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Erico sat in the dim light of the single lamp while he poured over a computer screen that had once belonged to Dr. Javi Kevir. The rest of the lab was dark, the equipment sitting unused ever since the members of the city council voted to go ahead with the cybernetics project over the synthetics one. While the department was still technically running they faced a massive cut to their budget, which meant eventually everything in the expansive room he sat in would either be repurposed or sold off in order to make room for more of the cybernetics division. Luckily that would not be for a few more months, and the young researcher had made a few deals of his own to work on a special project he had in mind.

It was something that he had dreamed of doing ever since he was brought in as the liaison to the two different departments; developing a system or substance that combined the nearly indestructible living rubber with the cyber-augmentations that created the super soldiers that their company currently made. Unfortunately as he started to dig into the possibility he realized it wasn't just the brothers' arrogance that got in the way of such a marriage of the two sciences existing. The living rubber and cybernetics seemed too inherently reject one another, either the living rubber tissue would fail to bond with the cybernetics, the latex polymer would simply cascade over the piece of machinery without even sticking to it. While he wasn't sure whether it was something in the science or a failsafe built in by the Kevir brothers to make sure one couldn't use the other's work it was proving to be a major stumbling block.

"Why aren't you working," Erico demanded when he watched the simulation on his screen run through his projections, then flash red with the words SIMULATION FAILURE in bold letters on it. He sighed as he sat back in the chair and rubbed his temples; he knew that if he had the Kevir brothers they could easily answer his questions but one refuses to take his calls and the other is too busy with trying to cyberize the entire city to make time for him. Luckily he had worked long enough with both groups he had the information necessary to know how each part of the process worked, but when it came to mixing both together he was finding out that he was severely lacking.

For a few minutes he stared at the parameter input screen and considered entering another series of potential prompts, but the fatigue he had been trying to stave off with energy drinks started to gnaw at him. Instead he pulled up the interweb browser and decided to see if he could find out any more information about the world before the cataclysm. It was something he had been interested in ever since he and his boyfriend had talked about it a few weeks ago, and though it wouldn't necessarily help him on his project it was a welcome distraction to give his brain a break. As the screen for the internet came up the first thing that popped into the browser caused him to pause.

"What on Earth is a Pokimon?" he asked no one as he clicked through the pictures. It was the first time he had accessed the internet through Javi's terminal, up to that point he had been running figures through his personal computer. As he looked through the bookmarks page the researcher found that the former owner had been obsessed with the subject and had spent most of their time finding information on them. It was interesting enough for Erico to click through a few pages and learn a little about them, the mythological species were apparently thought to be prevalent all over but needed special devices in order to see or capture them.

As he looked through a database of different types of the creatures a new e-mail notification popped up in his window. At first he thought it was the usual non-informative company-wide memo or latest alert on how to protect himself from cyberterrorism, but when he read the address he saw it was a bunch of garbage letters and numbers and had a subject line that simply read New World Strife. He opened his e-mail and was about to report it to their local IT department when he saw in the preview window that the first few lines referenced the project he had been working on and said that he could help. No one outside a few people knew that he had taken on a private task and only he the specifics, and despite his more cautious nature he clicked on the e-mail to open it.

Erico could feel his breath catch in his throat as the browser loaded up the e-mail, then breathed a sigh of relief when the lights didn't go off and the computer didn't shut down or display any ominous messages. Instead it was a rather short message that contained information from someone or some group that referred to themselves as A.R.C.E.U.S. It took a few reads for him to soak in what the message was saying and even then he had a hard time believing what it said. He was just about to forward the message to his IT department to have it analyzed when his phone rang, and when he saw who it was he quickly answered it.

"Hey Ishi," Erico greeted. "Sure, I can meet you for lunch, but it'll have to be something from the plaza outside my building." He looked back up to his computer screen to start working on the e-mail while he talked but when he looked back at the screen he found the message was gone. When he went back to his inbox the original e-mail had vanished too, and though he scoured a few folders he couldn't find any trace of the mysterious letter and had to cease his search when a concerned voice on the phone asked if he was alright. "Yeah I'm still here, sorry, I'll meet you down there in twenty minutes."

Half an hour later the two sat in a booth at a small diner, both of them looking over a small menu they had just been given. "So they gave everyone in the plant a half-day so people could get cybernetics if they wanted?" Erico asked, which Ishi replied with a small nod.

"Yeah, gave incentives too on anything that would boost their ability to increase the production or yield of the bio-mass cultures," Ishi explained. "Naturally I didn't follow along, don't need any of that government controlled stuff shoved into my body. Do you know for those super soldiers they can send them information and even commands through the interweb so that they're all synchronized?"

"It's why that contract won out in the first place," Erico stated as he sipped his coffee. "They'd rather have the cold logical algorithms and easily manufactural cybernetics over the rubber creatures that would require living material in order to bond to it. Of course it didn't make sense to me since the augmentations just get grafted onto human flesh anyway but what can you do?"

Ishi just nodded and looked out the window as one of the augmented humans they had just talked about passed by, the mancompletely decked out with body armor complete with a gun attached to his shoulder. "It's too bad about the rubber thing," he said as he ran a hand through his hair. "I would love to see something beyond the walls of the city instead of watching this place slowly start to unravel. Although if I did leave then we wouldn't be able to use this."

Erico looked up and watched as the grinning male pulled an envelope out of his jacket pocket and handed it to him. The researcher looked at his boyfriend in question before he opened it, two laminated passes falling out of it and onto the table. "VIP club passes?" he asked as he picked them up and looked at them. "I've never heard of a nightclub called Crucible before."

"That's because it's not open yet," Ishi explained. "It appears the good influence I got from you finally rubbed off on my circle of friends, because they're going legit and opening this club. They even said if I get tired at my job at the plant they can hire me on and they'll find me work in some capacity." The smile on Ishi's face faded slightly as he saw the flash of concern on Erico's face and reached out to clasp their hands together. "I know what you're probably thinking, but they assured me they're on the straight and narrow now, maybe the threat of those new peacekeeper forces were finally the thing to make them stop so they didn't end up on wall duty."

Erico's frown deepened, but not because of what his eager partner had just told him. His thoughts went back to the e-mail that he had just received and what it said. When he returned to the present he could see Ishi's face start to look bothered, but just as he was about to say what was on his mind the waitress came by and took their order. The researcher felt his stomach drop to his feet but managed to retain enough composure to order without suspicion from their server, though as she left he could tell that the sudden change of attitude had not passed by Ishi undetected as he asked if anything was wrong.

"What I'm about to tell you doesn't leave this table, and you have to promise you won't get overly excited about this," Erico nearly whispered, which caused Ishi to look around before he nodded. "I received an e-mail at work today, some person or group hacked into our personal workgroup and left me a personal message. At first I thought it was some sort of terrorism scare or something like that, but the more I think about it the more I wonder if it wasn't true."

"Well now you got me curious," Ishi replied with a small smile. "A tale of intrigue and mystery that you can actually tell me, this should be fun."

Erico took a deep breath and looked around once more before he leaned in and got into the message he had received. He watched his boyfriend's eyes grow wide as A.R.C.E.U.S. accused the military of staging both the riots and the food shortages in the city in order to not only get the cybernetics project funded over the synthetics bid to try and reclaim the wasteland, but also to actually push forward with the forced labor camps that had only been rumor and whisper before. The sender said that soon anyone that the security and political councils deemed 'unfit' would be rounded up and brought there using the newfound power of the augmented peacekeeper organization.

There was a pause as the waitress came back with their food, both of then not making contact with her as they thanked her for their food and said they didn't need anything else. They waited for a few seconds after she left before they looked at each other again and Ishi leaned forward until he was nearly halfway across the table. "Erico, do you know what this means?" he said in a hushed but excited tone. "You have to find this guy and get the news out there!"

"But I told you that I don't have any proof," Erico replied as he picked at his food. "Even the e-mail is gone and he didn't leave any way to contact him. So unless he decides he wants to come out and say something about it we've got nothing to go on, we'll just look like two anti-council loons that don't like the way things are going. Then I get the feeling we'd be able to see if that e-mail is true soon enough."

Ishi sighed and sat back in the booth, crossing his arms. "You know, it figures..."

"What's that Ishi?"

"I have this exciting news and you somehow find a way to top it," Ishi explained while feigning anger. "Do you know how long I've been waiting to spring this news on you and then you go off and have some sort of super-secret spy adventure?"

Erico couldn't help but chuckle as he watched the edges of his boyfriend's lips turn up into a smile. "Well I'm sorry some sort of shadowy figure decided to contact me out of the blue today," he apologized. "Why don't you go ahead and tell me what being a VIP at this new club is going to entail? Just don't take too long, I have to get back to work and I would hate for my mysterious informant to try and contact me and have to leave a message..."

************************************

A month passed and Erico looked at the computer screen in slight frustration. Not only had he made very little progress in his personal project but he had also not heard from the mysterious e-mailer since his initial contact. With no record of his address Erico had no way to reply to him, all he could do was continue to think about the cryptic message that had been left. Unfortunately it had speculated appeared to be close to the truth, with the rise in civil unrest and the new fear of food and water shortages there has been speculation that a special edict will be imposed that will make criminals, the unemployed, and other undesirables have to volunteer their time in various areas in order to help the city maintain order. Was the e-mail right in its assertion that they would use the scores of augmented peacekeepers to try and round people up and force them into labor camps, or was it just like the scare tactics of those who refused to get any cybernetics saying that the city government was trying to crush their free will?

None of that mattered tonight though, Erico thought to himself as he looked in the mirror in his lab, because he was going to meet Ishi at Crucible in order to take advantage of their VIP passes. The first time he had gone there he was surprised that it appeared to be just like his boyfriend said it was. No hidden gambling dens, no smuggler rooms, he had been given a complete tour of the building and everything seemed on the level. He was also remiss to admit that despite their past indiscretions he had enjoyed hanging out with Ishi's friends and was glad he no longer had to worry about them getting his significant other thrown in prison.

Once he had finished preening himself he walked outside the lab and grabbed his coat, pulling out the cell phone from his pocket and dialing Ishi's number. As he had half-expected it went to voicemail, which meant he was likely inside the club already. "Hey Ishi, it's me," he recorded once the message had finished. "Sorry about running a bit late but you know how work is. If traffic is light I should be there in around forty minutes, so try not to get too far ahead of me."

Erico hung up and took one last look at the vat of liquid rubber in the middle of the lab, which had a cybernetic arm hanging above it that dripped with the substance that failed to coalesce on the metallic surface. He felt a pull to hop back on the computer and continue his work, but it passed quickly as he shook his head and summoned the elevator to take him down. When he reached the lobby he paused as he saw the two security guards standing in front of one of the televisions that normally just sported a promotional video of the company. Curious he walked over to them and looked up to see a breaking news story that showed police and fire trucks around an area that looked like it had just been hit by an earthquake.

"Terrible ordeal that is," one of the guards stated when he noticed Erico's presence. "Peacekeepers thought they were making Swiss cheese out of a building that contained a terrorist cell, turns out they were fed bad info from the interweb. They managed to stop them from leveling the whole place but I guess they're already getting a death toll in the triple digits and twice that injured."

"Dear lord," Erico said as he watched them describe how the terrorists manipulated the peacekeeper's GPS data in order for them to hit the wrong target. "Hopefully this wasn't near sector seven, otherwise I think it's going to be a night in for me with an angry boyfriend."

The two guards looked at each other, then back at Erico. "Where in sector seven were you planning on going?" one of them asked.

"New club that opened up a few weeks ago called Crucible," he described, which caused their eyes to widen slightly. "Why?"

"The building they hit was a nightclub... and it was called Crucible."

The blood in Erico's veins turned to ice as the security guards continued to talk but became nothing more than white noise as he stared up at the screen. He hadn't seen it before but even with the mask of destruction he could make out several features of what was left of the building to identify it as the nightclub he had been about to drive too. Then their words echoed in his mind... hundreds dead... more injured. Before the two could do anything he sprinted out of the lobby and down towards the parking garage, frantically trying to reach his boyfriend on his cell phone.

Just as he got into his car the line picked up, which caused Erico to nearly break down in relief as he asked Ishi if he was alright. His jubilation was short-lived however as a female voice asked who was calling, and when Erico identified himself the voice on the other end told him where he had to go. The male felt a ball of red-hot lead form in his stomach as he thanked the one who answered the phone and got into his car. He hardly had the addressed punched into his GPS before he burned rubber in the parking garage and peeled out into the city street.

************************************************

The hospital was packed when Erico arrived at it, pure chaos in every hallway as he did his best not to get in the way while still moving forward. The severely injured and dying were everywhere, everyone was covered in a layer of building dust as they were treated for all manner of injuries. When he finally managed to wade his way to the receptionist desk he found it to be abandoned by the nurse checking over a woman with severe burns. He started to wade towards the standing room only waiting room when he saw a familiar face that he waded towards.

"Francis!" Erico shouted, which caused the uniformed officer to turn around. Like most of those on the police force he had been given several augmentations since he had last seen him, including bionic eyes that whirred slightly as they focused on him. "Thank god you're here, have you seen Ishi anywhere?"

The cop looked around a few times, then motioned for him to follow as he began to walk towards a stairwell. "I can't be too long about this," he said quietly once they were relatively alone as he walked up the stairs. "My superiors can review the feed from my implants so I need to make sure I don't give them a reason to want to. While I haven't seen him myself I know that he was in critical condition when they brought him in, so they would have taken him up to the ICU. I'm so sorry Erico, I still can't believe that this actually happened."

For the second time tonight Erico felt the world start to fall away from him, his heart pounding hard in his chest as he approached the room that Francis led him to. Part of him didn't want to see it, that if he just turned right around and went home he could think he just was too tired to go and Ishi would walk through the door later and be upset at him for bailing. The rational part of his scientist brain wouldn't let that happen though and forced him to take step after heavy step towards the room at the end of the Intensive Care Unit. As he passed by the whiteboard attached to the wall next to the door he could feel wetness already start to gather around his eyes as he saw the name Ishimura on the top of the board.

Erico heard his friend say he didn't have to do this, but his words dissolved before it could reach his brain as a shaking hand reached for the door. Once again he found himself trying to rationalize what he would find, that perhaps he was just put there because they ran out of beds elsewhere and he was actually fine or had merely been knocked unconscious. It gave him enough strength to turn the handle and open the door, where the smell of antiseptic and blood hit his nostrils as soon as the air had a chance to roll out. He could hear the sounds of machines as they beeped and whirred, their soft lights illuminated the otherwise dark room as the researcher was able to only take a few steps inside before he fell to his knees.

Had he not been told who was on the bed he would have never believed that the broken, bandaged body that laid still on the bed was his boyfriend. There was no spark of life, no light that he could see, and thankfully for him it had become harder to focus as everything became blurry from the water in his eyes. Before he could do anything though he felt an unnaturally strong pair of hands pick him up and nearly carry him outside until he was back in the hallway. "Unfortunately because of the extensive burn damage it's not wise for you to be in there with him due to potential infection," Francis informed him.

It took a few minutes before Erico could find his voice again, following the officer numbly into the break room where he was bought a cup of warm coffee. "How does something like this happen..." Erico questioned as he sat down in one of the chairs. "I had just spoken to him this morning."

"I know it won't do much to ease the pain but I hear he was trying to help people evacuate after the first volley of shells came from the peacekeepers," Francis informed him. "Unfortunately by the time anyone was able to reach the exit the building was hit with another round that nearly collapsed it on top of them. It's just lucky that the mistake in orders was found before they continued the attack or else there wouldn't even be any injured to speak of."

Erico just sat there in the chair and looked up at Francis wearily, then back down at the beverage he cupped in his hands. Whether it was a malfunction in the interweb or a terrorist attack the damage had been done, to the point where the sight of the cybernetic enhanced human made him angry and sick. After a few minutes it appeared his friend picked up on it and said he had to get back to his post, leaving him alone in the waiting room filled with people. As he scanned the crowd most looked like him, shocked with the sudden discovery that someone they loved had been maimed in the nightclub disaster.

For a while he just sat there and did nothing, staring at the ground as his brain struggled to come to grips with the situation he had been so violently thrusted into. As time passed doctors came out and walked up to the other families in the area. Some were escorted into a nearby room, others were talked to right there. The latter normally ended with those breaking out into an angry or sad fit of tears, sometimes with shouting involved or loud sobbing. Erico idly wondered how he would take such news until a doctor came up to him and asked if he was the one who was here for Ishi.

The young man in the white coat asked for Erico to come and follow him, which he numbly did so as he stood up. When he looked at the clock as they passed by it he realized in surprise that he had been sitting there for nearly three hours waiting in that room. Once they were inside the office of the doctor he was told to have a seat, then asked if he wanted a refreshment which he curtly declined. "Unfortunately due to the influx of patients we've had I'm going to have to keep this short," The doctor stated as he pulled out a chart and looked at it. "The good news is that we have managed to stabilize the patient for the time being, but I'm afraid that the damage to his body is very extensive with both crush and burn wounds."

"Well there has to be something we can do for him," Erico replied, trying to keep his composure. "You wouldn't have brought me in here if he was just going to die, so what can I do?"

"There really is only one option at this point and it's highly experimental," the doctor replied as he pulled out a case study form. "Normally I wouldn't even suggest such a thing because the odds of getting someone in this study are astronomical, but I noticed your place of business is the same one that is running it. If you can pull some strings your company it working on a nearly ninety percent cyborg conversion initiative and is bringing in people to test it. I've been told that the chances of survival are not great, and even moreso with the trauma he's already been through, but if it works then he'll be alive as part of the new peacekeeper forces."

Erico hung onto every word up until he heard the end, but as the doctor continued to speak he felt his hope sour. As much as he wanted to see his boyfriend up and running around again he knew that Ishi was highly adverse to the augmentations that were already out on the market, pushing him to not get any either despite the ease it would have made his job. Now he was being asked to turn Ishi into what would essentially be a robot, one that would serve the group that had caused such a terrible thing in the first place. Unfortunately the doctor explained to him that if he didn't receive such extensive treatment that Ishi would be dead, likely within a few weeks.

Despite the dire situation Erico thanked the doctor and shook his hand before he took the sheet of paper and stood up. He was about to go back to the waiting room when he was gently told that there would be no point in such a gesture and to go home to rest. There was still a crowd of people in the Emergency Room and in the downstairs lobby as he walked out, glancing over at Francis who was busy trying to stop an argument between two distraught individuals. Eventually he made it out into the parking lot and got into his car to go home, though he continued to have to wait for the string of traffic entering and leaving the hospital before he finally managed to get onto the Expressway.

The crushing loneliness that had lingered with him in the car continued to follow him as he entered his apartment alone. He realized with a painful pang in his chest that Ishi had cleaned the house before he had gone to the club, which only seemed to make the loss even more prevalent than before. He sat down on the couch but left the television off; no doubt most of the city networks would be covering the carnage and it was something he didn't want to be reminded of. Nevertheless the image of Ishi lying there attached to all those machines, wrapped in those bandages... it was something he no longer wanted to think about.

He decided to open his phone instead and try to find something to try and take even the slightest edge off the situation when he noticed that he had received a new mail. When he checked who it was his heart jumped, seeing the string of letters and numbers that indicated a scrambled e-mail address. He quickly opened the message to find several attachments, some of them he recognized the names of as his own work while others were ones he had never seen before, as well as a short message that he read.

"Before you is the synthesis of two great bodies of work," the message read. "Combined with your help you now hold in your possession a means to create synthetic and cybernetic hybrids using a special nanomachine embedded in the living latex. As long as you have a pure specimen that hasn't been augmented this treatment will turn them into a rubberized cyborg with all the benefits of both as well as the ability to maintain free will."

Erico was thankful he was sitting when he read the e-mail, and though there was more too it he couldn't help but check the attached files. Some of them were clearly research notes that A.R.C.E.U.S. had stolen from his terminal, but when he looked at the others he saw designs and blueprints that he wouldn't have even dreamed off. As he looked over the concept he couldn't believe how dense he was, instead of trying to integrate the living rubber to the augmentation he should have made an augmentation that could utilize the living rubber. If the specs were true that means he could create a creature with tremendous power potential that could survive outside the dome, and more importantly one that could have the healing necessary to save Ishi.

He almost ran right out of his apartment before he realized that he hadn't read the rest of the message, and when he did he saw that A.R.C.E.U.S. had the same thought process. "A choice now rests within your hands," the note continued on. "Do you take the technology and release it to the world, risking the potential corruption in the wrong hands in order to benefit those that live underneath the dome? Or do you take it and save your boyfriend, then have you two leave the city forever to its own devices? The choice... is yours."