by Phil Wrede
CHAPTER 3
EARTH-7331, DETENTION THE PRESENT
The elevator door slid open, splitting apart diagonally in the middle, and alien robot ninjas poured out of it. Lady Cyber-Knife looked over her shoulder, back at where the warden had stood, but he'd run off already, escaping through a hatch hidden in the wall. With a moment's hindsight, it seemed obvious that he would have silent alarms placed all about the building, and that he would have his own personal army of reprogrammed robot warriors to do his bidding.
She'd studied these ARNs closely, back when she still had access to the Complex's files. They were bipedal, their heads nearly reaching the ceiling, and the brilliant green that usually glowed from their eyes was completely consumed by the red light flooding the space. Their bodies, black and angular, looked all the more fearsome standing tall in their crimson bath. Their hands ended in flat pads which Lady Cyber-Knife knew housed fearsome plasma emitters. The emitters could either shoot devastating blasts, or reconfigure themselves to project blades. She shook her head, unsure if she was more disappointed with the warden, or the ARNs themselves. They knew her capabilities, and she only rated a response of Class Ones?
Lady Cyber-Knife drew the warden's pistol off her legs, narrowing her eyes as she opened fire before the last of the Class Ones was able to exit the doorway. Several of the alien robot ninjas took her gunfire right in their faces - nearly the same metallic color as her own - falling reluctantly to the ground as the plasma melted through their heads and their systems totally failed. Other Class Ones rushed up to take their places without breaking their stride.
This second wave of alien robot ninjas reacted in unison, generating plasma blades out of their hands and making a loud popping sound as a wall of heat flooded into the air. They knocked Lady Cyber-Knife's plasma blasts away, into the wall. She ducked underneath several bolts that had been redirected exactly her way, tossed the drained gun away, and brought the Cyber-Sword up to guard near her face.
The Class Ones nearest Lady Cyber-Knife bent forward, clearing the field for the ones behind them, which let loose with big, gobby wads of plasma fire, each of which dwarfed the shots Lady Cyber-Knife had taken. She didn't flinch as the deathly hot weapons fire raced towards her. With short, fast chops of the Cyber-Sword, she deflected the plasma that came closest to her, without having to take a step or dodge in any direction. They shot another volley at her, and she dispensed with it in exactly the same way. As the alien robot ninjas lowered their arms, steam rising from their plasma blasters, she thought they looked frustrated, even angry.
The Class Ones in the front of the pack straightened up again, their blades still humming. The alarm sounded again as they marched toward her, two by two, perfectly spaced, with almost no room to spare between their shoulders and the walls. They swept their arms down, moving their blades like the fastest executioners the world had ever known. She slid back along the smooth metal floor, staying just ahead of the alien robot ninjas' attacks, even as their plasma blades left scoring marks on the wall. They pushed her back a few steps at a time, as regularly as the ticks of a clock.
As the two mechanical warriors nearest her fell into perfect sync in their movements, Lady Cyber-Knife knew it was time to act again. As the alien robot ninjas swung down again, she brought the sword up into theirs, sending sparks flying in all directions as they lost their balance and wobbled backward. She planted one mechanical arm on the floor and launched herself forward, kicking into both Class Ones and caving in their chests, ejecting wires and circuits from inside their suddenly fragile-seeming armored shells. The robots wobbled backward, their arms frozen at their sides, and began to look like they would topple into those behind them, like so many dominos. A quick blast of plasma from the next-closest Class Ones tore them apart before they had a chance to be much of a hindrance, and Lady Cyber-Knife had to throw her arm in front of her face to block the shards of superheated metal and plasma from ripping into her.
By the time the smoke from the explosion had begun to rise, Lady Cyber-Knife had climbed back onto her feet. She compressed the mechanical muscles in her legs without moving at all and launched herself into the air, slashing wildly back and forth with the sword until it looked like one great blur of metal in front of her, shimmering in the air and cutting limbs, torsos, and even heads off the alien robot ninjas that had attempted to oppose her. She dug through their line like a drill, felling them all in order, each and every one, until she reached the elevator door and looked back to see the steaming carcasses of twenty Class Ones.
Just looking back at the elevator seemed to trigger a new kind of visible alert. Red lights got darker, and so did the siren; it sounded more like the cry of some mechanical demon than it did any kind of warning. Cycling through all her various visual filters, Lady Cyber-Knife figured out why in an instant: another batch of things bigger and nastier than plain old Class Ones were heading her way, crawling all over the floor, walls, and ceiling to reach her.
Her enemies turned the corner, down where the hall took a sharp right turn, and when she zoomed her view in, she didn't see what she'd expected. Lady Cyber-Knife had predicted Class Twos, the spider-like metal monstrosities that could crush a soldier with each of their eight enormous legs, which wrapped around one another in pairs to form the wicked wheels called Class Threes. What she saw was more like an upgraded version of a Class One, with not just one, but two extra sets of limbs radiating out from their torso. As if that wasn't enough, their legs had also been replaced with a pair of arms, equipping them with eight individual plasma emitters. A more nimble, and fragile, variation on Class Twos, she thought. Lady Cyber-Knife elected to tag them, “Class 1X,” for now.
Two One-Exes had moved quickly down the wide hallway; they were nearly upon her, half a dozen of the new breed of alien robot ninja storming down the hall. As they approached Lady Cyber-Knife, they took up positions all along the ceiling and walls, wrapping themselves about the structure and giving each of the deadly violent creatures a clear field of fire with as many limbs as they could let free. She didn't need a thought to estimate how many plasma projectors that would leave focused in her direction, for whatever the number, it would be more than she would have liked. As the One-Exes aimed their weapons at her, it took them critical seconds to charge.
She threw the Cyber-Sword; it took one in the chest, and brought it down. She ran, but the other fired at her, burning her along her neck and knocking her off balance. Lady Cyber-Knife's stride twisted, and she fell. The One-Ex dropped on top of her, nearly pressing the searing heat of its plasma blasters against her metal skin. She beat its attack back with blinding speed, her mechanical limbs matching its every thrust. It brought its top arms down at her, and she knocked them away with a two-handed punch. It, in turn, lost its balance, and she rammed her hand into its head, crushing its central processor. It fell. She kicked it off, and stood.
