Andy clenched his jaw in the mutant's grasp. His teeth began to crack. Desperately, his Combat Conceptualisation protocol analysed his surroundings in a flash. The mutant had a hunting rifle slung over one shoulder, just out of reach. Andy had used up his last frag grenade, but he still had a light.
Pulling the pin, Andy let a flashbang fall at his feet and screwed his eyes shut. Just as the pressure on his skull felt too much to withstand, the flashbang burst. The alpha mutant released its grip, staggering back, swinging its arms wildly.
Drawing a combat knife from his hip, Andy leapt up and sliced the beast's chest. The wound was shallow, but it tore through the strap of the rifle. Andy grabbed the weapon and fired, blasting a hole in the mutant's cheek bone. It's head snapped back, and it toppled into a desk. Andy fired again, aiming for its heart, painting the room with exit-wound spray, but the beast did not fall.
The voice sang to him again, a whisper carried in on the wind from outside. Julie was waiting.
The mutant toppled forward, hands outstretched to throttle Andy in its death's throes. Andy half-leapt through the window, but the mutant grabbed him around the waist. His revolver was just out of reach in the snow below him. His beloved.
"Don't leave me hanging, babe."
Andy's heart pounded as a wave of heat flushed through him. Suddenly, Julie jumped out of the snow and propelled into his outstretched hand. Clutching her to his chest, Andy let himself be dragged back through the window. Crouching below the mutant, he jammed her muzzle into the mutant's kneecap and fired. Julie screamed in his hands, blowing the limb apart. Kicking himself away, Andy rose shakily and aimed his revolver at the crippled animal. It heaved itself forward on massive arms, a grotesque agony on its punctured, bloodstained face.
"Wait," Andy said. "Hold that pose." He retrieved a small camera which Clara had made him carry for the mission and pointed it at the mutant, making sure that Julie was in the frame. It made for a pretty POV killshot. "Smile."
Andy clicked the camera's button and pulled the trigger. The mutant's head burst like a melon.
A chime pinged inside his skull, reminding him of the 'seatbelts please' sign on an aeroplane. It had been years since Andy had last heard that sound. Attention: Affinity weapon configured. Synthesis in progress. Initial ability activated: Deadly Attraction.
Andy admired Julie in his hand–her slick mechanism, rustic curves, and polished smooth wooden handle. She was a joy to behold, the best weapon he'd ever had. Distracted, it took him a moment to process what the AI had said.
"Wait, you did this?" He addressed the robot. "I mean… you helped bring Julie and me together?"
Anomalous fixation on specified firearm identified. Experimental algorithm implemented to convert user fixation into functional capabilities.
"Anomalous fixation," Andy scowled. "Mind your language." He spun Julie around his finger with glee. "What's this deadly attraction you're on about?"
Delineation–Affinity: Deadly Attraction, Tier 1: Due to ionised particles in the Gunslinger's blood, the Affinity weapon is attracted, comparable to a magnetic force, and may be summoned from a distance.
"Oh," Andy fished into his pocket for the piece of paper Clara had written, holding it up. "You mean like this stuff? The abilities?"
Affirmative.
"So I have magnetic blood now?"
That is an accurate approximation of the ability, with isolated application to the Affinity weapon.
"She's got a name, you know." Andy tossed Julie in the air as he moved towards the window, dancing with her as though they were in a ballroom. She flew elegantly into his palms, resting her trigger on his finger like a lover's soft kiss to the cheek. Distracted, his foot knocked the mutant's corpse and he fumbled–Julie almost fell out of his hand, but he caught her just in time. "Hey? How come it didn't work that time?"
Uncalibrated abilities possess imperfections. New delineation–Affinity–installation in progress: 1%. Proceed to an Augmentation Master Console to calibrate new abilities. Failure to do so will cause DNA mutation. Current mutation rate: 15%.
"There's always a catch." Andy holstered Julie and patted her, moving towards the smashed window. "Assuming I play along and go recalibrate, what else can you do for me and Jules?"
Potential power spike detected as significant. Background upgrade programs activated and running for T-minus eleven-thousand and eighty-two hours. Current progression hindered by user inactivity.
"Hindered? Are you throwing shade?"
Error: Jargon comprehension failure.
"Never mind," Andy said. "So, Julie and I are your muse?"
User fixation identified. Coherent abilities undergoing development.
Andy reckoned he wouldn't get a straight answer until he calibrated at an AMC. Footsteps thudded in the room above him and echoed down a nearby stairwell. He'd lingered long enough. Andy unhooked his radio and chimed in. "Took a detour. You ready to cover?"
"Ready," Clara transmitted.
Climbing through the broken glass window, Andy sprinted towards the office block. Gunfire crackled behind him, spraying the snow around him in plumes of near-misses. Clara responded with suppressive fire, but mutants weren't easily suppressed. The same tactics you might use against humans rarely worked against the many monsters of the apocalypses.
Unable to slow himself, Andy slammed into the building's brick wall and swung around the corner into cover. His long black hair stuck to his neck sweatily, despite the cold. Each breath was like icy daggers in his throat. His heartbeat pounded in his skull and his arms stung where the glass had cut them. Long streams of blood seeped over his fingers, mingling with Julie's mechanics. It trickled over her silver hammer, into her cylinder, and down her slender barrel, dripping to the pure snow below. Something about it struck Andy as beautiful. Not for the first time, Julie took his breath away.
"You alright?" Clara said, her round blue eyes were full of concern. She ran down the exterior stairwell, skipping two steps at a time, carrying a hefty marksman's rifle in both arms. Andy gazed at his younger sister, half delirious from the cardio and blood loss. Her blonde ponytail bounced as she jumped to the ground, its tail sticking out the back of her black, brimmed cap. Grabbing him by the arm, she dragged him away towards the woods.
"Well that was sloppy, wasn't it?" she said. "What happened to the plan of using finesse?"
"It's not my fault," Andy said, unlatching the voice modulator around his neck which was still making him sound mutant. "It was that cheap fake nose, it kept falling off. I should get a refund."
"Don't blame the nose," Clara said. "The nose was a great idea." She inspected lacerations on his arms, bandaging the worst of them quickly. Beyond the treeline, gunshots chimed like the bells of a clifftop monastery as the mutants no doubt started fighting amongst themselves. Andy smiled, enjoying the song of chaos–his triumphant anthem.
"You're good." She offered a hand to help him up. "Did you get any evidence?"
Andy patted the camera at his waist. "Took a few nice pics."
"That should do." They set off into the woods,