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Ultratech Brazil: Main Entrance Lobby

     Never had silence been so deafening.
     For at least twenty minutes, Orchid and Fulgore-X had sat in silence in the Main Entrance Lobby to Ultratech Brazil.  Fulgore-X sat on the floor with his back against the quarantine barrier that kept them from freedom.  Orchid sat atop the directory assistance table, in front of the cyborg.  She wanted to speak, or even whistle a tune to distract her, but nothing seemed appropriate.  In a little over half an hour, the main reactor would explode with the force of a level one plasma bomb, and her life would come to an end.
     The silence gave Orchid a chance to do something she really did not want to do at the moment; think.  She tried to keep her mind clear, think about nothing at all, but that was impossible.  Her mind kept wondering, thinking about her past and her apparent lack of a future.  It was a horribly ironic twist; she managed to survive during a time when she didn’t care about living or dying, but now, now that she wanted to live, she was about to die.  Finally, she lost patience.  She looked over at her…..partner…..Fulgore-X.  He didn’t even look alive, except that his eyes were open.
     “Look, it has been twenty minutes, and we haven’t done anything but sit here.”  Orchid whined.  “Are we really going to just sit here and wait for death?”
     Fulgore-X batted an eye towards her.  “That’s the plan.”
     “Hmph.  Do you always give up so easily?  There has to be something we haven’t thought of yet.  There’s always a way.”
     Fulgore-X narrowed his eyes.  He was getting impatient with her.  “Look, if there was something I could do, I would have done it by now.”
     “Then, what about your weapons systems?  I thought you were supposed to have all this massive power.  You can’t even blast through a wall?  Where’s all that power I heard so much about?”
     Fulgore-X shot her a funny look, as if he were in disbelief.  He said nothing in response; instead, he raised his left hand, and showed it to Orchid.  He then softly pressed it against his right side for a moment.  He raised his arm and showed Orchid the hand again; this time, it was completely covered with plasma.
     Orchid frowned.  “Look, we had a deal, remember?  I save you, you save me – what happened to that, huh?”
     “Yes, we did have a deal.  One that you can no longer live up to.  Therefore, I see no reason to keep up my end of the bargain.”
     “What do you mean by that?”
     “I mean my life ends today no matter what.  Even if somehow, someway, we managed to find a way to escape from the building before the explosion, it wouldn’t matter.  I’m almost out of energy.  In fact, I’d be surprised if I lived to see the explosion.  I would never make it back to the New York Ultratech on my own.  That’s not even taking into consideration the fact that you’ll probably attack me the minute we leave this place.  I just don’t have the resources to put up with you.  I’m just…..tired.  I’m so tired.”
     Once again, Fulgore-X no longer seemed as intimidating, as evil as Orchid believed him to be.  He almost seemed innocent; a victim of circumstance.  But no good would come from thinking about the cyborg.  Orchid had to concentrate on finding a way to survive.
     “Fine then.”  She responded.  “You continue to wait for death.  I’m going to think of something.”
     “Good luck.”  Fulgore-X said sarcastically.
     Orchid snarled at him.  “The least you could do is at least listen, and give me suggestions.  Will you at least do that?”
     “Do I have a choice?  If I don’t, you’ll continue to talk and annoy me, and I would have spent the last moments of my life in an irritated mood.  So fine then, go ahead with your futile attempts.”
     Orchid shook her head in frustration.  Nevertheless, she began to think aloud.  “Okay, let’s see.  Our problem is that we can’t escape the building, right?  We need to find a way out.  But the quarantine barriers have blocked all of the exits.  Couldn’t we just go back to that bathroom and deactivate the quarantine barriers?”
     “No.  As I said before, quarantine barriers are completely autonomous.  They operate outside of all of Ultratech’s systems, and cannot be accessed by anyone.”
     “Well then, why are the barriers down now?”
     “Because there was a hazardous chemical spill somewhere within Ultratech Brazil.  The specific section where the spill took place has been sealed off, and the whole building has been locked down.  The quarantine system will work to clean up the spill; purify the air and clean surfaces by releasing counter agents.  The barriers will remain down until the spill has been neutralized.  Not even Sheridan himself could dictate otherwise.”
     “That’s kind of dumb.  Why did they make the quarantine system like that?”
     “As you know, Ultratech is supposed to be a technology corporation.  Sheridan didn’t have any excuse to have all the chemicals that he did.  He wasn’t supposed to have them anyway; he obtained them all illegally.  So, if there was a spill, and if it escaped the confines of Ultratech, not only would Sheridan be responsible for potentially killing large numbers of people, there would be a lot of questions he couldn’t answer.”
     Orchid sighed.  “Anyway, so there’s nothing we can do to manipulate the quarantine barriers.  So, how long will it take before they come up?”
     Fulgore-X paused.  He truly was tired, and it took him a moment just to gather the energy just to speak again.  “However long it takes to clean the spill.  One thing is for sure; it will be at least two or three hours.  We don’t even have half an hour to spare.”
     “Okay, so we can’t count on the quarantine barriers to come up.  Aren’t there any secret exits we can use?”
     “Yes, there are secret exits, but those have also been blocked by the barriers.  Ultratech Brazil has been totally sealed off; not even sewage can escape the confines of the building.”
     “In other words, there is absolutely positively no way out of the building.”
     “Yep.”
     Orchid rubbed her hands across her face.  Her building frustration was tying her stomach in knots, and the all too real prospect of dying in a few minutes was beginning to make her physically sick.  But she couldn’t let the pressure get to her; she had to think of a way out of here, and she had to do it now.
     “Okay, so we’re stuck in here.”  Orchid continued.  “It’s time for a new game plan then.”
     Fulgore-X sighed.  “Just give it up.”
     Orchid glared at him.  “Let’s go back to the basics.  The building is going to explode.  We can’t get out of here before that happens.  It’s not so much that we’re trapped inside, it’s the explosion that is going to kill us.  So, if we can’t leave, we need to find a way to delay, or even stop the explosion from happening.  Fulgore-X, refresh my memory; what is going to cause the explosion?”
     Fulgore-X rolled his eyes.  “This grows tedious.”
     “Humor me!”  Orchid nearly screamed.  “This could be what saves your life.”
     “Unlikely.”
     “Fulgore-X!  …..Please?”
     “Fine.”  Fulgore-X shook his head.  “The Ultratech Brazil reactor consists of two parts; one that deals with plasma, and one that deals with anti-plasma.  The anti-plasma storage unit is leaking, and has been for some time.  A small amount of anti-plasma has eaten through the outer casing for the plasma storage tank, and is currently eating through the inner casing.  Through facts and guesses, I have approximated that it will take about thirty more minutes before the anti-plasma finally breaches the inner casing, and makes contact with the plasma.  When that happens, there will be an explosion with the magnitude of a plasma bomb.”
     “Okay……”  Orchid began to think about what Fulgore-X had said.  “So, in order to stop the explosion, all we have to do is keep the anti-plasma from making contact with the plasma.  Or we could delay the explosion…..isn’t there some kind of way to strengthen the integrity of the inner casing?”
     “Nope.”  Fulgore-X responded simply.
    “All right…..what if we found a way to put a plasma shield underneath the inner casing?”
     “Same difference.  When the anti-plasma made contact with the shield, there would still be a plasma bomb type explosion.”
     “What about an anti-plasma shield?”
     “Such a thing doesn’t exist.”
     “Couldn’t you make one?”
     “I could try.  But there’s no way that I could do it within thirty minutes.  Besides, when the anti-plasma shield made contact with the normal plasma, you’d still have the explosion.”
     “Okay……what if…..no……wait!  Couldn’t we get rid of the anti-plasma?  Isn’t there some kind of tool for that?”
     “Other than a paper straw?  No.”
     “A straw?  Well, what if-“
     “No.”  Fulgore-X cut her off flatly.  “There are no tools available that could do that kind of extraction.”
     “Teleporters?”
     “Ultratech Brazil doesn’t have any.  And mine are off-line.  Besides, if we had teleporters, don’t you think I would have used them to just leave the building?”
     “Good point.”  Orchid replied.  Her frustration continued to mount.  “Can’t we just remove the casings?”
     “No.  Not without draining all of the plasma.”
     Orchid’s eyes lit up.  She saw a glimmer of hope.  A faint one, but one nonetheless.  “Then why don’t we do that?”
     “What, drain the plasma?”
     Orchid nodded her head.
     “We can’t just drain it.”  Fulgore-X said.  His irritation was building more quickly than Orchid’s frustration.  “You have to have someplace to put it.”
     “Well, don’t we?”
     “No.  The reserve tanks were destroyed, probably when the Ultratech Brazil employees fought against the rejects.  There’s nowhere else we can put that much plasma.”
     Orchid’s glimmer was getting dimmer.  But it was still there.  “You know, if we drained all that plasma, then that would stop the explosion, wouldn’t it?  When the anti-plasma ate through the inner casing, if no plasma was in the tank, then there would be no explosion.  If we could just get rid of all that plasma…..”  She stared at Fulgore-X, not really looking at him so much as she was deep in thought.  She did notice that he was in really bad shape though; although plasma no longer flowed freely from his right side, he had left a blue trail that extended all the way down the hall from which they came, and a small puddle near his right leg.  Suddenly, Orchid’s glimmer became a blinding beam of light.
     “You!”  She snapped her fingers and pointed at the cyborg.  “We do have a storage unit – you!”
     “Me?”  Fulgore-X said, somewhat confused.  “What do you mean?”
     All the frustration that had built within Orchid quickly turned to excitement.  “My God, it’s so simple, I can’t believe neither of us thought of it before now.  You use plasma!  Can’t we take the plasma that’s inside of the storage tank, and put it inside of you?”
     Fulgore-X looked away.  “We could.  But that’s a fifty-gallon tank.  You can’t put that much plasma inside of me.”
     “Maybe…..maybe we don’t have to!  You could just burn it off!  Y’know, use it all up.”
     Fulgore-X’s eyes widened.  “Hmm…..if I lowered my plasma conversion rate down to a fraction of a percentage point, and used a high yield plasma based attack, it could work.”
     “See!”  Orchid exclaimed, almost grinning.  “I told you that there’s always a way!”
     Fulgore-X sighed.  “What’s the use though.  Even if I stop the explosion, I’m still dead anyway.”
     Orchid’s excitement turned sour.  “What?  What?  Are you saying you’re not going to help me?  We’ve found a way to beat this thing and you’re still choosing to die?”
     “It’s not about a choice.  Even if I fill my remaining power cells to the max, this damn leak has grown too wide.  They’ll be empty again in a matter of hours.  And let’s not forget about our little fight.  I can’t beat you in my present state.”
     “Well then, let’s forget about the fight.”
     “What?”
     “Forget about the fight.  Once we escape Ultratech Brazil, I won’t fight you.”
     “I find that hard to believe.  But, even if you were sincere, I still wouldn’t be able to make it to the New York Ultratech.”
     Orchid closed her eyes, and breathed deeply.  When this all began, she was willing to bargain with the devil himself to save her own life.  How much farther would that go?  She was about to find out.
     “Fine then.  How ‘bout a new deal,  If you help me one more time…..I…..I…..”  She was having a hard time getting the words out.  “I’ll…..help you get back to Ultratech.”
     “What?”  Fulgore-X said, almost shocked.
     “You heard me.  If you get me out of here alive, I’ll personally see to it that you make it back to New York.  I’ll walk you to the front door.  I’ll carry you if I have to.  You can go inside, fix yourself, do whatever you like.  Then we’ll fight.”
     Fulgore-X couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing.  “Do you realize, that I’d be back at full power, don’t you?”
     “I know.  I don’t care.  Whatever it takes.  I just don’t want this to be the day I die.”
     Fulgore-X was still in disbelief.  “I…..I just don’t believe you.”
     Orchid’s mood turned somber quickly.  “Look.  All of my life, I’ve been involved with The Organization.  I knew what kind of life that was.   So I decided that I wouldn’t get close to anybody.  I had no family, no friends, no one but myself.  I believed that if I let anyone get close to me, they’d just hurt me.  So I intentionally kept everyone at a distance.  I thought that I could survive just fine without companionship.  But I was wrong.  I spent all of my life on the outside, looking in.  I watched as people laughed together, cried together, went through life together.  I watched lovers cuddle in restaurants, and friends play football in the park.  I was insanely jealous, but I thought that that kind of life wasn’t for me.  Well I was wrong.  And I’ve wasted the past 23 years of my life shutting people out, believing that I was doing something far nobler.  Well now, I’ve learned that I have a family now.  Maybe it’s just Jago, but that’s far more than I’ve ever had.  It’s been hard, but I’m starting to let people into my life.  I’m quitting The Organization, and I’m finally becoming…..normal.  And I’ll be damned if I’ve come all this way just to be killed here.  So rest assured Fulgore-X, I’m quite sincere.  I’ll do anything and everything it takes to keep me alive.  So, do we have a deal?”
     Fulgore-X narrowed his eyes.  For the first time, he saw Orchid in a new light.  She wasn’t quite the overbearing, head strong, determined ex-Agent he knew her to be.  She appeared to be fragile, delicate.  Someone who had lost her way before she even started her journey.  Someone who, just as she was starting to pull herself together, was having her world come crashing down around her.  It was almost hard for Fulgore-X to continue hating her past this point.
     Almost.
     The sharp pain in his right side that was slowly killing him quickly dashed any sympathy he might have felt for her.  An injury she caused.  Fulgore-X could look up at the countdown to an explosion that would surely kill him, should his internal injury fail to do the task.  Fulgore-X wouldn’t even be within this building if not for her.  He wouldn’t be Fulgore-X either.  He’d be Kain.  Innocent, sweet Kain.  He’d be back at the village, taking with Anna, or perhaps fighting with Ricki.  He wouldn’t know anything about Fulgore cyborgs, or Ultratech, or Gargos, or Killer Instinct.  He’d be happy.  But he wasn’t.  Thanks to her.
Yet still, Fulgore-X couldn’t deny that if he had any chance at all of surviving this whole ordeal, perhaps this was it.  “Fine.”  He said.  “We have a deal.”
    “Good.”  Orchid said, not quite as excited as she was before, but still in better spirits.  She hopped off of the directory assistance table she had been sitting on, and studied it carefully.  On the diagram of the inside of the building, in several places, thick blue bars went across passageways.  This represented the quarantine barriers.  There were also red bars, which were for the security barriers that were still up.
    “Hmm.”  Orchid said.  “We can’t go through Section 21D, which would be the quickest way to get to the Reactor Room, but we can go around it, through 21B.  It’ll take a little longer, but it will still get us there, with enough time to drain the reactor…..I hope.  C’mon Fulgore-X, let’s go.”  She started off, but then she realized that Fulgore-X wasn’t following.  He hadn’t even stood up yet.  He continued to sit with his back against the quarantine barrier, his head bowed.
     Orchid walked over to him.  “Come on, let’s go.  What are you waiting for?”
     Fulgore-X looked up at her.  It was a pitiful, shamed look.  A vulnerable look.  His pride kept him silent.
     Orchid recognized the look.  She could have picked this time to be condescending.  She could have laughed.  But she needed his help, and this new deal was shaky at best.  She extended her hand towards him.  He took it, and she pulled back as hard as she could.  With Orchid’s help, Fulgore-X stood.  He had only been erect for a second before he slumped over, putting his hand on the wall to keep him from falling over.  It wasn’t until this moment that Orchid truly realized that Fulgore-X was really dying.  She positioned herself under his right arm, and put her left arm around his waist.  She began to walk, supporting Fulgore-X the best she could.
     “It’ll be just a few minutes to the Reactor Room.  You’ll be fine.”  She said, in a soft, almost caring voice.
     Almost.

A Few Minutes Later

     Jeremiah strolled casually up to the Main Entrance Lobby.  He walked with both hands behind his back, and whistling a tune.  He stopped however, when he saw that Fulgore-X and the human female were not there.  They had been, though.  Jeremiah could smell the presence of the woman, although she had left.  And there was a little puddle of plasma near the quarantine barrier that blocked the main entrance.  Fulgore-X had been there too.
     “A little too late.”  Jeremiah said to himself.  “Unfortunately.”  His plan had been successful in keeping Fulgore-X within Ultratech Brazil.  However, in the process, he sacrificed his position of control.  He could no longer track the movements of his enemies.
     Or maybe he could.
     Jeremiah looked down.  Coming from the small puddle of plasma near the barrier door, were two trails of plasma droplets.  The first went underneath Jeremiah’s feet, back towards the hallway from which he came.  The other one went past Jeremiah, curving down the hallway to the right, the other direction.  The second plasma trail was obviously newer; it had a faint glow to it, while the other trail had no glow at all.
     Jeremiah smiled.  “Ah, how convenient.  A trail of bread crumbs.”  He turned and began to follow the second plasma trail down the hallway to the right.
 
 

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