Speedster
had come to the same realisation as she shot down the motorway, glad for the almost
empty roads as she sped across the country at top speed, leaving a trail of
scorched asphalt in her wake.
She
heard the first sounds of gunfire as she shot down the nearest alleyway to the
standoff, the constant hum of a machine gun being drowned out by the sounds of
the sound of an artillery cannon. She didn’t stop as she emerged onto the
street, instead building enough speed that she managed to create a twister of
snow between the two groups that made both sides stop firing.
With
nothing to fuel it, it stopped when she did, sending snow flying everywhere as
she stopped in front of the man who looked like he was in charge of the
military forces. “Hi.”
“Who
the hell are you?” He demanded, anger obvious, “And get the hell out of our
way.”
“They
call me Speedster.” She replied, “And I think I can save them.” She gestured to
the army of robosuits before her.
“You
want to save the robots?” The man’s eyes gave away movement behind her and she
shot up a lamp post, smirking slightly at the look on the face of the guy who
had tried to grab her.
“No,”
She corrected as if talking to small child, “I want to save the people inside
them. Unless you want to be known as the Major who ordered the Christmas
Massacre?”
“They
opened fire first.” The Major pointed out.
“They
had no choice.” Speedster retorted, “And you sound like you’re three. ‘He
started it!’ Honestly.” She rolled her eyes, “Grow up and think.”
“Like
we should listen to you, you think you’re a superhero.” The Major spat. “Go
home. We don’t have time to humour your dressup games.”
“Give
me half an hour.” Speedster tried to bargain, “Half an hour to get in, break
the control console and ruin Sawyer’s plans. If I succeed, you won’t have to
kill anyone. If I fail, you won’t have lost any men trying to get in.”
“You
expect me to order my men to do nothing but sit on their thumbs and accept
being under fire for half an hour?” The major looked disgusted.
“No.”
Speedster admitted, “But if you actually look, you can see the difference
between the robosuits and the normal robots, hell, on my way in I can tag a few
in the front so you know which ones are fine to destroy without killing anyone
inside. Just let me try and save them.”
“I
can’t order my men to just get shot at for half an hour.” The major pointed
out. “We have to fight back.”
“Fine.
Whatever. I’m going in anyway.” Speedster snapped at him, “Just remember if the
robosuits suddenly stop firing at you, stop firing at them. They’re not
responsible for their actions and I’m damn well going to make sure Sawyer can’t
control them anymore.”
With
that she shot into the crowd of robots, doing as she had said she would and
tagging the robots without people inside by using them to bounce amongst the
crowd and into the warehouse complex.
She
landed in front of the doors to the warehouse, mentally wincing as the sounds
of gunfire restarted, only to shift to the side as the doors opened and a group
of robots stomped out, led by a robosuit. She slipped in behind them before the
doors could slam shut.
The
corridor was dark, all the lights unlit except for the blinking red lights of
security cameras and it took her eyes a moment to adjust, giving the robots in
the corridor a chance to whine to life and open fire. Speedster moved on instinct,
narrowly avoiding becoming swiss cheese as her Fusion’s reaction times saved
her life.
She
smashed her way through the robots, leaving a trail of metal and wreckage
behind her. She would have worked her way through the rooms systematically but
that same instinct that had saved her life drew her onwards, into the central
hub of the building which was surprisingly empty considering the horde outside.
She
glanced around, taking in the machines used to equip people with the robosuits,
the teaching area for retraining people in how to walk once they had been
treated and two small groups of robots and noting the lack of robosuits,
suggesting that they were all outside, protecting the warehouse by being human
shields and walking, unwilling, weapons.
“Who
are you?” She jumped slightly and wheeled around to face the speaker, who was
on the gantry above her. She glowered up at the huge, fat, egg shaped man with
the ridiculous moustache as he continued, “And how the hell did you manage to
wreck my robots without any weapons?”
“How
do you think?” Speedster smirked at him before glancing around again, looking
for a control panel and figuring it was probably in the office behind him, “Who
do you think had the World Sphere before you? You’re not the only one who can got
a power up you know.”
“World
Sphere?” Sawyer asked, “Is that what it’s called?”
“Look,”
Speedster interrupted, “We could do this all day. I could explain things, you
could then ask more questions and we’d be back and forth till the cows come
home, but I don’t got time for that. So how about we skip the chatting and you
tell me how to switch off your control thingy and I prevent a massacre? Because
seriously, your human shields aren’t going to be there much longer if you don’t
turn off that damn machine.”
“Well
I can tell who you’re not Fused with.” Sawyer smirked, “You don’t banter
anywhere near enough to be Fused with a certain pest.”
“I
figure I’m the upgrade.” She snorted, “Version 2.0, now with more kicking your
ass and less pointless posturing.”
That
made him chuckle, not that she got to see it as something nearly blindsided her
and she only just avoided the metal arm swinging at her out of nowhere. She skidded
across the floor, finding breaking difficult on the smooth surface, and got
drawn into a brawl with the nearest group of robots, leaving a pile of wreckage
strewn across the floor.
Then
the robosuit that had attacked her from the shadows was on her again, forcing
her to dodge repeatedly as she refused point blank to injure the poor person
inside.
“Bloody
hell, Doc.” She complained as she narrowly avoided a third and fourth swing, “This
thing’s almost as fast as me.” She ran circles around it, recognising it as she
did so as the robosuit containing Dr. J. Styler, and shot up the stairs behind
it, bringing herself face to face with the wanna be tyrant. “Not. Now, control
panel. Where is it?”
Sawyer
took a swing at her himself, one which she dodged so easily that it was almost
a joke.
“Okay,”
She shrugged, “Don’t tell me. I bet it’s in here.” She darted around the fat
man and into the office he had been stood in front of, wincing at the computer
screens in front of her as she stopped to look around.
With
no clue of how the computer she was working on actually functioned, she couldn’t
help but wish she had brought Luna or Mako with her as she tried to work out
how to shut down the control signal. She tried everything obvious she could
think of and was just moving to try the much less subtle variant of stopping
the computer when she was seized by the back of the catsuit and chucked across
the room.
She
slammed into the wall hard and before she could recover, she was pinned against
it by a metal coated hand to her throat. She struggled against the robosuited Doctor’s
grip, gasping in what little breath she could take past the metal digits, as
Sawyer entered the room, looking pleased with himself.
“You
honestly think that I’d have placed my control signal hub somewhere this
obvious?” He asked the struggling girl, who could barely hear him over the
roaring in her ears. “You disappoint me.”
“Screw.
You.” She gasped out, trying a moment longer to pull the hand away from her
throat before her eyes rolled back in her head, closed and she went limp in his
grasp.
The
moment she did so, the robosuit released its grip and she collapsed forward for
a moment, before opening her eyes and ducking underneath the bot’s attempts to
grab her, practically dancing out of his range. “Nice...try...” She smirked at
him as she caught her breath.
“There’s
still some faults.” Sawyer admitted, eyeing up the robosuit as he did so. “But
nothing that won’t be worked out with time.”
“I
don’t...plan on giving you any.” Speedster informed him before practically
vanishing on the spot and attacking him, sending him tumbling into his computer
system. The electronics started sparking dangerously as he pulled himself out
of the smoking console.
“You
little...” He trailed off as she smacked him back into it.
“Where’s
the control hub?” She demanded, glowering at him, narrowly dodging the robosuit
as she did so.
“Why
would I tell you?” Sawyer asked, looking pleased with himself for some odd
reason as he glanced at the damaged computer screen and reached for a switch.
“Because
I’m going to keep kicking your butt if you don’t?” She asked, “And why are you
so happy?”
“It’s
on the roof, if you have to know.” He answered her, still smirking, “Not that
it matters.”
“Why?”
She asked warily.
“Because
goodbye, that’s why.” He replied as he flipped the switch.
“Wha...ack!”
Speedster yelped as the floor vanished underneath her and she tumbled to the
floor below. She landed safely but the trapdoor closed behind her, leaving her
stuck in a fenced off area of the ground floor that was made up of floor to ceiling
metal fencing. Expecting to be able to crash through it easily, she went from
zero to sixty in point two seconds, only to get a powerful electric shock that sent
her crashing to the ground the moment the fencing fell.
Trembling
with the side effects of the jolt, she pulled herself to her feet and looked up
at the control room just in time to see something escaping through a newly
opened hole in the roof.
“S...Shit.”
She stammered, shooting up the stairs and bouncing off of the railing and the
wall to get through the hole in time to find that the robosuit containing Dr.
Styler was trying to move the control signal hub. “D...Don’t even think about
i...it.” She managed, glowering at the pair.
“You?
Again?” Sawyer grumbled, examining her
like she was a puzzle. “You’re human, that should have kept you long enough...”
“N...none
of us are completely human anymore, S...Sawyer.” Speedster pointed out, pushing
her tired and aching body into a strike on the robosuit, causing it to lose its
grip on the control hub which went flying off of the roof and crashed to the
floor, breaking into multiple pieces and causing the signal to cut off. “H...HA...argh!”
Speedster’s triumphant crow as the robosuits
stopped firing and starting panicking or freaking out or just standing still
and the robots collapsed, was cut off as Sawyer drove his floating vehicle into
her and she went crashing off of the roof herself, hitting the asphalt car park
floor hard.
The
last thing she saw before she blacked out was Sawyer getting away in his
hovercar, despite Doctor Styler’s best attempts to stop him.
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