“I don’t much care for what you think of me, Ebon Dragon,” Warden told him, trying to figure out what he was up to.
“I imagine not. Still, I think that there are cases where deals can be struck. You are not currently part of a team that requires you to turn over all information, so I will make you an offer,” Ebon Dragon said, pulling out an envelope from his sash and holding it up. “This contains details on how the changes to your body were made and how to reverse them. If you allow me to leave here without challenge, I will give it to you.”
The offer startled Warden, and she blinked a couple of times before her eyes narrowed. As tempting as the offer was, she knew better than to take the offer of a villain at face value, even a mercenary like Ebon Dragon. Besides, there was also the matter of Blooming Orchid.
“I see. Then what about Blooming Orchid? Were you party to her abduction?” Warden asked, ready to use her magic at a moment’s notice, just as she was certain that Ebon Dragon was.
The villain’s eyebrows rose slightly, then he frowned as he lowered the envelope. “You know of that. Unexpected. I was asked if I would object by the doctor, no more. I told him that she must not be killed. That was the extent of my involvement.”
“You agreed to her abduction?” Warden demanded, anger rising even more now. “Why? Why would you do that to your own granddaughter?”
“She may be family, but that is precisely why I have a say in her path, unlike with your own,” Ebon Dragon said flatly. “She chose a poor path, so I agreed that she be made to aid in my own. At least she would be of some use.”
Warden’s rage overflowed at his dismissive comment and she couldn’t wait any longer. She lashed out at the man with a dozen golden spikes of magic at once, launching them across the room with deadly intent.
Sidestepping all but one, Ebon Dragon’s hands erupted with black energy once again, incinerating the envelope as he caught the last spike just as it was about to prick his skin, then it slowly dissipated in his hand.
“I see that we’re not going to come to an agreement,” he said coldly, taking a combat stance. “A pity.”
“Someone like you doesn’t deserve to be free.” Warden replied, golden magic swirling around her now, and azure streaks snaking their way through the radiant aura.
Pocketing the control chip to the genetic manipulator, Doctor Johnson grunted as he tossed the main components and power supply into the incinerator. The control software had already been backed up, so the control chip was the only truly important piece left. While losing the devices to modify genetic code was a loss, he could always build new ones. He’d built the machine once already, so he could always make it again.
The intercom next to him crackled to life and Eve spoke. “Doctor, data dump ninety percent complete. Dreamer and Ebon Dragon have engaged Morgan and Warden. Be warned, Lilith is heading in your direction. Should I continue overseeing the data dump or come to your assistance?”
“Get down here and keep her off me. I still need to melt the drives. I don’t want them getting anything off these,” Doctor Johnson replied hastily, swearing under his breath before nodding to the two robots. “Bots, guard the entrance. Destroy all opponents who attempt to enter.”
“Yes, Doctor,” Eve replied, allowing the intercom to go silent.
The two combat robots walked over to the entrance from the rest of the base as Doctor Johnson began opening the casing of the computer array. He considered just using his gauntlets to fry the system, but that wasn’t guaranteed to destroy the data fully. Next time he made a device, he made a mental note to have the hard drives on sticks that could be removed in seconds, not having to open the entire chassis to get to them! As he was pulling them out, the door hissed open and each of the combat robots turned to open fire, moving with the polished speed he’d programmed into them ages before.
The dark-haired woman who somersaulted into the room was positively magnetic, and Doctor Johnson found his gaze drawn to her as he shoved the chips into the disposal shaft and activated it. Moving with surprising grace, the woman ducked under the rifles of the combat robots, shooting one of them through the core of its chassis with a pistol, then sweeping the legs out from under the other. He winced as she shot it while rising, spinning to take aim at him. She smiled at him, her eyes covered by a pair of armored goggles.
“Doctor Johnson, I presume?” she asked, her tone pleasant even though her face was nearly emotionless.
“That would be me. You must be Lilith Carpenter,” Doctor Johnson replied, dusting his gauntlets off as he stood straight, ignoring her pistol. He wasn’t happy with the speed she’d moved at, since she looked far faster than he was, even with his newfound youth.
“Yes. You look younger than the records I’ve seen show you being. Odd,” Lilith murmured, then continued more firmly. “I suggest you surrender now. I’d prefer not hurting you, but I’m willing to do so if necessary.”
“I think not,” Doctor Johnson told her flatly, and raised both arms toward her, triggering his gauntlets.
Lightning blasted out from both palms and into the intruder, sparks arcing across the room savagely. The light was blinding, and Doctor Johnson winced and averted his gaze, having forgotten how bright the light from them was. He needed to be better about wearing the sunglasses which he usually used with the gauntlets. After a few seconds, he stopped blasting Lilith, looking back and expecting to see her twitching on the ground.
Instead he flinched backward as a laser bounced off the shield encompassing his half of the room, and he almost gawked at the sight of Lilith. Her armor had lost most of the paint across its surface, but aside from steaming slightly, she looked none the worse for wear, though she was frowning.
“How… Shadowmind. She knew about the gauntlets, didn’t she?” Doctor Johnson demanded angrily.
“Actually, no. We were attempting to capture Megawatt, and I didn’t want to be the conductor to his generator.” Lilith replied, shrugging as she added. “It seems the precautions were useful, even if not for the reason I intended. Your shield is annoying, but there’s a simple solution to that. You seem slower than me.”
Anger surged through Doctor Johnson at her words. That she’d negated his gauntlets by accident was unacceptable! The sheer arrogance that she showed as she holstered her pistol and started toward him was frustrating, but he didn’t have any real options. Not until the door hissed open behind Lilith and he saw Eve in the doorway.
Lilith started to react, but a half-second too late as his assistant was on her instantly. Eve moved brutally, grabbing her by the arm and spinning to launch the intruder into the nearby wall with all the force her mechanical frame could muster. The impact was deafening, and Doctor Johnson winced as Lilith fell to the floor, barely managing to fall on her feet, with blood beginning to drip from her nose and her goggles falling to the ground as their frames shattered. Her eyes were blazing green, he noticed.
“Doctor, evacuate please. I will deal with her,” Eve said, moving between Lilith and Doctor Johnson.
“Of course, Eve. Deal with her as you see fit,” Doctor Johnson replied, and darted for the nearest door, reflecting that he probably should update his equipment and combat robots after this.
He’d been getting lazy about that.
Chapter 33
Saturday, January 12th, 2031
Dr. Johnson’s Lair, Santa Cruz
Claire was having a hard time concentrating on anything. Her body ached and was unfamiliar; she was weaker than she could ever remember having been, plus her eyes and ears were being assaulted by static.
Only a few minutes before, the headset had been showing her strange patterns that had been difficult to concentrate on, as well as music that had been trying to lull her into a passive state, she knew. Eve had made no secret of Doctor Johnson’s plan to brainwash Claire, which made how the headset had suddenly cut off and began assaulting her with static instead rather strange. It might drive her insane, but that was about it, especially
since she wasn’t able to move her hands from behind her back.
Her frustration with the static was growing still stronger, and Claire wanted nothing more than for the headset to fry and maybe take her with it. That frustration was also why she froze when the headset abruptly shut down entirely, leaving her vision blank, save for the sparkling after-image of the static that she’d been seeing previously.
Moments later she felt something small and cool bump against her forehead, like the rim of a metal plate, and she recoiled as something tickled against her chin, near the strap holding the headset in place. A moment later, a soft, unfamiliar female voice spoke through the headset. “Please hold still. It is difficult to manipulate the fastener with you moving.”
“What?” Claire asked, her voice slightly unfamiliar, but also muffled due to the noise canceling in the headset. Still, she didn’t move as the touch of metal near her throat occurred again, this time the object snaking around the fastener.
“Interfacing difficult. One moment, social protocols are presently offline,” the voice replied. A few moments later, the strap came loose, and more of the thin-feeling metal objects wrapped around the headset and slowly began pulling it free.
Finding herself staring at what looked like a tiny flying saucer with metal tentacles protruding from the bottom of it was not what Claire had expected, and she felt her jaw drop slightly as it allowed the headset to fall to the floor.
“What… what are you? Why are you here?” Claire asked after a moment, shaking off her shock.
“Social protocols online. This drone is a remote chassis, and I am Circe, an AI shard in the service of Mistress Lilith Carpenter,” the drone said politely. “You are the heroine designated Blooming Orchid? The files I accessed indicated so, but you do not appear to resemble the heroine in any way save for hair color and gender.”
“Y-yes, I am. Lilith? Why would she… no, no. I was captured by Doctor Johnson, and he modified me to look like I do,” Claire replied, refusing to glance down at her unfamiliar skin. “He used something called a genetic manipulator to do it. I have no idea how it works.”
“Acknowledged. Processing power is insufficient to fully analyze current situation. Will provisionally accept your identity,” the drone replied, humming as it circled Claire. “Primary task is your rescue. Please do not resist, I must free your arms.”
“Umm, okay. What are you doing here, other than that?” Claire asked, leaning forward. The idea of a tiny drone trying to help her was strange, but it began undoing the armbinders, starting from the elbows.
“Alpha priority is the safety of Mistress Lilith. Minor priority, safety of Morgan Le Fay and Warden to keep Mistress Lilith happy. Need your assistance to disable lair self-destruct system. Secondary goal, capturing Doctor Johnson. Tertiary goals, defeat Ebon Dragon and other villains in base,” Circe replied, freeing Claire’s arms. “Current situation volatile. Need assistance to acquire advanced chassis.”
“I… I see. Morgan and Warden are here?” Claire asked, her hopes rising. “What about the rest of the team?”
“The other team members were deliberately kept uninformed to ensure Mistress Lilith’s safety,” Circe replied, the drone sounding slightly confused. “The two heroines are in the structure. Residual shockwaves indicate combat.”
“What do you… no, we don’t have time for this,” Claire said, shaking her head and standing, swaying slightly as she tried to adjust to her new center of gravity. She felt so strange. “I’ll try to help. Just be aware that I’m much, much weaker than I was. He reduced my muscle mass to ensure I couldn’t fight back.”
“That is acceptable,” Circe said, hovering over to the door, which slid open at the drone’s approach. “Please move quickly.”
Claire followed the bot, feeling half-naked in the hospital gown, but even the chance of freedom was worth grasping. There was a faint hint of salt in the air, as if they were near the ocean, and she frowned. The drone went down a few rooms and paused at the door, sliding a tendril into the port and the door opened. Stepping inside, Claire froze in place.
The room appeared to be a manufactory of some type, and in the center of the room was Eve, at least after a fashion. The blonde figure was almost identical, save that it was mostly naked, and all but one arm was covered in skin that looked real at first glance. The exposed arm showed armor and several of the elaborately bunched mechanical muscles of the android.
“What are we doing here? That’s Eve!” Claire hissed.
“It is a robotic chassis with the appropriate transponders to allow me to access the base computers and self-destruct system without activating countermeasures,” Circe replied calmly. “However, the access point is under a cover which this unit does not have the strength to raise. Your assistance is required.”
“I…” Claire hesitated, looking on the face of the only one of her tormentors that she’d encountered in person, but after a moment she sighed and shook it off. Now wasn’t the time to let herself have doubts, and if they were trying to deceive her, this was a poor way to go about it. So instead she nodded. “Tell me what to do.”
“Affirmative,” the drone replied, hovering over to a section of equipment next to Eve’s body. One of its tendrils tapped a switch cover and explained. “Please raise this to provide access.”
Claire nodded and stepped over to the switch in question, bracing herself. As she did, a rumbling sensation shook the floor, making her wonder what had just happened.
Morgan barely dodged the attack which Gareth’s spectre had unleashed this time, his blade carving deep into the wall and setting off alarms. She managed to leave behind a speck of her magic, but it was a near thing.
Her armor was cracked and had taken dozens of hits that Morgan knew would have punctured her old outfit. Any complaints she had about Circe’s criticisms had vanished by this point, and she panted, staring at the figure and glancing at Dreamer, wondering how long the woman could keep this up. She flinched as the hallway behind her collapsed with a rumbling crash, then dodged desperately to the side as Gareth silently lashed out with his sword, a crescent-shaped blade of light cutting clean through the floor, wall, and ceiling as it flashed through the spot she’d occupied a moment before.
“Not so cocky now, are you?” Dreamer sneered, breathing hard as she rested against a chair behind Gareth. After Morgan had tried to hit the woman with more attacks, Dreamer had taken care to keep the spectre between them. Every attack Morgan had thrown at him had been ripped apart by that deadly blade of his, and even the attempts to restrain or stun him hadn’t worked. “You’re going to die by inches!”
“Only because… you’re hiding behind someone else,” Morgan retorted, hastily throwing up a barrier to deflect a quick slash by Sir Gareth, allowing the blow to carve into the wall. “I fight my own battles.”
“That’s because you’re stupid and arrogant, just like all heroes. That’s why it’s so easy to tempt them into falling,” Dreamer told her, laughing loudly in return. “If they weren’t, you wouldn’t have a job, you know. Little goody-two-shoes that you all are.”
Creating another speck of magic, Morgan launched a spray of magical bolts at Dreamer and ducked as the spectral hero sent a horizontal slash at her, barely keeping her head this time. Sir Gareth jumped in the way of the bolts, each of them exploding in a series of pops against him as she rolled to the side and got back to her feet.
“Is that so? Have you ever read any of the stories of Morgan Le Fay?” Morgan demanded, grimacing as she felt the stitch in her side. She was running on adrenaline, and was pushing herself hard, she knew.
“Some petty witch, from all I’ve heard,” Dreamer replied, laughing as she added, “I know that she was in the legends with Arthur.”
“Hmm… well, maybe you should have studied more. See, she was one of Arthur’s enemies,” Morgan told her, eyes glittering as she glanced around. “You probably also should have paid more attention to architecture too.”
“What?�
�� Dreamer asked, looking confused.
The large dining room had been mauled. Dozens of deep gashes covered the walls and ceiling, and the lights were flickering. Morgan smiled as she jumped backward and snapped her fingers.
A dozen seeds of magic exploded suddenly all around the room, and Sir Gareth’s figure quickly swept Dreamer into a hug to protect her from them as they rocked the structure. They hadn’t been the targets, though, and Morgan glanced up as she heard the creaking and shattering sounds from above.
The room collapsed incredibly suddenly, the rubble washing out into the hallway where Morgan was standing, almost knocking the heroine from her feet as she retreated, dust filling the air to the point that she found herself coughing. In only a few moments, the rumbling destruction was done, though, and Morgan let out a sigh.
“Not how I would have liked to have done this, but you didn’t leave me much choice, Dreamer,” Morgan murmured, studying the rubble with a frown. “With the toughness that Gareth was showing… you should still be alive under there. Hopefully you can stay that way long enough for someone to come incarcerate you.”
“Morgan, are you alright? What the hell was that?” Gina demanded over their comm. “I just—gah!”
“I’m fine, Warden. Focus on your own fight. Dreamer was a lot tougher than we thought she was, and I was forced to drop the roof on her,” Morgan replied. “Lilith? How are you doing?”
There was no response, and Morgan’s blood went cold as she asked again, more urgently. “Lilith?”
When no response came, Morgan didn’t bother trying to contact Lilith again. Instead, she turned and started to run down the hallway, hoping that the room led somewhere useful, touching her connection to Lilith and wincing as she felt pain coming down it.
Maureen’s barrier fell over as the aftershock of what felt like an earthquake hit, almost burying her in furniture. Cursing, she backed off, looking around desperately and wishing that she knew of some better way out of here. She was quickly regretting taking the job even more than she already had.
Down with the Queen Page 31