The Enemy of My Enemy? Pt. 2/Chapter 16
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“Men are scum,” the womyn said when the scouts followed her lead to a large hallway into the building. The Girls began to spread out and secure the area. They had yet to encounter another human since most of the complex was automated.
“Hi,” one of two scouts her age said playfully, “My name is ‘Scum.’ What’s yours?”
“Fuck off,” she snapped.
“That’s not a very pretty name for a pretty lady. How about I just call you ‘Sunshine?’” he said and then the other men put in their two cents.
“No. Daisy!” “How about Hortence?” “Nah! Bubbles!” The scouts were having fun with her animosity.
“Knock it off, boys!” They were surprised to see Mitzie rise to the womyn’s defense. One of the larger men had given Mitzie the use of his armor when she became too distracting under lighting… much to her gratitude and the disappointment of the other males. But it wasn’t what they thought that he cared about.
“Human girls try very hard to be compatible with men. You should treat her with more respect.” Mitzie seemed disturbed.
“Testify, Sister!” Lori joined the conversation. “Seriously,” she said to the womyn, “you got a name?”
“Irene,” she at last said to Lori and gestured a nod at Mitzie, “Is she for real?”
“Don’t really know,” Lori pondered, “I just met her. But if she’s anything like her leader, then she’s good people.”
“Do you mean that MAN who was on the news?” Irene asked sharply.
“No,” Lori said, “His wife. She’s an android, but not like anything you’ve ever encountered. She is actually an honest-to-goodness person. She’s really cool.”
“You're taking orders from a damn machine! You’re all crazy! A robot is controlling all these other ones!?!” Irene exclaimed in disbelief. “Was that fucking murderer on TV your boss?”
“Frances Stanley never hurt anybody! He helped save all of our lives!” Barris retorted. “You wymyn couldn’t leave well enough alone; we were happy just keeping to ourselves. You all made a big mistake when you took him from his wife and now she’s pissed. And so are we!”
He became more subdued, “We volunteered for this mission, but she was already going to take him back with or without us. She controls these gynoids but no one controls us. We all look out for each other and Frank is one of our own.”
The womyn looked around wildly and noticed that some of the scouts walked hand in hand with the Girls. “You men are sick! And you’re even worse for helping them,” she cursed at Lori.
The one other scout Irene’s age walked with his arm around one of the Girls and called out, “Hey lady, check this out. How sick is this for you,” and he kissed the android lovingly and she returned his affection while he caressed her tenderly. “If you wymyn weren’t so uptight The Mistake would have never happened! A man would love it if a lady would just walk up and kiss him! Or if your gender would have at least been a bit more reasonable!”
“UHHGGG!!!” the womyn snarled.
“You DUMB-ASS!” Lori spat, “The last thing you want to do is justify her stupid opinion! Besides, everyone knows that what you said is only true if the lady was a ‘babe’ or something! Isn’t that right, Ferguson?”
Barris grumbled as the youngest scouts began laughing at the inside joke. Lori added, “And men are not exactly reasonable all the time. Take my ex-boss…”
“Is that what all this is about?” Mitzie said puzzled, “If all that humans need to start being friends is sexual relations, then we can help you with that.”
The group was silenced by Mitzie’s simple observation.
Lori would not let the matter settle that easily and Irene was surprised to see her talk to Mitzie as if the machine was a real person. “No, gal-pal, this is about a few bad people trying to own more than they deserve. They try to control everything including other people’s lives… even the lives of good people. Not every human had the luxury to have any kind of help from machines. And some that did didn’t even want it! The real problem is that humans get very jealous and are always trying to impress each other. Be happy that androids don’t. But don’t think that THESE numb-nuts don’t appreciate your offer.”
“Then if machines can help, we should hurry,” Mitzie commented. “My information shows that the target is located two more sublevels, point eight-four kilometers from here. We are almost there. There is only one access leading down.”
“I won’t help you!” Irene countered. “Besides, if you’re going where I think you are, I don’t even have clearance to go down there.”
“Oh, you’re only along for the ride,” Lori assured her. “We can’t have you going and trying to stop us. Obviously somebody or something already knows we’re here anyway, so just relax. You did your job.”
Mitzie laughed and Irene took it personally. “What’s so funny, CE-1,” the womyn growled while addressing Mitzie by her model number in contempt.
“The building’s A.I. just tried to override us,” she giggled. “Guards are on the way. Take cover guys,” she said as five well-armed male androids rushed through the double doors at the end of the hallway. A scout managed to hit one with a fluid filled balloon.
The Girls found that they were standing in an electromagnetic field when their weapons didn’t fire, but before the guards could fire their own weapons, the Girls were already on them. Portia had given them all what limited combat abilities they could grasp but it was still more than the guards could counter. The larger and bulkier male models were not quite fast enough to catch the Girls before the much more agile females shut them down.
Replico had still kept the emergency shut off button intact even on their own guards. They never anticipated that anyone else could get close enough to use them. The button was only there in case they might have had to use it themselves.
One of the Girls grabbed a laser blaster from a fallen guard and went cautiously through a set of double doors. She was thrown back through an instant later. “You guys stay here with Lori and the box,” Mitzie said. “She sensed more poison gas before she was attacked.” Mitzie didn’t hesitate to join four more of the Girls as they hurried to face the unseen menace.
“This can’t be happening,” Irene mumbled. “No one was ever supposed to make it this far… not past the outer defenses… not so many of you… not in this country!”
The sound of crashes and flesh hitting flesh could be heard as a fierce battle ensued on the other side of the doors. Then there was silence.
After a few moments one of the Girls that had remained with them addressed the group, “Mitzie said that you can come in now. She activated the vents and cleared the gas.” The scouts disarmed and sprayed the male androids in the chest before proceeding.
“Hi!” Mitzie said in her cheerful peppy manner. She had connected herself to a port in the control panel of a recharge station for the Replico androids. She also had an attractive muscular male droid in a headlock while it struggled against her Herculean strength. “Look! We made some friends!”
The men became excited, and the ladies became disgusted with them, when they looked into the large room outside the freight elevator that led to the central A.I. Two of the five Girls that joined Mitzie had fallen. One had her face torn from her skull and the other was broken at her spine. They felt no pain and they both still moved but they could help no further.
But standing in their place were eight identical gymnastic female androids dressed in uniform leotards. Some of the guys began to cautiously paw them, as the slightly-smaller athletic females stood unresponsive.
Irene had remained at the entrance with Lori and was sickened by the men’s shamelessness with the androids, “How can you stand being around such sleaze bags!”
“They’re just doing what they feel comfortable getting away with,” Lori sounded unfazed. “What do you expect? They’re MEN! But they’re kind of fun to be around once you get use to them. And they’re all nice guys once you get to know them. We don’t allow assholes to join our society. We understand each other and they don’t bother with me because I’m married. That doesn’t stop them from flirting like devils, though!”
“I was married,” Irene said to the only human female she could speak with, “He got what he deserved during the massacre. He cheated on me… He cheated with one of those THINGS.”
“You ever use a vibrator?” Lori asked bluntly. “Same difference to me… or at least I thought so.” She became more confidential, “Look. I was once a firefighter and some of those buff mandroids start looking pretty tasty sometimes when you’re cooped up all alone with them. I never went that far with them, but it upset my man enough to start driving a wedge between us. Our marriage was stronger than that and we were always able to talk it out, but I think that tall girlbot over there might have a point. We give sex way too much credit. I thought I had a strong sex drive but living around a bunch of unrestrained guys has shown me that ladies don’t have a clue how horny men really are.”
Irene was trying to find a good rebuttal when Mitzie yelled out, “I’m almost finished reprogramming these new Girls, but this male one wasn’t assigned to this control station. I can’t override him and he won’t shut down, so we’re going to have to shoot him or spray him. Or I can just rip his head off.”
“NOOO!!!” Irene cried out before she could stop herself.
The scout who had antagonized her with his affection for a Girl was quick to take advantage of her outburst. “Well, well… It looks like we have a double standard here!”
“Leave her alone, Jared,” Lori cut him off.
“No way!” he snapped back. “She thinks that she’s Miss Perfect, but she’s no better than we are.”
“It’s not the same,” Irene said painfully. “We don’t have much of a choice since so many of the men have died.”
“Like you wymyn have given us any choices! Especially if we were poor! We were just convenient entertainment for you… or suckers that you used to support your lifestyles and habits!” Harsh memories of the days following the New Order overwhelmed Jared.
“You men are ANIMALS!” Irene’s hostility grew now that her secret was discovered. “You’re a bunch of fucking perverts! You don’t even know the meaning of romance!”
“You never gave us a chance,” said the first scout who had cared to ask her name.
“Please stop arguing,” Mitzie cut in politely. “Irene. Can you shut this male down?” she asked respectfully. Once again the android made them all feel foolish.
Irene closed her eyes while trying to hold back tears and nodded a slow consent. “Override one-zero-three-four-nine,” she said and began to cry when the handsome android went limp in Mitzie’s grip before she carefully released him onto the floor.
“Why are you here?” the womyn sobbed as if to herself, “Your friend isn’t even in this part of town.”
“This is the mission his wife asked us to take part in,” Lori said. “We didn’t ask; we just trust her. She’s going after him herself.”
“How can you trust an independent A.I.? And why do you care what happens to that monster after what he did?” Irene was too confused to be angry anymore.
“That A.I. has a name,” Barris spoke with authority. “It’s Portia. She is probably one of the most considerate people you could ever meet. We saw the news report too, and I can tell you that I would follow her into Hell before I would believe a word Daniella says.”
“But Daniella saved a man’s life!” Irene came to her defense.
Barris was also one of the first residents of The Lounge although he came and went as he pleased. He knew Daniella better than anyone there. “That WOMYN used to be one of US,” he said sternly and much to Irene’s disbelief. “She will lie to and manipulate anyone to get what she wants. We don’t know exactly what happened, but she had obviously set Frank up. And if you saw the so-called ‘rescue footage,’ you should know that the android that was following them was Portia herself.”
“You mean that robot is still alive?” Irene could not accept the words she was hearing. She could not accept that one of the nation’s most famous wymyn was one of these outlaws.
“That’s the only thing you’ve gotten right so far,” Lori said. “Portia is ‘Alive’.”
“We need to hurry,” Mitzie reminded them once again. She disconnected herself as she finished remotely reprogramming the gymnastic Girls and went to the elevator door. “The A.I. is too strong for me to override and I can’t get the elevator to cooperate, but we don’t need to fall into a trap either.”
With those words she casually tore the metal doors open. “The cables look like they’re made of Orb silk. Would one of you handsome boys please help out a Girl and spray those cables?” She got more help than she needed.
The elevator fell past their level from above and crashed at the bottom of the shaft. Mitzie took Portia’s Thinking Cap from Lori and thanked her, then jumped lightly into the shaft to the bottom… three levels below. The scouts looked down with distress only to see her easily hop up to the target level and brace herself to kick the door open and enter. Two armed Girls and four of the acrobatic female androids quickly joined her while the scouts prepared to rappel into the drop.
When they reached Mitzie she was trying unsuccessfully to unlock a huge barrier of reinforced armored synthetic silk that was molded to act as a door. A laser had no effect. It slowly began to dissolve when the scouts doused it with balloons. All the Girls stood well clear of the anti-agent. Fortunately, their boots had thick rubber soles unlike Portia’s more flexible ones, but the New Girls in their leotards could not proceed until the fluid wasted itself away. Instead, they would continue to stand guard. All that was left was the final task.
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