Queen's Gambit (Lilith's Shadow Book 6)
Page 31
With a final, painful thrashing that almost caused Lilith to black out, Amber tore away from her, and Lilith gasped, blinking rapidly as the woman fled with an anguished, angry mental howl. A howl that caused a deep sense of satisfaction for Lilith.
Lilith found herself floating in the middle of what passed for the ship’s bridge, and rippling, spherical drops of blood were slowly oozing their way out of the injuries along her arms, some of them having solidified into icy beads in mid-…not air, but in front of her. As she watched, a larger glob of blood drifted out of Lilith’s nose and she winced, her head throbbing along with the rest of her. She was so exhausted, and likely needed medical attention.
With that in mind, Lilith glanced at the doors into the ship and shook her head, sending more droplets of bright crimson blood floating across the chamber in a graceful arc. Yes, she definitely needed medical attention, Lilith decided, and began floating toward the gaping holes into space.
Lilith emerged from the ship just in time to see several smaller vessels latch onto one of the distant members of Amber’s fleet, the newcomers glittering like brass. She flinched and turned her attention to the sides of the ship she’d boarded and smiled in relief as she saw that there was an airlock not too far away.
Then she paused, her attention drawn away from the airlock as she saw something moving below her.
Three tiny dots were approaching rapidly, angling toward the same ship that had the brass vessels she thought belonged to Destruction Corps. One of those dots had the faintest signs of bright blue thrusters, unlike the other two. But the last figure was quite distant… and Lilith rubbed her eyes, not quite sure if she was really seeing the bat-winged, black figure in the distance.
It could be blood loss playing tricks on her… couldn’t it?
Chapter 48
Saturday, December 6th, 2031
Astral, Low-Earth Orbit, Sol
It was all that Amber could do to keep herself in one piece, and she was trying to avoid screaming in pain. Huge chunks of her astral form were missing, Amber knew that because she’d taken one look at herself and blanched in shock. It reminded her of what would happen if someone took a barbed arrow and ripped it out of a victim without even trying to mitigate the damage. Only that there had been dozens of barbed arrows in this case.
She’d been run through a shredder, and she had no idea how Lilith had done it. She had powerful mental shields, yes, but she shouldn’t have been able to just rip her psyche apart like that. It hurt, so very, very badly, and she wasn’t about to put herself in more danger right now. That’s why she bypassed Grammar Nazi, despite it being the closest ship, and headed for A Bigger Stick.
The ship was taking some fire from the distant fleet, but the shields were holding the worst of it off, and Amber quickly scanned the interior, looking for a nice, isolated clone. She didn’t want to risk any of the clones sensing weakness. She found one clone in the medical bay, putting together what looked like an emergency medical kit, and Amber made her decision.
Entering the clone’s mind was harder than it should have been due to the injuries Lilith had inflicted on her, but Amber managed, even if she was appalled by how horrible it felt. Subduing the wretch was also difficult, as she suddenly panicked, struggling against Amber’s mind with all the ferocity of a cornered rat, but Amber pinned her down and choked the life out of the clone’s consciousness… and screamed as the woman ripped into one of the injuries, tearing it open even wider. It was a violent, brief battle, but Amber won, taking control of the body.
“Don’t you dare—” Amber gasped as nausea wracked her body, the pain and damage riddling her psyche hitting her fully at last, and she doubled over, puking onto the floor as her knees buckled beneath her. She could hardly think through all the pain, and the headache that slammed into her was so powerful she could barely see.
“Damn, damn, damn!” Amber cursed, trying to control her trembling legs and failing.
She needed to get to an escape pod. Soon.
Amber Fleet Data Network
Cassiphone was annoyed at Amber’s competence. If she hadn’t adjusted the security systems of the ships, Cassiphone might have been able to fully hijack the fleet. But no, she’d re-built their security, and Cassiphone didn’t have time to break through all of it. Worse still was that she’d compartmentalized each system, in some cases literally removing the linkages. That was a shame, since Cassiphone would have loved to set a few reactors to overload, or to retarget weapons on neighboring ships.
Since tweaking life support would take too long, and she couldn’t just space the lot of Amber’s clones, Cassiphone was reduced to hunting for the woman over her surveillance systems. If nothing else, at least Amber’s paranoid use of cameras in almost every room of her ships was useful in that regard. So she kept an eye on things as Amber self-destructed, watching every clone… and for a few terrible seconds she felt like her RAM had failed as she saw Lilith seeming to struggle. She did not want to kill her sister, not after everything Circe had done to keep her alive. She felt an immense weight lift off her when Lilith seemed to throw the villain off, though.
A thrill of anticipation rushed over her as she saw one of the clones on A Bigger Stick suddenly double over, clutching her head, then puked all over the floor. Considering that none of the other clones reacted similarly and the clone was isolated, Cassiphone kept a close eye on her as she protested and cursed, looking around wildly.
“Damn her!” the woman spat, wiping her mouth with the back of a hand again as she staggered. “What did she do to me? How? If I’d fled any slower… ugh, the hell with this. Destruction Corps, Lilith… the hell with all of them.”
The woman, who Cassiphone was now certain was Amber, grabbed some of the supplies and began to move toward the door. And Cassiphone smiled internally, her sense of anticipation growing still stronger as she reoriented her handful of armed satellites so they targeted A Bigger Stick. No, she wasn’t using sensors, but she didn’t really need them when she had access to the ship to helpfully pinpoint its position.
Now she just had to send a message to the various clones, and… ah, there they went. Scattering like rats fleeing a sinking ship.
Grammar Nazi, Low-Earth Orbit, Sol
Major Destruction laughed loudly as a beam of energy slammed into him but left no mark on his armor. Instead, the blue beam bounced off, twisting through the air as it began spiraling around him, and the man raised a hand at the drone attacking him. That spiral of energy circled around his arm, almost like a snake coiling around it, then a similar beam of bright blue energy lashed out, blowing the drone that had fired out of the sky.
Four lights were swirling around the big man, and General Mayhem smiled broadly at the sight, picking up a shard of one of the hatches they’d been forced to destroy and flicking it at another drone, releasing a bit of his power as he did so. The kinetic energy launched the shard of metal down the hallway like a rail gun, and it went straight through the drone and embedded itself deep into the wall behind it.
He chuckled softly, smirking. They’d wrecked every attempt by Shadowmind’s forces to defend the ship, which improved his mood dramatically. They’d run into a single woman so far, and Major Destruction had treated her like she was Shadowmind herself. That had ended poorly, as the woman seemed to be about as tough as your average civilian. Sure, she’d had a burning hole punched straight through her chest, but it wasn’t like anyone would know.
“Well, where next? Left or right?” General Mayhem asked, quirking an eyebrow at Major Destruction.
“Hrm. Left. That’s toward the bridge, I think, and the mooks are headed for engineering,” Major Destruction rumbled, a gloating, almost pleased to
ne in his voice. “They’d better not screw it up.”
“I’m sure they’ll try not to,” General Mayhem said, a smile playing across his lips. While he’d normally be unsure, Corporal Punishment and Ensign Exterminator were with them, and the Legionnaires were also the best that she’d been able to gather in time. They should be much better than the usual members.
Almost as if his thoughts had prompted them to speak, the comm crackled to life. “This is Black One! We have multiple incoming heroes, it’s—”
The message cut off the next moment in a blast of static, and General Mayhem’s smile vanished. He glanced at Major Destruction as he demanded. “Black One, who is it? Any pilots, report!”
No one replied, the comms filled with static, and General Mayhem scowled.
“I think we’d best check and see about the heroes. Keep them off the backs of the goons, maybe put them out of our misery,” Major Destruction said, slamming a fist into his palm as he grinned.
General Mayhem considered for a moment, then inclined his head, though he wasn’t happy about it. He turned around, glowering. “Fine, agreed. I intend to make them hurt, though.”
“Yup,” Major Destruction muttered, and they headed back down the corridor.
They made it almost halfway back to their entrance when light flickered off someone in blue and white, then a women stepped around the corner, prompting General Mayhem to stop, then to smile coldly.
The pretty woman had blonde hair and was reasonably tall, at almost six feet in height. She had blue eyes, and wore an outfit that was primarily blue, with a silver starburst on the chest and silver and white trim. Destiny was unmistakable, and he looked at her coldly, noting that she didn’t have a mask or space suit. That irritated him, but it added to his list of the heroine’s power set.
“Ah, General Mayhem, Major Destruction. It’s been a while,” Destiny said calmly, a small but angry smile playing across her lips. “I wondered if you’d be here, since your people tried to slow me down.”
“Destiny. I should have known that you’d be here. Come to die again?” General Mayhem replied, his eyes narrowing, even as anticipation rose inside him. He’d killed her once before, and his powers hadn’t weakened since the previous time. “I’d think you’d know better than to face me after last time.”
“Ah, but you assume she came without backup,” a throaty purr interjected, and General Mayhem’s smile vanished as a woman stepped out of the shadows, wearing a tight-fitting crimson bodysuit and helmet. How the woman managed to get the suit to fit her wings and tail was beyond him, but worse still was her presence. Daemonia scared him far more than Destiny, as he perfectly countered Destiny’s powers, but Daemonia could hit him with things that weren’t kinetic energy.
“Daemonia, is it? I’ve been wondering how well you’d burn,” Major Destruction said eagerly, and Destiny laughed.
“What, you think that we’d play to your strengths this time? That’s how I got killed,” Destiny said, her smile widening still more. “Please, don’t think you’re the only one who learned from the last time around.”
“If you think that we’re afraid of two girls, then you’d best visit one of your precious psychologists,” General Mayhem said, his gaze hardening as he tensed for combat. This wouldn’t be easy, but they’d…
His thoughts trailed off as another figure rounded the corner, and he swore under his breath at the sight of the white and red armor. What was this, a Class S hero convention?
“In that case, I believe that I’ll have to step in,” Sky Defender said, rolling his shoulders visibly. “I’d prefer to deal with Shadowmind, but I’m not going to sit back and let the two of you do as you please. I remember what happened last year.”
“Oh, don’t give me that, tin can,” Major Destruction snarled. “You should run home to your daddy if you’re going to whine about things like that.”
“Mm… I suppose we could leave. After all, Dracula’s inbound,” Daemonia said, her voice light and teasing, and what remained of General Mayhem’s confidence vanished.
“Get them!” he snarled and lunged at Destiny with all the force he could safely muster inside a starship.
He hit like a meteor, and they went through four bulkheads before he suddenly found himself thrown off her, to his shock. When had Destiny bothered to learn aikido? Worse, the simple throw didn’t give him nearly as much kinetic energy to work with as a punch would.
Still, they had to deal with these three before Dracula showed up. The odds were bad enough as it was, but he refused to leave empty-handed.
Explosions began to wrack the ship behind him, and General Mayhem cursed under his breath as Destiny launched herself back toward Major Destruction. That was not the matchup he wanted to see.
Chapter 49
Saturday, December 6th, 2031
Innocent Bystander, Low-Earth Orbit, Sol
“Lil, what happened to you?” Gina demanded in horror, and Lilith looked at her friend with a pained smile, wishing that the room would stop spinning. Fortunately, Rachel was lending her a shoulder clad in a vacuum suit, and the next moment Archon offered her own arm, which Lilith accepted gratefully, even as liquid dripped unpleasantly from her nose. That was probably still blood and might be contributing to her head feeling oddly light, like it’d been stuffed with cotton balls.
“Amber decided to try to steal my brain. I said no,” Lilith said, shivering slightly, then added, a bit belatedly. “That was after she self-destructed… which hurt. She probably could’ve killed me, but I might’ve taken her with me. She ran… I think I hurt her. A lot.”
“She self-destructed?” Tania asked, looking a bit taken aback. “Why… ah, of course. She can just steal another body.”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t sound happy. I found her next body, and—” Cassiphone began, then paused, adding. “I’ve contacted Blooming Orchid to help sis, but I’d suggest taking the door just up the hall from here… there’s a view that you guys have got to see!”
“Um…” Lilith began, but Tania exchanged a look with Gina and Rachel, and then they began to carry her into the next room, even as Lilith protested. “I could fly, you know. Even if I have shrapnel in my legs.”
“Your eyes are dilated, you’re bleeding from the nose, and you don’t seem to be focused. I think you need to lay down or something,” Rachel said tartly. “Warden, could you see if you can find a medical kit? Shadowmind’s bases normally have a few of those around…”
“Sure!” Gina said, a note of amusement in her voice as she added. “There’s one right next to the airlock, you know. Can’t you use your magic, anyway?”
“Yes, but getting the shrapnel out takes a finer hand, and I think Orchid would prefer to have the kit available,” Rachel said dryly. “Now come on.”
“Hey, what about us?” a clone demanded, and Lilith realized that Rachel just might have a point, since she hadn’t even noticed them when she’d gotten inside the ship. She’d only had eyes for her friends.
“You have legs, don’t you?” Gina retorted.
Lilith opened her mouth to reply, but paused as they stepped into the nearby room, a little confused at the sight of it at first.
The room before them looked a little like the balcony at the Guardian Compound, if messier. There were a pair of couches, several coffee tables, a couple of tables with chairs, and along one wall was a coffee maker, a counter with a food dispenser, a small fridge, and a rack of creamers. The rack of coffee mugs was filled with mugs bearing captions that said things like ‘Why be Evil? Be SUPER-Evil!’ and ‘This evil master plan sponsored by coffee.’ The tables were cluttered, many of them bearing a variety of magazines including a prominent one titled Supervillains Weekly, but her attention was drawn to the window taking up most of the outer wall.
The window showed space, with Earth taking up the lower part of the view, and a few bits of debris were nearby. More important, she could see some of the other ships of the fleet, and Lilith blinked as she saw d
ots flying away from them.
“What’re those?” Lilith asked, frowning.
“Escape pods,” a clone replied succinctly. “Though why they’re leaving all the ships is… are they idiots? They’re going to be practically helpless on the ground!”
“Shadowmind is fleeing already, the UN fleet is attacking, and—oh, there they are!” Cassiphone exclaimed, and Lilith’s eyes widened as an explosion rocked one of the ships to the left.
As she watched a tiny black dot surrounded by streamers of red, blue, white, and yellow energy went flying upward, chased by a white and red dot. A coruscating beam of energy lashed out from the first dot, just barely missing the second dot as it ripped a large hole in the side of the ship, seemingly ignoring the armor as it punched through it. The second dot hit the first, sending it flying to the side as she watched, confused as to what was happening. Then there came a blue and white dot, another black dot, and a red dot.
“That’s… is that Sky Defender?” Gina asked hesitantly, peering at the window as she clutched a medical kit in both hands.
Rachel and Tania helped set Lilith on the couch, and as they did so Rachel nodded. “I think so, yes. I’m not sure about the rest of them, though… they’re too far away.”
“Destiny and Daemonia, and based on the energy streams, one of them is Major Destruction,” Tania said, glancing through the window before looking at Lilith with a frown. “Which means the last is likely General Mayhem.”
“How can you tell?” Lilith asked, blinking a couple of times. Her eyes were focusing most of the time, and she winced as one of the dots was launched into the middle of the ship, which bent. That was bad.
“I have excellent vision,” Tania said, smiling gently at her for a second. She turned her attention to Rachel. “Might we do something about her nose and eyes? It is… concerning.”