Evil wins far too often

Another day. Another group of scavengers grabbing Elder tech to sell, but this time, things were different.

"Damn." Ai slowly shook her head as she stared at her scope readout. "Eyes on. You see what I see?"

"I do." The Viper at the sniper rifle said with a grunt. "That is not good."

"Keep your eyes on." Ai felt funny. Odd in a familiar way, but not one she had felt recently. She switched her radio to the regular Chimera channel and spoke. "Godmother! Eyes! Urgent!"

"Eyes? Go." Godmother said sharply.

"Fall back! The building is a trap! I read explosives on every door and- Oh crap!" Ai said sharply as her memory flashed the feeling she remembered into her fore brain. 'I am a target' was not something one forgot. Ever. She threw herself to the side as something went 'hiss' through where she had just been. A bullet! It hit the spotting scope, reducing the expensive optic to junk and shrapnel and barely missing her. "Shots fired! Shots fired! Trap for all of us! Chimera! Get clear!" She slid to the side, staring at where Torque was slumping over her rifle. "Torque!"

"I am hit." Torque said weakly as she slid down to the roof the sniper team lay on. The Viper was crumpled over her rifle, blood pooling onto the roof they lay on. At that sight, Ai felt rage start to flare, an old familiar friend. "They knew…" Torque muttered and then lay still.

"Not like this!" Ai sneered as she slid over Torque, dropping a nanomedkit on the still Viper before grabbing up the sniper rifle and darting for the meager cover available on the roof. Not much, the shadow of an old style metal chimney. "We do not go out like this! Not today!"

It has started such a good day. Valere was safe now. The girl had gone with Arisha and Syndrome to get checked out by many experts. She would not enjoy that, but it beat the alternative. The girl had cried herself to sleep in Ai's arms and it had been wonderful for the hard bitten soldier to simply care for a lost soul again. Ai really liked doing that. The kids she had helped with her fiance had been wonderful, for the most part. They were kids, so they were not perfect by a long shot, but they had been good for her. Valere reminded Ai of the good times and it helped. The evil was gone from Ai's mind, but everyone said that she too would be checked thoroughly when there was time.

Sigh. The alert that had come in seemed to be just another Chimera scavenger hunt, but Ai had been tense the whole time. Throughout the briefing, the ride to the area and then the infiltration, something had felt off. Now, she knew what that feeling was. This was hardly the first ambush she had been involved in. From both sides.

"Ai, run." Torque pleaded from where she lay. "They… They will recover me… I will…" She lay still as Ai slammed into cover and swept the area with her eyes even as she checked the rifle by touch. It seemed intact.

"Eyes, Whisper!" The voice of the com operative was cold and harsh in Ai's ear as she spun to glare at where the shot had to have come from. "Team is extracting. Status?"

"Torque is down. Alive, but not conscious." Ai said flatly. "No cover on the roof between me and the exfil position. If they are good enough snipers to hit her without me seeing them, then they are good enough to nail me before I can get to the rope."

Said rope led back down to a small plaza inside the derelict building the team had chosen for this sniper position. There as concealment and cover inside the building, but on the roof? There was none except where Ai cowered now. Add to that? Torque was utterly exposed. Her chest heaved, so the Viper was alive, but clearly not conscious. Ai wasn't going to leave her teammate here if she had any choice at all! But trying to carry her down a rope wasn't going to work even if whoever had taken those shots didn't take more.

"This was planned, Whisper." Ai said flatly. "They suckered us in nicely. My gut was screaming that this is how I would take out the team. They planned to take us both out at the same time. Then Chimera hits the door and 'boom'. Sensors detected explosive traps on two doors and a window. I bet all the other normal entry points were rigged as well. There were at least ten heat sources in there, not the three we were told. This was an ambush, plain and simple. Have you got any eyes in the area?"

"I have several drones up and circling the area." Whisper was angry, but he was a professional. "You are right. Many heat sources in the building. Way too many to be our scavenger group. And the explosives sensors are going nuts! How did they hide that from 31PD?"

"There are ways. Police think of laws, procedures and civilians in the crossfire. That is their job." Ai said softly as she slid just a little to get the rifle aimed the right direction, but slowly, so slowly. Movement always drew the eye but slow movement far less so. Sniper training had always been about slow and steady so as not to draw the eye. Ai hadn't been a sniper by trade, but she had done the courses and scored well in them. "I am a soldier and I have been late to a couple of ambushes." She snorted as Whisper made a soft noise of query. "That is the only thing worse than being on time for one." She stopped moving as something moved in her vision. She was utterly still, not even daring to breathe as something moved on a roof in the distance. She spoke very quietly but knew Whisper could hear her. "Movement. Target building, three o'clock from my position. Four stories, large air conditioners on the roof. Do you have a visual?"

"I do." Whisper's tone as flat now. "That is a Shrike uniform under that gillie suit." Now, he was very angry. "They don't like Chimera."

"I never would have guessed." Ai said as the movement she saw stopped. "Long story?"

"A bit. They are a merc group, well trained and equipped." Whisper had a scowl in his voice now. "They know they are blown. The heat sources are moving toward the loading dock and they have vans there. If the PD tries to stop them…"

"A bunch of cops get killed." Ai shook her head. "Not on my watch. Get someone near this building to recover Torque. I'll handle these guys."

"Ai, don't do anything stupid!" Whisper all but barked as Ai raised the rifle far too fast and took aim at where she had seen the movement. She smiled grimly as she saw a gillie suit appear in her scope. He was aiming at her, but she corrected for wind automatically and the rifle barked. Then she hit the roof as something whizzed over her head. "Holy shit!" Whisper sounded dumbstruck. "Um… You got him." Then he muttered. 'I didn't think it was possible to counter-sniper someone through their own scope. I was wrong.'

"There has to be another! They were aiming for me and Torque at the same time!" Ai moved slowly and carefully. "So, there has to be at least one more shooter!" A good one, or she would have seen them. A good sniper would wait for the perfect shot. Silent and still, snipers were hunters of sentient prey and only the really good or really lucky ones ones survived.

"Drones have nothing." Whisper said weakly as Ai swept the are with her eyes. "If he is there, he is not moving. Nothing on infrared, nothing on- Wait a sec…" Whisper muttered what had to be a curse. "Ultraviolet is showing an odd patch!" He snapped. "Same roof, six meters left of the target you just got. Under an air conditioner. And yep, that is a rifle barrel sticking out of there."

"Is he moving?" Ai asked, not moving herself.

"No." Whisper replied.

"If he is not displacing, then he has solid cover." Ai looked around the empty roof and shook her head. "And I am all out of that." She slithered to the left, away from her original shooting position. "I am going to move as far as I can, ease up and take my shot. Win or lose, get medics here as fast as you can. I think Torque is stable, I used the medkit I had." She would worry about Torque when the other sniper was down and not before.

"Evac drone is on the way." Whisper said softly. "It is not fast, but it is heavily armored. We expected to pick up hurt people in the middle of firefights. If need be, it can carry both of you."

"I hope not to need it." Ai's feeling of wrongness was still there even as she slid to the end of the roof. She was about to shift to the edge when an errant thought hit. "Whisper? What did that ultraviolet patch look like?"

"A patch of different ultraviolet radiation." Whisper was tense now. Then again, being only able to watch bad things happen was not a good feeling for anyone. "What was it supposed to look like?"

"During the day?" Ai asked glancing around again. Ultraviolet radiation was generally swamped by the massive amounts of such put out by the sun was when it was up. If it was showing up now? It was far more powerful than it needed to be. Probably a decoy or something. "Has the rifle moved at all?"

"Oh." Whisper was hyper focused now. "Um, no. It hasn't. A decoy?"

"Maybe." Ai slid her own rifle into position and took aim at the roof where her first target had died. "Or maybe a twisty mind wanting us to think it is a decoy. One way to find out."

"Ai…" Whisper groaned and then heaved a sigh. "I have eyes on that spot and the barrel hasn't moved. It looks like it is aimed your way, but I cannot tell. There is either a jammer or something else in there. Drone visuals are scrambled."

"Okay." Ai was in the zone again, her breathing steady as she eased herself up, just a little. She saw the spot instantly and saw the rifle barrel swing her way, but had no visual on the shooter, just the weapon. So, she aimed at what she could see. At where the receiver of the rifle had to be. She fired and then ducked as light flared in the distance. She was too slow this time. A thunderous impact threw her back to the roof, the rifle spinning out of her hand and skittering off the roof as her shoulder flared with agony.

"Eyes!" Whisper shouted in Ai's ear as she struggled to rise, to grab her personal weapon where it hung on her harness, to do anything! Her body wasn't working right, but she knew this feeling. It wasn't the first time she had been shot. She fought past the pain and lethargy to scuttle back into her cover. "Drone is a minute out."

"Did I get him?" Ai asked, struggling to stay conscious. She didn't dare look at her shoulder. She had made that mistake once before during a firefight and it hadn't ended well for her. If not for her sisters, she would have died then and there. Here, she was alone and Torque was counting on her.

"I cannot tell if you got him, but his rifle fell out of whatever that is and it is two pieces." Whisper snorted. "Even if he is still breathing? That had to be a shock."

"ETA on drone?" Ai inquired, staring at Torque who lay still. "I cannot tell if Torque is breathing or not."

"We will get her and-" Whisper's voice cut out to static and Ai stiffened again as a shadow fell over the roof. That was not a drone!

One handed, Ai unslung up her sub-machine gun from where it had fallen onto her chest rig even as armored troops that she did not recognize dropped from the hovering transport. She opened fire even as they hit the roof, but these were not scavengers or thugs. Humans and aliens in an unfamiliar uniform. These were trained soldiers and even though she hit one, the ones covering them from the transport lit her up. Her armor took the impact but she was hurt again and she fired again, this time her shots throwing one of the newly come troops off the roof, where he fell out of sight with a scream.

She slid behind the chimney away from the troops but they knew where she was and the metal rang with impacts even as she took stock. She had six magazines, but neither she nor Torque had been carrying anything beyond their weapons and sniper gear. Ai shook her head. She wasn't getting out of this. This had been planned to take out the whole team. She was-

Ai had a bare moment to realize what was happening as another snake thin form slid right around her cover and hissed at her. Not Torque! Then the enemy Viper had her, wrapping her up in coils that ground on her tighter and tighter.

"Die, you Chimera bitch!" The Viper hissed at Ai who smirked at her. The snake woman paused, unsure. "What?"

[I die, but I will not die alone.] Ai managed to hiss the words in the language that all Viper knew instinctively even as other forms in similar armor moved to flank her and one took aim at Torque's still form. [Nice trap, but they work two ways!]

"Just die already!" The snake woman binding Ai snapped as she squeezed tighter and tighter.

"NO!" One of the other snapped. "She is booby trapped!"

"Bring it on, asshole." Ai snapped as the Viper eased up, but not entirely. "You started it, feel free to end it and yourselves!"

"Not today." A totally impossible voice sounded and Ai felt fear blossom as a form stepped into her view. The action figure was the same one she had seen in the Mega Primus tower before she had died there. That wasn't possible! Was it? No, it wasn't the same. The form was human, not robot, but the mask it wore was the same face! The same plastic smile and hair. And no, the voice changed, now it was female and oddly humorous. "You know that won't work, dear." The same words as the battle where she had died! The face was the same parody of an emergency medical professional! "Just a stick and it will all be better. We will heal you and give you a new life." The words were teh same, but the voice was oddly different.

"Don't you shitheads ever learn?" Ai asked, her tone conversational as the form extended a needle towards her neck.

"Yes, we do." The other surprised her when the needle pierced her armor and skin and Ai didn't fall asleep. "That is a paralytic, not a sedative. You are far too dangerous to leave alive, but also far too dangerous to kill. So, we need to work on you carefully. Your change will be unpleasant for you, since you cannot sleep through it, but Nightstalker, you have earned every ounce of agony we can give you and then some."

Cultist! This was a Cultist and they knew about the Gift! How? Ai felt her muscles all relax and she was now lying on a hard surface as something went into her mouth. She felt pressure in her chest and the 'starved for air' feeling she had barely noted faded as the ventilator worked. Then she was moving, as the hated voice crooned in her ear.

"Yo Joe."

Later

Ai never lost consciousness. She had been blindfolded and bound even while paralyzed, but they had taken care not to suffocate her. She worked to catalog every sound, smell and feeling that she sensed but knew it was likely futile. The Cult of Sirius were wackos. They were not stupid. If they were working with these Shrike goons, then some of what was going on made a bit more sense. The Cult could not have sent many people to this place and time. Ai's Cobra cared about breaking holes in reality, but the Cult only cared about obeying their masters' orders. Collateral damage meant nothing to them even if it threatened their entire universe. All that mattered was obeying their gods.

She had been in a vehicle, then in a smelly location. Then another vehicle. And now? She was lying on something that felt almost like a dentist's chair and could smell antiseptics, cleaners, and other things that shook her to the core. She was in a medical facility. Probably an operating theater. She focused on her love for the Matron and braced herself for what she knew was coming. They had treated her wounds, but then bound her far too tightly for her to escape without tools.

"When can we kill her?" The voice of the Viper was harsh.

"If we kill her, Julso, the trap she has inside her will go off. I told you this. I do not want to die here, it would mean I cannot obey my orders." The voice of the Cultist was almost absent minded. "We need her turned, not dead. The enemy can and will track her and the other, so we need to do it now. Everyone else, start Evacuation Plan Eta 7."

Ai felt her head gripped in metal that was covered by something something slightly softer and then, a buzzing heralded her short hair being shorn off. Then, her skull went numb. Ai was focused on her mental frameworks even as small shocks bit onto them, seeking to twist her mind mentally and physically to the service of the Cult. Brain surgery was a specialty of theirs, but not for healing.

"She killed Marcus and maimed Hollie!" The Viper snapped. "I am killing the other Chimera bitch!"

"If you touch the other Viper, I will kill you." Ai could not react physically, but mentally, she jumped for joy even as her head felt cold. Torque was alive! "We will need both of them to get at the Matron. Untouched." The voice warned. "Do I make myself clear?"

"I just want them dead!" The Viper hissed and then a gunshot rang out and the familiar around of a body hitting the floor came to Ai's ears.

"Fine." The Cultist sneered. "Be that way. You lot wanted vengeance, I am giving it to you, but my way. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Ma'am." A chorus of ragged response came form all around. At least ten voices. The ambush team?

"Good, get out!" The voice snapped and boots thudded on metal. Then the voice sighed. "Ah Ai…" The Cultist knew her name? That wasn't recent knowledge from how she was acting! "It has been far too long."

Ai jerked anew as the darkness she had been in since her capture vanished. A blindfold had been pulled form her face. She stared forward, not that she could do anything else in the vice like grip that held her. The Cultist stood in front of her, mask in place as it set the blindfold down nearby. Ai felt fer rise as a needle appeared in her vision, but the other shook her plastic face.

"I am giving you an antagonist for the paralytic. We need to talk." The needle dipped out of Ai's vision and she felt white hot fire sweep through her from her neck. Ai fought the groan that tried to escape and the other shook her head again. "Still so tough. Good girl. I know better than to to give you any slack at all. You will not break those bonds. I know exactly how strong and skilled you are, Nightstalker." Was she mocking Ai? No, not quite. But definitely snickering at some secret joke.

"I have nothing to say to you, Cultist." Ai spat. "I have heard all of your lies far too many times to care what drivel you spout this time. Just do whatever you are going to do. Even if it works? All you will do is make a paradox."

"I know, but just like you, I have my orders." The other said with a shrug as she laid the needle down. Then she reached up and took off her plastic mask. Ai stared as her own face smiled at her and madness beckoned, but the Nightstalker fought it back. "Really, sister?" The cultist version of Ai inquired with all too familiar grin. Not ironic, truly humorous. "You didn't think the Matron was the only one who could make clones, did you?"

Oh… shit!