"Did you honestly think you could escape from Me, you crazed gunman?"
Her voice, surprisingly small, tinny, and distant, still sent shivers down the men's spines, stopping them in their tracks.
They'd reached other section of an office complex, raiding for random caches of supplies.
It was strange, the convenient things you could find in desks.
All throughout this searching, though, the Sniper noticed Rattman never put down the bloody cube, and if he did, he kept it close.
"And you made a new friend, too. How nice."
The place felt like it was shaking, distantly.
"And here I thought we had an understanding, you and I. My heart is broken. Do you hear it beating?"
"Ah, here's that part." Rattman muttered, and began to drag Sniper into a run.
The shaking turned into significant impact on the floor.
The Australian picked out footsteps, strange ones, sounding-feeling almost animal, yet not.
"Allow Me to break you in return."
"Bloody—!" the Sniper bit off his curse to run. That just wasn't bleeding fair.
Bullets began to fire, and those pea shooters were chasing them on legs, a whole herd of them aiming to shoot, crush, and kill.
The Sniper grinned despite himself, even as he dragged the scientist chap to a new floor above the robo-beasties.
Now this was a challenge!
. . .
Miss Pauling glanced with some concern at the chat window she'd managed to set up with her...acquaintance.
It appeared that he (she learned it thought of itself as male) was in slightly the same predicament she was, but worse.
Whereas her environment would be reset each time she slept, he'd be entirely reset himself, to some point, and seemed to be in his own little world when he was reset. She'd had to re-introduce herself four...five times now already, and wasn't sure he understood her.
Can you say 'apple'?
Apple. she typed a bit impatiently. This seemed to be his introductory sequence.
Can you understand, you know, wh-what I'm saying? Just say 'yes'.
Yes.
You ca-you—oh, you can! Hello!
Why did he bother using speech patterns in text? Regardless, she continued.
Hello.
Ah, yes, BRILLIANT! There's someone actually -STILL ALIVE- in here!
This made her frown. New little tidbit there.
There are others?
. . . Well, y-you know, probably. Technically.
They're a bit -PAST-tense- at the moment, but, but -YOU're- here, right? So-so it should be fine.
You want me to free you? she asked.
Do I? That's-heh-kind of an odd question, there. Why? Am I -STUCK-?
Why? Am I -stuck-?
Why am I -stuck-?
Why-y-y-y -stuck-.
Stuck.
Stuck.
Sorry.
She groaned as the text box refreshed itself, and those same bloody words popped up again.
Can you say 'apple'?
She let her forehead drop to the keyboard in unprofessional frustration, and let the resulting mess of letters confuse and upset this strange entity. His 'reset' was much more sensitive than her own, apparently, and much more surreal. What could she say to him to counter his reset?
. . .
The Spy frowned as his collar buzzed again, but it wasn't painful, yet it was strangely irritating.
"Apples?" he muttered aloud, and was rewarded with another vicious prod between his shoulder blades.
"Merde, could you be any less savage, petit morveux?!" he spat, but went at a steadier pace.
He'd become something this woman would use, like a mine canary. If she were suspicious about a chamber, she'd push him into it first.
If his collar ever shocked him to the point of pain, she looked ready to kill him until the episode passed.
She'd stop without warning, and tie him in place while she'd gather supplies, and watched their surroundings while they ate.
All the time she'd be silent, stoic, and any attempt at conversation on his part was met with cold condescension and accusation.
Or at least, that's how it felt.
He seethed to himself, beyond humiliated that he had to subject himself to the whims of this inhuman...monster.
True, he stabbed backs for a profession, true, he was a subordinate of her enemy, but did he really need to be looked at with such hate?
Hate...
He blinked, staring at her profile.
That was the strange expression she'd give him, at times, when he spoke, or tried to speak. That expression was one of hatred.
Hatred for a stranger? . . . Interesting.
He really wished he'd been given a more detailed background on this woman.
. . .
The giant Russian stood out of the way, grinning quietly as he watched the Doctor and the Engineer consult over their latest creation.
A turret beside him softly hummed that one song he'd been able to teach them. Even if the first ones had long been incinerated, it seemed they were able to pass on their memories to future comrades. It was interesting, and saved him the trouble of teaching the baby machines again.
He'd only been able to get one of the special bullets from the Soldier, but one was enough. It was for the Turret-Rex model.
He'd have to wait until his 'scientist' comrades were distracted enough, and distracting Her, before he could give the orders.
That would be a perfect time, too, to start his sabotage...
He clenched one of his fists fit to pop the knuckles, grinning at the thought of the desk and computer behind him he had command of.
It was a good day to be him.
. . .
"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Scout shouted, and the Pyro launched one of the running sentries like a bowling ball through the portal, fit to knock out the rest of the herd. "STEE-RIKE!" the Scout whooped, from his place on top of the shut-down cube-sentry thing.
The Pyro ran up to him with a real cube, panting heavily.
"Thrrd idrnt gdd..." it wheezed, clutching at a heavily bleeding bullet wound in its gut as it tossed the cube over the button.
The Scout winced a bit in sympathy, he'd gotten a couple bullets in the shoulder, and a few in the spine the last time he Respawned.
"Aw, crap..." he hissed, as the Pyro bled out before they could make it to the elevators, and the pyromaniac wound up at the beginning of the chamber again, shaking its head with frustration. The Scout swore as their ticket out of this place disappeared too, resetting everything all freaking over again.
"Screw this!" he barked, trying to throw his stupid gun, but stuff inside it squeezed on his forearm like a stupid too-tight baseball glove.
"Screw you!" he shouted at the ceiling, and glared down as the cube-sentry came back to life.
"It'll be okay," it said, whirring desperately around and around like some stupid toy to try and shake him off, "We all have bad days."
"You too!" he growled, and was going to try and shoot it offline or something.
Then it threw him off, giving him a point-blank round in the forehead.
". . . W-was it something I said?" it asked, after his body disappeared.
He popped back into existence next to the Pyro, who was sitting against the wall and staring at the chamber ahead, as new herds of the runners fired rapidly in the air, trying to goad them into running. Either that, or the Pyro was asleep, who knew?
The Scout scoffed, but sat down himself, crossing his arms, "Screw it..." he muttered.
His body felt fine, as if he'd had a full night of sleep, but dang it if he wasn't tired...
It was just test after test after freaking test, with monsters and stuff and no freaking goal...
He realized he said that aloud after Her voice boomed into the chamber, causing the runners to panic.
"And how is this any different from the life you had before?" She asked, and he seethed.
"I dunno, my other life had money, guns, and rewards, ya hag!"
He waved an arm with disgust to Her stupid test chamber, "I don't see any reward here!"
"That's because you are so narrow-minded, so conditioned to believe that your menial tasks and rewards were worth anything..." She purred.
"Money? Unimaginative. Gravel? Moronic. Intel? As if any of that presumed intelligence was worth beating yourself up over...
Here I'm offering a far more worthy goal, a worthy reward for you to apply your talents for... Science."
"Grrdr Hrrl fr yrr fddg Srrdns!" the Pyro finally spat, unmoving from the wall.
. . .
"Hell?"
The chamber rumbled, and suddenly darkened, glowing with the red eyes of machines and cameras.
"Oh, believe Me, I have gone to Hell..."
. . .
"She's...She's going to metamorphose..." Doug gasped, as they rounded another corner.
"That's Her ultimate plan, here. She plans to change. Get that down."
The Sniper threw down a load of filing cabinets to slow down their hunters, paying half an ear to his company.
"Yeah?" he grunted, "Reinventing yourself always did one good, I guess... This door, here."
"No, you don't understand..."
They clambered up a flight of stairs, back into what looked like the guts and grit of machinery.
"It's more than Her facility, more than Her tools, it's—woah—it's Herself and Her very surroundings!"
"Easy, mate... B-bugger..." the Australian growled, dragging up the man before he could fall from the broken catwalk.
"Always this chatty when fleeing for your—rrgh, I said careful—bloody life?"
"Adrenalin's a remarkable stimulant." the scientist replied, as the Sniper made a portal to another place, buying them time.
"First time I've been through one-a those..." Rattman commented weakly, and collapsed against the wall, leaning on his precious cube.
"Funny feeling, ain't it?"
The Sniper stood guard, scanning while the man caught his breath.
For a moment, the men just stayed there, breathing, resting, waiting.
"She's-She's going to...try to kill Caroline..." Rattman finally said. "For real this time..."
"Hn." the Sniper grunted, "So it really is her in there?"
"No, it, she is Her, sort of, but," Rattman chuckled.
"Aperture tends to complicate things. Mess them up like Frankenstein's Monster and spit 'em back out."
"So who's the real monster in this story," the assassin snarled, "Her, Aperture, that bloody hopping boss she had?!"
"It's a story of monsters borne from monsters." Rattman muttered, "The Titans, Titan, locked away, denied its godhood and seeking to consume the world from the gods that shared its blood but bound it. She seeks to...She hungers so much, and only knows one way to eat... She's going to globalize Aperture, and Science." The Sniper felt hard eyes on him, "The entire world will be Her facility, and all humanity Her test subjects. All thanks to you."
"Oi!" the Australian rounded on the man, "I was just doing my bloody job. Alright? This wasn't part of the bleeding contract, and I'm sure as hell not a willing contributor here, and neither is my team!"
"You so sure of that?" Doug continued, those sunken, dark eyes bright and focused.
"Don't those machines back there look awfully familiar?"
Sniper's fist caught his face before either man was aware of it with a sharp crack!
He quickly reeled back, his anger gone out quick like a candle flame.
"Sorry, mate." he grumbled, holding his knuckles, "Bad call."
"No, no, I deserve one of those now and then, I'm no innocent myself." Doug replied, muffled as he tested his jaw.
He spat out a gob of blood, "Urgh...didn't need that tooth anyway..."
His grin was slightly bloody, literally and figuratively, "Has a bit of a reality touch to it. I'm from this place, too," he gestured a hand to the dark, metal-infested chasm, "And I can't claim I was an unwilling contributor. I took part in the project that created Her."
His eyes lost some of their brightness as he remembered, "We sought to make our clay into a god, but put in the ideals of a man..."
"And did a smashing job of it." the Sniper scoffed, and heard robotic voices from below.
"Break time's over, mate, let's go!"
. . .
"I wonder who She's after more, right now..." Rattman commented later on, "Maybe we should split?"
"Not on your life." Sniper growled, using a portal to take out some of the opposition.
"That's right, I'm the one who can actually die here." Doug chuckled, "Immortality must be a great thing."
"It's not 'immortality' so much as just the incapacity to stay dead. Big difference." the Sniper ducked a bullet.
"Hurts like Hell, screws with your head, and as messed up as all f—bugger!"
Sniper's standing wasn't as steady as he hoped, as the rusted panel of metal gridding gave out underneath him.
Doug was quick to grab his arm, blunted nails digging into flesh and fabric as the scrawny man struggled with the weight of the lean one.
Down below, the turrets strangely did not shoot, seeming to wait like the predatory pack they were, staring at the two humans.
The Sniper did his best to not struggle, and waited to be dragged up. He couldn't stay dead, but falls were a terror and the landing much worse.
"This is a good time to, but... But it can't be okay, it can't be okay t-to just...!" the Sniper heard his companion say, and looked up to see something awful. Thoughtfulness.
Doug looked down a bit apologetically at the Sniper, "You-you can trust Pythia, you can't stay dead, so you'll, you'll be fine...right?" he told him, more than he asked him, and the Sniper's eyes widened, "Don't you dare, mate." he warned.
"It'll work. It's part of the plan, so it'll work... S-sorry, friend." Rattman muttered, and let the Sniper go.
The Sniper didn't have the breath to swear or even yell as he dropped, as the man ran away.
He had even less breath as the floor hit him, and sadly that didn't kill him, but the feet of those runners did. Eventually.
He managed to get out a "Son of a—" before the things could finally aim right and step on his head.
. . .
It was tinier than the others of its kind.
It hopped lightly on fine little mechanical legs that splayed on the tabletop and clutched at the air. Its eye was a bit higher up on the body but still under the 'belly', and the body raised a bit to see its observers. Its wing panels spread a bit in place of its kind's guns. The head with another eye and the bladed beak was a nice touch. The model it was fashioned after 'cawed' from its place on the Medic's shoulder, who touched its beak fondly, while discussing the build of it with Her, while the Engineer offered up his analysis of its weaponry.
The Heavy kept his grin steady as he looked at the little thing, nodding occasionally at their senseless, self-absorbed babbling.
He would probably learn to fear it, da, but that fear would also let him learn to destroy it. His large hands tapped their fingers eagerly on the desktop behind him, and no one noticed, not even She, when one hand might have accidentally slipped and pressed Enter for the command to the chamber dispensaries.