CHAPTER 2

            The rain pelted him as he retrieved a box from the trunk. He got back in the car and shook off.

            "Lean your seat back," he said, "and brace yourself, this is really gonna hurt."

            The bleeding had stopped at least, and there was no exit wound. Wonderful. Now he'd have to go in after the bullet. He pulled open the box and grabbed a pair of surgical tweezers. He went for the bullet. The girl screamed. "Stop squirming," he said.

            She slapped him, "easier said than done, ow!"

            "Just close your eyes and think of something else, it won't hurt so bad. It'll be over in a few."

            She closed her eyes and braced against the pain for minutes that seemed like days. When it was all said and done, the man threw the bullet out the window, and made a tourniquet out of a tire iron and her apron. Better than nothing.

            He leaned back, "How's the patient?"

            "Been better," she said rolling her eyes.

            "Give it about 20 minutes, now that your arm is immobilized, you won't feel it so bad," he said and paused, "By the way, my name's Tyler, yours?"

            "Jez, she said," then looked at him, "Make any comment about replacing the e with an i and you lose a vital organ."

            "Wouldn't dream of it. What's Jez short for?"

            "That's even worse, Jezebel," she chuckled lightly, "I remember when making sure people never found out my real name was the highest on my worry list. heh."

            "Im here for you now...and, for what it's worth, I'm sorry I got you into this."

            She looked at him, then smiled, "Are you kidding, I havent had this much fun in a while, no, scratch that. In EVER."

            In the back of his mind he thought, ok Ty, what kind of loony did you find this time? he paused to puzzle it out, shes no loony, shes just had NO fun in her life. Whatsoever.

            The car pulled out of the alleyway, into the rain-soaked streets. They drove in relative silence for a while, then they got to their destination...and found that it was no longer there.

            Tyler got out and stood in the rain looking at the housing complex that had once been C. Hunter Corp. "DAMN!" he punched the hood, the metal clanged.

            He got back in. He just looked at the steering wheel.

            "What now?" Jez asked.

            He held up his hand fast, "Ssh! Im thinking..."

            She sat back, "So thats what that smell is."

            He just glanced at her, and silently told her to shut up. She did.

            After about ten minutes of sitting in the rain, listening to nothing, he put the car in gear. "I hope were headed somewhere with a bathroom..." she said, "listening to the rain has, well, you know..."

            "You might as well just go on the seat if youre so inclined, we're ditching this car," He said.

            "You know, that may actually be fun..." she said, he just looked at her, shocked, "GOTCHA! Man, you thought I was serious?" she laughed, "Geez, youre gullible."

            He sighed and paid attention to the road, but he couldnt help but smile.

            She noticed and silently kept score, Weird looking dude, 0 Beautiful Red-Head, 1.

            They drove for about ten minutes, till they came to a quarry. Tyler just busted through the barricades. He parked the car about 10 feet from the edge. He got out, pulling two weird looking things on tripods from the back window, getting his box from the backseat, and his duffel bag from the trunk. He shoved the tripods into the duffel bag. "Hold these..." he handed the box and duffel bag to Jez, they were both heavier than they looked, and she almost lost her balance. Tyler meanwhile shifted the car into neutral, then pushed it towards the edge. When the car had hit bottom and burst into flames, he took his stuff back and started to walk.

            He looked at Jez, saw her bloodstained clothing, then stopped and offered her his denim jacket. "It'll keep you warm and cover up that blood, by the way, sorry."

            "I'll live," she said, then looked at the jacket, "Won't you get cold?"

            The universal "eh" response again.

            "I feel bad," he said, then looked at her sideways, "wanna go shopping?"

             "Shopping?" she said, confused.

            "Some new clothes, replace the nasty ones," he said.

            "Sounds ok to me," she said, smiling a mile wide.

            The afternoon passed quickly, though it was raining, they had fun. Jez tried on nearly every outfit in California. She finally settled on some fairly normal clothing, T-shirts and jeans, and one really nice, (and really short) black dress. He paid, looked at his wallet and frowned.

            "Something wrong?" she said.

            "No, uh nothing..." he stammered.

            "Oh I think there is. I spent too much, right?" she said, sadly.

            "No, that's not a problem, the problem is that I don't remember how I got a hold of all this money..." he said, perplexed.

            He absently scratched the back of his head, "Well, since I have it, might as well spend it," he winked at Jez.

            The nightclub was jumping, and the management made him leave his bags in the coat room. He seemed reluctant to leave them there. Jez instead pulled him by his arm into the place, her shot arm expertly hidden by the minuscule cover that came with the dress. They approached the bar. He had to speak loudly over the music, the band on stage was having a conniption.

            "I wanted to tell you about, well, this..." he said.

            "Sounds ok to me, come with me," She brought him to the ladies room. He looked uncomfortable. "Don't worry, no one cares, and the stalls have doors. So come on tall dark and weird, lay it on me."

            He told her the first part of the story and continued:

            In the weeks following his revelation about the project, he made several calls to confirm the requirements.

            His superiors wanted a suit for handling dangerous substances, but according to this, they wanted it to be able to withstand a nuclear blast. At ground zero.

            One of his calls included, "You want what? AI? That stuff's years awa...yes, yes sir, but....uh huh....this technology is years a.....uh huh, yeah sir, crystal. See you later sir."

            "What did they want?" Terry said, carelessly carrying a tray of incredibly dangerous chemicals.

            He took the tray from Terry and placed it on the counter. "They want AI."

            "AI? But, isnt that impossible?" Terry looked shocked.

            "Yeah Ter, it is," Professor Wiltmore said, "It is," but he didnt seem convinced.

            A year passed, then two, then three. The suit was ready for testing, and the AI was complete, owed mainly to the many lost hours of sleep put in by both Terry and Professor Wiltmore.

            One day, the phone rang, "Yello!" Tyler said cheerfully, "Uh huh, yeah, no way, no, no friggin' way, not a chance pal! Tell those sadistic bastards that they can't have it."

            He hung up violently. "Huh?" Terry said.

            "The fucking military wanted the suit, they thought it had great battle capabilities. Sadistic bastards," he said, obviously pissed.

            He looked at the suit, "But they won't get it."

            "Prof, no, don't!" Terry shouted as the professor got up onto the platform the suit was on, slapped the control panel on his arm, and watched as the circuitry snaked its way under his skin and up his face, turning his eye silver, the professor screamed in pain.

            The panel shouted, "Error, Error, Error. Suit overload, error, error error, >>skrawk!<< error, heh, error, no error..."

            A cold metallic chuckle rose from the professors throat, his eye glowing bright red, Nice... liquid metal flowed out from under the panel and covered his body, until he resembled the T1000, but with no mouth and narrow glowing red eyes.

            "Ah! I'm free!" the cold metallic voice said, then looked at Terry, Thank you.

            Terry was near delirious in fright, he had backed up into a corner, a wet patch spreading out from his seat. "Ahh! wha..! NO!!! I ahh!"

            The metal being cocked its head. "Not what I expected from my creator...oh, those hours of working when you thought Tyler wasnt around, trying to sabotage the suit. Your sabotage attempt failed my friend, and you made me."

            Terry just whimpered.