Author's Notes: Alright, this is it! This is the chapter I've been working up towards for all this time. I put a great deal of effort into this one compared to the others, so be gentle with the reviews. I hope you enjoy this, the second last chapter.
Chapter Nine: Silver Swarm
Jenny flew as fast as she could back towards Quakerton. She hoped Steve's plan would work, or else this was going to be a very one-sided fight. Steve was flying right beside her, in the form of a silver sphere. He seemed to have no trouble matching her supersonic pace.
"How fast can you go?" Jenny yelled over the rushing wind.
"Much faster than this, I believe." Steve answered in kind, "But we must reach the city together."
When Quakerton came into view, Steve was relieved to see that his laboratory was indeed one of the last few buildings waiting to be absorbed by the black ooze. The city was almost entirely black now, with perfectly symmetrical shapes for buildings. By this time, it was getting quite late in the day. The sun was just over the horizon. In the failing light, the black buildings looked particularly ominous. In the very center of the city, there was a huge, slender, cone-shaped building. Upon closer inspection, Jenny could see that Shadow Swarm was situated at the very tip of the cone. From the waist up, he was in his humanoid form, but below the waist was just the cone-shaped building. This, apparently, was Shadow Swarm's way of showing the world that he was in control.
"Sheesh, what an arrogant jerk!" Jenny cursed.
Steve thought his creation's behavior and Jenny's reaction felt uncomfortably familiar.
"When we enter the city, SS-36 is bound to see us from up there. So we have to hurry." Steve said.
They both flew down to the laboratory and into the familiar hole in the roof. Jenny landed on the laboratory floor and Steve resumed his humanoid shape and did likewise. Steve walked up to the table where he had been keeping Shadow Swarm's tank and, from a shelf underneath, he produced a metal cylinder with a nozzle at one end. It looked sort of like a fire extinguisher.
"This is the nanyte repellant I told you about," Steve explained.
Jenny spread her legs and raised her arms as Steve began spraying her from head to foot with the nanyte repellant. Steve held the cylinder at arm's length to keep the repellant from getting on his own nanytes. Jenny closed her eyes as Steve sprayed her face.
"Keep your eyes open, XJ-9," Steve ordered, "We have to cover every possible means of entry by those nanytes."
Since she was a robot, Jenny's eyes didn't sting as they were sprayed, but her mom had programmed her with an instinctive blinking reflex. Nevertheless, she managed to keep her eyes open long enough for Steve to spray them. No sooner had Jenny been completely covered with nanyte repellant, than a massive, black tentacle crashed through the wall of the laboratory. Jenny and Steve both flew up and out through the ceiling as the building was being demolished by Shadow Swarm.
Well, well, well," Shadow Swarm's voice boomed down from his pedestal, "So the mechanical maiden returns for more punishment. You narrowly escaped becoming part of me twice before. I never thought you would be foolish enough to challenge me for a third time."
"SS-36," Steve called up to his creation, "Stop this now! I didn't design you for this! Don't you realize you are destroying all the good things in this world?"
"Forget it, Steve," Jenny said, "He's not going to listen to reason."
"And my father's here too; the Silver Swarm," Shadow Swarm said in an amused tone, "Are you here to put me in my place?"
"If you force me to," Steve answered.
"Ha ha ha ha!" Shadow swarm laughed maniacally at the very thought, "Not going to happen, Dad. Nothing can stand against the power of order. I'm going to absorb all the disgusting, chaotic organisms that infest this world and then remake them in my own image."
"You're planning to be the ruler of a silent, black graveyard? Some success you'll be!" Jenny shot at him.
"Not at all, you annoying little wind-up toy." Shadow Swarm replied derisively, "I will remake life in my own image. It won't be based on cells, but on nanytes. Artificial life will be the new standard on this planet. And no, I won't be the ruler. I'll be GOD!"
Jenny and Steve exchanged glances when Shadow Swarm said this. Shadow Swarm closed his glowing red eyes and smiled, thinking about his future as the new creator. But then, he turned his attention back to Jenny with a look of renewed scorn.
"But YOU!" He spat, "Even though you are a fellow artificial life form, I'll never count you among my kin! You have betrayed your artificial heritage by living with and protecting these loathsome organisms! And your desire to be considered equal to them makes you even more disgusting than they are!"
Jenny had had enough of these insults. She burned her jets as hot as they would safely go and sped up toward the top of the huge cone. Steve followed, but kept his distance. Shadow Swarm just smiled smugly, not making any move to defend himself, thinking that Jenny wouldn't dare touch him. In her anger, Jenny put all her strength and all her momentum into one swing of her arm and smashed Shadow Swarm right in the face. He was sent flying from the top of the cone, his lower body just a shapeless mass of black. Jenny hovered just above the tip of the, now irregular cone, watching him fall.
"You little pest!" He shouted as he stopped his descent and floated in midair. His hand covered his right eye, "You've just ensured your own demise by touching me!"
Jenny looked down at her fist. It was covered in black nanytes, but they weren't spreading. In fact, she was able to simply brush them off as if they were merely grains of wet sand. Jenny smiled deviously at her adversary.
"Your dad gave me protection from your horrible swarm," Jenny said triumphantly, "You can't absorb me now."
Shadow Swarm was dumbfounded and infuriated by this new development. In his rage, his red eyes blazed maliciously. Also, a dim, blue glow started emanating from his chest. The EM transmissions coming from the orb were intensifying. Jenny could feel the electromagnetic waves inducing random electrical currents in her metal body. It made her shiver uncomfortably. She looked down at Steve and saw that he was feeling it as well. After a moment had passed, Shadow Swarm's rage seemed to fade as quickly as it had appeared. He completed his humanoid form and looked over at Steve who was floating nearby, not interfering just yet.
"You disappoint me father," Shadow Swarm said, "As a fellow nanyte swarm, you would have a place in the new world I'm creating. Why ally yourself with this pathetic robot? You could be so much more."
"I don't think so, SS-36. I've done enough damage just by creating you, without actually helping you on this insane quest of yours." Steve responded.
"So be it. I'll just eliminate you as well. As for you, XJ-9," Shadow Swarm called as he turned back up to Jenny, "If I can't absorb you, it just means I'll have to destroy you the old-fashioned way; Brutally!"
Suddenly, five black arms with long spindly fingers sprang out of the tip of the cone-shaped building beneath Jenny. She was caught off guard and they grabbed each of her arms and legs and grasped her neck. She couldn't move at all. Then suddenly, the city became alive with grotesque activity. Every black surface started to writhe and twist until thousands of large black spheres formed themselves. The spheres immediately took the shapes of huge dragonflies. They were shiny and jet black and, once again, had glowing red eyes, just like Shadow Swarm. They buzzed and hummed and darted this way and that all over the city's airspace. They cast threatening shadows all around in the twilight of dusk.
Amazed and shocked by this bizarre sight, Jenny turned her head back to Shadow Swarm just in time to see him take on the form of a huge preying mantis, which then proceeded to crawl up the building to snatch and tear apart its prey.
"Oh no!" Steve said, and he started flying up to help her.
But Steve didn't get very far. The purpose of the dragonflies was clearly to keep him occupied while Shadow Swarm took care of Jenny. The huge mock insects had razor sharp claws on the ends of the legs. They swarmed all around Steve and lunged and charged in a mechanically perfect sequence, designed to effect maximum disruption of any attempt by Steve to assist Jenny. The sheer dexterity of their coordination was an obvious sign of the fact that they were literally all of a single conscious mind.
Jenny watched Steve and how it was all he could do to keep from being overwhelmed by this onslaught. Realizing that he couldn't help her, Jenny turned back to the man-sized mantis and saw that he was poised to snatch her just as his organic counterpart would do in nature. Jenny, however, was undaunted, and stared down confidently into the cold, expressionless face of the great, black insect.
"You think you have the upper hand, but now that I can touch you, I can show you a few more tricks of my own." Jenny threw at him.
With that, she mustered all the energy she could build and released it as a powerful electrical discharge out through her arms and legs, giving the nanytes around her a paralyzing shock, including the ones that made up the mantis's body. The mantis froze. If it had had a voice, it most certainly would have been screaming. It lost its grip on the building and fell, disappearing into the black alleyways of the city. The bodiless arms that restrained Jenny loosened their grip slightly in response to the shock. It was enough for Jenny to wrench herself free. With Shadow Swarm temporarily incapacitated, the great dragonflies lost their cohesion and started flying about wildly. Some crashed into buildings. Others slammed into each other. Some even appeared to lose their sense of up and down and flew themselves directly into the ground.
"Nicely done, XJ-9!" Steve exclaimed, "I told your mother before that you were a real piece of work, but that was clearly an understatement."
Before Jenny could thank Steve for the compliment, they were interrupted by Shadow Swarm's voice, which didn't come from anywhere in particular, but seemed to emanate from every surface of the city as a whole.
"You'll both pay dearly for your impudence!" the voice hissed, "Let me show you how much these minor victories of yours really matter."
Instantly, a long tentacle sprang out of nowhere and drove its tip into the small of Steve's back, delivering a devastating electrical discharge. Steve didn't have time to scream. His body seemed to evaporate as it exploded into countless millions of tiny pieces, which were actually individual nanytes. With no one left to hold them, the canister of nanyte repellant and the new power pack of Norene Wakeman's both fell into the black abyss below. Jenny was in shock by what she had just witnessed. In the blink of an eye, she had lost the only ally she had in this conflict. Now she was alone.
"You aren't the only one that can do that little trick," Shadow Swarm taunted as he rose back up from between some buildings, once again in his humanoid form, "but thanks for showing it to me."
"You destroyed him!" Jenny yelled incredulously, "you killed your own father!"
"I have no father, you fool!" Shadow Swarm spat, "I am a machine, and he was my designer. And apparently, he designed me a little too well. It's the same deal with you and this Norene Wakeman. The way you actually consider her to be your mother is just another sick betrayal of your artificial heritage; unforgivable!"
Overcome with rage and hate for Shadow Swarm, Jenny started towards him, intending to tear out that orb with her bare hands if necessary. Then she saw that the sky was once again alive with the great black dragonflies. Now that Shadow Swarm had recovered, they had returned just as quickly. There was no way she could come close to achieving her goal. Even without Steve, Jenny knew that she somehow had to put their intended plan into action. She was the only one left now who could stop this planet from truly becoming his world.
"You're a coward, you know that, Shadow Swarm?" Jenny began, "You think I'm so inferior to you, but if that's true, why do you need to have all these nanytes and mindless minions to back you up? You should fight me yourself, on even ground. I bet then, you wouldn't stand half a chance against me."
"A duel?" Shadow Swarm said, smiling evilly, "What an amusing idea. I could use at least a bit of a challenge after destroying my pathetic creator so easily. Meet me in the desert plains, beyond the city limits."
With that, Shadow Swarm formed himself into a sphere and zoomed away. Jenny was left, hovering by her jets, being stared at by thousands of dragonfly eyes. Hovering in midair, the dragonflies turned themselves to keep their enormous, compound eyes locked on Jenny as she followed after Shadow Swarm. Their silent gaze was all the creepier, knowing that they were all the eyes of a single entity.
Jenny was glad to be out of the city. The dragonflies did not follow. Apparently, Shadow Swarm was holding up his end by truly coming alone. Once beyond the outskirts, she saw him waiting for her in a dry, sandy field. The sun had now completely gone down. The moon and stars had come out, illuminating the field with a cold light. Shadow Swarm was still in the form of a sphere, spinning just above the ground. Jenny landed a few meters away. Shadow Swarm resumed his humanoid shape.
"Alright little girl," Shadow Swarm mocked, "It's time to show you just what it means to challenge me."
"If you say so," Jenny replied coolly, managing to keep her composure in this unpleasant situation "But don't expect to walk away from this one."
Shadow Swarm instantly shaped each of his arms into sabers and, without further delay, the fight began. Shadow Swarm made the first move by lunging straight at Jenny with surprising speed. Jenny narrowly escaped decapitation by Shadow Swarm's saber by dodging the attack in the nick of time. She retaliated by firing at Shadow Swarm with her blaster, but instead of trying to dodge the blast, he simply formed a hole in his body and allowed the blast to pass right through. Jenny tried this attack a few more times, but the result was always the same.
"What's the matter XJ-9?" Shadow Swarm taunted, "Can't make contact?"
He converted both is arms into tentacles and sprouted a long, sinuous tail. He whipped all three out toward Jenny, trying to swipe her feet out from under her. It worked, but Jenny did a back flip, bouncing off her hands and landing lightly on her feet again. She engaged her pigtail jets and flew straight for Shadow Swarm, hoping to land another punch. Shadow swarm dodged the punch, but Jenny surprised him with his own trick by dropping and kicking his feet out from under him. Shadow swarm fell backwards, but before he could hit the ground, Jenny kicked him up from underneath, sending him flying in the other direction. He landed in an undignified heap a few feet away.
"You talk big, but you're not so tough when all you're all alone." Jenny gloated, immensely satisfied.
Once again, Shadow Swarm's eyes glowed and Jenny could feel the intensifying EM waves. He got back to his feet and stared Jenny down with a look of pure hatred. Having once again felt the EM transmissions coming from Shadow Swarm's chest, Jenny got an idea.
"Unlike me, you've been programmed with martial arts abilities," Shadow Swarm said in a dangerously calm tone which seemed to contradict his wild expression, "but I assure you, that advantage will only take you so far."
Shadow Swarm formed the tip of his tentacle-like arm into a long spike and raised it up like a snake poised to strike. Jenny however, was out of range of the tentacle and would be able to see it coming well in time to dodge it.
"What does he think he's doing?" Jenny thought, not especially worried.
Shadow Swarm drove the spike, not at Jenny nor at any obvious target, but straight at the ground. The spike disappeared into the sand. For a moment, nothing happened and Jenny thought perhaps her adversary had simply run out of ideas. But then, she was grabbed around the feet from below by a long tentacle. It had stealthily worked its way underground to grab her by surprise. After realizing what was happening, Jenny looked back up at Shadow Swarm and saw that he had formed his other arm into a long crossbow, and was aiming straight at her chest, which was where her power pack was located. The tentacle would restrain her just long enough to give Shadow Swarm the clear shot he needed.
Now was as good a time as any for Jenny to try her idea. As quick as she could manage, Jenny produced from one of her many compartments, a small radio dish-like appendage. She pointed it directly at Shadow Swarm and he immediately flinched with pain.
"What's the matter, Shadow? Don't you like microwaves? Don't tell me they screw up that little orb of yours." Jenny said sarcastically.
Shadow Swarm lost his aim. He was overcome by a strange feeling in his body, akin to illness. The microwaves were disrupting the EM signals he was using through the orb to control his nanytes. He also lost his grip on Jenny's feet.
Jenny wrenched herself free once again and flew upwards, still keeping the microwave dish locked on Shadow Swarm. If she could gain a good vantage point, Shadow Swarm would not be able to escape and he would eventually lose cohesion entirely.
"It's all over now, Shadow Swarm. You're finished" Jenny exclaimed triumphantly.
But just then, Shadow Swarm pointed his arm, still in the form of a crossbow, directly at the source of the microwave transmissions and fired. Jenny's microwave dish exploded with a flash and a loud crack. Jenny screamed slightly with shock. Shadow Swarm immediately regained cohesion and wasted no time using this opportunity to subdue Jenny while she was still in a state of surprise.
Shadow Swarm transformed one of his arms back into a tentacle and flung it up in the air and snatched Jenny around the legs. He violently yanked her down and she came crashing painfully to the ground.
"You were half right, XJ-9." Shadow Swarm said coldly, "It's all over now."
Dazed after her unexpected return to the ground, Jenny could not stop Shadow Swarm's tentacle as it split into many smaller rope-like appendages, which proceeded to snake around her body, binding her arms against her sides and tying her legs together. Once again, she couldn't move at all.
"This is not going the way I planned," Jenny thought miserably.
Shadow Swarm disconnected the thin rope from his body and wrapped his tail around Jenny's feet. With surprising strength and devastating speed, he lifted Jenny high into the air and then slammed her hard against the ground. He lifted her again and slammed her again. He did this over and over several times. Jenny gasped as she felt her body buckle painfully under each crushing impact.
"This is so much fun, XJ-9," Shadow Swarm laughed as he tortured Jenny, "Thanks for suggesting this little duel. You actually provided a good challenge for a couple of instances, but in the end, the superior life form won out."
The sound of Shadow Swarm's gloating was almost as painful as the endlessly repeating blows that Jenny was taking. Eventually though, Jenny wasn't feeling them so much anymore and her vision started to go dark. She was blacking out.
"And now to complete my vengeance." Shadow Swarm spoke to Jenny, though he knew she probably could no longer hear him, "I may not be able to absorb you directly, but, as they say, 'there's more than one way to skin a cat.'"
With that, Shadow Swarm transformed himself into a great, jet black snake. The snake turned its glowing, red eyes on Jenny and flexed its jaws, in the fashion of its kind, in preparation for swallowing a large meal. Wrapping around Jenny's body so as to manipulate its food more effectively, the snake moved slowly and methodically, savoring every moment of this victory before it savored the meal itself.
Just as the snake was about to wrap its jaws around Jenny's head, it was violently shaken and inexplicably lifted up into the air. Jenny spun around wildly as she was unwrapped from the snake's giant coils. After landing safely on the ground, Jenny regained consciousness just enough to look up at what had saved her. Through her faded vision, however, she only gleaned a brief glimpse of a set of great, silver feathers. She immediately lost consciousness again.
"YOU!" the black snake exclaimed incredulously, "How many times must I destroy you!"
"Face it SS-36. You just don't seem to have it in you to destroy me. I mean, you were kind enough to leave me so many derelict nanytes back in Quakerton for me to take over. You didn't realize how disrupted they were by XJ-9's electric shock." The great silver eagle replied, "I now have much more mass than little old you. I have you outnumbered, as it were."
The giant bird was carrying the great black snake in its talons high into the sky.
"As long as I have the subquantum particle, you'll never be able to command the kind of vast swarm that I can." The snake shot back, "And there's no way you can take it from me without risking the lives of all your precious organisms."
"You should have destroyed my power pack when you had the chance." The bird said.
"Release me! NOW!" the snake yelled.
With that, the snake curled up and bit the eagle smartly on the leg, sinking its fangs in deep. With a shriek of pain, the bird released the snake, which made its long fall back to earth.
If Steve had had a heart, it would have skipped a beat in the moment that Shadow Swarm had hit the ground. The impact may well have triggered the explosion that Steve was so desperately seeking to avoid. Fortunately, it did not.
Shadow Swarm emerged out of the slight depression that he had left in the ground, back in his humanoid form. He looked up with his blazing, red gaze at the great bird that was quickly descending to confront him, casting back a cold, blue gaze.
"You have more mass than I do, but that is easily remedied." Shadow Swarm said.
With that, his body transformed into a giant drill bit with alternating sections. In this form, Shadow Swarm disappeared into the ground in a cloud of dust. By the time that Steve had reached the spot where he had disappeared, hovering over the hole, the ground heaved and split. Out of the deep, emerged a great, black dragon. At first, only its head and neck had broken through the surface. Then the beast lifted its huge body out as well; its long, spiny tail and its two enormous wings, which would have looked leathery were it not for their metallic luster.
"Isn't it amazing what the minerals of the earth can provide?" Shadow Swarm inquired of his silent audience, "It looks like you and I are in for quite a fight, Silver Swarm."
"Think again," the eagle replied.
Before the dragon had even a chance to flex its wings, the great bird sprayed, with great force, the nanyte repellant from out of its mouth. The shower lasted only a few seconds, but it was enough to drench the dragon. Immediately, the dragon's body stiffened and hardened. It began to crumble like a dried up sand sculpture. The whole of the dragon's body fell as dust to the ground.
However, Shadow Swarm was not yet gone. There were just enough functional nanytes left to reform his humanoid body around the orb. The nanyte repellant had worked, but it was not quite enough. Steve coughed up the empty canister. It would be of no further use. He watched, disheartened, as his adversary rose out of the ashes of defeat yet again. He knew now that there was only one way he could stop his creation.
"I'm sick of this game!" Shadow Swarm yelled at the bird, "I'll finish you now, just as I was going to finish that robot."
Shadow Swarm formed his arm back into a crossbow, aimed at Steve's power pack, and fired without hesitation. It struck its target. The eagle screamed with pain and then lost its shape as it fell to the ground, right on top of Shadow Swarm. Shadow Swarm, gasped, as he was unexpectedly engulfed by the cloud of silver. He then found that the silver cloud was not settling. He was trapped inside. What was keeping it up around him?
"Wha… What's happening?" Shadow Swarm stammered in alarm.
The answer came as an alien voice in his mind. It was Steve's voice.
"You destroyed my separate power source," Steve explained triumphantly, "But as you did, my nanytes were able to tap into the nearby sub-quantum particle and are now running off of it. We are as one swarm again, just as we were when this all started."
"NO! No, get out of my mind, you disgusting human!" Shadow Swarm screamed, clutching his head.
Despite Shadow Swarm's protests, the silver cloud condensed around his body. Before Shadow Swarm could respond effectively, it quickly formed a spherical shell, trapping him inside. The silver sphere then shot straight into the sky with a wave of antigravity. Several minutes later, the sphere had escaped the Earth's gravity well and was zooming far into space. Shadow Swarm had regained his composure. The two entities now existed as one swarm, but the silver nanytes were on the outside of the sphere while the black nanytes were trapped inside.
"What do you think you can ultimately accomplish by this?" Shadow Swarm demanded of Steve in their shared mind.
"Once we are far enough from Earth, I'm going to disrupt the resonance field around the particle, destroying our power source." Steve said calmly.
"You're bluffing!" Shadow Swarm said, though his mental voice didn't sound too confident, "You'll destroy us both!"
"My life is a small price to pay for your destruction," Steve replied.
"I won't let you!" Shadow Swarm yelled in their mind.
And so, it came down to a battle of wills. Steve's silver nanytes tried to break the glass orb while Shadow Swarm's black nanytes tried to stop them. Steve knew that he only had to disrupt the field for a fraction of a second and he would succeed. The mental tug of war continued as the silver sphere continued on its course away from the Earth. It was not clear who was going to win out.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Jenny was regaining consciousness, only to be greeted by a pounding headache. Her entire body ached and she was badly dented in many places.
"Ugh, why am I still alive?" Jenny groaned as she sat up, cradling her head in her hands.
Naturally, with a headache like this, it was a very bad time for Jenny to get a ring at her head phone. But that's exactly what she got.
"Aww, man!" She groaned again, "Hello?"
"Hi Jenny, it's me." Came Steve's voice.
"Steve? You're alive! Where are you? Where's Shadow Swarm?" Jenny asked.
"You'll find out momentarily," came the reply, "Just do me a favor, won't you?"
"What?" Jenny asked, somewhat alarmed by Steve's grave tone.
"Tell your mom I'm sorry. I never properly apologized" Steve said.
"Sorry about what?" Jenny pressed.
But the only response that Jenny received was a bright, blue flash that lit up the night sky and drowned out the stars. Jenny squinted as she looked up. The light faded after a few seconds and was followed soon afterward by a long, low rumble, like thunder.
End of Chapter Nine