CHAPTER SIX: A-1, 3432
Mirage stood immobile for a moment as she looked at the robot. The Omnidroid in front of her, a backup machine Syndrome had designed so time ago, hadn't come out of the production line recently. Mirage knew what place it held, but not being the most recent didn't matter, as it still remained a threat.
The spherical robot, armoured in thick black unpolished steel, towered over her, its energy source emitting an audible, humming sound. Long claws ending its flexible legs nervously twitched, tapping occasionally on the ground, giving the eerie sensation that the machine could have been alive and impatient.The robot did not move, as if waiting for a command.
Her body tense, Mirage turned to look behind her, to the door she had walked through. The robot sensed her movement. As if on cue, two hatches popped open, revealing eye-like optical sensors beneath them which started rotating on their base. The machine scanned the room methodically.
The robot's eyes locked on Mirage.
Without any warning, the Omnidroid rushed towards her. It seemed to be familiar with the area for it avoided the laboratory, moving fast around it. Blocking Mirage from the door, it whipped out one of its legs forward, its end like an open hand with fingers of steel.
Mirage jumped sideways, just as the robot would have grabbed her, transmutating away as far as she could go, to try to reach the door. The robot kept blocking her path. Mirage tried to fool it by creating Avatars, but the machine seemed to be able to separate illusion from reality, forcing her to jump elsewhere continuously.
Mirage couldn't rematerialize far from where she had previously been. As the robot kept obstructing the door, she struggled more and more to avoid being taken in its grasp. The machine seemed to be adjusting to this intriguing prey, reacting almost as if it were amused, getting closer to where Mirage reappeared every time.
Her strength slowly drained from her body as she kept transmutating incessantly back and forth. Very soon, she wouldn't be able anymore.
Mirage was exhausted now. She failed as she tried one more time, standing still for a second. The shadow of the Omnidroid passed over her.
In a flash, the robot grabbed her. The metal fingers wrapped themselves tightly around her body, with crushing strength, as the robot did not seem to care about the relative fragility of its prey.
Effortlessly, the robot lifted Mirage off the ground. There was no escaping, as the grasp that held her wouldn't let go. Mirage could barely breathe, the robot pinning her arms against her body. The metal hand tightened once more, making her gasp from the pain she now felt.
The robot took two other available legs and lifted them up to her height, the claws at their feet spinning like propellers, filling the air with a loud thumping sound. The rotating fingers were slowly coming towards her. Mirage, helpless, felt them swishing as they got closer to her neck. The blades were almost on her now.
All Mirage could do was close her eyes.
Without warning, the steel fingers suddenly stopped turning, centimeters from her throat. Unsure of what had happened, Mirage opened her eyes to look around.
Saunders stood below her. He had ordered the robot to stop, with the remote control he had on his arm.
He stared up at her. Thinking for a second, he then put his finger on the rotating button of his remote, to quickly go through the available items of the menu of the Omnidroid's controls he could see on a small liquid crystal screen embedded in the device. Mirage saw it had the same design as the one Syndrome used.
The robot quietly powered down.
Saunders looked elated, excited, as he saw her captured. He addressed her loudly.
"Well, that, my dear, was something else! What an impressive display of power you just showed me... Is that all you can do?"
A group of armed guards rushed out of nowhere, to stand by his side.
He gesticulated nervously as he spoke. "No, really, I feel like a kid in a magic show, poof! You're gone. Oh, wow… This is truly incredible."
Saunders pressed the button of his remote control. The robot slowly lowered Mirage, bringing her in front of him, her feet dangling in the air as the metal hand kept her suspended a few centimeters off the ground. Mirage could breathe again, for the robot had slightly relaxed its grip on her.
"Mirage," Saunders sighed, as he walked up to her, "you are as beautiful as you are annoying... What is it with your kind?" he suddenly said, snapping at her. "What is it that makes you want to play Girl Scout all the time?"
He pointed his finger at her. "For that's what you are, aren't you sweetheart?"
Saunders glared at her. "You Supers think you're better than everybody else. The problem is you're not. You're just like everyone. You are so, naïve… You're all obsessed with the idea you have to do good deeds all the time, right whatever wrong you find..." Saunders was wide-eyed. "You are so bound to this, you're blind to the fact you're all prisoners of your own free will, you are just not giving yourself any choice."
He went on. "Well, let me tell you something, Mirage. I don't have that problem..."
He leaned closer to her. "Mirage," he added, pompously, "morality, as you surely know, is a very fragile concept… It is whoever decides what is moral that makes it so."
Mirage was not impressed by what he said to her. "You're a murderer," she said, "I know, I saw the bodies of your victims."
Saunders answered nonchalantly. "Oh, is that how you got in here? That would explain your awful smell… Well, let me put it this way, I'll get rid of anyone who would oppose me, sweetie, anyone, not just Supers."
Mirage stared at him defiantly. "Like some of your men?" As she said that, some of the guards quietly looked at each other.
Saunders did not answer. Reaching out, he touched Mirage's face, to then slowly run his fingers through her hair.
"My, my," he said, "you truly are beautiful. Such a shame that I'll have to get rid of you. I can't have you ruin my operation, you see..."
Saunders noticed the knife strapped to her leg. Pulling it out of its sheath, he looked at it briefly, eyeing its sharpness. He then placed the blade under her nose.
"This is sharp," he said. "You know you shouldn't be playing with this, you could cut yourself…"
He placed the tip of the blade against her cheek, pressing it forward gently, poking at her. Mirage tried to pull back as she felt the cold metal beginning to penetrate her skin.
Saunders took the knife away, putting it underneath his utility belt. "I'll leave a much nicer mark on you later," he said, sneering. "Back to business, Mirage... I would like to know more about what you were attempting to download in the computer room, and also would like to know about the disappearance of some of the money of my associates." Saunders added, "I'm particularly angry about this, Mirage."
Mirage spoke calmly. "By associates, you mean your little criminal buddies?"
Saunders questioned her again. "Who do you work for, Mirage?"
She didn't answer.
Saunders was silent for a second as he gazed at her. "I know what you did," he added. "You're a Girl Scout and Robin Hood all meshed into one… Only if I remember correctly, Robin Hood didn't keep the money for himself." He nodded. "Sad, very sad, indeed."
As he came closer, Mirage could feel his breath on her face as he spoke to her. "I don't know how you did it, but you will tell me where the money is, Mirage."
Saunders smiled. Mirage noticed he trembled slightly as he leaned his elbow on the mechanical claw. "I have ways of making you talk," he said quietly, a subtle shake in his voice.
Saunders looked deep into her eyes.
"In fact…" He took a deep breath. "I'm going to make you sing, Mirage…"
Turning away to address the group of guards, he gestured in her direction.
Mirage saw the armed men move towards her. As she frantically looked around to find a way to escape, her attention focused on the robot besides her. Looking up and down, her gaze stopped on one of the open hatches, where the Omnidroid's eyes were visible.
In an instant, she realized what she had to do. Mirage felt her strength return.
"Saunders!" Mirage growled out, loud enough to be heard by everyone.
Upon hearing his name, the Captain turned to face her, seeing Mirage looking down at him, with a cold, hard stare. The guards had stopped in their tracks, hesitant to go on. He had never seen her this way…
"Saunders," Mirage repeated again, as she glared at him.
"Just watch me," she said.
A thin, silvery halo enveloped her as she quickly dissolved into nothingness. The robot hand that held her oscillated for a second, as the weight inside it suddenly vanished. Saunders was speechless, staring at the empty fingers. The men, who also had witnessed the event, had stunned looks on their faces as they were looking around them, confused and worried.
He saw her reappear underneath the robot, only having time to point his finger in her direction, as she had already disappeared again.
Saunders screamed at his men, shouting orders to have them find her. The soldiers spread out, weapons drawn, but she had vanished.
As Saunders looked at the robot, a voice came over the intercom. "Sir," the voice said, "Central Control, here. We have detected a presence inside the Omnidroid…" The voice added, "Sir, she's inside the robot."
Saunders's jaw dropped as he turned white with anger. Frantically, he scrolled through the available menu items of his remote. Having made his selection, he pressed the button. Thinking it would hold her trapped, he had ordered the robot to immediately shut its hatches.
Mirage had rematerialized inside the machine. It was a blind shot for her, as she usually always transmutated to places she could visualize clearly. She only had seen the plans of the robot a few times to know approximately where the maintenance area of the Omnidroid lay.
Reappearing right in the middle of the cavity, she came crashing down, bouncing off control panels around her. Cables and gears ran from every direction in the area, barely big enough to fit one person. As Mirage got her bearings, she looked around through the maze of wire and tubing. The maintenance area had crude comforts, the air stale and dusty, difficult to breathe.
In a corner, attached by Velcro tags, lay a computer keyboard, with a small screen besides it.
Mirage grabbed the keyboard, and placed it on her knees. Lack of space forced her to crouch, leaning against a panel, holding the keyboard close to her face.
Powering up the terminal, a small, yellow invite appeared on the left end of the dark green video monitor.
"Dos," she muttered. "I hate Dos." Mirage started typing furiously.
Saunders stood besides the Omnidroid. He had told his men to spread out, to cover all possible angles. Some of them held high powered rifles as they took their respective vantage points, scanning everything in their telescopic sites.
He grew impatient. Selecting another command, he turned on the robot's internal speakers to address her. "Mirage, my dear, I suggest that you come out of there immediately... I would be offended to have you forced out. After all, I am a gentleman…" Saunders smirked as he said that. "Please, do come out… I won't hurt you, I swear," he added, smiling.
There was no response.
"I'm giving you ten seconds," he said, as he looked at his watch.
Mirage wasn't listening to the voice coming out of the speaker, as her attention fully focused on what she attempted to do.
It took what seemed an eternity to reach what she had been looking for.
Mirage had managed to open the main directory of the central computer. On the screen, thousands of available directories had unfurled.
She tried to remember the exact location of the file she had been searching for. It was buried somewhere, deep inside the labyrinth of available paths. As the operating system was of an ancient design, it had no available search engine. She would have to dig for the file until she found it.
Where's a mouse when you need one, she said to herself, moving forward, finding the appropriate directories to go into, one by one.
Saunders looked at his watch. "Time is up, Mirage. Well, I'm sorry then… If you don't want to cooperate, I guess I'm going to have to send you on your way…"
Saunders manipulated his remote one more time. The robot stirred, starting to walk forward at a leisurely pace. "You seem a little bit cold," he said. "Let me help you warm up a bit."
He had directed the robot towards the lava pit.
Saunders's eyes were wide and gleaming as he looked at the moving robot. "Will she get out? Can she get out? Come on, Mirage," he said, laughing.
The Omnidroid moved on, oblivious to what lay ahead.
Mirage sighed as she finally reached the directory she had been looking for. At the bottom of the file list, a small program, only of a few kilobytes in size, had her name:
Mirage.exe
Mirage typed the file's name at the end of the path and pressed Enter.
Almost instantaneously, higher up near the surface of the island, something quietly stirred, deep inside the central computer's command shell.
The operator sitting at the terminal in Central Control thought at first that there had been a glitch in the operating system, as all the screens in the room went blank for a second.
He knew something was wrong when he typed a routine command only to see nothing had happened. He immediately contacted the Captain.
It was an elegant program, like all programs Mirage had designed. It had waited, buried deep inside the myriad of system files, ready to fulfill its sole purpose when called upon. It would only serve once, though. It would create a panic, and that would give too much attention to its owner. Mirage had never tested it. Its use would have been something of a last resort for her, but there was no questioning the moment had arrived.
As soon as the little file had been downloaded and opened, the program immediately came to life. It coaxed, gently at first, but with growing strength and an unyielding will, the Central Processing Unit to reroute the main terminal control to the console from where the program had been launched.
In this case, Central Control would be redirected to the small on board computer of an active Omnidroid, deep below the surface.
The CPU had blindly obeyed, as it would have had to any other command. There was no trying to override this chain of events.
Mirage looked at another video display that enabled her to monitor the exterior surroundings of the Omnidroid.
She saw Saunders had ordered the robot towards the pit.
Mirage waited desperately for the computer screen to display new instructions, as the Omnidroid had only meters to go before reaching the edge of the fissure.
She cried out as she saw the screen's content had changed:
Program complete
Override active
Looking out, she could now see the lava below the edge of the pit. Typing furiously another command, the screen in front of her then displayed a new result:
Voice command interface on
Communication port 1435 open
Her heart pounding in her chest as she read the message, Mirage yelled out: "This is Alpha-One, thirty-four thirty-two, Computer! Halt robot!"
Saunders had kept watching. He felt slightly numb, his fingers tingling, as he saw the Omnidroid had only a few more steps to take before it would plunge in the molten rock.
He didn't feel any regret in sending her to her death, as she had been just a minor problem in his plans. He was actually glad to have been the one who would witness her final moment.
He only wished he had an internal video link to watch her agonize, trapped inside, slowly cooked alive by the searing heat.
The machine had reached the edge of the fissure when it suddenly froze in its tracks. Saunders's fists clenched, as his blood pressure rose. He reached for his remote. The small screen flashed a message:
No signal
Mirage looked at the monitor, realizing she had forgotten to breathe for the last minute. She would never debate anymore the idea that vocal commands would always be faster to send than typed ones. The monitor showed Saunders shouting orders at the men that were spread around.
A panicked voice blared out on the intercom. "Sir, Central Control here. She's taken command of the robot."
Saunders raged as he responded, "well, get it back, now!"
The voice answered. "We can't. Nothing is responding."
"Find a way, damn it! Find a way!" Saunders screamed.
The voice was trembling. "Sir, we can't do anything... Nothing is operating here, we can only monitor what's going on."
Mirage had kept an eye on the internal clock display. There was only ten seconds left before the next download would be available. She reached behind her neck, unclasped her pendant, and put the disk inside the drive that had popped open in front of her. Pressing a button, the drive closed. Mirage stared at it, her teeth clenched.
The operator at Central Control wondered for a second why the computer had started a downloading sequence. He jumped up when he realized what was going on.
"Sir," he said, not understanding the real meaning of the manoeuvre, "Sir, she seems to be attempting a download…"
Saunders was panicking now. "Stop her, stop her now! You have to stop that download!"
As he heard nothing else, seeing the helpless look the men gave him, he raged, "you idiots! I'll do it myself." Saunders dashed towards the opposite end of the generator room, where a steel locker stood against a wall.
Mirage looked at the small screen, feeling an adrenalin rush go through her veins as she read the message that had appeared:
Download complete
Mirage quickly removed the disk from the drive and attached it back to her neck. With the voice interface, she then gave one more order to the computer.
The landing strip of the hangar on the surface had been unattended for a while now. In a corner, a little black plane lay still.
No one noticed that the Manta-Plane had powered up silently, as everyone's attention focused on what went down below, the engines idling as the internal control systems went fully online. Quietly, the door of the plane unlocked and opened as the access ladder unfurled down to the runway.
Mirage saw on the screen that her command had been successful. She looked again outside through the surveillance monitor. The automated defence system of the Omnidroid had been active, programmed to spot any potential threat in its whereabouts. All the guards around her were visible on the video monitor, highlighted, with separate identification numbers, like small targets. She could easily have done away with them if she had wanted to, but they did not matter to her. Mirage pressed on the external speaker control instead.
"Saunders!" a metallic voice said, cracking out from the robot and resonating on the walls. The Captain stopped in his tracks as he recognized her voice.
"I have a suggestion for you and your men," Mirage said in an apparent light tone. "It seems I have the upper hand right now… So, may I suggest you and your men leave the area immediately?"
Mirage added, "If you want to debate this, I'd be quite pleased to do so."
The guards looked at each other.
Mirage's voice darkened. "Get out," she said, "now."
The men surrounding the Omnidroid became nervous.
Saunders just stood there. Her defiance of him and his men, made him angrier than he had ever been.
Mirage sent out another vocal command to the robot. Responding immediately, the Omnidroid opened a portal on the top of its outer shell from which a small laser canon came out.
Mirage grabbed a control joystick connected to a panel in front of her. Having called for manual control, she pushed the lever forward. The robot moved again, heading towards the smaller chamber where the laboratory stood.
The Omnidroid entered the room, stopping near the doorway. On the monitor screen, the targeting system had illuminated the laboratory.
Mirage had her hand on the firing button, but did not press it, instead changing her target to aim the weapon at a massive pipe that crossed the ceiling.
She pressed the trigger.
The laser emitted a powerful pulse of light that hit the pipe dead on, severing it instantly, and like an artery that would have been cut, it spewed out molten lava. The burning liquid engulfed the small laboratory within seconds, melting its structure away, the intense heat destroying, vaporising, any poisonous agent that might have leaked out, sending them back to into sterility.
Some of the guards had turned white as they saw the lab destroyed. Most alarming had been the lava that now had started to fill the room. In a state of panic, the men dropped their weapons, as they dashed towards the nearest available exits.
Saunders had witnessed the whole chain of events, ordering his guards to stay in position, but none had obeyed him. He soon realized it was to no avail.
Saunders had been abandoned.
A general alarm blared, resonating everywhere, as the lava that had engulfed the lab came pouring out the open doors into the main generator room.
Mirage had turned the robot around. Aiming the laser at the base of one of the giant boilers, she pressed the trigger again. The laser cut through the thick steel as if it were butter, sending the heavy piece of machinery tumbling down from its base, as burning steam spewed out from its broken structure. As the boiler separated itself from the others, it ripped into the adjacent piping, sending more lava on the ground.
The large boiler started floating on the bed of molten rock that had formed underneath it. It slowly slid towards the fissure, to then tumble inside it.
The lava level started rising, as the piece of equipment now blocked the evacuation channel.
Saunders was powerless. Mirage had destroyed, in an instant, his most important asset. She had mocked him and made him a fool. More than ever, he hated her now. He trembled with anger. "You'll pay for this," he said to himself.
Saunders had finally reached what he wanted. Standing in front of the closed storage space, he quickly punched an access code on the small electronic keypad, the lock making a sound as it opened.
Saunders spread the steel doors. In rows, in front of him, lay all sorts of different weapons, none of the conventional kind. Syndrome had been obviously testing new technologies. They were ominous looking, coming in all sorts of shapes and sizes, some sleek, others cumbersome, but all of them had the common characteristic of being lethal.
Saunders grabbed the largest he could find. It was a black, shiny metallic tube about two meters long, heavy, as he strained when he put it over his shoulder. He turned around, aiming for the robot he could see in his telescopic site.
"Why don't you try this one on for size, bright eyes?" he muttered.
He pressed the trigger.
Mirage had brought the robot back near the elevator platform. The threat assessment system of the Omnidroid had activated as soon as the robot detected Saunders's weapon, but there wasn't much else to do, for Mirage had disabled the automatic defence mechanism when taking manual control. It could only warn her.
Syndrome had been experimenting for some time now, with what he considered being the foundation of the forces of the known universe, managing to create all sorts of weapons so sophiticated, they could alter atoms at their core. Saunders would have the privilege of testing one of them for the first time.
The Magnetic Pulse Launcher he carried fired a projectile which on impact, released a very intense magnetic field that disabled anything that possessed a Central Processing Unit, to be immediately followed by a burst of low yield antimatter that anhilitated the target completely, but keeping damage contained to the area of the hit, not its surroundings.
A ball of light, iridescent with blue and golden hues, shot out of the canon, growing in size as it approached the robot.
On impact, the energy sphere engulfed the Omnidroid. Saunders felt a wave of low frequency sound bounce back on him as he saw the Omnidroid turn bright blue, to then start glowing in a deep red before vanishing in a shrieking, ear shattering sound.
The Omnidroid had disintegrated completely, leaving a small crater underneath where it last had been.
Mirage saw Saunders point the experimental weapon in her direction. Throwing the keyboard away, she lunged forward through the web of tangled cables to reach for the maintenance hatch. Pulling hard on its unlocking lever, Mirage opened it just as the projectile reached her.
Saunders still had the weapon on his shoulder when he felt it vibrate, hearing a sizzling sound coming from it. Reacting quickly, he threw it away from him as he ducked for cover. The launcher blew up before it touched the ground, shattering in pieces that flew everywhere like shrapnel. Still stunned by the explosion, he looked towards the platform.
He froze as he saw Mirage had reappeared there.
As she had very little warning, Mirage didn't have time to aim properly for the platform to make a soft landing. Materializing a few meters above it, she came crashing down, bouncing a few times before sliding to a stop, near the edge of the staircase. Hurt by the fall, disoriented, she struggled to get up, to stand besides the stairs, her back turned away from the Captain.
Saunders grabbed the opportunity.
Aiming at her with his gun, he fired a single shot.
The bullet hit Mirage on the outside of the left shoulder, shattering on impact, making her yelp in pain as blood splattered on the platform. Shocked by the trauma, she lost her footing to fall down the stairs, tumbling to the bottom.
Mirage landed hard on the ground. She lay there dizzy and bruised, her back leaning against the staircase, her arm bleeding openly as the bullet had severed many arteries.
Mirage could barely focus on her surroundings. In the haze that filled her eyes, she saw Saunders walking towards her.
He had drawn his weapon.