Mindgames, chapter 6

Continued from:


Grendel was rapidly scanning the room in a pattern with her thermographic sensors when Olga took another swing at her. The punch landed hard on her cheekbone, catching her by surprise and staggering her backwards. The cyborg huntress stumbled a few feet as the Soviet Superwoman got back to her feet, eyes blazing red. It hadn't been a full strength or Grendel figured she would be spitting teeth with her systems shutting down on the other side of the room, but it was obvious that the effects of the pulse were wearing off and the Superwoman's titanic strength were rapidly returning. Claire held her hands out to the sides as she took a few steps back.


"Olga my love, it's me! I'm back in control! The Warlord is still..."


Her words were cut short as she was forced to back flip out of the way of an on-coming attack. Olga rushed forward like a tank, her gloved hand missing it's intended target and smashing downwards, fracturing the cement into powder. A fine particle suspension hung over the floor as the Soviet juggernaut stood up to her full height again. Claire had landed a few feet away on all fours, locking eyes with her opponent. That blow had been meant to kill. Wherever she was, the Warlord had taken control of Olga's mind, making a bad situation even worse.


"Olga, you have to fight her!" Claire pleaded as she nimbly dove out of the way of another tremendous punch. The amazon's fist sailed past her face by inches and Claire could feel the rush of air from it's force.


Grendel moved to the side of the caped heroine and drove her own bio-mechanical foot down hard on Olga's calf-muscle. It was like slamming her foot down on a steel rebar. Olga's invulnerabilty and surely her other powers were returning to her by now. Claire began to quickly re-activate her weapons systems as she bobbed and weaved around a flurry of the Soviet Superwoman's blows. They might be useless against a super-powered foe like Olga, but against the Warlord they could come in handy. Olga was a highly-trained soldier and from what Claire remembered about Yuri Gregorovich, or whatever he was calling himself now, he was trained in a great deal of the same styles. Styles he was employing now against her. Claire accessed her vast array of fighting styles and pulled up Systema, the spetsnaz martial arts style. She felt a odd rush as the hand-to-hand combat teachings were suddenly downloaded into her brain. Now at least she could match the titaness in skill if not in power. More importantly she had to find the Warlord and neutralize her if she planned on living through this. Olga continued to assail her, raining blows down at her like a thunderstorm. The cybernetic Frenchwoman leapt back a few feet, dodging the incoming punches and took hold of Olga's arm, using the larger woman's momentum to flip herself up and over the Russian.


Claire switched back to thermographic vision and gave up the pattern approach to finding her. Instead she switched on her enhanced olfactory sensors. Grendel took a few deep breaths through her nose. The information began flooding in. She quickly dismissed her own scents, Olga's sweat...a simple jasmine perfume she was wearing...there! Claire's gaze shot to the far corner of the warehouse behind Olga. The faint scents of chocolate and patchouli had directed her to where she could now see the heat signatures of another person. The same tell-tale spaces where her massive implants were like dark spots on her chest gave her away. Claire dropped low, diving under Olga's arm a second time as the super-soldier swung a her, more wild this time. It seemed like the Warlord was getting more desperate now, sloppy...or perhaps Olga was mentally battling her back. Whatever was the reason, Claire took off towards the woman as quickly as she could sprint.


Twin beams of red sliced through the air next to her, burning through several abandoned empty crates as they cut their way across towards Grendel. Claire was forced to break off her advance and dive out of the way of the streaking lasers. The cybernetic woman tumbled into a roll and came up again, all in one fluid motion, continuing her run towards the psychic. The savage slam hit her from behind and threw her into the side wall like a shot-put. The wall of the warehouse shuddered and bent outwards slightly from the impact as Claire was sent sprawling. Olga must have employed her bursts of super-speed and caught her from behind, her powers were all coming back online. The pulse weaponry however needed a far longer amount of time to activate another burst. Grendel shook her head and tried to stand up. She was in a great deal of pain, but all of her functions seemed to still be operational. Another blast of red energy shot forth from the caped woman's eyes, this time finding purchase on Claire's thigh. The metallic plating on her cybernetic limbs was mirrored and partially laser-resistant. The blast could have ripped her leg from it's housing, but instead it sheared twin holes through her that immediately began leaking blood mixed with oils.


Grendel let out a cry of pain and quickly moved to shut down the pain receptors to that leg. It was programming Ilsa had put into her electronic make-up to make her a better killing machine. Claire had never willingly turned it on until now as she always considered shutting off one's ability to feel pain an incredibly stupid idea. You could become grievously or mortally injured and not know it until you turned it back on or simply dropped dead. In this instance however, time was of the essence and a crippled leg would only slow her down. The pain was almost immediately shut off, but the leg wasn't operating at peak efficiency and was losing vital fluids. Claire ducked the next volley of lasers as Olga rushed back in for the kill. Warlord had given her idea. As the possessed Soviet Superwoman lashed out at her again, the former French Resistance officer activated her own stealth technology. It seemed like she simply shimmered out of existence. Olga blinked a few times in stunned disbelief before looking all around the warehouse for any signs of her adversary. In the meantime, Claire made her way quickly and quietly towards her quarry. The Warlord was beginning to move as well, also desperately looking around the room. Her hands were still up on both sides of her temples meaning she wasn't giving up mental control of Olga just yet.


Claire was carefully positioning herself when the Soviet Superwoman began tracking towards her. A quick glance revealed that she was following the fresh droplets of blood and lubricants. Putain! She would have to time this just right. She leapt through the air at the Warlord from her slightly elevated position a few yards away. Twin discs launched forth from her torso and ripped towards their target. It made her visible, shutting down the stealth field, but that was what she wanted. The Warlord's eyes grew wide as saucers as the razor sharp explosives hurtled towards her, cutting through the air with a metallic whirring sound. She lashed out with her telekinesis, focusing all her power unto moving those discs out of their deadly path. Both explosives rocketed in opposite directions at the last possible moment, detonating behind her as they impacted with the wall. The explosion thrust the blonde woman forward with a yelp, dashing her to the floor, face first. No sooner had she gotten shakily back to her feet when Claire struck. She took hold of the psychic warrior under her left arm and slammed her wrist blade home through her back.


The Warlord choked up a spray of blood as the blade punched out her chest, just between her lungs and consciousness left her.


Grendel let the injured woman slide off her wrist blades and collapse back onto the floor. Olga was walking towards her now, her hand gripping her forehead as if she was suffering from a tremendous headache.


"Did you..." Olga asked looking up at Grendel, one blue eyes obscured by her black gloved fingers.


"No...but I should have. I don't know what her capacity is to jump into someone else's mind at death. I didn't want to risk her permanently taking over your mind....or mine. She'll live, unfortunately." Claire replied looking down at the bleeding woman.


Olga nodded, moving her hand to the rest open palm on her head. "It is good to see you again Claire," she said smiling, "and you do look magnificent."


Claire returned her smile with one of her own.


To be concluded...

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Once again a tremendous thank you to my good friend Nathan not just for creating this image, but also for his time and all the great ideas he had to make this a reality.

Soviet Superwoman, Warlord & the much mentioned Genocide, as well as the writing, all belong to me.

Grendel and Clemence are both creations between myself and Nathan.

All of this takes place in