Cyber-Knife II: Lady Cyber-Knife Page 9

  Then, the two prisoners nearest exited their cells, and Lady Cyber-Knife turned around to look at them. The one on her left had a bizarre black geometric tattoo across his face, down his neck, and over his forearms and fingers. Black lines of varying thickness crossed one another again and again, making it look like something had assembled him out of tiny piece of flesh stacked one at a time until they finally made a man. His glare held his face absolutely motionless, and if not for his understated breaths, Lady Cyber-Knife would have wondered if he was truly alive at all. The top of the head of the prisoner on her right didn't even come up to her shoulder, and his shoulders were broad enough that it was obvious he compensated for his short stature with obsessive bodybuilding. He looked strong enough to take on the other three, and have a good chance at winning. “Lady Cyber-Knife,” the warden continued to introduce her new acquaintances, “meet Gideon Kim, who founded his own militant religion on Earth-56. They thought worshipping the pain the Complex could rain down upon them would make them immune to it. Those tattoos? They got them as spiritual armor, a physical representation of their life force to keep them safe. Everyone else in his fucked up death cult recanted their heresy, but not him, not even as every single one of them died in front of him. The other is Oswald Oswalt, born right here one Earth-7331. He was a military experiment who went wrong, too. Tragically, he doesn't talk. I bet the two of you have a lot in common. He's probably jealous of your freedom; he hasn't seen the outside of this prison since he was a year old.

  “Gentlemen, you see before you your get-out-of-jail-free card. She's come here because she thinks she has an ally inside these walls, but I bet you can show her the grievous error of her ways. Educate her as to what a real man can do, why don't you?”

  “All right,” Thurston said, making a show of stretching out his arms and neck. “I've been dying for some fun up in here.”

  “Doesn't seem fair to me, her having a sword and all,” Gideon observed, keeping his hands at his sides.

  “So, we rush her,” Thurston suggested.

  “How about you show us how it's done?” Moses suggested, smiling wickedly. Oswald nodded, making slow, deliberate motions with his head.

  “I like that,” Gideon agreed. “You get things started, and we'll have your back.”

  “Fuck you,” Thurston said, shrugging his pointed shoulders. “We kill her, and we walk free. It's easy. We've all killed, like, a hundred like her before.”

  “Not like her, I think,” Moses said, never blinking as he stared down Lady Cyber-Knife.

  “Motherfucker, please,” Thurston said, charging at Lady Cyber-Knife in an instant. It had to be because of his low body mass, that he could transition from standing still to a murderous rage without any warning. It had probably served him well in the White Zone, where nobody was prepared for a chilly day, let alone violence.

  Lady Cyber-Knife was not like any of the victims Thurston had carefully picked before. She met his charge with an open palm to his face, snapping her arm out and back so fast that her movement was just a blur. The sound of the bones in Thurston's face breaking echoed through the hall, bouncing off the walls, ceiling, and floor. His hands flew to his wound involuntarily, in shock, so he couldn't even defend himself when she lashed out with two great, sweeping kicks to his kneecaps. That, somehow, made a noise even louder than the breaking of his nose; it overwhelmed his screams of pain. Blood dripped from his face and left great streaks of dull red against the floor when he fell.

  She looked down at Thurston, and saw fear rush over his eyes the same way water overruns its banks right before a flood. He opened his mouth. Blood dripped over his lips. Lady Cyber-Knife shook her head and pushed the Cyber-Sword into his throat. He choked, and spat blood. “I read your file right before I met the warden,” she said. “In a world that knew justice, I might have hunted men like you.” Thurston didn't make a sound when she whipped the Cyber-Sword free, tearing his throat open.

  Lady Cyber-Knife stepped over him as he died, gasping and shuddering, not even able to grab at the gash she'd sliced through his neck. “I,” she said, pointing at the three remaining prisoners in turn, “am not your enemy. I will not kill you if you do not attempt to kill me.” She swung the Cyber-Sword away from them, and pointed it up towards the speakers.

  “We all know who the real enemy is, don't we?” the Cyber-Sword asked. “He threatened to lock her and me in here with you. But, what'd he do, first? He sacrificed his entire security force, trying to stop us from reaching you, and then released you from your cells, hoping you'd succeed where he failed. He thought he'd make you his foot soldiers in his fight against two who have no quarrel with you at all.”

  “Let us reiterate: he let you out of your cages. He has no one left to carry out his bidding. He surrendered his last bit of power over you,” Lady Cyber-Knife added.

  They all began to smile, figuring out Lady Cyber-Knife and the Cyber-Sword meant, looking from one face to the other, and nodding their heads. The Cyber-Sword cemented their realization when it asked them, “Name your real enemy.”

  “That motherfucker up there,” answered Moses, his rumbling voice starting somewhere around his heels, before finally exiting his mouth.

  “Don't you even dare think about it!” the warden shouted. “You destroyed the elevator, after all!”

  “Yes, but there is a service ladder in the shaft,” Lady Cyber-Knife said. “Your climb will be arduous, but think of the reward that awaits you at its end.”

  “After that, your grandest challenge will surely be figuring out which of you strikes the final blow!” the Cyber-Sword said.

  “Yeah, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Gideon said, locking his eyes slowly first with Moses, then with Oswald.

  “Take a left at the end of the hall,” Lady Cyber-Knife said, motioning with her open hand. “You cannot miss it.”

  “Thanks,” Oswald mumbled, shaking Lady Cyber-Knife's hand with both of his, completely engulfing hers with his enormous, paw-like digits.

  As the freed prisoners stomped away, the hallway barely tall enough to contain them, the warden swore at Lady Cyber-Knife with some of the least creative curses she or the Cyber-Sword had ever heard.

  EARTH-1, THE WHITE ZONE

  THE PAST (16 DAYS EARLIER)

  Tracy opened their eyes in the hospital bed and nearly screamed when they saw Lady Cyber-Knife staring down, her face looming so near that they could practically count her pores. Or, Tracy could have, if Lady Cyber-Knife appeared to have any. She had the smoothest skin of anybody they had ever seen, discounting the scar that cut across one whole side of her face. Tracy could see little punch marks along the wound, as if it had been stapled shut to heal, and the fasteners removed only recently.

  “You... fucking cyborgs,” Tracy whispered through a dry throat.

  Lady Cyber-Knife leaned back, and inclined her head slightly. “A joke?” she asked. “Because I saved your life, and friends make jokes?”

  “Sure, let's go with that,” Tracy said, smiling. They couldn't hold it for long, though, and started coughing so hard that Lady Cyber-Knife looked around, anticipating a nurse's arrival from any direction.

  Lady Cyber-Knife appreciated the work that had gone into Tracy's hospital room. The major had an entire room to themself, with a door, and a window, even if she had a bigger closet in her apartment, back when she lived in an apartment. All the machines Tracy needed were embedded in the wall, in a series of similarly-sized racks that allowed the removal and replacement of equipment as a patient needed. Sunlight was about to start shining over the urban horizon; it would reflect off the room's white walls in a second, and awaken them faster than any alarm clock could've hoped to.

  Tracy looked around, saw the small, empty room, and asked, “No one else?” Lady Cyber-Knife nodded abruptly in reply. “Motherfuckers,” they breathed. “How did you get me out?”

  “I did not,” Lady Cyber-Knife said. “The people we went to save, they pulled you all free whil
e I fought the Class Four. They had no way of knowing what else might have lurked on the field of battle, but they did not hesitate.” She placed her hand on the bed, near Tracy but not touching them. “If not for them, you might not have survived.”

  Tracy smiled, and reached across their body to take Lady Cyber-Knife's hand. “Yeah, sometimes I forget what real courage looks like, too.”

  Tracy gave Lady Cyber-Knife's hand a quick squeeze just before a nurse walked in, to visually confirm the readings transmitted by all the machines monitoring them. Their conversation fell silent, the only accompaniment the electronic signifiers that Tracy's body functioned normally. The nurse nodded once at Lady Cyber-Knife before exiting the room.

  “I intend to return,” Lady Cyber-Knife said, after looking after the nurse and shutting the door.

  It took Tracy a second to follow her line of thinking, and as soon as they understood, they asked, “To that Earth? Why?”

  “Those people deserve a proper thanks,” she said, “and, I wish to know them. I can find no information about them. Perhaps I can determine what gives them their courage.”

  “You should stay away,” Tracy said, emphasizing their own question. “We've already fouled it.”

  Lady Cyber-Knife looked at the floor as she mulled over her response. After a long second, she said, “Our friends died, and I would like to know the people they died protecting. My research indicates that to meet those people would give Semi, Anwan, and Winston's deaths meaning, and a purpose. I would like that. And, besides, certain things, you must do yourself.”

  “Well,” Tracy said, shaking their head, “I wouldn't try to stop you.” Tracy locked eyes with Lady Cyber-Knife. “Be careful. That place is not safe.

  “What happened to your face?” Tracy asked, sitting up in the bed. “You heal. That's one of your things.”

  “The ARN cut deep,” Lady Cyber-Knife replied. “Almost completely through me, in fact. Even I can undergo too much trauma to repair immediately, it seems.”

  “Take care of it,” Tracy said, with a smile. “If one thing's in less supply than courage, it's beauty.”

  Lady Cyber-Knife didn't know what to say; she had some ability to make small talk, and knew how to take both praise and criticism of her combat performance. Nothing in either her experience, or the information she could access from the Complex's archives, equipped her to appreciate a friendly compliment. She smiled, her mouth only barely curving up, and just for a moment, and exited the room without a second look.

  EARTH-58008

  The control kiosk for the dimensional doorway had not been staffed when Lady Cyber-Knife came upon it, but she had seen it in operation enough that she set her destination and departed without delay. The buzzing noise of the doorway grew and grew, even through the gel that wrapped itself about travelers, to shield them from the non-existence between dimensions. As the hardware accessed the other Earth, and the buzz reached its peak, the air in front of her unzipped, and the flat metal cage of the subbasement vanished. Her ears popped, and she appeared on Earth-58008, just outside of the encampment she had rescued the previous day.

  Night had fallen again, and peaceful darkness swaddled the land as far as even her enhanced eyes could see. Security floodlights lit up the outside of the settlement. Lamps illuminated the buildings inside, shining on their identifying markings, but otherwise, the natural order had taken hold. Lady Cyber-Knife accepted a constant level of noise in her life, whether from diagnostics and repairs to her person, to the aural assault of combat, to the infinite variety of machines that made life in the White Zone possible. On this Earth, it was quiet; every living creature, no matter how small, that began its day when the sun went down, she could hear rustle through the grass, flap through the air, even scurry up the bark of the trees some great distance away.

  Lady Cyber-Knife had never lived someplace naturally peaceful. She'd never even visited one before. She took a moment to relish in the quiet. She stretched her arms above her head, took in deep breaths of the crisp air, and brushed the tips of her feet through the grass. That moment was all the time she had to relax, as a piercing, automatic beeping sound blared from the controls next to the dimensional doorway. She dove out of the way purely on reflex, placing herself in no meaningful way between the settlement and whatever came out of the door, and drew the Cyber-Sword, hiding the blade from the moonlight.

  She steeled herself for another showdown with the alien robot ninjas, deliberately backing towards the settlement. When the barrier between dimensions fell away, and shapes started piling out of it, she was surprised to see Complex soldiers first stepping into the world. They carried large rifles, and every one of their jaws was set, and their eyes narrow. Several trucks and tanks followed, and five soldiers suited in military mechs, before the doorway slammed shut.

  Lady Cyber-Knife scrambled into a utility shed at the back of the base. She had focused herself so dearly on the events at the front of the base that she didn't realize she had company in her hiding place until she heard a sharp intake of breath. She turned and saw a slight man in a dark coat, crouching in a corner. Even hidden away from the light, she saw the pale skin on his head and hands. She looked closely, and noticed enormous mechanical lenses where his eyes should have been. Thinking back to the events of the previous day, Lady Cyber-Knife recalled mechanical enhancements on everyone she'd rescued. She drew an unsettling conclusion.

  In barely a second, she was upon the man, one hand around his collar, the other ready to bring down the Cyber-Sword. “Triumvirate cyborg,” she growled.

  “No!” he whispered, a mechanical flutter evident in his voice. “The Complex saved us, took us away from an ARN world. We only knew cruelty there, but in this place, we've built lives, found peace. We learn... what it means to be human.”

  “The Complex told us you were researchers from the White Zone,” Lady Cyber-Knife said. “Help me understand which one of you is lying.”

  “I don't know why they told you what they told you. I only know what I've experienced. They allowed us to resettle here, after they found us cowering in a basement, following a battle,” the man said, his oversized mechanical eyes continually focusing and refocusing in the darkness. “They said we would be safe here, that no humans deserved to be the slaves of the ARNs.”

  She let go of his collar. “That is one truth we can agree upon. Did you help with the rescue of my friends yesterday, when their craft crashed?” He shook his head. “It barely matters. You are of the same people, and your people showed courage yesterday,” Lady Cyber-Knife said. “I will stand for you.”

  He gripped her open hand in both of his, fear and gratitude lending him strength. “Thank you.”

  Lady Cyber-Knife squeezed his hand in return, stepped back through the door, and jumped atop the building's roof. Soldiers stuck the barrels of their rifles into the backs of anyone not trudging forward fast enough for their liking. Patience was in short supply on this night; as the soldiers emptied each building, workers in huge, mechanical suits pulled apart the walls and let the structures collapse upon their minimal foundations.

  She noticed General Maximilian walking in front of the captive cyborgs, each one of them bowing their heads, not daring to look up. She jumped to the ground, and landed silently. Lady Cyber-Knife held the Cyber-Sword at her side and strode towards him, emerging from the darkness like a partially-remembered nightmare, becoming more real with every step she took. The helpless ones at her feet finally looked up as she approached.

  “Lady Cyber-Knife,” Maximilian said, furrowing his brow deeper with every word he spoke. “I don't recall asking for you on this mission.”

  “I came to learn about these people, who risked themselves to rescue my commander,” she said, taking one cautious step after another. “I did not realize they were refugees from our enemy.”

  Maximilian laughed, and the sound carried across the open field around them. “Call them what they are: bait.” When the cyborgs at his feet shrank back ev
en further, he explained, “We found them on a raid of an ARN facility, and my man on the ground brought them back to the White Zone, for some idiotic reason. Credit MOM with the idea to put them to use. We relocated them on this resource-rich world, to draw out the ARNs. Now, they've served their purpose, and we can get to work stripping this place bare.”

  “You define 'protection' very differently from the way I do,” Lady Cyber-Knife said.

  “We keep them alive,” Maximilian said. “Over all of my objections, we keep them alive. No one else has even done for them.”

  “You understand what they did, that they put themselves in danger to retrieve my friends?” Lady Cyber-Knife shouted, gesturing at Maximilian with the Cyber-Sword. “They deserve better!”

  “They're jokes, Lady Cyber-Knife. We shouldn't have even kept them alive,” Maximilian said. “If my idiot commander had done his duty, instead of following his heart, we wouldn't have. Do you think I wanted to find myself in this position?”

  “In the name of pity,” Lady Cyber-Knife said, “they saved Major Tracy!”

  Maximilian leaned backwards, his hips thrusting toward the night sky, and groaned. His eyes were heavy-lidded as he stood back up and said, “Are you fucking kidding me? 'They saved Major Tracy?' Now they save the rest of us, after we strip this planet bare of everything it has to offer, and ship it home!”

  “We know of an infinite number of Earths,” Lady Cyber-Knife offered. “One of them has to offer as much value to us as this one.”