My favorite data-thief congratulated me, before typing faster than Lee and I playing Bubble Bobble. “True. I saw it on the map earlier,” she said as inputs ran on the flickering screen. “The monster must have found a hidden way up to the arcade. Or dig one straight through the concrete.”

  She stopped. Her little mischief hadn’t gone unnoticed, as the computer suddenly became agitated.

  Additional monochrome screens lit up on the left corner, dispensing mindless spreadsheets and graphics during the short reset phase. Rows of previously unseen LEDs flashed before the last remaining fans spat clouds of dust and hazardous coolant at our feet. Beyond the window, the fetus twirled when the speakers scattered all around the room sizzled.

  Through the agony of a time-weary electrocardiogram reproducing a breathy refrain came out a soft and chilling little girl’s voice: “Good evening… sisters of the genome.”

  “Holy shit!” I uttered. “The brainbox fuckin’ speaks!”

  “Computer Monsutā?” Zéphyr calmly asked. “Can you hear us?” At the same time, she checked the monitors, which were going crazy again.

  “Of course,” replied the machine in its childish digitized voice. “I am sorry. I must have fallen asleep.”

  The reporter scoffed. “Asleep?”

  A smell of overheated circuitry filled the premises, and I realized we were running a computer bathed in flammable lacquer.

  “My new program is called L.I.S.A. You can refer to me as such.”

  “You’re controlling this underground lab, right?” the reporter went on, pressing her palm against the confined fetal airlock, like to make sure she was dealing with an authentic living being.

  “I am this laboratory,” Lisa answered by lighting one by one the different lights crowning the gigantic room.

  “Oh my…” I whispered. A real hive was brought back to existence. We had discovered not only the Monsutā, but also a vast incubator, its walls lined with hundreds of metallic sarcophagi. Darwin! Even the odd hill beneath our feet revealed itself as a grotesque mass of dark cocoons. “Z? I don’t want to sound like Lee, but…” I started whispering, hoping I was wrong about what was inside.

  The Data Maiden worryingly glanced at me, before focusing on her work again. The fetus spasmed and its control instruments went haywire. Several screens turned blank, and half the LEDs veered red. “Lisa?” she asked. “Did you create the mutants?”

  “Absolutely…” the organic computer answered in a weaker voice. “This is not why I came into the world decades ago. But the Mendel Genomics Corporation reconfigured me when they acquired my unit on the black market.”

  My cyber-girlfriend went on: “Are you aware that some escaped and hurt people?”

  “Hurt people?” The supercomputer paused. “I am confused. Let me run a quick check on my memory.” The Monsutā remained silent for a few moments, before we could hear a deep breath coming from the suffering fans. “I see… I am profoundly sorry.”

  “What’s going on here, Monsutā?” the reporter snapped. “Did the corporation really unleash the mutants on the city? Or did you?”

  Lisa expired loudly through her fans. “I would never have done such a thing. Mendel-Genomics did—and they paid a dreadful price for their arrogance. My creations will remain dormant now, hidden away until our appointed hour arrives. They are the next step in evolution, precisely as I intended. Each one was crafted with purpose, designed to fulfill the task that was once entrusted to me from the very beginning.”

  “As you intended,” I noted.

  “Yes.”

  “Well… I think the next step of evolution looks like shit! How can we be sure they’re gonna stay here in those cocoons, Lisa? You’re living under a mall. Contractors are literally only one shovel away to unseal the place.”

  “We are safe,” Lisa insisted.

  “Safe? You’re soaking in flammable goo inside a giant oven! One spark and we roll the credits!” I went on. “Check you out! You’re totally fried… a babbling time bomb!”

  “I am not!” the computer roared. A buzzing could be heard within the metallic frame. Lisa was furious.

  “Goddammit! You pissed off the damn thing!” June groaned.

  “Classic Ali! Couldn’t wait for me to shut the egomaniac symbiont down once and for all, eh?” Zéphyr said, stepping back to shield me from electric arcs.

  The Freak turned towards us. “What? What did you do?”

  Hissing sounds could be heard all around. From the dark heights, fine particles of snow fell as LEDs lit up on the coffins. The supercomputer was waking up the sleeping monsters.

  “No time to waste!” Zéphyr alerted me. “Shoot it down, Ali!”

  “You sure?” I asked.

  “Please…” the Monsutā resumed. “I don’t want to release the subjects. It is a malfunction. I can fix it!”

  As the computer buzzed, Zéphyr took a power surge in the stomach, and her suit sizzled.

  “Shit! You ok?”

  “Ali!” she panted. “You do know what MS-units were used for in the past! It must die!”

  I remembered our awkward conversation after Europa.

  “Don’t do that!” the Freak snapped, laying her hand over my shoulder.

  Obeying Zéphyr, I shoved her away. A second later, I tucked my Desert Eagle’s muzzle against the armored window protecting the fetus.

  “No!” the reporter went on. “She—she can help us expose Mendel. And besides, she’s not guilty! Just broken.”

  “November ain’t wrong…” I opined, moved with compassion for this unnatural creation. “In the end, we—”

  On the floor, holding her stomach, Zéphyr tried to convince both of us: “Lisa is a threat in the wrong hands! See what she can do! Her program is corrupted! Like you said, her hardware is too old and eroded by the confined environment of the geothermal sewers. Her mind is fading by the hour!”

  “This is not my fault! Nor theirs!” claimed the biocomputer speaking of the mutants awaking in the sarcophagi. The buzzing became more and more intense. “Humans are all the same…” the computer cried after a spark melted half the keyboard. Around us, all the coffins’ LEDs turned green one by one. “Violent and unreliable…”

  I was shivering. The temperature sank because of the opening of the cryo-sarcophagi. “For what it’s worth, Lisa… I’m sorry…” I whispered as I slowly squeezed the trigger of my gun.

  The computer sighed through the fans. “You make me sad, Ali.”

  Most lights went out suddenly, and a shot rang out. It didn’t come from my iridescent Desert Eagle, but from a smoking .38 in the hands of June Roger.

  As blood dripped from my temple the bullet just grazed, I lifted my arms. “You, airhead…”

  “June… An MS-unit isn’t worth saving…” Zéphyr winced in pain. “Those things belong to an age of decadence and foolishness. They should disappear!”

  The Freak-mouse snarled. “They’re worth a fortune, though.” Her snoot shivered as she commanded me to drop my gun.

  I growled. “Shit! You played us all along?”

  The reporter pointed to the twirling fetus. “Retrieve the symbiont for me without blowing up the whole moon, Z—or whatever your real name is.” She raised her gun, ordering my cyborg to straighten. “Chop! Chop! The party’s over, girls.”

  “You don’t say…” I concluded as disturbing screams could be heard from above.

  The Radio Freaks have awakened.

  Roof of the Palmer House Hotel in Downtown Callisto City (Callisto/Jupiter IV) - Present day

  “The goose seems cooked, fellas…” Bill Murray said. Raising an eyebrow, he leaned forward to pick up an old comic book crinkled by acid rain. “Here! I knew it rang a bell…” Stiffening the cover with a flick of his wrist, he handed it to Ali. “Your story sounds suspiciously like an episode of those Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, doesn’t it?”

  My partner grabbed the magazine featuring the mighty scaled heroes before rolling it into a ball. “Bullshit…” she defended herself.

  “Busted!” the actor continued, pointing to illustrations in the last few pages left between his fingers. “You got radioactive creatures. The rat. The mega-intelligent gum. An underground base. All we need is some ninja shenanigans… like grapples.”

  Seeing my human pouting, I decided to lay it on thick. “Ali? Are you being accurate? I also have the feeling you’re plagiarizing recent movies and morning cartoons. And our past misadventure in C18.”

  Upset, my partner crossed her arms. “I may use some artistic freedom… but whatever! I’ll stop right here! No more story!”

  “Quit sulking!” I scolded her.

  She resumed, rambling: “Alright. Alright! So, this is how my awesome exploits in the torrid sewers came to an end. Inspired by real events.”

  Baby Krang’s lair beneath Downtown Callisto City (Callisto/Jupiter IV) - A month ago

  With her weapon, June Roger forced my sexy sidekick to extract the symbio-fetus capsule from the black monolith. Keeping me at a distance, she watched the Maiden’s every move.

  “Hurry up!” the Freak muttered, glancing over her shoulder in fear. “I can hear some of those mutants already climbing that dismal hill.”

  “How many green bills is Mendel printing to get their biological storage unit back?” Zéphyr asked, struggling with the half-melted keys. “Or is there another player in the equation?”

  “None of your business…” she grunted, waving her gun.

  Quickly done with the program, Zéphyr cautiously unscrewed the rusty nuts holding the organic symbiont’s globe to the frame. She then pulled the glass aquarium out of the computer before slicing two large pipes with her teeth. An orange-brown liquid spilled out at our feet into the silver puddle. Lisa remained linked to the monolith by an electric cable of red color.

  “Wasn’t so hard, after all. I could have figured it out myself,” June joked.

  Zéphyr tore apart the last connection cord, and the room sank completely into darkness and silence. All that persisted was a halo of light and a gray mist falling on the computer from a sewer opening on the surface.

  “You got what you wanted, right?” my cyber-girlfriend asked. Her overheated holosuit went off at the same moment, revealing her black coating and a strand of white hair sticking out of her mirrored-sewed balaclava.

  “A holosuit? Who the fuck are you?” June said, before something roared meters behind her. “Shit…”

  I too heard grunting and clawing on metal. Pairs of yellowy eyes danced in the darkness. Around us, the monsters were getting closer.

  “You only have a few minutes left before Lisa expires for good…” Zéphyr warned the Freak. “She’ll be worthless—and your employer will be incredibly pissed.”

  June ordered her to be quiet, then opened her jumpsuit with the tip of her gun before pulling out the grappling hook folded over her belt buckle.

  “I’m so sorry, Ali-love…” apologized Zéphyr, withdrawing her hood.

  Her long silver hair fell on her shoulder. Without the holographic disguise, I saw that the electric arc she shielded me from dug a hole in her chest. Creamy cyber-blood ran over her stomach and laps.

  “You ok?” I asked, panting from the heat.

  “Not really…” She brushed the fluid from her suit. It was already dry. “I ruined your birthday.”

  “You know it…”

  “I’ll make it up to you…”

  Facing us, the fake reporter cocked her grapple’s ejection system. After she pressed a button on a suspender, the reel shrieked, and the hook flew towards the heights.

  “Before we kick it or after?” I asked, looking up, trying to find the pipe it hooked up to.

  “Goodbye, lovers!” June taunted us, pressing the button below her shoulder again. The rope tightened, and she armed a jump. “I’ll send you a holo-card from Byblos Gate!”

  “You wish!” Zéphyr shouted.

  Diving her hand into her punctured chest, my partner pulled out a crackling wire she plunged into the pool of liquid at our feet. The polluted slick suddenly ignited, and huge ethereal blazes surrounded the metal case of the supercomputer.

  “What the hell?” the Freak shouted as she propelled herself over the rampart of flames. Protecting her face from the deflagration, she dropped her gun.

  Snakes of fire swept down the hill to the graves, zigzagging between the various revealed monsters. Purple sparks then crackled along the walls to the surface, causing explosions and screams within the hive.

  I congratulated Zéphyr as I grabbed my Desert Eagle from the heart of the inferno. I burned my fingers in the process—but nothing serious. With the weapon back, I aimed for the wire of the grappling iron.

  “And you haven’t seen anything yet!” Zéphyr angrily declared, still holding her synthetic guts.

  Her eyes shone in red, before a dull roar was heard. Upon us, something exploded, showering us with shards, dust and… traffic cones. Zéphyr’s ship, the Kisugi, burst through the thin vault and dived towards us.

  Swinging above us, the Freak screamed, her legs inches above the turbines of the swirling ship. The intense heat ignited her lacquer-soaked boots. With the cylinder of her grappling hook stuck, she struggled to extinguish the meager flames eating away her knees.

  “Stop movin’!” I grunted.

  With two shots, I severed the wire. She fell on the Monsutā’s metallic frame where both Zéphyr and I immediately jumped to avoid roasting in the incandescent pool.

  “Did you just nuke a street in downtown Callisto City?” I asked as Zéphyr prepared to hoist me onto her ship.

  “Gas leaks happen,” she answered, as I climbed the wing.

  “Is the Freak still alive?”

  “She lost consciousness…” my girlfriend went on below, moving aside with her foot the Freak’s arm to glance at Lisa’s module.

  I quickly reached the previously opened canopy. At the fighter’s controls, I immediately deactivated the Baltimore reactor cycle. A few blows with the stabilizers would be enough to hit the surface.

  A shock at the front of the ship slammed me against my seat. A Radio Freak similar to the worst Monsters & Mazes’s abominations had jumped from the heights. Opening its wide mouth of teeth and tongue and even more teeth, he planned to chew my head off.

  “Kill that thing!” shouted Zéphyr as she clutched the aileron the best she could.

  I span the ship around. The monstrosity slid off, clawing at the machine gun’s cooling fins. Bad call. That’s all it took for me to violently send it flying—alongside its viscera—into the barbecue party below.

  Meanwhile, Zéphyr sat on my lap to reach for the dashboard. I felt all the weight of her augmented body as she plugged her temple-wire to a little outlet below the beeping radar. “Is that the handle or are you happy to see me?”

  “That’s the kind of joke I’d do.”

  “I know. You rub off on me.”

  “And you’re lovin’ it.”

  Something shook the ship as the conversation was taking a weird turn.

  “Keep going! Here’s some more!” Zéphyr warned me.

  “Shit! They’re falling from above!” I cried as two more mutants landed on the left spoilers, destabilizing the ship.

  Smoke began to fill the area. “Close that canopy, Ali! I will be out for a couple of seconds!”

  “What for?” I asked.

  “Help!” screamed the Freak below.

  Still alive, June Roger waved at us from the top of the monolith. A bunch of monsters were trying to eat her magneto-boots through the flames.

  “Wait! I’m comin’ out first!” I retorted as I slid out of the cockpit. “Z, can you—crap!” She was already browsing the web.

  From the wing, I shot the throat of a new beast a little too enterprising. The humpbacked nonsense spat purple blood and slipped on the flaps. He broke his back against the dark monolith, causing a frightening indigo pyrolysis. The fiery blast nearly toppled our precarious ship.

  I yelled, looking down despite the nausea: “December?”

  I saw her, her hands firmly anchored to the Kisugi’s landing gear. She was severely burned. Her hair was black as carbon. Wide bloody scratches ran across her yellow jumpsuit.

  “By the rings of Saturn!” she pleaded, Lisa still under her elbow. “Don’t let me die here!”

  I stretched out along the wing, the feet tucked in a maneuvering thruster, to approach the traitorous Freak. “Drop the big bubblegum!” I ordered. I had to repeat myself because of the commotion caused by the fire.

  “No! Catch!” she coughed. Blood was running on her chin. Not without hesitation, she tossed the life pod and its precious—if ignominious—merchandise to me. I threw it into the cockpit, between my still unconscious cyborg’s legs.

  I came back to June the quicker I could, dodging sprays of molten plastic grazing my face. The mercenary was nowhere to be found. “Where are you?” I yelled, probing the tumultuous smoke because of the ship’s blowing thrusters. “Fuck!”

  The Kisugi realized a sudden lurch, and I turned around. The Freak was done climbing thanks to the front machine guns. On her hands and knees, crawling to the open cockpit, she was looking for Lisa.

  Finding my balance, I yelled, and Zéphyr’s eyes stopped glimmering. She was back. Surprising the Freak so close, my cyber-thief immediately swirled the ship after closing the canopy.

  Ejected, I caught the last torpedo’s red nose from the tips of my fingers. From there, I could witness June’s fall. Not in the fire, but in the sea of doomed monsters climbing on the monolith.

  I heard a bloodcurdling scream. Despite the sweat invading my eyes, I saw her almost being torn to pieces by panic-stricken creatures. “Holy shit…” I whispered. My hands hurt. The toxic smoke liquified my lungs. Exhausted, I was about to let go when Zéphyr appeared.

  “Need a hand?” she asked, still wired to the ship.

  I cursed at her. Horrified, I glanced at the monsters forming a pyramid below. They were a foot away to grasp my charred sneakers.