His phone vibrated, on the table right next to his bed, as it always did. Was it… Eight AM? Six? Twelve? He always set it for a different time. Liked to keep himself on his feet. Or maybe he did it as punishment to himself. Or maybe, just maybe, Aiden Pearce did it so he'd always be ready for anything. Not like before. Not like when he and Lena were driving in that tunnel, on their way to Pawnee.

His eyes opened slowly to stare at the ceiling. Waking up was easy. It was falling asleep and staying that way, night after night when there was more that needed to be done out in the world, that was the hard part.

He took his phone off the table and sat up, looking at the carton of pizza. There was still one slice left from last night. He ate it slowly, glancing at his text messages from time to time.

Well, more like the screen that would contain them. He habitually deleted all his texts and religiously saved the ones that he didn't. He tagged the saved ones, filed them and archived them. Those were important. Important things, he kept. Things about important people, he kept. There weren't many people that could claim to be important, but at least the fixer, Jordi, and the hacker he'd been working with (called himself Badboy17) were players in his game plan. What that game plan was, he wasn't quite sure of yet.

Chicago had the capacity to be a lawless place. The introduction of ctOS hadn't changed that, just brought it to light more and more. The hacker finished his pizza slice and felt thirsty. He almost didn't want to leave the darkened motel room and face the light of the morning's new day, but there was nothing to drink in there. Two empty water bottles stood side by side on his computer desk. With a deep breath, he stood up, grabbed his suppressed pistol and hid it in his jacket.

Before he left, he also picked up his collapsible baton and hid it on the inside of his jacket as well. He'd almost forgotten. Never leave home without it.

Aiden opened the door and breathed in the morning air. He'd patched into the ctOS Control Room for the district last night, so he knew there'd undoubtedly be some activity going on.

"First I'll grab something to drink," he talked to himself, laying out steps to follow. As he walked into a coffee shop nearby, he saw a man looking around suspiciously. The man walked into the coffee shop right behind Aiden.

"Hello sir," the barista greeted Aiden cheerfully, "What would you like today?" She clasped her hands together while awaiting his reply.

Aiden flashed the screen of his phone at the barista's face and the girl nodded, returning in a minute with a cup of his favorite.

That's when the strange man behind him walked up to the counter.

"So when's your shift finish?" he asked her. His voice was shaky, and he seemed happy about something. Too happy.

"In two minutes. You know that." She, on the other hand, didn't seem too happy to talk to him.

Aiden sat down at one of the tables in the coffee shop and took out his phone. He'd begun Profiling both the man and the girl as soon as he'd become suspicious of his behavior.

Lisa Palmer. Coffee server. Writes fanfiction.

Robert Simmons. Lives on welfare. Convicted sex offender. Crime probability, 6% and rising.

To most people, this would have been frightening. Disturbing, sick, even. It was evident what direction this situation was going in. Aiden didn't know why or how the man knew the girl behind the counter. He didn't need to know. By the time the barista started looking truly uncomfortable, Aiden had finished over half of his coffee. He put his phone down on the table and stretched a little, feeling the baton on the inside of his jacket as he did.

The girl went into the back of the shop, and another man came out, taking her place. When she came back out through the employee's shutter, she no longer wore her apron and had changed into her street clothes. Aiden waited until she was out the door, but didn't move.

His eyes never left the man - Robert's - head. Not thirty seconds after the girl - Lisa - had left the shop, he'd walked out of the door. Crime Probability was at 13%.

Aiden finished the rest of his coffee in one gulp and tossed the empty cup into the trash. A ctOS camera on the inside of the recycling bin detected and recorded the discarded cup.

Following the girl was easy. All Aiden had to do was follow the man that followed her. The girl went through a parking lot. Strangely enough, it seemed void of people and only parked cars were present. She looked behind her and as she did, the man following her began to lean against a wall. Aiden had used the same trick before. Even if she were fooled, however, he wouldn't be. Crime Probability was at 34%.

The ctOS was truly amazing. Its criminal detection algorithms were off the charts. If Aiden could have had access to them before… There was no time to think about the past. Not when the present was about to spell a sick future for someone nearby.

The girl passed into an alleyway and the man quickened his pace.

"No more games," Aiden murmured, noticing a junction box close to the man.

It wouldn't harm him if it were to explode, but it would definitely startle him a little.

Aiden took a second to hack it and short out the wiring. It blew up right in front of the creep and Aiden ran forward while the man was disoriented. He brushed by him, putting his hand on his shoulder as he moved briskly to talk to the girl ahead.

"Ma'am," he said, putting a hand on her upper back, "The guy behind you has been following you for the past few minutes."

He Profiled her with his phone again. Victim Probability was at 50%, and it had jumped by 12 more when Aiden touched her. The system wasn't perfect. It could predict intentions accurately enough - but that was why Aiden was special. He worked outside of the system. His new life had been built on the principles of being unpredictable.

She looked at him with fire and fear in her eyes. She didn't know if she should trust him.

"Listen," he said to her, "I'll take care of him for you, as soon as you can, you run home."

He moved away from her into another branching alley and waited for the man behind her to appear at the mouth of it. He rushed forward and flicked out his baton, hitting the man first in the back of the legs to make him fall to his knees, then choking him out with it. He dragged his body behind a dumpster, put away his baton and began to go check on the girl.

Just as he did, he heard several voices chuckling. One of them said, "Where you going, sweetheart? Robert's not here, but the three of us'll be just fine without him."

He took cover behind a wall and just as the voices had hinted at, there were three more men. Each carried a pistol. Each one's pistol was pointed at her.

Victim probability was at 99%. He needed to move. Now.

Aiden ran out from behind cover, took out his suppressed pistol and aimed at the first man, the one in the middle. Time seemed to slow. The first bullet zipped at the man's shin. He dropped his gun when he was shot, sounds of agony ripping from his throat. Out of the corner of his eye in slow-motion, Aiden saw the second hostile begin to point his gun toward him. Should he…? No.

The final man had pulled the hammer on his pistol back and aimed it back at the girl. She was more important. A second bullet from Aiden's gun went through that one's head. With his charge protected, Aiden moved his aim back to the one targeting him and shot at his hand. His final enemy dropped his gun and screamed in pain just as his friend had.

Time resumed normally as Aiden walked up to the girl and asked her if she was alright.

"Y-Yeah," she said. "Holy shit. How did you do that? Who are you?"

"Not a cop," Aiden told her.

The two men who were still alive tried to limp and drag themselves off, and Lisa told Aiden, "You'd better go before the cops get here. Thank you."

"You're welcome. And hey, about how I did that - your coffee helped. So thank you, too."

The look on her face made him smile for a second. He walked away as she did, both turning their backs on each other. She was just one citizen, but there were many like her in this city.

As Aiden blended back into the crowd on the main street, he smirked and said to himself, "Damn good coffee."