Mimetic polyalloy function at 38%.
Hours later, the T-1000 was at least able to form a humanoid shape. If he tried to shift into his default human form, though, he started to melt, so he had to rely on his flickering camouflage for now. News crews had made their way to the scene, reporting in front of the mill, as assessors checked the machinery and cleanup crews scavenged the perilous mess.
He stayed on the backside of the steel mill, listening to sounds and sensing vibrations for anyone approaching in case he needed to run, hide, or kill - he did not want to get himself into the wrong hands. T-1000 was arguably too advanced to be reverse engineered by humans at this point in time, and since Cyberdyne’s main research lab had been destroyed, there was no telling where he would go. It was more of a logical precaution than an actual worry, because the series of coincidences that led to his defeat were so improbable that they couldn’t be used to determine how to subdue him. Plus, there had only been three witnesses.
The T-800. The reason why Cyberdyne labs was destroyed. Sure, Miles Dyson, the father of Skynet’s AI, was dead, but Skynet could still be saved if parts of the T-800, identical to the parts destroyed in the building’s explosion, were given to Cyberdyne.
Mimetic polyalloy function at 39%.
T-1000 had no way of knowing if he’d ever function at 100% again. It meant that he’d just have to fight smart. He tried morphing into his default human form again, instinctively uncomfortable while his metallic base was exposed, but his limbs melted and he looked like a man welded to the floor by his knees.
T-1000 felt vibrations. They were light on the ground, slow footsteps of a lightweight human; the pattern in which they moved was clearly cautious, like a hunter. He heard no actual sounds to indicate their approach, and he sensed no rolling equipment with them.
As the vibrations got stronger, T-1000 realized that they were familiar to him. These were the footsteps of Sarah Connor. She was clever; she must have recognized the steel mill immediately. But she was alone. Why would she come into the lion’s den? Surely she was aware her victory was a fluke, and that it was the T-800 who had done it.
T-1000 looked down at his melting metal stumps for forearms. He tried to morph one into a blade and it simply did not happen. So maybe he wouldn’t be in much of a shape to terminate her right now, but it’s not like she could terminate him, either, even if she thought she could finish him off.
He slid against the wall and started to camouflage himself, but it went about halfway before stopping.
Rerouting energy to essence recovery.
The killing machine found himself at a bit of a loss. This steel mill was not conducive to T-1000 getting what he wanted. He leaned against the wall and waited. Maybe he’d be able to create a blade for just long enough to kill her. Or maybe Sarah wouldn’t come this way. Those internally manifesting motivations he’d been developing . . . an unpleasant one arose in his mind. He did not want to be seen like this despite the fact that he probably wouldn’t be any easier to terminate.
