Terminator: System Error

This is what I get for reading someone's profile info in one window and searching IMDB.com in another. So, a little gift for DaveTFG :)

© 2012 GingerM

The figure paused, seemingly unaffected by the howling winds and driving rain. Blonde hair whipped and snapped in the gale-force winds, the raincoat flapped wildly, but for all that, the slim figure seemed to ignore the hurricane. There was an intensity to her eyes, something predatory, something inhuman. Slowly the figure began to walk.

She paused at a gas station. The lights were off, the pumps silent; the only sound was the sign creaking in the wind, sounding very much as if it were on the verge of buckling and falling. Unconcerned, she stopped at the door and reached for the handles. Her wrists seemed to flow, turning silver, like mercury or liquid chrome. An odd, reddish light glowed in her eyes as the liquid inserted itself into the locks. Her face still inhumanly calm, the flowing metal seemed to quiver a little, then a quiet snik heralded the door's unlocking, and she stepped inside.

The darkness didn't seem to bother her at all, and with unerring paces she stopped at the automated teller machine. Once again liquid tendrils oozed from her wrists, this time inserting themselves in the card slot. The logo screen disappeared in a hash of static, followed by rapidly-scrolling data that seemed to be reflected in her eyes. Absently she tucked the damp strands of honey-blonde hair back while she communed with the bank machine and the storm raged outside.

A sudden, wild gust of wind was the only warning, and she seemed startled as the door suddenly slammed open, the glass smashing in a fan of glass shards across the floor. There was an unearthly shriek, like dammed souls in hell screaming for mercy, and the sign came crashing down. It slammed through the station's roof as though it were paper and though she jerked her tendrils from the ATM with inhuman, machine-like speed, even her reflexes weren't fast enough. The sign's metal frame came down like a hammer on her, driving her into the floor. One arm sheared off, revealing a core of solid, gleaming metal, the same as the deep, fatal gash that opened her from shoulder to hip - and then a jagged, white-blue column of fire speared down from the heavens, striking the base of the sign, racing along the metal to course through her body in a shower of sparks. A harsh, metallic grating sound came from her open mouth and still her calm eyes stared up at the ceiling as millions of volts of lighting spat and sizzled, until the remainder of the ceiling collapsed.

Silence, broken only by the drumming of rain and the roar of the wind, held sway, until a new noise, the sound of metal being rent and bent began. A slim hand worked its way up, seeming far too fragile to lift the massive metal column that had destr