Havok Bringer

Sherlock was lying motionless on the floor in front of me as I rushed over to check on him. The bullet hit him in the left side of his chest, close to his shoulder, and he was currently leaking metallic silver-colored blood. I was surprised to see him actually bleeding, but I moved quickly and rolled him over so he would be on his side. I assumed if he was bleeding, that he must have internal organs. I feared that the bullet had punctured a lung, and I was trying to ensure he didn't choke to death on his own blood.
"Sherlock! Sherlock! Are you there, buddy? Can you hear me? Talk to me, buddy?" I knelt close to him, trying to see or feel signs of life. It occurred to me at that moment that Sherlock was an AI. It was very possible that he would be unharmed by the bullet, but the scene playing out before me told me something very different.
"The bloody bastard shot me. Can you believe that? Quite a lucky shot if I say so myself," Sherlock coughed, and silver viscous blood spattered the floor around him. "I do believe I will have to sit the rest of this one out, Captain."
"What can I do? I can't let you die here. Is there anything I can do?" I spoke quickly as panic began to set in.
I had been playing this game for months now. I was pulled from my life and forced to fight a war I didn't even know existed. I lost parts of myself, figuratively and literally. I had lost people, people who trusted me to keep them safe. Claire was a good person and was now lying lifeless in a stasis pod on the Blood Hound. I hadn't even found time to bury her. I was tired of losing people, tired of losing parts of myself to this hellish new reality. I would not lose Sherlock.
"Calm yourself, Captain. While the bullets are not made of steel, they still injure and kill. These bullets are made of viral code and are meant to break down our own digital matrices. I am injured but should be able to make a full recovery, assuming you can open that vault and eliminate the malicious code infecting the armor. Unfortunately, I am too injured to help you. With that being said, the hard part is done. We have successfully eliminated the security countermeasures that were in place, and now you must only eliminate the controller AI and access the source code repository."
I looked up to see the bank manager standing in front of the vault with his hands up in surrender. The tellers had all disappeared, seemingly all part of the illusion my mind had created.
"The bank manager?" I asked.
"Yes, the bank teller. Once he is eliminated, the repository should open. I am not sure what will happen after that, but I assume we will have access to the records and data that were quarantined. Do it fast, Captain. While I am confident this wound isn't fatal, I would rather not test the longevity of that statement." Sherlock said, grunting and leaning his back against the wall.
I stood, looking directly at the manager, who began to back up as I approached the teller station, which was surrounded by safety glass.
"Now, j-just hold on, fella. There is no need for things to get outta control here. I'm sure we can come to an agreement that is beneficial for the both of us, right?" He stammered as he backed into the round vault door.
I punched the safety glass with my right hand and watched as it shattered into a thousand pieces, peppering the walls and ceiling. I slowly stepped over the desk and made my way to the manager.
"Look, I was just doin my job. Yous guys have no idea what kind of shit storm waits for you behind that door." The manager held up his hands and shrugged, sucking in the air and making a hissing noise. "I gotta tell you, pal, it would be in your best interest to just walk away and forget this ever happened. I'll even let yous guys walk outta here alive. How's that sound?"
I wasn't sure why, but I pitied this program. I didn't know how sentient it was. I didn't know if it felt emotion or pain, but it was in a situation similar to my own. It had been forced into a role, and now its life was being threatened. I pondered the similarities for a brief few seconds as the manager continued to plead for its life. Words fell out of its mouth in rapid succession, and I just stood there motionless, expressionless, realizing that death was my path now. I could embrace that reality or try to hide from it; either way, death would continue to be part of my path. The only choice I could make would be to bring death to others or let it come to me. Today, I would choose others.
The bank manager's eyes went wide with shock. He had been detailing how he would allow me to leave and was even willing to cover up that Sherlock and I had been here. I stopped listening a while back, but the words kept coming. Finally, I decided to stop the words.

My right hand flashed up to his throat. I squeezed tightly and felt my fingers tear into his flesh. He screamed and grasped at my hand, but I was too strong. I lifted him off the ground, and as his feet thrashed around, I thought about how easy this was. Taking a life shouldn't be this easy, but for me, it was. I looked back at Sherlock, who was now unconscious, and realized that this terrible power I had would be the only thing standing between my friends and certain death. I took solace in that thought as I squeezed my fist closed.
The bank manager fell to the floor, silver blood spraying from the wound left when I ripped out his throat. As I looked down, I heard a click, and the vault door cracked slightly. "Weird place to put a doorknob," I said, looking at the chunk of flesh in my hands before tossing it aside.
Before I could take a step toward the vault, I saw a blinding flash of light and regained consciousness in the physical world. Kaj was leaning over me, frantically trying to administer first aid.
I coughed and rolled up onto my elbows before waving him off. "Ugh, it's all good, Kaj. I'm okay. Sherlock and I had to make a little trip to take care of some pesky security measures inside the armor. It's all good now, though. How long was I out?"
Kaj looked at me curiously, "About 40 seconds, Captain. What exactly did you and Sherlock do?"
I began giving Kaj a recap of everything that happened when, a few minutes later, Sherlock materialized beside us as we spoke. I was now fully recovered and sat on the side of the table, trying to take stock of everything that had just happened. Sherlock leaned quietly against the table next to me as Kaj walked away and came back holding a couple of drinks.

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"Where did you find beer?" I asked.
"It was in the fridge, near the back," Kaj replied, leaning against the table and clanking the neck of his beer bottle against mine.
I took a long drink of my beer and looked over at Sherlock, who was still staring blankly into space, "That got weird, huh?"
"Yes, Captain. That got weird."
I chuckled, "You were boxing like some dude from 1850."
"Yes, I have extensive self-defense programming, but I tend to fancy the more traditional styles. Pugilism is a lost art," Sherlock said before turning to look at me curiously. "Did you rip that manager's throat out?"
"Yeah, I know Kaj has been hammering these new polished fighting techniques into me, but sometimes the old habits still shine through," I chuckled and took another swig of my beer.
"What is the silver blood about?" I asked.
"You tell me. That was your weird fantasy in there, not mine." Sherlock replied.
"Fair enough. Honestly, I'm not really sure. I think I got it from the Terminator movies."

"And you got the throat thing from Roadhouse, right?" Kaj asked, taking a drink of his beer, "That movie is badass. Patrick Swayze is amazing."
Sherlock and I both shot surprised looks in Kaj's direction. "How do you know about Roadhouse?"
"I have a lot of downtime at night. I get bored in my quarters, and there is a database of Earth movies. It gives me something to do when we aren't training." Kaj said, shrugging.
We all sat there a few minutes longer without speaking before I finally broke the silence.
"So, I guess I should start prepping to take that boss down, huh? Sherlock, were you able to gather anything from the data repository? I got up and drained the last of my beer before tossing it into the trash can.
"Not yet, Captain. It will take some time to parse the data. I should start getting access to the information in the next 6-8 hours. We can discuss it after you finish with the boss."
"That works. I'm gonna head out. You guys ready?"

Sherlock and Kaj agreed with a nod as we all set out from the safe room together. I needed some time to clear my head, so I decided to make my way to the boss on foot. The hike would take us about an hour, but we weren't in a giant rush, so it was no problem. My drones had managed to gather data that pinpointed the location of the boss, but that was all the information they managed to gather since there was some sort of interference keeping them from getting a good look at the thing. I decided that we would try to get close enough to get a look at the thing and then formulate a plan of attack.
After a little more than an hour, I crested a large rocky cliff close to the location my drones had marked and slid on my belly to scan the small rocky valley below. My helmet was shifting between different modes to pinpoint the creature's location, cycling between regular and thermal vision, discarding anything that wasn't identified as powerful enough to be the boss. It wasn't long until I found it.
"There it is," I said, nodding my head toward the creature.
"I don't see anything. Are you sure it is out there?" Kaj asked, now in the ethereal, non-physical form he was forced to take outside of the safe room.
The wind and snow had created a less-than-ideal scenario in terms of visibility. On top of that, the creature seemed to have some sort of active camouflage that made it almost impossible to see it with the naked eye, but with the help of my suit's thermal imaging, I could make it out as clear as day.
"It's big, and it's humanoid. It's not human, but not any beast I am familiar with either. It also knows we are here, so we might as well go introduce ourselves.
We made our way down toward the creature, which stood in the valley, unmoving as wind and snow blew furiously around it, whipping its grey, weathered cloak back and forth. After a few minutes, we made our way down into the valley and were standing before the creature.
I immediately attempted to identify the creature, but got nothing but question marks in return. It stared at me through a smoke-grey visor attached to a helmet. I couldn't make out many details as the cloak was wrapped around its body, and a hood covered the helmet. Even though I now stood taller than the average human, I had to look up at the creature to meet what I guessed were its eyes behind the visor. I was wary; I knew I was meant to fight this creature, but surprisingly, I didn't feel any malice or intent to do me harm. We both stood motionless as the creature sized me up, and I, in return, did the same thing to it.
"I was beginning to think I was in here alone. Nice to see someone else sharing my discomfort." I said, trying to see if I could get a response.
"Your discomfort?" a female voice answered in response, tilting her head.
"Ugh, yeah. You know, monsters trying to kill me, being lost most of the time, numb toes. That sort of thing."
"You have no idea what genuine discomfort is, human. You merely play and whine like a petulant child. You have been given a gift, a chance to prove yourself worthy, and you pout and moan about discomfort." The woman stood motionless in the icy wind except for the rising and falling of her chest as she breathed. "I have been given a choice, or rather, the ability to make a choice regarding you. Against my better judgment, I will allow you to help me with that choice."
She reached up and pulled back her hood before unlatching the sides of her helmet. As she pulled it off, I was amazed to see dark brown hair fall loosely around her shoulders. Under the well-maintained hair were two slightly pointed ears. She looked at me with two piercing purple almond-shaped eyes. An ornate tattoo ran from the underside of her chin down into her armor that resembled the trail of a comet. The sparkling gold colors of the tattoo were a stark contrast to her pale white skin.
She placed her helmet under her arm and bowed slightly before speaking, "I am Komaetes, and today I will decide whether you proceed…. Or die."