SSV: Project STATIC Part 3: Game Over

Chapter 14

Ingrid stared at the screens of her computer scanning for anything out of the ordinary. It had been almost an hour since she and Beth had talked, and she was almost ready to give up. From what she could see, there wasn't anything wrong with her software, code, or hardware. She hated to admit it, but she was beginning to wonder if Pam had somehow managed to break through her systems. It shouldn't have been possible, but the blonde bimbo was proving to be full of surprises. What could she have done, though? She'd need root access and admin credentials to pull off anything close to this.

Just when she was about to give up and check on Beth, it happened. A sudden abnormality within the game out of nowhere. Ingrid furrowed her brow as she watched strings of her coding suddenly start to shift and fall apart. What the hell was happening? She recognized parts of that segment. It was the makeup she'd used for Anders, but it was changing. It was like it was rewriting itself, but that wasn't possible. She needed to isolate where it was. What section of the city was he in? Why was he there, and how did he get there?

Ingrid's fingertips glided across the keyboard as she locked in on him. He wasn't alone. "There you three are," she mumbled to herself as she spotted her missing players, "Whatever you're doing, let's put a stop to it and end this little game. This time, I'll handle you all myself."

One of the monitors shifted to an alleyway in the slums of the city, but another one had IG-33 pulled up for Ingrid to control. Her fingers were gliding across the keys as she locked in on exactly where the three of them were hiding. She glanced over at the screen showing them, and she felt a touch of nerves as she watched Anders' code transform before her eyes. He was being rewritten! IG-33 would have to wait. She couldn't lose one of her pet projects, not again. She shifted her focus to trying to stop whatever was happening. She wouldn't let these noobs take outdo and outsmart her!

Somehow, Pam was doing this. She was tapping into and undoing all of her hard work. Ingrid glared at the screen as she locked in on Anders to try to put a stop to what was happening. Her code was being undone at a rapid rate, so Ingrid tried to break the chain and rebuild it as Pam continued her work. However, it was happening too fast for Ingrid to fix. She was doing everything she could to keep Pam from changing Anders, but she couldn't figure out what she was doing. It didn't make sense. She wasn't rebuilding him, wasn't altering his appearance or his skills, so what was she doing? At the halfway point, Ingrid growled and slammed her fist down on her keyboard. She couldn't stop it, but she could put the four of them down.

Ingrid once again shifted her focus back to IG-33, and she opened a portal to their location. If she couldn't stop them from breaking her baby, she'd end them once and for all. They couldn't wreak anymore havoc if they were dead. Ingrid slipped her headset on as IG-33 dropped into the fray. Anders may have been a lost cause, but she could always rewrite him later alongside Erin. It would take time, but she could handle it. She was going to make these little idiots pay for messing with her game.

Anders took off running shortly after Ingrid dropped into the battleground. That was fine by her. It would be easier to rework his makeup if his base was still present. Erin had been erased, so she'd have to start from scratch with her. The fight that ensued was short and one-sided. Jake and that Ashley girl tried to get the better of her while Pam unloaded her clip. Ingrid smirked to herself as she beat down and broke their defenses. Jake managed to stagger her, but it would take much more than any of the standard weapons she'd sewn into the game to hurt IG-33. It was an admirable effort, but it was meaningless in the end.

At least, that had been what she thought until she taunted Pam. She'd been distracted by Jake and Ashley, but Pam shocked her once again as she turned to her. Against all odds, Pam managed to do something that shouldn't have been possible. Magic wasn't something she'd put into the game's code, but it looked like she was casting some sort of stupid spell! A purple wave of something unexplainable swelled up from her body, and she pushed it out and crashed it into IG-33. The ground beneath her sank in, and that torrent of force pushed her deep underground. She was furious as she had to climb out of the hole in the ground. This shouldn't have been possible; this wasn't a fantasy game!

At her wit's end, Ingrid was ready to unleash all of her fury as she ascended back to street level. However, IG-33 was hit by a truck before she could. It wasn't enough to kill her, but it sent her toppling over. By the time she got up, the three of them were in the truck again and moving. She was about to give chase when their signatures once again disappeared. Ingrid screamed in outright annoyance and frustration as she tried to make sense of what happened. She combed over the recordings to see if she could figure anything out, but none of it made sense.

"Fucking bitch!" Ingrid screamed, throwing her headset off and against the wall, "I'll find you, you fucking whore, and I'll watch you bleed out! As soon as I figure out what you're doing, I'll put a stop to it, I swear!"

Ingrid huffed as she felt her anger continue to rise. Her head started to spin as visions of watching Pam, Jake, and Ashley suffer flooded her mind. She needed to find a way to take out her frustrations, but those little assholes were gone again. They'd disappeared into thin air, and she couldn't find them. Her skin began to heat up, and she stumbled as she stood up. Her head was pounding, aching, and throbbing. What was happening to her?

"Ingrid?" Beth's voice broke through her confusion, "What's wrong? I heard you-"

"Get away!" Ingrid screamed, her mind suddenly shifting to thoughts of torturing Beth, "I mean it, Beth, you're not…you're not safe. Get away before I…before I…"

The urge was becoming harder to ignore. Having Beth squirming underneath her sounded more and more like an excellent means of relieving her stress. Her face was comfortable, and she could practically feel her breath tickling her ass and pussy. It sent a shiver down her spine as she thought about it, but she tried to focus on everything Beth had said to her. It would be so easy to do it, but was it worth it? She'd be pushing her crush further away if she did. No, she couldn't do it. She couldn't let herself give into these strange carnal desires.

"Beth, please," she managed to get out as her head continued to throb, "Please, just go. I'll be fine, but I can't trust myself right now. I need…I need a minute, please. Be a good girl, and leave me alone before I do something I regret."

Ingrid cracked her eyes just enough to see Beth staring at her for a moment before taking a step back, "Okay, whatever you say, Ingrid. Just…come get me when you're done, okay?"

Ingrid nodded as Beth walked away. That was too close for comfort. It was going to take time for these urges to go away, and she might have to take a cold shower. She'd promised Beth to take it slow, and amazingly she'd agreed to play willingly. It wasn't worth jeopardizing that progress in the name of a potential freak out. These damn nanobots were causing more problems than she liked. It had to be them, but why were they doing this to her? Were they supposed to do this? The thought made her even angrier than before. Eva and Anna weren't stupid. They had to have known this was a potential side effect. That meant they'd done this to her on purpose. Probably hoping that she'd break Beth, and eliminate her from being a threat.

"I don't like being played," she whispered to herself, clenching her fists, "One thing at a time, though. I'm in too deep now, and I can't back out of this now. I have to finish this, but I'll find a way to get even with these bitches."

Ingrid took a few minutes to collect herself. A cold shower sounded like as good an idea as any. Her skin was practically on fire, and it would surely help to quell these all consuming urges. She could use that time to try to figure out how to handle Jake and the others. They'd managed to escape again, but there was only one place they could be going. The final level of her game was Brunswick Tower, an homage to her double crossing boss. The only way out was through that tower at the top floor. If Pam was somehow manipulating and rewriting her code, then the odds were she would find that sooner than later. Even if she didn't, the shard Erin had wanted detailed a plan to break into the Tower. She'd send IG-33 to the Tower to stop them, but first she needed to shower and calm down. They'd have to gather supplies first, so she had some time. She'd shower, and she'd take her time with Beth. Win or lose, she wasn't letting this go without at least getting a taste of her prize.

—---

Beth put her hands in her pockets and sighed. Her plan to play on Ingrid’s feelings for her was falling apart. She'd killed countless criminals, broken bones, and beat the shit out hundreds of assholes, yet she couldn't manipulate a misguided girl. "What is wrong with me?" she asked herself as she wandered through the warehouse.

Ingrid wasn't just another criminal or villain, she was a friend that was being used. Murray had done something to her, and even if it was willing, it was affecting her in a bad way. Ingrid knew it, but she couldn't do anything about it. Even just now, she'd seen Ingrid fighting against something negative inside of her. All those girls she'd killed, had that been because of whatever that was? She wasn't evil, at least not beyond redemption, just confused. It was still infuriating that Beth was entirely out of control of herself. The irony wasn't lost on her since she willingly ceded control to Pam most of the time, but this was different. Ingrid could take everything from her in a second, and she was still holding her friends hostage.

Speaking of, she hadn't been able to shake the image of that damn bird from the back of her mind. She hadn't seen anything like that since Rebecca, but she was dead and gone. Yet, the way that raven had behaved was so strange. It was almost protective of Jake and Pam. Never in her life had she seen a bird act like that when someone approached. It had come damn close to taking Ingrid’s eyes out, and that was something that Rebecca would have certainly done. Then there were its eyes. That deep shade of purple was something she'd only ever seen in Pam's and Rebecca's, but that shade of red was unnerving. Maybe she was being paranoid, but something wasn't right about it.

Beth wished that she could see what Jake and Pam were doing, how their progress was coming along, or something. Ingrid kept her workshop locked unless she was in it, and whatever was happening was clearly frustrating her. She looked close to crazy when she saw her moments ago. She'd agreed to whatever fun Ingrid wanted to try, but she wasn't looking forward to it. However, after the look she'd had in her eyes seconds ago, she supposed she should have been more relieved. It was probably inevitable, and maybe she should have been grateful it had been staved off this long.

Beth was walking along a railing when she paused to lean over it. She needed to get back to Ingrid’s room, but she was honestly getting bored. She didn't have her pistols to clean, she couldn't lose herself in a game, and her anxiety was too high to enjoy anything. Truthfully, she was feeling restless. Being unable to do anything to help was killing her. Just as she was about to give in and walk back to Ingrid’s room, the railing snapped and she was falling. Beth had never been more thankful for Alexis' nasty concoction of agility than moments like this. She managed to land on her feet, but just barely.

"Fucking great," she grumbled as she looked around, "Where the hell am I supposed to go now? Wait, what is that?"

Beth stopped to stare at something massive hanging suspended against the wall. She furrowed her brow as she walked over to get a closer look at whatever it was. The closer she got, the harder it became to believe what she was seeing was real. A hulking hunk of metal that looked like some sort of titanium exoskeleton or suit was hanging by chains against the wall. A large pole rested beside it, and she could see the outlines of weapon paneling on the arms and shoulders. It must have been nearly twenty feet tall too; its head nearly touching the ceiling above her. Where the hell did this thing come from?

Beth walked around it as best she could to study it. Ingrid had mentioned that she had a contingency plan in place if Jake and Pam managed to escape, but was this what it was? Looking at the titanic mech suit, and she couldn’t describe it any other way, she felt a sense of dread wash over her. This thing could level half the city with ease. There was no telling what sort of weaponry it was packing under those panels either. If Ingrid was planning on using this thing, then the city was going to pay for her choices. Surely, she wouldn’t be that desperate, would she?

“What am I saying?” Beth scoffed, thinking about the level of crazy she’d seen in people like Rebecca and Alexis, “Fuck, Ingrid, this is going too far…”

“Beth?” Ingrid’s voice nearly made her jump out of her skin, “What are you doing down here?”

“Shit, Ingrid!” Beth exclaimed, putting a hand over her chest and taking a deep breath, “I was heading back to your room when I stopped for a minute. The railing up there snapped, and I fell down here. What the hell is this thing?”

Beth watched Ingrid carefully. It hadn’t been that long since she’d seen her, but she looked to be more in control than she had been moments ago. “Naughty little girl,” Ingrid frowned, and Beth felt her heart sink as a pit of dread formed in her stomach, “Are you trying to snoop around?”

“No!” Beth shouted, hoping that her insane stalker would believe her, “I swear, I fell down here. I was trying to do what you told me to do. Ingrid, what is this?!”

“First your girlfriend starts breaking my game, and now you’re trying to get the upper hand in case they win,” Ingrid sighed, taking a step towards Beth, “I can’t believe you! I trusted you, Beth, and this is how you repay me?!”

“Ingrid, I am telling you the truth!” Beth shouted, taking a step back, but tripping over the broken remnants of the railing that had fallen alongside her, “Please, listen to me!”

Beth looked up and scooted away as Ingrid got closer. She could see the look in her eyes now, and she was beginning to realize that she was too far gone. “Hmm, that’s a good position for you, Beth,” Ingrid smirked as she stood over her, “Stay there for me, and keep that pretty face of yours up.”

Beth’s heart began to pound in her chest as she realized what was about to happen. “Ingrid, please,” she whimpered, her body acting on the command, “Please, I am telling you the truth. Please don’t do this!”

“You can talk into my ass for a little while, cutie,” Ingrid purred, clearly having lost herself to whatever force was possessing her, “You wanted to be a bad girl, and bad girls get punished. I guess your idiot mistress didn’t teach you properly, did she?”

“Don’t you dare insult-mmph!” Beth screamed, having heard enough, but she was silenced as Ingrid spun around and sat herself down on Beth’s face.

“Ah, that feels nice,” Ingrid chuckled above her as Beth’s senses were bombarded by the smell of sweat and stale gas clinging to Ingrid’s panties, “I was going to keep my word, Beth. I was going to take it nice and slow with you, and we were going to have some good fun together. However, you just had to go digging into places where you shouldn’t. Now, you’re going to be my seat for a little bit. Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you. I love you, remember?”

All Beth wanted to do was throw her captor off of her, but her body remained frozen in place. Ingrid wasn’t sitting lightly either, and the weight was already causing a strain on her body. She’d been under many more women than she liked to admit and recount, but she had meant what she told Ingrid about hating facesitting. Pam was careful with her whenever they did it, but even with their trust and relationship she still had to have the reassurance to stay calm. The smell of ass, the heat encompassing her face, the crushing weight, and the lack of air were all things that sent her mind into a panic. She hated this feeling, and it was only made worse by her inability to react and fight back.

There was only one thing that could have made it worse, but Beth had a feeling it would happen sooner than later. The ominous gurgle from Ingrid’s stomach above her confirmed to her that it was indeed about to happen. She screamed into Ingri’s ass out of frustration and desperation, but all it did was earn a shiver from her tormentor. When Ingrid leaned forward just a bit, she knew what was coming. Despite knowing that she was about to take a blast to the face, Beth’s body reacted of its own accord. She sucked in a breath before she passed out, and a foghorn blast erupted from Ingrid’s ass. The following stench of eggs and sour milk turned her stomach, and Beth suddenly found it difficult to see her old friend as misguided in the moment.

“Whoo, that’s better,” Ingrid hummed to herself as Beth squirmed beneath her, “Mm, I’m not gonna lie, it feels good having someone squirm under me. You like the way that smells, Beth?”

Ingrid leaned forward so Beth could answer, and Beth screamed between coughs, “Fucking disgusting! Get off of me, dammit!”

“Rude,” Ingrid rolled her eyes as she sat back down, “I think that once I deal with your stupid girlfriend and Jake, you need a night in a dutch oven. You’re gonna need to get used to my gas if we are gonna be together, honey. I’m going to lift up, but I want you to kiss my ass.”

Beth was livid as Ingrid issued another demeaning command. This was worse than when Pam had first taken her in. At least Pam would give her breaks, and she didn’t jump straight into this kind of sick shit. She’d had to worship her feet, and the edging had been agonizing, but she hadn’t jumped to immediately having to sniff fucking farts! This was beyond anything she could have imagined, but she was kicking herself for thinking it wouldn’t eventually come to this. Ingrid was losing it, and she’d just caught her in the midst of a breakdown. Still, she was beyond pissed as Ingrid raised up. She was done biting her tongue and playing nice.

“Pam is putting up more of a fight than you thought, isn’t she?” Beth growled as she puckered up and kissed Ingrid’s smelly cheek, “You won’t win this, and she is going to make you suffer when she gets out.”

Ingrid snarled as she raised up and slammed her ass onto Beth’s face. It had been a while since someone had butt dropped her, but Beth didn’t miss the disorienting and humiliating feeling of being beaten by an ass. “Your girlfriend is going to die in my fucking game, Beth,” Ingrid growled as she leaned up and Beth resumed her kissing, “Jake is going to die too, and Dr. Murray is going to take their brain dead bodies to repurpose them for whatever they want. You are going to be mine forever, and you’ll learn to behave one way or another.”

“I will break free of this, and if you keep this up, I am going to show you what pain is,” Beth growled, her rage getting the better of her, “You’re scared, I can hear it in your voice. I’ve spent enough time watching people at the end of their rope to recognize fear when I hear it. Talk and act tough all you want, you know that you can’t beat her. I’ve been playing nice with you, but you’re pushing me to my fucking limits!”

“Stop,” Ingrid growled, getting up and slapping Beth across the face, “Who do you think you’re talking too?! I am the one in control, and I can make you do whatever I want!”

“I think I’m talking to a girl that fucked up, and a girl that is realizing she is in over her damn head,” Beth snarled, staring at Ingrid without flinching despite the hard slap, “You have no idea how deep the waters you’re in are. You’ve heard the stories about what I’ve done, I know you have. Those stories are tame compared to the shit that I’ve actually done to the criminals in this city. I have tortured people, bled them dry, made them beg for death, and I know what desperation looks like, what it sounds like. Still, I’m not the person you should be afraid of.”

Ingrid visibly flinched at Beth’s cold tone. It was the first time since she’d been taken that she’d spoken with such a brazen attitude, but she was through playing nice with this psycho. She needed to know what she was getting herself into. “Even if they manage to break free, I will still put an end to them,” Ingrid glared at Beth, glancing back at the mech behind them, “I had this baby custom made by Eva and her company. I’d like to see your precious girlfriend stand a chance against the firepower behind my secret weapon.”

“I’ve seen her erase people from existence,” Beth matched Ingrid’s glare, “Entire forces just gone because someone fucked with me, because someone threatened me. I watched her pull the soul from a woman’s body that had spent hours torturing me worse than anything you could ever do, and I spoke to the fucking devil in Hell. Guess what, Ingrid, her soul still hasn’t made it down there! What do you think she is going to do to you when she gets out? Keep fucking with me, and I’ll be the last thing you need to worry about. I am your only chance at making it out of this in one piece, but you keep pulling this shit and I won’t stop her.”

“Tough talk for a girl that wears a collar and submits to a pretend witch,” Ingrid sneered, masking her fear as best she could.

“Don’t fucking joke about that,” Beth chuckled, having heard worse from thugs about her collar, “I might submit to her, but that is my choice. I choose to follow her, but that’s because she actually gives a shit about me! I’m not just some piece of meat to her to use and abuse like I am to you!”

“That is not what you are to me!” Ingrid snapped, her fists shaking as she showed a clear sign of struggle within herself.

“Then prove it!” Beth screamed, pushing through any shred of guilt that threatened to wash over her, “Show me that you actually give a shit about me, or go ahead and keep using me like a fucking chair. I already told you, I can give you a chance if you win this, but I won’t ever care about you if you treat me like this.”

Ingrid shook her head and took a step back, “You have no idea what it’s like,” she whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek, “I fucking loved you for way longer than she ever did, but you rejected me years ago. I never stopped caring about you, never got over you, and never stopped thinking about you. I respected your choice, and I made sure that I wouldn’t overstep for the longest time. Even doing that, you stopped talking to me! You left me alone, and you abandoned me to chase your own selfish wants. Still, I did everything I could to give you the space you clearly wanted and needed. Then, I find out from somebody else that you’re dating another woman! You couldn’t even tell me yourself…”

“It wasn’t like I had a choice in the fucking matter!” Beth snapped, “I already told you, I was forced into the fucking relationship. Stay with Pam, or be turned out as a slave and probably murdered by monsters. What would you have done?”

Ingrid shook as her shoulders hunched. Beth felt her anger waver as Ingrid let out a stifled sob, “You could have told me. You could have at least done that, Beth…”

There it was. The reminder that this was a mess of her own making. “I know, and I should have at least done that,” Beth admitted, looking down and shaking her head, “I can sit here and say that we had too much happening, but I could have said something after the whole thing with Goth. I’ve been patient and understanding with you, even though you’ve kidnapped me and are trying to kill my fucking friends, because of that. If you really do care about me, you’ll back off and let me get back to the fucking room, though. Show me that I am actually more than just a piece of meat to you, and I will do what I can to keep Pam from torturing you when she breaks out.”

“She is not getting out alive,” Ingrid snarled.

“Keep telling yourself that, but you don’t believe that,” Beth countered, “You can say that you do, but I know the look on your face. Your freakouts, the meltdowns, the time you’re spending in the control room, this fucking mech, all of it tells me that you are just waiting for them to break out. Of course, maybe you will come out on top, but what then? You’re going to be a slave to people that are more dangerous than you can imagine.”

“I will not be a slave to Eva and her corporation,” Ingrid shook her head, and Beth noted the name used once again, “I’ll do what I have to do to win this, but you and I are going to make them pay for what they’ve done to me. This…this isn’t who I am. These mood swings, they’re from the procedure, and I’ll break them if I have to in order to make them make this right. We can be something beautiful, Beth, but you have to be willing to give me a chance.”

“Take a chance on the girl that wants to kill the woman I love and my best friend,” Beth scoffed, shaking her head, but deciding that it was better than nothing, “Fine, I’ve made worse deals in the past that turned out alright. If you can actually pull this off, and you back the fuck off, I will work with you. You have my word, but you need to start trusting me. I told you the fucking truth already.”

Beth watched Ingrid carefully for a moment. She let out a shaky breath and finally nodded, “I can do that, and…I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. It’s these things in me. They’re messing with my head. It’s why I told you to go in the first place. Get up, and go back to the bedroom. I’m going to take a shower and formulate a plan to stop your girlfriend and Jake from making any more progress once I find them. I’ll meet you there before long. Time passes differently in the game, and I have enough time that I can make things right between us before dealing with them once and for all.”

“Alright,” Beth sighed, getting back to her feet and relaxing, “I hope you know what you’re doing, but I don’t have a choice but to trust you.”

Beth turned to leave, but Ingrid didn’t say another word. She walked through the dark corridors of the warehouse to try to find her way back to Ingird’s room. That had been an exchange that she hadn’t been expecting, but it felt good to finally let some of her anger out. It had also confirmed her suspicions about her captor. She wasn’t in control, and she was more afraid than she was letting on. At least if she did succeed in her crazy plan, Ingrid had the intention of fighting back against the monsters lurking in the shadows. Still, Beth wasn’t sure it would be enough. They needed Jake and Pam, but something was better than nothing.

As she walked up the stairs towards the bedroom, Beth thought about the name that Ingrid had mentioned. Eva, she’d said it twice now. She didn’t recognize the name, but they were in a Brunswick facility, and Ingrid had mentioned a corporation. They’d been worried about Emily, but was she the only threat? Beth didn’t know much about the Brunswick family, but was Emily the only threat? Her confrontation had left her with more questions than answers, but more than anything it had left her feeling more like she was missing something. She could only hope that they’d find the missing pieces before things went too far too fast.