While Max was getting to know the back of Olivia's throat, Ange took her time to get herself pretty.
Well, pretty in her own crazy way, since her beauty was linked to how useful she was. Big tits? They could feed more kids. Bigger hips? Easier to give birth. That was why she found the young man attractive; his body was getting built to be useful for him.
She was standing in the coffee area, a small room made for the staff of the bunker to sit down and relax. There was a sink for her to use and a mirror; that was all that mattered for the woman who began to peel off her scalp.
The white skull, covered in a mesh of metal, was opened, revealing a wrinkled, grey mass with slick, metallic components on it. Old bionics that enhanced her memory, improved her long-term solution planning, and introduced other non-combat-oriented modifications were replaced with new chunks of machinery.
Wires of copper were tied together with computer chips and tied together with the sheets of neurons that Max could create. They were a massive increase in her short-term memory, reflexes, and, most importantly, dynamic vision. The last part did not involve her brain exactly, but some upgrades she made to her eyes and the nerve that connected them. All of this was to become better at fighting, mostly with guns, but also improved her melee capacities.
When she was done, Ange took some minutes to analyze her small pile of gems that soon would go into a proper crown. The deer and the tar demon compass already had Ange's Guideline scream at her. They weren't warnings or any plea to stop; they were ideas.
After that, the whole team was back together at the monorail station. That was their mobile base that now had a nice extra supply of food and water to move.
"So, what is our next move?" Max asked while looking at the rest of the team.
"We need to go to the energy plant of this bunker and get power back into the main server room," Olivia said, getting back into business.
"Why? Shouldn't we try to find a way out?" Cat said, not really understanding why they wanted to stay in this hellhole.
Even though the whole team was tired, they needed to keep pushing until they had secured at least the main source of power of the bunker. They were strong, but a nuclear meltdown was a lot even for them, so making sure that the reactor was working properly was a must.
Did anybody on the team know how to control such machines and technology? No. But Olivia's power could at least help to scavenge some information to at least initialize some of the safeguards that the reactor had in the worst case.
"There is no way out. The whole world is fucked up with the zombie virus. The only win condition is finding out how to go to another dimension," the tanned skin girl explained, taking almost a sadistic pleasure in delivering the notice to Cat, even if that also applied to her.
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck," the healer groaned with more annoyance than pain or fear.
"Yes, so we should be heading that way. Is the zone secured?" Max asked again, even if this place was a lot less populated than the barracks, he wanted to make sure that they would not get a nasty surprise the second they came back.
"Aye, I took care of that. The only problem I had was the black tar one." As Cat finished the sentence, Ange quickly interrupted her.
"Hm . . . there is something weird now you mention it," she mumbled to herself while rubbing her chin.
"What do you have in mind?" Max asked, confused. It was clear that the novice super always felt a chill when that woman told him that something was weird or out of place.
Ange closed her eyes for a second and nodded. "Well, they should have evolved into something else at this point. I think they have the capacity for that," she finally said. It was a theory since her power was not supposed to be used on diseases; after all, it was all about surgery. The jailbreak that she made to her compass allowed her to perform microscopic surgeries, and from that, she was able to invade the realm of biological weaponry.
"What do you mean they can evolve?!" Cat yelled at her, the black box protection of the virus making it extremely hard for her to see what Ange had made.
"I told you they have part of Lamark's power, so . . . it is also a virus, for the sheer factor of constant duplication mutations should occur, but as far as we saw, they are . . . kind of normal," the crazy mass murderer added with a tone that showed a sliver of disappointment at the end.
"Especially if we take into consideration supers getting infected and using their power with the virus," Olivia said as her power continued this train of logic.
Ange opened her eyes wide. "Oh, yeah, now you mention the virus can use the powers of other supers to upgrade itself, and the effects could be reflected on the rest of the network," the girl exclaimed with a cheerful tone and then clapped her hands, making a few jumps of happiness.
"It was just a happy accident!" She added, extremely hyped for what horrors were possible lurking on the outside of the bunker.
Cat gritted her teeth and her fist. "It is fucking not! You psycho!" She barked at her and took a step forward before getting stopped by Olivia, who placed a hand over her shoulder.
"Not yet, Cat," the tanned girl said, her tone serious and to the point. They had a few things in common, and what Cat wanted to do to Ange was one of them.
Max rolled his eyes. These were problems for the future. "Anyway, anything else we need to set up before leaving?" He finally asked.
"No, we can go," Cat said, almost pushing the team out of hydroponics. She just wanted to make this small team-up as short as possible.
With the team fully geared up, they boarded the monorail again. Cat, Ange, and Max were in the car just right behind the control panel that Olivia was driving.
The idea of having a quickie with Ange crossed Max's head for a second, but then he heard something strange. It was a high-pitched buzzing that slowly got louder and turned into a dry thud.
With his increased sense of hearing warning him before the rest, Max got up from his seat. "Something got in the monorail!" He yelled and took out his metal rod, rushing toward the end of the car.
"What was that?!" Cat yelled, following Max and getting behind him with her spear.
Ange made a small smile and held a shotgun in her upper arms and four knives on the rest while she took cover behind one of the seats. "Oh, a zombie?!" She exclaimed with a vibrant and excited tone.
"No, it is too fast!" The man added. The monorail was going around 120 km/hour. Even a car would have problems catching it.
Olivia was the last to react, turning around and using her powers to analyze the situation. "Mierda! Mierda! Mierda! Speedster!" She screamed.