Джей Кристофф - Lifel1k3 (Lifelike)

The big bot and Faith had resumed their throwdown, trying their best to kill each other. Cricket’s shoulders and left arm were now ablaze, but he didn’t seem to notice. Lost in fury at seeing his maker get shot, the logika was swinging his burning limb like a massive club. Lemon grabbed Silas by the coveralls, face reddening with strain as she dragged the old man behind the outer doors. Her hands were drenched in red, cheeks wet with tears. Looking for a blanket, a rag, anything to stop the bleeding.

Anything.

“Hold on, Mister C,” she wept. “Just hold on.”

“Sorry, k-kiddo,” he gasped.

“No, you hold on, dammit. You’re gonna be okay….”

The old man took her bloody hand in his, squeezed it tight. “Look after our g-girl. She’s going to…n-need you now.”

Lemon winced, glancing at the brawl between Faith and Cricket as the floor shuddered, the bridge shook. The pair were going at it like Domefighters. The lifelike was faster, but the logika’s sheer brawn was enough to keep her at bay. Faith was slipping between Cricket’s haymaker, slicing away with her arc-blade, hoping to keep her distance long enough for her brother to rejoin the fight and even the odds.

Lemon turned away from the brawl, back to Silas. She was all set to dash off in search of a medkit—there had to be something around that could help. But her breath caught in her throat when she saw that the old man’s eyes were open and glazed.

“…Mister C?”

She shook him, his knuckles rapping on the gantry as his lifeless hand fell away from hers. Grief dug claws into her belly when she shook him again.

“Mister C?”

No reply. He lay there, empty and still. The man who’d taken her in. The man who’d given her a roof, a family, a place to belong. The man who’d never once asked for a thank-you. Her tears burned as the sob escaped her throat.

“…Grandpa?”

Gabriel was setting his shoulders to charge back into the brawl between Faith and Cricket when he caught movement at the railing to his left. Turning, he saw Ana climbing up over the vent shaft’s ledge, gasping and breathless, clutching her bruised throat. Ezekiel scrambled up beside her, eyes narrowing when he spotted Gabriel raising his pistol.

Ezekiel shouted a warning and lunged into the firing line as Gabriel blasted away. Two bullets struck home, Ana screaming Ezekiel’s name as he and Gabriel collided, the pair falling into a snarling tangle. The smoking pistol spun out of reach when the lifelikes’ hands found each other’s throats. Ezekiel’s T-shirt shredded, exposing the bullet holes in his bleeding chest, the coin slot Gabriel had riveted there to remind him of his loyalty to Ana.

“Traitor,” Gabriel spat.

“Murderer,” Ezekiel replied.

“I am as he made me….”

Ezekiel roared, smashing his brother’s head against the deck.

“You blame everyone but yourself!” he shouted. “Monrova! Silas! Anyone! But you chose this, Gabriel! You hear me? This is on you !”

Gabriel snarled, punched Ezekiel in his chest, the wounded lifelike gasping in pain. Gabriel dragged Ezekiel up, slammed him against the broken railing, once, twice. The welds shuddered, the pair locked in a hateful embrace just a few inches from the fall. Gabriel’s face was twisted with rage, Ezekiel gasping as they tore at and battered each other, knuckles bloodied, hate upon hate upon hate.

“I am as he made me!”

Gabriel smashed Ezekiel across the face.

“I AM AS HE MADE ME!”

Gabriel slammed Ezekiel back into the rail, the lifelike flipping and toppling over the drop. Ezekiel’s hand shot out, seized the ledge to break his fall. A two-hundred-meter drop yawned below them—a plunge perhaps not even a lifelike could survive. Gabriel raised a boot to crush his brother’s fingers, send him plummeting into the void.

A broken wheelchair slammed into the back of Gabriel’s head. The lifelike staggered as Ana swung the chair like a club, smashing it into him again. Gabriel turned with a snarl, slapped Ana back against the opposite railing. Clutching either side of her head, he pressed his thumbs into her eyes, hissing as he began to squeeze.

“Kiss your father for me, when you see him in hell.”

“You bastard !”

A bright pink shape hit Gabriel from behind, a metal baseball bat discharging 500kV right into his brain, knocking the lifelike off his feet. Lemon scrambled atop his chest, raised Excalibur up over her head. Electricity crackled down the bat’s shaft, reflected in her eyes as she brought the bat down again.

“You killed my grandpa!”

Excalibur crunched into Gabriel’s head, lightning flaring bright.

“You killed him!”

Gabriel slapped her face, leaving her reeling. He twisted out from under her, seized her collar and slung her at the wall. Her rad-gear tearing like damp tissue, Lemon collapsed to the deck. Gabriel snatched up his fallen pistol, features twisted with fury. Blood was streaming down his face, eyes alight as he raised the weapon.

Lemon stared down the barrel, too furious to be afraid. The lifelike squeezed the trigger and she saw the muzzle flash, once, twice, three times. She threw up her hands, wincing as she turned, waiting for the bullets to strike. But with a cry, something flew at her from out of the strobing black, hitting her hard in the chest.

“Lemon!”

Ana wrapped her arms around her bestest, twisting her away from Gabriel’s gunfire. Lemon felt a thudding impact, heard Ana gasp, saw her eyes go wide with shock. They hit the deck, rolling into a tangle as Ezekiel hauled himself up from the drop with bloody fingertips. Seeing Ana fall, he flew at his brother, the pair crashing against Myriad’s shell.

Gabriel was laughing—actually laughing —as the pair clashed, strangling, punching, clawing, his lips split in a madman’s grin. He brought a knee up into Ezekiel’s crotch, swung behind to wrap him in a full nelson. The veins in Ezekiel’s throat bulged, his eyes wide, and the wounded lifelike pushed back against the hold that would break his neck. His fingers flailed at empty air as Gabriel pressed harder. Vertebrae popping. Tendons screaming.

Gabriel hauled him to his feet, spun him to face Lemon and Ana. The redhead was on her feet, clutching Gabriel’s empty pistol, face streaked with tears. But at her feet, Ana lay motionless, rad-suit spattered with blood, three bullet holes in her back. Ezekiel let out a strangled moan, face twisted in agony.

“No…”

Gabriel’s lips brushed Ezekiel’s ear as he whispered.

“No happy endings for either of us, brother.”

Ezekiel’s cry was ragged and hollow. Gritting his teeth, he bucked against Gabriel’s grip with all his strength. Unable to take the stress, the bolts anchoring his prosthetic to his body began to groan, the cables at his back tearing loose. Ezekiel twisted, dragging Gabriel toward the gantry’s ledge, and with the awful sound of metallic bone cracking, muscle tearing, Ezekiel bent double and flipped Gabriel over his head. Ezekiel’s cybernetic arm was torn clean off his body, sparks and cables and blood, Gabriel sailing over the railing and plunging down into the shaft with a shapeless cry of rage.

Faith was still fighting toe to toe with Cricket, dancing between his blows like the wind between the rain, hydraulic fluid spraying as her arc-blade flashed and sizzled.

“You’ll have to be faster than that, little brother.” She smiled.

But as she heard Gabriel’s scream, the lifelike glanced over her shoulder for a split second, fear gleaming in those flat gray eyes.

“…Gabe?”

A double-handed blow crashed down atop her, pummeling her into the floor. Cricket snatched her up by the legs in a crushing grip and slammed her back down onto the bridge. Blood spattered as the logika brought the lifelike up over his shoulders and slammed her down again, back and forth, pulverizing skin and bone.