The base is eerily quiet as I jog through the halls. Normally there'd be people everywhere, the low drone of their conversations filling the silence. Now, there's nothing. Well, nothing except for the far off explosions and gunfire that cause my heart to skip. Every time I hear them, I think that one of my siblings could be dead.
I need to find them fast.
I have no idea where Tinu is. She chased after Nick's attacker, and now she could be anywhere. The kids I have a better chance with, though. Grif said they were in the training room with Tucker. That's as good a place as any to start looking.
I try my best to avoid the groups of copies stalking through the halls. It's disconcerting, to see people so similar to my family, and yet so different. I follow a group of three for a while, hoping to get some sort of information from them. They don't talk. After a few minutes, I begin to wonder if they can speak at all. I've had my suspicions about them for a while, and how mo could have made them.
I doubt she had a separate base like ours all these years, where she could have raised these copies. I would have noticed something like that. She must have made them recently, and accelerated their aging so they'd be ready to attack. That's what has me concerned.
After Nick turned out stable, mom had tried making a batch that would age even faster than him. It had been disastrous. The accelerated aging had caused problems in mental development, making them almost impossible to train. They had aged quickly, growing to near adulthood in a matter of months, but they'd ultimately proved useless to mom. I still doubt her claims that they had suddenly destabilized. It's too convenient that every time an experiment had failed, the subjects had mysteriously died.
If my suspicions about these copies are true, it means she got past the mental problems caused by the process. That, or she has some way of controlling them. Either way, it's the only explanation that fits with how these people got here.
I sneak past this group and head toward the training room. I hear gunshots around the corner and rush toward the sound, praying to gods and technology and slimy things at the bottom of oceans that I won't be too late. When I round the corner, I see Tinu and… Tinu.
One of the blondes is wearing cheap white armor and holding a pistol, hair pulled back into an immaculate bun. The other, who I recognize as the real Platinum, is in bright purple Hayabasu armor and looks much more disheveled, hair from a loose ponytail falling into her eyes and dirt and sweat smeared on her face. She charges unarmed at the copy, teeth bared. The copy sidesteps the attack, allowing Tinu to run past her, and aims the pistol at her back.
I throw a dagger that imbeds itself in the copy's elbow joint. She jerks her arm up as she fires, missing Tinu by inches. The copy turns to me and snarls. I pull my gun and aim at it.
"Get out of here," Tinu snaps, tackling the copy. I spend a few seconds trying to aim before giving up. I can't shoot without risking hitting Tinu as well.
"Tinu, back up!" I shout.
"No," she punctuates by driving her wrist into the copy's nose, spraying blood across its face. "This is my fight."
"Tinu…" I start, wanting to argue. Honestly, I can understand how she feels. There've been too many times when I've wanted to take a fight on my own. I can't risk that here, though. Tinu and her copy are too evenly matched. I can't guarantee she'll win.
"She hurt Nick," Tinu says, voice dangerously low. "I'm going to kill this bitch."
The copy kicks Tinu off, sending her flying back a few feet. I run forward and kick its wrist before it can stand, knocking the gun away. The copy growls at me and jumps to her feet. It aims a punch at me and I grab its wrist. I try to yank its arm behind its back, but the copy's stronger than me and it doesn't budge. Still, I manage to keep it from moving. Tinu tries to attack the copy from behind while I hold it, but it fends her off with a backward kick.
The copy uses her free hand to pull something off her armor; a small metallic disc I don't recognize. She presses it to my chest and before I can react there's electricity coursing through me. I let go of the copy and stagger back, clawing at the thing on my chest. Within a few seconds my arms begin to slow.
"Rho, what's happening?" I ask, trying to force my sluggish limbs to move.
"Your armor's going into lockdown," she says, voice jumpy and fractured. "I'm trying to stop it, but I might have to reboot." By the time she finishes speaking, I can't move at all.
The copy turns its back to me once I'm immobilized and faces Tinu. They both charge for the gun on the ground. "Do what you have to," I tell Rho, "just get me moving." I feel Rho's agreement like seeing a nod out of the corner of my eye. A second later, my HUD goes dark.
My eyes take a moment to adjust to seeing through the clear visor without all the readouts. When they do, I see Tinu standing over the copy, gun in hand. Her eyes are full of rage as she glares down at it, this thing that looks like her but isn't her, this monster that tried to kill her brother. And yet, she hesitates. None of us have been trained for this. How do you stomach the fact that you're shooting yourself?
The copy takes advantage of the hesitation and sweeps Tinu's legs out from under her. Tinu jumps back up quickly and steps out of range, placing her back against a wall. The copy climbs to its feet. Its back is to me, and I can see it holding a grenade out of Tinu's sight.
"Look out!" I shout, too late, as the copy hurls the grenade toward my sister.
Tinu ducks and rolls forward and the grenade flies past her into the wall. It explodes on impact. The wall begins to fall, concrete and rebar giving way under the force of the blast.
"Explosions throughout the base must have weakened structural integrity," Rho whispers in a distracted tone that suggests she doesn't realize she's speaking.
Tinu scrambles forward, hoping to get out of the way of the falling debris. She isn't fast enough, however, and gets pinned under a pile of rubble, gun knocked from her hand. The copy laughs as it stalks toward her.
"Rho," I say pleadingly.
"I'm working on it," she says, anticipating my request.
"Work faster," I beg, straining against dead armor in the blind hope that I'll suddenly be able to move. The armor's too heavy. It won't move, no matter how much I strain. I won't be able to do anything until Rho reactivates the hydraulics.
The copy bends down and retrieves its gun from the floor. Tinu glares up at it, pushing up against the rubble until her face turns red. It doesn't budge. The copy slowly climbs on top of the pile and Tinu winces under the added weight. I've stopped breathing. It reaches the top and looks at me for a moment before pointing the gun down at Tinu's head. I see the finger move to hover over the trigger, see the muscles in its hand flex as it begins to apply pressure. I'm screaming, begging to be able to do something, trapped inside my armor as this thing prepares to kill my sister. I can't move, I can't breathe, I can't do anything except cry in frustration and fear.
Suddenly, two points of light emerge from the copy's chest. It looks shocked for a moment before the lights disappear and it falls to the ground, revealing Tucker holding his sword. He climbs down off the debris and starts pulling the rubble to the side. "Are you okay?" he asks, glancing my way.
I gasp in relief, finally able to breathe. "Fine," I say, struggling to think as the terror fades. "My armor's rebooting."
Tucker nods and continues digging. By the time Rho has my armor working again, Tinu's standing and dusting herself off. I walk over to them and hug Tinu without thinking. "Don't scare me like that again," I say, voice breaking. I squeeze her tightly, assuring myself that she is in fact here, that she is alive.
"Sorry," she says, wincing.
I pull back and study her face. "Are you hurt?" I ask concernedly.
"Fine," she grunts, trying to conceal a limp as she backs up.
"Wrong," Rho says, displaying Tinu's vitals on my HUD. There's a basic human outline, flashing red on the left ankle and right shoulder. "She has a dislocated shoulder and her ankle's fractured."
"I can still fight," Tinu insists.
"No, you can't," I say as kindly as I can. "Tucker, can you take her back to the hangar?"
"Sure thing," Tucker says, trying to wrap an arm around her waist to help her walk. Tinu pushes him away with her good arm. It seems like a practiced move, and I wonder how often she's had cause to push him away like this.
"Si, come on, let me help," Tinu says.
I shake my head. "You need to go be with Nick."
Tinu's eyes tear up at the mention of the name. "I can't," she whispers, shaking her head. "I can't see him like that."
"Nick would want you there," Tucker points out. Tinu looks at him in silence for a second before nodding numbly. She starts limping down the hall toward the hangar.
Tucker tries to follow her but I grab his arm. "Thank you," I say, once he's facing me. The words seem so meaningless to me. They can't express how I really feel, how grateful I am that he saved Tinu, saved me from my worst nightmare.
"Don't mention it," he says dismissively. "I've always wanted to save a damsel in distress." I can hear the grin in his voice as easily as I hear Tinu's snort of derision from up ahead.
"Still," I say, placing a hand on his shoulder, hoping sincerity will win out where words fail. "Thanks."
Tucker nods before stiffening suddenly, his nonchalant stance shifting into concern. "Did the kids make it back to the hangar yet?" he asks.
"No," I answer. "Last I heard, Grif said they were with you."
"We were in the training room when we got attacked," Tucker explains. "I told the kids to run. I thought they would have made it there by now."
"Which direction did they go?"
Tucker thinks for a moment before answering. "They left through the door to the right of the screens in the training room," he says.
Rho brings up a map of the base and starts estimating paths they could have taken. "Okay," I say. "I'll find them. Head to the hangar with Tinu."
Tucker nods and sprints down the hall after the injured blonde.
I make my way to the training room, agreeing with Rho that it's the best place to start looking. Luckily, the giant hole Tinu's copy blew in the wall serves as a good shortcut.
The training room looks more like a battle ground than usual. Bodies cover the floor, some marred with scorch marks from overcharged stun guns while others have the distinctive slashes and puncture marks of an energy sword. I recognize Zinc, Oxygen, Gallium, Arsenic, Tungsten, and many others.
I force myself to look away. It's not really them. These aren't my siblings. I shouldn't feel anything for them.
"This is messed up," Rho comments, studying one of the bodies. I glance down and realize it's Rubi, but a much older version of her. My stomach twists at the sight of a cauterized gash across her chest.
"Come on," I say, turning away. "Let's go." I walk toward the exit, trying my best not to look at the floor.
I sneak through the halls, trying to find the proper balance between speed and stealth as Rho guesses which direction they could have gone. After what feels like hours but according to Rho is really only minutes, a scream pierces through the halls. "Lico!" I recognize the voice and run in its direction, heedless of stealth or caution. "Franc! Help!"
"That's Rubi's voice," Rho says, sounding panicky.
I nod, not bothering to speak as I run faster than I've ever gone before. I've never heard Rubi scream like that, not even when she has nightmares. I may not have heard this from her before, but I recognize a shout of pain when I hear it. She must be hurt. I have to get to her before it's too late.
I know these last few chapters have been kind of short, but don't worry. The next chapter is going to be much longer, and it should be ready by Friday.