The two robotic guards snapped their pulse rifles up, the barrels glowing with a malevolent, contained energy. They tracked the trio with inhuman precision, ready to turn them into super-heated vapor on command.
The woman, Rose, lurched forward slightly, her hand rising to her temple. She pressed a nearly invisible stud embedded in her skin. Her face shimmered like a faulty holovid, the features melting and reforming with a sickening, liquid-flesh sound.
Ethicca gasped, a choked, strangled noise. She grabbed Jacqui's arm, her grip desperate. "Why… why does she look just like you?" she stammered, her gaze ricocheting between Jacqui's digital mask and Rose's newly revealed face—a face that was a mirror image of her own.
Rose's lips, now identical to Jacqui's, curved into a gentle, cold smile. "Because, little one, we are twins. Clones, to be precise. You may call me Rose."
Ella sidled up to Rose, twirling a pink pigtail around a finger, her expression one of innocent curiosity.
From his ruined heap against the wall, Jimmy let out a wet, gurgling laugh. "That's bullshit! Cloning's been illegal for fifty years! They melted every last test-tube baby in the system."
Rose tilted her head, her smile never faltering. "Exactly so, you clever little scrap heap. You see, our parents were the scientists who finally perfected stable cloning. Jacqueline here," she gestured dismissively at Jacqui, "is the original. The alpha build. But our dear mother's womb was… decommissioned after her. So, they made me. A better version. Stronger, smarter. Her guardian and protector."
She began to pace, her boots crunching softly on the debris. She spotted the camcorder on the floor, picked it up, and dusted it off with a delicate hand. She pressed play, the tiny screen flickering to life with the same gruesome torture scenes.
"When the Enforcers came for them, they abandoned everything. Their research, their life's work… and me." Her voice was a placid sea over an abyss of rage. "They ran, hid in the filth of Sector 9, and dumped their precious original at The New Eden Church, promising to return when the heat died down."
She walked back toward them, her eyes fixed on the horrific footage. "I was taken by the military. They saw my potential. I was raised, trained, vivisected. They tore me apart and rebuilt me with chrome and combat-AI. A better version of humanity. So, what did I do to our dear parents, you might wonder?"
She tossed the camcorder. It skidded across the floor and stopped at Jacqui's feet, the screen showing the screaming face of the cop. "Dear dad became a beat cop in the Sump, trying to blend in. I had him executed for possession of illegal tech—a delicious irony. And that bitch of a mother?" Rose's smile widened. "Well, let's just say I fed her to her own cyber-hounds. She always was a dog."
Jacqui's gauntlets clenched, the servos whining in protest. She stood up straight, trembling with fury. "So you killed them, and now you're here to finish the job?!"
Rose laughed, a sound like breaking glass. "Honestly, Jacqui, you are a footnote. A failed experiment. It's not you I want." She pointed a long, elegant finger at Ethicca. "It's the vanilla human. The organic."
Her eyes glittered with avaricious light. "Do you have any idea what a pure, un-augmented human is worth on the black market? The things the jaded rich and the curious AIs will pay to ravage the flesh of a true virgin? We're talking millions of creds. And you dumbasses gift-wrapped her and delivered her right to my door."
The realization hit Ethicca like a physical blow. She scrambled to her feet, raising her pistol. "I'm not afraid of you! I won't go down without a fight!"
"Damn straight!" Jimmy roared from his pile of gore.
Ella chimed in, cracking her knuckles with a series of sharp pops. "So what we got here? A useless rust bucket, a half-assed aug-bitch, and a vanilla whore. This is gonna be fun!"
"No need to get your hands dirty, my sweet," Rose said, placing a hand on Ella's shoulder. "Let the guards handle the trash."
Jimmy started laughing again, a hysterical, bubbling sound. "All this drama… this whole damn telenovela… just because you had a shitty childhood? Pathetic." He strained, pushing himself up slightly.
"Listen, puta," he snarled, a cold, calculating grin spreading across his bloody face.
"I got a question for you and your little psycho-doll. E equals MC what?"
Ella bounced on her toes, her hand shooting up. "Ooh, ooh, I know! E is equal to MC squared! I got it right!"
"Correct, you little dumbass," Jimmy's grin widened into a death mask.
A calm, female voice suddenly emanated from his chest cavity, accompanied by a rapid, rhythmic beeping.
Self-detonation sequence accepted. Incendiary core now active. Please vacate the surrounding area. Detonation in T-minus ten seconds.
10…
"Puta madre," Jimmy coughed. "They call me Jimmy Square for a reason!"
9…
"El vato loco! Adios, you suck-motherf—" His voice box sparked and died, his head slumping forward as his systems shut down.
8…
"We gotta go! Now!" Jacqui screamed, grabbing Ethicca.
7…
Rose, with professional calm, signaled her guards. They retracted their rifles, their arms morphing to project interlocking energy shields.
6…
"This is gonna be the best!" Ella shrieked, vibrating with excitement.
5…
Suddenly, the shattered windows were filled with the familiar, battered shape of their hover-van.
4…
"Quickly, vatos! Get in!" a robotic voice shouted from the driver's seat. A strange, box-headed robot was at the controls.
3…
The two women scrambled, diving through the shattered window frame into the back of the van. The driver floored it.
2…
Rose just shook her head, a gentle, amused laugh on her lips as she watched them flee.
1…
"Kaboom," Ella whispered.
The penthouse erupted. Jimmy's body detonated with the force of a small tactical nuke. The top floors of the skyscraper buckled and blew outwards in a hurricane of fire, glass, and steel. The shockwave slammed into the van, tossing it through the air like a toy.
"Hold on tight!" the box-headed driver yelled, wrestling with the controls.
Jacqui, clinging to a passenger seat, screamed over the roar. "Who the hell are you?!"
The robot turned its boxy head, and a video flickered to life on its screen-face. It was Jimmy. "Yo, amigos! If you're seeing this, I went supernova. This bot is my backup body. Backed up my consciousness to its mainframe in real-time. After getting my face rearranged by the Yakuza, I figured it was just a matter of time before I got blown to bits."
Jacqui smacked the robot's head. "Glad to have you back, you annoying prick!"
Ethicca's terror began to subside, replaced by a giddy, post-adrenal haze. But it was short-lived. A high-pitched screech echoed from the burning skyscraper. Box-head Jimmy swerved the van around to get a look.
"Ay, dios mio… what in synth's name is that!?" he yelled, wrenching the van around again.
A sudden, heavy THUMP on the roof. Then a deafening SCREEEEECH as four white, mechanical spider legs, sharp as razors, pierced the van's roof and tore it open like a tin can.
"Playtime isn't over until I say it is!" Ella screamed, her voice a manic shriek. "Come out and play, you little vermin!"
Her face was half-melted, revealing a gleaming chrome endoskeleton beneath. Her dress was gone, burned away to expose an androgynous, armored body from which the spider legs protruded. She was a nightmare of porcelain and steel. She retracted the legs and dropped into the van.
"Nothing personal," Jacqui snarled, "but I hate clingy kids!" She swung a vicious left hook. The cybernetic gauntlet connected with Ella's face, and her head snapped back at an impossible, neck-breaking angle.
Ella teetered, then stood still. A low giggle bubbled from her throat. With a nauseating CRACK, she swung her shoulders forward, and her head snapped back into place.
"Holy shit!" Jimmy screamed from the driver's seat.
[WARNING. THREAT LEVEL BEYOND MEASURABLE THRESHOLDS. COMMAND: AVOID ALL CONTACT.]
X's voice was a frantic loop in Ethicca's head.
Ella smiled, a terrifying, broken thing. Her eyes glowed with pink, halo-like light. She held her palms open, and two blades made of what looked like solid, bubblegum-pink energy materialized in her hands.
"Hello, Kitty," she whispered, and lunged.
She sliced at Jacqui, who caught one blade in her gauntlet. The impact shattered the gauntlet in a blast of concussive force that rocked the van. Ella threw the second dagger. It screamed past Jacqui's head, scraping her helmet and showering the cabin with sparks, heading straight for Ethicca.
[WARNING! LETHAL THREAT DETECTED! ACTIVATING PARASYTE PROTOCOL!]
The visor clamped down on Ethicca's head. Two sharp prongs shot from the back and plunged into the base of her spine. Her world exploded in pain and light. Her body moved on its own, lunging forward, twisting. Her arm blurred, swatting the energy blade aside with an open palm. The impact created a clap like thunder and a flash of purple light, warping the air around her hand. Her veins pulsed with a violet glow.
"YOU'RE FINALLY AWAKE, VANILLA! KICK SOME ASS!" Jimmy screamed, weaving the van through traffic.
[SELF-PRESERVATION OVERRIDE. EXECUTING X-PROTOCOL 37.]
Ethicca's body moved in a blinding flash, placing her between Jacqui and Ella. Ella saw her and swung a punch.
Ethicca's arm shot out, catching the punch. There was a deafening CRUNCH as her hand closed around Ella's fist, crumpling the armored knuckles like paper. With a brutal twist and pull, she tore Ella's entire hand off at the wrist. A shower of sparks and black, synthetic blood sprayed across the cabin.
"Kitty's got claws, I see," Ella said, her smirk never wavering. She took two steps back and launched herself out the back of the speeding van.
A moment later, they saw her land gracefully on the deck of a sleek, military gunship. Rose was at the controls.
"I think that's enough fun for one day," Rose's voice crackled over an external speaker. She pressed a button. Two missiles detached from the gunship's wings, their engines igniting as they streaked toward the van.