"Okay, this place is a maze," Riri spoke up.
"I agree," Amadeus replied. In all honesty, they probably hadn't been traversing through the dome-generating machine that long, but he was already getting the sense that finding the core of this thing would be easier said than done. So far, he had seen no doors, no entryways or anything that would otherwise indicate a secret room where the core was.
"Do you think we need to..." Riri stopped speaking, prompting Amadeus to turn around to see that she had stopped moving midstride, both feet on the ground but in opposite directions.
"Uhm, what are you doing?" Amadeus asked, very confused.
"I'm stuck," Riri replied.
"What do you mean 'stuck'?" he asked.
"I don't know, my suit just froze up all of a sudden," she answered, a slight edge of nervousness in her tone. "Nothing's working; it's like it just shut down on me."
"Are you sure you didn't, I don't know, accidentally say some secret codeword you set it to know or something?" Amadeus questioned.
"No; Amadeus I'm serious," Riri said, the tension and concern in her voice growing more evident. "It's like something else has..."
She stopped just as the suit's lights appeared to turn back on, seemingly indicating all was well again.
"Looks like you worked it out," Amadeus spoke up. "So, shall we continue?"
He turned to do just that, but after a couple steps, he realized his friend hadn't moved yet.
"Ri, hey, you alright?" he asked, his own concern now starting to grow.
"Lookout!" she suddenly screamed, but it was not in time as suddenly the arm of her suit rose, unleashing a replusor blast directly at his face. He staggered back from the unexpected shot, and suddenly found himself being lifted off the ground and rocketing through the machine.
"Riri, what's happening!?" Amadeus asked, unsure of how to react to this new development.
"I don't know!" she screamed, her voice frantic.
In a matter of seconds, all their progress had been undone has Riri carried Amadeus out of the machine and back underneath the dome, popping back up from underground outside its radius. The whole time, Amadeus was unsure of how to react; he could've tried to resist, but he was afraid of doing something to hurt her even with the suit's protection.
Once they emerged, Amadeus was released, flung into a nearby building, crashing through the entrance. He barely had time to get up before rockets suddenly came flying in with him, blowing up the section of the building. He made his way out of the flames, unhurt physically but still really confused.
"Ri, stop!" he called out to his friend, who was hovering about twenty feet above him.
"I can't!" she shouted, "it's locked me out!"
That's when Amadeus finally understood what was happening: the WorldMind had hacked and taken over Riri's armor, his friend trapped in a powerful weapon as a result. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of this possibility before they entered the dome, or at least the larger machine. They had brought in a deadly piece of machinery, and now they were paying the price.
The suit then raised its arm, shooting out a cable that latched itself on Amadeus's left arm. A powerful electric surge poured through it, rapidly flowing its way through his body. It was definitely the most painful thing he'd felt yet, the burning sensation getting through even his thick skin. Instinctively, Amadeus grabbed the line, yanking hard and sending Riri crashing into a nearby building.
"Easy man," he thought to himself as he sprung forward in one giant leap, landing right in front of where she had crashed.
"Sorry, you okay?" he asked.
"I can't stop," she replied, ignoring his question. "I can't stop."
Amadeus's felt his heart tug at his friend's words. She was scared; REALLY scared.
He didn't have time to dwell on this or say anything else, as suddenly the suit unleashed another blast, this time powerful enough to send him flying into the air. The suit then came after him, landing a hit that sent him flying in a different direction. Amadeus couldn't decipher anything that was happening as he spun through the air, flipping around and unable to keep a sense of direction. The suit continued to mix blasts and blows, leaving him to feel completely helpless to respond and Riri a hapless bystander to it all.
Finally, the suit came above him, delivering a repulsor-powered hit that sent him smashing to the concrete ground below face first. Amadeus slowly got up, looking up just in time to see the suit barreling down on him, ready to strike another blow. He reached up just in time, grabbing both arms and bringing it down to the ground.
"I'm sorry!" Riri called out from inside, "I don't know what to do!"
"Did you build some kind of failsafe into this?" Amadeus asked.
"I didn't think anything like this would ever happen!" she shouted in return.
The suit then brought its feet forward, kicking into Amadeus with repulsor powered hits. He was prepared this time though, the impact barely moving him as he strengthened his stance.
"You have to stop me," Riri said.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Amadeus replied.
"And I don't want to hurt you!" Riri countered. "I don't care what it takes, just make it stop!"
The suit tried to break away, but Amadeus wrapped it up in both his arms, trying to keep her from going anywhere. His mind was racing, trying to think of how to put an end to this without hurting his closest friend. Unfortunately, the suit took advantage of this, a blade protruding from its right arm and into his side. He had forgotten how sharp and tough the metal Riri had used for the blades was. It definitely didn't get through him as much as it would a normal person, but it was more than enough to feel it.
"NO!" Riri yelled. The suit turned and raised the blade, preparing to bring it down on his head this time.
In a last act of desperation, Amadeus reached out, grabbing the helmet and tearing it off the suit, revealing Riri's shocked face. Now having lost the main interface option, the WorldMind was no longer able to control the suit, evidenced by the fact that no strike was never delivered. Amadeus met eyes with his best friend, whose expression was still a mix of shock and terror.
"It's over now," he said, standing up. As soon as he was fully upright, she threw her arms around him, sobbing almost instantly.
"It's okay," he said, wrapping his large green arms around her, as if their physical size could keep back the emotional trauma trying to grasp at her. He had never seen this side of her before; in fact, Amadeus was pretty sure he had never seen her cry ever. Riri was always, ALWAYS happy and upbeat, letting nothing get her down. Now, that happy-go-lucky girl was replaced by one who'd been stuck inside a weapon of her own making that had been turned against her.
He couldn't think of anything to say, so he just held her as she cried uncontrollably, her breathing heavy at times due to their intensity.
Suddenly, there was a beeping in the device that Amadeus had almost forgotten was in his ear. He tapped it, and found a message inside from Spider-Man.
"Hey," he said, bending down so he could be properly face to face with his best friend, who was at least a little more under control now. "I got a message from Spider-Man. We need to get back and regroup, tell him what's happened."
Riri just nodded her head in response, so Amadeus scooped her up in one arm, grabbing the helmet with the other. He turned and made a giant leap, starting back in the direction of New York.
After Sam and Eli had got inside the dome-generating machine, it had taken less than five minutes for them to face their first obstacle, as some nearly human sized drone bots attacked them.
"That didn't take long," Eli said, getting into a defensive stance.
"It can probably sense our shared energy signature," Sam said in an almost matter of fact tone, like he had been expecting this. This made sense; it had been easy for Eli to forget that all of this was being run by a singular intelligence.
Sam blasted through first, taking out most of the bots himself. There were still a couple left though, so Eli grabbed something from the waist of his outfit that he had brought for just such an occasion: sharp metal stars that he had fashioned for just such an occasion. He had learned the skill of fashioning such things from a metal worker who was a friend of his father's at the time, since taking it and applying his own ideas with it.
Aiming precisely, he threw it straight into the "neck" of one of the machines, damaging its interior enough to cause it to short circuit. The other one turned its attention to him as a result, forcing Eli to jump out of the way to avoid a blast. Somersaulting on the ground, he circled around until he was in position to throw another star, managing to strike this one in a similar fashion, with a similar result.
Looks like all that time sneaking away to practice had paid off so far.
"Not bad," observed a floating Sam, returning the compliment he had received earlier. "Come on."
The boy then blasted off, clearing intending to pick up the pace in the wake of the scuffle they'd just made it out of. Eli followed suit, breaking out into a run to keep up. It was only a matter of time before reinforcements showed up, so time was a precious thing right now. Speaking of things that were precious, he'd only managed to strap on six of those stars around his waist, so he didn't have many left. In other words, he was going to have to be more choosey from now on.
The journey through this thing felt like a giant zig zag, but he had to trust that he knew where his partner was taking them. Eventually, they did come to what looked like some kind of small shaft, a means through which they could make their way up or down.
Unfortunately, about ten more of those deadly machines were also there right on the edge of said shaft, waiting for them. Barely a couple seconds after they had turned the corner to see it, they were getting shot at, forcing a retreat back around.
"Come on!" Sam said frustratedly through gritted teeth. So far, the guy had been handling this whole situation with surprisingly little frustration showing through, especially given how personal it was. Now, however, with just that one expression and sentence, Eli could start to see the façade cracking already.
"It's just another setback," Eli said, just wanting to try anything to help. "We got this, just like last time."
Sam took a breath before letting it back out.
"Yeah, you're right," he replied, seemingly recomposing himself. Soon, he was glowing blue again, which meant he was ready to fight.
Eli was pretty sure he was never going to get used to seeing someone do that like it was nothing, but whatever.
Sam went on the attack just as the bots started pressing their numbers advantage in drawing nearer to them. This time, instead of keeping his distance, Eli took advantage of their closeness, running and delivering a slamming kick into one of the machines hard enough to send it crashing into the wall. Another one of them tried to take a swing at him, but he ducked underneath the blow, grabbing it by the "arm" and swinging it around to hit the others nearby.
"Ah!" he heard.
Eli spun around to see a hole in the wall, with one of the few remaining drones closing in. Avoiding a shot from the other bot left, he smashed the head in of the one coming to finish off Sam, who was lying in a heap in what appeared to be some weird kind of control room.
"Hey man, you alright?" Eli asked, rushing up and coming alongside his ally.
"Yeah, one of them got in a lucky shot," Sam groaned in return.
Suddenly, Eli felt a stinging pain in his right shoulder, which caused him to drop to the ground in pain. He managed to turn to see the one bot neither of them had taken care of yet, aiming to fire one more blast to finish them both off. Fortunately, Sam managed to beat him to it, sitting up just long enough to send out his own blast of energy, vaporizing the machine before laying back down again, which was more than fine with Eli for a moment. The burning feeling in his shoulder wasn't relinquishing at all, and he let out several groans as he closed his eyes.
He'd felt pain before, but never anything like this.
Suddenly, he heard a noise that could almost only be more of those things coming.
"Come on," Eli said, forcing himself to get up while still clutching in the vicinity of his shoulder. "We've got to go; we've got to keep moving."
There was no response.
"Sam, do you hear me?" he said, standing up and turning to see that his partner was not focused on his words, but crawling over to something, reaching out, grabbing and detaching what appeared to simply be a metal ball of some kind. The thing was glowing a similar but different shade of blue to what Sam usually did.
"What is that?" Eli asked.
"I'll explain later, but right now we need to get back," Sam said.
"What, why?" Eli questioned.
"You really think we can take on the infinite hordes this thing can produce with both of us hurt?" Sam countered. "Besides, I think I just bound us a better solution, hopefully."
"Okay, well, can you even fly us all the way back after taking a hit like that?" Eli asked. While Sam's midsection didn't look nearly as bad as his shoulder, likely due to the energy surrounding him a lot of the time, it was still obvious that he'd taken a direct hit.
"Guess we'll find out, huh?" Sam replied.
Peter had been frequently checking the news on his phone, but there was no indication that the other two groups had destroyed their targets yet. He and Kate had been at the compound for a couple hours now, spending time attending to their injuries once she got up.
"I'm sure they'll take care of it," Kate tried to reassure him. "Maybe it's just taking them a while."
"I hope you're right," Peter said. "I think I'm going to go outside for a while, maybe wait out there for a bit. I guess you can come with me, unless you need some time by yourself."
"Who wants to be alone with their own thoughts right now?" Kate countered, hopping off the table. For a girl that had just been knocked unconscious a few hours ago, she sure seemed quite spry. The two of them went outside the front area, walking out into the grass. There was silence between them, Peter looking to the sky for any sign of his allies.
Surprisingly, it didn't take long for one to appear, as a green figure carrying someone something in his arms soon came into view.
"Looks like we've got our first company," Kate said.
A few moments later, Amadeus landed on the ground, with Riri tucked in his arm, her helmet in his other hand.
"What happened?" Peter asked. "You guys alright?"
Amadeus set Riri down, and the girl just kind of wondered in the general direction of the compound, her expression almost blank. Peter followed her path for a moment before turning back to his other ally.
"It...it didn't exactly go as planned," was all he could say, glancing down at the helmet in his hand.
Before Peter could respond, a booming sound could be heard. He looked up to the right, and he could see Sam and Eli both coming in hot, with the former appearing to try to pull up. As they came in for a landing, the latter managed to get his feet on the ground first, slowing up the rate of the other one just enough to prevent a complete crash.
"He's hurt, and he's exhausted," Eli said, as Peter and Kate both ran over to him.
"Looks like he's not the only one," Kate added, and it wasn't hard to see what she was talking about: a harsh burn mark not too unlike the one Peter had bandaged up on himself earlier was also on Eli's shoulder.
Peter and Kate helped Sam and Eli into the building, with Amadeus coming alongside Riri to follow behind. Sam ended up going unconscious, so Peter got out what medical related stuff was still there to try and help him the best he could. Once that was handled, he gathered with the rest outside of that room.
"So, was anyone's mission a success?" Eli asked.
"Ours was," Peter spoke up, "we caused the dome to pull up, and it hasn't gone back up since from what I've been able to tell. The military has been keeping it busy since then."
"Hopefully that's buying us some time," Amadeus (who had shifted back to his normal look) said.
"But what do we do now?" Kate asked. "What's our next move?"
"Sam seemed to think that metal ball he was holding when we came in was the key to that," Eli explained. "I just have no idea how."
"Well, the first thing we need to do is tend to that injury," Kate said, pointing to Eli's still unpatched up shoulder.
"Yeah, everyone take a moment," Peter said, "but if Sam doesn't wake up soon, we'll need to come back together to form another plan."
Thankfully, nobody else questioned this idea, but Peter wasn't sure if that made him feel any better. Really, he called that little timeout in the hopes of buying himself in particular some time to come up with something, because he knew they were all looking to him still. He just wished he had some answers for them.
As the rest of them dispersed, Peter could hear a sound coming from outside, something that sounded like a helicopter blade. Kate, who hadn't gone far yet, came alongside him.
"Who could that be?" Kate asked. The two of them then jogged back outside to see that, sure enough, it was a helicopter making its descent onto the lawn.
"Yeah, still no idea who it is," Peter shouted.
"I know!" Kate shouted back, drawing the attention of Peter and his still masked face.
"It's my mom!"
Hope you all are still enjoying it!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"A person's wisdom yields patience; it is to one's glory to overlook an offense." Proverbs 19:11