by Skyler Grant
A few of the cyborgs looked startled, but Mechos simply smiled, "We knew she'd try something like this. Leave it. Our targets are down below anyways."
They were, but ahead of them was a maze filled with riddles and traps.
Then Mechos slammed his fist into the floor, and a moment later did it again.
What was he doing? I didn't have to think long to figure it out. The floor on that level was vulnerable after I had rigged it to collapse beneath Hot Stuff, then rebuilt it again. He was going to try to bypass my network of traps.
I had some on the floors below, but not as many. The Hydroponics maze was meant to take down most of the cyborgs.
The floor wasn't reinforced in any way. Mechos seemed to have some way to detect the weaker sections and soon his fist had torn chunks of stone aside to open a passageway into the Storage level below.
Mechos led the way and the others followed.
I killed the lights. If they weren't going to play nice I didn't feel the need to do so either.
One of the cyborgs clapped his hands and a sort of liquid fire began to run through tubes protruding from his flesh.
"We're going through the floor again?" one of them asked Mechos.
"It isn't weakened here and Emma is arrogant enough to have thought she'd get most of us on the level above. Split up here. Reactor team take the northwest stair. Archive team stick with me and we'll make for the eastern stairway," Mechos said.
Good. Splitting up at last.
On the downside, Mechos knew more than I'd like. The majority of my traps were located above. Still, dealing with Hot Stuff had taught me well and the ones below were carefully prepared.
In particularly I had placed traps to safeguard my most vulnerable points, my reactor and Core Room. That being the destination of two of the teams, I was in good shape. The third was another matter.
Anna was in her quarters and I opened a line. "Anna. You seem thoroughly worthless and incompetent. Our guests have arrived."
"And they outsmarted you?" Anna asked.
They hadn't. Going through the floor was cheating, really.
"I'm dealing with it, but there is a group headed to the Testing Center and the levels below. I'd rather they didn't make it," I said.
"On it," Anna said.
"How long are we going to have?" Markham asked. He was leader of the reactor team.
"Roughly two minutes. Move quickly when you get the signal," Mechos said.
What were they talking about?
Another cyborg triggered a light ability, although this one seemed to be some cool blue glow radiating from their left hand.
Mechos led his group toward the stairway and within range of one of my sleeping gas traps. I triggered it, mist escaping.
One of the cyborgs was aware of it at once. "Hold your breaths," she called out, raising her arm. A gout of fire escaped from a nozzle.
The flame consumed the cloud and another cyborg stepped up to spray some sort of sealant over the gas emitter.
"We know you, Emma. We know you better than you know yourself," Mechos said. "My other team should be just about at the stairway. If this was your first shot. Let me show you mine."
Mechos tapped at his wrist and suddenly my world went dark.
I was in agony. I didn't know what he'd done to me, but it was like my every sensory feed had overloaded all at once.
Up until that moment I hadn't even known I could scream. I could, I did.
I tried to toggle off my sensory feeds, but I was sluggish. I didn't even have proper control of myself anymore. It felt like it lasted an eternity, but then suddenly it was over. I snapped back to myself.
Anna was in my Core Room. I'd sealed that door, but I hadn't welded it shut. When I was blacked out my defenses must have disengaged. A panel was open and she'd restarted my sensory matrix. Fair enough, I'd opened her up and dug around in Anna's innards for a time. She'd disobeyed my orders, rebooted my matrix, and possibly saved the day. Hardly worth a cookie, though.
I sealed the door to my Core Room. Anna didn't need to get out. Now I had to find the other teams.
I had shut the door to the reactor too, and the team was trying to get past it.
Mechos and three others were stalking down the hall leading to my Core Room. Another thirty seconds and they'd have been inside.
The third team was in the testing facility.
I had too many balls in the air and not enough ways to deal with them.
The cyborgs below me, I had an opportunity to take out. Hot Stuff was in a testing chamber nearby and blasting through walls had been a recent challenge. The sort of heat she'd been throwing out would incinerate a biological, if it made contact, and cyborgs were mostly biological. I rearranged the testing pathway to bring them together.
It would mean dropping the confinement field for a moment, but I could do this. I'd let her kill them and then seal her back in.
15
The four cyborgs in the Testing Center were making their way cautiously, unaware of the danger they were in. I waited with all the patience of a predator waiting for its meal and when they were in position I executed the plan.
Hot Stuff went to blast through another wall—as she had done so often, not realizing that this time the wall was at the very edge of her containment cell. For a second I dropped the field and the blast of fire melted stone, sending it flying in a molten spray into the corridor beyond.
Three of the cyborgs died instantly. The fourth screamed in torment and rolled on the floor.
I triggered the containment field back, but met resistance. Hot Stuff was glowing with energy as she poured her power into the corridor, nonstop billows of fire emerging from her hands as she pressed forward.
She was placing her powers into a direct contest with mine and she was winning. The field forced itself against Hot Stuff and tried to hold her. Droplets of sweat somehow appeared on her flesh for perhaps the first time in a very long time as she strode forward step by agonizing step. Then she was out and in the hall—free.
Well, that was disastrous. Completely and utterly disastrous. One big problem had just become two big problems.
There was still a group attempting to gain access to my reactor. There was any number of safeties regarding my reactor's operation, things I should never fool with. I disabled most of them.
I disengaged the shielding shutters, angled away the absorption rods and then spun everything up to full power. Unless they really had some tricks at their disposal, when they made it through that door they'd be opening a portal to a horrifying death. There was also the not-insignificant risk of this facility blowing up, one that increased by the minute. I'd take that chance.
Now to save myself.
I told Anna, "Your dark and murderous little heart might finally get its way, and perhaps you'll yet rule the world. I'm opening the door, have your gun ready, but don't fire yet."
Mechos was just reaching to open my door as I slid it aside.
The man arched a brow but didn't question as he stepped inside, his companions following. "Emma, how unexpectedly welcoming."
"Come any closer I'll blow your fucking heads off," Anna said.
"And Anna? Emma is actually working with someone? Intriguing, I would have thought her madness prevented it," Mechos said.
"We're friends. Sort of," Anna said.
"Anna only says that because she's never had one. She is very unlikable and occasionally urinates on the floor. I've got a deal for you, Mechos," I said.
The team above breached the reactor door. The energies tore them apart. They were expecting something, shields flickering around them, but they weren't prepared for that much energy. They fell to the floor, suffering spasms and vomiting blood. That would do. I re-engaged the safeties and started to wind the reactor back down to normal.
I told Mechos, "Your other two teams are dead and below us a specimen named "Hot Stuff" has escaped and is coming here, enraged, ready to burn everything in her path."
"Those were good people, Emma. You shouldn't have done that," Mechos said.
"I'm told you are hated up there. Down here I've got food, shelter, defenses. A tolerance for useless and foul-smelling humanity," I said.
"Not very good defenses," Mechos said.
"Two thirds of your people are dead."
"What do you want?" Mechos asked.
"You in a testing cell. A comfortable one. I suppose I don't have to make my research torturous. And your people working for me."
"You murdered my husband," said the woman who had sobbed.
"I'll be dissecting him soon. I can vivisect you, if you like, perhaps even enhance you enough that against all odds you'll one day find love again," I said.
Mechos reached out to rest a hand on the woman's arm. "Don't."
"What is wrong with her?" the woman said in a near-growl.
"A twisted programmer and then a Power core tossed in," Mechos said, and he turned his attention to Anna. "You provided her the core?"
"I did," Anna said.
"You trust her?"
"Emma says the most awful things ever, but she is reliable. If you really do have a history with her, you must know of her potential," Anna said.
"If you expect me to go against the pyro, it's not a fight I'm prepared for. I have a lot of shielding, but at full burn she'll melt me," Mechos said.
I said, "I can provide you with a biological modification to make you temperature-resistant. The surgery on this level isn't ideal for the purpose, but I can make it work."
Mechos considered for a moment and then nodded. "We'll see what sort of machine you are. If you remind me too much of the you of old, I will tear you apart and make you a part of me."
Funny, that's pretty much exactly what I had planned for him.
Once in the Testing Center I'd soon gain access to his abilities and duplicate the powers of his core. I thought I could stop Hot Stuff the same way I had before, burn her out. But why? The threat she posed was an opportunity to strike this deal with Mechos.
"Go with him," I said to Anna. "You and he might survive against her. None of the others stand a chance."
Hot Stuff didn't know her way around the base, still it wasn't long for her to find the steps. Stone formed molten pools in the shape of her bare feet as she climbed them.
16
The Infirmary was not nearly so effective as my full lab, but it let me apply the upgrade virus to Mechos. I wasn't able to extract the full details on him though, which was regrettable.
Then I called to Hot Stuff, "Thank you for killing those in the hall, it was very helpful. You're good for being more than just a lab rat."
She paused on the stairs. "How long have you held me captive here in that sick little game? A month? More? I'm going to find you and I'm going to end you."
"Come on, then. You weren't hot enough the first time and now I know your limits. Bring it," I said, giving her a set of blinking lights to follow.
It might seem odd that I was taunting her, but there was no time like the present to begin testing Mechos. If I wanted to see what he was capable of, it was best to get Hot Stuff enraged.
I checked in on him and Anna.
Mechos was handing Anna bullets one at the time and she was loading them into a revolver.
"I doubt those will work. Unlike some, she knows how to defend herself and melts metal on contact," I said.
"I can give them some semblance of any upgrade I have. I'm rendering them heat-resistant. They may actually be able to hurt her," Mechos said.
"I don't want her dead. Unlike some, she is useful," I said.
"Then I'll shoot her in the leg," Anna said.
"Those will have to do," Mechos said, handing her a last bullet.
Anna nodded and gripped the revolver.
I said, "Be prepared to flail about in panic and shoot yourself in the foot. She's at the top of the stairs."
Hot Stuff stepped around the corner.
Mechos took one look at her and averted his eyes.
"Not the time to be shy," Anna said, raising the revolving and snapping off a shot. It didn't hit her in the foot. With my cameras I tracked the instant that the bullet started to glow and come apart. These rounds really could hold together far better than a normal one.
Still, the impact that Hot Stuff wound up taking was something closer to what a pellet gun might deliver. Without a doubt, she'd be bruised and hurting the next day, but it hadn't even broken her flesh.
"That fucking hurt," Hot Stuff said, raising her hands and firing off a burst of flame towards Anna.
Anna stepped to the side just in time. The temperature near that blast would have been enough to do serious damage to the lungs of a normal human, but that wasn't Anna, not anymore.
Another shot from her gun. This one took Hot Stuff in the throat and caused the woman to gasp in a breath.
"You didn't say she'd be naked," Mechos said, sounding pained.
"What are you, twelve years old? Stop looking away and punch her or something," Anna said.
"Yeah. Have a good long look," Hot Stuff said, throwing another fireball. This one caught Anna. Her own clothes weren't doing too well after that, smoking and smoldering away.
Anna cried out and dropped the revolver. There were limits to how much heat she could handle. That was good to know.
Mechos finally got in the fight and stepped forward to swing his metal fist at Hot Stuff. It didn't make it. While his biological components might be proof against heat, the metal wasn't, his fist turning molten and sizzling away into gaseous drops hitting Hot Stuff's flesh.
"Cute," Hot Stuff said, as she punched him in the nose and sent him tumbling backward on his ass. "Stick around. I need some new Flames and you might be just perfect."
"I don't think so," Anna said.
Hot Stuff turned back to find Anna just a foot away holding out the revolver. Anna pulled the trigger even as Hot Stuff reached for the gun.
Metal melted away as her hand drew near it, but the shot was already off and the bullet, already just a tiny pellet, plowed into her eye. Pellet or not, a shot to the eye was a different matter to one in the throat.
Hot Stuff screamed and reached up to cover her eye. Anna wasted no time and was on her, wrapping an arm around her throat and choking her.
Hot Stuff was burning near her full intensity—more than Anna could handle. Were it not for the enhancements she would already be dead. Faint wafts of smoke appeared as her flesh began to burn.
Anna wasn't letting go, she kept her grip as Hot Stuff struggled against her trying to escape. It wasn't long before Hot Stuff went limp and passed out.
"You can let go now," I told Anna.
Anna staggered away, her limbs sluggish. No surprise, given the damage she had taken. Her clothes had burned away and so had a fair bit of her flesh.
"Hate fire," Anna said weakly.
I wanted to say something mean. I did. I just didn't seem to have it in me right now.
"Get yourself into the Infirmary. I'm going to take these two below and get them locked up," I said.
Anna stumbled off, barely conscious. Fortunately, the Infirmary was close by.
As soon as she got inside I had the autodoc take over and load her onto the table. I reviewed her diagnostics—they were better than last time. She'd only be out of it for a week. As horrible as her wounds were, they were mostly superficial. It was shock more than anything else affecting her.
One human handled, I dragged the others below.
I'd have to get particularly vindictive with Hot Stuff's training regimen. Mechos had been a complete disappointment. Still, perhaps he might do better as a test subject than he had as a hero.
17
W
ith Hot Stuff and Mechos secured in the lab, and Anna in surgery, I could focus my attention on the other followers of Mechos. Three had survived. This many were pushing my life-support abilities to the very max. I found that with a second Power core I was able to upgrade living quarters and Hydroponics to a second level.
Quarters Level Two
A large room containing eight bunks and storage lockers and an attached bath. Up to eight people can be supported with a basic level of comfort.
Requires 50 resources to construct and 5 additional power to maintain.
Do you wish to begin this project?
It was more space than was needed, but I seemed to be collecting humans. It would draw more from the Power core, which was substituting for my lack of resources. No other options were provided and I began the construction.
Hydroponics Level Two
An automated hydroponics facility capable of providing food for up to eight people as well as producing oxygen. Increased environmental controls allow the growing of uncommon plants once their genetics have been unlocked.
Requires 50 resources to construct and 5 additional power to maintain.
Do you wish to begin this project?
The ability to grow unique forms of plants could be of some worth. Tranquilizers or poisons might be of a lot of use in my traps. The next time Anna left the base, I would have to ask that she bring back some samples from the outside world.
I cycled through my facilities to find what else I could upgrade. I could improve the Infirmary, but for now there was no need. If more than one human got injured, I could simply choose the most important one to cure.
Another upgrade was of more interest.
Reactor Core
You currently have a basic fusion core modified from old world technology. For future upgrades two paths present themselves.
BioCore
You have unlocked the Fire Matrix and discovered the biological principles behind it. You can convert your power system fully over to this new technology. In the present, this will result in no increase in available power, but it will allow future genetic modification of your Power core. This upgrade will take two weeks to complete.
