Sarah awoke blearily, the world slowly snapping into place. In a matter of seconds she realized that she was naked and trapped inside of... a tube, her exit blocked by a glowing blue field. The next thing that she noticed was the man in the military coat standing in front of her, arms clasped behind his back.

It was the same man who’d had her father killed. That revelation made Sarah’s blood boil with anger but she clamped down on it. Now was not the time.

“Ah, you’re awake,” the man said, his voice dignified and carrying a hint of an accent that Sarah had ever heard before. “Let’s keep this nice and simple. You’re going to tell me the code for the Purifier, and you’re going to tell me now.”

Nim... why am I naked? Sarah asked Nim slowly, ignoring the man for the moment.

Well, I can tell you that you haven’t been molested, so I imagine that it’s either because he enjoys staring at your naked form, or to make sure that you do not have a weapon hidden within the folds of your clothing, Nim answered before adding. And I am glad to see that you’re alright Sarah.

“Did you hear me?” the man asked, his tone turning deadly.

“Sorry, just trying to figure out what the hell is going on,” Sarah replied, not really looking at the man as she surveyed the room and tried tapping a few times on the blue field in front of her.

“I’ll tell you what’s going on here. You lost,” the man said, his voice turning... not quite happy but certainly less deadly. “The good guys won this one, and now we’re just wrapping up loose ends. We’ve got the purifier, now we just need the code to start it. You’re going to give me that code now, save us all a lot of trouble. Maybe I’ll even let you go. So how about it?”

Do you have any idea what he’s talking about Nim? Sarah asked as she stared at the man.

Not in the faintest actually, Nim replied with a confused mental frown. Though I can tell you that he’s clearly under the impression that he’s a ‘good guy’. Still, this gives me an excellent idea.

Oh? Sarah asked as she pressed her lips into a hard line.

Do as I say, we supposedly know something that he wants, so he will not kill us for this...

“Okay! Fine! I’ll do whatever you want!” Sarah said, a pleading tone in her voice. “The code is 402!”

“Excellent,” the man said with a satisfied smile. “Now then, let’s just make sure that you were being honest.” He walked up an intercom. “Private Michal, the code is 4-0-2.”

“Alright sir, I’ll enter it in,” there was a long silence on the line for a long moment.

“Lost another one, sir,” a new voice reported.

“Dammit!” the man in the military jacket exclaimed as he turned back towards Sarah, his teeth grinding together. “I’m losing my patience with you! Don’t you are that you just cost an American his life?”

Nice, well thought out Nim, Sarah complemented before giving the man in the jacket a casual shrug

“Sorry to tell you this; but I honestly have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about,” Sarah told the man honestly. “I don’t know anything about a code, or anything about Project Purity really. Nor do I really care about the fact that one of your mooks just died. Go fuck a dog.”

The man’s jaw hardened further and Sarah saw one of the veins on his temple flex. One of his hands tightened into a fist.

“Look here you freak of nature, I have your traveling companions on the dissection table right now and the longer you delay the less I care about how long they live,” he told her harshly.

Oh. He is dying. He is dying horribly, Nim stated within the woman’s mind as Sarah’s jaw locked and her eyes glared at him.

“If you so much as touch a beautiful hair on Luna’s head I swear to God that I’ll end you,” the woman said in a low, dangerous voice, not caring in the least bit that she was naked. Nim decided to help her finish the rest of the threat. “I’ll do things to you that are so horrible that your God himself will look away from them in pure terror. The nights will echo with your cries of pain for a thousand years after your passing and mortal ears will shudder at the mere prospect of even whispering about what I will do to you; petulant child.”

Her voice was so dangerous and threatening that the man found himself taking a half step backwards out of reflexive fear. The woman was projecting such an aura of impossibly strong menace that he was having trouble thinking, almost as if it was supernatural. Sarah’s glare increased in intensity and she was suddenly aware that her teeth were bared threateningly.

“So know this, boy; you will release our companions. If you do so then perhaps I will not do these things I have said,” she continued as she stared into the man’s eyes as he took another reflexive step back. “However if you do not then I will do this and a thousand times worse before I am done!”

“I-I-” the man in the military jacket stuttered before a new, and strangely robust voice interrupted him.

“Colonel, I have need of you.”

“Mr. President, I-I have no time for other matters. I’ll be with you shortly,” the Colonel stated flatly, trying to control his quaking voice.

“Now Colonel,” the voice replied, lowering into a slightly a lower more serious tone.

“Yes... sir,” the Colonel said through gritted teeth before he turned and walked out of the room, to Sarah’s eyes a bit faster than strictly necessary.

That’s right cur! Run back to your master with your tail between your legs! Nim mentally shouted after him

“Ah, alone at last,” the voice drawled as a robotic blue light flicked over to look at her. Sarah frowned at it. “I do apologize for Colonel Autumn's attitude. He’s been under a great deal of stress lately.”

Ah, so now we have a full name to direct our hate towards, perfect, Nim said within her mind as the man continued to talk.

“I have no doubt you know who I am, I’m sure you’ve heard my radio broadcasts,” the man continued in an extremely narcissistic tone flowing with hubris. “I’d like to have a word with you, face-to-face. I think there are a few things you and I should discuss.”

“Oh good,” Sarah muttered with a small frown.

“I think it is,” the voice replied. “You’ll find your possessions and your... clothes in the locker near the door. I’ll unlock the way for you. And I’ll unlock your restraints as well. I’ll be waiting for you in my office. Please don’t tarry.”

The field in front of the woman dropped and the woman suddenly became very cold, the icy air washing over her breasts and causing her to shiver. Still, she with strained herself from running directly over to the locker. Instead she marched directly up to the light.

“Before I talk to you, you’re going to tell me where I can find Luna and Fawkes,” she stated flatly.

“Ah, the horse-”

“Alicorn,” Sarah interrupted.

“-‘alicorn’ and the mutant are slated for vivisection any minute now actually,” the voice replied. “I wouldn’t bother with attempting to rescue them.”

“TELL ME!” Sarah all but shouted at him, her voice flowing with malice.

“Err... alright, go out the door and take the corridor on the right,” the man replied. “You’ll find the labs fairly quickly. I guess if you run you might make it in time.”

Sarah simply nodded and walked over to the locker. She opened it up and retrieved her duffle bag along with her vault suit. She looked at the T-45d armour but shook her head. The woman didn’t have time to don it. Instead she just pulled on her vault suit and grabbed her combat shotgun and repeater along with her .44.

Are you sure this is wise? Nim inquired as Sarah walked towards the door.

It’s either this, or Luna and Fawkes die, Sarah replied flatly as she marched into the hallway.

“Hold it right there! You’re supposed to be in that holding ce-” the man who had been about to threaten her was silenced unexpectedly by a shotgun butt to the gut. He bent over, the air leaving his throat in an explosive gasp.

“Shut up,” Sarah said as she kicked his legs out from under him with movements honed in long practices of her youth. “Now then; you’re going to take me to the dissection labs and so help me if they’re dead then I’m going to make you wish that you’d never been born!”

Luna awoke with a pounding headache as a blindingly bright light shone down directly in her eyes.

“The specimen seems to be awakening,” a distant voice said in the background.

“Again? This is the third time! Can’t you people do anything right?” another, extremely irritated female voice demanded.

Luna blinked twice, her mind sluggish as she began to move in her restraints. Oh yes, the restraints. The mare was lying on her stomach, strapped to a cold metal table, her legs splayed to either side. She frowned faintly as she tried to remember what it was that was going on.

“What am I supposed to do?” the first voice replied. “It’s shrugged off everything less than elephant tranqs! Those don’t even exist anymore!”

“Just do it again!” the woman’s voice replied. “I’m not ready to perform the vivisection yet and I’d prefer for the horse not to be screaming through it. It’s distracting.”

“Blah blah blah,” Luna heard the first voice, definitely a man’s, say under its breath as it approached her.

The man came into view, her eyes having adjusted to the glaring light, nothing like staring at a lava lake, and she found that he was wearing an all concealing white suit with a blank golden facemask. In one hand it held a long hypodermic needle that was filled with an unknown fluid.

Luna frowned and struggled faintly in her restraints, unfortunately the firm leather strips prevented her from doing so. The man seemed to notice because he let out an amused chuckle.

“Struggle all you like horsey, you’re not getting out of those restraints,” he informed her casually as he tapped the tip of the needle to knock the extra fluid off. “Just take the nice shot and then you’ll never have to wake up again alright?”

Luna let out a growl of frustration as she struggled against the bonds before she fell back, seemingly in defeat. The scientist approached her and was about to insert the needle when it was suddenly entrapped in a dark blue aura. The needle was jerked out of his hand, catching him by complete surprise before Luna sent it jabbing into the base of his neck.

The hypodermic stabbed easily through the containment suit, more designed for stopping fluids then it was for actual combat. In a way, it fulfilled its function rather well, not a single fluid escaped as the scientist fell to the floor.

“What the hell?!” the woman’s voice shrieked in surprise as she ran into sight, holding a scalpel in one hand and a laser pistol in the other. She froze upon seeing her downed colleague, needle sticking visibly out of his neck, before she turned to look at Luna. “How did you do that?”

“Magic,” Luna said from between grit teeth as her horn began to glow again and the woman’s scalpel was forced from between her fingers.

The woman let out another shriek of surprise and fired her laser pistol at Luna. The mare let out a grunt of pain as the laser scoured into her shoulder, leaving a serious burn mark and blistering the skin. The scalpel fell from her grasp for a moment as her eyes widened at the pain and her mind was distracted for but a second.

The second passed rather quickly.

As the scientist was preparing for another shot the scalpel lifted itself back into the air and the pointed angled blade jabbed into the woman’s chest. She let out a shout of pain before Luna withdrew it and jabbed her again in the heart, and then a third time in the neck. The little blade sliced straight through the white material and into the skin below like the tool it was designed to be.

Luna let out a small sigh, danger averted for the moment.

She turned her head and brought the scalpel over to begin cutting her way out of the leather bonds. Unfortunately the scalpel wasn’t very good for that. The mare ground her teeth as she began to saw through the first bond. It would be a slow process.

Author's Notes:

I'm at a lacrosse tournament and have nothing better to do at night then write. You may get an unprecedented number of chapters.