The more Thomas grew acquainted with this new caste of infinites, the greater his distaste for them grew. In the last killing game, he had thought maybe a few of the infinites a little obnoxious, but now, a certain conqueror would be a welcome sight… if he wasn’t the reason Thomas was here in the first place. This was a problem for another day, but Thomas did make a note of his distaste. Sometimes, he’d be upset in the moment, and not as much later. Perhaps he was just tired. Thomas couldn’t thoughtfully do anything about the sheer nescience that was eating away at him until he had rested for a bit. He couldn’t rest yet though.
Caora had left. Which meant Thomas needed to get hands on with a Carnage Sister. Which in turn would mean he would have to do one of two things. Either find a Carnage Sister himself, and somehow disarm it, or find one of the other infinites who had already deal with a Carnage Sister. The second option was far more appealing, but there was a flaw. Thomas did not stick around for the logistics of the Infinites plans. He knew for sure where only one team was, and if every goes as the other infinites expect it to, they won’t be dealing with the kind of trouble Thomas is searching for. So he set out of the dining room and began to make his way around the hallways in pursuit of another team. His small stature lent to a sense of inconspicuousness, but he could never be too careful; Thomas was moving almost painfully slowly through the hallways in an effort to conceal himself.
There was a lot happening around Thomas. Even if he couldn't see it, he could hear it. The sound of metal hoofs beating against the hospital's floors, steel crashing against steel, and even a Molotov shattering. There were voices too, the many voices of the sisters and the infinites, too far away to make out words. It was impossible to tell who was winning, if anyone was winning. But one sound was louder than all the others. It was the distinct sound of a chainsaw, and it was coming from the patient's quarters on the first floor. Alexandria was suppose to be down there, but one of the champions must have wandered down there as well. The chainsaw sounded like it was rumbling at idle, but it had to be big if Thomas could hear it from the top of the stairs.
Thomas focused on listening to his surrounding, as it would be nearly impossible to ignore the sounds around him. He began try to map the locations of the loudest noises, but it found it nearly impossible to tell which direction any of them were coming from. It didn’t take long for Thomas to notice this greater one though, a sound so loud that even amidst the chaos it was identifiable, and he quickly assessed the probability of him finding one of the distraction squads if he approached it. He found his odds favourable. He listened around his vicinity on the second floor for any disturbances, and broke away from the awkward half sneaking maneuver he was attempting. A little less quietly but many times quicker, he made his way all the way to the second floor patients quarters, pausing at the stairs to pull his hoodie’s hood over his head.
”Hey now, someone dun started a camp fire, and there ain't no campers to roast marshmallows with.” The voice most certainly belonged to a carnage sister. As Thomas peered out from the stairs, he could see Adar walking towards the hospital wing.
”Shoot, if I knew there was gunna be a camp fire, I mighta brought out some good ol' country fixen's for supper.” For as talkative as the carnage sister was, her chainsaw made it difficult to hear what she was saying when she got too far away.
A chainsaw. Thomas had figured as much, but it was still a little surprising. It’s not everyday that one gets to see a robot wielding a giant chainsaw talking about camp fires. As fascinating of a sight this was, there was a key component missing. Thomas couldn’t see any of the other infinites around this Carnage Sister. The implications of this, the Carnage Sister in front of Thomas was an immediate threat to him. On the other hand, Thomas had already been around the second floor. He didn’t find any type of situation he was looking for. On top of that, the Carnage Sister in front of him already had their back to Thomas. If Thomas wanted to search the first floor…
Thomas made his decision. Slowly, but deliberately, he removed himself from cover. If he was caught in this straightaway hallway, there would be nowhere for him to run. He was confident in his ability to hide himself, but the thought gnawed away at him. Carefully, he made began to make his way down the hall.
As Thomas moved out into the open, the door to the break room swung open. Lucy was standing inside, munching on a half eaten sandwich.
“Hmmm?” The girl was a little perplexed with Thomas's appearance, but regained her composure. She finished off her sandwich and placed her hands on her hips.
“Ho ho! Come to see me back to my room have you?” She closed her eyes.
“I didn't realise there were people who were worried about me already, but since I'm so important to this outfit-” Adar turned to look over her shoulder.
”Do I hear youngin's, or...” She turned around to face Thomas
”Do I hear a marshmallow cryin' ta be a smore?” The robot started to walk towards the boy, and was going to level her shotgun with his head.
You’re kidding... Thomas’s eyes contorted into a mixture between bewilderment and contempt. For someone to arrive at this location, at this time, right in the middle of Thomas’s path, when there was a Carnage Sister literally meters away from him. Thomas was beginning to wonder if his talent was just plain bad luck. Jesus christ. He was tired. For this to happen now…
Thomas’s shook the thoughts out of his head. He had already wasted half a second on trivial thoughts, and from the looks of it, another half second and he was going to be killed. That’s right. Thomas Herringson was many things, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew that staying calm was the key to the dissolution of this situation.
The first step was identifying the threat. That was easy. The Carnage Sister was beginning to take aim at Thomas. Then, he just had to predict what’s going to happen next. Carnage Sister was clearly getting ready to take a shot at Thomas, so he predicted he would about a second or two before he was dead if he continued to stand there. So, what was he to do about it? Thomas checked his surroundings and focused on Lucy, or, the space behind her. As long as he was in direct sight of Carnage Sister, he was within seconds of being mortally wounded. Thus, the immediate objective is to remove himself from the Carnage Sisters line of sight. Afterward, he could figure out what came next. Once he had lay out the plan in his head, Thomas predicted only had milliseconds till that same head was blown off. He wouldn’t have any more time, he had to act now.
The final step was execution. Thomas, with surprising agility, launched himself towards Lucy without a word. Ideally, he would’ve wanted to avoid the girl, but that was not an option with this little time. Instead, he was moving directly towards Lucy, as to push them both inside of the breakroom and out of Adar’s sights.
Maybe it was Adar's voice, maybe it was Thomas's footsteps, but Lucy's eyes opened up in time to see the biomechanic run for his life. Unlike Thomas however, she had gone into a full panic. Her pupils got smaller and smaller as Thomas barreled towards her. He would have to push past her, there were no alternatives. But when Thomas tried to push past her, but she lost her balance and grabbed onto the nearest object she could. Unfortunately, that was Thomas, and Lucy might have been the same age, but she was a full six inches taller. They fell to the ground with a thud, with Lucy on her back. The shock seemed to be just what the prodigy needed to snap out of it.
“H-hey! You could have asked me to-” She must have seen something behind Thomas, because her eyes dilated again.
“M-move!” While still hugging onto Thomas Lucy rolled behind an island counter just as a spread of buckshot landed where they had been just moments ago. Once they were behind the counter, Lucy got off of Thomas and pressed her back up against the table. She was clearly on the verge of a panic attack, whispering
“What are we going to do?” over and over again like a mantra.
”I'll eat your sweet meats!” The carnage sister dropped her chainsaw on top of the countertop and started to cut through it. Lucy looked to Thomas, silently begging for an idea.
Thomas clenched his jaw as Lucy pulled him around the counter. Christ! Why was he in this situation. He just wanted to prove whether there was some people controlling some robots and now he was fighting for his life. Not only that, but he was stuck with some-
Cut it out! Thomas’s inner voice screamed at him. He was beginning to get a headache. He shouldn’t of gotten up so early today. He was so tired. All he wanted to do was sleep. But he couldn’t. Thomas knew what happened when he was tired. His work was sloppy. So he needed to be on point. That’s how it’s always been? Right? Work till you pass out, and even then you just get back up and keep working so make up for being tired. And unfortunately for Adar, this is where Thomas performed best. Even if he was tired, it truly meant nothing. Thomas wasn’t some kid who couldn’t deal with drowsiness, and he sure as hell could figure out how to stop the chainsaw that was currently bearing down on him.
Throughout this, Thomas’s outward expression remain unchanged. A plan quickly formulated in his head. In a swift motion, Thomas took something out of his sweatshirt pockets and threw it across the breakroom. It landed on the floor near the mini fridge. Thomas would have to retrieve it later, there was no room for an object that size in his pant pockets. Before Lucy could see what it was Thomas pulled off his sweatshirt, revealing a white undershirt underneath. He shot a glance towards the chainsaw. Once again, this was a timed endeavor. This time though, the advantage was in Thomas’s. A chainsaw was a machine, sure, but it was pretty similar to a pivot joint. If he could get a piece of cloth long enough to tangle it around the sprocket and clutch, the chainsaw would be unable to rotate. And he’d have neutralized one of Carnage Sister’s threats. Once the chainsaw was dealt with… maybe he could even start to turn this situation around and get some of the information he came for.
Eying out a measurement of his sweatshirt though, he realized it wouldn’t be long enough because of Thomas’s size compared to the chainsaw. Unbuttoning his undershirt would take too long, and something about taking off his pants just didn’t sound like a good idea. After a split second of thinking, Thomas’s eyes settled on the girl in front of him.
“Prodigy. I need you to listen to me. I need you to give me your shirt, we don’t have time to argue.” Thomas droned on, uncannily calm, as he removed his handbook from his pocket and offered it to Lucy
“The moment you give me your shirt, you’re going to throw this at the Carnage Sister as hard as you can- aim for the area between their chest and head. After that, you’re going to get out of the way. If you’re able to do that, then, uh, you might just avoid being responsible for killing both of us. The look on her face let Thomas know she was
very displeased with his order. But Lucy was the infinite prodigy, a master of following her teacher's instructions. She tugged the ribbon around her neck loose before attempting to pull her shirt over her head.
“It’s not my fault you wanted to bask in my greatness right in front of that thing.” Once her shirt was off, she started to pull her arms out of the sleeves.
“This had better not be an elaborate ploy to get me to undress. Y-you’d be better off waiting a few more years anyway.” Lucy's undershirt was a black tank with spaghetti straps. Not much to look at, but the color change in her face let Thomas know she wasn't happy to be seen like this. She traded with him, taking his hand book and dropping her shirt and vest in his hands. Her clothes were a little warm, but that was to be expected. By this point, the chainsaw had almost cut completely through the countertop. Lucy and Thomas were being showered with saw dust.
“Alright, I'm going to save us now!” Lucy belted out a war cry before standing up and throwing the handbook. Her aim was true, and it struck Adar in the neck. The handbook wasn't especially heavy, but it did get Adar to take a step back. A normal chainsaw might have jammed from it's operator stepping away at an odd angle, but the carnage sister's saw kept on cutting as it was yanked free.
”It ain't nice to throw stuff.” “Gah!” Lucy ran for the locker rooms while Adar lifted her twin barrel at her.
Thomas stared blankly at Lucy, perhaps a little too long, but the moment he had her garments he looked away and started working. Thomas was tying the sleeves of the shirt and sweater into a intricate chain of clothing. Or, at least he would have liked it to be intricate. In truthfulness, it was just a bunch of crude knots at the sleeves making a large string of cloth, around twice as long as the chainsaw was.
When Lucy landed her shot, Thomas was relieved. Her compliance was both key and unexpected. He had accounted for her missing, and figured that herself as a distraction would generate enough time for him to hook the chain of cloth around that of the chainsaw, so landing her shot was an unexpected but welcome development.
Thomas just needed to execute his part. Using Adar's stupor, he tried to vault over the counter onto the other side. He had not accounted for the counters height compared to his own, causing him to stumble when he attempted to clear it. This ruined the whole plan, Adar surely would be able to see what Thomas was planning to do with the large chain of shirts. On top of that, it gave Adar an extra second to react before Thomas could catch the chainsaw on one of the shirts. All Thomas could do before Adar reacted was mutter a single indiscernible word that sounded suspiciously like an oath.
As Thomas suspected, Adar was able to take full advantage of his blunder and swung her chainsaw behind herself, far out of Thomas's reach. She swung her arm completely around, and dropped her elbow on Thomas's back, pinning him to the countertop. She wasn't going to give Thomas a second chance to disarm her chainsaw. This became evident when she prepared to swing the shotgun into his head like it was a baseball bat. But a second handbook struck her in the head, throwing off her aim. The countertop exploded into splinters just inches away from his head. Then a box of playing cards struck the carnage sister again, but she still didn't let go of Thomas. That was when Lucy let out a war cry and threw a wooden chair at Adar.
”What did I say!?” The carnage sister manage to get out one quip before taking her shotgun and blowing the chair into pieces. There was enough debris near Adar that the exploding chair knocked her off of Thomas, and he could hear Lucy and Adar yelp in unison. Both the carnage sister and prodigy stumbled backwards into opposing walls and slumped to the ground. Lucy was clutching her arm, and there was a small amount of blood on the wall behind her. Adar's eyes were flickering, but she was still a threat. Adar was already starting to stand up again, if with some difficulty.
Some of the splinters found their way to Thomas, but if he noticed, he was doing a good job of not showing it. More importantly, when he was slammed on the table, Thomas felt a crack in his torso. He couldn’t feel where it was, his endorphins made sure of that, but he would almost certainly need to check it out once the immediate threat of Adar was dealt with.
There was no thinking this time. Thomas just readied himself again with the chain of shirts, allowing himself a deep breath before continuing, as if he expected something bad was about to happen. He darted towards Adar once again and grasped two ends of the chain of shirts in his hands. Before he collided with Adar though, he sidestepped the robot and then sidestepped back so he was directly to their right. Not waiting to see what Adar was doing, he moved to place one end of the makeshift chainsaw jammer under the chain so it would be pulled into sprocket once the actual chain on the chain saw passed it (probably... don’t cite me on that). Rather than stopping there though, he attempted to spin around Adar. It wasn’t clear what he was trying to do.
The chainsaw blade was at idle, and wasn't moving fast enough to destroy the sprocket inside. It just pulled part of the shirt into itself and jammed. Perhaps if the chainsaw was spinning at full speed, it might have had the desired effect. But for now, Thomas would have to be content with a momentary jam.
”What in tarnation are you doin' sunshine?” The robot opened her shotgun up to eject the two depleted cartridges.
”That ain't how you play hide and seek, I'll find you faster than a hiccup!” While a human might need two free hands to reload a shotgun, Adar had a compartment on her chainsaw arm that dispensed shotgun shells, and she only needed to lift her shotgun up to it for a speedy reload.
”I can shoot what I can't see, ya know? That's why I carry this here boomstick. I does not need to be accurate.” Adar was attempting to aim behind herself with the shotgun, but the barrel was proving to be a little long.
Thomas, completely disregarding the speech of the Carnage Sister, once again went through his newfound process of dissolution while in mortal danger. First, identify the threat, Adar’s gun. Then, predict their action, Adar is going to try shooting Thomas. After that, identify a diffusion to the situation. This time, his eyes settled between Adar’s ankles. A small space was available, just enough for Thomas to know what had to be done.
Execute. Thomas dropped down as low as he could, his back now pressed against the wall, and slid under Adar so he was in front of her. Still holding on the the cloth that was also connected to the chainsaw, it formed a makeshift armhold where Adar would not be able swing at Thomas with the jammed chainsaw. This time, there was no flaw in his execution. But as Thomas slid under Adar, he was presented with two choices.
He leave the break room and flee. End this conflict, and wait out the rest of his night in his room. That was the logical option? Right. Or, he could regroup with Lucy in the locker room. The only reason to do that was to increase her chance of survival at risk of his own chance of survival. And was there any reason for that? Was there any reason Thomas should be responsible for Lucy?
Not necessarily. But Thomas chose to go to the locker room anyways. Maybe he was acting selflessly, or perhaps he was more interested in Lucy herself. It didn’t matter now. He gave one final tug on the chain and began to make his way to the Locker room.
Fortunately, the carnage sister wasn't able to recover in time to shoot Thomas in the back. This was largely due to Thomas's unexpected maneuver, which caught Adar off guard. Lucy was starting to get up on her own, but was still holding her arm. By the time Thomas got to her, they were able to rush into the locker room before Adar could get off another shot. Of course, that didn't stop Adar from firing at the door. None of the pellets were able to breach it however.
”Stinkin' youngin's. Why I'll give them what for...” Adar decided to use the opportunity to unjam her chainsaw and possibly reload her shotgun.
On the other side of the door, Thomas and Lucy stood side by side, both a little winded from the encounter.
“I've lost track of who is more responsible for getting us here, but I'm pretty sure it's you.” Lucy stumbled over to the lockers on the right most wall and started opening them, one at a time. She did not close them or bother looking inside.
“Anyway, I still think I can save us. Unless you think we can we can walk back out there and distract her with synchronized dance moves.” Lucy took a break from opening lockers to hold her arm. Thomas couldn't see her face, but she was groaning through her teeth.
Adrenaline was beginning to wear off. That was good, contrary to what Thomas was imagining before. If he could spend just a minute thinking, he could solve this. He came to the locker room, which meant that he now had the objective of also getting Lucy safely away from the carnage sister on top of ensuring his own survival in the night of carnage. Turing tests were put on the backburner for now. His headache was getting worse, and he felt a dull pain in his chest. Everything is fine?
He could vaguely hear the sound of metal on metal outside.
”What are you searching for?” Thomas inquired, his voice noticeably more sluggish than it was moments earlier.
“You think I'm looking for something? I've already found what I'm looking for, fwahahaha-Eh!” Lucy's laugh was interrupted by a sudden jolt of pain. Apparently, a few of the pellets had hit her torso as well. Good thing that wasn't a slug.
“No but, I think we can fool the robot hillbilly into thinking we're in one locker, and then hiding in another.” The prodigy turned to face Thomas.
“If we open all but a few lockers, and then hide in one of the open ones near the door, she'll think we did a search and decided to hide in one of the closed lockers, right?” She smiled past her pain.
”Brilliant, huh? She'll never even look our way. Then we just have to sneak past her!” ”That’s fine” Thomas murmured as he walked towards a a rag he saw in the corner. It wasn’t the cleanest, it was sitting in that corner for who knows how long, but it seemed to be satisfactory to Thomas. As Lucy continued to open the lockers, he presented a white glove from his pocket. He laid out the rag and glove flat on the ground, kneeling so that his hands could reach them, and tied two knots with the adjacent corners of the rag. The glove was laying in the center of a sort of cradle made out of the rag and glove.
”Once you finish opening the lockers, come here.” Thomas said, manoeuvring himself so he was sitting on the floor watching Lucy.
“I realize I make a lot of people feel inadequate, but… eh, never mind.” Lucy received no help in opening the remaining lockers. The entire time, they could hear Adar struggling with her chainsaw. She definitely wasn't going to leave without entering the locker room first.
“Done.” Lucy sat down in front of Thomas, taking just a moment to look at the instruments in front of him.
“Are you going to make a bandage and a tourniquet?” She extended her arm.There were a few areas where the pellets were able to break the skin, and these wounds were surrounded by countless bruises.
”I mean, it’s not bleeding too much, so maybe just a bandage will do it. A tourniquet probably isn’t necessary. But I didn’t realise you were a doctor.”"Huh?" Thomas watched Lucy as she sat in front of him, extending out her arm. For a second, now that everything was calmer, he drifted into his typical enamor with physiques.
Average height, average ath- Thomas stopped himself, now was no time for that.
He vaguely got the idea of what Lucy was suggesting, and she was correct that her arm would need someone to look at it. She was incorrect in assuming he was a doctor, Thomas had grown tired of explaining his talent to individuals so he let it slide, and she was also incorrect in Thomas's intentions.
"You're right. Your arm is hurt. And we can deal with that later."he remarked, and he placed the makeshift bandage on her extended hand. He began to unbutton the lower buttons on his shirt, and he stopped once his upper abdomen was exposed. It was apparent now exactly how small Thomas actually was without any shirt or sweater covering his torso; it was a miracle that Adar didn't just snap him in half like a twig when he was slammed on the counter. There was a single large bruise encompassing the entire right side of his lower ribs, which itself was visible just underneath his skin.
"Its a misconception to say you wouldn't need a 'tourniquet', what the glove would represent if it was staunching a wound. Bruises don't expose what's beneath your epidermal layers, ah, skin to the elements and infection, so it's easy to assume using a dirty cloth by itself would be fine if it were to only be applied to areas where no skin is broken. That's incorrect. Any infection that you'd want to avoid from that rag is, well, I don't have time to explain." Thomas reached to grab the rag out of Lucy's extended hand.
"Like I said, I'll look at your arm once we deal with our current conundrum. For now, just help me with this" Lucy's hand tightened around the rag as Thomas laid his hand on the rag. This was painful to Lucy, this was apparent by how much her arm was shaking. Though her teeth were grit in anger instead of pain. Here eyelids twitched a bit, but the proud girl continued to hold onto the rag for several seconds before resigning with a sigh.
”It's suppose to be lady's first, you know?” She pushed the rag into Thomas's hand.
”You really need to work on your manners, especially if you want to stay in my good graces. We're neighbors after all.” She groaned and placed her hands in her lap.
”So what do you want me to do?” "Ah, but of course, my queen. Being chivalrous right now is about as useful as you are proving to be." he replied as he turned around. He placed the part of the rag with the glove on the largest part of the bruise, and wrapped the rag around his torso so that it was tightly encompassing his his mid torso. He had his hands behind his back with one end of either side of the rag in either hand.
"You're going to tie these ends together. Then, we can go to the lockers, like you suggested." Thomas was a little hesitant about this plan, but after some thought he quelled his worries. This specific carnage sister they were dealing with, he should have realized this earlier, had a severe design flaw. Even if things went awry, he was already prepared with a backup plan.
”Are you sure about me not being useful?” Lucy sounded irritated, but she started doing as Thomas requested regardless.
”Your plan to jam the chainsaw with my clothes failed, leaving us both topless. Just an FYI, it failed because you couldn't jump over the counter. And YES, thank you, that was a good shot. You’re welcome! But more impressive than throwing your handbook was how I threw my own handbook, my favorite deck of cards, and a chair to keep you from eating the end of robot hillbilly's boomstick. But while you didn't get shot, I did. And thank you for your concern, but let's tie up your little bruise first. Because apparently, being 'chivalrous' is SUPER useful, as you’re struggling just to keep up with me. ” With a huff, she seemed to relax.
”Your name is Thomas Herringson. You're a biomechanic, which means you study the movement or structure of living organisms. You're five-foot-one, weigh just over forty kilograms, and have a thirty inch round chest. Your blood type is A negative, and your birthday is August eighth. We also happen to be the same age, which is sixteen.” After tying off Thomas's rag, she stood up and walked towards a locker. It wasn't right up against the door. She picked one that was far enough away that Nariko wouldn't be able to look directly into it as soon as she walked inside.
”So I'm not full of myself, and I'm definitely not useless.” Lucy pointed into her locker with a gloved hand.
”Now get in here before she decides to make chainsaw carvings out of us.” Thomas stared blankly at Lucy, his neutral expression ever so just that. For a second, a short snicker escaped his mouth, did he really think that this was something to laugh at? His untimely laugh would go unaddressed, as he looked like he was about to say something, but stopped, presumably to think about his response. His voice was a lot clearer now, Lucy's aggression was enough to pull him out of his groggy stupor.
"Even mistakes are made" he remarked as he got up, opening and entering the locker directly next to the one Lucy was pointing to. He was small, and Lucy wasn't exactly large, but there was hardly enough room for a single small person in a locker, much less two.
Lucy's strategy was to leave a few lockers shut on the left side of the room, while leaving all the ones on the right open. And because all of the locker doors opened to the right, that meant that Adar wouldn't be able to look inside any of the open lockers without walking past the doors first. Of course not all of the doors were fully open. Lucy tried to make it look like they were looking for something before hiding.
Thomas and Lucy didn't have to wait long for Adar to appear again.
”Alright, youngins. I know you're in there. How about you stand in the middle of the room and I'll spare ya?” As soon as the carnage sister entered the room, she fired her shotgun into the room.
”Huh? That don't seem to have worked.” Adar's eyes scanned the room.
”Y'all a little quiet. I know you're a rambunctious group of youngins.” She took a step forward. For whatever reason, she chose to walk along the right side of the room.
”Hmmm...” Adar used her shotgun to push Thomas's locker shut. She kept the barrel of the gun pressed against his locker while examining her surroundings again.
”Nothin' goes together better than buck shot and buck teeth. Doncha agree?” Adar threw her back into Thomas's locker and fired across the room. She then fired again, making sure to hit all of the closed lockers.
”Huh?” She popped open her gun to reload.
”Do we have ourselves a couple Houdinis in here?” The carnage sister pushed herself off of Thomas's locker and took a swing at the door on Lucy's locker. The chainsaw crushed the door before ripping the door off it's hinges. Lucy could only scream as as the robot looked into her hiding spot.
”Found you!” Was all Adar said as she before pulling back her chainsaw arm. She was fully intent on splitting Lucy down the center.
Adar’s ramblings were beginning to annoy Thomas, not much didn’t at this point, but his main concern shifted from petty grievances to the carnage sisters now fixed chainsaw. Lucy’s speech was a wakeup call for Thomas, he couldn’t just blame his malperformance on a headache. Or, that’s what he probably thought. Almost entirely a contrast to his previous attempt to stop Adar, Thomas’s response was quick, methodical, executed correctly. The moment Adar stepped away from his locker, Thomas advanced directly to the side, closest to him, of the Carnage Sister.
As if he was pulling on the strings of a puppet, he reached behind the carnage sister and carefully grabbed onto on of the robot’s pigtails. As he reached behind Adar, he also shifted his feet towards the robot. Having finished this maneuver in all of a second, he braced his elbow of arm not holding the pigtail onto the frame of the locker. He then positioned the rest of his arm so that his hand was directly in the path of travel of Adar’s chainsaw. It would hurt, but this made it so that no matter how hard Adar tried to push down, Thomas’s arm would function as a baluster. It would be impossible to levy the chainsaw any further than Thomas’s arm without breaking his arm or the locker it rested against. And while Thomas wasn’t exactly strong, his bones were the same as every other human. It would take a tremendous amount of force to break it to a point Adar could reach Lucy with the chainsaw.
That wasn’t all Thomas did though, as his makeshift brace against the chainsaw didn’t necessarily ensure the safety of both him and Lucy. Adar could still treat Thomas’s hand like an axle, and angle the chainsaw downwards until it cut through Lucy. Or it could turn the chainsaw on Thomas and swing to his right. That’s where the pigtail came in. In much a same way as he did before with the shirts, although more careful, he brought the pigtail to the side of the chainsaws chain. This time however, instead of tucking it under, he let the chains sweep strands of the pigtail out of his now open hand as they rotated around the bar. On top of sweeping the pigtail out of Thomas’s hand, the chainsaw was causing a lesion where it grazed Thomas’s palm; although he paid it barely any heed. This would ensure that once the chainsaw was stopped by his arm, they would once again have an opportunity to escape while Adar was confounded.
Once the chainsaw caught the bulk of Adar's hair, it pulled the chainsaw and her head together. A few sparks jumped off her head as it made contact.
”What in tarnation!? Again!?” Lucy was quick to bolt out of there, Sliding around the other side of Adar. With both Thomas and Lucy in the clear, they ran out of the locker as fast as they could. Both children managed to scoop up their handbooks as they ran by. But Adar was hot on their trail. When she emerged from the locker room, her chainsaw was still tangled in her hair. But she was gripping her shotgun with two hands.
”Got dang it, get back here!” Lucy and Thomas were running side by side. She was still holding her arm.
”Well, it's good to see that you were able to make yourself useful to me after all.” She might have laughed, but a sudden spike of pain made her wince.
”N-not that I couldn't have just rolled out of the way, normally, if I wasn't hurting.” It was then Lucy noticed that they were running towards the resort instead of the second floor stairs.
”Wait, aren't our rooms in the other direction? Do you think I'll be safer over here?” Something changed. Thomas didn’t seem that tired anymore. He seemed to be reinvigorated by the success of his last attempt on the robot.
“No. I plan to destroy the robot. At first, ensuring your escape was one of my priorities.” Thomas said as he ran through the hallways. He was easily ahead of Lucy, but her longer legs meant that she wasn’t falling behind him either. The arm that he used to stop the chainsaw was dangling at his side. It wasn’t quite broken, but it would definitely hurt a whole lot more once the morning came. Thomas would deal with that problem later. For now, it was time for action. Speaking between breathes, he added
“I had convinced myself that I would forego my objective in an effort to focus on our survival. That was a mistake. I have not yet satisfied my curiosity. We-” A shot rang out from behind Lucy and Thomas, hitting the wall in the hallway leading to the resort from the patient's quarters. It briefly deafened them, and what Thomas said was drowned out for a second.
“There’s a single flaw with the carnage sister, ah, this robots, design. The length of its chainsaw, and the length of it’s shotgun, mean that it is not able to hit anything that is directly in front of her within, say, half a meter of any wall. The shotgun is too long, and the chainsaw would cut into the wall before it hit you. I’m going to exploit that. Your participation at this point is only a suggestion.” Thomas took a moment to catch his breath, and another shot rang out from behind him. Adar sounded like she was saying something, but neither of the young infinites could figure out what it was as they raced through the hallway into the resort.
Having arrived at the resort, Lucy followed Thomas on a direct path through the the study. They had gained a substantial lead on Adar at this point, and had almost twenty seconds to set up whatever Thomas was planning. Thomas closed the door to the study, but instead of preparing some setup, Thomas just grabbed Lucy’s hand a pulled her to stand directly in front of a bookshelf on the left side of the room near the entrance. There was about a meter and a half between them and the closed door.
Lucy looked between the bookshelf and the doorway.
”So you just want to push the bookshelf on top of her?” She rubbed her chin.
”I suppose with such long weapons, she will have difficulty reacting in time.” She turned to Thomas.
”Aren't you worried about what her body is actually made of? She can lift that chainsaw with one hand.” ”Don’t kid with me. The tensile strength of steel is around fifty thousand pounds per square inch, a material that I would consider the strongest possible for any of these robots to be made out of.” Thomas remarked, watching the door for Adar’s inevitable entrance.
”If I were to estimate the weight of one of these book shelves, I would guess it would be at least a ton. Whoever planned this section, they weren’t cutting any corners. Well, if this book case is about a thousand kilograms. And this things, say, roughly two meters tall.” Thomas stopped, shifting his gaze to Lucy.
”Tch. I don’t need to go on. You’ve already figured this all out, haven’t you, Prodigy” Lucy blinked a few times.
”Well, I mean.” She looked at the floor.
”Maybe I didn't know all the specifics. But...” She placed a hand on her hip.
”Yes, haha! I definitely understand now! We’re going to let her drop this bookcase on top of herself. You know maybe when this is all over, I'll let you be my teacher.” There wasn't much more time to gab as Adar had come into the study. She was angry, and was going to swing that chainsaw just like the two of them anticipated. Only a very large, black object impaled the robot before she could finish her swing. Adar had a trident larger than she was impaled in her chest. The trident itself had a chain attached to it, which ran back into the vault. The entity gave the chain a mighty pull, and Adar was pulled with the trident towards the small opening. While the trident cleared the small gap, Adar did not. The sound was akin to that of a car crash, and what little of adar didn't get pulled through the two inch gap landed on the floor, leaking hydraulic fluid.
”Ahhh...” A voice called out from the vault. Even though it sounded like a whisper, Lucy and Thomas could hear it loud and clear.
”It's been a long time since I've gotten to destroy a champion.” A red eye hovered in the darkness behind the vault.
”I hope you don’t feel cheated. It’s just been so long since I’ve had the chance to destroy something.” Thomas stopped for a second to assess the situation, and suddenly darted to put his back against a table in the study, removing him from Alice’s direct line of sight. As he did so, he motioned for Lucy to follow him. Without removing himself from behind the table, he shouted out to Alice.
”Who are you?” Lucy sat beside Thomas and hugged her knees.
”Y-yea! What he said!” ”I am not a carnage sister, if that's what you are wondering.” Her eye bobbed up and down in the darkness
”I am Alice Parker. I suppose I can't be too surprised the others didn't tell you about me. Or perhaps they simply didn't have time to talk about me? I suspect you're new to this killing game. ” Parker blinked. She didn't speak for a few seconds.
”You do not need to hide from me. If I desired your end, that petty obstacle would not save you.” She chuckled darkly.
”I think she has a point.” Lucy hugged her knees tighter.
”Maybe she won't kill us if we dance for her.” ”Watching you humiliate yourselves is hardly necessary.” Parker's hand crept around the edge of the door.
”All I wish to know is your names, and why you're out at this hour.” ”Lucy Fairglaive, I just wanted a midnight snack. But there were complications.” Her eyes jumped to Thomas, but only for a second.
Alice… Parker?
”It’s right. Whatever was able to impale the now destroyed carnage sister isn’t going to be stopped by this table” Thomas stated as he pushed himself up and moved from behind the table. Lucy followed him. He started walking towards the vault, confident for now that the initial danger was gone. Thomas stopped about a meter away from the vault, and looked at the trapped Alice Parker. Her red eyes were unsettling, but the relative dimness of the vault did not let Thomas recognize her mechanical nature. Thomas’s gaze was overshadowed by the red daggers formed of Alice’s eyes, but his voice was nothing less than dry as he spoke.
”I don’t care about your name. What is your talent." ”My talent is destruction. But I am not an infinite. I was made in the likeness of the ultimate assassin, if that helps.” the eye half squinted.
”Is there a reason you haven't told me your name?” ”Nothing in particular, but now there is reason. Of all the names I’ve taken on, Thomas Herringson is the least important. In the end, it’s just a burlesque of who it belongs to. To someone like you, Destruction, that name would mean nothing. So, you can call me the Infinite Biomechanic." Thomas stepped closer to the vault, and knelt down next to the now destroyed Adar as he spoke — to analyze it’s broken remains
There wasn't much of Adar left. The head and arms of the carnage sister were all that was left, and they were bent up pretty good when Parker violently pulled her into the vault.
”Are you interested in them?” Parker pressed her head against the opening. The robot's neck length black hair and white face became visible. It really wasn't as “pretty” as the other robots.
”That’s- “ Thomas started to speak, but he as he looked up he was met with the unexpected realization of Alice’s immortal nature. His mouth seemed to stopped for a moment, caught on his words like a machine might get stuck when a gear breaks. As soon as this disruption occurred, it passed with no acknowledgement that it ever happened by Thomas.
“...Prodigy “ – Thomas said, tip toeing her name –
”I can only assume your, ah, involvement tonight was benevolent, so I thank you for contributing to our collective survival. If… “ Thomas stopped to consider his words
“Find me in the morning. I’ll figure out whatever care your arm will necessitate. For now, I ask that you leave me and Miss Parker to our own devices." ”Alright, I'm going to hold you to that.” Lucy forced a smile.
”And you have to look at my uh, my side? I think that got nicked too.” She squinted her eyes.
”Just don't get any funny ideas, doctor.” Lucy made her way out of the room.
”So.” Alice's head seemed to float towards the ceiling, as if she had been kneeling this entire time and decided to stand up.
”Why are you ”really” here?” 
Banned
