The men noticed the reporter and turned to her. She smiled. “Care to give a statement to the press?”
The second man took a puff of his cig, looking to reporter up and down. “Sure. Would you fuck a Cyborg, bitch?”
Cypher unclenched his fists and strode to the men before she could answer.Fucking human scum.He grabbed their necks simultaneously and slammed them to the ground. The reporter gasped.
“What the fuc—” The first man’s eyes widened.
Cypher held them pinned to the pavement as they flopped around like fish trying to claw off his hands.
“You think you know everything,” he said, his voice low. His grip tightened, and the men finally looked at him. “I could snap your necks without a thought.”
The men stopped struggling.
“It’s Cypher!” someone yelled.
Cypher’s eyes flicked back and forth between the two miscreants, furious. “Tell me, what do you really think of me and my kind?”
One man tried to answer, but only spittle came out.
“What was that?” Cypher goaded. “I didn’t catch it.”
The other man stared at him with horror.
Cypher’s mouth shifted into a muzzle, and he extended his claws, scraping the backs of the men’s necks. The smell of urine filled his nose. “That’s right, fuckers. The next time you shit yourself, remember this, the only reason you can shit at all is becausewewon the war for you.”
Cypher stood, transforming back, dragging the men up with him. He released them with a shove, and they stumbled back. Choking in ragged gulps of air, they turned and fled.
He wiped his palms on his pants only to find the crowd had returned. Cameras flashed. He dusted off his uniform as questions bombarded him.
Without giving humanity’s dregs a second thought, he strode away, went back to his stolen vehicle, and began tracking Vee’s wristcon again. He lost any of those who dared to follow him in the skyways.
Numbers lit up his mind, coordinates shifting in real time. Vee was headed toward the glittering high-rises in the distance. He knew the moment she came to a stop. Zipping around over hovercrafts, he made his way toward her location.
His body buzzed. A comm came through his internal feeds, and he didn’t need to check it to know the EPED was now aware of his arrival.Fuck off, Nightheart. I’ll deal with you soon.The aggression in him mounted. It was a small miracle he hadn’t killed the imbeciles outside Vee’s apartment building.
I should’ve.He sneered.Should’ve killed them for all to see. And then really shove my gun down Nightheart’s throat.
His mind teetered between finding Vee and murder as he neared.
Intergalactic Entertainment.The words appeared in blue and gold across an Elyrian-style glass scraper. As he neared, building security came out to greet him. They warned him to turn around. Ignoring them, he went straight for the landing pad. Before his vehicle touched the ground, he shot out the door and made his way to the entrance.
Those who tried to stop him were shoved away. Ripping the door off its handles, Cypher entered the building and threaded through the hallways. Within minutes, he found himself at the back of a studio audience.
And there she was, unobscured, under clear lights, on the stage before him. He came to a stop.
Vee was tense, her arms curled over her chest. It made her breasts appear far too big for her petite frame under the tight shirt she wore.
Seeing her like this was worth the stress of the trip.Spitfire.
His eyes trailed from her chest to her vibrant fiery hair around her shoulders. It glowed radioactively, so much he was afraid it would burst into flames and burn her skin. Yet at the same time, he wanted to thread his fingers through it and see if it held heat at all. To see if he could withstand it.
She stared at the interviewee, her face tight with annoyance.
“I don’t know, Tim,” she snapped. “Cypher and I haven’t worked together for long.”
Lies. We haven’t worked together at all, he thought.
“I earned my place in the championships by myself, through countless hours of hard work,” she continued. “Since I was six years old, I’ve been obsessed. Cypher is only going to help me transition to a higher class of planetary colonization, seeing as he has real experience where all I have are simulations.”
