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Killer
Instinct Revelations:28
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Ultratech Brazil: Reactor Room
It started at first as a thin, dull gray line.
It slowly expanded, getting larger and larger, eventually turning into
the Reactor Room of Ultratech Brazil as Orchid opened her eyes. She
sat against the wall she had been slammed into God knows how long ago,
her head resting heavily upon her chest. The room was generally silent,
except for the sound of liquid drops hitting the floor, and an occasional
buzz from a malfunctioning electrical something.
Orchid couldn’t quite remember where she was,
or what had happened at first. She could only concentrate on the
pain that pounded through her head, shot through her right hand, and dulled
the rest of her body. It took her a moment to recall everything that
had happened in the past day. When she finished, she was mildly surprised
that she was still alive.
Orchid slowly brought herself to her feet.
Directly in front her, were the remains of what used to be the plasma reactor
of Ultratech Brazil. Most of it had been completely incinerated;
all that remained were a few wires, metal cables, and twisted steel beams
that hung down from the ceiling. She was still on the second floor;
looking down through the grate, she could see a pile of scrap metal where
the main part of the reactor used to be. Around Orchid, all of the
computer terminals had been destroyed. Across the room, the steel
grate that was the second floor had completely collapsed. Even the
floor that Orchid stood on felt shaky at best. She though it wise
to perhaps go down to the first floor.
Walking presented a whole new challenge.
There was nothing medically wrong with her legs, aside from fatigue, and
perhaps a few bruises. However, with her splitting headache, and
her pains all over, Orchid found it hard to keep her balance. It
felt as if her brain had turned into toothpaste. Nevertheless, she
managed to put one foot in front of the other in succession, staggering
across the shaky grate. Within time, she made it to the staircase,
miraculously intact. She held on tightly to the railing and began
making her way down, one step at a time. With each movement, Orchid
became more accustomed to walking. Upon making it down the stairs,
she stopped to take a look around.
And she thought the upstairs was bad.
The entire back wall had been devastated.
Quite an accomplishment, considering it was thick steel. The lower
half had been completely destroyed, while the upper half was bent, dented,
holed, and even shredded in some places. The other walls had gotten
off relatively easy; they were only bent and dented, although the right
wall was actually beginning to fold upon itself. The doors on the
front wall had been torn apart. Among other things, the floor was
covered by numerous scatterings of small plasma puddles. Over by
the folded right wall, the items which used to be on the second floor sat
in a messy heap. The grate itself stuck out here and there among
destroyed computer equipment, steel beams, and other pieces of unidentified
wreckage. What little was left of the plasma reactor sat in a heap
in the center of the room. One of the overhead lights lay shattered
on the floor near the back of the room; the others swung by pathetically,
entangled by its own wires and metal cables, sparks occasionally shooting
out.
With the back wall in shambles, the outside
world was visible from this room. It looked to be mid morning.
The sky was partially overcast, and the air had a certain thickness, from
a recent rainfall. In the distance, birds could be heard chirping
noisily. In the few places where there was a break in the sky from
the trees, and the clouds, a golden beam of light shot down from the heavens,
perfectly visible in this darkened environment. One such beam actually
entered the room, providing the only illumination. The beam itself
came in at the far left corner of the back, and made it way towards the
center at an angle, stopping about halfway in between the remains of the
wall and the remains of the reactor.
Orchid found herself mesmerized by the sight
for a moment. She hadn’t seen the outside world since she was knocked
out by Jeremiah to start this whole ordeal. She had forgotten how
peaceful it looked. The cold, gray, windowless confines of Ultratech
Brazil were very dark and depressing, to say the least. It took her
a moment to bring her consciousness back into the Reactor Room. Looking
down, she found an unpleasant surprise next to her feet.
Jeremiah. Or at least, what was left
of him.
He lay on his back, his dead face still frozen
in shock. His right arm was missing, and his left was twisted in
some impossible configuration. His chest and stomach were dented
in, no doubt from the impact of the plasma that had slammed into him.
The lower part of his body was also missing. Orchid didn’t know where
it was, nor did she care. Upon seeing Jeremiah, she was reminded
of the room’s third and final inhabitant, Fulgore-X.
She started a quick visual scan for the cyborg.
Remembering that he was resting on the reactor when it exploded, she expected
to find him in pieces. Contrary to her belief, she found him surprisingly
whole, lying on his back near the reactor wreckage on the side facing the
front wall. Despite being structurally intact, he was in a bad way.
There was a small puddle of plasma underneath him; unlike the others across
the floor, this one was probably his own. The rod that had been forced
into his side was gone, probably since a big chunk of his right side was
gone. His armor plates appeared to have been loosened on his body.
Wires jutted out from his body here and there. His right eye was
cracked.
At this point, perhaps the easiest thing to
do would have been to walk away. Somehow, Orchid had managed to win;
she was still alive. Ultratech Brazil had been destroyed, and South
America saved. However, she couldn’t do it. Instead, she walked
over to Fulgore-X, and knelt down besides him. She had something
to do. She had seen him do it before, but never really paid any attention.
Which arm was it? Left, it had to be the left. She picked up
Fulgore-X’s left arm and rolled up what was left of his jumpsuit sleeve.
Wasn’t there some sort of button, or release? She didn’t see anything.
Oh well, it really didn’t matter. She pried her fingers underneath
the armor plate and ripped it off, exposing Fulgore-X’s arm interface.
The interface, much like the rest of him,
was completely devoid of power. Orchid tapped it a few times with
her fingertips; a faint light flickered briefly. Fulgore-X still
had some power. She studied the interface for a few moments, trying
to figure out the right keys to press for the reactivation sequence.
Using her best educated guess, Orchid entered in a combination on the console.
There was a slight, weak beep accompanying each key press. At the
end of the sequence, Orchid pressed a large, red button near the bottom
of the console. A triple, negative beep sounded when she pressed
it; additionally, nothing happened.
Disappointed but not discouraged, Orchid tried
it again. Nothing. Another attempt yielded no results.
Orchid tried it again. Still nothing. Another attempt, another
failure. For the sixth try, Orchid tried inputting the sequence differently,
still pressing the same large key at the end. This version didn’t
do anything different. Orchid sighed, and tried one more time.
This time, instead of getting the negative triple beep, there was no sound.
Orchid paused, not sure what, if anything, had happened. Suddenly,
there was a faint, powering up sound, as the interface panel lit up.
Fulgore-X’s body jerked slightly; somewhat startled, Orchid dropped his
arm. His eyes flickered red, then lit up, very dimly. Despite
his apparent reactivation, his joints no longer glowed blue.
Fulgore-X sat up. He stared forward,
apparently trying to reacquire his bearings. After a minute, he turned
his head, and looked at Orchid. She returned the gaze, expressionless.
Fulgore-X then looked away, observing the destroyed Reactor Room.
He put his hands on the floor, in an attempt to stand, but he didn’t have
the energy to push himself up. Orchid stood, then slowly, she extended
her hand towards Fulgore-X. The cyborg looked at it, then humbly
took her hand. Having been accepted, Orchid moved closer to him so
that she could put her free arm around him and help him up.
It was hard enough for Fulgore-X to stand,
much less walk, but he did so anyway. Very slowly, very uneasily,
he made his way over to the staircase. He stopped next to Jeremiah’s
body. He stood as tall as he could, looking down on the dead reject.
It didn’t take Orchid much to guess what he was thinking. Fulgore-X
stood there for at least a minute, staring at Jeremiah, perhaps in disgust,
hatred, superiority, victory, and maybe just a little respect.
Finished with his former adversary, Fulgore-X
turned, taking another sweeping look at the room. He stopped facing
the disintegrated back wall. Although he still couldn’t move very
well, Fulgore-X began to make his way towards the back of the room.
Orchid wondered if he was trying to leave. It didn’t look like that
was his purpose though.
Finally making it to the back of the room,
Fulgore-X leaned up against the left wall, where the corner of the room
would be if there still was a back wall. Half of him was actually
outside, the other half still in Ultratech Brazil. Fulgore-X was
standing directly in the path of the incoming beam of light, which covered
his battered and broken body. He looked outside; at the trees, still
damp from the rain, swaying ever so slightly with the gentle wind.
He looked at the sky, hidden past tree leaves, and dark clouds overhead.
The clouds were beginning to scatter, so that more beams of light could
fall down from the heavens. He listened to the songs of the birds,
as they produced a gentle and unique melody.
Watching Fulgore-X, tears began to involuntarily
well up in Orchid’s eyes. She fought them as best she could, but
they were overpowering her. She thought about the deal she made with
him at the beginning of this experience. The deal which had been
motivated almost purely by selfishness. He had kept his end of the
bargain. She could not. He knew that too. Yet, he kept
it anyway. This cyborg was definitely different than his predecessors.
For the first time, Orchid finally realized this. A realization that
came way too late. Orchid continued to fight her tears, even though
they were becoming more intense in her body than even the pain she felt.
At the back of the room, Fulgore-X looked
down, as if in rejection. Having satisfied some sort of last request,
he turned around and started to walk back into the room. He was perhaps
only halfway to the center when he stopped, unable to move forward anymore.
He could no longer stand either; he abruptly fell to one knee, with his
head bowed. Orchid began to go to him, but she stopped herself.
It didn’t matter; there was nothing she could do. Fulgore-X slowly
lifted his head, and looked directly into Orchid’s eyes. One more
non-verbal message. Orchid understood this one better than all the
others. Her eyes arched upwards, and her lips parted.
Fulgore-X’s once bright red, once intimidating
eyes faded to black. He pitched forward, hitting the ground sharply
on his face. He was completely motionless, lifeless. Orchid
felt her stomach turning and her knees getting weak. Despite that,
she walked over to the cyborg, and knelt by him again. She turned
him over on his back, and took his left arm again. She tried the
key combination she used before, with no results. She tried it again,
still nothing. She tried it again. And again. And again.
And again. Nothing. With each attempt, the pitch of the beeps
grew lower, and they slowed down. In the middle of her next attempt,
the beeps stopped altogether. Orchid sighed, closer her eyes, bowed
her head, and tried one final time.
Nothing.
Orchid stayed where she was for a minute,
with her head lowered, holding Fulgore-X’s arm. He was a tough fighter;
she’d seen him get up from things that would have leveled even a building.
From his head on fight with Gargos, the brutal encounter that was Jagos,
and even the fight in his weakened state against Jeremiah, he always seemed
to have something left to spare. Not this time though. The
phoenix would rise no more.
Orchid folded Fulgore-X’s arms across his
chest, and stood up. She stood over Fulgore-X, similar to the way
he stood over Jeremiah, but decidedly different. He was still a Fulgore,
he was still the enemy. But now, she had a incredible respect for
him. Admiration, perhaps.
Next to Fulgore-X, a few teardrops fell.
Orchid took one last look around the Reactor
Room. This room was now more than just where the reactor exploded.
It was a room of destiny. It was a room where attitudes were changed.
It was a room where decisions were made, and lives were saved. It
was a room where the truth was revealed. And now, it was the final
resting place for an extraordinary warrior.
Orchid turned around, and slowly left the Reactor Room through the
broken double doors.
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THE APOCALYPSE APPROACHES.....YOU ARE NOT PREPARED