Chapter 73: Lockdown Part Two

Ai pressed the red square button on the control console in front of her. She watched as flames flooded the hallway. The sounds of the mutant's screams could be heard from the control room. Mai and the two girls huddled together embracing each other. Ai watched the feed in the hallway carefully. She could see the mutant thrashing around but it was still not falling to the ground.

"Ai, I brought it all!" Eiji came into the room with an RPG and a bag full of stuff. 

"Lay it out on the table and start fixing the C4 and metal to the grenade. I will figure out how to do the detonators after." Ai said not taking her eyes off the screen.

"Yoshi, come help me with this, you know how to deal with the C4 better than I do." Eiji said while waving his hand at Yoshi.

"Alright." Yoshi answered then turned his attention to the girls. "Your girls come over too, it is best we all stay together, just in case anything happens." 

Mai, who was scared stiff at this time, nodded her head. She found that machinas were not as scary as the thing that was attacking them at this moment and time. She took the girls' hands and walked to the table with Yoshi and Shogo. 

"Shogo come here and look at this screen. Tell me what you see." Ai was having a hard time believing what she was seeing. So she wanted to get a second opinion just in case. 

"What!? What is it doing?" Shogo's face was filled with horror as he looked at the screen.

"So it's not just me, this fucking thing seems to be evolving again and is sucking in the flames..." Ai bit her fingernails as she looked at the sudden change in the situation. She was having a hard time coming up with a plan on what to do. "We may need to leave..."

"How!? The whole area is covered in radiation. Not only that, the radiation storm is still going on. We will all die if we get caught in it." Shogo shouted after hearing Ai's words.

Ai's head began to hurt listening to Shogo. She turned around and kicked him hard in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and sending him to the floor. "Would you shut the fuck up! Did I say shit about leaving the base? This room is not the safest room in the fucking base. My top priority is for us to survive. I do not have time for you shouting in my ear while I am trying to think. Do you think I have survived this long just because I was fucking lucky? Open your eyes and look at what we are dealing with. In a room with a full wall of fucking glass, do you think that thing will be stopped? Use what little brain cells you have and just shut up and let me think!" 

Everyone stared in shock at Ai who was now pointing her gun at Shogo, her chest heaving up and down. They all knew she was stressed and Shogo had to go and push that thin line of restraint she had. Only Eiji stepped in between the two as he held his hands out in front of him as he said: "Ai, now is not the time. Beat him up later. Let's deal with what is on hand first."

Ai looked at Eiji and snorted before lowering her gun and turning away. Shogo who was ready to wet his pants let out a sigh of relief. Eiji turned to him motioned with his hand for him to get up and stay back. "Ai shouldn't we shut the flames off, so it won't finish its evolution?" 

"No… Instead, we want it to complete it. Have your dumb ass friend get every fire extinguisher he can find and bring them here. I would rather deal with fire than what it was made of before. This could be a chance for us. Once it finishes, I will trigger the fire repellent systems and we can then observe its reactions." She was glad this base had a highly advanced fire repellent system that did not use only water but highly concentrated fire repellent that could almost freeze whatever it touched. 

Eiji thought for a moment and quickly understood Ai's plan. She had planned to see if the acid the mutant was producing from its mouth and skin would disappear. It would not only slow the mutant's progress but allow them time to test to see what they can and can not do to get rid of it. "Shogo, you heard her, go do it now!" Eiji yelled before going back to help Yoshi. 

Ai watched as the flames began to die down to the lack of fuel. As they dispersed, what was seen on the camera was a flaming mutant. Something that looked like it had just stepped out of hell. "Ai what's that!?"

Mai yelled out as she pointed at one of the screens. Ai lifted her head to see a mass of metallic objects running down a destroyed hallway. "Oh?" Ai was confused since there should be no reason for the machina to be rushing here. But what really surprised her and the rest was what happened next.

"Wait, are they attacking it!?" Yoshi yelled out in surprise. Twenty plus first type machinas were rushing the mutant and attacking it. "Did the A.I. decided that mutants were a threat now as well?"

"I am not sure but this is good for us. Let's wait and see what happens. Maybe these machinas will do us a favor and kill the mutant for us. If not we can at least see how the mutant will fight." Ai replied as she watched the battle on the screen.

***

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