Surprise!

[Matrix]

"I don't know how long that will hold - we've got to finish these ones off and get out of here!"

There were still about a dozen in the room, chasing after Ana-Leigh and Andrew - and they were between them and the doorway forward.

Rich could no longer fire on the remaining ones without risking a hit to the pair. So he turned back and ran forward, directly for the Army Eyes, bursting into flame as he ran.

The combination of heat and movement was irresistible and the eyes converged on him at once as he met them...turning into inert Nitrogen as they all exploded. He floated invisibly back to the team, re-taking his metal form as he shook his head.

That should do it. Let's keep it moving. And I am afraid my cameras are shot.

 

[Seer]

Nervous

Rich proved just how valuable he was to this team, ushering everyone forward. They could only imagine what they would find in the next room...

...but there was nothing there. It was a room as large as the two preceding it, but completely bare. And there was no door forward.

The five would have a few minutes to discuss what to do next...they couldn't go forward, but they sure as hell couldn't go back. Delilah through their coms insisted that there were further levels down and that there MUST be a way through.

Just as the team had decided to retrace their steps, no matter the danger, another heavy metal slab slammed down blocking their retreat and sealing them in the room.

They began to hear the sounds of metal upon metal, like machinery clicking into the place, before they were jarred as the floor jolted beneath them.

And then the walls began closing in...

If the team couldn't find a way to stop them, they would surely be crushed to death.

And so, we watch...

 

[MorningStar]

The Jet

From her seat on the jet, Delilah could hear the others discussing how they had come to a dead end. Delilah had been following the team's progress on the schematic of the fortress on the screen in front of her. But this didn't make sense.

[over the com]

"There must be a way through - the plans clearly show a stairwell on the other side of that wall...and several floors below you. It HAS to be there."

Despite Delilah's protests, Sharon decides to lead the team BACK the way they'd come and look for another way down.

And then there was a great commotion.

Delilah couldn't tell from the camera feeds exactly WHAT was happening, only that her team was in trouble. But then she heard them, crying out that the walls were closing in on them. Flashes of the events of the prior year came to her in a wave. All she could think of was that her team was dead and it was HER fault: she had let them go in there alone and now they were going to end up the same way that Morgan had. While she sat there, useless to them miles away.

She was in extreme distress, the build up over the long weeks - her anxiety as she'd watch these young people train and fight - had taken its toll. She began to "leak" light, blue tendrils emanating from her body, until she was surrounded by them as if she was in the middle of a tunnel.

She wheeled herself forward, and found herself inside an empty lab. She was inside NERVOUS.

 

[Matrix]

"There must be a way through - the plans clearly show a stairwell on the other side of that wall...and several floors below you. It HAS to be there."

Rich turned back into Nitrogen and proceeded to explore for cracks or crevices in the walls, floor and ceiling. Nothing.

Not only is there not a door, but the way ahead is sealed. No cracks or crevices.

Swan wanted to backtrack to look for an alternate way, which was as good an idea as any. Except that way was blocked by a slab and the room started to contract.

Shit!!

He couldn't blow a way out, the room was sealed and Titan and Artemis at least would be killed by an enclosed explosion like that. So, Rich stepped to the middle of the group and turned into a super-sized foundation jack.

As he strained against the ceiling and floor, everyone could tell he was currently losing though he had slowed it somewhat. As he strained, He called out to Artemis.

Artemis!! Charge me up. I-I..am not holding up.

 

[Seer]

A CRUSHING blow

Silver Swan pushes with all her super-strength on the ceiling, struggling to halt its progress, but is unable to stop its descent. Titan and Artemis push on one wall, while Mina takes the opposite.

Matrix's quick-thinking buys them some time, but soon he too is tapped out, returning to his human form. Artemis rushes to his side and begins to "recharge" his batteries, while the others are forced to move closer and closer together until their bodies are being pressed together between the walls. And just when it seems like this is the end...

...the floor drops out from under them and the five of them fall to the sub-level below.

They have finally reached the nerve center of Nervous. It's a HUGE place with large machinery, crates & bio containers among other things.

 

[Silver Swan]

NERVOUS - Lower level

Silver Swan quickly saw what was happening – the walls were closing in! She started to panic – she did NOT like being in enclosed spaces under the best circumstances and these walls were quite literally closing in on her.

I MUST get a hold of myself! For…for the TEAM!

“Quickly! We must find a way out – or a way to stop it!”

She zoomed to the ceiling, pushing against it with all her might. But it wouldn’t budge. There were no panels, no mechanism she could find. Closer and closer the walls came, finally pushing them together. She pressed her arms on the walls to either side of her, trying to hold them apart. They were pushed tighter and tighter together, until she could hardly breathe. She could hear the crunch of bones as they started to break…

And then the floor dropped out from under them and they were falling. She caught herself and was able to get a hand onto Artemis to slow her fall.

She looked around them, and took a sharp intake of breath. They were in a lab – one quite like the one she herself had woken in. When MYSTECH had perverted her body to their own designs.

“It’s just like where I was…”

She didn’t finish. Instead, she looked around at everyone, sizing them up.

“Is anyone injured?”

Suddenly, she remembered the com link.

“MorningStar – can you hear me?”

 

[MorningStar]

NERVOUS - Lower level

Well, she was clearly on the lab level. How she had gotten there, she had absolutely no idea. Had she done it? Somehow transported herself to the facility just by wanting it? Surely that wasn’t possible…yet here she was.

“MorningStar – do you read me?”

It was Sharon, speaking in her ear. At least she was alive!

“Yes, Silver Swan - I’m, I’m here. Is everybody alright?”

Sharon: We would appear to be unharmed. We fell through the floor to a lower level.

Sharon described her surroundings.

Sharon: It’s a lab…there are biocontainers everywhere…like MysTech put me in. There’s a giant computer in the center….

“That’s it – the nerve center of the compound. You need to destroy that computer , then set the charges to blow this place. I don’t know how exactly…but I’m here inside Nervous. We’re on the same level – I’ll make my way to you. Be careful!”

She pressed a button on the communicator on her wrist.

“Bishop I need a position on the rest of the team…”

No answer.

“I don’t have time for your sulking, Connor – I’m inside NERVOUS and I need to get to the others. Give me their location.”

Still no answer.

“Where the hell are you?”

What could be more important? Maybe she had been wrong to put so much faith in him.

All she could do was try to remember what she could of the NERVOUS schematics, and find her way as best she could to the others.

 

[Matrix]

He was not going to hold and he knew it. He could feel his cells straining to bursting. finally, he fell...turning back to his 'normal' form. He reached out to Ana as he fell.

I need a recharge Artemis!

She quickly kneeled beside him and he felt the lightning...his cells being charged up as he regained his energy and then some. And just in time as the walls kept coming in. He struggled alongside SS against the walls, but he could feel that is was not working, that this might be it. And then...

they were falling and falling. He turned to Nitrogen and settled at the bottom of a large lab with them. He turned back to show Sharon he was OK as she reconnected with De. She was inside as well, but not where they were. She indicated that the console on the wall should be destroyed and this is where the charges should be placed. He began to walk to the computer to trash it...

...but before doing so, he turned his index finger in his left hand into a flash drive, found a USB port, and began to search the computer's contents for things to hold on to for later.

It was a smorgasbord, with a complete and updateable list of mutants, their whereabouts, whether to kidnap or kill, and the experiments that each should undergo if they were to be captured. He spoke to the group as he searched with the other hand.

OH. MY. GOD!! This is the motherlode. I gotta get this back for Bishop to look over. This shit is WAAAY bigger than this building or anything we have SEEN. And I now have it, a shitty playlist from iTunes and an old Pac Man game.So...Buh-bye!!

The flash drive/finger was pulled from the computer and his other hand, now a piledriver, smashed it to bits. He turned to see what else he could get into. He saw some bio-containers in the room. He lifted his left hand and it began to glow as walked up to the one closest to him, 5 feet to the left of the debris formerly known as the computer.

 

[Silver Swan]

“Yes, Silver Swan - I’m, I’m here. Is everybody alright?”

She looked around. Everyone was upright, and no one was bleeding.

"We would appear to be unharmed. We fell through the floor to a lower level. It’s a lab…there are biocontainers everywhere…like MysTech put me in. There’s a giant computer in the center…."

“That’s it – the nerve center of the compound. You need to destroy that computer, then set the charges to blow this place. I don’t know how exactly…but I’m here inside Nervous. We’re on the same level – I’ll make my way to you. Be careful!”

"We didn't come here to be careful. Get to us quickly - we won't be here long."

So much for their "eye in the sky". WHY Delilah would be so foolhardy as to come here, ESPECIALLY in her condition, Silver Swan had no idea. But she couldn't worry about that now. Either Delilah would find them, or she'd find her own way out.

The child's voice returned over the loudspeaker:

Resistance is futile. Surrender, now. Activating lethal offensive. Target: Silver Swan, Matrix, Artemis, Titan, Mina Harker.

She turned back to the others.

"Matrix, Artemis: Take care of that computer. Mina, Titan: help me set these charges."

They had to push on and do what they came here to do, irregardless of what some glorified moviefone said.

She began setting charges, but then...there was something. She stopped and raised her head. She could HEAR something unusual. Somehow she just knew that something was coming for them.

"I'll set the charges in the next room."

Silver Swan hurried to put herself between her team and whatever it was that was on its way.

 

[Matrix]

Children.

CHILDREN.

CHILDREN!!!

The loudspeaker said something about killing them and a horrible Borg reference from Str Trek. But Rich did not pay any attention. Each of the containers contained children that had been captured, experimented on, and now were seemingly left to die as the place seemed abandoned. Rich choked back tears as he saw the kids in each one. He turned away, back to the others.

"I'll set the charges in the next room."

SS said that then literally scurried off to do so. Something was up. SS was fast, agile, but always fluid, lithe, sexy even in the way she moved. But she was rushing out now like she had something to hide. Like she was worried about something...or SOMEONE.


Without saying anything, Rich walked calmly and quietly towards the next room to have Swan's back...just on case.

 

[Seer]

Lab Center

Silver Swan's instincts and connection to MysTech served her well...something indeed WAS coming for them.

With her enhanced hearing, she could already hear the footfalls of something BIG coming closer and closer. It wouldn't be long before the others would be able to hear it too. She could feel the vibration in the ground beneath her. And for perhaps the first time since she had set out on her path of destruction against MysTech, Sharon was worried.

She stands facing the direction the sound is coming from, and as the steps get harder, faster, closer...a panel slides open in the wall and a CREATURE steps through.

It is the SUPER SOLDIER - once human, now perverted on a massive scale by MysTech experiments. He towers over Silver Swan. The tentacles coming out of its back fan out behind him as he stands to his full height. He is huge, strong, and nearly invulnerable - he is raw power.

The Super Solider throws back his head and ROARS before charging Silver Swan - and he won't stop until he has destroyed them all.

<< Meanwhile >>

Rich uncovers the dark purpose behind NERVOUS, daring to look in the bio-containers and seeing that they contain specimens of mutant CHILDREN!

Ana-Leigh is horrified, and asks, "Is that what they did to Sharon?"

Mina goes to search for Delilah, using her vampire senses, leaving Ana-leigh, Andrew and Rich in the lab. Rich starts to follow Sharon, but his valiant attempt to have his teammate's back is cut short when a panel opens in the ceiling and a creature hovers down to the floor, blocking his path.

It is NIMROD, the latest and best in sentinel technology. He is not gigantic like regular sentinels, but is composed of an almost "glowing" substance that is unaffected by conventional weapons. This super sentinel is the ULTIMATE killing machine - it knows its prey and would adapt to any attack they might attempt.

The Nimrod identifies the three as primary threats:

Nimrod: Identify: Artemis. Identify: Titan. Identify: Matrix. Threats identified. Processing. Directive: Obliterate targets.

The Nimrod locks on to Rich, Ana-Leigh and Andrew, preparing to fire.

<< And nearby, on the same floor >>

Delilah is using her best judgement to get herself reunited with her team. After a few minutes, she pauses to get her bearings. Unfortunately for her, she is about to get a visit from a most unexpected adversary.

And so...we watch...

 

[Titan]

NERVOUS - Lab Center

"What the hell is THAT thing?!"

Andrew was rethinking this whole mission thing completely.

“And what does it mean by obliterate?!”

It looked like a mini-me version of the sentinels they had fought in the danger room. But it was kind of glow-y. But hey, it was just a robot, right? No big whoop.

And then the sentinel raised its arm. The hand swung down on a hinge revealing what looked to Andrew like a machine gun where it had been. And it was pointing it at him.

“Shit.”

Andrew dove out of the path of the bullets, going into a forward roll and coming up on his feet. The sentinel’s fire followed him, spraying the wall and some of the large crates in the room. Andrew ran towards one of the crates and “climbed” the side of it until he could take hold of the top with his hands. He swung himself up on top of the crate, then began jumping from crate to crate in the room, drawing the sentinel’s fire.

“Rich, how about lighting this bastard up? Turn into some kind of big gun or something…?”

 

[Matrix]

A sentinel..but mini and with a glow of some sort? GREAT.

Rich turned into Tungsten, one of the hardest and toughest metals out there. Unfortunately, Andrew began to DRAW fire rather than take cover behind him. As Rich went to plan B, Andrew chimed in as he cam to an idea.

“Rich, how about lighting this bastard up? Turn into some kind of big gun or something…?”

On it. Take cover!!

Rich's right arm turns into a GAU-8 Avenger...

...and he begins to hammer the thing with 60 rounds per second of high-velocity fire. Thing is...he wished it were having much of an effect. So far it only seemed to manage to occupy the thing. It was apparently very resistant and managed to heal any inroads the damned shells made about as fast as he could make it. Rich hoped Ana had a plan, because so far this was at best a stalemate.

 

[Seer]

An adapting foe...

Titan evaded the hail of bullets, drawing the Nimrod's attention while Matrix changed his arm into a powerful GAU-8 Avenger and fired on it. The shells penetrated the Nimrod and it staggered...

...but only for a second as the holes in its body began to repair themselves!

The Nimrod's "skin" began to glow more intensely, and it spoke once again.

Nimrod: Increasing exoskeletal shields. Matrix: Omnimorph. Titan: Hyperkinetic. Adjusting...