Then his engines cut out, and as he fell wailing to the ground, I zoomed forward and caught him around the waist. He tried to struggle, but his armor was stuck, locked into overcompensation mode or whatever he called the really big gun arrangement.
“TYPICAL.” The second we touched down I dropped him and walked away, turning my back as if he was nothing.
“You hacked him.” Miss Maskelyne said, hands on her hips.
I quietly dismissed the universal remote’s menu. “WELL, YES. THE BIGGEST GUNS IN THE WORLD DON’T MATTER IF YOU CAN’T DEFEND YOURSELF WHILE YOU’RE FIRING THEM.” I couldn’t have hacked him if he hadn’t been drawing on the local energy sources. Harrier had to open his systems right up to do that, and I couldn’t resist such a sweet invitation.
“You fucking cheated!” Harrier yelled from behind me.
“DUH.” I pointed at myself. “VILLAIN.” I reached my throne, and settled back into it. Khalid and Dru returned. Khalid’s face was stony, but Dru was red and gasping. “ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?”
“Hee hee hee... oh love, that was... Pahhahahahha!” Dru leaned over and actually slapped her borrowed body’s knee. I chalked it down to an old cliché that might actually be true, and turned my attention back to the heroes. They’d approached the throne during the short aerial fight, and ringed it in a semicircle that probably made them feel better. Behind them, Lust and Acertijo stood, slumped and tired, with arms around each other.
“YOU PROBABLY WANT ANSWERS.”
“Would be nice,” Rumjack muttered. He reached up under his sailor’s cap, and scratched his long, lanky hair. “Villains we ent never heard of, mutants and fairy hordes, and now you in this mess. No offense, miss.”
“NONE TAKEN.”
“If you were going to blow up Southwark, why’d yer teleport people to Mariposer?” Punching Judy said, staring at me with confusion. “And why only the people from that one building?”
“It’s Mariposa,” Miss Maskelyne nudged her.
“Whatever. Blinkin’ place nobody never heard of before.”
“THE DETONATION WAS NOT DIRE’S DOING. DIRE’S ENEMY FOUND HER LAIR, AND HER PRECAUTIONS WERE... INSUFFICIENT TO PROTECT EVERYONE. FRANKLY SHE WASN’T EXPECTING HIM TO GO THAT OVERBOARD ON THE EXPLOSIVES. THEN AGAIN, OVERCOMPENSATION IS HARDLY LIMITED TO THE VILLAINS AROUND HERE,” I shot a glance back to the Human Harrier, where he was slowly struggling to reboot his power armor.
“Fuck off!” He did that cute little two finger thing that the British did. I ignored him and turned back to the rest of his team.
“Eleven dead, because you put your lair in a heavily populated area,” Miss Maskelyne said, tugging on her gloves. “We aren’t exactly thrilled about that one. You let your conflict spill over onto innocents. That’s sloppy, Dire.”
“NO, THAT’S WAR. SLOPPY IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A VILLAIN SETS UP UNDER THE NOSES OF EVERY DAMNED HERO GROUP ON THIS FUCKING ISLAND, AND NOBODY NOTICES.” I pointed a finger at her. “GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE AND THINK. MUTANT MANUFACTURING LABS OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE? ILLICIT CYBERWARE AND MADE-TO-ORDER MONSTERS THROUGHOUT LONDON’S UNDERWORLD? ARMIES OF GODDAMN EVIL FAE RAMPAGING AROUND?” I clenched my fist, and brought it down on the arm of my throne. Gently, though, didn’t want to hurt my minons. Nonetheless, the heroes flinched as metal rang. “THAT’S SLOPPY. AND ONCE MORE, DIRE IS STUCK CLEANING UP THE MESS THAT HEROES CANNOT.”
“His name is Pride,” Lust interrupted.
“WRONG. HE’S THE MAESTRO, AND A WORSE VILLAIN YOU’LL NEVER MEET.”
“No!” Lust gasped, and I blinked as she and the heroes, all save Acertijo, Rumjack, and the Green Knight, chorused in unison; “Go to hell! Maestro’s great!”
I had about a second to be surprised, before Punching Judy shrieked and jumped at me. I slammed the forcefield to full barrier mode and she unleashed strike after strike on it, fists blurring.
“Dammit! Almost there!” The Human Harrier called, guns folding away as he stood. For her part, Miss Maskelyne staggered, with her hands held to her temples like someone had clocked her a good one.
The Green Knight didn’t or couldn’t speak. He settled for joining Punching Judy, slamming his greataxe into the field with slow, unhurried strikes. Regenerators had stamina, I knew from experience. Unless interrupted he’d keep on doing that until the end of time.
Though judging by the readouts from my forcefield, it’d cave long before that. Judy wasn’t holding back.
“Not again,” Rumjack whimpered. “Surrender, Miss! When they gets like that there’s no talkin’ wivvem.”
Khalid moved forward, trying to tackle Judy before I could yell at him to stop, and got thrown back a dozen yards for his trouble. He landed hard and didn’t get up.
Dru, however, had a different notion. “Girl! Work yer glamours!” She snapped, striding up to Lust.
“Envy? What?”
“No! Ensorcel’em, and calm them down!”
“I don’t... I, they came prepared for me, their charms are too—”
“Oh fer feck’s sake,” Dru said, and grabbed Lust’s hands. “Yer a Hampston, ain’t yer? Act like it!” She stepped back, and as she did so her ghostly form emerged from Envy’s body, sliding out like a shuddering veil of translucent cloth... but somehow more real than it had been last night, more solid here in this weirdling realm.
Then I had other matters to attend to, as my HUD chimed red. I routed my weapons power into shields, wincing as that barely slowed it. Judy was going full-bore, and a literal nuclear reactor couldn’t keep up with the pain she was dishing out. If the field busted she’d be on me, and I’d be parts and bloody organs littered over a couple of miles of fairytale scenery.
“You... who are you?” Lust asked, eyes wide.
For his part, free of the ghost, Vector shook his head and groaned. “That was strange. You owe me one, Dire.”
“TALK LATER! MOJO NOW?”
Lust closed her eyes and Dru flowed into her, like how she’d exited Vector only in reverse. It would have been a lot more fascinating if I hadn’t been rerouting power like mad, trying to keep the field intact without rupturing my circuits.
And then the world shook.
“My land,” Lust said, as the rest of the noise faded, and her voice rose above the din. “My power. My rules.”
Her hands came together, and something, some inscrutable force rolled out from them like a silent thunderclap, washing over and through us. I gasped, as my vision blurred for a second.
When it cleared, I blinked and focused on my HUD as the forcefield’s indicators wound down, from red to yellow to green, and I hurried to revert the circuits and redundancies I’d just rerouted. My power levels stabilized, and I looked around to my friends and foes.
Vector looked unruffled, head tracking back and forth as he assessed the heroes from his safe spot behind my forcefield. I hadn’t even noticed him scurrying back there, but I wasn’t surprised. Acertijo had his arms around Lust, keeping her upright as she sagged like a limp noodle. Clearly, that had taken a lot from her.
Khalid wasn’t stirring, from where he lay on the grass. That was concerning. Human Harrier was frozen in the midst of aiming some sort of bazooka at me, wobbling as he knelt, only his gyros keeping him upright.
THUNK! A minor strike to the forcefield, the smallest of impacts. The Green Knight was still chopping away like nothing had happened. Still, no real threat there now that Punching Judy had stopped. A glance her way showed her sitting on the ground, feet splayed, looking like she’d taken a two-by-four to the noggin. Behind her, Miss Maskelyne held herself upright by sheer force of will, hands covering her face.
“What did you do?” Miss Maskelyne finally said. “Our talismans should have protected us from any sort of mind control you could muster. Oh do stop that, Arthur.” The Green Knight caught the axe midswing, hauled it back.
Lust stirred, looked her way. “I didn’t mind control you, daughter of science. I merely changed your mind. There was a name you were key
ed to respond to, like dogs hearing a whistle. I took that name from your memory, and so the maddening whistle is lost.” She smiled, and it was a shadow of that familiar sneer that I’d grown to detest so. “By law of the courts I should not be able to do so, but it was a curse undeserved, and I showed mercy by lifting it from you. All of you owe me a debt for my generous gift.”
“DIRE WAS NEVER AFFECTED IN THE FIRST PLACE AND THE JANISSARY AND VECTOR WERE ALREADY FREED FROM HIS TRIGGERS. SO YOU CAN TAKE THAT UP WITH THE HEROES.” I stood from the throne, made a show of stretching. “WE GOOD, HEROES?”
“Hardly,” Miss Maskelyne shook her head. “But it’d be foolish to deny there’s more going on here. Truce?”
“TRUCE.” I lowered the forcefield. Behind me, my throne untangled itself back into my minions.
“Flippin’ disturbing, that,” Judy remarked. “Like a robot orgy.”
“Don’t knock what you’ve never tried, hun,” Delta said, and Judy snorted laughter.
“Sorry ’bout tryin’ to kill yer.”
“APOLOGY ACCEPTED.”
“Not you, them.”
“YOU’RE ALL HEART.” I turned my back on her, and looked to Lust. “DRU, YOU STILL IN THERE?”
“Perhaps you should explain what just happened, there?” Acertijo asked.
“SIMPLE ENOUGH. WE USED BASIC NECROMANCY—”
“That was not what it was,” Khalid interjected, as he limped over. Good, recovered already.
“WE USED MAGIC TO CALL UP HER GRANDMOTHER’S SHADE, BROUGHT IT HERE IN A WILLING VESSEL, AND GAVE IT TO HER GRANDDAUGHTER TO DEAL WITH.”
“She felt so familiar... now I know why. And why she bargained as she did.” Lust caressed her belly. “She’ll be reborn in our first daughter.”
“What?” Acertijo stepped back from her, shocked. “No! We did not discuss this!”
“It is too late. Besides, we can have more children.”
“A dead witch is possessing my firstborn!”
“OH SHUT IT, GROWNUPS ARE TALKING. YOU’RE THE ONE WHO FUCKED A HALF-FAE SORCERESS FROM A LONG LINE OF WICKED WITCHES, SO YOU KIND OF SIGNED UP FOR THIS SORT OF URBAN FANTASY SOAP OPERA, BUDDY.”
Punching Judy winced. “Oooooh. Ouch. Wicked bant.”
I watched Acertijo open and shut his gloved hands, saw the trembling in his spine. Be lying if I wasn’t enjoying it a bit, but with that came sadness. We’d had something, for a little while, even if it was mostly proximity and convenience.
Finally he turned and stalked away. Lust watched him go, reached out a hand to him, and let it fall when he didn’t look back.
“Domestics,” I heard Miss Maskelyne whisper to Rumjack. “Awkward all around, really. Just pretend you didn’t see or hear it, hm?”
Lust turned back to me, and I ignored the tears making their way out of her eyes. “Why? Why bring my grandmother to me? I do not understand your motive. We should be enemies. I have battled you, beaten you, and stolen your lov—”
“PRIDE,” I interrupted, with perhaps a bit of undue haste. “AND ONE MORE PIECE OF UNFINISHED BUSINESS. DOES YOUR MOTHER STILL LIVE?”
Her eyes narrowed, still leaking tears, but a hell of a lot more suspicious. “You know much of my human lineage. I have been through much pain, suffered much to repay the debt my mother incurred.”
“DOES DOROTHY HAMPSTON STILL LIVE? YES OR NO.”
“Her true name?” She actually reeled back, throwing a little drama into the action... and spoiling it with a sideways glance. I followed her gaze, saw Acertijo watching from sixty feet away. “Who are you truly? What do you want? How did you find my family’s secrets?”
“DID YOUR MOTHER NEVER TELL YOU OF THE DOCTOR WHO TRAVELED BACK IN TIME, AND HELPED HER SAVE TESLA?”
“Yes! Many times. Are you related to—” her mouth fell open. “No. Are you truly her?”
I crossed the distance between us, shoved my annoyance aside, and rested my gauntlets on her bare shoulders. “OH YES. AND IF DOROTHY HAMPSTON YET LIVES, THEN DIRE IS GOING TO TEAR ALL OF FAERIE ASUNDER UNTIL SHE IS FREE.” I paused. “WELL, AFTER SHE DROP-KICKS PRIDE IN THE NUTS. REPEATEDLY.”
Judy laughed more, and I saw Delta sit down next to her, lift a hand in an exaggerated sweep, and move her head like she was whispering. “No! Really?” Judy leaned in. “Tell me more! Shot Hitler, what?”
Lust threw her arms around me, and I froze, groaning at the loss of kayfabe in front of the heroes. “You’re her! Sweet Autumn, you’re really her! I, I, I’d given up all hope! Please, she’s trapped in the realm of the Mountain King, and nothing I offer is enough!” She sobbed. “No matter what I offer, it’s never enough! Wealth, slaves, baubles, they always want more!”
“Hold on,” a thankfully-non-weepy voice said at my side. I glanced over and down to see Miss Maskelyne looking up at me. “What’s this about time travel, Hitler, and Tesla now?”
“IT’S A FAIRLY LONG STORY.” I said, doing my best to disengage from Lust without injuring her.
“Mm, well, I hate to conform to stereotypes, but we could perhaps settle this over tea. Back at our ship. With you in a less shouty outfit.”
I looked back to Human Harrier, who had gotten himself reverted back to his basic armor mode, and was limping our way. “THINK YOU CAN RESTRAIN YOUR MORE IMPULSIVE TEAMMATES?”
She looked over to where Lust was busy hugging the stuffing out of me, and resisting every attempt to be shooed away. “Just keep the pregnant villain near you. Harrier won’t risk anything you can’t handle.”
Well, it was a better offer than anything I’d ever gotten from Tomorrow Force. Besides, I always ranted about heroes being unreasonable, seemed a shame not to encourage them when they resisted their basic natures. If they didn’t, then my friends, minions, and failsafes would probably suffice to handle them. Which reminded me... “VECTOR, COULD YOU GO CHECK ON THE LAST JANISSARY—” I glanced over to find Vector supporting him on one side, and Beta helping him stagger along on the other. “AH. YEAH, LET’S GET BACK TO THE SHIP AND GET THAT LOOKED AT.”
It turned out that there was this weird little protocol involved in boarding the ghost ship. Rumjack had to haul out a loud little ghostly tin whistle and blow on it, and give each of us permission to come aboard. Then you couldn’t fly to the damned thing’s deck, you had to climb up the ropes on the side, which were at least solid to my touch now. But once up on deck, the translucency was replaced by opaqueness, and color filled in the formerly white-and-glowy bits. It even seemed to be rocking back and forth on unseen waves, with sloshing noises and other phantasmal noises indicating an ocean-going vessel.
Taking the chance, I decanted from my armor, slipping on a traveling mask as I did so. The heroes and my little band boarded next, followed by Lust and Acertijo. Rumjack came up last of all, and smiled widely as he spread his arms. “I’ll put the kettle on. Get some proper tack and grub going. Always nice to have guests n’ all!”
“THANK YOU.” I settled back against the railing, doing my best to ignore the slow roll of the deck. I was used to having gyros to compensate for this sort of thing. “SO, BEFORE WE GET DOWN TO BRASS TACKS, LET’S TALK ABOUT PRIDE.” I turned to Lust. “WE KNOW HOW SLOTH WORKS. CAN HE SEE THINGS HAPPENING IN OTHER DIMENSIONS?”
“No,” she shook her head. “This is why I have remained here. The barrier protects us from Sloth’s sight.”
“THAT WILL WORK UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE REAL WORLD.” I tapped my mask. “WHAT WILL HE THROW AT US WHEN WE GET BACK?”
“Everyone.”
“YES, THAT’S WHAT DIRE NEEDS TO KNOW; WHO DOES HE HAVE UNDER HIS CONTROL? HOW MANY MINIONS?”
“Everyone!”
I took a breath, pushed my irritation down. “PERHAPS DIRE SHOULD EXPLAIN AGAIN...”
“No, you are the one who doesn’t understand!” Lust leaned forward, eyes wide, face gone pale. “He has made a minion of every man, woman, and child in Britain!”
CHAPTER 18: PLOTS AND PLANS
“Yeah, y'know that part where th
e villain turns out ta be th' good guy? I 'ate that part. Makes things complicated.”
--Punching Judy, member of Queensguard
We all stared at Lust, and she met our eyes unflinching.
“How?” Miss Maskelyne finally managed.
“Once, he was a petty and small man who did not realize the scope of his power. A score of years ago he terrorized vigilantes as the Murder Maestro, and was the doom of many a dark hero.” I tensed as she said his name, but the heroes didn’t react. Evidently the trigger had been well and truly nullified.
“The Nineties...” Miss Maskelyne ruffled her hair. “Early on, that would’ve been smack dab in the middle of the Wagner-Ezquerra Act.”
“WHAT’S THAT?”
“It banned unregistered superhero activity. Thatcher spent her entire term working to get it in place, and it damn near wrecked Britain. Got repealed in... ninety-six? Yes. Nothing but psychos and punks fighting back then, civility went out the window. Got very dark.”
“THERE ARE NO RECORDS OF A MURDER MAESTRO FROM THIS TIME?”
“No. For the day came when he found the true strength of his power. He held a radio station hostage, as an attempt to draw his nemesis of the time out of hiding. And the Murder Maestro found that his powers extended to recordings.”
I sucked air through my teeth, as the full ramifications struck me. Oh. Oh gods, it was worse than I’d thought.
“What are his powers, precisely?” Miss Maskelyne asked.
Acertijo took over, and explained. By the end of it, the heroes who still had living, visible flesh had gone pale.
Lust sighed. “After the revelation over the radio, he used his powers to cover his tracks, fade into the background, where he could slowly build the network he rules over today. The trigger that causes people to curse anyone who says bad things about the Maestro was an early experiment, transmitted through a children’s show. It helps reinforce his masquerade. But it is not the only trigger out there. He has overrides that allow him to command almost everyone in Britain, and perhaps a few beyond.”
“PERHAPS? THIS IS NOT A MAN TO DO THINGS BY HALVES. WHY WOULD HE NOT HAVE PUT THE WORLD UNDER HIS THUMB BY NOW?”
DIRE:SINS (The Dire Saga Book 5) Page 22