The chain retracted with a faint whirr, and the forearm snapped into place on the upper arm, which soon connected to the shoulder of the torso.

The finger chain’s connected to the hand chain,
The hand chain’s connected to the arm chain,
The arm chain’s connected to the shoulder chain,
Now shake dem mannequin chains!

The chain joining the two halves of the torso together reeled in and locked into place by way of some unseen mechanism, the seam between them almost invisible.

Nice.

Pull it together, man!

Colin felt a faint tug from his weapon as some electromagnetics kicked into effect.

Interesting. I suppose that might be part of how the chains are controlled?

The unattached arm and leg flew to the shoulder and pelvis and snapped into place.

Oh, or that. That works better.

Colin was two paces away when a telescoping blade speared out from Mannequin’s hand, straight at him.

“Stop right there.”

It was luck as much as reflexes that let him stop his run, his feet sliding on the smooth ground, before he ran into the weapon.  He dropped onto his back, instinctively rolling with the fall to reduce the impact.

See, here’s the thing about Armmaster:

He can be a douche at times, and he did some pretty nasty things. But he’s also damn cool.

Even in this moment where he’s stopped in his tracks, he manages to make it look pretty awesome, and he isn’t even trying.

The blade snapped back into Mannequin’s hand with enough force that the hand and forearm it was attached to recoiled from the impact.

Because he wasn’t actually trying to hurt Army with it, just stop the charge. If he was trying to hurt him, he could swing the blade at him now.

Unless of course he intends to use a different weapon.

It flipped into the air, and the blade snapped out again to impale the top of the door frame.

Hehe.

He knew this one from the briefings.  Mannequin.

Yeah. I would’ve been a bit surprised if Colin didn’t recognize him.

The realization of what he was up against spurred him to action, pushed him beyond that momentary paralysis that came with the grim sight of the internal organs.

Ah, right, there we go.

You are faced with a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine in a room you can’t escape (though at least you’re on the line with one person who might have the power to open the door). What will you do?

While Mannequin was incapacitated, he charged, clicking a switch on the handle of his knife to activate the disintegration effect.

> Strife.

Considering Mannequin’s presumably here to talk, and we need the Slaughterhouse members for upcoming plot, this won’t work.

Normally I’d criticize Army for believing he was equipped to do this, but it’s not like he has many other options. Talking is his best one, but he doesn’t have much reason to believe that Mannequin will be receptive to that.

Also, wow, the knife does have the effect? Isn’t that a huge security issue?

A static grey cloud formed around the knife.

Security issue or not, this remains a cool weapon.

Colin noted that the flat expanse that would join the left side of the chest to the right had a clear pane to it.

As in a central glass pane, like a window to Mannequin’s core?

Organs were inside, cut cleanly down the middle, and they pulsed with activity, throbbing wet against the glass or glass substitute.

Ew. Any particular reason you felt the need to make that visible, Mannequin?

There was technology in there too.  Regulators and filtration systems, and other gear that was designed to fit into the gaps between the most vital systems.  Weapons, tools.

Oh yeah, I suppose he would put weapons in there. Not sure why I didn’t think of that.

By the way, I love how this clearly living… construct, whom Armmaster might recognize as a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine, just shambled into his room in pieces, and Colin’s like “I’m gonna stand here and calmly study this thing’s appearance.”

The hand tipped forward, and then dropped to the floor alongside the attached forearm, a length of chain stretching from the vent to the ‘elbow’.

Yep, definitely Mannequin.

I’m going to count that as a win, prediction-wise, even though I faltered and switched to Crawler for a while there. 😛

So does Mannequin / his tech have the ability to make the chains connecting the parts of his body extend and retract?

Also I suppose he could get through a regular-sized vent by, uh, “crawling”. Collapsing into more of a moving pile of chains with body parts on than a body with chains making up parts of it.

Other body parts followed, each separated from the rest, encased in a white shell.  An upper arm, two halves of a torso, then a head.

Howdy!

Hm, though the torso parts would have a hard time fitting through a regular vent. Medium-sized vent, perhaps, somewhere between realistic and movie?

The rest of the body followed, flowing to the ground like a liquid to pool there.  The right arm and the left leg were separate, detached, with only ball joints at the end.

Oh, huh, he can detach the parts too? I suppose that makes about as much sense as anything else about his physiology.

Maybe his specialty is something that allows him to do that and still maintain control over the pieces. I mean, in addition to allowing him to live with this sort of body in the first place.

He briefly debated going for the helmet with the link back to his old suit’s combat analyzer.  But it wasn’t set up, it would cost him precious seconds – twenty or thirty – before he connected to the main server.

Ah, yeah, that’s no good in this situation. Not immediately, anyway.

Until that happened, the helmet would only render him blind.  A blank display.

Oh, it’s worse than I thought.

Something moved in the gloom behind the vent.  There was a flash of something white or light gray, and the vent rattled, a puff of dust flowing down where the screws held it in place.  Again, there was the sound.  Clink.

Looks like whoever or whatever this is (Crawler, I’m reasonably sure), they’re working on loosening the vent cover.

The vent exploded from the wall with enough force to fly across the room and embed in the opposite wall.

I think they got it loose. Maybe.

Also, screw subtlety now, I guess!

It was hard to make out in the cloud of plaster dust, but Colin saw a hand, all white, each joint segmented, fingers splayed, palm facing the room.

Oh, was it Mannequin after all? I guess it was a movie-sized vent.

Clink.

Guild.Dragon:  Vent, behind and above you.

Okay, yeah, I think this is Crawler. Who better to introduce as they’re seemingly crawling through a vent?

He whirled around, grabbing the model of his nanobranch disintegration weapon from the stand on his desk.

For a second, I thought “he gets to have weapons in here?”, but then I realized it’s just a model. Unless of course this means model as in a prototype.

It was miniaturized, a mere pocket knife that Piggot could use for demonstration.  Still, it would serve better than any chair or tool he might pick up.

Ah, I suppose that makes sense. Not much he can do with a simple pocket knife against these safety measure, but it’s better than nothing against a threat that’s already entered the room.

Incidentally, I doubt Piggot would like the idea of a Slaughterhouse Nine member successfully infiltrating a secure PRT labpartment cell, especially this shortly after the Undersiders’ infiltration of the Wards HQ. Or, more specifically, she wouldn’t like the idea of the public finding out about those things.

A few seconds passed, then it came again.

Guild.Dragon:  I hear it.  Wait.  Changing the settings on your microphones so I can triangulate the source.

PHQ.Armmaster: Oh good, I’m not going crazy.

Guild.Dragon: That’s debatable, Colin.

As casually as he was able, he glanced towards the window.  Tinted glass, bulletproof, and reinforced with a low degree forcefield.

Nice. Can’t have anyone coming in or going out, or anything for that matter.

It would be easier for someone else to go through the wall than the window, but he couldn’t see through walls.

Hehe. That does tend to be a bit of a limitation.

Nothing outdoors.  Just an overcast sky hiding the majority of the moon, and a faint drizzle of rain.  No person or animal, nothing else.

There goes my half-joking pebble theory. 😛

Unless of course someone’s invisible and prankish.

He heard a scraping noise, then the sound once more.  He couldn’t say where it came from.

Hm. Could we be dealing with Crawler?

He opened an instant message window on his computer and sent a message:

To whom? Dragon?

It might be interesting to hear from Dragon again in this Interlude, but I doubt we’d learn anything about her quest to find and talk to Taylor. That’s not something I think she’d tell Colin about at this point, I think.

PHQ.Armsmaster:  You have a sec?

Guild.Dragon:  Reading the most monotonous data on seismic activity and Behemoth’s possible movements.  Ugly code.  Distract me, I beg you.

Heh.

It’s interesting that Dragon appears to be considered a member of the Guild before a member of the Protectorate, at least as far as internal IM handles goes.

PHQ.Armsmaster:  Hearing something.  Can you listen in?

Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea.