Temperature Calibration Activated.
Heat Detection Enhanced.
"Holy fuck."
When North had turned on her heat calibration to decrease her chances of being spotted by being able to detect heat signatures, she hadn't expected to be blasted in the face by a blinding hotness that nearly sent her stumbling straight into enemy fire. It had been so long since North had deactivated her heat detection; so long that she had long forgotten what it initially felt like to have the cold wind on her face as she declared to the world that she was finally free. She was so naive, so incredibly foolish to think that the world could ever reserve a place for something like her.
Pain Calibration Activated.
And of course, that would've been initiated as well.
North pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a certain sting that confirmed the process was complete. It was as if the two calibrations came in a bundle. She knew that if she activated one, the other would follow suit; it was a risk she was willing to take. Sometimes North simply wished that she could reach into her code and just smash the link between her fingers. Perhaps it'd help by heightening her senses if she was ever attacked, but not before incapacitating her with pain.
Heat signatures immediately appeared behind the wall she was currently leaning against. North turned and watched the signatures, bending and shifting as mercenaries raised their guns at her people. The deviant leader might look back and find it funny that she was staring a wall so intently that she might burn a hole through them, but she hadn't a thought in her mind as she rushed out, using the wall as a pivot to swing around the corner and roundhouse kick the mercenaries into oblivion. North stumbled, feeling a rip in her metallic bones that disappeared a little while after. The deviant leader unhooked a shotgun from a mercenary's shoulder and set it on her own. She continued like this, using her heat detection to her advantage to prevent herself from getting caught and to free anyone she finds on the way.
She only hoped that Connor and Josh were doing the same.
As the ricochet of firing a bullet shot a flare through her arm, North saw Connor's frightened eyes in her memory. She had assured Connor that she would take care of the ship and had demanded ("Connor, don't push it. Don't give me a reason to hate you even more.") that he takes Josh and Chloe out of the ship as soon as possible and save everyone he sees.
The thought of him made her eyes lose their focus for a split second.
North planted her feet hard on the ground as she spun around an intersection, legs flying to get her to the hold. She paused in place, spying two guards with their backs turned. Without skipping a beat, Markus's preconstruction protocol activated.
- 0:23 -
Time slowed to a stop. North didn't know what to do, but at the same time, she did. Her operating systems whirred to calculate the possibilities of success in different paths with the short twenty seconds they were given. The deviant leader was barely aware that her core was gradually overheating until it sent a stimulating pulse through her systems.
So this was what Markus had to work with? No wonder he was such a good fighter.
Simulation Successful.
Her systems automatically took control of her limbs, pushing her legs forwards and reaching up to grab a ledge. North swung up, her legs arching as the tension in them compiled for a solid kick to the face; she let herself dangle a little while before scrambling up the ledge, amazed at what she had just done. The thirium inside her was pumping so rapidly to cool down her biocomponents to the point that she felt as though it was about to evaporate.
"Holy shit, Markus."
North would've had plenty of words to say to her ex-lover.
When North finally reached the hold, she had a total count of twenty two people freed. It didn't placate her nerves, however, to know that she had saved nearly an eighth of her people; there were still so many more trapped inside, and North hadn't accomplished what she had come here to do.
North stepped towards the bombs with a certain sense of conviction, and a little bit of excitement. Although she had long quit her violent ways, it would always please her to be able to use the tiniest bit of firearms. She relished the jolt of firing a gun. It was one of the first experiences she had in her short trek to Jericho. Back then, she was all about confrontation; now, she's changed for the better (or worse; she hadn't been seeing results. But personality wise, North would claim that she was a tad better that she had been. A certain deviant named Josh would definitely agree).
With her synthetic skin peeled back to her wrists, North threw down her gun and placed her hand in the activation panel. A flash of silver and black made her freeze.
"Hands up!"
North complied. "You won't really shoot me, will you?" She prompted the mercenary, "Cyberlife needs me alive, no?"
The mercenary cocked the gun at the deviant leader. North saw his fingers tighten on the trigger, but his stance was hesitant. She ran forwards, shouldering the man to rid him of his balance.
It wasn't too good of an idea. Perhaps Markus's preconstruction could've done better.
As they fell, with North on top, the gun jabbed deep into her abdomen. North cried out, blindly swatting the gun away to the corner of the hold, but it was simply too late; a ripping agony had cut through to her chest from her stomach, and now her whole body. The mercenary had hit his head on the door and had stopped moving for a while, but North's biocomponents were screaming so desperately that she couldn't find the strength to stand properly as she clambered over to slap her hand back onto the activation screen.
North almost forgot to climb back onto her feet and run out of the hold.
When her pain simulations were finally gone, North reached up to her temples and switched off her temperature and pain calibrations. Josh was waiting at their rendezvous point, waving at North to run faster. Connor and Chloe came into her vision as she reached Josh; they were ten steps ahead of her, waiting for Josh to lead them out. North lagged behind them as they bolted towards the entrance, taking it upon herself to act as the overseer.
"Go, go, go!" North yelled, worried out of her mind that any one of them would get hurt, when instead she was the one blasted to her knees by a bullet through her left leg.
"North!" Josh called, stopping everyone. No, don't stop!
The deviant leader pushed herself backwards with her hands, eyeing the guns trained on her with a glare that she so generously reserved for humans like the mercenaries. A quick scan revealed that though none of her biocomponents were critically damaged, it would be a while until they can recover and allow her to stand, let alone run. She saw a shadow loom over her as Connor leapt forwards with a piece of the ship in his hands. The RK800 chucked the piece of metal at North, letting her block the bullets as he whipped out his own gun to feed a bullet to each one of the mercenaries' forehead. Josh scooped up North's arm and hoisted her forwards, with Chloe taking her other a few steps later.
North's jacket flapped all the way over her head as she fell from the ship, diving into the ocean with nothing but her people in mind. A wave of heat struck her back as the explosives went off, coloring the sea with a brilliant orange. She turned back to watch the ship slowly descend to unknown depths as Chloe swam to her and took her hand. North laced her fingers into Chloe's, squeezed her hand gently, then turned her back to Jericho and swam away.
A part of her seemed to sink along with the ship, taking Markus with it. But in return, North received an impetus to push for action.
The revolution couldn't wait anymore.
