The sun was bright, and uninterrupted by the clouds for a brief moment. The girl with the Codename of Pestilence made her way to her secret hiding place. The hospital has an underground garage with many hidden areas that were built during the War of Iron. Within one of the hidden rooms was the pride and joy of Pestilence.Well, it was becoming that. With slow but sure progress. Pestilence dashed into the garage, the new parts she carried wore her down a bit. The work she went through to get the parts she needed next was near impossible. The Gearheads were going to be upset for more missing tools and replacement parts for the Street Thugs and the other Grinders at the headquarters.
Pestilence ran down into the garage. A few cars were rolling about, looking for a place to park. They wouldnt pay any attention to her, but she would have to be cautious when she ducked down into the secret area, the last thing she needed was to get caught for stealing power from the hospital. She dragged her hand across the hollow wall. Once she found the hidden panel a section opened up and she slipped through. The darkness inside the secret area swallowed her whole. Pestilence slid her fingers across the brim of her hat and a flood lamp erased a section of the black. Pestilence walked down the narrow hallway and into her secret room.
Multiple cables and computers lie about the room, all centered around a single thing, a single person. The giant, blank eyes of a girl stare off into infinite possibility. The gathered pieces of a girl with a fraction of a body, connected to all of the hanging cables. An upper torso, arms just short of the elbows, and artificial hair attached to the head for an extra power supply. The one part that was pretty much complete was the spine and brain collection. For reasons unknown, Pestilence was unable to activate the mind without the spine, regardless the spine was built to act as a limb till the arms were assembled. Pestilence set the parts next to the body, and powered up the computer.
"rise and shine Anna, good morning" the eyes of the hanging body went from large and grey to a refined and lime green color. Anna started to speak like a tape recorder set twice as fast, checking programs, setting security, after a few seconds Anna was wide awake.
"Master? Master your here, that makes me happy" Anna was so excited she started to swing from her cables and hangers.
"Hi Anna, be careful okay, you dont need to disconnect yourself and fall down from getting all worked up" Pestilence pulled the parts out of the bag.
"I'm sorry Master, I just cant help myself sometimes, having you around just makes me so happy, you dont know" Anna's spine dragged along the ground, the end of it wagged like a dogs tail.
"Its alright, and guess what. I have some new parts for you"
"You do really?! I'm so happy, and before long I will be able to walk beside you Master, that... makes me happy" Pestilence started attaching new parts to Anna. Her phone started to ring.
"Master, one of your good friends is trying to talk to you" Pestilence pulled her phone out, it was HQ. They odds were they wanted her to work on her training for the Decaying Driller.
"I dont want to talk to them" she put her phone back in her pocket.
"Master?"
"Anna, there is so much that I havent told you"
"oh but thats not true Master, when I shut down I live amongst others, they live on the internet. They tell me many great and interesting things. It makes me eager to join you outside so I can meet them. I've learned all about the outside world, and about you Master" Pestilence stopped working, everything she was planning on telling Anna was being taken from her.
"Really, you know that much about me?" Anna reared her head up, trying to look at Pestilence on the same level.
"oh yes, as a small child you were chosen for the Four Horsemen Complex, a program that chose those who were capable of the extreme thought of controling the most powerful Grinders in the world. War, pilot of the Chaos Bringer. Famine, pilot of the Starving Model. Death, pilot of Labyrinth Reaper. Then there is you, Pestilence, pilot of the Decaying Driller. But... but"
"I didnt want it, the death of my parents was the only reason they found me. When my parents were in this hospital, they were suspects for those who would be capable of piloting. When they tested me, I was above and beyond all the testing, even breaking all of Famines records"
"Master, you are... absolutely awe inspiring, I look up to you with so much pride. The fact that you, of all people are building me... makes me happy" Anna was getting teary eyed, at least she would be if she had the program and the parts to do so.
"Please Anna, dont get this way over me, its stupid" Pestilence was starting the waterworks too, all the thoughts of her parents was getting to her.
"Master... I'm sorry, you look like you need a hug but... I have no arms to hug you with" Pestilence almost choked, while she was crying, what Anna said made her chuckle.
"Master! Master are you alright?" Pestilence started to cough to clear her throat.
"Anna, what you said there, I feel better thanks to you" Anna started to sniffle.
"really? you feel better. Then... I feel better too" Anna smiled and wagged her spine again.
"besides Anna, you-" the building started to rumble.
"what was that?" Anna looked around as some dust started to float to the ground. Pestilence listened to the noise outside, it was the sound of a Wheelarc energy source. The Street Thugs were near, and that meant.
"Busted" another rumble, followed by a huge quake shook the two girls to their core. Pestilence got up to go take a look.
"Master?"
"Ill be right back Anna, ill be right back" she shoved the secret door open and ran out to take a look. The Bicycle Thief was stopped in front of the garage while the Safecracker fired on an enemy she couldnt see. Her phone rang again, Janet was calling her from inside Safecracker.
"Hello? Janet"
"Hey you little Pest, what do you think your doing?! we're in the middle of an emergency and you decide to go hide out for a while. Get your ass in gear" the Safecracker was struck and knocked away from the hospital. The Bicycle Thief was in B-Spec mode, so it was pretty much useless in combat. With no pilot to operate it, all the weapons were unused. There was a single person capable of operating it was dead. There was a siren blareing from the hospital, followed by an alert to get all the patients out of the area. The dust had settled, and one of the Sevensins emerged.
L-Driver strutted out from behind the trees and debris. Pestilence started to walk backwards, the L-Driver was the fastest Sevensins Grinder out there. Unless the Street Thugs conbine into highway man, they wont stand a chance. There was chatter on the phone.
"Janet?"
"listen Pest, you need to get into the Bicycle Thief you'll be safe there until we get you back to HQ"
"I... just hang on for a moment, theres something I have to do, its urgent"
"Dammit, you shallow brat, this is an emergency, you can get kill-gragh" Janet was attacked again. Then the third part of their team arrived. The phone adjusted to allow a third party to speak.
"Pestilence hurry and do what you have to, we'll cover you" it was him, Marcus Wheeler. Like her he was dragged into this mess. She didnt know the details but now wasnt the time, she had to get Anna converted to a moveable power source and fast. She spotted a hand truck by a delivery van, she could hang Anna from it and place batteries on the bottom. After snagging the hand truck she dashed into the secret room. Anna was staring at the ground whimpering. Once she saw Pestilence she got excited.
"Master your back"
"Not now Anna I need to get you out of here fast" the hand truck was set behind Anna and all the hangers were changed over.
"Now to change your power source, what would be the best, she had a generator, but it was heavy and wont fit through the way she would need it, stacking the batteries would be easiest but their duration would be short, minutes at best. She didnt have a better choice. She placed three batteries on top of one another and connected the ends to Anna's power terminals.
"Master, are we going to be okay?"
"We'll be okay, we're going to get inside a Grinder and escape from this place"
"You mean... we are going outside?"
"It'll be okay, I wont let anything happen to you" nobody will lay a finger on you unless we say its okay" Pestilence tilted the hand truck and started to pull it out to the Grinder. Chatter came up on the phone again.
"Janet we cant wait anymore, we have to combine"
"I called for a helicopter to pick up the Pest, lets do this"
"Alright, the gangs all here, Combination!" Pestilence was feet away from the Bicycle thief when it activated and took off, the Street thugs were going to combine into The Highwayman.
The Bicycle Thief and the Safecracker combined to Wheelman. As Pestilence and Anna watched the combination a helicopter landed nearby.
"Miss Pestilence please hurry" a soldier gestured towards her to hurry as others got out to cover them. As one of the men got near her the copter erupted in an explosion. The L-driver fired on them. As it prepared its second shot it collided with the complete Highwayman.
"Now you can see what the whole gang can do when we fight together, prepare to go down L-Driver"
