(Jason)

Life, well, life kind of sucked. Companies and corporations slowly gained more power by the day in order to exploit the normal people. Governments becoming more and more restrictive, all while choking themselves on their own incompetence. And, if the stories were to be believed, aliens have attacked America.

“The world is fucked.” I mutter to myself as I look out over the city skyline from the top of a skyscraper.

“That it is, but that’s no reason to jump.” I turn around, surprised by the sudden voice. Just in front of the little door leading to the stairwell is a middle-aged looking man dressed in a janitor's uniform.

I look down over the edge. Fuck, that’s a long way down. I shake myself out of it and turn myself back to the janitor. “I wasn’t really planning on jumping, to be honest. Sure, I have nothing to really live for, but that doesn’t mean I want to end it all.”

The janitor nods slowly, his expression clearly indicating that he doesn’t believe a single word I’m saying. “Right then, why are you up here?”

“Just clearing my mind to be honest, trying to figure out my next step forward, you know.” I say, giving him a small smile. “Down below it gets so noisy, makes it hard for me to concentrate at times.”

The janitor now smiles for the first time. “I see, but you can’t stay. The roof is off limits” He gestures for me to follow him, and I do so without complaints.

When I’m about halfway there, the world shakes. No, that isn’t right. The buildings are fine, and I didn’t suddenly lose my footing. Not a thing had shifted but the sky. A big red line cuts across half of the city skyline, releasing black spots that grow exponentially bigger as they start to rocket towards the ground.

One of the seed pods lands on the roof we are standing on, smashing straight through it and landing on the floor below. I slowly walk over to the giant hole and look inside. The thing, whatever it is, has hit the boiler room.

“What is that?” the janitor asks, having walked closer as well.

I shrug. “The end of the world, if I had to guess.”

The fleshy pod thing that has affixed itself on the pipes slowly starts to wiggle and move, releasing monsters from inside its fleshy pouches. At first, it’s not so bad, only releasing these six-legged dog-like creatures with wicked teeth that start to stalk around. They look strong, but unlike the second monster coming out of the flesh bag, they can’t fly.

The flyers, however, are bad Not as big as the dog creatures but just as mean looking. Like some cartoon villain decided to fuse a pigeon and a seagull together and give it teeth. They fly out of the green meat pod, instantly lock onto us, and start diving down.

We run as fast as we can to the door, receiving several cuts and bruises as the terror birds rain down on us.

“I will never complain about pigeons again,” the janitor says after he has locked the door behind us.

I chuckle. “If we survive this, I’ll never complain about anything again.”

The janitor nods. “Let’s get down. The aliens won’t be held back for long by just a door.”

I nod and start going down the stairs as quickly as possible. Just as I am about to reach the bottom I feel a hand on my back pushing me forward. I trip, falling forward just in time for something big and heavy to sail over my head.

I hit the ground  hard, and I hear a crunch in my shoulder as I land. Luckily, my adrenaline is still pumping, and I quickly stand up and look around, noticing that the thing that went flying over my head was one of the green dog monsters.

It, having also snapped out of its confusion, turns to me, opening its maw wide. I kind of expect it to roar or something, but the creature stays eerily quiet. I risk a glance back up the stairs only to notice that the janitor is holding off two more of the assholes with nothing but determination.

“This is certainly a more interesting way to go than jumping off a building,” I shout as I grab a fire extinguisher off the wall.

“Just run. Leave me,” the janitor shouts. “You’re young! You can still make it out of this situation alive.”

I briefly consider the option but reject it. Everyone in my family has already turned their back on me for what I am. I am not going to do the same.

Brandishing the fire extinguisher as a club, I try to swing it at the creature. The creature, however, is fast and grabs the red club in its maw, biting down hard. That was its last mistake as the gas inside almost explosively escapes, ramming the metal scraps deep into his skull.

I have a small moment to be surprised but quickly snap out of it since there are still two enemies and I just lost my only weapon. As I start to look around desperately for a weapon, a sudden shock of pain in my head stops me in my tracks.

System Initialized!

Congratulations. Through your actions, you have proven yourself worthy of becoming one of the Vanguard and a defender of humanity. I am Nylo. I will assist you to uplift humanity so that you may defend your homeworld from the Antithesis threat!

Rise, Jason Chen, and become a protector of the weak!

I look around in surprise expecting some kind of speaker, but I can’t find anything.

“The fuck was that?” I wonder

You have just been integrated into the vanguard network. And been tasked with the defence against the aliens.

“Okay, can you get me a weapon or something? Anything is fine.” I say to the literal voice in my head.

Of course, here you go

Class I Bladed weapons unlocked!

Points reduced to... 60

New Purchase: Katana

Points reduced to... 50

A sudden flash sparkles in front of my eyes, and suddenly there is a sword in my hand. Well, that is something. I quickly run up the stairs and slash at the beast assaulting the janitor. Turns out having a sword makes it a lot easier. After I have cut the other two beasties apart, I turn back to the janitor with a smile.

“You look like a samurai like that.” The man says with a smile even though he seems to be clutching his bloody arm in pain.

“Oh, fuck that looks bad. Weird voice thing, any solution?” I ask, looking at the sky.

I can get you the medical utilities catalogue with a Nano-Regenerative Suite.

“Yes, get me that now,” I say, getting a bit antsy.

Right away.

Class I Medical utilities!

Points reduced to... 20

New Purchase: Nano-Regenerative Suite

Points reduced to... 15

A little box appears in front of me. And I look at it in confusion.

“What do I do with this?” I ask the air in confusion.

Open the box and let mister Taylor breathe it in deeply.

I nod, open the box and take out the small inhaler. I bring it to the janitor's mouth. “Here, breathe in deeply.”

The janitor looks at me with confusion but does as I say. His complexion slowly clears up as the moments pass by.

“That was amazing. How does that work?” the janitor asks.

I shrug. “I don’t know, to be honest. I have this weird voice in my head that suggested getting it, but how it all works is beyond me.”

“Well, we should count our blessings. So where should we go next?” He asks, looking at me.

“I don’t…” I spot the little device in my hand. “I think we should go to a hospital or something. They could really use more of these, especially in this mess.”

The janitor nods. “Lets go then”

We slowly make our way down the skyscraper and onto the main road. Things here are a lot more chaotic. The green aliens are all around us, attacking things and people indiscriminately. I try my best to help everyone I can see. In the process, I just disregard my country's gun laws and start handing out guns to anyone that seems halfway decent with them.

I keep moving with my small fighting force, pushing forward to the hospital to set up a small base of operations there, but before we can make it there, we are intercepted by a different type of alien. This one being the size of a bus. I quickly jump into the fray telling the rest to run towards the hospital and barricade it.

I ready my katana, the bent and blunted piece of steel having seen better days. Wait, that reminds me.

“I need a better weapon.” I say out loud.

I will get that for you.

New Purchase: Desiccation claws.

Points reduced to... 367

Two metal gauntlets form around my hands with cables going up my arms to a central point on my back. On the gauntlets there are these three-pronged blades crackling with blue energy. I drop the katana; It having outlived its usefulness now that I have a new weapon.

The big alien hasn’t been idle, running at me at full speed. I dodge to the side, ramming my left claw into its side. They cut in deep, probably doing some amount of damage. The more problematic part of this interaction however, is that the beast does not stop and is now dragging me across the pavement.

I keep stabbing it with my other claw, hoping to somehow kill or slow down the creature. The thing doesn’t seem to like that and makes a quick turn, throwing me off of it and into a nearby building. I slowly try to stand up and orientat myself, but it's too late. The creature has already turned around and is heading straight for me.

Not having the space or the energy to block, I ready myself, pointing the claws at the monster's ugly face. We collide. My blades cutting deep into its brain as the creature pins me against the wall, breaking my arms and probably a lot more of my bones as my entire body screams in agony. Or that might just be me screaming from the pain.

The monster, luckily enough, seems to be done for as well as it fully collapses on top of me, crushing my legs for good measure.

This does not look good.

“Help me,” I wheeze out.

There are limits to what options I can offer because of my lack of knowledge of your biological system.

“Do whatever, I don’t, please save me.” I get out before everything turns black.

The next time I open my eyes, I find myself in a cold place with white walls and beeping machines. I slowly sit up from the, why am I in a hospital bed? Wait, I got squished right.

“You're awake. How do you feel, the doctors said that you were dead?” The janitor says, looking at me with concern.

How do I feel, I slowly move my arms, touching different parts of my body? “I don’t feel anything,” I say, a bit confused.

“Wait, I’ll go call a doctor,” the man says, stepping out of the room. “Hey doctor, he’s awake. Can you come and help?”

A moment later, a very pretty man walks in. “Are you sure?”  he says, looking at me with confusion “You do not have a heart beat.”

I blink, feeling at my chest and noticing that I indeed do not have a heartbeat. “That’s strange, I don’t seem to have one.”

That is because I replaced it together with most of the rest of your body.

“Replaced it with what?” I say sitting up straight

Combat alloy nanites; they can be formed into any shape and are a lot sturdier than your body.

I turn back to the doctor. “Turns out I don’t have a heart anymore.”

He looks even more confused. “Then how are you alive?”

I shrug. “I am too stubborn to die.”

“Like a Deatnite.” The janitor says.

“A what?”

“A Deatnite. There are these old stories about them, but basically people that can’t die no matter how much they want to or how many people try to kill them.” He explains.

I nod slowly as I get out of bed. “I guess that’s what I am then. I should get back out there. I doubt the troubles are over.”

They both nod, and I make it out of the room, ready to kill more aliens. At the door, I quickly turn around to look at the pretty doctor. “I am Jason, by the way. After I make sure the world isn’t going to end, do you want to go out for drinks?”

The doctor blushes slightly. “Yeah, sounds good. I am Dave. Come find me after you’ve saved the world.”

I smile wildly as I start heading out again into the chaos.

—

I jump up out of bed, having been woken from my dream by the notification of a missed call. I wipe my face with my hand, trying to push the memories away; those days were bad, so few Samurai and too many antithesis. Every fight was basically a bloody massacre. I ruffle the hair of my husband beside me. At least I got the doctor in the end.

I slowly get out of bed and head to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. There I find a familiar face cooking breakfast.

“Taylor, you know that you don’t have to do this, right?” I ask the old janitor.

He smiles. “I want to do this. You pay me to keep the house clean while at the same time having a million bots that clean the house. I’m basically a glorified babysitter.”

“You know we don’t see it like that, right? You're part of the family.” I say to the now much older man.

“I know, so let me do this for my family,” he says

I nod and leave it at that, mostly because Evelin is calling me again, making me wonder if something is urgent. So I quickly pick up.

“Hey are you in trouble?” I ask.

“Ah, uh, maybe. Just how bad are ceramics for a child?” Evelin asks.

It's always two more questions for every answer with this one, isn’t it. “Why do you want to know?”

“Well, I made my daughter breakfast, and she bit into the bowl.” She explains.

I pause, my brain not really being prepared for this much chaos in the morning. “Wait, hold up, daughter? Since when do you have a daughter?”

“Uh, long story cut short, my eggs were harvested a while ago and somebody made a child using my eggs, so yeah, daughter.” Evelin explains, sounding hurried.

“Make sure to bring her to the med bay for a checkup, but as long as she isn’t bleeding, she should’’t be in immediate danger,” I say after having come to terms with her explanation.

“Already on the way, thanks. Oh, and also, I am going to need some tips on childcare from a samurai parent veteran soon.” She says, sounding strangely serious.

“Why not ask Luna? She is your mom, right?” I point out.

“Yeah, but I want my kids to turn out normal,” comes the snappy response

I chuckle slightly at that. “Sure, I can help, just let me finish my morning coffee first.”

“Okay, later bye.” With that, the psychopath closes the call, leaving me to just exhale a big sigh.

“Maniac?” Taylor asks

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“She seems to be the only one to elicit that kind of response out of people,” Taylor says in a sagely tone.

“Yeah, she is crazy, that’s for sure.” I conclude.

“Yes, It’s a good thing, isn’t it, giving the corpo’s someone unpredictable to deal with for once,” Taylor says with a hint of mischief in his eyes.

I nod. "The extra mayhem does add some spice to my life. Though I wish she wouldn’t start it this early in the morning.”