[Start of Part Three]
Dangerousgirl wasn't particularly used to being a punching bag -- especially from someone whose fists hit like jackhammers the way Mirror Maid-- *Reflects's* fists did. If Dangerousgirl had been a normal person, by now she'd be a sack of broken bones. As it was, it wasn't to that point yet. Of course, since the other guy was making Dangerousgirl feel excruciating systemic body-wide pain, she had no idea how badly off she was.
"You always thought you were better than all of us," Reflects hissed. "I admit it freely, *Dani!* I'm *enjoying* this!" She hit again, and then again. "The best part? You could probably explode or something, but unlike your *brother* no one ever taught you about acceptable losses! So even though we're killing the Mobsters you won't detonate because you won't risk their lives!" She hit again, and again, and *again--*
"--least I know how to DRRESSS." Dangerousgirl managed to say while being smashed back down into the rubble. She grabbed around herself -- find a weapon-- no, that was dumb. Any attack would just bounce off Reflects! She had to--
Wait... acceptable losses....
Dangerousgirl's head snapped back with an uppercut, followed by a chest punch that didn't do her ribs any favors. She grabbed at something -- twisted metal? Rebar? *Perfect!* Thank God Mime Man had reinforced Stately Ward when it had become the headquarters of a superteam. She clenched the metal and let her hand *burn,* bringing it to white hot in moments, energy searing around and through it.
"What's that supposed to be, *Dani?*" Reflects spat. "What makes you think that'll help you?"
"Help me? Fah! Right now I'm saving your *boyfriend's* life, you idiot!*" She scrabbled back slightly, pressing her agony ridden body against the wall.
"What do you mean?" Reflects had her hand cocked back -- probably waiting for a kill blow.
"Simple! I've ju-" Dangerousgirl spit out blood. "Just supersaturated this rod with enough radiation to cook Detroit. I'm containing it with a field, but if I let go--"
"What? It'll start a fire? Ask me if I care!"
"Wrong! It'll release massive ionising radiation! Gamma waves! Beta particles! The whole nine yards! And at this distance -- whoever that guy is? He'll take a massive dose in seconds! Not the 'hospitalize' type of dose either." Dangerousgirl smiled savagely. "They call it the walking ghost stage! He'll feel just fine... and within twelve hours he'll have died the worst death you can imagine! And there's no cure! None! It's why I have to wear this suit all the time -- so I don't kill everyone around me with my bodacious bod!"
"What?" the man shouted. "Are you insane? You'll -- you'll kill Melody Pernicious!"
Dangerousgirl laughed, shaking her head. "I lose here she's dead anyway! But this way you die with her. So -- gonna punch me, *Reflects?* Gonna keep making me feel *pain,* creeper-dude? Think carefully!" She held the glowing rod up, orange energies churning around it. "I can only b-barely keep the field up as it is...."
The man's eyes grew wider. "S-stop her! Kill her--"
"Go for it, Reflects. Kill me. Kill Melody. Kill *that guy.* One punch and everybody dies!"
"...no...." Reflects whispered, absolute terror in her eyes. "...not him... not Sensation...."
"Sensation? *Really?* Who names you people? Literalman?"
"...I... I...." Sensation looked panicked. "All right! All right... just... just.... don't let go of that!"
The pain left Dangerousgirl's body. The relief and endorphin rush meant she didn't feel the pain from the real damage just yet--
"Thank you," Dangerousgirl said, breathing out and concentrating... and fired a microburst into the base of the bookshelf behind Sensation. He screamed, turning in time to be crushed under a truly huge number of books and several hundred pounds of oak.
"*No!*" Reflects shouted.
Dangerousgirl felt pain as she breathed in, but it was real pain -- weirdly way easier to deal with. "Wow," she said. "You know, I always ragged on you as one of the kiddies, Maria? But I had no idea -- I mean the Brats have their problems but you're just *stupid!*"
Reflects's head snapped around. "What?!"
Dangerousgirl grinned, dropping the metal. It started a fire where it hit, but a half-second's concentration snuffed that out.
"No! You'll kill--"
"I didn't *really* irradiate the rod, stupid! God it's like you're *five years old.*" Dangerousgirl kicked back, letting a burst hurl her in the air and outside the building through the hole she came in through.
"*I'LL KILL YOU!*" Reflects screamed, face twisted in rage as she charged after her onto the lawn, not quite stumbling in her thigh-high boots--
Dangerousgirl landed with a concussive *whump.* Perfect - she was taking the bait. "I'd be worried but you're dressed like a virgin thinks a porn star dresses! I can't take you seriously in that! Here -- let me help!"
So saying, Dangerousgirl's eyes glowed, and then streams of incandescent nuclear fire burst out of them, sweeping over Reflects. Where most of Dangerousgirl's blasts were concussive with some heat, the radiation subtracted before the energies left her body, this was almost pure plasma fire -- no radiation, almost no kinetic force, but incredibly hot! It splayed off Reflects's mirror field in all directions of course. That was what the mirror force did. Some of it even flew back into Dangerousgirl's face -- though she was immune. Of course... it hit more than the field mirror field. It seared grass, for example, and incinerated a couple of hapless foundation plants. Dangerousgirl had angled it so little if any of it hit Stately Ward Manor itself, but the building was reinforced. it could take it. And of course, it hit a few other things....
With a shriek, Reflects felt her feet slide out from underneath her, hitting the grass but still sliding forward with all the same inertia she had before. She scrabbled to stop herself, but the silver field that surrounded her meant she couldn't grab dirt or grass... and Dangerousgirl's blast had managed to sear all the cloth and material of Reflects's costume off her body, leaving her naked and frictionless as she slid across the field. Her 'Mirror Maid' costume had been designed to be as durable as possible -- Dangerousgirl figured Random Encounters wouldn't have Phobos's resources, and clearly she was right.
Dangerousgirl blasted up into the air and back before Reflects could slide into her, turning in mid-air, focusing her energies and *detonating* as she hit the ground, creating a shockwave around herself and enough heat to fuse the soil and dirt, leaving a deep, slick glasslike bowl in its wake. She then launched herself back up and kicked herself forward. As she figured -- the shockwave had knocked Reflects off course. She angled to land on the other side, maximizing concussion in her landing, so that another shockwave caused the frictionless villain to be pushed back straight towards the bowl--
Reflects shrieked again as she slid down into the bowl. Dangerousgirl held her breath for a moment -- had she dug it deep enough? She saw Reflects slide up the other side, almost emerging...
And sliding back down. And then back up the other side, then back and forth, helplessly sliding on the smooth silicon surface Dangerousgirl had made.
"Thanks for playing, Reflects! And rethink your costume supplier while you're down there! The whole Jean Grey Black Queen thing? Has been *done.*" Dangerousgirl kicked back off into the air, leaving Reflects to helplessly try and get purchase on the sides of the bowl.
***
There were several floors and miles of hallway at Stately Ward Manor. You had to be pretty impressive before you got the 'Stately' in front of your name, after all. And, given the nature of the opposition he was facing, it made sense that Random Encounters had built up his resources so he could flood them all with wandering groups of monsters, enemies, mobs or what have you. All ready to run for the main hall at his command, and stop anyone along the way if need be. And with them, of course, were just enough actual flunkies, super-powered or not, to make things 'interesting,' if by interesting one meant 'annoying as Hell.'
It's worth noting, after all, that Random Encounters had tried to kill the Mob before. He'd been their first enemy back in the Teen Team days. He'd been their most persistent enemy. As mentioned above, his mutagenic gas had been directly responsible for the creation of Matchstick -- later Hellfire -- and the trapping of Mirror Maid in a mirror force prison that cut her off from all tactile sensation. He'd empowered other villains, and they'd tried to kill the Mob, and they'd failed, over and over again. So it perhaps makes sense that this time he wouldn't kid around. Not only had he used Maria Mendez -- the Mirror Maid, now Reflects -- as the agent of betrayal, tailoring the destruction of each Mob member through the use of their most personal secrets... he had also called on as many forces -- summoned or hired -- as he could. This time there wouldn't be a last second reprieve. This time they would *die.*
Had he known Dangerousgirl, Healer and the Dash were showing up, he'd have gone into heavy hock to prepare. But he didn't know, now did he?
The Dash had taken down dozens of enemies on the grounds, and was working her way through the building -- hitting monsters and mercenaries alike fast and hard, before they could respond. As powerful as she was, of course, she wasn't *all* powerful -- and enough of those enemies were real flesh and blood that she couldn't go all out without killing them.
Still, that didn't change the green blur that rocketed up one corridor and down another, flipping criminals and hurling orcs into walls in the blink of an eye. Given enough time, it was unquestionable that she'd clear the enemies out once and for all.
The question was... how much time did she have?
***
There were just two more closed doors -- giant ones, of course, because 'Stately Manor' and all. And they were locked. But on the other side....
On the other side... it was like Momentum could feel her friends *dying.* ((We have to get through there,)) she thought at Healer.
}{Yes we do. But we only get one take at this.}{
((Pop the door?))
}{Take too long to set the charges and if you hit the door at speed fragments could hit some of the Mobsters. We have to get the door open. *Quietly.*}{
So saying, Healer withdrew a credit card, which she proceeded to snap in half. The first half she slid down along the seal between the doors, feeling where the bolt was, and then left the card chunk there to cut through them with a low powered thermal pulse. The other half she split off into strips which concealed hooks, rods and levers, which she used to go to work on the locks themselves.
((...and you can *pick locks?* Do you have any idea how annoying locks are to a thief?))
}{I thought you weren't a criminal any more,}{ Healer sent back with a slight smile.
((I'm not. But you never stop being a thief -- you just start stealing for great justice.))
}{Gods help me, I'm trapped in a Don Bellisario television pilot.}{
((Nah. Neither one of us was born on August 8th or served in the military.))
}{I was literally a government spy.}{
((Which is not the *military.* Try to keep up.)) Momentum shook her hands, trying to keep loose -- nervous.
}{So are you looking for lockpicking instruction?}{ Healer's mental voice was tense with the mission but otherwise sounded amused.
((Are you kidding? I know how to pick locks. I'd crack that in half your time. I'm just surprised *you* do.)) Momentum smirked.
There was a clicking sound -- it sounded incredibly loud to Momentum, but didn't seem to attract attention beyond. She wasn't sure how she knew that -- probably Healer's senses bleeding through.
}{Okay. I'm going to open the door slowly, while obfuscating it. We need to keep under wraps while we assess the situation. Work?}{
((Work.)) Momentum felt Healer's telepathy wrap around her like a cloak, making her shiver with nervousness -- but it didn't seem to be penetrating--
Healer looked over her shoulders, surprised. }{You *felt* that?}{
((Huh? Yeah. Why?))
Healer paused for a moment. }{Later. For now, let's save everyone while we can.}{
Momentum opened her mouth as if to argue -- despite not speaking out loud -- then nodded curtly.
***
The Dash barrelled down the main hall of the fourth floor. Almost all the enemies were down, which meant she could get down to the ballroom/hallway/big room rich people had and work on freeing the Mob without being worried about their flank. She knew that Healer and Momentum had been taking out others -- it was looking good. She smiled -- Random Encounters might have been random, but he wasn't any kind of tactical genius. This was going to be easy--
The Dash sped around a corner -- empty hall with door at the end. She raced down towards that door--
And suddenly was *engulfed* by *ooze,* as the tactile bastard child of jello instant gelatin and a third grader's infected snot enclosed her, lifting her up and searing into her with acid!
The Dash was originally Jane West Garrick-Allen, a scientist, biochemist and geek. She knew Dungeons and Dragons is what I'm saying. They were old friends. Dungeons and Dragons had been the date night she hadn't otherwise had -- the guys and girls she played with her peer group.
She was a nerd, in other words. That's my basic point. She also could whistle the entire Song of Time from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time from memory, but given her speed it pretty much just made dogs howl when she tried. I digress, of course.
Needless to say, the Dash knew a few things about wandering dungeon monsters -- the archetype of the random encounters their opponent took his name from. She absolutely knew a gelatinous cube when it started eating her. As she struggled and attempted to get enough of a purchase to bring her speed to bear, she reflected inwardly on the lesson of hubris and the invocation of Murphy even if it was just in one's heart. It was a fair cop, in other words. Hideous and wrong, but acceptable.
Of course, when the green slime fell off the wall, engulfing the cube and just waiting for her to make it outside of its gelatinous body so *it* could eat her? That was clearly just cheating. Bad form all around, by gum. What was next? Gray Ooze? Black Pudding? Just ridiculous.
***
Doctor Unstable's smile grew as the quad-probes thrummed. "That's it," he crooned to the screaming AI. "I can see your cohesion rippling. I can see your structure beginning to separate. I think... I think I can even see your individual nanite elements beginning to show themselves. That is *amazing.* You are an absolute wonder. I hope you know that. You shouldn't die without knowing that."
The screams had long since stopped being coherent. He imagined she was still screaming things at him, but the systems that let her communicate outside the console that had been her creche and home were degraded far beyond the point where that could work. He didn't know if she could still hear him or not, but he kept talking anyway. It would be cruel to let her discorporate alone.
Not that Doctor Unstable was incapable of cruelty, of course. He just didn't feel like it, today. "Yes... you are amazing, Jennifer. That is what Jenny is short for, isn't it? Or is it? You know, I guess I don't know." He chuckled. "I doubt it matters anymore. I will mourn your passing... as I would mourn the melting of a perfect snowflake, or a song sung by a dying poet, unrecorded in its perfection. I will hold this memory forever, my beautiful AI. Take that with you to whatever oblivion awaits electronic death." He chuckled. "And say hello to my Dreamcast when you get there. I still miss it so much." He had melted the Dreamcast with radioactive acid after his so-called friend deigned to beat his time in a Crazy Taxi run, but details weren't important now. Thinking about it, he was relatively sure he'd also melted the so-called friend, but that was different. People were everywhere. Dreamcasts were special.
He paused. *Had* he owned a Dreamcast? Did those exist? Did those exist *yet?* It was hard to keep track. Oh well.
He heard distant explosions. Mm. That was trouble. Still, it hardly mattered. Even if they caught him he would succeed. He began to set up the transceiver. When the Nanites and the broken code of their custodian flooded into the quad-probes, he would use the rerigged transmat to send them to his hidden vault. Then, when next he escaped, his work could begin.
So close. Sooooo close. He looked into the chaos of letters and pixels on the screen. He wondered if he could still see her face -- like one of those Magic Eye puzzles. Those always gave him headaches, though. No, better to just make sure things were going right. He looked at the monitors, and began establishing the link -- watching the nanites get pulled and distorted and the code that held and embodied them get torn and transcoded. *So* close.
So beautiful.
***
The doors slid open, and Momentum and Healer slipped inside. Momentum looked around -- there were dozens of monsters in here now -- two different T-Rexes. Goblins everywhere. A roving pack of disaffected teenagers. Loincloth clad barbarian babes with battleaxes. It was like watching the love child of a Frank Frazetta painting and a death metal album come to life.
And at the edge -- the man himself. Random Encounters. Laughing. Thrilled.
No sign of Maria... but then there didn't need to be, as she began to see... Burt, in his Mime Man costume but without makeup, trapped in an invisible box he was desperately trying to escape as it got smaller and smaller. Tim, in a corner -- a spike in his gut letting him bleed as he stared forward, a four-legged brain monstrosity perched on his head cutting him off from the world, from his wife.... from everything, even as he stared at a nightmare she didn't want to think about. Mighty Dog, reduced to whimpering, some kind of industrial press pushing what looked like a metal rod holding a red hot piece of metal--
No. Not a rod. A branding iron. Red hot... and made of Paisley Heliumite, searing into the Mightiest Dog Around's fur and flesh. Momentum felt sick, looking further... no sign of Roger or Hellfire, but then Healer had said they were somewhere else. Phobos -- she couldn't even bear to look at him. Samantha -- where was Samantha--
She saw her then. On the ground, twitching, chest desperately working, forcing tiny amounts of air into her lungs. Skin swollen.
((...omigod....))
}{Momentum, we need to... *Momentum.*}{
Momentum snapped her attention back to Healer -- who looked angrier than she ever believed a person could be, but held that anger in focus. }{They're all alive -- but some only barely. If we go for them, the enemies will crack us. Focus on the ground enemies. I'll take on the bigger ones. If you get a chance, try to get Mighty Dog out of that thing. He'll recover the fastest. Beyond that, priority is Samantha.}{
((--Burt and Tim--))
}{Burt's in one of his own constructs. Even at full speed you can't break him out of that, but Charlie *can.* He does it all the time. Tim... I have to rescue Tim. Remember -- take out the ground forces. If you can take down Random Encounters, great -- but he's *secondary.* Right now we need to clear a path so we can keep the Mobsters *alive* and let Dangerousgirl and the Dash back us up when they get clear. Right?}{
Momentum looked around herself. It was like something out of her nightmares. Like something--
No, she couldn't think about that right now.
}{Alice?}{
Momentum turned back and looked at Healer, not quite trembling.
}{You can do this. I believe in you. And so do all your friends.}{ She smiled, despite her own fear and anger.
((...let's nail these bastards...)) Momentum sent back, very quietly.
}{No.}{ Healer's mental voice was firm. Was certain. Was *sure.* }{Let's save the day.}{
((...absolutely.))
}{Apologies for the indiscretion.}{
((Wha--))
Healer unzipped the top of her uniform partway -- Momentum noticed it looked like had layered panels underneath -- and removed several small ceramic clips on her sports bra's straps. She zipped back up, took a deep breath, and began running forward towards the monsters, throwing her hands to either sides, the clips going flying.
The explosions were sharp, like M-80s, dispersing and even melting a couple of the monsters into light, even as she rippled into view, taking down a barbarian with a snap kick, then wheeling down to the floor with a leg sweep that bowled two over. She kicked up, the heels extending on her boots with a snap and driving into two goblins' chins. She rolled forward, snapping the heels off and wheeling around herself, hitting monsters with the end of the heels -- each one packing a taser of not inconsiderable power.
Momentum was a speedster. There's no doubt about that. But she was, after all, human. And humans could be surprised into not moving for a long moment, even as Random Encounters began to scream for the creatures to take Healer down, and one T-Rex roared. She blurred into speed, her own invisibility melting away as she blew through a pack of goblins with a rush of wind and arms extended in the 'clothesline' position. But despite her anger, her fear, her disgust, and her terror, the only battle cry she could think of was "WHAT KIND OF PERSON CLIPS BOMBS TO HER *BRA STRAP?*"
"You wanted to know!" Healer shouted back, tasing another Barbarian into oblivion while side-kicking a disaffected teenager right in the ennui. She looked up at the T-Rex that was thundering towards her, her mind stretching out, finding its perceptions -- it didn't have an actual *mind* of course, but it could still perceive, and those perceptions acted like any other nervous system, which meant she could work with them.
The monster was bearing down on the red-and-white clad heroine, only to have her seemingly swell up to his own size. Stepping back warily, he saw Healer scream a roar of defiance at him and charge. Naturally, he charged back, and the battle was on, the heroine tearing at his arm with her powerful jaws.
Down on the ground, Healer rolled, letting a visual image of her continue rolling to the side while she actually rolled forward. In the back of her head she could 'see' the two T-Rexes attempt to kill each other, each seeing the other as Healer -- which meant from her point of view two giant versions of herself were trying to eat each other while slapping at one another with little tiny arms.
((...as disturbing as that is? There *has* to be an internet audience for it!)) Momentum thought in her direction, even as she wove and blurred between several goblins, barbarians and teenagers, jabbing, punching, kicking, throwing, stealing a sword, piercing, and generally abusing them as she moved.
Healer grinned despite the horrible situation -- granted, the fact that Momentum could *see* the mental constructs puzzled her, but right now she had other concerns.
***
Doctor Unstable heard the fighting nearby, which just made him work the harder. He was so close -- he just needed to...
*There!* The coherence was failing! The nanites were being pulled away! His triumph was at hand! The transceivers kicked in, the link going live--
There was a sudden *shriek* of electronic sound, like the death knell of the spirits of seven hundred and nine 4800 baud modems crying out and suddenly being silenced, even as all of the console displays *and* Doctor Unstable's equipment suddenly flared white and red, white and red, *white and red!* The quad-probes had their own indicator lights suddenly flash to blood red as well, and a surge went through them and into the console, and then right back out. Behind where Doctor Unstable was stumbling back, he could hear something -- like a single ragged tooth saw cutting through a metal tube--
And then the red lights went out... and the quad-probes, consoles, and indeed the lights on Jenny's own creche all came up a bright, shining silver, with silver letters of unknown languages scrolling past on the displays.
"W....what? What... what's *happening?!*" Doctor Unstable demanded.
«What's Happening? Man, I loved that show. Though not as much as What's Happening Now. Now there was a program.»
"...what?"
There was a shimmer, and Jenny's holographic projector -- offline since Doctor Unstable first nailed her with the spike-pulse -- hummed to life. But instead of the bubbly blond avatar of the Mob and Team M.E.C.H.A.'s cybernetic intelligence, a reddish hued image resolved. It wore a jumpsuit with a logo of the Xolchipalian Defense Forces on one side and the Adjusted League Unimpeachable on the other. It also wore a sleepy eyed expression and a slight smile, and its hair looked oddly unruly given it had no actual corporeal form. It looked like it was probably misaligned, though, since the avatar's 'skin' was deep red instead of one of the more normal human flesh tones. «Sorry, sir. I'm pretty sure this must be confusing.»
Doctor Unstable stared. "You... but... *JOEL?*"
«Hey yeah -- that's right! Well, technically it's 'Justice Overmind Electronic Locus,' but JOEL's just easier and faster. Wow, Doc -- you broke out of jail really fast this time!»
"What... what happened? Where's Jenny? WHERE ARE MY NANITES!"
«Oh -- yeah. You must be pretty confused. For one thing, they're her nanites, not yours. And I know you were all excited to tear her to shreds and steal them and all, but I was so impressed with your invention exchange I just had to show you my own.» The holographic avatar smiled slightly. «See, you'd knocked out the Xolchafiber-optics out, so I couldn't communicate with Jenny or use the Xolchaportation network and stuff -- so I had to go looking for something else. And then, wouldn't you know? You opened a link your own base and its Transmat system. So I was able to commandeer it -- I mean, it was sending a signal to this address, so it kinda stood out -- and use it to bring a link back up. Then I used your Quad-Probes to connect in, stop the thing you were doing to Jenny, help her back to stability, and then feed a Xolchaportation link through those Quad-Probes themselves. So, y'know -- they did in fact get her nanites *and* her code -- they just got it in a coherent state and sent it somewhere else via the wonders of science and Xolchaportation!»
"...you... you can't do that! They're mine! Do you hear me! Mine!"
«Yeah, maybe you shouldn't talk about personal property rights immediately after trying to tear apart Jenny's mind and steal bits of her for your own nefarious schemes. Oh, that reminds me. I don't like that you did that, so I'm afraid you're under arrest.»
"...under..." Doctor Unstable began to giggle. "What do you think you can possibly do to me, you alien machine freak janitor? Talk me into submission? You have no weapons!"
JOEL blinked. «Seriously? This whole room's wired with lasers so powerful they can project a holographic image that can be seen from any angle. Do you really not get that? That's sad.»
Doctor Unstable blinked. In the time it took him to blink, his shoes caught fire.
"AUGH!" Doctor Unstable stomped on the ground hard, falling back into the room behind him and stumbling until he landed on his backside.
Above him, he saw a series of nozzles and what looked like air conditioning vents that had been spraypainted silver and red. "...oh poopie..." he said, softly.
«Hey! Guess what? I dunno if the linkages will hold through the jerry-rig, but then I guess you kinda like experiments that might involve tearing sentient beings apart into a horrible death, so I guess it's okay to try -- and we've got Xolchaportation Sign!»
Doctor Unstable screamed, even as red and silver lights flashed all around him and he heard the sound of a thousand buzzsaws cutting into differently toned handbells, which was actually pretty unpleasant. As he watched and heard, it pitch-shifted into the sound of a thousand bandsaws cutting into differently toned handbells, which admittedly is a difference that only John Cage was likely to care about.
Doctor Unstable blinked, looking around. "I made it!" he shouted, realizing the room he was in was different than the one he left. "I have to get out of here!" He ran out of the room into a parking garage -- it had to be the Load Pan Bay of the A.L.U.C.H.Q.M.O.U.S.E.--
There was a flash of white, and Doctor Unstable felt bitter cold over his entire body as everything from his chin down was engulfed in a thick ice prison. "What? *NO!*" he screamed.
Frigid Girl, wearing her silver costume with the blue snowflake design and her darker blue overcoat with the white snowflake design, walked over to where the renegade scientist was trapped. "You know what?" she asked. "Maybe don't talk." She reached over, touching his lips and filling his mouth with snow. She then stepped back and tapped her Xolchacomm. "Mem? I've got Doctor Unstable of the League of Unconcerned Scientists down here frozen up tight -- want to call someone with the authority to... I dunno. Arrest him? Otherwise, I'm just going to have to leave him frozen and I'll get in trouble if we have to cut off *another* crook's frostbitten feet.
Doctor Unstable whimpered, very quietly.
***
Dangerousgirl landed hard but well within her capacity, running back in through the hole she'd made into the admittedly wrecked library. Roger and Melody were still bound to the stone and orb through the card, the purple and gold field surrounding them... the mold with the tank now full to the brim with resin sitting nearby....
She ran for the orb. She had to get that card first thing, and then--
**PAIN!**
Dangerousgirl jerked hard, spasming as she sunk to her knees. It was like acid was flowing down every neuron, while every cell in her body screamed in protest. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she shook like she were having a seizure -- so *intense--*
"How do you like that? Huh? *Bitch?*" Sensation was limping towards her, having extricated himself from the bookshelf's remnants. "I can see why everyone hates you. Smug *bitch* like all the rest. Well, how smug do you feel now, huh? *Huh?*"
Dangerousgirl couldn't help but hear him -- it was like her ears were broadcasting his voice at 400 decibels directly into her brain. Her defensive field was down now -- she couldn't maintain even that much concentration.
"You think that I can't touch you? That I need that silver idiot to do my bidding? I *own* sensation! I *own* your nervous system! I *own* *you!* Don't believe me? Why not try a little pleasure on for size!"
Dangerousgirl spasmed again, as every nerve ending's pain turned to a pleasure vastly beyond anything touch could normally produce. Her body instantly shifted, the waves of euphoria not a relief but a cascade as intense as the agony it replaced. She writhed, trying to focus past it but it was so *astounding...* like all the heroin in the world hitting its most euphoric state in her brain in one *millisecond--*
And then it flipped again, the agony somehow a thousand times worse for all the pleasure she had felt -- even the rush of endorphins suddenly didn't seem to matter, her body's natural responses to pain being blocked while the unimaginable torment seared through her. Her entire *world* was torture--
And then *ecstasy* to almost religious proportions, delight and sheer unmitigated rapture obliterating thought and reason as she became imprisoned in a world of *delight--*
The *pain!* Dear God so much *pain* it felt like her brain was going to *shatter* between the two extremes--
Dimly, Dangerousgirl realized something was hitting the back of her head -- probably another long rebar rod. Sensation was apparently trying to beat her to death, though she could barely stay aware of it between the whipsawing between sensory jubilation and suffering. She could barely perceive the world through Sensation's onslaught of false stimuli, so much more intense than any nervous system had ever been designed to handle.
But very far away, she heard Roger and Melody screaming. It was like a distant echo, far on the edge of her consciousness. Helpless. Really being tortured -- not simply sensing it. *Dying.* Just like all their friends beyond... all Dangerousgirl's friends.
All Dani's friends.
Somewhere in the maelstrom of sheer explosive bliss and horrific crushing suffering, Dani could hear her brother... hear Lars's voice. "The bad guys never play fair," he had said, all those years before, more than three quarters of her lifetime away. "You can't expect they'll stand back and let you keep a clear head -- and you can't ever lose your concentration completely or you'll lose control when you use your powers. You need to focus. Focus on a point in space. A moment in time. A song. *Something.*"
Dani felt dull thuds as she was hit again and again. She didn't know if he'd managed to overcome her durability or not -- maybe her skull was cracked. Maybe she was already dying. Between the unholy marriage of exhilaration and affliction such things were secondary. But she peered, eyes squinting. Focusing forward....
The mold -- the mold with the resin, in the almost casket shape.... why were they even doing that? Was it supposed to be art?
No -- no, Healer had said that Roger, Melody *and Hellfire* were in here. That had to be her trap....
She focused as hard as she could on that mold *(PAIN!/JOY!/PAIN/JOY!)*, trying to see it. See the white PVC. She had to see it. She *had* to *see* it (AGONY/ECSTASY/AGONY/ECSTASY/AGONY/ECSTASY)* so she could *focus--*
The oscillation of stimuli between pleasure and pain was getting faster. It was like he was trying to stimulate her into complete nervous system breakdown. Maybe he was. What little brain she had left wondered if she would lose control at the last second, and evaporate Sensation, Roger, Melody, Random Encounters, Healer, Momentum, the Dash, the rest of Stately Ward Manor and indeed the entire city of Austin in a nuclear hellstorm born of her ultimate cognitive collapse. Would she notice if she did? Would she care? Or would she just die and her nuclear fire die with her?
"*No!*" she heard Dianna scream in her mind. "You are *DANIELLE POTENTIATE MACPHERSON!* My sister! Child of centuries of struggle! Our ancestors didn't survive the Trail of Tears so you could lie on your belly and *squeal* yourself to death! *DON'T YOU FUCKING QUIT NOW!*"
Dani's -- *Dangerousgirl's* eyes snapped open. She could still see the mold. The whipshaw pleasure/pain was still going on and the bastard was still trying to beat her to death, but she didn't care. Not *now.* She could see her sister -- her unbroken sister screaming her defiance to the world and kicking Andy Awe-Inspiring's head through the wall! Everyone thought she inherited her sister's appearance and her brother's powers, but she was as much Dianna as Lars. And Dianna wouldn't falter now. Dangerousgirl knew that. She *knew* it. She could that defiance in her mind as she clenched her right hand, still trembling but outstretched toward the mold, the unholy fire dancing under her skin -- she just needed to *focus* -- to have just one tiny chunk of Dianna's discipline, just like she would... she could see her... *hear* her--
"SPANDEX BABE!" Dangerousgirl screamed as loudly as she could, and unleashed a firebolt at the mold. It slammed into the mold, the fire searing the resin and PVC apart while the concussion punctured the tank--
There was a *bang* as extremely over-pressurized nitrogen -- caused as the liquid and solid nitrogen poured into the tank along with Hellfire's ember had melted and boiled into gas -- *burst* open like a keg of dynamite, the shockwave blowing both Sensation and Dangerousgirl back out onto the lawn and trashing the remainder of the library -- only the stone, orb and prisoners were shielded from the burst, dust and particles and fragments raining down in God knows how large a range.
Dangerousgirl felt woozy -- the onslaught had passed but she was downright nauseous. It had taken so much--
"Spandex Babe?" Sensation asked, clearly in some pain himself but laughing nonetheless. "Begging your sister to save you?" She felt another blow to the back of the head, driving her face into the dirt. "Well she won't. You thought it hurt before, Dangerousgirl? I'm going to plunge you into the *fires of Hell* before I let you die!"
One of the particles, drifting lazily in the air... seemed to glow, just a touch... then spark once... twice....
With an *explosion* of fire at almost plasmalike intensity, Hellfire's body reconstituted itself, the shape of a woman as the pure expression of churning flame. "Did you say the fires of Hell?" she demanded, voice echoing across worlds. "If you think you're an *expert* then let's see how *you* like them!* Pure fire swept from her whole body, engulfing Sensation who screamed so loudly his vocal cords tore, before falling to the ground, a slight amount of smolder clinging to his shirt.
Dangerousgirl pushed herself to her knees, looking up at the burning girl. "...hellfire burns?" she asked in a shaky voice. She knew those never healed.
"As if," Hellfire said, indistinct in the wreath of flames -- staying in the air to avoid setting fires since she had no containment suit. "That was just thermal shock. It's like the heat sensitivity equivalent to a glass jaw." Her voice turned harder. "Where's *Maria?*"
Dangerousgirl managed to get into a kneel, pointing a thumb behind her head. "Put her in a smooth bowl."
"Oh. Good. How's--"
"Oh God," Dangerousgirl said, forcing herself up despite her actual, physical pain and running towards the gaping hole that used to be the library wall. "*Roger!*"
[End of Part Three]