- Part Eight - [spoiler]Contains gore and strong language.[/spoiler] "[i]Sec,[/i]" said Bardo-105 to his Ghost. They were just past the blastdoor's inner gate. Inside was completely dark, and the contrast of the outside was making his ocular shutter open and close frantically while trying to find a break-even point of aperture. The Hunter channeled the Void into his hands and formed small dark green spheres - smoke material. He synthesized a powerful R-class toxin using some of the proteins stored in his banks and injected it into the substance. He flattened them into wide pills and covered them with his hand. Several dark casings materialized, enveloping each individual pill. The hunter then pressed them against the inner gate's frame - above the door and on the sides, just outside the gate - and armed them. They went in listening to the quiet beeping. When it was completely impossible to see, the Ghost lit the way with its flashlight. On the floor was a dried trail of blood: erratic, sloppy. Whoever had dragged themselves through this hallway would be probably dead by now, judging by lost litreage. The trail continued along towards a decontamination airlock. It was an automatic door that slid sideways, and had some kind of heavy duty bolts on the top frame and on the bottom, near the floor. The door was closed, but seemed to be unlocked. Bardo-105 and the Ghost could see their own reflection on the door - they realized they were creating a one-way mirror, as the room behind them was pitch dark and they were shining a bright light on the glass from their side. "[i]Lights off, Ghost[/i]," the Hunter had said in an amiable tone. As the hallway went dark, they could finally discern that the airlock door was in fact a type of transparent, reinforced acrylic polymer. In the other room they could see a faint blue light moving away, swaying. Almost as if it were slowly stepping back. As the Hunter came upon the door, a set of red concentric circles and circular arcs appeared projected in the acrylic at the waist level. They slowly rotated around the center axis while a word was written in red. It read "KǪS", but the letters seemed to be reversed. When the Exo tapped it, the graphic flashed and beeped, and the door opened. With it, an incredible stench of blood, excretions and burning flesh. He and the Ghost went inside into the dark. Bardo-105 stopped as he felt plopping and squelching beneath his foot. He tried to look down but he could not see what he was stepping on. As he studied the floor the door behind him suddenly closed, turning completely opaque. The bolts slid into place, locking them inside. A wheeze could be heard as a power generator started working and a faint light illuminated the room. To his horror, he was stepping on a severed corpse, consisting of a left arm, cleaved at the shoulder and across the belly, a shattered pelvis and a mangled left leg. The kill was too fresh - could not have more than a few hours. The wounds were cauterized almost surgically, but still the pink viscera crept out of the severed gut. A horrible stench filled the air when something burst under the Exo's feet. As he stepped back in shock, Bardo-105 looked up to see that the blue light from before was in fact a Frame's headlight. The Frame was hunched, dragging the other part of the corpse. A trail of blood and flesh filled the floor. The Frame stopped as it saw the Hunter, and erected itself, still holding the corpse by the head. Looking at the man's face - if that was even a man any more - made Bardo-105 jump ahead with his rifle in hand. Even cut in half, that thing could not seem to let go of that stupid mocking grin. The Hunter's eyes darted to the man's hand - it was still clutching The Last Word. The Exo immediately pointed his Red Death at the Frame's chest. But before he could fire, the lights in the room all turned red. "[i]Foreign bodies detected,[/i]" echoed a synthesized female voice, "[i]stand by for decontamination[/i]." As soon as it stopped, a siren boomed. A vertical ionized beam shot down from the ceiling at the far end of the room, and started moving left and right, tracing the floor and sizzling all the way. "[i]No no no[/i]," said the Frame in a neutral voice, as his headlight turned a bright yellow. It reached for the corpse's hand and crushed it under his, taking control of The Last Word in a grip of bone and dripping blood. "[i]Third law is root[/i]," said the Frame as it pointed the revolver at Bardo-105's head. That made the Exo flinch, but the gun didn't fire. "First law conflict," said the Frame as his headlight blinked three times. The Hunter ran towards the robot, Red Death in hand. He drove the rifle's muzzle into the revolver from below, twisting the Frame's arm around the rifle's barrel, and then thrusting the bayonet in the robot's ribs. That, however, did not disarm the Frame. Instead, its headlight turned red and it said, in a cold, calculative voice, "[i]First law disabled[/i]." The robot spun, breaking his arm off over the Hunter's rifle. He caught the falling revolver with his left hand and and took a step back, causing Bardo-105 to lurch forward, stopping only when his forehead was pressed against The Last Word's barrel. The Exo shut his eyes. The Frame pulled the trigger. Once. Twice. Three times. [i]Click, click, click[/i]. The cylinder was still empty from the last time. "[i]Watch out![/i]" The Hunter slammed his eyes open at the sound of his Ghost's scream. The ion flux was creeping towards them at increasing speed! Bardo-105 shoulder pressed the Frame, disengaging the bayonet from the its ribcage. And at the last second shadestepped away from the beam, which split the Frame in half - only his Last Word was cleaved as well. "[i]Son of a b*itch![/i]" yelled the Hunter, as he recovered from the leap. But there was no time to think. "[i]Quickly,[/i]" said the Ghost, "[i]in here![/i]" as it floated through an open air vent in the opposite wall. The ionized tracer was speeding towards the Exo again. He ran and slid into the vent, escaping the burn - but not without leaving half his cloak behind. They slid downwards, deeper into the bunker. They were flushed to a narrow hallway, with white panels for walls. Upon landing, Bardo-105 went to his knees. After a moment in silence, he slammed a fist in the floor panel, shattering it. "[i]F*ck![/i]" he yelled, as clear white steam vented out of his backplate rotors. His reactor core was red hot and his chest was glowing. Ghost knew better than to talk when the Exo was like this. When he calmed down, he made along the hallway, to see where it led. "[i]Motion ahead,[/i]" signaled the Ghost. The Hunter readied is rifle. It was silent. Too silent. He could hear his capacitors wheezing. His spine vibrating along with his oscillators, his new arm's rotors gently brushing. A wall panel just in front of him breaks, and a man comes out of it. "[i]Sadeski![/i]" he screamed as it turned his head towards Bardo-105. It looked just like the half-corpse. Same stupid smile, same mocking eyes. The man suddenly warps to the Hunter's side, as it did before, and pins the Exo against one of the walls. He is pressing the rifle against Bardo-105's chest with extreme force, crushing him. The Guardian wills his Hunter's knife and jabs it into the man's neck. As it comes out, the knife's hook snatched and ripped open one of the man's arteries, now gushing blood into the Hunter's helmet. Relentless, the man does not let go. Instead, he begins choking the Exo with both hands, screaming in agony. In a desperate attempt, the Hunter grabs for his Ghost. With the jagged edges of its shell pointing out, he drives it into the man's nose. Once, the man bleeds. Twice, his nose breaks. Three times, his face caves in and the man reels. A fourth time snaps his neck backwards and sends him into a wall. Bardo-105 makes a run for it, after peeling a layer of film from his visor. "[i]It doesn't make sense![/i]" he screams, in panic, running with his Ghost in tow, "[i]nothing makes sense![/i]" As he was breaking down. The walls started pounding. Muffled screams could be heard behind them. "[i]Sadeski! Sadeski![/i]" they cried, as some more men of equal likeness broke out of walls. Still running, the Hunter throws a smoke bomb ahead of him, and then shadesteps into the cloud, instantly cloaking. He continues running, trying not to hit the horde of confused men who are looking for him. The hallway finally comes to an end, there's an open door. "[i]Go![/i]" the Guardian yells, panting. His Ghost darts ahead and begins hacking the terminals. As soon as the Guardian clears the door, it shuts close, locking all the men behind. Oblivious, the Hunter bends on his knees to let air flow into his core, still venting. "[i]What the actual f*ck... Hey... Why are you so quiet?[/i]" He mumbles, before looking at his Ghost. The little thing is floating, looking at a person in front of him. The Ghost turns back to Bardo-105. The Guardian looks at the figure. It's an Exo, without an helmet, standing there, holding a flask, looking at him with a stupid face. With a familiar stupid face. A stupid face with red horns and blue tint and purple stripe. Bardo-105's stupid face. Bardo-105 yelps in disbelief. The Exo with Bardo-105's face lets go of the flask. As it shatters, a white liquid pools on the floor. "[i]Well, well,[/i]" says the stranger. "[i]Who are you?[/i]", Bardo-105 interrupts with biting coldness in his voice. "[i]Can't you tell?[/i]" replies the stranger, "[i]I'm you.[/i]"