Chapter 121 Opening.

Chapter 121: 121 Opening.

"Miles!"

I looked back just as the reinforced front doors to the chalet swung open with a heavy mechanical whirr.

Rhea flew out of the gap, sprinting across the snow and crashing into my back with a suffocating, full-body hug.

Oof!

She was incredibly strong despite being kinda short, her momentum nearly knocking me flat.

I staggered forward a step, my broken ribs protesting with a blinding spike of agony, but I swallowed the groan.

I reached back, wrapping a hand around her waist and patting her messy hair as she nuzzled frantically between my armored shoulder blades. She was trembling like a leaf.

"You okay?" I asked, keeping my voice steady, my eyes scanning the perimeter.

"Fine. Fine! Oh fuck. Miles, I almost... I didn’t think..." she stammered, her breath hitching in her throat. Her fingers dug into the seams of my suit like she was terrified I was a mirage that was going to evaporate.

I stroked her hair, leaning my weight back against her slightly to ground her, letting her feel that I was solid and very much alive. "I’m right here, Rhea. I’ve got you."

I let her catch her breath for a few seconds before I looked back over to the smoldering wreckage of the aircraft.

Something heavy was shifting inside the burning fuselage.

"It’s not over yet," I said, gently easing her back toward the safety of the heavy steel doors. "Just give me a second while I finish this."

Rhea shuffled back a step, her amber eyes wide and reflecting the orange flames of the crash. I turned my attention fully to the wreckage and began making my way across the torn-up lawn.

Acrid, toxic black smoke plumed from the shattered tilt-rotor, and secondary fires licked hungrily over the smashed hull and severed wings.

Ammunition cooked off in the heat, popping like deadly firecrackers. But the cockpit had clearly been heavily reinforced—a custom job. It had largely survived the catastrophic impact, along with its denizens.

As I drew near, the thick, armored glass dome was violently heaved off from the inside, flipping through the air and landing heavily in the snow.

I raised a hand, ready to rip the pilot out by his seatbelt, but the figures that climbed out of the burning chassis made me pause.

Three androids stepped out of the flames.

They didn’t look anything like the bulky, chrome warbots I’d just dismantled.

These things were sleek, almost skeletal in their design, plated in a smooth, pearlescent material that didn’t reflect the firelight like normal steel.

They moved with a terrifying, liquid grace, completely unbothered by the blazing aviation fuel they were walking through.

As they fanned out in a defensive triangle in front of the cockpit, the plating on their forearms shifted and slid back.

A high-pitched, whining hum filled the air, and blazing beams of super-heated, violet plasma erupted from their wrists.

The heat coming off them was so intense I could feel my skin blistering through the gaps in my armor from thirty feet away.

"Well, well. Look at the new toys," I muttered. They looked like the better improved version of the decoy we found in his old lab.

Behind the vanguard of androids, a fourth figure finally dragged himself out of the smoking crater and tumbled onto the grass.

Would ya look at that.

Forcing himself onto his hands and knees, his expensive black coat shredded, smoking, and singed at the edges, Dr. Delirium raised his head. His neon, cybernetic jaw was clamped tight in a rictus of pure hatred.

"Kill him!" Delirium spat, pointing a trembling, augmented finger directly at my chest. "Burn him to ash!"

The three pearlescent androids didn’t hesitate. They lunged forward with explosive speed, crossing the lawn faster than anything mechanical had a right to move, their plasma welders sweeping in deadly, scything arcs aimed right for my neck.

I stood my ground, raising my right hand and pushing a massive surge of magnetic force directly at their chests.

I expected to feel the familiar, comforting resonance of metal locking into my mental grip. I expected to crumple them into tiny, expensive spheres of scrap.

I felt absolutely nothing. The same whatever he used to build the last one.

"What the hell are you made of—"

I barely had time to process the failure before the lead android was on me. It brought its glowing plasma blade down in a vicious overhead strike.

My survival instincts kicked in, and I threw myself into a desperate, rolling dive to the left.

The plasma beam cleaved through the empty air where my head had been and struck the earth.

The sheer thermal output instantly flash-melted the frozen topsoil, turning the dirt and snow into a glowing, bubbling puddle of liquid glass.

I scrambled to my feet, clutching my aching ribs as the other two androids flanked me, their violet blades humming ominously.

"The fuck are these things made of?" I shouted over the roar of the flames, backing up as the trio closed the net. "Carbon fiber? Ceramic?"

Delirium let out a wet, rattling laugh, clutching his ribs as he stood up behind his guards. "You rely too much on your parlor tricks, Polaris! You think like a street thug. You think too small!"

The lead android thrust its arm forward, firing a concentrated bolt of plasma like a tracer round.

I yanked my hand up, magnetically tearing a massive sheet of steel paneling from the downed aircraft to use as a shield.

The plasma bolt hit the steel and melted right through it in a fraction of a second, spraying molten slag across my shoulder. I grunted in pain, discarding the useless shield before it burned my arm off.

"Not all alloys are metal, you ignorant ape!" Delirium taunted, his mechanical eye glowing a hot, radioactive green in the smoke. "At least, not on this planet! You can’t control them. You can’t stop them. They are going to carve you into pieces!"

Extraterrestrial alloys. Fantastic. As if I didn’t have enough problems dealing with mutant frogs and cybernetic stalkers, now I was fighting space-age metallurgy.

The androids pressed the advantage, moving in perfect, synchronized harmony.

One swept low, aiming for my legs, while another thrust at my chest. I couldn’t block the plasma, and I couldn’t control their bodies.

I had to dodge, weaving and ducking like a boxer. But I was exhausted, and my broken ribs were slowing me down. The heat was becoming unbearable, the air in my lungs scorching with every breath.

I magnetically grabbed a pair of depleted uranium bullets from the grass and whipped them at the androids’ heads at Mach 2.

The rounds struck the pearlescent armor with a deafening CRACK—and bounced off harmlessly, leaving nothing but shallow scuff marks.

"Fuck me," I wheezed, barely sidestepping another plasma strike that singed the edge of my cape.

"Sir! Get down!"

Glacia’s voice echoed sharply across the lawn.

I didn’t look back; I just dropped flat onto my stomach in the snow.

A howling, hurricane-force gale of absolute zero blasted over my head.

Glacia, pushing herself past her limits, unleashed a concentrated blizzard directly at the three androids. The sudden, extreme thermal shock of sub-zero temperatures slamming into the super-heated plasma generators produced a massive, violent steam explosion.

The androids staggered, their optical sensors temporarily blinded by the thick, boiling white fog. Frost instantly crystallized over their joints.

They weren’t destroyed, but the sudden drop in temperature caused their fluid movements to jerk and stall as their internal servos struggled to adapt.

It was the opening I needed.