#chronosteel core

[fizzysugarwater]

Hostiles

Here’s some funky fresh lil thing (that may or may not have a pt 2 in the works) w/ @spinchip‘s lovely oc Five! She has taken over my brain, I cannot stop thinking about her.

---

Perhaps it was not in Five’s best interest to take on every target at once. This combat hadn’t started with all of them, to be sure. Just two. Just the lightning master, and the fire one. By themselves, in an alleyway. It was meant to be quick.

But even with her heightened reflexes, the two hostiles were quicker.

She weaved between their strikes, able to keep from taking a hit, but not long enough to sap their powers. It had gone on like this for a good many seconds. Eventually, Five landed a strike on the fire master’s solar plexus, sending him sprawling against the wall of the building. Despite this being nothing more than her duty, Five smirked. All it would take is one more strike and-

The HUD in her vision flashed a warning. 1 Hostile approach- 2 Hostiles approaching.

The ground beneath her feet began to rumble and she ducked under a strike from the lightning master, blocking it and shoving him back before retreating just slightly, eyes up and scanning.

The earth master came out of the shadows, far into the alleyway, arms aglow like molten rock. Five scowled. A strange humming sound alerted her and she glanced back to see the energy master standing at the other end of the alley, his own arms fizzing with green light.

“We have you outnumbered,” the energy master spoke up, clear as day. “Stand down.” The fire and lightning masters stood up, looking ready to keep fighting. 4 Hostiles, her vision reminded her.

Five glared down the energy master, eyes scanning the whole alleyway. A plan formulated, within the blink of an eye. She met the green one’s gaze again. “I will not, Master of Energy,” she responded, cold and ominous.

In one quick movement she popped up an empty metal trashcan into the air and kicked it down the alley with surprising force, knocking the green one over and out. All at once combat began again. 3 Hostiles. The earth master charged her, and she redirected his momentum to crash into the fire master, turning her attention to the lightning master instead. He was fast on his own, but not fast enough to dodge her strikes.

Five would’ve had him, if not for the rumbling under her feet again. She jumped up and back onto a dumpster as the ground split, giving them all enough time to get their breath back.

“Mind telling us why you’re trying to fi-” The lightning master started to ask, but Five delivered a sharp, flying punch to his jaw, backing up into the earth elemental. He promptly tried to grapple her, but she gave him two quick elbows in the chest and he doubled backwards and doubled over with a grunt. The fire master filled his spot, and they engaged in a rapid exchanging of blows before Five ducked under his punch and boosted him over her shoulder, sending him sprawling into the lightning master. She whirled on her heels to face them, panting.

Her HUD flashed again. 1 Hostile approaching. Fantastic, now she was going to fight five? This was not going well. She formulated a new plan of retreat. It involved taking one of them down, using them as leverage. Quickly, she calculated exactly who would be best to take down at this moment.

Blue it is. Five lunged forward, catching the lightning master by his hood, and flung him forward into the side of a dumpster. He was surprisingly light. Upon impact he let out a sharp cry. Five wasted no time, pouncing on the lightning master and pinning him to the ground, knee on his back, arm pulled up behind him. The others started to approach them, but she grabbed the lightning master’s arm and held it in such a way that, with one wrong move, she could very well break his arm. The lightning master cried out again, in pain, and she stared the remaining two masters down, daring them to make her do it. They stopped in their tracks.

Two more energy signatures appeared, as two more figures landed in the alleyway, behind fire and earth. The reading in her vision was… surely malfunctioning. Because the hostile had made itself known, but there were two instead of one. One was the water master, as evident by her energy signal. And one was-

Five’s eyes widened. An android. Like herself. With a chronosteel core. There was only… one left like that. Five couldn’t believe it.

“Zero?” She said aloud, barely above a whisper. “Wh-“

Her next sentence was cut off by a grunt of pain. In all her shock, she’d faltered her grip on the lightning master, who had wriggled free and socked her in the jaw. She stood up off of him, dropping into a defensive stance and trying to be ready for the next strike, but she didn’t anticipate the sudden patch of ice creeping quickly over her feet. 

Five scanned around wildly for the source, and found only the other elemental masters and Zero. Zero’s hand was up, and he looked stern and confused in the same expression. Five’s breathing quickened. Her HUD wouldn’t let her identify Zero as the ice master. But if her eyes didn’t deceive her… he was. What is going on? What is he doing?

She wrenched her feet free, letting out an enraged yell, and charged at Zero. A thousand thoughts ran through her head, a thousand feelings. Her HUD flashed a thousand messages at once.

5 Hostiles. Zero Detected. Ice Detected. 6 Hostiles.

Traitor-

She never got a chance to act on any of these messages. They blinded her, in that moment. The earth master threw out his arm and clotheslined her, slamming her back into the ground with the force of a mountain. She let out a cry, but the impact cut her short. The last thing she saw before her body entered involuntary sleep mode were the wide, confused eyes of Zero. Looking like he didn’t know her. Didn’t recognize her. Her last thought echoed in the darkness that faded in.

Traitor.

[fizzysugarwater]

Mourning

This one is kinda short but I split it up w/ its other half bc it seemed more fun narrative-wise. Part three of this thing I’m doing w/ @spinchip‘s oc (who has apparently taken my brainwaves as of late) Five! Part four is definitely in the works uwu

---

Five appreciated the silence of this place. The stillness of a facility once revered for its technological marvels now lying dormant and in pieces. If she had the time to reflect, she would consider it peaceful.

But even then, this place brought back haunting memories.

Five strode into the main chamber, dragging her sword and sheath along the floor behind her. The tile under her feet felt cold. She felt cold, herself. Like this place sapped the life from her. Nevertheless, she pushed inward.

The android chamber. Six pods, arranged in a circle. Barely anything but coffins now. A morbid thought. Five dropped into a sitting position in the center of the circle of coffins. Cross-legged. She set her sword in front of her, over her legs, and leaned her hands palm-down on her knees. She relaxed her shoulders in a learned motion, straightened her back, and let her mind clear. It was something Five rarely let herself do, but something she often needed to do nonetheless, as a calming mechanism. To keep herself from letting rage and grief direct every action. She needed to be grounded in her task, in her devotion to what needed to be done.

And so she meditated, letting old memories return to her.

---

The facility was silent when she awoke the first time, save for the incessant beeping from various alarms. She understood instinctively that her boot-up hadn’t happened in its intended protocol. There was no one here who could have started it.

There was no one else here, period.

She pulled herself out of her pod, the only light cast into the space from the glowing lines on her face and arms. Wires fell off of her arms as she pulled away from them. Her first steps were shaky, she imagined she looked very young, very naïve, in those first moments. Like a child. 

As everything came online, a sudden feeling of wrongness flooded into her. Something new to her. It hurt. Her vision flashed a warning, telling her that there were supposed to be others. Supposed to be other siblings awake, with her.

But none of them were awake.

One offline. Two offline. Three offline. Four offline.

All at once she was stiff with fear, a new emotion, and with short quick strides she reached One’s pod. Something was wrong. The hatch was shattered, the wires yanked and torn. One was there but he was… gone. Mutilated. Destroyed. Before he could ever open his eyes again.

She reared back from the pod with a start, unable to process the sight, face contorting with horror. Frantic now, she checked each pod. All of them, all of them ruined beyond repair, their faces looking peaceful among the wreckage. It scared her. To wake up alone, all alone, among the corpses of her own family.

Something unknown to her bubbled in her throat. A sob. Her first vocalization after decades of slumber and it was a sob.

She backed into the side of a pod she hadn’t checked. Zero’s pod.

It was empty. She was still alone.

She cried. Her first moments awake and she cried, cried for a family she would never meet. Eventually, that grief settled, like a heavy coat in her heart. She lifted herself from the floor, where she had collapsed. She had to leave this place.

She crossed the room to a door, and then through a long hallway. Light filtered in from above in this new room, and she squinted at it. A caved-in ceiling. It was morning, out here.

Her vision blazed, taking in new sights and sounds. Her chronosteel heart whirred under her chest plate. Her mind seemed to already set aside the grief, or else turn it into something stronger. Determination.

She was Five. She had a job to do. And she was going to do it, for all of them.

---

Five returned to alertness at the sound of HUD warnings. Ice Detected. 1 Hostile Approaching. She didn’t move, only squaring her shoulders and tensing up. She knew who was coming. He was only a few rooms away.

She set her hand around her sword, eyes staring ahead at the pod she was facing. Oddly enough, Zero’s pod. Zane’s pod. 

She was ready.

[fizzysugarwater]

Questions

Surprise! It’s part 2 of this narrative thing w/ @spinchip‘s oc Five! And now there’s also a part 3 but I have to still write that one. But anyway, yeehaw Five Angst

---

Zane didn’t normally do this kind of thing. The interrogation, that is. Usually it would be all of them, and all of them would ask questions, but… for this one, he didn’t think that would work. Perhaps he hoped that whatever recognition he’d seen in her eyes would make her more responsive to him, if he was alone. Perhaps that was naïve of him.

Nevertheless, here he was. In the wee hours of the morning, booting up an android he’d never seen before, but who had certainly seen him. She was still in sleep mode, so Zane restrained her otherwise unconscious wrists with cuffs to the chair before opening her chest plate and-

He stopped short, eyes wide. He recognized these circuits. And that core. Zane put a hand over his mouth in shock, eyes darting across the inner workings of this android.

This was his circuitry. Or at least very much like the one he was initially created with. But… that didn’t make any sense. Was she designed by Dr. Julien as well? Why didn’t he tell me about her? Where has she been all this time? And why is she trying to attack us now?

Zane swallowed, staving away his endless train of thoughts. I can ask these questions when she is awake to answer them. He took a breath to clear his mind, and went to work actually starting the android up. He finished that process within a few seconds, being so familiar with the structure anyhow, and closed her chest cavity before standing up and stepping back, giving her space when she came to.

And sure enough, she did, with a sudden, deep inhale. Eyes snapping open, and going to stand up before she realized she was cuffed to the chair she was sitting in. Zane sat in a chair opposite her, with several feet between them. She took in her surroundings quickly, eyes darting around. She lifted her head when her eyes landed on Zane, and her expression morphed to one of confusion and cold anger. Zane maintained a cool, neutral look, watching the android and waiting for her to speak.

Eventually, she did. “... you.” Her voice was dripping in malice. She bared her teeth for a second in a kind of snarl, then thought the better of whatever her next sentence was and instead met Zane’s eyes again. “Why am I here?” She asked, this time with much less malice. More… indifference.

“I could ask you the same question,” Zane responded blithely. “It’s on a long list of questions I have for you. But perhaps, it’s not the one we should start with.” He sat up straight in his chair. “What is your name? You seem to know me.”

For a moment, the android’s eyebrow twitched. Then she scowled. “What game are you playing, Zero?”

Zane quirked an eyebrow. She called me Zero again. “That isn’t my name, my name is Zane. And I asked for yours first.”

The android scowled deeper. She said nothing. Zane sighed, then looked at her plainly. “Look. I am meeting you like this as a courtesy, because I don’t think you’d say much of anything with the rest of my team in the room. And the reason I think as such is because you seem to know me. And you know me as Zero, that much you’ve made clear. But I don’t know you. So please, may I have your name? Then this can all go a lot more efficiently.” He tilted his head at the android.

She sat up in her chair, staring Zane down for a long moment. Almost… sad. 

“... you really have forgotten them. All of them.” She hung her head for just a second, then looked up again. “My designation is Five. And yours was Zero, before you forgot about all of us. Before you left us behind.”

That… that took Zane aback. He leaned forward in his chair. “... what do you mean, Five?”

To even more of his surprise, Five laughed. It was a dry sound, disappointed, really. She looked him in the face again, a sour smile on her face. “Do you even know what it was like? To wake up surrounded by the wreckage of your own siblings?”

Zane inhaled sharply. “I- no, how could I possibly-”

She sucked in a breath through her teeth, interrupting him with the sound. Her voice was louder now, choking through some grief that Zane couldn’t possibly know, and yet she expected him to. “You don’t know, Zero. You were special, you were carted off to master-knows-where and you survived! And then you forgot, you forgot about all of us!”

Zane stood up from his chair, and Five bared her teeth again, not even in a smile. “And then you took it a step further, you traitor, you became the thing we were designed to beat!” Her voice was straining, and so were her wrists, against the cuffs. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been alone?! I woke up next to corpses, Zero! And you were out here, gallivanting around like nothing was wrong!” Her voice was a yell now. Zane stiffened, the others were bound to hear her now. But that was the least of his new worries. Five was like him. Or he was like Five. Either way, they were so similar they might as well be family. And she seemed more and more like she hated him.

“Five, I didn’t-”

“I grieved for them! I was the last one left! We were the last ones left! And now I-” She cut herself off, with what almost sounded like a sob, but was suppressed into a growl. Five glared at Zane, full of malice and hatred and betrayal. Zane stepped back, even as everything was urging him to take a step forward, to try and reach out to Five. But he couldn’t. He didn’t… he didn’t understand.

“I was alone. I am alone. So I’m doing the one thing I’m good for. And that is my fucking job.” She looked through Zane, practically boring into him with her scowl. “I was built to take down elemental masters. So that is what I am going to do, Zane.”

Five wrenched her hands up in one fast motion, breaking the chains of the cuffs. Zane dropped into a duck as she suddenly threw the whole chair at him. It hit the wall with a very loud crash. If the rest of the team wasn’t awake yet, they sure would be now.

And Zane definitely needed them, as Five suddenly dashed up to attack him. Zane was startled by how well he seemed to match up against Five. He knew her every strike before she made it, and she knew his. That threw Zane for a loop. She knows me. What in the hell is going on here?

Their one-on-one didn’t last much longer. The door burst open, and the rest of the team flooded in. Five shoved Zane away and scrambled back, acting tactical even as her fear spiked. At this point, she was far more focused on retreat and escape than on taking any of them out, even if her fury was directed at Zane. She cast one more glare at Zane, one laced with undertones of hurt, before ducking under someone’s arm and out of Zane’s sight for the remainder of their skirmish.

With most of them having just woken up, and Five already outclassing them all in speed, she slipped out of the interrogation room, and eventually out of the monastery before anyone could recapture her. Zane was left with more questions than answers. Mostly about how he managed to forget his own sister. And other siblings, who were all gone. And an apparent purpose to take out elemental masters, which… must’ve been his original purpose, too.

He once again was frustrated with his lack of memory on this subject.

Zane explained what he could to the others, but even he didn’t understand. And by the masters, he wanted to understand. He needed to find Five again, he needed to talk to her. He started a file that night, intent on keeping track of her.

It would be weeks before he found the wreckage of Chronocorps Laboratory. A wreckage 40 years abandoned.