Chapter 491
Chapter 491
But on the other hand, Jake figured that if there were any real danger that the Spartans could trigger the self-destruct function in Owen’s brain chip, Mick wouldn’t have brought him into his main base. So Jake refrained from asking any questions and simply continued to view Mick’s memories.
He learned that for the next several weeks after Owen was turned into a morphus, he fought the ravagespawn, leveled up, and gained new abilities. At least once a day, he would return to the Spartans’ base to report on his progress.
While they constantly watched through his eyes and received updates on his stats, that wasn’t enough for the Commander. He wanted to know every small detail about Owen, so he asked him a lot of questions about his new form and how his abilities worked. That was how the Commander had come to know so much about mutants like Jake and Owen. In the end, though, that knowledge hadn’t helped him at all.
During that time, Owen evolved twice. When the time came for his second evolution, the Commander ordered him to become a Devastator, even though Owen had preferred the Ravager path. And after becoming the Devastator, he continued to gain experience, level up, and grow stronger.
Every time Owen returned to the Spartans’ base, after the Commander interrogated him, he made Mick perform a check on Owen’s brain chip to make sure everything was functioning properly. Sure enough, some of the Spartans constantly kept a close eye on the two of them. Despite that, Mick kept talking to Owen, even though he knew the morphus couldn’t reply. Most of the time, the Spartans paid no attention to his muttering, as Owen didn’t seem to pay attention to him at all.
However, Mick himself was sure that Owen was listening, and from the subtle changes in his posture, which the Spartans failed to notice, it even seemed to Mick that the morphus was gradually warming to him. Sure enough, knowing he was always being watched by guards when he was with the morphus, Mick was very careful about what he said in order not to compromise himself.
Since Owen couldn’t speak and wasn’t even allowed to communicate with Mick at all, Mick’s goal was simply to make Owen get used to him and realize they were on the same side. When the time came to escape, there wouldn’t be much time to explain, so to prepare for that, Mick knew he had to make sure that Owen accepted him, if not as a friend, then as an ally, and that when the right time came, Owen would act immediately without hesitating.
Usually, when Owen wasn’t around, Mick didn’t have anyone watching over his shoulder. Since, because of the Commander, he was confined to a wheelchair, nobody thought of him as a threat. So Mick used that to his full advantage. While pretending to work on the new equipment he was ordered to invent, he also spent every free minute on his side projects.
Those projects were aimed at finding a way to disable the self-destruct function of Owen’s brain chip. He knew that as long as it retained that function, the two of them would never be able to escape from the Spartans’ base.
Or, more accurately, while they could technically escape the base since it would have taken little trouble for Owen to get Mick out of the Spartans’ base while killing every Spartan on the way, how far they could get after that was anybody’s guess. Once they were away from the base, one of the surviving Spartans could trigger the self-destruct function, and their attempt to escape would be for nothing.
So Mick knew he had to try to deactivate the self-destruct function. At some point, he got very close to a solution, but unfortunately, the equipment available to him at the Spartans’ base wasn’t enough to finish the job. But he had much more advanced equipment in his main base. He was sure that by using the right equipment there, he would be able to deactivate the self-destruct function of Owen’s brain chip.
But that meant that first they needed to escape from the Spartans’ base and somehow minimize the risk of the Spartans activating the self-destruct function. Mick thought about that for some time until he came up with a plan. It wasn’t perfect, and the risk that it could fail was pretty high, but it was the best plan he could come up with in his situation.
For some time after that, he was busy making preparations. He got very close to fixing the teleporter, so at some point, he was finally able to give it its intended function. It could now switch between two settings: one would open a portal to Mick’s main base, while the other would materialize the Black Void anomaly. But Mick kept it a secret from the Spartans that he was finally able to make his teleporter work the way it should have in the first place.
The Commander also forced him to experiment on ravagespawn that his men captured and brought back to the base. Mick fused them with various weapons, creating dozens of weaponized mutants armed with all kinds of powerful weapons. However, Mick kept their weaponry deactivated at all times, while the ravagespawn themselves were kept in designated cells, each equipped with an energy barrier, another invention of his, to prevent them from escaping.
At some point, Mick also managed to alter Owen’s brain chip so that its self-destruct function would no longer detonate instantly. If triggered, it would instead begin charging and explode only after roughly fifteen minutes. And with that done, everything was ready, all the preparations complete.
So one day, when Owen returned to the Spartans’ base and, after being interrogated by the Commander, was sent to the tech lab to see Mick, Mick decided it was time to put his plan into action. While pretending to check on Owen’s brain chip, he began to mumble to him in his usual monotonous voice to prevent the guards from becoming suspicious.
“Listen carefully, my friend,” he said quietly. “We can escape. To my base. By teleporter. I fixed it. Once there, I’ll turn off your chip. No time to explain in detail. You’ll have to just trust me. But I thought of everything.”
The guards who stood nearby couldn’t hear his exact words. They were well used to his mumbling to Owen, so they usually didn’t pay attention to it. However, they must have sensed that something was wrong this time. Maybe he was speaking too urgently or maybe his facial expression gave him away. It didn’t really matter what it was, though. Whatever the reason, the guards grew suspicious, and one of them barked at Mick, “Hey, what the hell are you whispering to the freak? Stop it.”
Mick ignored them. He kept talking to Owen. “We can escape. Right now. But we need to act quickly. When I yell ‘Now,’ pick me up and do exactly what I say. Nod if you understand.”
He had no idea what was going on in Owen’s head. He didn’t know whether all those weeks of talking to him and trying to earn his trust had mattered at all. If Owen still didn’t trust him, then all the preparations he had made would be for nothing.
“Hey, asshole, did you hear what I just told you?” the same guard called angrily. “Stop talking to him. Move away from the morphus. Now.”
The two guards began walking toward Mick. That was when Owen turned his head, lowered his gaze to Mick, and gave him a nod. Mick felt a huge grin spread across his face. He just couldn’t help it. But then he turned his wheelchair and rolled to the control panel.
The first thing he did was activate the weapons mounted on the captured ravagespawn and deactivate the force fields holding them in their cells. All it took was just pressing a few buttons.
“Don’t fucking touch anything,” the guard yelled at Mick. “Keep your hands away from…”
The guard didn’t finish his sentence, because sounds of energy gunfire and screams from the other guards came from other parts of the tech lab. While they were distracted by the ruckus, Mick selected the teleporter setting that opened a portal to his main base.
At that exact moment, something smashed through the doorway. Both guards spun to face that direction and were met with the sight of a mutant whose lower arms had been replaced with energy cannons. Before either of the guards could do anything, the mutant fired one of its weapons. The top half of one guard’s body immediately disappeared in an explosion of gore.
“Now!” Mick yelled.
Owen, who had been as still as a statue until then, immediately sprang into action. He leaped toward Mick and, with a single fluid motion, lifted him from his wheelchair.
“To the teleporter room,” Mick yelled over the crackle of gunfire. “Quickly!”
Ignoring the guard and the mutant, Owen dashed toward the exit, carrying Mick in his strong hands. A moment later, they were in the corridor outside, where the Spartans fought the armed ravagespawn Mick had released a moment before.
Owen tightened his grip, shielding as much of Mick’s body as he could, and raced toward the teleporter room. A few stray energy blasts punched into Owen’s arms, but none struck Mick.
Seconds later, Owen burst into the teleporter chamber. Inside the teleporter’s arc shimmered not the deadly Black Void but a harmless blue portal. Owen hesitated for a moment, staring at it.
“Step through, my friend,” Mick urged. “There’s nothing to fear. I promise.”
To his relief, Owen didn’t question him. He approached the portal and then stepped through. Immediately, they were transported to Mick’s base. They escaped.
However, it was too early to celebrate their victory. Following Mick’s directions, Owen carried him into another room and lowered him into a chair in front of a control console.
Mick knew that he needed to hurry. The Spartans could trigger the self-destruct function in Owen’s brain chip at any moment now, so he had to work quickly. He had fifteen or so minutes to get the job done.
Thanks to having already gone through the exact same process while at the Spartans’ base, he already knew exactly what he had to do. Back at the Spartans’ base, he’d been unable to deactivate the self-destruct function, but at least he had memorized the process. So now he simply went through the motions. A few minutes later, he was done.
Leaning back in his chair, he looked at Owen with a smile on his face. “It is done, my friend. Now, when the Spartans attempt to blow you up, nothing will happen. We’re officially off the hook, my friend.”