Author's Note: Hey all, I know updates have been sporadic. I've been fortunately busy during the holidays. But I have more to post! We're entering the last leg of the story. And there's definitely some excitement left. I should be able to post pretty regularly until it's done.
Thank you for hanging in with me on this story. I hope you enjoy!
Ellie crawls through the stainless steel vent, a breeze pushing against her. Below her, the sound of gunfire and tactical shouts ring out.
"Behind the stacks!"
"Concentrate fire!"
"Sure you don't want me down there?" Ellie says, depressing her earpiece.
"Yes," replies Nat. Ellie hears a hard impact through the comm piece and below her at the same time. "I've got this under control."
They've infiltrated an AIM arms depot where the guard had been relaxed as a result of logistical movements across the organization. They have a chance to destroy a lot of weaponry that would otherwise be used against them and the inhuman resistance in the future.
There's a short alarm blare and orange lights activate near some double doors at the end of the stainless steel chamber lined with data banks. The doors open, and another half dozen armed guards pour into the room, accompanied by several drones.
"Scratch that," says Nat. Ellie can make her out between the grates of a side vent. She cartwheels between the data banks just as another volley of fire lights up her position.
Ellie's heart jumps at seeing Nat in danger. She pivots onto her butt, plants her back against the other side of the vent, and starts kicking at the grated vent.
After three or four savage thrusts, the vent pops off except for one bolt in the upper right corner. She leans forward, grabbing the swinging plate. She notices one of the guards looking up at her, and he points in alarm.
She kicks one last time at the corner holding the vent on, and the bolt busts through the sheet metal, freeing it completely. She leans forward and hurls it downward at the guard like a Frisbee.
He takes a couple surprised steps back, and the vent ends up slamming into his helmeted forehead with all its force. He lands flat on his back, his gun rattling across the ground.
That provokes some shouting, but a drone is heading right underneath Ellie and she takes the opportunity given. She drops from the vent and lands on top of it.
The whine of its engine deepens as it is destabilized, almost spilling her. It's not meant to handle nearly so much weight and it begins to drop toward the ground.
Electric bursts sound as the guards begin shooting at her, bolts of physical force whizzing past her head as the drone spirals toward the ground. She plucks one of the electric grenades from her belt, arms it, and hurls it toward the group of guards.
One of them curses and they scatter, but two of them get caught in the arcing beams of electricity emitted from the munition. They spasm where they stand and stagger to the ground.
At that moment the drone changes direction. Not ready for it, Ellie rolls off the side, still twelve feet off the ground. The world turns around her, but her new sense never fails. She careens into a data bank, but manages to plant her feet on it, pushing off. She lands on her feet but rolls hard, tumbling roughly into a crouch.
"Bitch!" one of the guards cries out before firing at her.
Blue bolts strike her left thigh and right shoulder, burning and pushing her. She grits her teeth and dives toward the data banks where Nat took cover.
She finds her feet, pulls her gun and presses her back into the wall of computer towers. Looking, Nat stands next to her in the same position.
"That was brash," says Nat.
"So are you," says Ellie.
"Never," says Nat. She steps out from behind the cover, immediately laying rapid pistol fire and downing a couple guards before deploying her grapple and zipping across the room, blue bolts making holes in the walls and computers behind her.
"Shit! Back up!"
"Watch the servers! Mind your fire!"
Ellie hears a whirring and one of the drones is hovering above the data banks with a clear shot on her. She instantly raises her arm and shoots her grapple into it. She yanks hard and it dips sharply, unprepared for the sudden force. She's able to grab the front of its chassis away from its spinning rotors, and slams her knee into its bottom plating, where she knows the force will disrupt its sensitive inner circuitry. She then grabs an explosive grenade, arms it, and rams it into the chassis. She pulls the drone around, shoves it, and kicks it hard.
Spinning in disorientation, it drifts into the open area between server banks. Two other drones come down to flank it. They just start to lay fire down at Ellie before the grenade explodes, sending all three of them flying in different directions.
"Nice play, kid," says Alisande over the comms. She's monitoring the mission, and Ellie in particular.
"Thanks," says Ellie. Sometimes, the absurdity of her life now compared to scraping together survival back in her war torn world comes back to her in fleeting moments, and disappears just as quickly.
"Coming your way," comes Nat's voice over comms.
Ellie runs down the line of servers toward the outer wall. A guard appears in her vision just as she's reaching the end, and without hesitating she jumps up and throws a knee. It crunches into his jaw, rocking his head back. He runs into the cement wall, and she grabs his collar before he can slump to the ground. She drags his body behind her around the banks.
Almost immediately after, a guy appears at the other end of the narrow corridor she had just occupied. Apparently they were trying to flank her.
"Charles?" the guy says, uncertain.
Ellie drops Charles' body out of sight and runs up the line of banks.
She turns a corner to the open end of the room nearer the double doors from which the guards issued. She sees the last two guards pointing their rifles at Nat, who is shielding her body with a disarmed third guard.
"Don't shoot!" he cries out.
"Drop him!" Another shouts. "You're done!"
Without missing a beat Ellie charges the two from behind. Like Nat taught her, just as they start to turn at her footsteps, she drops into a slide and leg tackles one of them at the knees, dropping him.
"Hey!" shouts the other, turning his gun on her, but simultaneously Nat looses her prisoner and throws a straight into his jaw, dropping him.
The remaining guard turns back toward Nat, but before he can fire, Ellie goes at his knees too from the ground, causing him to stumble and fall.
Just then, she feels a strong arm wrap around her neck. "Motherf—" she curses just as it cuts off her air. The other grounded guard grabs one of her flailing arms as the other tries uselessly to pry his arm from her throat.
The guard Ellie just dropped manages to keep hold of his rifle, and fires off a few haphazard shots that go wide as Nat closes in, kicks it out of his hands, grabs his shirt and pulls him into a knockout punch.
Ellie can feel her face going red. Without stopping, Nat turns and with a mean look, throws a heel right at Ellie's face.
It goes past her face and into the guy grappling her. She can hear his helmet bounce hard off the concrete beneath them, and he goes limp.
Breathing in gasps, Ellie accepts Nat's hand and is pulled forcefully to her feet.
"Thank y—" Ellie starts, but she's interrupted by whirring.
Two drones drop into sight and their weapons begin spinning up.
As one, the two women pull their pistols and light the drones up, causing them to spark and jitter until their motor functions fail completely and they careen out of control into the floor and server banks nearby.
Finally, it's quiet.
"No thanks until the action is over," says Nat.
"Right," says Ellie, still panting.
"Good assist," says Nat honestly.
"Of course."
"Let's move."
With no other acknowledgement that they'd just taken out over a half dozen guys together and a small swarm of drones, Nat moves up to the double doors the troop had come through and Jarvis parts them for her. Ellie follows.
'Not bad,' comes the horrid, familiar voice.
Ellie's jaw tightens.
This time, Mephisto is standing upright on the wall, impossibly. He smirks at her over his shoulder, hands in his pockets. 'I'd give it a six out of ten. I think they all survived, unfortunately. Though I'm pretty sure you broke that guy's jaw.'
Ellie clenches her fist briefly.
Nat happens to glance her way at that moment, but doesn't say anything. They reach an intersection. "That's you," she says simply, pointing one way. "You good?"
'You're giving yourself away, again.'
Ellie's brow twitches. "I'm fine."
"Run it through."
Nat's talking about the rules. Ellie let's go of her breath. "I do what you say. Mission is second only to our lives. And when in doubt, get out."
"That a girl," says Nat, turning down the corridor, "don't go easy on 'em."
"Never do," says Ellie, heading her own way.
The original plan was for Ellie to follow that vent to her target. She'd been diverted to help Nat out, but Jarvis is automatically providing directions via her holo-bracer. She's to get to a security terminal. They need to drop the barriers to the weapons cache—something that can only be done via two hard-wired terminals in different sections of the facility. That falls to her and Nat.
Once they do, Steve and the others will clear all opposition, and use those same munitions to help blow the place sky-high. Efficient destruction. Ellie had liked the plan.
And Nat had trusted her to have her own part in it, even after last time.
'Shame if something went awry…'
Ellie's cheek twitches.
She hears boot falls coming from around the corner of an intersection. She freezes. There's not much time.
There's another junction box or something sticking out from the wall. Like at that first facility when Taskmaster had spotted her, it doesn't reach all the way to the ground.
She runs to it, jumps, grabs wire piping jutting from the top to support her weight, lifts her legs off the ground and flattens herself against the wall.
The team of AIM troops runs through the intersection, paying her no mind. When they're out of sight, Ellie drops back to the ground and turns the corner they'd come from.
"Swift and prudent, Ms. Coulsen," says Jarvis over comms.
Swift and prudent, Ms. Coulsen, Mephisto mocks. It briefly amuses Ellie.
Ellie turns another corner and sees a heavily secured door under a sign that reads 'Control Point C.'
"Hostiles within, Ms. Coulsen."
Ellie glances around. She walks into an open office next to her with no one inside. She quickly spots another air vent over the wide desk. She shoots it with her wrist grapple, braces herself, and yanks hard.
The corner bolt snaps off the vent, another yank busts the other bolt, and with a little more force she manages to fold it outward wide enough for her to climb in. She steps on top of the desk, jumps, grabs the lip and hauls herself inside with some noise.
She hears some voices inside the control point, but time has taught her that for all their money and tech, AIM isn't particularly good at handling surprises.
With practiced stealth, she creeps quietly through the vent until she's near the control point. Turning a corner in the vent, she sees one of AIM's impassable yellow barriers barring her way. Well, at least they thought of that.
"Easy enough, Ms. Coulsen. USB port, top right side."
There are four anchors projecting the field at the corners of the venting. Inspecting the top right, she indeed finds a USB port. She produces her pikAx and connects it. Sure enough, the field drops almost silently moments later.
"All you," says Jarvis.
A vent along the bottom of the shaft gives her some visibility into the room. It's probably twelve by twelve feet, with monitors displaying camera feeds along one side and a couple tables with more computers on them. Two armed guards stand by one of the tables, another across the room.
"Where is she, Castillo?"
"We had her on feed a minute ago. We lost visual."
"Told you we should have rushed her."
"Can it, Carlson! We just need to—"
Ellie presses her boots against one side of the grating, her shoulders against the roof of the vent, and pushes hard.
The grate busts open and she drops through it almost on top of one of the two standing together. Her foot knocks his gun out of his hands to the floor and he starts to stagger.
The guard between her and the guy across the room curses in surprise, starting to lift his gun. Finding her feet, Ellie blocks the barrel from pointing at her, puts her arm over his shoulder, and fires her grapple at the third guy.
He's aiming their way, too, but the grapple embeds itself into his chest armor. Ellie retracts it and he begins stumbling toward them awkwardly.
The first guy grabs her hair and yanks, causing a shock of pain. The second guy manages to wrench her hand off his gun, but the next instant his grappled friend barges into his back. Ellie swings a high kick into the second guy's jaw, stunning him.
"Bitch!" cries the first, and Ellie can hear the knife she senses him draw. He goes over hand and tries to stab her chest, but she catches his arm. They wrestle for a few moments, spinning around and wrapping the grapple cable still attached to her wrist around the second guy's neck.
"Damn it!" cries the third guy. He's trying to use his rifle, but he's effectively stuck to the second one by the grapple still in his chest armor. The second guy is still stunned, but conscious enough to claw at the cable threatening to cut off his air.
The first guy grabs her face with his free arm. It hurts, but it neither threatens her seriously or obscures her senses. Growling, Ellie raises her right leg and steps down on the tensioned cable.
This action drags on all four of them. Her wrist and the first guy's arm are pulled hard enough that the first guy goes down to her right on his back. The second guy's eyes are starting to bug out of his head as he chokes.
The third guy, who was about to fire his rifle, fumbles awkwardly against his friend, spinning him around.
Now free, Ellie steps off the cable and directly into the third guy, slamming him in the face with the crown of her head. He bounces off one of the tables and goes to the ground, still. The first guy is scrambling to get off his back, and Ellie plants her boot into his face with all her weight, knocking his head into the tiled floor.
The second guy is free from the cable but gasping for breath, making for an easy target. Unrestricted, Ellie swings her other leg into his other jaw, and at that he simply drops.
The room is quiet but for Ellie's panting.
"Dicks," she says under her breath.
"Harrowing, but impressive savagery, Ms. Coulsen."
"Thank you, Jarvis," says Ellie in a tone that suggests that's enough commentary for now. She walks over to a computer screen with a unique symbol on it, a blue circle with three white triangles in it.
"You have identified the correct terminal. Black Widow is in position, if you would please wire me in."
"The guys are in place, Ellie," says Nat over comms, right on cue. "When's it gonna be?"
"Now," says Ellie, connecting the pikAx to a port at the back of the terminal.
A lot of text that means little to Ellie scrolls down the screen, followed by a beep.
"That did it!" says Steve over comms. She can hear Hulk smashing something in the background. "Get to positions, we'll be ready to go in five."
A familiar thrill of success runs through Ellie.
'Still plenty of time for things to go wrong,' says Mephisto over her shoulder.
Ellie frowns.
'Deadly wrong.'
Shut up! She commands inwardly. For now, Mephisto's presence recedes. He seems to have less power over her in heated moments.
"Good job, kid," says Nat, "now get to extract."
"Should we help them?" Ellie asks.
"Trust in team, Ellie. We did our part. I'll see you on the roof."
"With updated security info from this access point," says Jarvis, "I've identified a new optimal escape route."
The door to the control point opens with a hydraulic whoosh. Needing no further prompting, Ellie stows the pikAx and starts moving.
Ellie runs through the lifeless steel and concrete corridors of the facility along Jarvis's route. Now and then she passes through some kind of lab or another, but no door bars her with Jarvis's help. Under lab tables strewn with beakers and glass instruments, computer terminals and half-finished pieces of tech, she senses scientists and clerical types hiding, here and there, but they're too frightened to even spare her a glance.
She has to evade another group of security officers rushing down the corridor in full gear. She can hear and sense them well before they detect her, however, and she just slips into an office off the corridor until they pass.
Ellie's passed into a two-floor room, entering onto a stair landing on the upper floor. It's full of buzzing machines and heavier tech. Without hesitation, she jumps the railing, hangs on it over the air below, then drops to a neat landing on the floor below.
"Nearly there, Ms. Coulsen. I should warn you, this room—"
Ellie stands and takes in her surroundings all at once. Around the walls of the room are ten foot rings on raised platforms fronted by terminals. Most are inert, but to her right, she sees a young man around her age suspended in the center of one of the rings, electric tethers binding his limbs into a crucifix posture. Ellie's breathing goes still.
"I'm sorry, Ellie, but this is not an uncommon sight in AIM facilities. We don't have time to remedy this situation. I recommend you resume exfiltration, swiftly."
The boy's a little younger than her. His hair is a mess and he has a scraggly, unkempt beard, like he hasn't been allowed to shave. His chest is exposed, and there are wires connected to patches around his body. He's emaciated, and weak-looking. He looks miserable. He looks like he's dying.
For a second, she's back on that beach in Santa Barbara.
"Ms. Coulsen—"
Lifting his head weakly, his barely parted eyes meet hers.
Ellie moves to the console in front of him. "Jarvis, I need you to get him out of there."
"Ah, Ms. Coulsen…"
She uses her knife to pop the frontal plate of the terminal loose, removing one of the buses and connecting the pikAx to it. She looks up at the boy again. His lips move, but she can't hear his faint voice over the drone of the machine.
She remembers cutting Abby from her pillar and watching her spill onto the sand. Abby hadn't paid her any mind, but gone straight for Lev, tied up opposite her.
You spared me from that, Abby'd said to Ellie many months later, rage and something else fighting on her face, and for that, and that alone, you have my forgiveness.
"Just do it," says Ellie, and for a second it almost doesn't sound like her. "I'm not leaving without him."
Without further protest, the text on the console starts moving and the sounds coming from the machine change.
"Ellie? Ellie, can you hear me?" It's Nat. "Jarvis filled me in. We cannot rescue every person we come across, we talked about that. You could be putting both of you in danger."
"He's in worse than danger," Ellie replies.
There's a pop and a clang and the sound of an engine spinning down. The electric tethers spark out, and the boy falls first to his knees then prone on the platform in front of Ellie with a bang.
She's on top of him in a second, helping him up. He can barely prop himself up on his forearms.
"Hey, can you hear me?" says Ellie. "Are you alright?"
He says something so raspy and faint she can't understand him.
"What?"
"Water," he says, "I need water."
Ellie's brow wrinkles. "Look, I don't have water, I'm sorry. We can help you, but we need to get out of here. I'm with the Avengers."
A faint glimmer of lucidity and hope enters his eyes, with effort, he looks up at her. "Avengers?" His medium length hair is moppy, and greasy from lack of washing. His brown eyes struggle to focus on her, either because he needs glasses, or just his condition.
"That's right. Can you get up? There's not much time."
He looks back down, drool hanging from his lips. "I need help."
Heart beating with fear and compassion, Ellie manages to get his arm around her shoulders. To her relief, he proves he can still use his legs. He'd be too heavy for her to carry all the way out of here.
Once they find their feet, she gestures for him to look at her. His eyes find hers, but they're unfocused. He's having trouble concentrating. "What did they do to you?" she asks.
He takes a couple ragged breaths. "Wouldn't give… me water… couldn't use… my powers…"
"Can you walk?"
"With help."
"What's your name?"
"El… Elliot."
"I'm Ellie. Let's go."
Ellie starts to lead him across the room. He moves with her, but he keeps a poor pace, even with her help. His body is clearly in a lot of pain. She looks around the room desperately, but of course there is no water in sight.
They get to the base of the stairs on the other side of the room. It's two flights, but she hates to think how long it would take the both of them to climb them.
"Stop," says Ellie. She turns him and wraps her arms around him, twining their legs. "Hold on tight."
She fires her grapple into the roof by the upper landing. The motor whines, but is able to lift them both the twenty feet above the upper railing. They swing over the landing easily, and she releases the grapple.
She lands on her feet but his legs give out instantly, and she almost goes down holding him up.
"Easy, easy! Find your feet, come on!" She supports his lower back with her arm.
Clumsy and weak, he manages to find his feet, mostly with her support. "…much more of that?" he wheezes.
"You are on the correct floor," says Jarvis. "Roof access in two hundred feet."
"No more of those. It's not too far, now come on."
Wordlessly, he resumes his place by her side and they walk through the automatic door.
The pass down a hallway lined with doors. Ellie can hear the alarms sounding in the distance, but this area is as quiet as any she's seen so far. Doors line the sides of the hallway.
"Look for Chemistry Lab C9," says Jarvis.
Ellie can see the sign. It's only thirty or so feet away, but their progress is painfully slow.
"Come on," says Ellie, "I know it hurts, but we can get you water when we get to safety."
"I'm… trying…"
His footfalls are irregular. He'll summon his strength and lurch forward, and then almost stumble, as if drunk. He'd fall quickly without her support.
Ellie knows what advanced dehydration is like, and he's worse off than she's ever been. He won't be conscious long at this rate.
"Fuck this," she says. She gets in front of him, puts her forearms under his thighs, and lifts him onto her back. His arms automatically wrap around her neck in a loose hold. "Just hang on."
Able to move much faster, even with his weight, Ellie jogs down the corridor and through the doors to the chemistry lab.
It's similar to others she's passed through. It's probably thirty by thirty feet. The room is strewn with tables covered with glass equipment and various devices for chemical experimentation. Four solid pillars support the room.
"The corridor leading from the south entrance to this room has roof access," says Jarvis, "I recommend—"
He stops suddenly. "Jarvis?" says Ellie, stopping as well.
"Hang on, there's been a sudden reroute. Security drones," Jarvis says with urgency, "West entrance, evade detection."
Evade detection? Swiftly and without much grace, Ellie drops down and lets Elliot down onto the ground by one of the tables. The door on the West side of the room opens a moment later, followed by the familiar whirring of drone rotors.
She grabs Elliot's arm, and pulls him under the table into a sitting position against the base. She meets his eyes and puts a finger to her lips.
Head rocking in pain and disorientation, he nods.
Through the table, Ellie senses the drones' movement. They're heading directly across to the East entrance.
Elliot's head rocks back and his head bumps into the base of the table, making a muffled sound.
Immediately, the drones pause their flight. They orbit each other for a second, then turn in their direction.
God damn it, thinks Ellie.
She pulls a throwing knife from her belt and leans out from under the table, hucking it across the room where it clatters against the wall.
The drones' engines grow in pitch as they accelerate across the room, their small, rotary guns spinning in preparation. They examine the thrown knife briefly. A red light flashes briefly on both their chassis, accompanied by a sharp buzz. They turn in different directions, and begin sweeping the room.
"Look," she says to Elliot under her breath, "whatever happens, stay here, out of sight. I'll deal with these guys."
He nods, looking sorry.
"Ellie," says Jarvis, "these units have already sent out an alert. More will come. You need to dispense with them quickly and move on."
No time for stealth. Elli draws her Desert Eagle and creeps a few tables away from Elliot, so as not to draw attention to him. She seizes upon a drone circling the room to her right. She rises to her feet, braces herself, and pulls the trigger.
The deafening boom fills the room, and the bullet makes an explosion of sparks in the side of the drone. The unit drifts and bangs into the wall, a two inch hole in its plating. It goes down.
Before she can even turn, she hears the other drone's gun spin up and begin spitting bullets at her. Cursing, she ducks back under the table. Its engine whines as it zooms across the room until it catches sight of her again between tables. More bullets fly just as Ellie somersaults behind the nearest table.
Damn it! This one is aggressive.
It's closing in on her again. It would be awkward to use the heavy pistol at such short range. She simultaneously holsters it and draws a disruption blade. As the drone is rounding the table, she hurls the knife.
It sticks into the outer plating of the drone, sending out its electric pulse. The drone twitches, but its most sensitive circuitry is unaffected and it only buys Ellie a second or two.
Ellie jumps up and grabs the upper chassis of the drone just as it begins firing again. She jerks it away from her, and bullets light up the floor and tables, smashing beakers and ricocheting around the room. It turns in its inner housing, attempting to turn the spray onto her torso.
Ellie has to put a hand on the rotating barrels themselves. They rotate under her palm, so she can't grip them, but it allows her to keep the weapon from hitting her. The barrels get hotter by the second. Her fingerless glove protects her palm, but the base of her fingers sting where the metal touches them.
Baring her teeth and growling, Ellie grips the barrels hard anyway. The drone's motors grind, unable to resist her hand. She draws her knife with her free hand and rams it into the bottom of the drone, right through the central circuitry. The drone jerks and clanks, and its rotors slow as it shuts down.
Hand still burning, she jerks her arm and tosses the unit clattering across the floor behind her.
"Little fucker," she mutters.
She thinks of Elliot, a twang of fear running through her. She looks, and she can sense his presence under the table where she left him. She lets out a breath.
"Ellie," says Nat, anger in her voice, "you are almost out of time. You need to get to the roof, now!"
"Well, I—"
The West door to the room opens again, and there is only one figure behind it. The seven-foot tall humanoid machine steps through it. Underneath its shining, plastic skin is a web of wires, circuitry, and rippling, synthetic muscle. Atop its shoulders, its head stairs at her with a beaming, cyclopic eye. The adaptoid clenches its fist, and menaces her, a droning, electronic chorus escalating into a roar of challenge.
"Ellie," says Jarvis, "run!"
Ellie is able to spare one glance at Elliot, still hidden, before the adaptoid reaches down, grabs the nearest eight foot table, lifts it with one hand and hurls it across the room at her.
Ellie dives as the table crashes over the others near her in ear-piercing bangs, glass shattering around her and unknown chemicals splashing her.
Ears ringing, a familiar fear sings through her skin. If that had hit her, it would have likely snapped her neck. She's not even sure her Desert Eagle can disable this thing.
The East exit isn't far behind her, but Elliot is between her and the monster. She doesn't know if she can bring this thing down, but she has to try.
Ellie rolls through the shards of glass and finds her feet. "Come on, then!" she shouts at the machine.
In response, it moves toward her, pushing aside tables as if they weren't there.
Ellie takes the opportunity to fire three rounds into the adaptoid. It has a kinetic shield, like AIM's more advanced units, but the heavy rounds penetrate it easily. One embeds itself into its left shoulder, one its right breast, and the third grazes its head. None slow it, though.
It's within fifteen feet now, and Ellie's eyes widen. She moves to evade it. She doesn't get two steps before a table flips end over end in front of her, blocking her way. She stops on her heels and tries to run the other way.
The adaptoid lunges forward with impressive speed, its large hand wrapping all the way around her neck.
Its grip is merciless, immediately cutting off her air so she can't even choke. It lifts her entire body off the ground patiently. Ellie grabs its wrist, trying to alleviate the strain. There's a sinister humming, and its arm starts to glow. Blue arcs of energy dance from its forearm and Ellie feels a white hot burning from her eyes to the base of her spine, but she can't scream. Her vision goes red and white.
"Hey!" shouts a strange voice.
The adaptoid's cyclopic eye snaps to the new threat. Through the pain, Ellie is dimly aware that Elliot is standing up, challenging the monster.
Having evaluated the lesser threat, the adaptoid turns back to Ellie just as she throws her last disruption blade directly into the center of its eye.
There's an electric snap and its hand lets go of her. The droning sound heightens sharply, as if it were in pain.
Ellie falls to her knees, coughing and sucking down air. Another couple seconds of that and she would have blacked out.
The adaptoid's hands hover by its face. Arcs of electricity still emit from the site of the blade's impact. It shakes it off once, twice. Then it turns back to Ellie, just as she finally finds her feet.
She'd hoped she'd blinded it, but no such luck. It raises its hand to back hand her mightily.
She ducks it easily, and then, not thinking, she jumps up, grabs the thing by the back of the head, and with all her weight, slams it face first into the table in front of it.
This time the drone rises to a howl, and the adaptoid rises upright with such force that Ellie is physically thrown off of it, landing on her back. It cradles its head, the cool blue light of the wiring in its head now an angry red. The blade is buried into its head almost to the hilt. It stumbles back, knocking another table aside. Elliot backs up as well, struggling to stay on his feet.
The adaptoid composes itself, looking about angrily. The light of its eye is now diffracted. It doesn't appear to be able to see clearly.
Having regained her feet, Ellie takes a cautious step back. Her heel lands on a piece of glass and it crunches under her boot.
Immediately, the adaptoid gathers its arms and leans forward. The crackling of energy cuts through the air as its eye beam emits in many smaller, split beams from its damaged face. The beams cut burning lines into the floor, walls and ceiling. One passes over Ellie's arms and leg, causing burning pain. She cries out.
"Leave her alone!" Elliot shouts. He grabs a beaker of pinkish fluid and hurls it to shatter over the adaptoid's back.
It turns, taking a step toward Elliot and with its full body throws a low punch that connects to the center of Elliot's torso. His whole body leaves the ground and flies twelve feet into a pillar behind him, where he crumples to the ground.
"Elliot!" shouts Ellie. She sprints forward, jumping up and striking the adaptoid in the cheek as it turns to her.
Its head turns briefly, and it swings a wide backhand at her that she ducks again. It doesn't seem able to make her out clearly. It kicks forward with its full weight, but she sidesteps that easily. She kicks it savagely in the side, but its core is harder than Nat's. It punches her full in the face and she stumbles backward until a table impacts the middle of her back. She feels blood run over her lips and she spits it out.
Her heavy pistol is on the ground a few feet behind it. If she can get to that…
It searches about for her, but can't seem to make her out. She grabs a beaker from the table behind her and tosses it easily a few feet away.
Its head snaps toward the shattering sound, but as soon as Ellie takes a step in the other direction, it turns back to her. It's not as easily fooled as the drones. It moves toward her and she dives between its legs.
As she's climbing to her feet toward the gun, her head snaps back. It's grabbing her hair. It pulls her toward it. She wheels and sends a high kick into its inner elbow, and it lets go of her hair. Before she can move, its other arm punches her in the gut, and the air whooshes out of her lungs as she goes down to her knees.
Her foot kicks her gun, and she can feel it spin on the tiled floor. She knows she needs to move, but she's still in a lot of pain from that hit, and her body won't respond to her. She wheezes.
Pushing desperately with her hands to try to gain distance from the thing, she sees its blue arm reach down and wrap its hand around her neck again. Her eyes bulge in fear.
It raises her up off the ground again, and its arm begins to glow. A shock of fear fills her limbs. She cannot endure this again.
Then there's a rush accompanied by a blast of frigid wind. She squints her eyes closed against it, but she senses a torrent engulf the adaptoid's arm.
It cocks its head in confusion at the ice and frost now covering its limb.
Seizing the moment, Ellie wiggles with her whole body and escapes the adaptoid's grip, dropping to her hands and feet.
It makes a sound like a growl and it moves toward her. In one motion, Ellie scoops her up gun, rises to a kneel, places the barrel against the wound in its face, and pulls the trigger.
An explosion of plastic and circuitry escapes the back of the thing's skull. Its body rocks, teeters, then falls toward Ellie, who steps out of the way as it plummets toward the ground.
The room is quiet, other than the distant, muted alarm.
"Elliot?" she finds herself saying.
He's lying against that same pillar, body crumpled on its side in a heap. His right arm is extended toward them, half covered in frost and tiny icicles.
Ellie holsters her gun and rushes over to him, kneeling down. "Holy shit, you just saved me, dude. I thought—"
Then Elliot's state hits her. He's sucking in air in rapid little half gasps that give up part way through. His skin is red and blotchy. His left hand cradles his abdomen feebly. He is in so, so much pain.
"Elliot?" Ellie's right hand takes his, her left under his temple. "Elliot?" Her voice sounds small again.
"They…" he wheezes.
"Elliot, hold on, we're getting out of here—"
"No," he says, labored breathing continuing. He shakes his head with what strength he has, his hooded eyelids drooping. "They don't… get to…"
His breath goes out and stops coming back in. His body sags softly into the floor.
"Elliot?" she says, her voice tiny. But she's the only one left in the room.
Ellie hears a ringing, and a distant rumbling sound. A feeling she hasn't felt in a long time is coming back, and she doesn't, doesn't, doesn't want it.
"Ellie!"
Ellie snaps back to alertness.
Nat is staring at her, gun in hand, feet on either side of the fallen adaptoid. Her eyes flit to Elliot, then back to Ellie. There's a spasm across her face, then she's the Widow again.
"It's time to go."