"Be careful, Bland." Kelly said as he opened the passenger side door of the car.

"You know I will. I mean what could go wrong?" He said, climbing out, leaving the leather seats of the car behind that he had thoroughly enjoyed sitting in.

"Bland, there's something I need to tell you."

"Can I take a guess?"

"Why not?"

"You love me, but you've been hiding your feelings?"

"No. Something a lot more dark." She checked her watch. "Uggh."

"What?"

"You've got a half an hour before the bar closes. You should go."

"Ah. Okay."

"You seem pretty indifferent. I mean, I know that I should learn to expect that though."

"Bye Kelly. I'll be careful."

He climbed out; shutting the door behind him. Kelly watched him leave toward the bar. It bore a neon sign saying 'Myriad'. It was almost blinding to look at its blue luminance, to the degree that the whole parking lot was bathed in a pulsing blue light.

What am I doing? She thought as he closed the glass door behind him.

Much like the outside, the inside was covered in a blue light, pounding music filled the air and he made his way to the bar.

He took a seat, and the bartender turned toward him.

"What can I get ya?" he said in a gruff voice as he cleaned a glass.

"Information."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm looking for a girl, calls herself 'Needle'."

"She's sittin' right next to you." He said, pointing to James' right.

He turned to his right. She smoked a cigarette between sips of her margarita. Her hair was tied back, unlike Kelly's which was mostly hanging down most of the time.

"Can I buy you a drink?"

"Already got one."

"May I ask what you're drinking?" he inquired, already knowing the answer.

"Margarita." She replied simply.

"Bartender!" James called, "I'd like what she's having."

"Got it. One Margarita on the rocks. Also, my name's Jim." He said, walking away to prepare the drink.

"So, may I ask the name of the man that offered to buy me a drink?"

"Bland."

"Huh?"

"James Bland."

At this point the bartender had brought the drink and set it down.

"Thanks Jim."

"You're welcome." He said walking away once more.

"You can't be James Bland." She said in disbelief.

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"Well why not?" he asked back.

"Tell me, is your name really James Bland?"

"What reason would I have to lie, Needle?"

"Because-"

"Because you're supposed to be dead." James felt cold metal on the back of his head, a gun.

"Give me one reason I should come quietly." Bland said, confidently.

"A guy has a gun leveled to the back of your head." Needle said, taking another sip of her drink.

"Nice trick barricading the basement door," the guy said that was holding the gun, "but I managed to get out just fine."

"Congratulations." Bland said flatly.

"So tell me, Bland. How did you get out? I mean, Isaac here sliced you up pretty good. You shouldn't be breathing."

Isaac, I remember that name. Why? And from where?

"A girl got me out."

"I want a name."

"Too bad."

"Isaac here quietly took all of the patrons hostage while we were having our little chat." Needle said. "Every time you fail to give us the information we want, we kill one. Comprende?"

"Fine. Her name's Kelly." He said, reluctantly.

"Is her last name Drake by any chance?" Needle said, getting up in his face.

"What is it to you if it was?" Bland retorted.

"It would mean she failed in her mission to put you down like the dog you are."

"You lying whore! What mission?" Bland said, a mix of emotions flowing through him. Betrayal, anger, the adrenaline flowed through him like a river.

"The mission I personally gave her the contract for." She said, matter-of-factly, leaning against the bar.

"Then why did you send Isaac to kill me? You make a poorly fabricated lie, you can't even prove-"

"Because Ms. Drake was late on her return, so I sent in Isaac here to do the job. If you'd like a written document I'd be happy to supply one."

"But now I get to finish the job, right before I finish all of the hostages off." Isaac said behind him.

"Best wishes from you-know-what skull!" Needle said, she then climbed out of her stool and began to walk away. A gun cocked behind James.

A gunshot sounded, James fell out of his chair. Another sounded. It seemed to last for eternity. He didn't feel pain. He felt tired. He just wanted to sleep...

"Get up, James!" He snapped out of it, looking around frantically. It was Kelly standing next to him, a gun at her hip.

He pushed himself up, first into a seated position and finally he stood up.

"We need to get out of here. I'll talk to you later." Bland said, remembering what had occurred.

"Both Madskull members are incapacitated," She said, "but we have to get out before they send more!"

"You won't hear me arguing." Bland said, starting to run toward the door.

"Wait, you'll need to defend yourself." She said, handing him a revolver.

"I'll assume it's loaded." Bland said, seeing that Kelly was starting to run toward the exit.

She didn't respond, but they trekked through the huge bar toward the door.

They drove home in silence, tacitly daring the other to start the argument. Bland didn't know what to feel; for the first time in several years he had broken out of his emotional cage of blandness. It gave him a weird feeling, almost like he was coming back to really being himself. Kelly had helped him, trained him for the past few days to try and snap out of it. For a time he was thankful, but tonight changed everything.

They were in the lobby of the abandoned base, giving each other occasional glances in silence. They walked to the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor. The elevator slowly came to life and brought them to their destination. They walked down a series of hallways to a large living room, where she and he had strategic meetings and Kelly trained him to be more emotional.

They sat in two chairs across from each other. Kelly spoke first.

"What did Needle tell you?"

"Plenty." Bland replied, projecting a bit of anger in to his voice.

"Listen, whatever she told you I can explain."

"Okay. Explain about the part where you're an assassin. Explain about how you betrayed me."

Kelly sighed.

"I was paid to kill you specifically by Madskull. The experiment thing with your blandness? A lie. The only truth is that Madskull is creating super-soldiers through experimentation. You were forced in to the program for about a year. I wasn't. I was however the scientist who came up with the program. It was to enhance strength and speed, even granting slight precognitive abilities. However you escaped from Madskull and I was hired to kill you."

"Why'd you spare my life? You should be thankful you don't have a bullet in your head."

"Because I fell in love with you. Sure there was room for improvement but you were a guy who wanted success. You had good financial skills, you were smart, you didn't have anything negative about you that really stood out. You were –in a sense- bland."

"You loved me?"

"Yes Mr. Bland, I did."

"This is sort of like a book I thought about writing once, where a hit man falls in love with his target."

"Kelly?"

"Yes?"

"Who else is like me? Who else has been experimented on like me?"

"Only one other guy survived. A guy named Isaac Luther."

"Isaac Luther was a friend of my father's." Bland said, finally connecting the dots.

"I'm sorry." Kelly said.

"Oh, sure you're sorry. Because now, everyone you killed gets to live! And everyone gets candy too!" He said, anger and sarcasm leaking in to his voice.

"I didn't say that apologizing would fix anything!" she argued back.

"This might." James said, pulling a gun from his jacket. "This might fix everything."