Chapter 16: Fear and Trembling

[Horacio Hatfield]

Horacio considers leaving, but he will try to reason with the nihilists and learn more about them. He is not about to give up yet. Anyway, he doesn't have a place to stay and he is sure they must have enough in common.

When he hears some commotion from another room, he remains where he is. He is afraid of what is happening, but feels powerless to act. So, Horacio stays in the TV room...alone and concerned.

[Archer Aylmer]

"This apple is gross."

I decide to be helpful, so I throw my apple at the back of Alter's head. This maybe won't do very much, but then, none of this is my problem. I'm kind of amazed that Bishop isn't doing better in this little fight... He clearly has size and strength on his side. Mostly I just wonder if we're going to be having some sort of meal anytime soon. I'm still very hungry.

"I guess I could... Help. Or, maybe the robot can help."

I look at Amelia and can fathom how difficult it will be to convey anything to her, but decide to try anyway, since I would really rather not do anything myself.

"Amelia: you have to help the masked man. Okay? You got it? Get the brown-haired lady. Get. The. Lady."

[Amelia 20]

"I like this song, so I will ask her to dance." The android says of her own music. She moves to the woman and grabs her to dance. "You will have to show me to dance, for I have never been taught. We will dance all night."

She twirls with her dance partner. "I could have danced all night...I could have danced all night...and still have begged for more. I could have spread my wings...I could have ...I could have..."

"Bumm...bummmmm....bumm....the party is here...the party is here....you have a nice Credit Score, you responsible woman. You are so Credit Worthy. I think you could qualify for a low interest loan...."

"I could have danced, danced, danced, all night!"

[Alter Grossman]

This is not a good situation. Alter is very small, and the creditor is very strong. It swings her about like a rag doll.

"Creditor, I order you to let me go!" Alter yells, spattering blood on the creditor's face. The spinning and blood loss are beginning to make her dizzy. This creditor must be malfunctioning. She resolves to report this unit to the other creditors. Provided she survives.

Alter decides to pull out the big guns. A fireball hot enough to melt metal explodes from her cigarette in the rogue creditor's direction. She hopes creditors aren't fireproof.

[Emmet Fawkes]

Bishop remained on the ground, trying to get his head to stop spinning. Luckily, the window must've been reinforced or something, so he wouldn't have toppled out the window or something. Then again, he could see the clear disappointment on Alter's face that she hadn't beaten his face silly on the window. Her face was like a work of art—blood spattered everywhere.
Before Alter has the chance to cuff him, Bishop rolls over on his back and holds his arms behind his back, eying her with glinting amused eyes. He half-hoped Archie or Amelia would jump in. Was everyone here paralyzed or something? Couldn't they see that someone was trespassing. Then again, what would he have done? Made some popcorn.

“You've got oomph in you, I like that, but your going to have to try a little harder if your going to drag me out of here in front of a room full of nihilists, lady.” Bishop teased before looking at Amelia between Alter's legs, as she towered over him. Nice view.

“Hey Amelia-baby, this girls a bad kitty cat, Boni doesn't like naughty trespassers. He'll get mad.” His voice rose to a comical cooing voice that you'd use with a dog or little kid. Amelia was dancing for god sakes! But as soon as Amelia grabbed hold of Alter, he was free to stagger to his feet and push himself away from them.

Maybe he wasn't trying hard enough because he was enjoying it. Or maybe the Massad lady was stronger than she looked.

[Archer Aylmer]

"You may as well just give up and submit at this point. You're not getting out of here. Mathematically, you can't possibly win."

I'm tired of this. This is all very boring. While Amelia is busy dealing with the fire I decide to do something. I have the benefit of being behind Alter, so I lunge toward her and wrap my hands around her neck, strangling her from behind... My hope is that my grip is tight enough so that she can't manage to wiggle out of it before running out of oxygen and passing out.

[Amelia 20]

Amelia is confused by all of the different orders. She doesn't know what to do. But when the dance partner launches a fireball at her, the android quickly manages to put up her energy shield. She becomes upset that the party is not going well and her dance partner didn't teach her how to dance.

"You have a nice Credit Score, but no one should attack a Creditor. I will report this to Global Bank." The Creditor warns. She takes a step back and her eyes light up as she prepares an eye blast...

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

Bonifaz hears the commotion and decides to investigate the situation. He follows the noise that Amelia is making and notices that a fight is going on. At least Archer tried to help out the situation by commanding Amelia to do something, but her actions are so hit and miss.

"Amelia, Annette Rosenthal wants you to knock that woman out." Bonifaz tells the android. Orders tend to work better if they are centered around Global Bank. Bonifaz is alarmed though since the fireball deflected off the android's shield and caused a fire in his mansion. The hall is now filling with smoke making it hard to see and breathe.

"Damn sprinkler system should have turned on..." Bonifaz says between coughs.

[Alter Grossman]

Alter is pulled off of the creditor by the man who was watching before.

"I wasn't expecting to be outnumbered because I didn't think any of you gave enough of a shit to help each other. I guess I was wrong,"she wheezes. "Who knew nihilists cared so much?"

Alter may be small, but she is very strong, and knows martial arts, although she doesn't need to know martial arts to do what she does next. Archer isn't holding Alter's legs down, so she attempts to kick him in the groin. At the same time, she tries to focus the fire she shot at the creditor towards Archer. She is having trouble though, because she needs to breath. For the same reason, she doesn't notice the rogue creditor charging up its eyebeam.

[Archer Aylmer]

"Agh!"

It should be against the physical laws of nature to kick someone in the groin.

"You... Gahd..."

I fall to my knees and try to hold on to Alter and bring her down with me, but give this up in favor of shielding myself from the fire she then proceedes to throw my way. I notice Amelia getting ready to fire at her though, and hope at the very least that my actions served to distract Alter for long enough to let Amelia get a good shot in.

[Emmet Fawkes]

Bishop watched as Archer's knees buckled and he fell to the ground. Groin shot. Ouch, he felt lucky that it wasn't him. Before Amelia had the chance to obliterate her with said “eye-laser-beams,” which he was pretty curious about, he placed a hand on her shoulder and wheeled her back towards him.

“No need for pretty lasers, Amy,” He said abruptly, eying Alter closely before looking back at Bonifaz, “We have a prisoner of war here, maybe we can learn a few things?”

[Amelia 20]

Amelia fixes her eyes on Alter and is about to blast away at her until Bishop tells her not to. The area seems to be filling with smoke so, she isn't sure if she should listen to him or not. She is confused. She wants to do something else now. She wonders for a moment who everyone around her is.
She hears Bonifaz swear about the sprinklers and exits the mental haze. She has nothing she can do to clear out the smoke or fire.

"I don't know what's going on anymore..."

[Alter Grossman]

((Fixed))

Alter laughs at Archer and at Emmet. "Prisoner of war? Fuck you, I'm still standing!" Alter is no longer choking, so she is able to focus better. She spits more of her blood on the ground. She is beginning to get dizzy. The adrenaline is wearing off. Alter turns the heat up, making the building burn even more. She knows she isn't going to win the fight since they're working together, but at least she'll make sure they won't have a roof over their heads.

"The only reason I haven't burned you all is because the man with the mask has information that I want."

[Archer Aylmer]

I am fairly relegated to the ground at this point. I wince and hope that we can manage to capture Alter, because if we do, I'm going to kick her in the face. I notice, while indulging in an indescribable amount of discomfort, that things inside the mansion have started catching on fire.

I pull myself up to my feet and try to hobble as quickly as possible down the stairs to the kitchen. When I get there I look around the different cabnets and such until I find a bucket. This I fill with water and carry as quickly as possible back up the stairs. I pour the water onto different spots which have errupted in flames, then go back down the stairs to fill the bucket again. This I just keep repeating.

"Anyone feel free to help!"

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

The sprinklers come on and the small fire goes out. Bonifaz is pleased that they have a prisoner, but he is also concerned about having such a dangerous one. "We can put her in the basement and question her." He suggests. The basement is pretty empty but for a small closet, a washer and dryer, a sink, and some shelves. It locks and doesn't have any windows so it is probably one of the more secure places in the house to keep someone. "On second thought, I am a little concerned that this could bring more trouble for us. I'm sure if we keep her here, someone will miss her and come looking."

He turns to Alter, who says she wants information from Bishop. "So you came here for him? What information did you want?" Bonifaz asks curiously.