Rise in Revolution (Chapter Thirteen)
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saladloveChapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
World map: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/Kaldri
Chapter Thirteen
Storm
Black Market, Sector IAL. January 18, 2272. Time instance 842N.
Fan looked up as Tanadin stormed into the Black Market. It was midmorning on a Sundayand she wondered what could have happened already in the day to get Tanadin this upset when she started yelling.
“WE NEED TO CALL A MEETING, RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW! WHERE THE FUCK IS KYIR?”
“In his workshop? Tanadin, what’s going on?” Shawn asked, concerned.
“I looked there! I’ll explain once we get everyone here but it’s bad.”
“He was up until six in the morning, he’s probably still asleep.” Geek told her. “Take a deep breath. Panicking won’t help.”
“I know, I know.” Tanadin turned to go find Kyir, but Fan raced past her.
“Don’t worry! I’ll wake him up!”
To her surprise, no one stopped her as she raced out of the Black Market and up to the second floor of Kyir’s house. She was about to pound on his door and shout for him to get up before hesitating.
I’ve always wanted to see what the inside of his room looks like. She put her hand on the doorknob and hesitated before opening the door and stepping inside.
She hadn’t seen anything quite like it.
The walls were painted light blue, with darker blue curtains drawn over the window. Kyir’s bed was pushed almost against the wall with one side facing the window. Kyir himself was tangled in the sheets and curled up facing away from the window. His shades were placed on the bedside table, where a dusty and unused lamp sat. On the other side of the room was his dresser, and on top of it were several framed photographs.
Fan stepped forward to investigate them curious. Kyir doesn’t seem the type to keep pictures.
In the first photo, there was a younger Kyir- based on how slowly he aged, it was impossible to tell how old he was in this picture, perhaps in his late teens- actually smiling slightly with an arm around the shoulders of the man beside him. He appeared almost identical to Kyir, but his hair wasn’t as spiky and looked more unkempt, and his eyes were visible. His irises were a disturbing, dark black, and Fan shivered, wondering if Kyir’s eyes matched.
The picture beside that was of a woman, perhaps in her mid-fifties, with mid-length blond hair and stormy blue eyes. Her facial features seemed somewhat similar to Kyir’s and Fan had a suspicion that she might be his mother. She was holding a mug with a picture of a leaf printed on the side and had her eyebrow raised at whoever was taking the picture.
The third photograph made Fan stop cold.
Kyir, looking halfway between his physical age now and when the first picture was taken, was once again in the picture with another person. This one, however, looked very different from him. She had short, bright blond hair and wore bright orange shades. The vague outlines of her eyes could be seen if Fan looked closely, but it was very difficult to see. They seemed very close to one another and the woman was hugging Kyir tightly. He was smiling like he had been in the photo with the other man, but his head was tilted slightly, betraying the fact that he was looking at the woman and not at the camera at all.
A friend? A girlfriend? Who is this weird woman with her stupid orange shades? Fan’s eyes narrowed as she scanned the three photos again, but her eyes kept resting on the third one. Why does he have these?
Her musing was cut short as a hand with a grip like iron wrapped around her wrist. She struggled to get free but screeched in pain as electricity surged through her system, making her go limp. Kyir let go of her arm and let her fall, ignoring how hard she bumped her head. He glared down at her, shades covering the sparking of his eyes.
“GET OUT! WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO COME IN HERE?!”
Fan struggled to regain control of her body, shakily sitting up. “I…”
“GET OUT! GET OUT!” Fan was shocked again, more concentrated and leaving a burn this time, and she raced out of the room, forgetting why she had gone up there in the first place and lowering her head in shame as she heard Kyir’s angry roar chasing her down the hallway.
She almost tripped down the stairs but she didn’t care, racing out of Kyir’s house and onto the street. Her feet pounded against the stones as she rounded a corner, distracted with her thoughts and the painful tingling in her body before she almost ran right into one of the two cyborgs walking down the street.
Fan skidded to a stop, eyes wide, as she took in their appearances.
Three thousand units.
She recognized their kind from her old sector.
She recognized their kind from when they killed her friends.
She shook off what had happened with Kyir in favor of escaping the gaze of the cyborgs, running back down the street.
No, no, no!
She ran right into Cap as she burst through Kyir’s front door, knocking them both to the ground. Fan swore violently, then apologized to her friend before standing and helping her up.
“Sorry! I...I just…”
“You upset Kyir.” Cap told her, crossing her arms. “He’s very, very angry.”
Fan looked away. “I know. But I saw-”
“The three thousand units. I know.”
Fan frowned. How does she always know?
“That’s what Tanadin was calling the meeting about. Come on, we’re the last ones there.” Cap led the way down into the Black Market. Fan felt Kyir’s furious gaze upon her as she approached the circle of chairs, and she was grateful that she didn’t have to sit anywhere near him. The look he was giving her through his shades alone was almost enough to send electricity through her body again.
At least, it sure felt like it could.
Once they were seated, Tanadin started to speak. “We have two three thousand units in IAL.”
Silence.
They knew what three thousand units were. Seven had explained it to them before.
Heavy military units meant for fighting and destroying anything that got in their way.
The fact that two of them were in IAL now was a very, very bad thing.
“Why?” Tac whispered, the first voice to break the silence.
“I don’t know.” Tanadin sounded frustrated, but Seven quickly made the necessary connections.
“They’re investigating my disappearance. The other units were destroyed- the control center knows that- but it never got a reading that indicated my destruction. It’s registering me as an anomaly, so it’s sent out heavy units to deal with it.”
“That sounds bad.” Sub noted.
“That kind of unit can wipe out even a large group of trained fighters.” Cap told them. “Two of them could destroy us and half the sector without any difficulty.”
“Very bad.” Sub amended.
“So what do we do?” Hawk demanded. “The cage is still wrecked, isn’t it?”
“We won’t be using the cage.” Kyir’s voice was low. “We don’t have time to fix it or make a new one. Seven says that as long as they’re stunned by the kartzal, they can’t do anything. Load up the shotgun. Fire it off. A few seconds of stun will be enough to take them out.” He got to his feet. “I’m going to get my sword.”
Tac jumped up as well. “Get me one too, would you? I’m coming along.”
“What? No!” Shawn looked at her, concerned. “No way! You could be hurt! You...you could…”
“I can handle myself! You know that!”
“But...but…”
“Shawn, you can’t stop Tac once she’s determined.” Clash smiled sadly at him. “You know that.”
“But!”
Tac cheerfully ignored his protests and accepted the sword from Kyir when he returned from the back room. “You do have more ammo for the rock shotgun, right?”
“I’m not stupid. I got ammo for it a couple days ago just in case something like this happened.” Kyir grumbled.
“I don’t think this is a good idea.” Seven mumbled. “The possible reaction from the control center…”
“We don’t have an option.” M told them, drawing attention to himself. He rarely spoke in group meetings. “Those two units saw Fan and tried to follow. They know the vague area she escaped to, and if you recall, she’s at a wanted level of two or three for escaping from prison. It won’t be long before they're searching Kyir’s house, and while the entrance to the Black Market is secure, it might not be enough.”
Dead silence.
“How do you know that?” Mars whispered, but M didn’t answer.
“We have to move quickly, then.” Shawn got to his feet.
“It’s a bad plan.” Seven mumbled. “Buuuut it’s the only one we have.”
Tanadin sighed, standing as well. “I don’t like it, but we’ve got to do it.” Her eyes flared with dark blue flame and it spread outwards, covering her body with a twisting inferno. It died down somewhat to reveal her fire elemental form. Mars stood as well and copied her transformation. They looked very similar in their elemental forms, but Mars had dark red flame and her face burned with purple.
Kyir buckled on his sword belt and looked at the gathered criminals around him. “Shawn, get the shotgun. Get it loaded and grab the ammo. We’re going cyborg hunting.”
People scrambled for armor and weapons, and as they did so, Seven looked over at Tanadin.
“You do realize that this qualifies as an actual rebellion, right?”
Tanadin’s eyes narrowed, the flames drawing themselves closer together.
“I know. I just don’t think the others do, yet.”
“Are you prepared to lead that?” M asked, pausing as he walked past.
Tanadin took a deep breath.
“No. I just know that I don’t have a choice. It’s this or surrender, and I won’t just lie down and die.”
M nodded swiftly. “Good answer.”
~~~
Emma shivered as the forces of the Black Market walked down the street, eyes open and searching for their targets. They were clearly armed and ready for battle, and Kyir had warned that the cyborgs were likely to open fire on sight.
They walked for only about a minute before M hissed quietly, alerting them that something was wrong. Tanadin spotted the two units first, shouting a warning as they turned.
Unit 3262 readied his weapons, shouting for them to lay down their arms and surrender. Unit 3263 didn’t speak, but copied her cohort’s motions. The cyborgs seemed to be almost entirely metal and seemed far larger than any other cyborgs most of the Black Market had seen before.
Shawn wasn’t about to wait. He aimed the shotgun and fired, shooting kartzal chunks at the two cyborgs. They froze, systems overloaded, and the Black Market moved in. Seven stayed back, not wanting to get his own systems stunned by the kartzal, but readied his railgun.
Kyir shot forward with more speed than any normal human could hope to match, lightning sparking around him and racing along his sword. His sword damaged the left side of unit 3263 through a chink in her armor as he shot past, then stopped, spun around, and shot forward again, slicing at her again.
Tanadin and Mars raced forward after Kyir, not far behind, blasting fire. Sadie stayed back and shot bolts of dark flame at both cyborgs.
Tac had taken off for unit 3262 the second Shawn had pulled the trigger and reached him first, stabbing him in less protected areas several times. Hawk and Emma joined her, Hawk with her talons and Emma with one of Kyir’s kitchen knives.
Cheers rose as the lights in 3263’s robotic eyes went out and she collapsed, metal screeching as it scraped along the stones of the ground.
3262, however, didn’t have very many powerful people attacking him. He shuddered as he recovered from the stun. Hawk cawed a warning and leaped backwards, but the humans’ slower instincts were not enough. 3262 slashed his left arm, blade extended, upwards as Tac struck at him again.
Emma flinched and shut her eyes at Tac’s scream of pain, at the horrible sound of metal cutting through flesh and bone, and at the sound of Tac’s blood splattering the ground and the two quiet thumps after, accompanied by the sound of a sword hitting the ground.
Emma’s eyes opened reluctantly, seeing Tac stumbling backwards with a shocked expression on her face, eyes locked on the stumps of her arms where her hands had been moments before.
“TAC!” Shawn’s panicked scream drove through Emma’s ears. She didn’t really have much time to react, however, as the cyborg’s eyes locked on her. Her eyes widened as she realized that it was targeting her next, dismissing Tac as no longer a threat. She scrambled backwards, heart pounding in her ears as it aimed its gun at her.
The shotgun fired again.
3263 froze, stunned once more, and it didn’t take much from Kyir and M to destroy him as well.
Shawn immediately dropped the shotgun and ran towards Tac, trying to calm her down while struggling not to panic, himself. Tac was caught between screaming and numb, shocked silence, alternating between the two and hyperventilating the whole time.
Devan was next to them almost immediately, cawing for Shawn to get out of his way. He gripped Tac’s left arm and picked up the matching hand, looking critically between them.
“It’s possible to reattach these, but I don’t have the training or the equipment to do it.” Devan clacked his beak in frustration. “Someone get over here and cauterize these wounds! She’ll bleed out otherwise!”
Tanadin stepped forward and the flames in her hands seemed to grow sharper, almost. It was hard to really pinpoint exactly how they looked different, but when she brought them near Tac’s arms, the girl screamed in pain and tried to flinch away. Shawn looked physically pained at the sound but he and Devan forced her to hold still as Tanadin reluctantly burned the wounds shut.
Emma looked away, not wanting to watch, and realized that they were not alone on the street.
Residents of the sector were gathered around, some distance away, and just staring. Between Seven being there- seemingly friendly- and the destruction of two very powerful units, they were shocked into silence.
The moment Tanadin stepped away from Tac, Emma cleared her throat quietly. “Tanadin. Look.”
Tanadin looked around and her eyes widened at the crowd that had gathered. Before she could say anything, Seven spoke up.
“This was a bad plan.”
“No shit! Tac just lost her hands!” Shawn snapped.
“No. I mean that the Mainframe now knows who we are. We’ve just destroyed the military units. That means that they’ll take military action in the next two days or so- as in, they’re going to carpet bomb the entire sector. All the important stuff is underground, and this sector isn’t all that automated anyway, so I’m willing to get basically everything above ground will be gone. We have to go and we have to try and take out the control center.” Seven paused. “Now.”
“Now?” Emma practically squeaked, voice barely rising above the panicked and angry cries of the Black Market. “Are you kidding? We’ll be slaughtered!”
Seven jerked his head to indicate that they should follow him. “Now. Follow me, or I’m leaving without you. I have no interest in dying.”
“We could do it.” Kyir spat on the street. “Devan, take Tac back to base and send Geek out here to meet up with us. I’ll see what I can do about making her some metal hands, but not yet. We’re taking IAL and we’re taking it today.”
“Can we?” Tanadin’s voice was quiet. “Do you really think-”
“We need to break Scott out of jail first.” Clash crossed his arms.
“No. The control center-” Seven started.
“Scott can help us!” Gali interrupted. “And who knows what they have in that prison? Maybe someone super powerful that could help us!”
Seven considered that for a moment before looking at Tanadin. She realized, with a chill, that they all were, waiting for her verdict.
It’s my call.
She looked around at all the faces assembled, of her allies, her friends.
She looked at the destroyed cyborgs.
Her eyes met Seven’s and she nodded.
“We’re storming the prison, and then we’re taking the control center. IAL will be no more and Akrar will be free.”
Her voice was quiet, but in the silence of the street, it was enough to carry.
The people she had forgotten were gathered started to mumble, but when several members of the Black Market started to cheer, they joined in, the street suddenly in an uproar.
“This is revolution!” Tanadin raised a hand above her head, and the rest of the Black Market followed her example. A fierce grin broke out across Kyir’s face.
“You bet your damn ass it is!”
“It’s not that easy.” Seven mumbled. “We need to plan logistics, and fast.”
Tanadin looked at him and grinned.
“You start planning how we’ll take the control center. Meanwhile, we’re storming the damn prison!”
Her voice rose on the last sentence, and the cheering intensified.
This would be a day to remember.
The revolution had begun.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-16 01:07 am (UTC)I suspected that someone was going to end up losing an arm, but both arms? Poor Tac! At least Kyir will eventually make her some robotic replacements.
Kyir is definately not someone you want to piss off, he's very scary angry; but I like him all the more.
Suspecting that the woman in the photo with Kyir is the ghost that Cap is seeing, at least it's a possibility.
Now to storm the prison and take the control centre before it can send the information to the Mainframe to carpet bomb IAL! VIVA LA REVOLUTION!
no subject
Date: 2016-04-16 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-16 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-16 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-16 08:47 pm (UTC)sadie
Date: 2016-04-18 12:46 pm (UTC)Re: sadie
Date: 2016-04-18 03:24 pm (UTC)sadie here
Date: 2016-04-19 11:20 am (UTC)Re: sadie here
Date: 2016-04-19 01:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-16 06:29 am (UTC)And then there was the stuff with Kyir. I'm curious.
-the lurkiest lurker
no subject
Date: 2016-04-16 03:06 pm (UTC)Kyir stuff is always fun.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-16 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-16 06:35 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
no subject
Date: 2016-04-17 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-18 12:08 pm (UTC)Head high, protest line
"Freedom" scribbled on your sign
Headline, New York Times
Standing on the edge of a revolution
Hey, hey, just obey.
Your secret's safe with the NSA
In God we trust or the CIA?
Standing on the edge of a revolution
Yeah, we're standing on the edge of a revolution
Revolution, revolution, revolution
No, we won't give up, we won't go away
'Cause we're not about to live in this mass delusion
No, we don't wanna hear another word you say
'Cause we know they're all depending on mass confusion
No, we can't turn back, we can't turn away
'Cause it's time we all relied on the last solution
No, we won't lay down and accept this fate
'Cause we're standing on the edge of a revolution
Wall Street, common thief
When they get caught they all go free
A brand new yacht and a finders fee
Standing on the edge of a revolution
Same shit, different day
Can't keep fed if I can't get paid
We'll all be dead if the shit don't change
Standing on the edge of a revolution
Yeah, we're standing on the edge of a revolution
Revolution, revolution, revolution
No, we won't give up, we won't go away
'Cause we're not about to live in this mass delusion
No, we don't wanna hear another word you say
'Cause we know they're all depending on mass confusion
No, we can't turn back, we can't turn away
'Cause it's time we all relied on the last solution
No, we won't lay down and accept this fate
'Cause we're standing on the edge of a revolution
We'll all be dead if this shit don't change
(Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey...)
What do we want? We want change
And how're we gonna get there? Revolution
What do we want? We want change
Standing on the edge of a revolution
What do we want? We want change
And how're we gonna get there? Revolution
What do we want? We want change
Standing on the edge of a revolution
No, we won't give up, we won't go away
'Cause we're not about to live in this mass delusion
No, we don't wanna hear another word you say
'Cause we know they're all depending on mass confusion
No, we can't turn back, we can't turn away
'Cause it's time we all relied on the last solution
No, we won't lay down and accept this fate
'Cause we're standing on the edge of a revolution
What do we want? We want change
And how're we gonna get there? Revolution
What do we want? We want change
Standing on the edge of a revolution
What do we want? We want change
And how're we gonna get there? Revolution
What do we want? We want change
Standing on the edge of a revolution