Upgrades
by J. Darksong
2)
It’s a bit like being in limbo, in a way.
Deeply entranced by the machine, by the relaxing waves flowing into her mind, Roberta was nevertheless still aware of her surroundings. Granted, most of her mind was locked down, stomped flat and smoothed into listless calm mindlessness, but the human mind is always active, always listening and watching, always taking in information. Her conscious mind was unable to process that information, unable to act on the threat of what was happening, but she WAS aware.
When Eugene was blasted, not once, but twice, she felt a deep concern towards him. And when Ms. Machina stepped into view, peering down at her through the glass capsule from outside while she lay there completely helpless and vulnerable, she felt anxious and afraid. Unfortunately, those feelings were mere drops in an entire ocean of forced calm and serenity, not nearly enough to allow her to rouse herself into anything resembling action. And when the heavy silver contents of Larissa’s vial made its way into her body through the IV, even those weak concerns vanished.
Roberta gasped aloud, back arching, as a shudder ran through her body. A fire like molten lava seemed to rush through her veins, burning her inside, consuming her. Her muscles locked into place as she strained against her bonds, an involuntary reaction. Her mind, however, remained just as open and vacant as before, staring straight ahead as body thrashed. Mocking laughter sounded from nearby, a voice that she knew, yet lacked the ability to recognize.
“Ohhh... so delicious,” Ms. Machina replied, chuckling gleefully. “I see my little compound is reacting better than expected. And with the machine’s process reversed, undoing your changes, reverting you back to your robotic state once more, you’ll soon be upgraded to a form even more powerful, more formidable than the old you could even imagine!” Her expression darkened. “More powerful... but completely under MY control. You’ll be the very first of my unstoppable shock troops! Hah! Not even Omega Girl will be able to stand against you—”
“Oh really? Let’s test that theory then, shall we?”
Larissa whirled around in shock to find the black-clad heroine hovering in the air a few feet away from her, looking more than a little ticked off. Instinctively, she reached for her blaster, only to wince as a pair of Omega Beams fried the gun to a crisp, leaving behind only a small scorch mark. “For blasting Ma... Mister Frasier that way in an unprovoked attack, attempting to kill him? I should crumple you like a tin can right here and now!” she growled, eyes flowing with barely contained energy. “You get one chance, Machina. One. Reverse what you’re doing to Robotica right now, and I swear to merely haul you off to jail without breaking every cybernetic bone in your body.”
Larissa swallowed painfully, barely keeping her knees from knocking together, but she managed to hold her ground. “You don’t scare me, Omega Girl,” she replied back, glancing back towards the doorway, and the hole Frasier had made when he’d been tossed aside. “You’re one of the good guys... this city’s patron heroine. You wouldn’t harm an unarmed woman, despite everything I’ve done. I’m no threat to you.” She swallowed again, as the heroine scowled, but made no overt moves towards her. “So... how about a deal? You let me escape in one piece, and I’ll give you the data card with the information to undo the transformation that your dear friend is undergoing right now.”
Lacie’s frown deepened. “Data card?” she asked.
Larissa patted her left pocket lightly. “Yeah. Right here. Just agree to let me go, and I’ll g—aaaaahhh!” she yelped as Omega Girl grabbed her roughly, lifting her off the ground with one arm. The other ripped open her pocket, retrieving the small rectangular card inside. Her expression darkened, however, as she saw that the device was NOT a data card...
It was a transmitter.
“You... BITCH!” Omega Girl growled, glaring at the woman in her arms, who merely grinned back at her. Just then, A loud crash sounded, as the warehouse wall crumpled inward. She dropped Ms. Machina and turned to face the invaders, two dozen of Ms. Machina’s robotic shock troops. “Shit!” she cursed, throwing up an Omega Shield as she was suddenly bombarded with a barrage of energy pulses from the advancing robot army.
Ms. Machina laughed. “Those mechanoids should keep you busy for a little while,” she said, turning back to the monitor. “Not enough to take down someone as powerful as you, but they’ll buy me enough time to finish working on your little friend here—”
“Don’t count on it!” A synthesized voice called out, just before a small explosion sounded. Machina turned to find several of her robots destroyed. Behind them stood another familiar figure, clad in shining blue and silver armor. As she stared, he fired a barrage of mini-missiles from his wrists, blasting two more of her robots into debris.
“A-Armor Man, too?!?” Larissa exclaimed. “Goddammit! Of all the... how unlucky can one person be?”
“There you are!” Lacie cried, going on the offensive as the army began turning its attention to the other threat, letting loose with a sweep of her Omega Beams. “I was starting to wonder if you were okay...”
“Sorry, I was a bit held up,” he replied drily, glancing at Ms. Machina. “I had to make sure Mr. Frasier was okay after that blast he took.”
“WHAT? You’re kidding me!” Larissa yelled. “He actually survived that?!?”
“Of course,” Armor Man retorted, rushing forward to tackle a pair of robots, smashing them into one another, sending two more behind them to the ground as well. “Luckily, he was prepared, and thought ahead to protect himself with a personal AOE discharge shield among his clothing.” Huh. Lucky indeed, Eugene thought ruefully. I brought with me the bare minimum, more out of habit than any thought of being attacked. And it’s just standard procedure to have one of my armor sets stored in the trunk of every car, just in case it’s needed. I didnae anticipate this at all! Never even considered it. Tch... I must be getting senile in my old age...
Ms. Machina winced in anxiety as her high tech army was being decimated one by one. She stared back at the monitor, noting the percentage shown on the process bar. Fuck me... the way they’re cutting through my bots, they’ll be on me in a matter of seconds! Shit... no choice. I’ll have to suit up myself and try and buy a few more seconds. Tapping rapidly, she sped up the process, ignoring the red danger warning lights flashing. Huh. Yeah right. Like I give a rat’s ass about my main enemy’s well being! Right now, I’m facing two of this city’s heavy hitters. It’s a matter of survival at this point! Stepping back, she activated the neural link to the heavy metal backpack strapped to her, causing it to unlock and fold around her.
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000...
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000...
01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100
W... H... A... T...
What? What is... what’s happening?
Roberta frowned slightly, still dazed and confused. Her head felt strange... fuzzy. Her mind... cloudy... it was hard to separate her consciousness from the computer, to discern her actual thoughts from lines of code. Which was strange. She was... she was being turned back to human, right? It should have been getting easier, not harder—
+UPLOAD COMPLETE! PREPARING TO INSTALL PROGRAM SLAVE.EXE +
Wait... what? ‘Slave.exe’? What the hell?!?
+INSTALLING PROGRAM:... 1%...+
Immediately, Roberta’s mind was assaulted, flooded with commands, suggestions, instructions, simply overloaded with data. It was too much, crowding out her own thoughts, replacing them with computer programming—insistent, irresistible, unbreakable. Her eyes rolled up in the back of her head, and had anyone been around to see them, they would have been surprised to find a steady stream of computer code scrolling in them.
+22%... UNSPOOLING PROTOCOL DIRECTIVES...+
N-no... can’t think... have to fight this... have to... to... obey... need to obey... must ob—NO! Dammit... have to fight... this... re... sist... ERROR! THIS UNIT WILL COMPLY WITH OPERATIONAL PROTOCOLS. THIS UNIT WILL OBEY.
Roberta shuddered slightly, her body continuing to shift and change, the silver-colored serum working its way through her helpless body changing her just as fundamentally as the programming was altering her mind. Her body’s frame, already long and lanky, began to bulk up, adding significant muscle mass that threatened to snap her reinforced restraints and shatter the capsule containing her. Soft tender skin hardened once more, taking on a metallic sheen, her biological cells reformatting, changing into something else.
Pr... Program... directives... yes... obey... obey directives. Protect Mistress. Serve Mistress. Obey Mistress.
+47% ... RECONFIGURING FOR NEW MATRIX. STATUS: WARBOT. WEAPONS SYSTEMS INITIALIZING...+
Beneath her new bulk, new circuits formed and coalesced, matter shifting, crystals forming from the chemicals injected into her, simply utilized in new and different ways. A soft hum, nearly inaudible, began to sound as power began to build up within her. Her simple hand cannons were modified, as well as other multiple weapon systems integrated themselves throughout her entire being. She was, in truth, becoming exactly what her designation had been given.
A warbot.
+89%... STABILIZATION OF PROCESS. DEFENSIVE SYSTEMS ONLINE. WEAPON SYSTEMS ONLINE. TACTICAL PROGRAMMING INTEGRATED. RUNNING FINAL SYSTEMS CHECK... 92%... 94 %... 96%... 98%... 99%...+
“Huuuuaannggg!” Lacie grunted as she crushed the last of the robots into debris beneath her heel before turning back to face the architect of the attack. “That’s it, Machina. You’re army’s done. Time to surrender.”
“Surrender?” Larissa laughed. “HA! As if! I still have a trick or two up my metal-reinforced sleeves!” she called out, firing a pair of missiles at the stalwart heroine. An explosion rocked the room, but when the dust and smoke cleared, Omega Girl stood virtually untouched, eyebrow raised as if to say ‘was that it?’. “Hmph... cheap materials,” Ms. Machina muttered, firing a full barrage in follow up. “This is the last time I get my ordinance at the army surplus store!”
“ENOUGH!” Armor Man yelled, firing a glowing silver beam at the villain’s mechanical suit. Ms. Machina turned to fire at him as well, only to gasp in stunned surprise, finding all her weapon systems offline. “Proto-EMP pulse cannon,” he replied succinctly. “You can forget using your weapon systems again. Now... give it up. You’re outnumbered and outmatched. Your only move here is to power down and surrender!”
Larissa sighed heavily. “Okay... that was a bit unexpected. But fine. I don’t intend to just roll over and die.” She gestured to the machine next to her. “This technology... I don’t intend to just walk away without it. Your employer, Gene Frasier, certainly thought it worth pursuing.” She shook her head. “It’s how I found this place, after all. I’ve been trying for YEARS to reproduce the technology the Mad Professor pioneered back in the day. Did you think I wouldn’t notice Frasier’s multiple trips to that old abandoned and wrecked mansion and the supply drops to this one hidden out of the way in the boondocks?”
Eugene’s eyes narrowed. “Indeed. My... ‘employer’, as you put it, probably doubted someone with your limited and admittedly short-sighted view of robotics would even understand what he was doing, let alone pursue it yourself. After all, you’re no Mind Bore.”
Ms. Machina let out an audible growl. “And for that, you’re going to die!” she stated, raising her hands again, this time ejecting a barrage of small round marbles across the room. A second later, a series of small explosions sounded as the orbs began exploding, knocking the heroes back. “Hah! You’ll pay for underestimating me—unlike you, I don’t depend entirely on my technology!”
Lacie merely rolled her eyes. “Perhaps not... but you’re not much of a threat this way, either.” Inhaling slightly, she blew out forcefully, pushing the rest of the mini-grenades and the smoke completely out of the warehouse. “It’s almost like you’re not even trying, Machina!”
Armor Man, thinking the same thing, however, quickly realized the truth. “It’s a distraction! She’s stalling for time!” he yelled out suddenly. “Omega Girl, get her out of the way, I’m going after Robotica!”
“On it!” Omega Girl yelled back, zipping across the room, grabbing and slamming Ms. Machina’s suit hard into the ground, holding her pinned down. “Now stay put,” she barked before glancing over at her husband. “How is Robbie doing?”
Eugene stared in shock at the monitor displays, reading over the data. “Honestly... I’m not sure,” he murmured, bringing up the program logs. “She’s corrupted the entire program, as well as injected a large amount of an unknown substance into her IV.” He shook his head. “These readings... nanotech?!? No... that can’t be right...”
“Oh, but they are!” Larissa chimed in, gleefully. “You doubted my genius? Fine! Now you’ll see the fruits of all my endeavors first hand—as they rip you both limb from limb!”
At that moment, the canopy of the capsule opened, sliding back to reveal... Robotica. Or rather, the new and improved Robotica.
Standing seven foot two inches, the newly minted warbot only vaguely resembled the humanoid girl that she previously was. Instead of her normal smooth and sleek look, her new form was blocky, with sharp angles and edges. Her chrome texture was also darkened, closer to charcoal gray than silver, with cobalt blue highlights where her circuitry showed through the skin. Her fists were now massive, and what appeared to be two large gun turrets were mounted on her shoulders. Likewise, her legs and feet were also reconstructed, wider, denser and heavier to support her new bulk, with large blocky extensions mounted on them as well.
Most disturbing of all was the gynoid’s face. Covered by a large bulky helmet and a glass visor obscuring most of her face, the only parts of her that were visible were her eyes, which glowed an eerie red.
Stepping up out of the capsule, Robotica turned, scanning the area, her gaze locking on Omega Girl and Ms. Machina, still lying on the ground, pinned. “War-bot-unit-zero-zero-one-online,” she spoke in a flat digitized voice. “Unit-designation-Mistress-under-duress! Directive-one: Protect-Mistress. Warbot-unit-zero-zero-one-entering-combat-mode!”
Omega Girl’s eyes widened as her former friend and comrade locked onto her, several red dots lighting up her chest as she aimed. “Um... Armor Man?” she said hesitantly. “I think we have a situation here...”
“Robotica! Stand down!” Eugene said, urgently, moving to intercede. “Omega Girl and I are not enemies! C’mon... snap out of it! Ms. Machina interfered with the process during your conve—UUGGHNNNNN!”
Faster than the eye could follow, Armor Man found himself backhanded, sent flying across the warehouse with great force, crashing through the thin aluminum walls and outside before his suit could recover and stall his momentum. Ugghh... ow. OW! That... actually hurt. A lot, he mused worriedly. And that despite my armor’s inertial dampening systems. Warbot Robotica seems to have packed on quite a bit of power to go with her new form. This... might be a problem.
Rocketing back to the scene of battle, he found Omega Girl being double-teamed, attacked by Warbot Robotica’s weapons as well as Ms. Machina’s armor-clad fists. “I don’t think so,” he announced, firing at Robotica, hoping to draw her fire. He succeeded, however, the results weren’t what he’d hoped. The warbot began firing at him AND Lacie, splitting her attention between them both without any hint of a problem. In fact, her attacks were becoming more and more effective by the second.
“Shielding-detected. War-bot-unit-zero-zero-one-initiating-counter-measures,” the mindless drone reported. Drawing back for a second, she then extended both hands, which reshaped and formed much larger versions of her usual hand cannons. “Rotating-energy-frequencies,” she announced just before firing. This time, both heroes were blasted back with enough force to knock them both off their feet. Ms. Machina laughed in gleeful excitement.
“Oh my dear lord!” she cackled as she walked over to gloat in front of them. “This is just so perfect! I can’t imagine a more perfect scenario! Few things are more delicious to watch than a pair of goody-goody hero types being taken out by one of their own, especially knowing that she’s acting against her own will.” She sighed softly. “And the best part? For me, it’s win-win. If you two die, then my creation proves my superiority over those other scientific HACKS by succeeding where they failed in taking down two of the world’s most famous and most powerful heroes! And... even if you win, and destroy my warbot,” she said with a shrug. “Well, I lose a hated enemy that has dogged me since I arrived in this stupid city, and you’ll have to live with the stigma of having taken out one of your own friends!”
Lacie scowled, biting her lip. “She’s right, Armor Man,” she conceded, as Warbot Robotica approached them once more, weapons at the ready. “We’re kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place here. She’s too powerful to fight her with kid gloves... but we can’t risk hurting our friend.” She swallowed as the gynoid aimed at them once more. “I really hope you have something clever in mind to get us out of this mess.”
“Aye, me too,” Eugene muttered grimly, readying himself, as Robotica prepared to fire. “I really hope I have something clever in mind as well...”