by Daco
“What could happen to me, Charlie? I’m just a businesswoman and a socialite. Hypothetically, if one were going to make such a shield, what would be the best material?”
He shut his eyes for a moment. “Gold. If you combine it with the mu-metal, perhaps you could create some kind of shield. Though it may not be strong enough.” He shrugged hopelessly, suddenly seeming very tired.
She moved close and hugged him. “Thank you, Dr. Chin.” She turned and sprinted to the warehouse, where she found rolls of the mu-metal. It was thinner than paper, a substance that she could bend effortlessly. She had her shield, but she was missing two things: the gold and a way to lure Red Web out into the open so that she could destroy it.
She transformed into Electromancer and carried the massive shield out of the warehouse. Then, using the directions that Bobby had provided, she flew to Momo’s hideout to conduct surveillance. In the distance, she spotted the dome of the complex that must’ve housed Momo’s weapon of mass destruction. But as she came closer, she hit a force field, throwing her back. She hadn’t expected anything like this. She tried getting through at many different places, but there were no openings. If she couldn’t pass through this barrier, how would she ever reach Momo? But she couldn’t stay there any longer. She wasn’t ready for battle and couldn’t afford to be spotted beforehand. Now that she knew about this force field, she had to formulate a plan to penetrate it.
Still carrying the mu-metal, she flew to Sigfred’s apartment, praying that, somehow, he’d be there. He was nowhere to be found, and from the state of the rooms, he hadn’t been there for days. Flitting through the atmosphere at nearly the speed of light, she searched all of Kensington City and its suburbs, looking for him everywhere. If she could only find him, they could accomplish this together. He was nowhere to be found. Her eyes misted up. Each time a tear rolled down her cheek, it sparked.
Like a child looking for comfort, she returned to The Mick, perhaps more her home now than the huge Manchester estate. Making sure that none of the workers saw her, she made her way to The Magpie and dove into its core—the very location where the Electromite had once resided. It was like returning to the womb, a place where she might find answers. And she needed answers. She waited for a voice but heard nothing. If only her father would talk to her, guide her, as he’d done that first time.
Floating in an ineffable current, she thought of nothing and everything, and then focused on her loss. First her mother, then her father, and now Sigfred. Everyone she loved had died—or had they all deserted her?
With a burst of angry energy, she heated the core of the generator and began spinning the damaged turbines. Before long, The Magpie’s metal burned molten hot, the glow as bright as a star. Sparks flew all around Electromancer, who sunk ever deeper into The Magpie’s core. She felt herself becoming incorporeal, pure energy, which formed a vortex and turned in on itself. She was being absorbed into what—a black hole? She hovered at the edge of the event horizon, certain that if she let herself go, she’d fall to the point of the singularity and vanish into oblivion. Like a Siren’s song, the void beckoned.
When she saw the smirking visage of Montgomery Manchester—Momo—she perceived his evil and held firm. In that brief moment, the pitch darkness turned into a transcendent white. She knew with certainty that she wasn’t a coward, that her destiny wasn’t oblivion. She had to save her life—not only hers, but the lives of her fellow citizens.
So, Electromancer fought, trying to escape The Magpie. But she was trapped in the very vortex of anger and electricity that she’d created. She frantically used her arms and legs to grope at the formless white ether, searching for a boundary or anything else she could find to claw her way out. She tried to fly, but there was no sky. She tried shooting electricity but had none. She wanted to cry, but no tears fell. She felt for her arms, but now they were substanceless—her entire body was substanceless. She was imprisoned in a finite yet boundless white.
“Father, help!”
No answer.
“Sigfred,” she whispered. She wanted his name to be the last word she uttered, an emblem of love and loss. How had she been so blind? Sigfred—his love—had been in her presence all the time.
Though she had no eyes to see, she perceived a slight breach forming in the white shroud. A pinpoint at first, expanding and elongating, and she had the crazy thought that it was a wormhole into another dimension.
“This way,” a faint voice said.
Could it be an escape route? Or was this the pathway to her tomb?
“Hurry! Before it closes!” the voice said.
Electromancer thought of fighting the force, but instinctively understood that to resist would be a mistake, so she yielded, and a comforting warmth spread over her body. She felt herself being rapidly pulled through the opening and transported to someplace else. A rainbow of soothing light embraced her. Time condensed. Her body regenerated, as if she were going backward in time, but she knew that was impossible. A moment later, she fell with a thud onto something hard—the concrete floor near The Magpie.
“Give me your hand,” the voice said.
She opened her eyes and looked up, and what she saw astonished her—Blue Arrow, not in the guise of a majestic blue cloud, but in the form of a beautiful, muscular man. Strong, powerful, handsome—distinctively Sigfred but, at the same time, someone else entirely—Blue Arrow. Just as she was Alexa at her core, she was now also something more—a stronger, more powerful Electromancer.
“You saved me,” she said.
“No. You saved me.”
She shook her head, her mind still a bit foggy. “I don’t understand.”
He kneeled down over her prone body and looked deeply into her eyes. “When Red Web attacked me, my energy didn’t dissipate. It instead turned in on itself. The mass was so great that I was transported to another dimension. I can’t explain it. I was a prisoner. I was able to see through the bars but unable to escape. Then you came along and rescued me.”
Before she could protest, he took her in his arms and kissed her. The touch of his lips against hers gave her all the reassurance she needed. Together, they could do this.
“I think we rescued each other,” she whispered.
They lost all sense of time as they lost themselves in each other. When their bodies separated, she quickly explained recent events.
“What’s the first thing we have to do?” he asked.
“We need to get gold to combine with the mu-metal.”
“Where can we get it?”
“Charlie Chin says it will take a lot. We’re not talking about a gold coin or a few trinkets. No jewelry store or a gold exchange will have enough. And we can’t just fly to the Americanas and rob Fortress Knox. There’s another problem. Even if we acquire enough gold, I don’t know how we would transport the shield made of gold and mu-metal. When I was carrying the mu-metal, my energy began to melt it. I had to fly slowly and at low altitude to preserve it.”
“I can carry your shield,” he said. “I might not travel at the speed of light, but I can modulate temperatures. If we can find your gold, I will carry you and your shield wherever you need to go.”
“You are my true Blue Arrow.”
He kissed her forehead. “And you have a heart of gold.”
She laughed softly. “In truth, I think it’s platinum.”
And then it came to her. She knew exactly where she could get enough gold.
• • •
A few minutes later, Alexa and Sigfred were standing on Mayor Baumgartner’s front porch. When The Mayor opened the door and noticed Sigfred, his mouth dropped open.
“Sawyer, I thought you left.” He shook his head slightly and turned to Alexa. “Alexa feared you might be done for, man.” He turned to her. “And weren’t you going to try to find ...?”
If matters weren’t so serious, Alexa might’ve given him some plausible explanation, but there was no time for that.
“Aren’t you going to inv
ite us in, Mayor Baumgartner?” Sigfred asked.
“Yes, of course. This way.” He led them back to this private office.
“How can I help you, Alexa?” The Mayor asked, ignoring Sigfred.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to give us your gold,” she said. “A good part of it. It’s in the interest of world stability.”
Again, The Mayor went slack jawed. “Alexa, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have gold lying around. Oh, I might have invested in some gold futures over the past several years, but with market conditions the way they are, I took a big loss, and my broker—”
“Bobby, stop,” Alexa said. “You drive a gold Lamborghini with a twenty-four carat hood ornament. You wear a solid gold watch. You have gold crowns on your teeth even though Gladys says that you’ve never had a cavity in your life. All your cufflinks are gold. Your pinky ring is gold. The door knocker at the main entrance to your home is gold. Look around—all your furniture is gold. I saw the paperweights in your mayor’s chambers, and those are solid gold. Heavens, at your last dinner party, you served gold tea leaf.”
“Fine, Alexa, I admit it. I have a fondness for gold. But where is this all leading?”
“Where do you keep the bullion?” she asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“If anyone has gold bullion in his basement, it’s you.”
He crossed his arms. “I most certainly do not.”
She drew herself up to her full height, crossing her arms. “You said you wanted a chance to prove that you’re a decent man. Now is the time.”
“If I do this for you, will you marry me?”
“Oh, Bobby, we’re long past that. You want a chance to prove you’re a good man, and good men do the right thing because it’s right, not because they can get someone or something for it. Well, giving us your gold is the right thing to do. Electromancer needs to make a shield to fight Red Web. She needs the gold to line a mu-metal shield.”
“How do you know that?” The Mayor asked, now appearing thoroughly befuddled.
Sigfred cleared his throat. “Electromancer came to the mansion seeking Ms. Manchester’s help. Ms. Manchester has provided the mu-metal from The Mick, but only you have the necessary gold to make the alloy.”
“When did you get back again, Mr. Sawyer?” The Mayor asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
“Only today, sir,” he said. “I’m the one who has contacts with Electromancer.”
The Mayor looked at Alexa. “Are you certain that this fellow isn’t working with Momo?”
“Quite sure. Now listen to me, Bobby, there’s no time to waste. If you’ll give us your bullion, I think there’s a chance to defeat Momo and get back the Electromite that he stole. That he robbed from us all.”
“Would this be a gift or a loan, Alexa?” The Mayor asked.
“It’s going to be used to make an alloy, Bobby. It will no longer be gold. I’m afraid there will be no returning it.”
“Look at it this way, Mayor Baumgartner,” Sigfred said. “Gold will be worthless if the world falls into darkness.”
The Mayor closed his eyes, looking as if he were about to burst into tears, but said, “Come with me.”
• • •
Earlier that morning, on Momo’s orders, Biggie Bitterman had entered the Sugar Express Train Depot. Bitterman didn’t like it—he took the old adage that the culprit always returns to the scene of the crime literally, and so didn’t want to return to the crime scene at all. But Momo had insisted that he check to make sure that the package—meaning Electromancer On Ice—was secure. They’d planned to ship her out no later than the week’s end, when the refrigeration car was due to arrive. Thanks to those train engineers and their refurbishment project, the depot’s tracks were almost ready.
Fortunately, those do-gooders from WEEDS and CABOOSE hadn’t yet arrived. Bitterman walked through the entire depot, carefully checking every nook and cranny, making sure that no derelicts like that drunk Zero were crashing in the shadows. When he was certain that the place was deserted, he made his way to the abandoned ice cream factory. To his shock, he saw that Professor Slipter’s makeshift jail had been breached and that Electromancer had escaped.
He reached into his pocket for his cell phone and, with trembling fingers, began to call Momo. The boss would not be happy, might even zap Professor Slipter with one of those deadly screwdrivers.
“Drop it, Bitterman!”
Bitterman knew the voice—Chief Constable Pete Petaud. He turned to find Chief Petaud and a posse of twenty of Kensington City’s finest, aiming their weapons directly at him. Standing next to the Chief was that worm, Zachary Zero. Bitterman dropped his cell phone.
“Keep your hands where I can see them,” Chief Petaud said. “You’re going to prison for a very long time for what you did to Alexa Manchester.”
“Yeah, and I’m going to sue your behind for injuring me in that car wreck,” Zero said gleefully.
• • •
When Blue Arrow and Electromancer arrived at the boundary of Momo’s force field, Blue Arrow remained tucked away behind the gold-and-mu-metal shield, while Electromancer flew high in the air, generating brilliant bolts of electricity that could be seen from miles away.
“It’s over, Momo,” she cried in her crystalline voice, so powerful that she could sense it penetrating the force field. “Give yourself up now to avoid any more bloodshed.”
She glanced over at Blue Arrow, who said, “Get ready. They’re scrambling around in panic. I can sense it by the change in atmospheric pressure.”
Seconds later, the hatch to the dome opened, and a massive bolt of lightning flashed in her direction, somehow exiting the force field. She intercepted the bolt by catching it in her right hand and flung it into space. She tried flying through the force field again but was thrown back. Another bolt of lightning flew at her, and the moment it crossed the force field, she tried diving through the spot it had exited, but again she failed. The force field was only a one-way street. Electromancer shook her head—Professor Slipter was, indeed, a brilliant scientist, though thoroughly mad.
Then, in the distance, she saw the hideous scarlet curtain form and advance. As Red Web rumbled toward the edge of the force field, gaining mass, she joined Blue Arrow.
“It’s time,” he said, for a moment hovering in his humanlike form.
“You don’t have to do this, Blue Arrow.”
“Yes, I do. We both do.”
She nodded, and together they donned the deflective shield with the gold/mu-metal alloy.
Wearing the deflective shield, Blue Arrow transformed into a blue cloud and encircled Electromancer. He rose into the air and met Red Web head on as it exited the force field. Red Web unfolded its deadly webbed wings. Electromancer emerged from the cloud and shot her strongest bolts of electricity at the lethal curtain. In the past, the electricity hadn’t even made the curtain flutter, but now a single thread in the fabric of evil frayed. The curtain emitted a burst of electromagnetic energy unparalleled in the struggle so far, but the protective shield held. Alexa sent multiple streams of electricity from her fingers and toes, and the fabric shredded in places like over-bleached linen. Red Web began fluttering to the ground, but then rose again, as if somehow the insulting injury had restored the web’s power.
“Get back!” Blue Arrow shouted.
Electromancer complied, taking refuge back inside the blue cloud and behind the protective shield. Then Blue Arrow ascended and once again charged Red Web. As soon as he got within a hundred yards of the curtain, Red Web’s magnetic energy split and spilled from its web, casting its threads in all directions. Electromancer once again shot bolts of electricity at Red Web, managing to diminish its energy.
“It’s losing power!” Electromancer cried. “If only we could penetrate the force field.”
“We need to weaken Red Web further to be sure it’s gone,” Blue Arrow said.
“No, just go.”
Blue Arrow continued forward. Electromancer shot massive bolts at the force field but was unable to breach it. Red Web was back, closing in on them again, trying to entangle them in its deadly web. A moment later, the shield surrounding Blue Arrow vanished. Red Web had absorbed it in a flash, draining the gold and the mu-metal and then spitting it out in an explosion of gold and metal-alloy fragments. Now, Electromancer and Blue Arrow were left completely exposed.
“Get out of here,” Electromancer shouted to Blue Arrow. “I’ll hold it at bay while you escape.”
Electromancer shot ever-increasing voltages at Red Web. She saw the curtain fraying again, but Red Web hadn’t used up its bag of tricks. It shot out a spray of smaller webs as though it had birthed its own evil offspring. The threads pelted and shocked Electromancer and Blue Arrow like giant hail from a massive lightning storm.
Electromancer began to weaken, as did Blue Arrow.
Lightning split the sky, and it wasn’t coming from either her or Red Web. A huge thundercloud was visible on the horizon.
“Go!” she shouted to Blue Arrow, who didn’t argue this time, but descended to the ground. The impending storm would only help Red Web by providing it with additional fuel. Then, in the distance, she saw something else, something that could make this a fair fight.
Electromancer retreated from Red Web and used her one remaining advantage. At warp speed, she flew high into the snowcapped Kensington Mountains and hovered above the highest, most snow-covered peak. With all her might, she began using her electrical force to break away huge shards of snow and ice, which she directed at Red Web. At first, the barrage made little impact, but the more she struck Red Web with frozen missiles, the colder the atmosphere became. Then all at once, Red Web was frozen inside a giant ball of ice.
With a bolt of lightning stronger than any she’d unleashed before, she sent the atmospheric molecules beneath the ball spinning upward. But it wasn’t enough. Soon, Red Web began to descend, and the ice surrounding it began to melt.
