(Note:  Goodness, did you narrow your browser's window to one-third of the screen's width--for easier reading?)
 
 

Before blacking out, before that trans-warp took him, Jamie last saw Vicki on her back--Vicki, not moving at all. As for that psycho metal girl that was called "Gally," he thought the Mechminx had her handled. He was very happy with the result he caused, really. His rifle had blasted the artificial girl--tore through her myogel tissue and into the computer circuitry of her abdomen. And, he saw her "bleed." The light-red chemical coolant that flowed through her skin then flushed bits of her blouse, and the wounds in her belly sparked. It was very beautiful. Vicki looked so vulnerable, wonderfully so.

He wanted to jam the long barrel of his rifle into her abdominal wound and shoot, and shoot and…. But that was when he was trans-warped. Yes, now he was in that between-place where there was nothing. This was the freaky trans-warp process, he came to know. It was how he and the Mechminx were sent from the 20^th century. Now, Jamie and Vicki’s similarly robotic twin were en route back to the beautiful Aura.

They warped back to darkness, the chamber. Here, Jamie suddenly saw a spotlit circle of marble floor ten feet below him. That was the floor! Gravity suddenly gripped him, and he fell down.... Clunk! His head tapped the marble floor and rebounded, making him see sparkles. Then, he did not want to stand up for a while. By now, the sourceless spotlight illumination was on him again and he could not see the source of the light, but he knew the spotlight was on him.

Claws gripped his shoulders, then stood him up. He staggered, feeling ready to vomit. It was the Mechminx. Through the haze of pain, he saw her as a spotlit blur: leather jacket, jeans, pale skin of hands and face. But, Jamie knew what was below her "skin": white and rubbery synthetic "muscle," titanium bones, and plenty of computer circuitry for insides.

The room, it continued to swirl, and Jamie temporarily forgot what the Mechminx really was. She was just a big and fancy robot doll! But, she looked so human! Was she a real doll, or a fake human? What was real? Little girl cyborgs, they were real! Teenage robot-girls, they were real, too! To Jamie, the room spun along with his thoughts.

Jamie’s sick and sweating face drooled as he weaved and swooned on his feet. His crazed and concussion-dazed eyes came to look at the "robot doll." "You’re not real, dolly! Hah, hah, hah..." he said. He weaved about, barely able to stay on his feet as he laughed. "Hah, hah, hah… Big dolly! Big dolly! The Mechminx is just a big robot girl-toy!" The Mechminx’s face put on a smirk as she crossed her arms--the jacket leather making creaking noises.

"Hah, hah...!" Jamie suddenly bent over at the waist. "Hwee-e-aaph!" Let’s see a psycho metal-bodied girl do this: Several handfuls of heavy pink vomit gushed from Jamie’s mouth--the remains of several milkshakes he had prior to all of this business. He smacked his lips, the greenish mush dribbling. He spit.

Something slammed against his back, and he found himself on his own vomit. What the Hell! He tried to push himself up, but could not: The feirce pressing on his back crushed his chest to the wet sick-mess he made on the floor. What was the Mechminx doing? There was the laugh of a teenage girl just then. "Heh, heh, heh.... Yeah, Aura’s showing off with her mental abilities again, her chi, or something.." Jamie heard the Mechminx’s commentary coming from where she stood: That was not the Mechminx pressing him down. Why was the Mechminx allowed to stand?

"Jamie, Aura can do things with her mind. She doesn’t even have to touch you to slam you around!" commented the Mechminx. She then sauntered over to Jamie, a bright spotlight on her as well as himself. She then knelt. She knelt two yards away, safely far enough away from the vomit. "It’s a mental ability of hers." Jamie turned his head to the right, face in pain and his chest in the vomit.

"Mental…abilities?" he managed to say, struggling to get out the words. The Mechminx nodded. "Uh-huh! A-a-nd, guess what else, Jamie?" Jamie gasped against the pressure on his back, not able to guess. Between the sickness caused by his head-injury and the pain on his back, he was not in a decent guessing mood at all. "Okay, you give up: Aura can read human minds! I bet we don’t even have to tell her that we screwed up, ’cause she can tell without you saying a word! Isn’t that convenient and efficient? If I weren’t a robot inside, I would want to be a mermaid-mutant thingy--just like Aura!"

There were water sounds coming from the far left. The Mechminx stood up, then turned to face the source of the sound--a very wide circular pool of water sunk into the marble flooring. A spotlight from above shone on parts of the pool in the dark marble floor, then the spotlight moved around. As the floor, the ceiling and everything that made up this grand chamber swarmed with nanobots, the pool must have formed itself.

The Mechminx used her inhuman hearing to listen more carefully: Aura was swimming in that deep pool. He heard her moving about, watery sounds. Her listening was then interrupted by gasping sounds from Jamie as he scrambled to his feet. He staggered up to the Mechminx and stood by her side, looking at the illuminated pool. His jeans and tee-shirt were both vomit-spattered, his brown-blonde hair lank at the sides of his head with the sweat of pain. Then, the Mechminx smiled devilishly, considering how Jamie stared at the pool.

"Jamie, Aura’s drowning. Since I can’t swim without ruining my circuitry, I guess you'd better save her!" Jamie stood stiffly, his back suddenly straightening to hear that the ash-blonde and thin-sexy girl Aura was in danger. "If you save her, I bet she’ll forgive us--and want to have sex with you!"

That sent Jamie running to the pool. With his concussion still throbbing in his head, he had to jog it. He ran, sneakers sqeaking. With a weak leap, he arced in the air, going to the spotlit pool. But, something stopped him in mid-air.

Shwoop! Jamie was knocked back with an invisible blast of force--a telekinetic burst. A sudden air current then swished through this large and dark place as Jamie went flying backward, was on his back. All of this was not good for him. And now, he could not fight the sickness he felt from his concussion. He tried to sit up again, then fell back--just let his head lie against the floor. Sure, he will just lie here for a while, just for a little while.

Then came swishing noises from the pool. The Mechminx approached as a pair of pale and smooth feminine hands reached up from the water, near the pool’s edge. Fingers closed over the edge of the pool. Those fingers, Aura’s fingers, were then used to boost her from the floor-pool. Then, the petite and pale form of smooth and nude beauty burst from the water. She stood at the pool’s edge. Her smooth and lithe small body gleamed with the water, her hair soaked.

The Mechminx looked over Aura and smirked yet again: Wait until Jamie’s blood pressure shoots up when he sees that Aura was naked. And, through analyzing Aura’s curvaceous and slender nakedness, the Mechminx was sure that Jamie would be tortured by Aura’s wonderful beauty: high blood pressure plus his concussions could make for fun.

Aura’s smooth and curved self then turned away from Jamie and the Mechminx as she exhaled the pool’s water from her lung-sacs. She coughed several more times, coughing out excess water, as her body adjusted to breathing air again. Then, Aura’s bare and wet feet made slight slapping sounds as she turned and walked in Jamie’s direction.

The Mechminx saw that Aura’s white feet actually had the toes grown together. It made sense; that made Aura a better swimmer. The Mechminx looked into Aura’s large red eyes and smiled. "Hello, fishy! You must have had a damned good swim!" said the Mechminx, a smile on her face. Aura’s pixie-pretty delicate face did not return the smile; she had a look of anger instead. Her eyes glinted with disappointment. Standing, she brushed her long pale hair away from the sides of her face, putting the hair as so it went down her back. The dazzlingly naked creature then looked at the Mechminx....

Swoop! The Mechminx heard wind in her ears, and she crash-landed twelve yards away: Aura used her telekinesis to slap back the Mechminx, shoving the robot-girl with just a thought. "Hey! Why’d you do that, Aura? I was just being congenial!" she said over there, slowly coming to her feet.

Just then, Jamie decided to stand again. Aura, she was so beautiful! She was a living goddess. And, she had the powers to match! So what if his head was killing him? He wanted her. And Aura, her bare self dripping and gleaming, looked up; Jamie was over a foot taller than herself. Jamie could not move, and his eyes went all over her.

"Foolish surface-dweller. You failed me once," she said as she raised a smooth and thin arm--pointing at him. Swoosh! Jamie then felt Aura’s invisible force shove him, and he flew back to where the Mechminx recovered from her fall. He also crash-landed on the floor, the back of his already dizzy head hitting the floor. On his back, he moaned, his head turned to the left. A concussion, being slapped around by telekinesis, falling onto the floor, he had taken a beating. That was it for him! Jamie stopped wriggling on his back as unconsciousness closed over.

"You fool!" shrieked Aura at the Mechminx. Apparently, this particular sea-dweller was very angry. "You’re supposed to be perfect! A robot, and you fouled up a simple robbery! How could let yourself be beaten back in the 20^th century? You were beaten by your sissy sister and a weak, pint-sized cyborg! A tiny girl-woman of a cyborg, and one with mental problems!"

The Mechminx shrugged her shoulders. "Hey, fish girl, things happen… What the heck?" The Mechminx’s arms were suddenly pinned at her sides as Aura mentally gripped the Mechminx. "Come on, Aura! Cut this corny mess out!" Aura strode closer, the spotlight still illuminating her nakedness, shining on her deceptive beauty. Within her large eyes, Aura’s anger flared.

She stood before the Mechminx, and she placed her thin pale hands on the Mechminx’s shoulders. One hand moved higher on the Mechminx’s shoulders, slowly. The hand then went to the Mechminx’s synthetic throat, the fingers going to the sides. Aura’s fingers then squeezed. The Mechminx thought, So what? I don’t need to breathe! The Mechminx’s expression did not change; she continued to smile despite her

metal-ringed throat clamped shut.

"Shut up and listen." The Mechminx had no choice. "You failed your first real mission to screw up the 20^th century. All that you had to do was to rob a bank: get the cash, then hire certain people." Her voice was an angry whisper, and she slightly tugged the artificial girl’s throat left and right, threatening to tear it out. "Then, it would have been ridiculously easy to start trouble!" Aura used her mental capabilities to lift the Mechminx’s feet an inch from the ground--lifted her by the neck. She then shoved the Mechminx away, shoving with telekinesis as well as slightly with her arm.

Yet again, the Mechminx was tossed. This time, though, she landed on her feet. She fingered the place on her neck where Aura gripped her and tried to speak. Instead, there was hissing static. Aura had crushed the machinery of her voice synthesizers! The artificial girl wished she still synthetic vocal cords instead of a (now damaged) voice synthesizer; those things weren’t so vulnerable.

"Urggh!" grunted Aura, angry. With a mental command, her silver throne came up from the floor just as the pool was being closed over by morphing marble. Feet slapping, she walked to her silver throne, being air-dried as she went by controlled air currents. At her throne, she found another pair of shorts and a tee-shirt--which she put on before sitting.

Aura’s wide desk folded up from the floor, and the computer keyboard flipped out of the desk--along with the flat monitory. "Okay, Mechminx, I’m going to give you something so simple that not even Jamie can screw up!" Her fingers rapid-typed on the computer keyboard--tappity-tappity-tap-tap-tappity…. Jamie groaned, his own spotlight showing his prone and sick self. Aura temporarily stopped her rapid-fire typing.

Looking at her monitor, she said, "I’m going to send you out to the woods of 21^st century America--to an illegal nuke plant operating in 21^st century America! And, its in your home-state of California again! Your mission is simpler than the last one: All that you have to do is make the plant go to meltdown status." Nuclear power plant? The Mechminx’s processors registered "warning" signals when she heard "nuclear power plant," and a text message scrolled in her computer-brains--was visible in her left vision.

That made the Mechminx angry: Robots, especially artificial girls, were more vulnerable to the effects of radiation than human beings. The Mechminx complained in a hissing static voice: "Hey, being around even some radiation is bad for robots…ssh! If there’s a radiation leak, my circuitry will be wiped clean…ssh! I’ll become mindless, which is not.. shh….cool!" complained the Mechminx where she stood. "A-u-u-uhh…" groaned Jamie over where he lie. "See, even the human doesn’t like it!"

Aura began to rapid-fire type again. "Just perhaps, you should have considered the price of your failure before you failed. I went through Jamie’s mind just now and know that you two were bungling idiots in that robbery," said Aura, typing away. "And, if you go brain-dead, it’s not my problem: I can just load another program into your body." The synthetic flesh of the Mechminx’s face crumpled into a scowl.

"Don’t you ever give it a rest, Aura? So what, you’re on a major rampage--just because your boyfriend was killed by the past. So what..ssh..? What about us, huh? How are we supposed to do what you want if you’re punishing Jamie and me? Huh? Shhh…" The Mechminx put her right hand to her throat; she was straining already-damaged mechanism by speaking, not giving the nanobots inside a chance to do repairs.

"This is a war of vengeance, Vanessa," said Aura, calling the Mechminx by her human-given name. "And, this is a war to avenge my love. Warfare, that’s the word I’m using--a word that hasn’t been used around here for real for thousands of years! I’m doing this because my lover is irreplacable! No one could satisfy me like he did. But, you wouldn’t understand that; you’re just a robot. Just a bunch of programmed microchips in a synthetic body. You wouldn’t know love’s pleasures outside of some signals in the circuitry of your chest." Aura typed out something else on the computer.

TRANS-WARP CAPACITORS CHARGING was the message on Aura’s desk monitor. Aura spoke as she watched various other messages popped up on the computer monitor. More calmly, sadly calm, she said, "When he died, part of me died as well. I stopped caring about people." Her voice calmed and her eyes glistened with the reflected light of the computer monitor. "I hacked into Administrations’ files and saw that my love died...because of Vicki and Gally delaying his action. There was a full report, too. That jerk Ben Thunderhorse, he used Vicki and Gally to delay him in the past until his sickness took him over."

Aura gave a loud sniff. "Worse, Vicki and Gally were trans-warped as so they don’t remember." A tear slid down and splashed on Aura’s desk, her tears. Several more followed, making tiny pools of sadness on the desk. She pressed the fingers of her right hand against her lips she would not let anyone hear the cry that nearly came from her lips.

The Mechminx stared, analyzing the spotlit pale female at her silvered throne. It was emotion that was driving Aura to all of this, not logic. Aura was truly a living being, driven by emotions. So what, her boyfriend died? Flesh-people die all the time!

The Mechminx was ready to say something, then felt the darkness of trans-warp whip over her again--like darkness being shoved all over her. She and Jamie both vanished into time. When they arrived in the 21^st century, they would be physically fine and healed--though they would not forget their mission.

Still in her darkened chamber, Aura’s wet and sad tears continued to slide and drip:  lots of tears. All of history had to pay for her lover’s death. She wanted them to die horribly, those of the 21^st century--as well as those in the 30^th century. In her mind, she imagined blood and violence and fire coating all of the land. They would have pain. They would all suffer--just as he did when he died because of his being delayed by that cyborg and that gynoid. Pain and death for them! The tears still came.
 
 

The sunrise of the 21^st century came on the two still bodies in the forest--sunlight flittering and filtering through tall trees . One of the bodies gleamed with gray metal from the neck-down--dark hair aflair from her synth-fleshed scalp. The other body was in a blouse and jeans, her artificial self seeming very human. Sunrise moved into the afternoon in the forest.

Vicki stirred first. In her head, the date and time flittered in her head. They must have trans-warped again, and the process must have set her inner clocks; she now thought that it was the 21^st century. They must have trans-warped after that odd meeting at the campfire. Or, was it a campfire? Vicki recalled analysis files from data storage. And, that was not really fire after all. It was something else, something odd.

"U-h-h-h…" sighed the metal-bodied one. Gally’s brain was emerging from the depth of sleep. Her human brain had felt slowed from sleep. Gally thought of what had last happened. Did I dream again? Was that another dream-place? No, Vicki was there. She had no soul; she could not go to that dream-place. Alf must have somehow come closer reality to give me information.  He must have a powerful chi, being able to do that.

"Oh, Gally..." said Vicki as she sat next to Gally. Her fingers went behind Gally’s back, helping the small cyborg sit up. Gally bent her knees and hugged them, then looked left at Vicki. "We’re a hundred years ahead of where we were," said Vicki, "and we’re in a Redwood forest of Northern California. The nearest place of civilization is fifteen miles north, according to data that’s in my mind all of a sudden...." Vicki tried to recall when her mind downloaded that information.

"I know. Alf told me," said Gally, "and that place is a nuclear power plant--a fission plant. That sort of nuclear energy is quite messy and inefficient: Nuclear plants of that type tend to have accidents of radioactivity." Vicki nodded and added, "If personnel are not careful, there could be an accident. That explains why nuclear energy is so carefully regulated. But....  No, wait...." Vicki felt more data pop up in her mind, data entering the computer circuitry of her electronic mind from an unknown source.   "But the nuclear plant we have to go to, according to Alf, is illegal."

"You mean, it is relatively unregulated. Such would mean that the safety police patrols and other personnel of this time period’s government corporations do not regulate it. I suspect that such a place could very easily have accidents as a result." Gally suddenly stood up. "That would mean that the place is very vulnerable to deliberate ‘accidents.’ People can cause accidents to happen, Vicki. This is especially true when they are told to make them happen--regardless of the human costs."

Vicki tried to analyze the statements; Gally was talking in similes again. "I don’t get it. Are we going to stop an accident or something? Or, shouldn’t we go somewhere and get inspectors to stop the accident? I mean, why is it our concern?" Gally turned to Vicki.

"Your twin sister and the man you called your ‘adopted human brother’ are of important concern. This is because they make accidents happen." Vicki went wide-eyed with shock. Then, warning texts scrolled through her electronic mind--warning texts about the dangers of radiation on her circuitry. Nuclear fission power plants had slightly higher-than-nomal amounts of radiation, even when operating normally. If this was a badly maintained nuclear facility, then her programming could be damaged. The programming of Vicki’s would then suffer. Her mind could even be erased by the radiation.

"I’m scared, Gally. If that power plant isn’t kept in good condition and there are leaks of even bits of beta particle radiation, my programming could disappear. My body would just become a mindless robotic shell. I would be dead." Gally turned to her, said, "You could just get another copy of your mind loaded into your body.  Why fear death, electronic girl?  The thinking in your mind's circuitry is replaceable."

Vicki hugged herself, thinking of it.  "But, would it be me? I mean, my mind is my programming in my circuitry. It’s how I think. It’s all my thought processors. If my mind goes, who would replace me? What would replace me in my body?" In response, the small metal-bodied girl pressed her lips together, took a quick look around at sunlight and shadows to determine north, then began stepping. This had to be done--despite Vicki’s hesitation.

As Vicki hugged herself back there, still sitting, Gally stopped moving away. Her solid back to Vicki, she spoke up. "Vicki, how many other people’s lives are in danger--human lives? Do you value your own solitary and replaceable electronic existence against thousands of other lives? Nuclear radiation leaks are not pleasant ways for people to die, either. And, those deaths will come if we do not stop the ‘accident’ before the enemy makes it happen."

Gally then began to jog North again. Vicki jogged to catch up.
 
 

And, as Vicki’s electronic/mental map indicated, it would be a very long hike. It was actually a twenty-four mile hike. It was late noon, and the two had to go through relatively tough terrain. Forest hiking was tedium and effort: tedium in that there was the long walk itself, and there was effort in picking one’s way along the soft ground--plently of fallen branches and other detritus. For Vicki, it took extra mental processing power going toward her mobility systems.

"No!" shrieked Vicki as she pitched forward. She landed on her hands. Gally whipped around, went into a half-crouch, looked around, and around. She glimpsed Vicki, saw that was down, then looked around a few times more.  No, there were no enemies--only a fallen and embarrassed gynoid, the artificial girl.  Vicki put on an embarassed smile. "Sorry, Gally. My mobility systems aren’t fully caliberated for uneven surfaces; I guess I’ll have to learn to walk through non-flat surfaces better." Gally helped Vicki stand. She dusted herself off as Gally began to walk off again. Vicki caught up and walked by the cyborg's side.

Vicki’s processors analyzed their situation to keep her electronic mind occupied as she stepped along the soft forest surface. She had to both keep up with Gally and walk more carefully over the uneven surface. And, the sunlight was speckled by leaves far overhead. It tricked her vision. But, Vicki was sure not to trip again. She did not want to give Gally another false call.

Walking, stalking through a quiet forest, was this war? Vicki had "seen" movies of war, and her stored memories of warfare was with constant gunfire. She imagined soldiers firing weapons, the enemy screaming in pain, explosions, lots of noise. But, this was a slower war. At any time, as the two hiked along in the forest, there could be the sounds of gunfire--crack, crack!  Jamie’s rifle-shots could come cracking from a sniping position behind a tree-stump. Or, the Mechminx could pop up from a place of camouflage and open up with both barrels of her twin-guns blazing. In fact, Jamie could be trying to sight those two right now.

Fifteen miles into the walk, memories of Gally's own combat experience were coming back. Very early in her adult life, Gally was made a soldier. She was a metal-bodied warrior in a very chaotic time in history--interplanetary warfare. That war destroyed most all of civilization at once, would destroy it several hundred years from the time Vicki was in now, before it was rebuilt in the horrific form of fascist regimes.  The future would mean those of a floating city ruling over wasted and hyper-industrialized city--a city among a Hellishly hot wasteland of mad cyborgs, saddened humans, and the occasional sadder or madder mutant. Then, after centuries of that wasteland, Gally took part in the final chaos to stop the ruling regime that kept the land so ruined.  The madness of several centuries was soon over, then Gally left the still-ruined planet of Earth to live on Mars.

Now, she was soldiering again. She easily remembered Mars while soldiering now.  Beautiful Mars, her original homeworld. It was not good to think of home in the middle of a combat situation, out in the field, but she had to get these thoughts of home out while she still could. New Sunrise Village would not appear on Mars for over one thousand years from now. And, Gally thought that the people of this century had the technology to make Mars’ atmosphere fit that of Earth’s atmosphere--not yet.

After all of this was over, if she survived, Gally promised to return to the playful children of New Sunrise Village on that planet. Her metal feet stepped onward, hands slightly clenched. She had to fight now to make for that better future; Gally refused to let an unknown and time-manipulating fool ruin time for everyone.

This is war, war against the enemy that killed Ben Thunderhorse and tried to kill Gally--the enemy that also took Vicki's equally robotic sister.  Alf said it was war, and he sounded very serious about it.  Yes, Vicki’s electronic "mind" was on the matter at hand, walking through territory the enemy could be in.  But, there were too many other things for her mind to process.  Yes, indeed, plenty for a humanoid robot in the shape of a young woman to think about!

And then, her mind then began to analyze possible outcomes of this battle in the "war" against whoever was twisting time and making Hell for everyone. They could actually win in a fight against Jamie and the Mechminx. Then, the computers that send Vicki and Gally around would leave them alone. Killing a fellow synthetic person in service to humanity, especially a murderous robot in the shape of another teenage girl, would mean no guilt for Vicki. But, winning could mean killing Jamie--a human. Vicki hoped that her mind’s subprocessors underdstood by now that Jamie Lawson, her adopted human brother, was an enemy to attack as well.

The warm day wore steadily on, and the two were soon five miles from their ojective location. Then, they were two miles, then one mile from the vast clearing of the buildings that made up the illegal power plant.  "Gally," whispered Vicki, "according to my internal land navigation, the illegal nuclear facility is just a mile away--outside of this stretch of forest" Gally stopped. She then began to walk much more carefully, even walking in a partial crouch. Gally pointed to Vicki, and Vicki began to do the same when the cracking of gunfire happened.

Cr-cr-crack! Cr-cr-crack!  Cr-cr-cr-cr-cr-cr....  Those were no firecrackers; those were ceramic bursts from the Mechminx’s double submachine guns! The leather jacket-sporting, tight jeans-wearing and revealing tee shirt-sporting synthetic twin in boots was firing on them! Cr-cr-ack! And, she was enjoying sniping at those two stepping through the pretty forest on this bright and shiny day. Cr-cr-cr-ack!

Gally suddenly dropped to the ground, her body kept above the dirt by elbows and knees. She then scrambled to the side, crab-walking with elbows and knees. She was behind a tree, directly in the way of the nuke plant that Vicki and Gally had to shut down--unless the Mechminx andJamie had already sabotaged.  (Cr-cr-crack!)  Being low and behind somethings hard, those were military tacticsmodifiedf slightly for metal-bodied beings like Gally. Vicki did the same: went flat to the ground, then hid behind a tree. Cr-cr-cr-cr-cr-ack! Serveral of the bullets took chunks out of the tree Vicki hid behind.  Cr-cr-cr-ack!

"Damn it!  This is un-good. How could I miss you two?" shouted the Mechmix, her guns still pointing in the general direction of the sounds those two made out there.  Her dark leather jacket and blue jeans made her surprisingly visible in the green of the forest; why didn't Vicki see her reprogrammed sister before?  "And, how the Hell did your asses get around here? I thought that Aura’s trans-warp machinbery was just for my own side. Now, I see that you also have the help of trans-warp."  The Mechminx saw that her guns’ barrels stopped glowing so red, and she brought her guns to bear against where she last remembered those two were hiding. Cr-cr-cr-cr-crack!

"Vicki, cover me while I move!" shouted Gally. "Cover? Cover you?" said Vicki.  "That's Army talk, right?  I'll try..."  Gally then began to crawl in the direction of the Mechminx’ gunfire. Vicki looked at the ground: They were too close to the nuke plant now to fail. How could Vicki "cover" Gally with nothing to shoot with?  Ah, but there was something to "shoot":  As Vicki watched, Gally scooped up several stones, leftover gravel dumped in the forest from construction of the nearby road ....

The Mechminx knelt and began to fire more carefully when she realized that it was too difficult to hit Gally. (Cr-cr-crack!)  The Mechminx’s automatic handguns had slight recoils that threw off her aim.  But, it was still fun to watch the bullets tear through those beautiful trees! Cr-cr-cr-crack! The Mechminx fired again.  Shh-thunk! No, wait, that was not Jamie's bullet; he could not run fast enough to patrol the nuke plant. He was too busy finishing up work at the controls.  That short cyorg was tossing sharp rocks, tossing them like thick throwing knives!  Sh-thunk-thunk!  Damn, two more struck the tree the Mechminx used for cover!  The Mechminx's electronic mind thought, That is an intelligent cyborg.  "You're one damned smart cyborg!" said the Mechminx aloud, coursening her own thoughts.

Crack! That was the distinct sound of a rock slamming into a tree. "Gally!  I have you covered! " said Vicki, now whipping rocks through the air with her robotic strength and speed--shh-thunk!  Wonderful, thought Gally as another small stone zipped through the air with Vicki’s robotic strength to fly at the Mechminx. At least, that stopped the gunfire for a time. That would of silence the insolent twin sister of Vicki’s!

Gally picked up more of the angular gray stones in this part of the forest.  She had another idea, one she never quite got around to using in her first days of war.  Lying flat to avoid more of the Mechminx's gunfire, Gally flared her left fist in a halo of green glowing plasma as her right fist held the rocks. Gally  passed her left hand over the fist that held the six rocks. The rocks were now red-hot.  Yes, Gally now had better weapons.

Gally crawled with her body very close to the ground, like a snake of metal--still staying low to avoid enemy fire.  She crawled to go behind another tree, peeked over the side, then snapped a glowing rock at the Mechminx--who waited for her twin guns to cool again. Thunk!  That red-hot rock struck, stuck itself in the wood of the tree the Mechminx sought cover behind. "That has to be cheating!  How the Hell can you throw rocks that quickly?" The Mechminx came out from behindthe tree, then just fired a good twenty rounds.  Cr-cr-crack!  Of course, the Mechminx’s weapons never ran out of ammo: Those wepaons apported their own ammo.  But, her weapons overheated to damned quickly!

It did not help any. Vicki and Gally threw several more bullet-quick (Vicki) and yellow-hot (Gally) rocks.  Then, Gally took the time to crawl closer to the Mechminx’s position. And the Mechminx’s guns were overheating faster, the barrels of the automatic guns turning bright red. Those were too many negative "meanwhiles" for Vicki’s troublesome twin sister; the guns then overheated!  The Mechminx pulled triggers, then found that the guns would not fire.  She holstered her guns back in her leather jacket.

"I’d like to blast your sorry butts, but I have to help Jamie contaminate California with meltdown radiation! Like, later!" With that, the Mechminx turned--her boots pivoting on the forest ground. She crouched, one leg back and another forward, hands against the ground:  positioned herself like a sprinter.  With a spray of dirt, she then leapt far and away, onto a road outside the clearing.  The Mechminx then skidded onto the road, turned left, then dashed away at eighty miles per hour.

Vicki stood up and brushed off her blouse and jeans. She looked forward and to the edge of the forest. The Mechminx was no longer there. She dropped the remaining heated rocks she had. Gally, further up, transferred her heated rocks to her left hand where the rocks cooled. Then, Gally knelt to press the rocks into the cool earth beyond the layer of dead leaves and such; she did not want a fire in this beautiful forest.

"We beat her back!" said Vicki, feeling proud of herself for finally having bested her rival robot-sister. Gally made a waving motion to the road with her left arm, a "come on over" gesture. She then stepped out of the forest and into the clearing. There was a road beyond the forest, a road in a grassy field away from the trees. The road curved away to the large nuclear facility in the distance.

The facility, with its massive vase-shaped cooling tower, was certainly a massive power producer. A building close to the cooling tower was surrounded by a chain-link fence; that three-story structure must house the generators and the control center. And, that was what the Mechminx wanted to sabotage. Gally frowned at the place. It would be another troublesome conflict. "Vicki, be prepared to repeat your performance. Also, you should recall that the Mechminx has an ally as well--an ally you know well." Vicki looked off into the distance, looking at that nuclear facility.
 
 

They ran along the road, approaching the illegal power plant surrounded by the forest. In under a minute, the two were at the barbed-wire fencing surrounding the facility. The wind began to blow upon arrival, and the steam from the cooling tower blew to the right. Now, the steam was especially fierce. Vicki knew something was going wrong.

"Gally, my sensors say that background radiation levels are going up! I think they’re trying to set the power-plant to overload!" said Vicki. Gally clenched her right fist, and the metal of it was surrounded with her plasma glow. She used it to cut an entrance into the yard of the facility. Gally entered; Vicki followed. "Then, we move quickly to counter."

"I heard that!  Counter this!" came a shout from far away, the Mechminx again. There was the staccato of the Mechminx’s double-guns again. Vicki and Gally went left and right. More automatic gunfire, and Gally identified the direction of the attacks from above. The Mechminx was atop the control center, twin guns in hands. Over her head, the sky’s clouds began to thicken. Whisps of gunsmoke came from barrels as Gally and Vicki looked up at the robotic bad-ass atop the building. Gally wished that those weird guns with infinite ammo would malfunction and explode. Gally then had to flip right to avoid another qunitiple burst.

"Let’s get it on!" shouted the Mechminx. "Jamie, get your phallic symbol ready!" The end of Jamie’s rifle then poked out of the window. He took aim, but would not fire yet. "Oh, Hell yeah!" shouted the Mechminx, from the front of the control building, her voice-synthesizers amplifying her shout. "Jamie and I are going to smoke your synthetic asses and soak Southern California with enough radiation to make Chernobyl look cute!"

"Gally, the Mechminx must have triggered the power plant’s cooling systems!" As Vicki said this, the smoke from the cooling tower began to lessen as the water to cool it began to slow. "Then, we fight her here; we die quickly or baked with radiaion," said Gally. The Mechminx grinned as she opened fire.

Gally was in the air, her fists flaring in midair. The Mechminx leapt out of the way as Gally struck downward. There was then a rifle-crack, and Gally felt the armer of her left shoulder jerk. Shoulder armor flew away, and her left arm felt weak. Luckily, Jamie missed Gally’s head. Gally sneered and leapt at the Mechminx anew.

Vicki took that time to run at the facility’s double doors. She then leapt and smashed right through them--thin doors. Jamie cursed a bit, and he ducked inside. When Vicki came to the third floor, he was going to need his rifle. Inside, he pointed his odd weapon at the door, finger on the trigger. At least, his ceramic bullet-apporting weapon did not overheat. Maybe, he would be able to hole Vicki once before she took him out? His eyes flickered red as he waited; the mind-conversion done on him by Aura took a more firm hold and squelched his fear just enough for this job.

Gally ducked just as the Mechminx’s gun’s opened fire. Then, the guns stopped firing. "Shoot!" said the Mechminx, putting the radically overheated weapons into her jacket's special holsters.  This time, they would fade into the time stream until they cooled again.  Meanwhile, the Mechminx had to go at a one-to-one, hand-to-hand, with Gally.

The brown-haired Mechminx raised her pale fists as the small cyborg stood with fists clenched.   And she ran at Gally too fast for Gally to leap.  Clank!  A fist struck Gally in the center of her solid chest; she flopped onto her back. That left the Mechminx’s right fist scraped of synthetic skin--metal bone underneath gleaming in the graying sky.

That was when Gally snapped to her feet. Her breathing rasped a bit, but she felt fine enough to fight on.  But, where was Vicki? Was she handling the sniper? It seemed so.  Gally set at the Mechminx, the cyborg's fists up and shooting out....

In actuality, Vicki infiltrated the facility.  She was now staggering inside and up stairs. The increasing radiation from one of the overheating--and cracking--cooling towers outside was interfering with her mobility systems--even inside of this building. She followed the signs, her electronic vision shaking and twisting a bit. Then, her simulated heartbeat shut down:  That meant that her body’s systems were concentrating on maintianing her personality emulation programming. Vicki was unsure if her simulated personality would shut down next.

Outside, the Mechminx herself began to slow down as well, suffering the same way Vicki did.  But, the Mechminx's jacket was micro-woven with trans-warp material--which stopped some radiation.  All the same, the computer processors in her head were suffering from increased radiation exposure.  Thunk!  She managed to hit Gally with a moderate blow!  After the Mechminx drew back her fist to strike again, Gally ducked and struck twice with her armor-solid fists.  Two solid hits!  She then kicked out, and the Mechminx was knocked a nice distance away.

The Mechminx's mobility systems were damaged from those attacks.  Her bared abdomen was shorn, some of her whitish synthetic flesh torn away there.  What would happen if Gally’s fists were with glowing plasma when she attacke?  Too late to worry about that:  Gally again began a deadly dash at the Mechminx!

There were the cracks of three rifle shots from above:  apparently a signal. Jamie did this as the steam from the nuclear power plant’s cooling tower lessened. "Great! I’m done!" shouted the Mechminx. Gally’s leapt, then struck down at where the Mechminx stood.  The Mechminx vanished! Her mission completed, the Mechminx vanished into time. "Auh-h-gh!" grunted the small cyborg, striking her fists into the ground where the Mechminx once was.  Though still angry, Gally had to remember her own ally:  Where was Vicki?

Crack!  Gally felt something smack her left shoulder, felt pieces of her own shoulder armor strike her cheek.  Wounded, she felt her left shoulder--bare electromechanics hissing from Jamie’s shooting.  She leapt to the side to avoid further shots, then felt the air heating as the nuclear generators in the cooling tower began to heat.  The cooling was now very low.  Gally  Now running at the control building, she had to get to whatever room the Mechminx and Jamie were. It was simple to get there, though: Gally merely followered the signs, the "signs" being the doors and stairs Vicki dented.

"Vicki!" shouted Gally when she finally arrived inside and upstairs, at the control center.  Jamie was gone, having vanished into time.  There was Vicki at a buttons-lined console.  Vicki "relaxed" in a chair as her CPUs malfunctioned; the heat and radiation levels were too much for the synthetic girl.  That damaged nuclear generator was too close to the building--and too close to meltdown. What was there to do?  That was when Gally remembered the "book" she was given by Alf.  She rembered the book, then "remebered" what to do.

She rememberd, but her body then began to move by itself, as if her human brian lost control over it!  Gally looked surprised as her body moved to sit.  She looked as her hands found the coolant switches, then opened the right valves. Jamie had merely shut down random valves; Gally had to find the correct ones. Rather, her fingers found the correct ones. Her fingersacted without her not fully understanding how. After five minutes, the work was done--and the illegal facility again continued its run.

Some green lights flickered on on the control panel.  And, the heat Gally felt coming from the damaged cooling tower outside faded. The cooling must have also contracted the cracks in the cooling tower--blocking the radiation back to more tolerable levels again.  That is good, thought Gally as she began to feel sick and weak.  Her brain!  After that battle, Gally needed to feed her own brain.  But...  She then blacked out and faded into time as Vicki did, having finished their mission here.