I glanced in the direction of the door I had used to arrive here. And felt a smirk twist my lips to find the Collector standing there in the god avatar it favored the most, arms folded as it surveyed the chaos I was causing in its pocket universe of torture.
- I underestimated you, dead man. - This time my passenger definitely sounded impressed. A heartbeat later we were forced to duck behind cover as, with a bolt of artificial lightning, the Collector pushed back a knot of nostrum that had turned and charged it upon its arrival.
- You pulled Garolan physically here. Not just its avatar. -
- Good, - I said. - I was hoping it learning I was still alive and in one piece would be enough. - Damn! This crazy ass plan of mine might just work!
Taking the lull in pursuit by the nostrum the Collector's arrival granted me, I slithered along the last few tables on this side of the chamber to send another thirty odd Risen to safety. After the last one disappeared, I hazarded a look back towards the entrance.
Almost as if it were part of my hare-brained plan, the rest of the nostrum that had been engaged in pursuing me, had turned and were now helping their fellows in attacking the Collector. Which, in turn, left me completely to my lonesome. Not knowing how long I had before either the Collector overwhelmed its own guards, or left, frustrated by its inability to destroy a long-dead opponent, I took a second to push aside my feelings of relief and again quickly plot a path along the opposite wall. There the rest of the Risen imprisoned here anxiously waited for me to free them. Then once more I was bolting forward.
This time I had my rifle stowed along the back of my armor so I could focus on throwing actuators and running as fast as physically possible, not necessarily in that order. I needed to cover as much territory before I A) recaptured the nostrum's attention. Or B) had the Collector on my ass.
"I see what you're trying to do, Two," the Collector said in an almost conversational tone, its voice somehow piercing not only the sound of rushing water that was swiftly filling the chamber. But the snarls and hisses of the nostrum as well. I guess B) it is.
"And it won't work. I've traced your quantum tunnel to that little hideout of yours and have already dispatched soldiers to recapture those you've managed to temporarily snatch out of my grasp."
- Except I hid the tunnel's actual path, - my passenger said in an almost conspiratorial tone into my mind even as I began snapping out the Risen closest to me with quick, tight throws of prepared actuators. - Garolan will trace them, and find its soldiers in a location that is physically the furthest from the refuge! -
I almost laughed out loud at that. This was starting to shape up into a very fun game, with two almost equally equipped god-like entities maneuvering and countering each other. Except, as far as I could tell, the Collector was yet to discover the presence of my passenger.
Then I was grunting as an all-too-familiar pressure coiled around my body. A heartbeat later it brought me to a skidding halt despite my every effort to stay moving. Desperately I took the actuators I still had in my hand and sent them on their way with quick throws. A good thing I did; a heartbeat later I was being hoisted into the air.
"You see, Two, I'm even more of a god in here than I am outside," the Collector pointed out as I dangled. Of its golden form, there was no sign through the mass of nostrum that now swarmed where it had been standing. That didn't seem to deter the mad t'sang from speaking, however.
"I control everything about this place. The air, the gravity, the very laws of physics. To think you could best me here is not only madness incarnate but blasphemous." Then I was being pulled into the nostrum scrum, tentacles quickly reaching out to slash and grab at my armored body like I was in some sort of bad anime movie.
Desperately I wrestled my weapon back into position to try and push them back.
- No energy discharges, remember? - my passenger quickly reminded me.
Shit. Right. And no percussive blasts this close or I'd blow my own damn self up! Well, if I couldn't shoot, perhaps something more personal? Like a nano-edge sword?
My omni-field flared into existence long enough to lop off a couple tentacles and repurpose them into a two-handed double-edged sword with each edge only a molecule thick. Then I was swapping my rifle for the sword to begin swinging for the fences.
First to feel the nano-edge was the nostrum in front of me, the massive creature moving in and bending down at the same time to bring its thicket of teeth closer in an attempt to engulf me. A hard swing severed several arm-thick tentacles and took chunks out of leg-thick ones. Not bad, not bad. Could I go toe to toe with a red phased blade with this thing?? Then I was looking for a head to lop off.
- The nostrum are poly-corporeal, - my passenger pointed out. - They have no identifiable body parts until they need them. Thus ... -
- It won't have a head or guts until it's ready to eat me, - I grimly finished.
- Precisely. -
That was fucking convenient. Figures I'd have to deal with some next level bullshit the very first time I step out on my own. Then I was forced to swing my sword in wide crescents to keep tentacles away from me. Tentacles that, soon after being severed, slithered back up into the nostrum's mass and reattached somehow.
I felt my teeth grit when I saw those tentacles reattach. What the fuck?? Like that's fuckin' fair! Then I was twisting hard to pull out my sidearm and fire several shots through a momentary opening I felt appear behind me out of the mass of tentacles around me.
And I grimaced as I watched them splash off some kind of shield the Collector had erected around itself, the form-of-light body it was wearing, throwing its head back to laugh with delight at the thwarted attack.
"Fuck you," I chewed out, barely avoiding saying the t'sang's real name. If anything could give away the fact that I had another t'sang essence on board helping me out, it'd be speaking that asshole's actual name.
Then I was holstering my sidearm and twisting in a tight half circle at the same time to slash through several of the larger tentacles that were ready to coil around my body and squeeze the life out of me.
- You've had the opportunity to study my omni-field and its capabilities, - I said as I cut hard in a zig-zag pattern to open up some space by forcing the tentacles to drop and slither back to reattach. - Any chance I could use it to drop these bastards without absorbing their life force? -
My hitchhiker was silent for a moment.
- No, - it finally said, the answer sending a ripple of frustration through me. - Even the weapon you forged from retasked flesh oozes with nostrum essence. You try to repurpose these beasts and you'll find your shell stuffed full of their vile souls! -
Yeah, fuck that. No choppy choppy with the omni-field. Unless ... I just choppy choppied and didn't try to retask!
A tight spin mixed with vicious cuts at top speed bought me a bit more time and space, the severed tentacles splashing into the couple inches of water that now covered the ground before wriggling back to the masses around me. It was also enough of a shock to the massive creatures that they leaned back, momentarily sparing me from having multiple mouth holes filled with multitudinous teeth angling towards my head.
It was then a tap into the power pack on my waist, pulling energy from the captive blue-white giant inside to send a surge of energy through my body. That, in turn, was focused through the omni-field, my desperation making me its master as I spun what could only be described as a nano-net around me.
With holes measured in nano-meters and a mesh made of molecules, while being set just above the rising water and a little taller than my head, the nano-net was both small gauge enough, and sharp enough to basically turn anything it came across into a red fog. After quickly backing it with a permeable energy field to filter any goop that would come squirting my way, I sent it rushing outward with a thought.
The nostrum directly in front of me gurgled when the net hit it, trying to adjust its worming form to get out of the net's way. But it was already too late; even before it could finish twisting out of the net's path, it's lower half was gone, reduced to so many reddish particles hanging in the air.
Shrieking, it tried to keep its remaining two thirds above the net, but gravity itself defeated it, pulling it back and down, directly into the net's forward path. It was gone before I had time enough to blink a second time.
Instantly the water beneath my feet turned dark as the filthy ichor the beast had been reduced to, sluiced down the backing shield and into it. Then it was going even darker as it started to wildly splash against my boots, perturbed by the desperate activity of the remaining nostrum as they frantically attempted to avoid the net to varying levels of success.
- A nano-net, - my passenger said musingly. - Now that was something we never thought of to try. -
- Points for originality then, - I fired back as I dropped the corrupted nano-sword and darted after the advancing web in front of me, intent on getting clear so I could resume snapping the rest of our people out of this sinking box before it finally imploded.
"A neat trick," the Collector said from somewhere behind me, also sounding actually impressed. "And a clever application of Legion's k'ethik technology. I must commend you, Two, for thinking on your feet. You do your predecessor proud. But it will avail you nothing!"
Damnit. I grimaced as I cleared the goop field and spotted the nearest torture table. The bastard was going to tractor beam me again. I could almost feel it coiling around me and crushing my metal flesh. Unless I could distract it somehow. But how could I do that? Like the Collector said, it was even more powerful in here than it was outside of the pockets.
Then it occurred to me: buddy had yet to experience the awesomeness that was phased glass. If it could cut a juggernaut into swiss cheese, then there was a chance, admittedly a slim one, that it could punch through that shield protecting the half mad god. And a hole in its light-form sternum should distract it a bit.
Twisting in place even as I activated my omni-field once more, the phased glass rifle that Legion developed was half formed by the time I had slung my n'vorn weapon and reached for the forming rifle. So, by the time I actually aimed it at the Collector's golden form, it was ready to rock.
A good thing, too: the Collector was just visible through a bleeding gap in the writhing mass that was what was left of the nostrum that got in my way. Picking a spot on Garolan's upper body, I fired a volley.
As expected, the phased glass rounds cut through the wriggling nostrum tentacles like they weren't even there, severing several to drop them into the churning ichor that now oozed around their lower extremities. Then they were slamming into the Collector itself.
"What ...?" the mad t'sang had enough time to say before the first round punched through its chest, having easily cut through the shield it was using. Two more made it through to pierce its body before the Collector managed to firm up the shields to deflect the others.
But the damage was already done. Even as the Collector's god-form reeled back, its hands pawing in disbelief at the holes now in its chest, several tentacles darted out from the closest nostrum to push through the shrinking opening in the t'sang's shield. Without hesitation they then stabbed forward and into the holes in the t'sang's god-form, eliciting a strange, warbling cry from the suddenly stricken alien.
- It has been physically injured, - my passenger noted in a quiet voice, obviously disturbed by the Collector's genuine cry of pain.
Good, I grimly thought. About time that bastard was reminded what pain was like. Then I was refocusing on the task at hand.
Actuators flew like rice at a wedding, snapping out the rest of the Risen prisoners as the Collector's keening rippled through the air again and again. Then the last was gone and I was looking for a way out.
- I need another door, - I said as I felt my passenger twist in discomfort. Damn, it was really feeling sorry for its fellow t'sang! Too fuckin' bad I wasn't.
- Another door? -
- They are attempting to tear Garolan apart, - my passenger said hesitantly.
- Yup. A door, if you don't mind. - A red light on my phased glass rifle announced the weapon was now out of munitions. Using the omni-field to reabsorb it, I swung my rifle back around to take aim at the cracked glass roof overhead. As soon as it was in my aiming reticule, I was firing.
I nodded in satisfaction as the first percussive blast sent cracks wildly spreading from the point of impact. Then water was pouring in as the cracks multiplied past the glass's ability to stand and it ruptured.
- T'sang inside! - I silently barked as a torrent of dark seawater dropped directly into the chamber's heart even as the Collector's warbling cry began to split the air with ever increasing frequency.
- Door! Now! -
I felt a surge of energy from my passenger and, to my relief, a glowing rectangle appeared directly opposite my position. With a last glance back at the seething mound that was both nostrum and Collector, both growing frantic as the water level rapidly rose, I charged towards the door and through, weapon high.