Side Stepping

Lamia stood silently in the middle of a room, with Hera next to her. She has heard Amon talking to Guran, and killing him. She couldn't care less about Guran being killed, or what he had to say, but the fact that Amon was up and going around doing whatever he wanted is what got to her.

She was infuriated with Amon.

"Master?" Hera tried to get Lamia's attention "You have been silent for a while. Is something the matter?".

Lamia didn't reply. She took out an empty syringe from under her lab coat, and injected herself on the side of her neck, taking out blood and completely filling the syringe. As she pulled it out from her neck, she pulled out a bottle with a purple substance and poured her blood into it, closing the bottle and shaking it in her hand.

"I need a fuckin' drink" Lamia said, as she took a look at the bottle, with the substance becoming white.

"What is that, master?"

"Something to I'll be using soon. I'm going to need you to carry Amon for me soon" Lamia said to Hera, her tone sounding unnaturally vicious.

"Mas-...?" Before she could finish, Hera was cut off as the wall behind them suddenly broke, revealing Asterion, holding John's dead body in his right hand, struggling against Centaurus, who was giving chase.

"The fuck?" Lamia's only response to this.

"Hand over the Objective, traitor" Centaurus said, sounding almost like an order to Asterion, as he lunged towards him, aiming to take John from him.

"Negative. The dead body of a Human is not property." Asterion replied, extending his arm forward, raising sharp pillars of stone from the floor to pierce through Centaurus. However, they broke the moment they came into contact with his body, unable to break through his solid shell.

"Negative. It is our property now" Centaurus grabbed a hold of Asterion's right arm, and easily tore it off, as the grip loosened, releasing John's body, Centaurus quickly grabbed him after letting go off of Asterion's torn arm, leaping away from Asterion.

"Objective recovered" Centaurus declared, as he turned around preparing to leave.

"Halt" Asterion ordered Centaurus, still standing even after losing his right arm "I cannot allow you to leave with him".

Centaurus turned to Asterion, extending his arm forward with an open palm "I fear that I can" Suddenly, a concentrated beam of laser pierced through Asterion's leg, causing it to explode, and Asterion to fall on the floor, unable to stand back up again "And I have won" Centaurus exited the room through the same hole he and Asterion made into it.

"...Well, that was fun. Let's go" Lamia said, casually ignoring the event that just unfolded infront of her and preparing to walk away.

Until the wall infront of her broke, revealing Jack leaping out of the smoke and landing safely infront of Lamia, while Selene emerged from the hole in the wall.

"You are quite powerful. For a human" Selene said in a mocking tone, though her face remained expressionless.

"..." Jack did not reply, simply standing back up and taking a fighting stance.

"Oh, for fuck's sake. Break someone else's wall, ya pricks!" Lamia shouted in aggravation to the situation.

Jack turned around and noticed Lamia, immediately changing her focus onto her "Oh, Lamia. I was meaning to look for you after cleaning the trash" Jack said, sounding as emotionless as usual.

"Oh, great, Jackie girl. Go fuck yourself. Toodles!" Lamia said, doing a full 180 spin and walking the other way.

"Wa-..." Jack was cut off by Selene who was right next to her, hitting her on the head with her fist. Jack quickly recovered, ducking and turning towards Selene's body "120% Full Power..." The floor cracked under Jack's feet as she prepared to unleash her High Speed at full power and speed "...Meteor Fall" In a blink of an eye, one large line of the floor being completely annhilated appeared, with the end of the room having a large hole in the wall, as Jack stood firmly, with her fist tearing through Selene's stomach. It was High Speed surpassing the speed of sound, that it happened too fast for anyone to notice.

Lamia turned around, surprised by this sudden development "...Well..." Lamia cracked her neck, as she turned towards Jack, who was on the other side of the room "Did not see that comin'" She casually walked towards Jack, as she pulled her fist out of Selene's stomach, causing Selene to fall on the floor.

"I'll admit. I'm impressed. Ya wrecked half the room, in like, what? A milisecond? Bravo, missy" Lamia said, though it was obvious she was being sarcastic for the most part.

"Will you listen to what I have to say then?" Jack asked Lamia.

"Eh...First off, tell me why you're even here?" Lamia asked Jack back.

"I am here to assist. To repay for the mistake I've done. My boss was displeased that I failed, and told me to do whatever's neccesary to get you to listen to his message" Jack replied.

"Ah..." Lamia did not expect that reply. She got the impression Jack could care less about what others think. "I see...Hmm....well, in that case. Let's make a deal. I'll listen to you, after you agree to become my...test subject"

"Test subject?"

"I need to run some experiments on live subjects, but they either bite their tongues or give into the pain and die. I can't really force them to live if they give up. It's a real simple test too. And it's to help others. Well, others who I want to help, and would care if they got hurt" Lamia explained, sounding like the mad scientist she is "After all, this isn't for my own gain, this is for the future of medicine, and science".

Jack thought for a moment, and replied "I agree" There was really no reason not to. She could handle it. If it was to cut her up to pieces and reattach the limbs, she'd be fine. She wouldn't even flinch. She can no longer succumb to pain and let it hold her down. So, being a guinea pig for someone should be the equivlant of taking a needle to the shoulder for anti-biotic, because people are too paranoid of a flu spreading.

"Oh, good. We'll start when we get home. First, help me find Amon, and when you do, knock 'em out, but don't drag it or hurt him."

"Why?"

"Because I told him to stay in bed. He's too injured to do anything. If he gets into a fight, he will die" Lamia explained, pulling out the bottle of white substance she made "If ya can't knock 'em out, we'll give 'em this. This should make him go to sleep for a good few hours"

"But isn't your top priority saving your daughter?" Jack asked Lamia.

"No. Our top priority is to get everyone out of here, and make sure no one dies." Lamia replied to Jack. Turning around, she began walking towards Asterion "Hey, big guy, you remember me? Ya tried to crush me and my kid under yer big ass foot" Lamia called out to Asterion, who turned his sights to her.

"Scanning...Analyzing...Lamia Identified."

"Good, you remember" Lamia walked over to Asterion's destroyed leg "Now, don't move. Hera bring me his arm, and Jack, go get me some extra tools from wherever you can find any" Lamia placed the orders of the two women, who quickly did as they were told.

"Are you...helping me...?" Asterion asked Lamia, confused as to why she would want to fix him.

"I need some allies at the moment. And I noticed you were fighting one of the Automatons. I'm going to go ahead and guess you'll agree to help me, in exchange for fixing you, eh?" Lamia sounded confident that Asterion would help her, even if there was a mild hint of annoyance in her tone.

"...I will. But after I finish, I must exit the premise" Asterion replied "I must give chase to Eva"

"Ah, but of course. The...who is Eva?" Lamia was confused as to who Asterion was referring to.

"Eva Kiesler. My creator, the creator of Automaton, and my creator, and the one behind all of this invasion"

"She...orchestrated all of this?"

"Yes. Even Etherion being fired. We must...act quick. We have an hour, 31 minutes, and 41 seconds to go until it finishes charging, and another 30 minutes for it to fire."

"I see...In that case, we'll go ahead and snatch what we need and get the hell out before that happens" Lamia said, sporting a wide smirk on her face,  it was noticeable despite her scars already giving a smile.

"Are you certain you will succeed? What if Etherion fires? It will all be over then"

"Do you know why I learned Barrier Magic? Out of everything else I could have probably gone for?" A sudden question from Lamia, though Asterion wasn't really confused at this sudden question.

"Why?" He simply asked in reply.

"Because it's a magic that works best for me. It's meant to be a defensive magic. But I use for both offense and defense. It's my kind of Magic. I can protect the people I give a fuck about, and lob off the heads of the asses who hurt them." Lamia sounded confident in her ability and usage of this Magic. She crouched and looked at Asterion's broken leg "But, I also have the neccesary skills to help both man and machine. And as a side project, I can make whatever weapon I so desire" Lamia's tone became rather malicious at the end of her sentence.

"So, you say you will protect all those you hold dear, and kill any threat, but will still assist both people and Automatons such as I, and make weapons for the sheer enjoyment?"

"In a nutshell, yes. Do I sound crazy to you?"

"Psychotic" The casual manner Asterion said this was unsettling, even more so by how straightforward and almost instant his reply was.

"Goody." Lamia sat down, curling her legs together, awaiting Hera and Jack to return.