Date
Posted:
01.19.1998
Date:
12.05.2195
Time:
Morning
Resurrection
He stared at the two large masses of metal that lay at his feet.
Arms and legs were spread at confusing and unnatural angles as if they
had been wildly flailing about in the last few moments of life. Fluids
of various colors seeped out of numerous cracks in their metallic bodies.
"Glitch! What happened to them?"
He looked down for a few more seconds at the metallic mess at his feet
before moving on. It made him uneasy to think that someone--or something
took out two technomancers with no problem at all. Whatever it was
would have to have been very powerful.
He shuddered and then slowly stepped over the bodies. He proceeded
down the long hallway until he got to the door at the far end. The
door opned up to a large curved corridor. It looked like it probably
made a giant circle, but he couldn't tell yet. The wall across from
the doorway was featureless except for a blue emergency light, and the
words "LEVEL 26: Detention".
He cautiously peered out into the corridor, and saw six more dead BAT's.
Glitch! Are they all dead? The thought gave him additional
hope, and at the same time sent a chill down his spine.
Less cautiously now, he started walking down the corridor, which seemed
to endlessly curve to the left. The corridor was lined with shiny
metal doors on both sides. Each door had a small window in it and
a number above it. He stopped at one and peered inside. He
saw a cot, a sink, and a toilet, but no occupant. He walked to the
next door and looked in, only to see the same thing. He grinned.
I guess they realized that I could have easily slipped out of one of
these cells. Heh, heh, heh. They gave me special treatment.
This thought pleased him immensely.
He again started walking down the hall which continued to curve.
For a little while, there was nothing more than a seemingly endless array
of prison cells with a few dead BAT's here and there for variety.
Finally, he found something different: a door labled "Prisioner Confiscations".
This must be my lucky day!
He pressed the open button on the side of the doorway. The door
remained motionless. No emergency power for the doors, I guess...but
then again, who does? He studied the door. The doorway
was a perfect square. It was featureless except for a small slit
that made a line from the top left to the bottom right. Looks
like a D-Tech. Model 540 or 550, by the looks of it.
He squatted down and ran his hand along the bottom of the right side of
the door frame. There should be an emergency release around
here somewhere...there. He pressed a small hidden button
that mechanically opened a panel on the side of the doorway. The
open panel revealed a large handle with the word "Emergency" on it.
He firmly pulled the handle and was rewarded with the sound of a loud clank.
He stood up and noticed that the diagonal slit was no longer a slit, but
had become an opening that was wide enough for him to get his hands in.
He gripped the doors and started pulling them open. The work was
not overly difficult, but it was strenuous enough that his body decided
to remind him of its physical condition. Waves of pain shot through
him, but he ignored them long enough to get the door open.
He stepped inside, nearly tripping over the body of another dead BAT.
The room was large and rectangular and contained numerous rows of large
lockers. "Oh no," he groaned. It could take hours
to find the one that has my stuff in it. There must be a faster way
than just checking each one. Then again...maybe not. He
studied the nearest locker. It was about two meters high, half a
meter wide, and a meter deep. Several small buttons and a large chrome
handle were located on the right side of the locker door. Printed
above the handle was the number 109A. He looked at the locker on
the left. The number there was 108A. I'll bet the one on
the right is 110A. It is. "Ha! I should have been
a mathematician!" Yeah, right! He paused for a moment
as something seemed to tickle his memory. Those numbers
seem familiar. Three digits followed by the letter "A". I wonder
where I've seen something like that before. Oh well, I'm sure it
will come to me if it's important. In the mean time, let's find out
what's in locker 109A.
Out came the omnidriver again, and in a matter of moments, locker 109A
was open. The locker contained a few articles of clothing, a backpack,
and a couple of shiny, strange-looking devices. They appeared to
be cybernetic implants of some kind. Those implants won't
do me any good at the moment, but a backpack is always useful, and the
clothes.... Well, I might as well change, seeing as the pastel-blue
jumpsuit with blood all over it might attract attention once I get out
of here.
He took pride in his ability to completely change his identity in just
a few minutes. Changing his clothes was a required part of such an
identity change. This being the case, he was fully changed and admiring
his new outfit in under twenty seconds. The shirt fit fine.
The pants were long, and a little baggy in places, but he could deal with
that. He couldn't tell for sure what color his clothes were because
of the blue emergency lighting, but he guessed that the slacks were gray,
and the top was black. He stuffed his bloodied blue jumpsuit into
the backpack along with the cybernetic implants. I probably
won't need any of that junk, but you never know....
He closed the backpack and shut the locker door. His hand froze
on the shiny handle as something caught his eye. He stared at his
hand. It was covered with dry blood from when he punched the bubble
in frustration. The blood had partially obscured something else that
was on his hand. I knew those numbers looked familiar!
He licked the fingers of his left hand, and used them to clean off the
blood. Tattooed on his right hand was the number 192A. It had
been placed there by the BAT's after his capture. He had often wondered
if the tattoo was just some kind of prisioner serial number, or if it had
some other significance. Now he had solved at least part of that
mystery.
He quickly located locker 192A and opened it. He got out his belongings
and started going through them. The only things that seemed to be
missing were a few of his implants, and, of course all of his fellinium
rods. Implants and cash--Not a problem. I can always get
more of those. Everything else was there including guns, clothes,
a few professional escape artist accessories, and, most importatnly, his
sais.
The sai was an ancient weapon that was amazingly still in use eons after
its invention. Of course, at this time, very few people used, or
even knew what a sai was. The sai consisted of three metal prongs
and a handle. The center prong was much thicker and longer than the
other two. As a child, he often thought that sais looked like massively
deformed forks. Despite its viscious looks, the sai was, in fact,
a defensive weapon. In fact, the sai was one of the few martial arts
weapons that was designed to defend against an attacker with a sword.
Of course, the modern sai was often somewhat different the traditional
design. For example, his two sais were collapsable, and had several
other modications as well.
Actually, he hated fighting and would much rather talk his way out of
a jam than fight. Fighting was sometimes necessary, however, and
it was unwise for someone in his line of work to be ill-prepared for physical
combat.
He put his own custom-made belt on, and slid the sais and the guns into
thier special holsters. He put on his cloak and shoved all the rest
of his belongings into the backpack. The backpack was now quite full,
and as he slung it over his shoulder, he felt his aching body complain
again.
Now all I have to do is find my way out of here. He walked
back out to the corridor, carefully stepping over the dead body in the
doorway. He resumed his search for the way out. The hallway
was the same as before--just cells, and a few dead BAT's here and there.
He continued around the corridor until he finally saw the doors of an elevator.
Not operational, of course, but there must also be stairs around here
somewhere. Sure enough, the next door over was marked "Stairs".
The door was partially open, so he simply squeezed himself through.
To his surprise, the stairwell inside only went up. That's odd.
Why aren't there stairs going down? He looked back at the door,
and saw that the words "LEVEL 26: Detention" appeared again, this time
in somewhat smaller lettering. Hmmm...I wonder.... He
walked up one flight of stairs. Sure enough, the next doorway was
labled "LEVEL 25: Storage". Well, I'm either underground, or the
BAT's number their floors backwards (which wouldn't be all that surprising).
The trek up the stairs a long and tiring one. Several times during
the ascent, he had to stop to catch his breath. His aching body despised
the work, but he forced it to go on. His throat was dry for the first
time in a month or so. Apparently now that he had been outside of
the biosphere of his bubble, some of the moisture in his body had escaped
into the atmosphere, and had not been reclaimed by his internal life-support
system.
He was nearing the top now. Left. Right. Left.
Right. Left. Right. Just a little more. Hmmm...let's
see. We're all the way up to... He glanced at the sign
on the door as he turned the corner to go up another flight of stairs.
LEVEL 2: Communications. One more. Left. Right.
Left. Right. Almost there. Left. Right. Left.
I'm there. Stop. Breathe. GROUND LEVEL: Repairs.
He paused for a few moments, and then opened the door.
He was surprised to find himself in a rectangular room that was much
smaller than the giant corridors that he had walked through underground.
There were only a few doors in the wall, and only one small adjoining hallway
off to the left. He started to wonder why the ground floor looked
so different that the other levels but relized that he was too exhausted
to contemplate the reason behind the design (and with the BAT's there may
not have been a good reason).
He decided that the exit was most likely down the hallway off to his
left. He walked towards the hallway and turned the corner.
As he looked down the corridor, three things immediately caught his attention.
1. The hallway was much shorter than expected. 2. The
door at the opposite end of the hallway was wide open to the outside
where, incidentally, it was raining. 3. Halfway down the hallway,
between him and his long awaited freedom, a large figure was standing completely
motionless. The figure seemed to be made almost entirely out of chrome.
An emergency light in the ceiling shined directly down on it causing its
shiny body to paint the hallway with blue sparkles. The BAT insignia
was affixed to its chest.
Oh glitch!
After a brief silence, the figure spoke. "Remove all of your weapons
and drop them to the floor. Lie down on the ground and spread your
arms and legs."
"No 'What's your name?' or 'How's it going?' just 'Get down and spread
'em!' That's not very tactful, if you ask me." Must stall.
Need time.
"I didn't ask. Just do it."
"Or else?"
"You will die."
"You'll kill me."
"Yes."
"With what? Your bare...." He noticed that the BAT's left
arm was missing. "...hand?"
"As a matter of fact, yes."
He didn't doubt it. Technomancers were sometimes known to waste
people with single punches. Talking my way out of this would definitely
be preferable to a fight. Must keep conversing. "How come
you only have one arm, anyway?"
"I was having it repaired when it fell."
"When what fell?"
"Cyberspace."
"What do you mean it fell!?" He was no longer stalling, but was
genuinely interested.
"Moments before you were scheduled to be terminated, cyberspace just...shut
down. Most, if not all, of the brotherhood was in the matrix at the
time of the crash. When it went down, it took them with it.
You've probably seen some of the aftermath."
"How come you survived?"
"I was in for repairs at the time. My matrix interface unit was
disconnected and being serviced at the time as well as my arm. Now,
I must say, you have done an admirable job of stalling, but It will stop
right here. My duty is to make sure that your execution will be carried
out despite the fall of cyberspace, so you must surrender to me now."
Uh oh. Situation deteriorating rapidly. Talk more.
"If I don't surrender, you'll kill me. If I do, you'll kill me.
What kind of a deal is that?"
"It is not a 'deal'. It is what is going to happen."
Conversation still not going well. Try anything.
"Listen, I know it was your duty, and all that, but if you let me go instead
of killing me, I won't tell a soul. I'll just leave and won't ever
bother you again, and you can go back to your mate and your little BAT
juniors, or whatever. It would be so much better for the both of
us."
"BAT's do not have family other than the brotherhood. I lost them
all today."
Glitch! Conversational error. Alternative action might
be necessary.
"I will kill you and then join them in their death. This is your
last chance to surrender peacably."
The time for talking was over. He reached for his guns, and aimed
both at the BAT.
"Your guns have been disabled," the BAT said calmly.
He squeezed both triggers, and the dead silence that followed confirmed
the fact. Glitch! He said nothing, but dropped his guns
and quickly drew both of his sais.
"Those toys will not help you either. Give up. If
you give up now, I will make your death swift and painless."
Well, I've already botched this conversation, so I might as well
have some fun with it. "Oh, boy! A swift and painless death!
I knew that I was going to check out sooner or later, and I always wondered
what my death would be like." This feels great! "Even
when I was a little boy, I would often stay awake in bed hours after my
bedtime just imagining what it would be like to die, and it was my big
dream to have a swift and painless death. I guess today really is
my lucky day!" Well, plan A is now officially glitched.
Switch to plan B. He gripped his sais tighter, but continued
to allow them to hang down at his side. The BAT stood motionless
and silent.
The fight was almost over before it began. In the blink of an
eye, the technomancer leapt into the air and swung its arm. The target
was his head. Such a blow would mean instant death. He instinctively
reacted by attemptitng to block the attack with one of his sais.
He was only partially successful. Instead of hitting his face straight
on, the metal fist grazed his chin. Pain gripped the left side of
his face. No time to think about that now. He counter-attacked
by thrusting with the opposite sai. He realized too late that it
was the wrong move to use on this opponent. The move only worked
on individuals that had light or no armor. Pain shot all through
his left arm as the sai harmlessly bounced of the technomancer's heavily-armored
abdomen. Too close to punch now, the BAT gave him a powerful shove.
He careened through the air, struck the wall, and hit the ground.
The sais dropped from his hands and clattered to the ground. Pain
finally had free reign over his entire body. No time to feel.
Must act. He grabbed the sais and scrambled to his feet.
Both individuals paused for a second while deciding what was going to
happen next. The BAT stood there with a single arm halfway extended.
The other gripped his sais firmly and prepared for the onslaught.
In that brief instant, the target points of technomancers flashed through
his mind. He had never fought a technomancer before, but he remembered
learning that the only places that they were anything less than invincible
(in this type of combat) were the joints--especially the neck. He
started to examine the BAT's joints for possible targets, but was interrupted.
Without warning, the BAT lunged at him. This time he was ready.
The BAT swung several times in rapid succession, but every punch was either
deflected or dodged. Finally, the BAT made a desparate lunge, throwing
all of its weight into it. Mistake. Without hesitation, he
easily dodged the attack, and quickly plunged one of his sais into the
neck of the BAT with a dull crunch. As soon as he felt the
sai sink in, he pressed a small button on the handle. Bright pink
flashes temporarly overcame the blue emergency lighting as energy from
the sai flowed through the BAT's body. The pink lightning stopped,
and he yanked his sai out as the BAT fell forward. He felt the floor
vibrate sligtly as the technomancer's massive body struck the ground.
The body convulsed a few times, and then was still.
The hallway was silent except for the sound of his heavy breathing.
He looked at the dead BAT. The Multi-colored fluid that was quickly
flowing out of the body started to form a small puddle on the ground.
He stood there for a minute and tried to catch his breath. Inside,
he was a whirl of emotions. He could not decide what he was feeling
because it changed from one second to the next. In one second he
wanted to break out laughing. In the next, he was on the verge of
tears. Next, he wanted to shout at the top of his lungs in anger.
He remained silent. After he had finally calmed down, and had caught
his breath, he decided that what he was most was exhausted. A single
tear slid down his face and dropped off the tip of his nose. I
want to go home. With that, he decided to leave. He cleaned
his sai by wiping it on the leg of his pants. He looked it over to
make sure it was clean. As he collapsed the sais and put them back
in their holsters, he looked back at the dead body, and said with a grin,
"Pretty cool 'toys', huh?"
He turned and walked to the door. He looked at the world that
lay beyond the door. It was a dark and strange world, but one that
he was used to. It was freedom. It was home. It was heaven.
The wind was blowing. It was raining...it was raining in heaven. |