Tomorrowland: Frank and Athena

Chapter 26 - Illusions of Control

Athena moved at superhuman speed around Eduardo, shielding his vital organs with her body. The gunman began firing.

"No!" she screamed in a little girl voice. "Don't hurt me!"

Bullets struck her chest, but machine guns were mostly about rapid fire rather than individual bullet power and they didn't penetrate her skin. Unfortunately, the buffeting action created a shockwave within her body as they struck her right shoulder. An internal alarm chirped from within her chest indicating damage had occurred.

The gunman stopped firing at her scream and realization of who he was firing at, looking horrified. Athena saw her chance. Her internal systems reported that her right arm was currently out of service, but she didn't have time to assess it. She ran straight at the man, getting to him in less than 0.4 seconds, then tore the gun out of his hand with her left hand. She bent the barrel and dropped the gun. The man started to yell and Athena stuffed in one of her gags. Unfortunately, to properly tie him required two hands, so she had no choice but to use a more violent method to subdue him. She carefully knocked him in the head and the man fell to the floor.

The man being out, Athena was able to tie him up easier with one hand. She tried a nearby office door, which was locked, but she turned the doorknob and broke the lock. Hoping it would buy them time, she quickly dragged the man into a far office and secured him to a desk with another strap.

All this happened over about six seconds. She ran back out of the office just in time to see Eduardo walk up as she closed the door.

"Sweet Jesus!" he exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

Athena silenced the chirping alarm. "I have a damaged coordination controller," she said. "My right arm is out of service."

"You took machine gun fire," Eduardo said wide-eyed. "I can't believe what I just saw. You took it deliberately. You ran in front of me."

"It was necessary. You'd have been killed if I hadn't," Athena explained. "You should know that I'm quite durable, much more than you might expect."

Eduardo shook his head. "But... there must be limits. You're not indestructible."

Athena looked down at her right arm and gave him an exasperated look. "Obviously. We can talk about this later. We must keep moving."

He nodded, with a small smile. "Right. Lead on, bullet-proof girl."

"Bullet resistant," Athena corrected as she moved down the corridor once again.

They went through the same routine, but this time made it to the stairwell without incident and ran down the stairs. Athena kept her footsteps light and noiseless, though as usual she was annoyed that humans were noisier than they needed to be.

Reaching the bottom, Athena put her ear to the door. It was quiet. She unbent the handle and opened the door, checking that both directions were clear. As she expected, the two men had been found in the meantime. She gestured to Eduardo to follow and they jogged quickly down the employee walkway toward the museum. Reaching the entrance back to the exhibit hall, she opened the door a crack where she saw many people moving about, but nobody suspicious.

"I don't see anyone and the radio is clear," Athena said. "I suspect they think we've already exited the building. We'll walk casually toward the front entrance and walk out. To the right of the exit is a large planter we can hide behind. We'll stop and check if things are clear. If so, we'll turn right and begin walking north, hopefully under cover of crowds. There is a gift shop next door to the museum, which we'll enter to get out of the open. We'll evaluate from there. Are you ready?"