'I'm free. I'm free and what am I doing? I'm sitting on my ass in the darkness. I thought I'd want to explore how much everything has changed, to see other humans living and breathing, but not like this.' Bazz was slouched over in a pile of debris, trying not to let the dark and thick atmosphere bring those feelings back.
"Matrix?"
"Yes, Bazz."
"I need to kill someone."
"I know Bazz."
"How come you are so sure that this thing is male?" Sarge queried.
"Well, it's just from his stance. You know, the way he positioned himself. Plus, he seemed to want to protect *us* which is very manly."
"Cleo, you forget what century you're in, guys don't do the, what did you call it, chivlick thing?"
"Chivalric. It means honorable. And they didn't really do that in my day either. I guess it's just a feeling that it's male."
"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I think it moves too catlike* to be male."
"So you're saying guys can't be like a cat?"
"Will you two drop it?" Hel said, with a frustrated look as she glanced up from her latest "project." "That thing, male or female, could be used against us by Creegan, you saw its fire power."
Cleo piped up, "But Hel, he..., she..., Bazz said that he couldn't kill you or Creegan directly."
"Maybe not me, but you and Sarge would make easy targets, those bullets passed right through the mutants' sheilds."
"It had been so perfect. I could have easily taken them down. By Bailey, I'm going to find this Bazz and rip him apart." Creegan grabbed his largest laser weapon and jumped down to the level where Bazz had been freed. He wasn't quite thinking, as anger filled every grain of his mind. He had had to turn tail, he lost his big chance, and most of his mutants were knocked off. As soon as he got to the level he realized he would have to deal with the three as well, but as he blasted through the entrance, no one was around.
"Damn! Shit! Another chance gone, how did they get out?!?" He took out a small radar device that picked up nearby radio signals, if they were still close he could pick up Voice's interaction with Hel. What luck, he picked up one faint signal and anxiously followed it.
"Right, and what would that be?" Cleo asked and pointed at Hel's completed project.
"It'll pick up on that machine Bazz carries. I haven't seen weaponry like that for a long time, and even then it was in a special collection."
The three girls geared up and jumped out at Voice's command. They reached the level they had been on before, there was a hole in the rubble where the entrance had stood, but not big enought for Bazz to pass through.
"This means she still found another way out and could have gone anywhere," Sarge speculated.
Hel was hot on a trail and speeding the same way that Creegan had run.
When they got to the bar, most survivors were gone. Cleo took one look then ran back out before the vomit came. Hel and Sarge were just astonished by the blood bath. These wounds weren't just from the bullet gun, there were slash marks, missing body limbs, and in some places it looked as though the heads just imploded. Hel attempted to walk through the mess and ended up sliding to a wounded waiter that she spotted.
"What happened here?" She tried to ask him as he regained partial consciousness.
"I only saw this... guy. He was in arm-m-mor. Then there was the sound of fighting. I'll I could see was red and silver before I was knocked out."
Hel helped him up and handed him to Sarge to clean up so she could check on Cleo.
"Well Cleo, looks like your 'knight in shining armor' has some serious personality issues. Are ya doing okay, kid?"
"I'll be okay, I've just never seen so much blood. Well, maybe in 'Dracula' but... oh well. Nevermind. And don't call me kid." She smiled at her own weak attempt at a joke, but that didn't last.
The corridor the signal ended in was narrow, dirty, and almost too dark to see clearly. He thought he saw parts of human bone and the smell was musty and stale at the same time. Bazz was slouched over in a pile of debris, blood now covered the shining suit. If Creegan hand't just watched it move on the radar he could have sworn it was dead.
"So, do you feel any remorse for what you just did?"
"That was justice," came the reply, though not a muscle of the suit moved.
Creegan chuckled and sat next to Bazz.
"So, what are ya? Man, woman, robot, mutant? Hm?" 'Mutant' was asked with a note of sarcasm, though the mechanical crackle defeated the effect. Mutants these days either stuck together or followed a human's orders. He had never seen a mutant go that psycho.
"What's it to you?"
"It was just simple conversation. Now, how exactly tough is that armor of yours?" Creegan picked up his laser but was only loosely prepared to shoot Bazz. After what he had just witnessed, Bazz could be just what he needed down here.
"It's not the armor that protects me, I absorb laser fire. The suit is actually keeping me from being more dangerous."
Creegan cocked an eyebrow, laughed a little, then put his weapon down. Then something came to him.
"How was I able to track you? I thought you were with Helen, but apparently you have your own signal. Are you a carrier of the Voice?"
Bazz stared at him for a moment, at least he thought it was looking at him, he couldn't tell with the helmet on.
"No, I think you mean Matrix and his signals. He's in here with me but can only contact me through those radio-type signals. He's the one who told me to kill Jaze and any who got in my way. That's justice."
Creegan cocked his eyebrow again, this time in confusion and with a slightly disturbed look on his face.
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