Mortal Steel: Episode 4
Source: collected/014-mortal-steel-episode-4.mp3
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Model: scribe_v2 | Transcribed: 2026-10-10T18:12:11.831825+00:00
Machine transcript — uncorrected. Speaker labels are local to this recording and do not identify people.

[00:00:00.000] Speaker 1: [theme music]

[00:00:52.920] Speaker 1: Mortal Steel, episode four. Archbishop Gabriel stared at the projector screen in disbelief, watching Ethan charge the class A demon through the man's own eyes. It had been such a promising start, too. When he'd descended the building, somehow still intact, they'd broken out the wine. Technically, it wasn't supposed to be used in celebration, but Lord knew they needed a win. The conference room was crowded

[00:01:27.880] Speaker 1: with people. A few of the nuns had been brought in to advise on technical issues, if any had arisen. The wine glasses either sat in front of people, completely forgotten, or their owners drank the rare treat shockingly fast, eyeing their neighbors' glasses with a nervous itch. Bishop Erica turned to look at Gabriel, her face solemn.

[00:01:53.840] Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Gabriel. When he gets close, I'm detonating him.

[00:01:59.660] Speaker 1: Gabriel Klein nodded slowly. It was the rational thing to do. Some of these people probably thought it was a net victory to kill something that dangerous in trade. He watched as Ethan ducked an unnaturally fast swing aimed at the cyborg's head, then swung the trinity blades, only for the weapon to get lodged in the creature's thick armor. Ethan struggled and failed to pull his arm free. Erica flipped the clear plastic lid on the detonator.

[00:02:33.440] Speaker 3: You should have a little faith, Erica. By the way, I resign my position. [laughs] It seems proper to do that first.

[00:02:43.180] Speaker 1: Erica glanced over at him, detonator still in hand.

[00:02:47.120] Speaker 2: What?

[00:02:47.820] Speaker 1: Then Gabriel Klein stood up from his chair, brushed off his robes, and tackled her.

[00:03:02.720] Speaker 2: Ah!

[00:03:04.700] Speaker 1: [crowd murmurs] [upbeat music] The trinity blades, still stuck in the creature's armor, tore free from his arm with an awful ripping sound. Blood and mechanical fluids dripped from the wound as he was hung upside down. His second mind tried to tell him exactly what the fluid was and what it was for, but he pushed the information away.

[00:03:25.820] Speaker 3: You put your metal on the inside.

[00:03:30.040] Speaker 1: Ethan swung around, trying to get leverage, but he was unable to reach the creature. It was infuriating being helpless. It felt like... Well, it felt like being human. Then he heard and felt a crunching sound above him. Warm fluid dripped down his body. There was a flash of pain data in his foot, and then nothing. The demon snarled and spat something to the ground beside him. His foot.

[00:04:05.480] Speaker 1: Ethan looked away, trying to stay focused on what looked like an increasingly futile battle. The demon's motion let Ethan swing to the side, and he caught a glimpse inside the church. He rewound the footage in his mind, and there he saw two things that changed everything. First, there were people in the church. The doors may have been destroyed, but there were faces peeking at him from behind the overturned pews. 17 people.

[00:04:41.440] Speaker 1: And if there were 17, maybe there were more. Whoever those poor souls were outside, they weren't his makeshift congregation. The second thing he saw was the faint shimmer at the threshold of the church, a barrier of consecration. They believed in him. They were alive, and they believed in him. 1,745 combat

[00:05:16.080] Speaker 1: simulations completed. One victory. Chances of success, 0.00057%. A smile appeared on Ethan's face. That's all I need. Hey, you still hungry? Why don't you have another bite? Ethan saw the demon's head turn to the side in a very human expression of curiosity. Then it lifted his other foot underneath the

[00:05:51.180] Speaker 1: slab of dark armor that covered its face. Ethan scrolled through his mods and selected hydraulic heel with his mind, waited for the moment the creature bit down- And eighteen and a half tons of force exploded the demon's face. The hand holding him went limp, and Ethan fell to the ground. He lunged for its left leg and placed the tree-sized knee joint in the crook of his elbow. Then he engaged the neck cracker mod. A

[00:06:26.140] Speaker 1: wedge of hardened steel welded directly to his endoskeleton ran along the inside of his bicep and forearm. It was very much like a hydraulic nutcracker. It may as well have been called The Guillotine. Ethan turned on the hydraulics, and the neck cracker strained against the demon's armor for a long moment. Then cold man-made steel crushed the joint and severed the monster's leg at the knee. The demon fell over, and Ethan rolled out of the way. He rose and stumbled toward the church on one good

[00:07:00.900] Speaker 1: leg, but stopped in the doorway, slumping against it. The sound of armor scraping on the concrete made him turn around. The demon sat on the ground looking at its stump of a leg. No, that wasn't a stump. It was regrowing. And its face, mostly an enormous sideways mouth filled with glowing orange molars, was healed. A moment later, the leg had

[00:07:35.880] Speaker 1: healed, and the demon stood up with casual grace for something so large. Ethan's tired mind noted that the armor had not regrown, however. Maybe he could use that. He could have anyway, if he had anything left. Nothing. Nothing but words left now. Sorry about your face. Didn't realize it was already messed up.

[00:08:07.620] Speaker 3: Get out of my way, broken toy.

[00:08:13.620] Speaker 1: No.

[00:08:15.480] Speaker 3: You are already defeated.

[00:08:20.040] Speaker 1: He could hide inside with the others. The consecrated building would protect him. It would protect him until this thing tore the building down on top of them all. It didn't matter if it was consecrated if there was no building. He could still run. The demon reached out to pull Ethan from the doorway in much the same way you might move a misbehaving toddler. Unthinking, Ethan grabbed the monster's enormous hands,

[00:08:54.740] Speaker 1: threaded his own fingers between the creature's talons. He forced the hands away from his body, away from his people. He would not run. Every pressure sensor in Ethan's body was reporting critical failures. Ethan fought the overwhelming force with everything he had, but there was no higher effort than one hundred percent. There was no limit beyond maximum. Ethan braced himself in

[00:09:29.760] Speaker 1: the church's doors with what remained of his body. The creature continued pulling. You will never get through me. Then it tore Ethan's arms from his body. Pastor Cutter sagged to the ground before his enemy. He'd given

[00:10:04.280] Speaker 1: everything. He could die knowing he'd given everything. He was picked up by the front of his shirt and brought face to face with the demon. Putrid, bloody breath washed over him. Ethan felt the demon's words forming in his mind. He felt his own second mind, chipper as always, ready with its own final quip. But instead of speaking, Ethan reared his head back and smashed his forehead into the demon's face.

[00:10:40.460] Speaker 1: Then again, the beast stumbled backward, dazed and alarmed. Ethan slipped from its grasp, then lunged at the monster with his one good leg and slammed it against the creature, knocking it to the ground. He jumped on its chest, not giving it a single second to recover. Then he brought his head down in another savage headbutt. Titanium alloy met bone again, and again, and again. Ethan pounded its skull over and over with his own. Like a hammer to the nail, the beast's

[00:11:15.540] Speaker 1: head sank into the concrete. The sound was wet and vicious. In that moment, he was not a man or a machine. He was pure violence. Ethan drove the creature deeper into the concrete, ignoring the warnings, ignoring the damage reports, ignoring the shouting voices, and even his very own human terror. He pounded the demon's head into an unrecognizable heap of tainted flesh. Then he lifted his face to the gray sky

[00:11:50.580] Speaker 1: and screamed. When he looked down again, the creature's flesh was already knitting back together. So he bit down on the edge of the demon's armor above the shoulder and dragged the body inch by grueling inch toward the church. A moment later, people he didn't know streamed out of the church. A dozen hands grabbed the hulking monster and heaved with him. Strangers.

[00:12:25.460] Speaker 1: No, not strangers. Humans. People. Like him. At last, they reached the threshold of the church where, blessedly, the creature's body ignited as they dragged it through the barrier. [fire whooshing] Even as the corpse burned beneath him, Ethan dragged the thing by his teeth. He pulled until there was no enemy, only a pile of ash blowing around the floor of the consecrated

[00:12:59.980] Speaker 1: church. Only then did he stop. His second mind told him the threat was eliminated. Only then did he allow himself to slump to the ground. Many hands pulled him deeper into the church. People were screaming in his ears, except that wasn't screaming. It was cheering. Cheering? Red text

[00:13:34.680] Speaker 1: flashed on his HUD. He hadn't even noticed it until now. Emergency shutdown. Three, two, one. Then there was black, and shortly after that, nothing. [gentle music] Part 6: Paradise

[00:14:17.820] Speaker 1: [static crackling] Ethan's mind turned on before he was truly awake. He had no body, not yet. Text scrolled down his vision. He could read it, but couldn't turn around. There was nothing to turn. It was a diagnostic report. Biological status, severe cerebral hemorrhaging, stable, recoverable, four days. Frontal lobe damage, minor impedance, recoverable, 140 days.

[00:14:52.700] Speaker 1: Left arm, missing, not recoverable. Right arm, missing, not recoverable. Left leg, foot missing, not recoverable. Right leg, nominal. Endoskeleton, multiple fractures, not recoverable. Other systems, severe damage, stable, not recoverable. Followed by a list of dozens of subsystems responsible for everything from digestion to

[00:15:27.020] Speaker 1: circulation. Why was he seeing this? Electronic status, Hail Mary implant, minor damage, not recoverable. Followed by a list of hundreds of electronic systems, most of which were damaged or destroyed. The implant was damaged? That couldn't be good. As if in reply to the thought, another line of text scrolled into view. Estimated lifespan, 46 days. Proceed with boot sequence.

[00:16:03.500] Speaker 1: Y/N. Then there was a flashing cursor.

[00:16:07.320] Speaker 4: I don't understand. Are you asking me if I want to live?

[00:16:13.860] Speaker 1: Proceed with boot sequence. Y/N. For reasons he found difficult to explain, Ethan hesitated. But there were still people counting on him. There was only one real answer.

[00:16:34.580] Speaker 4: Yes. [electronic sounds]

[00:16:41.060] Speaker 1: Ethan stared up at the support beams of a dark room. A tiny hand waved around in front of his face.

[00:16:49.960] Speaker 4: Are you alive? [clapping] Hello? Ugh, Fleabag, when was the last time you bathed? Last time I did what? Ugh, never mind.

[00:17:03.900] Speaker 1: Ethan tried to sit up, but as soon as he did, alarms, both biological and technological, sounded.

[00:17:11.180] Speaker 4: You're pretty beat up. Hold on, I'll help.

[00:17:15.080] Speaker 1: Fleabag put his small arms behind Ethan's neck and pulled.

[00:17:20.380] Speaker 4: Holy crap, you're heavy. What do you eat? I'm sustained by an internal drip of a nutritional paste. That and hydrogen isotopes.

[00:17:31.740] Speaker 1: With some effort, they got him propped up against the wall behind them. The congregation had brought him to a back room somewhere. It was only him and Fleabag in the room. Were they trying to hide him?

[00:17:45.460] Speaker 4: Where's everyone else? Sleeping. I told them to go home, but they won't leave the church.

[00:17:51.400] Speaker 1: That was wise, considering it was nighttime. Humans were an unfavorable matchup against almost anything wandering around out there. Darkness would not help those odds. The kid laid down next to Ethan.

[00:18:05.500] Speaker 4: I can't sleep. Yeah, me either.

[00:18:09.600] Speaker 1: In this case, he literally could not. But he wasn't about to try explaining the difference between being off and sleeping to a nine-year-old.

[00:18:21.016] Speaker 5: Can you tell me a story?

[00:18:23.276] Speaker 1: Pastor Cutter narrowed his eyes.

[00:18:26.796] Speaker 4: Okay. I know a bedtime story.

[00:18:30.176] Speaker 1: Fleabag's eyes lit up.

[00:18:32.476] Speaker 4: Now, once upon a time, there lived a small village. They lived in abject poverty. Conditions were unsanitary because they were ignorant of germ theory and basic hygiene.

[00:18:45.396] Speaker 5: What's that?

[00:18:46.336] Speaker 4: Hey, pay attention. So one day, their troubles compounded. A monster attacked the village, carrying the weak and the sickly back to its cave to devour them.

[00:19:00.156] Speaker 5: What did they do about it?

[00:19:02.356] Speaker 4: Well, they surrounded the mouth of the cave with explosives and waited for the beast to exit. And when it finally did, they detonated the trap. The monster was ripped to shreds by the explosion. Bloody chunks rained down everywhere.

[00:19:20.296] Speaker 5: Whoa. So they lived happily ever after?

[00:19:24.516] Speaker 4: Hell no. They lived in abject poverty. Life was short, brutal, and filled with unnecessary suffering. So are you tired now?

[00:19:36.216] Speaker 1: Fleabag's tan face was covered in shadow. Ethan switched to infrared. He did not look tired. Perhaps another story then.

[00:19:46.116] Speaker 5: Are you really a preacher?

[00:19:48.696] Speaker 4: I used to be. Now I preach a different gospel.

[00:19:53.276] Speaker 5: What?

[00:19:54.556] Speaker 4: The gospel of lead.

[00:19:58.616] Speaker 5: Why do you say things like that?

[00:20:01.296] Speaker 4: I don't know. It just kinda comes out. Think I might be sick.

[00:20:07.276] Speaker 5: In your brain?

[00:20:08.116] Speaker 4: [laughs] I guess so.

[00:20:12.776] Speaker 5: It's okay.

[00:20:14.636] Speaker 1: Then the kid leaned against Ethan and closed his eyes. And even though he didn't need to sleep, Ethan closed his eyes too.

[00:20:24.916] Speaker 5: Can you protect us from the real monsters?

[00:20:29.056] Speaker 4: I'm going to try.

[00:20:33.176] Speaker 1: Fleabag let out a long breath, and a minute later he was snoring, his small head resting on Ethan's armless torso. If he didn't get repairs soon, though, he wouldn't be protecting anyone. It was unlikely he'd be able to kill a second demon with his teeth. Then this tiny person would die. A knife of pain made it through his pain filters. This was not a physical pain. It was something

[00:21:08.736] Speaker 1: unfamiliar and far more frightening. What if he could not save them? [gentle music] Sometime before dawn, Ethan stirred to the sound of a voice.

[00:21:36.816] Speaker 5: Number Four? Number Four, can you hear me?

[00:21:40.516] Speaker 1: He scanned the room, careful not to stir the sleeping Fleabag. There was no one in the room.

[00:21:48.816] Speaker 5: It's Sister Fran.

[00:21:50.856] Speaker 1: Coming from his mind, then. Great. That was the last place he needed more voices.

[00:21:57.836] Speaker 4: Fran, this is Pastor Cutter.

[00:22:00.816] Speaker 5: You're alive. Ha. I told you it would work.

[00:22:05.196] Speaker 4: What is this?

[00:22:07.336] Speaker 5: A radio. You have a receiver in your spine.

[00:22:10.956] Speaker 4: And why?

[00:22:13.456] Speaker 5: So we can monitor you, obviously.

[00:22:17.696] Speaker 1: They'd been watching him?

[00:22:19.696] Speaker 5: Listen, I don't have long. Things have gone crazy in Last Respite. Gabriel went rogue. The advanced clinic is done. Me and the other nuns got out, though. Oh, and you have a bomb in you. Number Four?

[00:22:37.396] Speaker 4: I'm here.

[00:22:38.795] Speaker 5: Okay. Whew. I thought she blew you up.

[00:22:41.716] Speaker 4: Is that a risk?

[00:22:43.556] Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure. That's why I'm sending you a patch. Erica can probably hear this, though. They know everything you're doing, even if they can't blow you up, yet. So you should probably come up with a reason why they shouldn't blow you up until the patch is done. The patch will totally disable your receiver, so you're going to have to go dark.

[00:23:03.876] Speaker 4: [sighs]

[00:23:06.796] Speaker 1: He hadn't even realized he had a radio receiver. What else did he not know about? Why play games like this? And a bomb.

[00:23:19.136] Speaker 4: Because I haven't completed my mission.

[00:23:22.836] Speaker 5: Your what?

[00:23:24.236] Speaker 4: I'm going to kill the Stalker.

[00:23:27.236] Speaker 5: Listen, we've treated you more like a project than a person since you woke up, and I wanted to say sorry. You don't have to do this.

[00:23:39.176] Speaker 1: She wasn't doing a very good job of not getting him blown up. Another voice entered his mind then, because why not? That made four now, by his count. Bishop Erica Long said only one word.

[00:23:54.876] Speaker 5: How?

[00:23:56.576] Speaker 4: I need ammunition and repairs.

[00:23:59.876] Speaker 5: No. You have 48 hours, then we're sending a salvage crew for your parts.

[00:24:07.676] Speaker 1: Erica said nothing else after that.

[00:24:12.396] Speaker 4: Fran?

[00:24:13.676] Speaker 5: I'm here, but not for long. We're heading for New Hope.

[00:24:19.156] Speaker 4: Is that, uh, wise?

[00:24:22.076] Speaker 5: Probably not, but it's not like we can survive in the outskirts. It hasn't worked out too well for you, has it?

[00:24:31.266] Speaker 2: If you survive, come find us and we'll patch you up. God go with you, Number Four. I mean, Ethan. You want to be called Ethan, right?

[00:24:42.046] Speaker 4: That is my name.

[00:24:44.026] Speaker 2: Right. Bye, Ethan.

[00:24:47.766] Speaker 1: A moment later, an icon appeared in his HUD. Secure patch. Update Y/in.

[00:24:56.026] Speaker 4: Oh, hell yes.

[00:24:58.266] Speaker 1: Permissions error. Admin approval required.

[00:25:02.686] Speaker 4: You gotta be kidding me. And who are the admins?

[00:25:08.306] Speaker 1: Hiro Saitama, Gabriel Klein.

[00:25:12.186] Speaker 4: Wait, that's it?

[00:25:13.926] Speaker 1: There were only two admins, and one of them was already dead. The other, from the sound of it, wasn't far from it.

[00:25:22.846] Speaker 4: And what happens if I try to remove the bomb myself?

[00:25:27.866] Speaker 1: Never mind that he didn't have any arms. The answer came back from his second mind immediately. Detonation. 48 hours to kill something nearly unkillable, with no arms and no weapons. He looked down at Fleabag, who was stirring awake, and nine-year-olds notwithstanding, no allies. Sometimes the Lord giveth, and sometimes the

[00:26:02.946] Speaker 1: Lord took you for all you were worth. Sure would be nice to have a little more of the former.

[00:26:09.366] Speaker 4: Say, Fleabag, do you know any mechanics?

[00:26:13.886] Speaker 1: The boy stood up, walked over to the side of the room, and began peeing against the wall.

[00:26:21.226] Speaker 6: Oh, sure, I know a guy. He makes weapons for the king.

[00:26:27.086] Speaker 4: And this person, can he be trusted?

[00:26:31.186] Speaker 6: I don't know.

[00:26:32.826] Speaker 1: Ethan sighed and leaned his head back against the wall. He looked up at the ceiling rafters, uncertain whether there was any divinity in that direction, or just termites. Then he muttered a prayer under his breath.

[00:26:50.786] Speaker 4: God, if you're up there, you know I'm trying to go to bat for you, but I'm gonna need arms to swing it. A little help would be nice.

[00:27:04.366] Speaker 1: Only silence answered. Well, that was how most prayers went. Ethan guessed there was only one way to find out if they were gonna get answered.

[00:27:15.666] Speaker 4: All right, take me to this weaponsmith.

[00:27:19.086] Speaker 1: Fleabag turned around and grinned.

[00:27:22.786] Speaker 4: And wash your hands, boy. Didn't you learn anything from my story?

[00:27:26.526] Speaker 4: [rock music]

[00:28:08.946] Speaker 1: Bishop Erica Long poked at her black eye in the mirror.

[00:28:13.746] Speaker 2: Seriously, Gabriel.

[00:28:15.986] Speaker 1: Who had known the old man could throw a punch like that? He didn't really think she was going to detonate the cyborg at full power, did he? It was variable strength. In God's name, there were people in that church. She wasn't a monster. Except, the cyborg hadn't failed. It had won the day, somehow.

[00:28:43.326] Speaker 2: No, you are not the bad guy here.

[00:28:46.326] Speaker 1: There was a knock at the bathroom door.

[00:28:48.666] Speaker 6: Madam, there are several urgent matters that need your attention.

[00:28:52.486] Speaker 2: I'll be out in a moment.

[00:28:54.066] Speaker 1: Couldn't she get a moment's rest? Why did everything fall on her?

[00:28:59.986] Speaker 6: Bishop, we found an undocumented, unsanctioned weapons system in the advanced clinic.

[00:29:06.346] Speaker 2: That's redundant. If it's unsanctioned, it's obviously undocumented. Ugh. Fine. Fine.

[00:29:16.146] Speaker 1: Best to deal with this right away. Lord knew if she took the time to put on some makeup, there would be a hostage crisis, a strike, and maybe the Lord of Darkness itself would pay them a visit.