Down with the Queen
Page 29
“So, apparently they know about Doctor Johnson, and they said something about Orchid being captured. I’m not sure how that happened. Circe, has that made the news anywhere?” Rachel asked, glancing upward.
“No. Blooming Orchid was seen on patrol in San Francisco yesterday morning, and no conflicts involving her were on the news anywhere,” Circe replied readily.
“That’s really bad. She never liked her grandfather… that’s Ebon Dragon, Lil,” Gina said, frowning deeply. “If he’s working with Doctor Johnson, she could be in a dangerous situation.”
“Right, which is why it’s the bad news. The weird news is stranger. Spirit claims that Sky Defender freaked out because he was afraid of Shadowmind due to him having an encounter with her when he was just starting out as a hero. He nearly died, and was a bit, umm… adamant about taking you down to begin with,” Rachel began, shifting as she continued. “That came to an end when Dracula called the team and verbally ripped a strip out of their hides.”
“Dracula? Vlad called them?” Lilith asked, eyes jerking away from the floor to Rachel, a sense of utter shock overcoming her. “Why would he be involved?”
“I have no idea. Spirit claims he sent Allison Gambry to check your powers, and he’s been keeping an eye on you,” Rachel explained, frowning as she continued. “She claims that he was extremely upset about whatever it was they were doing, which is a bit strange. He doesn’t get involved in outside affairs often, but I can’t see why she’d use him to try to deceive us.”
“It’d be completely out of character. Sure, telling us that they came to terms with who you are, and that you could come in safely, but not lying about Dracula. That makes no sense at all,” Gina agreed, frowning. “How would he even know about you?”
“I don’t know. Circe, was Vlad involved in my creation?” Lilith asked, growing more worried as she thought about the idea. Dracula didn’t show up in the history she’d been taught often, but everything had stressed that while he may not be the most powerful superpowered being on the planet, he wasn’t one which anyone dared to antagonize.
“No outside parties were consulted in your creation, Mistress Lilith. You were entirely the product of Mistress Amber’s effort, not that of any others. Aside from the genetic samples which were used.” Circe’s explanation was unusually direct, Lilith thought, as she continued. “Furthermore, Mistress Amber avoided involving Dracula at all costs, even going so far as to avoid using a sample of Dracula’s Bride in the genetic map she created you from. Thus, his knowledge of your existence is considered a class one security breach. I highly recommend you go into lockdown and teleport to another lair.”
“No,” Lilith said flatly, the idea of going into hiding again almost repulsive. “Circe, I’m not going to simply lie down and let everyone terrorize me into hiding for the rest of my life. We’re going to continue with our current task unless you can honestly tell me that we’re recklessly endangering my life as well as that of Gina and Rachel. Can you?”
Circe was silent for a moment before speaking more quietly. “That is not possible. Success in your attack is not guaranteed, but the known villains located in the lair are believed weaker on the whole than your current group, Mistress Lilith. While it is dangerous, programming indicates that with a surprise attack it is possible to achieve your goals. The greatest threat is Ebon Dragon.”
“Sounds like we have a plan. Rachel, suit up. Also, speaking of Ebon Dragon, I just got an idea,” Gina said, grinning. “Circe, the goggles have flash protection, right?”
The question made Lilith blink once, then she smiled in understanding as Rachel laughed, stepping into her own armor as the computer replied. “Of course.”
“Oh, that’s good. He can move quick, though. You’re going to have to be careful if you want to blind him,” Rachel warned, and Gina nodded.
“I know, but he deserves it. He hit you, and he helped curse me,” Gina said, smiling. “I’m looking forward to this. We can kick their asses and rescue Orchid at the same time.”
“Which reminds me. Circe, please update the shard’s priorities to include rescuing Blooming Orchid,” Lilith asked, slotting the small, circular drone into a slot in the back of her armor. It hooked into place firmly, and she nodded. “I’m ready to go.”
“Programming updated. Teleportation matrix is charged and waiting, Mistress Lilith,” Circe said softly.
“I suppose we’d better go, then. No sense in keeping them waiting,” Rachel said, stepping out of her armor rack.
They left the room and headed for the teleporter. The pylons were ready for them, light shimmering all around as they stepped onto the platform. Lilith looked at the others, and they nodded.
Looking straight ahead, Lilith hoped this would go better than the previous expedition and spoke. “Initiate teleport, Circe.”
A flash of light enveloped them, and Lilith found herself somewhere else entirely. At least it was where they were supposed to be.
Chapter 30
Saturday, January 12th, 2031
Nevada SuperMax
Amber was getting truly sick and tired of her current predicament. Here she was, slaving away in an effort to keep an invasion at bay, and no one even knew about it. When she’d saved Lilith, it had given her opponents an opportunity to gain the upper hand, and they’d ruthlessly taken advantage of it and had nearly escaped. No more, though.
Twisting the screws on the last of the ones who might’ve escaped, Amber let out a mental breath of relief as the foe expired with barely a final whimper. One of her enemies had survived, but they weren’t going to be escaping, not really. She’d let the sorry heroes deal with them, rather than continuing to do everything herself.
Sure, she was selfish, but after what the heroes had done to her, she deserved the chance to be selfish on occasion.
Checking on Lilith again, Amber mentally pursed her lips, trying to decide what to do. Her daughter was certainly daring, going into a problematic situation with only a pair of allies. Lilith’s foe might be only Doctor Johnson, but…
Amber had never been a great beauty but being in the prison hadn’t done her any favors. They’d kept her hair cropped short, and the metal spots where they’d placed the neural inhibitors looked like they’d permanently damaged the hair roots beneath them. She was even thinner and frailer, which was impressive since she hadn’t been able to walk to begin with, and her skin had definitely begun to deteriorate. Amber didn’t even want to check to see if she’d developed bed sores.
With that, she ripped the cord out of her body mercilessly, severing her connection to it almost instantly. The body suddenly convulsed, alarms wailing as the aftershocks of her act caused the body which had been Amber’s to have a heart attack. Despite pain radiating through her astral body, Amber threw a carefully aimed psychic bolt into part of the brain, one of the places which the neural inhibitors stimulated.
A nurse and guard came racing down the hallway, but Amber knew her body was beyond saving now, and she smiled to herself, murmuring,
With that, she slipped through th
e wards around the prison effortlessly, heading east as the pain of severing her connection to her body faded away. The sense of freedom made up for it, though, as Amber stretched her senses and felt the dangerous creatures of the astral realm flinch away from her in fear.
Life was good.
Dr. Johnson’s Lair, Santa Cruz
“There it is. I still can’t believe he set up shop beneath a dental office,” Gina said, obvious distaste in her tone as she looked at the small building. “Enough people think of dentists as torturers as it is.”
The squat building of the dental office wasn’t large, with numerous windows and bushes around the base of it. Lilith could see a pair of glass doors in the front, as well as other ones around the rear of the building, likely intended for employees, though what use Doctor Johnson had for them was another question. She had to wonder what he was a doctor of, but Lilith brushed the thought aside after a moment. It didn’t really matter, not in the end. The important thing was getting inside, assuming that they weren’t about to hit the wrong location.
“I didn’t realize people had such strong feelings about dentists,” Lilith murmured, shrugging and glancing at Rachel. “Are you doing alright, Rachel?”
Rachel was obviously concentrating on keeping them invisible, but nodded slightly, murmuring, “I can hold this safely for… up to ten more minutes, so we’d best get moving. We don’t want to spend too much of my power on getting inside the building.”
Lilith nodded, unhooking the drone and touching the hidden buttons to activate it. The small silver disk looked a lot like a flying saucer, with a thicker center and a thin rim. As the device began whirring to life, Gina added, “As to your earlier question, yes, people have strong feelings about dentists. Most of the dentists I’ve known are good people, but not many people like going to them.”
“If you say so,” Lilith replied, watching the drone vibrate, then slowly hover upward out of her hand, rotating so that it was horizontal. After a moment, she asked, “Circe? Are you active?”
“System initialized. Warning, current hardware restricts available functions to minimal levels, Mistress Lilith.” Circe’s soft voice was tiny coming from the drone, and it bobbed. “This unit will attempt to assist you to the best of its capabilities. Self-initiative appears to be contraindicated under present circumstances. What are your instructions?”
“We’re going to approach the building in a moment. Stay within three feet of me, and when directed, unlock the door,” Lilith explained. “Try to ensure that unlocking the door doesn’t set off alarms as well.”
“Acknowledged, Mistress Lilith. Entering holding pattern,” the drone replied and took up a position about a foot away from Lilith, level with her head.
“Right, let’s go,” Gina murmured, and led the way across the street. The streetlights were fairly prevalent in Santa Cruz, but Lilith found it telling that they didn’t seem to have a good angle to illuminate the rear of the dental office. It was another sign that it might be Doctor Johnson’s lair, she imagined.
They reached the back door relatively easily, just barely managing to cross before an early-morning commuter passed. Looking at the door, Lilith glanced at Gina and asked, “What does the scanner say?”
“Umm… it looks like there’s an elevator inside, and the shaft definitely descends farther than it should,” Gina replied after a momentary pause. “I think it’s detecting a structure way below us, but I can’t be sure. I’m not trained on this system.”
“That’ll have to be good enough,” Rachel said. “Circe didn’t find anything like that in the city records, so no matter what, something illicit is going on here.”
“True. Circe? Please get the door for me,” Lilith said, and the drone bobbed in place.
“Yes, Mistress Lilith. Initiating infiltration protocols,” Circe replied, drifting forward as several small panels opened on the underside of the drone, wires and tools on mechanical arms slipping out. It was almost touching the door when they snaked into the gap, and Lilith found herself waiting.
None of them were talking, shifting from foot to foot as they waited. Lilith flinched as a siren suddenly wailed in the distance, only to cut off a moment later. Gina laughed softly, shaking her head. “Geez… what a time for a cop to pull someone over. I assume that’s what happened, anyway.”
“Definitely,” Rachel murmured, swallowing, then reaching down to pull a small flask off her belt and taking a drink of water. “How’s it coming, Circe?”
“As anticipated, the security systems exceed those normally used by dental offices by a large margin. This reduces entry speed by a significant degree. Estimate thirty seconds to access, if following Mistress Lilith’s request not to raise alarms.” Circe spoke in her usual, unhurried tone. “Would you like me to accelerate my efforts?”
“No, no, go ahead as you are,” Rachel replied hastily, prompting Lilith to smile.
With the brief wait, Lilith glanced at the others and asked, “So, we stick with the plan? Assuming we manage to not raise the alarm.”
“Pretty much. No splitting up unless the alarm is raised, since we don’t dare give them time to escape or hurt Orchid,” Gina said, tapping her elbow as she continued. “Also, you stick with one of us unless we have Ebon Dragon pinned down. You’re powerful enough to take down Doctor Johnson, from everything I’ve heard of him, but I don’t want you trying to face a class A supervillain alone.”
“Absolutely agreed,” Rachel said, and the door clicked open.
“Access granted. Please watch your step,” Circe announced as the door swung open. “Infiltration protocols indicate that the elevator likely possesses alarms as well. Please use caution in your movements.”
“Thank you, Circe,” Lilith replied, and followed Gina inside the building, which was well-heated and had nice carpet, she noticed.
Gina approached the elevator and glanced at Circe. “Circe, can you attempt to bypass the security on the elevator, too?”
“Yes. Do you desire me to?” the drone asked. At Gina’s impatient nod, the drone slipped up to the elevator and a wire hooked into a tiny data port. It hummed for a moment, then she spoke. “Lift access granted. Elevator alarm system disabled for five minutes.”
“Then we’d better go,” Rachel said, looking more relaxed as she glanced around. “No cameras, so I dropped the invisibility. Hopefully we can get this done quickly.”
“Right,” Lilith agreed, and the elevator doors slid open to reveal a normal-looking elevator car. She stepped inside with the others, then frowned as she saw it only had two floors listed, 1 and B. “Circe, how do we go to the bottom floor?”
“Scanning… press both buttons at the same time, Mistress Lilith,” Circe told her. “This will override the standard settings and take you to the bottom of the shaft.”
“Thank you.” Lilith did as the AI had said, pressing both buttons, and the elevator began to smoothly descend. It was a surprisingly long drop, before the car finally came to a stop.
Just as the doors were opening to reveal a hallway that stretched to either side and a door across the way, an alarm began to blare and Gina cursed. The heroine darted out of the elevator quickly alongside Rachel. Rachel slowed enough to drag Lilith out as well, moments before the doors snapped shut and she heard a hissing sound from through the doors.
“Circe, you said you disabled the alarm for five minutes!” Gina exclaimed. “Why is it going off?”
“The elevator alarm was disabled. There must have been another alarm that was not linked to the elevator,” Circe replied calmly. “Recommend changing from infiltration to combat protocols.”
“That’s obvious,” Rachel hissed, quickly opening the door across the hall and looking around an empty meeting room before shaking her head and asking shortly. “Left or right?”
“Left,” Gina snapped.
Lilith nodded, then hesitated and looked at the drone before ordering. “Circe, avoid contact. Attempt to reach the internet to get instructions
from your primary systems and try to find Blooming Orchid for us.”
The two heroines started to the left as the drone bobbed in place, speaking. “Yes, Mistress Lilith.”
As she turned to run, the drone ascended to near the ceiling and began to move the other direction.
Reacting to an alarm had been seared into Doctor Johnson’s reflexes by decades of encounters with heroes. Rolling out of bed immediately, he blinked as he shook off his weariness, grabbing a nearby suit from its hanger. The time on the clock made him scowl, but it was only to be expected.
“Eve, what’s the alert for?” Doctor Johnson snapped, knowing that the line to his assistant was active already.
“We have a security breach. Despite no reports of the doors opening upstairs or movement from the elevator, the alarms registered it reaching the bottom of the shaft and opening,” Eve replied, her voice accompanied by the sound of heels echoing in the halls. “The intruders are wearing armor that somehow fragments their appearance to cameras, but analysis indicates that it is Morgan Le Fay, Warden, and Shadowmind’s creation, Lilith Carpenter. They are currently moving toward the guest wing.”
Doctor Johnson blanched and swore under his breath, throwing on the shirt and starting to get into the pants. The anti-ballistic fabric made him feel better, at least. The problem was that the heroes had gotten inside without warning him. It didn’t give him much time to react.
“What are my guests doing?” Doctor Johnson asked, his mind racing. “Also, is there any sign of, oh… Destruction Corps inbound?”
“Dreamer was already awake and has exited her room, heading for the dining room. She appears to be humming ‘Mary had a little lamb’, Doctor. Ebon Dragon has ripped a hole in reality through which he is moving his things,” Eve replied, then paused and added, “Maureen is barricading her door and is checking her communications with Pauline. There are none waiting for her. No sign of other factions inbound on our location, Doctor.”