Part 8: Kindly; Jingle Bell Rock
Vancuni awoke in a cold metal room, a dim light bulb hanging from the ceiling.
“Please… I'll do anything… just don't kill my wife-”
“-We aren't that cruel” a speaker blurted.
“I'll make the Danison uniforms.”
“Oh, we know you will.” A two-pronged electronic hand reached out and dropped a pile of materials on the floor in front of Vancuni along with a hefty pile of tungsten. “So chop chop, you have until Christmas. If we come back and those suits aren't done-” A woman's voice was heard screaming over the speaker “-Wave bye bye to the misses.”
Vancuni started to weep as his bounds set him free, a needle dropping from above.
“Holy shit it worked…” Rusty said.
“The things you can do with a voice changer. Dumbass actually thought we had his wife.” Conan smiled.
“Now, where are we off to next?”
“North Carolina. Bernie Collins is there, hopefully. He's the main security supervisor for Danison and founder of VHA, if anyone can get us in, it's him.” Conan grabbed his coat and said to Rusty “C'mon.” Rusty nodded and walked out with Conan to the car.
After two hours of flying, they arrived in Bernuc NC, a small town that was established in one of the many craters the corporate wars had caused.
Conan and Rusty got to a small diner, on the holographic tv was footage of Vancunis' suite being blown up. ‘Breaking News; Ferdinand Vancuni Kidnapped After Seventy Sixth Annual Fashion Show’
“Shit-” Rusty muttered before being dragged into the restroom by Conan.
“Go in a stall and put this on.” Conan reached into a duffel bag and gave Rusty a red shirt with ‘DC/AC’ printed on it and black sweatpants.
Conan went into the third stall over and changed, now wearing a shirt with ‘BAAB’ printed on it and black sweatpants.
“What's this ‘DC/AC’?”
“Some band from like a hundred years ago.”
Conan walked out the stall and put his dreads into a bun. When Rusty walked out Conan asked “Mullet or mohawk?”
“The fuck? Why are you asking me this?”
“The cops have our picture, we both need a new hairstyle.”
Rusty sighed and said “Mullet, make it quick..”
Rusty and Conan stepped out of the diner to see a heavily fortified flying car speed by. Conan said “There's our man.. come on.”
Conan and Rusty hopped in the car, Conan drove to the top of the building, landing it on the roof.
“We're gonna have to get to the meeting room, sound easy, but the building’s gonna be lined by Herons…”
Herons were a type of android made by Venus Home Security, they are the most trustworthy security bot on the public market at this point in time.
Conan got out and ran to the vent on the roof, ripping off the cover with his mechanical arm.
Conan jumped down into the vent, his arms and shoulder length were a bit larger than the vents, but he made it through the system into the destined room, Rusty following not too far behind.
“So, I give you hundreds of thousands of limited materials, and you can't even give me a fucking update on the Library? Thousands of tons of precious tungsten, and you have nothing for me?”
“Listen, the Library is a touchy subject, hundreds of years of research have gone into finding it, we haven't felt like you should know about it yet–”
“--forty years.”
“Excuse me, sir?”
“I've been working for Danison for forty years, but I'm not ‘trustworthy’?”
“...”
“You go back, to Alaska and tell that cyborg asshole-”
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The vents collapsed, revealing Rusty and Conan.
“FUCK-” Conan said as he shot up and raised his mechanical arm, shifting the nanobots to make a blaster. “-Let's make this quick, Bernard, you're coming with us.”
Part 9: Arrested.
Bernard smiled as his bushy eyebrows scowled, he tilted his head slightly and started to laugh as he said “Really? The mighty X-26 wants to take me hostage? Damn Conan, you really couldn't just stay away, hmm?”
“Shut up- just come with us.”
“You want me? You'll need to take me…” Bernard said as a black mass emerged from his back.
The mass absorbed Bernard, making his form nothing but a shiny black glob, before the thing took form. Bernard was now branded with X-25 on his chest in red. He had no human legs, but spider legs, six of them, they all ended in a suction-like tip. His physique transformed from a scrawny old man to a robust looking man's torso, his shoulder length was wider than Rusty was laying down. His hands were large and only had four fingers that ended in dagger sharp tips. His head looked hooded with the same X-25 imprinted where his eyes once were.
Rusty and Conan stood in shock, Conan, still holding his cannon arm up, took a pistol from his pants and shot everyone else in the room, excluding Rusty and X-25.
“You really wanna compare dick sizes huh? Fine with me, but trust that I will make SURE you never come back, 25.”
Conan deactivated his arm and shot himself through his heart.
“CONAN!!”
“STAND BACK, RUSTY!” Conan yelled, before a giant wave of black goo emerged from the bullet hole, absorbing Conan fully, just as it had happened with Bernard.
The mass compressed around Conan, instead of completely changing him, like Bernard, it just made him slightly bigger. On his chest and face was the emblem, X-26.
With a purely mechanical voice, both the hulking beings said simultaneously, “Come at me.”
They rushed towards each other, Conan throwing the first mighty punch, almost caving X-25's metal head in, but nanotechnology patched the dent up, and X-25 reeled his open palm backwards and shot it forwards, piercing completely through Conans torso. But Conan grabbed the mechanical abominations arm, swung a leg onto its torso, and tore the thing's arm off like a wet band aid, thrusted it out of himself, and used it to slap X-25 across the face. Conan dug his foot into the carpet flooring as a compartment on his heel opened, fire shot out, setting the carpet ablaze and propelling Conan at X-25, with just enough force to crush the nanotechnology and grab Berard, slamming his corporeal form into the scorched floor, as X-25's nanotechnology melted away.
“RUSTY- GET OUT OF THE BUILDING!”
“BUT CONAN-”
“GET OUT BEFORE THEY START-” four Herons busted down the door. “-SHIT”
The Herons had polygon-like heads, making a point that resembled a bird beak. Their torso and arms were the same, though they had no legs.
“INTRUDER. INTRUDER.” The bots said, their speakers loud and clear, echoing through the halls and alerting the rest of the Herons, along with Danison security. The sprinklers turned on.
Rusty became frightened, emotions swelled inside of him and he couldn't hold it in anymore. He exploded, releasing enough electricity to make the entire city shut down on itself in a shockwave like no other. The electricity bounced off the water in the building and sent a killing shock through every corridor and stairway.
Conan shriveled up in a fetal position, and when Rusty fell to the floor, he passed out. When he awoke he saw his friend beside him, limp. He tried getting him to wake up, but nothing worked.
“Conan… CONAN??”” Rustys eyes formed tears, and he let out a terrible shriek.
Danison forces bum rushed the room, and they found both Coan and Rusty. They took both of them, sedating Rusty, and separating him from Conan.
Part 10: The Cube
Rusty woke up in a silver box, nothing in it but a mattress on its floor. He rubbed his eyes and looked around, he saw Conan in a red outfit standing looking directly at a wall, with his arms crossed, well, one arm crossed.
“C-Conan?”
Conan took a deep breath and turned around, smiling.
“Hey Rusty.”
Rusty with teary eyes got up off the floor and ran into Conan, hugging him.
“You've been out a while… three days maybe?”
“What happened?”
“Well, we're in Alaska, but we're in the biggest prison on this planet, Compound IV. Sadly, we aren't gonna be out of here any time soon. But, you're awake now. They'll probably come to get you, and that will be that.”
“What do you mean ‘That will be that’?”
“You know, I was a Danison soldier. We weren't told much, we were just thrown around like puppets. They removed the ability for us to feel emotion… I-I did terrible things, Rusty. And I guess after running for almost four years, I'm finally gonna atone for what I did. That will be that, I'll be dead.”
“Conan-”
“-Rusty, if you make it out of here, against all odds, I hope that gem of yours will work. I hope you'll be able to get back to whatever year you came from and live a good life. Maybe I'll even be lucky enough to go with you…” Conan could keep his Facade up any longer, he fell to the cold metallic floor and started to nastily cough, blood splattered onto his hands.”
“Conan, are you-”
“-I'm fine Rusty. I'm fine. Just need to heal... that's all.”
Rusty sat on the floor with Conan, and he got a good look at Conan's face. It looked tired, sickly and pale.
“What happened to your micro-things?”
“They shut me down. Like they did you. We’re completely vulnerable to everything that could come our way.” Conan paused for a second and spoke again, “ Rusty, please, live for me.”
“I will.. I will.”
“Wanna hear a story?”
“Sure.”