Phoenix - the Insilico tales - chapter 14 - "A Bad Idea"
(originally posted 7/18/2011)
The streets were as quiet as they were going to get. Phee sat in her wheelchair in full battle armor, Kristin in her lap giggling insanely. She carefully lined up the chair near the 7 seas ramp, aiming it Eastward across the main arch bridge traversing the transit hub in central. She hunched over to protect the tiny giggling runner and to aim the exhaust from her jetpack. She took one last intense look at the target through her visor, and ignited the pack at full thrust...
Sayer's words had cut straight through her with every bit of the violence of a plasma claw. He had stood before her, in that very wheelchair, and told a recently wounded combat veteran that he thought of her sacrifices as manipulations, attempts to dissuade his passions from the new woman who had known his bed while Phee lay in a coma. Phee tried to understand it. She tried to rescue the situation. But the pain was just too much. She couldn't surmount it. All she could manage was to leave in stunned amazement and intense pain.
The pack barked and belched superheated gases into the night, blowing street trash outward and upward against the curb. The wheelchair rocketed forward, slammed hard against the lip of the bridge, almost knocking the pair out of the chair, But it proceeded, gaining speed, until the wheels left the bridge at the apex of its curve. Kristin was squealing with delight.
It had not been like Phee. It was totally out of her character to shoot an innocent woman. But when the word went out that a terrorist transmitter had been found at the Bowl, All Phee could think about were those children. She'd seen the Taylor boy's head on a table in the lab. So when she saw a dark figure skulking about on the roof of the Bowl, she fired. There was a blood trail. Phee followed it. Running through the night following a trail of blood to her prey. It was that same urge - that same bloodlust, that would nearly lead her to her death in the alley the next morning, chasing after the second transmitter. She realized she could never live with that kind of decision again, and had decided to quit THISec.
The chair arched toward Reaktor with incredible speed. Phee saw that it wasn't going to clear the lip of the roof, and pulled her legs up, curling her arms around the gleeful little clone in her lap, curled them both into a ball, and shut down her motor systems, locking her body into place as a steel roll cage.
Juliette Tsunenaga sat at her desk in Tokuma HQ, regarding the cyborg carefully. She knew this wouldn't be easy for her, "Whilst we're having to be so adaptable your knowledge in both fields will undoubtedly be useful, however the spread of resources at present dictates that I must reassign you full time to THiSec."
The lower part of the wheelchair struck the edge of the building with incredible force, and obliterated, sending fragments flying in all directions. The pair began rolling along the roof at high speed. Phee had not taken into consideration the possibility that they might want to stop. She reactivated her leg servos and prayed they would come up in time. She stuck her legs out straight, and the roll stopped abruptly, Phee was now sliding across the roof of Reaktor on her ass, sparks shooting out as she clawed into the metal roof with her boots to try to bring them to a halt. They finally came to rest a few centimeters from a dropoff on the other side of the building. Kristin instantly leaped out of her lap and began bounding about, screaming "do it again! do it again!"
The streets were as quiet as they were going to get. Phee sat in her wheelchair in full battle armor, Kristin in her lap giggling insanely. She carefully lined up the chair near the 7 seas ramp, aiming it Eastward across the main arch bridge traversing the transit hub in central. She hunched over to protect the tiny giggling runner and to aim the exhaust from her jetpack. She took one last intense look at the target through her visor, and ignited the pack at full thrust...
Sayer's words had cut straight through her with every bit of the violence of a plasma claw. He had stood before her, in that very wheelchair, and told a recently wounded combat veteran that he thought of her sacrifices as manipulations, attempts to dissuade his passions from the new woman who had known his bed while Phee lay in a coma. Phee tried to understand it. She tried to rescue the situation. But the pain was just too much. She couldn't surmount it. All she could manage was to leave in stunned amazement and intense pain.
The pack barked and belched superheated gases into the night, blowing street trash outward and upward against the curb. The wheelchair rocketed forward, slammed hard against the lip of the bridge, almost knocking the pair out of the chair, But it proceeded, gaining speed, until the wheels left the bridge at the apex of its curve. Kristin was squealing with delight.
It had not been like Phee. It was totally out of her character to shoot an innocent woman. But when the word went out that a terrorist transmitter had been found at the Bowl, All Phee could think about were those children. She'd seen the Taylor boy's head on a table in the lab. So when she saw a dark figure skulking about on the roof of the Bowl, she fired. There was a blood trail. Phee followed it. Running through the night following a trail of blood to her prey. It was that same urge - that same bloodlust, that would nearly lead her to her death in the alley the next morning, chasing after the second transmitter. She realized she could never live with that kind of decision again, and had decided to quit THISec.
The chair arched toward Reaktor with incredible speed. Phee saw that it wasn't going to clear the lip of the roof, and pulled her legs up, curling her arms around the gleeful little clone in her lap, curled them both into a ball, and shut down her motor systems, locking her body into place as a steel roll cage.
Juliette Tsunenaga sat at her desk in Tokuma HQ, regarding the cyborg carefully. She knew this wouldn't be easy for her, "Whilst we're having to be so adaptable your knowledge in both fields will undoubtedly be useful, however the spread of resources at present dictates that I must reassign you full time to THiSec."
The lower part of the wheelchair struck the edge of the building with incredible force, and obliterated, sending fragments flying in all directions. The pair began rolling along the roof at high speed. Phee had not taken into consideration the possibility that they might want to stop. She reactivated her leg servos and prayed they would come up in time. She stuck her legs out straight, and the roll stopped abruptly, Phee was now sliding across the roof of Reaktor on her ass, sparks shooting out as she clawed into the metal roof with her boots to try to bring them to a halt. They finally came to rest a few centimeters from a dropoff on the other side of the building. Kristin instantly leaped out of her lap and began bounding about, screaming "do it again! do it again!"
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