Star Harbor Nights

At the same instant that she took the first step towards her opponent, she cut loose with a blast of electricity from her eyes. Stiletto was not fooled. Her hands, both encased in living silver, moved with blinding speed to intercept the blast, her fingers forming a mesh which absorbed and dispersed the dangerous energy. The covering on her forearms grew outward, forming a smooth exoskeleton that flared out towards her elbows.

Minerva zoomed at her at supersonic speeds, unleashing a flurry of precise, carefully controlled blows... mindful that one full-strength swing from her at that speed could take the head off even most superpowered mutants. It turned out she might as well not have pulled her punches; not a single one connected. With startling grace and efficiency of movement, Stiletto twisted just enough to keep her out of the path of Minerva's fists. The skin on her cheek took on a metallic sheen as it reflexively hardened against the rush of wind.

The heroine paused for a moment before launching another blinding barrage of blows, and in that moment Stiletto struck with an open-handed strike at her chest, a long, thin metal prong protruding from her palm like some high tech stigmata. Minerva braced herself against nothing more than the impact, knowing full well she was protected by a biological force field.

However, just as Stiletto's living metal had shrugged off Allison's psychokinesis, it ignored the energy barrier as if it wasn't there. For an instant the invisible shield flickered into view, dancing like St. Elmo's Fire all around Minerva's body as well as up and down the metallic casing of Stiletto's arm, and then it collapsed... as did Minerva, a small bloody stain on both the front and back of her earth toned toga-style tunic.

The spike retracted back into Stiletto's hand with an audible snap. She whirled around in time to administer a savage roundhouse kick to Lily, who had picked herself up out of the dirt and thrown herself at the assassin's back. Orange and black fur had sprouted from all over her body... her countenance was now as much tiger as human. She took the hit from the assassin's boot, rolled backwards, and immediately sprang at her again with unmatched savagery. Stiletto raised an arm to block her clawed hands, only to fall back gasping inarticulately as Lily's tiger claws rent the metal casing as easily as her metal had pierced Minerva's force field.

Dozens of small metal spikes sprouted from her other arm, which she waved in front of her, shedding the spikes in a wide arc. Lily leaped skywards, avoiding the volley... only to find herself targeted by a trio of wicked spear-like projectiles thrown by Stiletto's wounded arm. Even mid-air, she was able to twist her body to avoid two of them, but the third scored a graze against the inside of her leg, leaving a long, angry wound.

"I thought... I told you... to go," Minerva said shakily, pulling herself to her feet.

"Yeah," Lily said, grunting as she landed badly due to the injured leg. "Well, I'm not one for taking orders, or just letting some bitch wail on me."

"Not... what I heard," Minerva said, managing a broad wink and a rueful smile... though it was more grimace than smile. Her body was already at work closing the wound, but it wasn't a pleasant process.

Stiletto, standing between them, turned and took two steps backwards perpendicular to the line of battle, so she could square off against both of them. During the course of the battle, silver had seeped up the roots of her copper hair and down her Veronica Lake flip to hold it in place, giving her a metallic two-tone look. She looked incredibly unconcerned about the prospect of facing the two heroines at once.

"Yeah, what did you hear?" Lily asked. She stopped suddenly, her cat ears perking up as she realized she was hearing something.

Stiletto and Minerva heard it, too... each of the combatants froze in place for a moment. Stiletto once again moved with impossible speed, her hand popping up in front of her to snatch an arrow out of the air inches from her face.

No sooner had her fist frozen in place around it than it burst into flame, blinding her and causing the metal on her hand to twist and run. Stiletto shrieked inarticulately and waved her arm to beat out the flames. She succeeded, but not before her fingers were fused together. Her eyes had glazed over with silver completely.

"Looks like the calvary is here," Lily said.

Stiletto shook off the pain and forced the metal to flow around her disfigured hand, forming a long curving blade over the ruin of her fingers. She increased the thickness of the armor over her other arm. Her tight clothes shifted as metal plates grew beneath them as well.

"Cavalry," Minerva corrected, ducking under the scythe and executing a sweep kick, which Stiletto jumped lightly over.

"What did I say?" Lily asked, punching out at the leaping Stiletto's back... though the nimble assassin managed to reach behind her, grab hold of Lily's arm, and use her momentum to vault backwards over the were-tigress.

"Calvary," Minerva said, as the electric glow in her eyes began to build again.

"Well, what's that?" Lily asked, spinning around to rake her claws at the assassin as she landed... and missing.

"The hill where Christ was crucified," Minerva said, punctuating her remark with a concentrated lightning blast, which Stiletto dodged, even blinded.

"Isn't that..." Lily said, grunting as Stiletto snapped off a kick to her stomach, "...Golgotha?" Lily finished as she slumped forward.

"Golgotha is from the Aramaic word for skull, which is Calvaria in Latin," a soft, muffled voice said as a strong hand on Lily's armed helped her to her feet. "Though it is worth noting that the original scriptures make no mention of any hill."

"Yeah, well, it's all Greek to me," Lily said, turning her head just enough to see who stood beside her.

It was a strong, stocky figure in elaborate samurai regalia, though not quite like anything Lily had ever seen reproduced in a movie. The black lacquered helmet was of a familiar and distinctive shape, though with a strong reptilian motif... the two curving horn-like protrusions in the front being shaped like snakes. The samurai's face was covered by the image of a snarling warrior.

"It's actually kraniou topos in Greek," Minerva said. To the samurai, she said, "You were at the docks."

The samurai nodded, holding up a slightly curved, three foot long katana sword with a blade that glinted blue in the darkness.

"So you've been following me," Minerva said.

"You have friends who show much concern for you."

"Are you a friend, then?" Minerva asked.

"I am, and I am not," the samurai replied.

Through this exchange, Stiletto had been taking small steps backwards, again seeking a position she could hold against the now three opponents. Despite her injuries, her stance was still confident... even more so as the silvery coating melted away from her fast-recovering eyes. She surveyed the three heroes... Lily with open disdain, Minerva with a measure of respect, and the samurai... her eyes met the dark eyeholes in the pupils of the mask. She froze. Her own pupils widened almost imperceptibly.

The samurai drew a wakizashi sword and raised both weapons in an invitation, saying to Lily and Minerva, "You will be needed more inside than out here."

"Fuck that..." Lily started to say, but Minerva put her hand on her shoulder.

"Come on," she said. "That arrow did more damage than we managed together... we should catch up with the others."

The others had regrouped at the edge of the naval base. Dandy had been prepared to use her healing magic on Beau, but he recovered from the paralysis as soon as the metal pins were removed from his body.

"Jeez, I hope Minerva knows what she's doing," Dandy said.

"No kidding," Beau said. "I'd like to say that was a lucky shot... but..."

"Minerva's way above any of our power levels," Ford said. "Anybody who can give her trouble's in a class all their own."

"And Lily's there, too," Allison noted. "She's got to be good in a fight, right? I imagine she gets into a lot of them."

"Shit, what?" Dandy asked. "I thought she was with us."

"Uh, in case everybody forgot," Ford said, "we told Echo and Amy to crash through the front gate in ten minutes. Shouldn't we be there to meet them?"

"And Geppetto's got a hostage... not counting his mind controlled superheroes," Allison said. "Yeah, we really don't have a lot of choice here, Dandy."

Ford disappeared for a second with a soft popping sound which hadn't quite faded when he reappeared.

"The whole place is lit up like Times Square, but there's no signs of movement in any of the outbuildings," he said. "One side door in the big main warehouse or hangar is standing open... they did everything but roll out the red carpet for you."

"Then that's the way I'll go in," Allison said.

"Are you crazy?" Dandy asked. "It's probably a trap."

"I'm sure it is," Allison said. "So all eyes will be on me... while you guys make your own way in."

"Not to be all gallant or anything, but you're the one they want," Beau said. "It should be somebody else."

"They've got access to a military grade neural inhibiter they could use to just knock anybody out... but they don't dare use it on me," Allison said. "Chrysalid, remember? So I go... you guys watch from here to make sure the ambush isn't before the door... and the instant that I'm inside, you go around to the front and bust in."

"How instant are we talkin' here?" Ford asked, shooting a glance at Dandy.

"One of you can carry me, if you can be a gentleman about it," she said.

"You sure it wouldn't take both of us?" Beau said. "I mean, you're not exactly..."

"I can be a gentleman," Ford said quickly, cutting off his brother.

"Great," Allison said, levitating herself up and over the top of the twelve foot fence. "So... here goes everything."

"I hate getting separated from my sisters like this," Dandy fretted. "At least I can trust Willow to saunter in the opposite direction of trouble..."

"Looks like the telepath is coming in alone, sir," General Bedlam reported to Geppetto. "The speedsters and the lion woman are holding position outside the perimeter. The other Wisdom sister and the tiger woman are still tied up with your private contractor. The others haven't made their move yet."

"Reinforcements, or to tell the world if their allies fail?" Geppetto mused.

"I could send a detachment out to intercept them," Bedlam suggested.

"No... they have foolishly divided their forces, but we will not divide ours," Geppetto said. "Once we have the brain of a neural telepath, it won't matter what the world knows."

"Let's not get overconfident," Drosselmeier said. "Many a foolproof plan has failed due to arrogance."

"True," Geppetto said. "It wouldn't do for us to secure the last ingredient if we lost other critical components in the process. On that note, is Molly secure?"

"Her room is fully locked down, with an armed detail of guards in front of it," Bedlam said. "Nobody's getting in or out... and you'll be pleased to know that the ductwork in this facility is far too small for all that sneaking about the so-called heroes of the world favor."

"Excellent," Geppetto said.

In the unlit room behind the locked door, Miss Molly Dolly sat at her perpetual tea party, surrounded by shelves lined with toys that glowed an eerie green. On her lap was a sock monkey with a sinister, clownish smile sewn across its face. Her eyes, used to the darkness, saw the motion behind the grating before it popped free of the wall and the large black cat wriggled through, dropping not-quite-lightly to its feet on the floor.

"Hello, kitty," Molly said. "Do you want to play?"

"Always," a low, throaty voice purred from the shadows as the black shape of the cat grew larger.

In the darkness, Molly smiled. She set the sock monkey down on the table. It wobbled and rose up on its stumpy feet, raising its hand to show a rusty metal hook.

"I think that you must be a very bad kitty," she said as the monkey started forwards.

"I am a very awesome kitty," Willow said, crouching low on her hands and feet.

Allison made a beeline for the open door, keeping her eyes and mind open and ready for an attack that never came. The space immediately visible inside the base was lit with a low angry red light that made it difficult to distinguish details from the brightly lit exterior. As soon as she was inside, a steel shutter--not the ordinary door which was visible from the outside--slammed shut behind her. There was no opening at the other end. She jumped at the sound behind her... not literally as she was still floating, though she did actually rocket half a foot upwards... but she wasn't so distracted as to be taken completely by surprise when jets of gas hissed around the edges of the square room.

She knew it wasn't Lysenkol... but any number of "over the counter" knock out agents would work just as well. She gave a ferocious push with her mind, scooping up a moving wall of air into a wedge to sweep the gas ahead of her as she herself shot forward. The far end of the box popped off and she flew out into a much larger space... the trapped entrance appeared to have been fabricated around an existing entrance that lead into a big open floor.

The wall she'd plowed over flew into a crowd of thugs wearing large head-covering masks... helmets, really... in the likeness of oversized puppets... who'd been standing too close. Though they were bowled clean over, it hardly seemed to matter... there were scores of them arrayed around the room, their paramilitary uniforms and weapons standing in stark contrast to their whimsical faces, which the part of Allison's brain that wasn't simply sounding alarm bells recognized as Punch and Judy characters.

Scattered among them were other figures that Allison recognized... superpowered contestants from the reality show American Hero, now thralls of Geppetto: the strong women Bertha and Flex, the kinetic manipulator Slam, and the light-based mutant Hollywood.

Hovering above it all was Athena Wisdom, Minerva's twin... who currently possessed dangerous levels of power.

"Welcome, Mindfyre," blared a strong, cultured voice over the electronic crackle of a public address system. "I strongly advise you to surrender."