by Skyler Grant
"Fuck no," Anna said, at the same time.
They gave each other wry looks.
"They get you under their thumb, you'll never get out from under it. It might seem a good deal on the surface, but they want to get rid of powers and eventually that means they'd want to get rid of you," Anna said.
"I'd selfishly add that even if they were willing to work with you for a time, the same does not hold true of your allies," Mechos said.
My analysis was coming up the same way. I just didn't trust the Righteous, from what I'd seen of them. I also found it strange they hadn't even asked after Thomas. Loyalty didn't seem to mean much to them.
"Then can we fight them?" I asked.
"You have a way to kill them. Can that be used to defeat their power-canceling field?" Anna asked.
I didn't know, but I could test it. By empowering my warrior mole with the ability to kill the Righteous and see if it worked on Thomas, but only give Thomas some serious burns. I didn't want Thomas dead for good, he was still useful, but by carefully managing the burn I should be able to determine the effectiveness of the flames.
"Possibly. I can find out," I said.
"Then perhaps. Even without their protection they have formidable equipment and gear. Working powers can do a lot to level that field though," Mechos said.
"I can give you teleportation abilities now. We have some time. Can you think of any abilities that might help us?" I asked.
"The Speedfreaks," Mechos said.
"They're crazy," Anna said.
"If we're going into a fight, reaction time and fire speed can be everything. With their modifications, we'd improve every bit of our offensive chances," Mechos said.
"If they don't kill us first," Anna said.
"If you two wish to be left alone to make the most hideous baby ever, it will have to be later. Who are these Speedfreaks?" I asked.
"They're fast, like it sounds. Really fast. It doesn't sound nearly as badass as it actually is," Anna said.
"Those that get in their way die very messy deaths, very quickly," Mechos said.
They sounded perfect.
"Can you lure them here?"
"You've got nothing they want," Anna said.
Mechos said slyly, "That I concur. But they do have a home base. I know the location and you've mastered a teleport ability."
"You want to do a snatch and grab," Anna said.
"Do you think they can outrun a teleport?"
Anna opened her mouth to answer and closed it after a moment. Finally, she said, "No, I don't think so. But that still gives us the problem of what to do with Runner once she is here."
Runner, I guessed, was the Speedfreaks' leader. I said, "I've kept working on what can be done with Thomas' goop."
"The last time you tried to spray him on someone, you fucked up big-time," Anna said.
Was she still grumbly about being tortured almost to death? Anna could be such a complainer.
"It was probably your incompetence that caused the plan to end in failure. I've figured out how to work around it. I've been doing a lot of testing at how to properly aerosolize the goop so it can be sucked into the lungs."
Anna grimaced. "You really need to stop killing that guy and experimenting on his body."
"I don't kill him. Hot Stuff kills him."
"Making him a sex toy is even worse."
"I believe he has actually fallen for her," I said.
Anna paused and grunted, "Huh. Really?"
I brought up video of the two sharing a rather tender kiss. Tender in some relative sense, given his skin was blistering from the contact.
Anna stared and shrugged. "Right. The crazy femme fatale in a cage can get a boyfriend and I'm still single."
"Can you blame men for finding the thought of being burned alive more tempting than sleeping with you?" I asked.
Mechos cleared his throat like he wanted to say something. He didn't.
Anna took a deep breath and forced a smile. "So you maybe slow down her powers a bit. Then what?"
Mechos offered, "Friction-heavy flooring. I should be able to rig up some panels that would do immense damage to someone trying to move across them quickly."
"And I can mix the neutralizing gas with a tranquilizer agent. We slow her down and keep her captive until she goes under," I said.
Anna said wryly, "It's going to be me grabbing her. How do you keep her from cutting me into little Anna chunks in the meantime?"
"I'm realizing that acknowledging your eternal solitude has made you even more dim-witted than usual. You can teleport. You simply need to grab her, bring her here, then abandon her as you've abandoned all hope of a happy or fulfilling life," I said.
"I want a backup plan. These little schemes of yours never go like you say," Anna said.
Well, that just seemed mean. I was a brilliant planner. Anna could be so inconsiderate sometimes.
37
I set up the trap for Runner in a new military training area. There was nothing else that the space was being used for, and if it suffered some damage it wouldn't be an issue.
At Anna's urging I did have a backup plan, of sorts. I'd sealed the entire area off with reinforced doors. Runner didn't have any sort of enhanced strength, so the doors should serve to hold her. If I needed to, I could evacuate the air from the area and suffocate her.
I'd rather take her alive, but with the threat of the Righteous looming the important thing was getting access to her Power core. At the same time, given the unexpected behavior of the last core as I'd taken it from a dead subject, I'd rather gain the abilities from a living one.
I upgraded Anna with the teleportation ability and she spent a few days getting the hang of it. We determined that she had a maximum range of about two kilometers in a single teleport, and could only manage forty kilometers in total each day. It was nowhere close to what Runner was capable of traveling, but it likely was on par with her lieutenants and outdistance them. It would do.
Anna suited herself up for combat, getting into her own set of Righteous battle armor. If any combat happened it would be at close quarters, so she passed up a rifle in favor of a pistol and knife.
The plan was that she'd spend one day teleporting close to Runner, then camp out to allow her power to rest. The distance was going to be around twenty kilometers. Theoretically, she could manage the return trip carrying Runner all in the same day. It would be cutting it close and if she didn't get Runner all the way back here, then the plan would almost certainly result in her death.
The two companions of the Commander had agreed to stay on and work—not that they had anyplace else to go. Along with the Mechanites they continued to work on clearing away the debris from the entrance.
Thirty hours after Anna departed she made her return.
I'd been keeping careful watch on the room where Mechos had our trap rigged, just waiting for the moment. Anna flickered back into existence, but something was wrong. Her body was moving at over one hundred kilometers per hour as it crashed into a wall, breaking several of her bones in the process, before she collapsed into a heap.
There was no sign of Runner, and other bad things were happening. My new bioreactor really was something like a beating heart and it was starting to beat out of control, building up energy. Power was flooding the base systems—too much.
Lights flickered all over the facility, a bolt of electricity leaping out of a wall panel to electrocute one of the Mechanites passing near.
I had too much charge.
The lowest level of the base was unoccupied and I discharged as much of it as I could there, filling the corridors with blasts.
The containment cells' power was fluctuating and I disengaged the barrier on Mechos. It wouldn't be his first time out and I cautiously trusted the man. More, at least, than I trusted any of my other test subjects, who would happily kill me if they had the chance.
I blacked out for a moment, a surge to my central core leaving me dazed for several minutes.
&nbs
p; My systems were degrading quickly. I had to stop these overloads from happening. My Power core was biological in essence, I had to treat it that way. I manufactured a combination of muscle relaxant and sedative, and delivered it in an injector to Abigail, who I already had teleporting to the Core Room.
I have to say this about my manufactured human guardian, she really was fearless. The room was filled with arcing bolts of power and she charged through them all to deliver the injection. A blast threw her back through the doorway, her body smoking. I had Bernard on hand as a spare and had him teleport her back to the Infirmary. My worker mole had just teleported to Anna and was ready to do the same with her.
"Is there a reason you've opened my door?" Mechos asked from a comm panel in the research center.
"Because you're the least dangerous prisoner I have. Anna is back, but Runner isn't here. My systems are racing out of control," I said.
I thought the tranquilizer was having an effect, the beating of the reactor seemed to be slowing.
"You got a dose of energy of the Speed Core. Anna is going to be filled with it. You'll need to slow down her heart rate before her body tears itself apart," Mechos said.
He wanted me to worry about her heart. Well, I was good at multitasking. I prepared the Infirmary with that information. When Anna reached it the autodoc would be ready.
"I've got a heart of my own. I've tried a tranquilizer, but my power levels are still unstable," I said.
"Use Thomas," Mechos said.
It was a good idea. Thomas was currently mixed with the tranquilizer gas in the trap, but that could serve a dual purpose. I altered the configuration so I could shunt the gas directly to the Core Room and began piping it in.
The relief was immediate, I could feel my rhythm starting to slow into something more regular.
My relief was short-lived. My worker mole was killed in a massive explosion outside the reactor, and another blast occurred in the hall outside my central processor.
Then the facility began to shake, tremors coursing through the earth like the mountain around us was being ripped apart.
We were under attack again.
38
Had the Righteous returned?
It was the most likely reason for the whole mountain to be shaking.
"What's going on?" Mechos called.
"Someone seems to be doing a better job at threatening this facility than you did," I said.
I was checking surveillance recordings to figure out what had just happened. There it was—the two that had accompanied the Commander. They must have had internalized bombs of some kind and detonated themselves outside my critical structures. It was fortunate that I'd reinforced the doors.
"Upgrade me," Mechos said.
"Improve your allure all you want. Anna still isn't going to sleep with you," I said.
"Runner is still out there and she'll be angry after this. Give me the ability to teleport and I'll go get her. Nobody else here can take a punch like I can," Mechos said.
That was true. Mechos had a Power core of his own that granted him powers a lot like mine. I couldn't be sure that if I upgraded him I'd ever see him again, but at this point he was my best chance.
I applied the upgrade.
"I've already used the tranquilizer gas," I said.
"You can't make more?"
I could recycle a bit. It wouldn't be the quantities it had been before.
"I can slow her down, but you might have to finish the job," I said.
"I'll figure it out," Mechos said
"Her location is going to be at the very edge of her range."
"I know it. I'll stop by the surface first and broadcast a visual for you," Mechos said, flickering out of existence.
A moment later he did as promised. I didn't get much video, just a few seconds, but it was enough to give me some idea what I was dealing with.
There were three airships in the sky, each in shades of black and red, and they were smaller than the Righteous vessel—which was nowhere in sight. The weaponry looked to be different as well, some sort of energy cannons instead of the kinetic bolts the Righteous fired.
I sent the images to a monitor in the Infirmary and hit Anna with enough stimulants to wake her.
"Stop lazing about and tell me if you recognize these ships," I said.
Anna turned her head and her eyes widened in alarm. "Scholars. Get me mobile."
"You have multiple broken bones."
"Fix me later. I need to be up and conscious," Anna said.
I had the autodoc begin applying splints to her limbs.
Mechos rematerialized. Like Anna when she returned, he was moving at high speed and the crunch against the wall was familiar. An instant later he flickered away into the hall outside.
But Mechos hadn't come alone. The woman that materialized too had dark hair and was incredibly thin and long-limbed.
My cameras only fixed on her for a moment before she became a blur. I didn't know what she intended, but I wasn't inclined to let her finish and find out. I triggered the release of the gas.
Runner hit the high-friction flooring and screamed as she tumbled and crashed against a wall. Her body was vibrating at an intensely high rate of speed and, somehow, she phased right through the floor to drop into the level below.
Runner had escaped my trap, but not unscathed. She was coughing violently and thick, black veins were pulsing along her flesh. The power-neutralizing gas had gotten into her system. Like Hot Stuff, her power was trying to resist it and would probably win.
Runner's body gave another of those blurring shimmers and she fell through two floors this time. Her body was starting to convulse. The gas was at least making her powers unpredictable.
I teleported my warrior mole to her and it sprang onto her body. This wasn't an attack, it was just establishing physical contact. Once the mole was touching her I teleported both into an open containment cell and triggered the field.
The moment they arrived the mole seemed to explode, it was as if were shaken so hard and so quickly that its body tore apart. Blood and fragments of bone sprayed in all directions, and Runner went all but invisible from the rate of her movement as she tested the walls of her cell.
When the others had called her dangerous I'd thought they must be exaggerating. They weren't. I had Mechos moved to the Infirmary, his limp body shifted onto a bed even as Anna was getting off hers.
Anna was pumped so full of pain killers she wasn't feeling a thing. That was fortunate. With the damage she'd suffered, I doubted she'd be able to move at all otherwise.
"What happened to him?" Anna asked.
"He finished the work you failed at. Runner is in captivity. Tell me about the people shooting at us," I said.
"Open me a channel. Frequency should be 460.25," Anna said.
Did she not remember which one of us was in charge?
Still, if it might stop people from shooting at me...
I opened the channel.
"This is Scholarium Adelites Annabella Besari. Cease your attack on this facility at once," Anna said.
The mountain stopped trembling.
I muted the connection and asked, "So, not quite the power-hungry madwoman and thief you made yourself out to be?"
"I'm every bit those things. I'm hoping they don't realize it yet," Anna said. She gestured for me to open the channel again.
A clipped, female voice was saying, "You're confirmed. We're detecting power levels over five from the mountain and received double distress beacons."
Anna motioned for me to mute the signal again.
"Fuck. Two beacons? Do you know what happened?" Anna asked.
"The two people the Commander left behind detonated themselves near my reactor and Core Room. Could that be what they are referring to?" I asked.
"Damn it. We should have scanned them. Put me back on," Anna said.
She called back, "I don't know their identities. I was attaining a Command core and they were enthralled."
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"You neutralized them?" the voice asked.
"Yes," Anna said.
"That will require review. I'll contact the Legasa on your behalf. Do you require assistance?"
"Negative. Thank you and good hunting," Anna said.
"Good hunting."
39
I killed the channel. Anna had some questions to answer.
"They won't be back immediately, but they will be back. We need to build you some shielding panels. We can make it look like I moved on," Anna said.
"They were picking up whatever readings they were getting through a mountain," I said.
"It's your Power cores. You're registering as a major prize," Anna said.
"You're registering as a major inconvenience. Who are they and who are you?"
"I'm Anna, like I said. I want to rule the world—like I said. Scholars collect and horde cores for the Lords and Ladies of the Rim. I got kind of sick of fetching and carrying for someone else."
That all made some sort of sense.
"And we aren't stealing from these Lords and Ladies directly for what reason?" I asked.
"Because you aren't ready for that fight yet. Oh, we're going to. We're going to burn their palaces to the ground and make them kneel to me, but we aren't ready yet," Anna said, with grim determination.
"I need more than that."
"I'm high as a kite and more than a little delirious. That's all you're getting for now. They don't come this way often. They'll probably hunt a few cores and be on their way," Anna said.
"What is their relationship to the Righteous?"
"They don't like each other. It isn't going to make much sense to you, but after the Cataclysm think of the Earth like the solar system. At the centre the rules of the old world still mostly hold. And there is the Rim, where they break down the most," Anna said.
"I can accept that. You said the Lords and Ladies are allied with the Rim?" I asked.
"Yeah. Where Power cores are at their strongest and nothing is quite like it ever has been. They live in extravagant luxury while surrounded by unspeakable horrors," Anna said.
