Deathlok #4 - Three’s a Crowd (part 1)

"Who the hell are you?!" asked both Deathlok and the unknown woman at the same time. He had entered the abandoned building that he had been living in for the past few weeks and found moving boxes scattered around the floor. Just when he was wondering whose they were, his question was answered when the attractive young brunette walked in.

"What do you mean ‘who the hell am I?’" asked the woman. "I live here. What are you doing here?"

"You live here," Deathlok asked. "That’s impossible. This building has been abandoned for weeks."

"Yeah," replied the woman. "That’s why we bought it."

"‘We?’" asked Deathlok.

Before the woman could reply, the answer to Deathlok’s question came walking through the front door, carrying another box. He was a young man, the same age as the woman; he had short blonde hair and a blonde goatee with a mustache. Without noticing Deathlok he began asking the woman, "Hey, Bri, where are we gonna put all of these..." He stopped as he noticed the 6’5" cyborg standing in the middle of the room with guns strapped to his hips.

"Who the hell is this?" he asked the woman. Deathlok was getting the sudden feeling that this was one situation that wouldn’t be easy to deal with.

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Deathlok: Cybernetic living weapon. His past a mystery, he searches for clues to his identity. Who is he? Where did he come from? Anything is possible in a world where everything is more than meets the eye...

Deathlok

Issue #4 "Three’s a Crowd" (part 1)

By BigRon309@aol.com

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"Okay, let me explain," began Deathlok.

"You don’t have anything to explain," said the woman. "You’re trespassing on our property. Now get out before we call the cops."

"Now just hold on a second, Bri," the man told her. He seemed to be more afraid of the deadly cyborg than she was. He didn’t want to anger him and get himself killed. "Maybe we should listen to what he has to say before we’re so... harsh."

"Tom, what are you talking about?" Bri asked him. "This is our building. He doesn’t belong here. I don’t care if he’s been shacking up here. It’s our place and we have the right to kick him out."

Tom replied, "Bri, I really think you should calm down about this. I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation. Isn’t there, uh... Sir?"

Deathlok replied, "In fact there is. First of all, neither of you really have anything to fear from me."

Bri replied, "Don’t worry I don’t find anything menacing about a seven foot tall cyborg carrying weapons straight out of Star Wars."

Deathlok continued, "I know my appearance may be threatening, but you must know that I’m not a bad person in any way. My name is Deathlok. Someone put my brain into this robotic killing machine, but I broke my programming. I’m just a normal guy with a super normal body.

"I don’t know where I came from so I have no real home. I’ve been living here the past couple weeks because I didn’t think anyone lived here. I was just coming back from taking care of some personal business and wasn’t at all aware that you people live here."

Bri replied, "Sure, I’ve heard that one before. It all makes perfect sense to me."

Tom snapped at her, "Bri, give the guy a chance. He obviously means us no harm. Otherwise he could have killed us both right away and wouldn’t even try explaining himself."

Tom held out his hand for Deathlok to shake. "Deathlok, my name is Thomas Brody and this is my associate, Brianne Lee. We’re scientists. We bought this building to use as our new laboratory."

Deathlok shook Tom’s hand. "It’s nice to meet you, Thomas," he said. "I’m very sorry about this awkward situation. If you’ll just let me gather a few of my things, I’ll be on my way and completely out of your hair."

"It’s no problem," said Tom.

Deathlok held out his hand for Bri to shake. "I’m very sorry about this, Miss Lee," he told her.

Bri didn’t shake his hand. She just said, "Just get your stuff and go." With that, Deathlok took back his hand and went upstairs to get his few things that he had up there.

Tom said to Bri, "Bri, that was rude. Obviously the guy didn’t mean any harm. The least you could have done was accept his apology."

"Oh, give me a break, Tom," said Bri. "The only reason you were so friendly with him is cause you were scared to death of him."

Tom thought for a while and replied, "Well, that was only part of the reason.

Deathlok sulked back downstairs, carrying his trench coat and hat. "This is all of it," he said. He walked to the back door and stopped before he left. "I’d just like to, once again, apologize for this whole situation. I really hope I didn’t frighten you in any way. I hope you two have a good time living here."

Tom replied, "Thanks, Deathlok." Deathlok just waved and walked out of the door. Bri didn’t acknowledge him.

Once he was gone, Tom told Bri, "See? He really meant us no harm, Hon."

Bri replied, "It doesn’t matter, Tom. This is our place and he had no right to be here."

"I know, but he was just as confused as we were," explained Tom.

Bri replied, "Tom, sometimes you’re too soft. One of these days you’ll learn that sometimes you’ve just gotta show people who the boss is. Otherwise, you’ll end up being walked all over."

Putting on his trench coat and fedora, Deathlok sulked away from the old building that had been his home. He was just starting to grow comfortable there and would miss it. He was now unsure of his direction. Where to go now? What to do now? Everything seemed so unclear to him. It is impossible to plan your future when you don’t even know your past.

As Deathlok slowly walked off towards an uncertain destination, other eyes watched him from hiding. These other eyes were anything but friendly. The person spying on him spoke into a comm-link. "Someone just left the building. You won’t believe this, but it appears to be that Deathlok cyborg that attacked the president a few weeks back."

A voice on the other end of the comm-link replied, "Very curious. He must be a friend of the targets, or a bodyguard. Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. I want them silenced and I won’t have anyone interfering. Have several of your men see to the cyborg while he’s alone. I want you, and whoever’s remaining, to proceed as originally planned. Those two brats know too much, and I won’t allow them to tell anyone what they know."

The first speaker replied, "Yes, Sir." He turned off his comm-link.

Deathlok waited at a crosswalk for the light across the street to change to "walk." Suddenly, his vision went completely black. Before he could wonder what was going on, his vision returned. Only he didn’t see a busy New York street. He saw a grassy hill. Once again he was seeing visions of a life that he didn’t recognize.

In his vision, he was running towards the grassy hill. He heard a little girl’s laughter to his right. He turned to look and there was the same little blonde girl that he had seen in his previous visions (See Deathlok #2). She was laughing and having a great time. The person whose eyes he was watching from picked up the girl and put her on their back. She just started laughing more.

As the person reached the top of the hill, Deathlok started feeling fatigued. He was feeling as if he was actually living this moment. Eventually the fatigue was too much and the person collapsed while playfully dropping the girl to the ground. They both lay on their backs looking up at the bright blue sky. The girl continued with her innocent, playful laughter. Deathlok’s vision turned to her and watched her laugh and stare at the sky so carefree. She looked back at him and said, "Do it again!"

Suddenly, Deathlok was back at the corner of a busy street. The little girl was gone. The grassy hill was gone. The bright blue sky, also gone. Deathlok couldn’t even hear the girl’s sweet, innocent laughter anymore. All of that had been replaced by the honking of horns, the vision of a homeless man sitting next to a building asking for change, and the stench of car exhaust.

Deathlok looked around to see if anyone around him had noticed his sudden blackout. He saw that there wasn’t anyone around to have witnessed it, except for the homeless man who was probably more out of it than Deathlok.

Deathlok didn’t know what to make of the situation. He’d been plagued by these visions ever since his battle with Eliminator and they had just kept getting more clear and more realistic. The same little girl was in most of them, even if they took place in different settings. He never saw other people. He never even saw the body or heard the voice of the person whose life he was experiencing in these blackouts. The visions were actually starting to frighten him. All he wanted was to either find out where they came from, or for them to just stop altogether. Unfortunately, not even the great Reed Richards was able to give Deathlok any sort of insight or explanation to them.

The sign across the street changed to "walk," so Deathlok did so. When he was halfway across the street, he became aware of a high pitched, whining noise, much like the sound of a jet engine, that was getting louder and seemed to be coming closer. Deathlok realized it was coming from behind him, so he looked back over his shoulder. About two blocks back, Deathlok could see the shapes of five individuals flying about fifty feet in the air in his direction. Deathlok continued walking, but also kept watching the figures. Using his robotic eye, he magnified the image of the five figures to see who exactly they were. What he saw were five figures dressed head to toe in some sort of futuristic armor. They were carrying some large guns and flying via boot-jets. Even though they wore helmets, Deathlok could tell they were looking right in his direction. Suddenly, he realized it was no coincidence that they were flying in this direction. They were coming for him!

Deathlok decided that if they were after him, he would need to get to a less populated area for the protection of the civilians around him. He began running down the street, looking for someplace to go.

As he ran, he asked his computer, "Are those things still following me?"

His computer replied, "AFFIRMATIVE."

Deathlok asked, "What are they? Are they robots of some sort?"

"NEGATIVE. INFRARED SCAN INDICATES ARE HUMANS WEARING SOPHISTICATED ARMOR, BUILT OF A SIMILAR TECHNOLOGY TO THIS UNIT."

I just knew it, Deathlok thought to himself. More cronies sent by my creators to punish me for turning on them.

Deathlok quickly ducked into an alley that he encountered and began running down it. He asked his computer, "Computer, how did these guys track me down? I got rid of the homing beacon inside of me."

His computer replied, "IT IS UNKNOWN HOW INDIVIDUALS FOUND THIS UNIT."

Just great, he thought. They have some other way of tracking me down! What will it take for these guys to leave me alone?

Deathlok heard the familiar sound of the boot-jets belonging to the soldiers. He looked behind himself and saw the five men, over a hundred feet away, at the end of the alley. They began flying towards him. They aimed their guns at him.

Deathlok knew he wouldn’t have much trouble dodging one or two, probably even three, of their shots, but he knew five of them were a different story. His only hope would be to somehow get away from them. The answer to his wishes revealed itself a little ways down the alley. There was a fifteen-foot brick wall dividing the alley. Deathlok knew that if he timed things just right, he could leap behind the wall, leaving their blasts to harmlessly splat against the brick.

The armored soldiers were closing in on Deathlok. The lead one gave the command, "Fire!" The five, white-hot bolts screamed through the air towards Deathlok. In the split second after the guns were fired, however, Deathlok had begun his leap. He jumped right over the brick wall using his super strength and landed safely on the other side. The only mark that the laser blasts found was the old brick wall that Deathlok had jumped behind.

Unfortunately for Deathlok, he hadn’t counted on one thing. He didn’t take into account of how old and unstable the brick wall was. The five high-powered laser blasts proved too much for the decaying brick. Just as Deathlok landed on the other side of it, the wall exploded right behind him, sending a hailstorm of bricks right into him. He was quickly buried under a small mountain of brick.

Even though the soldiers had missed their shot, they were still satisfied knowing that they had fulfilled their mission. They knew Deathlok wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon. It was obvious by the battered metal hand that poked up through the wreckage, completely motionless.

To Be Continued...