Nuclear Fire 34
Clad in red and black, with the Fight at her side as a bodyguard, Taylor cuts an imposing figure. More so when she stands in front of a crowd that follows her every word, even if it's still mostly out of fear. Fear that persists especially amongst those hurt by the Zerglings during the battle against Bakuda's men, even after they were already healed.
The notable exception is in the front row where my visor informs me of the presence of several familiar faces. They are the homeless from the park that Taylor healed some days ago, having been the first ones to join the crowd after her arrival.
"This machine," Taylor points behind her at the water purifier in the middle of a pool of salty water, "Will provide clean water to the entire neighborhood!" Taylor makes a pause, allowing The Fight to repeat her words in Japanese for those that may have trouble understanding her, "But to help us defend it and build more, we'll need resources. From metals to electronics." Her ability to give speeches is something worthy of admiration, "And because of that, we ask for your collaboration in any form that you can. But allow me to be perfectly clear: this is not a tribute or a payment. We will not stop helping those in need even if they give us nothing. This service is completely free for all of you to enjoy, and that's a right that we will defend with force if needed. That is all."
Someone starts clapping and then the rest follows. The machine starts working, desalinating the salty water, and the people form an orderly line to start collecting.
Taylor stands on the sideline, with The Fight and several underground zerglings ready to strike in case something goes out of control but we quickly realize that's not needed. There's something to be said about a Japanese-dominated community: they are as orderly as my drones. Back in my good old Argentina we'd have needed armed guards just to ensure no one pissed into the fountain as a joke.
Seeing all these people enjoying something I built, with some of them even stopping to express their genuine gratitude to Taylor, warms my heart.
It's a nice change of pace compared to the absolute disaster that was this morning's meeting. I don't even know if Piggot survived yet!
I should send Glory Girl a message later asking about that.
At least the PRT allowed us to leave peacefully, a small mercy all by itself, and I could easily recover Sebastian. Now he and his brother are standing idle next to me. I could dismantle them for parts but I feel they could still be useful.
Maybe the PRT will contact us again telling us they want to apologize and make peace!
One can dream.
And talking about the crabs, a smell makes my nose wrinkle. I find the source in a pool of urine dripping from one of Sebastian's legs.
"Taylor will not be happy with you."
Long John, the one responsible for it, wines as if knowing he did something wrong.
During the morning Danny accepted looking after him, but during the afternoon he insisted we took responsibility for him.
And with Taylor away doing her thing, that responsibility fell to me.
Eh, at least he's cute. I take out a ball that Danny gave us and toss it across the room, enjoying the look on Long John's face as he chases after it.
About half an hour later, and with anything horrible failing to happen, Taylor and The Fight make their way back to the base.
The moment they teleport in, Long John barks in joy, jumps out of my lap -I have no idea when he got there- and rushes towards the girls. Taylor kneels to receive him in open arms but the corgi runs right past her and goes straight towards The Fight.
"So, he likes a robot more than me," Taylor says with some fake bitterness, "That's slightly insulting."
I smile looking at Long John jumping at The Fight with the ball between his teeth.
"Don't feel bad. You're still my favorite sister!" I receive a playful slap on the back of the head, "So, things seem to be going fairly well," I glance at the monitor. Even without the team around, people remain calm.
Taylor removes her helmet and drops next to me, "This isn't a step I wanted to take but it seems we're out of options."
"That's life for you. Now here, catch," I toss her my latest creation.
In functionality, The Sword has more in common with The Fight than The Jump or The Illusion. By that I mean it's capable of independent manifestation and doesn't need another piece of equipment to work. It's because of that reason that, when Taylor closes her hand around it, The Card unfolds into a grip, a pommel, and a crossguard. A moment later the blade emerges.
"Now this looks like a real lightsaber," Taylor admires it before giving it a couple of test swings just like she did so long ago with the Psy Blade, "Does it have a non-lethal mode?"
"Not this one, no. So be careful," I did try to incorporate The Thunder into the design, hoping to give The Sword a stun option like the Psi-Blade has, but there was something inside me that violently rebelled against the idea. It's like if the essence of The Sword rejected the very concept of non-lethality.
"Not to be used against common bandits, then."
"Unless you want to reduce them to easily transportable chunks," I extend my hand for Taylor to give The Sword back to me, and it folds back into its Card form, "And in case of emergency it can also do this," I take Taylor's arm and plug The Sword into the Psy Blade, right where the psionic blade materializes. The two technologies link together forming a single object, "Now turn it on."
Taylor eyes me with suspicion, maybe wondering why I'm taking several steps back, but does as I tell her.
The moment she activates her weapon, I'm reminded that deep underneath all its upgrades, my visor remains Nova's. Multiple warnings flash over my eyes yelling about how much of a bad idea it is to be near that thing.
Taylor's starting weapon was a Psionic Blade, wielded by the Protoss Templars and blue in color.
The ones used by the Dark Templars are the Warp Blades. Their green tint a result of them mixing their own Psionic energy with Void energy to make their weapons stronger than the originals.
The one that Taylor has now doesn't look like either of them. Her new blade, empowered by The Sword, is pulsating like an enraged beast, the plasma field fluctuating, incapable of containing that much power.
This is the third kind of Psi Blade, the one crafter by Alarak's people using raw Void energy. This is a Bane Blade, which coats the entire room in blood-red light.
"Peter? I don't know what's scarier, the way this thing looks or the way you're smiling."
Am I?
I didn't notice.
"Don't you ever use that thing against anything that you don't absolutely want to see die," I circle around Taylor, trying to identify any potential failures in the design, but my power insists it's working as intended. Of course, its intentions aren't pretty, "I don't believe I'm exaggerating when I say that thing could cleave a planet in two if it was long enough," Could it do the same to Alexandria? Something to consider.
"So, not to point to the face, the ground, or the moon. Got it," She turns it off and hastily removes the card, "Did you build anything that wasn't evil?"
"My technology isn't evil, it's just wildly misunderstood! But to answer your question: no. I'm still working on the spy bug I'll send into Coil's base," I'm also working on a second thing, but I don't want to ruin the surprise yet.
"Talking about Coil, I had an idea that coul--" Her words get interrupted by a projectile flying at an impressive speed right in front of our eyes. It hits the wall and bounces back towards the opposite end of the room, all the while being followed by a barking Long John.
"Hey, be careful where you throw that thing!" Taylor admonishes The Fight who stares back at her with that emotionless expression of her, and with her arm still raised.
Friday arrives without much excitement. At least not much compared to what we had become accustomed to.
The city sets an emergency broadcast up to keep people with radios informed on what's going on. The first announcement is that the medical emergency is officially under control. It's still far from over but at least parahumans are no longer necessary to keep people from dying.
Not like that stops Taylor from going to help during the morning, but gives her enough freedom to end her shift before noon and go spy on Coil while I set a second water purifier up.
"There!" She announces through our com-system.
Linking to her camera, I see her surrounded by piles of paper. Each one has a list of numbers with the name of a bug next to it.
"What made you so happy?" I ask, trying to discern what this all could mean.
"My idea is working!" With a red marker she crosses out one of the bugs and circles the attached code, "I place a bug on each person that goes inside and then add them to the list here. If the bug survives then I ignore them, but if the bug dies--" She lets her words linger for what I assume is the sake of drama.
"It means that the person went into the base!" I finished her idea.
Another small mercy from Bakuda's bomb is that few people are making use of the parking garage so we don't have that many suspects. If the nearby office buildings were still fully operational I can easily picture ten times as many people going in and out every hour.
Using her method Taylor manages to identify five suspected mercenaries. And the best part is that all the bugs tracking them died in the same area, meaning that we now also know where the entrance must be.
Without Taylor's knowledge, I add a hidden tag to each of those people marking them as 'Possible Thomas Calvert'. Once I have Coil's face, his power won't be enough to protect him.
With that happy thought, Friday ends, and Saturday, the last day I'll have Cardcaptor Sakura with me, begins.
"Tech-Priest, we have a problem."
It doesn't start in the best of ways.
Tracking Taylor's position down, I quickly see the source of the problem: the reservoirs are almost empty.
"That's not possible. My purifiers should be enough to satisfy the daily consumption of 500 people each. And we don't have that many people here!"
I search for leaks, for obstructions in the canal bringing seawater, and for errors in the purifier.
There are none.
Everything is working at maximum efficiency, and our reserves are quickly refiling. It should be back at top capacity in a couple of hours.
Even the people seem unconcerned by it as they continue collecting water without minding the low level.
So, if the problem isn't on the side of the production, it has to be on the side of the consumption, "I think we may have gotten robbed," That's the only alternative I can think about, "Maybe we should interrogate some witnesses."
"No," Taylor cuts in, "If someone is misusing the water then we'll come down on them, but this could be us just having underestimated the number of people that need it. Let's keep an eye on it but don't do anything rash."
"Roger that."
I add some extra zerglings to the garrison around the reservoirs just to err on the side of caution but leave things be.
After a short patrol to ensure everything's in order Taylor leaves the defense of our territory to The Fight, and then moves to continue her spy work against Coil.
The next big surprise comes during the afternoon.
[Master, unknown detected. Information requested]
I raise an eyebrow at The Fight's message. She's not one to doubt her actions, she either attacks or ignores who she finds when we aren't there to tell her what we do. For her to not know how to proceed is concerning.
I understand the reason the moment I link to her camera to see through her eyes.
Standing on a rooftop in the middle of her patrol route, a man waits for her. He's dressed in a grey long coat and is wearing a german military helmet and a gas mask that makes him look like a WWI reenactor. That, or a cosplayer of the Death Korps of Krieg.
[Exterminate?]
What to do? Krieg is one of Kaiser's lieutenants so, by all accounts, we should beat him into a bloody pulp and forget about it. But he isn't doing anything! He's just standing there, menacingly, as if waiting for us to engage.
Is this a trap? I don't detect any other Empire capes around the area and they don't have anyone capable of tricking my sensors. But this is Krieg! I refuse to believe he came here without a plan.
Shit, now he's waving at The Fight.
That's it, I'm leaving this to the expert.
"Ladybug? Please come back. We have something that needs your attention."
Fifteen minutes later, with Krieg still in the exact same position we found him in, Ladybug materializes behind him.
"You're very brave to come here on your own," She tries to sound intimidating, making use of her height to stand at eye-level with the man, but he doesn't even flinch as he turns to stare back at her.
"And you're very brave to have answered my call."
The two exchange a tense stare-off, but Krieg refuses to be the one to make the next move.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't choke you full of insects and drag you into a cell."
He doesn't even sound threatened as he circles around Ladybug, "The PRT only has two cells capable of holding a Parahuman with my abilities. One got damaged during Lung's break-out, and the other is currently holding him. The PRT won't risk the Empire mounting a rescue operation in which Lung could be set free once again. So, if you give me to them, I'll 'break free in transit'," He makes the air-quotes and everything, "And be allowed to return to my brothers after a short chase. That or be put in a common cell for the same effect. All for the sake of keeping appearance, and the peace with Kaiser."
That's something that Taylor and I talked about. It's also why we stopped capturing Empire goons days ago as the police had no patrols to pick them up with.
WIth the EMP, things only got worse.
"Then I should just kill you."
Krieg must have heard that dozens of times already as he chuckles at Taylor's threat, "You could try, yes. Maybe your friend the tinker built something that could harm me, but that was a calculated risk I took when I came here," He steps in until they are at arm's length, "But will you?" He leans in, their faces so close that their masks almost touch, "Both your companions have bodies to their names, but not you. In fact, during all your encounters with our troops, you hold the chink back from going all out."
"Her name is The Fight," Taylor says through clenched teeth.
Krieg takes a step back, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture, "A boring and simple name. Just like the person, I'm sure," Okay, now that feels like a personal attack.
"Says that one who named himself 'war'." Thank you, Taylor.
"Mine is a promise," He growls back, "I bring not only battle but destruction and grief. I'm far more than your attack dog will ever be," He got angry at Taylor's words but quickly recovers his cool, "But don't act so hostile. I'm not here to oppose you. Quite the contrary, you're doing God's work by keeping the savages in line."
"You speak as if assuming I'm white," Taylor says through clenched teeth, "What if I'm not?"
"Are you?" He cocks his head as if genuinely amused, "If you are feel free to correct me. After all, our need for information is why I came here today."
"So you admit to spying on us."
"I prefer the term 'establishing a diplomatic channel'," He spins on his heels and straightens up, as a soldier during a military parade, "Because, you see, now that you have established yourselves as a proper power in the Bay you need to know what the rules are. You'll find that the Empire can be quite friendly to those that follow the rules."
That line shows how much information he needs because he truly knows nothing about us.
"Maybe we don't want to follow your rules."
"Then you'll find that your stay here can be quite unpleasant. But fear not!" He raises an index, "They are so simple that even a brute like Lung could learn them. For now, all we want to know is how much of Lung's former holdings you claim for yourselves."
"We claim nothing," Taylor states firmly, "We're only here helping the people that need it."
"Then you claim no ownership of his weapon stashes, drug operations, or Bakuda?"
"Of course not! And once we find Bakuda we're destroying her lab and dragging her to the PRT."
"Good, we can work with that," He nods, pleased with the answer, "And who knows, maybe next time we can actually meet in person," He kicks the ground, throwing himself into a somersault above Ladybug's head. A couple more jumps and he's already several blocks away, well on his way back to Empire territory.
Some heartbeats later, the figure of Ladybug dematerialized into specks of light.
The real Taylor, hidden safely inside an abandoned apartment building across the street, groans in frustration, "How did he know that was a fake one?"
"From what I pieced together," From my previous life, even if I don't tell her that, "Krieg can manipulate the kinetic energy around him. Maybe he realized that his power didn't affect that Ladybug, and put two and two together."
"Asshole. Do you have anything that we can use against him?"
I snap my tongue. Krieg is a lot like Assault, the big difference being that instead of his power being touch-based, he has an entire area around him that he can control.
Kicks and punches would be useless against him, same with the tranquilizer darts. The Dark Coil could take him down but that involves getting close to him, something that won't be easy even with the Blink Band.
"The Song may work, but he could still defuse it because soundwaves have kinetic energy. If we want to put him down we'll need a ranged energy weapon which we currently don't have," Right now I'm regretting not having kept one of the laser rifles we stole from Coil.
"Please, look into it. For now, I'm going back to the base."
"Don't take long! I have something to show you."
I hope that my surprise can improve Taylor's mood.
Even without knowing what to expect from that meeting, I'd say it went as well as it could have been expected.
Krieg was right, even if we had managed to capture him we have no way to contain him, and open battle against the Empire isn't something we want. Not yet. Not when they have so many brutes who could easily outfight my zerg and cause untold damage to our territory and people.
This must have been a show of strength! Plain and simple. Why else would Kaiser have sent Krieg to meet a pair of newcomers but to parade how untouchable they believe to be?
Even if we could win a hypothetical war with the Empire, our losses would be unacceptable.
"I'm here," Taylor announces as she teleports in, "What did you want to show me?"
"Behold!" I dramatically stand up realizing I should have bought a sheet or something to pull back during the reveal, "The latest in spying innovations!" I aim at the new breed of Zerg resting on the table, "I present to you: the mosquito!" It doesn't really look like a mosquito, more like a dragonfly, but I hope that our enemies will find it just as annoying and difficult to find, "It can fly," I show that by having it zig-zag around us as if it was a hummingbird, "It has drone-level sensors," Giving the order I link his video feed to out visors, "And it can turn invisible." That last ability is courtesy of a simplified The Illusion. Like with the full card, it's not perfect. If one knows it's there they will notice the shimmering, but it will make it extremely hard to be found by the unwary. A low heat profile thanks to a broken The Freeze will also make it hard to spot by infrared cameras.
"Impressive," It's always a good day when Taylor says that about one of my inventions, instead of backing away in mild horror, "Will you send this into Coil's base?"
"Yes. But there's more!" I order it to float in front of Taylor, "Here, take it."
"I won't start glowing with an evil red aura, will I?"
"Come on, have a little faith."
Taylor receives it in her arms, and that's when I reveal the last secret of the mosquito: it's not actually capable of flying! That ability was granted to it by the card attached to its back. The last card I'll build from the Sakura tree.
"What is this?" Taylor removes the card, and the wings of the Mosquito fold back turning it into something that looks like a larva with particularly large eyes.
Now looking at it, I should come up with a better name.
"This one I call 'The Fly'."
Her mouth gaped open and, for a brief moment, the slowly forming gang leader is replaced by a girl half Taylor's age. That moment quickly passes, but her eyes remain glimmering with childish enthusiasm.
Without wasting time asking for permission, she docks the card into her armor and that's when the magic takes place.
Lines of blue-white energy run down the length of her costume, converging to her back. The fabric of her long coat shakes as if carried by the waves of the ocean and folds back, revealing more of the armor underneath. The back of the armor split open and a pair of wings spring to life, reminiscent of the wings of an insect.
It takes Taylor a moment to readjust herself to the new weight distribution, but as soon as she recovers her balance she starts ascending while a joyous laughter escapes from her throat, "This is amazing!" Not even the fact that she's now upside down stops her from giggling like a child, "How do I control it?"
"Like everything else: just will it!"
She straightens up and darts towards the ceiling, stopping only inches before hitting it. She doesn't have much space to move inside the warehouse, but what little there is she uses to the full, making several twirls that reminds me of a fish in the water.
After several minutes, and with a smile from ear to ear, she returns to the ground.
"I love it!" She cheers, "But are you sure you want to send a full card into Coil's base? You can't build more of these, can you?"
I clench my teeth, "The idea doesn't excite me," If it were to be destroyed or, worse, subverted, it would be a massive hit for us, "But this was the best I came up with, and I do want to do this right. A spy drone that can fly will be far more effective than one that can only crawl."
Taylor looks down at the card, her eyes full of the sadness of a child who got told that they can't keep the puppy, and nods accepting my logic. Giving The Fly one last parting look, she plugs it back into the mosquito.
He's ready now for his mission behind enemy lines, ready to undermine the efforts of all those that oppose us.
But that will be for tomorrow. Right now the only immediate concern is what Danny may have prepared for dinner.
A stew later, we retreat back to the attic to patiently wait for midnight.
The moment arrives and once again I feel my mind untangling, all the information I had on the Clow Cards drifting away as new knowledge comes to fill in the void.
What do I have here?
I see a white room.
That doesn't tell me much.
I see moving panels connected to pistons.
Okay, that's more useful, but I'm still not sure what this is.
Do I have weapons in here? I do, but not nearly as many as my previous trees had. I have a powerful laser attached to a wall, I have some turrets, and I have--
Wait--
No way!
I have an incendiary agent so catastrophically destructive that would make Napalm look like mayonnaise! And created entirely out of lemons!
"So, anything useful?" Taylor asks with genuine curiosity on her face.
"Oh, Taylor, you have no idea."
I have Portal.
I have
portals.
This changes the game entirely! Forget about tunnels. Forget about complicated supply networks. We can be anywhere! At any time! The Bay is ours!
I could even build GLaDOS!
On second thoughts, scratch that last idea.
Not even I am that deranged.
My dreams are full of tradelines, optimizations, and new ways to maximize the productivity of the swarm.
You know that you're truly obsessed with something when you see it in your dreams, and I dread the very idea of ever getting Factorio as a tech tree. I'll never stop rebuilding my production lines!
So deep I am in my slumber that I barely register the first couple of times that Taylor called my name.
"P---r! Pe---! Peter!"
I wake with a start, my heart beating inside my throat to the feeling of Taylor shaking my shoulder.
My yell of surprise is cut short by Taylor pressing her hand against my mouth.
"It's Bakuda again," She whispers, maybe not wanting to wake Danny up, "Several bombs exploded all over the city."
I scramble for my visor, "How did you know?"
"I've been leaving my bugs next to my visor with the radio on when I go to sleep. I may still not be able to understand what people say through them, but panic is easy to recognize."
Tuning in to the city's emergency broadcasting I quickly confirm Taylor's words. Several detonations were reported but no one knows exactly where or how many casualties they caused.
I check my sensors.
A bomb detonated close to the docks.
Another one close to our territory, thankfully away from the main congregation of people.
And a third one--
My mouth turns to ash.
The third one exploded inside Aisha's neighborhood.
...
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