The Protagonist Syst 505 Terminated

It was not a surprise that Sarah nad our son John after her father. It was also not a surprise that she wanted

to hire a nanny to help her out. I tried to do the job myself of course, only for her to vehently deny

any access to her and her room while she was recovering from the pregnancy.

Apparently, she had held her previous body image in high regard and she hated that it didn't automatically snap right back to the way it was. It didn't matter that I didn't care what she looked like, or if she had stretch marks, or if she had so much cellulite on her butt and thighs that it looked like the moon's cratered surface. Those last few words were hers, not mine.

The problem was we lived in LA, in an exclusive gated community, and it was practically a mansion. Why was it a problem? Because the only applicants that bothered showing up were up-and-coming young starlets that were very eager to get the job at a rich guy's place. As soon as they learned I wasn't married, I had more offers for 'after job' fun than any sane man could handle.

Spoiled for choice was not sothing I had needed, or wanted. When I asked Sarah about it, through her bedroom door, she said she didn't care if I hired the Queen of England to help her, as long as she had the help imdiately.

I sighed at her not relenting at all and went through the applicants again. It really did seem like I was a movie producer and had the pick of the litter of the starlets that could beco famous later. I had to go through the list and read their resus six tis before I finally made a decision.

It was split between competency and age, since I knew an older young woman wouldn't really want to stick around for years as she grew up from a teen and into a woman. My first choice was Brooke Shields. She had just turned 18 and was disillusioned with the acting world. Most producers only wanted her for roles where she would have to bare her modest breasts, like Blue Lagoon.

My second choice was a young model nad Jennifer Connelly. She was 14 and would be the perfect age to help take care of the baby and would stay around for the next four years and could guide John through toddlerhood.

Out of all the applicants, they were the only two that had not imdiately offered to give

a blowjob to hire them on the spot. That alone was enough to endear

to them. Plus, they both wanted a break from their lives and taking a year or two off would give them enough breathing room to reassess their careers. That they would still be paid a similar wage to modelling and acting was a huge bonus for both of them.

I called and both accepted their new roles, while also knowing about each other. Brooke was in charge of helping Sarah and would work almost exclusively with her, while Jennifer was in charge of helping with the baby and working mostly with . It was a choice that Sarah was delighted with and she agreed wholeheartedly with my decision. Her having twice the help around was even better!

I did not point out that I was still there and would be helping, too. He was my son, after all. Sarah just didn't seem to realize I could do anything even remotely to help along those lines and it was almost funny. I couldn't tell her I had hundreds of years of experience raising children, either. She'd probably laugh in my face if I tried.

To my complete surprise, both Brooke and Jennifer had assud their new jobs were live-in, probably because of the ridiculous paycheck they would be receiving. They had moved in the day after I hired them and Brooke chose the room beside Sarah to be close to her. Jennifer chose the room beside the nursery, which was across the hall from Sarah's room and beside mine.

Since I didn't really care where they stayed, their choices didn't really bother . What did bother

was that I quickly found out that Sarah was not the mothering type. She saw breastfeeding as a chore, mostly because her breasts ached all the ti. John was a hungry little guy and was eager to eat whenever his little eyes saw his mother's breasts pop free.

It didn't take long before Sarah and Brooke beca fast friends. They shared the distaste for the Hollywood lifestyle while also loving the partying atmosphere of the people living there. They also quickly gained a passion for exercising and Sarah loved learning about Brooke's experiences with keeping in shape and her knowledge on how to stay slim and strong without becoming too muscular or stocky. Even Ginger was over every second day to join them during their workouts.

Jennifer on the other hand, absolutely adored Baby John and spoiled him. She did everything possible that she could to take care of him and pretty much shoved

out of the way if I hampered her efforts in any way. I tried my best to not be offended by that, too. I an, I didn't mind strong and independent won getting what they wanted. Making

suffer for it was not what I hired them for.

I did try to talk to Sarah about it, only for her to complain about

not being happy about her getting everything she ever wanted. She was getting into better shape than she was before being pregnant, the baby was happy and well taken care of, and all I was doing was bitching at her about not having anything to do.

So, I gave up trying to be a good house husband and went back to work full ti. None of them noticed. Only Dragon, my boss, and my boss' boss noticed I was no longer working half-days and all three of them appreciated it. Dragon because it ant more funding for The Plan, my boss because he had hit a roadblock with the T-1 tank design, and Stephanie because she liked how much money I brought in for the company.

*

It was barely six months later when we finally had the capital to start the European Plan, when Dragon managed to find and arranged for Cyberdyne Systems Corporation to hire a very specific biology and genetics doctor that had just graduated from college. That normally wouldn't have triggered anything, except I recognized her na. It was a na that told

exactly what tiline we were in and I sighed and finding out so soon.

Dr. Serena Kogan was the main driving force of the newly created Cyberdyne Cybernetics Division, which combined biological and technological sciences. In the film Terminator: Salvation, she was dying from cancer and was desperate for test subjects to experint on while she tried to save her own life.

The world slowed down and ca to a stop as everything greyed out and I was back in the white space in between.

“Goddammit.” I said out loud instead of thinking it like I usually did. “It's because I'm not happy with my current life, isn't it?”

Fate's little blue box popped up. Yes, it is. You have too much Karma to stick around in a tiline for decades as you wait for Dragon to create a body that you are both happy with.

I sighed and rubbed my face. “Is that why I wasn't allowed to heal Sarah's future Leukemia? Neither Panacea's power nor Overhaul's could fix her predisposition to develop it.”

So things have to happen in order to keep things in line. Fate responded. Despite your ingenious plan to save most of the Earth's population, which actually worked by the way, a bunch of the remote teleporter emitters failed for various reasons.

I blinked my eyes at that. “Wait a minute... it worked and it still resulted in everyone thinking it was the bombs that killed everyone?”

Oh, the bombs were dropped and so people were actually killed. Only the bombs weren't nuclear. They were pure kinetic energy and the damage done was identical to a nuke with only the background radiation being detected as radioactive. It's why almost no one suffered from nuclear fallout sickness in that tiline.

“Son of a bitch.” I said and then laughed. “Dragon, you sneaky...” I stopped talking and groaned when I realized sothing. “I never got the chance to see if I could store her after she gained a body.”

Fate's small blue box showed the word 'giggle'. You might want to check out the top level of the tourist shop before you head to the next world.

“No way.” I said and didn't bother waiting and popped right over. I floated up the stairs to the level I had never had access to before and saw several shocking things. There were tanks, all kinds of different ground vehicles, airplanes from all over, and various other flying contraptions that could fit into any situation or world.

At the far back of the massive warehouse-like room was what Fate ntioned I should check out. I floated over and there was a copy of each of the Terminators created in the movies, the comics, the novels, and even fan fiction versions. There were also the hoverships, the gleaming chro tanks, and the monstrosity that was the giant lumbering robot from Terminator: Salvation.

The highlight of the entire collection were the human analog Terminators. Among them were Caron from the television series, the T-X from the third Terminator movie, and the one I had hoped beyond hope would be created, Theresa Richter.

One Million Karma Points to buy? It was a steal for double that price. I bought her and I felt her slot into my inventory as if she belonged there. I sighed with relief and flew back down to the first floor and bought a t-shirt that said, I've been Terminated, and it had blood splatter and two bullet holes over the heart.

I stored it to make several copies and then equipped it. I faded back to the white space and felt my invisible reading buddy appear beside . It's nice to see you again. I joked and I heard a soft laugh and felt a kiss on my cheek. “I'll take those mories now, Fate.”

It wasn't a shock to see The Plan be completed. What was a shock was Jennifer had stayed as part of the family and didn't hook up with John. He had t his future wife Kate at school and married her instead. Their school friends would eventually beco future resistance leaders alongside him, too.

When I checked the mories a little deeper to discover how John and the rest hadn't been sent to the Zion built under LA, I found out that Sarah had sabotaged the computer that ran the transporters in the mansion.

She didn't know they were transporters, just that the computer was keeping track of her, John, their friends, their families, and everyone they knew. She hated that and fixed it, to keep their private lives private, which dood them all to try and survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Her mother had died because of that and she hated

for dying in the attack.

I hadn't died. I had stepped into our living quarters and waited for them to appear only for no one to show up. Since the place was sealed up to let the world recover, and to hide that the Zion cities existed in the first place, there was nothing I could do but let things play out.

I lived a quiet and sedentary life, since Dragon was topside and running things to ensure the tiline stayed intact and there wasn't a paradox or spawned endless other tilines. She only ensured that Kyle was sent back when it was ti and that a fairly advanced but also limited Terminator was sent back as well.

Unfortunately, she had miscalculated the settings for sending a fully living organism and that Kyle Reese died in transition, which ensured I had a body to inhabit when I arrived. That closed the tiline perfectly and there were no other deviations.

“I see what you an about so things needing to happen.” I said and Fate's little blue box showed a sad face. “So, where am I going this ti?”

Why don't you go to a neutral world and take a vacation? Fate answered. There are many of them to choose from and many things to enjoy while there.

“That's a good idea. I have been working hard for a while.” I agreed. “I just have to pick sothing that won't get

in trouble if I show up out of nowhere.”

Fate's little blue box showed the word 'giggle' again. You're paying the points for soone to appear at that mont in ti to take them over. Then again, depending on your choice of insertion, you could beco anyone that you want to be. You're making them into The Protagonist, after all.

I nodded and started going through the list of hundreds of worlds to see where I could have the most relaxing ti. It didn't necessarily have to be fun, it just had to be a place where I could unwind and not worry about things.

I seriously thought about choosing Westworld, since it was a vacation world inside a vacation world. The sentient uprising of androids wasn't really a concern for , since all I had to do was leave them alone and not treat them like garbage or like they were disposable and easily replaced.

It wasn't until I considered how boring it would be to sit on the porch of an old west farmhouse doing nothing was going to be, that I chose to discard that idea. If I wanted to do nothing, I'd stay here in between worlds and stay with my reading buddy. I felt a feeling of approval from her and decided I didn't have to decide right away. I had all the ti in existence to make a choice, didn't I?

*

Subaru Natsuke had just finished buying so noodles to eat for a late night snack. He felt tired after gaming all day and left the store in a kind of daze. He paused when he reached the street, blinked his eyes a few tis, and swore he just saw a flash of a big purple hand trying to grab him. He mumbled about seeing things and blinked his eyes again, then again, then a bright light covered him.

He opened his eyes and he was no longer on the nearly deserted Japanese street he had stood on. In front of him was a street full of old ti market stalls and people dressed up in Halloween costus. There was a lizard guy wearing a robe, a wolf walking on his hind legs wearing pants and a tunic, and he was sure that soone over by the building across the street was wearing a tiger mask.

Subaru looked around and saw tall dieval buildings around him and was stunned at the sight. Where the hell was he? He didn't think he was that tired to have a full blown hallucination in the middle of his trip to the store. It only took him a mont to realize it was all real and he wasn't dreaming. The stink of the horse and cart passing him by had been the final straw cluing him in.

“I've been summoned across the universe to another world!” Subaru yelled up to the heavens.

Obviously, not one person around him thought that was odd or said anything about it. They all knew there were so crazy people in the city and none of them wanted anything to do with the nut.

Subaru started walking down a random street, one where all the carts seed to be going. “Well, by te looks of things, this is so type of fantasy world with a dieval style culture. A realm where demi-humans are common and there's always a war or an adventure to go on. In this magical world, I must have...”

“AIEEE!” A young woman's voice cried out and stopped his musing.

Subaru turned and saw a child huddled up on the road as a cart being pulled by a huge lizard bore down on them. “This is it! It's really happening!” He exclaid and knelt on one knee. “This is where I generate magic to save the day!” He said and thrust out his hand. “HIAAAHHHH!”

Nothing happened.

A knight wearing armor rushed across the road, dove and scooped up the child, and rolled them both to safety as the lizard and cart whooshed by. The crowd cheered and Subaru sighed and walked on. That wasn't his mont to discover magic, apparently. He noticed the writing was weird and he couldn't read anything on the market stalls. He even checked if his money was any good with the man and the stall owner said his money was no good and called him a broke freeloader and told him to get lost.

Subaru decided so information gathering was in order and ducked into the next place he saw with an open door. Screams rang out and a fox woman slapped his face with her paw. He was glad her claws hadn't been out, because he would have had his face torn off.

It took him several tries before he found an actual tavern and it was full of demi-humans of all kinds. He was imdiately shouted at because it was for demi-humans only and he had to leave. He was shoved hard and fell out through the door, stumbled, and fell over a railing and into the canal below.

Soti later, he found an out of the way place to take off his outer clothes to let them air dry.

“This isn't fair and it doesn't make sense! This is a different world summons, right? Where's my main character set up and status bar?” Subaru asked and then three thugs ca down the alleyway.

Being a bit of an idiot, and still on his summoned to another world high, he started to beat the three of them up and was winning until one of them pulled two knives. The fight turned around and now he was being beat into pulp. At least they didn't stab him like he thought they would.

An orange haired girl ran down the alleyway and interrupted the beatdown. Subaru tried to say he was glad she finally showed up, only for her to ignore him and ran by. Subaru sighed as the beating continued and lost hope he was going to survive the encounter.

Suddenly, another girl showed up, only she had long bluish grey hair and asked about the thief. The thugs denied knowing anything and she ran by, the she stopped and said she couldn't let them continue and scared them off.

She introduced herself as Satella to try and scare Subaru off. Instead, he thanked her profusely and she was too stunned to leave, then he fell unconscious and she couldn't in good conscience leave him there alone. She healed his wounds and stayed with him until he woke up. Being the chivalrous young man that he was, he imdiately volunteered to help her look for the thief that stole her emblem.

The searched for a while and helped several other people with their problems, then continued their search until it brought them to the slums of the city. It was dark out by then and they finally tracked the thief to a kind of pawn shop. All the lights were off and Subaru used his cell phone's light function to go inside, leaving Satella outside.

He stumbled onto the bodies of Felt and the old man, then was almost imdiately attacked from behind and received a grievous wound in the stomach. Before he fell, Satella ca inside the shop to see if he was alright. She was felled with a similar blow and Subaru swore on his life that he would sohow save her...

*

I ca to in the body of Subaru after his first death. I stood in front of the fruit stand where the man had called him a broke deadbeat and let the mories flow into the back of my mind.

“Hey, kid. You okay? You look like you've seen a ghost or sothing.” The man comnted.

I stared at him for a mont, then I smiled. “Don't worry about it, old man. I got this.”

“Old man!” The man shouted.

I laughed and walked away down the street and disabled most of my abilities, since I wouldn't need them. I rembered the back alley where the thugs were and I also rembered what had happened to

there. Thanks to what Fate had said before about certain things needing to happen a certain way, I had the perfect opportunity to fix the situation.

First thing's first, eting those thugs and waiting for Felt, which was the na of the orange haired girl that had stolen Satella's emblem. Satella wasn't her real na, though. It was Emilia and she was a half-elven princess of the kingdom and was in line for the throne. She needed the emblem, which was actually an insignia that proved she was eligible for the selection of the next ruler of Lugnica.

I stalled the thugs just long enough for Felt to appear and I put them all to sleep with an area effect sleep spell. I took the emblem from the thief, transfigured a cheap copy that wouldn't work, and put it back in her pocket. I hid and woke her up and she went on her way.

I easily disposed of the three thugs after checking them with telepathy. They were sick degenerates and deserved to be put down for all the cris they had done. I vanished the bodies and waited for Emilia to show up. It didn't take long for her to arrive and she looked surprised to see

calmly standing there in her path.

“What do you want?” Emilia asked and seed guarded.

“I'm sorry, I must look intimidating or daunting standing in the way like this.” I said and walked over to lean against the wall more casually. “How's that?”

Emilia looked surprised at the move. “What... wait, why were you waiting here like that?”

I smiled and pulled the actual emblem from my pocket to hold up. “I caught a happy thief and relieved them of their ill gotten gains.”

Emilia gasped at the sight of the emblem. It took her a few seconds to compose herself as her spirit beast, a teasing cat, ford on her shoulder. “How much do you want to return my property?”

I laughed and flicked it into the air, like a coin, and caught it. Both her eyes and her spirit cat's eyes followed its path. Instead of doing that again, I flicked it towards her. The spirit beast flew out, quick as a flash, and caught it. He brought it back to her and Emilia hugged both of them to her chest.

“Th-thank you.” Emilia said, her voice full of gratitude.

“You're welco, Princess.” I said and she startled at

calling her that. “Good luck.”

Her eyes were wide when I stepped from there to appear near the pawn shop. I watched Felt enter it and talk to the old man that ran the place. I stepped inside a few minutes before Elsa Granhiert appeared. She entered as I bought a drink from the old man and she looked slightly upset that Felt tried to hold out for more coins than the agreed upon price.

That told

why Felt and the old man had been killed the first ti and why Subaru died, because he had found the killer just after she had done her terrible work. Instead of allowing that to happen a second ti, I pulled out a sword and attacked Elsa Granhiert, the woman known as The Bowel Hunter, and a look of delight ca over her face.

I knew she wanted a great fight, with lots of blood shed on both sides, and she would die happy if she could only have a fight worthy of her skills. It didn't even matter to her if she died, as long as her hunger was sated.

So, I delivered. For the next ten minutes, we both viciously attacked one another, cutting the other up all over, and making it that much harder to fight. She was almost overco with joy as the last strokes of our blades cut each other open across the belly.

We both dropped our weapons and clung to each other as we fell to our knees. Our blood and guts mixed together into a huge pile on the floor around us in a pool of our blood.

“This... was... exquisite.” Elsa whispered with her last breath and kissed

deeply.

We toppled over onto the floor, arms wrapped around each other, embraced for eternity in death. Her euphoric face was the last thing I saw as everything went black.