, he would have killed me, he tried to kill me."

"I loved him, Gabriel. I truly loved him."

"I'm sorry, I really am, but I had to do it, I had to survive."

"To complete your precious mission? Now that it seems we are on opposite sides, can you put aside the love you say you have for me?"

I turned away from her. I stood up, and started walking towards my car. "Don't you walk away from me!" I thought she was going to shoot, but she didn't.

I turned back to her. There was only one way to end this, and it had to end badly. "Do you think I have a choice?" I snarled at her. "Do you think that since I left you once, now, after you tried to kill me, I can't do it again? I didn't come back her for you, it was never about you. I have a job to do, and if you get in my way, nothing, and I mean nothing, will stand in my way of completing what I need to complete. I used to love you, what you were, but the moment you started working for them you became a monster, and there's only one way to deal with monsters."

Now she was going to shoot me, I was sure of it. She didn't. She looked at me hard and long. "So that's it, then?"

"I hope I never see you again, Jenna, because if I do, I can't guarantee your safety." I turned and walked towards my car.

"You'll never win, Gabriel. You never had a chance."

I stopped one last time and turned around. "I'm still alive, Jenna, and that's the first step."

Then I took my first step away from her, and towards my true destiny.