"There is a point where we needed to stop and we have clearly passed it, but let's keep going and see what happens."
- Internet proverb
Fire raged across the battlefield. The wreckage of GHQ and Funeral Parlor machines alike were piled in a mountainous smoldering junk heap. Mana and Venera stood side by side proudly overseeing the disaster, their black and violet dresses blowing in the scorching wind.
A pile of rubble that used to be a GHQ Mission Control station rattled near Venera. A bruised and bloodied hand reached up from the ruins. The figure buried underneath pulled themselves out of their metal grave.
Kenji cradled his shattered left arm with his right. He hobbled toward Venera with hatred in his eyes, cursing her through his teeth.
"You still haven't won, you little bitch! You think dressing up like a bimbo for Halloween and waving some glow sticks around makes you better than me? You couldn't crack your way through a coffee maker designed by my mom! I'll make sure you-"
The cables on Venera's skirts flung out and impaled Kenji through the arms, chest, and neck, ending his complaints abruptly.
"Obsolete units like you have no place in the new world," she scowled as she watched him die, crossing her arms in disappointment. "Your incessant feedback irritates my audio receptors."
Venera withdrew her spiked cables and let Kenji's body crumple to the ground.
Elsewhere in the burning ruins, an Endlave escape pod opened with a hydraulic gasp. The red-suited pilot threw off her helmet and climbed out of the crash wreckage only using her arms. Ayase crawled through the fire on her stomach, dragging her paralyzed legs behind her.
She stopped in front of a pair of violet ballet slippers and black disco boots. She looked up at Mana and Venera, staring at her with their glowing amethyst and emerald eyes. They both had the same idea.
Venera knelt in front of Ayase and nestled her palms around Ayase's cheeks. Mana quietly leaned over Ayase's back and began prodding through her pilot suit, searching for the damaged portions of her spine. Ayase winced as tiny crystals emerged from Mana's fingertips and mended the old gaps in her vertebrae. Venera stroked her cheeks to comfort her, while the fiber optic threads of her sleeves reached over Ayase's back and started linking the hundreds of delicate nerve endings to the reinforced sections of her spine.
"Tsugumi, this isn't you. Come to your senses," Ayase pleaded weakly. "You can't let it end like this."
Venera moved her left hand behind Ayase's head. Ayase's eyes shrank in shock and flickered with green pixels as Venera's index finger pressed lightly into the base of her neck, wiring Venera to her brain stem. With some mental tweaking, Ayase's terrified expression changed to a look of tranquil joy. Venera moved her hand back to Ayase's cheek, petting her softly.
Mana finished her viral surgery and climbed off of Ayase's back. Venera withdrew her sleeves and stood up in front of her.
Ayase slowly staggered on to her feet for the first time in years. She looked into Venera's eyes, thanking her with suppressed obedience.
"I'll do anything you want, Tsugumi."
"Why is she still calling you by your host's name?" Mana asked, quirking her eyebrow.
"Probably just a memory glitch," Venera replied lightheartedly. "I think I like her better with it. It gives her a certain charm."
Venera turned her attention back to her new subordinate.
"We're going to need pilots like you for the army, Ayase. Our new extermination machines are almost ready to roll out and you're the best one to control them. Mana just needs to finish constructing their armor."
"Excuse me?" Mana scoffed through her nose. "My armor compounds work just fine. You're the one still figuring out how to wire the internal gizmos."
"I would have already finished my work if you took the time to learn a thing or two about equipment hardpoints," Venera shot back.
The alien queens glared at each other before they remembered Ayase was still vacantly waiting for her orders. They put their disagreements aside and turned their heads toward her.
"There's a place for you in the hive," Venera said. "Make yourself at home until we need you again."
Ayase gave her a friendly nod and calmly walked away through the inferno.
Venera and Mana continued to glance over the battlefield. Mana's eyes looked past all of the destruction and happened to spot on a lone figure huddled under the bombed out wall of an old building. It was Shu, exhausted and disoriented from chaos he had witnessed.
He was ripe for the taking.
As Mana slipped away behind her, Venera scanned the surroundings in her own curiosity. Buildings and mech frames were toppled everywhere. Dozens of soldiers were lying in the ruins. Her heat sensors helped her filter the wounded from the dying.
Venera's search ended when she identified Daryl sitting propped up against his crashed Endlave. A quick analysis of his physical dimensions showed he was suitable for her needs.
Mana lowered herself in a slow ballet split into Shu's lap, tilting her head coyly as she smiled into his eyes. Her hand stroked over his ear, spreading tiny fragments of the crystal virus down his face through her touch. She tucked her chin on his shoulder, cooing softly in his ear.
"Ready to become my Adam, brother?"
Verena crawled over Daryl's weary body on all fours, sitting up on her knees so her eyes met his. Her hands pried the collar of his flight suit and carefully tore the material down his chest. Her palm slipped through the opening and rested against his sore pectoral, sending tiny electrical fibers into his heart.
"Hey there, human," she playfully whispered. "What do you say we exchange binary inputs?"
"Inori, no… This is wrong!" Shu revulsed in horror from Mana's advances. Mana called toward the wrecked Endlave several yards away.
"I need a hotfix over here, Venera."
Venera reached backwards and sent a bundle of neural cable extending from her sleeve. The wires found their way around Shu's head and made short work of his carnal inhibitions. She retracted her wires after a few seconds and continued her own advances on Daryl.
"Settle down, Tsugumi!" Daryl shouted in resistance. "What are you even doing to me? This isn't the place for this!"
"Mana, give me a hardware upgrade," Venera said over her shoulder.
Mana flicked a handful of microscopic crystal spores Daryl's way, striking him with perfect accuracy along the right temple. Jagged crystal formations rapidly spread across the right half of his scalp and deep into his skull, eroding the part of his brain controlling his free will and making him more vulnerable to certain radio signals.
Shu looked straight into Mana's smirking face with his neon green eyes. All of his rewired thoughts were now obsessively focused on her. He was desperate for her, craving for her.
Daryl sighed and shook away the dull ache in his head. He looked up at Venera to reveal his pulsating violet eyes, hopelessly seduced to her will.
"Oh, Mana…" Shu murmured as his arms lovingly embraced his queen.
"I await your instructions, Lady Venera," Daryl stoically said to his. Venera moved her fingers away from his heart and urgently ripped his pilot suit all the way down the center with her hands.
Mana's silhouette descended over Shu's in the dark orange glow of the ruins, while Venera's weaved quietly around Daryl's. Flames danced around them like intertwining tongues.
Author's note: Pittsburgh didn't make it to the Super Bowl, so I guess I'll just doom the human race to utter annihilation.