“Kids are not scary.”

“Ooh, really, have you ever seen Teddy?”

“No, why?”

“Because she is a kid, but she is so grumpy you think she missed like three hibernations.”

"Why is that scary?"

"Well, according to my hands-on research, if you really push her buttons, she sicks Bob on you. Trust me, you don't want that."

"then we don't get our child a bear. How do you feel about deer?"

-- recorded conversation between Liquid Catalyst and Maniac about them having kids

“So, you have a plan on where to go?” Eva asks me.

“On the map, it says the control room is two floors up. It has one closed system, so I can’t access it from here, but there are some stairwells nearby, so it is not that far.” I explained.

“So, that is our target. Do we have any weapons?” John asks.

“Depends, how good are you with a sword?” I ask.

“Can’t say I'm that adept at it,” John admits.

“There is a backup weapons locker one floor up. We can take a look there to see if there are any guns.” I suggest.

John nods. “Let’s do that. Everyone ready to move out?”

Everyone grunts in confirmation. And we head out with me in the front, the rest behind me. It still surprises me how claustrophobic these halls are. With the ceiling probably being under 2 meters, there is not much space to manoeuvre a sword in.

We reach the secure locker and I take a fraction of a second to open the lock. New personal record! Who am I kidding? Evelin made the changes to the hack a month ago. We just never encountered a lock this weak before. Inside are some kind of assault rifle and a few pistols. Huh, we really don’t know much about guns.

“Well, pick and choose what you need, and please don’t shoot me in the back.” I say as I step aside.

As I look at Eva and John pick up their guns, I notice that Mio is just awkwardly standing there, looking about, ready for a full panic attack. I take off my glove and shove my way over to her.

“Here, you can wear this.” I say while holding up the glove.

“Isn’t that just a brace for repetitive strain injury?” she asks, looking at me, confused.

“It does kind of look like that, yes, but no, it allows you to create a shield, similar to the shields I created to stop the antithesis from biting your face off.”

“And what do you want me to do with it?” she asks, still looking confused.

“You asked a while ago if there was something you could do. This is something you can do, and the only thing you need for it is to be smart, so, you more than got this.”

She smiles and puts on the glove. “Thanks, I needed that. Do you think we can make it out of this?”

“I hope so. I want to take my girl out on a date.” I say with a smile, “You have a samurai on your team now, which is both good and bad.”

“How so?” Mio asks.

“Because we have access to samurai tech now, but if they find out, they might take the nuclear option to hide their tracks. Nobody wants a samurai on their ass, and, no offence, but people especially don’t want Maniac on their ass.” Davis cuts in.

“I see, thank you,” Mio says.

“You're welcome. Anyway, Maniac. Do you have something I can use? I am starting to feel useless,” Davis asks.

“I have a taser- dagger-sword thing. Would that help?”

He gives me a complicated look, “Give that to me.” Eva says. “I know how to use a blade. You can take the pistol.”

I nod. “Lyssa?”

New Purchase: Raven Claws Stinger

Points reduced to... 187

A familiar blueish short sword appears in my hand, and I smile, then I hand it to Eva. “Careful, it is sharp.”

“Thanks, so are we ready to go then?” Eva asks.

“Yeah,” John says, “Maniac, you are in the front. I am directly behind you, Mio in the middle using the shields, and Davis and Eva will protect our rear.”

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

I nod, then salute “Aye, aye, captain,”

He gives me a long look and then just sighs “You have the route?”

“I do,” I say, giggling.

“How much resistance?”

“Lots, but I opened some doors and now lots is changing into few.”

“Well, lead on, then.”

I walk forward in a confident gait. There is no point in being slow; people know something is wrong, and the faster we get out of here, the faster I can go home and cuddle with my girls. I take another look at the camera footage. There is a corner up ahead. Afterwards, space opens up a bit more, and there are three guards stationed there, guarding some kind of door, creating the perfect little kill box for anyone who walks in.

I start sprinting, jumping up at the corner and hitting the wall with my feet, using the momentum to change direction. The guards look surprised, taking precious seconds longer to retaliate. They start unloading their weapons into the barrier that Mio has created at the end of the corridor.

“Lyssa, jet stream!” I shout as I am about to hit the shield.

New Purchase: Jet Stream Ultra

Points reduced to... 167

Everything started to slow down again, but it is less disorientating this time. My programming and second cybernetic brain keeps me perfectly aligned. I hit the barrier, and it disappears, the gunshots flying freely now. I position my arms and summon my sword, using it to block the bullets that are now flying at me in slow motion.

I see the face of the first guard slowly transform into one of horror and surprise as I am upon him. He tries to back away, but I am faster. One swipe of my claymore cuts his gun in half and creates a deep slash in his leg. My second slash removes his head.

I jump aside, catching a random grenade with my feet and kicking it towards the third guard, while I move to the second guard, who is looking at me in shock, still with the pin in her hand. I push my drug-enhanced muscles and cybernetic skeleton to the limit, and before the guard can grab her gun again, she has turned into two halves.

I cut the jet stream supply with the springtail, and watch as the world slowly speeds up again; this is fascinating. I turn back to watch my allies enter the room looking at me with shock. Yeah, I know I am amazing, no need to point it out.

“Do you even need us?” John asks, having gotten a bit quieter now.

“The shields were nice cover.” I say in my best happy voice.

“So what is beyond this door?” he asks

“I have absolutely no clue. Want to find out?”

John looks back to the rest of the team. “Be ready!” then he nods at me to continue.

I just laugh and walk up to the door, giving it my best mean face so that it would open up, and it does. I love it when my plan works out. The heavily reinforced door slides away, and I run inside. I mean, if there are enemies on the other side, they would not expect that, right?

I walk up onto some raised metallic bridge, overlooking pens filled with different kinds of mutated antithesis. At the end of the bridge, suspended in the middle and able to overlook everything, is a control tower accessible from four sides by similar bridge-like walkways. In between the different bridges suspended from the roof are two turrets that were more than prepared for me, as evidenced by the fact that they would have probably hit me had someone not put a shield in the way.

I disappear my sword, sending it back in the mask, and instead take out one of my javelins. I activate the launcher and jump, shooting the javelin straight at the left turret, which explodes in flames. I land back on the bridge, and the other turret is still shooting.

I take out my other javelin, this time not even bothering to jump as I shoot it straight through the shield. Then I resummon my sword and start running again. Before getting to the door, I activate the launcher again and throw my sword straight through the door. I jump after it, through the newly created hole. Inside, I find several people staring at me, most of them scientists. But there are some security looking people still around.

I take my sword out of the wall before anyone can do anything. Then, I activate the jet stream again. While my digital brain controls one of the drones to hijack one of the pcs, I square up with the people that still have a fight in them. There are four security guards, and one man in a suit holding some kind of baton giving off sparks. How kinky.

No time to waste, I guess. I let the speakers play a digital version of my laughter as I jump forward at the first guard, slicing his arms of and am about to bring in the finishing blow when one of the other security guys tries to jump me.

I punch the guy with my free hand. This is when I remember that I added concussive force to my arms as the guy is sent flying straight through a window and down into the pens. That must be a rough way to go. I turn to the other people, only for them to be turned into Swiss cheese by my allies. I turn the jet stream down again and look around.

“Secure the area.” I say. “Mio, take control of the network.”

“What about you?” Mio asks.

“I am going to cull the experiments.” I say, as I walk out of the control room.

I sit on the bridge, looking down at the different pens. They have a lot of them, but not any of the big stuff. As far as I can see, they seem to have limited themself to only model 3s and 4s. I jump down and get to work.

Targets Eliminated!

Reward... 383 Points

Well, that took longer than I hoped. And some of them were really creepy, which definitely did not help at all. And now I stand before a new issue. Jumping down was easy, but climbing back up is a bit more complicated, so instead of figuring that out I call Mio.

“Are you done playing?” Mio asks as she picks up.

“Depends. Is there a bedroom nearby where we can play?”

“Not in a million years.”

“Adding it to the calendar for two million years.”

I hear her sigh. “Why did you call?”

“Ooh, I was wondering if you had all the data?”

“We have everything that is available here.”

“What does that mean?” I ask

“There is a secure data vault at the ground level of this building, and I can’t access it from here,”

I start to giggle again. “So the fun is not over, then?”

“Maniac,” Mio suddenly speaks in a lower tone. “You might enjoy it, but I want to get out of here.”

“Fair point. You guys should leave. There is an exit nearby, right? Take that, but stay in range and make sure you are ready for a data transfer; I can do the next part alone.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. You guys get out to safety first; I will start making noise, dragging their attention away.”

“Thank you”

“No problem. Oh, and if we get split up, we reconvene at the black cube, okay?”

“Noted, we are ready to leave; how about you?”

“Give me a sec to find the appropriate tool.”

With that, I hang up the call and turn back to my AI. ‘Anything fun I can play with in here,’

Lyssa has a weapon that Lyssa would recommend. It creates heat instead of kinetic force, allowing the structural integrity of the building to remain.

‘Sounds fun; let's do it’’

New Purchase: Advanced Dynamically Heated Dagger

Points reduced to...125

A single-bladed tech-blade sword appears before me, several circles pulsing angrily red. Its handle or casing is a deep black. There is one issue, though.

'Lyssa, aren’t daggers supposed to be small? This thing is at least 60 cm?'

It is small for a giant like the stone hearts, but for a dwarf like you, it is rather big.

'Hey, you redundant piece of scrap metal.'