Stanley ran outside at an incredible speed.

"Which way am I going?" he asked.

"Take a right turn after you walk out," Reena’s voice flowed into his ears. "You’ll see the mountain range in the distance."

"Also, wear your mask."

"Got it!"

Stanley appeared outside through the broken gates and saw a group of people that were being kept to the side by the law enforcers of this city.

They looked at him with confusion and surprise, and some of the people even reached for their guns as they weren’t aware if he was a friend or foe.

His face was completely covered by the mask, so it wouldn’t have been a wrong choice to think of him as an enemy.

Stanley ignored them and immediately took a right turn before running down the street. While he didn’t run very quickly, his speed was such that he even left the driving cars way behind him.

"How do I find him?" Stanley asked. "Is he wearing the same clothes?"

"All 3 have the same clothes," Gray’s voice came in. "He’s wearing the same thing he was wearing in his bedroom."

"I’m accessing cameras from around the city. I should have some better visuals soon," she said.

Stanley nodded and continued running. His first task was to get toward the mountain range. From there, he would just have to follow Gray’s words.

His future sight was constantly active and he could feel his body grow somewhat tired from that. He also hadn’t pushed his body through so much in a real-life scenario, so he was worried he would soon be too tired.

There was only so much Soul energy in his body that he could use before he needed to recharge. During training, he used as much as he could, but that included normal combat and weapons training.

’I’ll last much longer,’ he was sure of it.

He saw a car hit him in the future and ran a bit to the left, avoiding it. He saw a pedestrian walk out into the street and jumped over them. A drone would fly in front of his face and so he slid under it.

Whatever the upcoming scenario was, he could see it all, and by seeing it all, he could avoid it.

"I see him," Reena’s voice came through the earpiece. "He’s on the 18th and 23rd, going up somewhere."

"I don’t know where that is," Stanley said. "I need better directions."

"On your next turn, turn right and run down for 2 blocks. I’ll let you know what to do when I see where you are," Reena said and waited.

Stanley nodded and quickly turned right the moment he could and ran down the street again, going down 2 blocks before stopping. "Where?" he asked looking around.

"Wait, you are... oh, you crossed him. He’s coming toward you," Reena said.

"Oh, okay," Stanley said. "Wait, how do I know I have the right one?"

"You break his arm," Gray said. "Like I just did. This one is a dirt clone. I’m going for the other one."

"Got it," Reena said.

Stanley waited for a while, and soon enough he saw a David that struggled to run. He had been running for the past 5 minutes at the top of his speed and as such he was feeling incredibly tired.

"Try to capture him in a location that is away from the civilians," Reena said. "We don’t want to get them involved if he has a gun by any chance.

Stanley agreed and waited for him to come close. He hid in the darkness until the man was right in front of him and pounced on him.

He grabbed the man by his clothes and brought him to the ground. Before the man could even figure out what had happened, Stanley grabbed his left arm and twisted it.

"Argh!" the man screamed as a wave of pain flooded him from his broken wrist. Stanley looked at the wrist and was surprised.

"I’ve got the real one," he said.

"Seems so," Gray said. "The other one just turned to dirt on its own. I’m coming to you."

Stanley held the man down and grabbed his hands before pulling them together.

"Haha— argh! Ha-"The man tried to laugh with his pain. "I- I don’t know who you are, but if you don’t want to die, you better leave me alone."

Stanley looked at the man with a carefree look. He didn’t bother to say anything to the man as he was instructed not to give away any information about himself, his mission, and the AAA.

"Are you with the police?" the man asked. "Or the Vandalizers?"

Stanley said nothing.

"Are you from the Black Lake?" David asked. "Or the Silent Nexus? Where the fuck are you from you bastard?"

Stanley said nothing once again and simply brought out his handcuffs to cuff up the man. He managed to do it, but before he could bring him up, the man spoke once again.

"Check my chest," he said. "Check it. Look underneath my clothes."

Stanley was confused, but this was a strange request that he couldn’t stop himself from doing. He lifted the man’s clothes and when he did, his eyes went wide.

"Are those..."

"BOMBS!" the ma said, immediately laughing out loud like a maniac. "Hahaha, so you better let me go or I’ll blow us both sky high."

"A bomb?" Reena spoke in surprise. "What bomb is that?"

"It’s rigged to explode when you try to remove it," David continued. "If you so much as move me, I will blow us both up. If I lose consciousness it blows. If I die, it blows."

Stanley frowned and wasn’t sure what to do.

"Can you tell me what the bomb is?" Reena asked.

"I don’t know much about bombs," Stanley said. "What bomb is that?"

"Why would I tell you?" David asked, struggling to turn back around. "I will blow us up if you want to find out."

"He must be bluffing," Reena said. "There is no way he is crazy enough to blow himself just to not get caught."

"We’re not taking the chances," Gray said. "Stanley, check if the bomb is real or not."

Stanley nodded. He brought out his gun and aimed it at the man.

The man looked worried for a second, but death would mean an explosion as well, so he only waited for the gun to shoot him.

Stanley intended to shoot him and saw the future of that scenario. A second after the bullet went through his head, his body would explode.

He put the gun back. "He’s telling the truth. It explodes with his death," he said.

"Hmm?" David looked at Stanley, wondering how he knew the truth. "If you know the truth, then let me go. Or else, I’ll kill us both."

"What do I do?" Stanley asked and got some advice.

"What if he blows himself up?" he asked. "I don’t want to die."

"Whoever you are talking to wants you to kill yourself while trying to capture me. They are not your friend."

"I don’t want to do this anymore," Stanley said. "I don’t want to die just to capture him."

He stayed silent for a few seconds. "But- no, I mean—"

He was distracted while he talked.

David lay on the floor, trying to focus on Stanley’s conversation while also trying to see if he could escape the cuffs. While that seemed impossible, he was happy to see that he might have a chance to escape if all went well.

"I don’t want to die," Stanley said. "Why must I do this? You guys are just trying to kill me."

Stanley’s frustration grew by the second, and each instance of frustration was music to David’s ears. The more frustrated he was, the more likely he was to help him.

"Why can’t you come and take him then?" Stanley shouted away from David. "Why must it always be—"

He stopped and turned to the right. "Can I stop now?" he asked, his frustrated demeanor turning to calmness all of a sudden.

David’s eyes widened, confused as to what was going on exactly. That was when he heard another voice.

"Yeah, you can stop now," Gray said as he walked up to David and Stanley. "Not a bad act. He totally fell for it."

Gray started laughing, and Stanley nodded. That was when David realized that he had been baited into not killing himself. He looked at Stanley with anger in his eyes.

He wasn’t frustrated at all. He was just acting like it, waiting for his friend to come to him for his help.

David’s anger grew even more when thinking that this new man thought he could do anything to him at all.

"You..." he growled a bit. "Fuck you both!"

Then, he activated the bomb and got ready to die.

A massive explosion... didn’t happen at all. Even a small one didn’t happen. All that happened, was a ring of explosion around David’s chest, in a shape no larger than the shape and size of the bomb itself.

"Ooh... we’re safe," Gray said, fully grinning, which could only be seen through his eyes.

Stanley looked at the explosion that never went further than 5 centimeters from David’s chest. Not only that, he was surpirsed to see that when the explosion died down, David wasn’t even burned at all.

’Just what is this man’s powers?’ he wondered. He wished Gray would tell him, but he never did.

Gray crouched down next to David and something flew out from David’s neck. A bloody chip floated on top of Gray’s hands.

"That’s one high tech body chip," Gray said. "Mind telling us where you got this from?"

David growled in pain.

"No? That’s fine," Gray said. "You’ll tell us soon enough. For now, you can go to sleep."