🚀 go-pugleaf

(continued from part one...)
                                   ***********

     Everyone was in position.  Radio positions had been set up in the woods
and the few buildings near the prison, and the radio network was being tested.
Most of the revolutionaries had entered the woods, getting into position to
rush the prison.  From the air, Mighty Dog reported having spotted the Team
M.E.C.H.A. jet, on its way.
     "This is Shiela, Bruces and Shielas," she said, into her mini-comm.
"Is everything quiet in pommy-land?"
     "Aye, Shiela," a Bruce who she somehow identified as Phobos, despite the
fact that it was in an outrageous Australian accent, and was completely
indistinguishable from all the other Bruce voices on the link.  "Bruce and
Bruce confirm it.  All the Bruces and Sheilas are ready to go read the rules
to those pooftahs."
     "Right, Bruce," Radian said.  "We're going--"
     <<Excuse me, Akane,>> HAL interrupted.  <<I have some information you
might find of interest.>>
     "--hold on, Bruce.  Yes, Bruce?"
     The link was silent, as HAL told her the information.
     "Thank you, Bruce, that was most valuable," Akane said.  "Bruces, we're
going in in exactly two minutes from now.  You'll make your run three minutes
later."
     "But Shiela," another Bruce, which she recognized as Figuremaster's,
"We were planning on one minute.  And who was that Bruce you were talking to
just then?"
     "Never you mind, Bruce," Akane said.  "And as for your first question,
that will become apparant in four minutes and twenty seconds.  Shiela out."
     *Do you understand any of this?* China asked.
     -No,- Kyoko said.  -I thought you did.-
     *Neither of us represents weirdness,* China said.  *That would be the
Cat's domain, I believe.*
     -What a cricketer.-
     *Huh?*
     -Just getting into the spirit of things.  Such as it is.-
     "We're not going to wait for the M.E.C.H.A. jet to get closer?" the
Magistrate asked, as he flexed his fingers.
     "We cast a spell of Suddenly and Without Warning," Dar said, looking at
Akane sternly.  "It will get us into the compound in the manner specified in
the title, but after that..."
     "Relax, and get into position, brother," Akane said.  "Remember, I get
an eleven second window before the rest of you port in.  Daydream Believer and
Nightmare will be entering in their special way at that time, as well.  The
objective is to shock them into disarray, so the rest of the force can move
in."
     "We're ready," Hecate told her.
     "We're all ready," the Magistrate told her.  The other eight mages that
were in the group nodded, some nervously, some confidently.
     "Good," Radian said.  "Thirty seconds to go.  Everyone stand as clear as
you can - I want to go in hot."
     She closed her eyes and crouched low to the ground, as she felt the
radiation begin to boil in her mind's eye.  It grew in strength, cresting on
her pale skin, as she allowed it to build, without allowing it to erupt.
     There was something in the radiation, some magic that resonated with the
air around her, the tense, chill air that was telling her she was doomed, that
the line of her destiny was going to end on the battlefield below.
     The Magistrate was saying the words of the teleportation spell, a special
spell that worked with the Suddenly and Without Warning spell, and she felt
the translocation beginning.  She waited one second, and--
     In.  With a small cry, she released the stored up radiation in an
omnidirectional burst.  Shielding inside the prison was formidable, but not
insurmountable.  She focused on the ultraviolet and infrared portions of the
spectrum, forcing as much out of herself as she could.
     Kyoko appeared, carrying a stopwatch.  -...thirteen, fourteen...and
fifteen!-
     Radian stopped her attack, just as Hecate, Dar, the Magistrate, and the
other eight mages materialized around her, lashing out with light, heat,
smoke, and probability alteration spells.  Nightmare and Daydream Believer had
emerged from somewhere Radian hadn't seen, and the few revolutionaries in the
courtyard were running away, screaming "No!  Don't make me date Madonna!"
     It was all going exceedingly well.
     Too well.
     "A setup," she said.  "They've been expecting us."
     "Then they've been expecting their death," Dar said, casting a fireball
spell at a fleeing revolutionary.
     There was something under the ground...something that gave off a
dangerous aura.
     "Get down!" Radian ordered.
     She grabbed The Magistrate's cowl, pulling him back.  Dar cursed and
dove back, pulling Hecate with him, just as the courtyard erupted in a
tremendous explosion.
     Gunfire strafed the spots where they had been standing just moments
before.  Radian heard the anguished cries of the mages who had somehow
shielded themselves from the booby-trap.  She forced herself to her feet,
acutely aware that her two minutes were dwindling fast.
     "Stay where you are!" a voice commanded.  A woman in military fatigues,
carrying an uzi, approached through the smoke.  More revolutionaries appeared,
a lot more than had first been in the courtyard.  Some looked angry, some
looked determined.  All were armed.
     The woman looked around, seemingly puzzled.  "This is it?" she finally
asked.  "This is the big invasion force that that metal wanker told us to
prepare for?"
     "No," Radian said.  Mentally, she guaged her position, relative to the
huge, arching gate that was the main enterance to the prison.  She moved three
steps to the right, wary of the guns that were on her.  It was important to be
in exactly the right position for this.
     The wind was coming from the southeast, between two of the towers,
blowing her shoulder-length black hair.  She was standing right in front of the
gate, so that the top of the arch seemed to loom over her.
     "This is," Radian said.
     The clouds were parting, and something was emerging.
     "Oh...hell..." a young man with a handgun said.  "It's...it's..."
     "Big," the woman said.  "Holy moses, it's big."
     "I seen that before," a third man said, looking very alarmed.  "It's the
Awesome Force One!"
     The huge airship emerged from the clouds, looming above them all.  From
the angle that the revolutionaries in the compound were watching, it looked
as though it was appearing right upon the topmost part of the arch, directly
behind Radian's icewater eyes.
     *You went through all that for a dramatic effect?* China asked.
     *What can I say?* Radian replied.  *HAL gave me the idea.*
     Suddenly and without warning, the front wall blew inward with explosive
force.

                                   ***********

     "Come out of the cloud nice and low, Chris," Andy said standing behind
him, a powerful hand resting on his shoulder.  "I want to be low enough to see
their faces when they realize that the mages have a little technology of their
own."
     The cloud bottoms drifted apart whispily.  The approach Andy ordered cast
the ecliptic shadow of the Awesome Force One on the horde of revolutionaries.
     He placed the bottom of his massive fist on a button labeled 'aperture'. A
brief whine filled the ship. It shuddered for a millisecond.  The bottom half
of the Awesome Force One's hull, like the jawbone of a surprised man, dropped
with a hiss and thud and shake.
     The twenty foot high gap, as the Awesome Force knew, was the opening to
the awesometonium driver that ran the length of the ship.  To the
revolutionaries, well, what lurked inside that dark maw was left entirely up
to their imaginations.  Most of them were very active imaginations, indeed.

                                   ***********

     Atop one of the prison's battlements, a lone cylindrical armored figure
stood motionless, watching the approaching aerial juggernaut with a single
unblinking eye.  Watching, observing, calculating, he studied the mouth of the
massive weapon, comparing it to the vast stores of information within his
databanks and projecting estimates of it's destructive capability.
     "Most impressive,"  Benedict stated to the empty air.  "Andy Awesome, you
have exceeded my initial estimations of your abilities by fifty percent.  I
must summon my reinforcements."
     He turned and rolled towards a rooftop elevator, pausing at the open
doors to swivel hit turretlike head to look back at the airship.
    "You are the greatest of Earth's heros.  A pity that I must exterminate
you for the good of your planet."
    The elevator quickly descended towards the Revolutionaries' command center.

                                   ***********

     Scholarman closed his eyes, and concentrated.  He felt around himself,
probing through the half-world, for the marker he had left within the walls of
Ariella's prison.  It was harder than it should be -- there must have been some
sort of inhibitor preventing a clearer contact.
     His foot didn't make things any easier.
     He had been getting close, when a taxicab had roared out of nowhere,
bearing down for the kill.  He had jumped out of the way, but the cab had still
slammed into his foot.  He had felt the foot break, even as it spun him around.
And driving the cab, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was the anti-hero Ramrod from
Seattle.
     All petty thoughts of revenge were driven from his mind when he saw
Bulletproof chasing them on a three-wheeler from Hell (tm).  The enemy of your
enemy was your friend, even if he couldn't drive worth a damn.
     Scholarman wondered what he'd find when he got to the fortress where they
were holding Ariella and Shadebeam.  He was sure they were still alive -- well,
as sure as anyone can be when that's the only hope they've got to drive them
on.  Ignoring the pain, he limped forward, wondering idly what Revolutionaries
would do to a crippled mage who showed up on their doorstep.

                                   ***********

     "What was that?!" Elizabeth Anderson demanded, as Benedict rolled into the
war room.
     "Explosive force of unknown origin," the tracking operator told her.
"Something blew through the wall and just managed to miss hitting the south
wall.  It was going too fast to be tracked."
     "Several parahumans possess those capabilities!" Benedict declared.
"Space Moose is known to be elsewhere, as is Mighty Dog and !.  Therefore, it
must be Mighty Dog!"
     "Mighty Dog's not a human, is he?" Marie asked.
     "He'd, like, be a paracanine, like, right?" Wayne inquired.
     "Your questions are not relevant!" Benedict told them.  "The battle has
begun!  Has the rest of the invasion force been detected?"
     "In the woods," the operator told him.  "Looks like they're massing to
charge."
     "Engage defense plan omega!" Benedict ordered.  "Our forces are prepared
to engage this attack configuration!"  Benedict turned to face Bulletproof.
"All preparations are complete.  I must prepare additional forces."
     "Still won't tell us what card you got up your sleeve, right?"
     "Explanations are not necessary.  I shall contact you after the
extermination of Awesome Force One.  I must depart."
     He heard Bulletproof say something indistinguishable, even to his
superior audio circuits, and decided to take it for a yes.  Satisfied that
things were going as planned, he rolled out the door.

                                   ***********

     Many of the Revolutionaries had wondered why Benedict had issued himself
quarters at all- no one had ever seen the Dalek eat, drink, or sleep.  Some
speculated that he kept materials for repairing his armor shell inside the
locked room, but nobody had ever seen him bring anything that even resembled
spare parts.  Indeed, the only thing anyone had ever seen him take *into*
the room were a series of small metal spheres that he had fetched from the
well-hidden MooseWing.  After that, he had carried far more equipment out of
the room than had ever been seen to enter-  he had assembled an entire alien
radarlike antenna array in one of the prison's unused courtyards with pieces
taken from that room.  The most common speculation amongst the troops was that
the spheres were simply raw material that the Dalek had extruded into the
requires shape using some bizarre device inside his armor shell.  They were,
of course, wrong.
     The room was bare, except for the spheres set on square plastic bases
arrayed in a circle around the middle of the room.  After locking the door
behind him, Benedict rolled into the circle.
     "Activate Transmat!"
     And then, with a brief *blip* that sounded remarkably like a cheap
British sound-effects machine, he vanished.
     He rematerialized almost instantly, in a nearly barren metal room,
circled by similar spheres wielded to the floor.  Although the grey-painted
walls were similar in construction to those of the prison, they somehow seemed
different.  It was as if they were actually walls on a cheap BBC soundstage
that were only *painted* to look like tough armored metal.  The echoes, too,
were more appropriate to a soundstage than to a real room.  Not noticing any
of these incongruities, Benedict rolled forwards towards a set of double doors
that opened automatically for him.
     The hallway beyond was alive with activity, even if none of the figures
present looked even remotely like living creatures.  They were Daleks, each and
every one of them- hundreds of them, rolling to and fro in perfectly straight
lines.  Some carried strange tools or pieces of equipment in their plunger-
arms, while others towed small trailers.  All moved in perfect synchronization,
pausing precisely long enough to allow Benedict to merge into the lanes of
traffic when he emerged from a doorway labeled "TRANSMAT STATION FIVE" in
block letters.
     Benedict moved forwards without speaking, obviously well aware of his
destination, turning corners and crossing intersections without pause.  Each
time his unwavering path intersected that of another Dalek, the other yielded,
allowing him to pass without delay.  There was something different about their
movements- although Benedict normally moved with machine precision, these
Daleks were somehow even more precise.  While Benedict would waver by a few
degrees occasionally, the others proceeded precisely down the centerline of
their hallways.  Similarly, Benedict's eyestalk wandered back and fourth,
glancing down side corridors and such, while none of the others looked
anywhere except straight ahead.
     Soon, Benedict reached a massive armored doorway labeled "MAIN BRIDGE" in
the same block lettering.  Guarding it were two SWD's- Special Weapons Daleks.
A modified version of the standard Mark V Travel Machine, these Daleks had
given up most of their versatility in exchange for vastly increased firepower:
instead of the standard plunger-and-gun arrangement, the SWD's mounted a
single energy cannon in the center of their "torso".  No mere Dalek Gun, this
plasma-based weapon had a maw over three inches wide, capable of spewing
enough energy to vaporize main battle tanks.  Both leveled their barrels at
Benedict and spoke simultaneously.
     "Identify."
     "Dalek Unit 3845, Benedict Arnold.  Authorization Code 98462017691183712."
     "Identity confirmed.  Enter."
     The bridge was not nearly so busy as the outer hallways- a smallish, oval-
shaped room with a half-dozen control stations built into the wall, each
manned by an immobile Dalek.  Benedict rolled up a short ramp to the single
central main console and magnetically locked himself to the floor.  Several
ports opened on the bottom portions of his armor shell, extending computer
interface cords that matched and mated perfectly with their counterparts built
into the console.
     His eyestalk swiveled to face a Dalek to his left.
     "Cybernetic links at 60% capacity.  Explain!"
     The other Dalek spun around and looked upwards towards Benedict.
     "Gravity Control Module 836-A suffered mechanical failure during final
escape from lunar orbit."
     "Report cause of failure!"
     "Lunar explosion of unexplained origin initiated a severe disrruption of
all major systems."
     Benedict paused, reviewing his datafeeds from the past several days and
comparing it to the timestamped logs of the GCM failure.
     "Spectrum.  The explosion was originated by Spectrum.  Continue with
damage report."
     The other Dalek picked back up where it had left off.
     "Feedback has damaged all secondary and tertiary organic control links.
On-board diagnostic equipment is insufficient to effect repair without a
functional Dalek Unit to test the equipment."
     "Understood.  Return to station, Droid Unit Six," replied Benedict with
what could almost pass for a sigh of loneliness.   As 'Unit Six' turned back to
his position, additional disks opened up on Benedict's side and extended a
series of microtools towards several of the malfunctioning data ports.  He
keyed a large switch on the console with his plunger arm.
     "Attention.  Benedict Arnold to all Android Units.  We shall break orbit
and enter Earth's atmosphere in twelve minutes.  Estimate fourteen point three
minutes until penetration of cloaking device by sensors aboard Awesome Force
One.  Attack shall commence immediately upon discovery.  Upon extermination of
target airship, all guns are to reconfigure for ground bombardment."
     The panel flashed a series of green and yellow codes as various Dalek
units reported in.  Only one indicator showed red- Benedict switched it's input
the the main viewer.  He was greeted with an audio-video feed of his own
quarters back at the prison headquarters of Bob City, fed by a small pickup on
one of the transmat spheres.  The reason for the alert was obvious- a steady
pounding on the locked steel door.  A pounding that didn't last long, as the
door quickly buckled from the blows of the hulking armored figure that stepped
inside.

(continued in part three, immediately following...)