For the most part, Black Tiger was looking forward to seeing Leanne again. Longed to hear her sweet voice. Longed to see her beautiful eyes—even filled with tears; but he hoped this wasn't the case. Something acing to adrenaline pumped through his system, driving him faster, making him stronger. He dodged and jumped over objects in his path, all the while merging with the shadows to avoid being spotted by HeroTV's obnoxious helicopters.

Hurry up, Kotetsu's ragged voice echoed through his system. The Hero had persistently tried to reach Black Tiger, with no luck; he simply didn't trust Kotetsu enough for the connection to come through.

Blocking his pleas for help was a cinch, and Black Tiger didn't feel any remorse—that is, until the man mentioned the name of the woman he desperately wanted to keep safe.

I can't keep this guy occupied for much longer. Hurry up.

"Keep Leanne Reed safe."

I won't let any harm come to her. I promise.

Finally, though, he reached his destination with a final boost of speed. The concrete under Black Tiger's feet cracked considerably upon landing, and for once, he didn't care. Then, hearing the greeting of an unfamiliar voice, he ignored the enemy and scanned the area.

Human history in all ages is red with blood, and bitter with hate, and stained with cruelties. Black Tiger, with his teeth clenched, recognized the chief of the FBI squad—or, what's left of him. Like his men, Greg was lying in a pool of his own blood, with entrails exposed, and lifeless eyes. He noted the signs of death. Blue lips, cyanotic. The hemorrhaging in the sclera of the eyes, pinpoint pricks of crimson.

The strong yet foolish agent was now nothing more than a piece of meat, soon to be consigned back to earth. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Blowfly to maggot.

Barnaby was more fortunate and paid the price with his badly injured leg, the bone sticking out of his skin; and Wild Tiger, fed up with waiting, turned his attention from his silently weeping partner to the android, then addressed the great monster in man's history who's nature was so savage, bloody, terrible and impious.

"Here's your prize." There was a hint of desperation evident in his voice. "There's no need to harm the girl. Just collect your goods and get the hell out of Sternbild."

"You're gonna let him go?" Barnaby's voice, quavering with fury, earned his attention. Barnaby was startled and he frowned, but Kotetsu gazed coolly back into his angry forest-green eyes.

"We should comply to their demands."

"We should fight back! Innocent lives will be lost if we simply hand Adam over to the enemy and you know that!" With every word, a white blade of agony slashed in his leg. Small breaths.

"Don't force yourself to move," Kotetsu ordered.

Barnaby screamed internally, and the blade slashed again, and he writhed. Small breaths. "We can't let him go..." he wheezed.

"Our main concern right now is to keep casualties to a minimum—"

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Barnaby shouts, "You're not being yourself!"

"That thing needs to go, Bunny," he stated matter-of-factly, as if it were the most routine thing in the world for him.

"Accept the fact that we messed up, Kotetsu. We labeled Adam as a killing machine because he was built for that purpose, but he's fighting against his true nature. He's helping Reed for crying out loud. That proves enough to show that he's changed, so stop trying to get rid of him."

Growling with rage, trying to hold his anger at bay, Kotetsu glared at Black Tiger. He hated that the life he'd fought so hard for, to provide his daughter a future filled with opportunities rather than financial constraints, to get Barnaby to respect him as a partner and friend, to finally accept his dwindling Hundred Power, just to let Black Tiger take his place in the end?

No. He can still stop this.

"That's a killing machine," He cleared his mind of the irrational fear that plagued it, displaying a fake smile for Barnaby. "It doesn't have a name. It isn't alive. It's not human."

"He's valuable to us. We can't let him fall in the wrong hands."

Kotetsu was heartbroken at hearing his words. "I don't want to be replaced." On his knees, he fell to the ground and burst into bitter tears. "Please don't leave me behind like this," he sobbed forth at last, brokenly; "No, please don't."

Three little words, harmless in their definitions. Nothing symbolic, no ethical dilemmas. No, please don't.

The man feared Black Tiger would take his place, which explains why he obsessed over the android's chase. Barnaby couldn't have been slammed into reality any harder if he'd been hit upside the head with a cast-iron frying pan.

"How beautiful," Reuben forced his voice to an artificial calmness, speaking with intense sarcasm. "The perfect example of true partnership," he went on, looking down at the pair with hostile eyes.

Black Tiger looked fully at him and only now did he notice the body lying at his feet. It was Leanne—albeit different than he remembered her. The beauty was gone and her helplessness alone remained; her face that was once so full of spirit and life, was now full of suffering, and he could tell by the heaving of her chest that she breathed with difficulty.

Having noticed Black Tiger's concerned eyes, Reuben pulled Leanne upwards by the hair, growling over his meal like some savage animal, some legendary dragon, symbol of inordinate and monstrous gluttony. Her eyes were closed, and blood trickled through her hair, running down into her neck.

"Your hero has arrived," Reuben sneered, and the tugging on her hair became harder, more violent. "Open your fucking eyes and look at him!"

The sight of Black Tiger should have given her hope—instead, the scalding pain in her heart spread, consuming her until every thought in her head revolved around the easiest way to stop it: dying. "Please. Let me die," said Leanne, her cracked, strained voice just rising above a whisper.

Black Tiger dashed forward at top speed, and Reuben grew frightened for a split second; his NEXT power failed to control the android blindly rushing towards him. When he came close to punching his lights out, running footsteps ensued, and Black Tiger was struck full in the face, the force behind it ripping open his synthetic skin and revealing a complicated laminate of rare metals, semifluid conductors and active metalloid buffers.

"You're damaging the goods," Reuben frowned ferociously. "Laura, babe. Unlike H-01, you're replaceable!" he spat. "R-e-p-l-a-c-e-a-b-l-e! So don't fucking screw this up! Do you understand?"

The raven-haired woman nodded gracefully showing she understood and at once, she came in wide open, swinging her right fist in a perilous sweep. Black Tiger pivoted on his feet, and instead of striking, ducked the other's swinging blow and locked her in a cinch.

He wanted to avoid trouble. He had no wish to harm her, to kill a human being, especially not in front of the one he had to protect. So he held Laura close, blocking her movements.

"I suggest you make her retreat," Black Tiger addressed Reuben. "I have not struck her as of yet, nor do I plan to. I refuse to fight her."

If Reuben's scowl had been frightening, the smile forming on his lips was terrifying; he won't cooperate.

With a courage-bolstering sprint, Black Tiger reached out for Leanne when he felt Laura grab hold of his leg—something that cracked and gave under the pressure—and sprouting wing-like jets from her back, propelling Black Tiger into the sky, then drew her foot back to kick the other downwards, the pressure forming a crater into the concrete.

The android did not move or speak.

The silence was ominous and sent a delighted chill through Reuben's spine.

"She's an android?" Barnaby bit his lip. Reuben dropped Leanne carelessly to the ground and then flung out his arms wildly. Rescue yourself, Leanne. It's time to run.

"Not quite. You see, Laura was one of the many that were considered failures by society. She was once crippled—having sustained third-degree burns after her drunk jealous fucker of a husband smashed her legs to pieces with a metal bat, then lit her on fire!"

"You're insane," Barnaby said meekly.

"Luckily, Ouroboros worked on testing material," he continued on as Laura came down, her wing-like jets popping into her back, "and attached high-tech machinery on us, instantly curing our injuries. Unfortunately, we won't last the way we are; her body can't cope with the changes, like the rest of us." Reuben cackled his glee like a demon.

Run away, Leanne. To the van. To lock the doors.

"They don't have the right to experiment on you," Kotetsu declared firmly despite the nausea beginning to churn in his stomach. Reuben's laughter died down just as sudden as it came, and he frowned. "You don't have the right to judge them..." he growled, his metallic-blue left eye aflame with anger, his fist ready for a crushing blow.

"Where were you Heroes when we needed help," he muttered. "You save people, right? How about you try and help the ones who desperately need it," he growled with his lip curled up in anger. Kotetsu watched as Reuben turned pale, his face distorted, twitching with some insane, inexplicable fury.

"WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU WHEN I NEEDED TO BE SAVED!"

Kotetsu jumped, guiltily. He couldn't answer, only stared into his face with that mad left eye.

"Very well," Black Tiger struggled to rise with his slightly busted leg, his vision full of dark shadows and blurry edges with occasional sparks flying from his damaged face. "I shall aid you to exact retribution for the suffering you and your comrades have undergone; without the involvement of torturous methods or murder."

Reuben stiffened, just ever so slightly. "You're a weird guy."

"I am no guy. I am but a humble android."

"I don't give a shit what you are… You don't know anything about what we've been through." Black Tiger made use of his scanning ability with his delicate electronic brain, if you could call it a brain.

"Ouroboros is developing new bio-technology in hopes of outclassing my own design." He liked his base unit, old-fashioned as it was. "You have been mistreated, abused and tortured by the institution that was supposed to help you. You were their first experiment and first failure—"

"Shut the fuck up!" Reuben snapped, and simultaneously, something flashed suddenly in Laura's hand, hard and white hot, metal gleaming in the darkness. Leanne squinted against it, and then she could see it, but she didn't believe it.

Not really.

Because where had that thing come from? That sword? What else could you call it, all long and thin and pointy. Run away. But her legs weren't obeying and her body trembled, weak with fear.

"Kill him…" Reuben had clearly snapped, as if he were sane before all this.

"Look out, Adam!" She yelled with all the strength she had left, and her eyes stayed riveted on the android as Laura charged in for the attack.

Everything.

His body.

Blood.

The man who had laid his hands on her.

Too late to run away. Time to throw up.

She didn't think this was fair. The whole night wasn't fair, come to that. On his knees, hands propped on his thighs Reuben finally seemed to notice the big freaking knife sticking out of his arm—and he reached for it… yanked it out.

It must have hurt like hell, to judge from that gritty little sound he made, the way his eye squeezed closed and his jaw opened, as if he'd managed to take himself by surprise. And then she felt it, the warm drops of rain, heard the sudden steady pulse of fluid against the asphalt.

By then he'd opened his eye. "Ah, fuck."

Arterial blood, spurting hard and fast with every beat of his heart. Blood rain. He'd bleed out fast, without help. Maybe he'd bleed out anyway.

Way too late to run away.