Escape to the City

[terminatefate]

John would find her.

Earth was gone, Humanity was gone (but here) and here and burning.  Did the goddamn ship have everyone in those pods? No.  Skynet.  This was Skynet.  And she was on the move (you keep moving, you always keep moving). She hugged the walls, then remembered the tentacles and hissed as she veered away.  It was a misstep that had her tumbling and thrown up from some goddamn chute.  Sarah sat there for a moment, blinking as she stared out across a fake horizon and took in the fake sky.  It wasn't real.

John was real.  He was real.

She forced herself upright and kept moving, a scowl curling her lip as she moved toward the shelter of the buildings.  Sarah wandered, found a piece of rebar amongst the rubble, tested it, and felt better.  She kept it in hand, her fingers clenched around it, as she leaned up against a building.  Whatever it was made of was cool and she sank into it for a moment with a hiss.  She could see it in her head, the fire and destruction--the way the the Terminator's flesh had melted away into nothing but a metal skeleton.  That was the world she had left.  Fuck, she could still feel the way its cold hand had closed around her throat all those years ago.

After Kyle was dead and broken at the bottom of those stairs, his mission had become hers.

She was still fighting his fight.

And this was Skynet.  It had to be Skynet.  Because if it wasn't, she had failed.

Sarah didn't accept failure.  There was absolutely no way she would ever accept failure--with the world burning and dying, with the screaming of an entire world in her ears each and every goddamn day. She didn't need some Metal motherfucker telling her that her world had been blown away.  The Future was coming, but it hadn't come yet.

There was supposed to be time.

But John was older, much older.  He'd lived the War.  She'd lived the war in her head, every day, every moment.  She could see the fire, here, too.  And it was easier because there was rubble, there were broken buildings.  No children, no blackened corpses that fell to ash when she reached for them.  Sarah drew a breath and froze as she heard a noise.

The rebar came up.

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[bears-omnitrix.livejournal.com]

That sound? Was whistling. Farmer in the Dell.

And no it wasn't Tenaya.

The rubble shook as a huge form stomped into view, picking up the rubble. "Geez, cleaning up's taking too long," grunted Humungosaur as he picked up a huge piece of rubble and set it to the side amidst a pile of debris he was working on.

Everyone was still pitching in, but it was slow going. Aang really did a number on the city months ago and he was finishing with the rest of it.

Eying the debris, he smirked. "Oh why not. Have a little fun!"

Tapping the omnitrix on his chest, his form changed from scaled brown to green and black as he roared, "ULTIMATE HUMUNGOSAUR!"

And he lift a huge piece of debris over his head. "Yeah, that's more like it!"

[terminatefate]

She almost dropped the fucking rebar on her foot. What the fuck? What the fucking fuck was that, Godzilla on crack? Son of a bitch. Sarah kept to the shadows as best as she could, warily peering out at the damn thing as it messed with the rubble.

It talked.

Fucking Skynet. What the helltooth pick.

"Fuck this," she muttered and retreated further into the damn building.

[bears-omnitrix.livejournal.com]

The sound of motion within the ruined building made Ben pause. Was someone in there? Good thing he hadn't made with blowing it all up.

"Hey!" he called out, his voice reverberating through the building. "Is there anyone in there? Hello? That building's being torn down, you don't wanna be in there once I start shooting missiles! Hello?"

Silence, at least answering him for the time being.

Ultimate Humunogsaur scratched his head. "Man, I don't wanna go in there... maybe I can rip a hole in the wall to slide on in..."

[terminatefate]

Sarah scowled.

Shooting missiles her ass, fucking bullshit. The hell was wrong with that son of a bitch. What if she didn't want the motherfucking building torn down? What if she liked it? Sarah found herself irrationally annoyed by the missiles comment. She wanted motherfucking missiles. And big guns. Bigger guns.

Any guns.

She twitched as she picked her way through the crumbling mess of the building. It reminded her of Mexico, a little. Mostly after she'd blown that one factory up and been chased by Interpol and what-the-fuck-ever back onto US soil where the Feds had grabbed her and threw her into fucking Pescadero.

Fucking Silberman.

She didn't even answer the alien dinosaur robot fucking Godzilla bitchface. Who the fuck called themselves Ultimate Humungosaur anyway? A fucking Saturday morning goddamn cartoon (she remembered those, vaguely--they'd played them at the damn crazy house)? It'd probably kill her or eat her or God knew what.

Ultimate, whatever. She would have given a body part for something big enough to blast a hole in its stupidass head. A cannon sounded appropriate. With a core of C-4. Sarah twitched again and kept moving.

[bears-omnitrix.livejournal.com]

If Ben could have seen Sarah's thought processes, he would have sighed and realized it was probably par for the course with most of his enemies. Instead, he circled around to the other side.

It was a shame to have to tear down the building, he kind of liked it. It was just a simple two-three story apartment but there wasn't anything in there, after all the furniture was moved out and stockpiled elsewhere.

But if memory served him correctly, this wall was NOT load bearing which meant...

And Ultimate Humungosaur reached out, dug his fingers into the wall and RIPPED a huge Ultimate Humungosaur-sized hole in the wall. "LUCY I'm home from de club!"

[terminatefate]

Shit.

That thing was tearing down a fucking wall. She heard the ripping of material (stone?) and then heard the bellow and decided this was going to be a shitty moment if she didn't keep fucking moving. Goddamn it. Sarah ducked through another hallway and wondered what the hell programming that talking son of a bitch had.

It was fucked up.

Whatever it was, it was freaking her right out and she'd had just about enough. She used her rebar to jam a door open and screeched to a halt. The building ended, abruptly in a a drop that would have severely injured or even killed her.

Fuck.

She flailed wildly and pulled herself back in, slamming back up against the side of the building as she edged herself along the broken remnants and reached for the ragged edge of the floor above her. She pulled herself up through sheer will alone.

[bears-omnitrix.livejournal.com]

Ultimate Humungosaur tossed the rubble to the side just in time to see Sarah pull herself up to the next floor. He heaved a sigh. "Hey! I'm not going to hurt you but this building's already unstable! You trounce up there and it'll bring the entire thing down!"

Seriously, who messes with condemned buildings anyhow?! Present company excluded of course.

Then it clicked. Maybe he was scaring that person who had yet to even yelp. It could be.

"I come in peace!" called out Ultimate Humungosaur. "Um... take me to your leader? Bwa Weep Ghrana Weep Ninny Bong? No hablo English?"

[terminatefate]

"Besame el culo," Sarah hissed, scrambling away, her footing precarious as she moved away from the damn noise. The fuck did it think it was saying? Jesus Christ. Fucking crazy motherfucking thing. Sarah skittered along the edge and ducked away from the light, pulling her body in so she couldn't be found (hunted, captured). She paused a moment to catch her breath and her fingers closed around a chunk of rubble.

If that fucker came near her, she'd aim for his eyes.

[bears-omnitrix.livejournal.com]

Ultimate Humungosaur was getting tired of this. Seriously, he had clean up to do! Not play Hide and Seek.

"That does it." Stomping in, he poked his head up through the floor near Sarah. "Hello? This is the last warning, this building's gotta come down, it's a danger to the area!"