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Author's note:

If you find any mistakes or misspelling, please let me know about it!

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Reading Notes:

SOUND EFFECTS

"RADIO CHATTER"

'MIND CHAT/TELEPATHY'

"CHANGE IN VOLUME"

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== Fallen City ==

== A-Dust ==

Five.

My mind retreats into its inner most depths and I make myself as small as I can, hiding behind the rubble of a ruined hallway of an old office building, underneath a broken table that somehow made it's way to hallway. If I had the luxury to laugh at my current state, hiding like a child in the most obvious place, I would. Unfortunately, when your life is in danger you can afford precious few things. Breathing the stale, humid air was also very, very optional. Concentrating on myself, I slowed my heartbeat at will and silence my breathing. If they find me here I'm as good as dead.

Four.

Six sets of footsteps finally make it into the hallway. I hoped to God they won't find me and continue walking. It was dark, but if I take a peek out of my cover, I'm pretty sure I would meet six pairs of glowing red orbs. The telltale sign of them using their helmet's goggles in not only night vision, but infrared and heat as well. Each of their step was heavy and mechanical. There was no malice in them, They only act. Still, should they find me, I have no doubt they'd fill me with lead. They didn't speak. No sounds came from their mouthes except for every breath they took behind their mask as they scoured the ruined floor for me.

Three.

"A-Dust! Your orders are to retreat! Repeat! Withdraw immediately and get to extraction!"

"Shut up! They find this signal I'm dead!"

"And if you get hacked we lose EVERYTHING! We repeat! Withdraw to extraction NO-"

I cut the signal. Those dam egg heads don't know a dam thing about the battlefield. I can still do this. I can still rescue my team. I only need these guys to pass me by. Come on you fucks!

Two.

They're right next to me. Just a few more steps! I readied myself. This is the critical moment. I stop my heart and was still as a stone. Even if they used sonar or heat vision, they wont find me as I've already programed the nanomachines in my combat suit to camouflage me in every available spectrum there is. The only way they'll see me is if we lock eyes together.

One.

They've passed me! Come on! Just a couple more steps and you'll be right under my trap! I gripped the thread in my hand even tighter. One little tug and this game of hide and seek is mi-

One of them turned around and looked my way.

Ah shit! ZERO!

I pulled the string and the sound of grenade pins being pulled echo through out the narrow hallway and half a dozen grenades falls right on top of the six stooges.

"HOSTIL-" one of them tries to scream but the grenades already dropped and explode right on top of them. But that's not enough to kill them, I'm sure. I jumped out of the rubble and right into the mess my grenades created. Dust, debris, and smoke all came crumbling down and scattering everywhere. Forget night vision, you can't even see anything properly in infrared! But I could see thanks to the nanomachiens inside their suits scrambled to restore them back to health. To my vision, they each glowed a color. Their heads bright with activity. I pull out my magnum pistol, one of the last of my weapons and aimed at the six shining silhouettes of my teammates still crumbled on the floor. The world felt like it was in slow motion as heads enter my sights and I pull the trigger.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Shinning brain matter scattered everywhere. I could hardly hear the roar of my magnum. I think I'm partially deaf thanks to the grenades too.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

-CLICK!-

6 bodies lie on the floor, as I spend the last of my bullets. Rubble from above still pour down from the ceiling. Shit. I think the building is coming down too! I had no time to analyze how structurally sound the whole building was and just hoped it could take the grenade trap earlier. Looks like I gambled poorly. I don't waste time and started running to the direction I knew the streets were. The only thing blocking me was 10 inches of old concrete. I readied my fist and loaded it with nanites. Swinging it, my arm exploded in power and the wall was easily blown off, and I jump out into the open air of a ruined city of a country that no longer exist.

I hit the ground rolling off the momentum and immediately set of in a run as rubble start raining down. I run past broken and decaying cars and even jumping over some of them as I run down the street. I spot a toppled cargo truck and decide to hide behind it, just in time as the whole building collapses and floods the already dusty street with even more dust. I changed my vision back to the normal spectrum. Now its all back zero visibility.

"A-Dust, was that you? Please report your status!"

A female voice calls me through the communicator in my ear. The one which I didn't block. Looks like I made her worry.

"I'm fine C-Moon. I took out the 6 of them and buried them under a building."

"W-will they be alright? They had their minds hijacked."

"They'll be fine, but it'll take them time to get back. Before they do, we need to deal with the threat. Is she still following you two."

The threat. She came out of nowhere. As we we're about to head home for extraction. It was then she appeared. A single girl walking casually through the dust blown streets of the now desert and deserted city. We perceived her as just some lost girl or a lucky survivor of post-nuclear apocalypse. She wore nothing but a white jumpsuit that covered her whole body except her head. Her initial black hair was left alone being blown away by the hot wind that passed through the city. The six teammates I buried under a building went near her and as they we're about to take her with us, she suddenly turned hostile. She tapped into the virtual space we all connected ourselves with and did the impossible. She hacked into each and every one of their minds, completely overpowering their nanites and hijacking their bodies.

"We're not sure. I think we may have los- SHIT!"

"C-Moon! Report! What happened!?"

Damn it! This was never a good sign. Using my nanites, I called up the local map in the cornea in my eye and a window popped into my HUD display. It showed a 3D scan of the city within a 300 meters radius around me.  They were just three blocks away from me and around a corner. I could get there in a few seconds.

"It's her! She got around us! Shit, the area's starting to freeze! L-Heinz, run! Just keep running!"

"C-Moon! Are you alright? REPORT!"

No answer. I minimized the map and started powering up the nanites in my legs to jump long gallops. I switched the call to L-Heinz, the last man in my team that I think haven't yet lost.

"L-Heinz! Report! What the hell is happening!?"

"C-Moon's frosted! Shit, I'm starting to freeze too! Her nanites- I can't counter them!"

"Hold on! I'm coming to your position now!"

I kick off the ground and run as fast I could, making small craters in the street after each step kicks off. I waste no time and vault over the cars and trucks the littered the street, some even being crushed under my feet. In seconds I turn the last corner to where C-Moon and L-Heinz last position was. And I see the impossible again as freezing cold air assault me, even inside my nanosuit.

There right in the middle of a desert, sand covered city was ice and snow. The rubble and cars in the street were covered in a thin layer of snow and spikes of ice jutted out from the ground and from the buildings along the street. And right in the middle of it was her and my last two teammates. C-Moon was already lying in a heap just by her feet and L-Heinz was held in a choke hold, even from where I stand, I could already see the mental hijacking being completed.

I was the last.

The threat released her grip on L-Heinz and he crumples to the ground next to C-Moon. She turns her head slowly to me. Her expression blank and empty, but her eyes and hair glowed blue, while the latter floats in the air slowly like it was underwater and ignoring the violent wind the blasted through the city.

Anger rose in my stomach. How dare she do this my team!? I saw my two teammates already twitching from where they lay and start to rise mechanically like dolls in strings. They start taking steps forward, a little ways away from the girl. Even with their helmet mask on, I can tell they wore the same blank expression as the girl. Was the girl being controlled too!? Dammit, there are too many unknowns!

Grabbing the last weapon I have at my waist, I unsheathe the long dagger and twist the handle, releasing the lock on the blade as it extended out into a short sword instead. I hold blade to my side and prepare for combat.

I'm one of the close combat operatives and so I didn't worry as my two former teammates aim their submachine guns at me. As soon as they pulled their trigger, the street is filled with the roar of the weapons and I dash forward. Their aim didn't waver and with their nanites, they could suppress the recoil of their weapons as if there was no recoil at all. That made it easy.

Bullets flew at me in straight lines. Predictable and easy to follow with my enhanced vision. I dodged left and right, avoiding the rain of bullets. When the two stream of bullets crossed, I cut through them with my blade, slicing the bullets mid-air. In a few heartbeats, I'm already in front of the two of them. C-Moon tries backing away while L-Heinz tries to swing the stock of his weapon at me.

I ignore L-Heinz. He is too slow and I went after C-Moon. She aims her weapon at me again. With my current speed, I was sure I'd be filled with holes. So I simply went faster.

Nanites roar in my legs and in the next moment I appear right in front of C-Moon. To an outside observe, it would have looked like I teleported the distance to her. I stab my sword right between her breast, piercing her heart and my free hand grabs the hand that held her submachine gun and, with my nanites, gave her nerves a shock, making her hand pull the trigger and shot at L-Heinz, filling him with lead.

I push C-Moon's limp body off my bloody sword and turn back to threat. She simply stood still and watched the entire exchange. Granted, it was only a few heartbeats, but did she perhaps try to get the extent of my abilities?

As I was still wondering, she raised her hands toward me and I reactively jump away from where I stood, just as a giant ice spike pops out of the ground.

'Damn! That would have split me in half! She used no weapon and simply just raised her hand... She hacked my entire team too with just her hand... She couldn't be...'

I came to a conclusion and change the spectrum of vision. The world starts draining of color. Everything is now black and white except for my body which glowed red from the power of my nanites. But when I look towards her, the ice queen of death, she didn't just glow bright blue. She brimmed with raw power in every fiber of her being. So much so that the nanites stream around her body like a river. She looks like cosmic goddess with a flowing blanket of stars going around her.

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'So it was nanites! But that's impossible! We're still experimental subjects! Did the doctors... No, they ordered us to retreat. Damn it, there's no time to think about this!'

Suddenly, I watch the ice queen flick her wrist and clouds of nanites launch themselves at me, crystallizing mid air to large shards of ice.

I weave left and right, disturbing the snow covered ground, then followed quickly by her ice shards impaling where I stepped. Each shard that lands came up to about my thigh. If I get impaled by one of those, its going to rip my limb right off!

Damn it! In terms of power, she'd crush me and my whole team in an avalanche! What's more, her nanites were able to easily crystallize, not to mention they were absolute zero cold. It didn't look like the ice crystals were fragile either. They were so dense with nanites, she could likely use them as a shield to stop bullets!

There was no way to counter the ice. Then the only thing to do is...

I was now a fair bit of distance away from her and she kept staring at me, her brows furrowing a little. Was she reevaluating my threat level? I should hurry and finish this as C-Moon and L-Heinz are likely already regenerating. This was a gamble. I could still just leave, but I'm not leaving my teammates behind.

Steeling my nerves, I charge my weapon with nanites and dash towards her.

The ice queen fired more blue nanites and were forming into crystal shards again, but before they could, I swing my blade, sending a thin red slash of nanites into the air and slicing hers. It worked! Her brows furrowed at this and fired even more clouds of nanites. Its useless! I slashed again and again, sending out my red nanite slashes and slicing all her blue nanites before they could crystallize, causing them to lose their pinpoint accuracy and impaling the ground harmless out of my way! She's more powerful than me, but I'm faster.

A slight etch of panic mares her pretty face, and she raises both of her hands at me, the stream of stars around her stops, then immediately floods towards me like a raging river.

Damn it, she's going all out! I sent out most of the nanites I have in my body and formed a red wedge of nanites in front of me, and used all the rest to my legs, launching me forward and slicing through the river of blue right towards her. 

Milliseconds pass but each felt like an eternity drowning in a sea of blue as I use all my nanites here. The red glow in my body starts dimming too and grey cracks start forming in my wedge. The cracks grew, and grew, until finally, my wedge broke. Shattering like glass and disintegrating to nothing just in time as she exhausts her nanites and color floods back into my vision. I could see her blue hair turning back to black. She was out of nanites too.

As we appear right in front of each other, her eyes shoot open in shock and maybe a little bit of fear because she was within the reach of my blade.

I try raising my sword but I've never felt it so heavy before. My muscles ache from exhaustion while my nerves scream alarm bells in my head as I suddenly feel injuries from head to toe. Exhaustion is taking control over my body.

Damn! So close! My sword drops from my grasp with a clang, echoing through the silent street and strength leaves my legs, making me fall forward from my momentum. I struggle to hold on to consciousness just as I crash right into the ice queen. The last thing that I can feel is that something cold but pleasant is touching my lips while my vision is filled with nothing but her half closed eyes. Her eyes don't glow anymore, but they are still a beautiful shade of blue but seem so sad and lonely.

=== Command Room ===

=== Doctor Giller ===

"A-Dust consciousness has gone offline! " one of our technicians yells as the whole command room is in a state of chaos.

"God DAMMIT!" Doctor Reginald slams his fist on the command table, almost knocking over my tea. He is quite healthy for a scientists. And by that I mean fat. Among us five head doctors, he is the youngest in his late 30s. Funnily enough, though he is the youngest, he is also the baldest. The reflected light from his shiny scalp seems to glow more intensely as he get angrier. His brilliance only second to his ambition. Third to his robust stomach though I'm not too fit myself. Like all of us doctors, he sports a medical gown, over his long sleeves and light brown pants, since we are still over seeing an "operation" in the militaristic sense.

"We told him to retreat! I told you people we should have put in more measures in our control! Now all that years of work, gone!"

"Although I am worried about the androids as well," Anger rose in me. If I could put a hole through his thick skull with a glare, I would. God knows how this man was able to get a doctorate. "I'll tell you as many times as I have too. We don't need some controlled dogs! Those men and women are the next step in humanities' evolution and we can't have them evolve without their own humanity!"

Dr. Reginald throws his arms into the air. "And due that so called 'humanity' we just lost EVERYTHING."

"What of the extraction team we had readied? How long until they get to them? And S-Luna?" Doctor Owen asks aloud, halting my rebuttal. If anyone had asked me to describe Owen in two words, it would be "mad scientist". He is the eldest of us five, already in his seventies, but his hair is always blown up and defying the laws of physics.

One of our employed computer techs stands up to call our attention, "The team has been split in three and two are heading towards both locations of the operatives. They'll get to them in a few minutes. The third one is setting up a comms tower so we can receive video feedback from the other two. As for S-Luna..." The man looks sideways, toward the center of the room. The command room itself is a circular room with a dome ceiling, with levels going down towards the center. Each level had a long row of computer terminals, receiving data and video feedback from the operatives. At the heart and center of the room, a group of scientist, doctors, and engineers stand around a chair, frantically trying to measure, heal, repair, and take apart, all at the same time, at the sole android we have in our hands.

S-Luna sat in her command chair unconscious. She is the heart and soul of the Android Network. A completely new field of technology thanks to the nature of our androids and headed by Dr. Owen, as he is the best neuroscientist on the planet. S-Luna started screaming in pain when the threat the other androids found, started hacking into their minds. From the bits and pieces of what I hear from the group, it seems like the girl also tried hacking S-Luna, albeit remotely and virtually. The scream however, was due in part to the pain of the other operatives. Whatever way the threat did the hacking, it did damage to our androids' minds. We sedated her as soon as possible and that prevented the remote hacking.

But with S-Luna out of commission, we also lost our visual connection to all the operatives and stopped receiving data. We only had our communicators to each of them which was nothing more than a glorified phone call.

"Sirs!" One of Owen's technicians calls our attention. "A-Dust mental status remains unchanged. All other operatives mental health also returning to normal, although they are all unconscious."

"Does that mean..."

"He couldn't have..."

"He must have...!"

Hope swells in my chest. With their mental state returning, it means the mental hijacking of the androids stopped. Which means either the threat has left them alone. Or that A-Dust managed to successfully take her down.

"We have video feedback from the extraction team!" Another technician called out. God, this room is so chaotic.

"Put it on projection." I tell them.

The command room dims and all eyes look up towards the ceiling as the projection of the video feed starts. The whole room gasp in shock. What hope I felt in my heart turns to fear. The projection is split in two. One team is digging up through rubble, thanks to their mechanical exoskeleton, they were able to lift up heavy pieces of rock with ease. But it is what the other team is looking at that shocked everyone.

We had deployed the androids to their final test to a ruined city, with the terrain turning into nothing more than a wasteland desert. It should be all brown and dust from sand, but what appears on screen instead is ice and snow. The team slowly advances through a wide street. The whole area was covered in a blanket of snow and spikes of ice jutted out, angled towards the center. Most around the area only came up to their knees, but what stood at the center is a giant formation of ice. It looked like an avalanche of water was suddenly poured in the middle of the city, and right after hitting the ground, the water froze, turning into deadly spikes jutting out in every angle.

The team soon finds the bodies of C-Moon and L-Heinz, and they quickly check their bodies. Their regeneration was complete, but they're still knocked out cold. Their nanosuits were also filled with holes. Particularly L-Heinz, while C-Moon had a big one right over her chest, exposing some of her cleavage.

But the video feed continues onwards. Right into the heart of the frozen avalanche. Strangely enough, it looked like a giant sword had gone right through the middle, splitting the ice in two. The team advances carefully through the gap as the ground was now covered in ice and some of the team could be seen slipping up.

I hear a round of giggles go around, but it dies quickly.

Finally, the team reaches the center to find A-Dust.

...

......

.........

Right on top of the threat. Literally.

If I have any other way to describe it, they were, in all seriousness, tangled in each others arms like a pair of unconscious lovers. Somehow, A-Dusts' helmet was apparently blown off and revealed his face and swept back black hair. And due to his helmet missing, A-Dust lips were connected with the threat! At the unexpected state of our operative, an awkward silence fills the room as if we had just caught two lovers making out.

"Ahem. Extraction team, please check if A-Dust is alright." I cough.

The team jerks into action. Prying A-Dust off the ground and immediately checking for injuries.

"What about the girl?" One of the extraction team ask.

"Disconnect her immediately from any outside connections, but keep the connections she has to the other operatives! There's no telling what could happen if we cut the connection prematurely." Dr. Owen replies immediately through a microphone. Of course, he is the most concerned when it comes to the mental stability of our operatives.

"Doctor Giller, what do you think we should do about her?" Doctor Arthur asked beside me.

I think for a moment and weigh the risk. My hand slowly reaches for the button to reply to the team and I spoke clearly.

"Sedate and restrain her. Then bring her home."

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A/N:

IT'S FINALLY DONE DOOD!

 What?

Did you think us prinnies would do nothing but slaughter each other in the netherworld for the Overlords? Psha. We need hobbies too dood! Even if the pay is piss poor.

I've actually been pretty hesitant on uploading this fiction. For the sole reason that this isn't exactly the "start" of the whole story, but this IS the start of THIS story. Anyway, I threw caution to the wind and decided to go with androids, and robots, and other futuristic stuff instead of writing sword and board and magic.

In any case dood, I hope you enjoyed my fictions' prologue! I'll try and update a chapter every Monday and Friday (SGT/HKG time).

If things seem unexplained, like Nanites, the Android Netowrk, etc. I meant it that way! It's the prologue dood! I'm not going to info dump you. All things will be explained soon~.

Let me hear your thoughts okay doods?

Sayonara for now!