Chapter 41The guard shook with suppressed fury but he quickly holstered the baton, leaning down until his nose almost touched Adrian’s."You're lucky," the guard hissed. "But the experiments start tomorrow. And once the Master is done with your brain, I get the rest. I will have the privilege of beating the shit out of you for every word you said today."He straightened up, adjusted his vest, and glared at the nurse. "Finish up. Let's go."The nurse dropped the pills on the floor near Adrian. She gave him a look of profound pity, mixed with fear. Then she turned and followed the guard out.The door hissed shut.And then, the lights went out.The room was plunged into absolute, pitch-black darkness.Adrian sat in the void. He didn't take the pills. He crushed them into dust with his thumb.He stood up, feeling his way along the wall until he found the corner. He closed his eyes, though it made no difference. He needed to think.“Why is the System down?” The error message had said “Ne

Chapter 43 Adrian looked around to ensure the coast was clear. The scientists had moved on so he climbed up the back of the android and slid into the gap. It was tight and almost claustrophobic. The heat inside was intense, radiating from the bio-core. Adrian had to contort his body, wrapping his legs around the central piston and hunching his shoulders to fit inside the shell. He reached up and grabbed the back plating he had peeled open, pulling it shut behind him with a loud clang. Then all he could see was darkness after that. He was now inside the robot and peering out through the tiny gaps in the neck joint. "Okay," Adrian whispered in the dark playfully. "This is cozy. A little damp, but I can't really complain, can? The rent is cheap." He fumbled around for a few minutes and then located the motherboard which turned out to be a glowing green panel right in front of his face. At once, he pulled a small data cable from his wrist-comp and quickly plugged it in. [ CON

Chapter 45Adrian decided to make an army of his own from all the robot parts in the train. So as the mag-lev train screamed through the subterranean tunnel like a silver bullet shot through the dark heart of the earth, inside the cargo container, the vibration was intense enough to rattle teeth, but Adrian Black didn’t feel it.He was too busy performing surgery on a robot. "Pass me the hydro-spanner," Adrian muttered, his hand extended.But at once, he heard the system chime. [ SYSTEM REMINDER: YOU ARE ALONE. THERE IS NO NURSE. ]"Right," Adrian grunted, grabbing a heavy wrench from a tool rack bolted to the wall. "I really need to hire an assistant. Joe is great with tacos, but I doubt he knows the difference between a neural-uplink and a spark plug."He was sitting cross-legged in the center of the cargo car, surrounded by the dissected remains of three Praetorian androids he had pulled from the crates. Sparks showered his face as he jammed the wrench into the exposed chest ca

Chapter 47For about half an hour, the stolen Red Scorpion truck rattled over the potholes of Sector 4, its tyres groaning under the weight of three half-assembled, fully-sentient androids in the truck bed.Adrian gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles slowly becoming white. The adrenaline that had fueled his escape from the Hive was beginning to curdle into exhaustion. He was a Lord, a General, and a Vigilante, but right now, he felt like a fugitive running on low gas. "System," Adrian muttered, glancing at the rearview mirror where Unit 409’s headless torso was visible, swaying with the motion of the truck. "What is the status of my... passengers?"[ STATUS: STABLE. ][ ENGRAM INTEGRATION: 88%. ][ NOTE: THE PRISONER SOULS ARE RESTLESS. THEY WANT BLOOD. ]"Tell them to take a number," Adrian said, swerving to avoid a burning trash can which was a remnant of the Butcher’s earlier rampage. "We have a schedule."He couldn't take the androids to the front door of the Black Estate. I

Chapter 49When Adrian arrived at the so-called Sky Garden, he realized one thing. The Sky Garden wasn’t a garden. It was a hanging fortress somehow disguised as a cloud.Suspended three thousand feet above Aethelgard by massive anti-gravity turbines, it was literally a floating platform of glass, steel, and bio-engineered ivy. It was where Mayor Sterling kept his secrets, high above the ground where the common man couldn't just barge in and find it. Even the cops would have a hard time finding a place like this. Talk more about breaking in.Adrian looked at the fortress and only one thought came into mind. “I'm going to become a pilot today," he smirked. “Mummy would be so proud." Then he smiled and asked the system to do the job. "Can this thing fly?” [FLIGHT COMMAND REGISTERED][SHORT TERM ANTIGRAVITY INITIATED] At once, Adrian heard loud whirring and the truck began to levitate. “Woooahhh!" He yelped in shock and excitement and grabbed the steering wheel a little tighter ev