Of Masks and Marvels
By Bek D Corbin
Chapter Twenty
"Thursday
night?"
"Nope - I'm
working that night."
"Rats! I've got
a business dinner Friday, and I have to be out of town all weekend."
"Ted, I do NOT
go out on dates on Monday nights. It's a matter of principle."
"Woof!
Who'd have thought that settling on a date for a date could be so hard! I've
wiped out legions of killer robots in less time!"
"Well, you know
what they say about people with full, busy lives..."
"No, what do
they say?"
"I dunno. I was
hoping that you knew."
"Oh, be
serious, Max! You said that you'd go out with me, and I took that seriously!"
"_Ted_, I am
taking going out with you seriously. I'm just having a hard time taking this
scheduling thing seriously."
Joyce - or Twist,
AEGIS's resident teleporter, if you must - walked into the kitchen and saw us.
"Hey, what are you two up to?"
"Oh, Ted and I
were just trying to get our schedules straight for our second date."
"Oh, that's riiiggghhht!
You two had that date where Maverick and Desperado-"
"Twist, I know
what happened! I was there!"
<snicker>
"Not for long!" She took a cup of coffee and sashayed over to the
table with the kind of wiseass smirk that bodes well for no one. "So, ah,
Ted...do we still call you 'Sir Galahad', or would 'Sir LANCE-a-lot' be more
appropriate?"
"What IS this,
Junior High? What Ted and I do or don't do on our date is...My God, I
didn't know a man could turn that RED! Ted, are you all right?"
Ted nodded through
his blush.
"Ted and
Maxie, sittin' in a tree... K-I-S-S-I-N-G..." Twist sang out as she
skipped out.
"Oh, so now
we're in THIRD GRADE?" I yelled after her. "Go through puberty
already, willya?"
Ted gathered his
cool with a little effort. I gave him a look. "Ted, is it that easy
for a woman to ruffle your feathers?"
He nodded,
shamefacedly. "Yeah. What can I say, I was a chubby kid, and the girls
used to get their kicks teasing me."
"Oh, I know
what you're talking about. And we never really do completely lose who we were
in school, do we?"
"Nope, not
completely. Anyway, what about Tuesday night?"
I checked my
calendar. Yep, that's my day off, and since I also have Wednesdays off, it's my
equivalent of Saturday Night. "Perfect!" I put my datebook down,
leaned over the table, and smiled at Ted. "So, what are we gonna be doing?
I gotta know, so I can dress for it."
"Oh, well, I
didn't have anything special in mind. Dinner, a movie, like that."
"I can deal
with that. But no chick flicks or artsy movies with subtitles. I don't mind an
action movie, but it has to have more to it than a hundred explosions in ninety
minutes."
"How about
something by Merchant Ivory?"
"Well, that
comes perilously close to 'Chick Flick', but I'm willing to give it a shot."
We were about to go
into it further when Bernice, our resident Pissy-Not-Mad Scientist, walked in.
"Max! I was wondering if I could ask a favor of you."
"Sure, Bern. What
is it?"
"Well, I just
started a strip-down refit on the teleportation array. It'll take days, and I'm
going to need some help."
"Sure, no prob.
When will you need me, and for how long?"
"Well, I'm only
gonna really need help for a few days, and I can handle almost everything
myself through the weekend. How about next Monday through Wednesday?"
"Sorry, Bern,
I'd love to help you out, but I just made a commitment for Tuesday night, and
Monday's a little iffy... <flash of genius!> BUT I can get
you some help for those days!"
"Uhm, Maxine,
I'm really gonna need experienced help on this, someone who really knows
and loves circuitry the way that you and I do."
"Not to worry,
Bern! I'll call _Tech Support_!"
"Tech Support?"
"Sure! You
don't think I maintain all my equipment all by myself, now do you?"
Ted piped up,
probably eager to keep me out of the grasping clutches of a really involved
High Tech Geek Out, "Sure, remember, she has that support organization
behind her? We've heard her talking on her link to 'Control' and 'Tech Support'."
Bernice folded her
arms across her chest and pouted. "Is this 'Tech Support' any good? I
don't wanna entrust my baby to any greasy-fingered yahoo off the street."
I made a Boy Scout
salute and crossed my heart. "Honest, Bern, 'Tech Support' reconfigures
communications arrays for laughs. AND he's been champing at the bit to get his
teeth into a real technical challenge. Talking him into coming in should
be a snap!"
Bernice tensed even
more the folded arms across her chest, hunched her shoulders and stuck out her
lower lip. <Nnnggg....> "Oh, awlright! But if he hurts my
baby, I'll disassemble him and use him for parts!"
Holding back a
smirk, I murmurred, "There's a little Doctor Frankenstein lurking in the
dark recesses of the soul of even the noblest Mad Scientist."
"I_ AM_ NOT_ MAD_!
I'm just a little pissy, that's all."
*****
"You want me to
come into AEGIS headquarters?" Eli gave me a long stare. "Aaannnddd....?"
"Aaannnddd....what?
There's no 'And?'!"
"And WHY
do you suddenly want me to go to the place that you have repeatedly told me
would pose a threat not only to your secret identity, but my physical
well-being?"
Reyes wasn't staying
out of it. "Yeah, Maxham, Why? And if he can go, why can't I?"
"Because, I
have a context for bringing him there as 'Tech Support'. Look, Eli, Bernice
needs a set of well-trained hands to help her with the teleportation array, and
you need a chance to work on something more challenging than focusing that
camera and telling supervillains to say 'Cheese'. It sounds like a perfect 'Win-Win'
arrangement."
"And why don't
YOU help her out, if it's such a rippin' weld-job, hunh?"
"Bernice asked
me just seconds after I told Justiciar that I'd go out on another date with him.
I couldn't just flake out on him right after saying 'Yes', now could I?"
Reyes all but had a
microphone up my nose. "You're going on another date with
Justiciar? How did that happen?"
"We sat down,
pulled out our appointment books and worked it out. Y'know, for someone who
doesn't have a real social life, my calendar is really booked."
"That's NOT
what I meant! What happened to all the whining and moaning and trying to weasel
out of it? You mean, right after I got used to you being in denial, you have to
go and accept the fact that you're turning into a woman?"
I grinned at her.
"Aaahhh...what's the matter? Did your little scams all go
flush down the toilet?"
Reyes was revving up
the chainsaw that she keeps behind her lips, when my AEGIS beeper went off. I
shushed Reyes and answered. <Memo to Self: Rig beeper to do that on a
cue, so that I can pull this whenever I'm losing an argument with Reyes>
"Lady Lightning here. What's up?"
"Ms. Hex here. You
got a message from Lieutenant Heszcheck. He wants you to get in touch with him
ASAP."
"Why didn't he
page me directly?"
"Bernice is
reconfiguring the teleportation array, remember? The teleporter's location
targeting system is all tangled up with our communications system. Everything
is on bare minimum."
"So, how are we
supposed to get in and out of HQ? Thanks to that stupid teleporter, I don't
even know where HQ really IS!"
"Oh, you just
do the normal entry gig, but you'll have to use a payphone in the area between 14th Street and 17th Street, and H_____ and N___."
"Okay. By the
way, is Bernice going to configure a mannikin for me, so that I can do that
'Instant Change' bit?"
"I dunno. Ask
her yourself - then you'll be able to ask all those persnickety techy questions."
"'Kay. Well
then, I should call Heszcheck and find out what's got him in an uproar. Ta."
I switched off, and using that credible reason, put Reyes' rant on indefinite
hold. Then I dialed Heszcheck's number.
Fortunately, the
local PD had recently sprung for Caller ID, and I was using an AEGIS encrypted
cell-phone, so I got through their Anti-Crank measures without a hitch. "Hey,
yer Ladyship. Would you get over here ASAP? We have a situation here that I
think you'd be perfect for."
"Yeah. Color me
honored! What is it?"
"I'll tell you
when you get here. I don't wanna prejudice you." One thing about Heszcheck
- he knows how to get you curious.
I've been in and out
of the local cop-shop often enough that Travis, the Astro-cop on duty on the
roof, signed me in with barely a pause. When I got to Heszcheck's office, he
and his partner Sanchez were going over some documents with a woman wearing a
bulky overcoat. The woman was wearing, besides the overcoat, the kind of wrap-around
glasses that some people in the superheroing line of business use instead of a
mask, and a form fitting bodysuit with glassy plates over various sensitive
parts.
"Ah! You're
here. Lady Lightning, I'd like to introduce you to Gallowglass. Gallowglass,
this is Lady Lightning, one of the more responsible members of the local
superhero community."
Gallowglass? Gallowglass?
What kind of name is Gallowglass? Still, it rang a bell somewhere...Gallowglass,
Gallowglass, Gallowglass....
Ah! The
Warlock In Spite Of Himself! I always knew that my low taste in Sci-Fi
literature would come in handy some day! The main character, Rod D'Armand, used
the name Gallowglass when he landed on the planet Gramayre in the classic Sci-Fi
book by Christopher Stasheff. "Gallowglass? Isn't that an Irish term for a
mercenary soldier?"
She quirked a rueful
smile. "Oh. Another Sci-fi junkie."
"And exactly
how did a bonny little colleen like y'self get a tag like that?" Far from
being Irish, 'Gallowglass' was very African American, with coffee-dark skin and
a hair tied up into bleached out clumps.
The semi-smile never
left her face. "I couldn't imagine" She held up one hand and a glassy
black knife sort of grew to fill the empty hand. With nary a move, the
knife dwindled back into nothing.
"*Ahem!*"
Heszcheck interjected. "Miz 'Gallowglass' is a registered bounty hunter,
and she's come here following a lead."
Bounty hunter? Well,
that supports the 'mercenary' side of the word. "Oh? Who are you trailing?"
"A second-rate
supervillain who called himself 'Prism'. But he's not my real target - I'm
after a much bigger score."
"Oh?"
"'Prism' pulled
off a series of heists in the Mid-West, capped by his ripping off and killing a
mid-level loan shark. I have information that he did all of this so that he
could come here and meet with Doctor Daedalus."
"Doctor
Daedalus? Okay, now you have my complete, undivided attention. So, you
think he's going to buy some kind of power enhancing device to kick him up to
the Big Leagues?"
"Oh, more than
that. Lieutenant?"
"Over the past
few days, there have been a couple of break-ins at high-tech installations. The
burglar broke in at high levels - at least five stories up - and burned his way
in with a very powerful laser. Two nights ago, our perp broke into Guirudir
Applied Technologies using his trademark high altitude burn-in. We got a
security camera shot of him. He burned two security guards, killing one and
almost cutting the legs off the other." Heszcheck handed me some printouts.
The first picture
was of a man with a stock 'comic book' physique, with the bodybuilder muscles
but none of the real life bulkiness. He was wearing a silvery bodystocking with
gold trim, and pair of shortened wings along the arms, and a hawk-like helmet. He
was pointing at something. In the next picture, he was facing a couple of men
in security guard uniforms, but most of his face was obscured by a blur of
light. The third shot had him pointing at one of the guards; the guard's face
was scrunched up in agony, and there was a burn on his shoulder. In the fourth
shot, the intruder had extended the wing on one arm and was slicing through the
other guard's leg with it. In the fifth and last picture, the intruder was
going out a crudely burned hole in the wall, both wings extended for flight.
I looked at
Heszcheck. "Can I get an enlargement of this first picture, with better
clarity?"
Looking satisfied,
he handed me a large glossy.
"That's not an
outfit that he's wearing - it's another one of those damned symbionts."
Glallowglass nodded.
"Right. I think Prism came here to have that symbiont attached to him. My
guess is that he's doing 'chores' for Doctor Daedalus to test the symbiont out
while under close observation by the Doctor."
"Hold on - something
isn't adding up here. If Doctor Daedalus is the one behind the symbionts, then
who sent the Iron Lance against She-Devil's set-up down in the Industrial
District? Why would Doctor D send troops against his own customers? Talk about
bad customer relations!"
Sanchez shrugged.
"This whole Symbiont thing reeks of Doctor Daedalus. Maybe She-Devil is
trying to muscle in on his racket. Maybe she's been stealing technology from
him, and is trying to build up her own symbiont syndicate."
Heszcheck nodded.
"OR, maybe the good doctor has some kind of security over-ride device
built into the symbionts, and She-Devil is trying to get out from under his
thumb."
"Well, that
would explain both why she and Berserker broke into that lab of his, and why
she made sure that I was the one who went in first to deal with the traps and
turn off the security system."
Gallowglass piped
up, "Hey, this is all very interesting, but can we get down to business?
I have a contract to bring in Donald Q. Prisker, a.k.a. 'Prism', a.k.a. 'Lightburst',
a.k.a. 'Laserblast', a.k.a. whatever he's calling himself now that he has that
stupid thingamabob. I'm hoping that I can bring in two bounties at the same
time by bringing in Doctor Daedalus. The Lieutenant here insists that I have a (quote)
Responsible Member of the Local Superhero Community (unquote) along with me
while I track this asshole down, or he won't let me hunt in peace. But I gotta
know - are you going to be a help finding Prisker, or do I take my chances
doing it on the sly?"
I looked her square
in the eye. "Listen up. I haven't met Doctor Daedalus face-to-face yet,
but I've had to deal with his messes before. AND I'm a trained technician. AND
I have a good track record dealing with symbiont opponets."
Heszcheck nodded
proudly. "Yep, her Ladyship is one of the few people that I know of who've
gone toe-to-toe with both Berserker and She-Devil, one-on-one, and not only
live to talk about it, but kick their asses!"
Even through the big
glasses, Gallowglass registered some reaction. "Berserker? The Big Red
Brick? You took him out all by your lonesome?" I nodded. "How?" I
explained my trick of blocking Berserker's breathing system with ozone. Gallowglass
nodded. "Not bad, not bad at all...and this 'She-Devil' - she's supposed
to be hell on wheels?"
Sanchez gave a low
whistle. "VERY Nasty. And VERY powerful. And she's still out there."
I leaned over and
muttered confidentially, "Actually, she's not really that hot - but she's
got a crew of goons backing her up that I'd stack against Special Forces of the
same numbers. And they'll do damn near anything for her. But I doubt we'll have
to deal with her on this. Everything we've seen so far indicates that she's at
daggers drawn with Doctor Daedalus, so even if she knows about it, she'll just
let us take him out for her.
"But, let's
turn your question around - and what makes you think that you're up to taking
on Doctor Daedalus and his latest science fair project?"
Gallowglass just
smiled ferally and whipped a hand out to the side twice. There on the wall of
Heszcheck's office, spelled out in glassy needles, was 'G.G.' She purred, "Oh,
I think that I'll manage..."
I gave the needle
pattern a brief look. "Okay, that's good enough for me. But not all. I'm
going to insist that another person come along."
Gallowglass gave an
disgusted sound. "ANOTHER share to pay out? Who is it?"
"Oh, don't
worry about your bottom line - Power Woman will jump at the chance to
get her hands on Doctor Daedalus, free of charge."
"Power Woman?"
"Yeah - apparently
she and the good Doctor have a history together. And she's far more familiar
with his MO and layouts than I am. Not to mention being pretty damn good in a
knock-down-drag-out fight. I'll call AEGIS and arrange a rendezvous point."
Gallowglass chewed
on it for a moment. "'S'okay, the price is right. But understand this - I
have informants on this case, and I want them to stay MY informants. I meet
with them alone, Capice?"
I went over to the
door and opened it. "Fine by me! And in that spirit, you'll understand if
I want to have a word with the Lieutenant? In _Private_." I gave her a pat
on the back as she walked out into the main office space.
When I turned
around, Sanchez was already over at the far wall, pulling the needles out with
tweezers. "You're going to have them analyzed?"
"Of course."
"Then have the
boys in the lab take a look at these as well..." I handed Sanchez the
threads that I'd pulled off of Gallowglass' overcoat.
"Why? Do you
think they mean something? Besides the fact that Gallowglass shops at really
cut-rate stores?"
"It strikes me
that a professional like Gallowglass must wear that bulky, loose-knit coat for some
reason. And God knows that it doesn't look bulletproof. So it must mean
something. Also, make sure they check both the needles and these threads
against the Symbiont Tar samples that you took off of Berserker and Nasghul."
"Why? You think
there's a connection?"
"Well, the way
that Gallowglass manifested that knife just reminded me uncomfortably of
Nasghul. And did I ever get around to telling you that She-Devil can manipulate
that symbiont of hers so that she can disguise herself as others?"
"That's right! That's
how she suckered you into leading the way into Doctor Daedalus' lab, isn't it?
You think that 'Gallowglass' out there might be She-Devil trying to pull a
version of the same game on you?"
"Nope. Gallowglass
is too chatty. She-Devil's disguise was perfect, but she couldn't cover
that goulash accent of hers. So, she cooked up an excuse not to talk. On the
other hand, if a bimbo like She-Devil could pull off a stunt like that, and so
could Nasghul, wouldn't it make sense that a smart operator like Kraken - who's
still at large - could do it?"
"So, what's the
plan?"
"Have the
samples analyzed. Arrange a containment cell in a place where we could
reasonbly talk 'Gallowglass' into entering. Power Woman and I will keep
Gallowglass busy while the lab boys do their thing. If the samples match, I
cook up an excuse to bring the fancy dancer out there back."
Heszcheck whined in
a lame 'Maxwell Smart' impression, "Ahhh...the old 'talk the bad
guy into a containment cell' trick! They fall for it every time!"
"And even if
this Gallowglass is who she says she is, it's best to be absolutely sure, ne
c'est pas?"
I made my phone call
to AEGIS and made the arrangements. "Well, that's that. You can pull up
the Cone of Silence now. Agent 86, 99...." And I made my exit before they
could say 'Sorry about that, Chief!'
*****
A few hours later, I
was on a rooftop downtown, waiting on both Power Woman (who was disentangling
herself from her personal life) and Gallowglass (who was talking to one of her
'contacts', who apparently worked in an electronics distribution warehouse). My
cell phone rang. "Yo!"
"Heszcheck here.
I bumped that analysis to the head of the line, and I already got some good
news and some bad news."
"Oh, lovely -
Vaudeville time! <sigh> Okay, Heszcheck, here's your straight line
- What's the Good News, Mister Bones?"
"The good news
is that neither the needles nor the threads match the Symbiont Tar. The boffins
tell me that the Symbiont Tar is actually a micro-fine crystalline dust or sand,
with dodecahedral - what the fuck is 'dodecahedral'?"
"Dodecahedral
means it's a dodecahedron, a twelve-sided solid figure, sort of like a planed-off
ball. Go on..."
"Whatever - the
individual grains of dust or sand are dodecahedral, hollow filled with tiny
amounts of liquid, and made up of some weird, unlikely compound of iron,
silicon, carbon, copper and a grab bag of other trace elements. The needles are
made up of carbon, iron, sulphur, and again, a grab bag of trace elements,
compressed into fibrous crystals."
"Hmmm...
So far, so weird. Okay, I'll bite - What's the Bad News, Mister Bones?"
"The threads. The
lab techs say they're partially comprised of human DNA. No matter what happens,
when this is over, we're gonna havta sit Miss 'Gallowglass' down and have a
rather strict talk with her."
Partially comprised
of human DNA? I looked down at the distribution warehouse where Gallowglass had
gone trolling for information. Gallowglass walked out a door and passed a truck
as it was warming up to leave. Then I noticed something weird.
As Gallowglass
passed the exhaust, the smoke from the exhaust pipe followed her and was
soaked up into her longcoat.
<Click!>
"Don't worry
about Gallowglass, Lieutenant. I think I just figured her out. I think what
Gallowglass does is she emits some sort of energy or force that interacts with
Carbon-based matter. She reaches out into the air around her and gathers all
the particulate carbon. Once she has enough of that stuff at hand, she forms it
into those fibrous carbon crystals, which she forms into various glassy things
such as those needles."
"And what about
the human DNA?"
"Heszcheck, the
vast majority of the inside pollution we run into is dust. And 'Dust' is 85%
human dander, or dead skin cells. And since the human matter that isn't water
is 70% carbon, it's just more building matter to her. My guess is that she uses
that coat of hers as a method of both collecting and storing carbon for later
use."
"So, basically
you're saying that she schmootzes her enemies into submission."
"Hey, have you
ever tried to fight a stain that simply will not go away?"
"Yeah, well,
you watch out, Kid. I hear that she plays dirty!"
"I'll keep my
nose clean. Oops, here comes Dirty Harriet. Gotta Go!"
Gallowglass rose up
the side of the wall on a slender cord that constricted, pulling her up.
"Hey. So, you
get anything from your source?"
"I got a time
and a place. My guy is selling Prisker some information."
"So, 'your guy'
is selling Prisker information, and he's selling Prisker to you; how can you be
sure that he's not also selling you to Prisker?"
"From the
information that I've been getting, Prisker is in the first stage of pulling up
stakes and getting the hell outta Dodge. My boy is worried that Prisker might
try to 'clean up after himself' by getting rid of a few people who can ID him
now that he has that symbiont. Besides, if Prisker leaves, then he ain't gonna
be a customer anymore, now is he?"
I couldn't help it.
"Oh, it's a dirty business, isn't it?"
"It pays the
bills. Now, where's that 'expert' that you insisted on?"
"She's on her
way, and yep! There she is!"
Power Woman swooped
down. She nodded to me, and cocked her head at Gallowglass. "Gallowglass,
may I introduce Power Woman. Pee Dubya, this is Gallowglass, registered bounty
hunter."
Power Woman folded
her arms across her chest. "So...Gallowglass...I understand that you have
information regarding Doctor Daedalus?"
Gallowglass flicked
me a look through those glasses of hers. I shrugged. "Not directly. I have
information that a goon calling himself 'Prism' - though he's probably thought
up a new name for himself now that he's got that symbiont - is connected with
Daedalus. I've managed to get a line on Prism, and we should be able to get him
to lead us to Daedalus."
"And where is
this 'Prism' now?"
"I dunno. But I
_do_ know that he's going to pick up some information from my informant at a
particular place at a particular time. At that time, I'm going to plant a
tracker on him, and follow him back to Doctor Daedalus."
"What makes you
think that he'll go directly to Daedalus?"
"He won't. He'll
pull a heist, and then take it to Daedalus. When he does that, we bag them both."
"And we're
supposed to just stand there watching and let him commit a felony?"
I interrupted. Pee
Dubya was getting up Gallowglass' nose, and GG wasn't having any of it. "Of
course we don't just let him break in. After he's broken in, you and I stop
him, beat the crap out of him, but let him just barely manage to escape. If
he's hurt bad enough, he'll make a bee-line for Daedalus for treatment. And if
he's watching for two fliers, he won't be keeping an eye out for Gallowglass,
making it that much easier to track him, No?"
Gallowglass nodded
grudgingly. "It works. And, this way we don't have to face Daedalus AND
Prism when they're both at full strength.
"_But_, before
we go any further, I want something understood. I'm in this for money, but you
two are the ones that are supposed t'be doin' it for 'Truth, Honor and the
American Way' - I don't want you guys crabbin' about a cut of the bounty on
Daedalus."
"He's worth
that much?"
"He's wanted in
all fifty States, four Canadian Provinces, Mexico, Cuba, most of the NATO
nations, Japan, the PRC AND Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Sinapore and India.
Heck, he's even wanted in Tonga. And they're All putting
up money to have him brought in."
Oooggg... If Tonga
is putting up cash, then Daedalus must be even more of a scumbag than I thought
- Tonga is perennially broke.
"Hey, if it's that
much, then I think that, on behalf of AEGIS, I should make an agreement
for, oh say, 10% of that."
Gallowglass crossed
her arms and sneered, "Whatsa matta, those 'Lady Lightning' posters not
selling like they used to?"
"Oh, they're
selling quite nicely - last month, they underwrote 10% of the local General
Hospital's Burn Ward operations, and next week they're going to pay for
reconstructive surgery on a kid who had three-quarters of her face burned off. But
that's not the point - I'm not getting any of that money, AEGIS is; do you have
any idea of how expensive running a superhero HQ is?"
"Yer breakin'
my heart - 3%."
"You need us
just to operate in this city without getting busted on a thousand trivial
violations - 8%"
"Flying without
a net is SOP with me - 4%!"
"Without us, you'll
have to deal with Prism and Doctor Daedalus both, at their peaks! 7%."
"That's just a
routine business hazard for me. 5%!"
"I think we can
accept Five percent of what you get for Doctor Daedalus as just recompensation.
As a gesture, we'll let you keep all of what you'll get for Prism."
"Damn White of
you." I'm still trying to figure out if that was a compliment or an insult.
*****
As we watched, Power
Woman groused, "You could have held out for six percent."
"The money
wasn't the point. Gallowglass is a mercenary - she doesn't respect what she
doesn't pay for."
"Why do we need
her?"
"Because it's
simpler this way. We help her get Daedalus. She gets paid, we get Daedalus'
weirdo technology off the street. Everybody wins. If we tried to freeze her
out, then it gets complicated. Guys like Daedalus thrive in complicated
situations."
"It's already
complicated."
"Oh? How so?"
"Do you
remember that factory of She-Devil's that the Iron Lance mercs stormed? It
wasn't Doctor Daedalus' style."
"Hunh? But I
thought you said it was exactly Daedalus' style!"
"The situation
was, the factory itself wasn't. That place was thrown together with off-the-rack
equipment. Daedalus always makes his own equipment himself. That way he doesn't
have to trust the sub-contractor's ethics or workmanship."
"And he doesn't
have to worry about his source of supply being interrupted or traced back to
him."
"Exactly. So,
Daedalus wasn't working with She-Devil or that Egg thing. But that
teleportation device - that had Daedalus written all over it. He might as well
have put a logo on it. So, Daedalus was probably Iron Lance's client. But if
Daedalus is the one supplying second rate supervillains with these symbionts,
why is he trading shots with She-Devil?"
"Given her
personality, I'd say that it was a matter of good taste on his part. No, but
seriously, I think you may be on to something. When I was Maverick and
Desperado's hostage, they let drop that they had stolen that doo-hickey for
someone who was paying them in high-tech goodies."
"Daedalus."
"More'n likely.
They snatch whatever it is, and Kraken - another symbiont supervillain -
comes along to fetch it back. And there was that time that She-Devil and
Berserker suckered me into breaking into one of his labs. You think that maybe
there's some kind of feud going on between Deadalus and the symbiont
supervillains? Why?"
"I'm not sure. Too
much speculation, too little real information. Maybe he has some kind of
obedience device that they're afraid of."
"Well, that would
make sense - only an idiot would give those kind of people that kind of power,
and just trust them to keep on paying him his cut."
"So, there we
are - a very complex situation, into which this 'Gallowglass' comes
blithely in, with 'information' from an unknown source about Daedalus'
whereabouts. How can we be sure that she isn't one of the symbiont
supervillains?"
"Simple - I
already checked. I had Heszcheck analyze a few samples that she left behind. The
symbionts are based on a silicon-carbon compound, while Gallowglass down there
works almost purely in carbon, and - whoops! The ball is in play!"
Gallowglass had been
talking with a disreputable looking type, when a dramatic looking guy walked up.
Disreputable Looking sort of shooed Gallowglass off.
Brenda made an
unconviced noise. "What makes you think that's Prism? It could be Illegal
Business As Usual."
"Look at their
feet - see that pool of darkness forming at Gallowglass' feet? She spread it
out just before this guy came up. My guess is that Gallowglass just marked her
pigeon. After all, who really looks at the bottom of their feet unless they
step in something?"
Brenda grunted again.
"That 'pool of darkness' just reminds me too much of Kraken and those
other symbiont scumbags."
"I told you - I
checked her out. However her power works, it isn't a symbiont thing."
"Maybe, but I
still think that this is too damn easy. Even if Gallowglass is on the level,
it's too likely that the symbionts sent him at Daedalus to get him out of the
way."
"So? And this
is bad?"
"Without
Daedalus on the scene, the symbionts won't have any checks on them."
"And again,
this is bad? I mean, She-Devil is NOT a checks or plaids kinda girl...though
maybe she should try paisley..."
"Will you be
serious?"
"Okay,
seriously - even If the symbionts are all together in jumping on
Daedalus, it doesn't follow that they're gonna stick together once that's done.
I mean, it's a minor miracle that Berserker can stand She-Devil, and can
you really see Kraken putting up with either of them? And if Nasghul is in on
this, it won't last an hour past the moment that Daedalus goes down. He's your
classic megalomaniac who won't listen to anyone else. Heck, there's a good
chance that they'll try to make a go of being a team, and they'll wind up
gacking each other. And Daedalus scares me a lot more than all the symbionts
put together."
"Daedalus is a
menace, but She-Devil by herself is enough to warrant the attention of all of
us. She has to be dealt with."
"Brenda, what
IS it that you people see in her? I mean, you of all people
should know that a great body doesn't neccessarily mean that someone's all that
great!"
Even before Prism
left his street contact, Gallowglass left and got back to us by a roundabout
route. "M'man Slick said that every time he sold Prism some inside info,
that he did his thing no more than three or four hours later. So, we gotta keep
an eye on him, 'cause Prism's gonna be busy real soon."
I screwed up my face
in confusion. "Three or four hours? Doesn't he do any kind of
legwork on his own?"
"I get the
impression that Prism doesn't really trust ol' Slick. With good reason. I guess
he doesn't want to give Slick a chance to peddle off second hand information on
him."
"Y'know, the
more I hear about how crooks work, the better I like Cops?"
*****
We tagged after
Prism for about three hours, keeping well out of his sight. Sure enough, about
three hours after he left 'Slick', Prism was standing at the side of a building.
You could tell that he hadn't had his symbiont for very long - he did the
'Dramatic Pose' thing to change from 'streetwear' to 'fighting togs'. Then he
spread his mirrored wings and flew up six stories, where he paused to cut a big
gaping hole in the wall. Gee, talk about Mister Subtle!
Once he was inside,
Power Woman and I flew to go whup his ass so bad that he'd have to go back to
Doctor D to put a band-aid on it. It was understood that Gallowglass would stay
back and track him when he split.
When we got to the
hole, Prism was in the process of aiming a shot with one of his razor-sharp
wings to take the head off of a security guard. Pee-Dubya assumed her 'Stern
Goddess of Justice' pose and blared, "Halt, Miscreant! Harm that man, and
you shall answer to--- POWER WOMAN!"
I looked at her
askance. " 'Halt, Miscreant'? Who talks like that?"
Prism could have
gone for ruthless and used the guard as a hostage, but instead he went for
stupid and threw the man at us. Pee-Dubya caught him, but before I could do
anything, he struck another pose and said, "Foolish women! Leave while you
can! Nothing can stand in the way of the mighty LIGHTHAWK!"
Oh, Lord, give me
strength!
I took the security
guard from Power Woman. "Pee-Dubya, you wanna handle this? You two can
trade pomposities until one of you drops."
Giving me a scowl,
Power Woman launched herself at Dimbulb.
Now, I could go into
a long involved, blow-by-blow account of how we kicked his nice, shiny ass, but
to be honest, it wasn't that interesting a fight. If wearing a symbiont turns
second-raters into front-line menaces, then Prism must have been a real fourth-eschelon
super-crook. Or maybe he was just unfamiliar with his new powers. To be honest,
it was sort of difficult to throw the fight enough to let him run without
making it obvious.
As Lighthawk whizzed
off, I looked at PW, "Well, let's see if Gallowglass waited for us."
She had. Being
carried in Power Woman's arms, Gallowglass tracked Dimbulb to a low-lying
building on the outskirts of the warehouse district. Oh well, at least it
wasn't the Industrial district this time. When we lit on a roof near the
building, I asked Gallowglass, "You're sure?" She nodded. "Okay,
Pee-Dubyah, this is why we called you in on this. You've dealt with Daedalus
often enough - given the shape of this building, how would he lay it out?"
Power Woman gave the
outlay a long hard look. She had some good notions, but you could tell that she
wasn't an engineer. Between her personal experience and my formal training, we
were able to get a general idea of how the place was put together. Using my
'radar', I was able to pinpoint the places where Daedalus' security devices
were thickest. That was very important - we had to know the spot where to hit
the place the hardest.
I picked up
Gallowglass and gave Power Woman the nod. She rose up into the sky, almost out
of sight. Then she came powering down at top speed and rammed a hole through
the building.
As I carried her
through the gaping hole, Gallowglass was nicely impressed. "That's
reinforced concrete. She went through it like it was cardboard."
"Well, ol' Pee-Dubya
never did have problems in the raw power department. Finesse, now - that's
always a problem."
I'd assumed that the
greatest concentration of power would be the main control room. It looks like I
was wrong and Brenda was right: Daedalus always has at least three standby
power generators. I owe her a dollar.
Fortunately, the
control room wasn't far from the generator. It was set up pretty much the same
way in which the control room that She-Devil had suckered me to was. I sat down
and got ready to work. "Gallowglass, go find Power Woman. She should have
dug herself out of that hole by now."
"And what are
you gonna be doing?"
"Shutting down
all the automatic defenses. Or at least trying to. The security protocols for
this installation are much better than they were at the last one. I may not be
able to gain access."
"Can't you just
use your electrical powers to do it?"
"Nope. I don't
have that level of fine control. I'm gonna have to do it the old fashioned way."
I picked up a telephone. "I'm going to get somebody smarter than I am to
do it."
Fortunately, the
control room had a schematic and some security monitors, so we knew which room
Daedalus and Lighthawk were in. Through the monitor, I saw PW and GG make their
entrance. Brenda started off with her usual 'strike a pose and make pompous
noises' bit. Luckily for me, the security pickups didn't include microphones. Then
Bernice picked up on the other side of the phone.
"What is it?"
she snarled in her usual telephone charm.
"Hey, Bernie! It's
Lady Lightning. Quick, listen up, I don't have a lot of time, here's the skinny-"
I ran down the bare essentials of the situation. I'll spare you the techno-geek-speak
interchange. I patched Bernice into Daedalus' mainframe over the phone line and
let her take it from there. "Bernice? If you don't need me for anything,
there's a classic shindig brewing, and if I don't shake a tailfeather, I'm
gonna miss it."
"Not to worry -
the Kid is on the job." With that, I was out of the control room.
The fight was going
on in one of those large, open rooms that mad scientists are so fond of. Gallowglass
was throwing glassy knives at Doctor Daedalus. Power Woman was guarding her
back by using Lighthawk as a club to batter combat robots and as a shield to
deflect incoming energy blasts from the lab's weapon emplacements. Somehow, I
doubt this was what ol' Prism had in mind when he signed up for Dr. D's
symbiont treatment.
As I charged in, I
finally got a good look at the notorious Doctor Daedalus. Now, I admit that I'd
rather been expecting something along the lines of Marvel Comics' Doctor Doom© -
dramatic pseudo-chivalric armor, a flowing cape, an expressive faceplate, and
like that. The reality was rather disappointing. Dr. D's armor was a prosaic
off-white articulated cermet with a blank faceplate that was only broken up by
some sensor aperatures. Instead of a cape, he wore a bland - if practical - lab
coat. And he wasn't posturing dramatically, firing energy bolts from a guantlet
(that shouldn't have enough room for any circuitry, let alone room for an
energy weapon) and ranting away. Instead, he was just standing there, calmly
reviewing the battle. He was probably directing the emplaced weapons by remote
control.
Remote control
weapons in a research lab - evil scientists are so untrusting!
Okay, so Daedalus
didn't waste room in his power armor with weaponry, preferring to put all his
firepower in remote hardpoints in his lab. Engineering-wise, a sound move. But,
it means that it has to be operated by remote control. So, the communications
band that he's using is the weak link. Advantage - Good Guys.
I thunder-charged
over to Dr. D, and did a wide-area sustained electric discharge. Or, for the
technologically challenged, I filled the air with static electricity. Now, I
didn't really expect Daedalus to use a radio frequency - it was far more likely
that he was either using an ultrasonic tone or an infrared light beam. Either
way, the static burst would either interfere with the infrared beam or the
speaker chip for the ultrasonic tone.
It worked. I'm still
not sure which way it worked, but it worked. The weapon hardpoints went quiet,
but the combat robots were still frisky. Daedalus must have designated Power
Woman and Gallowglass as targets before he took the joystick for the
emplacments.
Oh course, if I were
really slick, I would have jammed Daedalus' gear while staying out of
his reach. As it was, he resorted to the decidedly low-tech, but admittedly
effective ploy of slamming me in the ribs. While he couldn't be bothered with
putting weapons systems in his hard-suit, I guess he thought that a strength
amplifying exo-skeleton was worth the space. He sent me flying into the nearest
console and then went stock still again. I guess he was trying to get the
emplacements up and kicking again.
Gallowglass reached
into her coat and yelled, "Stay back, Lightning!" She whipped her
hand toward Daedalus, throwing a stubby disc at Daedalus. When the disc was a
few inches away from him, it exploded in an inky cloud. Then the dust settled. Despite
myself, it was sort of like those old cartoons where a character gets blown up
with dynamite, and is changed to a 'pickaninny'. You don't see those scenes
much more these days - they keep getting edited out, in the cause of Political
Correctness. Daedalus was covered from head to toe in blackness.
Then he slipped and
fell. He tried to get up, but he kept losing his stance and floundering.
The lights flickered
for a moment, and I heard Bernice's voice on my headset, "Hey, LL - I got
in! His database is MINE!" Then the last of the Octobots went limp, just as
Power Woman was about to batter it into scrap.
PW looked at
Gallowglass. "What did you do to him?"
I leaned over and
poked experimentally at the black stuff that was on the floor near Daedalus. It
was very slippery, but it didn't feel wet... Then it clicked. "Buckminsterfullerite!"
I could see the
flummox through Power Woman's helmet.
"Buckminsterfullerite,
or 'Buckyballs', is a form of carbon that takes the shape at the microscopic
level of a 'ball' arranged in a form like a Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome. [Author's
Note: Yes, this stuff really exists!] It makes an extremely efficient
lubricant, and unless I miss my guess, Gallowglass used the residual static
electric 'cling' from my burst to make this stuff cling to to his armor. So,
with this stuff covering him from head to toe, there's no way that he could
keep any traction to stay standing or get back up."
Gallowglass gave me
an odd 'and how did you know about that' look. "Yeah, right,
Buckminsterfullerite." It struck me that she'd never heard of it before. With
her power, she wouldn't have to know the name or the details, she'd just form
the stuff and use it. "I got the idea from your story of how you took
Berserker down."
Power Woman tied
Lighthawk to a pylon with a length of pipe. "Yeah, yeah, very clever. Now,
how are we going to get that cybernetic scumbag out of that shell of his if we
can't get a grip on him?"
Gallowglass shook
her head. "I can't make the soot dissolve without letting him get back up
again. And he's too dangerous to let that happen."
I chewed it over.
"He wasn't manipulating any controls when he was operating the lab's
weapons - he must have some kind of control system fixed into the interior of
his helmet. He'd also have the opening mechanism built in the same way, for the
same reason. See how the faceplate is designed? My bet is that it swings up
like a visor. How's this - Gallowglass, you dissolve the soot on his faceplate,
and only on his faceplate. Pee-Dubya, when the soot drops you force his
faceplate open. As soon as it's open, I'll stun Daedalus. Once he's out, I can
figure out how to open up the armor."
Gallowglass shrugged.
"It's a plan." The layer of schmutz around the faceplate dropped away.
Power Woman tried to open it, but failed on the first try. Then she straddled
his body, got as much leverage as she could and gave it everything she had. The
visor snapped open, but before we could do anything, there was a flash of light
that came from the interior of the helmet.
When my sight
cleared, I looked inside the armor. Nothing. It was empty. Not only had Doctor
Daedalus managed to fly the coop, but every circuit inside the helmet (and I'll
give you odds inside the entire suit) was fried. "He's gone!"
"