Cobra!
Ai was holding herself close as Torque led her into what had to be a locker room. Nothing else in Ai's experience smelled quite like a locker room. Even as diligently as people cleaned with incredibly advanced technology, the particular smell of 'locker room' was always there. Be it a gymnasium, sporting event, military force, police or anything else a locker room was a locker room. Sweat, oils for weapons or equipment, clothing that needed to hit the laundry, the list of smells that made up 'locker room' was endless and very distinctive.
"Is this the best place to introduce me?" Ai asked the Viper who ignored her. Ai shook her head. "Okay, be that way."
"Everyone usually goes here when things get weird." Torque said quietly. "We work on our gear and wait for HQ to get back to us. This whole mess is weird." She complained.
"The Director locked everything down." Ai said in sudden realization. "Oh boy."
"I hope you have news, Torque." An older dark skinned woman with some kind of European accent asked the Viper and then went still as Ai followed the snake woman into the room. "Um…"
"Everyone who didn't meet her on the barge, this is Ai." Torque said by way of greeting. "The Director came herself and briefed me." The Viper shook her head. "I had no idea."
"Torque." The older woman seemed to be the one in charge, or at least everyone was letting her run the show. "What is going on?" She wasn't angry, but she was not happy either.
"Ai? This is Godmother." Toque said flatly. "We use code names for almost everything. You better explain, You talk better than I do."
"Smart move to keep real IDs on the down low for a team who operates such as you seem to." Ai nodded to the Viper and then to the bemused looking older woman. "Godmother, I am Ai." She gave the woman a respectful nod that was reciprocated. "I am a soldier. I was confused and not all together on the barge. Now? I have been briefed and can explain some. I have been seconded by my HQ to aid in stopping a threat to Matron Alley."
At that, everyone in the locker room went utterly still. From their expressions, they knew who Alley was and probably more than a bit of 'what' she was. They likely didn't know it all, but then again? Neither did Ai! What Ai did know was enough to give her nightmares.
"Alley?" Terminal spoke up from a position near one corner of the room. "Alley can handle herself. Better than any of us."
"This threat is not one that she is trained to handle." Ai said slowly, feeling out each word with care. "The Matron is incredibly powerful by anyone's definition. But the people who want her gone…" Ai paused and then sighed. "I call them evil incarnate." At that, she had everyone's firm attention. Eleven sets of eyes locked on her and she continued. "I am a clone and I have been fighting these scum ever since I was decanted from my clone pod. I cannot say where that is or how I got here, the Director was quite clear on that, but what I can say is that I know their methods. I know what they do and how. Add to that? I want them stopped, hard."
"You hate them." Godmother said slowly. "You called yourself a Nightstalker."
"Yes." Ai relaxed. She knew what was coming. The team would test her. She had dealt with such groups many times in the fight for Mega Primus.
"Nightstalkers were toys." A man who held himself more like a cop than a soldier said from the bench. He had a pistol in hand, but it was partially disassembled. As she looked at him, he was reassembling it by touch without looking at it.
"Yes, they were." Ai replied, still calm.
"Cobra was the bad guys in that whole line of toys from the 1980s." The Muton that Ai had met on the barge spoke up. "Nightstalkers were a tiny branch of that."
"Add several movies that I wish I could forget." Ai said in such a long suffering tone that several people chuckled. She felt a nudge on her mind and eyed two beings in particular. The Sectoid was eyeing her, but the human male whose hand was glowing with psionic fire was not looking at her. Yep, him. "Do not try to read my mind. You won't like what happens." She warned. The Sectoid stilled and then nodded. The man whose hand was glowing did not and Ai sighed a little. "I will try not to hurt you, since we will apparently be working together but I faced psionic enemies a lot. I learned to defend myself." She locked eyes with the man and power flared between them. She wasn't a psi, but like she said, she had learned.
Everyone was stiff with worry but then the man gasped and his power faded. Ai nodded to him as he gagged.
"What… the… hell?" The man was gagging and he all but begged as he sank onto the bench. "What was that? That.. smell?"
"I warned you." Ai shrugged when everyone stared at her. "You wanted to read my mind? You did. I learned how to deal with such. I was trained to pull my worst memories of riot gas training." At that, everyone made a face. "And no, it wasn't the gentle stuff that cops are allowed to use. My instructors did not have time for the soft touch, so they did it all hard. What they used was military grade. The techs where I was made a very nasty mix of tear gas and puke gas. They wanted it to work to disperse hostile crowds, period. It does." She grimaced in memory. "And yes, all of us had to acclimatize, since the chance of accidental exposure is high. I did it twice in regular training and twice in my advanced courses. Both times, there were fatalities on my group."
"Ew." Terminal made a face and Ai shared it.
"Yeah. Ew." Ai gave herself a shake. "I am to work with you, but my secrets will stay secret. Am I clear?" She glared around and no one commented although several looked blank. "To be blunt: I am a Nightstalker. I am not a toy. My organization used the toys as a basis for our military structure and it took on a life of its own. I am a Cobra Operative but I am not a terrorist. I am here to help protect Matron Alley. That is all I can say."
"If you are with Cobra…" A girl with metal legs asked slowly. "I only have one question you might be able to answer: H.I.S.S. Tank or C.A.T.?" Everyone but Ai and the girl speaking looked blank, but Ai nodded.
"Both have their uses." Ai replied instantly. "H.I.S.S. is faster and more maneuverable. C.A.T. has heavier armor and a bigger main gun. It really depends on the situation. On my last op, we had both ready to provide fire support as my team egressed along with a M.A.G.G.O.T. artillery team and a wing of F.A.N.G. securing the airspace. I do not think the Rattlers were sortied but I know they were stood up, just in case." She smiled at the bespectacled girl. "Do I pass?"
"You definitely know your old world toys." The girl said slowly. "But really... Which one would you prefer?"
"'Prefer'?" Ai shrugged with a small frown. "Neither. I am not armor. Tanks are big and noisy. They can be hidden, but it is very hard. I much prefer not to be seen and/or shot at. Tanks draw a lot of fire and I prefer not to." She smirked again. "Better for everyone that way. Most of my ops, I never fired a shot. We went in, got intel and got out. Not all and definitely not the more recent, but most."
"She is good." Torque said softly. "You all saw the video I took on the barge."
"But Cobra is not real!" The man who was fiddling with his pistol had it reassembled now and slid it into a holster. "How can we know if she is?"
"She was real enough to leave three corpses in her wake." Torque warned. "Add to that? The Director ordered her to help take these scum down. Ai? You know them. Why did they take young girls?"
"Are we secure?" Ai asked Torque and everyone stiffened again. Torque looked at another man who was not wearing armor and he made a face, but nodded. "They called themselves the Cult of Sirius. They take children to turn into weapons. Children are adaptable and can often survive things that adults cannot. How long?" She asked Torque who looked quizzical. "How long have kids been vanishing without a trace?"
"It started less than a week ago." Godmother glowered at Torque who shrugged. "There wasn't a direct correlation until they took Valere from Torque's planned sting area."
"No one apparently thought it was anything more than normal sentient trafficking." Ai replied and Godmother stared at her. "Or so Director Kelly said. Nasty, to be sure, but nowhere near as bad as it will get if we do not stop them now. If they build any of their super killing machines, you will have a bloodbath and they will focus on taking any kids they can get their hands on while people are distracted by the gore. That was our mistake." Now, she had everyone's attention. "By the time we realized how bad it actually was, they had two dozen of the things and rolled over every single conventional attempt to stop them. They built them to counter us and the physical appearance of the cyborgs is of action figures from the 1980s."
"You are joking!" Godmother snapped, clearly not believing this.
"I wish." Ai slumped a bit. "On the outside, they do look like plastic figures, but inside? A few people call them 'Terminators' and they are close to the robot movie monsters. Cyborgs with armored exoskeletons. The Cult who made them call them their 'G.I. Joe Team' as a counter to us. We were first, you see and we beat them, but did not win completely. They retreated into the shadows to lick their wounds and find better ways to fight us. They did. They wanted revenge and they got it until we organized ourselves. Most people who fought these killing machines call them 'Joes'. They are no joke at all. They are fast, agile and hard to put down. Add to that? They are programmed to enjoy killing with blades."
"How do you stop them?" The girl with the glasses asked, her face intent.
"Armor piercing ammunition." Ai said flatly. "Their bodies are armored, so conventional ammo does nothing but break the plastic shell. They do not feel pain or get sick, so burning them or poisoning them doesn't work. You have to blast them completely apart for explosives to be useful and that is not a great solution in an area packed with civvies." Now, she slumped. "We tried being restrained around them at first. It doesn't work." She gave herself a shake and then patted her body just above the abdomen. "Their brains are located here. The head is nothing but sensors and the upper chest is their power supply." Again, the girl with the glasses looked interested and Ai shook her head. "They are well insulated and the power supply is non-volatile. Electricity and EMP will work, but they move fast and they always self destruct to avoid capture."
"So, how do you know all of this?" Godmother asked.
"Lots and lots of of dead people. Many of them friends." Ai replied without inflection and everyone jerked back. "I do not want one of those things loose in your city and I do not want it going after Alley. The Cultists who make them will have a base somewhere to build the damned things. They will need power, but they were always good at siphoning such and making it seem innocuous. Other than that? The only other limited resource they need are the brains of children. Those work better apparently than adults for the sickos to warp and twist into their weapons." She gave herself a savage shake, focusing on the mission. "Our best bet is to find them before they get any of the damned things operational or else you will have lots of dead people."
"Do they have any weaknesses?" Godmother asked after looking at everyone else.
"Powerful electricity and EMP will work if you can hit them with it. Mainly though? They are single minded." Ai replied. "They do not generally think for themselves. They obey whatever orders their handlers give them." Now, AI fought the rage that flowed in her every time she thought of the cult. "The Cult of Sirius are complete wackjobs. They worship aliens and want said aliens to be their masters just like the Elders were."
"Okay, so it is open season on cult wackos." The Muton said firmly. "When do we start?"
"Finding them is always the hardest part." Ai heaved a sigh. "Whatever surveillance networks you have will be needed. They will be hard to pin down, they are used to hiding in mixed species conditions. They prefer girls. Hence why Valere was taken."
"Do I want to know why?" Godmother asked softly. Ai shook her head. "Is it germane?"
"I don't think so." Ai said after a moment. "They cannot have a full temple set up here. Those are very hard to hide. The lucky girls became acolytes in those temples. They were used to bring in new recruits to be brainwashed. Pretty people always sway more hearts, and libidos, than ugly ones."
"And the unlucky ones?" The girl with the glasses inquired carefully despite Godmother making a 'shush' motion.
"Have you ever heard the term 'fetus farm'?" Ai inquired coldly and everyone shuddered as one. "You have. Good, I don't need to make anyone puke explaining. Yes, that is why they want females. If they find out I am here, they will spare no expense to grab me and use me in one. We might be able to use that, but I will scare them. They earned our wrath many times over."
"Nightstalkers were all female." The pistol guy said slowly and Ai nodded. "Oh."
"Yeah." Ai took a deep breath and then blew it out. "I am to work with you. We will need to train together. We can stop the Cult before they have a chance to target Matron Alley and we have to."
"She needs gear." Torque said into the silence that followed Ai's words.
"On it." One of the others moved to a door and was gone in a flash. Ai had noted the female hybrid and seen the woman's tension in Ai's presence. The Nightstalker wasn't sure why the other was so tense, but it made no difference if they could work together. The Viper stared after the hybrid, an odd look on her face, but it smoothed when Ai looked at the snake woman.
"Training?" Ai inquired and then paused as one of the men, a dark skinned man with dark hair, threw something at her. She caught it and it started to beep. Everyone ducked for cover, but Ai examined the thing and then chuckled. "Nice. Proximity and motion sensors." Everyone was staring at her from where they cowered and she shrugged. "It is too light to have explosives inside. No boom from this. This is just the shell with the sensors."
"Claymore!" Godmother snapped, her ire fully fanned.
"You had to know if I would panic." Ai reassured the older woman. "He is not the first to throw a grenade at me. At least I didn't throw it back like Zartan is infamous for." She paused and sighed. "Please forget you heard me say that."
"Zartan was another agent of Cobra." The girl in the glasses said slowly, creeping up from where she had ducked under a bench.
"And I don't want him mad at me." Ai said with feeling. "So, please! Forget I said the name!"
"Probably wisest." Godmother shook her head as the thing in Ai's hands continued to beep. "It is live and you are not going to move, are you?"
"Nope." Ai smirked at the dark skinned man who looked apologetic. "If I move, the motion sensors will trip and then the proximity sensors will activate. It doesn't have explosives, but I bet it has something else, right?" That was snide to the one called Claymore who nodded, his face slightly strained. "Let me guess, a dye pack? That sounds about right for a test. Radius?" She inquired.
"Half a meter." Claymore said and then gasped as Ai moved away from everyone else. She took another step and the thing stopped beeping. She closed her eyes just before her hand jerked, a soft noise sounded and ick covered her. Ai opened her eyes to see everyone staring at her. She was surrounded by a halo of orange dye that coated everything. Yep, half a meter. She didn't need to see herself to know it was all over her front as well. Claymore was pale as Ai slowly shook her head. It wasn't even close to the first time she had been subjected to such. Pranks were a time honored tradition in Cobra. Sneaky was as sneaky did after all. Claymore was all but sputtering. "I… Um..."
"You needed to test me. You did." Ai made sure to keep her tone conversational. "I think I passed." Everyone nodded fervently, even the Muton looked a bit sheepish. "Is it water soluble or do I need a solvent?"
"Soap works." Claymore said weakly.
"Right." Ai paused and looked at Godmother who was gawking at her. "Or do I need to ruin a tactical course like this?" Her instructors had done such to her and far worse. War was no place for the squeamish or the easily offended, after all.
"I bet you could run a tactical course like that, and probably make a new high score, but no. Hit the shower." Godmother was shaking her head, clearly trying hard not to laugh. "We will have a uniform and armor for you when you get out. Zephyr is deft with the Assembly. What weapon preference?"
"Rifle, preferably, but I qualified with sub-machine guns and sniper weapons as well." Ai replied and paused as Godmother looked thoughtful. "Problem?"
"Maybe a solution. We do not have a dedicated sniper." The dark skinned lady's accent was bit more pronounced as she fought her laughter and won. "Torque? You trained as a spotter, no?"
"I did. I will escort Ai to the shower area." Torque was snickering under her breath. "And I have to say, Ai, you are nuts! All I can say is Cobra!" The look on Godmother's face was priceless and several of the others were gaping.
"Cobra!" Ai agreed as she started for the door, ignoring the dripping stuff falling off of her. As the door closed behind her she heard Godmother start speaking. It as easy to see who ran this place as she started in like any NCO in AI's experience.
"Claymore… And everyone else who is smirking! Get mops! NOW!"