Bring The Heat

65. Reunion (CB ARC 14)

-(WREN)-

Wren listened closely for any noise outside of the medbay.

"Anything?" BM asked, but she gestured for him to keep quiet.

After a couple more seconds, Wren turned back to him.

"Nothing." she said in a hushed voice. She evaluated the situation.

Looking at the big picture, where would she go? Reconnecting with her friends still in the compound would be invaluable, but there was no telling how any of them were doing in their own fights, if she even survived hers.

But there was no way out of here just waiting for someone else to solve this. Even if... even if everyone else had lost, she'd beat all of the attackers! For BM, and for herself!

"I'm going out." she stated confidently.

"Now hold on, I-"

"Do you have an alternative?"

BM stopped. He didn't... but he didn't like sending Wren out alone, even if he was injured. Though his mind was a lot blanker now, it felt so much clearer too... all of this sending CHILDREN out on dangerous missions, how could he have been letting it happen? How long had his mind really been fogged up by whatever had been dismantling it? Or maybe that was an excuse for just the way he was, his inability to do right by his people. After all, what had happened with Robin...

"I'll come with you. If we're really fighting this head on, then we'll do it with everything we have. We'll do it together." he stated. The words felt so easy to say, like he was entirely sure that they were right.

Wren watched as he stood up, leaning slightly against the wall for support. She didn't like this, but he was right. She gave him a confident nod, and he returned it stoically, so she began to take down the barricade.

-(REBOUND)-

The robot stood perfectly still out in the hallway, just staring idly at the medbay door. Rebound peered out at it from the training room. It had been standing there most of the morning, and so long as it was there he couldn't go anywhere. If he stepped out it'd shoot at him again, and he was too big for the vents now...

Suddenly, there was a silent rustling and clanging from the robot's direction, and Rebound hid back around the corner. But when he heard the scratch of the broken medbay door sliding open, he looked out again, and was met with a relieving sight.

"Wren!" he exclaimed, and she snapped her head over to shush him, before a big smile broke out over her face as she slipped past X9 to throw herself into Rebound's arms. They spent a second embracing, glad that they were both ok, before Wren pulled away.

"Why are you shirtless?"

Rebound scratched his head guiltily.

"Well, uh... I was fighting, ok? It was super serious. Pretty brutal stuff... you wouldn't get it."

"And you just *had* to take your shirt off?" Wren asked sarcastically, grinning.

"Shut up... look, we gotta focus. Do you know where anyone else is? And how many enemies we got in here with us?"

"Well, BM's with me," she replied, gesturing back at him leaning in the doorway, "but he's in pretty bad shape, and neither of us have our powers. I don't know where anyone else is, but I think we have... 4 people, and 2 outside. Well, I guess it's 3, cos this hunk of metal seems pretty dead."

"2, actually. I got one, she's gone."

Wren's face lit up.

"You won a fight? Like, actually!?" she asked, only half teasing.

"Fuck off, I do it all the time. Cece might be in her room or something... I said some pretty mean stuff to her, I guess. And she couldn't've been welding, cos the hangar's where they came in. Let's just do a sweep of the place and get everyone together."

BM stepped forward.

"No," he said, "this is a crisis, and Cece'll be doing what I taught her to do."

BM began to hobble towards his office, when suddenly the lights to the compound flickered back on. There was a loud whirring noise, bouncing deafeningly around the halls. Rebound yelped and hopped forward as the doors to the training room began to mechanically slide shut right behind him.

"Second Layer Protocol..." BM muttered.

The Second Layer Protocol was the Plan B in terms of the compound's defenses - multiple large generators would power up for auxiliary power in case that the compound had lost power during an attack, and every door to the place would slide shut and lock automatically, isolating the threat (normally, BM would be able to bust through these doors just fine). Finally, another layer of thick metal shutters would begin to roll down for all exits to the compound.

Before anyone could ask what was happening, a loud crash was heard from BM's office as the hatch was slammed open with the force of a violent gale, and a tearing sound approached down the hallway. It was Vertigo!

Vertigo had fully intended to get out before whatever the hell that whirring was put him in a bad situation, but then he saw her. Wren. Unfinished business rarely gave someone another chance to finish it, but here she was...

As he zoomed towards her, Vertigo grinned manically; for YEARS he had dreamt of this moment...

All Wren could do was hold her hand out helplessly in front of her, but right as Vertigo collided with her, her hand brushed his shoulder lightly, and from between them came an ear-piercing SNAP and a flash of purple light as Wren's vision slowly faded out.