Chapter 54: Save Them

8:38 PM

July 28th

Ripley

Smoke still filtered it’s way into the ventilation by the time we’d arrived, bodies fallen everywhere. At first, they were knocked out or had fried Neuroframes. Gradually, they were left in worse shapes, down here, they were all torn apart or shot. Not a single soul left alive.

Except Diana. The liquid mercury of hair falling like rain over the face of a darker skinned woman. Mirage had shown me a picture of Yvette and Indra, who I recognized as the slumped woman with a blown off mask.

“Save them.” Diana repeated, her eyes reflecting a terrifying haze of silver threads within them. “Please.”

“Clear out for a second.” I summoned my courage out. “Let me take a… a look.”

I shuffled across the bloody and burnt surroundings, everything was scorched and cut apart, faint molten lines still visible. It was hard to tell if some of the older bodies in this harvesting room had always looked so terrible, or if the fight had only made them worse.

Leaning over Diana, it was so easy for me to feel that resonance with her. Our shared connection to the Gold Implants born of the same MAL, it was like a constant hum urging me to do something. I reorganized my thoughts, pooling them on the state of the woman in Diana’s grasp.

Yvette Ingrid. From what Mirage told me, her and Diana used to be roommates in cadet school, apparently her only real friend. Taking a pulse… I felt nothing. When I opened her eyes, I flinched at the sight of them… they were burnt and clouded by blood. On her shoulders were handprint-shaped scorch marks, scarring webs of black digging deeper across her neck and back.

Clearly, she’d been electrocuted, so powerfully it caused her Neuroframe to short-circuit. A frame-break itself wasn’t deadly, it was almost like a burnt fuse in it’s function, but inspecting the Neuroframe deeper it was damn obvious that whatever did this was… powerful.

My eyes rested on Diana, thin lines of electric ropes still sparking up and down her arms. There was only one conclusion. Biting my lip, I wasn’t sure how to approach this. “She… she’s dead. Diana.”

“No.” Diana pushed herself back to the wall, clenching her silver hair between her hands. “I- no!”

Falling to the floor, she cradled her body tight, her breath heaving in and out like a ticking time bomb.

“Diana… it- it’s not your fault.” I tried to say, but all around me was just so much… death. Had she really done all of this? I couldn’t even… was she really this powerful in just two months? I knew Mutations had more instantaneous effects than the cycle of buying new Shardware but…

This was a lot. Her body had become worth Gold, while my Golden mind was dealing with what scraps I had.

Mirage spoke up to the side of me, seemingly uninterested in how Diana ended up in this sistuation. “Leave her be. She’s fine, brought this upon herself.”

“Bullshit, she’s fine.” I eyed the broken silver-haired woman, crying into her knees. “I- what do we do?”

“You can’t do anything.” Mirage said, her eyes growing serious. “Leave her to her own problems. You have enough on your own, Ripley.”

“Yeah, but…” I eyed Diana once more, feeling sorry but also… envy. “I need her alive.”

Mirage clicked her tongue, pulling me aside quietly. “Are you ready to fight Metal Heavens then? I lodged Twilight into their systems, they’re sending others down here.”

“Yeah. I am willing to fight them. This is my decision.” I said confidently, eying those fallen bodies around me. “Also… give me a moment, can you stay with Diana?”

“You… are you going to loot these bodies?” Mirage said accusingly, before smirking. “Be quick.”

I nodded, somewhat ashamed to be seen through so easily, but every BUG here was worth something to me. I counted fourteen bodies, not including Indra and got to work. There was no need to preserve anything, I first stopped by the biggest bastard, reached into the back of his fried frame and yanked out the Bronze centipede wriggling within, it grew inert in seconds as it curled into a small ball.

I also eyed the chain-whip mechanism in his ripped arms, peeved that they’d been destroyed so thoroughly considering how I could apply them to my current modifications. Moving to the other bodies, I only finished with around seven other bodies before Mirage whistled at me before tugging Diana’s sleeve.

“C’mon… Diana. I erm… everything will be fine.” She said quietly, I forgot how awkward she could be sometimes. “You have to-”

Mirage stopped, as did I freeze up as a Silver colored scorpion tore out of Yvette’s arm before rolling up into a ball. A Silver SIM? I leaned down to pick it up, the scarlet-smeared bead resonating with deep power in my palm.

Within a second of thinking, I held it out to Diana. “Diana… you need to live on. I- I’m sorry for your loss, but if you won’t do anything. Then you can’t get payback for what’s happened.”

She nodded weakly, gripping the Silver SIM and standing up with support of me and Mirage. The walk up was silent, just the tapping of our feet on the staircase and the labored breaths of Diana.

“Twilight’s picked up twelve Metal Heavens entering the building. She’ll mark them.” Mirage said, and in seconds I saw the distant outlines of the alarmingly quick bodies maneuvering on the floor above.

I nodded, looking at Diana. “Can you fight?”

She took a deep breathe in, her eyes hazed up like a dull gray. Electricity wreathed down her fingertips but she clenched them up as though they’d been burnt by the action. “Fuck…! I… I don’t know.”

“Warp Burns.” Mirage sighed. “You and me, Ripley. Leave Diana here, we’ll get her once it’s secure. I’ll contact Madame Hong, let her know we’re coming.”

I nodded, letting Diana down gently on the floor, she didn’t look back at me. Her eyes still gazed down the staircase, trapped in the memory of what had happened down there.

“We’ll be back in just a moment.” I offered her.

She didn’t say anything, just slumped deeper into her own clutches.

Sighing, I got up to convene with Mirage, following the various outlines through the museum ground. They seemed to have split up into two groups. “You going to fight, Mirage? You didn’t bring a gun.”

She turned her head lightly, a faint glow building in her eyes. “Mirage doesn’t fight, Ripley.”

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Twilight smirked at me from within Mirage’s body. “I do. And I don’t need a gun.”

———

The incoming guards were all Iron Grade, thankfully, and from what I knew about Metal Heavens, BUG Adapters. Perfect for me.

I checked the clip of my gun, as well as my left arm. If things went tough, then at least I had a backup weapon. Bronze Energy filled up my limbs, all four of them as my newer legs still adjusted to being wholly metal.

Finally, I mimicked the Sustain Feature.

Update Summary:-

* Increased pain resistance

* Higher awareness of bodily stability and health.

* Protocol: Motor Stability cannot be mimicked, instead the Adapter has improved co-ordination of their limbs.

This Feature was unique, in that you didn’t necessarily need Shardware to make use of it. In the olden days of the First Swarm, Shardware was limited to crude augments, guns or strapping a radio into your head, the Feature was a lifesaver in improving general nervous control over the body and it’s health functions. Nowadays, it could even allow self-repair with specific Shardware mods like Nanomachines. For me, it served to coordinate my thoughts with my body.

Running the Bronze energy through my body, I kept my gun pre-aimed on the archway I saw four guards were about to pass through using Twilight’s map.

“Hey, I’m picking up signatures right through here!” One of them yelled, and I cursed inwardly as I retreated back into cover. What fucking sensors did they have? A Mazhyr Electro-com? Twilight didn’t seem to care still, she flicked open a compartment on her arm and pulled out fine knives that she juggled in her hands.

“Want to see something cool?” She whispered to me, throwing one of the thin blades right at the archway, it bounced off the wall, hitting into something that echoed a hollow, ringing sound.

“What the fuck? Something hit my arm!” A guard cleared into the archway, spotting me and Twilight immediately with a rifle scoped on us. Then his hands twisted out his control, pointing the thick piece of metal at his ally and bursting a spray of muzzle flashes right into his friend’s chest.

The other two stormed in right after, panicking at the sudden betrayal of the man Twilight had taken control off. I seized the chaos, my pistol locking onto a grunt’s head and a quick squeeze bursting blood through it.

Twilight threw another blade, the curved edge lodged right into a leg and sent purple sparks across the metal. The limb kicked up, knocking them off balance which let me land a quick shot without needing to lock on first. Maybe Diamante was right to take me to that gun range…

“Last one’s all yours, Ripley!” Twilight cheered at me. I sneered, staring between the pistol in my right hand and my seemingly normal left arm. Grinning, I smeared Bronze Warp Energy throughout the limb, unlocking fresh seams that expanded and rearranged themselves.

A sharp one-foot blade jagged out, sheathed in Bronze energy that sunk deep into the Livewire core running underneath it. The last man raised his weapon at me, but by then I’d switched to Overclock, my body sped up as both legs adjusted to an increased flow of Bronze Warp energy.

My blade grew hot, the Livewire within running an intense circuitry that fed into various heating elements scattered on the edge of the weapon. It swept cleanly through his gun, before a searing strike cauterized his vocal cords and spine.

He fell to the floor, wheezing his last breath.

“Damn, that was hot. Literally!” Twilight ran up to me, hugging me. “Wait… there were three more!”

On cue, someone fired up at us from a balcony above, Twilight pushed me out of harm's way as she threw a knife that clattered harmlessly against the balcony railing. My mind worked it’s usual algorithms at attempting something stupid, as I grabbed the fallen knife and aimed my five claws at the roof above me.

The five digits dug into the concrete, deep enough that as I reeled myself upwards it supported my weight and I was eye-level to the grunts still shooting at Twilight. I kicked forward, dislodging my digits at the same time so I landed on the balcony, three surprised Metal Heavens goons drawing their sights on me.

A quick swap to Integration worked across my limbs.

Update Summary:-

* Increased compatibility with External Shardware of the firearm type.

* Increased Warp Projection into External Shardware

* Protocol: Weapon Enhancement cannot be mimicked, instead the Adapter may use their Warp Energy to improve External Shardware functionality

What used to take at least three seconds to lock-on only took a single glance now as Gold Energy forced it’s way into the pistol. My pistol compelled my fingers into exactly aiming on the first man’s head, blood spraying to a twitch of my index. A second lock-on came just as quickly on another, and for the third… I slipped under the rifle that was too awkward for them to maneuver at this range, and dug Twilight’s knife deep into his shoulder.

They pushed me away, aiming the rifle but their hand refused to shoot the weapon as purple sparks infested it. I sneered down the the barrel. “This one’s yours, Twilight!”

His hand gripped the railing, and he pulled himself off as he screamed in confusion. I glanced down, Twilight hopping to the fallen man and slipping a dagger right into his carotid artery. She called out to me with a smile. “Haha! We make a great team! You going to come down and celebrate or…”

“I’m going to loot first.” I called down, excited at the prospect of all of these BUGs. I even took one of the rifles with me, it was nothing special but maybe I could fetch a good price for it.

Getting down… I charged up my legs, similar to my arm they whirred and refit as two prongs ejected from below my knees — similar to a mantis’ legs — as sharp blades that I wreathed in Bronze Energy. Carefully placing myself near the wall, I dug my claws into it before stabbing my shins into the wall.

First, they were too dull, keeping my body uncomfortably planted there. Then, as my output of Warp Energy grew and the blades sharpened, I slid down too fast and landed on my ass.

“Ow.” I rubbed my bottom, as Twilight came by with a handful picking some metallic orbs in her palms.

“Thought you would appreciate this.” She placed them in my hands, locking an intense stare as her vibrant violet eyes bore into my own rust-colored ones. “You know, lately, it’s like your eyes have grown sharper.”

“Thanks.” I pocketed away the BUGs, counting all in all, a total of fourteen new Iron BUGs at my disposal. She helped get me on my feet, and slowly her eyes faded to a softer lavender.

Mirage shook her head as she came into control, staring at the five bodies around her. “You’ve gotten better. A month ago, this would have had you shitting your pants.”

“Psyche’s helped get my mindset right, thankfully as long as I can convert to Bronze then I’m pretty much able to fight for as long as I need to.” I stretched my arms, rummaging through the BUGs in my pocket at random as I tried scanning a few of them.

Two Sustains… one improved internal organ efficiency and the other allowed a monitoring of another’s health if you plugged into them, six Accomodation BUGs to generally increase capacitance and… oh, one that specialized in reducing the capacitance of close-combat Shardware. Integration for external visual Shardware, Dataweaving to create simple Datacleavers that bypassed Neuroframe safeguards, an Overclock for heightened strength… Energized and Technician.

A few of these, I could use in Shardware creation, but none of them outwardly seemed better for my Mimicset. Yeah, that’s the name I gave the circular bands implanted in my arms. The only one I was having difficulty reading right now was the Bronze BUG, so I kept it in the back of my head.

For now, as we walked back to Diana, I took a firm grasp of the Energized BUG and fractured it to scraps, absorbing the Warpcode within it. Brief images of death flowed through me, a flashing river of a forearm extending into a blade to slash at my- someone else’s neck.

Absorbing Warpcode… General Updates Pending. Would the Adapter like to direct the Warpcode to a specific purpose, or allow the pending updates to develop?

That last bit was new and a result of Focused Consumption, it had been a while since I absorbed a BUG. I passed my thoughts on to fulfill the pending updates.

Energized V.1.08 has updated to V.1.09

Effect: Adapter’s internal Warp Energy circuitry is now more efficient.

Energized V.1.09 has updated to V.1.10

Effect: Increased control over Energized Protocol: Warp Sink.

Almost at once, the flow of my Gold from the base of my skull to the liver’s converter smoothed out and became as easy as breathing. Maybe it was time to think about additional internal organs? If I could get a new heart or lungs, my body could regenerate Warp Energy much faster.

Our feet clicking down the stairway, we froze. Standing over Diana’s tired body was a tall figure wearing an immaculate suit. I recognized the hollowed-out face on them, a mechanical skull smiling.

Mr. Skeleton greeted us. “Mirage and Ripley, how’ve you two been?”