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Post by Sarah Meldon on May 16, 2016 20:53:12 GMT
"...Mr. Alex?" The robots right arm started moving jerkily. Breeze grabbed the nearest thing she could find: her sewing scissors in her pocket, jammed them in the arm joints, and snatched a chair and started beating the robot repeatedly.
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Post by Alex Marlowe on May 16, 2016 21:05:27 GMT
Alex froze. Did the superheroine just call him Mr. Alex? Ah, dammit. She already knew who he was, and now she'd just given herself away. He walked around, looking at the robot.
"ERROR. JOINT MALFUNCTION. JAM. CLEAR JAM. ERROR. WEAPON MALFUNCTION. JAM. CLEAR JAM. ERROR." The robot continued to repeat. As it twitched and shifted, metal crunched and more debris began clearing from its joints.
"Sarah. Don't tell my mom what you're about to see." Alex lifted his right hand above his head, and the ring shone brightly. "IRON BROTHERHOOD!" A dark red magical seal formed in the air behind him, and Alex threw his arm down. The pieces of the Iron Brotherhood armor flew out, latching onto his body piece by piece until the helmet latched on. The last thing to fly out was his spear, which landed in his hand. B.R.I.C.K. stopped shifting and studied Alex.
"NEW THREAT. PRIORITY: RED. SECURE THE AREA. ERROR. JOINT MALFUNCTION. JAM. CLEAR JAM. ENGAGING INTERNAL FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS." There was a whoosh sound, and suddenly a cloud of white fire-retardant foam burst from inside the robot, effectively cleaning its joints. It set about picking the debris out of its gun.
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Post by Sarah Meldon on May 16, 2016 21:15:34 GMT
"Sarah? Why, um, I'm certainly not, er, don't tell anyo- my scissors!" she wailed. That is it! She jerked all the air particles surrounding the robot violently, clearing the foam off, making loose panels and screws fly across the room and embed themselves in the wall, and tearing the left arm half off, leaving it dangling awkwardly. Sarah dropped to a knee, feeling the burning of oxygen deprivation as she pushed herself beyond her limits. She had felt it time and again, and she was confident she'd taken her meds early enough for them to take effect before it was too late, and Mr. Alex in his shiny armor would certainly protect her, and that birdy flying around would- aw snap, she was hallucinating already.
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Post by Alex Marlowe on May 16, 2016 21:25:41 GMT
"Let me and my friends handle this one." Alex put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back. He proceeded to split into a team of 15, surrounding the robot.
"CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE, LEFT." B.R.I.C.K. retracted its left arm back into its body, leaving it with only a right arm. A right arm that was still more gatling gun than arm. "NEW THREATS DETECTED. UNABLE TO COUNT. SECURE THE AREA." It opened fire, and three clones fell. Alex and his remaining clones rushed in, Alex himself severing the left leg with a carefully placed thrust.
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Post by Sarah Meldon on May 16, 2016 21:32:12 GMT
Sarah felt herself falling, then hit the floor. Any minute now would be great.. she thought, waiting for the meds to kick in and the burning to go away. Her eyes screwed shut. She had no idea what was going on right now. She could only focus on the pain as her other senses over loaded. Is Alex still fighting, or is he worried? She weakly lifted her arms and started signing I'll be ok, don't worry. Not that he was liable to know sign language, if he was even looking.
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Post by Alex Marlowe on May 16, 2016 22:14:05 GMT
Alex noticed her fall over, and one of the clones saw her sign. He didn't know sign, but at least she was still alive. First things first.
"DAMAGE CRITICAL. RETREAT." The tinny voice of B.R.I.C.K. announced. A clone took out it's other leg, snapping it at the knee joint with a well-placed low kick.
"You're not going anywhere." Alex spun his spear more for dramatic effect, before slamming it into place in the robot's "eye". With the help of a few clones, they forced it through all the way, and pulled it back out. It crashed to the floor, not even a word.
Alex knelt next to Sarah, banishing the clones and pulling his helmet off. "Breathe. Just breathe." He had no medical training, but he didn't know how much his mom knew. He didn't want to be involuntarily exposing Sarah's secret.
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Post by Sarah Meldon on May 16, 2016 22:28:58 GMT
Sarah felt her meds kicking in. The burning stopped as oxygen flowed back though her body. Slowly her senses started registering again. As her eyes cleared up, she saw Alex looming over her in metal armor. She jumped, then recollection flowed back to her. I'm fine, she signed weakly.
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Post by Alex Marlowe on May 17, 2016 1:36:12 GMT
"I don't Sign, sorry." Alex muttered, dismissing his armor. "Are you alright? That 'bot really did a number on... well, everything."
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Post by Sarah Meldon on May 17, 2016 2:05:44 GMT
Sarah felt around in her pockets and pulled out a small notepad and a pen. "I'm fine, I just won't be able to talk for a bit. The meds are kicking in, so I can breathe again. So... you know who I am, and I guess you are too?" She looked around. "I'm not very steady right now, but I can try to help clean up. Or should I go get the staff and let them know it's safe now? Either way, I should change clothes so no one else finds out," she jotted quickly.
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Post by Alex Marlowe on May 17, 2016 5:10:48 GMT
"Yeah, the whole "Mr. Alex" gave it away pretty quick. You can change out, I'll deal with the security and my parents. Knowing my mom, she'll think we're destined or something." He rolled his eyes at the notion and got up, peeking into the room it had been living in. What had made it go bonkers? Were there more than one?
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Post by Sarah Meldon on May 17, 2016 17:40:46 GMT
"She knows I'm not chosen," Sarah wrote. "It's about all I can do to survive. If I see something happening, I'll do what I can, but I'm not a proper hero. You may be a proper hero, but it's less about being chosen and more about choosing, isn't it? Otherwise there wouldn't be villains." Sarah quickly pulled the Lavender Gale off, revealing her normal clothes she was wearing underneath, folded Gale up as small as possible, and crept back to the bathroom, making sure no one saw her. Once there, she unlocked the stall and retrieved her backpack, put Gale back inside, and crouched down trying to get her air back under control as quick as possible.
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Post by Alex Marlowe on May 18, 2016 1:09:49 GMT
Alex waited outside, thinking about what she had said. Or wrote, maybe. It was a bit gray. Sure, Alex hadn't exactly chosen to be a hero; the armor had really sort of fallen into his hands by sheer chance. For months, he thought the ring was just a pretty bauble. But he'd chosen to keep at it. He'd filled out the paperwork. He decided to do it, even if it might kill him. It was his chance to shine a bit of light in a world that really needed it.
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Post by Sarah Meldon on May 18, 2016 1:23:11 GMT
Catching her breath, Sarah sprinkled some water on her eyes and stumbled out of the building, sobbing. The Drs. Marlowe ran to her. "It was so scary!" she bawled as loud as she could. "I hid in the bathroom until it quieted down! I think it's over now, but it's still so scary!" She hid her face in her hands and started shaking, while whispering so just the doctors could hear her. "Mr. Alex is safe. I saw him briefly, so you don't have to worry." She then went back to crying loudly as the relieved Mrs. Dr. Marlowe made a show of comforting her and Mr. Dr. Marlowe, still clutching Alex's bag, organized a group to go clean up and to find his son.
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Post by Alex Marlowe on May 18, 2016 3:01:15 GMT
Alex looked back to the wreckage of the robot. Obvious spear markings would make it obvious a hero had been here. He sighed, pushed his glasses further up his nose, and started picking his way back to the entrance through the wreckage of the labs. After a few minutes, he ran into the group of rescuers, who led him back into the lobby. His mother seemed overjoyed to know he was still alive, and he claimed his bag from his dad.
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Post by Sarah Meldon on May 18, 2016 3:15:05 GMT
Sarah watched Alex reunite with his family, then quietly left. It was "family time" now, after the brief intermission, and she didn't want to intrude. If Mr. Alex wanted to talk to her, he knew where her shop was, and he seemed fairly old hat on this anyway. If anything, I should probably be asking him for advice. I'm glad he was here; I couldn't handle it at all, she thought as she walked away.
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