The red warning light above us continually painted our neutral expressions with a hellish on-and-off as it spun around. Roxy had maintained a glare at me, none of the usual affable nature present on her face. A dangerous calm that lingered for a couple of seconds.
“You realize I could bend that gun back like a cartoon before you can even load the shot?”
[Perhaps you could. I’m willing to die to find out. Are you?]
She worked her jaw, her eyes now trying to read me. Maybe she could tell that I probably didn’t have the heart to actually attempt to kill her. I certainly had the feeling that she wouldn’t kill me outright, either. For as much as something terrible was brewing around me, her hospitality over the last few days was definitely genuine.
“I’ve already apologized for the situation, Dubs. I don’t know what else you want from me.”
Her hand came up slowly and wrapped around the barrel. My Overcharge drive hummed into life, powering up.
[If that is your final answer, then I will accept it.]
It meant that I no longer trusted her, and would be relocating as soon as I got back and secured transport for my things. I may have allowed myself to be led along this wild goose chase, thinking that there was some benefit at the end of the line… but I’d play the fool no more.
“That’s all I have to say,” she confirmed. Her fingertips drummed on the end of my gun-arm. “Shall we at least get this over with so we can go?”
I watched as her eyes lingered on me as she turned. My arm lowered and went slack as my body temperature froze up. Heartbeat increased. That wasn’t just an idle beat she played on my muzzle.
It was a message.
It felt as though someone had just stepped into my mind and pulled down a section of wallpaper, revealing something murky below. Dust billowed out as memories tried to form. Something painful to a mind shuttered off to my old life… but her intention spoke clear as day, as if it were muscle memory.
‘Comms are unsafe.’
Not an unspoken language I had used as a contract killing cyborg. Then when, and why? My eyes went back over to the super as she prepared to remove the door in our way. Despite raising new and pointier questions, I found that she had reversed the distrust I had gathered toward her. She truly was strong.
She had dangled a piece of the puzzle in front of me, but it was face down and the shape was obscured. But… there was the intention there to tell me when it was safe to. Did she know the old me? The questions burned away like a forest fire in my mind, but I’d have to be patient.
Roxy crouched and put her hands against the metal door, a sidewards glance making sure I hadn’t short-circuited. “You with me, Dubs?”
[Behind you all the way.]
I caught the slight smile at the corner of her mouth as she turned back. As much as I was now back on board with getting all this bullshit finished off, I wouldn’t go as far as to say I trusted her completely. Just a little more than when it seemed she was entirely in the League’s pocket.
The drone buzzed up in the air beside me.
//Clara: I’ll ignore whatever that was.
//Clara: The others are having issues with the fully armed clones.
//Clara: Ascending this way will allow us to break through their forces.
Any potentially rolled eyes or imagined insults over the speedster having issues against firearms were ground away as Roxy started to push against the door - the resulting pained squeal of the metal scraped around my ear canals. It didn’t seem to want to raise back up, so instead she was bending it forward, curling the bottom edge into the room beyond.
Gunfire rang out, striking the metal walkway around her feet - one of the shots grazing her super suit. As soon as there was enough room, I took a couple of quick steps and then slid myself under the buckled door, narrowly avoiding hitting my head on it.
Tazer shot went out, striking two ahead that were using a tipped over table for cover. As I rolled to my feet, my left arm went up to block an attacker from the side - his knife burying itself into my forearm. I pushed him away and racked a fresh shell into the chamber as I stepped back.
Didn’t have the chance to fire, as Roxy stepped in quicker than expected and hit the clone in the head with a blazing punch. His head exploded, covering the wall with particles of destroyed brain and skull fragments, the inert body flopping over to the floor with a thud.
She pulled a face as she looked at her bloodied hand. “Fuck!” Before I had the chance to interject, the super had stepped over to me, grabbing at my arm to see the knife still embedded in there.
[Could you do the honors?]
With a grim nod, she took hold and pulled it out of the wound. Normally not something advisable, but it was finally enough damage to cause my stims to kick in. I had almost been worrying I had a dud pack. Warmth ran through my veins as I took stock of our new surroundings.
Seems the armed clones hadn’t wanted to stick around, aside from these three. I gestured over to the stunned pair behind the table, and Roxy took the initiative. As I looked through the empty cabinets that once held pistols or assault rifles, the crack of a neck breaking was followed by a second.
To the side was a staircase leading up - this door had been locked as well, but such things were no issue for a strength super. In addition to hiring Clara, maybe Roxy could also be swayed to join in on my murder missions. Ah, when I worded it like that, it didn’t sound likely.
“Anything worth taking?”
I shook my head. They’d all but cleared out - not enough weaponry for everyone who was in the basement by a large degree. No shotguns, so no shells.
[I’ll see that knife, though. I bled on it, so it’s mine now.]
She rolled her eyes and handed it over, the thing still in her grasp for whatever reason. Something larger than a basic dagger, probably a bowie knife. I wasn’t usually much for stabbing, but having been stabbed by a few things in my life, it was about time I gave it a go from the less sharp side of the experience. Slotted it in behind my belt for now.
[Did you punch that guy full force because he stabbed me?]
Roxy shot me a half-hearted glare and gestured to the stairs, not willing to grant my question an answer. She didn’t seem too impressed with the results, so I wouldn’t press the issue. At least now she knew.
My insistence that she tell me the truth seemed to have cooled her usual flare, and she was being a little more businesslike with the work. Part of me wanted to grab her again and shake out the answers, but I knew it was pointless at this stage. I could only assume she didn’t want the people with eyes on us to know that she was leaking information - possibly putting her at risk of banishment from the League… or worse.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
If she trusted me enough to put herself on the line like that, then I’d respect her need to be silent for now. We had a villain to erase. Or… arrest, I internally sighed.
Up the stairs to the door - and now we could hear the gunshots. Despite his speed, the Captain probably wasn’t as durable as the woman beside me, so might have second thoughts about trying to run past a hail of bullets. Our own ranged super wouldn’t be as effective in corridors, but in my opinion she’d be more use in here than outside.
Not that I felt I should be in charge. At this point, I barely had a grip on my own life, and I had tried to keep that as simple as possible.
A nod from Roxy that I returned. I switched back to the drum mag as she put her hands on the locked door. New cartridge loaded, I brought out the knife into my left hand. She applied pressure, and we burst into renewed violence.
Door slammed against the wall on the opposite side of the hallway, and I slid across in a crouched position. One clone had been right beside the door on the left, but I fired past him at a group hunkered down and seeking to light up the rest of the super group when spotted. Crimson soaked through blue overalls to daub them in speckled purple. Roxy stepped out and leveled a strong kick to the one beside me, sending his limp body down the corridor to collide with the ones I had injured.
I stood, and we power walked in tandem toward the continued firefights further in the guts of the factory. Stepped past a closed doorway and a spear burst from the frosted window, striking and scraping along my raised gun-arm. Turned and blasted through it, before kicking it open.
Assailant lay on the floor grasping at his bloodied stomach, bleeding out. Three others in the room were all armed with similar weaponry.
One darted for me as I stepped in. Barely deflected it with my knife, the sharp end of their archaic harpoon-esque weapons tearing through the layers of fabric down my arm. I spun along the length of the extended spear, racking another shot. The blast shredded clone number three, making a mess of his arms and causing his melee weapon to drop to the floor.
Roxy had moved up behind me, and she grabbed the weapon half hanging from the broken window. While I stepped away from a follow-up attack from the one I was closest to that grazed my side, she lashed out at him with the small blade-like end.
Surprise on his pale face as he went to move his arm, but could not. The limb fell from the rest of his body with a slick tearing noise, the pain not registering until a couple of seconds after the fact. The super followed up by drawing the sharp end up the man’s torso until it tore into his neck - just as I blew the throat out of the last remaining clone in the room.
Bodies and spears dropped to the floor, including the one she had been holding. Roxy turned to me with dull eyes. “Don’t even.”
Wasn’t sure where I’d even begin. Probably not a good sign that I saw her choice to use weaponry and kill things with efficiency as… attractive. I shook the thoughts from my head and followed her out of the room. Better to have a clear mind - my life was complicated enough.
We stepped around to the next corner where the group of dead or terribly injured clones lay. Just before we turned, Roxy stepped back and pressed a hand against me.
A torrent of bullets tore up the carpet and burst at the edges of the concrete wall.
“Auto Turret. Assholes.” She exhaled and began looking around for the easiest way around it.
An Auto Turret was a simple machine. All business when it came to shooting anything not on the safe list it held, and shooting things is what it excelled at. Hardly any ‘smart tech’ inside it to make hitting it with a Tazer worth the effort. Didn’t need to shield your brain when you only worked on pure instinct, anyway. They did have a different weakness, however.
Chamber opened up, bouncing the ejected shell off the wall and into my hand. Replaced it with the Liquid one. I looked over at the other side of the hallway past this opening. A good twenty feet where I’d eat bullets for lunch, delivered straight to my stomach. Corner required a turn to the right, which made it difficult to level my shot without exposing my left side. Unfortunate.
[I need two seconds of distraction.]
Roxy gave me a brief nod, and without hesitation, did a small leap into the middle of the opening, before crossing her arms in front of her head as she braced herself. The Turret picked her up near instantly and railed off a burst of machine gun fire. I stepped out and fired the odd ammunition.
The square shaped robot had three barrels across the dark metal front, the main body mostly used to house the ammunition - but the power sat just behind the front-facing panel. Fluid shell struck it dead center above the middle barrel. It burst, expanding ten times the size and pelting the machine with a bucket full of water.
Well, not water exactly. Although the scientist that had created the odd liquid had received prizes for the effort, it wasn’t safe for consumption - so uses were few and far between. More of something synthetic in ways I hadn’t cared to learn up on prior. A glassful of the inactive powder could expand to almost fill a bath - but evaporated five times as quick as actual water.
Not that the Turret cared for the difference. Sparks and smoke rose from the back of it as the cycling barrels slowed to a stop. I looked back at Roxy, to see that her arms had been damaged from the barrage. Nothing too detrimental, but several trails of red ran down her muscled forearms.
“Let’s continue,” she said, shaking them off and not allowing me time to make sure she was fine.
//Clara: She isn’t that reckless usually.
//Clara: Either you’ve had quite the effect on her…
//Clara: Or she hit her head on something pretty hard.
//W:…thanks, Clara.
As if I didn’t need more things to overthink. There had been an attitude change since I provoked her, but I didn’t think I deserved the blame for her own choices. We stepped past the inert bot and I gave it a shrug. All victims of circumstance in one way or another.
“The others are just ahead, I can hear Belle.” Roxy raised her eyebrows and then went to jog. Another long corridor that flanked a central room on our left, perhaps - although there were no doors or windows on this route. Another sixty or so feet before a left turn, and that’s where it sounded like the others were currently fighting.
I pulled out my knife after loading the normal shell back into the gun-arm, as the super went ahead. Once loaded, I changed to a tactical jog to maintain pace.
A thrum of power vibrated ahead and then the left wall beside her burst away with the sharp sound of a train passing, as a large metal claw broke through the wall and slammed her into the concrete on the other side. A segmented cylindrical tube ran from the sharp hand pinning her all the way into the unknown.
Overcharge powered up as I snapped my shot into the silvered tube, shredding away some of the metal plating and exposing the wires and working parts inside. Sparks flickered around the wound as some of the power failed to connect properly.
With a growl, Roxy pushed the claw out of the wall, freeing herself. With a quick twist, she yanked the lagging arm, tearing it apart where I had weakened it.
“Careful, Dubs - this is-”
I dove to the floor just as soon as she started the warning. The wall beside me burst open as a second pincer slashed through and slammed into the right-hand side of the corridor, pelting me with powdered concrete.
This was the villain.
I was never given their name, or a hint of what their power was, other than owning a rather efficient clone farm. Giant robot tentacles weren’t really on the shortlist that I had imagined. Oh, to be back fighting through mobsters and sinners under the cover of night again…
Up to my feet, I ran, as instead of retracting the arm, it then slid towards me. Brickwork thrown and broken all along the left wall as it tried to catch me up. It was only briefly slower than me thanks to the friction of the wall it had to destroy its way through. I turned and slid across the carpet, ejecting the unused shell to slap a Tazer in.
Struck it dead on, a blue shield shimmering over the extended limb as it slowed but wasn’t stopped. It was enough time for Roxy to step in holding the dismembered claw, which she slammed down on the metal tubing, pinning it to the ground.
“Go help the others. I’ll keep him busy.”
I nodded and moved, only a little reluctance in my step. She could take care of herself, and freeing up the other supers would make this an easier process. Maybe even earn me some goodwill with the assholes.
Boots took me around the corner, a handful of clones parked behind cover with machine guns just ahead. Their eyes turned to me in surprise as I slapped in a Smoke shell and fired it straight at them. Ejected the spent shell and-
The wall to my left exploded out, and I struck the other side of the corridor. Sparks dazzled my eyes as my head bounced off the concrete. Stims powered through, numbing the pain as I turned toward the cloud of shattered stone, blinding me.
“Child-killer, you cannot run!”
I took a step forward, arm shaking as it came up - before a pincer slammed into me. Pressed against the wall again, I felt ribs crack and break as my skin split and muscle was slowly cut through. Ears rang, but everything started to feel distant. My mind slinking away from the situation as fast as it could. Humbled, I realized how out-of-place someone like me was here.
So used to fighting dickheads with guns and knives, I'd forgotten I was just the same. Fooled myself into thinking I was something uncontestable. What a shitty party trick.
My eyes closed as they became too heavy to lift. Cold ran through my core, I…
I sunk into the darkness. Accepted it.
A well-earned rest.