T3 - The Lost Terminator Ch. 02

Sarah nodded with a smirk. "Of course it is."

After they had all eaten, John got changed, soon rejoining them to discuss a backup plan. Just so they all knew what to do and where to go if anything went wrong.

"So, Kristanna, we'll take your car for now if you don't mind. Me and Cameron will look into getting another one later today. As for the safe house, we know the building was crawling with cops, I don't know what happened there, but with any luck, it'll be clear enough for us to contact those resistance fighters." Said Sarah.

"Kristanna, you're with me, Cameron, you're with John. Keep an eye out for any cops. If anything goes wrong, we'll meet back at Kristanna's car, which we'll park in the next block. Got it?" She continued, glancing at each of them in turn.

"Yes, ma'am." Said Kristanna cheerfully.

Sarah nodded. "Let's get going." They all headed outside and jumped into Kristanna's BMW, heading off to the resistance safe house.

****

Upon arriving near the safe house, they drove by the building to assess their chances of getting in unnoticed. With no cops in the immediate vicinity, they parked up a few streets away and approached on foot. Sarah and Kristanna went ahead first, leaving John and Cameron to enter shortly afterwards.

Sarah led them to the room they had been told to meet the fighters at a few days ago, only to find the door had been kicked in, and police tape covered the doorway. Sarah, Cameron and Kristanna drew their guns, standing outside the door.

"Try not to touch anything. We don't want to leave anything the cops could trace back to us." Said Sarah quietly, glancing at the others as they ducked beneath the tape and went inside.

The room was empty and quiet. Near the back by a table were three taped outlines of bodies, a fourth lay not far from those. They began searching the place, realising that much of it had been cleaned out by the cops, with Sarah commenting that was why the building was swarming a few days ago.

"They've picked the place clean." Said Sarah, looking around for any evidence that might connect the fighters to them. Since they would have gone there for papers, she hoped nothing was now in the hands of the cops.

Kristanna approached a charred garbage can, seeing bits of paper residue still inside it that the authorities had missed.

"I think those fighters made sure nothing important could be found. Question is, who killed them."

Cameron stood before a poster on the wall. She cocked her head, observing the cute animal printed on it. Moments later, a tall man smashed their way through the plastered wooden wall near Sarah, aiming his weapon at her. Everyone jumped, seeing Sarah staring down the barrel of the intruder's gun.

Kristanna drew her weapons and threw herself between them as the intruder fired. Sarah ducked out of the way just as Kristanna took the hit. Cameron pushed John back, keeping him out of the way as she, too, drew her pistol.

Kristanna fired several rounds from both pistols, having little effect on the intruder " It's a T-800, get back!" She shouted, firing a few more rounds before it grabbed her, throwing her aside like a stiff rag doll.

Cameron and Sarah both fired their pistols, striking the terminator in the head a few times but to no avail. Just before it lunged at Cameron, Kristanna came from behind, grabbing the T-800 and throwing it back. "Go, I'll handle this!" She barked.

She and the T-800 exchanged several blows, with her using several complex martial art manoeuvres to knock it off its feet, when she suddenly dropped onto two hands, swinging her body around and swiping it with her powerful legs.

Tempted to use her transjector to hijack the intruder, she soon found it was too responsive to her attacks to keep it still long enough to try. So instead, she opted for a more brutal approach. She focused on the armour on its chest, hoping to weaken it enough to get a fatal shot with her plasma cannon.

With a firm kick to the chest, Kristanna pushed it back, quickly lunging for it and proceeding to lay into its chest plate with repeated blows, grunting and growling with each impact as she grew frustrated with the intruder.

Sarah and Cameron aimed their guns at the intruder, waiting for a clear shot. John stood behind the two of them. "Go!" Kristanna shouted at them.

Sarah urged them towards the door. "Go, now." She said firmly, watching as the intruder kicked Kristanna away. The two then met again, trying to overpower the over as they held each other in a furious deadlock. Throwing one another round and back again, trying to gain the upper hand, Kristanna would break their hold occasionally and land a few more blows on the intruder's chest plate.

As Kristanna struggled with the T-800, Sarah and the others made their way downstairs, soon hearing a loud crash as Kristanna threw herself and the intruder out the window, plunging several stories and landing on the roof of a car below.

The others ran out onto the street, hearing the thunderous crash as they headed towards the source. Down a side alley, they saw Kristanna embedded in the roof of a sedan lifting the T-800 off of her with her legs.

Cameron ran towards them whilst Sarah stayed close to John. The T-800 hit the ground, stunned for a moment before it looked up at Kristanna, who was getting up and Cameron, who was sprinting towards them.

Situation: Unknown cyborgs.

Action: Evade and reevaluate mission.

The intruder sprang to his feet and bolted in the opposite direction. Both Kristanna and Cameron sped after it. Cameron took a few shots at it before Kristanna stowed her guns and raised her arm. It quickly morphed into a plasma cannon.

Shortly before the intruder turned a corner up ahead, she fired, sending a massive plasma bolt down the alley towards it. With a deafening bang, the T-800 was knocked to the floor in a steaming heap, its clothes on fire around the burn on its back.

Sarah and John jumped upon hearing the cracking boom of Kristanna's plasma cannon, rushing after them as they saw the plasma bolt strike the T-800 down.

Cameron and Kristanna approached the downed T-800. Sarah and John ran to catch up. Soon seeing Kristanna's plasma cannon, neither of them knew what to say. "Is it dead?"

"No. Just stunned. I wasn't close enough to inflict permanent damage." Said Kristanna, aiming her plasma cannon at the T-800's head and firing again at point-blank range, ensuring it would never move again.

"Get my car. We'll find somewhere to destroy it later. Let's get it off the street." She said calmly, morphing her cannon back into human form.

"Alright. John go with Cameron and get her car. We'll get this out of sight." Said Sarah, subtly glancing at Kristanna's arm as it morphed.

John nodded, and Cameron stared plainly. Together they head off to pick up her car. Sarah and Kristanna looked at each other.

"You need a hand, or are you good?" She asked, knowing Kristanna was many times stronger than her.

"I'm good. Grab us that dust sheet there, please." Kristanna replied cheerfully, picking up the steaming endoskeleton and propping it against the wall behind a dumpster. Moments later, Sarah threw the dust sheet over it and made sure it was completely hidden.

They kept close to the wall of the building beside them to try and stay out of sight, but that wouldn't work for long when a patrol car turned down the alley, slowly rolling towards them as it did the rounds.

Glancing at each other, Kristanna sighed. "God damn it. Uh. Sarah... I got an idea, but you got to play along, alright?" she said, watching as the vehicle approached.

"Go for it," Sarah replied anxiously.

Kristanna placed a hand on the back of Sarah's neck and the other on her back, gently pushing her against the wall as she kissed her. Sarah gasped, taken by surprise as Kristanna kissed her gently, keeping at it as the patrol car rolled up.

The car stopped close by. Sarah briefly opened an eye, seeing them stop as a cop stared at them from the vehicle. She kissed back, placing her hands on Kristanna's butt.

"Uh, excuse me, ladies? Excuse me." said a male officer leaning out the window.

Kristanna glanced back with a smile "Oh, hey, officer. Is there a problem?" Sarah took a moment to gather herself but stayed with the act as she held Kristanna and smiled politely at the officer.

"Uh, not really. Can I just ask why you're hanging out down here?" he asked, glancing around at their surroundings.

"We were taking a shortcut, and uh, got a little distracted," said Sarah.

The officer nodded. "Alright, you live far from here?"

"We're from just out of town, gonna catch a bus outta here soon," said Kristanna.

"Okay. Well, best get yourselves home. This ain't the friendliest part of town these days." said the officer with a nod.

"Alright, will do, thanks, officer," said Kristanna. Watching as the patrol car began to roll onwards, the officer bid them farewell and headed off.

Kristanna and Sarah subtly watched as the cops left, holding hands until they were out of sight. Sarah immediately withdrew, heading back to the T-800 corpse, clearing her throat and avoiding eye contact. She could still feel Kristanna's kiss lingering in her mouth.

"Where are they, god damn it?" said Sarah frustratedly, looking back up the alley, waiting for the others to arrive.

"I'm sure they'll be here soon. Uh, sorry if that was a little over the top. It was the first thing that jumped to mind." said Kristanna with a nervous giggle.

Sarah shook her head. "It's fine, don't worry about it. It was quick thinking," she said, still not making eye contact as she cleared her throat again.

Moments later, the BMW swung around the corner, speeding towards them. It ground to a halt close by, allowing Kristanna to pick up the dead T-800 and lump it in the boot, bent into a strange position so it would fit.

As they jumped in, the suspension creaked, sitting a lot lower than usual now that it was carrying three terminators. Cameron set off to find a secluded location. Driving a little slower than before to avoid bottoming out.

"You guys alright?" asked John.

"We're good. Had a run-in with the cops, wasn't serious, though. They didn't see anything," said Sarah, glancing back at John from the passenger seat.

"Are you sure? What did they say?" he asked quizically.

"They just wondered why we were wandering around this part of town. I said we were just two passers-by who got lost." Kristanna chirped, sitting beside John in the back.

"We need to destroy that endoskeleton. Where are we taking it?" asked Cameron plainly, backing out onto the main road and driving off, heading up the street steadily.

"There's an abandoned warehouse on the other side of town. Head east. I'll tell you when we're close." said Sarah. Cameron began heading east across town without saying another word. Sarah soon became lost in her own thoughts, gazing out the window as she began questioning her feelings internally. Kristanna kept glancing at her, worried she had gone too far with her act earlier. She dismissed the error warnings popping up on her readout.

Error: emotional subroutine conflict. Dismiss multiple.

Heading through a more derelict part of town, passing various boarded-up stores and homes, they reached an old business park and stopped in a disused parking lot. Sarah perked up, looking around at the buildings nearby.

"That one over there," she said, pointing to a partially collapsed warehouse on the other side of the parking lot. They drove towards it and parked up as close to an entrance as possible.

With everyone jumping out, Kristanna grabbed the dead T-800 from the trunk and headed inside the derelict warehouse. She placed the corpse down in the clearest area she could find.

"I can use my plasma cannon to destroy most of the endoskeleton. I'll have to modify my weapon settings to produce a constant stream, but prolonged use may damage my poly-alloy due to the heat exposure," said Kristanna, glancing at Sarah and the others.

"I guess that'll have to do for now. Just don't overdo yourself. We'll pick up equipment for this sort of thing soon, just in case." said Sarah, gesturing at Kristanna to get started.

"You're gonna want to stand back. It's gonna get pretty hot," said Kristanna, morphing her arm into her inbuilt plasma cannon, selecting it on her readout. The others watched as her arm transformed, the poly-alloy liquifying and blending into the weapon's structure.

Sarah and John stood back whilst Cameron remained beside her. Kristanna tweaked the focus and intensity of her plasma cannon, allowing it to get hot enough to begin melting down the T-800 corpse, but tried to position herself far enough away that it would minimise damage to her polyalloy.

Cameron stood by, stepping in to separate the larger pieces of the endoskeleton and allow Kristanna to keep melting them down. Sarah and John, meanwhile, could do little but watch and wait, feeling the heat from several meters away. No matter where they were, they couldn't escape the smell of hot metal and melted plastics.

The dead T-800 gradually melted into a steaming puddle of red hot molten metal, scortching the floor as it slowly cooled, burning any computer chips and circuitry along with it. After nearly an hour, much of the endoskeleton was damaged beyond all recognition.

Kristanna finally stopped, switching back to her human arm and heading to John and Sarah. "We're about done... All the major components are gone. No one will be able to get anything useful from it now." she said with a sigh of relief.

"Good. You alright?" asked Sarah, watching as Kristanna's arm morphed back to human form.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll need to stay away from heat sources for a few hours. My canon isn't usually used for that sort of thing." she replied, dusting herself off.

"We'll have to leave the remains here. It's too hot to store anywhere and will probably stick to the ground when it cools," said Cameron plainly, cocking her head slightly as she gazed at the pool of molten metal.

"I guess we'll have to make do. Like she said, there's nothing useful left to salvage," said John, glancing at his mom as she debated leaving the remains, reluctant the leave anything behind for even the slimmest chance it could backfire, and yet they were right. They had no way of moving it or disposing of it without drawing attention.

"I don't know. I don't think it's a good idea to leave it lying around here," said Sarah.

"We could bury it?" Kristanna shrugged, unsure of what else to suggest. Suddenly she had an idea. Pulling up her internal interface, she ran through the chemical and mineral properties of the melted endoskeleton.

Sarah nodded. "Better than leaving it out in the open," looking to and from Cameron and Kristanna.

"Wait, I have an idea!" Said Kristanna cheerfully, approaching the pool of cooling molten metal and kneeling beside it. "I might be able to use it. I've just cross-referenced the coltan compound with my poly-alloy. They share many of the same or similar chemical properties, most of which I can probably extract."

Sarah gave her a puzzled look. "So, what you're saying you can... Absorb some of it?"

Kristanna nodded. "Theoretically, yes. But there is a chance it could cause irreparable damage to my poly-alloy's structure."

"And what're the chances of that happening?" asked Sarah.

"45%. However, if it works, the molten coltan compound will improve her heat and kinetic resistance, drastically improving durability but at the cost of increased density, which will make you slower." Cameron interjected.

Sarah glanced between them. "Is that true?"

"Theoretically, yes," Kristanna replied, still kneeling by the puddle of metal.

"It's never been done before. Not that I'm aware of," said Cameron staring at Kristanna.

Sarah sighed. "It's better than leaving it here for someone to find... Alright, do it. But you stop at the first sign of trouble, okay?" she said, looking Kristanna in the eyes.

"Will do. Right, here we go," she said, her hands and arms morphed into shiny silver liquid. The others watched as she reached towards the puddle of molten metal, touching the hot remains. She gasped slightly, adjusting to the heat as she closed her eyes.

Moments later, the two liquids began to merge as Kristanna's poly-alloy began absorbing the molten coltan compound. With a soft sigh, Kristanna felt the new material merging with her body. She watched as it gathered around her hands, gradually soaking into her liquid polyalloy.

After a few moments, she felt the denim around her legs, and the sleeves of her jacket tightening on her body as areas gradually expanded, her size increasing slightly to accommodate the materials she was absorbing.

Kristanna gasped as she felt the heat from the molten metal washing through her body as it became part of her mimetic polyalloy. A sharp stinging shot through her hands, like hot needles in her synthetic flesh.

"You alright?" asked John, as all of them watched curiously.

"I'm okay." Kristanna gasped, sighing as she felt her legs growing by the second. Upon gazing down at the rapidly diminishing puddle of molten metal, she noticed that her bust had also grown in size, starting to stretch her jacket.

The puddle began to cool and harden as she absorbed the useful materials, leaving a small pile of solid, shiny metal as her hands and arms morphed back to human form. She took a few moments to gather herself before coming to her feet and facing them.

Sarah stared at her, noticing she looked bulkier. "Is that it? Did it work?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, that's it. It worked. Feels a little strange. I feel bigger... but I can adjust all that later." said Kristanna, feeling herself as she glanced down at her body.

John gulped. "Well, that's good. We know it works if we ever need to do it again," he said, avoiding gazing straight at her without being too obvious.

"I guess so. Well, let's get moving," said Sarah, dusting herself off after leaning on the remains of a dirty concrete pillar. They all head back outside to the BMW. This time Kristanna jumped back behind the wheel, having admitted that she felt slightly nervous with someone else driving her car.

They sped off back to the Connor's residence. As they left the abandoned business park, Cameron and Kristanna observed their surroundings, making sure they hadn't been seen.

Kristanna couldn't help but fidget in her seat, realising that her size had increased enough to make her thighs touch the steering wheel. Not wanting to make a fuss in front of everyone, she tried her best to ignore it.

****

Upon arriving back at the Connor's residence, Kristanna parked as close as she could to the property, seeing that someone had taken their usual space outside the house. Everyone jumped out and headed inside.

Kristanna immediately put the coffee maker on, leaning against the kitchen counter. She sighed, looking into her heads up display. Sarah glanced back at her, seeing her gazing off into the distance in a daze.

"You sure you're alright?" she asked, stopping on the other side of the room, briefly glancing back to see John walk past towards his room.

Kristanna looked up with a smile "Yeah. Just assessing my new mass. Trying to decide how to redistribute it. Would you like some coffee?"

"Yeah, why not. Thanks. What do you mean, redistribute it?" Sarah asked, taking a few steps closer.

Kristanna giggled to herself. "Well, uh. As you can see, I've gained a bit of weight. With my poly-alloy being adaptable, I can use it to reshape my physical appearance and store some of the extra material internally."

Cameron stood silently watching their conversation from the corner of the kitchen. "Ah, I see. Well, uh. I'll leave you to it. I'll come back for the coffee in a bit." Sarah gulped, nodding as she quietly retreated to her room.