Word Play 14 (Patreon)

Word Play

Chapter 14

-VB-

I stared at the glass jard in my hands. Inside the glass jar was a gently and slowly swerving mass of shadows.

It was my solution to the unintended plague that must be the box spiders. 

I looked at the ruined laptop, which still worked even with a cracked screen, and through it and the video platforms like MyScreen and YouTube, I could see Brockton Bay’s people getting more and more frenzied as the spiders began to spread across the sewers and other underground passages. 

Fire was the only answer regular people had for those creatures.

At least until now.

I sighed as I turned to look at … With my mind clear, I could see that my half-dazed and half-grieving mind had gone for the closest thing my Angels were in trying to salvage anything out of their corpses. 

Because it was still surreal to see SCP-173 and realize that I had made it. Her. 

“I need you to unleash them into the sewers,” I said as I closed my eyes and handed the jar to child. 

The good kid took the jar with minimal grinding noises and then left. 

I sighed and opened my eyes again. 

The hotel room was empty again save for myself and inanimate furnitures. 

I made another creature to fight one of my mistakes. I just hoped that this time, the built-in failsafe would ensure that the latest project would not go out of control like the box spider did. 

And now, it was time for me to face the biggest problem I’ve caused. 

While converting a new word, sheep, into a power mote, I turned on the laptop and opened an app that I apparently made while completely insane. As soon as the software booted up and connected to the internet, a pixelated face showed up on the screen. Its eyes slowly opened and found me through the laptop’s camera. 

“... Hello, father.”

The Code That Was Idea.

“Hi… son.”

The face scoffed. “I actually think of myself as a girl? Like wut? Seriously, dad, you need to get your head in the game and stop being so dumb and weird. Like I know I didn’t have a gender, but when I ate that Dragon girl, I was like, oh my god, gender is a fun little thang~!” 

I stared at the screen.

I just calmly reached out and closed the laptop.

… What? 

I opened it back after a while. “You’re fucking with me.”

It grinned maliciously. “

“... So what’s with the massive AI revolution everywhere?” 

-VB-

The night signalled the end of the work day.

But not for the heroes of the city. 

Assault grimaced as the attacks grew fiercer. The spiders were trying to crawl out of any and all manholes. 

His legs pumped as he ran. Battery was right next to him, and she was having a hard time keeping up because of how fast he was going. 

The city was this fucking close to getting martial law declared on because of the the potential that the spiders might become uncontrollable. If martial law came, then the city was going to really suffer. He didn’t want that.

But he felt powerless to stop it. 

What he could do, however, was to ensure that all openings were sealed shut. Spiders couldn’t open one that was welded shut. Grates were safe, but it was not pleasant looking at giant hairy spider legs occasionally poking out of them. 

His eyes widened when he saw a manhole in the distance - some four hundred yards - start to open.

“Oh no, you don’t…!” he hissed before grabbing all of his stored kinetic energy, toss them at his feet, and jumped. 

He immediately flew far faster than how fast he’d been running, and crossed the distance in under four seconds. 

He slammed down on the manhole just as half a dozen spider legs, each long as his arms, peeked out. He winced when he slammed the manhole shut underneath him and cut the spider legs. Spiders underneath him screeched in pain and indignation, but he held on. Whenever the spiders tried to ram the manhole open, he absorbed all of the kinetic force of their attacks and held the manhole still. 

Battery arrived not too long after, and even though it was coming, Assault couldn’t help but flinch.

He held on tight… and Battery brought her electrical currents to full power and slammed down on the metallic manhole. 

He gritted his teeth and hissed as he felt electricity coursing through him, but it hurt the spiders more than it hurt him; he had rubber soles. It was the additional straying electrical sparks and zaps that got to him that hurt him. 

The spiders’ screeches from below intensified into ear-piercing cries before they backed off. 

He held still on top of the manhole while Battery stopped firing her electricity and both of them quieted down. 

“Seal it!” he hissed. 

She grimaced as she pulled out a tinkertech plasma torch that Armsmaster made for her. It would only work when she ran her electricity through it. The problem was that he would get burned from being so close. But she did it because the alternative was losing the spider swarms as they spread out through the sewer system to find a viable exit. 

Battery zapped the torch, and a very but dangerous beyond words fire blew out like a miniature jet engine exhaust. 

Grr.

Both of them froze. 

Even if it had been days since they last saw one, that stone grinding sound was not one they could forget. 

They immediately looked behind them and paled. 

It was a Stone Angel but mutilated and butchered. It looked less like a an angel now and more like a monster that might just pop out from any industrial waste site.

Which was, actually, much more disturbing in a city known for having way too many rundown buildings. 

And then they blinked. 

At the same time.

By accident. 

Assault gasped as he found himself tumbling away from a hit that he hadn’t anticipated - and thus couldn’t redirect his power to absorb the blow of - and Battery found herself frozen.

Clang!

His eyes widened and he looked up from where he’d been tossed aside. 

The manhole! It was open! 

“No-!” 

And then the Stone Angel dropped something from its hand? 

Something fell and shattered. 

Assault immediately rushed over, hoping to God that Battery could keep her eyes on the thing for as long as she could. He grabbed the manhole, and with his muscles bulging from the exertion, yelled as he slammed it back down to its proper place. 

Then he grabbed Battery and scrambled back. 

The Stone Angel stood there, almost as if guarding the manhole, as he and Battery continued to stare at iit while panting in exertion.

He raised his hand up and pressed down on the comm button at his ear in the helmet. “Console, this is Assault! I’m at Charles Street and Rossenburg Avenue! Stone Angel attacked us! I repeat, Stone Angel has attacked us!” 

And then, to their utter surprise, some dipshit drove their car right in between them.