Flesh vs Steel (Started)

Koron

Koron awoke, head pounding and his body feeling as if it's about to just crumble. He guess at least half of his ribs broken, along with a small fracture in his skull. God I have never felt this bad, Koron thought. He looked up to see Cancer jab at Taurus's neck and be engulfed in red and white. Koron raised his hand in an attempt to block some of the blood and to stop himself from being blinded by the light that Cancer was emitting. He stood up and felt a overwhelming sense of nausea overcome him and he stumbled, nearly tripping over. He moved his hand to see Taurus drop down, hopefully dead, and Cancer land on the ground, covered in blood and grime.

"Do you think it's dead?" Koron asked.

"I don't know," Cancer replied, "certainly looks like it."

"And I think," Koron said turning to Mercury, "that proves that Cancer is definitely on our side, he is not with the machines, he is with us. Know why? Because that thing was another member of the Zodiac programme. Cancer could've turned and attacked us, but he didn't. So..." Koron grimaced with pain, "So... I don't want you to try and hurt or discriminate against him. Okay?"

Mercury

"So... I don't want you to try and hurt or discriminate against him. Okay?"

"Really?" Mercury mused. "Are you sure this wasn't the plan from the start?"

"I don't understand what you mean. How could Cancer possibly carry any guilt?"

"Ask him," Mercury nodded towards the smoking carapace of Taurus. He had begun to rise to his knees, an expression of pain and disbelief. An evil grin spread eerily across Mercury's pale face. His stubble had clenched, and his eyebrows inverted. The face of a demon.

"I WILL NOT... LOSE!" the cyborg grunted, his booming and low voice echoing through the base.
"Oh shut up," Mercury spat, kicking the tank in the jaw. "The only way to find out if this beast is really on our side," Mercury paused, revealing a 44. calibre pistol from his pocket, "is to kill the opposition."

Koron, Zephyr and Logan all stared at Mercury's determined face. Just what was he trying to prove. They might not have believed, but he did with all his heart. The soldier shoved the firearm into Cancer's chest, releasing it into his hands. "Kill this beast;" the demon whispered, the silent and senseless voice could not belong to any man.

Cancer hesitated.

"Do it!"

"..."

"Fine," Mercury sighed, flicking another pistol to his grip. "Pull the trigger... or I will," he laughed as the chrome muzzle pressed against Cancer's skull.

Cancer

"Pull the trigger or I will." Cancer felt the muzzle of Mercury's weapon.
Checkmate, Cancer thought to himself.
"You know, Mercury, I have a theory as to why you hate me," Cancer turned to face his would-be murderer fully, aware of the gun barrel forming a black abyss in his field of vision.
"You hate because you fear. You see me as one of them. You fear me because you fear the androids." Cancer paused, ever awaiting the bullet. "You are just a show, Mercury Tyrran. A blusterer. A fake."
Cancer stood, waiting for a reaction, but got none. If his accusations had struck a nerve, Mercury did well to hide it. Still, the bullet did not come. That in itself Cancer took as a sign.
"Do not consider this self preservation, Mercury. I do this because I am a man, one who has a choice, control over their actions." With that, Cancer turned and fired, spattering the assembled with Taurus' brain matter. His stomach rebelled at the brutality of his actions, but Cancer kept it from his face as much as he could.
"If you are going to shoot me, Mercury, do so now."

Koron

Koron stood there in disbelief, unable to comprehend what was going on. The worst thing was that Mercury's finger was tightening around the trigger. Koron sheathed his blades and swung a punch, not wishing to kill Mercury but merely subdue him. The punch caught him on the cheek, disorienting Mercury. Koron proceeded to deliver a kick. The kick caught Mercury's hand sending the revolver skidding across the floor. Mercury quickly recovered.

"What did you that for?" Mercury asked.

"You were going to kill Cancer," Koron replied.

"He is a danger to us all," Mercury retorted.

"Why do you hate Cancer so much?" Koron asked curiously.

"I had a little brother and those androids slaughtered him, no mercy was given to him, they slaughtered him like an animal!" Mercury shouted.

"Those androids are out there, Cancer has proved that he is with us!"

"Why do you defend Cancer, when you hate androids also?"

"My family was also killed, the only difference is that I retained my integrity, while you are getting chewed up by it." A sound echoed throughout the room. "Droids! We need to get outta here," Koron ordered. Cancer, Logan, Leah and Zephyr exited the room first, leaving Mercury and Koron alone.

"Let's go," Mercury said. Mercury went first followed by Koron. Koron got to the door when he felt a boot to his chest and fell back. "End of the line," Mercury taunted, and he shut the door. Koron heard it click and knew that Mercury had locked it.

Mercury

"End of the line," Mercury smiled, malicious intent dominating his face, locking Koron in. Mercury snatched a det-charge from his belt and pressed the switch before dropping it into the corridor in which Logan, Cancer, Zephyr and Leah had walked into. None of them had time to speak as he sprinted down the short hall towards the back exit. As he turned Merucury was lifted off his feet by a tackle from Logan.

Mercury scuffled with him on the floor for a second before elbowing him in the face and delivering a chop to Logan's throat. "Try that one on for size tough man," Mercury hissed. He turned, then chuckled at Cancer's cowardice; he had not shifted from his spot.

Slamming the door behind him and sealing the lock with the password, Mercury reflected upon the genius of his improvised plan:
When he was tossed into the armory during the fight with Taurus, Mercury had a backup plan. He had snatched a specially designed explosive from the shelves incase Cancer revealed his true colours. It seemed to have been purposely designed for the extermination of the droids. All nerve matrix in a hundred yards would have to be destroyed before the timer would stop and the bomb disarm. Five minutes was all the time they had to come to their senses, and if they didn't Cancer and the rest of the droids would be destroyed anyway. To further his logical train-of-thought, he had isolated Koron from the bomb. As if he would be stupid enough to arm a det-charge right next to a bomb expert.

Rather smug with himself, Mercury began to walk in the direction of the elevator. The surface was his next stop, and nobody was going to stop him. He noticed a slight movement in the corner of his eye, as a bodyless beast tried to crawl towards him. "I'm glad Koron didn't know about this one" he laughed, revealing a 10mm pistol from his boot, placing a round into the android's head.

Koron

Koron stood up and looked around the room. I should have seen this Koron thought. He ran to the corner of the room and picked up Mercury's revolver. Three bullets. Koron contemplated using the gun on himself. No, not while the rest of the group are in trouble. Holstering the revolver, Koron snapped out of his brief moment of depression. He had to get out of here and fast. The sounds grew louder. Koron once again looked around the room, seeing if there was anything useful. He heard the sounds of a brief scuffle, then a gag. "Anybody on the otherside!" Koron shouted.

"Mercury has betrayed us," a voice replied. It was Cancer. "He has also planted a det-charge in here,"

"Tell me what type it is," Koron ordered.

"It looks like a anti-droid charge of some description." Koron then knew what was about to happen.

"There should be counter on it, tell me how long is left."

"Four minutes."

"Okay, just let me slice through-" Koron let out a cry of pain and collapsed to his knees, leaning against the door for support. "Droids...here....I'm sorry..." Koron collapsed backwards.

"Biological matter detected, proceeding to-"

"No," another voice, sounding far away. "He will be useful. We are the harbingers of the human's perfection, send this human for ascension." Koron's vision started to fail, and he saw a grotesque thing with two faces, before his vision failed him completely.

Logan

This was a blow, knocking Logan completely over the edge. He hadn't had much to say about Mercury's dangerous and volitile behavior, but now he wanted to take the soldier and break him. This was the first time Logan had wanted to do such a thing to a human, but how dare Mercury put them into that spot.

Cancer had shouted for help from Koron, him being an engineer and all.
"Okay, just let me slice through-" he had replied, before a shriek of pain killed his sentence.

"Koron!" Logan yelled, making Leah and Zephyr jump. Cancer had already accepted the situation, there was no way a man how still had the fight left in him would act like that. The beep of the timer filled the bitter, eerie air, now death seemed to hover over all of the survivors heads.

Cancer turned around, paused, and stared at Leah's bulbous, innocent eyes. She was weeping, but not crying, perhaps she understood what was going on. "There's only one way to settle this..." he finally spoke. "Logan," he said, solemnly, "break my neck, make it quick and unhealable. I cannot stand the thought of my existence puting you in danger."

Everybody in the room was silent for what seemed like hours, when truly it was meerly seconds. "No," the father replied, looking up from his gaze at the ground. "We will disarm this thing, Mercury will not shift the blood onto any of our hands. Cancer,"

"Yes?"

"Let's do this."

Koron

Koron woke up to a world of numbers, lights and weird icons. Everything was blurred but he could make out the outlines of a few select droids, standing next to the table he was lying on. Including the two-faced one he had seen earlier. He tried to move his head around but instead felt cold steel against his throat, restricting his movement, in fact Koron realised that his whole body was clamped down.

"He has awoken," a voice said. Koron recognised it as the two-faced thing.

"What do you want with me?" Koron asked, barely keeping the contempt out of his voice.

"You are here because I deemed it. You are here as a part of an experiment. You are here for a purpose, to elevate the human race into becoming cyborgs. It is a jump start in human evolution and you will be at the forefront of it."

"I ask again, what do you want with me?" Koron asked, now not even bothering to keep the anger out of his voice. He also spied the insignia of the Gemini zodiac.

"It is not what we need, it is what we have done." While saying that, the neck restricter, came apart and receeded into two alcoves, one either side of the neck. Koron now looked down and realised with horror what they had done. They had made him part cyborg. His arms and chest had circuitry and metal plates on them. The things he saw when he woke up must of been some sort of neural interface. Koron roared in rage and struggled against his bonds. The bonds began to shudder.

"You seem disappointed with being elevated. Anyway it matters not, these droids will finish the upgrades whether you are awake or not." Gemini said.

"I promise you...that when I get free, I will be the one to end you!" Koron yelled.

"My death will eventually happen, but not by your hand." Following that, he walked out the room. The other droids once again began to work on Koron and his screams of pain echoed to the ears of Gemini, and for every scream, he smiled to himself.

Mercury

Whoever had sent Taurus must've thought Mercury was an idiot, another maintenance tunnel was wide open, yet labelled as 'closed'. "Pfft. As if," Mecury laughed. The pneumatics of the service corridor clunked as Mercury tapped in the external security code, and he cocked his head in contemplation. "Odd, I don't recall this being here. As to what he meant by 'this' he was reffering to the mile long transport tunnel... which was stark of any train lines. The soldier took several paces forwards, examining his environment in silent contemplation; was the council in on this?

He dismissed such thoughts from his mind as screams echoed from the unseeable distance beyond. "What the fuck?" Mercury inquired, licking his teeth. The screams continued to echo relentlessly, and he knew something was up. Mercury began to sprint at full speed towards the source of the sound, not even looking to his surroundings; for if he had looked, three Borgs and a Medical Drone would have met his gaze. A burning sensation hit Mercury in the back of the knee. "Gah, fuck!"

Cluncking of metal against metal echoed through the halls, and closed in on Mercury. "Hm, what have we here? Another survivor? Take him for assimilation and elevation."

Mercury grunted in confusion as two faces flickered across his vision; as to whether that was dizziness, he was unsure. But his brain had failed him, and unconsciouness once again settled in.

Spoiler

In order to remedy the little continuity error of jumping forward in time long enough for Koron to be transformed into a cyborg, I am just going to play along as if we already defused the grenade.

Cancer

Cancer tossed the detonator of the explosive in his hand as the remains of the group made their way through the tunnels of Sanctum 78. They had successfully defused the weapon, of course, though things had very nearly gone differently.
It had come down to a fifty-fifty chance. Not so cliché as a red wire or blue wire, but the same idea. The choice of which wire to cut had been made by Leah; she adamantly argued that it was a case of 'right one must be right'. This was one of those rare occasions in which the thought pattern of a child steers right around the logical processes of the adult mind to the correct conclusion.
Cancer heaved a long sigh, staring at the pneumatics visible on the back of his right hand; whatever he had done to himself in the past, or allowed others to do to him, had nearly cost an innocent child her life.
Cancer continued to stare at his hand as he walked, blind to the world. The group came to a halt before a fork in the tunnel. Zephyr stopped suddenly in front of him, and Cancer bumped into her; she flashed a smile, and he did the same.
She nearly died. You nearly killed her.
Cancer snapped himself back into the real world. Doubts would not help them now- they were safe and that was all that mattered.
Cancer chucked the detonator into the shadows with a growl of anguish, drawing curious looks from the others.
Cancer pushed on past them, taking the right fork of the tunnel.
"This way."
"How do you know?" Logan called after him. He shrugged.
"I just do."

Logan

"I just do."

What he and Cancer had done was not to be shrugged at; considering Logan had never seen such an explosive in his life, he was very proud of the successful difusal. And now Cancer was acting odd, as if there was something heavy upon his conscionce.
Cancer had now begun to wander down a large tunnel that lay open, just like they had confronted a digger in a couple days back. It seemed rocky to start with, but with the turn of a corner it was clear that this was clearly a disguised road, as steel lined the ceiling, floor and walls. Blood had pooled on the floor as a small splodge, Mercury had been here. He was lucky someone else found him before Logan had. At first the thought that Koron and the traitor had a dust-up, but the absence of either's prescence didn't assure him of such a theory.

"What happened here?" Zephyr gasped, she was clearly panicked.

"Calm down," Logan replied, trying to keep the group in fair morale, "I'm sure it's nothing." Cancer looked across to him as the three gazed down at the stain, he clearly understood that Logan was just as concerned as they were; although he wanted to hurt Mercury, he was still a man, and it was possible that the blood could have belong to Koron too. As the father looked up, he noticed a trail of crimson lead into the distance of the hall, ending (as far as Logan could see) at a non-existant door. The end was sealed with another steel wall.

"We need to follow this," he sighed, regrettingly, he just hoped nothing horrible was waiting at the end of the trail.
"Are you sure?" Zephyr queried.
"Yes, we have to. Let's go." And with that, the group advanced.

Koron

Koron woke up to a world still full of numbers, however upon looking down, found that the cybernetic implants and metal plates had disappeared. Confused, he looked around to see if there was anything he could use to help him escape. He struggled against his bonds again, the metal shaking violently. Going red with exertion, Koron tried once more. The metal restraints shattered in half, shards cutting into his wrists.

Wondering how he broke the restraints, Koron searched around for his gear. To no avail, he then decided to search for anything that could help him. All Koron could find was a small automatic scalpel and doubting it's effectiveness, he went into the adjoining corridor. He saw a number of rooms, each holding some sort of prisoner, either dead or alive, awake or unconscious. Walking over to the nearest prisoner, Koron decided to investigate what was in the room. A command console was in the room. Koron ran over to it, clattering over some tools. A loud crash resonated throughout the compound. Koron held his breath. When nothing emerged through the doorway, he started examining the files on the computer console. A lot of the files were just droid models. On the edge of despair, Koron was about to smash the screen when he came across a file named "Indoctrination Technology." A clunk shook Koron out of his stunned stupor. A figure blocked the doorway and the figure was Mercury.

Mercury

His blood was flowing. “I’m not a beast!” Mercury roared, as he tore back the curtain of this subconscious illusion. The androids operated around the table, and the captive sighed in relief as he realised the cyberkinetic implants and metal plating had not become a part of his body. “It was all a simulation... but for what?”

A medical droid turned to the roused, heavy panting man, and seemed to examine him intently. “CAPTIVE HAS REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS AND HAS OVERIDDEN PREPARATION PROGRAMMING. RESUMING TESTING AND ASSIMILATION.”

“Fuck you scrap heap!” Mercury yelled, full of rage, as he flailed uselessly, bound by inescapable metal shackles. A Borg approached him, and he smiled when he noted the silver writing on its left shoulder. It read ‘military information unit’. “Security override twenty-nine two bee. Emergency android revolt, engage all nearby units immediately,” he said, clearly, but with a hint of smugness in his voice.

“COMMAND RECIEVED. PROCEEDING TO TERMINATE ALL NEARBY DROID UNITS,” it buzzed, as it raised its right arm and unleashed a mighty punch into a nearby SICAD’s ballistic head, creating a horrible, mushy sound. Mercury squirmed as the chaos ensued, trying to figure a way out of his horizontal imprisonment.

The Borg proceeded to retrieve the soldier’s medium size pistol that was stored on a small steel shelf, and then, with lethal accuracy, shot the medical droid and two beasts that seemed to have their arms where their legs should have been. A wave of heat brushed past Mercury’s face, and his overridden Borg fell limp by the side of him. Two more Borg had entered the room.

“CAPTIVE. DO NOT ATTEMPT ESCAPE. RESISTANCE TO ASSIMILATION IS FUTILE.”

“What has fertility got to do with this?” The man grinned, as he slowly seized the firearm from the lifeless droids hand.

“CLARIFICATION: RESISTANCE TO ASSIM...”

The robotic speech was cut off by a gunshot that caused sparks to fly over by the computer control panel at the front of the room. Pneumatics could be heard releasing steam, and the gauntlets fixing Mercury to the table came loose. He sat up, weapon in hand, and emptied an entire clip into the two androids. “Futile my arse.”

Mercury began to wander the illuminated blue corridors; just where was he? Violent shakings and groans could be heard in a room to his left at the end of the hall, and he decided to investigate just what it was. As he walked, a clunk echoed in the back of Mercury’s mind, and he turned and fired instinctively. The bullet struck a wire, and a surge of electricity whizzed down the wall. “Nothing there,” he muttered to himself, as he continued to walk. At the end doorway, a familiar figure appeared, almost limping. It was Koron.

Mercury wanted to call over to him, but instead decided to watch him, just in case the beast and the other three survivors had escaped from the trap he had set. The engineer travelled down the ‘L’ shaped corridor, with Mercury following close behind, the long room cutting off into multiple cells where corpses and sleeping men sat, faces scarred with metal and plastic. Koron turned right at a T-junction into the final of these cells, which, in fact, was much larger, more like a hold where he had just been held.

Mercury watched, sinisterly, as Koron crossed the room towards a terminal. After a few minutes of stumbling through files, Koron was looking unnerved and following a clunk echoing throughout the corridor, he turned to the doorway. Mercury pressed himself against the wall, also wondering about the sound, before reassuming his spying position on Koron. The metallic sound repeated itself, and the man turned, catching sight of his traitorous ally.

“Boo,” Mercury said, unenthusiastically. “Well, are you going to stand there all day? Let’s get the hell out of the God damn place.”

Cancer

Cancer followed dutifully behind Logan as the man traced the crimson droplets along the darkened corridor. Sure enough, the spattered trail terminated at a metal panel which ran across the tunnel's width. Logan cast his eyes about the dead end, before muttering something about there being 'no way out'. The cyborg bit back a scathing remark; this was no time for in-fighting.
Zephyr leaned against the metal panel, allowing herself a desperate sigh. Leah, wriggling in her arms, knocked against panel with her closed fist, griping and grumbling. A hollow sound returned to them; Cancer pressed his ear to the cool metal and mimicked the little girl's actions, to the same effect.
"Move." he pushed Zephyr aside, eliciting a shout of protest. He made note to apologise later, cracked his knuckled, and delivered a furious punch to the obstacle's smooth surface.
Cancer retracted his fist, marvelling at the indentation he had left in the metal. Rolling his shoulders, he took a step back, then threw his weight forward, delivering another blow. His hand quivered with pain; Cancer steadied his breathing, putting an end to the involuntary motion.
Cancer drew his arm back for a third strike, but Zephyr put herself between him and the door. Her eyes locked with his, then moved to where his hand now hung by his side. He glanced down, observing the blood which trickled in rivulets down each of his pale fingers. Cancer grinned.
"You forget, Zephyr- being a freak has its upsides."
He raised his arm, and she ducked out of the way with a panicked shriek. Cancer wasted no time in driving his fist through the metal panel, grimacing as the twisted scrap gouged deep lacerations in his forearm. He took hold of the hole at either side and, grunting with the effort, tore back the steel curtain to reveal the next section of the tunnel, swirling shadows parting as light penetrated the darkness beyond.
The group stepped gingerly through the gap in the twisted metal. Cancer hid his hands, aware of the rivers of blood which poured from his knuckles and fingers.
"Let's shed some light on this-" Logan reached for his flashlight, flicking on the narrow yellow beam.
The light reflected back off of something hidden in the shadows. Cancer recoiled as that something moved suddenly, red eyes flashing into view. The click and whir of a charging weapon penetrated the cyborg's ears, and bright plasma burned his retinas.
Someone screamed.
Cancer flailed in the darkness, and felt the Borg's fist connect with his jaw.
Screaming.
Motion.
Darkness.

Zephyr


Zephyr’s screams echoed beyond, into the darkness, dimming and diminishing as distance increased; much like Logan’s bright yellow flashlight. The crunch between the phantom Borg’s fist and Cancer’s jaw was terrifying, not just because he was now out for the count, but it also meant that the group was now completely disarmed, with a squadron of the dull droid closing in. “Logan, what do we do?! What now?!”

Logan did not reply, it was like he was stuck in deep thought, or paralysing fear. Zephyr could not think which, it just happened so fast, but she did not realise. She really thought that would be the end. From behind the duo, a squeak had came, followed by a searing wave of sudden heat and a deafening noise. Gunshots. “Get out of there!”

A voice of spite and bitter intentions had spoken, one of which Zephyr had hoped she would never have to feel the displeasure of hearing ever again. Zephyr was yanked from the schism in the steel wall by a familiar set of arms. “Let go of me!” she screamed defiantly.

Mercury was too strong for her to wriggle free; she was locked in his grip. Unexpectedly Koron had appeared, and began to retrieve Cancer from the gap with assistance from Logan. They were struggling, yet Koron’s possession of a firearm had reassured Zephyr that the two were safer... somehow.

Her attention was brought back to her current state as she was hauled into a corridor, that had simply not existed a few seconds before. “Get off of me you bastard!” she continued to screech, but Mercury had persisted in his actions. More gunshots.

The tall man dropped Zephyr, but bound her wrist in his hands firmly. “Koron, what are you doing: asking the Borg’s to dinner? Hurry the fuck up!” he shouted, gripping tighter on the young girl. “Stop squirming,” his voice had dropped to an annoyed whisper, silence that commanded. Zephyr stopped. He let go of her hands.
“You bastard!” she screamed. “You bastard, you bastard, you bastard!” she repeated, breaking down into a whimper, torrents of salty tears leaking from her eyes. Mercury wrapped his arms around her and held her, rubbing her back in comfort and security. But, for a split second, goosebumps rose on Zephyr’s skin; she felt venom, evil, darkness. Was this her mind fooling her? Had Mercury betrayed them so many times that her body had naturally begun to distrust him? She could not tell, but right now, her mind was an overflowing well of emotion; not a good state to be in when making decisions.

More gunshots followed, and Leah shrieked, before she was plucked into her father’s arms, followed by the clatter of the cyborg striking the floor, laying unconscious. Koron stumbled into the room, before tapping away at a pad, setting the now obvious elevator in motion.

Mercury released Zephyr and turned to Koron, flashing an apologetic smile, which he then directed to Logan. The father hooked the soldier with his free right hand, startling the engineer and the young girl; however it was almost as if Mercury had expected it.

“I deserved that.” He half-smiled.