Rise in Revolution (Chapter Thirty-Nine)
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Chapter Thirty-Nine
Calculation
Edge of the city, Sector SOV. March 29, 2272. Time instance 842N.
“We’re not walking to ASQ, are we?” Emma demanded as their forces gathered. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Unfortunately not,” Tanadin muttered. “It’s not safe to take the trains until we’ve secured the control center.”
“I was hoping we had another method of transportation.”
“Like what?” Xela asked, crossing her teal-painted arms. All of her exposed skin had been painted and, while they were leaving at night, it would come in handy come daybreak. Emma supposed that Scott was painted a similarly ridiculous color, wherever he had run off to. “There haven’t been any working vehicles other than the trains and eight thousand units since before the Mainframe took over.”
“I don’t know,” Emma mumbled. “Something.”
An order went out amongst the cyborgs and the rest of the advance party. Emma watched as they set out, moving faster than the main group could ever hope to.
“We’re not even ready. Why are they leaving?” Emma frowned.
“I don’t know. Maybe Seven wants to make sure they have time to secure a location before we get there. I don’t know why he was so adamant on sending the cyborgs in first to take out the first wave of opponents but I guess he knows what he’s talking about.” Tanadin shrugged. “Come on, let’s hurry this up. We have a lot of walking to do.”
~~~
Shawn spun the bracelet around his wrist anxiously as they walked. As the skull jingled softly against the chain, he silently wished it didn’t look so ridiculous. Edgy. That’s the term Tanadin had used. He grumbled under his breath and tried to forget it.
Beside him, Tac clicked her metal fingers together in a similar anxious rhythm. He glanced at her and smiled slightly. At least she was here. He felt calmer when they walked together, and he quietly noted that he had spent a lot of time with her lately. It’s because she’s been upset and doesn’t have anyone else.
Of course. That was it.
Tac looked over at him and smiled back. Shit.
Okay, maybe there was something more there. Maybe.
He looked away to Tac to forget about it for the moment. Now wasn’t the time- he had to focus on the coming battle.
He spun the bracelet and quietly wished that he didn’t need it. It was, unfortunately, preferable to being green and half-rotten all of the time. He shuddered when he remembered what he really was like. Geek had explained that the form he took- what he had come to think of as his normal form, when he looks like him- isn’t what he is at all. It’s a set spell that makes him look a certain way every time he puts the bracelet on.
He had discovered that, no matter how damaged he got when the bracelet was on, if he took it off, it was like it never happened. If he put it back on, the wounds were gone.
Well, at least that worked for normal scrapes and cuts. He assumed it extended to damages like, say, laser blasts through the chest or bullets. He certainly hoped so. He’d likely take one or both during the battle.
Spin, spin, spin. What about Tac? She doesn’t have a way to heal herself. She’s not even a ranged fighter. She’s not magical or mobile in any superhuman way. She’s a huge target. Spin, spin, spin. A lot of us are like that. Shawn shuddered when he realized he was no longer one of the ‘normal’ people. One of the people who couldn’t defend themselves. He was, technically, undead, and therefore notoriously difficult to kill. He had ice magic- ice magic!- and a way to heal himself as long as he only got hurt when he was wearing the bracelet.
Who knew getting your chest blasted out by a laser improves combat ability? He wasn’t sure if he found his thought amusing or sickening.
His eyes focused on a dim purple-pink light in the darkness. He looked closer and noted that it was Sub, focusing on forming energy between her hands as they walked. She seemed entirely focused, so much so that if the person in front of her were to stop, she’d likely walk right into them.
Somewhat reluctantly, he peeled away from Tac and moved to walk by Sub, tapping her on the shoulder. “How do you do that?”
Sub jumped at the contact but quickly recovered. “The magic?”
“Yeah. Geek told me I have some kind of ice powers, but I don’t know how to use them.”
“Oh! Well, it’s wise of you to come to a master of magic for instruction!” Sub grinned widely at him, pushing her racoon-skin hat up as it slipped over her eyes. Looking more closely at it, Shawn decided that it was probably fake. I’d probably be better at telling if I actually knew what a racoon looked like. “I’m sure I can teach you how to use your magic! You start by focusing your energy where you want it! Probably around your hands.”
Shawn glanced at the bracelet on his wrist. “I’m going to need to remove that, aren’t I?” he mumbled. “Sub, don’t freak out, but I’m about to turn into a zombie.”
Sub blinked. “Why would I freak out?”
Shawn removed the bracelet. Sub freaked out.
It took several minutes of Shawn and Tac- who had raced over at the sound of panicking- to calm Sub down enough for her to continue the magic lesson. She still looked disturbed but tried to cover it up by continuing to act confident and speaking VERY VERY LOUDLY.
“ANYWAY, as I was SAYING, you focus your energy around your hands, mostly between them, so you can SHOOT PEOPLE with the magic! It’s a very delicate art. Hold your hands like THIS.” Sub demonstrated, focusing and making her hands glow with that same purple-pink color that her magic always was. “Try it!”
Shawn spent the next twenty minutes trying to get an explanation out of her as to how one focuses their energy in the right way but it took Tanadin noticing and giving up a couple of pointers for him to even start chilling the area around his hands. His frustration occasionally sent breezes of cold wind Sub’s way, but she didn’t seem to notice.
It took most of the rest of the walk for him to figure out how to form ice at will. He got so excited that he accidentally shot a large spike of ice at Mars, narrowly missing and getting a (joking, he thought) rude gesture in return.
He quietly put the bracelet back on and thanked Sub for her help, slowly moving away from her to walk in peace once more.
Eventually, the main city of Sector ASQ came into sight, and he frowned at what he saw.
“I thought our advance force was going to wipe out their first line of defense and set up a foothold?”
“I thought so too,” Tanadin mumbled as she focused on the slumped cyborg bodies lining the streets, the damaged walls and the sparking circuits. “But apparently not.”
Xela sent her a guilty look before taking a deep breath and gathering her energy. She hadn’t used her vampiric speed in years, and now it would be put to the test. She oriented herself based on the buildings she saw- they were somewhat different from when she was last here, but it would do. Her mental map was still sound.
She shot off like a rocket, dodging around people on her way, apologizing whenever she brushed against someone, and raced far ahead of the main body behind her. She quickly vanished into the streets, following the map that she still had in her head to where she had buried the box containing her laptop. Six streets. Five. Four. Thr- cyborg!
She identified it as a friendly cyborg as she approached, slowing down to check on him. He was badly damaged and bleeding, but he seemed more concerned about his mechanical legs, which were in no condition to move, nevermind bear his weight.
“What happened? Are you alright?” Xela demanded.
“What does it look like?” the cyborg barked. “Get a mechanic out here, will you? Or at least someone to carry me back?”
“I’ll do that,” Xela assured, before setting off down the street again.
Two streets. One street. It’s got to be....here. She turned left and slowed to a walk, evaluating the buildings as she walked and looking carefully at the ground near each of them. She’d recognize it, as long as she-
There.
She scurried over to the side of a building and eyed about halfway between it and the nearest wall and started digging. It took longer than she expected, and she was beginning to lose hope, thinking it had been discovered, when her hands hit something more solid than dirt and not as rough as stone. She grinned widely, fangs flashing in the early morning light.
Her eyes protested against the sun, as did her instincts, but her skin remained unburned as she dug the dull gray and teal box out of the dirt. She sighed, relieved, and placed her hand over the lock. “Masser’von.”
The lock clicked open and she opened the box easily. Sometimes, having a lisp came in handy, particularly when making your lock voice-and-password activated. If someone tried to open the box when pronouncing their ‘S’s right, well...Xela grinned. They tended not to try again.
She cleaned her hands off on her shirt, even pouring some water she had brought for the purpose over them to make sure they were clean before retrieving the sturdy teal laptop and hugging it tightly against her chest.
“I’ve got you back,” she whispered, “and no one’s going to take you away from me again.” She picked up an object off the side of the box- a small glass orb filled with sparking lightning with a plug sticking out one side of it- and plugged it into the laptop’s charger port. The lightning dimmed somewhat and the laptop dinged pleasantly when Xela opened it and hit the power button. She logged into her profile and grinned at her desktop before shutting the laptop and putting it back in the box, which she shut. She grabbed the handle on the box and took off down the street, re-orienting herself towards the control center where their cyborgs were undoubtedly still fighting.
It was finally time to do what she was best at.
She reached the area quickly, pausing when she noticed Nine standing a ways from the battle, arguing with Tanadin.
“It wasn’t my plan!” he protested. “I got outvoted by Seven!”
“One versus one? He can’t outvote you!”
“Every vote he makes counts for seven!”
“Every vote you make counts for nine!”
“Not when I’m voting against Seven!”
Tanadin crossed her arms. “I’ll have a chat with him, then.”
“After the battle, I hope,” Nine muttered, before rejoining the battle.
Xela shrugged off the encounter and narrowed her eyes against the light, scanning the buildings around her before charging into one. She ignored the two dead cyborgs on the ground within- apparently the Steelwings had swept through here- and hoped that the console was still intact.
Fortunately, it was. She took her laptop out and set it on a flat, unoccupied part of the terminal. She pulled out a cord and plugged it into both her laptop and the console, grinning when a connection was established.
It was time to do some work.
~~~
“I can’t believe you left us behind!” Tanadin growled, crossing her arms. Around them, Mainframe units lay on the ground, taken out by the Steelwings. Behind Seven, the control center loomed ominously despite its absolute inability to do anything. They had disconnected it from the Mainframe and, now, Xela had moved from her original terminal to the primary one within and was going through…whatever it was Xela went through. Emma wasn’t really sure.
“We sustained fewer casualties, only losing a dozen cyborgs.”
“You still shouldn't have done that. You should have talked to us about it.”
Seven shrugged. “You wouldn’t have agreed.”
“You-”
“You, you, you, you, and thirty others,” Seven interrupted, pointing to several people in the assembled group- Jimmy, Tac, a couple of people Emma didn’t know. “All of you would be dead if you had come. That is how many times shots almost hit a cyborg or other fast and highly skilled member of the team, such as Geek, that would have killed you.” With that, he turned and walked away, not even shooting them another glance.
Emma crossed her arms. “Did he just call us unskilled?”
“I think so,” Hawk muttered. “I don’t like it. Can I claw him?”
“No, no.” Tanadin sighed. “Whatever. ASQ is taken, and next is sector A4. I can’t imagine we’ll get through as easily as we did this time. The automated control centers are just as well protected, and they don’t have a city to hide in. Not a city we could use, really, anyway.”
“We got lucky,” Shawn grumbled. “They didn’t know we would hit them here and so hard with cyborgs. They’ll be ready next time.”
“I don’t know. Is there really anything they can do to stop us?” Scott put in. “I mean, we’ve been just wrecking them everywhere we go. Even without the Steelwings, we never lost, and now, there doesn't seem to be much they can do. Why is there any question of whether or not we’ll win?”
“Because if they decide to send in eight thousands, nine thousands, legions of three thousands, specialized four thousands, and dozens of five thousands, we’re dead,” Fall told him. “I don’t know why they haven’t, yet, actually.”
“Great,” Tanadin groaned. “I’ll expect an attack within the next few days.”
“Good idea. Should I let Nine know?”
“Sure, sure, whatever.”
Emma and Shawn exchanged glances.
What is going on today?
no subject
Date: 2016-07-12 09:41 pm (UTC)Sub blinked. “Why would I freak out?”
Shawn removed the bracelet. Sub freaked out.
Shawn: I told you not to freak out!!
Sub: Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh!
She reached the area quickly, pausing when she noticed Nine standing a ways from the battle, arguing with Tanadin.
“It wasn’t my plan!” he protested. “I got outvoted by Seven!”
“One versus one? He can’t outvote you!”
“Every vote he makes counts for seven!”
“Every vote you make counts for nine!”
“Not when I’m voting against Seven!”
How does math work again? O_o
“You, you, you, you, and thirty others,” Seven interrupted, pointing to several people in the assembled group- Jimmy, Tac, a couple of people Emma didn’t know. “All of you would be dead if you had come. That is how many times shots almost hit a cyborg or other fast and highly skilled member of the team, such as Geek, that would have killed you.” With that, he turned and walked away, not even shooting them another glance.
Seven has a point here...
“Because if they decide to send in eight thousands, nine thousands, legions of three thousands, specialized four thousands, and dozens of five thousands, we’re dead,” Fall told him. “I don’t know why they haven’t, yet, actually.”
Fall also has a point. I'm willing to bet that the Mainframe will be sending in aerial units soon.....
no subject
Date: 2016-07-12 10:31 pm (UTC)"sent breezes of cold wind Sub’s way,"
"cold wind Sub’s way,"
"Sub’s way,"
"Sub’s"
"way,"
jimmy
Date: 2016-07-12 10:50 pm (UTC)Re: jimmy
Date: 2016-07-13 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-13 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-14 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-14 03:17 am (UTC)Actually that has never been my experience, Subway have always got my order right, though they keep asking the same questions 4 times in a row, probably why they've never got my order wrong lol
no subject
Date: 2016-07-14 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-14 12:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-17 11:55 pm (UTC)-Observing Anon