"Okay...not dead. That's good," Uzi said as she sat up. "Maybe," she added after she took stock of where she was.
It was a corridor, but definitely NOT the one she'd been bulldozed in. Too cramped, too clean, but just as red. The missing panel and exposed piping to her left looked eerily familiar. And then there was the ominous darkness at the end of the hall that completely ate all incoming light.
"I know what this is."
"*Giggle* Clever girl," a dreadfully familiar voice cooed as two small, golden Xs blinked into existence within the shadows.
"I know what you are, too," Uzi growled as she shot to her feet, trying to put on a brave face even as she inched backwards.
"*Creepy Whisper*"
A pause, that for some reason made Uzi pause as well.
And then, into her right audial from directly behind her:
"Do you?"
Uzi whipped around with a fist cocked and ready, but found nothing to use it on. She turned back to see one of the emergency lights had turned off, allowing the dark and the thing inside it to get closer.
"Y-Yeah, you're the Solver," Uzi stuttered only for a moment. "And this is the part where you hide your horns and offer me a bargain. I'm in a bad spot, panicked and desperate for a way out, so surely I'll agree to anything, right? Wrong. You won't let your hosts die, even when they want to. All this," she gestured to the surroundings, "means my CPU is still functional; all I have to do is wait. Do not pass Go, do not collect Admin Privileges."
"Big talk. *Smug Smile*," the Solver started, a wide grin shining through the encroaching shadows, but not moving with its words, "Almost as big as those backward steps you're taking."
"Bite me," Uzi sneered before a massive door came down from the ceiling between them. She wasted no time getting in the hell outta dodge.
But the entity didn't give chase. It paused, eyes quite literally twinkling with amusement as the darkness began to roil and writhe like bubbling tar.
And from that darkness, at about half the height and glowing a lighter shade of yellow, came the oval eyelights of a drone.
"So, that's your pony, huh?" the mouth moved this time as the X's tilted down to regard the newcomer, the voice coming out with a distinct Australian accent instead of the tinny, warbling digital reproduction.
The ovals tilted upward and bobbed up and down; a nod of confirmation.
"Then let's see what she's got."
*****
Beau had seen his mother fight before. Through the lenses and microphones of quality cameras, he had seen her turn Sentinels inside-out, tear the heads off HAUs, and hit Solvoids so hard they literally exploded. He had seen her face things that crawled up from the lower levels and dominate them so utterly, it made him wonder why she had ever needed the other two "heads" of Cerberus. He had seen her annihilate.
But as he laid there, huddled in a corner to make himself as small and out-of-the-way as possible, Beau realized two things.
One: The cameras didn't do her justice. The blinding speed, incredible power and overwhelming savagery of her movements. The cracks and booms as she almost constantly broke the sound barrier. It was one thing to witness it all through a screen, but to feel the floor tremble beneath him? To feel the shockwaves of compressed air smack into him? To feel the spike of terror every time she moved too fast for him to follow? Screw a different level; it was a whole different universe.
