Who Am I?

“Warning: Intruder Alert,” the system blared across the halls. “Unauthorized access has been detected on Floor 42 of Luxury Heights. Repeat: Intruder Alert.”

“Oh, whoopsy me,” I said, scratching my head and whistling at the blaring lights. “Didn’t expect that a hotel would have tight security.” I turned to the battered door crumpled beside me, smoke still escaping from its hinges. Tiny wisps of static danced around the door frames, its blue light gradually turning red.

Okay, maybe I should’ve expected that smashing the door open would alert the security system.

I spared a glance at my watch and opened a hologram radar: two… four… wow, about eight or ten units were already on their way. Better make it quick then.

“Excuuuuse me. Hehe.” I playfully hopped over the door and paced around the bedroom. With a snap of my fingers, I switched on my X-ray vision and scanned through the cabinets, the tables, and the hidden suitcase underneath the bed.

“Heh, too easy.” I flicked a finger and dispatched a black wire from my sleeve, slithering it under the bed, hooking the suitcase handle, and pulling it out. I let the suitcase plop on the bed and snapped it open in a clean fashion, grinning at my shining target: a golden heart.

The Director only told me that this prosthetic heart had the capacity to beat eternally, prolonging life and even immortalizing a human body. Why he wanted me to steal it was beyond me. Hell, he didn’t even inform me about the background of its creation, but it wasn’t like I cared much. The only thing that mattered was completing my mission: to return to him with this prize.

The whirring and heavy pattering noises quickly grew closer, but I continued to observe the organ pulsating in my hand.

“Freeze!” a security guard hollered, raising a neon gun.

I snorted and cracked a grin at the security guards, all posing at the threshold. A few more drones also whirred behind me, hovering right outside the window.

“Hey now,” I said, gently sliding the prosthetic inside my jacket. “There’s no need to be so rough. Chill out, will ya?”

One of the guards scanned my face with his helmet’s lens. “Serial number 26010914, Android Radio Jam. You’re under arrest for twenty-one felony charges!”

I scratched my head. “Wow, you’ve been counting? I’m flattered, but I'm pretty sure I've committed more than tha—”

I tilted my head and dodged a laser bullet. Wildly smirking, I cracked my neck and massaged my shoulders. “Alright then. Let’s play!”

I whipped out my wires and switched on my knuckles. Gears surged and hissed with neon electricity, and my boots whirred and quivered. I leaped over, briefly released the energy waves under my soles, and kicked a guard’s head away, crashing him onto the wall. I punched another guy at his stomach, and for fun measures, yanked his suit and launched him out the window.

A flurry of bullets and lasers showered across the bedroom as I jumped around, blocking them with my force field equipped on my forearm. I fired my wires in retaliation and hooked a few drones and guards, and with an aggressive tug, I twisted and entangled them into a ball.

As the guards frantically writhed around, the drones stuck from within began to overheat. It took only a few seconds for the room to entirely blow up into smithereens, sending the survivors back into the hallway. By the time they rushed back in and blew all the smoke away, I was already hovering out of the gaping hole made by the explosion, my boots radiating magnetic levitation energy under my soles.

I stuck out my tongue and threw a middle finger, promptly flying away into the sky.

Of course, I expected they’d be persistent enough to follow me. I glanced over my shoulders, counting the drones and flying armed security guards still chasing after me.

I guffawed, spread my arms, and faced my pursuers with a grand smile. “C’mon! I know you all can fly faster than that! Hurry up, slowpokes!”

I spun my body and dodged the rockets flying in my direction, soaring high at one point before abruptly diving, guiding a guard and a rocket to crash into a flying bus and exploding into a pretty firework.

“Ahahahahaha!” I pulled out a wire and snatched a drone, swinging it around like those old-fashioned yo-yo toys before launching it into a group of guards and blowing them up.

I whistled at the sight before turning my attention to the two remaining guards. I grinned again, but rather than flying further away, I soared right toward them.

They flinched and raised their rifles, but before any of them could fire, I snatched one of their guns and bashed its owner with it, smashing his weapon and sending them falling into a spiral.

The last guard took the chance to fire, hitting my force field instead. In return, I snatched their gun with my wire and flung it away.

Up here, in this dark, purple and blue sky, the two of us only shared a second to ponder our next choice of action. I assumed the guard’s brief moment of hesitation was probably him debating whether he should retreat or accept his fate.

He made his decision by throwing a punch at me.

I quickly snatched his fist and squinted.

Even after seeing all his comrades dying before his eyes, he still wanted to fight, huh? I had to admit, this guy had some balls. Not bad for a human.

I returned with a punch of my own, which he impressively dodged. He threw a hook, and I parried it with an uppercut. The two of us exchanged a brutal fistfight above the skyscrapers, and it was only a matter of time until the human ran out of stamina.

Even so, the human still raised his bloodied fists, breathing heavily.

My face grew stoic as I lowered my hands and retracted my wires. “Hey, why are you so stubborn?” I asked. “Why couldn’t you give up and see tomorrow?”

The guard briefly coughed. “Because… that’s who I am,” he said defiantly. “I… we, the Elite Force Division, already knew what we were signing up for…”

Somehow, his words twisted something inside me in a suffocating, uncomfortable way. Something began to corrode in my chest, burning in frustration. My playful mood died almost instantly, and I threw a glowering expression at him.

This man… I didn’t like him anymore.

“I see,” I mumbled. “Good for you, I guess. Die.”

I whipped out my gun and pulled the trigger.

As I floated in the middle of the sky, watching the last guard falling into the hustling streets, I pulled out the prosthetic heart and examined it over the city lights.

…Mission accomplished.

⫿⫼⟁⫼⫿

The Director—dressed in his usual, standard business suit—stared apathetically at the golden heart I dropped on his desk.

“Well done, Radio,” he said, casually sliding the heart into his desk drawers. “It seems like you’ve been having fun again.”

I glimpsed at the news broadcast running at the corner of his office, rewatching the scene of me dancing in the sky with the Elite Force Division barely moments ago. I shrugged and said, “They had it coming.”

The Director nodded, his gray eyes observing my every move. He’d always closely watched me ever since we’d met, and I had to admit, it was still uncomfortable. It was even more strange of him when he never once chastised me for murdering people or getting the attention of the entire city of Nexus Pratum—hell, even the whole world. He’d simply praise me for completing the job and move on.

Hella weird, but I couldn’t complain. Not only that…

“What do you even plan to do with that heart anyway?” I curiously asked.

“That is none of your concern,” he replied.

I sighed and slumped my shoulders.

Yep, the Director would never answer any of my “irrelevant” questions either.

This guy’s weird as ever, I thought, shrugging. “M’kay. That look says you have another job for me, am I right?”

“Keen eyes as ever.” He leaned forward and intertwined his fingers, his eyes fogging with darkness. “A ‘pest’ has recently been found crawling into places they don’t belong. This is a serious case this time—I’d like you to exterminate them as soon as possible.”

I raised my brows at the unusually stern tone in his words before mirroring his gaze. “Understood.”