Hidey Ho!
And so, onward onward, wandering endlessly into the night go we.
Or something along those lines, anyway. This issue picks up
right after #26: Joy. Censor Girl's possessed, Paytan's cured,
and Brittany clearly has more up her sleeve than a bag of
jellybeans...
Thanks always to Jamas Enright, Kelly Pekrul, and Tom
Russell for the comments made on last issue. And thanks,
too, for the amazing RACCies... Geez guys, I just got back!
I've never been very good at acceptance speeches, so I'll
just blush a very, very, bright red, take my bows, and leave
the stage to the ones who belong on it...
Enjoy!
========================================================================
DERELICT Press Presents
The twenty-seventh issue of
/~~\/~~\ {] /~~\ (^^^ || ***** /~~\
/ /\/\ \ [) ~\__ (^^ || ,' ~\__
/__/ \__\ (} \__/ ( || ', \__/
" Girl "
Crows: Part 2 of 7
A psuedo-Acraphobe title
._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.'COVER`._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.
Censor Girl stands in a half-crouch, glaring upward, ready to
leap or attack at any moment. A strange shadow falls over her, long braid
tossing in the wind.
)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
It was a boring day in Net.ropolis. The sun had beaten the city
with the nasty temperature stick all day, and by noon it was too hot to
get anything accomplished. Very few villains and absolutely no heroes
would be willing to do much more than find some shade and a good glass of
lemonade. Nothing was on TV. Even the repair on the HQ from the last
crisis was finished. Absolutely nothing was going on. It was wonderful.
Savannah lay on her bed, staring at the wood composition of her
nightstand. Her vision had been improving day by day, and now she was
back to the point she'd started at when her powers first showed up and
flared, leaving her in a coma. But now she knew how to deal with it, and
was back in familiar territory anyway. She felt good knowing that she'd
be able to get back to her old control levels in a few days. For a lot of
reasons. She sighed, and stretched idly, following a line of wood grain
as it swept down and a bit to the left.
She couldn't really blame them for leaving her behind. She _was_
pretty useless right now, even more so than normal. But was it too much
to ask for somebody to stop by and tell her they were going? When they'd
be back? What if they were all captured? Here she'd be, sitting back at
the LNHHQ, not knowing any better than anyone else where they were. Or if
they'd been hurt.
Like Paytan had. Savannah clenched her fists. She knew she
shouldn't be angry about something like this. They hadn't known any
better. They figured it'd be easier if they didn't tell her they were
going out, just snuck quietly away in the hopes that they'd be back
before she knew it. If there had been one person more, Paytan might not
have overextended herself. She might not have... broken.
And the thing the med.lab cameras had caught on tape would never
have happened.
She had made Bryan replay the scene over and over and describe it
in exacting detail. From the moment the door shifted then swung open, to
the electric blue dissolve into static that ended the tape. They hadn't
told anyone about it, not yet. They were going to wait until she got her
vision under enough control to focus on a TV screen, and glean what facts
she could from it. She knew better than to ask Brittany about it. If her
cousin hadn't said anything about it for all this time, then there was a
definite reason for her to keep it hidden. Probably a strong enough
reason to justify lying, and Savannah didn't want to make her cousin do
that. Not anymore than she already had.
Savannah closed her eyes and turned onto her back, feeling the
springs creak beneath her. She'd been up most of last night working on
her focusing, and she'd promised to help Bryan search for his Reality
thing on the LNH computers later that afternoon. She had enough time to
nap for an hour or two, then practice a little more before heading down
to the computer labs. Because the faster she got her power back under
control, the faster they could get to the bottom of this.
The tape from the med.lab security cameras gleamed beneath her
bed, and held its secrets close.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Paytan lent on the windowsill of her room, just staring broodily
out the window, many things on her mind. Still, she heard the door to her
room open, and footsteps approach her. Someone had just started putting
their hands near her face, and got as far as "Gue-" when she spun around,
grabbing whoever it was, and slamming them on the floor, pinning them.
Allen grinned up at her. "Hey, if you want to go for the direct
approach, I'm game."
Paytan snorted and stood up. "What do you want?"
Allen got himself off the floor, then replied in a formal tone.
"I've come with a proposal."
Paytan immediately responded with "I am *not* going to marry you."
Allen smiled again. "That wasn't what I was going to say, but I
like that you were thinking of that."
Paytan rolled her eyes. "What?" she said through gritting teeth.
Allen started again. "I have a proposal for you. You, me-"
Paytan interrupted. "I don't like the sound of it already."
Allen took on an annoyed expression. "Can't you at least hear me
out? What have you got against me?"
Paytan glared at him. "Just the fact you've hounded me ever
since you met me."
Allen smirked. "And you like the attention. C'mon, I saved your
life."
Paytan treated this with all due suspicion. "When?"
Allen nodded with his head, indicating the recent encounter.
"During that fight with the mechs. Don't you know what happened?"
Paytan felt a flash of guilt go through her. No, she didn't know
how it ended. "Tell me," she said in a quiet voice.
Allen took a seat on Paytan's bed, running his hand over it
until he caught Paytan's look. Then he straightened and said "The last
thing you probably remember is trying a spell..." <Paytan fell...>
Paytan nodded. "Then I blacked out."
Allen continued. "When I saw you go down"
-=ð=- -=ð=-
("When I saw you go down")
Panic seared through him as Paytan fell. What happened to her?
Someone! Anyone! Help her!
("I, of course, immediately leapt to your aid.")
Allen slid to her side, too late to catch her as she collapsed
onto the concrete.
'Allen?' Brittany's voice was far away, nothing to do with what
was happening now
("I covered your body with mine, shielding you from the next burst
of gunfire.")
'Payton,' he whispered, holding her close 'I wont let you die
again.' holding her to him, holding her tightly, never letting her go.
Unnoticing as Kismet crashed into a mech, diverting it's deadly aim.
("Brittany and I got you to shelter")
Brittany pulled at Allen's body, and he in turned pulled Paytan
with him, as she dragged him behind his car.
("and then, once you were safe, I began to hit back.")
He wailed her name out, too loud, a scream, a prayer. Pain cut
through to him as Brittany slapped him brutally across his face. That only
changed the nature of his emotion, but didn't make him any more aware.
("I armed myself with some real weaponry, and went to work.")
Allen stood, leaving Paytan to Brittany, kicking at the boot of
his car. The boot opened, and Allen hauled out two primed bazookas, one
in each hand, aiming both at the mech that had taken out Paytan, unheeding
of the fact that the driver was long gone.
("I," said Allen in a mock-modest tone, "managed to take one of
the mechs out.")
Allen kept pulling the triggers on the guns, the missiles long
fired, even when the explosion blinded him.
"The other mechs were already running away, scared of me, most
likely.")
'They're pulling out,' yelled Kismet, landing beside them.
Brittany pulled Allen back down. 'We have to help Paytan,' she
said.
("Although it wasn't a victory as such, this was the best time to
get you back here.")
'Can you drive?' Brittany asked.
'What?' Kismet replied.
'Never mind. Help me.' Together, they got Allen and Paytan into
the car.
("Which we did, with all speed of course.")
Brittany pushed a button experimentally, and two grapples shot out
the back of her bike and into the car engine. She shrugged, whatever
worked. Towing the car, she started the race for home.
("And the rest I'm sure you can guess.")
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Allen concluded. "And the rest I'm sure you can guess."
Paytan bit her lip, looking at the floor. "I...I..."
Allen stretched and posed. "Yeah, I'm a hero. Let's go to the
Rec.kies."
Paytan took a moment to catch this. "What?"
Allen stood. "You, me, and a week in the mountains. Just
camping. Hanging out. Relaxing. And what you've been through, we need it."
Paytan blinked a few times. "Umm..."
Allen moved up close to her. "You. Me. Peace and quite. Just the
two of us." He was close now, his voice low. "Us. Alone." Although
Paytan moved back a little, Allen didn't have to reach to far to kiss her.
Paytan closed her eyes, unsure. This wasn't...this was nice.
They broke apart, catching their breath. "Okay," she whispered.
Allen smiled, and moved in again when the intercom crackled to
life, making them jump. "Guys! Guys! Is anyone there?" It was Savannah.
Paytan was the closest, but she took a moment to straighten
herself. An entirely unneeded act with a voice-only system. She hit the
button. "We're here, 'Vannah. What is it?"
Allen and Paytan shared a look when Savannah replied "Someone
hacked into the LNH computer systems. They opened the cell doors, and
now Censor Girl's gone."
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Lethem Margotti stepped out of the subway exit and into the heat
of the day. He had a scraggly beard and a face covered in dirt. His
clothes were badly torn, with a few unidentified brownish stains on
them. Pedestrians took large detours around him.
But he didn't notice the pedestrians. He only noticed the
sunlight, bright enough to blind him, and the warmth soaking into his
skin. Four days in the subway tunnels will do that to your priorities.
After a moment he realized he was standing in plain sight, and darted
into the shadow of a building, nearly knocking over a woman with a baby
stroller in the process. That had been stupid, calling attention to
himself like that.
They could be anywhere.
He hoped the disks he had left in deposit boxes around the city
were safe. He hoped that a few of his other gambits had worked, and that
even now a few people believed in what he had found and were working to
fix things. Because he was all out of moves, and the game was about to
end.
Lethem was an aspiring hero, or had been, anyway. The ability to
speak with birds, while not particularly imposing, was at times a useful
one. Useful enough to save his life a week and a half ago, when a pigeon
at the door to his apartment building had warned him of the gunmen that
lay in wait. And useful again, when they had caught him as he left the
library, when he was running through the city in the dead of night. The
gunmen looked as if you could have seen them on the street and never
known they were anything different than average Net.ropolis citizen.
But to lose them he had had to enter the subways, and he had been
afraid to come out again. If they could find his apartment, then they
could find his friends and family, and he refused to endanger anyone but
himself. He peered uncertainly at the crowd around him, but everyone
looked normal. Which was the problem.
Lethem darted into an alleyway and began to walk quickly. He knew
of a bus stop a street and a half away, and if he could get to it he
should be able to get away from Net.ropolis and into the wilds, where
they'd never find him. He could contact the police from there.
He should never have started researching the deaths. If he hadn't
been so damn prone to analyzation then none of this would ever have
happened. If he had waited until he was a full-fledged hero, then he
could have been in the LNH already, with protection and back-up. Lethem
nodded to a bum as he passed by, and sped up his walk. The bum waved
weakly at him. He had tried to get to the LNHHQ a week ago, and nearly
gotten killed for it. Either they were ready for him, or they kept the
building under close surveillance anyway.
He didn't notice the lack of birds in the alley, or the tiny
feathered corpses knocked beneath the trash. But something tickled at the
back of his mind. The bum's fingernails were clean, unworn. Like a
business man's.
Lethem didn't even stop to look, just began to run. But it was
too late.
The bullet slammed into his skull like a sledgehammer.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
"Someone just called in. She was spotted at the corner of East
and Anderson. To the west." Allen's voice rasped over the long-distance
walkie-talkie, obscured for a moment by a static patch, then back again.
Paytan nodded and pressed a button.
"Gotcha Allen. Brit, turn right here!"
The hoverbike narrowly missed impact with a sidewalk mailbox, and
Paytan winced and held on a little more tightly to Brittany, taking care
not to jab her in the back with the tip of a horn. Part of her wished
Allen was coming along, and another part was glad he wasn't. She could do
without the constant come-ons, but lately she'd been feeling a little
emptier when he wasn't around...
She needed to prove that she could take care of herself. She
didn't want to take Allen as a replacement Dirmarw, a protector and a
crutch. When they went into battle together she wanted them to be a team.
So, Allen got to watch the LNH Hotline keep and track of CG, giving them
periodic updates as to her whereabouts. She knew now that the last
battle had been a big mistake. She'd put everyone in danger because she
just _had_ to go out and fight something. It had been an excuse to go
get herself killed, or at least to get off the couch and out of periodic
descents into sleepy nightmares. They had been bleeding into life even
when she was awake, during those last few days.
And now they were gone.
Just like that. She could barely remember her stay in the
hospital, or anything just before it. Only Allen's eyes, full of panic,
were burned into her memory just before the darkness hit. After that
there wasn't much of anything until she had woken up a couple of days
later, the memories contained and barriers strong once again. The memory
barricades had been linked up with her own power somehow, so she didn't
need Dirmarw to run them anymore.
When she concentrated, the vaguest impression of a pale figure
and pastel colors came up, but nothing very retrievable. She remembered
eyeless demons and things with twenty spines, too, and they weren't
anything more than long-ago horrors.
Paytan squinted upward, finally spotting Kismet a little to the
west of them, wings flashing in the sun. The winged girl had a far better
view than they did, and Paytan and Brit were just trying to keep up with
her.
Paytan heard Brittany kick in the gas, hit a few random buttons,
and suddenly they were eight feet off the ground and hurtling over the
pedestrians instead of around them. Hopefully there weren't any
professional basketball players out today.
Hopefully there wasn't anyone out with Censor Girl, either. If it
was the cyborg alone then they should be able to do alright, but if
someone had brought some friends along...
Kismet dropped down beside them, skimming over the street just a
little above and to their left. She waved enthusiastically. "I found her!
She's just a few streets sunward, moving fast!"
"Great!" Paytan waved back, and Kismet skimmed away, then soared
up slowly and began to arc over the buildings to their left. Brittany
swung the bike across the road, narrowly missing an eighteen wheeler.
Paytan began to seriously consider asking Allen if she could borrow one
of those cars he always tended to show up with.
"Allen!"
"Yes?" The voice came through fuzzy and indistinct. Paytan
remembered the way he had looked at her when she suggested he do comm.
duty. But he had done it. He trusted her that much, at least.
"Is CG with anyone?"
"She's alone. And very close to where you are now, as far as I
can tell."
"Good. Paytan out."
"Good luck." Allen's voice was lost in the static. Paytan stuffed
the walkie-talkie into one of the bike's side compartments.
They kept up with Kismet pretty well, but it was still a bit of a
surprise when they came round a corner and face to face with the cyborg
herself. A bad surprise, as it turned out.
"I will destroy the LNH," said Censor Girl. She grabbed the
front of the bike and sent it skidding pell-mell toward the front of a
building across the street.
Paytan heard Brittany make a mildly surprised noise, then they
were hurtling through traffic as the bike attempted to right itself. The
pavement whistled a few inches away from her right horn, and the scream
of brakes tore through her eardrums. Pedestrians, already wary of the
woman's metal exterior, headed for cover.
Paytan's view spun again and tore upward. She had a muddled
impression of a very close-up view of a car grill, another driver with
hands flung over their face, and the cloudless blue sky.
Then she was rightside up, but they were still moving backwards
and she had a sinking suspicion that the office building was directly
behind them. She got a glimpse of Kismet coming down from the sky, Censor
Girl turning to meet her, then the building facade swung into her
peripheral vision. Paytan's whole skeleton shook when the back of the
bike whanged off the side of the building, ricocheting off and sending
the back of the bike away faster than the front.
They spun until they faced away from the building again, and Brit
finally got the bike under control. Paytan threw herself off as soon as
it came to a stop, barely getting her feet beneath her before she hit the
ground. She answered Brit's puzzled look with a glare. "This is the last
time I get on that bike. Ever."
"Not even for ice cream?"
"When have we ever gotten ice cream?"
"We could start," Brit smiled hopefully.
Then Kismet screamed. Paytan spun and headed across the street,
leaping onto the hood of an abandoned car and running across it. She let
the panic drain away from inside her, felt the shaking in her muscles die
away as her energy rose.
Censor Girl had locked her cyborg hand around Kismet's forearm,
and begun to tighten it. Paytan could see the winged girl's flesh
beginning to purple already. She brought her arms up over her head,
fanned her fingers out toward the sky and closed her eyes.
The hoverbike roared past her, and Paytan cracked open one eye to
see Brit, leaning way over the side and twirling a rock-filled stuffed
fish in one hand. Censor Girl swung Kismet into the way and Brit's fish
crashed into a golden wing without causing apparent harm. But Brittany
managed to veer the bike around in a tiny arc, and Kismet was busy with
her other wing. There was a shamble of bodies and bike, then Kismet was
bursting into flight while Brittany's bike skidded down the sidewalk a
ways. Brittany herself was rolling to a stop a few feet away from the
cyborg.
Too late for that spell. Paytan brought her hands down and formed
a circle with her thumb and forefinger. A tangle of neon green lines flew
from her fingers to catch at Censor Girl's arms and pin them. Brittany
rolled to her feet and whipped out another fish. She was grinning.
Paytan winced as Kismet landed beside her with a crash. The
winged girl's eyes were angry, but she was cradling her arm against her
chest. "I think she broke it," whispered Kismet.
Paytan cursed. Brittany and stuffed fish were not going to be
enough. Her mind darted here and there, trying to think of something
Dirmarw had taught her that would be useful. So much of it dealt with
what his goals and his needs had been that it wasn't much use. "How did
you catch Censor Girl last time?"
Kismet shrugged. "She fell over."
Censor Girl tore free of the containment spell, and Paytan ground
her teeth together. Christ, she _must_ be doing something wrong with the
casting, because everyone and their bloody cousin were getting loose from
the thing.
"I will destroy the LNH," said Censor Girl, and then, "Report to
Lord Corvine."
"She's all cyborgy again!" yelled Brittany, and pitched a fish
underhanded at CG's head. It ricocheted off the metal, and the cyborg
spun to face her. Brit waved weakly.
"Who the hell is Lord Corvine? Brittany!" Paytan headed across
the torn-up pavement. "You didn't piss off somebody else while I was in a
coma, did you? Because if you did - "
"Weirdness Girl!" corrected Brit. Censor girl thrust out a hand
but Brit ducked it and slammed a tennis shoed foot into the cyborg's
kneecap. Censor Girl hit the pavement and Brit swept up one of her fish.
"I'm going to blast her! Get out of the way!" Paytan let the
energy shift into her arms and begin to curl round her fingers. She
clenched her fists as Brit skittered backwards. But Censor Girl's hand
shot out again and closed around Brit's ankle. The cyborg threw herself
on top of Brittany and raised one gleaming hand, about to bring it down
on the net.heroine's skull.
Which it made it very easy for Kismet to grab. For one second
Censor Girl was airborne, then a metal foot swung up and slammed into the
side of Kismet's head. They both went down with a crash.
Paytan abandoned the spell, about ready to scream in frustration.
If everybody could just get away from the cyborg for one bloody
_moment_...
"Halt villains! Greetings my fellow net.heroes, have no fear!
Your reinforcement has arrived." The voice came from behind her.
Paytan spun around. A girl she had never in her life seen before
stood on top of a van, hands on her hips.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
It had been a rudimentary systems check. Savannah hadn't expected
to find anything awry, hadn't even been sure if she was doing it right.
Before her powers had flared she had been okay on a computer, and knew
enough to get herself around. Bryan knew a little more than she did. So
at first she had been sure she'd done something wrong when the search
came back with an illegal hack into the cellblock. And the unlocked door.
But now everybody but she and Bryan were back out on the job,
trying to track down Censor Girl. Savannah sighed. As soon as they were
done with the research today, she was going to go back to her room and
practice unfocusing some more. Three hours of sleep tonight would be
enough.
She and Bryan were at terminals right next to each other, but he
spent most of his time reading her screen out loud to her. She had found
herself thinking how nice his voice sounded on several occasions, and now
she was blushing again. If this kept up her face would stay permanently
red, like a strawberry.
They were running search programs across everything they could
think of. Police records, newspapers, hero organizations. Those paranoid
little secret society watcher groups, even. They were hindered mildly by
the fact that most of the stuff they got wasn't talking about The Reality
at all, but merely its ideological counterpoint, reality.
Savannah leaned back in the chair to rub her temples. Even if she
had had her eyes closed the entire time, the concentration was still
giving her a headache. She was starting to think Bryan was chasing
ghosts. By now she had figured out that he was a hero of some sort,
though why he was lying about his identity she didn't know.
He said he had seen the Reality kill first hand, and that was
enough for her. For a while, at least.
The computer beeped as a new list of documents appeared onscreen.
Savannah sighed and clicked the down arrow while Bryan scanned the
titles.
He grabbed her arm. "Wait, wait, back up three. Yeah, that one."
She hit return, heard the computer whir for a moment and felt his grip on
her arm tighten.
"What? What is it? Read it out loud," she urged.
"This looks like something. Dear reader. I have sent carbon
copies of this file to the Net.ropolis police departments, the LNH, and
the government offices for the city. I have left this message, amongst
others, in various city computer systems should it become evident that
the other messages were intercepted or deleted before they could reach
their target.
"I have reason to believe in the existence of an organization
called the Reality, which has of late begun to infiltrate Net.ropolis
society. Their aim seems to be the wanton murder and destruction of
anyone with powers that is still weak enough to be defeated. Their trail
is hard to follow, but many of their murders contain similarities. And
all of their victims were super-powered. I am posting from the library,
and was pursued late yesterday afternoon. I will attempt another message
tomorrow, if my research has garnered anything more. Thank you for your
time." Brian let go of her arm. "The guy only sounds crazy. It all
matches my experience. There's a file attached."
She hit the access code for it. "What is it?"
"It's a list of names," said Bryan. Savannah felt her gut begin to
sink. "Mark Thibner, Altaira Dawe, Lewis Echelon - " Bryan cut off, and
she could hear the chair next to her shake as if he had jerked back.
When he spoke again his voice was pure iron. "Jenna Torell."
"Bryan, how many names are on the list?"
"Twenty. Twenty murders that he managed to scrounge up and
connect. There are probably more."
"We have to find the guy who sent this out. Can you trace the
address, is there a file on him somewhere?"
"Here, let me have the keyboard." She heard him hit a few keys.
After a moment Brian cursed. "There's a very new file on him," he said.
"Lethem Margotti was checked into the city morgue two hours ago."
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Everyone stared at the girl except for Kismet, who was
unconscious, and Censor Girl, who didn't care. The girl looked around, a
little nervous under the sudden scrutiny, more because of Paytan's glare
than Brittany's bewildered smile.
After a moment she steeled herself and swung around to point
directly at Paytan. "You, villain! Halt, or face my wrath!"
The stuffed fish hit about the same time Paytan began to yell.
"You idiot! I'm one of the good guys!"
The girl rubbed her now-bruised shoulder and smiled. "Yeah,
right. Like I'm that stupid." Paytan began to think that blast spell
might come in handy after all.
"Paytan's on our side! Do not doubt the word of the Avatar of
Binky!"
"Binky?"
"Do you see the goldfish bowl on that bike over there?" Brittany
pointed. Paytan glanced over at the pavement where Kismet lay. CG was off
and running, down the sidewalk and away from them. Finally, a clear shot.
"Hey guys, Censor Girl's getting away." She brought up her powers
again and began to concentrate. The cyborg was headed away from them at a
dead run. Her cybernetic leg had a lot more strength in it, which
resulted in a lopsided sort of lope between her human leg and the
mechanical one.
Paytan's blast knocked CG to the ground. Brittany pulled another
stuffed fish from one of the inside pockets of her trenchcoat and headed
toward the cyborg. The strange girl leaped from the roof of the van to a
Cadillac's hood and then to the ground at a dead run, her braid tossing
behind her. Her hair must have reached down to the small of her back at
least, probably longer when it was unbraided.
She was pretty fast, too. Fast enough to get in between Censor
Girl and Paytan, blocking the next shot she was preparing for. Brittany's
fish flipped through the air again, hitting the cyborg in the neck as she
tried once again to get to her feet.
Then the new girl was there, and Censor Girl finally had
something to beat on. She half dodged the first punch, so CG's fist
slammed into hip bone rather than stomach. It still sent the new girl to
the ground. Censor Girl stood and swung back a foot in preparation for a
well-aimed kick, but the fallen net.heroine was rolling to her feet and
jumping at the cyborg, hands closing around CG's cybernetic arm.
CG swung her up and slammed a fist into her stomach, but the girl
held on. The sound of bending metal echoed up and down the street, as
slowly but surely, she began to force CG's forearm into a U-shape.
Censor Girl turned slightly to left, braced herself, and slammed
her attacker directly into a brick wall. Thus freed of her
now-unconscious opponent, CG took a couple of steps toward the street and
lifted a motorized bicycle in one hand. She lofted it at Brit, who was
heading over at a dead run.
Brit ducked, and the conveyance hurtled a few inches over her
head. Paytan sent another green blast tearing through the air, but CG
bent down for a moment, and it hit the building behind her with the sound
of shattering brick. Paytan winced.
Then the cyborg disappeared from sight entirely.
Brit stood up cautiously, then started running again. Paytan
hopped onto another abandoned car. A sewer entrance gaped in the cement,
the grate set gently aside.
Brittany came round the side of a truck and saw the same thing,
coming to an unsteady halt. She fell to her knees beside the grate.
"Brittany, don't look over the edge! If she's waiting down there
she'll just grab you and pull you under!" Paytan leaped off the hood of
the car and headed over.
"You think I don't know that?" asked Brit. She took her stuffed
fish, and dangled it cautiously over the edge of the dark pit. Nothing
happened. By the time Paytan got there Brit had set the fish aside and
stuck her head so far into the sewer opening she was barely keeping her
balance. Her voice, when it emerged from the depths, echoed strangely.
"Whole buncha tunnels in here. I think she left. Wanna go after her?"
"Yeah, let's jump into a dark sewer and just leave Kismet lying
out here. And whoever the hell that other girl is." Paytan sighed and
grabbed the back of Brit's collar, dragging her out of the sewer
entrance. The new girl chose that moment to moan weakly and reach up to
give her skull a ginger prodding.
Brittany wrestled free of Paytan and crouched down beside the new
girl. "If you're going to get slammed into walls, you should at least
wear a helmet." Brit nudged her gently, getting another moan for her
troubles.
"If she's going to get slammed into walls, she should be a stunt
double. It pays better." Paytan glared again. Kismet was sitting weakly
against a car, head buried in her hands. By the time Paytan reached her
she was trying to stand, with mild success. "Hey, you okay?"
"I think helmets are a very good idea," muttered Kismet.
Behind them, Brittany was helping the other combatant to her
feet. "Do you have a name?"
"You can call me Nei," the girl smiled. "I've just joined the
LNH."
"I hope so, after all that. C'mon, let's go get the bike!"
"The what?"
"Don't get on it. You'll die!" said Paytan. She turned back
Kismet steadied herself and spread her wings, and so missed the weird
look Nei gave her. "Are you going to be okay flying home?"
"I am better in the air than on the ground. There is less to run
into up there," said the winged girl. "And I would have to be dead before
you could get me on Brittany's um... machine of death."
"You have a point. Look, I'll check up on you as soon as we get
there. Be careful, okay?"
Kismet nodded and waved her off, then burst into flight. Paytan
watched her carefully, but Kismet's balance still seemed to be good. Now
all Paytan had to do was survive the trip home so she could check on her.
On cue, the low hum of Brittany's hoverbike started up again.
Paytan took a deep breath, and swung around. She marched toward
Brittany, Nei, and the bike. Nei glanced up, then back down at the bike,
then up again when she realized she was the center of Paytan's attention.
Paytan kept coming.
"Um," started Nei, then stopped. Brit smiled at her hopefully,
but took a few steps out of Paytan's path. By now Paytan was on the
sidewalk, with no sign of stopping. Nei began to back up. Paytan's eyes
began to glow a little brighter.
By the time the demon sorceress got into Nei's personal bubble,
she had her backing up at a good rate. Nei's back hit a wall, and Paytan
leaned forward until they were almost nose-to-nose. The neon green glow
of her eyes washed over Nei's skin, making it seem pallid and weak.
"You, villain? Halt, or face my wrath?"
"Well, you look so evil! I mean..."
"WHO ASKED YOU TO STEP IN AND LEND A HAND!? What, you just joined
up and thought 'Gee, I'll go out and find some trouble'?"
"Paytan, that's exactly what we did," said Brit. Paytan glared.
"Well, there was a villain, and all of you were kind of scattered
around, and no one was really posing or anything. It was hard to tell. So
I guessed."
"You guessed wrong."
"Sorry?"
Paytan groaned and pushed away from the wall. "Whatever. So,
you're super-strong?"
"No, I just bend metal."
"Ah," Paytan looked at her like she was stupid. "And the
difference is..."
Nei frowned. "I can't bend anything else."
"Okay, I don't care. When we get back to headquarters I don't
ever want to see you again."
"But I can't do that! Not after I screwed up during this battle.
I have to prove my mettle! I have to make it up to you somehow."
"Okay! Climb on board!" Brittany revved the engine.
"Not okay! We have enough trouble as it is - "
"So what do we do when we get back?" asked Nei.
Brit rubbed her ankle absentmindedly. "I've got this weird
hankering for ice cream."
"No, you don't," Paytan growled. "No ice cream, no making it up
to us, no - " Paytan stopped, and looked from Brittany to Nei. Brit had
the same hopeful grin that usually resulted in Paytan's eventual defeat,
at least on the smaller issues. And Nei looked almost painfully earnest.
At that moment, it was just too much trouble. "The world's going to hell
in a handbasket anyway." Paytan climbed up behind Brittany and stuck her
hand out to Nei. "Coming?"
Nei beamed. Paytan hauled her on board perhaps a little more
roughly than was necessary. "Just don't expect me to like you. Look, when
we get back we need to figure out who the hell this Lord Corvine guy is,
and what to do about him."
"Do we need to do anything?"
"He just freed Censor Girl. Do we really want to wait until he
gets his feet under him before we try to smash him flat?"
"I thought you had to go camping."
"That too."
________________________________________________________________________
Binky, Kismet, Mr.Fossavellus, the Junior Brotherhood of Net.Villains,
Nei, Out-of-It Lass, Perdition, Weirdness Girl, copyright Jennifer
Whitson, 1995. Censor Girl is Public Domain. Everyone else is someone's.
Next Issue:
There is a next issue, but first go to World Tales #15 for Paytan
and Allen's camping trip!
Censor Girl is gone, but she's left more than enough to worry
about in her wake.
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