Choices and Consequences

Marcel Lestrange forgot that Stephanie was more machine now than human, a true cyborg, so that when he went limp, she just kept her feet firmly planted, shifting her weight slightly backward with mechanical precision, to let him hang in place held by her more than human strength. However, there were at least two parts of Stephanie that were still human: Her mind and her heart.

Stephanie whispered into Marcel's ear, "I know you are awake by your breathing and your heartbeat, but please let my husband finish the work he's already started. He really is a genius and a miracle worker! Pyotr's prototype is a finished work of art for anybody else! She will have a wonderful EGO, immediately complete with all the EGO powers and perks, but her EGO psyche will grow from her own. She should be able to use the EGO powers almost immediately. Any side effects will be minor, I'm sure. Trust him, he saved my life and he will make your wife a better person too!"

Stephanie smiled, still holding him tightly, as she added, "I can tell that you love her and care for her deeply because my Pyotr looks at me exactly the same way as you do her!"

Marcel could hear the high pitched whine of one of the power tools hanging above the operating table as he pondered Stephanie's words and his next move.

  After getting Volo's message, I say, outloud and over comm so Volodja can hear as well since he chose to scout ahead a little, "Alright good to know. Let's do a quick review. Taffer will use the ATV to distract the Omnivolt and since it appears their main protocol is to guard the gate and the interior perimeter, Lady is using the Mech to lift Volodja and myself over the fence and into the compound on the side nearest the Vigilant.  After Volodja and I are certain our insertion point is clear, we will give Lady thr go ahead to lift Erika and Belle over the fence. During which Volodja and I will continue forward. With Belle and Erika carefully following behind. Then after Taffer doubles back he will meet up with Lady and they will hold Lady's position until we are either ready for them to join us, or we are forced to do a quick Evac. Chris will be at the helm just incase of that contingency. Understood?"

  Once Everyone says they understand, I tell Volo, "Meet us at the insertion point since you are near there, but avoid being seen by the Omnivolts. So they follow Taffer, the bait, instead of you, Volodja." Then Taffer gets on the ATv and drives out to the front gate and gets the Omnivolts to follow him. As he says he is off on the chase, I  look at the women. "Alright Lady, kneel the mech down and put the arms out palms up and knuckles on the ground, so we can get a ride please." Lady does so and I step onto the right hand then quickly climb it. I kneel on the right shoulder, and hold onto a handhold on the side of the head to stay in place. Erika stands on the left hand and Belle, holding the dream machine, sits on the right palm. I then give Lady the order to walk to the insertion point.

  As we get there Volodja pulls himself out of the snow near the mech. Lady lowers the right arm to the ground, and Belle climbs off and Volo climbs on. The Lady lifts the right arm and lowers it into the compound, where volo hops of the hand and I quickly climb down the arm and drop into the compound as well.  As I do I sniff the air and volo and I scan the immediate area for danger. Not finding any, we start to work towards the building that we had decided the EGO expert is in. I give Lady the go ahead to place Belle and Erika in the compound as Volodja and I continue forward. About half way to the building I smell something,  so I signal Volo to stop.



  When he does, I send the team an EGO to EGO message. "Careful I smell burnt gunpowder ahead, obviously from gunfire. The smell is still fairly strong in the air so it couldn't have been long ago."  I raise my EXL LMG to a ready position and Volo does the same with his weapon, then we continue cautiously to the main door, which is open and has buckshot holes in it. I glance at Volo and nod towards the door, and say via EGO. "You first. I don't see or smell blood, so whatever happened we assume your friend is still alive. So it is best he see your friendly face first. I will be right behind you, ready to fire, at your signal."

"Unbelievable," muttered Volodja. "Our dear Erika has a sudden Vietnam syndrome and somebody is in Pyotr's house. Things are getting exciting. If I go forward I might get shot by Pyotr. If I move back then Erika will consider us to be couple of Vietcongs and starts another Pale War and we will be caught into friendly fire from both sides and I am not very eager to shoot back at them both. Giant - I remember you speaking about friendly faces. I think that you need to face our Erika as the Patriarch of your family. Just keep her on reasonable basis so we won't end up in tiny pieces. And you may have my support when you are doing that. I will try to sneak and peek inside and try to convince Pyotr to put his shottie away after we have dealt Erika's problem. At moment we are between a hammer and an anvil. Remember what happened with Germany in two world wars when they fought in two fronts. I don't want that to happen to us."




"Sometimes you have really smart ideas for a Fool," Atticus said with his deep voice. "I will see Erika although this psycho mumbling is your speciality. You are right about that you can't tear yourself apart. But keep in mind that I can. So you better provide me with any kind of tips and tricks as soon as I need them" said Atticus. That made Volodja to feel more confident actually - no matter what happened here, Atticus was still that good old bloodthirsty guy.

"Bloody jek," said Volodja. "Where is Eren when you need her to assure that everything is alight with her? Wish I could create an image of her to distract Erika. It would be a nice white lie for a good cause." Then he smiled and sent a message to Belle: "Belle dear. Can you stall Erika a bit until Giant reaches her? Disguise MOM into Eren or something like that. You have my total confidence."

Marcel checked his gun, trying to decide who to shoot first. Lena is on operation table, already cut. That means only one - she and thus Marcel depend on mercy of Pyotr so he can't shoot him during operation. Too late for that. Merde! Can't shoot cyborg woman either - Pyotr will kill Lena as a first reaction. So he better do what he was told and shoot the intruders. He could sense one of them approaching, although he didn't made a single noise and that was weird. Nobody can move that silently. Marcel ordered Moira to scan room ahead. 

"A male. Handsome and intelligent male to be specific," reported Moira. "Don 't shoot, because it's..."

"Hello Marcel," said calm voice and Volodja Uljanov appeared to the doorway. "Looks like we have some kind of reunion here. You, Lena and my friend Pyotr. And who is the lovely lady here? If my memory isn't failing then it must be Stephanie. How are you? Здоровa Петр! Cколько лет, сколько зим. Forgive my rude invasion but we need your help and it's matter of life and death." 

Taffer moved the moon rover ATV out of the cargo bay and tried it out in the snow, driving it in a figure of eight. The runner seemed capable of moving on the snow as he expected, so he started his way to the wall without hesitation. "It would be much more spectacular if Vo did this", he thought grievously before re had to remind himself there's people who rely on him right now and it's his responsibility now to keep them safe from being attacked.

The Omnivolts were so preoccupied with trying to figure out how to return on their patrol route that he had to bump slightly into the back of one of them to attract his attention. Granted, he could probably throw a flash grenade at them but that could attract the attention from the house or even set off the alarm. So he had to perform some dangerous maneuvers right in front of them to make sure all of them would follow when he drove away from the gates along the wall to the opposite direction from where his team was approaching. It was a good thing there were only Omnivolts around which were known for their low running speed and only close-range attack abilities. Paying attention so that none of them would lose the sight of him he drove in curves further and further from the house to a nearby forest where the snow looked even deeper. Taffer thought it should slow them down even more, which it did, but at the same time the Omnivolt he had bumped back then became more enraged and tried a jump-roll attack on him, making Taffer circle around the tree to break the line of attack.

Suddenly Dash warned him of another hostile which appeared right at his side. Taffer pulled out his TACC Autopistol with his right hand, his left one still on ATV's control bar, and barely managed to hit a small skitterling with it which was trying to jump on him. The skitterling screeched aggrievedly and ran away deeper into the forest and Taffer turned his ATV back to the fields thinking he's not in the right mood to add another group of pursuers on his tail. Contrary to his expectations, one of the Omnivolts noticed the skitterling and tried to chase it, only to be thrown back with a powerful Hellbug Warrior's attack which appeared right from the ground throwing a large cloud of snow around it. Seeing their mate received major damage, almost all other Omnivolts turned around and ran deeper into the forest to eliminate the immediate threat. Only one of them, the one who seemingly had the most dislike for Taffer, continued its pursuit stubbornly until Taffer jumped off his runner and engaged Cloak. The machine followed the empty ATV with its lone camera, walked in a couple of circles around and then, still not seeing its offender, joined its team in their fight with hellbugs which seemed to be attracted by the sounds of battle.

Taffer ran to his runner again and drove it back to the house where his teammates were. Dash was informing him on what happened while he was busy with his decoy operation, including Belle's message about something strange that was just happening to Erika.

"I've made those metal monkeys busy for a while, so I'm coming back to you", he sent to his team's EGO. "You're probably more in the know what's happening to Erika, so I'm just approaching the wall and waiting for your command", he added personally for Atticus.

He slowed down his runner a little to let his cloak recharge by the time he would approach the wall, just in case. He estimated the height of the wall and thought if he bumped the runner into the wall and made it stand apeak, he could jump and climb it. But then, with all those Omnivolts around, the wall could be electrified as well, so using the mech would be much safer. He slowly peeked around the corner to see how Erika, Belle and Lady were doing.

I am back at Erika's side immediately, and witness Lady talking to Erika. I slowly approach them and lower my gun. I look at them and remove my helmet so they can see my masked face, then say to Belle as she heads past me and inside, "Belle get inside now. Volodja is with the expert, as well as Lena Marr and Lestrange. Make sure you let them know we are here strictly for Petrovich's help and mean no harm, but be ready just in case."

I look at Erika and Lady. Then walk over and gently kiss Lady, as I say, "Looks like you forgot your gun on the Mech, Snow Angel. Here borrow mine." I hand Lady my EXL LMG and double check Erika. She assures me that she is alright and Lady will keep her company, so I agree and head back in behind Belle, putting my helm back on as I do. Then I I also send Lady an EGO to EGO message, "Lady if she has another delusion try something that will bring back familial memories, like a specific Irathient lullaby. I also found she was reading Dr. Seuss to Lexy, so if you know Dr. Seuss you can try quoting one of his books too. Hopefully Sandy or Lexy can help there if needed. I sure don't know children's books of any culture, and only the one lullaby. Fortunately it is the one that I think may help with Erika if you sing it to her, if she has another episode. Please be careful." I tell Lady the Lullaby and have Dinara, my depressed EGO psyche, send it to Lady so she can sing it to Erika if needed.

Then I send Taffer an EGO message, "Taffer Lady left the Mech next to the wall at our insertion she has it's arm over the wall and extended to the ground as a makeshift ladder. Get to Doctor Orion and get a sedative just incase we need to knockout Erika. Doctor Orion knows what is wrong and will get you what is best. Then climb that Mech ladder and get to Lady and Erika. And Taffer whatever you do, do not touch that wall, yourself. Unless you want the shock of your life. I sensed a lot of power going through it. As soon as you get the sedative, in case Erika needs it, get to Lady and Erika and keep them safe. And Taffer...hurry."

I then follow Belle in. As I enter the basement, I see that Marcel and Volodja are both seated across from each other, Marcel's shotgun pointed at him and Belle showing her credentials to some kind of female Cyborg.

I look around then say, "So we meet again Lestrange. Lower your shotgun, and we will put ours away. No need for weapons and especially not in such a confined space." I holster my gun as I continue. "Mrs. Yershova, I presume. As you can see from the credentials in Ms. Starr's hands, unlike Lestrange and his partner, we brought the valid credentials. We will not interfere with whatever business they have with you, which appears to be getting Lena an EGO. Hopefully a very moral one. However our business is extremely time sensitive. So we are not going anywhere, as we need your help as soon as you are done with Lena, and do not worry about my team. They can be a lot more civil than Herr Lestrange, and myself, and he more civil than me for that matter. However I will wait until you are done with your current 'patient'."