Infection, Part 2: No Gods, No Masters
Clutching my short sword, I quickly followed as Loic and Hargreaves dove into the dimly lit crypts. The air was thick with the stench of death, giving us all the more reason to leave as quickly as possible. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I noticed the walls were lined with flags of the rebels during the Cyborg Assimilation Movement. This was their last stand, and they failed to defend it, sadly. We continued farther into the crypt, heading toward a destination only Hargreaves seemed to know of.
At the sound of nearby shuffling, I readied my shortsword, hoping to catch anything intending to surprise us. I spun around at the next shuffle, only to spot a small group of zombies slowly making their way toward us. "Guys, company," I announced, standing my ground, and waiting patiently for the chance to cut a swath through the horde of undead. As the nearest zombie approached close enough to moan, I leaped forward, swinging my short sword at its throat. Surprisingly, the blade began to separate like a whip, then wrapped itself around the walking corpse's throat. I panicked, and attempted to pull the blade from the zombie's neck, only to find it tightening. Suddenly, the wire attaching the blade fragments began to glow a blue-white, then a surge of electricity coursed throughout the weapon's "blade," burning the zombie to a crisp. After the show of lights, I pulled once more against the whip, only to find the fragments separate, then form a web-like network of electricity, and decimate another of the undead. Before I fully registered what I had seen, the blade returned to the hilt, completely intact.
Almost immediately, the zombies began to rush us, as if responding to the death of a comrade. Hargreaves was the next to attack, literally crushing any opposition that approachded him. Finally, Loic joined with his oversized scissors, occasionally separating the scissor blades for a much quicker slice than when the two are attached. With the next zombie to approach, I decided to experiment with the short sword I nicknamed "Spider's whip." I tested multiple swings, many of which tore into the zombie, and two resulted in the dismemberment of both its arms. After a few more practice swings, I removed the zombie's legs and head; leaving a bloodied torso to return to the underworld. Before I could experiment more with my weapon, I felt a sharp pain where I had been cut by the Green-Eye earlier as I was bitten by a zombie that managed to sneak past Loic and Hargreaves. I quickly stabbed the undead creature through the forehead with my spider's whip before the world faded out of existence.
I awoke in a white room, seemingly infinite in space, the brightness nearly blinding me compared to my previous location. I slowly stood up, gathering my bearings, then called out for anyone to answer. Taking another look around the room, I noticed a tiny black material floating amid the space. One step in its direction, and I was found face-to-face with a white-haired 'clone' of myself surrounded by an ink-like darkness. "Wasn't expecting you here," the woman growled.
"If I'm dead, you should have seen it," I retorted.
"You're not dead," the woman replied, "you're sleeping. I'm here to reawaken what you truly are, but not now; not yet."
"And who might you be?" I wondered, assuming I already knew the answer.
"Certainly not your conscience," the woman shot, "but you may call me Rhylie. Whenever you need me, I'll not be far."
"Good to know," I replied, "but useless if I can't leave this place."
"Don't worry, I have that covered," Rhylie returned, reaching out to me. The instant her index finger made contact with the bridge of my nose, I found myself standing where I had passed out in the crypts before my meeting with Rhylie. Hoping not to draw any attention, I sheathed my spider's whip as I drew my katana, and darted toward the nearest zombie. I grabbed its throat, then threw it into the air, followed it up, and kicked it into the wall before landing once again. As the creature fell, I grabbed it by its ankle, split it in half, then curb stomped the corpse. I spun around in time to spot another zombie lunge toward Loic as he was hacking its friend to pieces. I dashed forward and elbowed the zombie away from Loic, and was lucky enough to put it in the path of Hargreaves' hammer as he recovered from his last swing.
"Listen, we need to get moving, our ride off this rock won't wait forever," Hargreaves announced, "and the zombies are only slowing us down."
"Agreed," I answered, following Hargreaves' lead.
"Oh, I was just about to cut and run anyway," Loic joked as he decapitated yet another zombie with his scissors. As we dashed into the next room, Loic shut the steel door, stalling our undead pursuers. Upon further examination of our surrondings, I noticed many decapitated, dismembered, and disemboweled corpses scattered about the room; some still fresh. "Where are we...?" Loic trailed off as he scanned the room. Hargreaves knelt at one of the nearby corpses as if trying to determine the already apparent cause of death. As Hargreaves stood, there came a scatching noise from the hall leading out of the room. "Did you hear that?" Loic wondered, "just asking, I thought it was my scissors sliding together."
"No, I heard it, too," I answered, "and it would have been louder if it was your scissors."
"Agreed, it sounded like it came from down the hall," Hargreaves added.
"You're going to make me look, aren't you?" Loic asked.
"Of course not, Loic, we wouldn't ask you to do anything that scares you," I teased.
"Very funny," Loic mumbled, "I'm going." Before Loic could take one step in the direction of the sound, a large blade with a steel cable landed at my feet, pointing upward as if lodged in the ground. Before I could react, a man dressed in a sherrif's hat and leather duster flew from the darkness, and landed a kick in my stomach. After recovering from the blow, I entered the fight, hoping that I could at least stall the man long enough for the other two to land a few hits. Before I could approach, the man swung his scythe in my direction, so I attempted a backstep as quickly as possible. I was late in my timing, so I closed my eyes, awaiting the inevitable end as I felt my body torn apart in an instant. Without realising what happened, I opened my eyes once again to see the man swinging once more toward me. I leapt back, this time, seeing myself disintegrate and rematerialize about ten feet behind my previous location. I used this new ability to "teleport" behind the man as he leaped into the air after me. Taking the opportunity to strike, I drove my katana into the man's back, but his blood was unlike the cyborgs'. It was something familiar; much like my own.
While I was distracted, the vampire elbowed me in the jaw, sending me skidding across the floor without my sword. Without hesitation, I drew my spirder's whip, and began to swing at him, hoping to distract him. Loic was first, attempting to hack at the nosferatu with his detached scissor blades, only to be caught clashing weapons with him. Hargreaves took the opportunity to swing at the vampire, but only caught his leg, shredding bits of skin and muscle as the barbed wire tore away. Using his free arm, the vampire removed my sword from his back, and kicked Loic away from himself. He then tried to use the same trick he introduced himself with, only for me to avoid it. As I recovered from the first dodge, I was met with a boot to my face, and smacked against the wall. "Rhylie," I thought, "if you can hear this, now would be as good a time as any to help out."
"Consider it done," Rhylie's voice echoed back. As I stood up from the ground, I watched as an ink-black cloud manifested behind the nosferatu, then Rhylie leaped through, strangling him with the ball-and-wire end of her kama-zaki. I quickly dashed forward, siezed the vampire's scythe, then drove the blade through his good leg. I pulled against the staff, wrapped the cable around his shoulder, then rode up as it mutilated the vampire. "Nice work, Mara," Rhylie complimented, "now drink what's left of his blood."
"Excuse me?" I wondered, confused at the order.
"Drink what's left of his blood before it's all gone," Rhylie clarified, "you'll need it to become more powerful."
"O-kay..." I trailed off. I slowly knelt down, and bit into the dead vampires neck, sucking out what was left in his veins. As I stood, I saw images of his memories flash by. A former Vegas police officer killed during the Cyborg Assimilation Movement, somehow brought back as a vampire. He then took the name of the city he once served, as he watched over the undead here on the Moon. "I should thank him for this," I thought to myself, "but he doesn't deserve it."
"Don't thank me," Vegas' voice echoed, "just use what new power you have sparingly. You have no idea what it could do to you." I sheathed my spider's whip as Loic handed me my katana. I thanked him, but couldn't help noticing his stare.
"What is it?" I demanded.
"Three things: One, when did you learn how to teleport? Second, has your hair always been that long? And lastly, how did the white raven know to show up after you'd been kicked?" Loic spouted.
"I just learned to do that during the fight, I don't know what you mean by my hair, and-" I began.
"I'm not the White Raven," Rhylie interrupted, "It's just coincidence that I have the same color hair as she did."
"I could have sworn your hair was just barely past your shoulders," Loic mentioned.
"It was," Rhylie answered, "it grew when she drank his blood. And it will continue to grow as she drinks the blood of more vampires."
"Where does that put us?" Hargreaves interjected.
"Your still her friends, she wouldn't drink your blood unless you either wanted her to, or turned against her," Rhylie answered, "And I don't see the second being a likely scenario."
"That's good, I hate getting blood drawn. I always hated needles," Loic sighed, relieved.
"We need to get going," Hargreaves ordered, "we're not making any time just sitting here."
"I agree, and I'd very much like to get out of this dead city," I added.
"If you aren't the White Raven, why do you have the same face and clothes as she wore?" Loic prodded as we headed down the corridor Vegas entered from.
"No idea," Rhylie and I answered simultaneously.
"That. Was creepy," Loic joked.
"I wear these because they're comfortable," Rhylie added, "I like my skin to breathe."
"Makes sense, I guess," Loic replied. As we continured down the seemingly endless corridor, I noticed many portraits of other vampires, two in particular looked like Rhylie and myself- just older. "The Sisters Raven," Loic whispered to himself as we continued. Once we exited the underground building, we came across a Cavern Crawler; a vehicle that looked like a cross between a tank, an APC, a mobile home, and a giant drill that was used to both thravel and burrow through the depths of the Lunar crust. "We could definitely make up for lost time with this," Loic called out, racing after the vehicle, "I have the helm!" As the rest of us entered at our own pace into the beast of a machine, I noticed the many large windows across the side walls of the interior. "Hey, it looks like the fastest way to the spaceport is through this tunnel," Loic called out from the cockpit.
"Could be a trap," Hargreaves muttered.
"It is, they wouldn't have dug a tunnel this wide for one crawler," I noted, "and how many windows does one really need?"
"Good point," Hargreaves agreed, "In that case, I call shotgun."
"Looks like you and I get to have all the fun," Rhylie joked. I smiled back and nodded as Hargreaves locked the cockpit door behind himself. A few moments later, the back hatch to the crawler rose itself to enclose Rhylie and myself into its main chamber. Seconds later, the locks bolted shut, and the crawler lurched forward, bringing us closer to our ambush. As we stood by ourselves, I checked the blade of my katana, then that of my new scythe; both appeared as though they'd been sharpened by diamonds. A few moments later, Rhylie began to swing the ball end of her kama-zaki back and forth while counting backwards to herself. The instant she finished saying "one," a newer model of assassin burst through one of the right-side windows. He wore a dark grey mask, with only a single red eye in the center, his tank top was a slightly lighter shade of grey with a white spray-painted Jolly Roger on the front over his heart. Before the cyborg could make his first move, Rhylie whipped her lace-thin steel wire around his throat. Then, in another swift motion, she pulled him to the ground, and dismembered both his left arm and leg with the hand-scythe portion of her weapon. As she was finishing off the first assassin, three more burst through the remaining three intact windows.
"You guys must really hate glass," I joked before swinging my scythe backwards, releasing the 'head' from the staff. The hooks made a satisfying splat as they bored into what remained of the cyborg's flesh and muscle. The assassin fought as the barbs brought him closer to me while I reeled him in like a fish from the pond. As the he lay helplessly at my feet, I stomped onto the cyborg's chest while tearing out the hooks from his body, then mercifully decapitated him. I quickly backstepped as the next assassin attempted to cut open my stomach, only to catch my skirt above my knees with the tip of his blade. "Pervert," I growled, then drove the hooks of my scythe into his face, and slammed him into the ground. Rhylie took the opportunity to drag the final cyborg onto one of the service pipes near the ceiling, wrap the hand-scythe around his neck, then push him off while hanging onto the other end of the wire as she followed him off the other side. I took the quick break in combat to find the least bloody pair of jeans I could find, and fit them underneath what remained of my skirt; which was removed once I had the new attire situated.
After taking a moment to rest, a large group of cyborgs entered through the now- opened windows, varying in ranks from Green-eye's tactical response, Agency personnel, and our new assassin friends. "Let me help you," Vegas' voice echoed as my free arm began to raise itself, just as Rhylie began to rush into the crowd.
"No, I can do this myself," I growled, fighting to keep my arm down as the vampire's spirit attempted to force me into something I'd rather not do.
"I can help," Vegas insisted, raising my arm further.
"Rhylie, get down!" I shouted as a storm of electricity formed in my palm.
"What-?" Rhylie was interrupted as the sudden burst of energy launched in her direction. Before she could catch the impact, Rhylie disappeared into the cloud of ink she spawned from, then rematerialized behind me. The cyborgs were all blown to pieces by the blast, and a large scorch was left on the back hatch where the blast finally impacted. "This is going to be a problem," Rhylie commented, staring at my left arm as it began to smoke. She stepped to the intercom, and announced to Loic and Hargreaves that they'd lose their navigation systems for the remainder of the trip.
"Don't worry about us," Loic remarked, "we'll just look through these two-by-four sized slits in the front bulkhead, while shining spotlights ahead of us. 'Hey, cyborgs! We're over here!'"
"Unless you'd like the next ball of electricity flying through the cockpit, you'll worry more about getting us to the spaceport in one piece," Rhylie shot back.
"Calm down, Snow White, it was only a joke," Loic replied, "I value my life more than these navigation systems."
"Thought so," Rhylie returned, then tore off the section of pipe labeled "navigation." What she was after were the metal rings with chains attached to the ceiling. After tearing them down, she handed them to me. "These should be the right size for what we need," Rhylie announced.
"Braclets?" I wondered, "what for?"
"They're shackles," Rhylie answered, "well, metaphorically. You need something to represent shackles to imprison the vampire sharing your body."
"Okay, then..." I commented as I slipped on the rings, "I may need a pair of gloves, I don't want my wrists getting cut up by these."
"No problem, these should fit," Rhylie replied, already with a pair of fingerless gloves taken from a deceased cyborg. As I slipped on the gloves, I noticed my black hair was fading to a more grey-black color.
"And something for my-" I began.
"Arms, already ahead of you," Rhylie interrupted, with a roll of gauze to cover my arms.
"You work fast," I complimented as she was finishing wrapping my right arm.
"Only when I need to, hun," Rhylie said, already half-finished with my other arm.
"Y'know? This dosn't look half bad," I said, "and's it's comfortable, too." I began to bend my arms and clench my fists to break in the new 'clothing.'
"I thought you'd like it," Rhylie smiled, "and as long as the shackles serve a purpose, it doesn't matter how the rest looks. They don't always need to look like prison cuffs to keep the demons from taking over."
"Personally, I prefer comfort," I agreed.
"Exactly what I was trying to accomplish," Rhylie grinned as she patted my back, "at the rate your hair is growing, we'll have to put it up pretty soon."
"What? I thought it was only losing color," I returned.
"Nope, your hair will keep growing and fading as you drink the blood of other vampires or use that electricity again," Rhylie answered, "it reflects your 'age' without the other downsides that come with it. Just think of it as a way for others to see how powerful you are."
"Will I die from it?" I wondered.
"No, it's just an aesthetic thing," Rhylie answered, "I don't know why it happens, it just does."
"I hate to interrupt, ladies, but we hit a dead-end," Loic called over the intercom,"we have no way up, and we're directly beneath the spaceport."
"So dig a little more, and get up up there," Rhylie ordered.
"Crawlers only dig on a horizontal plane, we cant go up," Loic rejected the idea, the only way these things get down here is by having them lowered by crane. After the construction crews dig a hold for it."
"Can we stop out, and see if maybe there's something we're missing?" I asked.
"Be my guest," Loic replied, "I'm lowering the hatch." After the intercom shut off, the locks disengaged from the hatch, and it began lowering slowly. Suddenly, as it was about halfway opened, the hatch sped up, and slammed into the ground, opening a hole in the tunnel. Feeling the weight shift, Rhylie and I stepped closer to the cockpit door, hoping for the guys to open it for us. "Step inside, this is going to get a little rough," Loic called out as the door opened up, I didn't hesitate to slide in, with Rhylie following behind. I crawled forward as the crawler continued to tilt, I tried to climb into one of the side seats, but lost my grip on impact. I was then knocked unconscious when I landed face-first against the cockpit door.
"Listen, we need to get moving, our ride off this rock won't wait forever," Hargreaves announced, "and the zombies are only slowing us down."
"Agreed," I answered, following Hargreaves' lead.
"Oh, I was just about to cut and run anyway," Loic joked as he decapitated yet another zombie with his scissors. As we dashed into the next room, Loic shut the steel door, stalling our undead pursuers. Upon further examination of our surrondings, I noticed many decapitated, dismembered, and disemboweled corpses scattered about the room; some still fresh. "Where are we...?" Loic trailed off as he scanned the room. Hargreaves knelt at one of the nearby corpses as if trying to determine the already apparent cause of death. As Hargreaves stood, there came a scatching noise from the hall leading out of the room. "Did you hear that?" Loic wondered, "just asking, I thought it was my scissors sliding together."
"No, I heard it, too," I answered, "and it would have been louder if it was your scissors."
"Agreed, it sounded like it came from down the hall," Hargreaves added.
"You're going to make me look, aren't you?" Loic asked.
"Of course not, Loic, we wouldn't ask you to do anything that scares you," I teased.
"Very funny," Loic mumbled, "I'm going." Before Loic could take one step in the direction of the sound, a large blade with a steel cable landed at my feet, pointing upward as if lodged in the ground. Before I could react, a man dressed in a sherrif's hat and leather duster flew from the darkness, and landed a kick in my stomach. After recovering from the blow, I entered the fight, hoping that I could at least stall the man long enough for the other two to land a few hits. Before I could approach, the man swung his scythe in my direction, so I attempted a backstep as quickly as possible. I was late in my timing, so I closed my eyes, awaiting the inevitable end as I felt my body torn apart in an instant. Without realising what happened, I opened my eyes once again to see the man swinging once more toward me. I leapt back, this time, seeing myself disintegrate and rematerialize about ten feet behind my previous location. I used this new ability to "teleport" behind the man as he leaped into the air after me. Taking the opportunity to strike, I drove my katana into the man's back, but his blood was unlike the cyborgs'. It was something familiar; much like my own.
While I was distracted, the vampire elbowed me in the jaw, sending me skidding across the floor without my sword. Without hesitation, I drew my spirder's whip, and began to swing at him, hoping to distract him. Loic was first, attempting to hack at the nosferatu with his detached scissor blades, only to be caught clashing weapons with him. Hargreaves took the opportunity to swing at the vampire, but only caught his leg, shredding bits of skin and muscle as the barbed wire tore away. Using his free arm, the vampire removed my sword from his back, and kicked Loic away from himself. He then tried to use the same trick he introduced himself with, only for me to avoid it. As I recovered from the first dodge, I was met with a boot to my face, and smacked against the wall. "Rhylie," I thought, "if you can hear this, now would be as good a time as any to help out."
"Consider it done," Rhylie's voice echoed back. As I stood up from the ground, I watched as an ink-black cloud manifested behind the nosferatu, then Rhylie leaped through, strangling him with the ball-and-wire end of her kama-zaki. I quickly dashed forward, siezed the vampire's scythe, then drove the blade through his good leg. I pulled against the staff, wrapped the cable around his shoulder, then rode up as it mutilated the vampire. "Nice work, Mara," Rhylie complimented, "now drink what's left of his blood."
"Excuse me?" I wondered, confused at the order.
"Drink what's left of his blood before it's all gone," Rhylie clarified, "you'll need it to become more powerful."
"O-kay..." I trailed off. I slowly knelt down, and bit into the dead vampires neck, sucking out what was left in his veins. As I stood, I saw images of his memories flash by. A former Vegas police officer killed during the Cyborg Assimilation Movement, somehow brought back as a vampire. He then took the name of the city he once served, as he watched over the undead here on the Moon. "I should thank him for this," I thought to myself, "but he doesn't deserve it."
"Don't thank me," Vegas' voice echoed, "just use what new power you have sparingly. You have no idea what it could do to you." I sheathed my spider's whip as Loic handed me my katana. I thanked him, but couldn't help noticing his stare.
"What is it?" I demanded.
"Three things: One, when did you learn how to teleport? Second, has your hair always been that long? And lastly, how did the white raven know to show up after you'd been kicked?" Loic spouted.
"I just learned to do that during the fight, I don't know what you mean by my hair, and-" I began.
"I'm not the White Raven," Rhylie interrupted, "It's just coincidence that I have the same color hair as she did."
"I could have sworn your hair was just barely past your shoulders," Loic mentioned.
"It was," Rhylie answered, "it grew when she drank his blood. And it will continue to grow as she drinks the blood of more vampires."
"Where does that put us?" Hargreaves interjected.
"Your still her friends, she wouldn't drink your blood unless you either wanted her to, or turned against her," Rhylie answered, "And I don't see the second being a likely scenario."
"That's good, I hate getting blood drawn. I always hated needles," Loic sighed, relieved.
"We need to get going," Hargreaves ordered, "we're not making any time just sitting here."
"I agree, and I'd very much like to get out of this dead city," I added.
"If you aren't the White Raven, why do you have the same face and clothes as she wore?" Loic prodded as we headed down the corridor Vegas entered from.
"No idea," Rhylie and I answered simultaneously.
"That. Was creepy," Loic joked.
"I wear these because they're comfortable," Rhylie added, "I like my skin to breathe."
"Makes sense, I guess," Loic replied. As we continured down the seemingly endless corridor, I noticed many portraits of other vampires, two in particular looked like Rhylie and myself- just older. "The Sisters Raven," Loic whispered to himself as we continued. Once we exited the underground building, we came across a Cavern Crawler; a vehicle that looked like a cross between a tank, an APC, a mobile home, and a giant drill that was used to both thravel and burrow through the depths of the Lunar crust. "We could definitely make up for lost time with this," Loic called out, racing after the vehicle, "I have the helm!" As the rest of us entered at our own pace into the beast of a machine, I noticed the many large windows across the side walls of the interior. "Hey, it looks like the fastest way to the spaceport is through this tunnel," Loic called out from the cockpit.
"Could be a trap," Hargreaves muttered.
"It is, they wouldn't have dug a tunnel this wide for one crawler," I noted, "and how many windows does one really need?"
"Good point," Hargreaves agreed, "In that case, I call shotgun."
"Looks like you and I get to have all the fun," Rhylie joked. I smiled back and nodded as Hargreaves locked the cockpit door behind himself. A few moments later, the back hatch to the crawler rose itself to enclose Rhylie and myself into its main chamber. Seconds later, the locks bolted shut, and the crawler lurched forward, bringing us closer to our ambush. As we stood by ourselves, I checked the blade of my katana, then that of my new scythe; both appeared as though they'd been sharpened by diamonds. A few moments later, Rhylie began to swing the ball end of her kama-zaki back and forth while counting backwards to herself. The instant she finished saying "one," a newer model of assassin burst through one of the right-side windows. He wore a dark grey mask, with only a single red eye in the center, his tank top was a slightly lighter shade of grey with a white spray-painted Jolly Roger on the front over his heart. Before the cyborg could make his first move, Rhylie whipped her lace-thin steel wire around his throat. Then, in another swift motion, she pulled him to the ground, and dismembered both his left arm and leg with the hand-scythe portion of her weapon. As she was finishing off the first assassin, three more burst through the remaining three intact windows.
"You guys must really hate glass," I joked before swinging my scythe backwards, releasing the 'head' from the staff. The hooks made a satisfying splat as they bored into what remained of the cyborg's flesh and muscle. The assassin fought as the barbs brought him closer to me while I reeled him in like a fish from the pond. As the he lay helplessly at my feet, I stomped onto the cyborg's chest while tearing out the hooks from his body, then mercifully decapitated him. I quickly backstepped as the next assassin attempted to cut open my stomach, only to catch my skirt above my knees with the tip of his blade. "Pervert," I growled, then drove the hooks of my scythe into his face, and slammed him into the ground. Rhylie took the opportunity to drag the final cyborg onto one of the service pipes near the ceiling, wrap the hand-scythe around his neck, then push him off while hanging onto the other end of the wire as she followed him off the other side. I took the quick break in combat to find the least bloody pair of jeans I could find, and fit them underneath what remained of my skirt; which was removed once I had the new attire situated.
After taking a moment to rest, a large group of cyborgs entered through the now- opened windows, varying in ranks from Green-eye's tactical response, Agency personnel, and our new assassin friends. "Let me help you," Vegas' voice echoed as my free arm began to raise itself, just as Rhylie began to rush into the crowd.
"No, I can do this myself," I growled, fighting to keep my arm down as the vampire's spirit attempted to force me into something I'd rather not do.
"I can help," Vegas insisted, raising my arm further.
"Rhylie, get down!" I shouted as a storm of electricity formed in my palm.
"What-?" Rhylie was interrupted as the sudden burst of energy launched in her direction. Before she could catch the impact, Rhylie disappeared into the cloud of ink she spawned from, then rematerialized behind me. The cyborgs were all blown to pieces by the blast, and a large scorch was left on the back hatch where the blast finally impacted. "This is going to be a problem," Rhylie commented, staring at my left arm as it began to smoke. She stepped to the intercom, and announced to Loic and Hargreaves that they'd lose their navigation systems for the remainder of the trip.
"Don't worry about us," Loic remarked, "we'll just look through these two-by-four sized slits in the front bulkhead, while shining spotlights ahead of us. 'Hey, cyborgs! We're over here!'"
"Unless you'd like the next ball of electricity flying through the cockpit, you'll worry more about getting us to the spaceport in one piece," Rhylie shot back.
"Calm down, Snow White, it was only a joke," Loic replied, "I value my life more than these navigation systems."
"Thought so," Rhylie returned, then tore off the section of pipe labeled "navigation." What she was after were the metal rings with chains attached to the ceiling. After tearing them down, she handed them to me. "These should be the right size for what we need," Rhylie announced.
"Braclets?" I wondered, "what for?"
"They're shackles," Rhylie answered, "well, metaphorically. You need something to represent shackles to imprison the vampire sharing your body."
"Okay, then..." I commented as I slipped on the rings, "I may need a pair of gloves, I don't want my wrists getting cut up by these."
"No problem, these should fit," Rhylie replied, already with a pair of fingerless gloves taken from a deceased cyborg. As I slipped on the gloves, I noticed my black hair was fading to a more grey-black color.
"And something for my-" I began.
"Arms, already ahead of you," Rhylie interrupted, with a roll of gauze to cover my arms.
"You work fast," I complimented as she was finishing wrapping my right arm.
"Only when I need to, hun," Rhylie said, already half-finished with my other arm.
"Y'know? This dosn't look half bad," I said, "and's it's comfortable, too." I began to bend my arms and clench my fists to break in the new 'clothing.'
"I thought you'd like it," Rhylie smiled, "and as long as the shackles serve a purpose, it doesn't matter how the rest looks. They don't always need to look like prison cuffs to keep the demons from taking over."
"Personally, I prefer comfort," I agreed.
"Exactly what I was trying to accomplish," Rhylie grinned as she patted my back, "at the rate your hair is growing, we'll have to put it up pretty soon."
"What? I thought it was only losing color," I returned.
"Nope, your hair will keep growing and fading as you drink the blood of other vampires or use that electricity again," Rhylie answered, "it reflects your 'age' without the other downsides that come with it. Just think of it as a way for others to see how powerful you are."
"Will I die from it?" I wondered.
"No, it's just an aesthetic thing," Rhylie answered, "I don't know why it happens, it just does."
"I hate to interrupt, ladies, but we hit a dead-end," Loic called over the intercom,"we have no way up, and we're directly beneath the spaceport."
"So dig a little more, and get up up there," Rhylie ordered.
"Crawlers only dig on a horizontal plane, we cant go up," Loic rejected the idea, the only way these things get down here is by having them lowered by crane. After the construction crews dig a hold for it."
"Can we stop out, and see if maybe there's something we're missing?" I asked.
"Be my guest," Loic replied, "I'm lowering the hatch." After the intercom shut off, the locks disengaged from the hatch, and it began lowering slowly. Suddenly, as it was about halfway opened, the hatch sped up, and slammed into the ground, opening a hole in the tunnel. Feeling the weight shift, Rhylie and I stepped closer to the cockpit door, hoping for the guys to open it for us. "Step inside, this is going to get a little rough," Loic called out as the door opened up, I didn't hesitate to slide in, with Rhylie following behind. I crawled forward as the crawler continued to tilt, I tried to climb into one of the side seats, but lost my grip on impact. I was then knocked unconscious when I landed face-first against the cockpit door.
