by Mia Archer
Granted that hadn’t worked out the best the last time around, but I’d been a little surprised by the appearance of two ex-girlfriends at the time. I figure I deserved a little bit of a pass on that one.
I moved over to the bars facing my prettier neighbor. Forced myself to not get distracted by those purple eyes and the way her face looked so innocent and yet mischievous at the same time.
"Listen," I said. "You're good with tech stuff, right?"
"Well yes," she said. "But what good will that do?"
"Who are you really?" I asked.
“Night Terror, I thought I made myself clear. I don't want to get in the middle of big world changing…”
"Damn it I didn't ask you a question. I gave you an order. I am Night Terror, and you will tell me who you are!"
The girl stared at me in astonishment. Her mouth worked, but clearly I’d short-circuited her with my words. Then she stood up a little straighter.
“Technomancer,” she said. "They call me Technomancer.”
My breath caught. I’d heard that name before. It was one of those names that everyone thought was more of an underworld rumor than anything real. The guy who could touch any bit of tech and magically make it work.
I’d always thought that was so much hyperbole and I’d dismissed it. I figured it was like when people went up against me and one of my tech toys. There’d been a few rumors about me. That I was so good with tech because of some superpower that gave me an advantage with the stuff.
I’d just been your garden variety supergenius with a technical bent though. Nothing magical about that beyond my superior intellect and love of tinkering. If what I’d heard about this girl was true then what she did went beyond a love of tinkering.
I was inclined to think some of those rumors were true. I’d seen what she’d done with those locks. She could literally touch a piece of tech and get it to do her bidding, which was a hell of a power.
Also, apparently she was a girl and not a dude. That seemed to be a recurring issue for me lately.
"You’re for real?" I asked. “Technomancer exists, and you’re him? I mean you’re her?”
She looked down. Ran her hands up and down her body in a way that I tried not to let distract me, but it was difficult. The girl was a looker, after all. Finally she looked back up at me after she'd patted herself down a couple of times.
"I'm pretty sure I'm real," she said. “And I’m pretty sure I’m a girl. Always have been.”
I shook my head and laughed. Then I really surprised Technomancer by holding my hand out through the bars.
“Allow me to shake your hand," I said. "I've heard great things about you. If I'd known you were you when we met while you were dumpster diving…"
"You probably would've done the same thing," she said. "Only you would've tried to capture me. Not kill me."
I thought about that. That did sound like something I’d do. I shrugged, conceding the point.
"Maybe you're right," I said. "Then again maybe not. Either way, it's an honor to meet you."
Now it was her turn to look down at my hand with suspicion. Finally she shrugged and took my hand. Gave it a shake.
Technomancer. She was a legend in the villainous underground. A legend I hadn’t spent all that much time trying to chase down because what was the point in trying to chase down whispers and rumor? Particularly when those whispers usually turned out to be so much hogwash and chasing them wound up being a wild goose chase?
Villains liked to tell stories. Especially in the Starlight City underworld. I’d made a point of spending as little time in that underworld as I possibly could. I'd thought myself above it, though I was starting to realize just how wrong I'd been.
"I guess that makes sense how you can get these locks to work just by touching them," I said. "Can you really manipulate any technology with just a touch?"
"That's not exactly how it works," she said. "It's sort of like the ability an empath or a telepath has with humans or other living creatures, but mine works with machinery. I can sort of feel it. Intuitively know what makes it work and sort of convince it to do what I need it to do. The more complex the machinery the easier it is.”
“Must be interesting when you have chats with AI,” I said.
“You have no idea,” she said with a roll of her eyes that told me she had some interesting stories.
"Boy what I wouldn't give to have you in my lab," I said.
CORVAC would have a field day with this girl. She could have a field day with CORVAC, for that matter. A tech empath who could get high technology to bend to her will? Yeah, seeing the two of them go toe to toe with each other would be a hoot.
Her eyes lit up. "You’d show me your lab?"
I thought about that. Thought about the chances that I was going to survive long enough to make it to my lab and show this girl around. Then shrugged. Sometimes the best promises a villain made were the ones they had no intention of keeping, though with this girl I wasn’t sure if I was keeping this promise or not.
I really wanted to see what she could do, even as I was terrified at the idea of bringing her back to the lab because she might be able to turn my toys against me. I’d figure all that out later. After escaping this place. Assuming I could escape this place.
"Sure," I said. "If we make it out of this alive then I'll show you around."
She eyed me askance. Cocked her head to the side.
"If we make it out of this alive?" she asked. "You're planning something, aren't you?"
"I was planning something," I said. "But unfortunately I'm supposed to be the main event in a cage fight with Firebrand in a few short hours and my timetable for that plan has been moved up by a hell of a lot."
"So what was the plan?" she asked.
I held out the wrist computer I'd stolen. A wrist computer that was running basically the same software I'd created back when I first designed my own wrist computer. Not for the first time, Dr. Lana’s inability to actually come up with an original idea was working to my advantage.
"The lady who built this thing and sold it to the people here at SuperMax stole all her technology from me," I said. “It’s a long story and part of the reason I'm in here in the first place. The point is, it's all running on software I wrote, or software that was copied and pasted from software I wrote. Which means…"
"Which means you know how to get into every system in this place," Technomancer breathed out.
"Exactly," I said. "And I was thinking of taking advantage of that to maybe do a smash and grab.”
21
Escape
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"I'm talking about getting access to my stuff. They’re storing it on site along with everything else they've ever confiscated from villains who came to this place, and I want my stuff back. I have no intention of being here in this cell when they come to get me."
"Damn," Technomancer breathed. "So you're saying if I help you out I get to actually pull a genuine honest to goodness villainous job with Night Terror?"
I grinned. “That's what's happening," I said. "But we have to move fast."
"So what am I doing?" she asked.
"I was thinking it would be fun for you to maybe start a distraction. What do you say? Maybe opening these damned doors that aren’t part of the system connected to this wrist computer?”
Technomancer grinned, and I knew I'd caught her interest.
A few minutes later Technomancer strolled out of her cage after doing the kind of feeling up on the locking mechanism that was usually reserved for teenagers in the back of a beat up old car they’d inherited from their parents. She gave me a wink and a thumbs up.
The guards were so busy gathering everybody who was getting carted off to the arena that they didn't seem to even notice that something was going on. Well that was too bad for them. They should’ve been paying closer attention and not getting complacent.
I grinned as she walked past my cell and casually bru
shed her hands against the square block that held the locking mechanism. Then she moved on to the next cell. The one that contained the big shadowy something that I’d been so careful to avoid ever since our first encounter, lest I find myself getting yanked into that cell the unpleasant way by being dragged through the bars.
After that it was quick enough. She’d do a quick touch, and the door slid open just enough to let the occupants know they were free. Surprised villains blinked out at her every time she did, but not for long. No, it didn't take long for them to bust out and lay into the very surprised guards gathering up victims for the gladiatorial arena.
It was probably a good thing Firebrand had become the favorite in those fights. It meant she wasn't in this cell block any longer where she could get in the way of our escape.
I'm sure she was being held in some special undisclosed location where she got an extra pudding with her dinner every evening because she was willing to kill villains and heroes indiscriminately in the arena. It was a return to the worst and most barbaric aspects of human civilization, and it twisted my stomach.
No Firebrand meant it was just heroes and villains in a melee going up against all the guards that’d been sent to cart them off. Most of the heroes seemed willing to play ball since they’d discovered their heads were on the chopping block too. Which gave them a heck of an incentive to fight like the cornered animals they were.
I had a nasty surprise waiting for those guards. Unfortunately for them, the weapons they were using were all Dr. Lana specials. Which meant it was easy enough for me to activate them because the dumbasses doing the procuring here at SuperMax had apparently thought their weapons of all things needed to be connected to the Internet of things.
Which was a stupid fucking buzzword which was shorthand for “let’s install a glaring security flaw on everything,” but if they were stupid enough to install a glaring security flaw then I was more than happy to take advantage of it.
With the press of a button all their weapons deactivated, though it seemed to be taking them a moment to realize it. When they figured it out things weren’t going to be pretty though.
It didn't take long for a siren to start wailing in the distance. I figured that was my cue to exit, stage left, and so I made my way in that direction. That's where all the commotion had always come from, and that was also where my new wrist computer told me the hidden entrance to this cellblock was located.
It didn't hurt that I'd also had Ron showing me how to get here from the commissary.
I hit a button on the wrist computer and peered inside to make sure there weren't any guards on the other side waiting for potential escapees. In the best case scenario no one would realized I was over here making my escape.
“Are we ready to go?" Technomancer asked.
I turned and blinked. I hadn't seen her come out of the heroic and villainous melee that was quickly shaping into one hell of a brawl.
"That was sneaky," I said. “Are you sure you don’t have some stealth ability on top of everything else?”
She shrugged. "I'm kind of small and easy to miss. You didn't see me until I was right on top of you, after all."
"Are you sure you want to come along for this?" I asked. "It's going to be dangerous. Like if they catch us with Sabine calling the shots there's a good chance they'll kill us. You’re also going to be pretty hard to miss in those white halls no matter how small and easy to miss you are.”
"We'll see about that," she said. "Besides, I get the feeling they’re not going to find us if you’re doing your job right.”
I sighed. "You're really too perceptive for your own good. You know that, right?"
"Well I couldn't help but notice that the guards were having some trouble with their weapons,” she said. "I mean if ever there was a time for them to use that stuff, you'd think it would be now, right? Which makes me think there’s someone who’s doing a bit of manipulating with a stolen bit of equipment.”
I grinned. That was a fun little surprise I'd put together for the asshole guards. Even now some of them were still pulling their triggers over and over, for all the good it was doing them. Which was none at all.
“So I left them a little surprise," I said. "I figure any jackbooted thugs willing to gather a bunch of people up and send them off to their certain death deserve a surprise like that."
I'd also made sure Ron wasn't in that group before I deactivated the weapons. I still would've done it, but I would've had the added complication of trying to figure out a way to save his overweight ass. It was the least I owed him for giving me the means to disable those weapons in the first place.
Besides, I’d noticed there was a difference between the regular guards who used to keep things in order at this place and the jackbooted thugs working for Sabine to bring heroes and villains to their doom.
"So what now?" she asked.
"Now we go find my shit," I said.
I stepped in and closed the door behind us. Hit a couple of buttons to lock that door.
"No one's going to be getting out of there for a little while," I said.
“What about the guards?" she asked. “I mean you’re locking them in there with a bunch of pissed off villains and no way to defend themselves. Doesn’t that seem a little harsh?”
I shrugged. "They dug their grave when they decided to work with Sabine. Now they can lie in it. Literally."
"Cold," she said.
I hit her with a sharp glance. She held her hands up as though that glance was enough to make her think I was about to attack her or something.
"Don't get me wrong," she said. "That's classic old school Night Terror. I like it. I'm just surprised to see you acting like this after you were all noble and heroic for so long."
"It took a little bit of doing to remember who I was," I said. "Besides. No one likes a villain who spends all her time moping around acting all sad about her lot in life. It's much more fun to be the villain who goes out and blows shit up because she's not happy about her lot in life."
"Now you're talking!" Technomancer said.
Our stroll to the storage unit was a nice easy walk. Mostly because now that I had access to the computer systems, systems that seemed to have been upgraded by the Starlight City University Applied Sciences Department which meant I had the run of the code I’d designed and Dr. Lana had copied, I could direct doors to open and close and lock and unlock whenever and wherever.
The practical upshot of that was we didn't have to worry about a single security detail finding us. Not when I could herd them out of our way easily enough by following the convenient life sign scans that were set up throughout the prison.
I was truly turning this place against its masters. I figured the bastards deserved it for being stupid enough to let Dr. Lana upgrade their security system.
"This seems too easy," Technomancer said. "Are you sure they're not tracking us somehow?"
"Don't be ridiculous," I said. "I've got access to their whole system through this wrist computer. You said it yourself. Night Terror is nothing without her toys, but once you give me those toys…"
"You should’ve stolen one of those things from the guards a long time ago if this is the result," she said.
"Well we're not out of the shit yet," I said. "At any moment now more guards could come streaming into this place. Sabine could realize something bad is going down when the latest shipment of gladiators don’t make it to that arena and send her shock troops."
"Maybe," she said. "But can't you do the same to them that you did to those guards back in the cell block?”
“Afraid not," I said. "Any shock troops will be using alien tech, and that's not going to be wired into the SuperMax computer system. We’re lucky enough that they recently procured new weapons and wrist computers, and that those weapons happened to come from the Applied Science Department."
It was enough to make me wonder just how many institutional organizations Dr. Lana had peddled her wares too. Did I now have a backdoor
into just about every major security organization on the planet because they were eager to have weapons that worked like Night Terror’s stuff?
The military had been salivating at the idea of getting access to my toys for quite some time now. They'd offered me a staggering amount of money to give them some of my stuff at first, and then they’d tried more strong-arm tactics when that hadn't worked.
They'd learned what a huge mistake that was. Much to their top secret shame. Though those records wouldn’t be released to the public until well after everyone involved, except for me if my human longevity project worked, were long dead. Most of the people I’d spanked during that incident still had their jobs, even, which was fine with me.
If institutional inertia kept a bunch of idiots with heavy boards on their shoulders around after a spectacular failure that taught them not to fuck with me then that was fine with me. It saved me the trouble of teaching that lesson to a new set of shoulder boards every time the old ones got fired for their inevitable failure.
Yeah, reminding them who was boss on this world had been pretty fun. And now it was time to do the same with an invading alien military. Even if I still had no idea what I was going to do about those aliens. I was having trouble thinking beyond escaping from SuperMax, to be honest.
"You know I actually feel pretty good about this," I said. "It's like I've got my groove back or something. I really shouldn't have let Sabine and Fialux get me down like that."
I consulted the map. We'd been going through a veritable maze of interchangeable white hallways. I got the feeling they’d taken down the street signs on purpose to confuse anyone trying to do exactly what I was doing. I couldn't be sure, and I certainly wasn't going to ask the warden. No, if I had any choice in the matter I’d never see that sniveling jerk’s face again.
I should've known better than to start thinking things like that. Because no sooner did I start thinking about how if I had a choice I’d never see that sniveling jerk again than of course the universe took that choice out of my hands and shoved that sniveling obsequious snake into my face.