Jonah Mikhailov. An officer of the law, careful, and attentive. He’s Valerya’s biological brother, and my creator’s son. Technically, he’s my brother as well but obviously we don’t share the same blood. Jonah is kind and generous, he volunteers at shelters and donates to charity, that kind of guy. My brother is maybe an inch below me, he’s a bit on the muscular side, with daring topaz eyes and dark, raven hair much like Ivan’s. Jonah is weirdly attached to me and he keeps up with me lazily. At least, that’s what it feels like despite that he goes to extreme lengths to find me. I sigh and push my hair back and out of my face to clearly see him.
I analyzed his gun, a high speed military weapon with high capacity magazine, and very damaging ammunition. A device to kill people, very tactical weapon, useful in combat. If someone breaks into your house, then you have a reliable weapon to provoke them with to leave. Something that shoots more than one person at a time. A dangerous weapon for mass killings. A weapon that can kill many people in a short amount of time. I can hear his heartbeat slamming against his rib cage, Jonah.
Jonah was always afraid of anything, he didn’t like loud noises and he didn’t like dogs either. Jonah used to be very small, but I guess he’s out grown that.
“Ethan, you need to come with me.” Jonah says over the pounding rain. He holds up his gun and tightly carries it.
I laugh a bit, “Was the bot yours? Did you send in a dumb instrument to find me?”
Jonah doesn’t answer me and keeps talking,” You don’t understand what you’re doing here. This isn’t healthy, Ethan!”
I roll my eyes and turn back to Ivan, making a certain facial expression the demonstrates annoyance and confusion. He laughs a bit and shakes his head and I smile, spinning back to Jonah. He’s breathing heavy, his heartbeat is rapid, so is Ivan’s. A shot rings in the air again, this time it’s my chest, just clear of my core, the only thing that keeps me alive. Debris from my metal parts fall out of place and land on the ground as I lose my balance, tipping backwards. Chest, the part of the body easy to push and temporarily stumble your opponent. Next would be the head to confuse the opponent and make them dizzy and vulnerable. I catch myself and lurch forward, more shrapnel falling out of my body.
I look up to Jonah and spit at him, “Fuck you.”
I have one arm, so fighting him hand to hand will be difficult. I stand up straight and hold two fingers up behind my back, it's a matter of seconds before Ivan sprints at Jonah, catches the end of his gun and points it down, to punch his elbow out of place. Jonah’s elbow dislocates and he easily lets go of the gun as it fires when he tenses. Ivan threw the gun aside. I approach my brother and smirk, punching his eye, one of the most painful places to be attacked at, then I grab his bulletproof vest and knock my head into his nose, another one of the most vulnerable striking points on the body. Adam’s Apple. This area of the body is easy to hit and if you punch someone in this area, you can cause them to choke and be unable to breathe. Jonah did as I expected, throwing his body forward and coughed as I blocked his airway momentarily. Although that didn’t distract him for very long because he stood straight again and swung his fist, catching my cheekbone. I momentarily lost my balance but regained it soon enough.
The knee is an important joint in the body that can be damaged easily. Kicking Jonah in the kneecap caused it to become dislocated or even broken. This is a painful and debilitating injury, and without knowing my strength, I actually broke it as I heard his strangled yell. Hitting someone in the back or chest is ineffective. But hitting Jonah at the center of his chest very hard caused great, obvious pain. He took the moment from me to land some hits, getting my shin, which is an area with little fat to protect. Kicking me in the shin caused a minor distraction and disorientation, which enabled Jonah to strike my face again. Something inside my mouth split or something because my mouth was soon filled with blood. Lastly, I socked his jaw and caused him to fall over and pass out.
Jonah laid lifeless on the ground, unmoving apart from the rising and falling of his chest. I get up after punching his face a few more times, breathing heavily and tilting backwards a little from dizziness. I missed my footing a bit and stumbled, and Ivan caught me. Looking at my brother, he was especially bloody on his face. I managed to make his nose and eye bleed, cause a black eye, split his lip and bruise his forehead. He looked like a total mess. His leg was noticeably broken and so was his arm. I most likely bruised his chest with my robotic strength, remembering how his body armor flexed inwards when I hit him there. Ivan held me up until I caught my balance. Jonah hits surprisingly hard and I wasn’t expecting that.
Ivan pat my back, “Let’s dump him somewhere, yeah?”
I nodded and used his shoulder for support for a moment, “Yeah, yeah… and then let’s go back.”421Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPqXTYNJNNI
421Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyHrzTeFS9b
Ivan nodded after me as I threw Jonah over my shoulder. He was always chasing after me like this stupid game of cat and mouse. I want to kill him, I really do, but he’s an officer so who knows what would happen to me. Besides, Val would kill me if I did that, because human emotions and attachment and all that annoying shit. I was limping a bit because I believe Jonah actually fractured my lower leg when he kicked my shin. I look down at my split knuckles, bloody and bruised. I may be a robot, but I need blood vessels running throughout my body in order to nurture my brain. I don’t have a human nerve cord though, because my biotechnical cord that runs down my spine was automatically connected to my brain once it was placed inside my body. It also acts as basic nerves so that I can feel a bit of pain in order for my body to be the least bit damaged. I recognize the pain and steer away from it, like humans do. Unless they’re the kind of humans that natural selection just adores to feed off from.
I’m in a really bad mood now, and I can tell Ivan senses it. He’s nervous, afraid to speak because I might explode with anger all on him. I sigh looking a bit calmer, maybe because I want him to say something. I hate the silence between us right now, and eventually he speaks. His tone is positive and desperately tries to make this atmosphere less menacing. He speaks slowly, calmly, and his facial expression is blank.
“Nice work on your brother there.” He says and goes to pat my back but stops himself. I wonder why he stopped? Is a afraid of touching me? Is he really that nervous? Or has he finally realized that I hate sudden contact? In any case, I don’t do anything, and he glances at me for a moment, “Sorry that Jonah never stops chasing you.”
We finally reached an alley to throw him in. I dropped him over my shoulder, “Like this someone will be able to find him.” I mumble, but I know Ivan heard me, because he finally pat my back a bit. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I kicked Jonah in the side excruciatingly hard. He was still unconscious and I just kept hitting him over and over and over again. Ivan stepped back as I did.
“You make my fucking life so much more difficult, you know that?” I said to him, my brother. “And I can’t do anything about it, you piece of fucking shit!” I started kicking him harder and harder, “You’re so goddamn lucky that Valerya still loves you because I’d tear you fucking limb from limb and scoop out your eyes to feed to pigeons.” I grabbed his throat and brought his unconscious face to mine.
“I’d let you slowly bleed out as I cut all of your limbs into pieces and listen to your bloodcurdling screams. I’d fucking record that shit and listen to it every morning, because nothing is more beautiful than listening to your enemy’s pained screams.” I dropped him and kicked him again, “You fucking DIPSHIT, LEAVE ME ALONE!” I yelled at him, loudly. Ivan flinched behind me. I began cursing in Russian at him, I was so angry I forgot English and repeatedly hit him in different spots.
Ivan grabbed my shoulder, realizing the danger my voice was causing, “Эй, стоп! Итан, ты поймаешь нас!” (Hey stop! Ethan, you’ll get us caught!)
His Russian voice is thickly accented, which is how he usually is. He speaks a bit more calmly and pulls me off, “Oi, oi, Итан…” The way my name sounds on his tongue when he speaks natively is “Itan” instead of “Ethan”. For some reason I calm down because of it and step back, getting a bit dizzy now again. I fall a bit back into him, feeling his heartbeat against my back, I stumble forward and stand there for a moment. I straighten out and turn to him, “Let’s go.”
Once we got back to the apartment, Valerya hugged me as a greeting, that was normal so I didn’t flinch. When she noticed my injuries and exposed machinery, She knitted her eyebrows and sighed, “Was it Jonah?”
Ivan looked down at his phone when it blinged. He patted my shoulder, “I gotta go, I’ll be back in a few days.”
I nodded, figuring it was a job. Valerya stopped him a moment and jogged over to him. Ivan smiled at her as she touched his face gently, “Be careful Ivan,” she whispered, “Ethan wouldn’t know what to do if something happened to you.”
Ivan chuckled softly, taking her delicate chin between his fingers, “Ethan would be fine without me, Val. Don’t worry. And what’s this? I always come back clean and healthy.”
Valerya pursed her lips and kissed his cheek one last time before he opened the door to leave.
I, who was sitting on the couch, called out, “До свидания, Иван.” (Goodbye, Ivan.)
Ivan smiled softly and laughed a bit to ease the atmosphere, “Увидимся позже, Этан.” (See you later, Ethan.)
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