by Prax Venter
A few hallway junctions later, they came upon an empty hallway with an open door. Mark could feel his treasured cat-girl very near, so when she reappeared by wrapping her arms around him- he was a lot less surprised than she intended. She nuzzled her furry face into his ear and licked the back of his neck once, sending goosebumps down his spine.
“Stop getting hurt,” she said, pushing him into the next vertical shaft after Vale and Erica.
After another short climb up, they came out into another hallway. Vale went out first and indicated that the area was clear.
Eventually, the hallway passed by a large open space with a wide flight of stairs down to an enormous, multi-tiered fountain. Of course, it was filled with blood and not water- as was normal for the Eros Pleasure station. Arranged around the fountain was a tight ring of large decorative spheres. Behind the fountain was a set of double doors with basic white lettering above that read ‘Central Communications’.
Erica slowed and put her metal hands on the railing designed to keep station guests from falling off the ledge to this lower level. Mark thought she was staring at the blood- blood that possibly belonged to the dead girl, Monica.
But when she yelled “Get down!” Mark thought he might have been mistaken. Down on the lower level, the decorative balls transformed into something much more dangerous. The hemispheres of reflective metal split apart and reformed as shields just below sets of glowing red eyes and a single, black gun barrel. Mark dropped to the floor behind the waist-high wall as bolts of charged plasma whizzed over their heads.
The attack caught Ahnix as she was a few stairs down to the lower-level, and she had to teleport next to Mark or get vaporized. Vale took a few hits on her shield before she was forced to lower her long body to the floor as well. Mark could feel the solid metal barrier at his back start to heat up from the continued strikes to the other side.
“It’s a Protectorate Collective,” Erica shouted over the constant plasma fire. “The station must be serious about protecting Coms.”
Roo tapped Vale on the shoulder and said, “Protect me.” Then she stood up, threw her hands into the air and yelled, “Molten Rain!”
The giant naga quickly raised herself up to intercept an attack that would have obliterated Roo, but the close call didn’t wipe the wicked grin on her puffy, velvet lips. The attacks stopped, and Mark peeked over the edge to see the white-shield-wielding robots converge and form a type of connected dome.
Shimmering in the air near the ceiling of the area caught his eye, and Mark watched as dozens of glowing, red needles phased into existence. One by one, they randomly zipped down in a wide area attack. Drops of melting iron whisked off their shields as the shafts of super-heated metal smashed into the huddled robots.
It was a spectacular display of destruction, but every searing needle was deflected to the floor- they didn’t seem to be causing any damage.
After it was over, the robots separated and renewed their assault. Roo had a huge frown on her beautiful lips as she dropped to the floor with Vale.
“Their shields are way too strong for that,” Erica said.
“There has to be a way past them,” the giant naga stated loudly.
Erica put her silver, metal hand on Vale’s arm. “There’s one control drone in the middle. Take it out, and the others become much less organized.”
Roo popped up again and shot a single, three-foot needle into the fray, but two of the closest shield bots moved in and blocked their smaller leader with frightening speed. Vale tackled the fabric-girl to the ground before she could get decimated.
“Stop doing that!” Vale said, pinning Roo to the floor. “We need to come up with a plan!”
“I have a plan,” Ahnix yelled from back in the hallway where the guardrail ended and solid wall began. The cat-girl waved everyone over, and they all crawled along the floor to reach her.
Vale rose up to her full height. “What is it?” she asked eagerly.
Ahnix just responded by slapping her hand on her exo-rubber coated shield. Mark had a direct link to the cat-girl’s mind, but they had all seen that move before.
The black-and-gold desert queen vanished, only to Retract instantly with a passenger- the one control drone.
It had a fraction of a second to realize that it was no longer shielded by its subordinates before Vale shattered its red, glowing eyes with a surprise Shield Bash. Mark and Erica had to dive out of the way as the stunned control drone slid across the smooth station floor on its small, metal spider-like feet.
The giant naga held out her massive shotgun with one hand, squeezed the trigger and blasted the unfortunate robot to tiny scraps of metal.
Roo pumped her soft fist into the air. “Woo! That’s how you do it!”
“They come,” Ahnix said, pointing behind them to the stairs that led down to the lower level. Mark turned and saw two of the shield bots racing forward, their tiny feet scrambling on the smooth floor.
Mark sent out his intent to his girls and quickly launched a ball of white energy from his crossbow. The attack struck one of them in the side, and the resulting explosion took them both out.
“See!” Erica said with a wide smile on her smooth, metal lips. “Easy now.”
The robots all came up the stairs one or two at a time, and Mark, his girls, and Erica took turns destroying them. Ahnix fired her EMP web and the robots caught in the orange glob of static instantly became lifeless. The small metal naga zipped forward and took out two more with her eye lasers, and Roo finally got to nail one in the face with her trusty sewing needle attack.
After the battle was over, Mark noticed he had collected about an eighth of essence in his girls’ respective pools. Killing robots was profitable work.
The path now clear, they moved down the stairs and entered the area known as Coms. They passed the front offices meant for dealing with guests and moved to the back where the majority of the intricate-looking devices and flashing buttons were. Mark could not identify any of it, but Ahnix and Erica went right to a specific interface terminal on one of the walls.
Mark looked from the terminal to Erica. “This is it. We’ll be able to call for help from here, right?”
The smaller metal naga put her hands on the keypad, and without moving a finger, the display came to life. But all Mark saw was static.
“That was the plan.” Erica’s tone of voice indicated that things were not going according to plan.
“This isn’t right,” Ahnix said, tapping on the hacker tool on her wrist. “It’s being rerouted to… Research Lab E102, Terminal 5.”
Erica nodded. “All major station functions have been sent to that one terminal. We wouldn’t have seen it unless we accessed the main trunk like this.”
Mark sighed. “Yeah, those protector bots or whatever didn’t feel like a major boss fight.”
Ahnix’s tail flipped around behind her, and Mark could feel her both agree with him and loathe the fact that they were in a game.
“Major boss?” Erica asked.
“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Mark said, avoiding that conversation again. “So, we have to go yet somewhere else in the station? This research lab?”
Ahnix pulled up her holographic map and growled an affirmative-sounding noise.
“What do they research there?” Vale asked.
The shiny naga perked up. Rattling off station information seemed to give her pleasure.
“The Eros Corporation operates state of the art research and development facilities located in the lower sections of the station. From new Adventure Dome simulations to individual character interaction subroutines- the Eros Pleasure Station experience is second-to-none. Considering the vast resour-”
Erica broke off abruptly. “Sorry. It just sort of pours out of me.”
“It’s okay,” Vale said. “I like to learn all I can about the situation I’m in.”
Just then the station rocked under their feet, and a terrifying distant rumbling caused Mark’s heart to pump double ti
me. Were they all about to be crushed as the station tore itself apart? The rumbling stopped, and everything seemed to be back to normal. Well, normal for a station haunted by a dead girl, Mark thought.
Erica put her hands on the terminal again, and her metal brows came down over her glowing green eyes.
“About a sixth of the station has been expelled into space. I’m seeing some very strange damage reports.”
Mark watched as Ahnix’s projected 3D map updated with bright red spots on one side of the station. He had seen it enough to know that the cargo bay with Johnson, Betty, and Willard was still intact, but they had to be out of their minds with worry. He almost suggested Roo open a door so they could check in and let the three survivors know about the whole laboratory thing- when he remembered that Erica wouldn’t be able to pass through the door. Shit. He didn’t like not being able to use their instant escape route.
“How far away is the lab we need to get to from here?” Mark asked.
Ahnix focused her exotic eyes on his. “After those recent… changes, we will have to go through Adventure Dome One, via the core.”
“Dome one?” Vale said, mild concern coming off her in waves. “Isn’t that the worst one, Gluttony Grove?”
“The place where Willard lost his wife,” Roo whispered.
Mark walked over and put his hand on the giant naga’s round, armored hip. “This is a possessed space station action game. Of course, we’d have to go through them all.”
He turned back to Ahnix. “So just straight down, then?”
“More or less.”
“Let’s get moving,” Vale said, turning to leave Coms. “We have a lot of ladder to descend.”
They moved quickly and pushed deeper into the center of the station. Wheeled sentry bots tried to stop them, but they only came a few at a time. Between Vale’s upgraded shield and Erica’s quick and deadly eye-lasers, the two naga dominated anything that crossed their path.
Once they found the correct vertical shaft, Mark realized Vale wasn’t kidding- they climbed down over thirty levels.
After they finally reached the intended floor, Mark stepped out of the shaft and immediately heard a new type of continuous hum he hadn’t heard before. It was like a slowly oscillating heartbeat. He followed behind Vale and Ahnix as they made a quick right and came face to face with a massive, red metallic door. The angry words ‘* DANGER * STATION CORE BEYOND THIS POINT. SECURITY LEVEL: OMEGA’ were arranged over the top in strict, bold letters.
This door looked serious.
“Omega is going to be tough,” Erica said. “We may face some physical resistance if we try and hack this.”
“What, like more robots?” Mark asked.
“Yes- robots, maybe hidden turrets. If the wrong person got into the core… they could cause a sympathetic resonant collapse. The result of which could rupture a star.”
Mark felt a slight excitement bubble out of Roo as she imagined a star blowing up.
“Is there no other way?” Vale asked.
Ahnix crossed her arms. “We could go back up again and take a structurally compromised route that would require several mass-teleports through the void of space…”
“We can hack the terminals- can you keep the physical response off our backs?” The metal naga gave Vale a playfully serious look.
The larger naga checked the area again. “Backs? You both have to be protected?”
Erica wove over to the right of the door and pointed a single metal finger. “There are two security badges required to unlock the door- both badge readers need to be hacked at once.”
“Let me synchronize with you,” Ahnix said, her tail flipping once. “Open port 7.”
Erica held still while Ahnix tapped a few tiny buttons on her personalized hacker tool and then nodded.
“Ready,” Ahnix said, walking over to the far-right side of the door.
The giant, heavily armored naga with a huge shield and a badass shotgun stood in the middle of the room while Mark and Roo took up flanking positions behind her. He readied his crossbow and prepared for a long fight.
“You call it, Erica,” Vale said over her shoulder.
“Three, two, one- Mark.”
Mark almost said, “What?” but decided that the stupid joke wasn’t worth the distraction. He was glad he kept his mouth shut as two gun turrets lowered from the ceiling at once.
He obliterated the one on the left side while Roo impaled the one on the right with a high-powered metal shaft.
“Set ‘em up, knock ‘em down,” Mark said, happy with how quickly that was dealt with.
“Shouldn’t have happened that fast,” Erica mumbled.
“Incoming!” Vale yelled as three of the eye-beam bots came squealing around a corner from the hallway ahead of them.
“Horrible Hooks!” Roo yelled, but the fishhooks on chains just bounced off her target’s smooth curved sides. Vale slid forward and demolished the middle one with a concussive blast from her shotgun, but Mark and Roo’s main attack were both still on cooldown.
The remaining two security robots only had eyes for the hackers and each pulsed their horrible blue beams at Ahnix and Erica.
Vale activated Perfect Cover and intercepted the ice attack meant for Erica with her upgraded shield, while Mark stepped towards Ahnix and popped up his magic bubble.
Mark and Roo’s attacks both reset, and each erased the two remaining enemies, clearing the hallway.
“About halfway!” Erica announced.
As soon as she said that, a blaring alarm started to sound, and a red forcefield snapped up to surround each terminal in a wide box. Mark and Ahnix were inside one, Vale and Erica were trapped in the other. Roo found herself standing outside both energy barriers in the center of the hallway.
“What is this?” Vale said, holstering her shotgun and touching the barrier. It made a static humming noise and completely resisted her attempts to push through.
It was then that Mark felt a horrible itch on his chest. The itching feeling spread and quickly turned to an all-encompassing pain. He felt the same things from Ahnix and Vale.
A slap on his shoulder turned his head, but the universe whooshed by, and he found himself looking directly at Roo.
The pain faded away back to an itching, but his attention turned to Vale who started screaming inside her forcefield prison.
Spurned to immediate action by her intense pain, Mark pulled Vale to him with Harem Recall.
She continued to scream and claw at her face until Ahnix shot the giant naga with her EMP web. As the energy passed through Vale, the giant naga fell forward, stopping herself with a hand to the ground. Mark washed a heal over her, and Vale began to breathe normally again.
“Please take me with you.”
Mark, Ahnix, Roo, and Vale all looked up at Erica still trapped inside the forcefield, her shiny metal surface becoming pockmarked and scoured.
“No!” Vale screamed as if the word was ripped from her lungs. She activated Improved Shield Bash, slamming into the forcefield with all of her strength- and it still held.
Mark tried to put up an impervious bubble around Erica but found that it was still on cooldown.
The frantic giant naga turned her huge violet eyes on Ahnix. “Get in there and pull her out! What are you waiting for?”
Ahnix shook her head in horror. “I can’t target inside. The nanites- they occupy too much space.”
“It’ll be okay,” the smaller metal naga said, her voice sounding slightly garbled. “I know I wasn’t really…”
Erica’s body was then completely reduced to dust.
“No! No! NO!” Vale screamed, pounding her armored fist on the forcefield.
Mark felt Vale’s mind break, and he sprinted to her side as she crumpled into a pile.
“Vale,” he said, as gently as he could while still being heard over the alarms. “We need to get out of here.”
The giant naga looked up, and her face was slack while tears poured out of her b
loodshot eyes. She seemed to look right through him.
“Why?” she responded, dragging the word out.
“You need to keep it together. I need you more than you’ll ever understand.”
Her vibrant eyes finally focused on his. “We lost her… I lost my home, my identity… all I seem to do is lose.” She looked down again.
“Erica is gone, but we aren’t. Ahnix, Roo, and I all know exactly who you are. You are Princess Vale of the Siv'Shyra Empire. You are the most honorable person we have ever known, artificial or otherwise. We follow your lead because of who you are. The three people who love you more than anything that exists are in danger and are awaiting your command.”
Vale’s violet irises constricted quickly, and Mark felt the click behind his eyes that indicated that he had pulled her back and Enthralled her for a second time.
The giant naga raised herself to her full height and pointed to the massive metal door they had failed to hack open. Vale turned her head to Ahnix and spoke with a husky voice Mark had never heard from her.
“Kick it down,” she demanded, then turned back to Mark. “Make her strong enough to do it.”
Mark gave her a quick nod and then sprinted to join Ahnix by the door. He closed his eyes, touched her shoulder and started to focus on her devastating Doom Kick ability. It was a thick door, and Mark hoped the boost would be strong enough to help Ahnix do some serious damage.
Vale sensed his doubt and began to speak. “I’m done with this place. We will tear this station apart to find the cause of this madness and end it.”
Through their newly enhanced bond, Mark felt her words of encouragement hone his focus on the task before him. Mark locked onto her Shadow-Cat path and zipped down to the first skill the black-and-gold cat-girl chose after meeting him. It felt like a whirling disk of negative energy- like power from another universe. And it was.
Mark focused on his rage and his anger at what happened to Erica- how it happened… He wanted to make someone pay. With a flash of barely contained rage, he forced as much power through their bond as he could, and the energy drained from Mark so quickly he almost passed out from the shock to his system.