Amelia, Ch 381- Zach
I couldn't help but stare, and I wasn't alone in that. Taylor's head was now linked to several spindly spider like legs that didn't seem to have much purpose beyond letting her ride on Riley's back. It was fucking creepy as hell. Okay, so time to break the ice. "Well, that's one way to get ahead in life." And now everyone is looking at me instead of her. Mission accomplished.
Taylor rolled her eyes while everyone else just cringed, then my armor's com system activated. "Not the time for stupid puns. Now we have to get out of here. I'm going to move some of the forcefields to give you and Theo a bit of space outside the ship. When you're outside, I'll drop the bubble and you'll make your way to the surface. We'll need to be quick about it, because once I start shifting the forcefields around, the ship's lifespan will be measured in seconds."
I gave one last switch to the emergency fuel cells, seeing to it that all of them were maxed, then 'dropped' them from my focus. I waded through the fucking cold ass water to where the three girls were waiting. I tapped Missy and Clarice on the shoulders, then reached over to Taylor, before feigning hesitation. "Promise not to bite me?"
It's amazing how many expressions of annoyance that a single face can show at once. "I promise not to bite you."
I patted her on the head. "Good girl."
"Ordering Atropos to castrate you, however, is still an option. Now go climb out into the near arctic waters and drown already."
I mock saluted then turned toward the door "Yes ma'am. You are the head of state after all. I'm heading out." I stepped up next to Theo. "So, race you to the top?"
He shook his head, but I could tell he found it as funny as I did. "I have no idea how you get away with half the shit you do."
The ship's door slid open, and water poured in, nearly knocking me off my feet. "Okay, you caught me. I'm not really a parahuman at all, the reason I keep coming back from the dead is because let's be honest, there's no way I'm getting into heaven." The door sealed behind us as Theo's reflective metal shell wrapped completely around him. "And I keep escaping from hell by seducing the guards. Last one was a real harpy. Seriously, took me an hour to get all the feathers out of my mouth."
His chuckle was distorted by speaking through his metal shell. "You sure those weren't grasshoppers?"
"Them, too." The shield popped and water slammed into us hard enough that my armor didn't even have time to blink damage alerts before I found myself floating at the top of the ocean. It wasn't all that much warmer than in the ship. I recalled the 'stored' memories my power let me hold, and moments later, the girls were next to me. They shrieked in surprise and discomfort.
"Uh, yeah, sorry about that. The water's a little cold for a skinny dip, ain't it?" Okay, buddy. Please get up here soon. I don't know what your girlfriends are going to do if you die on them now.
"F-f-fuck th-th c-c-old!" I had to guess that was Missy, since Clarice almost never used profanities and Taylor couldn't talk right now. I couldn't tell without looking, and I wasn't going to look.
"You ladies may want to get back a bit. I know I'm hot, but I'm not sure how Theo'd take it if he found both his girlfriends tubbing with me naked." I cycled through options and found the 'phoenix' setting on my armor. Normally meant to be a really impressive suicide bomb. Dialing it as low as possible, I activated it and the water started warming up instantly.
In seconds, the area within a foot or so of me had begun to bubble. The ladies drifted far enough back to find somewhere comfortably between arctic and boiling alive. I did my best not to look toward the girls as they huddled together for some protection from the cold. Or was Taylor, riding on Clarice's back like some weird pet. Luckily the steam quickly created a very thick fog bank around us.
"Okay, I know we're not that far north, why is it so damn cold?" Missy complained.
Taylor's voice came over my armor. "Okay, you're the only one I can communicate through right now. I need you to contact Atropos and tell her to continue the mission. Our dimensional barricade is only going to last a few more minutes. See if you can get ahold of Victoria as well. We're going to want her help out here."
Clarice, meanwhile, was explaining things to Missy. "Part of the treaty on acceptable colony worlds includes looking for comfortable climates at the portal's origin. I'm guessing this world never fully broke from the most recent ice age, likely leaving the Middle East a wet temperate zone. That's to our advantage if this lasts any length of time. Easy sources of large animals for food and clothing. If we're lucky we'll find out what Woolly Mammoth tastes like."
I smiled. That's cute, I'll remember it. "Victoria's signal is gone." Please let her be alright. I didn't draw attention to it, but I still had a bit of a crush on the hyperactive blonde bombshell of neurosis that was Victoria. I was more than happy with Emma, but as a man I couldn't help but occasionally wonder. Naturally, I kept that little detail to myself. If Vicky or Emma's bullshit biosensing powers let them in on that secret, then neither felt the need to tell me they knew.
"Fuck. Well, she could easily be out of range. Can you reach Lily?"
I looked through the channels. "Yeah. Here she is." The armor responded to the focus of the eyes, so by the time I finished the sentence I was already on call with her. "Hey, Atropos. Just letting you know we're okay, but a lot of our equipment's been lost." Like, say, the ship and three uniforms and Taylor from the neck down. "Khepri wants to know how things are going on your end."
"I'm almost at the third target. Do you know if there are any more?"
That's a good question. I almost glanced over at the girls and ask, but Khepri was clearly listening in. "Not completely sure, we'll find out after you destroy this one. If we still can't contact Avalon, then there are more and we'll have to hunt them down. If we don't contact you immediately, assume there's more. You will circle back to the palace and see if you can make contact with Victoria. The two of you kick up as much carnage as possible then mount a fighting retreat and we'll all regroup at panel green black white gold."
"Understood."
I had no idea what that meant. Whatever, not my job to worry about. "Okay, so now what?"
"We try not to freeze or boil while waiting for Theo to make it to the surface."
You mean if he makes it to the surface. I switched my system back to external speaking mode. "So, isn't this where you give us a rousing speech to raise our spirits like they do in the movies? You can give a bunch of tired catch phrases like 'chin up' and 'we'll be back on our feet in no time'." Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Missy trying to hide her smile. Whether Taylor saw it or not, I wasn't certain.
Taylor somehow hijacked the speaker system for my armor, letting her be heard by everyone "Why is it that I haven't fired you? Because I really think I should fire you. Out of a cannon. Into the sun."
The others chuckled at that comment. It was safe to laugh at Taylor's jokes. That wasn't much, but it lightened the mood a little. Distracted them from worrying about Theo for a little while longer. C'mon, man. I know you can make it.
And to top it all off, the batteries on my suit are running low. I smirked and affected a bad Asian accent. "I am a fairure, I have no honor. I shar take my own rife." I mimicked holding a knife it both hands and jabbing it into my chest, activating the armor's suicide switch at the same time. I appeared above the water and splashed right back into it. I should probably ask why my power never lets me appear inside water one of these days. The water was still painfully hot through my suit, but I was much better insulated against heat than cold, and the rest of the team had no insulation at all.
"Okay, Theo's in range now. I'm guiding him to us."
Fuck yes!
"I... I don't think he's conscious."
God damn it!
He wasn't using his power when he made it up. Fuck. At least he stopped flying at the water's surface. Either some kind of safety feature, or maybe Taylor just took direct control of the armor's features, they were designed for her to do that after all.
The girls swam over to him, while I swam further away. As much as I wanted to help, I couldn't. Theo's armor could take the heat, but the girls would be boiled alive. And I still had to keep the water warm so they didn't freeze. On top of that, they had medical knowledge, while powers meant the brain scans and knowledge uploads didn't work for me.
And even if they did work on me, and I took medicine instead of wasting space on silly stuff like video game programming and how to direct pornography, I still couldn't compete with the world's most powerful biotinker. I had to trust them to do what I could not. Come on, Theo. I don't have a lot of friends that I can just hang with. You have to be alright.
They had his suit open, with Riley sitting on his hips and doing whatever it was she needed to do. I couldn't help but look, in spite of the lack of modesty here. But the bruises covering Theo's upper body, and the ugly looking gash on Clarice's side ruined any eroticism that might have come from it.
"Minimal decompression, major crushing trauma," Riley stated. "He'll live, mostly because his suit protected him from the worst of it and is currently running life support. If he was any deeper when he lost control of his power, he'd be dead right now."
Now both my armor and Theo's spoke up. "So we're down to three able bodies. Missy, please get us to shore. I'm pretty sure Lily should be done by now, and I still don't have access to Avalon. We're still on our own out here."
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A/N- Damn it's been too long since I've had a Zach chapter.
Also- shall be busy, don't expect a second chapter today.
