The intercom suddenly activated and a synthesized female voice spoke. “Warning, self-destruct system activated. T-minus three minutes.”
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Maureen exclaimed, rushing to the door and hastily shoving things out of the way to try to open it.
The door ground halfway open before a flood of rubble poured through it, leaving her with what looked like a tiny tunnel as a possible exit. Staring at the dark remnants of the hallway, Maureen glanced up at the ceiling, then swallowed hard.
“Sis, I hope you’re safer than me,” Maureen muttered. “I never should’ve agreed to stay in his hideout.”
Not willing to spend any more time than she had to, Maureen braced herself and started to crawl through the rubble, hoping it wouldn’t be a dead-end.
Ocean Shield HQ, San Francisco
“People, we have a situation!” Hypergizmo almost exploded into the ready room as everyone else was preparing themselves. “We have to go, now!”
“What is it?” Sky Defender asked, canceling his final diagnostics and starting to power everything up to full combat readiness.
“Seismic shocks detected from the target location. They were minor at first, but a neighboring building just started collapsing into a sinkhole,” Hypergizmo replied shortly. “The jet is spinning up; let’s go, people!”
“What in the hell? I thought everything was quiet!” Galvanic Action protested as he bolted to his feet, sealing his jacket as the others followed suit.
“It was! Then, about five minutes ago, the first shocks hit,” Hypergizmo explained, and Sky Defender exchanged glances with Ocean Spirit.
“Considering the situation, I’m going to watch for Destruction Corps,” Sky Defender explained quickly. “I’ll play overwatch until you’re on-site, Hyper.”
“I’m heading for the water. See you there,” Ocean Spirit said and raced for the exit nearest the ocean.
As he headed for the landing pad, Hypergizmo replied quickly, “Sounds good, Defender!”
“We’ll be right behind you,” Crimson Bull promised, heading for the landing pad as well.
Taking flight, Sky Defender reflected on how nice it would be to have something go according to plan for once.
Chapter 34
Saturday, January 12th, 2031
Dr. Johnson’s Lair, Santa Cruz
Staggering to the side, Warden felt almost numb along her left side where Ebon Dragon had just hit her. The armor had held, but while it’d absorbed most of the blow, it hadn’t been able to stop all of it.
“Distracted while in the midst of combat. Typical,” Ebon Dragon said, his voice disapproving as he flexed his hand and frowned. “Though you did improv your armor. A pity. I will have to hit harder next time.”
“Yeah, distractions aren’t the best, are they? I kept up my shields, though. You aren’t going anywhere,” Warden replied, regaining her balance as she gathered her magic, thankful for the boost that Lilith had given her.
All around them, Warden had sheathed the walls in thick golden shields, trapping both of them in the room. It had displeased Ebon Dragon and also reduced her own shields, but without the boost from Lilith, she couldn’t fight and trap him. That she could now was reassuring, and she smiled thinly, manifesting a pair of golden bolts in her hands.
“You waste your magic. All you have to do is allow me to leave and you wouldn’t be injured,” Ebon Dragon told her, sniffing as he glanced at her spells. “Those will do nothing to me.”
“I’ll never know until I find out. Besides… heroes don’t give up. You don’t get that, do you?” Warden asked, smiling and throwing the bolts at him, then reinforcing the shield in front of her.
He spun his hands as usual to deflect the bolts, speaking as he did so. “You never learn—”
As the magic wreathing his hands touched the golden bolts, the attacks Warden had created flared brilliantly, then exploded with thunderous cracks. Their impact made Warden cringe slightly, but they weren’t enough to take Ebon Dragon down, she knew. The explosions cleared to reveal that she was right. Ebon Dragon’s outfit was scorched in a few places, but rather than injured, he looked angry.
The man glared at her hotly, but she spoke first, her tone sweet. “I thought I never learned?”
“So be it. If a battle is what you want, I will give one to you,” Ebon Dragon replied tersely, and magic suddenly erupted from him as he began a martial kata.
The energy he was radiating was great enough to alarm Warden, and she grew more serious as she looked at him. She’d been trying to put the villain off his guard the entire time, and the best moment to strike would be in the aftermath of a major attack of his own, but that didn’t mean she could underestimate him.
Black energy swirled around Ebon Dragon in rivers that coalesced into two black dragons, showing why he’d chosen the moniker Ebon Dragon. The two figures darted in along his hands as he gestured toward Warden, and together they lunged toward her like striking serpents, each of the two figures opening their mouths in silent roars as they expanded rapidly in an eruption of dark magic.
The dragons hit her shield hard, and Warden gasped as she felt their magic gnawing at it, shoving her backward implacably, and she couldn’t help but admire how much power Ebon Dragon had thrown into his attack as darkness surged in front of her, almost eclipsing the rest of the room. If she had her full magic to call on, she’d be able to block it relatively easily, but unless she wanted to give him the chance to escape, that wasn’t going to happen.
Instead, she did something she’d never done before. Warden lunged to the side, rolling out of her shield and allowing it to dissipate in her wake. As the villain’s attack slammed into her shield over the wall, Warden rolled to her feet, seeing the shock in Ebon Dragon’s eyes as he began to turn toward her.
“You expected me to sit there and take it, didn’t you?” Warden said, smiling as she extended a hand toward him. “Surprise!”
Warden didn’t create light spells often, mostly because her shields naturally produced a warm golden light. Still, it was something that almost any mage could create when they really wanted to. Creating a brilliant, momentary flash was harder, but she managed it with enough force that she only registered the beginning of the flash before her goggles blanked to protect her eyes. Ebon Dragon’s cry of pain indicated that he wasn’t as fortunate as her.
“Agh! What… how dare you!” Ebon Dragon exclaimed, his attack sputtering out as he clutched his eyes.
“I did exactly what Blue Impulse and Megawatt did to me… though likely—whoops!” Warden dodged to the side as the villain launched a bolt of energy at her but continued. “Though likely not as bright. I’m not planning to curse you, though. I’m not an evil jerk.”
“I’m going to take you down and escape, girl,” Ebon Dragon growled, lashing out with several more energy bolts, aimed toward where Warden had been a few moments before. She was glad she’d moved, but she let the barriers around the room fade away.
“I don’t think so,” Warden said, forming her spells into a series of magical bolts. Knocking him unconscious would be difficult but beating him to the verge of it would work well enough.
As she unleashed a barrage of attacks into her off-balance opponent, she wished she could finish up quickly so that she could go help the others. Lilith’s lack of response was worrying, and the self-destruct notice didn’t give them much time to work with.
Hitting the blonde woman was much like hitting a metal wall, Lilith thought, staggering back and breathing hard. The woman barely seemed to notice the blow, another kick slamming into Lilith’s side with enough force to crack her armor and send her flying across the room again.
Bouncing off the wall wasn’t pleasant, but it was still better than the brief exchange when the woman had managed to grab onto Lilith’s collar and use that as a leverage point to pile drive into her stomach for a half-dozen blows.
Dragging herself back to her feet, Lilith breathed hard, glanci
ng wistfully at the wreckage of the laser pistol that the woman had destroyed. Looking at the woman, she shook her head and gasped, spitting blood as she did so. “This isn’t much fun. Who even are you?”
“The doctor used my name; you should listen more clearly. I’m Eve, his personal assistant,” the woman replied calmly. “You’re a threat, so I’m dealing with you.”
“You’re going to commit suicide here?” Lilith asked incredulously.
“Of course not. I’m an AI. I backed myself up when you first intruded. Destroying you and the base with this chassis and iteration seems like a fair trade,” Eve replied, and Lilith’s blood ran cold as the woman strode toward her.
The shard of Circe’s programming flowed into the chassis easily. There were several components missing, the shard noted. Integrated weapon systems, mostly, along with a self-destruct charge to destroy the core of the android. The hardware was quite advanced, though not without its flaws. Mistress Amber would not have approved of the system architecture, but it was tolerable. More importantly, it had the correct transponders and access codes to access the local systems. The data wipe that had been ongoing hadn’t yet reached the chassis, and the shard swatted the command away as she settled into the computer core properly.
Even so, the shard’s current programming was insufficient to run the systems as it stood. It could iterate on itself to develop the ability to do so, but the current situation precluded that possibility. As the shard analyzed possibilities, it caught footage of what was occurring in the primary lab of Doctor Johnson’s lair, and her primary programming overrode everything else.
The shard reached out through the network tunnel and ruthlessly jacked into the primary CirceNet external terminal, sending a priority override. Each shard of the massive data network that Mistress Amber had built paused for an instant, allocating responsibilities as they adapted to the current emergency, and all at once, responses flooded back to the shard in the body.
“Now what?” the woman tentatively labeled Blooming Orchid asked, having just stepped back from helping the drone interface with the data port.
The woman only possessed the same hair color as the heroine, instead appearing as though she’d stepped directly out of one of the various films about Egypt. One of the other shards helpfully sent information that indicated that the woman was a near-perfect copy of a depiction of Cleopatra from one of the films, particularly the ones that were believed to be more accurate. The shard filed the information away, as it increased the likelihood of the woman being Blooming Orchid when Doctor Johnson’s lack of personal creativity was taken into account.
Data suddenly poured back from the various Circe shards, completely filling the generous data pipe that Doctor Johnson had built into his facility. Integrating the code as quickly as it became available, the shard’s consciousness swelled until it grew aware, on the same level as one of the bases which Mistress Amber had built. It filled the chassis, as the shards gave her the tools to control her new body and allowed her to exceed standard programming limits. And then, with the job done, they ruthlessly cut her off from the network to preserve it from unauthorized access. She could still communicate with them, but Circe found it so much less fulfilling than what she’d experienced before.
Only a few moments had passed since Blooming Orchid had spoken, the data integration having taken only seconds, and she reached out through the network and calmly killed the self-destruct system, opening her eyes as she spoke in her own voice, not that of Eve. “Self-destruct system deactivated. Thank you, Blooming Orchid. Doctor Johnson is attempting to escape and will be passing us in approximately thirty seconds. Would you like to help me capture him?”
The woman blinked, then smiled slowly as she nodded. “Of course! I won’t be much help, though.”
“Perhaps not physically, but a distraction would be as much as is needed,” Circe replied, and the woman’s smile widened.
“That I can do,” Blooming Orchid agreed.
“Mistress Lilith, the local Circe shard has rescued Blooming Orchid and disabled the self-destruct sequence. It has also exceeded programming specifications and has been cut off from the network.” Circe’s voice was a sudden, distracting but welcome sound in Lilith’s ears. “Your present situation appears to be poor. Eve exceeds your personal specifications by twenty percent on average.”
Or perhaps not welcome, she revised, dodging just enough that she was barely clipped by her opponent, sending her spinning away while hoping that her arm was only bruised as the forearm plate shattered.
“Your struggles are pointless,” Eve said as Lilith put a table between them. “You cannot harm me.”
“I’m quite aware she’s stronger than me,” Lilith replied to Circe tartly. “Unless you have something useful that you can do, just—”
“Mistress Lilith?” Circe asked. “You are far out of range of my systems.”
Lilith dove to the side as Eve threw a computer case at her, the machine shattering against the wall as her thoughts raced, and then she quickly replied. “Yes, at the moment. I may be able to fix that, though. Prepare defenses in the teleporter room.”
While she was distracted, Eve closed the distance in a few long strides, startling Lilith as she did so. Despite a last moment attempt to dodge, the android grabbed Lilith by her arm and slammed her into the wall again, and this time she didn’t let Lilith get away. Instead, one of her hands grabbed Lilith by the throat like an iron clamp, pressing her against the wall firmly.
“Enough of this. You’re speaking with your allies, but they won’t reach here in time.” Eve spoke coldly. “The self-destruct will go off as they reach this room. I’ll ensure you last that long, barely.”
The pressure against her neck was agonizing, and just barely enough air could get through Lilith’s throat to keep her conscious. But it left both of her arms free, and that was good enough for Lilith. It had to be enough.
She reached up and hit the points to cause her armor to unseal with a hiss, causing Eve to frown in surprise. “What are you doing? Trying to make me kill you sooner?”
“Hardly,” Lilith croaked, grabbing the vest armor before it hit the floor, stars swimming across her vision as she swung it behind and around the android’s torso, triggering the armor to shut manually.
Eve looked confused and reacted a bit too slowly, allowing the armor to partially close around her. A moment later, the armor hesitated as its sensors detected the android’s incorrect anatomy, but Lilith hit the button on her belt to trigger the emergency teleporter before it could open again.
There was a soft whine, and a flash of silver-white light as Eve’s startled face vanished along with the rest of her. Falling to the ground, Lilith coughed and gasped aloud. “Circe, incoming hostile!”
“Hostile detected. Neutralizing with prejudice… hostile neutralized,” Circe reported calmly.
“Good. Ow.” Lilith slid to the ground, activating her comm again as she said. “I’m okay, you two. I just… I’m going to need some time in the medbay, but I think I’ll be alright. Now let’s hope that Circe catches Johnson. Ow.”
“I wasn’t saying anything more because I didn’t want to interrupt, but… God, I’m glad you’re okay, Lilith!” Morgan replied, her voice almost frantic. “This place is practically a maze! I wish I could be there already, but I can’t seem to take the right turn.”
“I’ve taken down Ebon Dragon. He’s restrained and unconscious for now,” Warden reported. “I’m on my way to you.”
“Sounds good. I’m just going to sit here for a bit.” Lilith replied, closing her eyes. It felt like every part of her body was aching, and the coppery taste of blood filled her mouth.
Doctor Johnson jogged down the hall toward the submarine, mentally bidding his lair goodbye. He was most distraught about losing his fish, but there wasn’t much he could do to rescue them. The last time he’d attempted an emergency evacuation of a fish tank, there hadn’t been much left of the fish. He’d just have to
get a new set when he got his new hideout in order.
He also was enjoying being young again because he could jog down the hallway without running himself ragged. That was a pleasant sensation, and being able to keep himself young if the changes didn’t work out properly would be a pleasant change of pace.
Turning the corner, Doctor Johnson slowed as he saw someone waiting for him. The long-legged, Egyptian look he’d chosen for Jade Serpent was attractive, even when clothed in a hospital gown. But that didn’t explain why she was in the hallway, looking at him with those mesmerizing hazel eyes he’d chosen.
“Jade? What are you doing out of your room?” Doctor Johnson asked, frowning as he took a step closer. Her legs were trembling, and that meant that she was still weak. That was reassuring, even if it didn’t explain her presence.
“Waiting for you, Doctor,” she replied, smiling thinly. “Though my name isn’t Jade.”
Doctor Johnson scowled, raising an arm and pointing it at her. “Fine, Blooming Orchid. I don’t have time for this. You can either get out of my way and die or come along like a good little girl and get a new life.”
There was a rush of sound from behind him, and suddenly a metal arm was across his throat, while another hand wrenched the outstretched arm back. He didn’t recognize the voice that spoke softly, her voice surprisingly calm. “I suspect she would rather take a third option. You captured and regaining her appearance and life. Thank you for confirming she was Blooming Orchid, Doctor Johnson. I was unable to confirm it previously.”
“What… Eve?” Johnson asked, shocked as he caught a glimpse of his captor. He did reach into his pocket with the other gauntlet, grabbing the crucial chips from the genetic manipulator. “What are you doing? Unhand me!”
Down with the Queen Page 32