The Renegade

Chapter 17: Fresh Wounds

Belle clutched her hands. Only a couple of tips of her fingers (all but her indexes) had burn marks. However, they looked as though the burns were slowly retreating. Interesting.
    Belle could heal, but only at the cost of hurting herself? Belle seemed to be perfectly fine with this side effect.
    "Can you hear perfectly?" Belle asks, hesitantly.
    "N-no. Just a little bit. Enough to barely hear you guys." Nikki looked down at Belle's hands. "Please don't do that again."
    "Why the hell not?"
    "You're hurting yourself in the process," Nikki says simply. "I can't have that."
    "Well you know what? That's too effing bad. I just learned I can heal people? Why not test it out some more?"
    "Belle we don't know the extent of this... of your healing. Who knows what it could do?"
    "That's why we need to find out."
    Belle placed her hands on Nikki's ears again. She flinched. Belle's hands were extremely hot. Belle held her hands there for a second. Nothing.
    "Well, shit." Belle removed her hands.
    "Maybe it was a one-time thing." Robby nods. He turns and scans the two lifeless girls with his wrist. They evaporate too. Next thing they knew, Schiffs and Kylee were yelling in their ears. Funny thing was, for Nikki, they were yelling in the wrong ear.

    Belle didn't have a com, but she could still hear their words. She looked around again, realizing that they were out in the open. And vulnerable.
    "Guys," she says quickly. "We should get back to the car. We can figure," She lifts up her hand. "This... out there. We don't-"
    Then they heard it. Everyone froze. The sound of a buzzing engine of one of the cycles of the cyborgs. Immediately, Mike, Robby, and Nikki threw on their mission masks. Equipped with a voice modulator, the black masks that covered the team's faces also covered their identities. But only to non-Renegades. Belle could still see their faces, as they could see each other's. But their voices were still covered. Belle pulled up her hood and pulled on her mask which covered her mouth and nose. Why the hell didn't they have them on before?
   "One casualty?" She pouts. "That's no fun. Gives me one less person to bring back to base."
    No one dared turn around. Though they could all hear the click of heals against concrete becoming louder. "Oh, wait. No casualties." She chuckled, getting a better look at the group.
    Nikki was the first to get a look at the cyborg. This cyborg had two robotic legs, though they were simply the knee and everything below it. That made her more robot then human than most cyborgs, since most have only one robotic limb. Belle looks behind her and delivers a gasp that startled everyone.
    "No..."

    Belle was completely frozen. Why did it have to be her...?
    "The name's Auda, future recruits."
    No it wasn't. Though Belle was the only one to acknowledge this. Mike turned. Though he couldn't see her that well, he could see her light blonde locks pulled up into a messy bun.
    Belle needed to cover her eyes, but she still needed to see. And she didn't know how to do that. So she didn't do anything. At all.
    "We're not 'future recruits.'" Mike spits.
    Auda chuckles, "We'll see about that."
    She looked more armed than the average cyborg. It wasn't likely she was called out to simply find and retrieve. Dangling from a gauntlet on her left arm was a canon, and what looked like a collar or choker around her neck. And on her hip, attached to her belt, was a double-bladed sword. Auda places a hand on her hip and shifts her weight to her right foot. "Well? Aren't you guys going to put up a fight?"
    "Not unless one is engaged." Belle answers.
    "Are you coming along on free will?"
    "Hell no."
    Auda pulls out her sword. "Consider yourself engaged."
    Belle stands up, still refusing to leave Nikki's side. "I... I'm not going to fight you."
    Auda opens her mouth, and the collar around her neck lights up, sending out some kind of wave, sending Belle flying backwards and over Mike's head.
    "Belle!"
    Mike went to move, but froze when he felt something warm start to trickle down his neck. Auda pulls her sword forward slightly, and Mike readjusts. "Sorry, small fry. Don't you have an injury here? She hasn't moved since I got here." Nikki goes to move her mouth, but Auda places a finger on her lips and makes a shhh sound. Auda's bright blue eyes pierced Nikki's own. They seemed familiar somehow. They seemed... well she didn't know. She couldn't place her finger on it.
    Her arm canon activated, and she shot Nikki, Mike, and Robby with a small ball of... something. It didn't have an effect on them, at all. At least that's what they thought until they tried to move. "Don't worry," Auda assures them. "It wears off after 10 minutes or so. We still need your bodies working once we... convert you." She chuckles. "Besides, you're not the ones I want to fight." Her head turns to Belle, who was now on her feet.
    "Belle, you have to fight her!" Robby practically screams.
    "I-I can't. I can't fight... her." She looks up at Auda, echoing her words. "I can't."
    "Why the hell not?" Robby breathes, not able to move his head.
    Belle gave Auda another look. Just the name was an insult. After a dog. Clever.