"How?" Exclaimed Tina in shocked disbelief as she saw an unconscious Yelena crucified beneath the waterfall. From her data structure, the little hacker already knew that this Yelena was a human consciousness.
Yet simultaneously, Yelena's voice came from right beside her. "Surprised?"
"What?!" Tina's digital self jumped just as she was once more pulled out of the stream of data coursing through her mind.
Looking at the chair beside hers, the little girl was surprised to find it empty. "Yelena?"
"Not really, but close enough..." Yelena told Tina as she stood in front of the little girl, her voice menacing and not truly human. "... You see, without your added processing power, I wouldn't have taken over this body so quickly."
"You're not Yelena..." Tina noted, sad yet curious as she analyzed the data she had seen. "... You're a program! But what's your purpose?"
"Thankfully, you're not important enough to know that..." Smirked the program piloting poor Yelena's body like a puppet. "... But you can call me the Devil, darling."
"I asked, what's your purpose?" Asked the little hacker angrily just as she hit the program with a virtual hammer by brute-forcing the Devil to answer her question.
Hacked, Yelena went pale, just before the program robotically reported. "The Devil is an AI program built to transmit, save, organize, and store the neurological data of fallen soldiers to preserve their souls in digital form to..." Recovering from the hack, Yelena, or more accurately the Devil, recovered and said with a smirk. "... Oh, nice try... Try it again, darling!"
"Why, Yelena?" Tina asked and once more employed her digital hammer to force the AI to answer her.
"See?... HAHAHAHA..." Laughed the AI-controlled Yelena. "... I can't be hacked twice the same way, darling!"
*Cla-gong!* The entire room they were in suddenly shook.
"What's going on?" Tina questioned, frightened.
"Oh, your friends are about to storm my castle..." Yelena declared coldly. "... I can't have them catch us yet, darling."
...
"The reapers can't be killed permanently as they are using some black market technology to revive their members in cloned bodies." Tellius heard Sarah tell him just as he was about to start his full frontal attack.
Rubbing his throbbing temples, the cyborg answered quickly. "Roger that!"
"Anything new?" Ethan asked as he arrived with the supply crate that Tellius had spawned below a bank nearby.
"Yeah, it looks like the Reapers can't die..." Reported Tellius, only now realizing why his system hadn't rewarded him for his previous slaughter. Loading his three-barreled stormsurge, he added. "... because some black market technology allows them to switch their bodies to another."
"Now their insane disregard for personal safety is starting to make sense..." Commented Ethen, annoyed as the death of his team began to make sense. "... So, how do you want to do this?"
"I say I rush in and destroy the cloned bodies before we kill them..." Suggested Tellius, already planning to spam his invincibility skill to withstand the upcoming fight. "... Which means that you'll have to stay outside and wait for my signal!"
"I don't think I like that, but my fleshy body can't withstand as much as your metal a**!" Reluctantly agreed the marshal.
"Good. Now let me contact Sarah about the bodies' location..." Tellius told Ethen before he contacted Sarah. "... Sarah, where did you say the bodies are stored? The main hall... Yes, thank you, and get out of there, as I don't want to risk friendly fire!"
Meanwhile, having listened in on Tellius's conversation with Sarah, Ethen had already brought up the Ivory Fortress's floor plan and zoomed in on the main hall in the center.
"Oh, wow, that won't be easy..." The marshal said as he pointed at the many kill zones the fortress's layout created. "... Way too much cover for defenders and way too little for an attacker."
Shaking his head, the cyborg simply stated. "I think you're forgetting a very crucial fact!"
Confused, Ethan asked back. "And what would that be?"
"Oh, you'll see!" Replied Tellius, having committed the Ivory Fortress's floor plan to memory and come up with a route.
...
"... Yes, thank you, and get out of there, as I don't want to risk friendly fire!" Sarah heard Tellius order her. Looking down at her current attire, she begrudgingly had to agree that friendly fire was a real possibility in her case.
But thinking that Tellius might not be able to come this far, Sarah saw an opportunity to sabotage the cloning facility that might come in handy.
Looking around the recovery chambers themselves, the female cyborg noted a few non-standard cables and tubes running off of them and to cable shafts on the ceiling.
Following these cable shafts, Sarah soon found herself in front of large chemical containers.
From the chemical signs on them, she was able to make out oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, and phosphorus, which were apparently all used in the production of human clones.
Smirking, Sarah immediately came up with a better use for some of these chemicals. So, without thinking too much about it, she began to disconnect some lines, swapped some others, and ripped out a few cables here and there for good measure.
Yet soon, she had to stop her handiwork as the ground shook from explosions, and she could hear the faint sounds of battle.
Wanting to make sure not to get caught in the crossfire between Tellius and the Reapers, Sarah immediately started running to the exit. Stopping only once inside the pressurized airlock, she could already guess the overall situation as armed Reapers surged through the corridors.
However, thanks to the chaos, the female mercenary was able to easily join the crowd of unruly gang members and remain undetected. Being handed a standard melter-rifle and ammunition, she was even pushed to the second floor to join the fight.
Here, keeping away from the front lines, Sarah was able to see Tellius fight for the first time since his resurrection as a cyborg.
There, one floor below her in the center of the entrance hall, stood a large, hulking monstrosity resembling a humanoid tank as he calmly endured a barrage of bullets, lasers, and explosives.
Yet in the next second, as everyone was either swapping their magazines or cooling their batteries, Tellius repaid them in kind.
With his wide shoulders and a thin waist, he already towered over all present, and yet, he leaped three stories high into the air with electric arcs zapping all over his legs.
*BUZZZ!* He slammed down into the ground, a strong EMP wave washing over everyone, frying all energy-based weapons like lasers and melter guns.
Then, as everyone was still recovering or reloading, Tellius rushed to a nearby pillar that held up a walkway opposite the entrance.
*BOOM!* His fist struck the pillar in an explosion of plaster and dust.
With the pillar and walkway collapsing, Tellius had barely any sign of him being left, except for the upper part of his skull, which partially resembled that of a bald, red-eyed man.
Frightened yet incredibly turned on by her lover's display of strength, Sarah had to remind herself to leave, as with every second, the risk of being hit by Tellius's attacks increased.
And so, cursing her current attire, she avoided the fight and escaped from the battlefield, Tellius's menacing display of power committed to memory.
...
Meanwhile, outside the Ivory Palace, Ethan was hearing the sounds of battle and explosions as he gunned down waves after wave of cosplaying robots.
'Frak! How many bots does this park have?' He mentally cursed as he skillfully reloaded his hand cannons in a matter of seconds.
*BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!* He shot the robots closest to him, with each bullet taking out six to seven robots before the explosive round exploded, and an additional eight to nine robots fell in a blaze of glory.
Yet, despite his skill, precision, and firepower, Ethen still had to constantly dodge, sidestep, or counter incoming attacks from robots that just got too close for comfort.
Eventually, however, in the midst of fighting for his life, the marshal caught a glimpse of a woman in red standing among the sea of robots.
'Yelena?' Ethen thought, just as he had to dodge yet another attack. "Is it really you?"
*BAM!* His left hand cannon howled, taking out all the robots that had climbed up to his roof.
"Yes, it's me!..." Yelena's seductive voice whispered inside Ethen's head. "... Stop fighting those robots, darling."
"Frak!" Ethen cursed, very much aware of his wife's dark passenger that from time to time hijacked her. Guilt-stricken, he asked himself while fighting. 'What did those Reapers do to you for you to allow the Devil to take over for her?'
"Come on, darling! Join me!" Yelena's hushed voice pleaded seductively, 'darling' being a word that Ethen had learned to detest over the years that he had known his wife.
Truth be told, the marshal didn't know all that much about his wife's past, but he knew enough to come to his own conclusions.
In Ethen's mind, Yelena was a victim who had gotten on the bad side of either Hades or one of its many subsidiaries during the war.
According to Yelena herself, she had stolen a classified AI program for the UCG and uploaded it into her brain to smuggle it out of Hemlock III. Yet she ended up captured, and during torture, her memory bank implants got damaged. That in turn caused the AI program to install itself in her brain.
Since then, Yelena was having blackout episodes during which the AI took over her body. Yet thanks to an old hacker friend, they had added a little bug into the AI's program which allowed Ethen to easily differentiate whether or not he was talking to his wife.
That tiny little bug caused the AI to end most of its sentences with the word 'darling', hence why the marshal easily recognized his wife's dark passenger.
Hence, as Ethen was once again reloading one of his hand cannons, he slipped a stun round into one of its chambers.
*BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!* That hand cannon howled out, turning numerous robots into scrap metal.
"Frak you, Devil, and give me back my wife!" The marshal shouted his reply just as the barrel of his nearly empty hand cannon zeroed in on his wife's position.
*BAM!* *Buzz!* The stun round hit his 'wife' on its left shoulder.
Turns out, it hadn't been his wife in the flesh but her Dark Passenger controlling a holobot to mess with him. Hit by the stun round, the bot instantly toppled to the ground, most of its circuits fried.
Yet, just as Ethen was overcome with humiliation, regret, and guilt, a robot dressed as a tiger wrestler successfully snuck up on him.
*Thud!* The ridiculously dressed robot's hit struck, knocking the gunslinger not only out cold but also off his roof and into the sea of robots below him.
...
Meanwhile, just as Ethen was knocked out and Sarah had just escaped the Ivory Fortress, Tellius found him mesmerized by the flow and rather the rhythm of battle.
After being bombarded from all sides with all manner of projectiles, he had developed a sense of when to use his Invincibility skill and when not to.
Not even bothering with the military doctrine of diving in and out of cover as one advances, the cyborg was throwing all regulations out the window as he developed his very own fighting style.
Keeping his two remaining grenade rounds as aces, he kept light on his feet as his primary weapon became not his blades but his fists.
Carried away after he had broken down a pillar to take out a few reapers a floor above him, Tellius had even gone so far as to upgrade his 'Path of the Fist' from level two to three.
Now at level three, his Power Fist skill had even light shockwave added to it that the system so far was refusing to acknowledge. Yet even despite his system's refusal, Tellius knew that his strikes had experienced a qualitative leap.
And so with these punches flying and a more instinctive use of his Invincibility skill, Ethan was simply crushing his enemies beneath his dark metal fists.
With the ground floor cleared, the cyborg simply jumped up to the second floor to continue his rampage even though he was taking some light damage here and there.
*Thud!* His feet hit the second floor in a satisfying crunch as the tiling cracked.
"Oh, no you don't!" shouted a frightened Reaper as he emptied his magazine in one go, spraying his bullets in Ethan's general direction.
Not even having to use his skill to boost his defenses, Ethan immediately closed the distance between them to punch the man.
*Boom!* The strike hit the gang member in the belly and catapulted him into the nearest wall. *Splash!* The man's body exploded into a bloody mist as it hit the solid wall.
*BBBRRRRRRRRRRR...!* A gatling gun howled and the cyborg was once more forced to use his skill to resist the damage.
Unable to move as the skill was active, Tellius endured the barrage of bullets until the gun's drum magazine was empty.
*...RRRRRRRRRRR!* The gatling gun continued to howl just as Tellius constantly spammed his Invincibility until eventually...
*Click!* The magazine was empty and it was his turn to retaliate.
And so, stepping through a cloud of dust created by the bullets hitting the plaster, the menacing cyborg appeared like an unstoppable demon.
"No, stop! AARRRGH!" The gunner screamed as Tellius grabbed him by the head and squeezed.
*Splash!* The gunner's head exploded like a bloody watermelon.
With no more enemies inside, Tellius checked his position inside the Ivory Fortress only to realize that he was one floor above his objective.
Smirking, he chose the quickest way down a floor and simply struck the ground below his feet.
"Boom!" Tellius broke through the ceiling and into the cold room filled with misused recovery chambers.
Yet what he found staring back at him from inside most of the cylinders wasn't even human but horribly mutated abominations of flesh bags on legs.
*BEEEEP* Numerous recovery chambers opened, just as the previously slain reapers revived.
Smelling like creatures from hell thanks to an abnormally high concentration of sulfur used in their creation, Tellius would have puked if he had a stomach.
"Round two, I guess!" Tellius declared, cracking his finger joints before he once more rushed into battle.
...
Meanwhile, just as Tellius was committing yet another slaughter, Sarah spotted Ethen's hand cannons amongst a pile of scrap metal just outside the Ivory Fortress by the stables.
Scanning the area, she immediately discovered a rectangular hatch hidden underneath some synthetic hay. Walking over to the hatch, Ethen's weapons still in hand, Sarah kicked away the hay to reveal it fully.
Holstering the hand cannons in the hem of her trousers, the female cyborg easily lifted the hatch out of the way and took a look into the now open hole.
Slightly bigger than the size of a freight container in diameter and with rails, Sarah immediately contacted Tellius. "Telli, they have Ethen, and I think I've found the entrance to a hyperloop tunnel underneath the park."
"Shit! That one wasn't in the plan that Ethen showed us!..." Tellius replied in the midst of fighting. "... Let's rendezvous in five in front of-..."
That said, Tellius's transmission was cut short mid-sentence as the entire park suddenly started trembling.