Chapter 2: Usurp
*Bang*
Immediately the alarm in the facility blared, then twice more before ceasing--though the pulsing red lights kept up. Noise from a gun would trigger the security system of course. As part of the automated response, the doors of the hall all locked shut: lab included. All the floors of all Eirica’s buildings had such a system. She took every precaution against unsatisfied and overworked employees or, at least, so she thought.
Saki’s shot hit the CEO right in the spine, knocking her over onto her front.
Eirica managed to talk through the pain. “W-what, what are you doing!”, she barked. “I-I can’t feel my legs!”
The petite woman stepped closer to Eirica, those flats clacking against the floor in her slow approach. She leaned forward and brushed some of that shoulder-length jet-black hair back behind her ears.
“That’s because I hit your spine Ms. Vass” Saki smiled wide, knowing how much her boss disdained glossing over her PhD status.
“You remembered I got an athletic scholarship for skeet shooting, right? It was the only sport I was really great at. I was always a good shot. Surely the genius tech mogul Eirica isn’t losing her sharp mind as those years go on...”
Eirica tried to reach out at Saki’s ankles with her right hand, but the petite assistant just took a few steps back. One foot of hers pressed at the heel of her flat, and out slid a foot completely bare save for the end of her black leggings wrapping about the arch, just past the heel.
“Those weren’t just leggings... you have your own-” Eirica stammered out to Saki.
“Adaption suit, yes.”, she giggled, repeating the gesture with her other foot.
“You had me handle the construction and delivery of your own, so I figured I’d get the contracted company to make one for myself. Your designs were pretty detailed, so I just needed to change the size for myself really.” She lifted up her blouse revealing, just as Eirica had on, that thin black top clinging to her chest, two straps over her shoulders. The top piece of the outfit looked almost like a sports-bra really, with exposed midriff and all.
“I figured you wouldn’t check the invoice. Although of course I edited it just in case you did.” Saki said, chucking the blouse behind her shoulder and sliding off her skirt. The outfits were indeed identical.
Eirica clenched her teeth. “You were intending to steal the infusion for yourself? But that’s impossible. You dolt you know I...”
“Had the system set to only bond with your DNA, yes. While you were getting changed I switched that off. They’ll bond to the first person they infuse into instead.”, said Saki, pulling out the gun she used to shoot Eirica. The CEO looked closely, it was a solid pink in color with light, rigid naps pointing out at the thinner parts of its construction. Saki tossed it with her clothes and shoes in a pile.
“A 3D printed pistol? That’s how you got past the metal detectors.”
Saki walked back over to her boss. “There we go, that’s my genius boss at work. She lifted her big toe to Eirica’s forehead and poked.
“Boop.”
The red-head was a bit too tired to respond physically at the moment. Saki knew it too. Eirica’s body was in shock; her legs didn’t work. Blood pooled down her back. There was no entry wound, the bullet was still in her somewhere.
“That bullet was probably polycarbonate too... Why would you betray me? I paid you well: better than a few of the executives even!”
Her assistant scoffed. “Please, this isn’t about money. Paid well, but not enough for how little time I had to my own. The vacation policy in my contract said our vacations had to align, shame you never took a single one. What’s the point of money if you can’t enjoy it...”
Saki felt free for the first time in awhile. She locked her fingers and stretched her arms up high, taut tummy sucking inwards with the movement. Like Eirica, she was fit, though more in the sense that she ate right than any rigid regimes. Definitely lither than her boss, who probably wouldn’t be jogging anytime soon...
Eirica was willing to offer anything to keep her away from that machine, her machine. “I can pay you more, ten times more. You can take half the year off!” She moved her hand to Saki’s foot, prompting the assistant to give her face a kick. That soft, warm sole of Saki’s left a bruise.
“Do you even listen? It’s not about money. I was always stuck second fiddle to you, living by your rules. You won the genetic lottery and stomped out my own dreams. Sure I was smart, but you really couldn’t let me live my life? Everyone who was worth something had to either be yours or nothing. Frankly, I don’t like you or this dumb city, or the horrid work-life balance it demands. I’d rather just get these nanobots for myself. Superior strength, alertness. Immortality and control over one’s bodily functions...”
Eirica figured Saki read the tech briefing she handed out to the military. The actual potential of the nanites was known only to her. It was never written down or said, even to Saki. She handled their design and programming all on her own. If Saki didn’t know their true potential, then maybe she could keep her assistant away somehow.
“And then what, you’ll be arrested! They don’t make you invincible!” she said, lying through her teeth on the last part.
“Who cares.” Saki’s brown eyes went wide. “An immortal life in a concrete cell with complete control over my body? I could orgasm 24/7 or something, maybe modify my taste-buds to make whatever prison food they throw my way taste like ice cream. And what’d my crime be? *One* measly murder: of you? Frankly half the country would cheer. Maybe grand larceny as well? They’d let me out eventually. I’d be immortal; there wouldn’t be that long a sentence for such a mundane pair of crimes.”
Eirica winced. This new cavalier attitude of Saki sent shivers down her spine: well, down the parts of it she could still feel at least. Did she ever really even know her assistant at all, though?
Saki started to walk to the machine.
“Wait no, you can’t even initiate the process without my voice Saki!”
The petite woman reached into her top and tugged out a familiar device hidden snug in her bosom. One of Eirica’s earliest inventions, and the first to skyrocket her company to success: a voice mimic. The military brought thousands of those things. A trained ear could spot the difference between a real voice and an artificial one, but the infusion machine’s built-in microphone probably couldn’t...
“S-security will break down the door, you’ll just get yourself in more trouble.” said the CEO, grasping at whatever argument came to her mind.
“Just shut up already, have a little more respect for my own intelligence here. You lost, accept it.” Saki approached those few short steps up to the machine, her bare soles thwack thwacking against the sterile tiles all the way. Eirica could watch her apotheosis slip away with every step.
“N-no!” she shouted.
“You should've just left me alone. If you hadn’t cornered me into taking this job, maybe I would’ve been a business rival somewhere instead--maybe not. Frankly, I probably would’ve been content being the ‘silver’ standard so to speak, but you couldn’t have that.”, taunted Saki, laying back into the soft fabric of the infusion machine’s support backing.
“You’d have been better off then. Oh well, you reap what you sow right?”, she giggled. Saki always had a cute, little giggle to herself. One Eirica often stymied with a harsh glare.
“Or, I guess *I’m* reaping what *you* sowed. What a shame. Some genius you turned out to be, never expecting the assistant you mistreat would have the means and bravado to strike against you. We both know those things are too expensive to reproduce, I saw the materials invoices. Plus, only your brain could even make them, so once you’re gone it’s impossible! Seems *I* get to be the only one who becomes the immortal super human~”
Eirica shuddered. The bitch didn’t even know she was about to become much, much more than that.
Saki typed a message on that hand held device, then settled into the infusion machine.
The little box talked. “Initiate nanite infusion in 10 seconds.”
Saki chucked it away, then set her arms into their ‘holsters’ on the backing. The clear dome slowly fell over the front of the machine. Metal bands snapped at her wrists, ankles and waist. “Just sit tight, I’ll deal with you shortly.”, she said.
Eirica Vass tried to crawl forward towards the machine. Her body felt so weak, every tug of her arms was a twitch of agony. She was probably fucking up her spine even more inching forward as she was. She didn’t care: she couldn’t let the first time she ever lost something be something this big. That design was *hers*, the programming, all of it...
The hemisphere dome was in place. Saki stuck her tongue out, looking down at her. Another taunt.
Eirica stopped moving and tried to preserve her strength while she watched her efforts go to someone else.