Metal Deep 2: Something Beautiful Read Online Free PDF Page A

think we’re past that now thanks to Miss Valera.”
     
    Using his ancient mojo, he magically summoned a floating mirror to appear from a vapor cloud that streamed from his arm as it waved in front of me. I stood speechless, too in shock to care about a magical mirror, as I looked at my entire reflection. My face was scarred with the implanted pieces of oil and grime covered black metal. The most significant damage was around my eyes. Each eye burned a hot artificial blue atop silver metal spheres. I checked as much of my body as I could. My arms, hands, and eyes were completely gone to the new metal skin. Over the rest of me there were small spots of the dirty metal dotted across the landscape of ravaged flesh. The other concentrated points were across my chest, down my spine, and in certain parts of my legs, mostly along the calves and thighs. I shuddered at the thought of what would have been left had I been stuck with them longer.
     
    Drake continued as I searched myself “What my client learns from you is going to turn the tide in this pathetic balance we’re forced to live amidst Pure Bloods, Amalgams, and Slates. You, my friend, are the world’s first Cyborg. You are the key to humanity’s end. They’ve been allowed to live in their thriving ignorance for too long. You will bring in a new age for dominion over those Slate dogs.”
     

 
     
     
     

     
     
     
    BETRAYALS
     
     
     
    Maeve’s sidelong glances, her questions about what I saw concerning my appearance, her constant compulsion to keep me out of sight, and the newlywed couple’s reaction toward me all made sense. I had been turned into a monster after all. Though I had just gotten the abridged version of what I was, I couldn’t stand to hear any more about my condition. My appetite had gone, and I kicked the dropped bag of food away.
     
    I was a programmable Amalgam, a cyborg… a machine. None of Dad’s stories prepared me for this. I was something new. Sure, there had been tales about Artificial Intelligence, people who were entirely machine, but I had never heard of anyone being both man and machine. My gut withered into crinkled parchment. I felt my soul turn to dust and fall through the spreading cracks of my breaking heart. I was an unlovable thing who would have no place even among freaks. I was a man no more.
     
    My eyes narrowed. With the falsified information that was being fed into a brain I could only assume was part machine now as well, I could feel the blue irises burn brighter as my hatred intensified. “And so you want me to end the world?” I asked.
     
    “Not for us.” Drake said smugly. “For those weak humans. Yes. Though you are alone now, one day you will be one of many. The species will be mechanized and then used to implement Pure Blood DNA in a new way that does not see the generational degradation that affects most Amalgams today. Warlocks will have full magical range once more. Vampires will be able to go out into the sun. Magic can be done more often without the power of the moon to give boosts to the effects. There are so many possibilities that your ignorance keeps hidden from you. What you have to realize, is that you are changing the world by simply being. The monsters we’ll be able to unleash because of what we learn from your biology… You should be honored.”
     
    It made sense to me. From what I understood, only a handful of humans had the genetic capacity to become a functioning Amalgam, and even then, it was always hit or miss on which dominate trait of a species would manifest itself. If they had discovered a way to remove that uncertainty and unleash a full DNA barrage onto any host they wanted, it would be a free for all by the Puries to replenish their ranks. No telling what would happen then; more than likely, ancient feuds would resume over land and resources, and as a result the world would burn.  However, not before every last man, woman, and child had been turned into monsters like me,