Okay, another bout of midterms survived. You're looking at words
typed by someone foolish enough to take 20 units this quarter. I'm
paying for it, and unfortunately so is the posting schedule for Misfits.
I'm going to continue to try to get an issue out every two weeks,
but I'll probably need some leeway for the next two or so issues...
then things'll get rolling again. Onward!
Thanks always to those who've taken the time to send me something
on issue #28, among them: Rory Bryant, Kelly Pekrul, Jamas Enright,
Mike Escutia, and Ken Schmidt. You guys are great.
And thanks again to Ken Schmidt, for throwing Tsar Chasm into the
pot. He was one of my fave characters back when I was only reading
alt.comics.lnh (oh so long ago), and now that he's back in business
I'm glad I had the opportunity to have him in my series.
Enjoy!
=========================================================================
DERELICT Press Presents
with contributions from Ken Schmidt
The twenty-ninth issue of
/~~\/~~\ {] /~~\ (^^^ || ***** /~~\
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" Silver "
Crows: Part 4 of 7
A psuedo-Acraphobe title
._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.'COVER`._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.
Savannah stares directly out at the viewer, her pale grey eyes
turned to the color of dark steel. Reflected in her iris stands Censor
Girl, looking off to the side.
)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
A paperclip lay forlornly on the pavement, beaten and battered.
It was untouched by rust, gleaming a near pristine silver, so it must
have been dropped within the last couple of hours. Someone had been
scraping one end against a hard surface until it formed a nasty little
point. For a moment Savannah considered using it to slit her wrists.
Then she smiled and shook her head, kept moving toward the LNHHQ.
It was a ludicrous image, her working away at her skin with that thin
spear of metal. And she'd stop after the first scratch or so anyway,
before she even started to bleed.
She hadn't even _seen_ him.
All this time she'd been fighting Bryan, and she hadn't even
noticed he was there. Three times she had tangled with the Junior
Brotherhood of Net.Villains. Her hands tightened into fists, nails
digging into her palms. There'd be little crescent marks there when she
opened her hands, tiny moons of white skin where the pressure had
overwhelmed her veins, and sent the blood elsewhere. Her cheeks flushed a
bright red.
A villain. Paytan would laugh herself unconscious. All this time,
and he'd been on the other team. An enemy.
An enemy who left her white roses. And returned the bike manual
when they lost it. Savannah took a deep breath. She didn't miss him. She
wouldn't miss him.
She already did.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
No one answered any of her questions. She was treated like a
piece of equipment, ferried from the drain pipe to the helicopter and
guided not-so-gently into the back seat. Censor Girl was pretty sure by
then that the command signal wasn't doing much more than controlling her
movements toward a certain destination. There was a good chance she still
had enough free will to grab one of the black-suited men next to her and
snap bits until he told her what was going on. On the other hand, she
didn't fancy finding out that she was free enough to grab somebody but
not to defend herself, should push come to shove. A lot of the men around
her had nasty-looking guns.
So instead she sat and waited while the engines thrummed higher,
and listened to the voices inside her head.
They landed half an hour later, on the top of one of
Net.ropolis's highest office buildings. Another one of the men with large
guns opened the side hatch, and motioned her out. She smiled at him as
she went by, and he looked away.
There was only one man waiting for her on the helipad, so thin
that his limbs seemed like stilts. He had a cane and a top-hat, both
complementing a neat black suit with long tails. He swept off his hat,
and with a click, the <Report to Lord Corvine> command shut off.
"Greetings, my beauty," he smiled, and placed the hat on top of
his feathery black hair. "It's good to see you've finally arrived."
He was human, that much her diagnostics could determine. Other
than that, just a man in a tuxedo. Deep inside a wisp of her battered
pride began to burn again. She had been a pawn of master villains, and
now a lowly businessman thought he could pull her strings?
"Why have you called me?"
"Oh, we've got you on loan, as it were. We fix up that arm of
yours, use you to coordinate a little plan I've got going for the
higher-ups," said Lord Corvine, waving her forward. "Then you get handed
over to our.. sister organization."
"Who are you?"
His mouth firmed into a thin line. "You are my new toy, girl.
Toys do not ask questions of their masters. They obey. Step forward."
She didn't move.
"I will activate the voices in your head, Censor Girl. I will
command you to burn yourself. To delete your own mind."
"Will you do it now?" she hissed. The man did nothing.
He was powerless. Whatever device he had used to activate her
voices wasn't here, wasn't any power of his own. A machine, somewhere far
away. Her cyborg hand twitched. Humans broke so easily...
But whatever he had used last time had forced its signal through
the walls of the LNHHQ and deep into her mind. His organization would use
it again if she ran. And if they were smart, they'd be able to reach her
wherever she went.
His expression never changed. "Step forward."
She walked until she was a few feet away from him, then stopped.
Lord Corvine frowned, and stepped forward to take her chin in his hand.
He was businessman, just a suit, even if he was a smart one. He had
brushed death a second ago, and didn't even know it. He tilted her face
up so that she would meet his gaze. "What do you see, with those eyes of
yours?" he whispered.
Killfile, drenched in glory and adoration, his cape soaring
behind him like the outstretched arms of a lover.
Lord Ebon, the tilt of an eye or a head that told all about
heartlessness, about rape, about the loss of a mind and slow decline to
coma.
A faceless woman, a scientist, a manipulator whose bid for
control had failed like all the rest.
Censor Girl gave him a small smile. "I see how the mighty have
fallen."
-=ð=- -=ð=-
The door to the Dave Thomas Deluxe University library closed
behind Bryan, and he took a few slow steps away from the building. His
shoulders drooped and his head hung low. His heart seemed to pull at all
of the parts of his body.
The weight of a lodestone filled his head, and all of his
thoughts were focused on what had just happened with Savannah. He had
no idea what he was going to do next, yet his feet started to pick up
their pace, and he left the campus. He was a half-mile from the campus
before his mind caught up with his feet.
The street he was on led to the run-down warehouse district of
Net.ropolis. Bryan's pace faltered for a moment, but an image of Jenna
suddenly flashed in his mind. Jenna, then Savannah's expression when he
told her who he was.
There was nothing he could do about Savannah right now. He could
only hope she would give him a chance to explain. But he had a promise
to keep to Jenna, and to keep that promise he was about to do something
more dangerous than anything he could remember doing before. Provided he
could find the right warehouse, of course.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Peering cautiously around the door he had just pushed open with a
stick, Bryan decided he was going to take no chances in this lion's den.
He hadn't mentioned this bit of information to Savannah when he stumbled
across the report filed by Catalyst Lass. The LNH computer system held
more information than he dreamed, and the location of Tsar Chasm's base
was a tidbit he hadn't thought would be useful except as a last resort.
But with all of his other means of information gathering exhausted, this
was it. He also considered how much information he could unearth on a
villainous group from the data banks of someone known as a master planner
with questionable morals, and knew he had made the only choice left open
to him.
After stepping inside and closing the door to the street, he
followed a flight of stairs downwards wishing he had brought along a
light source. He was banking on Catalyst Lass' report of no traps still
being accurate, but being able to see where he was going would be
comforting.
After a few minutes of walking, he found himself wishing for
something to happen, because any moment his mind was allowed to wander,
it went immediately to Savannah. Her face filled his mind's eye, and
when he imagined she smiled and forgave him, the world seemed to
brighten.
Bryan blinked a few times and realized that there was an actual
light source ahead. The light framed a doorway that was slightly ajar.
Bryan hurried down the stairs and slowly opened the door, relieved to
find a room filled with working computers, but empty of people. Within
seconds he was at the single terminal he could find and was working at a
frantic pace.
'No password to access Tsar Chasm's files?' Bryan could hardly
believe his luck, and dove into his search for the Reality. He didn't
want to push his good luck of Tsar Chasm apparently being gone. Based on
what he overheard in conversations at various places (LNHHQ, Sidekicks R
Us, among the members of the Junior Brotherhood) Tsar Chasm was not one
to be taken lightly, though most spoke of a change of heart making him
less dangerous than he once was.
The terminal beeped, and a Bryan couldn't help himself when an
elated "Bingo!" escaped his lips. He looked around quickly when the
empty room echoed his word back at him from different directions. He let
out a silent breath of relief when he realized that no one was around to
hear him. He turned his attention back to the screen and began to read
when he decided that every minute he spent was one minute longer than he
should be pushing his luck.
Bryan began searching around the terminal for a diskette to store
the information. Fortunately, it was all text with a few small image
files that would fit easily onto a single floppy. He spun around in his
chair when he thought he heard someone behind him, but he shook his head
at himself when he realized it was just his chair making noises as he
shifted his weight.
He felt around the back of the machine and his fingers
encountered something cool, hard and slightly wet. He stood up to peer
at what his fingers had encountered. It was a glass that had some
condensation running down the outside and some ice cubes inside. Big ice
cubes, and very little water in the bottom of the glass.
Half a second later, the pieces came together and Bryan quickly
turned to run for the door, but stopped when he saw his own eyes widen in
shock, reflected in a killer pair of shades.
"Is there something I could help you with?"
'Uh oh,' thought Bryan, 'he doesn't sound happy.' He found
himself unable to do more than stammer out unintelligible syllables in
response.
"What do you want with the Reality, Bryan?"
"You know my name?"
A smirk appeared on the face Tsar Chasm, "No, I routinely name
the people who break into my home Bryan. And the question was
rhetorical, in a sense. I know why you want the information, but why did
you come here to get it?"
The casual tone with which he spoke of the subject sparked
Bryan's anger, "What do you care?! If I finish these guys off, that's
one less thorn in your side when you try to take over the net next!"
Bryan's anger seemed to amuse Tsar Chasm, "You do enough research
to find my home, know to proceed cautiously, yet accuse me of things I
have given up long ago? You must have been doing your research at the
Legion's headquarters, or with a Legionnaire assistant."
Bryan's anger grew, "You have no right to talk about Sava--..the
LNH that way! You don't know anything!"
Tsar Chasm put his hands up, "If you want to take on the Reality,
I will not stop you. I will warn you that you need to leave the anger
behind, or you'll lose sight of what you want to accomplish while trying
to exact revenge."
Bryan looked at Tsar Chasm suspiciously, "That's it? You're
giving me this information after I broke in...for nothing?"
Tsar Chasm shook his head, "There will be a price. Information
for information."
Bryan became wary, "What do I have to tell you?"
Tsar Chasm waved him away, "Nothing. I will let you know when I
require my payment." Tsar Chasm threw a disk at Bryan, "That's your
information, now leave and don't be shocked when you see me next."
After a final, brief exchange Bryan left Tsar Chasm's base, and
went in search of the Reality. If he hadn't been so caught up with his
planning, he might have noticed the shadowed figures slipping into the
door he just left.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
"Savannah! You have to see this!" Brittany spotted her as soon as
she walked in. Everyone else was clustered around a computer, their faces
lit by the glowing screen. Savannah was dragged unceremoniously over to
the keyboard.
"We ran into this guy, outside of the Pizza Pit, and there was
this other guy, a mean one, who was going to kill him, at least we think
so," nattered Brit, "And there was this whole big chase thing -- "
"We got a disk off of him. The files look important," said
Paytan. "Could you take a look at them?"
"Yeah, I guess." What she really wanted to do was go up to her
room and lie on the bed for a couple of hours. But she'd been so busy
with Bryan she hadn't even seen anyone lately. Savannah took a deep
breath and sat down at the terminal. Allen sat next to her and Paytan
rested her arms on the back of the chair, watching.
There were hundreds of files on the disk. Tiny ones, mostly text,
with only a couple sentences in them. There didn't seem to be any order
to them, and most of the time the paragraphs themselves didn't seem to be
about much of anything.
Paytan shifted, and the chair creaked. "They don't look like
much. Weather reports, maybe. But the guy had 'em in a bulletproof case,"
she said. Savannah wrinkled her forehead, and kept skimming through the
files.
"How about Bender?" Brittany's voice came from somewhere behind
them. There was a snort of disgust.
"That's as bad as Metal Danger Girl," said another voice.
Savannah took a second to place it as the new girl's. Nei. They hadn't
spoken much, but she seemed nice.
"Steelia, Scourge of Paperclips? Revolutionary MetalBane Girl
Nei?"
"I thought of that one. Isn't it a little long though?"
The back of the chair creaked. "You bend metal. There's not much
you can do with that, codename-wise. Stick with Nei," said Paytan.
"But all heroes have one. What's your codename?" asked Nei.
"Don't have one."
"But Brittany said -- "
"I don't have one."
Brittany would be grinning right about now. "Yes she does. She
just doesn't like anyone calling her -- "
"Paytan," said Paytan.
"Perdition."
"Paytan."
"Perdition."
"Paytan, so help me Brittany if you -- "
"Guys, I think I have something," said Savannah. There was a
pattern about the entries that she couldn't quite work out. If she and
Bryan had gotten Drisby's notes... she frowned. By now everyone was
clustered around the computer screen. "Some of the places they mention in
these files were where the victims hung out. Where they worked, stuff
like that."
Allen leaned forward. "So they were building casefiles on folks
before they killed them," he said.
"That, and more. I think they noted times the subjects used their
powers. There's some dates in here that seem strange. I think this hooks
into some of the papers Bryan and I were looking for."
"Is he here?" asked Paytan.
"What? Oh, Bryan, no. He isn't. He's... still researching. I
think he should, um, I think he needs to see this." She grabbed a piece
of paper and began to scribble notes. Damn him, anyway. There were people
out there getting killed, and the only thing she and he were doing was
fighting.
"Great! Let's take the files to him and see what he thinks," said
Nei.
"Let's not. Why don't we, uh -- "
The intercom started beeping, insistent and loud. Allen leaned
over and pressed the button. "Hello? This is Faq Boy, who were you trying
to reach?"
Kyoko's voice crackled into the room. "Anyone really. Censor
Girl's at the crossroads of Schmidt Avenue and Porell. I think she's
robbing a bank. Hey, since you guys normally deal with her -- "
"Not again!" yelled Paytan.
Savannah stood and headed for the door. "Censor Girl's more
important, guys. Look, I'll just give the notes and the disk to Kismet,
and she can take 'em to Bryan. She's faster, anyway." Then she was out of
the room before anyone could protest.
"This," she heard Paytan say, "is why they locked that damn
cyborg up in the first place. She can't leave well enough alone."
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Bryan sat in one of the hard wooden chairs at one of the
Net.ropolis main library's computer terminals, digging through the disk
he'd gotten from Tsar Chasm's secret base.
His eyes flicked over the screen as filename after filename shot
past. A lot of it seemed to be newspaper articles, summaries of things he
had already gone over. Then a string of files skimmed into view, one
after the other.
Drisby1.txt, Drisby2.txt, Drisby3.txt... all the way to file
number nine. No wonder they hadn't been able to find Drisby's papers --
Tsar Chasm had gotten hold of them.
Behind him, someone screamed.
He was out of the chair and on his feet in a second, in time to
see a librarian stumble back from the door in a shower of papers. The
girl with golden wings stood in the entrance, managing somehow to look
both sheepish and terrified. One of Savannah's friends.
Bryan considered the possibility that Savannah may have blown the
whistle and sent her friends to bring him in, then thought better of it.
If she were that angry, she'd bring him in himself. He hoped. Maybe
something was wrong.
He popped the disk out of the machine, and headed over to the
door. The girl with golden wings was peering into the library. She
spotted him walking toward her and smiled tentatively.
"Bryan?"
"Yeah," he smiled back. "That'd be me. Did Savannah send you?"
"We found something that she thought you would find
interesting... if we could talk outside?"
Bryan motioned back toward the terminal. "If you don't mind
pulling up a seat..."
The girl looked a little sick at the thought. Then she looked
back inside for a moment, and brightened. "Okay! Could you open the
window?"
Bryan glanced back at the terminal. It was set up right next to a
window, with a nice view of the parking lot outside. He shrugged. Might
as well.
A few minutes later she was installed on the window sill, half in
and half out of the building. Most of the librarians had mysteriously
disappeared, and Bryan hoped that no one had called the police.
"My name, by the way, is Kismet," said the girl, and stuck out
her hand. He grabbed it, and they completed a textbook example of a
handshake. She had an accent that he couldn't quite place.
"Good to meet you. So, uhm, Savannah couldn't make it?"
Kismet shrugged. "No, she seemed very busy. I think there may be
a villain. Oh, this is what I came to give you." She handed him a disk.
"There's a note, too."
It was a crumpled piece of lined paper. Bryan smoothed it out for
a moment, then read it. It couldn't have been dryer if she'd pulled out a
handbook for thesis papers. Just notes on what was on the disk, and a
suggestion or two. He glanced up at Kismet, then back down at the paper
again, wanting more than anything to ask about Savannah.
Instead he just popped the disk into the machine, and opened the
files. Kismet seemed content to sit on the windowsill and watch him as he
worked. Part of him hoped she would stay. If they started talking again,
maybe she'd mention Savannah. Maybe he could convince her to take him to
her....
There was a pattern in the files. Bryan switched disks, and
opened the Drisby files. Time passed.
"Oh my God."
"What?" Kismet leaned farther into the building, trying to read
the screen, then leaned quickly back out again. "What?"
"Wait a sec..." Bryan kept reading. Half the papers and files
were simple connections, linking the Reality to the killings. But the
other half were something else entirely. He'd have to go back through
papers and narrow things down, and Drisby danced around actually saying a
lot of things, but it looked like the Reality was more than just a group
of anti-superhero crackpots.
There was a cultish aspect to it, too. Certain murders on certain
days. The number eight occurred more frequently than if caused by mere
chance. Drisby's last paper contained sketches of a kind of blue flame,
and a stylized spider. Like there was something occult going on beneath
it all. And if some of the notes Tsar Chasm had jotted into the files
were correct, he might be able to figure out where one of their bases
were, if he worked long enough at it...
Bryan looked up, and realized Kismet was still patiently sitting
on the windowsill. "Shouldn't you go find them? I mean, now that you've
dropped off the disk and all?"
Kismet shrugged. "I think they can handle it on their own."
-=ð=- -=ð=-
There were too many of them to fit on the hoverbike.
In the end Allen, Paytan, and Savannah piled into Allen's car,
while Brittany and Nei disappeared ahead on the hoverbike. "What _is_ it
with this woman?" grumbled Paytan. She was sitting shotgun, while Allen
drove, with Savannah in the back.
"Well, we're not exactly trying to vary the villains we run into
right? It's inevitable that we'll start hitting the same ones again and
again," said Savannah, and switched the mode of her rifle to stun with an
audible click. Paytan turned around in the front seat to look at her.
"I still can't believe you got a gun."
Savannah shrugged. "It worked pretty well in Hell. I just wish I
could find that camouflage outfit Brittany gave me for Christmas."
"Showtime," said Allen, and hit the brakes.
A black helicopter took up most of the street. The outer wall of
Harvey's Discount Bank was shattered, and Censor Girl had evidently been
lugging money out of it when Brit and Nei arrived. Now Brittany and Nei
were inside the helicopter, brawling with two men, one of which seemed to
be the driver. The cyborg stood outside, sliding shut one of the doors.
"What the hell?" said Paytan. Allen opened his door and stepped
onto the street.
"I think they're going to take off," he said.
Savannah poked the gun through the already open car window, and
began to aim. Paytan shrugged and started to chant. When you can attack
long distance, why get out of the car?
A neon green bolt slammed into the tail of the helicopter hard
enough to bend it and knock off the tail propeller. The machine settled
back to earth. One of the doors popped open and Brittany and a man in
dark clothes tumbled out and rolled across the pavement. Brittany thumped
him with a rock-filled plush fish, and darted away.
Censor Girl loomed in the door of the helicopter for a moment,
then she threw Nei out and leaped after her. Nei rolled to her feet and
skipped back a few steps. The man Brittany had hit began to pull a gun
from his jacket. There was a whoosh of displaced air and a tiny sizzling
noise, and the man went limp. Savannah smiled quietly to herself and
began to look for another target.
Brittany and Nei both spotted the car at about the same time.
"Paytan!" yelled Brit, "Corvine's in the helicopter!"
"Watch out for the mech!" screamed Nei.
Paytan wondered for a second if Nei was talking about Censor
Girl, then a compact-looking machine leaped from the helicopter and onto
the ground, running straight for Brittany. It was like a mini-mecha, a
toy soldier about waist high with blades for fingers and some kind of gun
mounted on its back.
The car was getting a little too stifling for her tastes. Paytan
opened the door and jumped out, heading toward Brit and the mecha.
Savannah fired off another stun bolt, but the mech was a moving target
and she missed. Paytan wasn't even sure Savannah could stun mecha with
that gun.
In the middle of all this, a businessman so skinny as to seem
stilt-like stepped grandly out of the helicopter and stopped to survey
the surroundings. Paytan narrowed her eyes.
About that time the helicopter began to rise off the ground
again. The driver clung to the controls, sweating, and concentrated on
trying to keep the machine in the air. Until the muzzle of a gun pressed
lightly into the side of his head.
"Set it down gently, please," said Allen. "Then step outside."
Meanwhile Savannah watched Brittany run toward the car, the
mini-mech in hot pursuit. One stuffed fish had already ricocheted off
its metal surface, to no effect. Savannah clicked the gun out of stun
mode, and enabled the bullets. She began, very carefully, to aim.
Brittany ran faster, her trenchcoat flapping behind her. The
mini-mech was gaining. Until a bullet cracked into the joint in its left
foot, and the mech tumbled to the ground. Nei careened into it, then
jumped to her feet and grabbed the mech's arm. Brit leaped onto the hood
of the car and rolled off the other side. Somewhere off to Savannah's
left something exploded, but all of a sudden she didn't have time to
care.
Censor Girl grabbed her by the neck and dragged her bodily out of
the car. Savannah dropped the gun and scrabbled uselessly at the cyborg's
hands. Censor Girl shifted her grip, closing both hands around Savannah's
neck, and slammed her against the side of the car. She looked into
Savannah's eyes and smiled briefly, then turned away.
"Weirdness Girl!" she called, "We have your friend! Come with us
or she dies!"
But Savannah barely heard her. She was too busy focusing,
noticing tiny things about the way Censor Girl's skin twitched, the jerk
of her eyes. "You don't want to be here," she whispered. Censor Girl
swung back and met her eyes.
"What?"
"You hate this," said Savannah, and as she spoke Censor Girl
reacted, and more and more information became available. "You don't want
to be here at all, and you could care less about me, or any of us, maybe
even Lord Corvine. No, wait, you don't even like him, do you?"
Censor Girl frowned, and slammed her against the car again. For a
second Savannah's vision went red, but she was on a roll. Not even a
cyborg could control unconscious reactions to words or subjects, the
body's miniscule ways of showing emotion. Her vision cleared, and Censor
Girl's face swam back into view.
"Why are you doing this?" whispered Savannah, "Are you held
against your will? A little, but that's not it. You hate this, you hate
him, and yet you're still here." The cyborg's grip on her throat
tightened, and Savannah stopped. Censor Girl could collapse her windpipe
in a second if she wished.
"Damn your powers," hissed the cyborg. "You and him, the whole
goddamn world."
"You don't have to do this."
"And what else should I be doing? Fighting for the forces of
good?" Censor Girl nearly spat out the words. Savannah just looked at
her.
"What do you want to do?"
They gazed at each other for a moment. Somewhere behind Censor
Girl there was an explosion. People were yelling.
"His name is Enrique DuLourde," said Censor Girl. "He's a high
level businessman at Luce Inc., and he's got a base of operations deep in
the Amazon, where he planned to go after this battle."
Savannah just stared for a moment. Then, "Thanks."
"You're welcome." Censor Girl released her, and Savannah dropped
to her knees, sucking deep breaths into her lungs. She heard, distantly,
a man yelling orders at Censor Girl. The cyborg merely turned, a bitter
smile plastered across her face, and lifted her hands helplessly.
Paytan was having a mildly harder time of it. She'd fired a few
blasts at the guy who was evidently Lord Corvine, but he was fast and she
was never very good with her aim anyway. She gritted her teeth, and began
again. It was getting old fast, when the villains escaped every time.
Off to her left Nei had managed to keep the mini-mech from
mauling her, but hadn't done any damage to it either. Suddenly Lord
Corvine stood and pointed imperiously behind Paytan.
"Cyborg! Just grab the girl, and let's get out of here!" A second
later his expression darkened, and he began to curse. Paytan smiled and
kept chanting. The cascade of neon green crashed into him, sending him
careening into the cabin of the helicopter.
Behind her, she thought she heard Censor Girl laugh.
Inside the helicopter Lord Corvine was scrabbling around for
something. Allen climbed back into the main cabin just as the villain
pulled what looked like a VCR control out of one of the dashboard
compartments. Before Allen could do anything, Corvine had hit two
buttons.
The mini-mech tossed Nei like a ragdoll and ran toward the
helicopter. Paytan spun in time to see Censor Girl scream and grab at her
skull, beginning to stumble toward Lord Corvine.
The villain yanked at one of the controls and the helicopter
jerked and rose half off the ground. Allen fired but the shot went wild,
and he lost his grip.
Lord Corvine climbed into the driver's seat and began to pull
levers. The helicopter rose slowly off the ground.
"Stop him!" shouted Savannah, "Censor Girl's on our side! He's
controlling her!"
Paytan threw her a glance. By now Censor Girl had reached the
helicopter first and crawled in, still holding her skull. The mini-mech
was most of the way there, stumbling on its broken foot.
"Just trust me!" yelled Savannah. Paytan turned back, and started
to run toward the helicopter, chanting like mad. By now it was a few feet
off the ground and still rising, wobbling madly back and forth. Paytan
kept running. Savannah or no Savannah, another villain was _not_ going to
escape, even if it killed her.
She took a deep breath and let loose the spell, just as the
helicopter leaped higher into the air. The bolt hit the bottom of the
machine, and sent it spinning at one of the buildings on the side of the
street.
It righted itself swiftly, but over-compensated and hurtled back
across the street, directly overhead, and skidded across the building
right next to Paytan. It took off most of the facade, and nearly crashed
itself.
And time slowed, as Paytan watched a hundred chunks of stone
hurtle down at her from ten stories up.
Almost instinctually, she pulled a weak shield around her, but it
wouldn't be enough, would never -- finally her legs came under her
control and she dove, but already stone was falling in a rain all around
her. Her shields broke and something slammed into her shoulder.
Paytan hit the ground, half-unconscious already from the pain in
her shoulder. The world dimmed.
It took her a minute to sense anything other than the beating of
her heart. And to realize that there was nothing wrong with her vision.
Nei stood just above her, in classic hero pose, arms shaking as
she held a chunk of concrete at least as large as Allen's car above her
head. Paytan blinked. Nei tossed the stone off to the side, and Paytan
said the first thing that came to mind.
"I thought you could only bend metal."
Nei spun, a panicked expression on her face. "You weren't
supposed to see that part!"
Paytan got shakily to her feet. In the distance, the helicopter
wove jerkily back and forth through the sky. Savannah was looking at them
both open-mouthed, and Brittany seemed similarly shell-shocked. Paytan
opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted when Allen swept
her up in a huge hug.
Savannah walked carefully up, surveying both Nei and the wreckage
of the street as he set Paytan down. "Well," she said.
"Looks like we all have quite a bit to talk about."
________________________________________________________________________
Binky, Explosion Boy, Kismet, Nei, Out-of-It Lass, Perdition, Weirdness
Girl, copyright Jennifer Whitson, 1995. Censor Girl is Public Domain.
Tsar Chasm is Ken Schmidt's. Everyone else is someone's.
Next Issue:
We know who Lord Corvine is now, but is he aware that his shiny
new cyborg is just as likely to kill him as obey him?
Bryan and Kismet finish up the library work, Nei gets a good
talking to, and some very interesting things are discovered
about Enrique DuLourde...
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