Deathstalker 03 - Deathstalker War

like Beatrice Christiana surged forward incredibly quickly. Disrupter muzzles emerged from the holes in her hands. Dazzlingly bright energy beams blazed through the crimson air, narrowly missing Owen and Hazel as they threw themselves to one side, and striking Giles square in the chest. The impact threw him to the ground. Hazel brought up her projectile weapon and opened fire, but the bullets rebounded harmlessly from the steel chassis under the flesh covering. Owen fired his disrupter, but the machine just ducked under the energy beam and kept coming. She was on Hazel before she could drop the gun and draw her disrupter, grabbed her by the throat with one hand, and lifted her up into the air. Hazel dangled helplessly, choking as the metal fingers cut off her air. She clawed at the metal arm with both hands, feet
    kicking a good yard above the floor.
    Owen threw himself at the machine from behind, but she wheeled inhumanly quickly, and slapped him away with her free hand like a bothersome child.
    Hazel's eyes bulged as she fought for air. Owen was quickly back on his feet, boosted, and came at the Fury again. He ducked under the sweeping arm this time, and drove his sword at not-Beatrice's unprotected throat. Steel slammed against steel, and the impact jarred the sword out of Owen's hand. He didn't hesitate and slammed his fist into its metallic side with all his boosted strength behind it. Amazingly, the steel ribs dented under the blow, and she staggered to one side, still holding on to Hazel. Owen hit it again and again, ignoring the pain of his skinned knuckles, doing damage, but not enough to make her drop her prey.
    And then Jenny Psycho stepped forward, a sword blade of shimmering psi energy emerging from her hand. She chopped down, and the energy blade sheared clean through the machine's arm. Hazel crashed to the ground, the steel hand still crushing her throat. She thrashed back and forth, tearing at it with both hands.
    Owen was quickly there beside her, and between them they broke the metal fingers one by one and pulled the hand away. Owen threw it to one side, and it lay twitching on the ground like a giant malformed spider.
    The thing that looked like Beatrice stood facing Jenny Psycho, who grinned at it nastily. The energy sword disappeared from her hand, and she made a beckoning gesture. Beatrice looked at the esper for a moment, a quizzical expression on her artificial face, then suddenly she convulsed, her back arching. Strange noises came from her mouth, and her chest and sides bellowed in and out. And then her mouth stretched impossibly as all her artificial guts came fountaining up and out, pushing the teeth aside as they came. More and more flew from her mouth, torn out by Jenny's esp, and she staggered back and forth as the
    high-tech contents fell to the ground at her feet. Finally there was nothing left of it but an artificial shell, tottering on its feet. Her workings lay steaming and twitching on the ground, spread over a wide area. Jenny smiled again, made a pushing gesture with one finger, and the lifeless shell crashed to the ground and lay still. Owen and Hazel got to their feet, and looked at it.
    "The girl had guts," said Hazel, her voice just a little rough.
    Owen winced, and moved over to Giles, who was sitting up and shaking his head muzzily. Owen helped him up. "You took a disrupter blast point-blank in the chest," he said, almost accusingly. "Why aren't you dead?"
    "Force shield," said Giles briskly. "I've been working on it since Haceldama.
    Takes a lot out of me, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. You could do it, too, if you practiced."
    "Never seem to have the time," said Owen. "You know how it is; when you're running a rebellion, it's one damned thing after another."
    The rebels dusted themselves off, and turned back to face the Throne. Lionstone stared back at them unflinchingly. "You always break my favorite toys. Very well, let's try something else. Owen Deathstalker, Hazel d'Ark, Code Blue Two Two."
    She smiled triumphantly as she spoke the control words implanted in Owen's and Hazel's minds by the treacherous AI Ozymandius, but then her smile faltered as they just stood there, unmoved. Lionstone tried the control words again. Owen smiled at her.
    "That won't work anymore. We've moved beyond that."
    Lionstone spun on Jack Random. "You are still my creature. Obey me. Kill your friends!"

    Random smiled, and shook his head. "Sorry, Lionstone. I'm not under your