Rise in Revolution (Chapter Thirty-Two)

[tanadin]

 In which we find out what happens to Emma, we realize that things won't go the way we thought they would, and Clash gets two cookies instead of one.

Chapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
World map: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/Kaldriel-RiR-map-594639189

Chapter Thirty-Two

Wings of Steel

Control Center SOV, Sector SOV. March 23, 2272. Time instance 842N.

When Emma awoke, it was with a throbbing head and no memory of what had happened. She opened her eyes blearily, the world slowly coming into focus as she sat up. She groaned and rubbed the back of her head, feeling it pulse with pain. What happened? She glanced around and almost screamed at the sight of an unfamiliar cyborg.

He had darker skin and only seemed to possess a robotic right eye and right forearm and hand, but he reacted with the same reflexes that all cyborgs seemed to have, whipping around and raising his hands in surrender.

“Woah, woah, it’s okay! I’m friendly!” He moved towards the door and pushed it open, poking his head outside. “Tanadin! She’s awake!”

“Shit, seriously? The second I leave the room?” Tanadin bounded up to the doorway. “Emma! You’re okay! Hazon, you can attend to other people, she’ll be okay.” The cyborg bowed and left the room. Tanadin stepped forward and sat down in a chair next to the bed that Emma was on. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I was hit in the back of the head with a metal fist.”

“That’s...exactly what happened. Don’t you remember?”

Emma shrugged. “I don’t know. What...what happened? Did we win?”

Tanadin grinned at her. “Did we ever! And we’ve scored the absolute jackpot. Emma, I think we have a serious chance of actually beating the Mainframe now.”

She blinked in confusion, sure she was mishearing her friend. “What? What happened?”

“It’s...easier to show you. Can you stand?”

Emma nodded and clumsily got to her feet, leaning on Tanadin for support until she could stand on her own. She followed the fire elemental out of the room and through hallways that she assumed were part of the control center itself, although she couldn’t be sure as she hadn’t gotten in before she had been knocked out.

As they approached a door that apparently led outside, Emma tilted her head at the sound of...chanting? Shouting? As they drew closer, it became more clear that one voice was shouting and then a crowd was responding.

Tanadin stepped in front of the door, searching Emma’s face. “Just promise me you won’t freak out, alright?” Without waiting for a response, she pushed open the door and stepped through, letting sunlight stream into the building and allowing Emma to see what was going on outside.

Nine stood on a raised platform of some sort, fist held high as he shouted something to a crowd, who immediately roared it back at him. He wasn’t what caught Emma’s attention, though.

It was the crowd.

Thousands of cyborgs were gathered, roaring and chanting when Nine called for it. From the looks of it, the vast majority of them were seven thousand units, but Emma spotted a few one and two thousands mixed in as well as a small cluster of maybe ten three thousands.

A grin slowly replaced the look of awe on her face. “You guys were busy.” She glanced at Tanadin and noticed her matching grin.

“You have no idea.” Tanadin gazed out at the crowd. “You have no idea.”

~~~

“You’re really, really sure I’m the best person to lead the cyborgs of the revolution?” Nine asked for what had to be the hundredth time as he trailed behind Tanadin.

“Yes, Nine. They need a cyborg at the lead. Anyone else doesn’t know what they’re capable of, and dammit, I need to know that the cyborgs can take care of themselves without me having to check on them constantly. I have my hands full with the non-cyborgs as it is.”

“But why me? Why not Seven?”

Tanadin stopped walking and turned to look him in the eyes. “Nine,” she said slowly, “do you really think that Seven has the social skills to lead half of a revolution?”

“...You raise an excellent point.”

“So you’re in charge of the cyborgs, and I trust you’ll do a great job.” Tanadin smiled reassuringly at him. “I’m sure Seven can offer advice if you need it. That’s the other reason I’m not putting him in charge of the cyborgs- I’d never get two words in as he’d focus on it and never help me.”

Nine snorted. “Also a good point.”

“I’m glad my arguments are working, because I rehearsed this conversation about twelve times earlier today.” Tanadin laughed nervously. “Anyway, you should get them organized and teach yourself how to fly, probably. You flying will give us a huge advantage. Try to figure out how many of your forces are shin units, and-”

“I thought I was leading the cyborgs?”

“Right, right, sorry.” Tanadin grinned sheepishly. “I’ll leave you to it.”

“Thanks.” Nine watched as she walked away before unfolding his metal wings from his back. They had had to cut a hole in his trenchcoat to allow the apparatus on his back with the thrusters to stick through. The bladelike wings usually folded down and out of the way along his back, but he could unfold them into position anytime he needed them.

It just took practice is all. He narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath before taking off, forcing himself not to panic as he approached a wall. He turned away from it, silently rejoicing and almost running directly into another.

Tanadin’s right. If I could figure this out, that would be a huge advantage. It’s a shame we don’t seem to have a lot of shin units, though. Flying seven thousand units are some of the best fliers the Mainframe produces, as they’re not really that different than ground-bound seven thousands. They just have wings.

An idea slowly began to form as Nine flew, and a grin spread across his face as he realized it might work. He turned himself towards where Kyir had set up shop in SOV and hoped he could figure out how to land.

If we all had wings…

Nine struggled to copy the landing that he had seen a few of the shin units pull off, but he only managed to fall on his face. He groaned and got to his feet, folding his wings against his back. Practice. He pushed open the door, shouting Kyir’s name.

“Fuck off.” Kyir’s voice was muffled and Nine quickly identified why. Both Kyir and Cataclysm were sitting on the floor against the far wall, with Kyir’s face buried in Cataclysm’s shoulder. Cataclysm bared his teeth when Nine approached and the cyborg noted the faintly glowing collar made of interwoven metal links around his neck. He supposed it suppressed whatever Cataclysm was afraid of, but he couldn’t be sure.

“Kyir, I had an idea.”

“I really don’t care.”

“Kyir. It’s about the cyborgs.” When Kyir didn’t reply, Nine plowed on. “I was thinking that we could get wings attached to most, if not all, of them. It would give us a huge advantage and give the Mainframe a nasty surprise. It’s expecting us to have a few hundred fliers, at most. Not three thousand.”

Kyir sighed. “Do you know how many years that would take me?”

“...Kyir, this is where seven thousand units are made. We could just set the machinery up to modify the existing cyborgs and give them wings. Since seven thousands are so varied, it would probably be a bit different from cyborg to cyborg, so we’d need to supervise the modifications in certain cases and occasionally you might need to step in and do some manual tweaking. You might be able to modify them to strap some more weapons on, too, who knows?”

As he spoke, Kyir slowly looked up at him. “That’s…” He didn’t finish his sentence.

“I like it,” Cataclysm put in. “The Mainframe isn’t prepared to fight a huge force of fliers. Not cyborgs, anyway. They’re expecting some aven and a few demons. Not three thousand cyborgs flying on rockets and steel wings.”

“Steel wings,” Nine echoed. “It’s not exactly steel but I get your point. What do you say, Kyir? You want to help strike back at the Mainframe?”

Kyir’s hands clenched into fists. He took a deep breath and let it out, the end trailing off into a growl. “Fine. For Corvus.” He jumped to his feet, Cataclysm not far behind. “For Corvus,” he repeated. “I’ll give your cyborgs their wings of steel, Nine. And then they’ll break the Mainframe.”

~~~

Clash jerked in surprise when Scott tapped his shoulder from behind. He sighed in relief when he saw who it was. “Scooter!”

Scott grinned at him. “Sorry about that. I just didn’t want to shout and startle you that way.” He hesitated, and Clash noticed that he seemed to be holding something behind his back. “Well...with the whole revolution and fighting SOV yesterday and everything, I kinda didn’t have time to get you much of anything, but...happy birthday.”

Scott held out what appeared to be a small paper package containing an item of some sort. Clash took it curiously and tore it open, a smile lighting up his face. “You didn’t have to get me anything! Thank you!” He pulled the cookie out of the package and blinked in surprise. “There’s two in here.”

“Really?” Scott peered into the package. “So there is! Jimmy said there was only one, but I guess it wanted to be sure you had a good birthday.”
Clash pulled out the second cookie as well and offered it to Scott, who immediately shook his head. “No, no. It’s hard to get those things and it’s your birthday.”

Clash narrowed his eyes and offered it to Scott somewhat more aggressively. Scott reluctantly took the cookie, snapped it in half, and handed half of it back to Clash. “It’s your birthday.”

Clash reluctantly accepted the cookie and hugged Scott.

Sometimes, things were okay.

~~~

“Can you stop doing that? You look like you’re a doctor about to tell me I’m going to die,” Shawn complained as Geek circled him and made a face.

“Sorry.” Her features shifted into a more neutral expression. “I just don’t understand how you’re functioning. I wish I knew what effects I had cast on you, but the magic is so jumbled that it’s impossible to tell.” She prodded the center of his chest, where the hole had been previously. “You’re sure you won’t take off your shirt?”

“No! Absolutely not!”

“Scara mentioned a weird green tinge where she healed you and in streaks coming out of the area! I want to make sure its not your flesh rotting under your skin!”

Shawn crossed his arms moodily. “I’m fine.”

Geek sighed. “You’re not making this easy for me.”

“Well-”

Shawn was saved having to think up an argument by Tanadin strolling right into the conversation.

“Geek! Have you seen Sadie anywhere? I need her for something.”

Geek looked at her oddly before realization crossed her face. “You...haven’t heard, have you?”

Tanadin frowned. “Heard what? What’d she do this time?”

“Tanadin...Sadie’s dead.”

She stared. “Wh-what?”

“She died in the first assault. I’m sorry. There wasn’t anything I could do.”

“I…” Tanadin shuddered and had to take a few deep breaths to pull herself back together. “I…”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Geek stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. “What did you need her to do? I can probably help.”

Tanadin nodded numbly and led the way. Shawn watched them go before getting out of his seat and leaving the room. The longer he could avoid Geek insisting he needed to take his shirt off, the better.

He wandered the streets of SOV for awhile until he caught sight of a short figure with very long hair darting into the space between two buildings. He frowned, following and having a feeling that they weren’t in the best mood. He hesitantly approached the small and shaking figure and sighed when he realized that his assumption that it was Tac was right.

“Tac?”

“Go away.”

Shawn sighed and sat next to her. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.” Tac’s face was buried in her arms and her voice was shaking. “Nothing’s wrong.”

“Tac…”

“These cyborgs are wrong, okay?!” She curled up tighter. “It’s just...Kyir’s not…” She took a deep breath. “Kyir’s not the only one who’s lost a sibling to the cyborgs. I looked my dead brother in the face today and he didn’t know me.”

With that, Tac broke down sobbing and Shawn hugged her tightly, wishing that there was something he could do and cursing his inability to know what to say.

Sometimes, things were awful and there’s nothing you can do about it.

~~~

“That’s the stupidest name I’ve ever heard,” Cataclysm protested. “It’s too literal.”

“Ignore him,” Kyir suggested to Nine. “I like it.”

“Well, I’m glad I have your seal of approval,” Nine said dryly. “How would I ever survive without that?”

“It’s your special force,” Seven reminded him. “You get to name them whatever you want.”

“Calling them ‘the cyborgs’ has already gotten old and clunky and it’s been, like, a day,” Kyir agreed.

Nine looked at the three of them as they considered the name he had suggested and smiled.

"Alright, so it's decided. Let's get back to work. We need to let the Steelwings live up to their name."