The Laboratory Omnibus 2

by Skyler Grant

  I'd seen this sort of thing back on Earth when I'd first awakened after the Cataclysm in my laboratory, desert scavengers and barbarians used to living a life of violence. The sort of culture where one was either a victim or a victimizer. The Scholarium was a more elegant version of the same system.

  "At least they're wearing clothes," Sylax said, as she peered down. "And guns. Would be boring if they couldn't put up a proper fight."

  No doubt. What I was trying to determine was just how much of a fight they could put up. I wasn't able to get a proper sensor-lock on any of them. My effort to figure out just what their guns could do was hitting a dead-end. That was concerning. They might look scruffy, but on Earth that would be a sign of them having a high power rating. Here it could also mean their technology was more advanced than it appeared.

  "We should play it cautious," I said.

  "Screw that. You need to know if they shoot or talk first, and if they shoot with what they're packing I doubt they have anything that can scratch me. I'm going in," Sylax said.

  It wasn't the most sound as plans went, but it wasn't a bad idea either. It wouldn't be the first time I'd used a powerful crystal-holder to draw fire. I set up my Gunslingers as Sylax sauntered down the hill.

  Sylax was a sharp contrast to the locals, armor sleek and tooled to perfectly fit her form and obviously not of local design.

  It didn't take long for someone to notice her approach, two people pushing aside a crowd of curious Sinalara while another three Sedara approached her. There were two men and one woman, the man in the lead especially muscular.

  "Well, ain't you a fizzy gazelle," said the massive man.

  Great, the aliens spoke our language better than the local humans.

  "The fizziest," Sylax said, taking it in stride. Although she might appear casual, she wasn't—I had access to her suit electronics and her power projector cannons were charged up and ready.

  "She's no Grimbeak. No Sandancer either," said the woman, drawing a pistol from her side and leveling it at Sylax's head.

  "Speak up, little gazelle. What band you run with and why've you words for the Rustbreakers?" said the large man.

  "I'm from the empire. Join or die," Sylax said.

  Well, the line had worked out once before.

  "Save the face, if you can," said the large man.

  The woman lowered her gun and fired a shot off at Sylax's arm.

  Electrical rounds in a spray. I don't think that they were meant to kill, but to stun. They didn't even manage that as Sylax's personal shield flared to life.

  "About time someone picked die," Sylax said, and raised her arm to take a shot back. A blast of energy roared out of her projector cannon to catch the woman in the chest, sending her soaring backward with her flesh melting away.

  The two men drew their guns, looking towards the body on the ground—where the woman was already getting up. The shot had burned away her leathers, but flesh underneath was threaded with silver and was already starting to stitch itself back together.

  "Gazelle might be a Razorbeak. You'll have fun with this one, Grim," the woman said.

  The large man had to be Grim from the way he grinned, stepping forward and rolling his shoulders. "Not a bad bite, little Razorbeak, but you want to draw blood, draw mine. You take your best shot. If it don't finish me, I'll break you."

  "This one is so mine," Sylax said through her comms. "Do feel free to kill the others though."

  Given what we'd might seen, that might be easier said than done. Still, there was one way to find out. My Gunslingers opened fire.

  Gauss rounds caught the other two in their skulls, brain matter exploding in a spray behind them.

  Sylax meanwhile drew her sword, moving at a run as she thrust it forward burying the blade through Grim's chest and into his heart. The blade rippled with power and Grim grunted. He didn't die, a fist driving forward and shattering through the faceplate of Sylax's helmet.

  The other two weren't staying down, as before the silvery threads within them seemed to be reassembling their bodies from the injuries. They weren't the first enemy I'd fought with regeneration, and these were slower than I was used to in some ways. Several more shots were blasted at wrists, elbows, knees, feet. Spreading out the damage with mobility impairing wounds.

  If they did have an implant controlling healing, the trick would be to find it and disable it. There wasn't time. The other human defenders of the village were already showing up to return fire with my drones.

  "Get out of there," I said to Sylax. She wasn't answering. Grim had kept delivering blows to her face and for some reason her healing wasn't working as it should, she was already unconscious. That was a problem, I pulled my other forces back—for now. Without a gateway I might not be able to take my people back to Earth, but I could bring more to Mars.

  85

  "You might have told me a bit about their abilities," I said to Julasa. I'd returned my drones to her settlement. The Sedara at the village hadn't given pursuit.

  "You didn't ask," Julasa said with infuriating correctness.

  "Well, I'm asking now."

  "I explained before, when the humans defeated the Sedara they didn't just kill them. They became them. The technology that filled the Sedara found the human conquerers worthy hosts and they became as one. The Sedara were once again strong, durable, inexhaustible," Julasa said.

  That was a nice assortment of adjectives, but not actually very helpful. Sylax was all those things as well and somehow she'd still gotten knocked out. That shouldn't have been possible.

  At range I hadn't detected any sort of power-dampening field and I normally would have in the case of someone like the Righteous. They had something that gave them an advantage even against someone like Sylax, and that was a concern.

  I hadn't been prepared to launch a full invasion force and I spent the next few hours putting together the best quick solution I could. An assortment of Bio-bombs, including a few uranium-enhanced that were known to slow healing in the Powered. Enhanced Gunslingers with their heavy armor-penetrating gauss rifles exchanged their weapons for more conventional sniper rifles, and I called for Enhanced Aegis units armed with acid sprayers.

  "Answer me, damn you," Sylax thought. Even though she'd never taken a brainworm I'd always maintained something of a connection to her because of the time I'd been resident inside of her. Sylax usually had that channel blocked.

  "You're still alive? I'll have to call off the party," I said.

  "Is that why there was no rescue attempt? Predictable. I'm in trouble, Emma, have you been monitoring?"

  "You normally keep this channel closed. Thankfully, it is bad enough watching what you get up to from the outside. I still don't have sensory data."

  I felt Sylax focus and began to get input from her. She was no longer in the village. This had to be one of the main settlements given the number of people. Sylax had lost her armor, the Martian air was chill against her naked skin as she was forced to walk down a bleak stone hall with her hands bound behind her. In the distance there was the sound of cheering and the clashing of swords.

  "It is some sort of arena. They don't believe I'm from Earth and they're about to throw me to something very big and bad they expect will kill me messily," Sylax said.

  Whatever had been dampening her abilities was still active. Her nose was a shattered mess and she showed other recent signs of abuse.

  "You're injured," I thought.

  "A few hours was long enough for them to have some fun. It isn't anything worse than I've done to others. Focus on the problem," Sylax thought.

  As if I cared at all about her health and well-being. She really didn't know me at all. Yet whatever was dampening her abilities wasn't dampening mine or I wouldn't be able to communicate with her at all. It was somehow targeted specifically on her.

  There were two people marching her down the hall, leather-clad and malnourished, one male and one female. Neither were among those who had captured her. />
  I tried a quick teleport with one of my drones. An instantaneous in and out to the empty space behind Sylax. Nothing. I couldn't send her backup that way. I could sense her location though.

  It would have taken any human hours to test in detail, I wasn't a human. With multiple drones I tried teleports at steadily incrementing distances. The closest I could get one to engage was fifteen kilometers from the colony.

  That was a lot of distance, too much to cross quickly in the case of an armed assault. I didn't have any sort of shuttles on Mars and they were too big to teleport. I could bring one together in pieces, but I needed a solution in a hurry.

  Sylax had reached the end of the hall and was shoved into a circular cage, the bars lined with sharpened spikes protruding inward that scarcely allowed her any movement at all without becoming impaled.

  A chain was attached to the top of the cage. It was some sort of elevator.

  "I'm really getting tired of you being useless, Emma," Sylax thought.

  I was tired of being useless—this was frustrating. The chain jerked taut and the cage began to move, the motion causing Sylax to stumble into a few of the spikes which gouged bloody furrows into her skin.

  Height. A quick test confirmed it, I was able to teleport into the air above the colony.

  "I can't save you, but I can bomb them," I said.

  The cage reached its destination. Stands surrounded the arena on all sides and were filled with cheering humans. Blood on the sand suggested Sylax wasn't the first fight today. The floor beneath Sylax trembled and the cage was lifted away leaving her naked with her hands still bound behind her. Weaponry was scattered here and there—a sword, spear, an energy gun, none exactly useful if you couldn't use your hands.

  A gate at one end of the arena was raised and something that was best described as a robotic dragon stepped out. It was coated in shiny silvery scales, with a serpentine neck and body.

  A voice boomed out.

  "This little gazelle was found on Razor land claiming to be from Earth. Thought some fancy wearings made her a proper, old-world warrior. Grim's boys wanted to keep her as their little joy-toy, but law’s the law and them that claims the old world faces the dragon."

  "The scales suggest energy resistance, avoid the gun," I said.

  Sylax was already moving at a run, getting a foot beneath the haft of the spear and using that to flip it into the air. Sawing through her bonds with the head as the dragon roared, a shrill piercing sound.

  86

  If Sylax were wearing her armor I'd at least have access to its sensors. Basic, but functional, and they'd have given me some better idea what she was facing. Instead I had to make do with what I could get from the human sensory network. They might have been shaped by a great deal of evolution, but that didn't prepare them for fighting robot dragons.

  Sylax had gouged her wrists getting her hands free from having to work so quickly. As the dragon charged she rolled out of the way just in time with the tip of her spear scraping the scales on one side of the beast.

  "You could always try the eyes," I said. The eyes looked to be crafted of some sort of red gemstones, glittering in the light of the Martian noonday sun.

  "This thing has been around for a long time and the eyes are shiny," Sylax said, as she circled the dragon. "I could use a good suggestion."

  Well, she didn't have to be rude.

  I teleported a long-range sensor directly from Earth into the air above the city, letting it record data for a good ten seconds before I grabbed it with a drone to move it to my combat force.

  That gave me a lot more information to work with. This city was larger than I'd have expected with over three million people and some highly advanced technology present beneath its surface. Interesting.

  Still, as Sylax said, it was important to focus and right now the solution to keeping her alive was all about the dragon.

  The fundamental technology driving it was quite common in the city. Most people seemed to have some variant of it. It had a distinctive energy signature that was particularly concentrated in the dragon, something I had to assume meant that the beast was even stronger than the people as a whole.

  No surprise, it wouldn't be much of a threat otherwise. What I didn't have was any sort of weak spot a pathetic spear would penetrate.

  The dragon lunged. The body was supported by four legs ending in jagged claws and this time it managed to make contact, gouging three bloody furrows in Sylax's leg.

  "I can drop you a set of armor. I have teleport ability above the city," I said.

  "You going to buy me the time needed to slip into it?" Sylax asked.

  "I can try. While it is probably some sort of justice for you to be torn apart before a cheering crowd, you are marginally useful," I said.

  "I'm useful because I'm the scariest damned killing machine you've ever met and you've known a lot of them. If you can't help me, Emma, then stay the fuck out of my way so I can murder this thing," Sylax said.

  Sylax had a high opinion of herself, it was mostly warranted. There was something deeply broken in her, broken in a way that even those more powerful hadn't quite managed. Sylax wasn't just a well-honed sword, she was a thousand razor-sharp splinters of what might have become a blade.

  Sylax and the dragon stalked each other and she tossed away her spear.

  "You think blunt damage is going to be effective? If this is some attempt at self-worth by thinking of dullness as a virtue," I said.

  "Desperation. They made sure weapons are available, and they’re confident none of them work. They'll all have been tried. There is one thing nobody has ever brought into this arena before and that is me," Sylax said.

  Great, she was taking this moment to feel empowered. There was, perhaps, something to it. Sylax was one of the most powerful people on Earth. Given her ruthlessness and her willingness to use violence she was probably the deadliest. I'd beaten her, barely, and I knew firsthand how dangerous she was when put into a corner. She was putting herself into a corner.

  "Don't go thinking yourself dangerous. You were an inconvenience to fight, but as a nemesis you paled next to Vinci. You come in second place to a factory manager with poor fashion sense," I said.

  Adrenaline was always filling her system and that got a little more. A few more heart beats per minute, a little more pounding in her ears.

  "Don't try to pump me up, Emma. It is pathetic," Sylax said.

  "Don't go pretending to be brave. Hot Stuff is still a prisoner because you're a coward. Too cowardly to accept real power with a little risk. A gutless has-been who let her best friend suffer because you knew you weren't good enough."

  I didn't think Sylax was aware of it in the adrenaline-fueled rage numbing her pain receptors, but the bruises on her body were starting to fade, the deep gouges on her leg so recently delivered starting to clot. It was slow, but her accelerated healing was kicking in, countering whatever force had been neutralizing her abilities.

  "You're going to die here and there isn't a single person in the whole world that is even going to shed a tear."

  Sylax weaved beneath another claw from the dragon and threw a punch at its body that caused the sound of ringing metal to sound out over the arena. It spun around and lashed at her with its tail, the blow smashing against her midsection and breaking four ribs as she flew through the air to crash into a heap.

  "A season one villain past her time and not even worthy of a redemption arc," I said.

  "Good. I do so hate it when bad girls go nice. Thank you, Emma, I'm feeling much more myself now," Sylax said. There was a frozen iciness to her thoughts now. A cold both playful and cruel. I knew that voice well, although Sylax hadn't let her monster out to play in awhile. Sylax climbed to her feet. Of her wounds there was no trace.

  Her abilities had been restored.

  87

  "Crystal-infection," the dragon said in tones like ringing bells, red eyes focused intently on Sylax as she healed. Speech wasn't the only surprise
the dragon had, maw opening as a beam weapon erupted, red energy rippling the air and hurtling towards Sylax.

  There was nothing human about her reflexes now. Sylax leapt above the blast, closing the distance to the dragon with a single bound, and delivered a fist that sent the head crashing against the sand.

  The cheering of the crowds stopped. The arena held thousands and they were expectant and still now.

  The dragon wasn't even dented from the blow, a claw swipe knocking Sylax to the side as it shook off the hit.

  "I could conjure armor and cloak myself in it. I could conjure a sword that would pierce those scales of you. But these fine people wanted to throw me unarmed and naked in to fight a fucking dragon and that is just what I'm going to do. When I find whatever passes for your heart, I'm going to rip it out with my bare hands and then I'm coming for them," Sylax said and paused. "I'll probably wear clothes and use a sword for that, though."

  Sylax was at full power, but it was coming at a price. The occasional bolt of red electricity was coursing along her body. It was something I'd never observed in her or in any of Anna's clones who were using an aspect of Anna Prime's power set. I had seen it occasionally when Anna was overusing her abilities, drawing hard on the power of the Agate.

  With her enhanced abilities it had been always obvious Sylax got some power boost from the Agate, but I'd never known that channel could be so wide or carry so much power.

  "If you can finish this quickly, do. You may be about to explode," I said.

  "Wiping out this entire city? Wouldn't that be a shame," Sylax said, as if she didn't care. Still, she took my advice and with another leap landed on the dragon's back. Knees holding her in place, her arms strained as she worked to pry off one of the scales, a savage cry escaping her as one snapped free and she threw it to the ground.