The sound of bickering voices reached my ears. "Come on, sugar, find the gizmo and let's get out of here!" I wasn't sure just who that was, but it was a woman's voice. No one I had the pleasure of meeting before.
I blinked my eyes, but the darkness remained. I couldn't feel anything covering up my eyes. The only thing that made sense was that I was actually in darkness. That explained why I couldn't make out any details. It felt like I was laying on the floor of the Situation Van. That was probable since that was the last place I had been. However, something was preventing me from moving. I tried to sit up, but was unable. It was as if the darkness itself was holding me down like some great weight. Even stranger, the Situation Van was moving!
Replaying the last few moments before awaking like this, I realized that I had never even seen the attack coming. Literally. While the Thugmaster's Elite launched their attack on the Situation Van, I figured I'd pop out the upper hatch and get the drop on them. I got out of the driver's seat and was knocked to the floor a second later, only to awaken later in this odd darkness.
"I'd find it if I could see it!", another woman shouted irritably in response to the first woman.
"Cut the chatter," a man's voice said, silencing the two women. "Sque, can you remove the darkness inside the van itself?"
"Just a moment, sugar. Let me get this clumsy ol' van onto a straightaway." I could feel the van turning, but without my sight I couldn't see where we were or where we were going.
Shaking the cobwebs out of my head, I called out to Jaime in my mind. "Jaime! Are you there?"
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Jess," Jaime telepathically shot back to me. "You've been sleeping for one minute fifty-two seconds."
"Fill me in on what I missed."
Jaime did better than that, she showed me video as well from the cargo plane's cameras. "The Elite moved in once you took off in the Situation Van. You drove smack dab into a field of darkness created by Shadow Queen."
"I remember-- I tried to drive through it."
"Bad move," Jaime chastised. "Shadow Queen used the darkness to lift the van up into the air, in effect stopping you cold."
"Right. Things went black a moment after that. What happened then?"
"I compute a 95% probability that Lightwave was the culprit. She can shrink to about one inch in height, can turn invisible and project light blasts."
"No wonder I didn't see it coming," I sent in agreement. "Being tiny and invisible is a nasty combination!"
"Shadow Queen and the Dark Knight entered the Situation Van and drove off. The really weird part is that the darkness moved with the van! Right now, I'd guess that Shadow Queen is behind the wheel."
"That explains why I can't see anything. What are FIST and Microwave doing?"
"Other members of the Elite ran interference," Jaime reported. "Chaos diverted FIST's attention. It was a brief, but brutal fight. Chaos got the worst of it."
"I'm not surprised."
"Dragonfly tried to slow down Microwave, but without much luck. She just turned herself into microwaves and flew right through him. Right now you're riding in a van surrounded by darkness speeding through Carson City being pursued by Microwave who is in turn being pursued by Dragonfly."
"Just another day at the office," I wryly remarked. "I've got to get loose and help stop these guys!"
Whatever was holding me was too strong for me to overpower, that much was certain. I always tended to rely on my mind rather than my muscles anyway. Okay, so I had to think my way out of whatever it was holding me down. As I thought, I turned my attention back to the Elite in the Van.
"There you go, darlin'."
"It's about damn time", the second woman muttered. "Look at all the junk in this place. How are we even going to be able to find this stupid thing?"
"Calm yourself, Lightwave. However you may have a point. None of us knows what this Resonance Imaging System even looks like."
"Then why not pop the Scarlet Bimbo out of Sque's pocket of darkness? Get her to give us the gizmo."
"Scarlet Bimbo?", I repeated silently to myself. "Gee, that was an original insult. She must have flunked Thugmaster's Supervillain Dialog 101." Still, that helped me nail down who I was with. Shadow Queen had to be at the wheel, Lightwave was the second woman, and the man was Dark Knight himself.
"She's out of our hair and I intend to keep her that way," the Dark Knight answered to Lightwave.
"Pity. I would have loved to help them out," I mused inside the pocket of darkness. Still there had to be some way out of this 'pocket of darkness'. Since brute force didn't seem to be the answer, I decided to try and slide out from underneath it. I used my feet to push off of the darkness itself and I could feel my body move a few inches. I couldn't be sure if I was moving or if the darkness was moving with me. But I had to try.
"Look out!", I heard Dark Knight shout. A second later, I heard what sounded like an energy blast coming from Microwave. No doubt she had caught up with the fleeing Situation Van. I heard a body hit the floor a moment later.
"Surrender villains and bring this vehicle to a halt!" Geez, I think Microwave needs to work on her dialog as well. But then again she never was one for stylish soliloquies.
I could hear a scuffle taking place, but was still helpless to do much about it. I pushed off once more, this time filled with more purpose. That seemed to do the trick as I could feel the pressure lifting from the darkness.
All at once I was back in the lighted world. The Dark Knight had knocked Microwave on her backside. I bet she wasn't expecting him to actually try and hit her! 'Wave is one of those sniper types who tend to hang around the edges of battles and pick targets off. Hand to hand combat is just not her style. The lack of space in the Situation Van had limited her options.
Shadow Queen was more intent on driving than getting involved in a fight. That was good as I certainly didn't want the Situation Van to be involved in an accident!
Microwave was on the floor, apparently still dazed by the direct assault. Dark Knight stood over her menacingly. Lightwave was on the floor as well, seemingly stunned.
No one was paying me any notice, so I had the advantage. I sprung into air, twisted and came down feet first on the back of the Dark Knight. The force of the impact threw him forward and the villain landed on top of Microwave. As I had planned, I landed near the communications area of the Situation Van. Reaching out, I activated the homing signal.
"Come on over, Jaime!", I said to my alter ego. The homing signal locked onto the cargo plane. The communication link in place, Jaime would now be able to transfer herself into the Situation Van's computer.
"On my way!", was her response.
While Jaime was in transference, I turned my attention back to the Elite. Microwave and Dark Knight were still in a tangle on the floor. Lightwave was starting to get up, but a swift kick to her breadbasket laid her out again.
Up front, Shadow Queen was keeping one eye on the road and one eye on me. "I told those dunces to just throw you out!" Suddenly, we were all surrounded by darkness once more. "There, now I'm in my own element again!"
Being shrouded in darkness again was annoying. But at least this time I had a general idea of my surroundings. I could imagine the layout of the Situation Van in my head and what I knew to be the last location of its occupants.
Ignoring Shadow Queen, I turned back to where I left the Dark Knight and Microwave. Unexpectedly, a leg swung into mine and I dropped to the floor, landing on the two prone combatants.
"I'm here!", Jaime telepathically informed me. "Overriding manual controls now."
"Hey! No fair!", Shadow Queen yelled in surprise. "The engine just shut down! We're stopping!" The villainess vainly tried to turn the ignition key but nothing happened. Jaime put the Situation Van in park and locked the steering wheel in place. "You stupid piece of junk!" Shadow Queen slammed her fists on the steering wheel to little effect.
One of the bodies I was laying on top of simply vanished, no doubt Microwave changing into her namesake. That could only mean that I was left with the Dark Knight. I blindly threw a punch and it connected with what I guessed to be his leg.
"Yeow!", Shadow Queen screamed once more. "Microwave can see inside the darkness!" The field of darkness was no hindrance to Microwave and her unique eyesight. The only thing that stopped those eyes of hers were materials that microwaves could not penetrate. Once separated from Dark Knight and with the Van stopped, she was free to go after Shadow Queen. "I'm getting out of here, darlin'! This is a lost cause!"
All at once, the darkness lifted. The Dark Knight quickly got to his feet and rushed towards the exit. "Fall back!", he cried out. I leaped forward, but missed the fleeing villain. Lightwave faded from view, either shrinking or turning invisible.
I reached the door, followed by the now solid Microwave and opened the door just in time to see one of the Dark Knight's throwing disks explode a few feet away. The force of the impact knocked both of us from our feet. By the time we regained our wits, the villains were out of sight.
"At least we stopped them from getting their hands on the RIS," Microwave offered.
"Yeah, that's something." However, I wasn't pleased. That was twice now that I had been overpowered during this mission. A trend that I didn't wish to see continued.
FIST arrived not long afterwards. He homed in on the same signal Jaime used to transfer to the Situation Van. With the cargo plane all secured, she would now ride in the Van itself. Microwave smoothed over things with the local authorities. Finally, we were ready to continue on to the mine.
Microwave drove part of the way, I the rest of it. The trip out of Carson City and to the mine was pleasantly uneventful. Night had fallen by the time we had arrived. Microwave made dinner while I unpacked the RIS units and prepared them for the test. FIST finally did help by setting up the RIS monitoring station. Jaime ran the finally system checks faster than any human could have. Everything was a go and the test began.
The three probes were pulled from their storage place. The cases were set outside and opened. At Jaime's instructions, the probes rose into the air and flew into the mine. Once inside, they linked to each other and went off in different directions. The process was working. A three-dimensional image of the mine was rapidly forming on our computer screen.
"So far, so good," I offered.
"That's wonderful," Microwave said. "Sheryl has high hopes for this project."
FIST just grumbled and went back inside the Situation Van. That's about as much of a compliment as you'll get out of him.
With Jaime monitoring the test, me and Microwave set up several perimeter alarms. We seemed to be all alone in the area around the mine, but we felt the extra security was needed considering the two previous attempts at theft. With everything going smoothly, Microwave and myself caught up on our sleep. Jaime was there to monitor everything and FIST no longer needed much in the way of rest.
"Incoming!!", Jaime screamed into my mind. Her sudden message jolted me out of my sleep.
"What--? What's going on?", I asked Jaime back, forcing myself to sit up on the couch I had been napping on. A second later, a small explosion rattled the area. The blast had been close by, less than fifty feet from the Situation Van.
"That's what's going on," Jaime explained. "The motion detectors have picked up guests. I'm searching for them with the cameras right now."
"The probes?"
"Functioning within operating parameters," Jaime reported. "Approximately, two hours, four minutes, and 51 seconds remaining in the test."
The explosion had wakened Microwave as well. Groggily, she sat up on the other couch, looking most confused. "Trouble?"
"Looks that way. Up and at'm, Beth. This mission isn't over yet." Donning my gear and my mask, I made my way to the van's door. FIST was already outside, no doubt Jaime had alerted him of what she detected before informing me. When she spotted the missile that caused the explosion approaching, she woke me up. Microwave rose from the couch, stretched a bit and then pulled her hood over her head.
It was still night outside. FIST stood close by scanning the area. His armor's ultraviolet sensory abilities would compensate for the lack of light. Microwave, in the meantime, was as hindered as I was. Her unique vision allowed her to see though objects or even artificial fields of darkness like the one Shadow Queen had generated. But that was during the daytime-- 'Wave still needed the actual daylight to see things by.
"I'm getting motion coming from the southwest," Jaime reported. "Five men on motorcycles, I believe."
"Visitors from the southwest," I informed my teammates. FIST simply strode around the corner of the Situation Van to scan in that direction. Microwave turned intangible and then flew directly through the van. Me, I just peaked around the corner. I was very vulnerable in this situation, so keeping behind cover seemed prudent. Since I couldn't see incoming attacks as easily, it would be much more difficult for me to deflect them with my sabre. Of course, it would depend on the kind of weapons they were packing too. Bullets would almost be impossible spot.
Off to the southwest, five headlights steadily grew larger. Then they opened fired! Blaster fire was sent towards the Microwave, but since she was intangible it passed harmlessly through her and struck the side of the Situation Van. The vehicle's armor withstood the attacks with ease.
"It's VIPER," FIST announced. He raised his left gauntlet and fired one of the grenades stored therein. The projectile exploded before the lead riders, sending them sprawling to the ground. The remaining three men continued forward, seemingly unconcerned about their comrades.
"Well why not?" I offered. "We've been attacked by just about everyone else, why not VIPER?"
The riders drew near and then suddenly veered off, turning to the southeast. Several of them fired at FIST, but did no damage to my armored ally. Microwave, now solid, fired a blast at one of the fleeing VIPERs, knocking him off his motorcycle upon impact.
Unexpectedly, new fire came from the direction that the snakes were heading in! Twice the snipers struck Microwave. Her force field provides good protection, but in this situation the white aura it generates made her a great target. In the darkness it had shown like a beacon. The blasts knocked her out of the air and into the side of the Situation Van. She got up right away as it would take more than that to stop Microwave.
In my mind's eyes, I could see Jaime training the Situation Van's camera off in the direction the sniper fire came from. A night sight filter was already in place and I could make out many more details now. Off in the distance, hidden among the rocks, were more VIPER agents. I relayed the information to my teammates.
"Two can play that game," FIST announced. In addition to his own night sight filter, the armor could also magnify FIST's vision. Locating the snipers, FIST fired another concussion grenade at them. I could see his device explode in their midst, sending the snipers scattering. That should keep them out of our hair for a moment.
I played with various scenarios in my mind. The mounted VIPERs were not much of threat to us-- perhaps they were not meant to be. Maybe a lure? Make us chase them, leaving the Situation Van unguarded. Playing my hunch, I moved back towards the van.
"Intruder inside the van," Jaime mentally alerted me. "It's the Cheshire Cat! He just teleported in."
"So that's what all this is about. They wanted us out of the van so he could teleport in, get the RIS and teleport out before we realized what was going on!" Of course, VIPER was unaware of the existence of Jaime. As always, she was my wildcard in the hole alerting me to things that I would otherwise be unaware of.
VIPER's plan of attack was very well thought out. Unfortunately, they assumed the RIS probes were in the van. They were not. The devices were still doing the survey of the mine and so were somewhere deep in the earth. They probably figured that no activity at the van meant no test in progress. The best laid plans of mice and snakes...
Another wave of snakes on hogs came roaring in from the northeast, the opposite direction of the first. While my teammates played with 'Hell's VIPERs', I entered the Situation Van. Jaime relayed the Cheshire Cat's location to me. He was searching our storage nook, undoubtedly for the probes. With his back to the door, I was able to enter unnoticed. The blaster fire from outside masked any sounds I made.
Jaime brought up her file on the Cheshire Cat. He was a martial artist specializing in Jiu-Jitsu and Akido. His costume was little more than a martial arts practice uniform with the addition of scarf mask, much like mine. The only real super power he had was the ability to teleport. I wondered if when he did disappear his teeth were the last to go...
"Excuse me, this is private property." I struck your typical heroic pose and waited for the inevitable assault.
The Cheshire Cat turned and grinned. "And here I thought this was going to be boring...." The VIPER supervillain suddenly lunged towards me, putting his best foot forward. Literally.
Jaime was right! This guy was fast, nearly as fast as I was. Fortunately, I had been expecting an attack and ducked under the flying kick. This guy was a pro and needed to be taken out fast.
As I dropped to the floor, the Cat sailed over and landed behind me. I pirouetted, threw my right leg out and kicked Cheshire off of his feet. He land hard on his back with a grunt. Continuing with my motion, I turned once more on my left foot, drew my sabre and rose to stand over my prone foe.
"Go ahead-- make my day," I told him, my sabre pointed directly at him. Not the most original line, but hey, sometimes you say dumb things in the heat of battle.
He sneered back at me. How predictable. "This ain't over!", he informed me and then vanished. I'll be darned! His teeth were the last to go! Cool!
"Uhm, Jess--?', Jaime thought to me. "I think we have a new problem..." In my mind's eye, I could see the view through the van's camera. In it, a jet was firing its VTOL thrusters and landing close by. It was the Iron Maiden jet again!
"This is what I get for wanting some excitement in my life!" I rushed out of the Situation Van and alerted Microwave. Beth continued to guard the Situation Van. FIST had flown off after the motorcycle VIPERs and was generally ruining their day.
"Microwave!", I shouted to my teammate. "Mentalla is back!"
"Do you ever have any good news, Scarlet?"
"Not really. We've got to take her down hard and fast or this could all get very messy."
"Agreed. We can use the darkness to our advantage." Microwave dropped her force field and flew off into the night. Without that white aura, she blended more into the darkness. She might be able to get at Mentalla with surprise.
As I watched, I could hear another missile being fired, much like the one that VIPER had used to rouse us earlier. However, this time the snakes fired it at the Iron Maiden jet! It was a direct hit on the craft. It's VTOL thrusters flickered a few times and then cut out all together. The jet crashed to the desert floor with a loud thud!
I could only wait for the time being. Rushing off into the darkness didn't serve any purpose at the moment. I got reports from Jaime about FIST's progress. Microwave had flown behind some outcroppings on her way towards the IM jet and was currently out of sight.
Time passed. I could hear sounds of combat off in the distance. No VIPERs had been in the area for some time now, not even the Cheshire Cat. The noise died down, until there was an uneasy silence.
"Beth's coming back," Jaime told me telepathically. I could see Beth flying back towards the Situation Van, her white force field in place.
"I've got a bad feeling about this...", I muttered to myself. I hate it when I get those kind of feelings. Mentalla was flying a short distance behind Microwave. I could only assume that Beth was under Mentalla's control. "Alert FIST, get our surprise ready, and let's go silent."
I assumed that Jaime understood as her voice was no longer in my head.
Turning back to the direction Microwave was approaching from, I prepared my sabre and myself for what lay ahead. Beth landed about twenty feet before me, Mentalla another fifteen feet back.
"I'm sorry, Scarlet," Microwave announced. "I'm not--"
"I know," I answered. "It'll be all right. Trust me."
"I don't know how you survived, but no one tricks Mentalla!" I could see that Mentalla was her regular pleasant self. No doubt she preferred to be pulling the strings then to be the one getting their string pulled. I had managed to trick her earlier and survive her trap. Now she had Microwave doing her bidding. That seemed to be a trait of Mentalla's-- she had others do her bidding. Probably didn't like getting her hands dirty.
"Sorry about that, Mentalla," I said in a mocking tone. "I figured that you'd be used to be deceived by now. Not like it's hard or anything."
That had the desired effect. "Kill her!", Mentalla screamed at Microwave. Beth was fighting the mind control as hard as she could, but it wasn't enough. I could sympathize having been in her place not too long ago.
I could see tears forming in Microwave's eyes as her trembling hands rose and pointed towards me. Beth is one of the nicest of people you could hope to meet. Normally she wouldn't harm a fly. I can't imagine her ever using lethal force on anyone. She strained, trying to fight the command but could not resist.
In spite of appearances, things were working out pretty well. Since Mentalla preferred to act through puppets, which meant that she was using her powers to control Microwave. Meaning that she wouldn't be attacking me directly with her attention focused on Beth. Now if only Jaime would act at the precise moment...
Microwave generated her maser blast and fired away. A split second later, Jaime activated the sonic gizmo that I had whipped up yesterday. Our files indicated that it should do some damage to Mentalla. An intense burst of sound filled the area.
The maser reached me and I deftly reflected it with my sabre and sent it streaking towards Mentalla! The sonic burst had caught Mentalla off guard. Her mind control of Microwave faded at that moment. The villainess tried to raise her hands to her ears but never made it.
The maser struck Mentalla hard. Her force field blocked some of it, but what got through sent the villainess flying backwards some dozen or so feet. FIST flew overhead a moment later, as if on cue, which he probably was since Jaime had summoned him. It's a good thing that we are, literally, of the same mind. She knew what needed to be done and performed at the proper moment.
Mentalla rolled back and forth in a daze. Groggily, she tried to sit up. FIST would have none of that. Firing his laser, he put Mentalla down for good.
Microwave fell to her knees and cried, once freed of Mentalla's mind control. "I'm sorry, Scarlet--', she sobbed. "I tried-- I tried to fight it, but I couldn't..."
Seeing that Mentalla was no longer a threat, I went to comfort Microwave. "I know you did, Beth. She's too powerful. You've got nothing to be ashamed of." I held her for a time until she regained her composure.
The VIPER Agents and Iron Maiden's goons ended up neutralizing each other as they fought over who could capture the RIS. FIST cleaned up whatever was left of them.
Jaime had summoned PRIMUS to the scene. They arrived a few hours after sunrise. The thugs were easy to deal with. Mentalla was a different case. We securely bound her. Our knowledge of mental powers is pretty much limited to the link me and Jaime share. Figuring that she needs to make eye contact, we blindfolded Mentalla added a gag for good measure. It was obvious that she needed to speak to order her victims around.
FIST provided a steady diet of sleeping gas grenades to make sure that Mentalla didn't regain her wits. Microwave liberally added her stun beam as well. Not the nicest thing to do to someone, but this was one case where we couldn't risk letting Mentalla recover.
The boys from PRIMUS took Mentalla with them and I can't say I was sorry to see her go. They placed her in a special transportation box. If you ask me, the thing looked like a coffin. It was essentially a metal box. Mentalla was strapped down inside the box and then the lid was locked on. A supply of sleeping gas would keep Mentalla helpless for the trip.
That out of the way, we could finally wrap up this project. Beth was still an emotional wreck, so FIST gave her a sedative and we let her rest. Jaime had completed the RIS test in the meantime. The devices were retrieved and placed into storage. We gathered up our equipment and returned to Carson City without further incident.
FIST loaded the RIS probes into the team jet. He would fly them back to New York City and I would follow in the cargo plane. Microwave flew back with me. It was a few weeks before she was her old self again. Mentalla's mind control really shook her to the core of her being.
And so that brought one of my more bizarre adventures to a close. There are other tales of course. But those are for another day.
