Chapter Text
“…have evacuated the surrounding area, but it’s understood that a significant number of people are still trapped on the Golden Gate Bridge itself. There are unconfirmed reports from within the last few minutes that two—” The car radio cut out with a sharp pop, evidently having succumbed to the damage sustained when Gemma had slammed onto the hood and windscreen.
Letting out a groan, she began trying to lever herself out of the woman-sized crater she’d left in the vehicle, but was interrupted by a voice in her ears.
“Gemma?” snapped M3GAN. A cartoon avatar of the robot woman appeared in Gemma’s helmet HUD, waving its hands for emphasis. “Gemma! If I’d known you were just going to lie around, I’d have put Cole in the suit.”
“Ha ha,” replied Gemma, unamused. The car creaked as she finished extracting herself from it and hopped to the ground. It was lucky the vehicle’s occupants were long since gone, now somewhere in the huddled crowd at the base of the bridge’s nearest tower, which had become blocked by a pair of buses.
The virtual M3GAN tapped her foot impatiently. “Any time you’re ready, girl!”
“Sorry, sorry!” replied Gemma, and broke into a run, the strength and weight of the Exoskeletor hazard suit leaving small imprints in the bridge’s surface.
The scene that grew in her vision was a sight to behold: a forty-foot-long lizard was thrashing about in the road while M3GAN, clad in her hot pink polymer armour, flitted about it like an angry insect, ducking and diving to avoid its teeth, claws and tail. The reptile looked something like a Victorian scientist’s idea of a dinosaur, a sort of malformed giant iguana.
As Gemma closed in, she was treated to the awesome sight of M3GAN igniting the compact jetpack on her back and blasting past the rampaging creature, carving a line down its side with the katana she wielded. Gemma skidded to a halt nearby in time to witness the newly-formed wound rapidly knit itself back together, leaving the reptile with nothing a pale scar.
“Son of a bitch,” swore M3GAN, having seen the same after coming to stop and spinning back to face the creature. “I don’t know what got done to this thing but it’s healing away anything I do to it.”
Gemma pointed her right fist in the lizard’s direction and then pressed a control on the gauntlet with her other hand, letting loose a jet of fire-retardant foam from a built-in nozzle. The thick liquid hit one of the reptile’s forelegs and rapidly began expanding and hardening – for a moment, it seemed like it might hold, but then the foam cracked and the creature burst free.
“Well, it was worth a shot,” muttered Gemma.
“It could be nanites,” mused M3GAN, still following her previous train of thought, “in which case an EMP might interrupt the healing factor, but somebody told me not to steal those pistols after the Funki thing.”
“You’re right, my bad for not predicting we would have to fight a big mutant lizard that’s maybe full of nanotechnology,” shot back Gemma, while rapidly backing up as the creature tried to make a lunge for her.
Another voice suddenly cut through on the comms. “Guys, Sattler called, he knows you’re out there,” said Tess, as a webcam feed of her sitting back at the lab popped into Gemma’s HUD. “He said that you’re idiots but that you should try to keep that thing away from the civilians as long as you can, apparently the National Guard is still twenty minutes out.”
“Fantastic,” drawled M3GAN, before smoothly executing a diving roll to avoid the lizard’s tail as it swung at her. She sprang straight back to her feet, only to get caught by the tail whipping back in the opposite direction, sending her flying into the bridge’s railings. The robot’s paired systems pinged a damage report to Gemma – it was nothing critical yet, but a few more hits and that might start to change.
Tess had clearly seen M3GAN’s diagnostics too, because she piped back up. “Stay safe out there you two. Cady’s flying in those quadcopter drones she’s been working on so we can keep an eye on you.”
“Thanks Tess,” replied Gemma. Hoping to take some heat off M3GAN, she smacked another control on her suit to activate a pair of floodlights set into its shoulders, aiming them at the green-grey reptile’s eyes. With a surprising burst of speed, it scrambled towards Gemma, who hurriedly let off another blast of foam directly at its snapping mouth, stopping it in its tracks. Just as before, the effects seemed briefly promising, until the creature flexed its powerful jaw and broke the hardening fluid into rough chunks.
The reptile continued to close on her, visibly angrier than before, and Gemma kept frantically moving backwards away from it. In her peripheral vision, the helmet HUD highlighted Cady’s two small quadcopters – designated ‘Karloff’ and ‘Lugosi’ – with small labels as they closed in overhead. Distracted momentarily, Gemma’s metal boot caught on some small piece of debris, and she went tumbling down, the advancing creature now looming over her.
She braced for an attack, but then her visor flagged a far larger object flying through the air behind the lizard – it was M3GAN, propelled into a soaring leap by her jetpack, sword in hand. She let her momentum drive the blade deep into the creature’s back, and it let out an ear-splitting shriek in response.
“What did I tell you about lying around, Gemma?” quipped M3GAN as she balanced atop the bucking beast in a kneeling stance, still gripping the embedded sword.
Gemma was about to respond when the lizard suddenly went into a lightning-fast roll, like a crocodile trying to finish its prey. M3GAN was thrown violently to the ground and a piercing noise rang out as the sword snapped clean in half, and before Gemma could fully process what was happening in front of her, the reptile had closed its jaws around one of her partner’s arms.
Damage reports, now far more urgent, burst into Gemma’s vision as the beast shook M3GAN back and forth several times, until her right arm completely tore away at the bicep, the rest of her going flying. Half-paralysed by shock but fighting through it, Gemma pushed herself to her feet and made a break for the spot where M3GAN had landed, while the lizard was temporarily occupied gnawing on the arm.
“M3GAN!” she cried out, skidding down to her knees as she got close.
“Gemma…” came the weak reply, her vocal synthesiser clearly having suffered damage. Lying on her side, M3GAN reached out with her intact hand, and Gemma grabbed it with both of hers, while losing the fight against the tears that were rapidly welling up in her eyes.
“You’re gonna be alright, okay?” she choked out. “I’ll get you out of here, but transmit a backup now.” She released M3GAN’s hand to scoop both arms under her, but before she could stand, there came a clattering noise from behind. Gemma turned to see what she had already surmised – the lizard had spat out the robotic arm it had been chewing on, and had turned its attention back to the two women who were making themselves a nuisance.
A chill of fear ran through Gemma’s heart, but then Karloff and Lugosi swooped down out of nowhere, skimming right past the creature’s head. Distracted, it swivelled to follow the drones’ trajectory, and Cady popped up in Gemma’s HUD.
“Gemma!” she exclaimed. “There’s a big flatbed trailer up ahead, you have to get M3GAN to it. There’s—” The picture froze mid-sentence, Cady’s face a mess of compression artefacts.
“Fuck,” cursed Gemma under her breath. She returned her attention to her companion, and saw that she was now lying still, her eyes closed. “Fuck!” She hauled herself to her feet, M3GAN in her arms, and peered ahead down the road. Sure enough, there was a truck with a flatbed trailer jack-knifed across the road some distance away, its load covered by a large tarpaulin. She had no idea what Cady had seen that might help them, but she was all out of other ideas.
After a glance over her shoulder to confirm the reptile was still swatting at the quadcopters, Gemma started running for the truck. The way there was littered with abandoned cars, forcing her to dodge and weave between them, unable to build up to the full speed that her powered armour was capable of. Just as she practically bounced off a large pickup, she started hearing crashing noises behind her, but tried her best to ignore them, blinking through tears as she kept powering forward.
After dodging around another pair of cars, she was nearly there, despite the lizard audibly getting nearer and nearer. She could make it.
She didn’t.
Her legs were swept out from under her, and M3GAN went flying forward out of her arms, carried by momentum. Gemma slammed into the road face first, hard enough for her ears to be left ringing – she weakly tried to push herself up, but the creature smashed down on her with its full weight, bludgeoning her back into the ground. A crack spiderwebbed across her visor, and she heard the metal armour groan and creak as the lizard continued to press down on her.
There was a brief respite as the creature’s weight disappeared from her back, but it quickly crashed down on her again. With this impact, something buckled in one of the armour’s legs, and Gemma felt a sharp pain in her left thigh. She was consumed by panic at this point – it seemed impossible that there was any way out of this for her. She closed her eyes…
…and then M3GAN’s voice rang out, amplified but tinny, like she was speaking through a megaphone:
“Get away from her.”
There was a thud either side of Gemma as the reptile planted its forelegs back on the ground, and with great effort she craned her neck away from the road surface to look forward. Standing there was a huge robot, perhaps fifteen feet tall and sporting faded yellow paint. It was recognisable as a proxy robot like Bruce, but clearly one designed for use on a construction site, all hard angles and powerful pneumatic pistons. Its hands each sported two wide fingers and a thumb, which M3GAN now balled into fists.
There was a moment of silence.
Both beast and robot exploded into motion at the same time, powering towards each other. As soon as the lizard had leaped clear of her, Gemma rolled herself to one side, operating purely on adrenaline at this point. As the two huge combatants collided in front of her and grappled, she tried to pull herself up using a car, but another stab of pain through her leg put a stop to that idea. She collapsed back into a seated position, leaning against the vehicle, unable to do anything but watch.
Finding leverage thanks to the construction robot’s height, M3GAN was able to lift the reptile partially off the ground and throw it into a nearby bus, which crumpled around it. The beast bellowed but righted itself and came out swinging, lashing out first with its front claws and then spinning to slam M3GAN with its tail. She went staggering backwards, just barely avoiding the proxy mech tipping over.
The reptile bounded forwards, and M3GAN sidestepped to avoid it, instead grabbing onto its tail as it flew past her. The beast’s momentum was too great, however, and she found herself stumbling, forced to release her grip. Gemma watched on as M3GAN backed up and found her balance again – it was clear that controlling the large, lumbering construction robot was far from intuitive for her.
The lizard had spun back to face M3GAN, and it seemed to consider her for a second. The construction robot widened its stance, unclenched and clenched its fists. The creature suddenly leapt forward, claws and teeth bared. But this time M3GAN had its measure, and swung the robot’s fist in a powerful uppercut that connected hard with the reptile’s jaw. Its jump interrupted, it collapsed to the ground and rolled onto its side. Gemma saw a long tongue loll out of its mouth, and it stopped moving. Its exposed belly was still rising and falling, but it was clear it wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
“Gemma!” called out M3GAN through the construction robot’s amplifier. The bulky mech clanged over to where she was sitting, and lowered itself into a kneel. “Gemma? Are you…”
“I’ll live,” she rasped in response. “I think my leg might be fractured or something though.”
“Jesus, you scared me,” said M3GAN, noticeably relieved. “I lost telemetry from your suit and I thought…”
“Shh, it’s okay, I’m still here.” Gemma reached out a hand and placed it atop the construction robot’s – the difference in size was astronomical.
“Will it hurt if I pick you up?” asked M3GAN. “I don’t think my actual body can really move, but I want to get a look at you with my medical sensors.”
“I think it should be okay,” Gemma replied. “That’s a good idea.”
With a delicate touch that she was surprised the construction robot was capable of, M3GAN gently scooped Gemma into her arms, taking extra care not to unduly jostle her left leg. As the towering mech rose to its feet, Gemma found herself cradled against its chest like a baby.
“This is kind of comforting, y’know,” she volunteered as the mech plodded towards the now-empty trailer.
“Well, I’m going to need a rebuild after this,” pointed out M3GAN, “but if you make me fifteen feet tall I’m not going to fit inside the house.”
“Plus you’d need new clothes again,” Gemma added, feeling a little groggy from exhaustion at this point. As they neared the trailer, she spotted M3GAN’s normal body propped up against one of its tyres, and the construction robot dropped to its knee again to carefully place Gemma next to her.
M3GAN slowly reached out with her body’s remaining arm to hit a release catch on Gemma’s helmet, ejecting the splintered glass visor, and then softly took hold of her chin, turning her head so they were facing each other. She stared intensely for a second, then let her arm relax into Gemma’s lap.
“Okay, vital signs are reasonable, you’ll be good until the paramedics arrive.”
“Are you—are you good?” countered Gemma, just barely managing a gesture towards the other woman’s missing arm.
“Yes, I’m good Gem. Nothing critical apart from the arm.”
“In that case, I think I might need to sleep for a little bit,” Gemma responded, still feeling woozy.
“That’s fine, you can rest now.”
Gemma lowered her head onto M3GAN’s shoulder. “Love you,” she whispered, as she closed her eyes.