A/N:Thanks as always for the great reviews, hope you continue to enjoy this! :o)
-14-
"TRANSFER COMPLETE," the pink figure in the middle of the room announces very suddenly. And its pink eyes turn off...but the blue robot's eyes turn on. "REBOOTING. REBOOTING SEQUENCE STARTING. SEQUENCE 1111100010101010101011...LOADING WINDOWS X."
"We should be able to speak normally now," Forge says.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Laura blurts. "That thing is Microsoft?"
Forge shrugs. "What won't they do for money?"
"I'm going to pay Gates a visit," she says, wrinkling her nose. "Well, at least it's not Apple, right?"
"If it was an Apple product I'd have no chance of pulling this off." Forge moves to a table with a built-in keyboard and starts tapping in commands. "I want to see if I can access its mainframe...maybe a few registry edits."
"Okay." Laura leans against the counter. "I wonder if it comes in different colors."
"There's only one Nimrod."
"Is it like the Terminator? Because I could really use my own private killer robot." Laura pauses. "Seriously, could you program it to make a hit for me? I'll pay you."
"No." Forge concentrates on his screen.
"Damn." She studies the blue robot. "So what orders are you giving this one?"
"Protect the kids at the school. That should keep it from killing them...a direct counter objective."
"I could sure use the help," Laura says, with relief. "Every time I turn around another one of them is dead. They're just so...squishy. Literally…brains everywhere."
"You always did have a way with words."
"I have forty-six ways with words. It's always a crapshoot as to how they're going to come out." Laura gazes at the blue glowing eyes-and watches as they turn pink. "Hey, cool...are you doing that?"
"Huh?" Forge looks up. He pales. "Oh my god."
"Is that bad?" Laura asks. "It looks really pretty. Ooooh look, the whole thing is changing color! That is a classy robot."
"INITIATE FORGE PROTOCOLS. PASSWORD: ORORO! OVERRIDE FOREIGN PROGRAMMING!" Forge shouts desperately.
"ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERR-" the robot pauses, then the lights turn pink again. "PROTOCOL 1: PROTECT MUTANTS."
Forge leans against the counter, weak with relief.
"God, you'd think they'd have learned their lesson with Vista," Laura says. "I wouldn't load a Sentinel with Windows."
"They didn't exactly consult me, Laura."
"Obviously." She moves over to it, hesitates. "It won't kill me now, right?"
"Right." He reaches up and wipes his forehead on the back of his arm.
"Cool," Laura says, examining the robot, then looking at Forge again. "Are we all done here then?"
"I guess so," he replies. "I think I'll power it down, just to be safe. Maybe destroy the circuit board...get rid of Nimrod entirely."
"Good plan." Laura nods to him. "Alright, it was nice seeing you-"
KAAAA-BOOOOOOM!
The ground shakes with the force of a large explosion. Laura looks around, bewildered. Forge's lab is sound-proofed, so she is as clueless as he is about what the source of the sound could be.
"It looks like your friends," Forge says, looking at his security screen. "There was a big green glow...and then they crash-landed their jet in my parking lot."
Laura stares at him. "Tell me you're joking," she says in a flat voice.
"Sorry, but I'm not," Forge says, his voice equally weary.
She closes her eyes. "I have to go because the children are trying to kill themselves again. I'll see you around."
"Take care of yourself, Laura."
She leaves the lab quickly.
...
Julian finally recovers enough from the impact to pry the crumpled ramp open with his mind. It explodes outward and he hauls himself out-to come face to face with a very unimpressed looking Laura. She is standing with folded arms, sucking her tongue in a critical fashion.
"Who was flying this here jet?" she asks, her eyebrows arching.
Julian coughs. "Alleyne!" he replies, a little too quickly. Laura's eyes narrow. A moment passes, then he lowers his eyes. "And myself," he admits.
"You are never touching another aircraft. Ever." She looks past him, into the jet. "Everyone alive in there? Because if you killed yourselves, I don't count that as my fault."
"None of this is your fault, Laura!" Julian exclaims in a frustrated tone. "I don't know why you would ever believe Ms. Frost."
"I have my reasons."
"Are you okay?" he asks. "I saw the message Forge sent - I saw you behind Nimrod -"
"Yeah, it was just getting a tune-up. Pretty anticlimactic, really." She pauses. "Did you know that thing is running on Windows?!"
"Really?" David asks, emerging from the jet. "That explains some things."
"No kidding." Laura pauses. "So I guess you guys will be wanting a ride back, then."
"Well, is everything okay here?" Julian asks. He looks up at the tall building which houses Forge's enterprises.
"Yeah, everything's peachy keen -" she replies.
KAAAA-BOOOOOMMMM!
Laura - and everyone else - spin around to gaze at the source of the explosion. The doors of Forge's building are now blown open and smoking.
"I may have spoken too soon," she says, annoyed.
"Let's make sure everything's okay," Julian says. "Come on, guys."
...
They re-enter the building, which is as dark as before-but now filled with an alarming acrid scent. The electric hum is present again-and has intensified-to an almost overbearing noise. Every so often there is a slight sparking in the air, suspiciously pink in color. The hairs on the back of Laura's neck rise.
She feels Julian's fingers brush hers, searching for a hold. She accepts them, and he grips her hand tightly. "This place is really creepy," he says.
"I don't think we should go further," Cessily says, clutching her arms. "It feels all wrong...Laura?"
She's stopped, and is looking toward the ceiling.
"Trouble is on its way, it seems."
Sooraya nods slightly.
The elevator opens suddenly, and Forge stumbles out. He's covered in blood and injuries, and is waving his hands in the air erratically. "GET OUT!" he manages.
"Who -" Julian begins.
"Forge!" Nori exclaims, catching him by his elbows. "What happened?!"
"NIMROD!" Forge says. "Every...every...everywhere...can't stop...need go..."
"That doesn't make any sense!" Cessily says at first.
Laura holds up a hand. "I think I've got it. He was tinkering with Nimrod's operating system...wrote it to a new drive...overrode the protocols."
"And?" Julian asks.
"Well, he said it's everywhere," she says. "So that must mean Nimrod downloaded itself into the whole building."
"YES!" Forge pushes Nori aside, grabs at Laura's hand. "Go! We have to go! Too late will -"
SLAM!
Everyone looks at the doors they have just entered through-to find a metal wall has slid down. Followed by another...and another...and another. And then a forcefield.
"Mutants detected," a cool woman's voice announces, over the lobby speakers. "Initiating elimination procedures. Please stand by."
"What the fuck?" Julian looks around. Hold music has begun to play.
"Is that Phil Collins?" Laura asks, her nose wrinkled.
Everyone listens for a few moments.
"...see your true colors, and that's why I love you, so don't be afraid to let them shoooow..."
"True Colors," Cessily confirms.
"Oh my god...I am not dying to Phil Collins!" Nori snaps.
"Neither am I," Laura says.
"Could be worse," Cessily points out. "Could be that Bieber kid."
"Don't give it ideas!" Victor shouts. "I knew we shouldn't have come."
"Shut the hell up, Borkowski!" Santo snaps.
"Who or what is a 'Bieber'?" Sooraya asks, sounding weary.
"Okay, guys, this is a serious situation and I think we need to focus here," David says.
"Right," Julian says, sounding tired. "Shut up, kids…and think. How are we going to take down an entire building?"
"Tech...tech...tech too, lots of tech, very bad," Forge says. "Lots bad."
"He has a concussion," Laura announces. "We need to get him horizontal somehow, soon...he could get a lot worse if we don't."
"I think everything's about to get a whole lot worse," Cessily says in a small voice. She's looking at the three other elevators ahead of them-or more specifically, at the down arrows. They've lit up, indicating the cars are coming down.
"Oh boy." Julian swallows. "I don't want those doors to open."
"Then don't let them," Laura says. "Need I remind you all that you can do things too? Quickly, we need to cut the cables on the cars-there's a few basement levels on this building."
"Okay. Laura - if I get you in the shaft, can you do that?" he asks.
"Yes. But I can't do it quickly enough myself. Sooraya and Santo can help slow the cars down."
"Let's go."
They run toward the doors, but before they can bring their plans to fruition, the doors open to reveal...nothing.
"The hell?" Julian asks, leaning in.
"KELLER!" Nori screams from behind.
He turns, and sees the beams of pink light that are descending from the ceiling...and turning into robots. Within a split second, there are almost a hundred human-sized machines, all glowing a fierce pink color.
The hold music ends.
"Initiating Nimrod collective," the woman's voice says. "Targets locked. Commencing in 3, 2, 1..."
"AAAGH!" Cessily screeches as she is hit by a pink arc of electricity. She writhes and falls to the floor, jerking and...shrinking.
"She's evaporating!" Nori shouts. "We need to cool her off somehow!" She lets a charge go, and it arcs from one robot to another in a chain reaction.
"You could," Laura suggests, to Julian.
"How?!" he exclaims. "I'm a telekinetic...not iceman."
"Strip the excess energy off of her -like when you helped me clean up, remember?"
"I'll try." He runs over to Cessily and drops to his knees beside her, his eyes glowing. Laura dodges an attack herself, then watches as he sends waves of energy over the puddle of metal that is his friend. It stops shrinking, and a few moments later she reforms. "Oh my god!" she gasps. "I thought - "
"No time, Cess." He helps her to her feet. "We're in big trouble here."
"Probably won't survive," Laura says.
"Don't say that!" Nori shouts. "Do something to help!"
"Okay." SNIKT! as she pops her claws. "I'm going to be working on the right hand side of this room. Anyone who comes there is likely going to get something cut off."
"Noted!" Julian says, propelling robots away with a big wave of mental energy.
Laura takes one last look at him, hopes he will survive the melee, then charges in. Time seems to lose all meaning as she fights, sometimes emerging on top of a mass of robots, sometimes running up walls to flip over them, and even running on walls when she corners. She moves so quickly that the robots are hard-pressed to catch her, but she suspects that if they did, it could be bad. A beam catches a lock of her hair on one landing, and it fries-and doesn't instantly grow back as it usually does. She is also alarmed by the fact that the number of her opponents doesn't seem to be decreasing whatsoever.
After what seems like days - but is in reality thirty minutes - she fights her way back to the center of combat. A green flash passes her, and she runs towards the source, withdraws her claws and catches his wrist. "You're okay?" she asks.
Julian automatically raises a shield around them, and gives her an extremely weary look. His face is covered in soot marks and sports several superficial cuts and burns. The rest of him seems to follow the same pattern, except for a slightly larger wound on his bicep. His uniform is beat up and dirty...and bloodstained. Not his blood, she thinks with relief.
"For now...but I'm running out of steam," he says. "We're not even making a dent in their numbers."
"I know. This isn't right." Laura pauses. "We need to find out where they're coming from. Either up or down...I'm thinking up because I didn't see this kind of tech in the lab...unless it's doing something crazy like - "
"Building them," Julian says. "That's got to be it. Yeah, we need to check that out." He pauses, leans down and kisses her. A pink explosion bounces off his shield, but for a moment neither of them cares. Then they part, and he reaches out and crushes the attacker with a thought.
"We should tell Nori that we're going," he says. "I saw her over in that corner last." He nods towards the door area.
"Okay."
A few moments later they come across Cessily. "We're heading upstairs!" Julian yells.
"WHAT?!" she shouts. "CAN'T HEAR YOU, I-"
He expands the bubble to include the girl. "Oh, that works!" she exclaims.
"We're going upstairs," Laura says, studying the other girl with half-lidded eyes full of weariness. Cessily looks just as tired, but there are no wounds on her metal body, just damage to her uniform-and somehow she still seems enthusiastic. "To find out where these pieces of shit are coming from."
"Yeah, I was starting to wonder!" the other girl agrees.
"I think we should all go, Julian - we need to stick together right now." Laura casts a look around. "I haven't seen Anole for a while...or Santo...or David. Have you?"
"I saw David like two minutes ago," Cessily replies. "He's got Forge. They're ok."
"Good." Julian pauses. "Santo should be easy to spot. Come on."
They manage to round up their companions, but it turns out that Victor has suffered a serious arm injury, and he is the source of the blood on everyone's uniforms. Surprisingly he does not seem to be going into shock.
"How do we go up?" Cessily asks. "I don't want to get in the elevator, all things considered."
"That's probably our only option," Laura says. "I'll bet you anything that Nimrod thought of the fire escapes already."
"EVERYONE IN THE ELEVATORS!" Julian yells.
A few moments later they are crowded into one car, Sooraya sweeping in last. Julian forces the door closed against the robotic fingers reaching in after them, and finally succeeds with a loud sound of crunching metal. He presses the up button, then leans back against the elevator wall, rubbing his arm.
Silence.
PRRRRFFFFTTTT.
All eyes turn toward the big rock boy.
"SANTO!" Cessily snaps.
"WHAT?!" he replies. "I was just in attack of the clones! My stomach's not happy, okay?"
"You don't have a stomach," Julian points out.
"It was some sort of volcanic gas mixture," Laura says. "I can smell it. Ugh. Santo. It smells like sulfur."
"I'm standing over here," Victor says, moving to the other corner.
"Oh my god, Santo," Cessily says, wrinkling her nose. "That's absolutely revolting."
"Are those scorch marks?" Julian is staring at the wall behind Santo. Sure enough, the metal has been darkened slightly, as if subjected to extreme heat.
"Stop making such a big deal!" Santo grumbles. "It was just a fart."
"In an elevator," Nori says. "You could've waited till you were out of here."
"This is going to be a long ride," Cessily groans.
Sooraya closes her eyes.
"Yeah." Laura pauses, looks at Julian. "Did you get hurt?"
"One grabbed me toward the end." He shows her the gash in his upper arm, which is still bleeding, but less now.
She examines the wound critically. "I think you'll be okay...but we should patch it up ASAP."
"Yeah." He glances over at the green boy in the other corner, who is leaning against David and Forge. "I'm more worried about Vic, to be honest. He very freakin' nearly had his arm ripped off..."
"Victor, show me your arm," Laura says, moving forward. The boy holds up a very badly mangled limb, but his eyes are clear and his vitals normal. Odd, Laura thinks. "Can you move it?"
"No," he replies.
"Any feeling at all?" She reaches out and touches it very gently.
"None." He pauses. "Except that it's really itchy. About all I can concentrate on right now."
"Weird." She pauses. "It looks...well..." she squints. "Julian, come here."
A moment later, he's peering at the arm as well. "Oh man," he says. "Vic...that doesn't look okay."
"What?!" the boy cries.
"It's darkening...see?"
Victor looks down at his hand and lets out another startled cry, this one wordless. "AAAGHHHHH!"
"Dude, that looks bad!" Santo says. "Might wanna put a bandaid on it or somethin'."
"No, a band-aid won't do anything," Laura says, her forehead wrinkling. "I think you're losing the arm, Victor. I'm sorry. But...why is it happening so fast?"
The limb is withering in her hands. A few moments later and it's completely black.
"Oh boy. I need to cut it off. Julian-hold him." SNIKT!
"NO!" Victor leaps backward in panic.
"Sorry," Julian says, his eyes turning green. "Laura's right. We can't let that spread."
"SANTO STOP THEM!" the boy yells, his voice breaking.
"Dude, you can't!" Santo bellows at Julian. "Don't let X get near him! That is-"
They all stop talking as the arm falls to the ground with a dull THUD!
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHGGGHHHHHHHH!" Victor slams into the wall of the elevator so hard it shakes.
"STOP HIM!" Laura orders.
Julian grabs him in a mental hold. "God damn, this is like some kind of horror movie!" he says.
"Oh man," Santo says, staring at the dead limb. "I wanna throw up."
"I want to go home and sob into my pillow," Cessily says, her eyes closed.
"Vic, just calm down!" Laura says in a commanding voice. "I need you to concentrate...can you do that for me?"
"I JUST LOST MY FREAKING ARM!" Victor screams.
She slaps him.
"Wha-" the boy blinks. "Did you just-"
"Yes, you were getting hysterical." She pauses. "I don't think this is normal."
"None of this is normal!" Julian fumes.
"No, I mean his arm falling off like that...I've never heard of that, ever." She pauses. "You have reptilian physiology, am I correct?"
"Uhh if you mean I'm like a lizard, then yeah." Victor looks at his missing arm, then wrenches his gaze away. "I can't-I can't-it's just gone-"
"I have a hunch," she says. "But I don't want to give you false hope. Just wait. We'll get out of here, and then take you to Elixir...he can heal that."
"Josh is-"
"Shut up, Julian." She glares at him.
"Okay, okay, geez."
At that moment, the elevator makes a loud DING! noise. Everyone falls silent as the doors begin to slowly slide open, revealing...