Dreams to some, nightmares to others

2187 Mega-Primus

It was over. This part of the battle was lost. The blocking force had held the line, but in the end? They had been over run. There had only been four in the blocking team. Even if others had been available, there simply hadn't been space in such a close confined hallway for more soldiers to set up. Everyone had known that they couldn't hold even with all of the advantages the team possessed. Apartment buildings were not a good place for battles, generally. Even such hallways as Mega Primus constructed would stop bullets, but not explosives. Not a good place to make a stand. Well, unless the building was filled with non-combatants that needed to be saved from madmen.

The rest of the team fell back yet again, keeping to cover and managing their spacing as the hated battlecry of their enemies tore through the air. The screams of the dying followed the 'Yo Joe!' as always. Her people were tough, but not invincible and their screams as the enemy indulged themselves always hurt the team leader deep inside. Which, of course, was why the enemy did it. Psychological warfare at its finest. Hopefully all the women were dead before that position was taken. If not? Their fates would be unpleasant to say the least. But that paled besides what came after. The screams of the civilians who had been trapped by the rapid enemy advance falling to gunfire or worse, the screams cutting off to the sounds of blades striking flesh always followed that cry. They did like their blades. They especially liked using said blades on people who could not fight back.

"Everybody out." The team commander managed past the arm she held tight against her side. It didn't stop the blood, but with her grip tight, she could still breathe. For the moment anyway. At least, in her crimson armor, no one could see her blood falling. She had time. Enough to get clear? Maybe.

"Nightstalker Ai?" The team second in command paused, eyeing her and she snarled at him. He was good, for a regular human who had been a cop before the madness. Few of the citizens of the city that made up their home had the intelligence, the will or the sheer grit it took to become part of the teams. The psychical parts of what made up the work were the easy bits.

"I am mobile." The team leader said with a growl that sputtered into a wet cough. The second in command looked at her and she glared at him. "Go! Get everyone else out! Those kids are counting on us!"

The whole reason the enemy had come here were running away under the direction of two of her troopers. The enemy didn't want adults. Adults were fully grown and thus, less desirable for the nasty experiments that made the enemy their cloned troops. Anyone over the age of fourteen was expendable. To be slaughtered any time the crazies had ammunition or time. The kids though… Even now, the Nightstalker's stomach turned at the thought of the fate of any of the kids that the Cult got their hands on. Children were hardy, adaptable. They would survive the massive genetic engineering and cybernetic augmentation that the Cult would do to them. To turn them into their most feared weapons. Their 'Joes'. It was utterly anathema to her, what the Cult did. Every single member of Cobra had dedicated their life to protecting Earth. Kids were the future of humanity. Who cared if they had Alien DNA or cybernetic parts attached? If they grew up free, they had a chance at a future even as bleak as things were. If not? Humanity had no future. A dead or enslaved humanity was the future the Cult wanted.

Not on her watch!

As soon as this mission had come in, everyone had known it would be bad. Most of the heavy forces were out on another mission, a very important one. Even as a Nightstalker, Ai wasn't cleared for all of it, but she knew it had been important or Jian herself wouldn't have been in command. The Lieutenant Commander was a legend in her own right. Feared and hated by her enemies, loved and cherished by her allies and her troops. Everyone had known why the Cult of Sirius had hit this particular building when it had. The Mutant Alliance had always been firm allies of the Matron and by extension, her chosen successor, Jian. X-Com and its various affiliates had never been high on anyone's list of desirable allies with their conspiracy theories and paranoia, but few had truly understood the threat as well as X-Com. Understanding was all well and good, but in the end? X-Com had failed and if not for the Matron, all of human life on Earth would have died or been slaves.

The Nightstalker staggered and then nodded to herself as her legs wavered. Blood loss. She wasn't going to be able to keep up. If the teams got the kids to the evac site, just outside the building, it would be a done deal. There was lots of backup just itching for enemies to show their evil faces. Air and ground assets had been mobilized from several organizations even before the team had gone in. Lots of people hated the Cult of Sirius, even if most would never hold a weapon. Ai had taken multiple hits, including one that punched right through her armor. She could not run any further. She had to hold them off. Ai knew, in her heart, that she couldn't stop them, but she could delay them and that was good enough. She hoped so anyway. She settled herself into a doorway and checked her weapon one handed even as her team ran- Wait.

"What are you doing?" The Nightstalker demanded as a SAW Viper spun in place and then went prone on the floor, laying his light machine gun ready.

"Same as you." The trooper replied, his tone absent as he scanned for targets. "They ain't taking the kids!"

The retractable shield on his weapon extended, for all the good it would do him. As soon as he opened up, he would take fire from everyone and everything in the area and no metal could withstand such for long. There was no cover here though and the corridor led to the parking area. If those things got out into the parking area before the kids were clear… The Nightstalker and her people had their orders and everyone agreed the orders were needed. No one liked them. Bringing down an entire building was a mess, but letting any of the killing machines get out into the city was worse. A full perimeter of HISS tanks and artillery would bring the building down if needed. What such would do to any organics still in the building did not bear mentioning.

"Yeah." The Nightstalker sighed and then smiled a bit grimly. She didn't like the thought that two of them were going to die here instead of just her, but six of her team were already dead or praying for it. "We will make the Matron proud."

"We will make the Matron proud." The gunner said firmly and then paused. "You don't happen to have a grenade launcher hidden in that get up, do you?" He asked and the Nightstalker chuckled even though it hurt.

It was an ongoing joke amongst the troops that the Nightstalker gear had all kinds of stuff hidden in their outfits even as skimpy as they were compared to the bulky armor the men wore. The armor was just as good, high tech alloys and force fields made it stronger than steel, it just looked like something out of a fetish dream. Ai had never liked the look of the helmet, but she had accepted it. This was what she had been cloned to do. She did have a lot of stuff, but no grenade launcher. Pity. They worked for such situations. Long range boom was useful.

"I wish." The female trooper said with a grunt was she took aim. She could hear them now. They really sounded like people moving, but silent. Way too quiet for even the best trained huamns. "Used all my grenades earlier. You?"

"One frag." The other replied. "Not that useful against these."

"Yeah, I only packed smoke for this." The female warrior eased herself down a little as the sounds came closer. The smoke the teams carried jammed sensors nicely with all the extra bits the techs added. "Used the last one in the stairwell." She paused. "Why bring a frag? You had the same briefing I did."

The whole team had been there. To their credit? None had hesitated even knowing this was going to be bad on toast. Fragmentation grenades would do nothing to this foe. That was why the Cult made them.

"Hoped for a shot at couple of their 'acquisition specialists'. Frag will mess those up nicely." The trooper said, hate coloring his tone of a moment. 'Acquisition specialists'. The cult members who drugged the kids and any females unlucky enough to survive their attacks to take them away. They also specialized in poisons for all the 'non-usable' people they found. The Nightstalker nodded with a tiny grimace. That explained why he was here. Why he wasn't running. Indeed, why a human was able to keep up with the clones of her team. Her second was hardly the only human with vengeance on his mind. Hate and vengeance often propelled humans to heights and depth unthinkable for most.

"Who?" Ai asked and then let off a burst as something moved in the distance. She hit it, she knew she did, but it didn't react. Instead, the humanoid form took a long, slow look at her and the trooper. Then it smiled underneath its blonde, buzz cut fake hair and made a gesture of cutting a throat. She fired again and this time, her shots took it in the head, its plastic shell collapsing under her well aimed shots. It did not fall. It retreated a bit, out of sight. "Who did they take?"

"Little brother." The man said firmly. "His name was Mikey and he was six. Hell, that might be him." He sounded shaken and the Nightstalker shook her head.

"Hold your fire until they cluster." The Nightstalker paused and then pulled a small object from her web gear. She dropped it beside the trooper who eyed it. "Low yield jammer." She said with a grunt as her chest hurt. "They know you are here, but they may not know what you have until you open up. Make them count."

"I know, Ma'am. 30 seconds." The trooper smiled grimly. The life expectancy of any machine gunner in any modern battle was about that long. Fully automatic weapons always drew a LOT of fire for good reason. "I can do a lot of damage in 30 seconds, even to these plastic freaks."

"You got AP?" The Nightstalker was feeling woozy from blood loss now and knew she didn't have a lot of time. Armor piercing was the only thing that stopped the Cult's killing machines, but she was out of those rounds. It had been a long fight.

"No. Used it all in the last two fights. I got a mostly full mag of ball and tracer." The trooper said flatly. He knew she was dying, he knew he was about to die. He accepted it. "Knees and feet."

"Not as well armored, no. Slow them down." Ai said with smile. He knew his stuff. Pity they were both about to die. She might have liked him. "We are not going to win. But you know what? I don't care!" She hit her last stimulant and shuddered as it coursed through her system.

"YO JOE!"

The enemy gave sound to their battle cry and here they came! She saw at least a dozen of the killing machines as her rifle spit defiance. And yes, the one she had hit was leading the charge, even with its plastic cranium torn in two. Killing the cyborgs was damn hard without the proper equipment, which she had used up.

"COBRA!" The Nightstalker croaked that, but the machine gunner took up the cry and his defiant shout split the hallway with his fire. Then it stopped! She stared, but the man lay still, his head lolling to the side. An AP round had torn through his shield and then through his helmet visor (And him!) without pause, killing him instantly. She reacted without thought. She rolled to where he lay and scooped up his weapon, ignoring the rounds that sparked all around her. She knew they were aiming to disable. They wanted her alive! She opened fire and held the trigger down. The plastic cyborgs with their faker plastic grins and fake plastic hair filled the corridor and she could not possibly miss. Then the machine gun clicked. Empty.

"You know that won't work, dear." One of the things, this one a parody of an emergency medical professional stepped forward, a long needle extending from its plastic hand. She spat at him and tried to roll for her discarded rifle, but several plastic hands had her and she was going nowhere. "Just a stick and it will all be better. We will heal you and give you a new life."

"What is the BS you lot are always spouting about 'knowledge'?" The Nightstalker as asked as the needle pricked her and she was falling, but a smile crossed her face as she fell. She held the drug away through sheer force of will, but it was winning. The cyborg medic smiled at her. It was probably meant to be kind, but it was creepy as hell on a plastic face made up like an action figure from the 1980s.

"Knowing is half the battle." The fake grin got wider.

"Yes." Ai smiled even as darkness crowded her vision and all of the plastic forms actually recoiled at what they saw in her smile. "It is."

As soon as she lost consciousness, the backup explosive in her tooth scattered the Matron's last gift to her children across the corridor. She didn't hear the screams of the cyborgs as they dissolved the supremely potent Viper venom. Yes, she had come prepared, but there hadn't been time to get anyone else set up as such. She had hoped, but she had known she would be a priority target. Both as a trophy and as a fertile human female for their experiments. The venom had been dormant until they had sedated her. Oops.

And… She was still falling. That wasn't right.

This isn't right… Ai said weakly and went still as she was answered!

"No, its not." Warm things coiled around the Nightstalker as she tried to comprehend what was happening. She thought she knew the voice. "You died, my dear. Oh, my dear, sweet Ai. I am sorry."

The other was sad, so very sad. Then she gasped as her eyes opened and she saw who held her! The Viper sat in mid-air, coiled up on nothing, but that didn't bother the stricken girl. She knew this being. Very well!

"I…" The Nightstalker stared up at a face she knew so well, but had not seen in so long. Alley was crying! "Matron?" She reached out and the snake woman took the stricken girl up in her arms like so many times before. They shared the same hug they had so many times before.

"Why must it always be war and death?" The being known as 'Matron' or in select company, 'Alley' begged the warrior in her arms. "I wanted to make something better than that and I failed."

"You didn't fail!" The girl in Alley's grip felt so wrong, and at the same time, so right. She was not in armor anymore. She wore civilian attire, not fatigues as she had known all her life. "Matron, humans are human. Clone or live birth, we are cursed with the same silly things. Ambition, anger, all that. You did so well. Far better than any human did! It is just the wackos, not anyone else. Not your fault."

"Vipers can be just as silly as humans, my dear Ai." Alley said sadly. Then she sighed. "I… Um… You did well, Ai. The kids got away. They will find good homes and now? The entire city is mad at the Cult. Even the gangs have had enough. Any time the cult raises their heads now, they will get smashed."

"Good!" The Nightstalker said firmly but Alley would not meet her eyes. "Isn't that good, Matron?"

"It is, but the Cult has gotten desperate. With their alien masters scattered or barred from this dimension, their cyborgs shown to be not as invincible as they pretended and their real motives exposed to anyone and everyone, they are at the end of their rope." Ai smiled but Alley did not. Alley said softly. "They are doing something really, really stupid, even for them."

"Of course they are." The girl warrior said with a groan. "What do you need?" Alley looked at her and the girl shrugged. "You caught me as my mind left my body. You need me, don't you?"

"I… No. I try to say goodbye to everyone I made." Alley shook her head. "I never wanted this! I wanted to give you all a choice, a chance at a good life, but..." She broke off as the girl hugged her tight.

"We made our choice." The warrior reassured Alley. "You made us to defend, but not all of are warriors, Matron Alley. You know that. None of us were locked into the path. None of us were brainwashed like the Cult does, did to their super soldiers." She corrected herself grimly. Then she paused as Alley looked away. "They will keep doing it, won't they?"

"It is all they know." Alley said sadly. "Their masters gave them commands, they have to obey. Stamping out cults simply doesn't work even without all of the powers their masters gave them. Finding them is always harder than stopping them in action. Even at the worst of time, we couldn't go around smashing buildings because a Cult member might be inside." Ai shuddered and nodded. She had seen collateral damage on a horrific scale in the battles for Mega-Primus.

"Fighting fanatics only makes them more fanatic, Matron." Ai said firmly. "What can I do? Can I do anything?"

"I don't think so." Alley was still sad, but her tears had stopped. "I just wanted to say goodbye, Ai. One last hug." She hugged the girl who returned it, bu the girl was thinking hard. "Ai…"

"I love you, Matron Alley but you still suck at lying." Ai said with a feeling as she hugged Alley again, but then she spoke to thin air. "Jian, I need to talk to you."

"NO!" Alley screamed but it was too late. Ai materialized somewhere else. The command center was almost as an exact copy of the one in Cobra Headquarters, minus the silver skulled technicians working all around. The Destros were odd, to say the least, but very good with tech. Jian stood with her back to the Nightstalker, but Ai could see she was tense. The soldier braced to attention and saluted her commander's back.

"Cobra! Mission accomplished, sister." Nightstalker Ai said softly and Jian spun, her face a mix of shock and anguish. Ai held her salute until Jian returned it.

"Ai…" Jian said softly. "It…" She slumped and a single tear fell. "It is not fair. I know life isn't, but you… You were going to go to school! Have a life! A family outside of us!"

"Plans change, sis." Ai smiled, but it was melancholy. "Alley said the kids got out, but no one else. Did the Matron's Gift work?"

"It did." Jian said with a sigh. "But... yeah. No one else. They killed all the males and took the females." Ai tensed, but Jian shook her head. "None of your team survived. They didn't get any of ours to play with this time." Ai relaxed a little but then frowned. Jian met her frown with a glower. "And no. You have earned a rest, sister."

"Alley said they are doing something even dumber than usual?" Ai asked.

"Yes." Jian said in tone like pulling teeth. "It involves time travel and you are not going."

"At least tell me Biyu is not going." Ai snickered at Jain's pained expression. "The last thing we need is her having more kids!"

"Tell me about it!" Jian groaned. "Ai, please. Alley wanted you to go on. We have this. It is a mess, but we have it."

"Can I help?" Ai asked and Jian did not answer her. Indeed, the lieutenant commanders face blanked. "I can, can't I?"

"Ai, don't! Please!" Jian begged. "How many of my sisters must I watch die? I know I will outlive you all! The Matron pulled no punches when she explained my duties. But you? You have a choice!" She was crying now and Ai stepped up to her and in total defiance of tradition and military order, pulled her big sister into a hug and held Jian as she cried. "Ai, please!"

"Jain, let me talk to Grandma." Ai squeezed Jain and stepped back. Even at the worst of times, her family understood the need for discipline. "I need to talk to Grandma."

A door opened on one wall and Ai stepped towards it, aware of Jain extending a hand, but then dropping it even as Ai passed the door and entered a large room filled with computer equipment. Then she stopped short as a blue skinned girl appeared in front of her, face savage.

"Do you have any idea the mess you are about to make, Nightstalker Ai?" The girl demanded but paused as a voice from nowhere laughed.

"You are one to talk about messes, Lizbeth." The voice of Ai's grandmother was sharp as always, but also kind in its own way. Hard, but fair. Stern, but trusting. "And you should know better than to stand in her way." The blue skinned girl growled something that was likely foul and vanished as quickly as she had appeared. "Come in, Ai. We do need to talk."

"Yes, Honored Grandmother Jane Kelly." Ai said as she stepped into the bank of computers and they shifted to show an area with a single seat that she took. "We do."