“Something bothers me about Erebus,” Wallachia said as the elevator closed its doors. Machinery rumbled somewhere above them and they started to ascend. “Those who get revived, rebuilt or whatever, but refuse to cooperate... What happens to them?”
“They are forced to cooperate. Erebus doesn’t spend countless man-hours and millions of funds just to see their investment walk away. They have their ways.”
“Such as?”
Due pondered for a moment, recollecting her knowledge about the subject. “Electrical shocks are probably the most common. The bodysuits we are wearing are under constant control. Erebus can control all rebuilt parts of your body, too. Usually, if someone is a bit childish, they send a command to the suit that makes it ‘backfire’. You’ll be on the floor within a second, regurgitating whatever that’s in your stomach as your body goes out of control from the electricity.”
“And if I take the suit off? What’s stopping me from doing that?”
“Your life depends on it. Your new parts can’t function correctly without it and since all of us wearing these died at one time, it controls more functions related to that. I’m not sure of the specifics. It’s not pretty, though.”
Wallachia accepted that explanation with a nod. There wasn’t much she could do to confirm or deny it, and she wasn’t about to find out by trying. She asked; “You said ways. What other ‘cooperation’ methods do they have?”
“Mostly the control of your body. They can shut your throat so you can’t breathe, make you go blind, deaf, or both. They can make you break your own bones, enabling them to add more parts through which they can control you.”
“Thorough, aren’t they?”
“Very, though I’ve seen some where the ‘candidates’ refused even after their legs had been broken in six places. I don’t know what happened to them afterwards.”
The elevator dinged, letting them know they had passed the fifteenth floor. They had ten more to go.
“The fact that Erebus fights evil while using such methods on their own members makes it seem a bit... hypocritical,” Wallachia said. “I wonder what type of person its creator was...”
“Despite these words coming from a monster like yourself, I’m inclined to agree. From what I’ve heard, the creator hated evil and came up with the idea about a ruthless organization hellbent on destroying it.” Due sighed. “But it doesn’t matter. We are where we are. What choice do we have? I’ve tried to get away before, but they caught me nonetheless. And even if I could get away, I don’t know where to go. I don’t even know the current situation with my sisters either.”
“You have sisters?”
Due quickly changed the subject. “Two floors to go. Xenon, how are things on your end?”
“Objectives complete,” Xenon replied through the radio. “Surveillance systems have been deactivated. You have about twenty minutes until someone will check it out.”
“Understood.”
“Ah~... Now the fun begins,” Wallachia squealed.
Before entering the building they had changed their appearance. Due had used her IS to switch to an office-lady look, while Wallachia had put on ordinary jeans and a hoodie. A businesswoman and her client entering a building belonging to a lawyer firm hadn’t raised any suspicion. Soon, though, the disguise would be unnecessary.
“Remember the codeword,” Due said as they reached the floor and the elevator doors began to open.
When they stepped out of the elevator a desk beckoned before them. A woman rose her head from her monitor and smiled at them. She wore a typical office uniform and the name tag told them her name was Sophia.
“Welcome to Lawrence’s Lawyers, how may I help?”
“Me and my client have an appointment with Mr. Lawrence,” Due said.
“Can I have your name, please?”
“Lucia Remington.”
Sophia knackered away on her keyboard. After a while she frowned and put on an apologetic smile.
“I’m sorry, Miss Remington. You aren’t even registered in the system.”
“Perfect.”
The minute the codeword left Due’s lips, Wallachia dropped the hood covering her head and she retrieved a small black pad from her pocket. Holding it out, she pressed a button and the device expanded, releasing the holds on its side, which ejected outwards. On the top of it three barrels configured as a triangle appeared and hooked itself on the front. A handle built itself out from the bottom, fitting into her hand. It wasn’t much bigger than a simple laptop when it finished setting up.
The noise it made when it configured itself caused several people who had been engaged in conversations to turn around and look. The receptionist stared at it with an open mouth. Wallachia put a hand on the arm which held the device to compensate for the coming recoil and pointed the barrels right in Sophia’s face. Wallachia grinned as she pressed the trigger.
A minigun operates on the principle of firing a hail of bullets at rapid speed without reloading. Due to this, its recoil is very powerful and accuracy suffers for it. This particular device, called a Chainer, operates on the same basis, but uses mana as ammunition, and is capable of 2000 RPM. At short range, it’s a terrifying weapon. In the hands of Wallachia, whom had to train for it since she still couldn’t handle her remade body, it was a beautiful piece of art.
The effect of the Chainer was obvious as soon as the rounds left their ‘magazine’, accompanied by a low rumbling. Sophia’s face disintegrated instantly and was splattered over the wall behind her, blood and brain matter slowly dripping onto the floor. The body went limp in its chair and Wallachia released the trigger, panting. Then she turned towards everyone else who was now staring at the duo. She retained her smile and aimed the Chainer at them. Magical particles rose as smoke from the barrels after the initial discharge.
It took a few seconds for the realization of what had just happened to settle in. Panic took over when it finally did. Screams erupted as a choir as the crowd pushed and shoved at each other to try and get away, but Due was blocking the only exit. The fire escape exit had been locked by Xenon earlier that day. The crowd tried to open it nonetheless, while others tried to hide behind furniture. Those that were closest to the duo pressed against the group to gain distance.
Wallachia let the Chainer do its work again. She went from right to left, letting the rounds ravage the kneecaps of most of the people in the crowd. They fell down on the floor, screaming their guts out, crying for mercy. Some of them tried to cover their bloody stumps with their bare hand to stop the bleeding. Then she went from left to right and popped their heads like miniature piñatas. An ocean of blood grew across the floor and met Wallachia’s feet.
The people on the other side of the floor tried to hide, but Wallachia’s X-Ray found them easily enough. The Chainer’s rounds ripped through sofas, tables and computers as if they were paper. As the electronics exploded and dust flew into the air, the rounds tore to parts the people that had been hiding behind them.
It all went quiet. She lowered the Chainer and stepped over the bodies littering the floor. Some whimpered, still alive even though their limbs had been utterly destroyed. Their will to live was rewarded with a shot to the head. Meanwhile, Wallachia was grinning, widely.
“I’m impressed,” Due said. “You’ve learnt to operate the Chainer quite well.”
Wallachia patted the device and chuckled. “It feels like a part of me now. I haven’t really used ranged weapons before, but... this one is special.”
She went down on her knees and put her palms in the blood. She drew them around, letting it soak into her skin. Then she let her tongue out and drew it across the floor. She licked it up like a dog, the blood dripping down from the corner of her mouth.
As she bathed in the blood, one employee that had escaped the massacre, hiding behind a steel cabinet that Wallachia’s X-Ray vision hadn’t penetrated, risked a fast glimpse around the corner to check if a path was clear. He got on his fours and began to slowly crawl on the floor. He could barely suppress his whimpers as he tried to sneak around them next to the large panorama windows, showing off the awesome view outside.
Wallachia and Due wasn’t looking in his direction when he needed to cross an open space between two cabinets. He moved fast and careful, but despite his efforts failed to notice the pieces of glass that had been strewn out on the floor. They made a crunching noise as he put his knees down on them. He froze and looked up, staring right into the Chainer’s barrels ten meters away.
The burst of twenty rounds hit him in the gut, penetrating through his stomach and spine, crushing the panorama window behind him. The sheer force of the rounds made his body roll on its side and over the edge.
“Wops,” Wallachia mumbled and got up on her feet to peek over the edge.
When she looked down she saw the man on the roof of a car with a crowd amassing around him. Wallachia pulled her head back inside.
“I guess that’s all of them. Time to leave?”
“Yes,” Due said and switched to her radio. “Xenon, mission complete. Head back to base.”
“Roger that,” was his reply and the comms went silent.
“Are we taking the elevator or the stairs?” Wallachia asked while she let the Chainer collapse into its storage form. It was still hot from the magical discharges when she stuck it in her pocket.
“Neither. We are going that way,” Due replied and pointed to her left. There was another panorama window there, with a building lower lower than the one they were in now.
“We are jumping across?”
Due grinned. “Yes.”
She turned towards the window and began to run. She picked up speed until she sprinted and just as she reached the window her body emitted a high-frequency sound. The window shattered by itself and Due jumped through, disappearing below the edge.
Wallachia ground her feet onto the floor and set off too. When she reached the edge, she pressed off with one foot and gravity took over. Wind grabbed her hair and let it sail free. Her stomach lurched when she began to fall downwards. The drop was much higher than she’d expected. It was at least thirty meters.
The roof approached fast and she prepared herself. A fraction of a second before she hit the roof she relaxed her legs and let them take the brunt of the impact. She bent them, curling into a ball and made a flip. Then she was stationary, letting out a long breath.
She saw Due already jumping down the edge on the building to the street below. She looked up from where she had jumped and grinned. The sun shone on her bloody face. Then she followed Due, heading back to the van waiting in an alley to take them back to Erebus headquarters.
***
A truck pulled in at a rest stop a few miles outside the Cranagan International Airport. Its driver and passenger got out and each of them lighted a cigarette. One of them breathed in deeply and puffed the smoke out in a big cloud. It was early morning and the air was still chilly from the night before.
“This is the meeting place, right?” the driver asked.
“Yeah.”
The driver looked around. There wasn’t anyone there apart from them. “Pretty strange place to do an exchange.”
“I don’t get it, man. Plutonium? Here? What would they use it for?”
“Who knows. That’s not for us to care about, though.”
A black car pulled in at the rest stop and two men in black suits got out. The driver dropped the cigarette to the ground and stomped on it. He waved a hand at them, signalling the pick-up had arrived.
“Hey. We got your stuff,” the truck driver said and threw a thumb back, indicating the truck.
One of the men said something to the other, who nodded. They walked up to the driver. As they got closer, the driver noticed the suits they were wearing were very strange. He couldn’t see their eyes either due to their sunglasses.
“Good work. Our boss will be pleased.”
“No problem. Just call on us again if you want somethin-”
“There won’t be a next time,” one of the men said and pulled out a gun. A non-magical one. He aimed it at the driver’s head. The driver’s smile had disappeared. His partner pointed at the passenger.
“A message from Erebus,” they both said and pulled the trigger on their Beretta 92s.
2010-10-23, 08:43
The Programs are like the Horse/Beast/Dragon/Servant/Angel (For dramatic purposes) more powerful than a mere human, yet they still have to obey them.
? Before the current three were even born.
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