Preview to The BulletProof Ghost: Prototypes

Prologue

Three and a Half Years Ago

Kyle sat on the cold wet floor of the locker room. He hated this room. All of his inadequacies were laid bare here. At least when compared to the other boys. His height was the worst. He was at least six inches shorter than everyone in his class, whether they were male or female. At 13 most of the girls were beating the boys in height, but with him it was even worse. The nicer girls treated him like he was a child compared to them, like a little brother or cousin. He was the same age as them, but he was never viewed in that way, except by one. The only one that mattered to him right now. The floor wasn't wet from someone who didn't dry off enough from the shower (if at all). The liquid on the floor was thick and red. The locker room floor was wet with his blood.

Kyle looked down and the knife stuck in his stomach reminded him of how he got here. There was a slow but steady steam of blood flowing down his lower body. The stream traveled along the tile and mixed with a water puddle near his feet. The puddle that put him in the dire situation he found himself in. He couldn't think about how he got here anymore. He had been leaning up against the stone bench that connected to the lockers for several minutes. It was clear that no one was coming to help him. The ones responsible for stabbing him had left him to die. They left him to bleed to death alone.

Kyle shook his head trying to focus. His head was getting fuzzy from the loss of blood. He forced himself to a standing position. He thought about pulling the knife out. He wasn't sure if that would increase the bleeding or do more damage than leaving it in. Kyle found it really hard to move with it in. He didn't intend to live through this, not at this point. He knew what was coming was inescapable. Kyle pulled the knife out. Blood starting to run down his shirt and pants even quicker. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt all that much. Was this what going into shock is like, he wondered. If so, he may not be able to walk much longer, but he didn't have that far to go. Kyle put one foot in front of the other.

He needed to see her. As he hobbled out of the locker room, Kyle knew this could be his last chance to say goodbye. Kyle made his way past the wooden doors that connected to a vending machine area outside of the two gyms. The left one is where the girls typically had their classes. Kyle's left foot slid along the floor a little bit. He could see drops and smears of blood down the hall, "Shit... is all of that mine? I don't have much," he coughed up a little blood, "..time left."

Kyle leaned up against the door to the left gym. He used all of his weight to force the heavy door open; or at least it felt heavy to him at this moment. Kyle looked around the gym of long blond, brown and red hair. In this small of a rural, mostly white bred town, Irene wouldn't be hard to spot. He knew her gym class was the period after his. Kyle saw several faces that were like his in tone, pale or reddened from the exercise. Then he saw Irene, dark skinned and full of energy. One of the preppy cheerleaders spotted the bloody Kyle staggering into the gym. She screamed at the top of her lungs. Kyle thought that this was only slightly more negative of a response than he normally got from her. Irene turned to see what 'cheerleader' was screaming about. Kyle smiled slightly, because he knew he had made it. He saw Irene before... then he lost whatever strength he mustered up.

Kyle dropped to the floor and started to convulse. Irene ran to him and bent over him to see how bad the wound was, "Oh no...no no no no."

Kyle couldn't hear what she was saying at this point. His body was shutting down. His vision was cutting in and out, but he knew Irene was holding him in her lap. He thought she shouldn't, because she was going to get her clothes all bloody. He could tell that she was yelling at somebody, maybe the teacher? She was just standing there looking like a store mannequin, but not after Irene yelled at her. The teacher ran off pulling her cell phone out on the way to... where ever. Maybe the nurse's office. Lot of good that would do. Maybe she could get a couple of gauze pads for him or something. Maybe a few for the floor. Kyle chuckled.

Irene looked at him. Kyle's eyes focused right at this moment. Irene's eyes were filled with tears and she was breathing hard, like she was having a panic attack. Kyle squeaked out, "Hey, Irene," he raised his hand up. She grabbed his bloody hand with her bloody hand, "I'm sorry. I didn't want to make... you cry. " Irene said something Kyle couldn't make out, "It's selfish, but I... wanted to see you. One last time... I wanted to be with you when the end came..."

Unsure of what to do until the ambulance came, the other girls surrounded the two without doing anything. The nurse did her best, but Kyle used his last breath to say those words to Irene. She squeezed him tight, tears streaming out of her eyes. She screamed in sorrow. Kyle Richard was dead.

Trials of Prototype 005

Now

1

Cybernetic Prototype 005 blocked the swipe from his enemy's glowing blue blade. The blade that was attached to his left wrist met the attack with a bright energy reaction. The clash of two blades pushed CP 005 back along the ground, leaving ripped up grass and trails where his feet dragged the ground. The Kinetic Energy that emanated from the blades push against each other, but if the blade had hit any part of Five's body, it would slice right through it. This is despite the extremely resilient armor he donned. His enemy's blade jutted out of its elbow. One of two equipped on each arm.

The black eyed man watched the battle from a safe distance. His head moved back and forth, following the path of the fight. He held his hands, as well as his circular tablet, behind his back. The black eyed man patiently awaited the outcome of the conflict.

Synthetic Prototype 003 or a Synth, as Five has already nicknamed it, was a completely artificial being. It wasn't self aware and was only working off of programming. It wasn't really alive.

The room they battled in was called an Enviroom. The walls were silver and metallic with energy conduits running horizontally. The conduits fluxed with white light. The wall had vegetation growing up it for ten or so feet. This particular room was meant to replicate a forest setting. There were trees, grass and small bodies of water strewn throughout.

Five was darting around trees as he moved about. He dodged kinetic blasts that were being shot out of the Synth's palms. One hit a tree, sending wood splinters hurdling across the forest. Five was starting to feel the strain of the ongoing fight. The Synth caught up to him through the simulated forest. It reached for Five, but ended up putting its hand through a tree.

The trials were conditioning Five to kill without granting mercy. He couldn't feel remorse, not that this was a problem in this fight. He had promised to do far worse things if he passed these trials.

Five used his kinetic boosters, that were on the bottoms of his feet. The boosters allowed him to float, soaring above the ground to return his foe's attack in kind. Five swiped with his blade, once, twice and three times, missing in all instances. The agile Synth had dodged his attacks. The Synth swiped up, slicing Five's chest armor as well as the flesh underneath. This resulted in a nasty, bleeding wound.

Five glided backward to get some distance in between him and the Synth. The Synth tried to follow, but retracted his wrist blade while popping an apparatus out of the side of the same arm. The hole emanated an orange glow. Five aimed it at the ground. A ball of light shot out of his Energy blaster. The explosive blast scattered debris in all directions and brought down a nearby tree. The chaos allowed Five to move away from the Synth without being directly followed.

The organic portion of his chest was almost completely healed. He saw it had bled quite a bit, but the nanites in his system that enhanced his healing were working perfectly. His Energy Source was a self perpetuating reaction that powered the tiny machines as well as the rest of his systems. If strained, his repairs would slow or stop. His body could heal moderate organic wounds, but since his synthetic components had no natural healing ability to heighten, only minor damage could be repaired. His armor had to be repaired manually, no matter the circumstance.

Five knew that the Synth had infrared, radar and several other ways of seeing him through the dust, but it would buy him a few seconds. Five aimed his blaster through the debris cloud.

Five saw the Synth's distorted silhouette speeding towards him. Five boosted up into the air, taking full on flight. The Synth had blasters in its palms, both of them. Five dodged blue kinetic blasts as he cut his boosters off completely. He used his stabilizers to push him downward faster, kicking Synth 3 in the face as hard as he could. His foot connected with the side of its 'head'.

Both warriors landed on the ground. Five had fought in two trials before this one. His damage and energy expended was starting to catch up with him. He needed to end this. For all he knew, there was yet another trial after this. He intended to survive this. He wasn't going to die again.

His kick has knocked one of the plates off the side of the Synth's head. The bare side had conduits and circuits exposed to the air. Its singular red eye in the middle of its head was still intact.

The Synth flew at Five and swiped with its elbow blades. It missed once as Five dodged. The second swipe hit Five's organic arm. The third was blocked by his extended wrist blade, keeping him from being decapitated. Five grabbed the other arm to keep it from cutting him from the opposite side. His right arm, the organic one, was weak from the cut, but he held strong.

The two were in a stalemate, neither able to break the others defense. The Synth head butted Five. The attack shattered his right eye lens. Blood was running into Five's white pupil-less eye. A red laser shot out of the Synth's one eye. Five turned his head, expecting this and the beam only grazed his helmet, causing minor searing. The Synth knew that if it landed the shot in Five's ocular implant, the beam would penetrate his brain.

Five saw the beam charging up again. He quickly angled their blades as the beam shot out at its eye. The beam impacted the blades, splitting it into dozens of streams. One went directly back into the eye it came out of. The Synth backed up, confused by the lack of visual data. Five used the opportunity to deliver the final blow, slicing through the Synth's neck. He impaled the head on his depowered blade before it hit the ground.

Five looked over at the black eyed man in the room, "So, Creator William, how did I do?" Five flicked the severed head with his hand, making it spin around on his blade.

William smirked, "Better than the others, Prototype Five," he stopped smirking, "The others failed."

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