Ultratech Brazil

     Fulgore-X was definitely seriously injured.
     Not that his plasma-soaked jumpsuit wasn’t an obvious sign.  Or the trail of plasma droplets he left behind as he walked,
which leaked down from his right side.  But usually, in the few times that they traveled together, Orchid found that she had to
jog every other step just to keep up.  However now, she had to walk at a slower pace than usual just for him to keep up with
her.
     This was both good news and bad news for Orchid.  The good news was that he had been considerably weakened, and not only was he less intimidating, he would be easier to defeat once they escaped the confines of Ultratech Brazil.  The bad news was that his injuries made him seem  more…..human.  Orchid found herself involuntarily staring at him more times than she wanted to.
     “What is it?”  Fulgore-X asked flatly, catching one of Orchid’s gazes.
     “Oh!  Nothing.”  Orchid said, a little embarrassed.  She looked away for a moment.  “Actually, there is something.  You
know, I was wondering how you’re alive at all.”
     “What do you mean?”
     “Well, surviving the plasma bomb explosion is one thing.  I’m not sure how Jago and myself survived, let alone you.  But
Chief Thunder swears that all of your systems officially flat-lined about fifteen minutes before the explosion.  That’s about the
time when Jago says you were cut almost in two.  He said that, when you reactivated, that it was as if you rose from death
itself.”
     Fulgore-X rolled his eyes.  “Nothing that dramatic.  My backup plasma generator is programmed to activate after the main
one goes off-line.  However, thanks to the damage I suffered in my battle with Gargos and Jagos, there was a delay in the
activation of the backup system.”
     “Oh.  That’s simple enough.  What about the plasma bomb?”
     “Your friend Glacius’s Ground Zero theory is very sound.”
     “Oh…..”  Orchid seemed to accept the answer, then swiftly turned back to Fulgore-X.  “Waitaminute, how do you know
about that?”
     If Fulgore-X could, he would be smiling.  “I have my ways.”
     Orchid gave him a very funny look.
     “We are here.”  Fulgore-X announced, stopping in front of a single, hinged door, perhaps the only one within all of Ultratech Brazil.  It had a silver handle, and a sign in the middle.  It was a blue circle, with the white silhouette of a man within it.
     “It really is a bathroom.”  Orchid said, almost in denial.  “You weren’t kidding.”
     Fulgore-X turned the handle, opened the door, and started to go in.  “Do I strike you as the kidding type?”
     Orchid followed him inside.  “I don’t suppose so.”  Orchid took a good look around, as this was the first men’s bathroom
she had ever been in.  Like the rest of Ultratech Brazil, the lighting was extremely poor.  To her right was a bathroom counter
with three sinks, and a long mirror.  Past the sinks were about four average sized toilet stalls, and one large handicapped stall.
To the right were the infamous urinals she had heard so much about, which went down all the way to the back wall.
     “Do men really use those?”  She wondered.
     Fulgore-X ignored the question, and proceeded to the middle sink.  He rested his hands on the counter, and closed his
eyes, as he tried to access information algorithms that had been buried deep within his systems.  Orchid wandered over next to
him, trying to figure out what he was doing.  Finally, Fulgore-X found what he was looking for.
     “Computer, activate vocal input program.”  Fulgore-X said.  Orchid looked up in surprise.  Fulgore-X spoke not in his own voice, but in one that was identical to that of the late president of Ultratech, Robert Sheridan.  Fulgore-X continued to speak in Sheridan’s voice.  “Recognize emergency procedure Epsilon Three Five Five.  Authorization code Sheridan Alpha One Delta Gamma Echo four five six nine one nine two three eight point one oh one.”
     The computer spoke back to Fulgore-X in a slow, warped version of what would usually be a female voice.  “ACCESS
CODE CONFIRMED.  PLEASE PROVIDE ADDITIONAL CONFIRMATION.”
     An area below the sink lit up, in red.  Fulgore-X placed his hand over it.
     “HANDPRINT CONFIRMED.  INITIATING EMERGENCY PROCEDURE EPSILON THREE FIVE FIVE.”
     The sink faucets seemed to retreat into the counter, and the counter itself slid back into the wall.  The mirror flipped over to
reveal a large video screen.  Where the bathroom counter retreated, a computer terminal, identical to the main terminal in the
Control Room, slid out, stopping only a few feet away from Fulgore-X.
     “How did you do that?”  Orchid asked.
     “The voice?”  Fulgore-X said, this time assuming Jago’s voice.  “You should know.  Being a cyborg, I can analyze and duplicate any voice sample I hear, even if it’s only one word.”  Fulgore-X’s eyes narrowed in a mischievous way.  “As you can see, my duplication is thorough enough to fool even Ultratech’s security systems.”  He now talked in Orchid’s voice.
     Orchid snarled at him.  “Okay, that’s enough. You’ve had your fun.”
     “If you insist.”  Fulgore-X responded, in Gargos’s voice.
     Orchid cut her eyes at him.
    “As for the hand print,” this time, he talked in his own voice, “that was easy enough to fake.”  He pointed his open palm to
his right.  Suddenly, a surge of plasma shot out from his hand, striking the wall of the first bathroom stall.  It didn’t explode;
instead, it burned the side of the wall.  Orchid took a closer look.  The burns were small and curved, and when she looked at
the whole thing, it formed a hand print, complete with detailed fingerprints.
     “Hmph.”  She mused.  “Thousands of small, plasma discharges, together, forming a hand print.  Say, have you ever thought
of a career in forgery?”
     “Funny.”  Fulgore-X said sarcastically.
     Orchid turned her attention back to the newly formed computer terminal.  “What is this?”
     “This is the true Control Room of Ultratech Brazil.”
     “In a bathroom?”
     “Yes.  And you can thank Sheridan’s paranoia for that.  While the main terminal in the Control Room has precedence over
every other terminal in the building, this is the only interface that can override its commands.”
     “But…..why a bathroom?”
     “According to Sheridan’s reasoning, it’s perfectly logical.  If a hostile force were to take over Ultratech, with Sheridan
trapped inside, he may not have access to the Control Room.  The bathroom is a place that he could go to and arouse as little
suspicion as possible.”
     Orchid twisted her mouth.  “I guess that does make some sense.”
     Fulgore-X began to access the terminal.  He brought up a display of the interior of Ultratech Brazil on the video screen.
     “Just as I suspected.”  Fulgore-X said.  “All building exits have been blocked by a security barrier.”
     “Can you override?”  Orchid asked.
     “Of course I can.  First, I need to send a dummy signal to the Control Room.  Jeremiah has been tracking our movements,
and if he were to see that we have defeated his barrier, he would take steps to restore it by whatever means possible.  Then,
I’ll override the security barrier for the main exit, and we can leave.”
     “What about Jeremiah?”
     Fulgore-X narrowed his eyes.  “I cannot defeat him in my current state.  I’ll will undergo repairs first; then, I’ll come back
and pay Jeremiah a little visit.”
     “You’re just going to leave him here?”
     “I don’t think he’s going anywhere.  Besides, my repairs should only take a few days.  But, if you’re not satisfied with that,
you’re more than welcome to challenge him yourself.”
     “No, that’ll do.”  Orchid responded.  She turned away from him.  “Well, while I’m here…..”  She ventured away, going
inside one of the stalls.
     “What are you doing?”  Fulgore-X asked.
     “What do you think I’m doing?”  Orchid yelled from inside the stall.
     “This is not an appropriate time.”
     “I can’t help it!  When Mother Nature calls, you answer.  It’s not something I’d expect you to understand.”
     Fulgore-X shook his head, as he continued to work the computer console.  He established a dummy signal of the status of
the security barriers and sent it to the main computer terminal in the Control Room.   He then started work on raising the
security barrier over the main exit of Ultratech Brazil.
     From within the bathroom stall, the toilet flushed.  There was the sound of the rustling of clothes, then the door opened and
Orchid emerged.  Fulgore-X put his hand over his face, almost in embarrassment.
     “I can’t help it, okay!”  Orchid insisted.
     Fulgore-X shook his head again.
     Orchid didn’t want to do it, she really, really didn’t.  However, much like her call from Mother Nature, she couldn’t help it.
She burst out into an uncontrollable laugh.  She stumbled over to the computer terminal and rested her hands on it as she shook in laughter.
     “What?”  Fulgore-X said, somewhat confused.
     Orchid barely managed to speak in between laughs.  “You really should see the look on your face!”
     “Impossible.  My face is not capable of having a…..’look’.”
     Orchid continued to laugh.  “Oh but it is.  Those eyes of yours…..they convey more emotion than the entire face of most
people.”
     Fulgore-X watched as Orchid continued to crack up.  Eventually, even his rock hard exterior crumbled, and an involuntary
chuckle came out.
     Orchid finally calmed herself down.  “Boy, if Jago could see me now.”
     Fulgore-X also returned to his stoic self.  “Anyway, I’ve opened the main exit.  We can leave now.  We’ll have to take this
route.”  He highlighted a path on the interior design on the video screen.
     “That’s not the best way.”  Orchid observed.  “Why don’t we go this way, around the perimeter of the building.”
     “Too many security barriers.  I don’t want to disable too many; a dummy signal is only so effective.  We’ll just take the long
way around.  Why don’t you go on; I have to restore the bathroom counter.  I’ll catch up.”
     Orchid shot a look at him.  “But…..if this building is going to explode, why do you need to restore the counter?”
     “Jeremiah might detect the energy consumption of this console if I leave it online.”  Fulgore-X lied.  “Go on, I’m right behind you.”
     Orchid gave him another funny look before leaving the bathroom.
     As soon as the door closed behind Orchid, Fulgore-X slumped over in pain, clutching the computer terminal.
     “It’s getting worse.”  He said weakly.  “I think the plasma that’s leaking out is flooding my systems.”
     To make matters worse, a warning message appeared in his eyes –

_WARNING!  MAIN PLASMA GENERATOR POWER FAILURE.  ACTIVATING BACKUP SYSTEM.

_WARNING!  YOU ONLY HAVE ONE FULL PLASMA POWER CEL AVAILABLE FOR USE.  REFILLING
IMMEDIATELY IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.

_WARNING!  POWER DRAIN DETECTED IN PLASMA GENERATOR UNIT.  THERE MAY BE A HOLE IN THE
DELIVERY TUBE.  IMMEDIATE REPAIRS ARE RECOMMENDED.

     Fulgore-X put his left hand over the wound in his side.  “If I don’t get out of here soon…..”  He withdrew the hand and held it in front of him; it was completely covered in plasma.  Nevertheless, he straightened himself, ignoring the pain and the gravity of the situation.  He turned and left the bathroom, failing to restore the bathroom counter.

Control Room

     The best-laid plans don’t always unfold as planned.
     Today, Jeremiah was finding this out the hard way.  Earlier tonight, he had found his “replacement”, Fulgore-X, and a
human female who was employed by Ultratech.  Fulgore-X was already badly damaged.  Jeremiah figured that he could get a
little vindication by releasing his damaged replacement out among his followers, and watch as he was dismantled, piece by
piece.
     That didn’t happen though.
     Now, on the interior schematic of Ultratech Brazil that was displayed on the main video screen, only three heat signatures
remained.  Jeremiah, Fulgore-X, and the human female.  A damaged cyborg, and a human female had killed one hundred nine
rejects.
     No wonder they were called rejects.
     Perhaps Fulgore-X wasn’t as weak as he appeared to be.  Or maybe the human female was tougher than she looked.
Either way, Jeremiah’s army, his loyal followers, had been completely wiped out.  The master plan had been seriously
compromised.
     Oh well.  Things change.
     Executing the master plan would be much harder without his followers, but not impossible.  Jeremiah would still have the
element of surprise in his favor; in addition, he had all the resources of Ultratech Brazil at his disposal.  He could still engineer a
complete takeover of the New York Ultratech, and force the genetic scientists to change him back into a pure human.
     But, first things first.  Jeremiah still had to defeat Fulgore-X and the Ultratech worker.  Judging from the results of their
previous fight, Fulgore-X would be no pushover, but still an easy victory nonetheless.  And if the girl was anything like her
Ultratech Brazil counterparts, she would not be any cause for concern.
     Jeremiah looked up at the video screen.  The duo had made an unusual stop at a bathroom, but they were now in motion
again.  What would be the best way to confront them?  Intercepting them would be a good strategy, but then the fight would
take place within a narrow hallway.  Meeting them at their next destination would probably be the better option.  But, where
were they going?
     Jeremiah studied the route they were taking.  He followed it, scanning rooms and side paths that lie ahead.  A security
barrier immediately blocked off most of the side paths, and the rooms and offices were nothing of great importance.  A great
deal of them were empty.
     “Where could they be going?”  Jeremiah said to himself.  “So far, they haven’t gone to any place that wasn’t of
significance.”  He continued to study the path they were on.  He still encountered nothing, as his eyes stopped at the main
entrance and exit of Ultratech Brazil.
     “That’s it, that’s where the route ends.  The main exit is the only thing of even remote importance.  But they can’t be heading there.  It’s blocked off by a security barrier; surely they must know that.”
     Jeremiah restudied the route, taking into account many factors he had not considered before.  He still couldn’t determine a
logical destination for the duo, other than the main exit.
     “The security barrier is still down.  Even if the main exit is their destination, they can’t go through it.  I don’t understand this
at all.”  Suddenly, a revelation hit Jeremiah.  Before they stopped at the bathroom, their last destination was Research and
Development.  It was entirely possible that Fulgore-X managed to obtain equipment that would allow him to bypass the
security barrier.  Fulgore-X could be leaving the building at this very moment.
     “I certainly can’t allow that.”  Jeremiah studied the schematic again.  “I won’t be able to intercept them in time.  There are
no security barriers in between their current position and the main exit.  I’ve got to stop them, but how?  The security barrier is
already down.  I need another barrier.  Another barrier…..yes, that’s it!”
     A wicked smile spread across Jeremiah’s face.  He pushed his chair over to the row of terminals that lined the right side of
the room.  One of them was a ChemiLab interface.  Jeremiah accessed it –

PLEASE INPUT COMMAND_
request: samples
SPECIFY SAMPLE TYPES_
deadly gases
ADDITIONAL RESULT PARAMETERS_
10 deadliest
PROCESSING…..PLEASE WAIT_

     After a few seconds, a panel on the computer terminal opened up.  A tray with ten slots rose from the panel; within each
slot was a corked test tube.  Each test tube held a deadly gas, in many different colors.  Jeremiah took a test tube, which
contained a bubbly green gel inside of it.  He flashed a half smile.
     “VX nerve gas.  Perhaps the deadliest substance ever conceived and created by humankind.  Yes; this’ll do.”
     Normally, Jeremiah would not have been able to access such a deadly gas so easily.  Normally, Jeremiah would have to
provide a handful of the holiest of all access codes.  However, soon after he escaped his stasis pod, Jeremiah was able to hack
into the mainframe and obtain Sheridan’s access codes.  He established them as stored passwords.  Ultratech Brazil was
horribly understaffed and in dire need of new equipment; that’s why Jeremiah could hack into the mainframe, and that made all
of this possible.
     Jeremiah stood.  He took one last look around, soaking in his humble throne room.  Half the monitors may not have been
working, rubble may have been everywhere, and the lights may have been flickering on and off constantly; but it was still his
domain.  And now he was leaving it, possibly never to return.
     Twirling the deadly gas through his fingertips, Jeremiah slowly left.  As he reached the malfunctioning double doors, he
stopped playing with the VX gas, took another close look at it, then flung it carelessly behind him.  The test tube tumbled end
over end, finally shattering as it crashed onto the floor.  The green gel like substance shot away from the point of impact,
quickly turning into gas as it made contact with the oxygen in the air.  So sooner than the test tube shattered, the double doors
feebly closed shut and locked.  In front of it, an additional barrier dropped.  Unlike the security barriers, this one had a blue
lining, with the words “QUARANTINE BARRIER” written on the right side of the barrier in blue text.  In addition, the already
dim lights acquired a blue tint, the computer monitors that were online now displayed “QUARANTINE ALERT” in blue
flashing text, and a pathetic alarm sounded throughout the building.  Jeremiah walked away nonchalantly, with the quarantine
barriers dropping rapidly behind him.

     Fulgore-X walked about a step or two behind Orchid.  Before, his injury had been tolerable at least.  Now, it hurt insanely;
it took all Fulgore-X had to keep from doubling over in pain.  Nevertheless, he walked erect and with a purpose, ignoring the
pain.
     Suddenly, the faint light overhead acquired a blue tint.  An alarm could be heard going off in the distance.  Both Fulgore-X
and Orchid stopped.
     “What’s going on?”  Orchid asked.
     Fulgore-X looked around.  His eyes rested on a computer video monitor, which displayed the “QUARANTINE ALERT”
screen.
     “Oh no.”  He whispered.  “Orchid, we have to go now!”
     Orchid turned around to face him.  “What?  What’s happening?”
     “No time to explain!  We have to go!”  Fulgore-X ran past Orchid, grabbing her wrist as he went.
     “Ow!”  She exclaimed.  “Wait, what-“  She wasn’t given time to finish, as Fulgore-X dragged her along.  He ran at an
extremely rapid pace, so fast that Orchid found it hard to keep up.  Every other step, Orchid lifted her feet up off the ground
and let Fulgore-X fling her along.  As she was being pulled along, Orchid could hear barriers falling elsewhere all throughout
Ultratech Brazil.  Fulgore-X continued to race along, as if hell itself was behind him.  Orchid didn’t have the best angle, but she
could swear that Fulgore-X had a worried look on his face.
     As Fulgore-X rounded the corner to the main exit, he finally let go of Orchid.  Orchid stumbled along involuntarily, barely
managing to avoid the directory table that sat in the middle of the short hallway.  Looking ahead, she could see the dual set of
glass double doors that marked the main entrance and exit of Ultratech Brazil.  For the first time since her imprisonment here,
she caught a glimpse of the outside world.  It was still dark, but it was the mild kind of darkness that signaled that sunrise was
quickly approaching.
     The short glimpse of life outside of Ultratech Brazil was rudely cut short, as a quarantine barrier shot down in front of the
doors.  Fulgore-X was perhaps only one half-second too late, putting his hands on the barrier to stop himself as the barrier had
not yet made contact with the floor.  Orchid put on the brakes a few feet away from the barrier, and hunched over to catch her
breath.
     “Now…..will you tell me…..what’s going on?”  Orchid managed to say in between heavy breaths.
     Fulgore-X stood with his arms at his sides and his head lowered.  “It’s a quarantine alert.”  He turned around to face
Orchid, with his head still lowered.  “The building has been sealed off, in addition to the existing security barriers.”
     “So?  Can’t we just override?”
     “No.  Quarantine barriers are completely autonomous.  They operate on their own.”
     “Well, when does this one come up?”
     “Hours, probably.”  He went over to the video monitor on his right, and cleared the “QUARANTINE ALERT” screen.
The monitor now displayed –

    “Time we do not have.”  Fulgore-X continued.
    “So…..now what do we do?”  Orchid asked.
    Fulgore went back to his previous position in front of the quarantine barrier.  He rested his back against it, then slid down it
until he was sitting on the floor.  “Now, we wait to die.”
 

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