Guards struggled at Mod’s feet, but couldn’t get the nanites off of their faces. Meanwhile, Mod couldn’t stop staring down the hall at Arsenal. The hallway beyond her was molten and dripping, and fumes were beginning to cloud the air.
Arsenal lowered her still smoking gauntlet and turned back toward him. Her nanite disguise had been partially destroyed, and the half that was left redistributed across her armor. Mod just stood there, staring at her dumbfounded.
“What? What were you going to do?”
Mod just shrugged, still holding his rifle. “The same thing.”
Athena stumbled out of the elevator hallway. She clutched her stomach with one hand and covered her mouth and nose with her shirt. She stared at the barren, smoldering hallway. “Yeah, your way was less messy than mine.”
Both Mod and Arsenal rushed over to her. Arsenal reached forward to check her wounds, but hesitated, clearly not wanting to burn her. Mod pushed away Athena’s hands so he could get a better look.
She’d been shot twice. A barb was stuck deep in her stomach and another stuck in her thigh. Blood pooled around the wounds. She’d also been hit in her chest, but her jacket must’ve blocked the barbs—the only evidence was cracked shards of glass.
Mod asked, “How bad is it, TINA?”
“The wound in her stomach is worse, but a mix of clotting powder and nanites will patch both until we can know more.”
“Nanites?” Athena asked, gritting her teeth.
“Yes,” Mod replied.
“No. No nanites.”
Mod scoffed. “We don’t have time for this. Who do you trust more, me or Gnosis?”
“...Goddamnit. Just get it over with.”
“Mod, relax your whip and give me control. Arsenal, watch the hallways.”
TINA wasted no time. She used the whip to pull out both barbs while Mod pulled clotting powder out of his utility belt. At the same time, he could feel a thin stream of nanites climbing across his whip. They were a mix of general purpose nanites and the ones from his blood.
“Take Athena’s hand.”
Mod almost asked why. Nanites and powder clumped at the end of the whip, then TINA jabbed it into Athena’s wounded stomach.
All three of them winced and let out a mixture of curses. Athena squeezed Mod’s hand far tighter than he expected. Meanwhile, Mod tried to ignore the sensation of touching Athena’s organs. For once, Mod wished he couldn’t feel anything through it.
While TINA rather brutally patched up Athena, Arsenal had positioned herself at the intersection of the hallway—partly to keep watch and partly to keep the fumes of the still smoldering hallway from reaching Athena. She opened the scales of her suit, creating a gentle thrust to push the worst of the fumes away.
Athena grimaced as she tried to ignore the pain. “Wait, Mod. What do you mean you were going to do the same thing back there? Don’t tell me that—ah!—that little rifle doubles as a flamethrower.”
Mod had been staring idly at the wall while TINA worked. He glanced at Athena and smiled sheepishly.
“Right. I guess you missed that part. Remind me to show you the next time there’s a swarm of mindless enemies.”
Athena half-scoffed, half-winced. “So, am I gonna make it, doc?”
“Yes. You might experience some slight discomfort.”
“Ha! Oh… Don’t make me laugh.”
“Now get moving.”
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Mod pulled out his pistol. He called the newly formed nanites to him and sighed when he saw the numbers.
NANITES 280% CAPACITY
It would have to do. They didn’t have time to stand around.
Arsenal’s thinsuit had cooled off enough by now that she could help Athena walk. Arsenal took Athena’s arm across her shoulder. Mod took the lead as they trotted down the left-side hallway, past struggling and incapacitated guards.
While they moved, he felt the twinge of pain from his own wounds. Almost without thinking, the whip plucked barbs out of his own chest and stomach. They clattered on the ground.
The hallway of Sublevel 29 stretched on, and this time, Mod didn’t spare a glance at the other wings they passed. He knew from the blueprints that glass doors led to office wings and reinforced doors led to other testing areas. Each surely had their secrets and horrors, but Mod was only interested in one.
While they pushed on down the halls, he formed a question in his mind and received a wordless answer from TINA.
Athena is combat ready. The bleeding has already stopped.
Mod ignored the fact that Athena was clearly in pain and that Arsenal was helping her walk.
Then he thought back to when the vampire spawn appeared. He’d had a flashback to the Deep Ones… He wasn’t worried about it so much as he was distressed that it occurred in the middle of a battle.
The time dilation you experienced is due to your enhanced cognition and the result of significant stress. The flashback you experienced is the result of trauma from the last several months.
As our link improves, there are some things I can help you with… Unfortunately, you will have to heal from the trauma on your own.
Mod pushed aside his thoughts and tried to focus on the task at hand. One day he’d get around to processing all that had happened to him since he’d became a super—
Just not right now.
Right now, he had a friend to save.
~ ~
Controlling the vampire spawn had been easy. Pheromone lures directed them to their target. Then Enola spurned them forward with her own overpowering pheromones.
The spawn were the perfect mindless fodder. The only thing else that came close were the soldiers of the Deep Ones. An interesting case of convergent evolution between two separate species.
The trap hadn’t been perfect, but they’d caught the intruders between guards, test subjects, and spawn. Sheer numbers should’ve been enough to overwhelm them.
But they’d had other countermeasures. The intruders had been just as capable as fighting a gang of test subjects and a horde of spawn as they were at single combat. The intruders were powerful and capable. Their one exploitable weakness seemed to be mercy…
That belief had almost gotten Enola burned alive.
The fire had spilled down the hall. Enola had a fraction of a second to get out of the way. She’d ripped open a door to a nearby testing center and tried to escape into the next room.
But the fire had gotten through before she could shut the door completely.
Instead of spilling through the crack, it blew the door off the hinges. Both the door and Enola had been thrown down a hundred feet down the hall.
Enola rose to her feet and popped her arm back into her shoulder. Her business suit, which was already in tatters from being shot earlier, was now gone completely, leaving Enola in nothing but her armor and bodysuit. Even the outer coating of her body armor was charred and flaking off.
She reached up to fix her hair… and touched bare scalp. Half of her hair was gone. Burned away.
Enola left it. Her trembling hand fell to her side. Instead, she turned and searched the hall.
She ignored the still-smoking concrete and melted glass around her and stumbled deeper into the office until she found the acoustic channel board. She flipped levers into the configuration of her master’s office.
“Sire, they’ve made it past special teams. I… I don’t know if I can stop them. Requesting direct intervention.”
Silence stretched on. Enola’s hand trembled over the lever. She double-checked the arrangement of the acoustic board, but everything was in the right place.
Her master’s voice fell like a gavel.
“Denied.”
“But sire… They’re going to sublevel 30. You’re not suggesting using Subject LH—”
“I am not suggesting anything. Clearly, my other countermeasures have failed. I want to know what they’re after.”
Enola flinched at his words, her chest tightening. She was one of those countermeasures…
And Enola wasn’t sure that she could stop them.
If it were just the two artificers, she might be able to ambush them before they got the chance to conjure fire. Enola unconsciously shrank at the thought. That fire would have killed her. She was sure of it. Then there was the telekinetic…
Ichabod’s voice was stern. “Do not impede them anymore. Do not interfere. Do not use anymore test subjects. Your only job now is to wait.”
“...Yes, sire.”
Ichabod was right. Enola would wait. She would find out what they were after.
She would learn from her master’s patience.
The intruders may outclass her in other attributes, but they were only human. They didn’t have a vampire’s patience.
~ ~ ~