The android known as Byte took on Idaho’s finest along with the extra perk of fighting a national threat from France. This unit was Campbell's outstanding achievement, an autonomous fighter capable of taking on singularity users. Made from the greatest minds gathered worldwide, truly Byte would usher in a different kind of era for humanity.
Thus, were the intentions and goals Campbell sought to gain. He watched on from another room, but there was a worry in him. He never made a note for another monster to come stumbling into his facility, let alone a famous one. His eyes steered to look at Pearl, who sat behind him. They were located within one of the viewing rooms, accompanied by other scientists.
“Is that the same one you had me fight? It looks different.” Pearl tapped her finger against the chair, sending out tiny waves of energy naked to the human eye. She tested the building and made a note of everyone within the room and outside in the hall.
“Why, yes! It looks different because we’ve taken the liberty of improving her! That is my child!!!” He proudly proclaimed, only for the uninterested eyes of Pearl to steer towards him for a brief moment, then returning to the fight.
“Some child… Lay waste to your flesh and what may you find underneath.” A more cryptic wording more akin to the Pearl, Campbell always sees during tournaments.
“Underneath is humanity’s greatest achievements combined!”
“Unnatural concoction.” While the two of them entered into a debate, a few guards outside the viewing room picked up chatter on their comms. There was four total, but they each split off into groups of two heading into different facility sections.
Two of them stepped into an elevator with another scientist. The elevator started to take them down towards the lower levels of the facility. When the doors opened, both guards escorted the scientist to a room filled with data centers distributed around the room. Once inside, the guards collapsed to the ground while the scientist started to take the data, recording and downloading what they could. The scientist took the data and put it all into a compact chip. Hearing chatter from the downed guards, the comm-links were in a buzz. This being had no intention of answering it.
A swift kick sent Maria and Angela into Adelle and Heidi. Byte once more stood firm before their organic superiors; with the simple swipe of their hand. The unit brushed a few strands of hair to the side.
“Observation: I am clearly above your level of expertise.” Byte started its approach. “Suggestion: Go all-out, so that you may improve, and I shall improve with you.” The android suddenly stopped in its position. Glancing down, it noticed its lower bodily functions were frozen in place. Ice out of nowhere, sticking them to the ground.
The androids' eyes peered in the direction of Alexia, who held their arms out, concentrating.
“Analysing: Decreasing temperatures confirmed. Gravity signatures altering, Heat levels subsidi-” Byte immediately hit in the face once more by an incoming star from Alexia. This time it caused quite the damage to the arena behind the unit. But, like the first, the android was hardly damaged.
“Urgh! What is this thing made of?!” Frustration, clearly rising in Alexia. In this case, she wasn’t wrong; whatever protected the droid allowed it to ping off incoming projectiles with ease, either the skin or the metallic surface underneath. “Fine… Plan B.” The others didn’t even think she had a plan B.
Alexia closed in on Byte delivering solid hits to the chest of the android. No dents insight, but with each punch, they progressively became faster and stronger! [Stardust] manifesting and scattering from each kinetic hit. Only for the final blow to send an enormous amount into the unit's body. The collection of stardust forced the unit out of the ring. Alexia peeked down, noticing her ice still held the droids feet firmly in place.
Byte laid there on the ground, scanning their bodily functions. “Quirky Remark: I appear to be two feet in the grave. Ha. Ha. Ha.” Quite the monotonic laughter that merely gave Alexia chills.
Heidi moved Angela off her; both of them had collided at one point during the fight. “Did you beat it?” Angela immediately slammed her hands against Heidi’s face. Poor Heidi wasn’t prepared for it, only attempting to pucker up from the hit; her cheeks healed up immediately after.
“Don’t say such a thing! You know how this plays out!” Just as Angela predicted, the ice around Byte’s ripped off feet broke off, thrusters activated, forced the legs of the android back to the main body, slowly beginning to reattach itself.
Adelle dusted herself off, not enjoying one bit of this still. Maria, on the other hand, moved in quickly to finish off the unit. “And the victory strike goes to me~!”
Right as Maria was about to strike, the match ended abruptly, forcing all of them out. Byte caught Maria’s hand and simply ceased any hostile actions towards the group, scanning for the cause of this abrupt ending.
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“Are we done?” Adelle asked.
“Mary, stop striking the unit...Uh...Byte?” Angela tried to recollect this android's name while watching Maria continue to beat on it out of frustration of the match ending. Byte took each hit unphased before replying to the group.
“Analysis: Security system unresponsive.” Byte moved to the large doors, which were still closed and locked off. “Statement: No responses from outside, communications offline. Preparing to override door controls.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Explain to me what's going on!” Angela grabbed Maria pulling her away from the android.
“Did the power go out? I thought this place had back up generators?” Heidi watched as Byte forced the door open with their bare hands.
“Response: Negative. Disturbances around the facility.” Just as Byte answered, the facility's alarms went off. Blaring in and out of the halls. The sound only heightened the girls' tension. Heidi felt uneasy at this, slowly picking up her suppressor. None of them thought it reasonable to keep it on this time. If the facility was entering into a lockdown, they were to defend themselves.
For one, Angela started to hold Maria tight; it went against the law for singularity users to use their powers outside of designated zones. If caught using their abilities in a government facility without authorization, the penalty could be as high as death! Adelle knew this as well, even showing some concern with keeping the suppressor off. So long as all of them had it close to them, it should be fine.
“Question: Why are you all standing there? Do you require orders to bypass predetermined protocols?”
“We don’t need orders. I think we’re just being cautious.” Alexia responded.
“Quite. Though we can cross that moat when we get to it.” Adelle looked to Byte, signaling the android to move forward. It complied and started leading them to the source of the disturbance. After making their way through the halls, the group came across unconscious guards and scientists, security drones deactivated as well.
Upon making it to the last sealed door, Byte placed their hand against the control panel, starting to unlock it. “Scanning… Observation: Behind these doors are five individuals. Three on the ground, This unit suggests you organics brace yourselves.” The doors slowly opened up, revealing two guards being lifted up into the air by a bulky man in what seemed to be wrestling attire. He even sported a mask to boot to play into the role. This person was none other than Slaine.
Stone-cold eyes gazed upon the girls from behind the mask. He was surprised at first, wondering why school children were out and about in a facility like this. Crashing his hands together, he rendered the two guards useless before tossing each aside.
“Didn’t expect this place to be housing children, haha. Looks like Campbell has some explaining to do.” His voice; much more rugged and deep as if putting on an act. Slaine approached the girls, clearly towering over them in every aspect. As if they were staring at a mountain, Angela and Heidi started to back up a bit. On the other hand, Maria was all the more pumped, a crimson hue of energy wrapping around the girl. Adelle was already on the defense, knowing full well attacking this man was suicide.
Slaine glanced at Maria, recognizing her from the news reports; in fact, all of them except for two were familiar to him, at least in appearance. “Bah… I’ll be damned. Trophy kids… Be nice children and stay put. Wouldn’t want your pretty faces to be messed up now.” Slaine’s intentions were to not let any of them pass through. At the same time, he was not going on the offensive simply standing still like a mountainous wall.
“Mockery: Thank you, but you don’t fit the role of a caretaker. Perhaps this ball of organic flesh sticks to food services.” Byte started to approach Slaine, weapon in hand, ready to fight.
Looking down at the android before him, Slaine thought this one was just like the rest, to think Campbell’s project has come this far. Even he was impressed witnessing it before him. A sly smirk forming on his face, the enormous juggernaut of a man merely cracked his hands.
“Fine, I’ll just put this scrap metal in the bin before I go. Sit tight gir-” From his left side, breaking through the wall, the scientist that previously gathered data appeared. To Alexia and the rest, they could only tell that this scientist had the figure of a woman with flowing blonde hair, the rest of her features blocked by the dust from the wall.
“We’re done here, come on.” Is all the figure would say before running off past Slaine.
“Suggestion: Chase after the intruder. This unit will apprehend the bigger threat.”
“Damn, that was fast. Alright, on my wa-” Slaine instantly gets tackled through the wall by Byte, being supported by rocket boosters from her feet.
“No fair! We can’t be outshoned by a droid!” Maria immediately followed Byte.
“Hey, hang on! Don’t go rushing off! It told us to stay put!” But, it was too late, for Angela’s attempts at stopping Maria were in vain.
“Look, let’s try and protect Maria from getting hurt. Alexia, Adelle, you heard Byte.” Heidi looked at Alexia, giving her the confidence to go after the intruder. If anyone could stop these guys, it was them. Pearl’s location was unknown as well as Campbell’s. And the rest of the facility only housed normal humans.
“We don’t even know what we’re up against, Heidi.” Although chasing after an unknown enemy excited Alexia, she still had to be cautious. This intense feeling always arising when something unexpected occurred was dangerous for both herself and Maria.
“Don’t be like that, Mon Amie. Think of it this way. You can haggle these guys for money when we catch them.” Adelle started running down the hall to chase after the woman. To gain more money from this, Alexia’s greed slowly kicked into place.
“Oh? Oh! Good idea, Addy~!” Alexia chased after Adelle.
“Don’t call me that.” Adelle grew annoyed at that new nickname upon witnessing Alexia’s snickering smile. An exhausted breath of air leaving her body, to think her trip to America would end up like this.
No matter what happens now, the pursuit was on.