//Dr. Samuel: Chase

They were truly monsters. It was frustrating. Thirty four days, eight hours, twenty seven minutes, and six seconds had passed since Dr. Samuel had last encountered the ANGELs. He had felt a spark of hope - no - 'hope' wasn't the right word. He had given up on that feeling long before then. 'Anticipation' might have suited the situation better.

'Regardless,' he thought, 'I was pleased to have found a lead.'

He had tried to utilize some of EDGE's resources to find the rogue androids, but was unable to do so. Even with the wall torn to the ground for an expanse of one hundred and forty eight feet, it was impossible to make it across. The OEC's security was simply too strong. If it were just regular guards, it wouldn't have been much of an issue.

Yet, there were more monsters in the world than just 5-AE and 4-HN. One such person, if that thing could even be called so, had appeared in front of Dr. Samuel's task force of ninety eight Enforcers and six military androids. At first, his appearance was almost comical - he wore a suit of far outdated armor with a long black cape, and carried a large red cross as his weapon of choice.

The man had planted the cross into the ground, giving a speech claiming that any man or woman who tried to cross that point would 'find justice', whatever that meant. Dr. Samuel had made the mistake of dismissing the words as nothing more than those of a madman, and had ordered an offensive approach to be taken.

They had quickly found, however, that the man was far more than just talk. Bullets of any kind seemed to have no effect on his armor, and heat blades shattered on impact against the polished steel, if it was, in fact, steel. The man picked up the cross, and the next instant, everything in the vicinity, including his own allies, was dead or destroyed. Even the Enforcers' body cameras, which recorded at nearly one hundred frames per second, didn't pick up what had happened. The only changes that could be seen were that the number of people left standing was struck down to one, and that his formerly pristine suit of armor was stained entirely red with blood.

Dr. Samuel shuddered. No one person should have been able to hold that much power. If, in fact, that was a person. Even the ANGELs might have struggled to compete against that sort of destructive force. The main issue was that he simply couldn't figure it out. What kind of technology was capable of such an efficient attack? Was there another company somewhere that hadn't publicly shown themselves yet?

'If that's the case,' he thought, 'we'll have to meet their level at some point.'

He felt a frown forming at the edge of his lips. A sense of deja vu was overriding his stream of rational thinking. The grim irony of the situation was not lost on him.

He gazed through his forty-second floor window at the wall, which stood almost as high as himself in the distance. His hand began to tremble.

When did everything become so dark?

The blackness swallowed everything, drowning the world in shadow.

There was nothing there.

"Samuel." A woman's voice.

Who was that?

"Samuel," the woman repeated, louder this time.

"Sarah?" he whispered.

"Samuel!"

He whirled around in his chair, which he didn't remember falling back into. His assistant, Chelsea stood in the doorway.

"Get out!" he roared.

"But-" she stammered.

"I told you not to call me Samuel! OUT!"

Chelsea hastily turned and walked into the hall, shutting the door carefully behind her.

Dr. Samuel's heart slowed its rapid beating, the sudden anger receding as quickly as it had come on. He took a deep breath.

'Ah. It happened again.'

He stood up slowly, looking carefully at his surroundings.

"My head hurts," he muttered.