The Vespidian
Arc 9 Twilight
Chapter 7 Interlude: Into Madness
“Love shall prevail! I will deal with you next time Evil Robo Nurse Stripper!” Declared the strange cat girl that Vesper had morphed into. Her skin was glossy pink like latex had been poured over her and took on that shape. Her head was no longer elongated as it usually was, instead, it was rounded and large like an amusement park mascot. The face was fake, a plastered grin perpetually stuck below the wide eyes that did not move besides the swirling pattern where the whites should be. Even when she talked nothing moved.
Sunshine had already left and the crazed caricature followed her. Medavac helped Xava get back up as she frowned heavily, watching what had become of Vesper flee and proceed to start terrorizing the streets below. Her eye twitched.
“I don’t know what the fuck that was about, but is it just me or did Vesper get super slutty looking? I mean that ass was at least a seven, and since when did she have nipples on those kitty titties?” commented Medavac.
“We have better things to worry about than Vesper growing nipples.”
“Hey, somebody had to say it. We were all thinking it.”
“My sleepy juice didn’t affect her. It must have been blocked by either her suit or whatever that pink substance is."
“Look at the rack on that one,” said Medavac, leaning out the window before his face twisted with apparent pain, “Oof, not the giblets. That is just uncalled for.”
Vesper, or rather Neko-chan just elbow dropped some skimpy dressed woman with overly large breasts and bleach blond hair. The blow crushed her into the ground and a shower of rainbows faded as the woman shrunk in proportions returning to normal. It was only after the illusion faded that the rainbow turned red and the crushed woman lay still.
“Oh fuck. Did she just kill a Normie? This complicates things some of those illusions have people in them,” said Chief rubbing his face, “The press is going to eat us alive after this. Sunshine will have to own up to this, it won’t be pretty.”
“Shouldn’t we stop her?” asked Enforcer.
“I don’t think that we can, not without hurting her. We need to deal with the source directly,” said Xava, “It would likely be prudent to allow Sunshine to rampage, she seems to be fighting the things emerging out of the sphere. At the very least they don’t seem to be getting along.”
“So it is worse than we thought,” nodded Medavac watching what was once Neko-chan frolicking about like a drunk and wrestling strangely seductive women, while screaming special moves like some Saturday morning cartoon hero.
“It is. If the projections can assimilate others and warp them to their will, then we will have even more problems. I will have to analyze this… secretion?” Said Xava with disdain.
She opened and closed her pointer finger around a sticky pink substance. Her visor lit up as she scanned it. Text scrolled past her unblinking eyes while they darted reading the quickly fading script. She walked as they quickly left the destroyed room, heading to prepare for deployment. Someone had to stop this insanity and surely it was not going to be Sunshine and her delusions. Though they would be a good distraction.
“It appears to be a pyscho-kinetic substance able to warp reality. Interesting, it has hallucinogenic properties and appears to increase dopamine and serotonin production. I can only assume that long-term exposure would lead to addiction and mental deterioration for those afflicted by it. That certainly explains why Sunshine is as crazy as she is, her outfit is made of the stuff and she coats herself with it almost at all times.”
“So it is like taking a hit of acid?” asked Medavac.
“More like soaking in a bathtub full of it. I am pretty sure that Vesper might be tasting colors and seeing sound right now.”
“That, eh, that sounds like one hell of a trip. No wonder Vesper lost it.”
“We have to save Vesper,” said Neon Nurse fast walking down the corridor beside the others, “She is more sensitive to stimuli than humans. There is no telling what will happen if she has to endure prolonged exposure.”
“I know,” said Fire Chief visibly shaken, “There are a lot of people that we have to save. If any of you are hiding special pet projects of the highly dangerous and possibly illegal variety, well now would be the time to bring them out.”
She tilted her head, “Oh, does that mean we can pull out all of our toys without worrying about them getting confiscated?”
“Yes, I think that given how fucked up this situation is we can turn a few blind eyes to things. I have a few things I have been hiding as well,” smirked Chief before he crossed his arms and glowered. “If we don’t stop this there won’t be a city left to come back to.
Medavac chuckled, “Oh, what sort?”
“The 15 meter tall mech variety. What do you guys got?” he asked.
“I knew it! I knew you were a hiding a mega mech down there. No wonder you have been spending so much time down there even though the suits are now automated in their creation,” nodded Neon Nurse.
“I was actually hoping I wouldn’t have to use the damned thing.”
“It is better to be over prepared than under prepared.”
“So anything special you guys are holding out with? Don’t you have a giant cyborg squid?”
“I did, but I sold that a while ago. Besides, I don’t think squidy would be of much help here. Although, I have a little something that I have been working on for a while now. But it is going to take about ten minutes to get it deployed.” She said as her eyes lit up and text scrolled past the visor on the battle suit.
“Alright, meet out front in ten minutes. We will proceed as planned. Enforcer, expedite the evacuations. Make sure that my wife and son get out of the city.”
The shiny chrome face plate tilted slightly as he nodded, “Very well, I will escort Tim and Rachel to safety myself. We will begin evacuation over the bridge and through the tunnels.”
Chief tapped his helmet patching through over the coms, “This is Fire Chief I will be assuming command all forces still within the city. Until this situation has been dealt with Bronson City is hereby a Free Fire Zone. Powers will no longer be restricted! I repeat, Free Fire Zone. Any and all resistance will be dealt with accordingly. We must contain this now. Evacuate the normies and try to keep that bubble suppressed.”
“I didn’t think you had it in you to do it,” said Medavac smirking.
“Even I can be pushed too far. It is clear this is a threat that we can’t underestimate. Alright, you all know what to do, get to it,” said Fire Chief with a final wave before he jogged down the corridor and proceeded into the workshop areas.
The team split up from here. Medavac quickly went his way, likely to fish out his hidden stash of illegal military-grade weapons, which left the two cyborgs alone. Xava quickened her pace with Enforcer following behind her.
“Command Prompt Admin Mode, password Vanguard.” said Xava and Enforcer jolted for a moment before mechanically moving again.
“Awaiting orders.”
“Execute Order 79.”
“Is the extreme prejudice protocol active?”
“Yes,” nodded Xava, “Exterminate Dreamer or rather Rachel on sight. Once Sunshine has been neutralized, she will likely be disoriented and vulnerable for a short while after being freed of the delusions, assuming she is alive. If she is, make her cease to be.”
“Acknowledged. What of the organics?”
“They are of little concern. Priority set for redundant, keep losses within acceptable parameters. Proceed with the evacuation as normal until there is a lapse in the Psychokinetic field. If there are accidents on the escape routes clear them by any means necessary. If you need to throw cars off of the bridge, then do it, just make sure there are not people in them. We have appearances to maintain.”
“Acknowledged.”
“End Command Prompt.”
He froze mid stride as the light flickered again and returned to normal. Enforcer took a solid step and continued, “Xava?”
“Yes?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder.
“You could have just asked.” He replied, crossing his arms.
“Yes, but it is insurance in case she somehow manages to mind control you. The assisted AI will take over in that event. She might be able to infect the flesh, but not the machine. It is the weakness of all Mind Divers.”
“I see. If she really is Chimera, then she definitely needs to go.”
“She is, I assure you.”
“So be it.”
He left to inform the other cyber swat members of the orders that he had received. She continued on until she was all alone. Xava walked out into the street, watching the strangeness of the cascading illusions spilling into reality. The incandescent colors were like an oil spill reflecting back shimmering mirages. It was almost beautiful, almost. It was ruined by the dark and twisted figures shambling out into the world. The flurry of activity that had been resounding through the city with explosions had quieted down. Sunshine and her assembled creations had plunged headlong into the sphere, leaving a gaping hole in the otherwise pristine bubble. The cries of innocent people and the wails of emergency response vehicles filled the sudden void.
She tapped her helmet watching as the dot moved on the overlay. It moved rather briskly down the thoroughfare and after a mere five minutes, the ground rumbled minutely at the approach. A large metal claw, a pincer came into view from behind a building. Methodically the rest of the machine appeared. It weaved the eight slender yet sturdy legs between the cars abandoned in the street. It was a giant robotic scorpion, complete with the tail mounted syringe. Granted the size of the needle would be more like impaling a person with a spear than giving a shot. Of course, this machine wasn’t meant for fighting Normies.
Unlike Neon Nurse’s usual color scheme, it was black with red accent lines glowing softly. It approached, lowering itself to the ground and she spent a final moment, nodding to herself with approval over her creation. It was the Robo Scorpio MKI. It could scale walls and even jump between buildings. When the legs were fully extended the main body was ten meters off of the ground. The tail was twenty meters long, allowing for flexible, fluid movements and an incredible reach. The body itself was seven meters long, but only four across. Each of the two pincers could crush a car with ease.
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It had been created with Vira’s expert robotic knowledge, Xava’s tedious experimentation, and unknowingly parts of it had been designed by Chief. This machine was capable of fighting Den Mother heads up and winning. There was a reason that Xava was fascinated by insects, they reminded her of little organic machines. If they were simply larger, then humans would not be the dominant species on the planet, not that they were anymore. No, ever since the emergence of Supers that place had been firmly rested from humanity’s grasp.
Insects were alien, foreign, different than mammals and other creatures in their physical makeup. She thought them utterly cute and adorable or else she would never have made so many little robos to take care of just about any task. This was part of what attracted her to Vesper in the first place.
Just when she was about to climb into the now open cockpit the bay doors opened. Out rolled several treaded fire engines. The bright red paint glistened as they lined up. Each housed two of the glaring yellow and red striped firefighter super suits. One drove while the other manned the water cannon on the top. They were one of the firehouse crews. The rest were already dispatched throughout the city trying to deal with the fires that had erupted due to arson and people attempting to flee the encroaching mass.
Overhead the dropship settled into a low hover. Medavac had made short work of jury-rigging some weapons onto the flying ambulance. It wasn’t hard, in fact that ship itself was originally a military vehicle that got stripped. The mounts were all there to begin with. The back hatch was wide open and two miniguns sat mounted side by side. His paramedics were harnessed in place so that no matter how wild the turbulence got they wouldn’t get flung out.
The only one who wasn’t here yet was Chief. The nearby parking lot shifted and sides lifted before sliding to the side with a rumble. It was a secret loading bay. The first thing to appear were the heavy cannons fixed to the shoulders. Each could rival the guns on those strange glowing ships that had advanced into the abyss. On the back were silo like tanks connected to the cannons. Overall the mech mirrored Fire Chief’s smaller, ten foot tall suit from the rusted red and yellow stripes, to the thick fingers, and the head even looked like a firefighter helmet complete with glowing blue visor. The only real difference was the proportions of everything.
It had a very humanoid appearance. The hands were large enough to carry cars without trouble. Still the size of it was a bit much. It was not hard to see why it had not been used. It was simply too big when one had to worry about damaging property. It simply walking smashed the street due to how much it weighed let alone what would happen to buildings if it took sharp turns or misjudged clearance spaces. Just from looking at it one could easily assume that it was meant to destroy. In the wrong hands, this mech could likely level a city in a day or two and it didn’t even have military weapons as far as could be seen.
“Where did you get the funding for that thing?” asked Xava.
“… I am unsure.” He replied, taking a step that cracked the pavement. “I see your hands have not been completely idle. You sure do like scorpions.”
“My Robo Scorpions shall rule the world! … Ah, well Vesper would have gotten that one. Joking aside, the design is pretty nice. It gives me the luxuries of a tank and maneuverability that is hard to match.”
“So do we even have a concrete plan?” asked Medavac over the coms.
“We are dealing with an imagination that has come to life. As such, we must be able to react to an ever-changing environment. We can also assume that a lot of the nice scientific things that we take for granted, like gravity, might not exist once we get in there.”
“True enough, but if it is like that, how are we ever going to get close enough to stick her with a needle?”
“I have a way to disarm her, so to speak. Unfortunately, I must get closer for the signal to be relayed. That sphere of imagination is disrupting my transmissions. Otherwise, this would have been rather simple to deal with. So once we get in range I can temporarily subdue her powers long enough for us to get to her real body and induce the coma or if things get dire kill her.”
Medavac took a moment to respond, “Killing her eh? Might be warranted depending on the circumstances. Still, it would leave a bad taste in my mouth to have to bury that brat.”
Chief nodded, “It might be more humane than capturing her and shipping her off to the Institute again.”
“True,” said Xava, “They will likely lobotomize her if she can’t be controlled.”
“The full wipe… might as well be death,” said Medavac. “It is mental murder.”
“Yes, they got the idea from the Puppeteer and their cult experiments,” said Chief.
Xava frowned slightly and climbed into the Scorpio. She was well aware of what the Institute would do having narrowly avoided going there herself. She would rather die than let somebody steal away her memories and overwrite her personality. Her brain was one of the few remaining organic components she still had and until she could make a better one she was not going to part with it.
She lay back in the command pod as the reinforced glass sealed shut, cutting off the outside world. Plugs connected to thick cables slid into various ports on her body linking her neural net directly into the machine. It became an extension of her body. Though the senses were dulled, she could still hear and see her surroundings.
“Everybody ready?” asked Chief.
“““Ready.””” Echoed the gathered people.
The group moved forward Medavac leading the way on account of his craft being faster. He scouted out the now desolate street. Below, the pavement cracked and fissured from a battle. A strange groove had melted a ten foot across section of the road and even sheered through two buildings before vanishing into the slowly advancing bubble. Broken and disfigured bodies lay scattered. Their bones twisted and warped, they hardly looked human.
Xava slowed, inspecting one of the malformed entities, scanning over it. It was human at one point, but now it was all jumbled and foreign matter had replaced damaged areas like scar tissue. It was a different substance than what Sunshine had produced. This black goo was the opposite of Sunshine’s pink stuff instead of increasing serotonin and dopamine production it greatly decreased their production. While it did cause hallucinations it also caused depression.
“Looks like a damned war zone,” commented Medavac as his ship hovered a little ahead.
He wasn’t wrong. Craters dotted the ruined cityscape and bodies lay scattered about. To their approach, varied figures that should well and be dead sat up. Black ooze pouring out of their wounds like puss from an infection. Most of their faces were twisted into horrifying silent screams and that included the extras growing like tumors from their bodies. These weren’t people at all, they were monsters.
The metallic claws of the Scorpio slammed down, smooshing several of them. The black goop spurt out like toothpaste. She swung smashing and swatting at the ever-increasing numbers of zombie-like creatures. Every time she killed one the liquid would flow a short distance away and puddle forming into a new creature and begin shambling towards them again.
The telltale whir of Medava’s miniguns was the only warning before the hail of bullets rained down tearing the misshapen creatures to pieces. The impacts detonated, sending chunks, and debris scattering from the explosive rounds. The lines of hits trailed through the ranks culling them and turning a few into black vapor from the sheer force of the bullets. Fires spread as cars lit up being consumed by the bombardment.
A blast of foamed water sent several of them flailing and flopping on the ground a short distance from where they had been hit. The inky substance melted away, revealing either nothing at all or the blank face of the person who had been trapped inside. However, a few of them started screaming hysterically once they had been freed. Most of them seemed to be nearly comatose or even dead, their bodies were being controlled by some other means. Much like a puppet on strings. Likely the black substance was to blame.
“Ugh, this is like that radioactive zombie incident all over again. Chief we will break them down you kill that black shit when it tries to reform,” said Medavac.
“On it!” he replied, honing his massive cannons in on the slithering darkness.
Xava and Medavac beat back the creatures and the gunk gathered, congealing in one spot. Chief let loose the soapy liquid and it drowned the massing psycho-kinetic pool. Horrifying wails filled the air as the blackness boiled and frothed. It took a long while, but the mass evaporated. The mist flowed back into the bubble.
“What exactly did you shoot that stuff with?”
“A prototype counter agent I have been working on for a while. It suppresses superpowers, well at the least that is the desired result. It seems to be working on this, but since this is the first time I have actually used it, it might just be extremely toxic and harmful. I won’t know until I test it more.”
“Where the hell did you come up with that sort of idea? I didn’t even know that kinda thing was possible.”
“I got the idea from Captain Liberty since, you know, he can suppress and even nullify other Super’s powers.”
“Makes sense. You have any blueprints for this?” asked Xava.
“No, I keep it all in my head. This sort of thing would be extremely dangerous if it got into the wrong hands. Besides, it isn’t ready yet.”
“Mhmm, true. I see why you were keeping it secret. If we have something like that then we should be able to push on through and get to Sunshine.”
While they had been discussing things. More and more distorted creatures emerged from the darkness. These were bestial rather than humanoid. They had many legs, some more than others. Canine-like things loped across the rubble of destroyed buildings and bat monsters flapped about, circling and diving at Medavac’s ship. Larger six, eight, and even ten-legged abominations scurried, darting between buildings and scaling the concrete towers. Some of them looked vaguely reminiscent of Vesper, however, they were wrong, warped. Others were things that didn’t particularly match anything in this world. These were creatures crawling straight out of a fevered nightmare.
These abominations were much faster and craftier than the shambling masses that they started dragging back into the bubble. A pack of spined hound-like creatures started rushing towards the fire truck. They only had a single eye, however when they howled their bodies’ split in half, revealing rows of daggered teeth and long drooling tongues. The stream from the water turret knocked several of them back, but they divided, coordinating their attack from multiple fronts.
Their loping lunges closed the barren ground in moments and they slammed into the sides of the vehicle. It listed from the impact, but the treads held firm, even smashing one as it got run over. The fire crew switched it into reverse and started retreating. The hounds did not give up. Several ate one another, merging and growing into a single beast. It charged forward, ignoring the soapy water stream that could strip flesh from bones.
It jabbed the snout under the track and flipped the emergency vehicle into the air. It spun several times as the creature waited for it to come back down. The body twisted into a giant mouth and sunk its fangs into the thick metal. The monster shook it back and forth like a squeaky toy as the metal crunched and bent. The two firefighters managed to get free and thrown from the vehicle moments before the whole thing was pulled in vanishing.
Having absorbed the vehicle the shape and form shifted, taking on aspects of the recent prey. Though it vaguely looked like a treaded tank, it was corrupted and clawed arms came out of the sides like a centipede. Mouths and eyes started growing from the hull. Whip like tentacles filled the air around it. The monstrosity turned its attention to Xava and her giant scorpion as it ripped apart shadow creatures.
She turned feeling the vibrations through the pavement of the charging thing. The thick tail lunged out broadsiding the enemy and dissipating most of the momentum. The pincers grasped at the flanks, holding it back. Tentacles clawed and mouths snarled chomping in an attempt to get at her. The pincers snapped shut crushing the metal within the darkness as Xava lifted the writhing mass up and held it up for the torrent of foam to wash it clean.
It writhed and screamed in pain, bubbling as the black ooze melted off like rotten flesh. Eyes bulged before bursting like zits. It squirmed chunks sloughing off in attempts to retreat. Fire Chief stomped forward, crushing the screaming pieces before they could escape. The fire truck fell to the ground freed from the inky influence. It was damaged beyond operational requirements due to the large gouges torn through it.
Medavac’s shuttle deftly maneuvered between buildings dog fighting the winged terrors. Bullets sprayed through the air, clipping wings and sending the things crashing to the ground below. The whine of the spinning barrels barely masked the shrieks of pain from the bat like creatures. A particularly well-placed bullet tore off a head, revealing the poor soul that inhabited it. It spiraled away, splattering on the pavement below. The craft opened up sending several rockets through a building and it toppled over crushing a swarm of the darklings below.
With the skies cleared for the moment, Medavac circled back. Below the fire crew had retreated a good distance, but were being surrounded by hound like monsters. The barrels spun, sending sprays of bullets down, devastating the mass of minions. The ship lowered to near ground level, picking up the two armored men before they were overrun by the squalling monsters.
“Chief, I don’t know how it is going to be in there, but I am going to stay out here and run support. If these things keep flooding out unchecked, there is no telling what they will do. You two go in there I will cover you. I am going to have to restock on ammo pretty soon too.”
“He is right, we are wasting time here. No matter how many we strike down, they just keep coming. We need to get to the source,” said replied Chief.
Xava swiped sending a line of the blackened things smashing against the side of a building like bugs on a windshield, “I have an idea. Coat us in your foam and let’s end this.”
The white substance bubbled as it covered the scorpion’s outer shell and Chief’s suit. Medavac made another strafing run, clearing a path to the bubble. They advanced Xava taking the lead and submerging into the abyss. He was close behind, holding onto the tail so as not to lose her as they passed into this new reality. With a final glance, the shimmering outside that was distorted with ripples vanished. There was no going back.
A wasteland of withered flowers and shriveled trees extended as far the eye could see. In the air, however there was a floating castle in the distance. A battle raged in the immediate area. Lasers cut clouds, animals were being flung back and forth, dark misshapen monsters spiraling in death throws against the glowing creatures. Ships smoked and crashed out of the sky, exploding below in bright cascades of color. Above everything something moved, the nightscape shifted, revealing that it was no sky, but an eye looking down, watching the spectacle unfolding.