Things Falling Apart

"Have you ever wondered about your place in this life?" the voice of a man who called himself a 'prophet' echoed through the darkened building, "have you ever thought of yourself that you are very important to the fate of the world?"

'Wow,' Adam amazed, 'he's truly a nutjob…' he thought to himself as he inched forward slowly through the dark corridor, lead only by the pulsating red emergency lights. Red, then dark. Red, then dark. He decided not to answer anything. Who the fuck is this guy anyway?

What if this 'prophet' already in the hall where the plates were located, and he already had them? It mustn't the case. In Adam's experience and what he had learned in school, megalomaniacs would let the world know when they succeed in anything. This one hadn't declared his, so Adam assumed he hadn't got the plates. But he must be quick.

He didn't even know why it was important for him to secure the plates. He just felt like he had to do it.

"Now why don't you show yourself, Adam…" the 'prophet' said, "trust me I mean no harm. You are all I needed."

Okay. That sounded creepy.

"You are all I needed for Bel's Second Coming…"

This was all too crazy for Adam to handle. He only wanted to get to the bottom of the case, catch the perpetrator of these latest occurrences, and go back to his apartment. Drink a beer, pop some BE, relax. He pondered about why he was the only one who seemingly cared about this case. Where was George? Where was Hagar? What actually happened in the APD that nothing is being done? Now the Mayor is dead. Where should he ask for help?

He inched his way towards the main hall, felt the door. It was opened easily without so much effort. The chill overwhelmed him once more. He hunched at the precipice of the door, tried to see in the pulsating red light whether or not the freaky prophet was in the same room. He did not.

He heard banging came from other parts of the building, probably another person was opening other doors towards him, just like what he did when he came here. He must hurry.

"Aka!" he whispered. Heard no reply, he tried again with a louder whisper, "Aka! Fee! You guys awake?"

A glimmer sparkled from the middle part of the room. They answered him. They were still where they were.

"Don't materialize!" he warned, "I just wanna know where you are. I need to bring you out of here."

"I thought we are wasting your time…" Aka's voice boomed.

"Sshh! Shut up!" Adam hurried to where the plates were laid, scooped them up so that they stacked in one hand. For a moment he feared that he compromised the integrity of the artworks, but he quickly set it aside, as the things were somehow magical. He turned around after he was sure that he had all of the five plates on his arms.

"Where are you going?" a lady figure already waited for him at the door where he was coming from. One of the flirty androids.

"Either tell me where's the exit or step out of my way," Adam said while unholstered his blaster and point its barrel towards it.

"Please, Mr. Williams. Listen to Pater Julian…"

"Who the hell is Pater Julian?"

"The Prophet," it said.

"That's really nice. But I need to go immediately."

"You must be really eager to know your position in this life. Why your life went as it was. Why your family keeps leaving you alone…"

Adam shot it in the head, then ran past its falling body without checking if it was really dead. He wasn't interested in what it wanted to say. There was no pattern in his life. He was pretty sure of it. His father's familicide and suicide and his foster father's demise were just synchronicities. They were just bloody coincidences. Humans always try to put their experiences into patterns and exerted to find some meaning behind it all. But it was a vain effort, according to Adam, and he wasn't interested to try to give those sorts of thinking a chance. It was nice emotionally, but it wasn't sound, logically.

He darted back to the door he was entering from. He figured that if he would just run in a straight line, he'd be eventually emerged from the building, or at least distanced himself from the 'prophet'.

'Pater Julian…' he thought as he ran. He remembered the name. The 'Pater' title showed that he was holding quite a position in the Church of Aster. But his ramblings told him that he intended to bring back … Bel? Why Bel? Wasn't She the devil? Furthermore, why did this 'Pater' say that Adam was important? He heard banging and clanging far behind him, closing into where he was. Didn't matter, he'll find the exit somewhere.

"Adam, please don't shoot me," another voice came from where he was going. He stopped and readied his blaster.

"Are you the android?"

"Yes. But please, listen to me…"

"Are you trying to capture me?" Adam squinted his eyes and scanned the length of the corridor in front of him. He couldn't see it anywhere. It was hiding somewhere.

"Pater Julian programmed me to do so now. We are not with him, but when he stormed this building, he immediately hijacked us, rewriting our programming."

"Where are you?"

"In one of the rooms in the corridor. Please, we don't have much time…"

It was amazing that Pater Julian could do such a high-stake technology hijacking operation, especially towards Mayor's androids. But, more importantly, "then why are you able to maintain your original functions and telling me this?" Adam still moving forward, albeit more slowly, alerted, plates clutched closely to his chest, blaster pointed forward.

"This is Y-0."

Adam froze in place. That couldn't be Y-0. The voice is clearly a female voice.

The voice continued, "I hijacked A-12's programming. My physical body is… no more."

Did it mean that he was dead?

"As androids, our collective consciousness will always be restored as one, so I was able to hijack this body to try to speak to you, if only for the last time…"

"No… don't say that…" Adam was surprised by how crushed he felt inside, "where… what happened?"

"I'll tell you as we're escaping this place. Now don't shoot when I came out of the room. We have to hurry. I have the blueprint of this place."

"Alright," Adam answered softly. His knees felt soft, but he needed to push through."

A door to his immediate right opened, and a female figure stepped out of it. It was one of the androids who escorted him when he came here. The beautiful red-dressed android, but it was Y-0.

"Hey, supercop," it said. Only Y-0 called him that. Adam could only look at its eyes, trying to find Y-0 somewhere inside. It was in vain. It continued, "follow me."

"You know," Adam said, "you could just call me that back then. Only you who call me that." The android smiled in response. A painful one.

They ran straight ahead. Y-0 in A-12's body slammed the double door leading to another main hall with five sets of double doors at the end of it.

"Second door to the left," Y-0 said without stopping. Adam followed it. It continued, "Y-14 found George's connection with Callisto. George was pissed and tried to kill him, only to triggered his battle mode."

"Battle mode?"

"Yes. Apparently, we were built with some sort of battle function inside of us, way back when Callisto Industries still existed. The android production in modern time only copied the basic programming without adjustment whatsoever."

"Why?" they turned right at a juncture.

"It was hidden very carefully. Even we don't really know it until Y-14 unearth it, and even so, we don't know what to do with it," Y-0 paused as he accessed a security panel to opened another door. When it was opened, it continued, "well… Y-14 found out his purpose and went berserk. He attacked George and chased after Hagar. My physical body was… destroyed during the commotion."

Adam stopped, "what?"

"Please don't stop, Adam. They are after you…"

"But—"

"I'm okay. I told you that my consciousness is still intact…. Only…"

"What?"

"No need to worry about it now," Y-0 snapped, "we have to run."

As they continued to navigate the never-ending corridors of the Mayor's pyramid, Adam asked, "how about Hagar? Is she okay?"

"That…" Y-0 said, "… I don't know. I was staying at the APD to slow Y-14's army from chasing her. I sent her here after you along with some of my memory. But apparently, she's not here…"

Adam was suddenly worried that Hagar was actually made it here, but was captured by Julian.

"The chip I gave her is located somewhere else…" Y-0's processing, "…underground." Y-0 then pondered, "I wonder what she's going."

They finally came to the exit; a breeze of cool air blew in as Y-0 opened the door. Before Adam could implore for more information, Y-0 exploded beside of him along with a blinding light. It was so loud Adam could hear nothing afterward besides a piercing ringing. His sight was blurred. A pain slowly crept along his right shoulder. He felt nothing at first, but it was growing more painful, so much so he couldn't do anything else than scream.

His whole right arm was gone, ripped away from his torso by the blast.