Adam mindlessly stared at the large flatscreen TV in front of him. He was trying to focus on his writing, his laptop sitting right in front of him, but he could barely focus.
“…the suspect escaped capture this morning, resulting in three dead and eleven more injured. Residents should stay indoors tonight and report any suspicious activity.”
The TV flashed with images of various crime scenes nearby, as well as a few blurry but graphic photos of the victims.
“Hell-” He exclaimed. “This is ridiculous, nobody wants to hear this depressing shit.” He quickly grabbed the nearby remote and turned off the TV. These bad vibes were influencing his creativity. He thought the news would be just boring enough for him to finally focus, and instead, it ended up like this.
He got up from the couch and started to move through his rather spacious house. The walls were a generic white, and combined with the wooden floors and his few belongings gave the building a simplistic minimalist atmosphere. This is what he preferred of course, and almost every room in the house followed this simple pattern.
Once he got to the kitchen, he took out and microwaved some leftover Chinese food from the previous day. He rarely liked to bother himself with meals, and usually bought or made enough to last him several days. He ate his food in silence, aside from the occasional sound of an animal outside, before cleaning the dishes and walking back to the living room. To say his life was uneventful would be an understatement.
Suddenly, his phone sprung to life with a pinging sound. This was strange, he didn’t expect anyone to write him this time of night, and any official business was usually done over email. He grabbed the phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen, which showed a single automated message:
“Security Warning: outside gate disturbance. Caution is advised.”
Huh? That didn’t make much sense, the gate was fairly sturdy and had an electric current to keep animals away, and it’d probably be even harder for a person to get through. He thought it must have been an animal and, after a moment of contemplation, walked to a nearby window to inspect if there was any damage. To his surprise, the window was already broken, the cool inside air slowly flowing into the night.
Well, that was certainly concerning. Adam looked around confused for a second. This implied something had gotten through the gate and was already in the house. As the realization dawned on him, he wasted little time before raising his phone and dialing 911. At least, he would’ve dialed 911, if he wasn’t interrupted.
“Don’t. Move.” A distinctly female, yet deep almost machine-like voice spoke from behind him, accompanied by a couple of mechanical clicking sounds.
He looked up, surprised, and quickly turned around to see who was now speaking to him. Making sudden movements like this was probably a bad idea in a situation like this, but the fear hadn’t quite caught up to him yet.
He saw someone gigantic standing in the shadows behind him, at least seven feet tall, probably taller if they were standing up straight. A machine gun seemed to be mounted on their back, partially in the light and pointing straight at him. He couldn’t ignore the large chainsaw-like weapon that seemed to be jutting from their left arm either. Was this the one they were talking about on the news? Was he going to die here? It all seemed so surreal, he could hardly believe it.
He almost instinctually responded as he saw her. “Who are you?”
The machinegun seemed to automatically adjust to target his new position. “You can call me twenty-two. Don’t make any rash decisions, and you might get out of this alive.”
He awkwardly half-smiled for a moment before nervously looking around. “So uh- why are you here? If you want my stuff I won’t try to stop you, just…”
“No, I don’t need your things, I need somewhere to stay-”
Twenty-two looked behind her, almost as if surveying the area.
“-and this looks like it’ll do.”
She suddenly started stepping forward towards him, in an almost rhythmic machine-like fashion. Now in the light, he could see her full appearance. She had two massive metal arms, one ending in a gauntlet, which was relatively normal compared to the one that ended in the massive chainsaw. She wore a cloak that obscured much of her body from a distance, but from this close, he could see that she was wearing heavy body armor. Her legs seemed to be encased in some sort of exoskeleton, or perhaps it was more cybernetic parts, it was hard to tell. Her face was the most normal part about her, long black hair tied into a ponytail, some of which obscured her face. She was probably once a beautiful woman, but her now sunken eyes, pale skin, in addition to the large steel implement that now replaced her jaw, made even her face look almost more machine than human. Lastly, the chainsaw and her cloak were muddied with blood, something that he could start to smell as she came closer.
Adam was unable to move, either from shock or fear, and stood there as her hand placed a bracelet-like device around his wrist. He could see a small green light on the bracelet flickering on and off.
“If you try escaping or calling the police, it won’t end well. Now then, where am I sleeping?”
He didn’t know how to respond but wasn’t going to test if her threat was serious.
“Uh, you-” He stuttered before walking off towards one of the closets to get a nearby mattress. He could hear her fairly heavy footsteps as well as the subtle click of various machinery as she followed him, and was surprised she got into the house so stealthily before. He laid the mattress out in his small room and the satisfied look, or at the very least, that’s what he thought it was, on her face suggested she found it acceptable. She somehow disconnected the weapons attached to her, letting them fall to the floor with a solid “thud” before laying down on the mattress herself and quickly falling asleep.
He stood there, staring at her for a few minutes, stunned by the recent events. It probably wouldn’t be best to call the cops, if she was serious about her threat he might be dead before they even show up. The same issue existed if he tried to run away. In the end, he figured that waiting around like this probably wasn’t going to help him, and hopped into bed himself.
He woke up the next morning to the sound of rushing water, finding that twenty-two had already woken up and was cleaning off her clothes and machinery in the bathroom. In any normal circumstance, he probably would’ve objected to someone dripping gook and blood all over his bathroom, but in this case, he wasn’t in any position to object. Throughout the day he tried to keep his mind off her and focus on his work, but by the time he was able to focus it would usually be interrupted by some distracting sound she made around the house.
Eventually, it was night once again, and Adam cooked enough food for the next few days; at least if it were just him eating. Twenty-two didn’t hesitate to start wolfing through the food herself as she sat across from him at the table.
In between bites, she started to ask him questions, rather nonchalantly considering the situation:
“So, what did you do to get this big house all to yourself?”
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair but figured there was no harm in responding. “I’m an author. Well- it’s more that I happened to write some successful books and royalties pay well.”
“Oh that’s cool, being famous and all that.”
“Honestly when I look back, I find my old writing kind of cringey, but it is what it is.”
She took a few more bites before responding again. “I don’t know, I think if people enjoy what you do, then it can’t be that bad, right?” She smiled at him, a sort of strange grin considering she couldn’t emote well with her metal jaw.
“I-I guess.” There was a moment of silence before he continued. “Can I ask what you do?”
“Yeah, sure. Obviously, I’m a soldier- or, *was* a soldier. I got to do a lot of the cool stuff, special operations, secret missions, the kind of stuff you see in movies but in real life.”
“Mmm- so how did you end up like…”
“Like this?” She responded, slightly motioning to her body.
“Yeah, like that.”
“I kind of got caught up in everything that was happening. Nobody wants to die, right? So you get some modifications, I mean, everyone does now. Then you want to kill people faster, or move quicker, or just be more useful… at some point, it got out of hand.” She ate some more of the food before she kept going, now speaking in a more serious tone. “Eventually, there are no more people to fight, and you’re not needed anymore. After that, I got a psych evaluation and they decided I was unfit for service, something about the new parts I got making me too unstable.”
“…then what?” He inquired apprehensively.
“I got ‘invited’ to rehab, but I saw what happened to the people who went, so I refused. It spiraled out of control from there- it’s hard for me to remember exactly when there was no going back anymore. Of course, it’d be kind of stupid for you to believe me, I could be lying to make you feel sorry for me for all you know.”
Neither said anything for a while, contemplating the situation in silence.
“So you really did kill all of those people then?” He asked.
“Yup. Why? Are you scared?” She suddenly slammed the table, causing him to jump a little in shock and her to burst out in laughter.
“I don’t know how to describe it, I’m more worried than scared I suppose. It’s like- somehow I don’t feel you want to hurt me. And you’re a lot more casual than I expected.”
“Huh, really? Maybe I should hurt you, I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong idea about how dangerous I am.” She smirked devilishly. “You don’t get out much do you?”
“Admittedly no, not my thing.”
“I guess I can sympathize at this point.” She laughed a bit before getting up to put her dish away.
After that night they started spending more time together, she would often watch TV and try to give him ideas while he worked on whatever he was writing. Although the unsolicited suggestions weren’t very helpful, it was nice to have someone to talk to, considering sometimes he’d go days without speaking to someone in person. It was like having a roommate, and despite her original introduction, she was a surprisingly clean person. He guessed that being a soldier probably taught her a fair bit of discipline.
On the fifth night of her staying there, they were both sitting on the couch, drinking sodas and watching some TV show about desert animals. It wasn’t very interesting, but it was interesting enough to beat the other monotonous trash that was playing on the other channels they skimmed through.
“So is this what you do with your free time, drink sodas and watch TV?” Twenty-two asked.
Adam took a swig from his can. “Well, sometimes I watch youtube.”
“Aside from watching stuff.”
“I told you, I’m not a people person.”
He mindlessly glanced over at her and then down to her breasts. Despite the mechanical appearance of other parts of her body, they were fairly perky and round. He could see her nipples poking through the black t-shirt she was wearing, with no bra to cover them. He tried to look away before she noticed, but her gaze turned towards him.
“What were you staring at?”
“Nothing.” He responded innocently.
She scooted towards him. “Oh really, then this wouldn’t be uncomfortable for you at all then…” She said as she started to lean on him.
“I think it would be, you’re quite scary.” He tilted back in response to her aggressiveness.
She continued until she was practically on top of him. He looked into her eyes as she approached his face, and could feel her breath on his skin. He wasn’t entirely sure if this was a good idea, becoming attached to someone like this; but he couldn’t resist closing his eyes and leaning in himself. Soon he could feel her lips on his, and although the lower ones were stiff and rigid, he could still feel her warmth as they united. After a few brief moments, they separated, both thoroughly blushing.
“Sorry, that was a bit forward…” She said, still kneeling above him.
“N-no, it’s fine, honestly it’s been a while since any of this happened for me.”
She looked down, noticing his pants getting a little tighter as the situation became more intimate. “You wouldn’t mind going further then?”
“That’s up to you.” He said, smiling.
She lifted her shirt over her head, revealing her two pale breasts and the metal exoskeleton that was molded around her ribs; as well as several scars that adorned her body. Some of these scars seemed to be from battle, while others seemed to be indicative of various surgeries performed on her. Although her modifications were somewhat crude, there was a strange beauty in them and the way she moved.
They both took off their pants before he slid his now-erect cock into her pussy. Her hips started rhythmically moving back and forth as he could feel her insides gripping his cock. The weight of her riding him was somewhat uncomfortable but was soon overpowered by waves of pleasure. He started to push his hips against hers in response, and her movements became more and more aggressive.
As he started to move faster she closed her eyes and he could hear her trying to suppress moans. She leaned down and put her hands around him, tightly hugging him as she pressed her chest into his. He could feel the warmth of her body and smell the mix of perfume and machinery as her messy hair obscured his vision. As they held each other he intensified his thrusting and she squeezed him even tighter. They brought their faces together and kissed once more as he thrust one last time before climaxing inside her.
…
They both lay next to each other on the sofa, Adam breathing heavily after the strenuous activity.
“You okay?” She asked, sounding a little concerned, although it was mostly a rhetorical question.
“Y-yeah…” He paused to catch his breath. “…just a little rougher than I’m used to.”
“That’s good, I was worried I might’ve hurt you.”
“No no, I’m fine.”
Neither said anything for a bit while the TV played in the background.
“I hope I didn’t force you into anything.” She said, breaking the silence. “You couldn’t really stop me if I had tried to…”
“I… wanted it too, you shouldn’t worry about it.”
“I don’t know, I can’t imagine a guy wanting me under normal circumstances.”
“Really? You’re a beautiful woman, though.” He responded genuinely.
She looked towards him for a moment before starting to laugh.
“I’m serious, you are… or maybe I’m just desperate.”
“I know you’re serious, that’s why it’s funny.”
“Heh, yeah, I guess so.”
They smiled at each other as she snuggled closer to him, and it wasn’t long before they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
…
He woke up in the morning to clicking and whirring sounds, and he quickly got up and threw on his nearby clothes. He ran through the house, searching for the source of the sound, and found twenty-two in the doorway. She was now sporting the same weapons she had been equipped with a few nights ago but seemed to be having trouble reattaching the chainsaw. She looked up at him as he entered the hallway.
“Ah, morning.” She simply remarked.
“What’s happening?”
“I’m leaving.”
“So soon?”
“I don’t like to stay in one place for too long, and I don’t want to put you in danger if they find me again.”
Adam was speechless, he didn’t know what to say.
“I was hoping I’d be gone before you woke up. Anyway, can you help me with this?” She motioned towards the weapon.
“…uh, sure.” He walked over to her and grabbed the large weapon, before slotting it into her outstretched left hand. It fit in with a satisfying ‘chink’, and she pulled a small lever on her arm, locking it in. He let go as she waved it around a bit before testing it out, the spinning blades harmlessly whirring in the air for a few seconds.
“Good as new.” She said with a solemn smirk. “I don’t want to get your hopes up but… if I can, I’ll try to come back one day. That is, if you’d want that.”
“Yeah, I’d like that.” He said with a half-smile.
She reached over and took the bracelet that she had placed on him a few days ago, before leaning down and kissing him on the forehead. “Well then, I guess I’ll be off, I’m not good with long goodbyes.” She smiled at him one last time before leaving the house. “See you.”
He nodded back, with a sad look on his face. “See you.”
He watched her exit his house and walk through the front gate, before eventually disappearing into the distance…