Chapter 8: Desperate Times
Earth 716: Los Angeles, California, February 5, 2008 (Connor Safehouse)
9:12 pm
After everything went down at the high school, Oliver, John, Caitlin, Jesse, and Jane Henry headed for home and immediately got to work on figuring out what to do. Luckily for Jane Henry, she scanned the head and found there to be an explosive charge near the chip. Now they just had to figure out how to remove it without setting off the explosive.
That was the tricky part…
"Unless we know what makes this chip explode, then I don't think that removing it is very wise," Caitlin explained. It was weird for her to be holding the terminator's head over a cutting board, near the sink while Jane Henry stood by with a large kitchen knife in her hand.
John walked over and looked at the head. "I've seen this before. There was a terminator that tried killing Doctor Sherman. Luckily Cameron got to it first but the chip had the same thing."
"Do you have any idea on how we remove it?" Caitlin asked.
"We weren't sure then, and I'm still not sure now." John sadly answered.
"Don't worry, we'll figure out something." Caitlin smiled. "Speaking of Cameron. How is her body?"
"I calculate that she still has 12.6 hours until her skin starts its rigor mortis state."
"What if we were to put her on ice?" Oliver mentioned.
"21.2 hours then." Jane Henry calculated.
"Then I'll head to the nearest store and grab some ice," Oliver announced. "We need all the time we can get." With that, he headed for the door and left the house. Jesse smirked as Oliver left, and sprawled out over the sofa for some much needed relaxing. Without Robin Hood constantly watching her, she could finally take a breather.
At least that was until he came walking back in.
"Come on, get up. You're coming too." Oliver ordered in a strict tone.
"Oh come on!" Jesse groaned. "Why do I have to go!?"
Oliver crossed his arms in response. "Do we need to have this conversation again?"
Jesse huffed but reluctantly got off the couch and obediently followed behind Oliver.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Caitlin chuckled as she watched the two bickered until they left. It was quite amusing, to say the least. "Good to see that Oliver has better control of Jesse now."
"As long as she's out of our hair then I don't care." John opinionatedly stated. He went back to studying the head and seeing if there was any way to exploit the explosive charge that was connected to the chip.
Now he knew where Cameron got the idea from. An explosive like this one would be enough to kill her, especially the one she put in her head as a countermeasure for if she tried to kill him again. When this was done and he had her back, he would take that explosive out of her head. Never did he want her life in his hands. If it came down to it, he wasn't sure he'd be able to press that button.
"What if the chip is exposed to air, then that's what causes it to explode?" Caitlin proposed. "It would make sense, wouldn't it?"
"Maybe the chip is rigged with a spark that will cause a chain reaction when friction is applied?" Jane Henry then explained.
John abruptly set down the head and looked at the two. "You're not helping much." He looked around the room, trying to think of a plan on how to get this chip safely out of this thick skull without destroying it. Although it did seem plausible that the chip would have one of the traps that Caitlin and Jane Henry mentioned, he wasn't exactly sure how they would stop the mechanism from self destruct.
Wait a minute...
An idea formed in John's mind, and he looked over at Jane Henry who was now playing with the kitchen knife. Before speaking, he decided to gently guide her hand down and take the knife away from her, in order to avoid any potential harm coming to him. She was pretty naive still and was not a killing machine per se, aside from having the body of one. Her mind was as simple as a five-year-old. "Are the terminator CPUs waterproof?"
Jane Henry took a moment and pondered on the question before answering. "Yes. To a certain extent."
"A certain extent?" Both John and Caitlin asked.
"The seal protects the chip from moisture or any foreign substance that could potentially be harmful. The chip itself is water resistant, but not completely waterproof."
"What what if we created a vacuum?" Caitlin then suggested. "If the chip indeed self destructs, when exposed to air, then not exposing it could certainly-"
*SPLASH!*
"Or not…" Caitlin mumbled as John held the head underwater.
"John I think you may have just damaged the chip." Jane Henry acknowledged. John didn't listen as be undid the port seal and immediately pulled the chip out from the head and the water before covering it with a towel. "Or not." Jane Henry repeated Caitlin's response.
"Guess you were right about the air." John chuckled.
After drying off the chip, he handed it to Caitlin who brought it over to the laptop that was conveniently set up, along with other, more sophisticated equipment. She plugged it in into a jerry-rigged USB port and booted the laptop up. As Jane Henry sat down in the opposite chair, she handed John a knife and instructed him where to cut on her scalp. Despite him already knowing the location of the chip, he followed the instructions and made a semicircle just enough to push the living tissue to the side and open the port seal. Using the needle nose pliers, he extracted the chip and her body went limp.
"Here we go." John sighed heavily. There was no going back now.
"Luckily Jane Henry wrote down instructions on how to first wipe the chip. After that, then we can begin the transfer of Jane Henry onto the empty one."
"Good," John smirked. "Let's get to work."
Accepting, Caitlin and John began their given task and began to decode the chip and follow the specific instructions left by Jane. After about an hour, cracking the chip was as easy as could be and both were able to delete everything inside the chip. Now it was a blank slate, waiting for a new being to inhabit it.
"Okay… there we go!" John shouted in excitement. He gave Caitlin a high five, happy to have completed the first step with no repercussions.
"So now onto the next step." Caitlin pointed out. John agreed, and the two looked over the sheet of paper, taking the time to understand how to begin the transferring sequence. To their surprise, there was nothing to do. Jane Henry left a note that she could take care of the rest, just so long there is enough power for her to function properly, and to transfer herself onto the blank chip.
"Are you ready?" Caitlin asked.
"More than ready," John answered.
Caitlin smiled and the two did what the instructions said. John applied more power to the chip, allowing Jane Henry some awareness, and watched as his computer went black. That was unexpected.
"What? What happened?"
"I don't know." Caitlin shrugged. Both checked the computer, as well as the connecting components. Nothing was wrong. There was nothing that disconnected, and even the power cable was still neatly plugged into the wall.
"What the hell happened? Did she...Did she upload herself into the Internet?"
"No. That's impossible. She would never do that." Caitlin answered. "Would she?"
"Goddammit!" John snarled. He immediately stood up and kicked his chair over in anger. "She lied to us! Jane Henry was Skynet all along!"
"We don't know that, John. Maybe she just messed up somehow." Caitlin replied with uncertainty.
"Yeah? Well maybe so, but she did the opposite of what she said what she was gonna do!"
Suddenly, all the lights in the house shut off, and both were engulfed in absolute darkness. John and Caitlin looked at each other in utter confusion. But before they could ask the kitchen side door, and the front door was kicked down, and over a dozen men came rushing in with rifles and lights attached.
"Get down on the ground, now!" One of the men demanded.
Both John and Caitlin complied and rose their hands in surrender, and slowly got onto their knees. He was confused. We're these the authorities? Were they Kaliba?
"Who the hell are you?" John inquired.
The man didn't answer, and lowered his rife and pulled out a radio from his tactical vest. "Sir, we have the targets. There are no signs of the other two, but both machines appear to be present and both are inactive."
"Good. Kill them, and burn everything to the ground. I want both chips brought to me."
"Yes, sir." Giving the signal to his men, all of them aimed their rifles at John and Caitlin. This was it. They were gonna die here.
Both John and Caitlin squeezed their eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable to come. For that shot to take their lives. There was no one to help them.
"What the hell?"
There were gunshots, but none hit them. There were screams, but it wasn't theirs. They opened their eyes and saw all men scream in horror as their bodies went flying around the house, and bullets flew everywhere. John and Caitlin immediately shuffled their way to cover and hid behind the counter. Caitlin grabbed the laptop and it's components, and took them with her, in order to protect it from potential damage. John opened the cabinet door from under the sink and pulled out a shotgun, and began loading fresh shells into it.
It was time to use what his mother instilled into him since he was just a child. John sprung up, and aimed the weapon at whatever enemies were left, expecting to meet some gunfire. Instead, everything died down, and it was silent.
When he aimed his shotgun at the only remaining target, he was surprised to see who was standing over the dead bodies, riddled with holes and a horrified expression. John lowered his shotgun in disbelief.
"Alex?"
Earth 716: Unknown Location
Everything was fuzzy to him as he woken abruptly. He felt the blood rushing to his head which made it pound as if he had gotten into a big fight and suffered a concussion. Everything around him was blurry. One thing for sure was that he knew he wasn't alone. He could hear more groans and moans coming from just all around him.
"Barry?"
That voice certainly got his attention. That all too recognizable voice of the woman he loved. "I-I-Iris?"
"Oh my God!" She exclaimed. "Barry… W-Where are we?!"
When he could finally see, he looked all around him. He was tied upside down and so was Iris. That explained the excruciating headache. He looked to his left and his right and found everyone else to be tied up the exact same way. Iris, Cisco, Felicity, Sarah, Derek, Harry, Laurel Lance, and… and Cameron? Last time he saw her, she was an empty body. How long was he unconscious? Maybe she got her chip back and they came to save him? "I don't know."
"Hi, Lena." Summer waved at the woman a few feet from her.
"Lena?" Sarah confusingly inquired. "Tin Miss, shut up before I scrap you!"
"What the hell has gotten into you?!" Summer snapped back. "I only go a few years without speaking to you and this is how you treat me?"
"Actually why is Cameron here?" Cisco asked. "Wasn't she inside Jane Henry last time."
"I'm not Cameron you idiots!" Summer shouted in annoyance.
"Sarah, please tell me that this whole thing is a dream and I'm still in the future, being hunted by triple eights," Derek groaned in irritation.
"You're not dreaming," Laurel mentioned. "Barry, Cisco, Felicity. This is Summer Glau. Cameron's…" She stopped when she saw both Summer and Derek and Sarah staring at her. "She's Cameron's actress from our world."
Sarah looked at the woman with complete and utter dismay. "What the fu-"
"Oh my God!" Cisco cut off. "I am such a huge fan, Ms. Glau!"
"Yeah, you and everyone else I've met." Summer rolled her eyes. She winces slightly and used her bound hands to feel the side of her bandaged head. It felt wet. When she looked back at her hands, she found them to be saturated with blood. "That's just great, I'm bleeding to death."
"I've got questions!" Sarah announced with seriousness.
"That's enough!" Iris shouted, successfully silencing everyone inside the room. She turned her attention to Barry with a hopeful look on her face. "Can you phase us out of here?"
Barry acknowledged Iris' request, and attempted to begin vibrating his wrists, but found that he wasn't able to. "There's no use," Harry mentioned. He knew Barry couldn't see it, but everyone else could. "Metahuman cuffs."
"What the hell happened?" Barry asked.
"What do you remember?" Sarah inquired.
"We were at the warehouse, tracking down a lead to Skynet and…" It dawned on him almost immediately. "Then we were attacked by Thawne."
"Correct, Mr. Allen."
Everyone's head jolted as the voice they heard had walked in front of them. It was, in fact, Eobard Thawne. More specifically, he was wearing Harrison Well's face. "What are you doing here?" Barry hissed with venom.
"Now telling you the reason wouldn't be too smart, now would it, Barry?" Thawne smirked mischievously. "I should be asking you the same thing anyway."
"That is none of your business!" Barry spat back.
"How immature of you, Barry." Thawne chucked. "And here I thought we could have a fun little talk."
"How about you let me go and I'll show you how to run your mouth!"
"What do you want with us, Thawne?" Cisco then asked.
Thawne walked over to Cisco and looked at him in the eyes before answering. "Well… I couldn't go home. Why you may ask? Well, I'll leave that up to your imagination. But I found out I could easily run across dimensions when I wound up here. I do remember our little movie nights, Cisco. Probably one of my most fondest memories of our time together."
"So what are you here for, Thawne?"
"Why am I here?" Eobard pondered on that question for a moment. "I'm here because I want to be. I don't have to worry about the Flash toying around with my fun. I am free to do anything with this ridiculous universe and suffer no consequences."
"Messing with other universes is what you call fun!?" Barry shouted. "Is this all just some sick game to you!?"
"It's not my world, it's not yours, Mr. Allen. I wonder why you care about these people so much."
"Because they are real as you and me!" Barry argued.
"That it may be, but this world is already on a collision course, Barry. I might as well take the stick and command where it goes."
As Thawne sped out of the room, Barry angrily shouted at the evil speedster. But there was no use. The door closed and they were all stuck in here. He was powerless to do anything.
"Okay, so where is Ollie?" Laurel asked.
"He's with John and Caitlin. They are supposed to find a new chip for Cameron," Cisco explained.
"Seriously, what the hell is going on here!?" Summer frantically inquired.
"Do you remember that Terminator we just killed back at Star Labs?" Iris asked the brunette. She nodded in response. "Yeah well, it came from here."
Surprisingly, Summer went silent and just dangled there with shock and disbelief filling her eyes.
Laurel meticulously studied the room. All of them were strung up by their feet, in a circular position. Barry, the only meta, had handcuffs on, that was disabling his speed.
Wait…
"Harry, do we still know what I can do?"
"We never got around to that, Ms. Lance," Harry rolled his eyes. But judging by the way Laurel smirked, he knew otherwise. "Why are you smiling?"
Laurel pointed at her Canary Cry collar, giving Harry his answer. "Because I have a plan."
•••
"I swear, I leave for one week and already things go to shit?!" Alex snapped in absolute irritation.
"What are you doing here?" John asked. "I thought you were in Washington?"
Alex went outside and flipped the breaker box switches back, and all the lights in the house turned back on. "I was. But Sarah called me so I came back."
"Mom called you?" John inquired with confusion. "Why?"
"I don't know. As soon as I answered she hung up." Alex explained. She bent over and searched through one of the dead assailant's pockets. "Your mother never calls me unless it's an emergency."
"Well, they'll be home soon anyway so you can ask her yourself," John answered proudly. "But thank you for coming when you did. I don't know what would have happened if you didn't show up."
"We would be dead." Caitlin pointed out.
Alex eyed the redhead with confusion and looked at John with skepticism. "And who's she?"
Forgetting where Caitlin was from for a second, John sighed heavily and looked back at Alex. "It's a long story."
"Then start talking," Alex mentioned. She grabbed one body and moved it to the corner, before dropping. As she piled up the dead soldiers, John began to fill her in on everything. As expected, she laughed at the ludicrous idea of other dimensions existing. But when she saw the serious look on both their faces, she only looked at them with utter confusion and disbelief. "Wait… you're serious?"
"As serious as we can be," John simply acknowledged.
While John continued to explain the whole situation to Alex, Caitlin opened back up the laptop and found the upload process to be complete. She eased baffled. "John, take a look at this."
Both he and Alex rounded the counter to see what Caitlin was referring to. John was surprised. "What? Jane Henry uploaded herself to the Internet. Didn't she?"
"It appears so," Caitlin shrugged. "But whatever happened, she came back."
"Jane Henry?" Alex inquired.
"An AI created to be a weapon against Skynet," John attempted at explaining simply. "Cameron had to make room in her chip for it and we've been trying to separate them ever since."
"Okay, good to know," Alex mused. "I thought Cameron was just slacking on her duties when I saw her lying on the couch."
With everything appearing to be in working order, Caitlin unplugged the chip from its port and handed it back to John. "Here. It's time to turn her back on."
John gladly took the chip and went back into the living room. Although the sofa was overturned from the attack, she was still lying peacefully. He undid the skin flap and used a pair of pliers, that Alex handed him, to break the seal. He carefully placed the chip back into her port before securing the seal and skin back into their places.
He counted in his mind, the seconds that it took for her to reboot. It had been over nine hours since he had last spoken to her, and it all happened so quick. He didn't get a chance to apologize to Cameron for the way he treated her. But that was going to change.
As the seconds drew nearer, her eyes slowly opened as they scanned the room. She slowly sat up and looked at John.
He was worried if it worked. If he followed the instructions correctly. If not, then he was just communicating with Jane Henry again, and Cameron was still stored away.
His assumption was proven false when a faint grin appeared on her face. The only grin she would give him. He only expected it to be some ruse at the time, but he knew better now. "Cameron?"
"I'm back," she simply answered.
John couldn't help but smile back. "That you are."
Cameron scanned the room, seeing all the overturned furniture and piled bodies. "What happened?"
"While you were sleeping, I had to kill a bunch of militia guys," Alex quipped.
Cameron's face immediately went back to its stoic expression when she glanced upon Alex. "You always claimed that you hated killing."
"I didn't have a choice!" Alex hissed.
Although she did not need it, John helped Cameron up on to her feet. The entire living room was a mess, as well as the kitchen. With the dead bodies that were piled in the corner, it didn't make the house look that much more luxurious. "Sarah isn't going to be happy."
"Well we're probably gonna have to move again, anyway," Alex mentioned. "Do we know who these sons of bitches are?"
"Nope," Caitlin shrugged.
"We are just surprised as you are," John acknowledged. "They could be that Kaliba group that mom was talking about."
"How about we check their wallets or something?" Caitlin proposed. "Maybe they have some sort of affiliation?"
"Right," Alex agreed.
She crouched down next to the pile of bodies and began rummaging through their pockets. Nothing much could be found. A few ammo clips, a condom, and...
"Ah, ha!" Alex cheered. She pulled out a wallet and checked the deceased owner's identification. Joseph Sandoval. A private security force for, "Skynet!?"
"Wait, what?" Everyone inquired.
"Cyberdyne systems, private security firm," Alex clarified.
John snatched the card from Alex and stared at it with disbelief. "That was impossible, Skynet was destroyed years ago."
"This is just a coincidence, right?" Caitlin inquired unsurely.
"No. It's very likely that Skynet would still use its sutonim for its company name," Cameron explained simply.
"No, no, no, this has to be some mistake," John muttered with refusal. In anger, he bashed his fist on the counter. "We didn't destroy it for nothing!"
In an attempt to reassure him, Cameron placed her hand on his shoulder and spun him around so that he was looking into her eyes. "John-"
Suddenly the front door swung open, with both Jesse and Oliver rushing in and closing the door behind them. The look of exasperation had everyone immediately concerned.
"We need to get out of here!" Oliver announced with hastiness.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, who the hell are you two!?" Alex inquired.
"No time for that!" Jesse sneered. "Is there any more weapons around here?"
"Our hidden stash is under the floorboards," Cameron pointed underneath Jesse's feet. With that question answered, Jesse immediately knelt down and began using her fingernails to chip the wood away and she was able to grip the floorboards.
However, it was nailed down pretty tight. Jesse looked over at Cameron. "Okay, metal, I may need some help!" she demanded.
Oliver peered out the window and saw three dark vans pull up into the front yard. Over a dozen men came pouring out, all armed with automatic weapons. "You guys may want to hurry!"
Cameron rushed over to Jesse and used her great strength to rip the floorboards away, and revealing the duffle bag filled with various weapons. Together they both pulled it out and began checking every gun to see if they were loaded.
Cameron handed Jesse a Remington shotgun and Alex an Mp5. For herself, she grabbed two Glock 9mm handguns and handed John a P226 with two extra mags. As she handed them to John, she looked at him with seriousness. "We need to leave. If there is anything you don't want to leave behind, I suggest you get it now."
John and Caitlin heeded Cameron's warning and disappeared into the kitchen.
"Why are you saying that like we are about to blow up our home!?" Alex inquired. Cameron's response was by pulling out three C4 charges, along with the detonator. "Oh… you are planning on blowing up our home."
"We can't leave any trace that we lived here," Cameron explained. "It will just lead authorities to us."
"So what is the plan?" Jesse inquired. "Are we shooting our way out or are we just gonna blow ourselves to kingdom come?"
At the right moment, John, Caitlin, along with a reactivated Jane Henry, came running back into the living room. "John, I need you three to set charges in the basement. Once the foundation goes, the whole house will explode."
"Got it," John agreed. Without a moment's hesitation, John grabbed the explosives and handed them to Caitlin and Jane Henry before running downstairs.
"So we buy them some time, I'm guessing?" Oliver inquired.
"Yes," came Cameron's reply.
"Okay, good," Oliver smirked. He too grabbed a rifle from the bag and checked if it was loaded. "I've been itching for a fight."
"Wow, Robin Hood is trading in his bow I presume?" Jesse mocked.
"Shut up," Oliver hissed.
"I'm just messing with you, love," Jesse quipped sarcastically. "Take a joke for once."
"Okay, let's stop jabbering, and let's kick some ass!" Alex exclaimed with readiness.
With one single motion, Oliver immediately opened the door, with Cameron and Alex being the first to sprint out and concentrate fire on the armed men. With them being used as shields, that allowed Jesse and Oliver to get outside where Oliver hid behind the brick wall and Jesse behind one of the brick columns.
Together, they fired at the men, forcing them back into cover behind their vehicles. Pushing them back was the key to buying time for John, Jane, and Caitlin. When they gave the signal, it was time to flee through the backyard and escape.
Meanwhile, in down in the basement, the overhead fire could be heard. They didn't have much time, so they needed to act quick.
"There, I set the charges next to the water heater," Caitlin announced. "That should crumble the foundation exponentially,"
"I got the charges set too," Jane Henry gave a thumbs up.
John gave the two a simple nod and set the last charge underneath the stairwell. "Good. Let's get the hell outta here, then."
The two ran upstairs, only to run into the living room with bullets flying through the window. Both were forced to take cover, but Jane Henry, not so much, as she just curiously looked at the bullet's impact her torso.
"Interesting…"
John was forced to pull the cyborg down for her sake. "Jane Henry!"
"I have never been in a situation like that before. I wanted to feel what it was like to get shot."
"Well, now you did!" John berated. "Next time a gun fires at you, take cover, got it?"
"Okay," Jane Henry acknowledged with a strange smile.
With that over, John rose his head, trying to see where the battle currently went. Cameron and Alex were practically bullet sponges, there was no surprise there. Oliver and Jesse seemed to be holding their own as well. But the two other dark vans that pulled up, turned the tide.
John's eyes went wide as the van doors opened and a man, wielding a mounted Gatling gun, began to fire onto the house. Even Cameron and Alex were forced to take cover behind the bricks.
"Guys!" John called out. "Let's get the hell out of here!"
With no room for arguments, Cameron pushed Oliver into the house, and Alex did the same to Jesse. Together they all crawled until they were able to freely move and get back onto their feet. They all sprinted through the living room and through the kitchen, leaving through the side entrance. They ran as fast as they could until they reached the back fence and began to scale it with ease.
With them out of the vicinity, and men beginning to storm the house, Cameron took out the remote detonator and pressed the red button.
KABOOM!
The house burst into flames, the glass windows exploding into a million pieces. The entire structure crumbled and collapsed on itself until all that remained was a heap of smoldering rubble.
It was time to get well away from the safehouse. It was no longer safe.
As they all fled through the alleyway, they failed to see the yellow blur that watched them from afar. The faint sounds of vibration along with the red glowing eyes had its next targets in sight. Now it was time to act.
•••
Authors Note: A short yet sweet chapter. I apologize for the lack of updates on this, but as I said originally is that this story I'm not too focused on right now. But seeing as it is well liked, I am definitely going to keep with it.
Reviews and constructive criticism is gladly appreciated!