Eight months after I met my “mother” at the cemetery I was no closer to finding The Corps. In all that time I hadn’t felt the burn caused by the program. No doubt they were trying to lull me into a false sense of security. Fools. This wasn't gonna stop until I took them all down. Then one day while shopping at a local Ralph’s I felt a slight burn. I turned down the canned food aisle and saw a slender black female looking over some canned spinach. She looked at me and smiled.
“You look much cuter in person,” she said to me. The burn was slowly building to a sizzle. “My name is Tina, by the way. Actually, it’s Tanika, but that sounds way too damned ghetto.” She stuck her hand out for me to shake but I dared not take my eyes off of hers. “Damn, You’re rude.”
“Who are you?” I asked. For the moment the burn was staying at a leveled pace.
“I just told you, Hex,” she said with a smirk on her face. One of those “I know more than you do!” smirks that assholes are so quick to flash. “I graduated last year. Top of my class.” No need for her to come out and say where she graduated from. “So how do you wanna play this?” she asked. “Fast and easy or fast and painful?” Immediately the burn charged up. I could hear her heart beat as well as mine. She smiled and was at my throat in less than a moment. “Fast and painful it is!” She launched me over the food rack. I landed on one knee in the next aisle before she came crashing through it. “This is gonna be so fucking fun!” she shouted before throwing an ax kick. I caught her leg and chopped her under the knee.
“You talk way too much,” I said. “Is that what they're teaching now?” I grabbed her hard by the scruff of her neck and slammed her hard to the ground. She swept my legs but I didn't fall. Instead I brought my knee down hard into her stomach. The wind flew from her in a whistle. A moment later she was at the end of the aisle holding her neck and stomach.
“Goddamn!” she shouted. “You’re good! But not as good as me!” She vanished again but I heard her behind me a moment before she struck. I backhanded her across the face so hard I hurt my knuckles. She spun and with her back to me I kicked her in the base of her spine. Again she was gone. I heard shouting a few aisles down and made my way there. I rounded the corner and she had a hostage. One of those people that hand out free samples. Tina/Tanika had already stuck three toothpicks into the lady’s neck. She had a handful more. “Get down on the ground, Hex, or this hotdog selling bitch gets it!”
“What makes you think I give a damn about her?” I asked. Tina/Tanika jammed the handful of toothpicks into the back of the lady's neck making her howl in pain. She'll live. At each end of the aisles we raced. I grabbed a bottle of water and chucked it at her. It burst and she slipped, landing on her back. She tried to get up quickly and slipped again. I ran towards her being careful not to fall myself and kicked her in the face. She flew into the frozen food section headfirst. The glass shattered on impact. Security rounded the corner and pulled a gun on the two of us.
“145mph,” Tina/Tanika said before vanishing. I saw her heading out of the door towards the parking lot. As I headed after her I snatched a bottle of Tabasco sauce and chased after her. She really was fast, I'll give her credit for that. She ran into traffic causing three small cars to rear end one another. I jumped over them and landed a few feet behind her.
She spun with a gun drawn. I smashed her in the face with the Tabasco sauce. She landed hard on her back, the momentum of the speed we were traveling at sending her tumbling head over heels until she cracked the back of her head on a rain gutter. I could hear the snap of her vertebrae upon contact. “I can't move,” she said.
“That’s what happens when you break your neck,” I said as I bent down over her. “Now we can do this the fast and easy way or fast and painful.”
“Fuck you,” she said. “Fast and painful it is.” Tina/Tanika sang like a bird. All it took was a threat to cut her pretty face to make her talk. Aftershe broke her neck I slung her over my shoulder and ran a few blocks away from all of the damage we caused during the pursuit. I found an empty alley and dropped her near a dumpster. She grunted when she hit the ground even though she could feel no pain. I kicked her leg and leaned down over her.
“You’re gonna tell me everything I need to know about the program,” I hissed at her. She grinned and her arm twitched. Already the program was repairing her damaged vertebrae. So I quickly stood and hit her in the neck with a well placed knee. She slumped even further and sighed. “Speak.”
And, oh, did she speak! Turns out a small squad was built to take me down specifically. Tina/Tanika said that there were eight of them and that she was the best. Given her current situation that was a fact that she would have been better off not sharing. She then gave me a twisted version of my departure from the program. They have been taught that I killed L.T and the others during our training mission to China. Zero, in all his glory, sacrificed his body to protect The Corps and the program. She didn't appreciate my laughter at that. She explained the Rubber Maids and how flawed they still were. The one sent for me as my mother was known to be flawed but the sense of urgency was far too great for The Corps to wait for perfection to capture me.
Zero was now second in command, the only person above him being The Corps. That idea should have sent an icy chill down my spine but it only made my brain sizzle. Zero had only gotten stronger since the last time I saw him, even going so far as to request “Red Eyes.” The idea of that freak of nature having the power of Raves angered me. She also told me about Hollister and what happened to him. Zero slit his throat as I suspected but later that day, much to Zero and The Corps chagrin, he came back to life. Each time he did he was tortured and grilled for information about me and what he told me. He was strong until the very end. It took 99 deaths until, smiling, he passed away. Then his head was removed and his body burned. There is a rumor at the program that every night his re- animated head comes alive and screams in pain.
“Just give me facts,” I said. “Save the speculation for your little girlfriends.” “How did you kill L.T?” Tina asked. “From the sounds of it he was one of the best.” “I didn't kill him,” I sighed. “They killed him while I was bedridden. I have a question for you,
’Tina’.” “Anything,” she said. “As long as you let me live.” “I can’t promise that,” I said. “Fair enough,” she replied. “Ask away.”
“Will you tell L.T I said hello?” I asked before putting three bullets in her head. Then my shoulder exploded. I hadn't noticed that she had regained feeling back in her arm and placed a small bomb on me. How could I have been so sloppy? I can rack that up to being rusty. Blood shot from my arm and suddenly as the program started sealing the wound shut. Tina/Tanika’s body started to hum and I ran. As I turned the corner leaving the alley an explosion so large that it ripped the entire side of the building loose erupted.
I reached into my pocket and pulled a small phone out. I had removed it from Tina/Tanika as I carried her to the alley. I opened it and a grid flashed on the screen. Then it jumped from the screen and was a hologram. On the grid were two bright flashing yellow lights and seven smaller red ones. I immediately knew who each light belonged to. The seven other squad members, The Corps and Zero. I closed the phone and allowed myself to smile.
One week of training was needed before I started this mission. I kept tags on the flashing dots the entire time. The Corps and Zero were flying all around the country. The seven other dots belonging to the squad pretty much stayed in or around Los Angeles. I needed to take them out first. No point in destroying the queen bee when a hundred fucking drones are gonna be up your ass.
I worked on my speed the most. If I was gonna go for seven fighters at once I would have to be faster than I have ever been. Fuck 120mph. I needed to be at 200mph. During the training I used the 10 freeway as a track. Being fairly clear enough after 3am was convenient. I reached a speed of
189mph before my shoes fell apart and my lungs began to burn not unlike my brain whenever the program was being used. But I had to keep goi
ng. I wanted to take these assholes out before they even knew what hit them. I learned to hit targets 8 out of 9 times with my eyes closed and my back turned. I began to discover that the program found weaknesses and ravaged them into submission. I learned how to use the rage that overwhelmed me during training before graduation where I killed those guards. It hurt like hell but I could do it. I knew that when it came down to me and Zero that I would need to be past ruthless. Past aggressive. Past perfect. I had to be faster than God. I had to be dirtier than Satan.