<< VOL.08_HARDWARE-AND-HOLLOWS.log >>

Ch.203: Intruder in the Blue

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Shelly nodded at Esoptron. He moved clear immediately, giving her the space. She drew her swords and faced Plex as the E-Medics in the room found reasons to be somewhere else at a noticeably fast pace. ‘The fact that they activated him and are now actively leaving is not a good sign. I can feel his energy output, it's reading close to 02's level. How?’

Plex descended to the floor. "You have a crystal I hold no record of. Cyan. I'll be taking it."

"How did you—it doesn't matter." Shelly started forward, then accelerated, quick steps against the metallic floor despite the proxy frame's proportions.

He didn't move.

She reached him and swung.

Crash.

His right golden glove came straight down onto her blade. The sword shattered on contact, not bent, not cracked , shattered, the pieces falling in front of her in a clean cascade.

She stepped back and brought the second sword up in both hands. "What is that thing made of?" She came at him again, a different angle this time, aiming for the side.

He caught the blade with his glove before it reached his clothing. He closed his fist. The blade dented first, the shape of his fingers pressed into the metal, then cracked each time he added force. It followed the first sword's fate exactly.

Shelly looked at the handle remaining in her hand. She raised her head slightly.

A golden blur arrived at her face.

Clang.

She went across the room with one hit, the left side of her face massively deformed. She hit the far wall and stayed there. Her HUD cycled through glitch states without resolution.

Plex walked toward her. The gloves dissolved from his hands into a ring of gold dust that orbited him slowly. Weapons began forming and dissolving within it as he considered his options.

"Sword, no, I destroyed both of those." He waved through the ring like a physical interface. "Knives would require close range with it. Hammer… already dealt with its frame. What if—" He stopped several meters from her. "Why don't you attack me? I want to measure this new crystal. I can already feel where it's weak."

Shelly forced herself upright. "You called me 'it.'"

"That's how our great father Nicholas Rivera referred to you, among his colleagues." Plex began to float. "You are a thing, and that's what you'll remain. You don't have a soul the way the other G-Bots do, you know this. Building a fabricated crystal to simulate what they have is—" his voice dropped to something cold "pathetic."

Shelly crouched and pressed her fingers into the metallic floor, pulling pieces free one by one until a pile formed. "Then by your own reasoning, you're a thing too." She stood and aimed her hand at the material. It shaped itself into small blades. She gathered as many as her arms could hold. "Everything you said applies to everything."

"We both know that's not accurate." The gold dust around him arranged itself into six large shields, each one set into a slow orbit around him. Each shield was thick, heavily detailed, classical in form, the word plásios inscribed across each face in large letters. "I'm a crystal owner. I'm as alive as any human on this planet. You're minerals arranged into a human outline."

Shelly broke into a wide circle around him and threw the first blade at speed.

Cling.

It deflected off a shield and dropped to the floor.

She threw everything she had, varying speed and angle, targeting the gaps between the shields, which were wide enough for the blades to pass cleanly. But the shields adjusted for each throw, changing their rotation speed to intercept, blocking what should have been clear lines.

"Annoying." She kept moving.

She ran out of blades. She kept running, looking for an opening to close range. Plex raised one hand. The shields stopped.

Then they came at her.

Their speed was completely wrong for their size. She ran, across the facility, off desks, around pillars. The shields didn't adjust for obstacles. They demolished whatever was in their path and kept coming.

The first one reared up and came down.

Clang.

It planted itself in the floor close enough to feel the impact through her feet. She ran forward. The second shield's shadow fell over her.

It came down harder, closer. She looked back, the first had already pulled free and rejoined the formation. She looked forward and found the wall.

Underground. Breaking through it meant nothing.

"He cornered me completely. Thank father this is not my main body." She tried to execute a wide turn. The shields reached her first.

The first came down across her legs. The second followed on top of it, pressing the floor. The third pinned her midsection, standing its weight on her. A fourth took her arm and buried it. The remaining two held position nearby, watching.

Plex crossed the cleared floor in unhurried steps, each one echoing in the space his shields had emptied.

"Who are you?" Shelly looked at him coming. "Where did you come from? I have no record of you and father never mentioned you. If you're this capable, why were you never used?" She held the gaze as the distance closed. "You said you have a crystal, but every crystal father ever made is accounted for."

"Shelly the silly." He smiled. "Or Lazuli. Or E-UNIT 00. What a remarkable fracture of identity you've built." He dropped an SSD on the ground after scanning it briefly.

"That's—"

"Your companion Esoptron. What a soulless corporate designation." He crouched in front of her and examined her face. "I dislike revealing myself, but I'll tell you everything you want to know, if you answer one question. Since this is a proxy frame, I'm certain you were smart enough not to install an SSD in it. You're afraid Omega might detect and wake from it. Yes?"

Shelly said nothing.

"I'll count the silence." He began brushing her hair away from the damaged side of her face slowly. "Tell me, sister. I can sense every crystal father ever created, regardless of distance. The blue one, Omega's crystal, is occupied by someone else. Not Omega. But I hear Omega in this one here." He indicated Shelly’s chest. "Who is the intruder in the blue?"

Shelly held the calculation for a moment. ‘If he faces 02, one of them ends. If 02 wins, that's a win. If he wins and takes the crystal—' "I ask first. Or I disconnect this frame. Neither of us gets what we came for."

"What an annoying brat." He straightened. "Fine. Go."

"What is your crystal's power. And what is this facility's purpose."

Plex rose and began floating cross-legged above her. "My power is difficult to define briefly, call it energy sovereignty. I reshape it, extract it, distribute it, or absorb it. It belongs to me in any form it takes." He looked down at her. "The facility's purpose won't matter much longer, it won't exist after today." He held her gaze. "Now. Who is in the blue crystal."

"Her name is 02." Shelly smiled despite the state of her face. "She killed Omega. She slaughtered her and stole her crystal. I'm here trying to revive our sister, I have Omega's fragmented consciousness with me, and I came looking for a way to sustain it before 02 hunts me down too."

"I believe the first part, but the second..." He reached toward her proxy frame's chest and pressed inward until his hand found the cyan crystal. He looked into her eyes. "I'll handle Omega. Don't worry about it."

Crack.

He extracted the crystal. The proxy frame went dark all at once, the eyes blanked, every glowing element forgetting what light was. Plex rose to his full height and opened his arms.

"E-Medics. Evacuate this facility. I'll establish a safe route before they send more of these after us. The G-Bot crystals are in the west, follow the energy signature if your sensors can reach it. Go."

E-Medics emerged from every room, moving with purpose, taking what remained of their work with them. They grouped around E-Medic M03, the one closest to Nick in the old files.

"He's going for 02." One of them was vibrating slightly. "And her frame is compromised, she'll have difficulty facing him."

Another added. "We have to do something."

E-Medic M03 smirked.

"Do you actually think he would ever put his hands on 02?" She shook her head. "Leave him alone. If it hadn't been an emergency, I wouldn't have called him in the first place. Collect the new Omega frame components and move to the secondary site."

They all moved at once, collecting with practiced efficiency. Smiles on the ones that had faces for it.

Plex left the facility, rising through the access points until he reached the old police station above. The sounds of the street came through, cars, movement, the ordinary noise of the city going about itself.

"Forgive me, father. But I'm going to kill 02 for the G-Bots.” He looked up at the sky, his golden visor reflecting the weak sunlight. “For Omega."

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- THE GUARDIAN PLEX-