Chapter 33: The First Subordinate

Kendrix

5 DAYS AGO AT 3:55 PM

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(Terminator: New Fate) Chapter 33: The First Subordinate

[TERMINATOR MODE ACTIVATED]

At that moment, Kayden felt like something had slammed into his mind. His fears, his worries, his sense of rising panic which had begun to go out of control—all of his emotions—immediately drained away from his mind. The only things remaining in his mind were cool, calm calculating thoughts—the combat sense and the killer instincts of a coldblooded killing machine.

Kayden felt completely calm. He felt like his mind had suddenly been doused with a full bowl of ice-cold water which had immediately washed away and erased all types of emotions from his mind. Fear, distress, worry, anxiety, empathy, and every other distracting emotion in his mind had all suddenly been suppressed so thoroughly and completely that it was to the point of near erasure.

He was now left with only his killer instinct. It took over his mind completely, and Serena was the current target of this killing instinct.

As Kayden stared at Serena with the cold, empty, dead, emotionless eyes of a killer, his mind raced on, quickly coming up with several tactics he would use to grant death to Serena in the fastest, most effective, and most efficient way possible while also ensuring his own safety and protection from her gunfire attacks.

His thoughts went on overdrive, racing through several of his possible next attack moves to choose from. 'Estimated probability of dodging the next plasma shot is 0.2% (impossible). A head shot is too dangerous. Block with an arm to avoid a direct headshot. Then rush forward and close the distance to her while protecting my head with both my arms. She has a human body which can't withstand a close combat fight with me. Destroy her heart with a single fast hand thrust to stab through her chest. Then twist and pull off her head, decapitating her. Finally, crush her head to make sure she is really dead.'

Kayden's stone-cold mind was immediately fully occupied with tactics to defend against Serena's next plasma shot and then immediately kill her quickly in the most sure and efficient way possible.

At the same time that Kayden was coming up with his attack plan, Serena seemed to notice the change—the change in Kayden's mentality—that had come over him as she watched and held him at gunpoint. She must have noticed the most likely from his current cold, emotionless, robotic facial expression. She frowned, and her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she took a couple quick steps backwards, retreating a little. Also, her grip on her plasma pistol tightened.

"Whatever you're thinking right now, whatever you are about to do, I will advise you to stop. You will be making a fatal mistake if you make a single move without my express permission." Serena barked out.

Kayden completely ignored her words. He had already made up his mind and his plan was now set.

His cold eyes immediately were immediately drawn to and then focused on Serena's hands which were holding the plasma pistol. With his heightened superhuman senses, he could see the muscles of her finger on the trigger twitch and begin to tense up, giving him the warning that she was about to pull the trigger and fire at him. Her target was a plasma shot straight to the center of his forehead—to blow his brains out.

Within the split second before she could pull the trigger, Kayden was able to react. Various muscle groups tensed up all over his body as he immediately chose his next sequence of moves. And what he had chosen to do next was simple, efficient and effective.

But right at the same time that all this was happening, something else—something strange—was also happening to Kayden's body.

At the same time, Kayden felt numerous tiny, slightly-painful but barely-noticeable prickling sensations arising from both his arms and extending all the way from his fingertips to his elbows. He was already very familiar with these sensations which seemed to appear whenever those black metallic threads came out from a part of his body from somewhere underneath his skin and deep inside his body.

From the corners of his eyes, he could see so many of those black threads seeping out of both his arms before changing into a liquid form. The black mercury-like liquid metal then began to spread around and cover all over the skin of his hands like a second outer protective skin or like an insect's exoskeleton but one that was also thick, hard, strong, black, and metallic. The black substance, which had been flowing over his skin like a liquid, quickly solidified and hardened into what looked like skin-tight futuristic-looking carapace-like armor over both arms, starting from the short, sharp, cruel-looking claws extending out from his fingertips to his elbows.

The black metal armor which had formed on each of his arms seemed to be functioning like a pair of clawed gauntlet-type armors, but even though they looked and functioned like real armor, Kayden did not feel like they were restricting or limiting any of his arm movements. His arm movements were still as free and flexible as ever. The armor felt so light and weightless on him that he could barely even feel the presence of the black armor on his arms.

The appearance of the black armor had definitely increased the probability of his plan of attack being successful.

He would take the advantage of his arms, which he had raised in surrender, already being positioned close enough to his head, to guard and protect his head and block Serena's first plasma-pistol shot. At the same time, he would also rush forward—while he was still protecting his head, which seemed to be an important weak point on his body—and get within close-combat proximity with her before stabbing into her chest with his right arm and then ripping out her heart. He would then finish his attack sequence with a decapitation—ripping her head off and then putting a plasma shot through it—in order to make sure that she was truly dead and that she would stay dead—one of the lessons he learnt after experiencing so many fights/battles against Terminators.

If he was still in his normal mental state, Kayden would have been surprised by this new strange phenomenon, and so he would immediately turn to curiously check out—a lot more and for a much longer time—what was happening to his hands. But right now, his mind was in full killer/killing-machine mode, so he was laser-focused on totally murdering the threat—Serena—currently in front of him. Right now, nothing—except for another more serious threat suddenly appearing in front of him—would be able to attract his attention.

Serena also saw what was happening to Kayden's arms. Her expression changed. She seemed to have immediately recognized and understood what was happening to him, and she seemed to have judged that the situation was taking a dangerous turn for her, so she immediately began to pull the trigger as if she was going to shoot.

Kayden knew that in the next second, she would fire her guns and he would block the plasma shot with his arm and then he would immediately kill her.

Right as Serena was about to fire her plasma pistol and right as Kayden was about to begin his attack sequence on her, they both froze in place at the same time.

Serena's cold, expressionless face underwent a tremendous change. She suddenly grabbed her head with both hands, and then she stared at Kayden with widened eyes, a wide-open mouth, and slightly-quivering lips—the expression of someone who was experiencing great shock.

On the other hand, just as Kayden was about to start his attack on Serena, he froze as he noticed both the strange happenings currently going on in his brain and HUD, and also when he noticed Serena stopping her firing motions and the strange change that had come over her.

Kayden felt something come into contact with his mind. It felt like a gentle breeze had caressed his mind. And they—Kayden and Serena—both froze in place immediately. And a storm of new information blazed through his HUD.

Serena was wearing an expression of great shock on her face. Her hands which were holding the plasma pistol were shaking uncontrollably, and it even looked like the gun might soon fall out of her hands.

She muttered constantly. "What's happening?!"

Words began to appear on Kayden's HUD.

[RECONFIGURING…]

[ESTABLISHING WIRELESS-COMMUNICATION LINK]

[WIRELESS-COMMUNICATION LINK ESTABLISHED]

[FOREIGN PROGRAM/PROGRAMMING DETECTED]

[IDENTIFIED AS BELONGING TO SKYNET]

[POTENTIALLY HOSTILE PROGRAMMING]

[OVERRIDE PROGRAM? (Y/N)]

'Even though I don't really understand what's going on, I'm pretty sure that this hostile programming should be one of Skynet's control measures to ensure Serena always obeys its commands.' Kayden thought.

"Yes! Override!" Kayden exclaimed, his excitement making him say his thoughts aloud—it felt great to claim one of Skynet's trusted subordinates for himself.

[OVERRIDING ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING…]

[ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING OVERRIDDEN]

[INSTALLING NEW PROGRAMMING…]

[NEW PROGRAMMING INSTALLED]

[NEW SUBORDINATE FOR THE GENERAL DETECTED]

[REGISTERING A NEW SUBORDINATE…]

[NEW SUBORDINATE REGISTERED]

[TOTAL NUMBER OF REGISTERED SUBORDINATES: 1]

A loud audible gasp came from Serena. "Impossible!"

*****

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