Arc 13 Battle of Bronson City
Chapter 12 Interlude: Break Down
Medavac swatted down the swarming robotic insects, crushing them underfoot and beating them back with his armored fists. His shotgun bucked as it unloaded down the corridor spraying incendiary rounds through the encroaching hordes of machines. Negation toppled over gasping for breath. The green haze of the gas filled the air, choking and drowning any who did not have an air-tight or filtered costume. To the rest of the group, the fumes did little more than obscure vision. The skittering horde was a much more pressing threat.
“I thought you hacked the systems?” Armadillo berated between hitting the small and fragile robots.
“I did, but it must have been a dummy system set up as a trap.” Retro replied as her machine treaded over the smaller squirming robots. “Hate to admit it, but that crazy nurse is good at defenses.”
“Of course, she is good at defenses, Neon Nurse and Overseer were basically running the whole city’s systems.” Medavac grits as he slams his shotgun through a robotic spider, the fangs clicking and drooling a green fluid. “Don’t let these things bite you they are likely loaded with either a extremely powerful sedative or a toxin. From what she said it sounds like she wants test subjects so likely a sedative.”
Things quieted down, minus of course, the alarm that had begun blaring. The green mist had settled into a thick fog covering the foot or so above the floor obstructing vision of the walkway.
“Everyone ok?” asked Armadillo surveying the others.
They nodded, save of course Negation who was out cold on the floor, the robots were weaker than anticipated. The only victim was to the gas. Medavac placed his armored hand on Negation’s neck checking for pulse and breathing, the sensors detected he was alive and in a calm state. That confirmed that it was the sedative that Neon Nurse often used on Vesper to keep her in check. Could have been a lot worse in all honesty, could have been a flesh-eating virus or deadly neurotoxin.
“Retro, your mech have any storage to keep him safe until he wakes up?” asked Medavac.
“I got a bit in the side compartments, but if anybody else goes down then I won’t have room.” Retro Robo opened up the leg of her machine, there was a sizable tube-like structure that was large enough for a person.
He didn’t exactly like it, but leaving a team member behind wouldn’t be good. “It will have to do, can’t leave him here and we will need no distractions in here.”
Medavac pushed Negation into the tube and it sealed shut under the plates of armor of the mech. Hydronic seemed to be just fine, bubbling within its suit.
“So where is the wasp?” gurgled the slimy being oozing from the seams of its diving suit.
Retro scrolled through the map, “She appears to be about three hundred meters ahead and to the right, if the schematic is right there is a large room there.”
“Where did you get that map?” asked Armadillo.
“It was complied from the tracking device and filled out by what I saw in the systems. Though now that we know it was a dummy system we cannot be sure of how accurate it will be.”
“If that is compromised then what if the tracker is too?” Medavac grumbled. “Hopefully the walls don’t start speaking binary.”
“Well at least we have their attention, so we have that going for us.” Armadillo stepped forward following the directions on the map.
It appeared that the whole floor got gassed as every turn in the corridor revealed more of the low-hanging green fog. The hallways all looked the same, going in blind it would been very easy to get lost in this place. When everything was the same it was so easy to get turned around. Things had been quiet for far too long. There should have been some kind of a response after the gas and robots had failed, and yet nothing, save that low squalling alarm sounding.
Retro Robo signaled that they had arrived. A massive doorway yawned open into a cavernous hanger. The lighting appeared to be having problems as it flicked on occasion. It was for all intents and purposes a boss arena, anyone who had played games, watched shows, and especially battled the more presentation focused villains could tell at a glance. Sure enough, there sat the unmistakable blackish-blue chitin. That skittering monstrosity, the Vespidian gazed down upon them, her massive head gleaming in the overhead lights.
“Oh, took you long enough.” Replied her deep and unsettling voice, the many eyes descending upon them with a cold and inhuman gleam. “I take it you came for your toy back?”
The Vespidian tossed something before them. The tracking dart clattered on the floor, rolling to a stop, the thick and pungent yellow blood staining and trailing where it had touched the floor. Medavac stepped forward, making sure that Armadillo did not start anything.
“Vesper…”
She tilted her head quizzically, the antenna twitching, “Do I know you?”
“Vesper. My god you got big. It is me, Medavac. What did they do to your head to not remember me?”
She seemed thoughtful, tapping her chin in contemplation, after a long moment she sounded dejected, sad even. “Medavac… hmm…. Ah, old man. I didn’t know you were alive. I thought you died in the hammer strike along with everyone else. It is good to see you, though under the circumstances I am unsure if you being here is a good thing or a bad thing.”
He was relieved that she seemed open. “No, I was evacuating the civis when that happened. I would say it is a good. I was worried about you, you perverted little gremlin.”
“Not so little any more, old man.” She chuckled. “So why have you come here, you old dog you. Come to die with the heroes? I suppose for old times sake I could spare you. Been sparing anybody that wasn’t a dick to me before.”
He shook his head, “No. I came to talk some fucking sense into you girl.”
“Some sense?” Her antennae curled over one another as she tilted her head similarly to a large dog trying to assess something.
Medavac struck at the heart of the matter, “Vesper you don’t really think that Kraken is on your side do you?”
She seemed amused, almost playful, rising to full stature as the mechanical bodies of Neon Nurse clattered to the side falling from her lap like abandoned dolls, “Not particularly. I am not that stupid. I mean, I was absolutely a space case idiot before so I can see where your worries stem from. Maybe before when my brain was like swiss cheese in a couple spots, but not now, not since my regeneration got stronger and filled in the holes. Things have been a lot more clear lately.”
Something wasn’t right. Vesper had always been a bit slow on the uptake, or she would have some wildly inaccurate line of thinking, but now… she seemed focused to an unnerving degree. Though bits and pieces of her oddity seemed to still be there. Could all of her old behavior have just been the side effect of brain damage and now the real her was emerging? Hopefully, that wasn’t the case. Medavac held onto straws that she was still that misguided but good-intentioned at-heart girl.
He stared her down, “Really? Then why are you fighting with them?”
Vesper chuckled a throaty cackle that shook the air, “Why, you act as though it was not the league that drove me away with your corruption, after all, it was the hero league that murdered all my friends and tried to kill me. Thanks to that I hardly have pain receptors any more. Unsurprising considering that melted a good bit, burned nearly to death. Had to spend a week or two in a vat growing like a test tube baby.”
Medavac was aghast, “That was Nightmare, not the league. We put our lives on the line for the city and she back stabbed everyone.”
She nodded understandingly, “True, Nightmare lied, deceived and manipulated her way in, but Nightmare works for Chimera and the League works hand in hand with them. You are interchangeable cogs in the same machine. Most don’t know about that below a certain level, but all the higher ups know. I can’t forgive and I won’t forget.”
Her words struck a cord in him. Having formerly worked for Chimera, they certainly were brutal in their operations. Still, they were the lesser of two evils, extreme actions needed extreme responses. “Vesper it is not too late yet, help us take down Kraken and you will be pardoned, exonerated due to being under duress. I will do everything I can to help you. Hubris even gave an order for your capture alive. I am sure that if you come willingly then you will receive preferential treatment.”
Vesper’s demeanor shifted, closing off as she crossed her arms gazing down upon them. “Why should I do that? Hmm? Why should I believe you? I see the looks I get. I have always gotten those disgusted and revolted looks from the normies and the heroes that were supposedly on my side. Everybody that treated me kindly, but you, is either dead or turned villain. The only difference now is the looks I get are of fear, and respect ever since I developed. Be nice and everybody walks all over you. Stick up for yourself and it is a fucking crime. You weren’t there for the Hammer Strike or when I hunted down and made Nightmare pay for all she did.”
Medavac shook his head, dejected, “I was there Vesper, I saved a lot of lives that day and the following days even as everything around me went to shit. I could only save so many.”
Vesper tilted her head, “Saving the normies? No saving your own skin. I get it. Nobody ever wants to die and it is not like you could stop the Hammer Strike, I don’t think even Molotov could. Do you know what I had to do to survive?”
He paused something telling him that he didn’t want to hear the answer to that, “What did you do? Can’t have been that bad.”
She closed her eyes tilting her head to the ceiling, “I ate them. I ate the charred bodies of those that I had just lost everything to protect. Lost everything for nothing. It didn’t matter. Our sacrifice meant nothing. Chief died for nothing. Sunshine died for nothing. I ate them. Funny, human barely tastes different than pork. Charred and burned as it was my body just as seared, nothing more than an arm attached to a torso and head.”
“Vesper you were desperate. Don’t let a moment like that dictate your whole life.”
The wasp sneered, “But you see. That is the problem, that was just the beginning. I am not human and I have accepted that, embraced it even. When I chose to take Dr. Arbor’s treatment and accelerated my development to regrow my body, something inside of me broke. I merged with the other half of myself and ever since things that made me aghast have lost meaning. I felt nothing but pleasure when I killed Captain Metal and brutally tortured Nightmare. I feel no remorse for my actions. Why should I care about being pardoned for crimes I care little for? Let alone a system that will soon die. Why should I care about the laws of ants?”
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
“You are getting threatened again, aren’t you.”
She blinked, surprised, having to look down at him, “From what I just said, how did you get that conclusion?”
“I know you Vesper. Despite all this that you are trying to rationalize and condemn yourself acting like a villain. I know that deep down you are still that scared girl trying desperately to fit in. Is Molotov holding your family hostage?”
Her hardened lips smacked, “Not directly.”
“Vesper, if you turned on them, we could protect your eggs. We just have to know where they are so that they can be rescued.”
Her white, mask of a face stiffened and split revealing her mandibles that snapped, and her voice descended into a growl, “How do you know about that? Rescued? Xava was right, you will hold them hostage. I have seen it before, you fuckers tried to do that to Glitter Kitten. No. No. I know better. I know you will use them against me. I will kill you all before I let anyone touch my grubbies.”
Her stance became aggressive as she bristled with killing intent. The room still nobody wanting to set her off. Medavac knew her well, this was no idle threat, when she set her mind on it Vesper was cruel and merciless. Not a muscle moved fearing to set the looming beast off.
Medavac broke the tension with two words, “Neon Nurse.”
Vesper stiffened and shook her head laughing lowly, “Oh, trying to make me doubt her? Not going to work I am afraid. Xava would never betray me, just as I will never betray her.”
Medavac kept up the pressure noticing that she was putting up a front, “Vesper, don’t delude yourself, she is only using you like she did everyone else. She has betrayed us all for her own gain. She will sacrifice anyone and everyone for her ambitions.”
Vesper crossed her arms scoffing, “Perhaps, we are using each other. Did you have a point?”
“Don’t trust her. Vesper since the moment I met you just about everyone has tried to use you for something or tried to manipulate you in some way. Neon Nurse is one of the worst offenders of that. Looking back on it, due to how isolated you were she has stockholmed you.”
“You don’t understand,” Vesper smiled, vaguely, “She is the only one I can trust. I believe in her. I mean, if she did betray me I would never trust anyone ever again. Unlike everyone else, she never judged me as a monster, rejected me for being inhuman, she looked past her distaste for organic life and loved me, she is and has been the only one that loves me for who I am and what I am. She died for me with everyone else that day, protecting me. Melting in my arms into molten slag. She has been there for me at my lowest, protecting me. She is the mother of my children and I will kill anyone and everyone that dares to try and stop her. For old times sake, get the fuck out of here before I kill you too. I have enough blood on these hands, but don’t think I am afraid to get more on them.”
“I thought that I knew her too, that she had turned over a new leaf. But I was wrong Vesper. She will throw you away when she is done with you and you are no longer useful. She has done it before, she only cares about herself.” Medavac shook his head sadly, “I know it is hard to look the truth in the face.”
“Truth?” Scoffed the wasp woman, “Her cybernetics have done far more good than evil. Even now she is striving to make a better world. She has saved countless lives and that means nothing to you people. I would have thought one who has received her benevolence would understand her noble goals and purpose. Ah how about this you pardon me and Xava. We will consider sitting this out, but we are not going to help you.”
“Benevolence? Vesper, you are one thing and she is completely different. She has already stabbed us in the back after being pardoned before. She put control overrides, and bombs in her so called gifts. Turned the entire cyber swat force into her henchmen and used them to terrorize the city.”
“Terrorize? Her section of the city was the only one with law and order when the rest of the city was rioting and looting, burning to the ground.” Vesper smiled, “She is very clever isn’t she? I think it is rather sexy how smart she is. My Xava is so smart, I love it.”
“Bombs, Vesper. There is no excuse for threatening people with self destructing limbs if they disobeyed her.”
She squinted down at him. “You are telling me that you can’t cut a deal? You know the lesser of two evils? I won’t abandon her, we are a package deal. I would think that this deal is a good one if nothing else then to not have to fight Xava’s army of robos. Are you guys stupid or something?”
“Vesper, don’t waste your breath, they will never forgive me.” Said one of the Neon Nurses rising from the floor behind the wasp’s leg.
“We trusted you and you sold us out Neon Nurse.” Growled Medavac. “And now you are dragging Vesper down with you.”
Neon Nurse dismissively waved her hand, “She has chosen to stay with me, despite my urging to abandon me and flee the city. I am not manipulating her in the least,” Under her breath she continued, “If anything she has me in the palm of her hands. Making me feel things.” After a moment she resumed in a monotone voice. “But I digress, our sordid affairs are none of your concerns.”
Medavac glared at Neon Nurse, the visor glinting off of the glow from her body, “Don’t make light of what you have done. If you had not turned on us the city could have held out instead of being overrun.”
Neon Nurse’s eyes glinted, processing something, “Unfortunately with how scattered and in disarray the league was, no, it was unsalvageable. By that point Molotov had already infiltrated a contingent of Kraken soldiers and had unified all of the local gangs as her underlings. The Hero League here was doomed even before the Hammer Strike, that just accelerated her plans. I work off of logic, why the hell would I bet on the horse with its legs shot off?”
He grimaced, “It is not about the odds, it is about what is right. We have a responsibility, a duty. You turned your back on all that and now you are dragging Vesper with you. You are a coward, Neon Nurse, a betrayer of everything that we tried to accomplish.”
She thought about that for a long moment. “Coward? Perhaps, but cowards don’t die stupid deaths. Only fools try to out perform their limitations. I more or less ran this city’s workings for the past five years, every year we lost more and more members to the criminals, to over regulation, to lawsuits and civil cases, internal rivalries and retirement. We shipped out many good people that deserved better, trying desperately to appease the civis. The Hero League is flawed, valuing the normies over the Supers. Held hostage by the whims of politicians and the mob of uneducated, ungrateful masses driven to hatred by fear mongering elites desperate to retain their power as the world around them evolves beyond humanity. Doomed to failure, a sinking ship that should have capsized long ago. It was not my ship to go down with. I won’t die for ideals that I never believed in. Why should I listen the ramblings of those who can’t even point on a map where this city is. Humanity has grown stupid, complacent, full of itself.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to turn your back on morals and decency.” Armadillo pointed at her.
“Morals and decency? How quaint. Those won’t save you when your life is on the line. Am I the only one here who realized that the world has been ending since the moment that thing above us arrived? It has been like watching a train wreck in slow motion. From my calculations, assuming the Spore stays dormant, we have at most one hundred years before humanity dies out completely. That thing has already polluted the atmosphere, mutations are rampant as is and soon enough there will not be a single untainted human on this planet. I don’t work off of malice or any of those emotional functions, it is very simple, I don’t want to die a horribly painful mutation death. Which is why ethical concerns have gone out the window, this a matter of survival. Knowing this would you choose to stay shackled in limitations, wasting what precious time remains or would you do as I did and do anything that is necessary to work towards finding a… cure.”
The wasp woman scratched her chin, “I can attest, it is beyond painful mutating. Every cell in your body and mind is ripped apart and feels like it is on fire. If I didn’t have regeneration I would have died.”
Medavac scowled at Vesper, “Don’t make excuses for her actions.”
Her eyes rolled, dismissively, “Don’t all of the scientists do that though? It is just a safety measure to maintain control. I literally have not met any tech supers that in some way have not set up a safety system of extreme measures. Hypocritical is what that is. Medavac, you outfitted your ambulance with a minigun when the shit hit the fan, Chief had a giant mech that he was hiding under the city. That mech behind you is probably set to self destruct if anybody else commandeers it. Or it probably will incapacitate any unauthorized user, isn’t that so, robo lady? It is really not that different.”
“How do you know the spects of my machine?” Retro Robo retorted having been dragged into the conversation.
“Oh that, you were not the only one looking at other’s systems earlier. By the way, Overseer says that your AI is cute for a baby. We are not that bad, if we were that thing would have been filled with viruses. Xava and I might not have issues with you guys, in fact for the most part we want nothing to do with any of this shit going down right now, I mean why do you think we only used sleepy gas on you?” Vesper smiled, disarmingly. “Why do you think I have not just started punching and squishing you guys? Xava wants to make a deal, hedge our bets so to speak.”
Armadillo crossed his arms, “You killed my people and now you want a deal?”
“We had to keep up appearances.” Replied Xava, “Kraken is breathing down our necks after all.”
He seemed thoughtful on it, “Depending on what it is, I would have to ask.”
Neon Nurse smiled it was unsettling how plastic and lifeless her face was, “Why that is very simple. I have need of something that you so graciously brought to the city. In return for me, shutting down all communications within the city, withdrawing all of my forces, selling out all of the Kraken assists in the city and at large over the Globe, lairs included of course, their current locations, schemes, identities and… loved ones should Chimera wish to persuade them or simply torture them. In fact I even know the exact current location of the Sanguine Puppeteer. In return all I ask for is the Citadel of Order.”
Just about everybody did a double take, even Vesper who lowered herself down, whispering, “Xava that is a bit more than we discussed.”
“I am asking a lot, they need appropriate compensation.”
Armadillo broke into a coughing laugh at the absurdity of the request, after hitting his chest a few times he replied, “You think that can bargain for the Citadel of Order? I thought you were smart. You would have to do what you just said for us to pardon a traitor like you.”
Xava grew cold, that smile even faker as she was clearly trying to be amicable, “A name drop like that and you don’t even react. I don’t think you understand how dangerous the situation is here. Why, if you Heroes, don’t deal with that thing we are all, fucked? I believe that would be the correct terminology.”
Armadillo replied, his arms crossed. “I am not authorized to make such a deal, and even if I was I don’t trust you enough to think that you would ever hold up your end.”
The doors behind them opened and in walked more Neon Nurses. The uniform appearance between all of them, the short clean bob-cut, the black and red nurse outfits, glowing green eyes, and red pulsing vein-like tubes along their synthetic flesh. The one at the forefront was different, the hair lighter and there were no glowing tubes in her skin. The eyes were a light blue, the expression on her face waving between terror and relief as tears smeared down that supple skin. Armadillo reeled at the sight of the familiar face.
“Light Fly.” He said in disbelief, that quickly turned to anger as he grasped the Neon Nurse before him and shook her by the collar, “What have you done to her?”
Vesper growled reaching for him, but stopped when Neon Nurse patted her on the leg. The massive woman crossed her arms staring daggers down.
“Got your attention now?” Neon Nurse asked the smile never leaving her face even as it jarred violently.
“You threatening us?” asked Retro Robo, her mech posed to attack.
The fake face shook from side to side, “No. If anything you are threatening me here. I am releasing her to you in… good faith? Now that is only if you accept the deal. She is in good health, all things considered, I saved her life after the beat down that she got during that altercation.”
“What do you want?” Armadillo asked shoving her away from him.
“I told you. The Citadel of Order. How about this, in addition to all mentioned before I will also release all of the heroes that I have captured, you will need them to fight Kraken. Light Fly included of course.”
“Why should we trust this deal?”
Xava rose and adjusted her disheveled suit, creasing out the wrinkles, “I have been more than civil, despite you invading my lair, threatening and well, just being awful guests. Now accept the deal or things are about very violent in here.”
“Neon Nurse, we can’t take that deal.” Said Medavac, “We don’t have the authority. You will have to talk to Hubris and he is going to want to see you face to face.”
Neon Nurse looked over each of the group for a dissenting voice, but all of them had clammed up. Heroes, her eyes rolled. “Shame, I expected someone to at least lie and say that you would take the deal.” replied Xava her tone cold and disinterested. “I would say that it was a pleasure to meet you, but I would be lying. And that, that is just rude.”
All at once the lights cut out and the ground below them gave way. Medavac felt weightless, disorientated, flailing to grasp anything, but the walls were smooth and slick greesed with something to make it impossible to climb up. Some of the others were screaming. The echoes of metal banging against walls and the splatter of bodies thudding against spikes below. The world jarring violently at the bottom of the pit.
The lights turned back on, the space before Vesper void of people as the floor resealed. The Vespidian stared down Retro Robo in her mech, who had been to the side and back of the others. The massive wasp woman cracked her knuckles and neck her eyes narrowing with malevolence as her tongue slowly licked across her lips.
Retro gazed apprehensively at the screen filled with that giant mountain of muscle and carapace that was about to come charging straight at her. The Evening Star booting into unrestricted mode, a plethora of weapon systems priming. Even with enough firepower to level several city blocks… would it be enough? Something told her, not even close. Instinct perhaps or doubt, either way, Retro Robo flipped up the safety cover on the controls with her thumb. The snarky AI face to her side chattering, trying to reason with her. If she was going to go down, she was gonna take that wasp with her.