"Sota, respond!" Carolina yelled into the radio again, but still no answer.
I could feel Lambda's emotions cascading through me. It took all my willpower not to run to him because of her. She stayed at the back of my mind, refusing to do anything. The Tex drones stayed where they were, probably waiting on us to make the first move. My shotgun's barrel never moved from its target.
"Wash, do you still have that healing unit?" Carolina asked.
"I picked up one from the base. If you can get me past these things, I can go help him."
Carolina nodded. "Exactly what I was thinking. Question is, how?"
"I've got an idea," I growled as I charged one.
My body slammed into the unmoving robot, dropping my weapon at the same moment. We grappled for a moment, my hands gripping it by the neck, before I lifted it up and tackled the thing into a wall. The machine struggled to get free, but my strength was more than enough. It kicked and punched at me, the blows not even hurting. Having an energy sword though my chest raised my pain tolerance a little.
"Go!" I yelled to Wash.
He got the idea and sprinted down back the way we came. The other two in the way tried to pursue him but Carolina tackled another to the ground. She fired at the remaining one with her grapple gun and caught it by the forearm. The drone struggled against the line before its elbow gave way with a spark and continued after the Freelancer. For some reason, the three in front of the Counselor's door had yet to budge. The one in my grasp continued to struggle against me as my grip tightened around its neck. I could feel the metal crunching under my hands. It felt good to break something again, even if it was just a robot.
"Lambda, I need you to activate my enhancements."
"But Sota told me not to," she replied, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Please, just this once. The faster these things are destroyed, the sooner we get to Sota remember?"
She hesitated for a moment. "Which ones? I don't think I can work them all."
"Right now I need one of Tex's enhancement. Can you do that?"
"I'll try," she said.
I felt it kick in the moment she brought it online. Holding down the panicked machine, I brought back one of my fists and drove it home against its chestplate. There was a crunch of metal as my fist broke through and kept going. I could almost hear Omega's deep laugh in my head as I repeated the process and attacked it relentlessly.
After adding a few more openings, I let it slump to my feet. Carolina had already dismantled her Tex clone, which now lay in shambles on the floor, and was assaulting the last three by herself. She twirled and dodged around them with ease like some kind of deadly acrobat. I thought she could handle it until one grabbed her helmet and slammed her head into the ground with a resounding crack. Rushing forward, I picked up my shotgun, and placed it on the back of one of their heads, I pulled the trigger before it could react and the front of its visor exploded into glass and shrapnel before falling over lifelessly.
Suddenly, I was the life of the party. The two remaining Tex clones turned on me and I had to struggle to keep up. My extra strength faded only to be replaced with something that made me smirk.
"How long can you keep it going?" I asked.
"Not more than a few seconds. It's a little difficult," she replied.
"That's more than enough."
They both lunged at me. Right before they connected, they froze. I moved out of the way just in time to dodge the blows. Grabbing one, I shoved it in Carolina's direction before turning back to my own. The clone tried to hit me, but each time I moved before the attack hit. As I continued my evasion, I could swear I heard Gamma's distorted voice echoing in my mind. Deflecting a punch, I began my own my own assault. Every time it froze, my fist connected. I knew it would drain my armor, but want to make sure it was dead. Grabbing its wrists, I slung it around until I was behind it. Catching its other arm, I planted my boots on its back, pushing and pulling at the same time. With some slight resistance, the arms gave way, tearing completely off. The Tex clone staggered away before I lifted it above me. In one fluid motion, I brought the thing down on me and it nearly tore in half.
Carolina looked between me and the now useless drone as I slid it off my knee.
"Good job, Maine. You first." She nodded to the cell door.
She input a code as I waited for it to slide open. With a hiss, it shot up. A small back up light barely lit up the room enough to make out the Counselor's form not too far away.
"I wasn't expecting you. Are you here to save my life or take it?" he asked warily.
"That depends," Carolina said as she pushed past me, "on what you can offer me."
For a man confronted by to ghosts, he seemed pretty unsurprised.
"Let's discuss this somewhere else, shall we?" he said as he strode by us, unimpressed.
"Don't trust him," Lambda said.
"Why?"
"Just don't."
Carolina and I caught up with him as he left the piles of dead robots, giving them a curious glance. Lambda was right. He seemed too calm to have just been released by to dead Freelancers looking for him. Something tells me he's got something in mind.
I sprinted down the hallways past the chaos of released prisoners and what little guards we'd left alive. I hoped Carolina and Maine could take on those things by themselves. Rounding the exit, I could see the generator in the distance, a Warthog parked not too far away. Someone else had gotten to him first. Moving more quietly, I came upon another one of those Insurrectionists hovering over Sota. I approached with my rifle drawn.
"Don't move."
It was that female one, Fox. She looked worried until she saw me. Her sniper rifle lay on the ground next to her as she tried to remove Sota's armor. Her head whipped around when she heard me.
"Step away no-"
"Duck!" she yelled.
On instinct, I crouched and turned. A shadow blocked the sun as it came down at me. Several shots rang out and it crashed down next to me. Turning back, I found Fox not just with her sniper rifle but a magnum readied as well, a thin vapor of smoke trailing from both. She set them down and went back to Sota's armor. Confused, I activated the healing unit and set it next to him.
"This might work better."
She seemed to relax as she realized what it was doing. Placing her helmet back on, she picked up her weapons before facing me.
"What are you doing out here? You weren't part of the mission," I asked.
"Him," she pointed at the other Innie next to Sota, dead.
"That can't be good."
"He turned on Minnesota. I watched the logs. He was going to sell you out to the Chairman."
I suddenly felt a little less guilty and little bit more angry.
"What about you?" I asked, my finger flexing around the trigger of my rifle.
"Relax, I had my suspicions about him for awhile. I have the feeling this isn't the first time my leader made a deal with that old man."
I relaxed a little, but still didn't let down my guard. We waited in silence until the others caught up, or didn't. I noticed she kept glancing over at Sota, probably making sure he was still okay. After a little bit, a red image flickered next to him.
"Hello, Agent Washington. Nice to see you in one piece."
"Zeta, confirm. Did Adam betray us?" I asked.
His image distorted for a moment and his voice distorted giving him that creepy double voice Sigma had.
"Yes, but Sota took care of him before anything could happen. I must log off now, anything else before I go?"
"That will be all, Zeta. Log off." He disappeared with a flash.
"Satisfied?" Fox complained.
"A little bit, yes."
Our conversation was interrupted by Sota groaning and opening his eyes. He blinked a few times and slowly pushed himself to his knees with a groan.
"Easy, you're still healing," Fox said.
He looked over at the dead Insurrectionist before carefully getting to his feet. Something seemed wrong with him. I helped him steady himself just as the others arrived.
"It's good to see you again, Washington," the Counselor said.
I gave him a quick nod as Sota looked up at him with a smirk.
"Excuse me, I need to check on something," Sota said as he pushed by everyone.
"On what?" Lambda asked as she appeared next to Maine.
Sota didn't even look back at her. Instead, he just kept on walking. The Counselor's eyes followed him until he disappeared around the corner.
"Did anything happen to him during the fight?" he asked.
"Zeta said Sota took care of him quickly" I answered.
"He lied."
The Counselor turned to Fox. "What did you say?"
"That thing lied to us. I got a look at the video feed from Minnesota's helmet before that little came back online. It wasn't pretty." She pointed to her dead commander.
"What happened?" I questioned.
"The A.I. took over his body just as he was losing. It controlled him like a rag doll. Judging from the jerky movements of the camera, he was having a hard time running all the systems and moving Sota's body at the same time, but he put on a good show."
"Interesting," the Counselor muttered.
A loud motor roared and we all turned in time to see Sota driving off on the Mongoose.
"Why do I get a bad feeling about this?" I asked.
"You have to hurry and stop him before Zeta tries to take control again," the Counselor ordered.
I traded looks with the other Freelancers. It sounded so foreign having the Counselor give commands instead of the Director. We rushed off to the remaining Warthog. Carolina tried to start it, but it gave a low groan and stopped. Maine ran his hand over several small holes in the hood.
"Somebody doesn't want us to follow him," Carolina remarked.
There was a loud honk as Fox drove up in her own vehicle. "Who's staying and who's going? I don't have enough room for everyone."
Carolina strode up to her. "Get out. We'll go after him."
"My car, my rules. I'm going."
Maine put a hand out to hold Carolina back. The Counselor looked over at them.
"You two go. Washington and I will catch up as soon as we can."
Carolina continued to struggle. "We need you to help with Zeta. Just make her stay."
"You know as much as I do about what's going on with Zeta. This is something different from what Sigma did to Maine. You two are the best chances at stopping whatever he's up to." he replied.
Maine climbed up onto the turret once more, Carolina grudgingly getting in the passenger's seat. I watched as the dark skinned man walked up to the hulking agent.
"Maine, if things get out of hand, have Lambda help. She'll know what to do."
She popped up next to him. "No I don't. I've never seen Zeta act like this. At least not since he attacked you and that other man."
The four of us stared at the two, hoping one of them would elaborate on her statement.
"You will do fine, Lambda. I have complete faith in you." the Counselor continued.
"But I don't know what to do!" she yelled, her eyes shimmering with simulated tears.
"It's going to be okay. Maine will be there to help you the entire time. I know you can do it," he said as he tried to calm her down.
She gazed up at him, probably still not believing him. To be honest, I didn't believe him either.
"Remember last time?" the Counselor started. "You stopped Zeta from hurting me and that man. You're capable of so much Lambda, you just have to figure out what you can do."
I don't know if she was still listening to him, but she went up next to Maine and sat down on his shoulder. Fox floored the accelerator and they took off.
"So, the A.I. tried to kill you. I'm not surprised."
"Neither am I," he said with a sigh. "I admit we lost sight of our goal with the project. The Director was too stubborn to realize it, and I followed along with it. I just wish it would all be over."
In that instance, I didn't see him as the Counselor, but as another tired old man.
"I'll see what I can do about our ride. I'm not much of a mechanic, but I think I can get it running."
He stared off to where the others had left, lost in thought. I had the feeling this was going to get a lot worse before it got better. I couldn't understand what the Counselor saw in Lambda. She was a fragment yes, but she doesn't appear to be willing to fight. Then again, Theta had been a lot like her too. Maybe it's just like any equipment, it's all about how you used it. With Maine, I had a feeling she'd be more than a match against anyone.
