Bremusa pulled her head away from him and shook her body, arching her back. She was tied down in both hands and feet, and it was quite a secure measure.
“Hm,” The doctor said and let his eyes glide over her arching naked body, taking in the curves, the muscle and the scars. He spoke to his assistant, “Lets try 10cc of-”
Bremusa fell back on her medical bed and hissed at the man, “I’m gonna kill you.”
He let out a small chuckle. “Right.” He walked around to the end of her medical bed and stood there, watching her. The restraints on her feet were about thirty centimetres apart, forcing her legs slightly open. From that angle, she was totally exposed to the doctor, her open legs giving him a good, well-lit view of her genitals.
She could have spun her body, squirmed like a victim and twist her waist to cover her nakedness, but she didn’t. She was a huntress, not the prey.
He was silent, but the man’s message was clear: I can do whatever I want to you.
“I hope you got a good look, cause that’s the last pussy you’ll ever see,” she said calmly.
The doctor smiled from the side of his mouth. “I don’t see what Theseis sees in you really. Too much trouble to give the aegis to someone so…” He eyed her, this time examining her not as a woman, but as a collection of human organs and tissue like doctors do. “Feral.”
Bremusa stared at him but said nothing.
The doctor went back to his station and sat on a chair. “Begin the subdural injection of the bonding agent,” he said with authority and his assistant leapt to comply. “We might as well have her prepped until Zeus gives us the go-ahead.”
The junior doctor came to her side with a huge syringe that had a black liquid in it. The needle was thin and short. He pushed his whole weight onto her left wrist and stuck the needle in her skin.
It hurt, but only as much as a paper cut.
At first, that was.
She shuddered but remained still. She wanted him to relax, drop his guard.
The young man looked into her eyes for a second, to see if she was feeling pain.
Her eyes watered as the black stuff was spreading under her skin. A holo appeared above her in the same stance, and it showed glowing tendrils expanding from the injection point on her wrist into a mesh around her hand, hurting as it tore under the skin as it went, separating every nerve in its path.
The senior doctor who had turned his back and was sitting on the desk, apparently was working the black stuff, telling it what to do, computer commands as instructions for the black goo. He nodded and the young doctor injected more of the stuff in a controlled push.
The pain was all over her wrist, tying her fist in a knot and climbing up to her shoulder. She dared to look, and a tear fell as she turned. The black tendrils were forming a pattern under her skin, those diamond shaped tattoos like her old master had, taking an organic form around her body.
She was sweating now, forcing herself to remain still and calm, but her eyes were deadly and her teeth clenched.
The tendrils had followed the path that was laid out in the hologram above her up to her shoulder, a few lines spreading out like roots, moving around as if searching for more black goo to connect with.
The pain was unbearable in her chest. She was sweating unbearably, dripping on the plastic surface, feeling her butt and her shoulder blades stick against it.
The young doctor stood up and replaced the syringe with a full one. He came around the other side, to her right arm and hesitated, checking her medical readouts that were beeping loudly. “Doctor, she might have a heart attack.”
“Go on,” he said simply, not even turning his back.
“But…”
“Doesn’t matter, we can harvest the nanites back if the loss is early in the process. I said, go on,” the doctor ordered, and then resumed writing commands on his desk.
The young man sat on her right wrist, pushing her hand down and aligned the syringe. He gripped harder at her wrist, his hand slipping from her sweat.
Bremusa smiled.
As he pushed his weight on her wrist again, she twisted with a firm motion and grabbed his own wrist.
A yelp escaped his throat before she forced the young man to fall hard sideways onto the medical bed’s side, hitting his head. He was knocked out for a few seconds.
“Ignore the readings, move on,” the doctor said unaware of what had happened.
Bremusa twisted her wrist and pushed hard, yelling as she did.
The doctor peeked at her, then spun around on his desk chair and his eyes widened.
Bremusa bellowed, and a crack sounded from her right hand. She broke it off the restraint and then with one mangled hand free she unhinged the other restraint.
The doctor leaned back onto his desk, fell sideways and skidded across the floor away from her.
Bremusa the raging female, screamed like a predator, broke the last restraints off her legs and ran to the terrified doctor.
“No don’t, please! I’m just doing my j-”
She grabbed a syringe off the counter in a fluid motion that ended straight into the doctor’s heart.
She looked down into his eyes. She was showing him her teeth like a wolf, she was pinning him on the wall with her naked glistening body and was stabbing him into the chest with her blackened left hand that bore his drawings.
As she stabbed him again and again with the short, inefficient needle she was smiling with ecstasy.
The doctor saw that and got even more terrified if that was even possible. He was trying to push back, but she was so strong.
Blood squirted from his heart, bathing her breasts with crimson.
As she drove the final stab deep and hard into his chest crushing his heart, she shuddered.
A moan left her throat, and her body tensed a few times while she pushed. Her thighs closed and her waist pushed on his body. Her clitoris grinded up and down against his pants.
As the doctor let out his last breath, Bremusa’s juices dripped down the inside of her thighs and she loved it.
Playlist: Video 38/67
“Oh, wow!” said Aura, leaning back to look at the whole of the place.
“Well, this is it. Artemis Automotive HQ. It’s the base of operations, the armoury, the garage, the training grounds, the barracks. It’s home, for most of us,” said Orosa in chattier mood than usual.
Aura acted wide-eyed and excited. The excited part was easy because she was. But the wide-eyed was pretence. Of course she had seen the outside of the Artemis building, it was one of the first things she looked up when she found out about Orosa. She had crossed the street a few times with her bicycle when she had been looking to contact her, not daring to come any closer. Looking in, like a child pressing his nose on a candy store’s window front. She was at the same time both trying to act amazed and contain her eagerness.
This was what she wanted all along, she knew that now.
Aura glanced back to Orosa, “Wait, you live here?”
“No, Artemis has given me a small apartment downtown. Some sleep here though, even after the recruit phase.”
Aura’s eyes shone at that. She wanted to join. “I’ve… never seen you go to your place and we’ve spent endless hours together.”
Orosa shrugged. “I prefer the road. Especially now when it’s warm.”
They drove to the side-entrance with the guard-post and the gate. Orosa presented her phone to the female guard and leaned in to stare at a green light. Then something showed up on the monitor and Orosa gave an electronic signature. The guard seemed pleased with that and the gate slid open, just a couple of metres Aura noticed, not enough for a car to rush through. “Get her a visitor’s pass instantly,” the guard said and pointed at Aura with her pen.
They drove down a ramp and at the sub-basement garage. They passed rows and rows of bikes and cars, ordinary civilian cars and trucks, all seemingly in top order and ready to go at any time.
“You have a tank!” Aura exclai
med, not managing her excitement any more. “A tank. A frickin tank?”
Orosa parked at a spot where other bikes like hers were, though only as a general category. They were on/off bikes sure, but none were as garish as hers. Some were red, some were blue, some had pink accents and mods, but none were a carnival parade like Orosa’s. There were toolboxes and spare parts, dirty cloths and tires spread around in a neat disarray that meant this place was being used regularly.
They took off their helmets and placed them on a slot fit for that purpose.
“It’s actually an armoured personnel carrier. But for all intents and purposes, yeah you could call it a tank. It is armoured, and can break through a wall. No cannons though.”
“This goes further down?” Aura asked looking at the ramp that went downwards.
“Yes, we keep most of the two-wheelers and the stuff that are used regularly up top, but there’s more. Come on, we need to get you a visitor’s pass.”
“What happens if we don’t?” Aura asked in a conspiratorial tone.
Orosa exhaled, “If we don’t, the building’s alarm goes off and security, which means two ginormous women will come and wrap you like a mummy, beat you unconscious and then interrogate you in a cold, concrete room.”
Aura blinked at that.
Then she pointed with her index finger. “Reception’s that way?”
“Yup,” Orosa replied and popped the ‘p’.
Coming in the side-entrance wasn’t as spectacular, but the main entrance was just like any corporate lobby. Glass doors, granite reception desk, chrome metal bars, security metal detectors, large screen playing a corporate video and a smiling woman with a headset.
“Hello Miss Nightingale, may I see your id?” she chirped and extended her hand.
Aura gave her the id and said, “Um, how do you know who I am?”
“You are quite famous,” the receptionist said as she typed on her computer. Then she winked at Aura and gave her the id back, “I like to read the gossip columns.”
Aura had nothing to say to that.
“The card will warn you if you are somewhere you shouldn’t be. As a visitor, you are allowed on the green areas, indicated by the frame of the door. Orange areas and red areas are off limits to you I’m afraid, even with an escort. You have a day-pass, please leave it at the reception on your way out and enjoy your visit at Artemis Automotive!”
“Um… Thanks.”
“There is a cantina down that hall should you require refreshment. It is a warm day after all,” the receptionist said cordially but it seemed… wrong.
“Come on,” Orosa said and they went to get something cold and refreshing.
The cantina was packed with Amazons. Most were young, underage. They were wearing a sort of corporate training uniform and were huddled in groups, just like high school. There was plenty of susurrus, girls laughing, talking and telling jokes at each other. It was lunch time, and the recruits were there to relax.
Some heads turned and looked at them as they came in, and some turned back and whispered to one another. Aura didn’t know if they had recognised her, or if they were discussing Orosa.
Orosa casually cut in line and picked up two lunch trays that were arrayed out by the catering crew. The other Amazons didn’t object to that, they just made way and let her serve herself. A couple of them were towering over her, easily two metres tall and it was comical to see the tiny, wiry, thin woman cutting the line without any protest.
Then she walked to the nearest table, which was full with six recruits. She paused for a single second and then all six of them stood up, picked up their trays and drinks and went to sit elsewhere.
Orosa then sat down, placed the trays and started eating.
Aura just stood there.
Holy shit.
“Are you coming? It’s better when it’s still hot, trust me,” Orosa said.
Aura looked at the Amazons, not many of them seemed to watch her at first glance. She sat down across Orosa and realised that, at second glance, there wasn’t a single eyeball not keeping the two in its peripheral vision.
Orosa was eating like a caveman. Cave person. The table was already full of discarded juice-boxes and breadcrumbs, but she was contributing fast.
Aura ate, if only to occupy her hands with something. “I thought I wasn’t popular back at music school,” she whispered. “What’s their beef with you?”
Orosa shrugged. “I never really fit in.”
“That’s why you cover the missions with the camera, you like staying close but on the outside,” Aura whispered. She couldn’t eat a single bite, she could feel eyes burrowing on her back.
“So, do you still want to apply at Artemis?” Orosa said waving her fork around.
“Yes. I’m sure.”
Orosa eyed her. “Huh. Well, if you get hired, and I’m not saying that you will, I have no idea, you’ll have to join in with these girls, as a recruit. We don’t have a real use for singers, otherwise you’d get hired in a position as normal.”
“I’m not much of a singer anyway, haven’t you heard? Never wanted it. Yeah, alright. I can do a year of training, no problem.”
“The problem is, that these girls have an advantage over you. Most of them have been here since they were kids, orphans adopted by Artemis.”
“What about you,” Aura asked.
“I’m an orphan too, but I got adopted much later. I grew up on the streets, by myself. Artemis took me in, I did the whole training thing, the sisterhood, the team building shit, everything. It’s not for me, these things. Staying in a team, huddled together. I’m a professional, I’ll work with any team that I’m assigned to, but I won’t go for drinks afterwards.”
“But, you are loyal to Artemis?”
“Of course I am,” Orosa spat out in an instinctive reaction. “She gave me a place to stay, found me a job based on my talents, shown me a mission to long for. I just don’t do the team thing. I’m better on my own.”
Aura took it in and glanced at the Amazons. They had resumed their casual chats, their laughing and their eating.
Then a young blonde burst through the door and yelled, “You all, come and see this!”
Playlist: Video 39/67
It was a rush of curious teenagers, they all ran to the doors and swung them open. Aura and Orosa went to see what was happening, the girls were moving like protest, pushing one another, talking and yelling.
Aura managed to get through and into the lobby, back where the reception was. Many of the girls were making assumptions about what had happened, Aura knew that it could vary wildly in their world.
The girls in front stopped talking, a couple gasped and put their palm on their mouths. Aura pushed through to see, and she was left speechless too.
A naked woman, incredibly fit and toned was walking towards the immaculate reception area. There were scars and cuts all over her body, places where the flesh had healed from battle injuries. Her hair, shoulder length and total black was sticky and matted on her. She was covered in sprays of dried blood and was walking barefoot. She was carrying a body, wrapped in some grey fabric. Her steps were slow, pained and looked as if she was about to fall over. Her bare foot slapped the marble floor, then a slow step forward, leaving dirt behind in shapes of footprints.
“Bremusa…” the girls whispered her name while muttering wildly.
Bremusa dawdled, one step at a time. Her teeth were gritted, her face was showing a weary kind of rage. Her left arm was covered in something like a sleeve tattoo, a pattern of rhomboids and it ended in a mess of its otherwise ordered structure at the base of her shoulder.
The receptionist instantly got on her headset and spoke to someone. Bremusa stepped close and placed the body on the granite reception desk, bloodying it’s surface. Aura couldn’t tell who the dead woman was, she could only see that she was smaller than Bremusa. A tuft of golden hair fell from the cloth.
“Oh damn,” she muttered as she pieced it together. She had
talked to this woman the previous night. The fangirl? This was so weird. They were helping them by faking an assault on a decoy truck, while that team were doing something hush-hush. After their part was complete, which was awesome by the way, they had tried to get in touch with that sweet-voiced lady but couldn’t. Orosa didn’t know any details to the plan, so she had simply reported it in and was told to drop it.
But there it was, the rest of the team. Something had gone terribly wrong.
Orosa was standing close, head bowed in mourning.
All the girls were watching and muttering. “Must be Antioche…” Bremusa turned her face towards the group and they all shut up instantly.
Her eyes were bloodshot, and her chest heaved as she breathed in slowly but deeply.
Aura felt a little queasy. This was a very dangerous person.
Bremusa turned back to the receptionist, grabbed her by the collar, dirtying it with something black and red and sticky, pulled her halfway above the desk and hissed “I want to talk to Artemis. Now.”
The receptionist was terrified. She must have pressed a panic button somewhere because the alarm blared and security, more than two ginormous women Aura noted, rushed in the lobby and seized Bremusa. She fought back, but she was worn out and was carried away unconscious.
One of the women in the security team stayed back and bellowed for the crowd to disperse in a solid, authoritative voice. They all did.
Playlist: Video 40/67
“How are you feeling,” Artemis asked.
Bremusa opened her eyes as a doctor was shining light down on her retinas. She twitched instinctively, and the doctor said, “No concussion, should be able to reply normally,” without acknowledging her any more. Then he left.
Bremusa coughed and felt pain all over. It was easier to count the parts that didn’t ache. She felt something holding her down but she couldn’t even move to check. “This is the second time I wake up today strapped to a medical bed. Just a fact Ma’am, the first one ended up messy.”
MOAB � Mother Of All Boxsets Page 52
