Bumming a Ride

Keeping quiet as they strolled through the darkened laboratory, Imena felt the need for the exchange of formalities came to a threshold.  "Imena.  I don't think I've heard the name Lafiana before..."  She started on the course to discover the origins when a resurgence of light came back through the laboratory.  The filtration systems began to come back into operation with the high resistance metal rods mixed the vats.  All the excess fumes began to whip up in the suction of the exhaust fans pulling the nauseating gases away from the intense concentration hanging around the floor.

"I'm feeling a little better with this..."  Feeling the pull of energy all around her, Imena felt her hopes dashed as a robot jammed its arm into her back, throwing her to the ground.  As the treads came closer to trampling her, Imena jabbed her club into the machine and created a circuit to overload the menacing machine.  More of the deviant machines swarmed towards the computer console.  Rolling backwards and conjoining her clubs into a singular staff, Imena prepared to defend the position against the headless machines.

"I'll buy you sometime."  Dropping her staff down onto the body of the machine, Imena continued to exercise what worked.  Faltering circuits did the rest of the work for her.  She spun around and jabbed her staff in an alcove cavity that gave more fight than her strength would allow offense against.  A pressure in her elbows placated the pain of defeat in her assailing assault.  Forced with the option of keeping her staff and keeping her head, she ducked and rolled around her staff, coming out behind the machine with no weapon.

Balling her fist up, Imena turned back to face the onslaught of machines with a groip of electricity and the best gadgets the 1880's could muster.  

Concerned with what Lafiana could find, forces focused to keep her from ever finding out.  Three pellets of concentrated acid flew out from a rudimentary looking, plastic device.  Behind the grip of the gun stood a man pushing his mid fifties and wearing age like a wrinkled bag.  Years of chemical exposure did him no benefits outside of his control, but in his control, he planned on leveling the odds against the duo who attempted to take anything from him.

A drop of sweat ran down lafiana's face as she focused on the opaque screens around her. she could hear the faint sound of fighting behind her but she had to focus. It was taking everything she had to break the surprisingly high tech firewalls in the computer. "hold them off of me for a minute! Almost done!" She roared out towards the girl named imena. After a few more seconds she stopped to look around and growled. "Got it!"

All the screens but one vanished and she got up, picking up an old phone and throwing into a crowd causing a rather large explosion. "Go take care of the old man!" She threw one of the machines into the path of the acid and it was eaten away. Best not to let that stuff touch anyone. She shoved imena in the direction of the man and kicked a machine, it's programming shifted and it began attacking it's allies. She danced in a circle reprogramming the closest to her to attack the enemies.

Leaving the machines to attack for her, she expanded the screen above her and an opaque keyboard appeared in front of her again. Her white eyes began to glow as she navigated the information she had gained, downloading it all into her mind. She had to inform imena and figure out a way to destroy this place.

The brief relief of the download coming to completion left as Lafiana twirled Imena over to deal with the scientist wielding a sinister device with a dire resolve.  A flick of a gear sent the locking mechanism into action to dispense the acidic shot towards Imena.  The sheer simplicity of the device astounded her and the hissing of acid eating through the lining of the metal floor put her back at odds with the disturbance.  

Flicking her wrist to grab for his side, Imena shot a jolt of electricity into his side with just enough juice to make it count.  Recoiling from the overload, Imena suddenly felt the electricty flow back into her.  She left could hardly put up her best defense, and capitalization always favored the guy swinging the bat.  Now looking up from the floor, Imena stared down the peculiar weapon as a chemical pellet loaded into place.  

As one robot surged too close to the isolated duel between the scientist and Imena, she reached out and grabbed the machination's treads.  Forcing the electricity into her body, Imena put up a shield to take the blunt impact of the chemical shell.  Acidity bursts forth, burning through the stained lab coat of the deranged scientist.  

Spinning off of her hips to throw her leg to the side, Imena swept his leg and took a catlike position on all fours to better prepare her next attack.  Beneath his outer clothing laid an intricate lining of chemicals oozing forth from his torso.  The damage supplied by Imena only acted to release a more formidable adversary from the moments ago more timid looking man.  

The plastic gun flung across the room caused Imena to move from her attack position and into the cross path of the raging chemical man.  He grabbed her by the back of the neck and threw her at Lafiana to incapacitate the duo while he began to absorb the fumes of the chemicals in the air.  Solid walls formed from the air to keep Lafiana and Imena from escaping his rampage until he could have ample time to deal with them.

For a brief moment everything slowed down as imena toppled into lafiana, causing her to curse and fall to the ground. By simple luck had they not been torn apart by machines. Lafiana's robots were holding up well against their fellow machines. "I have an idea." Was all she said before running over to a vat and kicking it as hard as she could, causing the control panel to break and fall to the ground.

Using her ability, she took a deep breath and began to shift the parts around using her power, twisting them into new shapes and piecing them together. She grabbed a glass beaker off a nearby table, filled it with a few chemicals and mixed them together. It turned an ugly dark grey colour and bubbled strangely. Just as she placed the beaker upside down in her makeshift firearm, she got kicked in the back causing the beaker to break all over the floor. She turned over and the old man stood over her, looking more angry then ever before.

Trying to cut her losses after a series of failed endeavors, it would almost look as though a sliver lining wrapped around the carnage of mechanical servants.  While neither of the duo looked in good spirits from their new fighting locale, Lafiana jumped to secure some manner of device to repel the enraged man's onslaught.  Caught in the debris field of crashing robots and disruptive chemical firings, Imena shot forward to try and overload one of the robots close enough to the scientist to slow him down.

Electricity flew across the laboratory, catching whatever she could to impact the most explosive force against him.  Ruptures and safety violations flew with complete disregard for any bearings for the safety of the labs volatile chemical banks.  A destructive wave of force destroyed the force of robots and several control consoles for the cranes in the vicinity, leaving a Imena feeling the glory of victory crash over her.  Finally thinking she mustered a reprieve from the scientist, he arose.  

Flinging a drum of chemicals towards her, the toxic trail swerving from behind began to rise up and materialize.  A spear shot forth and barely missed Imena before the trail swung around her arms and pinned her to the wall.  Her leg swung out to attempt to pull herself down when her stray leg rose up and crashed into Lafiana's back.  

Feeling the disturbance of chemicals within his lab, the scientist moved to deal with the younger hero personally.  "Those belong to me...."  His low voice echoed through what sounded like a wind tunnel of a throat.  He made use of the chemical spill Lafiana produced to try and pin her legs to the ground, ending their game of cat and mouse.  "And now, so do you."

Lafiana scrambled slightly, struggling under the mans grip. He pinned her legs down first and lafiana reached back trying to find something to grip on. The lab was about to get trashed if anything more happened. and that was exactly what was about to happen. Without the man knowing it, she accessed his robotic minions command network and sent out a mass virus. the first robot wheeled itself over and grabbed his leader, ripping the man off with it's superior strength. they surrounded the man in a tight group, every one of them in the area encircled him.

Meanwhile lafiana scrambled to get up and was trying to help get the drum off her new acquaintance. She could hear the man attempting to fight his way out of the robots, shouting commands that they didn't obey. "Cmon we have to get those things off. those machines are set to explode." Lafiana was pulling as hard as she could but couldn't manage to move it. It was too heavy for her small body. "Fuck this. you get yourself out. I need to figure a way out of this before the bots explode into a million pieces." and she climbed up vats of chemicals to the ceiling to spot a way out. Which by luck there was a small cave in the ceiling that goes unnoticed. Lafiana slowly made her way over while keeping an eye on the ground for imena.

The grip of the hardened chemicals wrapping Imena kept her from leaving as swiftly as the other girl who freed herself from her bindings. While Lafiana scurried up a mountain of vats to make her escape, Imena continued to attempt an escape artist act. "I could use some help!" Each of the robots Imena destroyed now came back to life under the command of the young woman; creating a perfect powder keg of chemical destruction and explosive onslaught.

Wanting to keep the duo from escaping, the chemical manipulator focused his energy to try to ensnare Lafiana as she scaled the chemicals vats. While his attention stayed divided between the horde of robots and unsuccessfully capturing Lafiana, Imena moved over to find a metal bracing snapped from the battle. She pried it between her and the manipulating bindings to give her leverage. A few pushes forward felt like her chest sat upon the verge of collapsing, but it also opened a gap for her to squeeze through.

Moving through the dangerous environment, Imena came to the vats Lafiana previously used to make her way to the entrance above the ceiling. One hand pulled the force of her body one pull at a time. One tendril of chemical creation shot out of the vat to grab Imena. Her club pressed the invasive barb away from her leg for long enough to push herself out of the reach of the next tendril aiming for her. Each aggressive advance towards her gave her just enough adrenaline to move out of its reach.

After scaling a hard fought climb, Imena jumped from the top of the barricade to try and catch a hold of the ledge opening to her safety.

The young lafiana chuckled as she watched from above. It was amusing when not in harms way. She could see her accomplice working hard to reach her, but when she jumped... Lafiana knew she would not reach the edge. So the girl reached out and snatched her wrist in the air. The jolt almost made her lose her balance. However she held on and pulled up just enough so the girl could get a good grip. "Now climb up ya slow bastard and lets get out of here. This cave leads pretty far back and we only have a couple minutes to get out." Lafiana looked past the girl and saw the man being dragged off the vats by the ticking time bomb robots. time to go.

Lafiana took off at a brisk job, not going too fast so as the other girl could catch up. And to scope out the area. It went far back and is angled at 20 degrees for a steady climb. The girl desprately looked for some record of a cave system in the outskirts of the small town but came up negative. It appears that it was man made. So somebody knew that someone would need an escape route in the future. Would explain why it was so easy to climb up. Lafiana slowed to a stop and looked back, satisfied at the distance and knew she would at least be safe.

Finally some reassurance came as Lafiana gripped Imena's wrist and helped her into the cave.  Picking up speed from the danger burning behind them, Imena began to follow in close step with Lafiana.  The cave sprawled out for hundreds of meters.  A good distance to keep anything from the depths of the laboratory from inflicting any serious harm to them.  

The sound of the blast erupted down the tunnel.  Anything within the vicinity could now count themselves among the dead as far as Imena could care, but the mixture of chemicals and heat would create a poisonous gas that would seep out into the town if they could not contain it.  "We need to find a way out and seal all the entrances."  Light broke through in the distance of the cave.  "I can weld the entrances shut.  I remember the stairs I used to enter and this break in the tunnel ahead..."  Finally she took a moment to catch her breath from the extended performance she just put herself through.  "Did you see any other entrances when you made your way in?"

The plan would need to come together as they moved.  Every minute those gases grew more concentrated and the viscosity of the air trapped within the underground facility became more tainted by it.  The smell of the rancid cloud began to act as the harbinger of the coming poison, filling the air with a sick tint of green as it moved down the tunnel towards the duo.  

With thirty meters between her and the cloud, Imena took off towards the end of the tunnel.  "I think we've outstayed our welcome..."  

With a sigh lafiana couldn't help but to speak up. "Just worry about ourselves. There is no towns within 30 miles of this place and the cloud will barely get out of this facility with the single entrance that we can block if we have time." She spoke as she ran, taking turns and realizing that they are almost at the stairs. So as the two ran out of the hallway, lafiana slammed the metal door shut and bolted up the stairs. "We can figure out a way to blow it from here. Just one entrance in and out. have any modern tech on you? I can overload it and make an explosion out of it." She hopped over the edge at the top of the stairs and stopped, waiting for her colleague to join her.

Imena thinking of herself would do neither of them a bit of good.  If what Lafiana said turned out true, then sealing off the facility would go smoother than she anticipated.  "There's no big towns, but there is still a small community around here-- and the two of us are also located within the blast radius of any explosion if we don't properly seal the underground before we blow this facility."  

The two bickered until they found themselves back where it all began.  Imena complied with the request for something to blow the place with.  Throwing her backpack around, Imena opened what felt like a time machine to an antiquity of artifacts.  "I don't think any of these items are 'modern' to your definition, but I do have dynamite."  Pulling several sticks from her bag, Imena looked to Lafiana for confirmation.  "You still use dynamite correct?"

After handing over the explosives, Imena pulled out an arc torch and fixated a supply of water onto the torch.  The true mark of a gadgeteer does not come from the number of devices they invent, but from the number of uses each device can serve.  Sliding a piece of metal with an eye outlet over the visor of the mask, Imena went to work moving a current of electricity through the cathode to conjure up the pure flow of plasma into the end of torch.  

Now in business on both sides of the office, Imena could only hope Lafiana put something together to blow this joint.

Lafiana looked at the dynamite and grinned. She accessed her database of knowledge concerning explosives. Then she looked at the four sticks that imena produced from her bag. "Actually.. That will be just enough to cave the place in and block it off..." She ran back down the steps, dynamite in hand. At the first spot she shoved the dynamite stick between the stones set in the wall and made sure it was deep enough in place. The second one she placed at the 10 o'clock position from the first at a slightly higher altitude. And the third she placed at the 2 o'clock position from the first and at a lower altitude. "Now to get the last one in the ceiling..." She jumped back up to the top and climbed the rafters to the cement ceiling. "See this one will be tricky.. We have to place it 8 inched deep into the cement in order to produce a sufficient amount of rubble." She picked at the cement for a few minutes, following cracks and tugging in certain areas until some began to break off in large chunks. Right above the three inches of cement was dirt, making it simple to dig out and hold the dynamite in place.

She jumped back down and searched the area, finding old electrical cables. She stripped the rubber off and connected all the explosives together. Then ran a single length of the wire into an electrical panel. "Go light the fuse on the generator. Then we have less then 20 seconds to high tail it the hell out of here." She looked at imena and nodded. It was all ready. Lafiana began to back up slowly towards the exit. Strangely she began to think of imena as an ally and had mixed feelings about leaving her there to die when imena had helped her.

All the planning in the world would be unable to buy them a safe end to this debacle, but at least minor planning and a hodgepodge of Victorian era technology would prove enough to take down the modern marvels of a mad mechanist.  Whatever juryrigged explosives Lafiana came up with would suit the needs of Imena-- until she heard who needed to set off the device.  "Well, that seems like a rather bold means for me to..."  A garter caught her eye, long enough to get her closer to the generators without leaving the antechamber of the stairwell.  "...Implement a plan leaving me far from the explosion."  Forcing a hole in the middle of the section she welded shut with a blazing push of her arctorch, she forced the garter through until it reached halfway to the generator.  

She kept an eye against a small hole she carved out just above the mid curve of the seal.  A course of lighting surged through the pole and released along the outlying wall of the hallway.  Metal support beams ran along the back of the wall, giving the perfect conductor.  Sparks flew and and explosions erupted.  And erupt they did.  

With a great force, Imena found herself blown against the spiraling stair grate.  Escaping from the grasp of the welding, the garter flew back to the metal grate, impacting inches from her head.  For the sake of the seal, it stayed as strong as ever, but Imena still needed to seal up the hole within the door.  Leveraging herself below the bracing, Imena pressed the metal she cut out of the door back into place to begin reinforcing the opening.  Still feeling some unbalance in her head, she sent a jolt into the air without the grasp of the torch secure.  She shook her head to wake up.  Time.  Time.  Time.  Just focus and get this going.  

With a deep breath, Imena locked her grip and focused her power into the torch.  Plasma lit up brighter than the Fourth and touched its pure caress to the sides of the opening.  Her breathing turned more bitter.  More toxic.  A break in her mask hissed as she breathed out.  Work faster.  She needed to work faster.  And faster.  And faster.  The circle wound around the opposing side of the beginning when her mouth went numb.  Towards the bottom when her vision started to blur.  And finally closed when she coughed blood onto the inside of her mask.  

Only one more thing mattered.  Imena grabbed the ball and began to step back to the stairs.  Forgetting the placement of the bar cost her vital seconds and forced her to take to the ground.  Extending her leg under the garter, Imena pulled herself under the clearing and made her way to the stairwell.  Embracing the railing gave her some assistance, but she now began to feel the chemicals burning against the core of her lungs.  Keep moving one foot and you'll get there ole girl.

Sunlight broke as Imena crawled out of the tunnel.  Ripping the mask off of her face let the built up chemicals disperse harmlessly into the air.  She held her breath for a few more seconds before turning onto her back and releasing the carbon into the air.  One more door needed tending to.  "I've got a light."

Lafiana watched as imena vanished through her own path to do her part of the job. As she did she looked back and cursed. Her instincts took over and she turned and ran. Leaving imena inside to light the generator and ignite the explosives. The girl began to breath heavier as she bolted up the stairwell and into the sunlight. She was forced to squint and make her way to some shade due to the sun being too bright for her eyes to handle.

Her back slid down the side of the metal container as she sat down. Screens popping up all around her. She was checking her vital organs for any damage. Luckily, nothing was too bad. Accelerated heart rate, slight damage to lungs due to chemicals. Everything else checks out fine. Then everything switched. She was checking the information she stole from the supercomputer deep below her. What she found was most surprising. and yet it was also expected. Everything closed down around her and she shut her eyes. Only opening them slightly when she heard the explosives ignite and the deep rumble beneath her. Her eyes snapped to the entrance and she wondered if her acquaintance would reveal herself, or if her body would be buried forever and never be found.

Once more into the fire as once more she fell through the burner and lodged herself somewhere between the counter and the base lining of the stove.  Breathing a little more smoothly with the flush intake of stale, but clean, air, Imena pressed her weight into her hand as it rested upon the hatch.  Like an overfed giant letting loose a gaseous belch from his gargantuan gut, Imena felt the force of impact push against her hand and scurry up to her collarbone.  

"That was a little much..."  Not breathing a word of tranquility into the calamity just let the putrid gas hang in the air between the newly minted stoppers of mass death.  "I guess you didn't quite get what you came for did you?"  Thinking back a little to the chain of events that dragged Imena to this forsaken train yard in the first place, perhaps she didn't either.

She picked herself up off the ground.  It was really all she could do right now.  A feint smell of over oxidized methane still sat in the air, but what could she do now other than walk away from the toxic landfill.  "I'm heading back into town to meet up with someone.  Are you still going to try to see what you can get around here, or did you want to make your way back with me?"

With a groan the girl got up slowly, walking towards the girl before she started speaking. Lafiana thought for a moment and shook her head. "I didn't really come here for anything. I am traveling cross country. Selling my inventions and such." She walked over to a nearby train car and reached inside a small hatch, pulling out a metal bag with her name engraved on it. "now that I think about it, I guess I should have brought this in with me. Maybe it would have ended better for us." She stood next to the girl she originally thought of as an enemy, sniffing the air and smelling the lingering toxins.

she began walking towards the nearest town, signalling the girl to join her "Yea lets go to town. I have to catch a ride to the nearest airport anyways." She tilted her head slightly towards the other girl and thought back to the tech she was using. "So I'm guessing you came from the past considering you have gear that hasn't been seen for well over a hundred years?" she walked slowly, waiting for the girl to catch up before giving her the bad news on what she discovered.