I wipe as much of the blood off my helmet as I can, but there are still a few spots blocking my vision. I'll have to clean it when we get back. For now, we need to keep searching.
"That sounds like it's coming from the hangar," Washington says in response to a bout of gunfire. It's the second we've heard in the past ten minutes.
I nod, silently nervous. I know Nick and Tinu would radio if they need help. They must just be fighting copies, or monsters like Wash and I ran into. It's nothing they can't handle. Of course they're okay. I don't know why I feel the need to keep telling myself that.
We planned for this. Tinu and Nick are supposed to keep mom's attention on the hangar so the rest of us can search the base. If Dr. Han doesn't know we're here, she'll lock herself in her lab and try to wait out the attack. That, or she'll try to escape and get caught by Tinu and Nick. Either way, we'll catch her. We just have to stick to the plan.
I round another corner and immediately drop to the floor, shouting a warning to Wash. Something leaps over my head, sliding into the wall behind me. I stand and drive a knife into its throat before it has a chance to recover. Wash fires his DMR past me and takes out a second creature. I study the monsters for a moment, deciding they're of a more alien origin than the last, before moving on.
There's an explosion somewhere ahead of us, too close to be in the hangar. I glance at Wash. Carolina shouldn't be on this side of the base. Something must be wrong. Without a word we both start running.
The closer we get to the center of the base, the more monsters we run into. Eventually these are replaced by copies. Wash soon abandons the stunner in favor of his DMR, choosing speed and accuracy over silence. I follow suite shortly after, firing my pistol rather than throwing knives. Mom must know we're here by now. The explosion was obvious enough. I doubt a few gunshots will give us away.
I approach a corner cautiously. Before I have a chance to walk past, Nick runs into me. I freeze for a moment, wondering why he isn't in the hangar, when a bullet hole appears in his forehead, a few drops of blood spraying across my helmet. I turn around in shock to see Wash, pistol still aimed where my brother stood.
"No armor," he explains as he lowers the gun. "And it still has both arms. That was a copy."
I look down at the body, realizing that he's right. The hair's the wrong length, and it looks considerably younger than my brother, and now that I'm thinking about it I realize his eyes were much harsher than I've ever seen Nick's before. Still, for a moment, I really thought it was him.
"Come on," Wash says, nudging my shoulder to try to get me to move past the body. "Your real family's still out there fighting."
"Right," I nod, forcing myself to look away.
"Hey, I'm sure they're fine," he says, taking the lead for a minute. "They'd tell us if something went wrong, right?"
"Yeah," I agree, sounding uncertain even to myself. I can't place what it is, but something feels wrong. Maybe it's just the fact that Rho hasn't come online yet. I don't like not having her watching my back.
I hear a commotion in the next hall and put on a bit more speed. When we get there, I see at least a dozen copies surrounding an aqua figure. Carolina shoots a grappling hook from the front of her pistol and snags one of the copies by the head. She yanks her arm to the side, smacking him into some of his companions. The rest go down with a spray of plasma fire.
"There you are," she says, stepping out of the circle of bodies. Her tone implies that she's been looking for us for a while.
"What's going on?" Wash asks. "Why aren't you on the other side of the base?"
"I'm trying to get to the hangar," she answers. "Team two's been calling for help for a while now."
"What?" I try to activate my radio but instead hear only static. "Why didn't we hear them?"
"There are jammers in the base," she explains. "Epsilon realized it when he tried to help me run my speed unit earlier. Apparently they don't only stop radio signals, but they prevented our AIs from communicating with us as well. He jumped into a computer to try to deactivate them."
"How do you know that if he can't talk to you?" Wash asks.
"After he deactivated the jammer on my side of the base, he came back and told me. Then he went to find the others. Apparently there are three jammers here. He already got the one by the hangar. All that's left is the one blocking this area." As Carolina finishes talking our radios come to life.
"Can anyone copy?" Nick's voice meets my ears. "Gold is in the hangar. I repeat, Gold is here."
"Nick," I say, voice filled with both relief and worry. "We hear you. We're coming, okay?"
"Don't," Nick says quickly. "Tinu and I can handle him. He won't get past us." There's a pause, the sound of gunshots filling the radio just before we hear them for ourselves. "He said someone's guarding mom. Go deal with that. Don't let her get away."
"Are you sure you're okay with him?" I ask. I've seen them fight Gold before in training. Gold always won.
There's a pause before he says, "send Carolina."
I look at the Freelancer and she nods. "I'm on it," she says, running in the direction of the hangar with inhuman speed.
"She's on her way," I inform the pair. "Just hold on."
"Got it," Nick says. "You just make sure mom doesn't escape."
"She won't," I assure him. "Not this time." I deactivate the radio and start moving, Wash by my side.
"They'll be fine," he says again. "I'm sure between those two and Carolina, they can handle whatever's going on."
I nod, not wanting to voice an opinion. I don't want to keep talking about this. It won't change the fact that I'm worried and will only serve to make me keep hearing Washington's voice. I can't handle hearing him like this, trying to comfort me while still sounding like he doesn't care. I can't tell which is the lie. I probably don't want to know.
We give up searching every room. We know where mom is. We just need to get to her lab. I try to picture it in my mind. She'll be there, grey hair pulled into a bun as always, eyes holding the usual level of critical disappointment, or maybe anger this time. All I know is that she'll be there. I hold that image clear in my mind, willing it to be reality as I round another corner, counting down the number of halls left until we reach her.
Of course, there's one thing I didn't count on. Someone I forgot to imagine. He's standing in the middle of the wide corridor, the glow of a malfunctioning man-canon on his left illuminating his face as he blocks me from the shortest path to Dr. Han.
"I knew you'd show up eventually," Boron says, aiming an assault rifle in my direction. "Mom wasn't sure you'd find us, but I knew you would. You're just too stubborn."
I glare at him without responding. All the hurt and betrayal I feel melts into fury. Boron, for his part, seems content to let me seethe for a moment. He isn't attacking. I know he must be buying time. Mom must have some plan to escape, and he's just trying to slow us down. I won't let that work.
"Washington," I say, keeping my eyes fixed on my brother as I address the man at my side. "Go get Dr. Han. I'll deal with this."
"Are you sure?" Wash asks, backing away uncertainly.
"Go," I repeat, voice sharper.
"Alright." Wash only hesitates for another second before he turns around, taking a longer path to the lab.
"Just you and me then," Boron observes, a smirk evident in his voice. I take a moment to size up his armor. It's a cheap imitation of what I'm wearing, and I wonder for a moment if he realizes it's a fake. His gun looks like the real deal, though, and I'm certain he's willing to shoot to kill.
Help me stay ahead of him, I think, directing the thought toward Rho. I feel her answering agreement before charging toward my brother.
Nick ducks inside the pelican, letting the hull take a few bullets meant for him. He peeks out and sees Tinu crouched behind a metal crate, a few dead copies around her. She shoots him a thumbs up before leaning back out of cover, firing the stunner again. Nick follows suit, trying to get Gold in the leg with his sniper rifle.
Nick ducks back again when a knife flies by his face. "Not cool, dude!" he shouts out.
"It's not nearly as bad as siding with Silver," Gold argues. Nick can't help but wonder at how different his voice is now. There's a rasp to it, like he never stops shouting, and it's filled with such a dark anger it's nearly unrecognizable as belonging to the brother Nick remembers.
"Because it makes no sense to be loyal to the woman who's saved my life more times than I can count," Nick throws back, aiming the rifle again. He swivels the sights back and forth across the room, but can't find Gold anywhere. Fucking active camo, he thinks, looking out for the distinctive shimmer while keeping his aim focused around Tinu. He knows Gold will most likely try to get past her cover and attack. Nick plans to stop him before he has the chance.
There's a faint flicker of light over Tinu's crouched form and Nick fires. The bullet seems to disappear in mid air, and there's a shout of pain. Tinu spins while rising to her feet, driving both fists into where Gold's chest should be. The action's followed by a grunt, and the sound of armor scraping across a concrete floor. Gold flickers back to existence, blood running down his left arm and a dent in the front of his armor.
Tinu takes a hasty step toward him, then stops herself. She points the stunner at his chest instead, ignoring her instinct to run to his aid. "Get up," she orders, her normally cheery voice now stern.
Gold rises to his feet slowly, refusing to put weight on his injured arm as he pushes off the ground. Once standing he turns to face halfway between Tinu and Nick.
"Pelican, now," Tinu orders, nodding to where Nick is standing on the ship's ramp.
Gold hobbles a few steps toward Nick before suddenly straightening, swinging his left fist into his sister's head. Tinu barely backs away from the attack in time, only to find a foot rushing toward her gut. She doesn't manage to get away from that one and doubles over as the air is forcefully knocked out of her. Nick fires again but misses as Gold once again fades from view.
"Tinu," Nick calls, searching for Gold futilely. "Tinu, are you okay?"
"Fine," she grunts, rising to her feet unsteadily. She takes a step toward Nick before freezing.
"Tinu?" he says in confusion before noticing the shimmering outline of a hand on her shoulder, and the matching outline of a blade at her throat. "Let her go," he demands, aiming at the spot just above her shoulder where he assumes Gold's head is.
"Put it down," Gold counter orders. He presses the invisible blade into her throat with just enough pressure to cut through the under-armor. "Do it or she's dead."
Nick begins to obey, lowering the gun away from where his brother is standing. He can't risk it. He can't lose his partner. His fingers almost release the gun when his eyes catch movement. A figure, nearly invisible for how well their armor changes color to blend into the background, is silently making their way toward Gold. Nick smiles inside his helmet and tightens his grip on the gun again.
"I said drop it," Gold repeats, recognizing the flexing fingers. "I know you don't want her to die."
"And I know you don't want to kill her," Nick says, tone turning pleading as he tries to distract his brother. "Please, just let her go. Come with us."
"He won't listen," Tinu says, fear evident in her voice. "Don't even bother."
Gold laughs. "She's right, I won't listen to traitors. Just put down your gun so I can kill you both and go find Silver."
"Not gonna happen," a voice snaps behind him. As she speaks Carolina slaps a small disc onto Gold's back, causing him to fade into view as his armor shuts down. His joints lock in place, preventing him from following through on his threat.
Gold screams in rage, pushing against his frozen armor as he tries to kill Tinu. She presses back against his chest plate to get away from the knife and drops down out of his grip. Nick sprints out of the ship and hugs her, the embrace hurried and desperate from relief. Carolina takes the opportunity to deliver a swift punch to the back of Gold's head, ending his shouts.
"Are you okay?" Nick asks, pushing Tinu back far enough to examine the cut at her throat. The under armor's split open, but the cut doesn't seem to have broken skin.
"I'm fine," Tinu assures him. "He didn't even cut me."
"He would have," Nick says bitterly. He looks at where Gold has fallen over, limbs still locked rigidly. "What did you do to him?" he asks curiously as he looks to Carolina.
"I found these while looking for Dr. Han," the former Freelancer says, holding out a handful of small metal discs.
"And I recognized them from some plans the Director wrote up a few years ago," Church jumped in, appearing on her shoulder. "They're designed to lock down power armor."
Tinu nods. "My copy used one on Silver," she says, voice slow with remembrance. "Good to know they don't work on just us."
"Come on," Nick says, grabbing one of Gold's arms. "Let's get him into the ship. I want to be ready to go the moment Silver gets back with mom." Carolina and Tinu nod, helping move the newly acquired prisoner.