HELIO

His eyes slowly fluttered open, taking in the smoky, devastated room. His head ached slightly, though not terribly, and he felt a bit sick. What had happened…? He couldn’t remember a thing. He had spoken with Meridian about…some Omni thing…and…wasn’t there something else? He’d been talking to Emmett…or was it Holly? And why was his conference room a wreck?

“Hiiiiiii!” Zuki’s grinning face appeared in vision, sideways, and she was promptly pulled off him by Lockwood.

“Give the chief some space,” said the ex-runner.

Helio looked around and determined that he was indeed standing against a wall in one of his second-floor conference rooms, surrounded by what seemed to be the who’s-who of Atlas, or at least of Hyperbotics, Helio Corps and some Hawk folks. HA, HB, HC…heh. Patterns.

Clunk, clunk, clunk. Stomp, stomp, stomp. Meridian rushed to his side. Or whatever form of locomotion was faster than lumbering.

“How are you feeling?” said the automaton in his muffled voice.

“Pretty terrible,” replied Helio, trying to manage a smile.

“You look terrible,” said Zuki, before Lockwood clamped a hand over her mouth.

Helio looked down. Shit, he did look terrible. His skin was some sort of light grey, and he had black tendrils of…who knows what…all over his body. They seemed to be latched on.

“Hm,” said the boy genius tersely. He’d have to do some research on this stuff. Pretty fascinating, though.

As his head became clearer and the pain started to dull, he became aware of a strange howling noise over a low humming sound.

“So…I guess someone should fill me in on what happened?”

“It was bad,” said Brynn. Yes, thank you Brynn, I gathered that. She continued. “A full-on assault from Omni. You were attacked by their…new human bio-weapon?”

“It appears to be named Vector,” added Meridian.

“So that’s what all this weird stuff is doing on me?”

“Yes,” said a somewhat rotund man with a short grey beard. “Your immune system was heavily compromised. You’ll be needing to take steroids and T-cell supplements for a while.”

Great. Helio had never been a fan of pills or injections. One of those things he had never gotten around to improving.

“And the rest of Helio Corps?”

“Titus is takin’ care of Celeste,” said Lockwood. “Least, we think so. Hard to tell with the building’s communication systems down.”

THAT was it. “Right, our networks! They’re still down? Any sign of Emmett or Holly?”

Silence.

“Lovely,” said Helio with a sigh. “Looks like I’ve got a lot to fix. Including myself.”

More silence. Except for that weird howling and humming sound.

“We ought to go after Omni before they can recuperate,” said Meridian. “They appear to be a present threat to all of Atlas.”

“Uh huh, is that something you can take care of? I know you dropped the ‘war’ from warbotics when you dyed your hair blue and yellow, but it’s still more your thing than mine, and I’ve kind of got a house on fire over here.”

Meridian smiled. “You seem somewhat your old self, my friend.”

He continued. “Aethelinde and Juno have agreed to cooperate” — who? what? — “but unfortunately neither knows much of what Omni was actually planning. It would be nice” — he glared at Lex — “if we had another instigator we could question.”

“Look, I’m sorry and all,” said the fire-haired girl, not sounding at all sorry, “but can Aethelinde come fix my stupid brother now? It’s going to be really sad if he dies and I have to find someone else to hate.” Meridian sighed. A massive sigh that seemed to fill the room. “Yes. Go. Brynn, if you wouldn’t mind accompanying them?”

The Valkyrie nodded and marched the fire scion and medical scientist out of the room.

Meridian turned back to the Helio Corps CEO. “Take the night and rest. Let us discuss next steps tomorrow.”

The glowing automaton turned for the door, with Oz and Rufflebucket in tow. Always business with that one.

Meridian turned his head back into the room. “Has anyone seen Garrison?” Heads shook. Meridian shook his own head, disappointed in just about everyone.

“I guess we’ll head back to Hawk?” said a young man. He, the round man, and a …metal ferret? wolverine? made for the door. The wolverine appeared to be carrying the lifeless body of a gaunt older man.

Helio exhaled in relief. It had been a bit crowded in there, and with the place in shambles, the mass exodus was welcome.

“Well, I guess I should see if I can get our systems online,” he said, wanting nothing more than to collapse into his bed.

“You should REST, dummy,” said Zuki. The room was now just her, Lockwood and Helio.

Helio did feel fatigued. Very fatigued, actually, and more so by the second. The adrenaline must be wearing off…

“I…suppose I could use a nap,” he said, with a massive yawn. “Today seems to have been quite the ordeal.”

“Seems.” Zuki rolled her eyes. “Yeah…go rest.”

Lockwood nodded. “The girl’s right.”

“I’ll work on the systems,” offered Zuki.

“Oh god no,” groaned the nanosmith. “They’ll never function again!”

“Couldn’t they have killed your humor and left the rest of you intact, instead of vice versa?”

Helio smiled and suddenly gave Zuki a quick hug. Well, as quick as his tired body could manage. She seemed slightly bothered by the strange black tendrils, but quickly overcame her reflex to flinch and hugged him back.

“Okay, I’ll go lie down,” said Helio. “By the way, what’s that weird sound?”

Zuki and Lockwood stared at him blankly.

“What sound?”