trans_9 | The Day That Physics Mattered

The last time Allenby had been snatched up by GLaDOS, she had quickly abandoned the AI's preferred agenda in favor of seeking her out to deliver a righteous beatdown. The second time, Allenby hadn't changed anything except to get started on that before hearing GLaDOS' instructions. She hopped walls and dodged flame-shooting floor panels in her quest to get to the computer and put a fist in her processors--her soul was attached to her just fine--and just as suddenly as before, she was in mid-air. Unlike before, she was in the Hangar and surrounded by hostile robots.

"Whoa!" Instinctively, she punched the first one in its banana-shaped head, wincing at the unexpected pain. The hell--bam! Whack! She grabbed another one and hurled it at some of its comrades, which were taking aim at her. It didn't go as far as she'd hoped... ducking and dodging between them and some nastier-looking big guys, she spotted what she was looking for. "Nobel Gundam! Let's go!" she yelled, and launched herself up towards the cockpit.

It became apparent about halfway up that, well, halfway was all the way this time. That made it certain. Something was wrong with her. Had GLaDOS done this? And what the hell were all these robots trying to kill her, anyway?!

It would be a lie to say that Allenby wasn't afraid as she started to drop. But she was too pissed off now to think about being scared. With a bloodcurdling roar, she slammed herself into a clump of battle-bots and went right back to work, trying to ignore the question of how long she'd be able to keep it up.

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"Great!" So it was Stacy's fault. Good job, Stacy. And that would explain why she was feeling so damn wimpy right now. "Well, I ain't gonna let her do that!"

She looked around frantically. "We should get into our mechs! You can show me how great your Lagann is, 'kay?!"

Okay, this gun wasn't very useful. Simon pitches it, switching back to the drill for smashing 'bot heads in. "Just one little problem with that plan," he calls back with a hesitant tone. "With our powers disabled like this, I can't start Lagann!" As he says this, one unlucky battle droid gets an especially forceful face full of cone drill. He's...pretty sore about that, to say the least.

"You can't!? OW!" Allenby grabbed her arm. The son-of-a--she slapped her shoulder to make the plantsuit's sleeve extend down over the injury. "Well can ya pilot a regular mobile suit?!" There were still Zakus and those Gundam-looking Windam things. Right now, she'd even lower her standards to use one of those.

There was a frustrated grunt as Allenby emphasized that once more. "Her stupid dampeners or whatever are keeping me from getting properly fired up! I..." He sputters for a moment, then growls, smacking a droid out of the way to get closer.

"I don't know, I've only ever piloted Gunmen, but the cow-guy said I should use a Zaku."

"Ugh, no way. Zakus--" Aw crap, they really didn't have time to discuss it though, did they? Looked like Simon was going to have to pilot one of those ugly things just for now. And honestly, if he'd never piloted a suit before, a Zaku was a good (ugly, clunky) place to start--

"Follow me!" she said, breaking into a run. "And tell me more about these dampeners! Know where they are?!"

A hop, skip, and a jump over broken parts and robots, and Simon was after Allenby. "I haven't got a clue - maybe some of the others have figured it out by now, but I've spent my time trying to get here...!"

"Oh, well!" With a wham, bam, and a metallic ow! ow! from her victims, Allenby laid out some more battle droids. Her arm still hurt, but it wasn't getting through the adrenaline and burning determination to reach the mobile suits. And there were the big, green legs of those old mobile suits--with a lot of pockmarks and glowing bits from where they'd been caught in crossfire or deliberately hit.

"HEY! ZAKUS!" Crap, no response. Controls, controls, there! "Simon! Hit the control panel over there! That oughta open up the suits!"

Robots comin' out of every nook and cranny - seemed like for every one they took out, three took its place. At least these were easy to down, compared to some of the ones he'd seen on the way in.

At Allenby's shout, however, he responded with an "Okay!", barging toward the panel with his drill drawn back like a baseball bat...

And he definitely hit the panel. The drill smashed a good ways into it, and was quickly removed, given that the now-exposed wiring gave Simon a good jolt of electricity.

Allenby saw too late what Simon intended to do. "No wait--!"

The words came out just as the drill smashed the panel into smithereens. And unlike what would probably happen in fiction, this did not just activate the Zakus in a coincidence of percussion. All that happened was that the controls had been wrecked.

Shit.

Okay Allenby, think. There's another panel up on the catwalk. But how do we get there? She smashed a few droid heads off and dove behind one of the Zaku's feet for cover. "I didn't mean it so literally! Quick, find stairs or a ladder or an elevator, okay? We gotta get up there!"

Well, crap, that wasn't the brightest idea. Good going, Simon.

"Ah, dammit!" He shook his head, then held it for a moment, trying to get past the shock. "Ugh, uh..." He stumbled behind the now-wrecked panel, slumping down for a moment while he glanced around.

"Over there! Behind the green things!" He pointed, then got up to head that way - there was a stairwell there.

"I see it--!" Allenby punctuated that by yanking another super battle-droid backwards. It sprayed blaster fire into the air, sending sparks raining down from the catwalk railings. She leaped over it anyway, praying that she wouldn't get hit with any more stray shots and then a secondary prayer that someone was around to listen to praying at all.

She grabbed Simon's wrist when she drew level with him. Rushing along like this, she couldn't tell if he'd been stumbling because he'd been hit or just because of the chaos. "You all right?! Let's go!"

That stumbling intensified for just a moment after Allenby grabbed him, but he was quick to recover. "I'm good, just got a little zapped when I hit the panel." His face turned more focused, and then he started bounding up the stairwell.

"Good!" She heard blaster shots sizzle into the metal below them as they raced upwards, but she did her best to ignore it. "Now, let me handle it this time--" she said when they reached the top.

She punched in some instructions to the control panel. Behind her, the pink cyclops eye of two Zakus lit up and the cockpits opened. "Okay! You take that one and I'll take this one!" she said, pointing urgently.

"Alright!" With a flutter of his coat, Simon's off, knocking a few stray battle droids over, and then vaulting over the side rail to jump on one Zaku's shoulder, and scrambled down to the open cockpit, and get in and sit in the chair...

...

"WHY ARE THERE SO MANY BUTTONS?!"

The Day That Physics Mattered

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