Attack Doll 5: The End of Lily Lee

by Douglas A. Taylor

Chapter 7

 

  When the haze cleared from my vision, I found myself standing on what appeared to be a plain of grass and scrubby undergrowth. There were trees of some sort off in the distance. "Where am I?" I asked. Then, realizing that I sounded like every action hero who had ever been drugged or knocked unconscious and then woken up in unfamiliar surroundings, I hastily amended that with, "I mean, where is this place?"

  "You're in Canada," Wizzit replied brightly. "The Northwest Territories, to be precise, fifty-six miles or so northwest of the capital city of Yellowknife."

  Looking around, I could see that what Wizzit had said about the monsters was true. Five of the biggest, ugliest, meanest-looking beasties I had ever seen were standing in a rough circle, staring inward at something. My guess is that the something was JB Swift.

  I turned on camouflage mode, which makes us Primes more-or-less invisible, and moved closer. I could see the little red hedgehog standing in the center of the circle arguing with someone. He was holding an iron pipe in each paw.

  "We need you to tell us where she is," whined the voice of someone I couldn't see.

  "Yes, tell us where she is now!" said another voice that sounded almost the same.

  I rolled my eyes. Great, Enclave had sent the Harley twins out after him. These were twin clowns who wore nearly identical red-and-black diamond-patterned costumes, modeled (according to Bill) after the Harlequin stock character often found in old Italian and French comedic plays. Harley twins, Harlequin -- get it? Yeah, me neither. The only difference between them was that one wore a two-pointed jester's cap that was red, while the other wore one that was black.

  "Go to hell," JB Swift snarled.

  "Not until we get the attack doll," whined Red-cap.

  "We have to get her first, and then we will go to hell," agreed Black-cap. "She is important to our plans."

  "Yes, we have plans that depend on her!"

  "Very important plans!"

  I could see that JB Swift had about as much tolerance for their babblings as I did, maybe less. His scarlet form blurred out of sight, and then I heard shrieks of pain from the two clowns.

  "Ow, that hurt!"

  "That hurt a lot!"

  "A whole lot!"

  "A whole, whole lot! Get him, monsters!"

  "Yes, get him. Smash him!"

  "Smash him and kill him!"

  "Kill him and break his bones!"

  "Good idea! Break his bones!"

  I don't know about you, but I was sure rooting for JB Swift at this point. I could see why he referred to this pair as a couple of complete idiots; it was hard to believe that they were the ones who had created the Indra monster and more than a few other tough ones as well.

  The five beasties they had brought with them closed in on JB Swift. To be honest, I was skeptical about the red pipsqueak's chances against five fully-grown Enclave monsters. I mean, sure, he's superfast and all, but I've seen these kinds of monsters withstand rocket-propelled grenades before. I figured his best bet would be to turn the whole thing into a stalemate, with him unable to hurt them, and them unable to lay a finger on him.

  I missed the start of the fight, unfortunately, because I was suddenly distracted by flashes of light all around me. I looked around, expecting to find my teammates, but I couldn't see anyone.

  "Blue, are you here?" Mike's voice, Prime-to-Prime.

  "I'm here, Red. Why are you guys in camouflage mode?"

  "I might ask you the same thing."

  I sighed. "Well, I'm in camouflage mode because I came out here to ask JB Swift a question," I replied tartly. "I don't have my battle vest or a weapon or my blaster, and I didn't feel like taking on all five of these behemoths by myself. What's your excuse?"

  Mike chuckled. "Fair enough. We're in camouflage mode because that's what Wizzit said to do. Blasters out, everyone."

  "Nope, veto here!" Wizzit's voice said sharply. "Do not attack yet. Repeat, do not attack yet. These monsters have not yet shown that they are hostile."

  I looked around at the scene before me. JB Swift had managed to escape the circle of his attackers. As I watched, he suddenly accelerated, becoming not much more than a red streak. I heard a clang!, and one of the monsters grabbed its leg and began howling. "Uh, Wizzit, they're fighting."

  "They're fighting each other. Until they commence hostilities on you or on other humans or on property, you do not attack."

  "So we just stand around and watch, do we?" Mike was sounding dangerously patient, which meant that he was starting to lose his patience. Careful, Mike, I thought. Ignoring an order like this from Wizzit is what got Bill fired the first time.

  Wizzit said, "Yes, we do. This is an unusual situation, kids. Trust me, standing around and watching is the best course to take at the moment."

  "Why are they able to send out so many monsters today, Wizzit?" I recognized Nicolai's voice. "We fought five of them just this morning. They should not be able to send out anyone else for another . . . thirty-six hours or so, correct?"

  "Ding-ding-ding! Give that Prime a prize!" Wizzit chirped. "That is, in fact, what makes this situation so unusual. I believe they are attempting to exploit a loophole in the laws governing their behavior, which is that on average, they can send out only so many hostile monsters within a given time period."

  "On average?" I heard Padma repeat. "That means that by sending these ones down now, they must wait a longer period before attacking us again?"

  "I don't think so," Trina said. "Wizzit just said they are not hostile, so . . . they don't count?"

  "That's right. They don't count until they have demonstrated they are hostile," Wizzit affirmed.

  That tickled something in my brain, something that I had been wondering about ever since I had learned about the secret lair beneath the surface of Antarctica. "So, does that mean that someone like JB Swift, as long as he doesn't bother anyone, could have a base anywhere on Earth and stay there indefinitely?" I asked.

  "Yes," Wizzit replied. "In fact, I believe that's exactly what he has been doing. And it may have influenced his choice of venue here; a sparsely-populated area means less chance of collateral damage."

  "But if one of these jokers were to attack one of us here today," Mike began, "then it might be a week or more before they could attack again? We could sure use the breathing space."

  "Do not provoke them, Red," Wizzit warned him. "You know my rules. You are not allowed to go after any monster that has not shown itself to be hostile. If you attack one of them first, all bets are off. They are allowed to defend themselves; you will have essentially given them a free shot at Earth."

  "No worries there!" Mike said, sounding suspiciously cheerful. "I wouldn't dream of throwing the first punch. But, erm, there's no reason for us to maintain camouflage mode any longer, is there? Now that you have explained the situation, that is?"

  "I suppose that's true," Wizzit replied, for once sounding unsure of himself.

  "After all," Mike went on, "we wouldn't want any one of us to be hit accidentally, now would we? And if we were in camouflage mode, any hit would have to be considered accidental, whereas if we were visible . . ."

  "Yes, I take your point," Wizzit said. "You may turn camouflage mode off, kids. Use your own discretion, and be careful."

  Five brightly-colored figures, including my own, flared into view. One might have thought that it would have caused a stir among the battling Enclave creatures, but they were far too busy to notice.

  At the moment, JB Swift was standing on the head of the largest monster, whacking it repeatedly with his two pipes. Said pipes were a blur of motion, as if he were a crazily speeded-up rock drummer. The other monsters were trying to attack him, but it looked to me as if they were doing more damage to the creature he was on top of than to him.

  After a few minutes of this, the big monster showed that it
had at least a lick of sense; it fell down, which threw JB Swift down off his high perch. He streaked away, and the other four monsters immediately gave chase.

  "While we're watching this little comedy, Blue," Mike said, "would you care to tell us just what it was that you wanted to ask JB Swift?"

  So I gave them the executive summary of my evening's adventures so far -- discovering Lily, teleporting to the secret lab, JB Swift's battle there and subsequent escape. I concluded by laying out the problem of Lily and sleep.

  When I was done, I half-expected Mike to order me to stay away from Lily; he had come down pretty hard on me in the past over her. Instead, he said thoughtfully, "That certainly explains the fight we're seeing, at least. Wizzit, how can we make certain that this 'gift' is not another Trojan horse like the last time?"

  I knew what he meant. When we had captured Lily before, JB Swift had provided us with a "special order" that we could give her to make her more cooperative. It worked, but it turned out that she was cooperative only until she had a chance to escape, and the circumstances of that escape led directly to the death of our first Prime Commander, Shelley's father. I could understand why we would want to avoid something like that now.

  "In the short term, I know of no way," Wizzit said. "In the long term, I suppose we will have to think about the problem. If JB Swift survives this battle, perhaps we can question him further."

  "I'm working on that, mate," Mike said. The entire time I had been talking, in fact, he had been circling around the grouping of monsters, continually shifting about as if he were trying to position himself for something.

  One bluish monster, a sort of cyclops thing, set itself and unleashed some kind of energy beam from its single large eye in JB Swift's direction. The little red hedgehog zigged to one side, then zagged to the other. I heard a clang!, and suddenly another monster was howling and holding its leg while the energy beam plowed harmlessly into the ground.

  JB Swift zoomed out of sight, leaving a trail of churned-up plant life in his wake. He zoomed back just as swiftly from another direction. As I watched, he ran up Cyclops' back, stopped abruptly on top of his head, and swung one of his pipes down directly onto the single, large eye.

  I winced in sympathy as Cyclops shrieked and clapped its hands over its face. I could hear our favorite little scarlet hedgehog laughing as he ran down Cyclops' back. He arced around until his course led him straight toward the big monster, which was struggling to its feet after the pounding JB Swift had given its head.

  Mike muttered, "I think our friend has a method to his madness." He began sprinting off to his left. It looked to me like he was moving to intercept JB Swift, although Lord knows exactly what it was he was hoping to accomplish. I know I wouldn't have wanted to try to catch hold of the little red bastard. Then again, my reflexes aren't spooky fast like Mike's.

  Cyclops gave a roar of rage. It flailed its arms around blindly, its single eye still squeezed shut in pain. "What's the matter, Jackson?" JB Swift taunted it in a loud voice. "Can't take it? I always knew you were weak. Come on, give me your best shot; I dare you!"

  He continued running in a straight line, through the legs of the big monster, directly toward Mike. He must have finally caught sight of him, because I heard him yell, "Get out of my way, Red Prime!"

  To my surprise, Mike didn't spread out his arms to try to catch him; instead, he gave a high, wide-legged leap to let JB Swift -- and his pipes -- pass underneath him. I was still puzzling over the reason for that little maneuver when Cyclops let out another roar and, finally opening its single huge (and now very bloodshot) eye, sent a massive blast of energy in the direction of JB Swift's voice.

  Now, if I have described the scene properly, you could probably draw your own picture of the path taken by this energy beam, as JB Swift had set it up. It traveled from Cyclops straight toward the big monster with the headache, which was still wobbling around woozily. Cyclops must have put a lot of oomph into the beam, because Big Monster's Enclave enhancements blew apart almost instantly, showering everyone in the immediate vicinity with red-hot monster parts.

  Its force now considerably spent, the beam continued on towards Mike, who was still doing the splits in mid-air. I'm certain he didn't plan it this way, but the beam struck him square in the, er, well, let's call it the "lower abdominal area." I heard him grunt with pain as the beam slapped him down flat on his back, and then I heard a string of very bad words, weakly but vehemently spoken, some of which I made a mental note of for future reference.

  I think Nicolai's reaction was the same as mine, which was to cringe and bring both hands down to protect my own, er, lower abdominal area. I heard Trina's voice say, "Are -- are you all right, Red?" For all the concern in her voice, she somehow sounded as if she were trying not to laugh. I shook my head. I've been struck in the groin before, so I knew full well how much it could hurt; girls just don't understand.

  "Just peachy, love, just peachy," Mike breathed in a faint falsetto. "Wizzit, please tell me I didn't go through that for nothing."

  "Nope, not for nothing," Wizzit sang out. "I believe it is safe to say that the monster which struck Red can be considered hostile. You may attack him now, kids. Just him, for the moment; I will keep you appraised on the status of the others. Red, bringing you back to HQ now for a healing coma."

  As Mike's prone form disappeared in a flash of light, Trina whipped out her triple-blaster and began firing at Cyclops. Nicolai and Padma hefted their axes and charged. "Come and join the fun, Blue!" I heard Padma shout.

  "I'd be happy to," I replied, "if someone could lend me a blaster or a weapon or something. These guys seem plenty tough, and I've got nothing here."

  "This is Prime Commander," I heard Shelley's voice say. "I have been monitoring the situation from HQ. With Red out of the fight and Green and Violet not able to join us, I will be coming out myself in a few minutes. What would you like me to bring, Blue?"

  "His new vajra is not ready yet," Padma said.

  I shrugged. "You know what I like, Commander. Something short and stick-y. You know, like a short stick."

  She laughed. "You got it, Blue."

  "Commander, I would advise against your coming," Trina said. "It is very confusing here with so many monsters in one place; it might not be safe for an unshielded Prime."

  "Acknowledged. I don't plan to be there for long."

  Nicolai and Padma were attacking One-eye with their patented you-go-high, I-go-low maneuver that they've gotten so good at. That dropped the monster onto its back, sending its latest energy beam high into the sky. As it struggled to get to its feet, JB Swift swept in from somewhere and bashed its legs a few times. He yelled something over his shoulder at Yellow and Indigo, then sped away again.

  "What was that he said to you?" Trina asked Nicolai and Padma. "I didn't quite catch it."

  "He said this was his battle and that we should 'butt out'," Nicolai said.

  "Yeah, fat chance of that happening," I muttered. "Fighting monsters is what we -- hey!" Something hard had just struck me on the shoulder.

  "Look out!" Trina raised her arms above her head, trying to protect herself from what looked like a shower of stones that was falling down on her.

  A few seconds later, Nicolai and Padma were similarly inundated. "Where are they coming from!" Padma cried.

  "Over there!" I pointed at one of the monsters we had been ignoring up to now. It resembled nothing so much as a walking pile of rocks. One large arm grabbed a handful of stones from its -- well, I'd have to call it the monster's "skin" -- and heaved them my way. Most of them missed, but a few struck me across the back and shoulders as I hunkered down, trying to make myself as small a target as possible. "Hey -- ow! Those things hurt, even through the force shield!"

  "The monster that is attacking you kids right now may be considered hostile," Wizzit said dryly.

  "Gee, th
anks!" I snarled. "If only I had a blaster." I dashed around, trying to duck behind one of the other monsters, a ten-foot-tall apelike thing with fists bigger than its head. That worked for a little while, until Ape-fist decided he was going to squash me into jelly just for grins. I jumped and rolled away as one of his fists dented the ground I had just been standing on.

  "The ape creature attacking Trevor may now be considered hostile," Wizzit declared calmly, as if he were the announcer at a tennis match. "Same thing with the spinning-tree monster that has just knocked Padma down. All monsters may now be considered hostile. Repeat, all monsters may now be considered hostile."

  Shelley teleported in beside me just seconds after Wizzit made that announcement. "Here you go, Blue," she said, tossing me one of our blasters and an Escrima stick, probably the same one my sister had used as Junior Prime Pink. "Listen, everyone, Wizzit and I may have a way to take one of these monsters off the board," she called out. "Which of these guys is causing you the biggest headaches? Which one is your biggest problem?"

  Trina took careful aim and squeezed the trigger of her triple-blaster. "Damn, he moved," she murmured as her shot just missed Cyclops' oversized head. "Biggest problem is this one here." She squeezed off another shot at Pile-of-rocks. "He is able to throw stones and hit us no matter where we are. Probably safest place to be is right next to him, if he doesn't step on you!"

  "All right, leave him to me." So saying, Shelley began running straight toward Pile-of-rocks.

  "Commander, wait!" Nicolai called out when he saw where she was headed. "I don't think it would be safe!"

  In fact, Pile-of-rocks quickly spotted the gold-colored form racing toward him and began heaving stones at her. He missed her the first few times, but I could tell it would just be a matter of time before he found his range and clocked her with a good-sized chunk of granite. I started shooting at him with my blaster. "I don't know what you're doing, Gold, but I'll try to cover you while you move in," I called.

  "Thanks, Blue. Shouldn't take more than a minute of your time."

  Shelley swiftly closed the distance on the rock-monster. To my surprise, she didn't start attacking it with whatever weapon she had brought along for herself. Instead, she took hold of one of the rocks embedded in its skin and said, "I'm ready, Wizzit!"

  She and the monster vanished in a flash of gold-colored light. Ten seconds later, Shelley reappeared beside me. "What did you do with him?" I asked her, lining up for a shot at Ape-fist. JB Swift was harassing him right now; I couldn't get a clear shot for fear of hitting the little red hedgehog.

  "He's at the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range right now," she said. "I pulled a few strings and found out they were conducting a live aerial bombing test today. We negotiated a little, and the monster should be blown to bits over the course of the next hour or so."

  "Correction: He is being blown to bits now," Wizzit piped up. "And . . . he is completely bits. No monster left."

  I heard Nicolai whistle. "I didn't know you had strings like that to pull, Commander," he said.

  Shelley laughed grimly. "Yes, well, after the military held me in solitary confinement for eight months without ever charging me with anything, I'd say they owe me a few favors. And the State Department seems pretty eager to cooperate with the Primes these days. All it took was one phone call."

  "Can we count on this kind of help in the future?" Trina asked.

  "Hard to tell," Shelley replied. "You know how fickle governments can be. I'm just happy it worked this time. And of course Wizzit will play it up on the website. Good publicity for everyone all around."

  JB Swift had finally finished whatever he was doing to Ape-fist, and I began peppering him with blaster shots. At first, Ape-fist made like he was going to chase JB Swift, but then he changed his mind and charged me instead.

  "I think it's time for you to make an exit, Commander," I said, continuing to fire at the beastie, which was now loping toward me at full tilt.

  "I suppose you're right." Shelley sighed. "I miss this kind of stuff already. Take me home, Wizzit."

  "Roger-dodger," Wizzit replied. As Shelley vanished, he added, "Red is fully recovered, by the way, and will be back out shortly."

  "So soon?" Trina exclaimed.

  "Well, the area where Red was injured was so small," Padma commented, "it stands to reason that --"

  "Indigo!" Trina said sharply. "That was not a nice thing to say!"

  "What?" Padma sounded genuinely puzzled as I rolled out of the way of Ape-fist's charge. I swung the Escrima stick around and tangled it between his legs; he did a face-plant straight onto the ground. "I only meant that --"

  Suddenly she stopped. "Oh!" she gasped, and I saw her clap a hand over her mouth. She gave an embarrassed-sounding laugh. "Orange, I'm sorry. I -- I didn't mean to imply that Red's, um, . . . that is, I would have no way to know exactly how small . . . I mean, I'm sure it's enormous, but . . ."

  "Let's just skip it," Nicolai broke in before Padma could dig herself in any deeper. "We're all glad that Red recovered so quickly; let us leave it at that."

  "Yes, let's," I agreed dryly.

  Ape-fist was getting good and mad at me by now. I had leaped onto his back while he was still prone and given him a few quick kidney shots with my stick. Now I began bashing the back of his skull. He rolled onto his back, throwing me off, and began swinging those huge fists of his in my direction. I somersaulted backward, gave him a quick blaster shot to the face to keep him from getting too comfortable, and scrambled to my feet.

  "Blue Prime! Bring him over here!"

  I turned to see JB Swift jumping and waving his arms. Behind me, Ape-fist bellowed and beat his chest with those enormous fists. I shrugged. "Whatever you say, Oswald." I began jogging toward him; looking over my shoulder, I saw that Ape-fist was starting to lumber after me.

  As the ape monster sped up in pursuit of me, I sped up, too, to stay a more-or-less constant distance ahead of him. By the time I got close to where JB Swift had been standing, I was having to sprint to keep ahead of him. I turned to look forward again and said, "Okay, what did you --"

  JB Swift was gone. I didn't have time to go looking for him, what with Ape-fist breathing down my neck, so I continued running, muttering imprecations against two-foot-tall hedgehogs that get you to follow them and then disappear.

  I couldn't run too far, though, because I was heading straight for yet another Enclave beastie. Wizzit had called it a "spinning-tree monster", and I guess that was at least halfway accurate. From a distance, it had resembled an extraordinarily shaggy fir tree. As I closed in on it now, though, I could see that its branches looked more like saw blades -- very sharp, very deadly saw blades. I could see flashes of scarlet around it; JB Swift must have been provoking it in a way I couldn't see.

  The spinning-tree monster began to, well, to spin. I don't know exactly how fast it was rotating by the time I reached it, but I was beginning to hear the same kind of high-pitched whine that I normally associated with power saws. I tried to veer off to one side to go around it, but my foot slipped on the vegetation and I fell onto my side, skidding directly toward those saw blades.

  I quickly rolled onto my back and slid underneath the lowermost branches. They were no more than a couple of inches above me; I was grateful that I hadn't had much to eat for dinner that night. I stretched out both arms to either side, as if I were doing the elementary backstroke, and tried to swim out from under the deadly blades.

  It was then that I heard a sound like a giant-fisted ape colliding with a buzz saw. The tree above me shook violently, and I redoubled my efforts. Suddenly, I felt someone grab one of my outstretched arms and haul me out from under the tree.

  "You Primes really don't know how to fight multiple monsters at a time, do you?" JB Swift commented, shaking his head.

  I cautiously sat up and saw that, in his eagerness
to chase me down, Ape-fist had indeed run full-tilt into the deadliest Christmas tree ever. He was howling with rage and pain, and his fists were pounding the tree as the saw blades bit into him and carved chunks out of his side; as I watched, he grabbed the trunk with both of his huge hands and snapped it in half.

  "I guess you could say that. We haven't had a whole lot of chances to practice," I remarked dryly.

  Both monsters' Enclave enhancements were in full fail mode now; sparks were flying everywhere -- mostly on me. I rolled a few feet farther away, then got to my feet and began backing away from the dying monsters.

  "The trick is to plan ahead," JB Swift was saying, "and to use their own brutish tendencies against them." His voice was as calm as if he were in a lecture hall at some university. "What the hell were you thinking anyway, Blue Prime, following me here? And what did you do with her? You didn't leave her in the lab alone, did you?"

  "At the moment, Lily is sitting comfortably under a tree in Costa Rica," I said as the two monsters in front of us finally exploded into bits. "A real tree, one that doesn't spin."

  "That's good. At least you're giving some thought to her welfare," he said sourly.

  "Listen, Oswald," I said, "the reason I'm out here is to --"

  "Later," he said grimly. He hefted the pipes in his paws. "I've still got one more piece of business, and then we'll talk."

  "Yeah, but --"

  He zoomed away before I could finish my thought.

  Mike had evidently teleported in while I was playing tag with Ape-fist. I heard him now saying, "Everyone be careful around the one-eyed monster here, all right? He's already pasted Indigo a good 'un; those energy beams of his are plenty dangerous."

  Looking around, I couldn't see Padma anywhere. "Is Indigo all right?" I asked anxiously. One never likes to see one's teammates get hurt, and Padma and I were especially close friends.

  "Indigo caught a blast full-on," Nicolai said.

  "First- and second-degree burns on the face and upper torso," Wizzit chimed in. "Fried the force shield, too. Indigo is currently at HQ waiting for the force shield to recharge. Indigo reports being in a moderate, but not unbearable, amount of pain."

  I growled. I don't like it when anybody messes with my friends like that. "All right, guys, let's get this one!"

  As I charged toward the monster, I felt a blast of wind rush past me. JB Swift had his own agenda and was racing toward Cyclops at a speed I couldn't hope to match. He dashed between my three remaining teammates, and I heard a clang! Cyclops roared and spun about, trying to catch sight of the little red demon who had just bashed his knee.

  "Looks like JB Swift wants in on the fun," Mike said with a harsh laugh.

  "Hmm. That's odd," Trina commented.

  "Nothing odd about it," I said. "He's the reason they're here, to --"

  "No, I don't mean that," Trina interrupted. "Look over there to your right. Isn't that one of the Harley twins?" I looked to where she was pointing, and sure enough, Black-cap was standing way over to one side watching us.

  "The other one is over here," said Nicolai.

  "I wonder what they want," Mike said.

  "They were here earlier, trying to get JB Swift to tell them where Lily was," I said.

  The little red speedster himself seemed to be oblivious to the presence of the two clowns. He was running back and forth at superspeed, hitting every part of Cyclops he could reach. Mike waved everyone back so that we wouldn't become accidental casualties of his one-man -- er, make that one-hedgehog -- war.

  I had been trying to keep both Cyclops and Black-cap in my field of view at the same time. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the Harley twin pull something out of a pocket of his costume; it looked like a cartoon bomb -- basically a sort of black ball with a cord hanging out of it. He lit it and threw it toward where JB Swift and Cyclops were having their death-match, and then he teleported away. At the same time, Nicolai said, "Hey, this one of the Harley twins is throwing something."

  "I don't like this," Wizzit warned. "Prepare to --"

  I never found out what it was we were supposed to prepare to do, because as he was saying that, I saw a bright light bloom from where Black-cap's bomb had been thrown. Less than a second later, my force shield suddenly went opaque. I mean, I couldn't see anything. Pitch blackness. I started to turn around to -- I don't know -- look around me or something, and I found I couldn't move, either. My body was locked in place, as if someone had stuck me in cement and left me there to harden.

  "What the -- ? What's going on, Wizzit?" Mike demanded, and I heard startled exclamations from Trina and Nicolai. I couldn't hear anything else, which told me that Wizzit had shut off sound from the outside as well.

  "It's all right, kids, just relax," Wizzit said soothingly. "There's nothing to worry about. This is for your own protection."

  "Protection from what?" Trina sounded shaken, but not panicky. I didn't think any of us were claustrophobic, but now would not be a good time to find out.

  "From a pair of nasty bombs that the Harley twins just set off," Wizzit said. "Now, it's going to be another minute or so before I can release you . . . electromagnetic noise levels are dropping. Probably nothing that would bother you, but better safe than sorry. Dropping further . . . light levels are near bearable, but still too bright . . . . This is a special mode of the force shields, by the way. I don't believe I have ever had occasion to use it before. I realize that the fact that you can't move may prove distressing, but it's necessary to provide maximum protection from, well, from whatever those bombs were going to spit out. You probably wouldn't want to be stumbling around without external hearing or visuals anyway. Energy levels are still dropping . . . and . . . okay, I'm releasing you now."

  And just like that, I could move and see and hear again. I stumbled, nearly falling forward onto the grass. At least Wizzit had the courtesy to raise the light levels gradually, so my dark-adjusted eyes weren't instantly blinded.

  "They are gone," Nicolai commented. He was right; there was no sign of JB Swift or Cyclops. Well, almost no sign; I could see smoke rising from a largish hole in the ground.

  "Did the bombs destroy them?" I asked.

  "They did indeed." Wizzit sounded oddly satisfied.

  "But there is no sign of an explosion," Trina pointed out. She was right. The ground all around us was undisturbed, except for the aforementioned smoking hole.

  "The bombs produced no pressure wave, not like your traditional explosion," Wizzit explained. "Instead, they inundated the area with electromagnetic noise -- light and radio waves, among others. The end result, as you can see, was to completely disrupt the Enclave enhancements of every monster in the area."

  "Even the one they sent out themselves?" Mike whistled. "That's plenty cold-blooded of them."

  "I'm guessing that the other monsters were sent out to keep him busy while they prepared their bombs," Nicolai commented. "Enclave didn't care about the battle or their monsters; they just wanted to destroy JB Swift."

  "You are sure that he is dead, then?" Trina asked.

  "He's not only merely dead," Wizzit sang, "he's really most sincerely dead."

  I snorted; quoting obscure musical numbers from "The Wizard of Oz" was not out of character for Wizzit. No one else seemed to get the reference, though, so he continued, "I was taking extremely detailed recordings the entire time the four of you were incapacitated. We can watch the vids later, if you like, but there is no doubt that JB Swift is dead."

  "Great," I muttered. "So what do I do about Lily? The only reason I came out here was to find out how to get her to sleep, and he never told me."

  "This is Prime Commander," I heard Shelley's voice say. "Just wanted to let you know that Indigo is healing up nicely. Interesting news about JB Swift. Blue, I hadn't heard your question about Lily until now. I'm guessing this isn't just idle curiosity?
"

  "Right. It's kind of a long story, but basically, Lily is alive. JB Swift gave me custody of her while he came out here to deal with some problems he was having with Enclave. As best I can tell, now that he's dead, I am her new minder -- permanently."

  There was a pause. "Um, okay. Can you control her?"

  "He said I had as much control over her as he did. So far, I've been able to make her obey simple commands, like 'follow me' and 'sit down'."

  "And do you think this is on the level, or is it a trick of some kind, like before?"

  "I think it's on the level, Commander," I said. "I realize that, given his past behavior towards Lily, it seems unlikely JB Swift would just give her away. However, I think he knew he would probably die out here today, and it's completely out of the question that he would willingly sacrifice his own life just to further some obscure plan of Enclave's. I really don't think she's a Trojan horse this time."

  "I see. All right, you can give me the details later. As for your question, Black and I discussed Lily's problem a few months ago, and Black indicated a possible solution, should we ever capture her again. I don't recall off-hand what it was; I will ask Black the next chance I get."

  I nodded. Despite his faults, Bill was an awfully smart guy; if he thought he had a solution to Lily's insomnia, then it would be worth following up. "Thanks, Commander. So, what should I do with her in the meantime?"

  "I will not allow Lily to be brought to HQ," Wizzit declared. "Not until her status is clearer than it is right now."

  "If she is possibly a danger to those around her," Trina mused, "it would be unwise for her to stay at Blue's house, would it not?"

  "Perhaps, perhaps not," Shelley said thoughtfully. "Personally, I am suspicious, but not overly so; Blue's reasoning seems sound. I think if Blue remains with her, it should be safe enough to have her at the house, at least for short periods of time. But I do agree with Wizzit: until we are more certain, she stays away from HQ."

  "I understand," I replied. "I doubt we could work out the sleeping arrangements at the house, though."

  Shelley chuckled. "Yes, I can see your point. Your parents might object."

  "JB Swift mentioned a rendezvous point," I went on. "I got the impression that it was another one of his secret lairs. He said that he and Lily were the only ones who knew the coordinates. He wanted us to meet him there after he took care of his . . . personal business. If I can get Lily to give me the coordinates, maybe we can at least check the place out."

  "That sounds promising, but I don't like the idea of your jumping in blind," Shelley warned. "This new place will probably be shielded like the last one. If there's no working teleporter, you might be stuck there indefinitely."

  "That does present a problem," I agreed.

  "Oh, if only we had some sort of portable teleportation unit!" Wizzit exclaimed. For some reason, he had taken on the voice of a southern belle, high and breathy; I could picture Scarlett O'Hara dramatically raising a hand to her forehead. "Something we could carry from place to place, with its own power source, and which even Prime Blue could operate." He paused, as if he were expecting someone to say something, and then he heaved what sounded like an exasperated sigh and went on, "Something like a . . . a teleport trap!"

  I snapped my fingers. "Hey, wait a second! We do have a teleport trap! It's --"

  "-- hidden in the woods behind your parents' house where Lily left it," Wizzit finished for me in his own voice. "Yes, I know. Took you long enough to figure out what I was driving at, didn't it?"

  "Uh . . . yeah," I replied sheepishly. "I guess it did."

  Shelley chuckled. "All right, a gold star to Wizzit for thinking of it," she said. "I'd suggest, then, that Wizzit teleport Blue to Costa Rica to pick up Lily, then over to retrieve the trap, and then on to this rendezvous point. Red, what do you think?"

  "Sounds good," Mike replied, "but how badly is Blue injured? Wizzit, would a healing coma be in order first?"

  "I'm fine," I insisted. "A little banged up, maybe, but I'm fine."

  "Blue has some minor injuries," Wizzit agreed, "but the healing coma could be postponed until Lily is squared away."

  Mike said, "Then I think we've got a plan.

  "Whenever you're ready to go, Blue."

  I grinned. "No time like the present."

  I felt the tingle at the base of my skull, and then things went hazy. A moment later, they cleared up again, and I looked around. "Um, Wizzit," I said, "are you sure this is the right place?"

  "Same coordinates as before."

  I took an uncertain step forward. I could see now that this was indeed the same spot. The large tree I had placed Lily under was just off to my left, and the pad and pen I had handed her had been tossed over to one side. But Lily herself was nowhere to be seen.