Hope falls silently in the dark ... - Part 7

Caitlyn didn't care anymore. Didn't care why Fiend had decided to devastate her life. Didn't care whether the villain killed her or not. The two most important people in her life were gone. Killed for the pathetic reason that Caitlyn loved them. Nothing mattered. Not life, not death. Not anything. She didn't even move as she heard crunching noises from below, or when an enormous, metal hand rose from below, gripping the remains of the parapet and a robotic head followed it, eyes glowing.

"When ... will you ..." Servos whined as the robot pulled itself up, the grating, industrial voice emerging from speakers in the still features. "... ever learn, Blood Obsidian?"

"Machina?" The combat suit of the villain looked different, but Caitlyn really didn't care. Now she had two enemies that wanted to kill her. "Do your worst, both of you. I won't resist. I've learned alright. I've learned that nothing matters."

"What are you talking about?" Metal legs stomped onto the balcony, looming over Caitlyn. "I'm talking about your cell. Don't switch it off."

Something was off with the brilliant master of the Machina combat suit. He didn't talk like that before and, somehow, the voice, though changed by the metal monstrosity, sounded kind of familiar. Turning, the robot body faced, not Caitlyn, but Fiend, gears whining, weapons cycling to readiness.

Caitlyn turned herself over, with great effort. If she wasn't hallucinating, her former enemy now protected her. She could feel the suit struggling to repair itself and she prayed it would last, now. If she wasn't seeing things in her pain-addled mind, she may just stand a chance. Then, she slumped back against the wall of the broken parapet. What did it matter. Fiend hovered, some distance away, head cocked to the side as they watched the new arrival.

"Well, this is interesting." Even while assessing the new situation, Fiend still cackled under their breath, fingers drumming against the hand grip of the flying platform. "You are not Machina. Never mind. One dead, two dead, three, four, five, today is a great day to stop people being alive."

"Worst rhyme ever, Fright-mask. Besides, no-one's died yet." The robot head looked down toward Caitlyn. "They're safe. NHPD's finest are taking care of them. Now, get up and fight."

"Fiend still has Rayna, though." She pushed herself to her feet. She couldn't say why she trusted this new Machina, but she did. Instinct told her to. "You find her and I'll ..."

"That's just it ..." The head of Machina revolved back toward the villain on the flying platform. "Fiend is Rayna. She's been playing you all along."

Fiend began to laugh, head tilting back, mouth opening wide, fangs glinting in the barest light of the night. Caitlyn scowled. That couldn't be right. Rayna loved her father. Framing Raymond Alden as Fiend made no sense. Then, as Fiend's laughter began to fade to an eerie cackling, they turned back to glare at the new Machina.

"Spoilsport. I had a whole thing prepared. Poor, pitiful love interest, Rayna Alden, caught in a death trap beneath Ald-Tech." The fangs in Fiend's mouth clacked as she tutted at the combat suit. "Go away, fake Machina, this is a girls-only party. Toodles."

Without warning, a rocket fired from the frame of the flying platform, rushing toward the new Machina's feet, destroying the balcony floor and sending cracks spidering outward, covering the entirety of the balcony. The floor began to crumble, pieces of tiles and concrete breaking away and tumbling down the face of the skyscraper, the weight of the combat suit speeding up the break-up of the building, and the new Machina began to tilt, topple and then fall.

"Shit." The electronic voice didn't sound afraid. Only a little surprised as, with the sound of groaning metal, the combat suit tumbled from the rapidly disappearing balcony. "I'll be right ba ..."

The suit screamed in pain in Caitlyn's mind as she lifted her arm, firing out a thin string of the suit's material, catching the side of the building and lifting her from the crumbling balcony. Out of the destruction, she turned to floating, her head whipping around, searching for her enemy, but Fiend had gone. The laughter, however, still hung in the air and Caitlyn's eyes looked up, toward the roof and the enormous letters that proclaimed the building as Ald-Tech.

-+-

Meanwhile, below ...

The elevator music stopped after Chief Watson shot the speakers. He wasn't in the mood for that. That he had just seen Machina drop off the two kidnapped women, then rocket up, back toward the Ald-Tech building, didn't make his day any better. He knew it wasn't Joe. This Machina, or whatever they were going to call themselves, was the one who had stolen the combat suit out from under NHPD noses. He'd have words about that, later.

The sounds of battle reverberated through the entire building, sending dust cascading down from the upper floors, giving the large atrium the appearance of a snow storm inside the building. The elevator was taking too long to get up to where all the action was and, if nothing else, he owed the kid his help. If he had only insisted that she quit before it all became too real, but he hadn't. He'd let a teenager take on the responsibilities of a hero who had died doing that same job. This was all Watson's fault and he would never forgive himself if Fiend hurt the kid.

He should have taken the stairs, but years of smoking had taken that option away from him. He wouldn't have made it even a quarter of the way before he had become a wheezing wreck. Reaching into his coat, he took out the nicotine gum. He needed something to take the edge off before he reached the top.

-+-

On the Ald-Tech headquarters roof ...

She waited there, hovering on that stupid flying platform, legs spread wide like someone posing for a magazine. Rayna. Caitlyn didn't want to believe it, but, even when the new Machina had said it, she couldn't deny it. Somehow, deep inside, she knew the robot operator was right. Rayna was Fiend. The girl she had fallen for, who had turned her down in probably one of the most embarrassing moments of Caitlyn's life. And Caitlyn had a fair idea why.

"Is this because of the fight with Vezzpa?" Caitlyn's first, true, super-villain battle had not gone quite how she wanted it to. "I'm sorry. I should have been more careful. I should have taken the fight somewhere else. I should have ... look, there are a million things I did wrong and I'm truly sorry. It put you and everyone there in danger and ..."

"That? No. That made me what I am. Look at me, look how beautiful that black goo made me. I don't hate you for that." Rayna crouched, now, gripping the handle of the flying platform, the fanged face curling in hatred. "I hate you because you saved him. I could have had this company in the palm of my hand. The power and the capital to turn governments. And you saved him!"

That wasn't what had happened. At all. Even under the mask of her suit, she could feel her face screwed up in confusion. From the little she had seen of Rayna, before the fight with Vezzpa, the girl had appeared to have no interest in, well, anything. That Rayna would have turned her nose up at running her father's company. That Rayna hadn't shown any interest in Caitlyn, either.

While she thought about that, she felt a tingling sensation from the suit. The respite from fighting had allowed it make repairs and, though she could tell, somehow, that the suit wasn't at one hundred percent, it had repaired enough. For now. And not a moment too soon, either, as Caitlyn saw Rayna's clawed hand reaching into the satchel that held her fright-face grenades. Caitlyn changed her stance, readying herself.

"But I didn't save him. I was too busy having the snot beaten out of me." She circled to the side, opening up her suit to grab the net weapon from her own bag. "You did. I saw you, covering him with your own body. You love your father. This feeling you have now, this hate? It isn't you. It's that fake Black Element. It changed you. It's made you confused."

"Oh, please. Spare me the 'you can be saved' crap. This is who I am and I like it." She didn't even try to hide it, drawing out two grenades and pressing the arming buttons on top, setting them flashing. "But I'll like it a whole lot more when you're dead."

Before Rayna could throw the grenades, Caitlyn fired the net toward the transformed girl. Which Rayna avoided with ease, shooting straight up on that platform, but not before sending the two grenades Caitlyn's way. They were easy enough to avoid, but Rayna had anticipated Caitlyn's leap and a third grenade now appeared right in front of Caitlyn. Instinct took over, the baseball bat made of the suit's material appeared from her hand and swatted toward the grenade.

All three grenades exploded one after the other, the shockwave of the last one knocking Caitlyn off her feet, even if it didn't injure her. A blast of energy did hit her, though, and she arched her back in pain, remembering that feeling from the fight with Vezzpa. Another weapon that Rayna, Fiend, had adapted to her own persona. Caitlyn didn't have time to feel sorry for herself, and began a series of leaps and rolls, evading Fiend's follow-up attacks.

"Rayna Alden, put your weapons down, get off that flying ... thing, and put your hands behind your head." Where he had come from, Caitlyn didn't know, but, there, on the other side of Fiend from her, stood Chief Watson, his pistol drawn and aimed at the super-villain. "You'll be happy to know, Rayna, that the hospital are managing to wash out all the drugs you've given your father. He's remembering a lot of stuff and he is not happy."

"This ..." Rayna didn't even turn toward Chief Watson, only digging a hand into her satchel. "... is a private party!"

He was too far away. Rayna was too far away. Caitlyn had taken advantage of the open space of the skyscraper's rooftop, giving her distance from Fiend, tumbling and leaping in that way she had come used to having as an advantage. Even were she to fire out the length of suit material to try and grapple Watson to her, she doubted she could do it fast enough.

That flat, razor-sharp, gargoyle shaped blade had already left Fiend's hand, thrown with little care, though with unerring accuracy. Chief Watson never stood a chance as the blade buried itself deep into his chest. The pistol fell from his fingers first, hands dropping to his sides, then his legs crumpled beneath him as fell to the surface of the roof.

"Chief?" Caitlyn used her infrared ability and saw that the Chief's body had already started to cool. With her enhanced hearing, she focussed on the diminishing heart beat.

"Now that rude interruption has been dealt with, where were we?" A long, grey, clawed finger tapped against those grinning fangs before snapping against the thumb. "Ah! Yes! Killing you. Be a dear and make it fun."

Fiend's laughter drifted across the entire roof as she dipped her hand back into that satchel, but Caitlyn hardly noticed the laughter. Instead, she listened to Chief Watson's heart coming to a stop and his final, whispered words.

"I'm sorry, Caitlyn." He knew who she was. She had suspected he knew, but, still. "Go get her, kid. I'm proud of you."

Caitlyn's hands balled into fists.