Chapter 9: Twists and Turns
The control room was dead silent. No one wanted, or could, say anything. Two of their closest friends, and in Meifa's case someone who was family, had just been killed right in front of them. Their killer had also died, been destroyed would be a better term for a robot, but that was little consolation to them. To say emotions were running a bit high would be an understatement. Despair, anger, sorrow, with the exception of Arnold these feelings were hitting everyone pretty hard, even Ed. Ein was whining loudly and rubbing his head underneath Meifa's chin, trying to comfort the crying girl. Ed and Faye weren't saying or doing anything, though Ed was uncharacteristically very anxious and sullen looking. Faye seemed to be taking it almost as hard as Meifa and looked like she was about half a second away from crying to. Arnold, not knowing what to do in this situation, stood off to the side. They still had to tell Spike but they still didn't know….
One of the security screens blinked to life and Kyle saw the person in question looking at them. Speak of the devil….
"Hey, is this thing working?" Spike asked as he seemed to be looking around, in reality he was just examining the camera he was talking into to make sure it was actually doing something. They didn't have any cameras to talk into but they did have a radio connection to wherever he was so Kyle flicked a switch underneath the monitor Spike was on to open the channel.
"We see you just fine Spike." He was about to try and explain what happened when Spike cut him off.
"Good then maybe you can tell me why everything seems to be going nuts. "
"Well…." Kyle started to say, wondering just how to exactly to say this. Spike, on the other hand, was more or less oblivious to the fact something seemed to be wrong and continued talking.
"First there's a freaking earthquake that comes out of nowhere then after I get in here half a computer appears out of thin air and almost squashes me!" That made everyone take notice.
"Wait a second." Kyle said. "Half a computer?" He asked, not quite in disbelief but not quite sounding like he believed it either. Spike attributed it to the fact all the weird crap had been happening to them lately and not that it meant anything significant.
"See for yourself." Spike answered and stepped away from the camera. In the limited view they were offered the others could see that he was in some sort of control room similar to the one they were in. What they focused on was in the middle of the room. Sitting in a small indentation on the floor with cracks branching out from it was a large computer terminal that looked like it had been sliced in half. It didn't look like the missing half of the one they had seen in the gate room but there was no doubt in any of their minds that's where it came from. That meant….
"Ed start…!!" Kyle began but Ed was already two steps ahead of him; again searching through all the available security cameras.
"Does this mean Jet is all right?" Meifa asked anxiously. Kyle believed there was a strong possibility of it but there were so many things that could have gone wrong he didn't want to get her hopes up for nothing. Fortunately Spike came back on camera and saved him from having to answer her for the moment.
"What's going on?" He asked. "And why wouldn't Jet be all right?" Kyle told him about the gate room fight and the subsequent explosion. Spike's face remained calm and he looked back at the terminal when Kyle was finished. "Well I guess if that thing made it through there's no reason Jet shouldn't have." Of course he was no scientist and for all he knew his best friend could be on the other side of the planet or imbedded in a wall. He knew there was a very real possibility that Jet could be dead but since there was no proof to the contrary he'd go with the assumption that he was alive somewhere. "And what about John?" He asked. There was a much slimmer chance that John had made it through this alive.
"Arnold?" Kyle asked. If anyone could offer a realistic guess it would be him. After several seconds of thinking the Terminator finally answered.
"Unlike the explosion there is no evidence of the aftereffects of going through the gate itself. I cannot make a conclusive estimate on what might have happened." Arnold again showed how much he had learned about humans. His answer did sound definite and informed but at the same time it was vague. It gave off optimism but it also shied away from the reality of the situation. While it showed he didn't want to upset the others it wasn't something they needed right now.
"So you're saying John probably came out if it ok?" Spike asked. It was a question that Arnold had to give a straight answer to, regardless how it might affect them. Arnold realized it and understanding why they wanted the truth answered.
"All available data indicates that he did not survive." The optimistic mood that had been there a second ago dimmed at the revelation that while one of their friends might still be alive, the other might be lost for good.
At that moment Spike's prediction was proving itself true inside of one of Black Mesa's garages. Out of nowhere there was a flash of orange and green light followed by a miniature shockwave identical to the one that had occurred inside the gate room. Since more complex objects then a simple machine had been teleported the effect of the arrival was much more violent then what Spike had witnessed. The shockwave ripped through the already damaged garage, flipping a white SUV and sending it skidding along the ground. The lights in the ceiling above the center of the shockwave exploded and sprayed the area with a stream of sparks. Surprisingly at the point where the shockwave originated from two dazed figured flashed into existence.
For Jet the world came back the same way it disappeared, in a flash of green light. As far as he could tell the two flashes were in such quick succession that it was almost like they happened at the same time. Despite the fact he was dizzy and disoriented he was able to see he was in a completely different place then he had been a second ago. He was also able to see that he was now standing only a few feet away from an equally disoriented Skynet. He hadn't been this close to him when they had been caught up in the gate explosion but he wasn't about to let a chance to kill this bastard slip by and brought up the barrel of his Freezethrower.
Skynet actually had more problems then Jet after going through that…transition. It had played havoc with his mechanical body and he found himself unable to see clearly or move properly. Though self-diagnostics showed no permanent damage his motor functions were slow to come back and he was barely able to make out the form of Jet leveling a weapon at him. The Glock he carried was now like a steel weight, holding his arm down until enough of him came back online to lift it. He wouldn't be able to raise and shoot his gun in this state but he was able to put up his other arm and block whatever Jet was about to fire. He got a big surprise when instead of flame a stream of clear liquid shot from the weapon accompanied by a blast of smoke that enveloped his arm. He got an even bigger surprise when he felt his arm begin to stiffen under almost intolerable cold.
"GHAAAAA!!!" He shouted and backed away. Of course it wasn't real pain he was feeling, just the massive influx of data from his arm overloading his main thought processes. It was close enough to real pain for him and he reacted like any living creature would, getting away from what was causing it. Looking down at his arm Skynet saw that everything from the elbow on down was frozen solid, coated with ice. He tried to move his fingers but all he got was the crack crack crack sound of ice breaking and several small pieces falling to the floor.
Seeing that the Freezethrower was having an effect on Skynet's liquid metal body Jet aimed for, what he hoped, was a more vital area then just the arm. In response Skynet swung his arm up but Jet was faster and squeezed the trigger. Skynet's head and upper torso disappeared in another blast of white smoke. This time Skynet let out a higher pitched screech that was slowly replaced with the crack crack crack sound as his head began to freeze up. Not able to access any sensory information other then the damage being done to him he was forced to just fire his weapon blindly. Unfortunately for him the trauma of the sudden temperature change had thrown everything off, even his movement. As a result his arm swung wildly and produced equally wild shots. So even though Jet was no more then ten feet away from him he was untouched by the bullets, even if some came so close he could feel them whiz by his head. When Skynet tried to back away from he moved forward, keeping the full force of the liquid oxygen stream on him. There was no way he was going to let this freak get away with killing John and the only way he would let up was when his weapon ran out of ammo. A few seconds later it did just that. It sputtered a couple of times then signaled it was completely empty with a blast of air instead of liquid.
As Jet shrugged off the now useless weapon he watched the smoke around Skynet start to clear, waiting to see just what kind of damage the super cold liquid had done. As the last wisps of the smoke faded away he could see it was quite a lot. From his chest on up was now a solid mass coated with ice, just like his arm. Strangely enough the iced over areas were now a bluish gray color. His face was frozen in an expression that was a cross between rage and agony. He was trying to move but the only movements he could make were stiff, jerky, and spreading cracks along the frozen areas. Even though Skynet's 'eyes' couldn't move Jet was sure the robot was glaring at him. Fortunately being frozen seemed to overwhelm Skynet's motor functions since the only thing he did was stand there trying to force himself to walk. All that did was make it shake even more. Knowing he'd never get a better chance Jet took out his pistol and carefully took aim at Skynet's chest. He had Skynet dead to rights, practically helpless. He had the perfect opportunity to gloat, to show how his vaunted 'superiority' had been beaten again. How he was going to suffer like he had made them suffer. There were a hundred different speeches he could have given; instead he chose to say three words that perfectly summed up what he and all the others thought.
"Go to hell." And punctuated it by putting a bullet through Skynet's chest. It shattered as easily as if it had been made from real ice, and sounded like a mirror being broken. The main torso fell to the ground in pieces but the head managed to stay whole and fell to the ground face down. Again Jet knew his imagination was playing tricks on him but he swore the look on Skynet's frozen face got more and more terrified the closer it got to the ground. The head hit the ground and like a glass vase shattered into a thousand pieces. The unfrozen legs and what was left of the torso fell backwards and began to twitch like a person in their death throes. Jet took that as a positive sign but something that definitely was not positive was the pool of liquid forming around Skynet and headed towards him. He recognized the smell of gasoline and noticed that it was now leaking out of the SUV's tank through a small hole. He realized his bullet must have punched the hole in it but the more immediate concern was that sparks were still coming out of the broken lights. If one of them landed in the flammable puddle….
He really shouldn't have thought that because the second he did a spark actually did land in the gas. It lit the pool itself on fire and followed the trail back to the SUV, setting it ablaze.
"SHIT!!" Jet shouted as he threw himself to the ground. He knew what was coming next and with no cover to get behind his best bet was lying flat on the floor. After ten seconds that felt like ten hours the fire finally touched off the gas tank itself. Luckily since the SUV was upside-down the explosion mainly went up. Jet felt hot debris landing on him and some of them were causing burns but nothing turned him into a flaming shish kabob. Cautiously looking up he saw the SUV completely covered in flames but thankfully there were no secondary explosions. Slowly getting to his feet he looked to see if the explosion had done any further damage to Skynet but saw exactly the opposite sight he was expecting.
The frozen pieces were melting in the fire and turning into what looked like little pools of liquid mercury. That wasn't what worried him. What worried him was the fact that the now liquid drops were moving on their own and combining with each other. Once he saw they were combining into bigger and bigger puddles he figured out what was happening and knew he had to get out of there. With only his pistol against a quickly reforming, and more then likely to be pissed off, liquid metal Skynet Jet decided discretion was the better part of valor and after looking around ran for the nearest exit. He didn't run in a blind panic but carefully took note of his surroundings. The hallway ahead of him split into two branches, one leading to the surface and one leading deeper into the base. Getting caught underground was bad. Getting caught on the surface with no place to go was even worse. There were better chances to lose him and since he couldn't outrun the machine down it was.
In the garage the smaller puddles of liquid metal had combined into one big one. In the middle of the puddle began to rise up under its own power. At first it was just a shapeless mass but as it grew taller it began taking shape. It molded itself into a humanoid form, becoming more and more detailed until it again resembled the murdered ISSP officer Patrick Roberts. Despite that fact that he had just been frozen solid and literally blown to pieces he wasn't as angry as Jet thought he should have been. As a matter of fact he wasn't angry at all. He calmly walked towards the door Jet had run out of, turned down the same hallway, and unhurriedly went after him.
When man tries to break one of the basic laws of the universe unexpected things are bound to happen. At the least they'll be nothing more then a weird reading on a computer printout. At worst, well all anyone had to do was look at Earth's smashed moon for a worst-case scenario. And of course there was everything that could happen in-between those two. The explosion and subsequent teleportation of Jet and Skynet was one that probably never would have been predicted, but was well within the realm of possibility. What happened several seconds later in another part of the base would have been deemed impossible by scientists of any era. Even if it had been seen by the scientific community there were too many factors and combinations of said factors to determine what happened. The fact that the gate was a prototype, that it hadn't been powered up in fifty years. Not to mention that its controls, as well as the gate itself, had been shot up prior to activation.
Regardless of what had caused it in a section of the base not yet explored John Connor flashed back into real space. Nothing spectacular happened when he came back, just a flash of light no brighter then a camera bulb and there he was. Unfortunately for him the momentum he had going through the gate was transferred with him. So instead of just appearing on the floor like Jet and Skynet did he went flying through the air and crashing onto a table. The table's legs snapped under John's weight and he landed on the floor with a thud.
John was now acutely aware that in addition to the two cuts Skynet had inflicted his back was now killing him. Surprisingly that was a very good sign, first of all it had snapped him out of the stupor Skynet's blows had caused. Second, and most important, if he was hurting this badly that meant he wasn't dead. But if he just laid there doing nothing he would be soon. Groaning he sat up and put his hand underneath his vest to check just what kind of damage Skynet had caused. While his hand did come out covered in blood it wasn't completely soaked in it. He could also feel blood running down his face but again it wasn't in a great amount so he wasn't going to bleed to death in the next few minutes. He still needed to tend to his wounds before he lost too much blood and got woozy or his wounds became infected. Looking around he saw that he had landed on one of the many tables outside of a fast food restaurant. For a second he thought he had been transported somewhere else on the planet but when he looked to his left he saw the now familiar track of the transit system. He looked from it back to the restaurant, identified by its sign as "Tony's Pizza", not quite believing it.
"This place has everything doesn't it?" He asked himself as he lurched to his feet. Its own train system, top end high tech, and highly lethal security systems. An arsenal of weapons, probably one of many, to guard what was hidden in the most secure area, a fully functional astral gate. Living quarters for personnel, and now a fast food joint no different then any on the outside to feed them. And all the while he and the others were on the run from a living metal robot, accompanied by another robot that was learning to be human. "Next thing you know we'll be finding aliens." He grumbled to himself. He would not be surprised at all if they did. It would be par for the course when hanging out with the guys from the Bebop. Deciding that it probably wasn't good to think about stuff like that he headed for the best place to deal with his injuries, the bathroom.
He would have preferred to land in the medial wing of the base but his luck hadn't been that good. He was able to find a first aid kit when he went inside it but the bandages and gauze were far too little to deal with the extensive injuries he had. He would have to settle for using what was left of his shirt to bandage his chest wounds and the supplies from the kit for his face. Looking in the mirror after he removed his vest he was able to see the extent of his injuries. The gash on his chest started at his left shoulder and ended at about his stomach. The wound was still bleeding but while it was bad it looked worse then it was. He couldn't even guess how many stitches he'd eventually need and quite frankly wasn't eager to think about it. If it hadn't been for his body armor he probably would have cleaved in half. It was only dumb luck that he had survived that one. The one on his face, that was different. That one started at the right side of his lower jaw and went diagonally up his face, in-between his eyes, and up onto his forehead. John was sure Skynet had done that on purpose, just to draw out the fight and make it more painful for him. After making a promise to give some serious payback to Skynet later John started treating his wounds. Knowing that his chest wound was the more serious of the two John first cleaned it then used the bathroom's entire supply of toilet paper to keep pressure on it and stop the bleeding. It wasn't very dignified but it worked.
Once the bleeding had stopped he ripped up and used what was left of his shirt as an improvised bandage. Not perfect but so long as he didn't do anything to make the cut worse he should be all right. Using all the gauze, bandages, and tape from the first-aid kit he managed to patch up his face. Even then he still looked like crap. With a blood soaked shirt wrapped around his chest and an almost patchwork bandaging on his face he was far from being ok, and he felt like it to. But he was alive and he had to let the others know that. He took out his radio but saw that it had taken the brunt of his fall onto the table and was cracked in half. He tried to turn it on anyway but all he heard was the click of the switch. Sighing in frustration he dropped it and watched as it broke into several pieces when it hit the floor. Now he had two priorities, to find better medical facilities and to contact the others in some way. Since there were checkpoints all over the base the second part wouldn't be too difficult but he doubted he'd stumble across a hospital while wandering around. He couldn't stay here forever either so he decided to get going.
The first thing he did was grab some food out of the kitchen. Again he couldn't help but be amazed at how well the quarantine protocol had preserved everything, despite how stupid the actual process sounded. The food wasn't that good but in his condition he needed to keep his strength up so he made due. Even though a couple of bags of chips and some sodas weren't the healthiest meal he could have had he did feel slightly better afterwards. As he made his way down the transit tunnel on the walk way he came across something one would actually expect to see in a base like this, a laundromat. Any large facility would have to have one to take care of the clothes and uniforms of base personnel. When he actually got inside it he saw that it was more along the lines of a civilian laundromat with benches, a magazine rack, even a video game called Praxwars.
What caught John's attention was that there were several vacuum-sealed sets of clothes laying on the counter and hanging on a rod behind it. They were most likely left behind when the base was abandoned or they could have been part of the base stock for when and if it reopened. None of the really mattered to John, and he knew an opportunity when he saw it. Taking two white lab coats off the rack he tore them into strips and added on to his bandaged chest. Now he had more pressure to keep the wound from reopening and had slightly more freedom of movement. If the wound did reopen at least all the extra cloth would slow the bleeding and help it stop sooner. Once he was sure the new additions wouldn't loosen on him he looked through what was left for something that would actually fit him.
He saw a light blue button up shirt that looked to be about his size and took it off the rack. The bag containing it said it was for a B. Calhoun but since he wasn't coming back anytime in the near future John took it out if the bag and put it on. The makeshift bandages on his chest made it a less then perfect fit but it was close enough for him. Now that he at least looked somewhat normal, except for his still obviously mangled face, he went back into the transit system to find someway of contacting the others.
As John was wandering almost aimlessly in one section of the base in another Jet was running not so much aimlessly as he was blindly. He wanted to put as much distance between him and Skynet before trying to radio anyone. After taking several random twists and turns he found a small, one-person elevator. Again he had the option of going up or down but since he had already made up his mind which path to take he pressed the down arrow. After the elevator had reached the lowest level it could he held the door open and set it to return to the highest level it could go, several floors above where he had come from. It probably wouldn't fool Skynet into thinking he had gone up instead of down but it would buy him some time. At least now he could actually use his radio and not worry about Skynet hearing him. He just hoped that it was still functional after the teleportation.
In security command Ed was still searching for Jet with the base's cameras when a garbled message started coming in over everyone's radio.
"Bzzzt… hear me?… bzzzt… all right….Don't know…bzzzt…but ….still following me….bzzzt." They were able to recognize Jet's voice and Kyle was the first to respond.
"Jet you have no idea how relieved you've just made some people." He said, looking over at Meifa.
In the tunnels Jet was only able to catch every other word but at least it still worked. Guessing that they were probably hearing him in the same way he decided to take a page out of Spike's book and hit the radio against the wall a couple of times. Unlike Spike he made sure not to smash it into a million pieces while 'fixing' it.
"That any better?" He asked.
"A lot." Came Kyle's reply. He could still hear static crackling but was able to understand what Kyle was saying. "What…?"
"I don't know what happened." Jet said, knowing what he was about to be asked. "One minute I'm standing in front of the gate and the next I'm in a garage. Don't worry, I'm all right and trying to find my way back." That was certainly a relief to everyone else. But that still left one thing.
"Is John with you?" Kyle asked. Jet had expected that question to.
"No he isn't. He was probably sent somewhere else." He might have sounded overly optimistic but if he had survived John might have to. Deciding to change the subject he brought them up to speed on what happened "Skynet did come through with me though, and I got a chance to test my Freezethrower. It slowed down a little, but not for long." He could fill them in on the details later.
"He's still after you?" Kyle asked.
"Yeah but I think I lost him." He saw a sign that indicated he was getting close to a transit station. When he arrived at the station he saw there was a car waiting and couldn't believe his luck. "I'm going to take a ride and see where I end up. You'll be able to lead me back from there." It would be easy to find out what transit station he was in now but that would give Skynet time to catch up with him. If he went to an unknown location with the only means of transportation he'd leave the robot stranded and give himself a big head start.
As the transit car Jet was riding in got underway Ed was already inside the system's mainframe to figure out where the car was and where it was going. It only took a couple of seconds to find Jet's car was heading towards the central transit hub in area 9. It would be easy to program the car to switch tracks and bring him back to Security Command. While Kyle was explaining what they would be doing Skynet was calmly taking the elevator down to the floor Jet had gone to and once he reached it slowly walked towards the transit station. Once inside the control booth he programmed the system to send another transit car to the station. After the computer confirmed the car was on its way Skynet ripped out several wires from the computer, walked onto the platform and patiently awaited its arrival.
In Jet's car all he could do was wait until he arrived at the transit hub and made a course change so he sat down and tried to relax for a second. It didn't last very long as he started feeling a sharp pain on the back of his neck. Using his flesh hand he was able to feel burned skin and several small pieces of…something. He tried to brush them out but whatever shrapnel he picked up was dug in fairly deep. The pain wasn't overwhelming and so he figured he could just wait until he could see a doctor after this whole fiasco was over. Right now there were a lot more important things to think about.
While things were (comparatively) beginning to look up for Jet the same couldn't have been said for John. He had been wandering the underground tunnels and had so far found nothing but an unending stretch of track. The only doors he had come across were a small bathroom and a janitor's closet, not very encouraging. To make matters worse the adrenalin that had kept the pain at bay had long ago worn off and now it felt like someone was pressing red-hot razor wire across his chest and face. It hadn't been that big of a factor at first but as time wore on even breathing was becoming a more and more painful experience. There had been a bottle of aspirin in the first aid kit but with his wounds he'd probably need to down the whole bottle before there would be any noticeable effect. And since he really didn't want to find out if it was enough to make him OD he had left the bottle untouched. Now he was almost wishing he had taken the bottle. At least if he was unconscious he wouldn't be feeling anything.
Turning a corner he was seemed to find the answer to his problem when he saw EMERGENCY MEDKIT in big red letters over what looked like a white box. Grateful that he had found real medical equipment, or at least some painkillers, John got a second surprise when he tried to open the kit. He quickly found that not only did he not know how to open it, there was no way it looked like it could be opened. There were no hinges, no latches, nothing. All he could see was a red cross that labeled it as medical, some sort of gauge that said 100%, and a small hole in the center of an outline of a human hand. It looked like it was some sort of palm-print lock, yet another crazy but seemingly common thing in this place. Figuring he had nothing to loose John put his hand where indicated and felt the prick of needle in the center of his palm. For an instant he thought it was just taking a sample as part of a DNA recognition program but after the machine made soft beep and a hiss he realized it was something else.
The machine began making a hummmm-cha sound but John was more focused on what he was feeling, not hearing. He had never taken drugs before but what he was feeling right now felt like the rush most addicts described when they took a hit. It actually did feel great and it was only after several seconds that he was able to pull his hand away, shutting the machine off. The gauge was now reading 80% and that more of less confirmed he had been injected with something. Looking at his palm he saw a small puncture wound associated with needles that already looked to be closing. As he stood there trying to shake off the effect of the rush he took several deep breaths to calm himself down. As he did he noticed that his chest wasn't hurting, as a matter of fact it was itching. He had been wounded before and wounds acted like this when they were stitched up and healing. He felt the same thing on his face.
If that wasn't weird enough was also noticing the other effects of the drug he had been injected with. Or rather, lack of effects. He could think clearly, he wasn't loopy or sluggish like most painkillers made you. His heart also wasn't racing out of control, and he wasn't feeling delirious, hyperactive or paranoid. He actually felt….fine. His wounds still hurt but now they in the 'Ow this really hurts' category instead of the 'Oh God I'm about to pass out!' level of pain. In spite of that fact he decided not to take a second shot of it. He had no idea how much of the drug he would be able to tolerate or if he could become addicted to it. He felt no great need to take more and pain was now tolerable so he had no intention of pressing his luck. Whatever dose he had taken seemed like it was enough to at least get him back to the others so he started back down the tunnel.
During that same time Jet's transit car had switched tracks at the central hub and was now on his way back to Security Command. There had been no sign of Skynet behind him and with no warnings from the others he was convinced he had gotten away. As his transit car pulled into sector A he saw he had a small welcoming committee waiting for him. An anxious looking Meifa was standing next to a calmer but still agitated looking Kyle. As soon as he had stepped out of the car Meifa ran up and threw her arms around him. She was silent but the tears running down her face said everything.
"You gave us quite a scare." Kyle said as Jet returned Meifa's hug.
"Yeah, sorry about that." Jet answered, more to Meifa then Kyle. "It's not like it was my idea in the first place. I guess I should be thankful I came through in one piece." That statement made him realize something. "Has there been any word from John?" He asked Kyle.
"Nothing." Kyle answered. That explained why he still looked on edge. They began to walk back to Security Command as he explained. "We haven't found a trace of him, dead or otherwise, so Ed is still searching. Spike is okay and MPU is trying to work out a route for him to get back here. We're thinking about actually going out and looking for John where the cameras are down but …." Whatever the reason Jet didn't hear it because Kyle's radio buzzed to life.
"You guys might want to hurry up and get back here." Faye's worried sounding voice said.
"Faye, what's going on?" Kyle asked, not liking the sound of that. Instead of Faye they heard Ed's voice in the background.
"Big Brain is coming, Big Brain is coming!!!" She chanted. That was all the three of them needed to hear and started running back to the command center. When they got there they saw everyone looking at one screen that showed Skynet standing inside of a transit car. Before anyone could ask MPU began explaining.
"We have been monitoring the transit station you first arrived at to confirm that Skynet was no longer pursuing you. It appears you were unsuccessful." A second screen showed Skynet arriving the station and getting onto a second car. "This was not a concern at first but when he arrived at the main transit hub a second delayed program activated, making it follow the same route you did." As if that wasn't enough MPU had even more bad news. "We have been trying to reroute the car or send it back but all attempts at reprogramming it have been proven ineffective."
"But never fear, Ed is here!!" Ed piped up. "If choo choo won't listen to Ed then Ed just takes out batteries." As she began typing in commands on Tomato a third screen began displaying a readout of the base's power grid. Ed zoomed in on the green-lit section labeled "Transit System" and typed in more commands. The readout for the transit system they were on began flashing yellow, then turned red as all power was cut to it. On the first screen they saw the transit car come to a jolting stop, but Skynet remained unmoved. They lost the picture for a second as the lights and camera died from lack of power. It soon came back as emergency power began to kick in. Not enough to actually get the car moving again but enough for any rescue personal to see the passenger's condition. They couldn't have cared less about this passenger's condition or safety but were a bit concerned about Skynet's lack of reaction. He had gone into a rage more then once after being beaten at his own game but right now he was completely calm. He just stood there looking forward, blank faced for several seconds before a smile began creeping across it. It was that same crazed smile Skynet had when he told Jet and John how much he would enjoy killing Ed. Looking up and right at the camera Skynet said just two words.
"Got you." Turning to the side he punched out one of the car's windows. He then climbed out of the camera's view and onto the transit car's roof. Not stopping there he stepped on top of the rail the car was hanging from and began running down it. Speed was important, but not an overriding concern. Even if humans had already figured out what was going on he was far faster then any transit car. He calculated it would take him several minutes to reach Sector A but for a group of confused and panicked animals that wasn't much time to prepare an efficient escape. Despite not knowing the exact layout of Security Command he knew it couldn't be impregnable. He had them now.