Terrestrial Undead

Chapter 19

"It's alright," 009 said in a shuddering voice. "You couldn't make her."
Tesla held her head in her hands.
"But those nets... then they'll want information from her... she's going to be in a world of pain..."
"Then we'll rescue her," 003 piped up. 009 put a hand on their shoulder. Terrestria hadn't changed them. Tesla looked up.
"We've been trying to infiltrate their prison for ever. It's the worst place on the ground or in the air. We used to have someone with us who got in but..." Tesla put her face back into her hands, "they never came back. We had them bugged, so we could monitor them. The last thing we heard... they just screamed and screamed..."
"Then we try again," 009 muttered, hoisting herself off the net. "If the place is as bad as you say it is, we've got to shut it down."
The trio walked back to base in silence. 009 watched 003 closely as they tore off the white and gold cloak and threw it onto the damp floor and mutter,
"Father my ass."
As they walked, 009 wobbled a little. She thought vaguely that her legs felt like jelly, and giggled a little. Jelly. Her legs were metal! How silly.
003 started laughing too. They got it. They always got it. Jelly! Hah! 009 fondly took their hand and kissed it, and 003 collapsed into her, belly heaving with fits of uncontrollable laughter.
Tesla was sniggering too. She put a hand around 009's waist, tugging her closer, and the three collapsed into a quivering heap. It was all so silly. And what was that hissing sound?
A little meow called 009's attention from her laughing fit.
"Heehee... Miu! What a funny little person you are..."
Miu bounded up to 009 and sniffed her face, and then sunk her little teeth deep into her skin.
"Miu!" 009 cried.
Mist clouded her eyes. Smoke? Vapour?
Gas.
Shit.
009 felt around soggily for the cloak 003 had dropped. Their pursuers must have seen them enter the sewers, and were trying to gas them out. 009 choked out 003's name. They were barely conscious. Her fingers were going numb, but she found the material and planted it over her face.
"Point taken, Miu. Go! Go now!"
Forcing herself to stand, she pushed a corner of the cloak to 003's face and hoisted them up. They stood on shaky legs, allowing 009 to tend to Tesla. She was well gone, and 009 had to pick her up and carry her with one arm while she and 003 supported each other, stumbling through the tunnels away from the steady hiss of the gas. Wordlessly, they spiralled down into the lower sewers, finally managing to crawl through a manhole and pull the cover over themselves. The air was cool and clean.
"Is there another way out of here?" 003 gasped.
009 nodded in between fits of coughing, and watched as her friend produced a long blowtorch from their clothes and sealed the manhole shut.
"You kept the tools you used to fix my mask," 009 mused, and then frowned. If she had still had her mask, would she have been able to resist the gas?
Tesla began to murmur, and 009 set her down gently against a wall.
"What happened?"
009 smiled.
"His Majesty's puppets just gave me a damn good idea, that's what."

009 popped dried fish after dried fish into Miu's mouth as she spoke to Bell. Her little friend deserved some recognition. After all, of it weren't for them, she'd be out cold somewhere in the upper sewers, and the vampires at the base wouldn't have had time to seal up the manholes to prevent it from becoming an underground ghost town.
"I'm going to need my mask back."
Bell blinked, shocked, but didn't ask questions. She only waited for 009 to continue.
"If the damn thing had've still been on my face just now, the gas wouldn't have been a problem. If we had a way to breathe while it was doing it's thing, a gas that can knock a bunch of people out in a big place might be worth having, no?"
003's bright eyes flashed.
"If we could get the gas, we could use it to save Faith!"
Bell was already rifling through the various drawers and boxes of her lab.
"I keep all the scrap, I know the mask is in here somewhere. I can reengineer it to enhance its ventilation, and allow you to remove it as you please. Go get Juju— tell them about the gas."
It turned out there was nothing Juju liked more than a good pilfering to mastermind. The second 009 had finished telling them her plan they were sending out informants to find out everything they could about His Majesty's gas supplies.
"Maybe we can catch up with whoever gassed us in the first place, if we leave now."
003 was clearly itching for action, and Juju went with them to the surface, leaving 009 with Miu and a still slightly shaken Tesla. She decided it would be best to get her to bed, and took her to her pipe, setting her down on the mattress that took up the entire bottom surface. The Complete Works of Poe lay to the side, still open; 009 had lent it to Tesla to read, thinking maybe she could make some more sense of it.
Wondering if it would calm her friend's gassed nerves, 009 took up the book and began to read from where Tesla had left off.
"An excited and highly distempered ideality threw a sulphurous luster over all..."