The pillar to Heaven built in Hell

oh dear Mr. cyborg didn't mention they might get reinforcements will good thing Jeannie comes prepared and you decided to show up. I got some stuff that'll slow them down and you can fly ahead then give them a special delivery,

I'll try to reach Mr. cyborg why you get over here and tell him about the uninvited guest. she grabs a walkie-talkie
jeannie calling Mr. cyborg come in do you hear me? we got company coming so you might want to hurry up. me and Sammie well try and keep distracting, oh yeah she came to help.

Cebra's eyes move too rapidly to even see his pupils anymore, the download is proceeding rapidly. Cebra can still hear some commotion coming from above, security mus be scrambling to find out the source of the power failure. In his current state Cebra was still able to hear, smell and feel outside presence. His visual focus however was focused on the data streaming past him. An incredulous look comes across Cebra's face as he bears witness to the truth about White bridge. The silence of the room gave the illusion all was calm. Cebra far to focused on what he was reading didn't notice the sound of moving liquid and dripping. A large blob of clear liquid moves ever closer to Cebra, in the center of the blob was a dagger with what looked like an EM charger. The blob slowly rose and formed into the shape of a young woman with long jet black hair and a shaggy looking jump suit.


The woman raises the dagger above Cebra's head and strikes down hard letting out a yell.

"Discharge!"

Cebra let's out a discharge of saxon energy into the woman sending her flying back into a wall before her knife plunges in Cebra's skull. Lucky for Cebra his sensors detected the EM energy in her knife before she could strike. The woman lay against the wall twitching and motionless but still conscious. Cebra was caught between a rock and a hard place, he could pull out now and not get all the data. At least he could defend himself though. Or he could keep going and try to defend himself like this. The problem being if he used too much energy the computer would shut down anyways and he'd just be a weak target. He had a minute and forty seconds left but the woman was already climbing to her feet.

"That was a clever trick, I didn't know you were such cunning prey."

The woman gets back up on her feet and holds her knife ready.

"I underestimated you... forgive me. Allow me to introduce myself, you may call me Still water. I have come for your life Project Hephaestus, now face me."

Cebra turns to her yet doesn't break the link, essentially making him blind.

"Another assassin? This is ridiculous... Orion is really going this far? Fine, but dont expect any mercy from me. I'm tired of you hired guns."

hello is this thing on? you're not sleeping on the job are you? huh, Jeannie fiddles with the walkie talkie trying to get it to work.

do you need back up?

Jeannie starts to come in over the comm device in Cebra's head.

"Jeannie? Things have gotten complicated. Hold them off as long as you can ok? Dont put yourself in danger though and dont worry about me. I'll find a way out I always do. It seems someone knew I'd be coming down here.

Still water looks at Cebra confused for a moment.

"Oh, talking with your friend outside are you? Hmm yes I know about the blonde one Jeannie... but who is with her? Who was she talking to before?... No matter, your life ends with me... Monster."

That name again was enough to throw Cebra off much less all this woman creature thing knew about Cebra's operation. There was only one possibility he could think of, one of his informants ratted Cebra out or was forced to.

"Monster... I..."

Before he could finish his thought Still water runs at Cebra and slashes at him. Cebra dodges her swings aware that he is still linked via wire to the computer, his movement range is limited. Cebra manages to grab a steel table and mold it into a sword not having any other materials to make a fire arm. He uses his senses and sword combat program to block her next attempt to stab him and pushes her back. Still water reacts quickly throwing her arm off her body like a spear made of water at Cebra. Cebra ducks hearing the sound come close to him, the arm snakes back to Still water.

"Not bad, I didn't think yo were so capable with a blade."

Cebra thinks of every possibility but there are few to choose from. Maybe prompting the Cyco program he thought would be the only way out. Remembering quickly what Cyco was like instantly made him change his mind. If this woman didn't kill him he was pretty certain Sam would if he made it out alive. Maybe there was a way to cripple this woman's abilities?

oh ok then I will, be careful huh Jeannie didn't really like the idea of leaving him alone, but Sam said they had trouble coming, so they'd have to deal with that first.

she checks to make sure her kitty bots still had the attention of the front of the building yup good there. she then looks for something to slow the coming bad guys she looks in the box and finds some mines.

hey sammie! can you hear me? I found some mines if you get her you can fly in front of the bad guys and put them in their way to slow them down. oh, I got a hold of Mr.
cyborg, he said to keep distracting them but I think we might have to rescue him he says someones discovered him.

he said not to worry about it but I don't know if we should leave him alone in there

This wasn’t going according to plan, whatever the plan was. The column was getting closer and closer, and now it seemed Cebra had gotten into trouble of his own. And not matter what he said, she wasn’t planning on leaving him behind to fetch for himself. They may have had their differences, but turning away from people in distress wasn’t her style.

“We’re not leaving anyone behind,” she assured Jeannie.

But first things first, she had to do something about those reinforcements first. While Jeannie had a suggestion to slower them down, Sam for one didn’t like the idea of placing mines inside a city. Fireworks and stink bombs where one thing, but actuals mines were a different matter entirely. It was far too easy for matters to escalate that was. The last thing she wanted was provoking Orion to start an actual fight inside the city. Innocent people could get hurt and their blood would be on their hands. A situation that had to be avoided at all costs.

If only they could use those mines for something else. Sadly, her knowledge about explosives was rather limited. All she really knew about them was how to get them away. Usually by throwing or flying them away as far and as fast as she could. Not very useful in their current situation. Maybe Jeannie with her fondness of explosives knew something she hadn’t thought of.

“Jeannie, it’s too dangerous to use mines inside a city. Isn’t there something else you can do with them?” she asked the girl. “It doesn’t have to be much; a distraction will be enough. As long as it keeps them from discovering you or removing the robots.”

As to Cebra. If Jeannie could prevent the reinforcements from disabling the robots, the robots should keep most of the staff inside busy at the front door.  It would keep them of Cebra’s back, but it wouldn’t get him out of the building. The opposite, in fact; it would prevent him from using the front door. That certainly limited his options of escaping.

“Cebra, can you make it to the roof?” Sam asked, letting the magic from her voice prevent anyone but Jeannie and Cebra hear her. From what she could see, the roof was his best way of getting out of there. She’d be able to pick him up there while Jeannie could use the van to escape. It shouldn’t have much trouble outrunning those sluggish trucks, or whatever they were, coming their way. Yes, that sounded like a good plan.

huh, Jeannie forgot they were in a cityoh right sorry, let me think she gets an idea and tinkers with the mines. ok I replaced the kaboom part with my stinky bomb mix so when they go off it'll just be a big stinky cloud.

is that better? should be a good distraction so we can get Mr.cyborg out of there

Cebra hears Sam in his head, for a moment he's stunned. He knew it wasn't her voice on the radio frequency so she was using something else. There was no time to think about it however as Still water kept up her attack. She was agile, fast and strong enough to keep up with Cebra. Though even in his blind state he could hold her off at least for now. There was no telling what kind of other tactics or abilities she had ready.

"Sam? How? Nevermind. I'm in a bit of a situation here, a meta human tracked me down, It's an assassin. She somehow has the ability to change into a liquid state. I cant hit her, it's all I can do to hold her off right now. I'm blind for the moment as the data we need streams to my memory, I cant properly defend myself. If I disconnect I might lose something vital. I wasn't prepared for this, you should get Jeannie out of here. They know who she is Sam."

Still water had Cebra pinned down forcing the knife down to his neck, the light buzz of the EM charge on the knife hummed louder now. Cebra kicks her off and jumps to his feet as Still water explodes in a splash of liquid and surrounds Cebra trying to drown him. Cebra quickly creates a multi-phase shield holding her off. The energy drain on Cebra is heavy as she surrounds the shield in her liquid state. Her arm forms at one point and starts striking the shield with the knife.

Dju, she hadn't expected they'd be attacked at both fronts at once. Least of all by an assassin who had some kind of strange power. It almost sounded as if Orion had been anticipating their arrival. Had they caught Francine? She felt a sudden chill when the thought of the redhead being captured by these people slipped her mind.

'No,' she told herself, 'Francine was careful when she left. We both were. Their planning is too good to have been set-up on such a short notice.' Orion must have known well in advance. Maybe not the day or time, but they must have known something was brewing.  Regardless how they knew, she had more pressing matters to worry about. Both Jeannie and Cebra needed her help right now.

As much as she regretted having to pick someone over the other, she knew she had to. In spite of her powers, she couldn't be at two places at once. If she tried to save both of them at once, she might end up being unable to save anyone.

Jeannie had to come first. She knew exactly what sort of trouble Jeannie was in; helping her would be the easiest. And it's what Cebra would have wanted too. Once Jeannie was safe, they could worry about how to get Cebra out of there without losing the data they had come for in the first place. Maybe Jeannie even knew on how to handle this assassin too. Something Cebra wouldn't like.  But what did he expect, that they'd leave without him? Maybe that's what he'd do in their place, sacrificing others to save himself. But that wasn't how they did it.

Without losing another precious second, Sam hurried to Jeannie to inform her about the trouble Cebra was in, and to collect the mines. The sooner she could cut-off the reinforcements, the sooner they could turn their attention elsewhere.

Jeannie's location was easy to find once she knew where to look. Moments later, she landed next to the van and hurried inside to collect the mines.

"Cebra's in trouble too," she told Jeannie once she was inside. "It seems they have some sort of assassin inside who can transform into liquid or something like that. Oh, and he told me Orion knows you're helping him."

She didn't mention Cebra had to her to get Jeannie out instead of coming for him. She knew Jeannie well enough to know she wouldn't have any of it. Worse, if Jeannie believed she wouldn't help her get Cebra out, she might decide to go in on her own. And that's the last thing she wanted right now.

yay your here the mines are already she shows Sam a box with the mines in it. an assassin huh that wasn't in the plan. and she can turn into water?

how interesting does he have a bottle to put her in? or a sponge or mop to soak her up with. oh, he could use thunderbolt it's super effective.

huh, so the mines well hold off the bad guys how do we save mister cyborg out? he could get to the roof and you could fly him out. but we need to get rid of the assassin.

if we got in we could help but then we would all have to get out.too bad we don't got another emp thingy to cause a blackout again to sneak him out. huh well, we could try the back door why my robots have everyone watching the front.

well, you should hurry with the mines so we got one less thing to worry about, oh I hope he'll be okay tell we get to him. darn and things where going to plan so nicely

Sam had her doubts if getting rid of this assassin was going to be as easily as Jeannie made it sound. Given how well things were going according to plan so far, she doubted it would be. But first things fist, those reinforcements had to be dealt with before they'd be able to overrun the kitten robots. If they failed, Orion would be able to turn all their might against Cebra. Not even he would last long against those odds.

"I'll be back soon," Sam reassured Jeannie before she flew out with her stinky charges.

The column was easy to find again. Fortunately, they hadn't made too much progress since the last check. Still enough to make her worried though. Better to head Jeannie's advice and hurry up with those mine.

She looked at the disk-like mines she carried. It she remembered correctly, these things would explode and release their content when those vehicles ran over them.  But where was she supposed to put them to ensure that would happen? The road leading to the tower was asphalted. If she put the mines there, the troops inside those vehicles would spot them right away. Or someone else might accidentally set them off. She didn't know if that was possible, though. Perhaps these things would only explode if they felt enough weight pressing on them. That would prevent any one accidental setting them off, but it still wouldn't stop the people inside from seeing them.

How on earth was she supposed to get these in front of those vehicles without them being seen? Or them seeing her put them there, for that matter? She looked back at the mines, hoping the answer would magically come to her. Her gaze went from the mines to the vehicles down below and back to the mines. They looked aerodynamic enough. And if they didn't know she was here, they might not expect an attack from above.

Timing would be of the essence though. If she screwed the first one up, she'd have revealed her presence and the same trick wouldn't work again.

"You can do this, Sam," she told herself as she took the first mine. She took a deep breath and prepared herself to throw the first mine. Those vehicles weren't travelling too fast, this should work! Without further delay she threw the first mine right in front of the wheels of the first vehicle. Or so she hoped.

huh, Jeannie wonders if she should have asked if Sam knew how to use the mines. well, sam is smart and the mines where pretty simple for explosives no timers or stuff for her to worry about.

placing them would be tricky as that was usually something done ahead of time. but sam shouldn't to much trouble just flying over and dropping them in the path.

she continued monitoring the kitty bots attack, huh how were they going to get mr. cyborg out.

The moment the mine was crushed underneath the first vehicle's wheels, it exploded and released its smelly content. A think, yellow cloud enfolded the vehicle, causing it to stop abruptly. The second one in the column had not expected this sudden stop and hit the first vehicle from behind. It wasn't driving hard enough to cause any significant damage to either vehicle, but it was still enough to push the first one partly out of the cloud.

Sam didn't stop there. Quickly she threw the other two mines as well. The first one missed its intended target. Instead of end-up in front of the wheels of the third vehicle, it smashed straight through the vehicles front window. The shocked made it go off inside, causing the two drivers and half a dozen troops in the back to desert the vehicle as they tried to outrun the smelly gas. The fourth vehicle smashed it soon after. The other mine landed in front of the fifth vehicle and went off as planned. The sixth vehicle's driver was alert enough to avoid a collision with the vehicle in front of him, but that didn't matter. The other vehicles in front of it still prevented it from going any further.

Only the Jeep was left untouched. Still, with only two people inside there wasn't much they could do against Jeannie's robot army. They seemed to realise this too, as the driver soon put the car aside and the two occupants got out to check the damage. Pleased with her actions that hadn't lead to any bloodshed, Sam returned to Jeannie. Now came the hard part, getting Cebra out of there.

Cebra checked the clock, ten second count then he could get out of there. Still water slashed at Cebra's throat and narrowly misses. She keeps going at him until he's backed against the computer. Her next thrust nearly pierces the computer but Cebra grabs her hand and elbows her in the stomach followed by a side kick. The timer finally reaches zero as the data is finished downloading. He quickly pulls the cord out just to see Still water jump up and high kick him back onto a table. Cebra cringes a second but puts his guard up fast enough to block the woman.

"You'll excuse me miss, I have no intention of dying in this place by your hand."

Cebra head butts her then grabs her hand with the blade, she quickly turn into liquid getting out of Cebra's grip. She slashes at his arm cutting him, Cebra stumbles back his implants, enhancements and computer go haywire for a second. Still water smirks as she see's Cebra affected by the EM energy.

"Does it hurt you? Or simply make you weak I wonder? No matter this is how it always goes. One way or another this is your grave."

She takes another run at Cebra but that few seconds gave him time to think. Maybe he could affect her cellular structure. The generator had failsafes against overheating, one such means was a N2 Liquid nitrogen. Cebra identified the tube on the ceiling leading to the N2, he stealthily linked himself to the security console controlling the N2 dispersal. When she gets close enough he throws his sword up and cuts the tube as he activates the flow. Still water stops a moment looking up only to be frozen quickly with a horrified look on her face... It was over.

"Sam... Sam you there? I'm on my way out. I'll be on the roof."

Cebra makes his way to the elevator. A cracking sounds stops him dead.

"Oh shit."

The power in the building comes back on. Cebra makes a run for the elevator not having any more need to stay and fight. He makes it inside the elevator and sighs with relief. A moment later though a terrible feeling comes over him. His back on his right side pains him, like being struck by thunder repeatedly. His vision grows a bit blurry as his cybernetics shut down completely. Cebra holds onto the wall his face wracked with pain. He looks back to see Still waters arm protruding from her icy binding. She managed to throw her knife from where she was frozen into Cebra's back. There's no way he can climb to the roof now, he could barely stand. Cebra had a mind equivalent to a well trained soldier, he felt like he was dying but still fought to survive.

He quickly pulled one of the knocked out guards into the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor. In the elevator he pulled the knife out of his back with a loud yell, his blood spurt out a bit. He stripped the guard out of his uniform keeping focus on the only plan he had. He stopped one floor before the top where the cafeteria is, it's vacant due to the emrgency outside. Cebra stuffs the body of the guard in a trash chute down to the dumpster and goes back into the elevator. Reaching the top floor he walks as straight as possible despite his pain and bleeding out. Luckily the uniforms were dark purple. In the panic of the security trying to get to Jeannie Cebra slips out and makes his way to the rear near the alley. He struggles but manages to climb over the fence and fall down hard. With a grunt he gets back up and hobbles away.

"Sam... I... the alley. Things went bad. East al..."

The blood loss renders him unconscious.

jeannie set in the van wondering when sammie would get back or Mr.cyborg would call to tell her what to do next. so for the moment, she had nothing to do but continue her distracting. controlling her robo kitty attack force.

Cebra's words, as unexpected as they were, came as welcome news. Immediately Sam changed her course, flying straight for the roof. Seconds later her feet touched the roof, right in the centre of the large capital H within a yellow circle that was the helipad. Facing her were the elevator and staircase entrances. But no sight of Cebra yet. She must have beaten him to the roof.

She took the opportunity to see how the trapped column was doing. The ominous smoke had the vehicles still wrapped in its smelly embrace with the troops watching from a safe distance, much to the annoyance of their leader who, despite all his shouting, stayed as far away from the cloud as well. They wouldn't have to expect any trouble from that side anytime soon.  

But what kept Cebra? She should have been her by now. The trip up here couldn't take him that long. Unless that liquid assassin he mentioned earlier was giving him a hard time. It looked like she'd have to go inside and get him out herself.

She was halfway the staircase when she heard Cebra's voice again, much weaker this time. This couldn't be good.

"Cebra, what's wrong?" she asked in a panic, but no answer came. What had happened? Was something wrong? With one jump, she pushed herself towards the east end of the roof. There was a man lying below. Cebra! Without hesitation, she flew down, landing right next to the motionless body.

She kneeled down and held her breath as she examined the body. Her worst suspicions were not confirmed, he was still alive. She exhaled heavily with relief before continuing her examination. She didn't need her X-ray vision to come to a conclusion; the dark, wet stain on his back told her all she needed to know. A closer look told her the wound was caused by a knife or similar sharp object.  Fortunately for Cebra, she had treated such injuries in the past, however her patients had always been human. Some meta, yes, but none of them had their body stuffed with technology.

The options flashed through her mind. She had to stop the bleeding, at least for now. She ripped the sleeved of his jacket and tore them into a makeshift bandage. It would have to be replaced afterwards, once the wound was properly treated, but for now, it would suffice.

But what was she going to do with him? Treat him herself, or take him to a hospital? He'd get the best treatment over at the hospital, if they were lucky they might even have someone around who knew how to properly treat a cyborg. But it might also include questions her patient might be unwilling to answer. As much as it regretted her, her patient's wished would have to come first.

Carefully she lifted the unconscious body up. For all the technology he had inside of him, Sam didn't notice any difference in weight with an ordinary man.

"Jeannie, Cebra's injured," she told Jeannie on her magical wavelength. "I'm taking him home to treat him. Can you make it back to the apartment on your own?"