Hide-and-Seek and Lightning

The bullets hit the mastermind’s seat and the area around it as the man dodged with no problem and took cover at one of the big devices that occupied the room.

Amy could probably hit him even where he was at the moment though, but there was a huge risk when firing this close to the machines.

She didn’t know which one of them Lily was still.

“Good show of anger, IDOL, but why are you losing our time like this?” Richard’s voice echoed around the girl clicking her tongue in annoyance.

“Stop using hostages you cannot kill and we can end this immediately.”

“You talk as if you could kill me…”

“I not only can, but I surely will kill you.” Amy started to advance while she was saying so, searching for a clear line of sight.

Any good line-of-sight would do, but the room was too big and her weapon was too small for shots that were sure to not cause any collateral damage.

The good part was that her opponent seemed unwilling to fight, likely because this whole fight was just a massive time buy.

“Can you really? I’m quite sure something like you wouldn’t miss that many shots if you wanted to kill me… Oh, right. I almost missed this. You want to kill ‘me’ and not the current me, right?”

“Shut up! You stupid hijacker…”

“What are you complaining, eh? From what I got from those diaries, you’re pretty much the same as me, aren’t you? Just much older and much less important.”

These outrageous claims were angering the girl to the point of making her consider ending Richard’s body

She was having trouble finding him and was still averse to killing an innocent in the end though.

There was the option to ignore him and focus on her target though.

Sound boxes and echo made it problematic to find the hiding man among the towers of equipment, but it also meant that Amy could maybe avoid a fight at all.

“I guess your plan now is finding Lilianna and fleeing, right? Not going to lie, you can probably manage to do so for sure... Do you have the time for that though?” The voice coming from many directions kept on calling.

“Time is not a problem.” Lied Amy as her body started to cause heat ripples in the air around her.

“How long do you have, IDOL? Five minutes? Ten, maybe? Why don’t you lower this gun and negotiate a little instead?”

“I do not negotiate. You are not a threat as is. A hostage you cannot hurt right away is worthless, so all I have to do is rescue her and leave before anything happen.”

“And who said anything will happen?”

The voice suddenly came from much closer and, almost before Amy could react, a lightning-like discharge was sent towards her.

As the idol blocked the attack with her left arm and tried to raise her weapon in answer though, she felt the real effects of the weapon.

Her whole body got wobbly and even dodging when her gun was kicked away became troublesome.

In a hurry, she rolled away from the second discharge and forced her failing limbs to grab one of the other weapons she had from the earlier fights.

And as she did so, the idol managed to take a good look at the huge weapon attached to Richard’s arm.

It had the build of a smart rifle, but was twice as thick and was crackling with electricity to the point of making her question how safe that thing was.

“This is…?”

“An old anti-AI weapon. Took me a few hours to build and... I mean, those scientists needed a few hours to build, but Lilianna bought me enough time, so all went well.” The man explained while Amy tried to recover her disabled arm and her bugging consciousness. “All this would’ve been over already if they had finished the thing before you woke up though.”

If it was just an electric weapon, then it wouldn’t be that much of a problem, but this one item was different.

Experimental electroguns weren't that much of a novel, but few ever glanced at them due to their flaws in fire rate and safety.

This one wasn't different in both these points, but it had an extra feature none usually would.

Its sole purpose was to disable machines instead of destroying them.

From what she could get, it was a weapon specialized in damaging prosthetics and harming internal systems.

Not exactly a good match for the idol.

It wasn’t the first time Amy saw something like this one though, and it was once more the fault of those dammed ruins and the things lying around there.

“Do you not know how damaging such weapons can be to my body? Not sure if you would be able to use it if you fry too much…” She bluffed while trying to keep the armored attacker at bay.

“I already made sure it wouldn’t be a problem, you know? Something that can be recovered after being shot to the point of breaking apart shouldn’t have much trouble with some burned circuits and a broken program.”

“So that was the point of all that…”

“I said you were in a ‘test drive’. Having some measures to when your customer won’t give the vehicle back is a must!”

Having recharged the weapon enough, the man fired another crackling burst of electricity towards the pink girl.

She had predicted this much and managed to roll away once more, but the devices lying around and the damage from before were making it harder.

Without waiting for a second shot, Amy drew both her guns after recovering the fallen one during the roll and tried to shoot the troublesome weapon.

She was disrupted right away by a tackle that broke the aim of them both.

Her shots went amiss and an electrogun came way too close to comfort, but the idol was much better in close quarters than she was with guns.

She kicked the man's arm away and went for point-blank shots, forcing the fake Richard to focus on dodging.

He was barraged by strikes and projectiles while trying to counter-strike, but the difference in aptitude was quite clear.

Strikes with the butt of the pistols and close shots were leaving marks on the power suit and, eventually, a huge gap appeared on the man's defenses.

It was a poisoned apple though.

An overhead strike made with the charged electrogun went towards Amy and, seeing it as an opening, the girl grabbed the armored foe in preparation for an overhead throw.

The throw was successful and the impact almost fainted Richard, but it also caused the unsafe weapon to start failing.

Failing that came in the way of a faulty discharge that came right as Amy was in contact with the weapon.

Once again, her body felt faint and her mind went awry, and this much was more than enough for an opening.

Her enemy recovered himself in a hurry and aimed his weapon in a shot she lacked the time to dodge or disrupt.

Another lightning connected the pink girl and the weird weapon as she used her faulty left arm to block the attack.

It took away most of what remained of her left arm’s functions and her dress was in a terrible state too by now.

Amy was finally cornered enough.

“Looks like we’re going to end this soon, IDOL…”

“Yes…” The battered pink girl said with smoke leaving her mouth. “Yes, we will indeed.”

The electrogun was pointed towards her and close to charged enough for another shot.

If she were to trust in her revolver, the best she could manage was a mutual takedown if she shot fast enough, which meant losing in this situation.

Amy was also in the last seconds of how much her body would take as it was and even her sight was already distorted by the heat.

Since it was a mostly hopeless situation though, she was feeling entitled enough to go all-in without caring.

“Goodbye, pink girl.”

And just as the man pressed the button on his weapon, a sudden burst of vapor coming from the girl covered his sight.

He was startled and there was a delay in the attack that ended with its arc vanishing after an explosion between the two fighters.

The area heated up and several projectiles went in random directions from the explosion, causing minor damage to the man’s armor.

It was just a high-profile distraction though.

Before the surprise could wear off, a pink object with speed superior to even what power armor and in crash-course with the man left the smokescreen.

“Goodbye indeed.” The one-legged idol answered as her momentum sent her and her target flying towards the nearest piece of machinery.

She then mercilessly pummeled the straddled man until he was thoroughly out of combat.

Amy wasn’t taking any risks now that she was forced to go far enough as to lose both an arm and a leg in this stupid fight.

She was also unable to cool herself after that last stunt and her gun was blown up by the lightning, so ending the fight right away was a reasonable measure.

“This came a little too close for comfort...” She sighed while looking at the remains of the damaged leg she had forced to the limits a moment ago.

More than half of her body was failing in some form by this point. Her left arm was busted, her right leg wasn’t even there and one of her eyes broke due to a stray bullet at the end, but it was a win nonetheless.

“It brought something useful though.”

As she said so, her working arm went to the weapon attached to the man beneath her.

“Seems like this thing was made as fast as possible and without any regard to durability, but..." She noted while providing around the weapon. "The output can be modified though and I can disable the wave system too, so it can be used.”

It was a working weapon for sure, but her basic analysis was saying that it wasn’t a safe or and neither something that would last very long.

It was still an item packed with electricity though and this much was enough for Amy.

Fixing the flaws was way beyond her capabilities at the moment and she could barely access a computer in her current state, but she could use a calculator and she knew the formulas.

At least she was confident enough that she knew.

“It is not as if I could worsen the situation either way… I think.”

The idea was very simple, in theory.

She had a device that could return her to a reasonable state, but it lacked the battery to function at the moment.

And she had a source of energy that could match the same output needed by her hat.

It was all a matter of running the numbers and betting that her logic wasn’t wrong.

The worst-case scenario wasn’t even her failing since nothing would be worse than finding out that a certain old bastard had a second brainwashed body.

Amy ignored this possibility for now though and simply kept on tweaking the electrogun for her purposes.

It didn’t take her more than five minutes to end the process and now all she had to do was aim the thing at her hat and pray.

As long as enough nanomachine survived, she would too.

“Not sure how it is named now, but I would love some divine help, you all…” She prayed to the skies while aiming the gun. “And here goes nothing for the third time!"

A continuous crackling sound started at the muzzle of the weapon and, from the outside, it seemed to be working well.

It seemed, of course, because the whole thing soon started to create sparks and make abnormal noises due to the stress forced upon it.

“I see…” Amy sighed as the situation kept worsening. “It is not my day, right?”

She was sure it wasn’t going to be a huge explosion, but it would still be an explosion.

Amy wasn't in condition to tank it and the area lacked a safe place to throw it away, so all she could do was leave the thing to her back and close her eyes.

After she did so, though, a good while passed and no explosion came.

“It will blow the moment I turn to look, will it not? I lack the time for this, but still…”

Without much in the realm of choices, the girl in pink slowly turned her head and working eye toward the thrown-away device.

And to her surprise, all she found was a pink and black miniaturized top hat.

“Little ones!” The girl shouted in genuine happiness as she reconnected with her top hat. “That is very good! Do not fully repair me, though. All I need is to be able to move around, you see?”

And even before she could say anything more, this same miniature of a top hat vanished on the ground and the broken pieces of her leg started to do the same.

Just a few more moments later, she was already in a state where she could limp herself up and move around, and a minute after that, she could even move her arm.

After that, it didn’t take much for her to analyze and take over all VR chambers in the room, their occupants being Lily, her brother, and the cat scientist.

“The original plan was taking Lily and leaving, but maybe I should deal with the big boss too...” She said to herself while looking at the big machine connected to each chamber. “Well, I have to kill him or I will not be satisfied, so it has to be done, right?”

As it happened sometimes, her words and expression weren’t matching at all.

Amy couldn't care less about it at the moment though.

She had no audience and way too much bottled anger to keep up.

And so, she gave the beamiest smile she had since the beginning of this whole ordeal and started to walk towards the middle of the room with her hat in place.