At first, Io had found herself trapped. The mass that slammed out of the suite blocked her from one side while the mass she’d been pushing back faced her from the other. The silhouette from the suite chased Helen’s group. It ignored Io as it slithered into the stair case.
Io released a burst of energy from both palms. The webbing in front of her flailed on the floor from the discordant energy but refused to deactivate. She tried to make it obey, but the force controlling it proved far stronger than her own. She stepped backwards to slip between the jagged edges of the broken hatch. Without the others to protect, she didn’t need to fight.
For now, she could make herself invisible to Nyx’s silhouettes. An entire cabinet of alcohol winked at her. Io took bottle after bottle and began to chug it all down, every last drop. The beer was left unharmed, as was the wine. It didn’t have enough alcohol to justify processing. The excess moisture evaporated through her neck with each gulp as she concentrated it internally. It could be held in a nice little pocket near her liver for later.
Once the entire sink filled with glass bottles, she peered back out the halls. As suspected, all the silhouettes had gone after Alfred. Even the pipes had gone silent. Broken pipes crusted with hardened gunk lined the walls. Sprays of black stained the floor and the wall. Even the emergency lights had gone out to leave the halls in darkness. With Nyx controlling ever more of the base’s electrical distribution, they wouldn’t have long. Io pressed her head and closed her eyes. She looked towards the broken glass leading to the arena and then to the stairs.
She slipped off her loafers and stocking. Jumping to the bottom of the arena would be more efficient. The broken glass didn’t bother her feet as she could run between the shards before jumping off the veranda cliff. Feet landed in the sand as she shifted her torso and rolled. Her body recoiled at the pressure that pushed over her head. But she got to her feet and cracked her back. Injuries sustained to her structure healed instantly.
“Not bad,” she whispered to herself as she approached the large arena hatch and gave the console a swipe. It opened to basement floor three of the arena. Battery powered lanterns lit the space. A small crew of soldiers in improvised armor raised guns at her as the door opened.
“I’m a friend,” she said, “I’m unarmed.”
“How did you get in the arena?” a middle-aged woman aiming a beretta pistol asked, “It’s sealed off because of the asphalt.”
Io scanned the hall. Three threats with projectile weapons were identified. Five threats with melee weapons stood to the back. The side rooms for prisoners held some life signs but from their positioning they seemed to be wounded. There would be no time to heal them. Io politely squared her shoulders and nodded her head. As she walked past the small group of combat refugees they attacked. The berretta fired, missing so badly Io didn’t have to move to dodge.
A pipe came down over her head. Io grabbed it and flung it against a hand holding the gun. A man rushed her with a baseball bat. This was optimal, they couldn’t use ranged weapons effectively in such close quarters if someone was in the way. Some of them were disoriented from the sound. These people had little experience with firearms. They were not security.
With one hand she pulled the bat from his grip, with the other she grabbed his arm and flung him into a woman aiming a small pistol. A young man dove for one of the fallen pistols. Io’s leg went up and slammed down on the back of his head to knock him senseless. Another pistol fired but Io dodged the bullet with a slight lean of her back. The baseball bat flew into another woman’s chest with such force that the little gun fell out of her hand.
“You shouldn’t attack people who are on your side!” Io scolded.
The rest of the group backed up. Nobody went for the guns. Io kept an eye on them as she left without causing further harm. She sighed with relief once she reached a staircase that remained clean. Helen waited her return
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
-----
Lauren’s footsteps faded as she ran, taking Alfred with her. That was a necessary gamble. Without help, they wouldn’t get very far if they encountered turrets of silhouettes. But they would be dead if they stayed here. Helen snickered as the blob of boiling asphalt aggregate twice her height bubbled at her. It blocked the lane between steel frame and concrete buildings. A psychotic laugh came from an unseen mouth.
Helen made a fist and swung it down next to her hip as her braided hair pulsed with static power.
“Are you having one of your manic phases, or are you just a copy of too many copies? I wouldn’t overestimate myself so much if I were you, little sister.”
The blob continued to laugh as tendrils stretched to grab for Helen. They lashed for her face, and then her arms. All the attacks missed their mark, but Helen had to continually yield ground without even slowing the mass from its progress. Punching or touching it directly would be too dangerous. She shot it with a blast of her raw power. The electrical interference of her own MER reverberated through the creature. Finally, it slowed, hardened at the edges. But it recovered too quickly for Helen to keep up. Another blast of power rippled through the creature. This one did not come from Helen. The silhouette crumbled at the edges of the alley to create an opening. Io darted through to rejoin her sister.
“I don’t think this one is fully controlled by Nyx,” Helen said, “She wouldn’t be able to resist talking back. The structural integrity is unsound and the MER are not synchronized.”
“What’s your analysis?”
“The remnants of the MER Lavinia used to finish the captain are conflicting with the MER continuously donated from Nyx.”
“So, this one is going to get a lot stronger?”
“Yes, and soon. But let’s at least slow it down some before we leave.”
“Together?” Io asked.
Helen smiled, “Yes, together.”
They put the backs of their fists together. The arcing of current around their fingers formed a brilliant blue glow even as the early afternoon sun glared over the lanes. They ran keeping their fists together and punched towards the creature. Stopped just short of touching it. A ripple power ran though the solidifying liquid. The creature slowed, hardened, and crumbled apart at the edges as Io and Helen stepped back.
“That was a good one, lots of power,” Helen coughed, spitting up glowing blue liquid.
“You weren’t so powerless yourself,” Io coughed and wiped the same liquid from her lower lip, “If we linger, it’ll recover and we’ll be absorbed.”
Helen assessed the situation. The greater portion of the body hardened into a shell. Much of it crumbled away, so much that the lane remained opened at one side. The laughing had stopped. It stopped moving. As the outside hardened, Helen sensed the core consolidating. She clenched her fingers but blue blood dripped from her burnt skin as the wound refused to heal immediately. Their MER were exhausted, and they’d have far more to deal with than this thing.
“Alfred, I forgot about Alfred. I shouldn’t have let you help me!” Helen said, “Let’s go. We have to catch up to Alfred.”
They ran.
A tendril shot forth. It reached past Helen to her Helen’s waist. Io chopped it, but instead of deactivating the tendril slithered away from Helen to wrap itself over Io’s hand. Blue sweat dripped from her forehead onto her shirt as she pulled to get away. No matter how hard she punched the tendril she couldn’t manage enough power to get it off her wrist. Various slender tendrils grew like a fungus to absorb vital life fluids full of deactivated robots dripping from Io’s pores. Helen skidded back to her sister. Io shook her head, whispered.
“Run stupid!”
Helen stepped back, tensed, shivered as she watched Io kick at the silhouette only to get her feet caught inside, then turned and ran. The sound of whips cutting the air in reaching for Helen sped her pace. One almost grabbed her braided hair put Io pulled it back. Then there was a death curdling scream followed by a sizzle of electric, a pop and a splatter.
Brown hair tied in a braided pony tail lifted up with a hot wind as she ran. Splatters of tar hit the cement. Pieces of Io flew upwards. Her severed head frozen in determination, two arms, unidentifiable sections of torso, all of them rained a blue, red, and black liquid over the silhouette.
The piece got swung around as they were caught in mid-air by ropey arms of tar. Helen ran, she didn’t dare look back for her sister. A section of the blob broken and hardening from the explosion crunched on the flesh like a spider feasting upon its prey. It was difficult enough of a sound to hear as Io’s MER absorbed into Nyx much like Lucretia’s had been so many years ago. Idiot, this would only make Nyx stronger, so much stronger!
Helen made it to the hangar tower without being caught. Once the hatch sealed shut, she flung herself against the step and buried her head in her arms. Her forehead pressed against the hot metal stares. All ability to sense her sister flickered away into the void of Nyx. An anguish filled scream filled the stair case, then silence.
The sound of footsteps rushing upstairs echoed against metal walls.