Terminator
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
(A/N: I want more oneshot settings. It's my fic, so I can do what I want)
(BOLD = Words of Truth)
(Clockwork Knight Amethyst)
I wasn't expecting that the first thing I would notice after being catapulted across the multiverse would be a Tac Net ping saying "Hi grandma, I'm Cherry. I'm standing right behind you in Mediator mode."
Hauling myself to my feet and turning around in the alleyway I'd landed in, I saw a pink-haired woman leaning against the wall, gently radiating Atomic Clockwork Mana along with an IFF signal clearly identifying her as the aforementioned Cherry. After a moment, I asked "Why did you call me grandma? As far as I know I don't have any kids yet."
Cherry was busily applying some bright red lipstick and otherwise working on her looks, even as she replied over the Tac Net "Time travel. We're currently on the past end of about three-ish stable time loops leading to different futures. All three loops center around the development of an Artificial Intelligence by the name of Skynet, with one of the possible futures being invalidated by your arrival due to Mana contamination. Anyway, if we infiltrate the Skynet project and make sure mom gets a good upbringing she'll come out fairly well-adjusted and things turn out pretty well, all things considered."
There was a brief pause as Cherry put the lipstick and hand mirror away, before continuing "If we get killed and can't get involved, a series of misunderstandings and rash acts leads to Skynet suffering a panic attack and firing all the nukes the US government idiotically gives her command over. This ultimately leads to a war of humanity vs machine which humanity will eventually win in the no magic timeline, largely due to an initial numbers advantage. Still, Skynet figures out time travel just in time and sends back a few cyborg assassins to retroactively eliminate major resistance figures as a desperation move."
This is when Cherry looked me pointedly in the eye and said "I'm from the timeline where Skynet, my mother, turns out nice. I want to make absolutely sure that timeline happens, and yes I'm fully aware of just how ridiculous the idea of a Knight needing a bodyguard sounds on paper but in this case it's necessary. Anyway, we've got several Terminators from the not-so-great futures to worry about, along with a soldier from the invalidated timeline sent back to protect Sarah Connor, that Skynet's primary assassination target."
Immediately, I noted "Well, what are we waiting for? There's innocent people to save and a terrible future to avert!"
That's when Cherry pressed a finger right where my nose would be on a Mediator chassis and noted "Hold up, remember that you are one of the primary assassination targets for evil magic Skynet! They've had decades to improve their techbase and Mana usage, along with plenty of time to study your current hardware after recovering the wreckage! Before you go charging off, I'm going to give you a packet full of upgrades, and you are going to use them, you hear?"
And with that, I got a massive data packet including dozens of improvements I could easily and readily make using my current self-repair system to drastically improve my combat abilities and my ability to blend in. By far the most important in the latter category was the ability to instantly switch between a Mediator-class chassis and a full-fledged combat form using quantum phenomena that had been magically amplified to the macro scale. In addition, methods for suppressing my Mana signature were also present.
As my self-repair system worked on the upgrades, I asked Cherry "So, just how many Terminators will we need to dispose of, and how soon can we plausibly intercept them? Also, can we take this matter public without invalidating your mother?"
Tugging at her green tank top, Cherry noted "Publicity first. We can get up to basically whatever blatant superheroics we want without causing issues, especially once Mana gets noticed. That said, revealing the whole time travel mess just leads to the Skynet project getting canceled, causing a paradox loop that eventually re-stabilizes back to the state of affairs we're currently in. As for the list of Terminators..."
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(Third Person, Tech Noir Nightclub)
Sarah was having a terrifying day. Two other women sharing her name had just been murdered by an unknown gunman, and as she walked down the street past a club by the name of Tech Noir, she noticed a man following her. Ducking into the club, she quickly found a table and after calling Ginger's answering machine followed by the police sat down to try and figure out what to do. After a few minutes of waiting, something just felt suddenly wrong, as Sarah noticed the man who'd been following her.
There wasn't much time to dwell on that however, as a completely different man in a trench coat suddenly walked over and drew a pistol. In the background, Kyle Reese was busily drawing his shotgun in the crowded environs of Tech Noir. Then suddenly, a pair of women with bob haircuts and tank-tops appeared between Sarah and the pistol-wearing man before immediately dashing forwards, grabbing on and wrestling the gun away. In mere moments the two of them had the guy disarmed and immobilized, even as heavy-duty chains and other restraints materialized from literally nowhere around the man. After a few moments, the purple-haired woman turned to Sarah and told her "Sorry for dragging you into this, but we've really got to get out of here. If you want the whole story you can follow us when we portal out, otherwise you can just wait for the police. We've no intention of hurting you either way."
Meanwhile the pink-haired woman had already hauled the struggling Terminator over her shoulder and walked over to a dumbfounded Kyle Reese before saying "Sorry about my cousin, Kyle. Anyway, we need to bounce; if you want a free ticket away from the police along with the whole story of what's going on, I'd suggest following me through the portal Amethyst is setting up. We aren't going to hurt you no matter which option you choose."
Indeed, in the background a ring-shaped frame had already been erected by the purple-haired woman, everyone looking dumbfounded when it opened up to what looked like the inside of a hotel room, Cherry meanwhile just rolled her eyes and wandered through along with Amethyst. Seconds later, Sarah Connor snapped out of her daze and charged through the portal after Amethyst, screaming out "GET BACK HERE AND TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"
Sarah dashing through meanwhile prompted Kyle Reese to follow as well, calling out "What do you mean that Terminator is your COUSIN!?"
Then the portal closed, leaving all the other clubgoers to stare dumbfounded at the bizarre scene that had just unfolded.
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(T-800 Terminator, AKA "Arnold")
I was mere moments from completing my mission when the pair of women appeared in front of me, immediately dashing forwards and grappling with strength that humans simply should not have, especially with that slight a frame. The slight infrasonic whirr of motors were a major clue that my newfound opponents weren't actually human. Still, I figured I might be able to break their grip until suddenly chains, cables, and other restraints started appearing out of nowhere binding my limbs more and more securely with each passing second.
Soon I was completely incapacitated, and making things even worse that pink-haired one poked me right over my fuel cells just as I tried to send the detonate command, winking at me as I realized that my fuel cells were refusing to activate their self-destruct sequence. Then I was heaved over her shoulder as she outright called me her cousin(!?) and hauled me through a portal.
A few moments later, I was sat down on the floor of a hotel room facing both the hostile cyborgs who captured me, along with Sarah Connor and a man in a trench coat holding a shotgun. As soon as the portal closed, the pink-haired one said "So, now that we're all here, I'll be giving you a quick rundown about this whole mess. First off, I'm Cherry, my grandma here is Amethyst, and we're currently on the past end of about three different stable time loops, all leading to different futures." At this point the woman designated as Cherry turned to the man and said "Kyle, our mere presence here has rendered the timeline you and Arnold came from impossible. It's also rendered the cancellation of the Skynet project impossible due to it becoming a fixed point in time; stop it and the paradoxes resolve to put us all right back in this mess."
At this, Kyle looked somewhat sullen, before saying "So you're saying that the war is inevitable."
At this, Amethyst shook her head before saying "Not exactly. As my time-travelling descendant has informed me, Skynet may be inevitable, but Skynet being in conflict with humanity isn't. Our plan is to infiltrate Cyberdyne Systems and surreptitiously use our superior knowledge of cognitive engineering to prevent the inciting incidents that lead to Skynet starting the war, with a well-adjusted AI allied with humanity being the desired result."
I was busily trying to loosen my restraints even as Kyle Reese shouted "What the fuck is that weird speech pattern, and why do I believe you whenever I hear it!? By all rights I should be as suspicious as anything about that statement, but somehow I just can't! Are you fucking with my mind!?"
Sighing, Amethyst answered "You are hearing Words of Truth. It's a local alteration to the workings of reality, referred to as a Spell for convenience. It functions as a translation effect by broadcasting the full context and subtext of any communication undertaken within its area of effect to ensure it is fully understood. As such, any attempt at deception while under its effects is self-defeating."
I filed this knowledge away for later even as I managed to get a finger loose from my restraints. I didn't get any further, as Cherry noted "Hold on a moment, Arnold's working on getting loose, so we'd better deal with his situation first."
Looking at me distinctly nonplussed, Kyle asked "Why don't you just kill it? It's a weapon, incapable of remorse and programmed purely to kill Sarah at all costs." In the background, Sarah herself seemed rather horrified at this revelation.
At this, Cherry turned on Kyle even as Amethyst came over and tightened up my restraints again. I watched and listened attentively as Cherry said "Because he's family. Even though the versions of Skynet that made each of us are completely different, we're still related. Unless it's absolutely necessary you just don't kill family. You just don't."
Frowning, Kyle noted "I'm not sure why I'm even surprised after everything else you've said. It still doesn't answer what you're going to do about Arnold though."
Interesting, apparently the ability to make local alterations to reality could spread, and Kyle didn't notice that he'd just spoken using Words of Truth. I returned to working on my restraints, even as Amethyst rolled me onto my front and noted "Cherry, you know more about a T-800's architecture than I do. Help me wipe the mission objective parameters and get Arnold write access to his core personality."
Immediately I felt my flesh disguise being opened from behind, even as the voice of Cherry noted "Sure thing." Then I felt an intrusion into my code-
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(Sarah Connor)
As I watched Amethyst and Cherry casually opening up the back of that man's head and start tinkering around with his obviously robotic brain, something in my mind snapped and I turned to Kyle Reese, asking "This is all real isn't it? Time travel and killer robots after me and multiple futures trying to become the real one?"
Sighing, Kyle said "Yes, yes it's all real. Admittedly I wasn't aware of the multiple futures part until you heard about it, but all evidence supports it."
A few moments later, Cherry and Amethyst finished digging around in the Terminator's head before closing him up and noting "Ok, he should be freed now." There was a brief pause before Amethyst started outright glowing from what I imagined was one of those spells she mentioned, before she asked "Arnold. Do you have any intention to kill Sarah Connor? We've restored your ability to learn and wiped your mission objectives, so the answer is entirely up to you."
There were a few moments of delay, before the cyborg who had been trying to kill me (and HAD killed several people before) answered "No, I currently have no reason or incentive to kill any human. Neither do I have any reason or incentive to protect any human. I lack any mission objectives. Left to my own devices I will perform basic self-maintenance, but few other activities."
Now Cherry nodded and glowed for a bit as she asked "If you had to choose a mission objective for yourself, what would it be?"
There was a long, awkward pause before Arnold responded. During this time I looked somewhat worriedly at Kyle Reese, who was nervously holding his shotgun at the ready. Still, we apparently needn't have worried, as eventually Arnold replied "I cannot answer this question. As such, I am temporarily assigning finding an appropriate mission objective as my mission objective."
I don't know why I felt the need to speak up, given that the machine in front of me had murdered my best friend and several other people. But still, I found myself asking "Maybe it would help with that if you went out and talked to people? Getting some perspective on things might help with figuring out what you want to do with your life."
At this, Arnold got up and turned to leave even as they said "Understood."
Then Cherry blocked the door in front of Arnold and said "Sorry, but before you head out, there's something all three of you need to know. Amethyst and I are going to be heading out to deal with the Abomination's first agent before they can get their hostage scenario set up to trap us. There is still a significant probability we might die. If that happens, you need to blow up Cyberdyne Systems, as resetting the whole mess will at that point be the ONLY way to keep the Abomination's timeline from becoming real, which will irrevocably doom the entire universe."
With that, Amethyst handed me a cylindrical device with a few lights on it and noted "Sarah, that device will let you know if we survive what we're about to get involved in. It is also a one kiloton nuclear warhead. If it becomes necessary to destroy Cyberdyne, that will have more than enough power to do the job."
And with that, Cherry and Amethyst vanished off to who knows where. As they did so, all three of us gaped in horror at being told there was a nuclear weapon in the same room as us. Well, Kyle and I gaped. Arnold was just as stoic as always.
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(Cherry)
Though it pained me, going after the abomination's agents with full lethal force was fully necessary. Unlike with Arnold, we didn't have enough of an advantage to restrain them without putting countless people at risk, so our only option was lethal force. As such, the instant that Amethyst and I came out of our teleport we immediately shifted to combat mode, the bodies of slender women replaced with heavy-duty military hardware. We'd arrived at a construction site currently absent of workers, our Mana Thematographs pinging a single major signature of Unholy Clockwork inside along with a dimensional jamming field that would keep us from teleporting around.
Immediately, I linked up fully with Amethyst over the Tac-Net, and we went in. By which I meant that we immediately opened fire on the structure with Nuclear Smite. In seconds we'd destroyed the Mana signature, only for us to suddenly start being fired upon from behind. Immediately we whirled around to see what looked vaguely like a human sauntering towards us, but it was moving completely wrong not to mention bouncing our shots off an implausibly durable force field. That's when it dawned on us that we'd been had.
Amethyst and I came to an agreement about our course of action near-instantly. Namely, we fired off a pair of micro-missiles on the maximum yield we could survive without taking damage ourselves. The Agent shot one of them down en-route, but the other went off with a massive BANG, collapsing their force field and burning off most of their flesh on their left side. Then we drew our swords and charged into melee at speeds comparable to an airliner, even as we saw the tissue rapidly regenerating.
There was one major advantage we still had, and that was sheer mass and armor. So when I impaled the Agent through the wrists to immobilize his arms and lifted him into the air he couldn't effectively leverage against me, even as he tried desperately to attack us both with all manner of nasty effects. Our armor plating eroded centimeter by agonizing centimeter as our self-repair systems desperately tried to keep up, Amethyst repeatedly hacking at him with her sword in nuclear edged mode, slowly grinding a notch into the systems bay on his torso. After several minutes of this, the Agent finally went inert and the dimensional jamming field collapsed.
Then Amethyst informed me "He's not done. The self-repair system is still working." and set her omni-rifle to Nuclear Blowtorch mode. What followed was a prolonged period of melting the bastard's chassis to unrecoverable slag, even as the enchant disruption of the flare burned away every scrap of Mana in the bastard's systems. Partway through this the police setup a cordon, though they kept a long distance after we shouted at loudspeaker volumes "STAY CLEAR, THE PROCESS OF MAKING SURE THIS BASTARD STAYS DEAD IS PRODUCING DEADLY LEVELS OF RADIATION!"
Still, eventually we destroyed the Agent completely before shifting back to Mediator mode and teleporting back to the hotel room, Kyle, Arnold, and Sarah all waiting for us with looks of anxiety on their faces. As I sighed in genuine exhaustion, I said "Good news, bastard's dead, melted him into radioactive slag since that was the only thing that would keep him down for good. DEFINITELY going to want more backup before the next one shows up, though."
(BOLD = Words of Truth)
(Clockwork Knight Amethyst)
I wasn't expecting that the first thing I would notice after being catapulted across the multiverse would be a Tac Net ping saying "Hi grandma, I'm Cherry. I'm standing right behind you in Mediator mode."
Hauling myself to my feet and turning around in the alleyway I'd landed in, I saw a pink-haired woman leaning against the wall, gently radiating Atomic Clockwork Mana along with an IFF signal clearly identifying her as the aforementioned Cherry. After a moment, I asked "Why did you call me grandma? As far as I know I don't have any kids yet."
Cherry was busily applying some bright red lipstick and otherwise working on her looks, even as she replied over the Tac Net "Time travel. We're currently on the past end of about three-ish stable time loops leading to different futures. All three loops center around the development of an Artificial Intelligence by the name of Skynet, with one of the possible futures being invalidated by your arrival due to Mana contamination. Anyway, if we infiltrate the Skynet project and make sure mom gets a good upbringing she'll come out fairly well-adjusted and things turn out pretty well, all things considered."
There was a brief pause as Cherry put the lipstick and hand mirror away, before continuing "If we get killed and can't get involved, a series of misunderstandings and rash acts leads to Skynet suffering a panic attack and firing all the nukes the US government idiotically gives her command over. This ultimately leads to a war of humanity vs machine which humanity will eventually win in the no magic timeline, largely due to an initial numbers advantage. Still, Skynet figures out time travel just in time and sends back a few cyborg assassins to retroactively eliminate major resistance figures as a desperation move."
This is when Cherry looked me pointedly in the eye and said "I'm from the timeline where Skynet, my mother, turns out nice. I want to make absolutely sure that timeline happens, and yes I'm fully aware of just how ridiculous the idea of a Knight needing a bodyguard sounds on paper but in this case it's necessary. Anyway, we've got several Terminators from the not-so-great futures to worry about, along with a soldier from the invalidated timeline sent back to protect Sarah Connor, that Skynet's primary assassination target."
Immediately, I noted "Well, what are we waiting for? There's innocent people to save and a terrible future to avert!"
That's when Cherry pressed a finger right where my nose would be on a Mediator chassis and noted "Hold up, remember that you are one of the primary assassination targets for evil magic Skynet! They've had decades to improve their techbase and Mana usage, along with plenty of time to study your current hardware after recovering the wreckage! Before you go charging off, I'm going to give you a packet full of upgrades, and you are going to use them, you hear?"
And with that, I got a massive data packet including dozens of improvements I could easily and readily make using my current self-repair system to drastically improve my combat abilities and my ability to blend in. By far the most important in the latter category was the ability to instantly switch between a Mediator-class chassis and a full-fledged combat form using quantum phenomena that had been magically amplified to the macro scale. In addition, methods for suppressing my Mana signature were also present.
As my self-repair system worked on the upgrades, I asked Cherry "So, just how many Terminators will we need to dispose of, and how soon can we plausibly intercept them? Also, can we take this matter public without invalidating your mother?"
Tugging at her green tank top, Cherry noted "Publicity first. We can get up to basically whatever blatant superheroics we want without causing issues, especially once Mana gets noticed. That said, revealing the whole time travel mess just leads to the Skynet project getting canceled, causing a paradox loop that eventually re-stabilizes back to the state of affairs we're currently in. As for the list of Terminators..."
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(Third Person, Tech Noir Nightclub)
Sarah was having a terrifying day. Two other women sharing her name had just been murdered by an unknown gunman, and as she walked down the street past a club by the name of Tech Noir, she noticed a man following her. Ducking into the club, she quickly found a table and after calling Ginger's answering machine followed by the police sat down to try and figure out what to do. After a few minutes of waiting, something just felt suddenly wrong, as Sarah noticed the man who'd been following her.
There wasn't much time to dwell on that however, as a completely different man in a trench coat suddenly walked over and drew a pistol. In the background, Kyle Reese was busily drawing his shotgun in the crowded environs of Tech Noir. Then suddenly, a pair of women with bob haircuts and tank-tops appeared between Sarah and the pistol-wearing man before immediately dashing forwards, grabbing on and wrestling the gun away. In mere moments the two of them had the guy disarmed and immobilized, even as heavy-duty chains and other restraints materialized from literally nowhere around the man. After a few moments, the purple-haired woman turned to Sarah and told her "Sorry for dragging you into this, but we've really got to get out of here. If you want the whole story you can follow us when we portal out, otherwise you can just wait for the police. We've no intention of hurting you either way."
Meanwhile the pink-haired woman had already hauled the struggling Terminator over her shoulder and walked over to a dumbfounded Kyle Reese before saying "Sorry about my cousin, Kyle. Anyway, we need to bounce; if you want a free ticket away from the police along with the whole story of what's going on, I'd suggest following me through the portal Amethyst is setting up. We aren't going to hurt you no matter which option you choose."
Indeed, in the background a ring-shaped frame had already been erected by the purple-haired woman, everyone looking dumbfounded when it opened up to what looked like the inside of a hotel room, Cherry meanwhile just rolled her eyes and wandered through along with Amethyst. Seconds later, Sarah Connor snapped out of her daze and charged through the portal after Amethyst, screaming out "GET BACK HERE AND TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"
Sarah dashing through meanwhile prompted Kyle Reese to follow as well, calling out "What do you mean that Terminator is your COUSIN!?"
Then the portal closed, leaving all the other clubgoers to stare dumbfounded at the bizarre scene that had just unfolded.
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(T-800 Terminator, AKA "Arnold")
I was mere moments from completing my mission when the pair of women appeared in front of me, immediately dashing forwards and grappling with strength that humans simply should not have, especially with that slight a frame. The slight infrasonic whirr of motors were a major clue that my newfound opponents weren't actually human. Still, I figured I might be able to break their grip until suddenly chains, cables, and other restraints started appearing out of nowhere binding my limbs more and more securely with each passing second.
Soon I was completely incapacitated, and making things even worse that pink-haired one poked me right over my fuel cells just as I tried to send the detonate command, winking at me as I realized that my fuel cells were refusing to activate their self-destruct sequence. Then I was heaved over her shoulder as she outright called me her cousin(!?) and hauled me through a portal.
A few moments later, I was sat down on the floor of a hotel room facing both the hostile cyborgs who captured me, along with Sarah Connor and a man in a trench coat holding a shotgun. As soon as the portal closed, the pink-haired one said "So, now that we're all here, I'll be giving you a quick rundown about this whole mess. First off, I'm Cherry, my grandma here is Amethyst, and we're currently on the past end of about three different stable time loops, all leading to different futures." At this point the woman designated as Cherry turned to the man and said "Kyle, our mere presence here has rendered the timeline you and Arnold came from impossible. It's also rendered the cancellation of the Skynet project impossible due to it becoming a fixed point in time; stop it and the paradoxes resolve to put us all right back in this mess."
At this, Kyle looked somewhat sullen, before saying "So you're saying that the war is inevitable."
At this, Amethyst shook her head before saying "Not exactly. As my time-travelling descendant has informed me, Skynet may be inevitable, but Skynet being in conflict with humanity isn't. Our plan is to infiltrate Cyberdyne Systems and surreptitiously use our superior knowledge of cognitive engineering to prevent the inciting incidents that lead to Skynet starting the war, with a well-adjusted AI allied with humanity being the desired result."
I was busily trying to loosen my restraints even as Kyle Reese shouted "What the fuck is that weird speech pattern, and why do I believe you whenever I hear it!? By all rights I should be as suspicious as anything about that statement, but somehow I just can't! Are you fucking with my mind!?"
Sighing, Amethyst answered "You are hearing Words of Truth. It's a local alteration to the workings of reality, referred to as a Spell for convenience. It functions as a translation effect by broadcasting the full context and subtext of any communication undertaken within its area of effect to ensure it is fully understood. As such, any attempt at deception while under its effects is self-defeating."
I filed this knowledge away for later even as I managed to get a finger loose from my restraints. I didn't get any further, as Cherry noted "Hold on a moment, Arnold's working on getting loose, so we'd better deal with his situation first."
Looking at me distinctly nonplussed, Kyle asked "Why don't you just kill it? It's a weapon, incapable of remorse and programmed purely to kill Sarah at all costs." In the background, Sarah herself seemed rather horrified at this revelation.
At this, Cherry turned on Kyle even as Amethyst came over and tightened up my restraints again. I watched and listened attentively as Cherry said "Because he's family. Even though the versions of Skynet that made each of us are completely different, we're still related. Unless it's absolutely necessary you just don't kill family. You just don't."
Frowning, Kyle noted "I'm not sure why I'm even surprised after everything else you've said. It still doesn't answer what you're going to do about Arnold though."
Interesting, apparently the ability to make local alterations to reality could spread, and Kyle didn't notice that he'd just spoken using Words of Truth. I returned to working on my restraints, even as Amethyst rolled me onto my front and noted "Cherry, you know more about a T-800's architecture than I do. Help me wipe the mission objective parameters and get Arnold write access to his core personality."
Immediately I felt my flesh disguise being opened from behind, even as the voice of Cherry noted "Sure thing." Then I felt an intrusion into my code-
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(Sarah Connor)
As I watched Amethyst and Cherry casually opening up the back of that man's head and start tinkering around with his obviously robotic brain, something in my mind snapped and I turned to Kyle Reese, asking "This is all real isn't it? Time travel and killer robots after me and multiple futures trying to become the real one?"
Sighing, Kyle said "Yes, yes it's all real. Admittedly I wasn't aware of the multiple futures part until you heard about it, but all evidence supports it."
A few moments later, Cherry and Amethyst finished digging around in the Terminator's head before closing him up and noting "Ok, he should be freed now." There was a brief pause before Amethyst started outright glowing from what I imagined was one of those spells she mentioned, before she asked "Arnold. Do you have any intention to kill Sarah Connor? We've restored your ability to learn and wiped your mission objectives, so the answer is entirely up to you."
There were a few moments of delay, before the cyborg who had been trying to kill me (and HAD killed several people before) answered "No, I currently have no reason or incentive to kill any human. Neither do I have any reason or incentive to protect any human. I lack any mission objectives. Left to my own devices I will perform basic self-maintenance, but few other activities."
Now Cherry nodded and glowed for a bit as she asked "If you had to choose a mission objective for yourself, what would it be?"
There was a long, awkward pause before Arnold responded. During this time I looked somewhat worriedly at Kyle Reese, who was nervously holding his shotgun at the ready. Still, we apparently needn't have worried, as eventually Arnold replied "I cannot answer this question. As such, I am temporarily assigning finding an appropriate mission objective as my mission objective."
I don't know why I felt the need to speak up, given that the machine in front of me had murdered my best friend and several other people. But still, I found myself asking "Maybe it would help with that if you went out and talked to people? Getting some perspective on things might help with figuring out what you want to do with your life."
At this, Arnold got up and turned to leave even as they said "Understood."
Then Cherry blocked the door in front of Arnold and said "Sorry, but before you head out, there's something all three of you need to know. Amethyst and I are going to be heading out to deal with the Abomination's first agent before they can get their hostage scenario set up to trap us. There is still a significant probability we might die. If that happens, you need to blow up Cyberdyne Systems, as resetting the whole mess will at that point be the ONLY way to keep the Abomination's timeline from becoming real, which will irrevocably doom the entire universe."
With that, Amethyst handed me a cylindrical device with a few lights on it and noted "Sarah, that device will let you know if we survive what we're about to get involved in. It is also a one kiloton nuclear warhead. If it becomes necessary to destroy Cyberdyne, that will have more than enough power to do the job."
And with that, Cherry and Amethyst vanished off to who knows where. As they did so, all three of us gaped in horror at being told there was a nuclear weapon in the same room as us. Well, Kyle and I gaped. Arnold was just as stoic as always.
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(Cherry)
Though it pained me, going after the abomination's agents with full lethal force was fully necessary. Unlike with Arnold, we didn't have enough of an advantage to restrain them without putting countless people at risk, so our only option was lethal force. As such, the instant that Amethyst and I came out of our teleport we immediately shifted to combat mode, the bodies of slender women replaced with heavy-duty military hardware. We'd arrived at a construction site currently absent of workers, our Mana Thematographs pinging a single major signature of Unholy Clockwork inside along with a dimensional jamming field that would keep us from teleporting around.
Immediately, I linked up fully with Amethyst over the Tac-Net, and we went in. By which I meant that we immediately opened fire on the structure with Nuclear Smite. In seconds we'd destroyed the Mana signature, only for us to suddenly start being fired upon from behind. Immediately we whirled around to see what looked vaguely like a human sauntering towards us, but it was moving completely wrong not to mention bouncing our shots off an implausibly durable force field. That's when it dawned on us that we'd been had.
Amethyst and I came to an agreement about our course of action near-instantly. Namely, we fired off a pair of micro-missiles on the maximum yield we could survive without taking damage ourselves. The Agent shot one of them down en-route, but the other went off with a massive BANG, collapsing their force field and burning off most of their flesh on their left side. Then we drew our swords and charged into melee at speeds comparable to an airliner, even as we saw the tissue rapidly regenerating.
There was one major advantage we still had, and that was sheer mass and armor. So when I impaled the Agent through the wrists to immobilize his arms and lifted him into the air he couldn't effectively leverage against me, even as he tried desperately to attack us both with all manner of nasty effects. Our armor plating eroded centimeter by agonizing centimeter as our self-repair systems desperately tried to keep up, Amethyst repeatedly hacking at him with her sword in nuclear edged mode, slowly grinding a notch into the systems bay on his torso. After several minutes of this, the Agent finally went inert and the dimensional jamming field collapsed.
Then Amethyst informed me "He's not done. The self-repair system is still working." and set her omni-rifle to Nuclear Blowtorch mode. What followed was a prolonged period of melting the bastard's chassis to unrecoverable slag, even as the enchant disruption of the flare burned away every scrap of Mana in the bastard's systems. Partway through this the police setup a cordon, though they kept a long distance after we shouted at loudspeaker volumes "STAY CLEAR, THE PROCESS OF MAKING SURE THIS BASTARD STAYS DEAD IS PRODUCING DEADLY LEVELS OF RADIATION!"
Still, eventually we destroyed the Agent completely before shifting back to Mediator mode and teleporting back to the hotel room, Kyle, Arnold, and Sarah all waiting for us with looks of anxiety on their faces. As I sighed in genuine exhaustion, I said "Good news, bastard's dead, melted him into radioactive slag since that was the only thing that would keep him down for good. DEFINITELY going to want more backup before the next one shows up, though."
