***
As it turned out, they didn’t need to shoot anyone or blow anything up to create panic. Two women running through the crowds armed with machine guns were enough to sow plenty of havoc in their wake. Unfortunately, it also made them conspicuous to the police.
Akako pulled Dr. Reed into an alley; she hoped they could cut through to somewhere a little more private. To make things more difficult, Isis sealed off the alley; a brick wall rose out of nowhere to cut them off. Fire escapes and doors disappeared to leave Akako and Dr. Reed with nowhere to go. At the last moment, Akako spotted a door she must have missed the first time. She found that it was of course locked.
She threw herself against the door to break it open. The door led into a toy factory, boxes of Almighty Isis action figures piled up, waiting to be crated and shipped. Akako’s gun cleared the way for her and Dr. Reed; the employees screamed and dove for cover, no doubt afraid some disgruntled employees were on a rampage.
“We’re not going to hurt you!” Dr. Reed shouted, but this didn’t do any good. If anything it only made the employees more fearful, probably of being taken hostage.
They jumped off the loading dock, into the back of a delivery truck that was about to leave. They had just enough time to duck behind a crate of toys before the door slammed shut. With a sigh of relief, Akako sat on the floor and brushed sweat from her face. She hadn’t run so much since she ran for the cross-country team her senior year of high school. Dr. Reed was winded as well; Akako figured she probably didn’t have to run nearly as much as that other Emma.
“We should be safe for a minute,” Akako said.
“How do you figure that?”
“We were fine until that policeman saw us. So like Joanna said, she’s not omniscient. She’s more like me and the others; she’s linked to the people under her control in the city. If we stay out of sight, then she won’t be able to find us.”
“That sounds like a good theory.” Dr. Reed hugged her weapon to her chest. “So how are the others doing?”
“About the same as us. Rooi—our driver—and Rosita set fire to a newsstand. Redman and Redd are smashing windows along Toledo Avenue. Rood and Rosso are wiring up the old Hessman’s department store.”
Dr. Reed shook her head. “Those poor people. What if someone gets hurt?”
“That’s the chance we have to take for the greater good.”
“I just mean there are innocent people minding their own business and we’re terrorizing them. I don’t like it.”
“It’s like your daughter said, we’re freedom fighters. We’re doing what’s best for everyone.”
“I’m sure that’s what the hijackers said on 9/11 too.”
“Dr. Reed—Emma—we have to do this. It might be our only chance to stop Isis.”
“I know. It doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
The truck came to a stop a few minutes later. Akako braced herself for the driver to open the back door, but he didn’t. She opened it enough to peek outside and see they were parked in front of a coffee shop. Akako saw another alley just a short distance away. With any luck, no one would see them between the truck and the alley.
“Ready?” she asked.
“As I’ll ever be,” Dr. Reed said.
They jumped out of the truck and darted into the alley. As they ran, Akako waited for another brick wall to appear or perhaps something worse. Nothing happened. She finally sighed with relief again and rested against the wall, beside a dumpster.
“So what do we do now?” Dr. Reed asked.
“We have to find a way to disguise ourselves. Then figure out where we are.”
“I doubt there’s going to be much here we can use.”
“No, but maybe there will be over there,” Akako said. She pointed towards a garage door.
It was late enough that the garage was closed, a padlock on the door. Akako made short work of this with her machine gun; she hoped the noise didn’t draw anyone to them. She lifted up the door and saw they had found what they needed.
It was a motorcycle customizing shop. A half-dozen bikes lay in various states of rebuilding while spare parts were heaped off to one side. More importantly than that, Akako saw coveralls the mechanics used on a wall. She tossed one of these to Dr. Reed to put on.
“I don’t suppose you know anything about motorcycles?” Akako asked. She had learned to drive—twice—back in her world, but there everyone drove on the left and red lights meant to go.
“My husband owned one. Back when we were dating he let me drive it a few times.”
“Well then, maybe we can use one of these.”
The bikes around them were all useless unless they took the time to reassemble them, but they found the jackpot back by the spare parts. It was an old military bike with a sidecar. Someone had painted the bike a glossy black with flames on it and the sidecar. A little ostentatious for Akako’s liking, but at the moment they didn’t have much of a choice.
The sidecar was roomy enough—and she thin enough—that they could shove the rifles in there, out of sight. With helmets on and their hair tucked up, it should be difficult for Isis to recognize them. The only problem was that they didn’t have a key, though Akako should have known Dr. Reed could hotwire the thing. “You steal motorcycles back in your world?” Akako teased.
“No, but it’s a pretty simple concept.” Before Dr. Reed could explain it, Akako motioned for her to move. They had a lot of ground left to cover.
Dr. Reed was a cautious driver, which didn’t come as a surprise. As she cruised along the road, Akako guided her to avoid the major roads where there were bound to be more cops. At the first intersection, she got her bearings and then felt a queasy shiver in her stomach. Agnes’s house was just a few miles away. Would Renee be there or would she be out to stop the other Reds at the behest of Isis?
The answer came as Akako climbed up the steps of the darkened house. The door opened on its own and a light came on in the foyer. And then in a flash of white light, she appeared. A young woman nearly the same age as Akako, but with the exact features of the baby that had been torn from Akako’s arms back at Milton School for Girls. A silver necklace that bore the symbol of Isis dangled from Renee’s neck; it winked at her mockingly.
Worse yet was what Renee held in her arms. She cradled a little girl with blond curls clad in a pink princess outfit. Despite this, Akako recognized Agnes, the woman she had come to love, the one she had made a child with, a child who had become twisted and evil. Agnes’s blue eyes looked at her, but showed no sign of recognition. Renee smiled at Akako and Dr. Reed. “Hello, Mother. Welcome home.”
Chapter 35
As she jumped along the rooftops of the city, Emma felt almost at home again. She stumbled on her first couple of jumps, not entirely used to this new, lighter armor yet. After these she got into a steady rhythm; she used the silver cape to slow her descents enough to land easily.
She had to wait a few times for Tim to catch up. Since his armor was made of real metal, it was heavier to run in. He also couldn’t jump as fast with his boosters as she could with the magic boots. He encouraged her to go on ahead, but she refused. “We have to stick together,” she said. She would need Tim’s help to get inside. The cape—if it worked—might make her invisible, but that didn’t mean she could take on Isis and all her minions alone. Eventually she would have to reveal herself and fight, in which case to have essentially a second Scarlet Knight would come in handy.
They both had to come to a stop once they neared Executive Plaza, where they ran out of rooftops within easy reach. This was when she wished Merlin had permitted her to fly, so she could simply fly to the top of the tower and smash inside. Instead, they would have to do things the more traditional way.
To make things worse, Emma could see that despite the chaos the Reds had created in the city, Isis still had at least twenty police officers posted. From this distance she couldn’t tell if they were regular cops or Specials, but she supposed it would
n’t matter. Tim must have seen them too, as he said, “I’ll draw them off and then you can sneak inside.”
“Tim, we’ve been over this already. I’m not leaving you.”
“I thought—”
“No, it’s a good plan. There just needs to be one slight change.”
She waited on the roof while Tim jumped down to the ground. He was right that especially with a distraction she would probably be able to get inside the tower by using her cape. Again, that would leave her to face Isis and everyone else alone. As powerful as this new armor might be, it wasn’t that powerful. And no doubt Isis would know Emma was coming and would have something prepared for her.
She counted to ten before she sprung off the roof. With the cape, she steadied herself to land perfectly on her feet. Before anyone could notice her, she wrapped the cape around her body. It was finally time to put Merlin’s magic to the test.
The new cape was loose enough that even with it wrapped around her, she could move more or less freely. No longer did she have to shuffle along and feel like an oversized crepe. This allowed her to reach the plaza quickly—too quickly. Tim hadn’t engaged the police yet, still at least fifty yards from where they’d taken up position.
Whoever was in charge wasn’t nearly as good of a strategist as Joanna; they had placed the police blockade squarely in the center of the plaza. There wasn’t any form of cover there except for the police cruisers. Then again, maybe Isis knew there wasn’t much point in cover when dealing with magic armor or a bulletproof suit.
A female officer raised a bullhorn. When she spoke, Emma realized it was her old friend Officer Morgan. “Hold it right there, weirdo, or we’ll be forced to shoot.”
Tim didn’t break his stride; he lifted his arms to aim his dart guns. Emma waited behind a statue of Isis and counted down the seconds. As the police were about to open fire, she ran forward and then leaped into the air.
As she came down, Emma threw the cape aside and used it to slow her descent just enough so she didn’t fall. Some of the police turned to face her, but it was already too late. She didn’t bother with the Sword of Justice; she relied on her fists and feet instead. She hadn’t fought like this in what seemed like forever, but as with the jumping, it came back to her easily enough. She wove through the ranks of police like a whirlwind; the second to last went down into a heap.
The last one left was Officer Morgan, who Emma had intentionally left unharmed. Emma flipped open the visor of the helmet and smiled at the policewoman, who dropped both bullhorn and pistol. “Hello. Remember me?”
Officer Morgan found her courage quickly enough. “Should I?”
“Not really. I’ve had some dental work done since the last time.”
The policewoman’s eyes narrowed. “You! I thought the Specials had got you.”
“No. Thanks to my friend over there.” Emma gestured to Tim, who still had his dart guns trained on Officer Morgan. “I want to know what the situation is inside the tower.”
“I don’t know that! You really think the boss would tell me that?”
“You must know something.”
“I know enough to know I don’t want to go up there. Anyone who goes up there isn’t going to come back down—at least not like they came in. All sorts of stories going around the locker room about people being turned into babies, men into women, women into men, and even into animals.”
“And vampires,” Emma said. She put a hand to her mouth. She suppressed a shiver to think Louise could be up there.
“But I suppose that’s not going to be a problem for you two, is it?”
“Maybe or maybe not,” Emma said. “Goodnight, Officer.” She motioned to Tim, who hit Officer Morgan with a dart in the neck. Emma caught the woman to gently lay her on the ground. Then she turned to Tim. “Let’s go.”
They trotted towards the front door of Robinson Tower; no one challenged them along the way. That was until they entered the lobby. A familiar shape stomped across the fountain in the center of the lobby, to stop directly in the center of it. The spiky black figure glared at them with glowing red eyes.
It was the Black Dragoon, just like the one that had vaporized in the Temple of Isis five years earlier. It didn’t come as much of a surprise that Isis with all of her newfound power could have created a new Dragoon. Who had she gotten to wear the armor? It would have to be someone Emma cared about: Becky? Dan? Louise?
It was then the Dragoon reached up to remove the front of its helmet. It wasn’t Becky, Dan, Louise, or any of Emma’s friends or family. It was the one person Tim cared about most.
The Dragoon was Sylvia.
***
Renee bounced Agnes slightly until the baby giggled. She stroked Aggie’s golden curls, and grinned evilly at Akako. “I see Joanna relayed my message.”
“Renee, what have you done? Agnes is your father.”
“I don’t need a father, not anymore. I have Isis now.”
“Isis doesn’t care about you. Not the way we do. She doesn’t love you.”
“She showed me what I could be, what you two were afraid to let me be. You wanted to keep me a little baby when I could do so much more.”
“Is that why you did this to Agnes? And to the others?”
“I’m helping them to see the truth. That’s why I brought you here. I hoped Joanna would come too, but I guess not.” Renee turned to face Dr. Reed. “You must be her mother. The esteemed Dr. Emma Reed. You look so much like our Dr. Earl, except much older.”
Dr. Reed turned to the mirror and gasped. She put a hand to her face and touched her cheek. Akako tore the mirror down from the wall and smashed it on the floor, but it was too late. Dr. Reed’s face had become that of an old woman, deep wrinkles set along her face and flaps of loose skin around her neck. She lifted a wrinkled hand to brush a tress of silver hair forward. “What happened to me?” she asked, her voice suddenly raspy.
Akako put her hands on Dr. Reed’s shoulders. “It’s a trick, Emma. A kind of hypnosis. If you don’t believe it, then it’s not real.”
“But—”
“Close your eyes and remember who you really are. You’re not an old woman. You’re thirty-nine years old. You’re Joanna’s mother. Remember?”
Dr. Reed nodded. Gradually her face smoothed and her hair returned to its natural red. She opened her eyes and stared at her hands. “Thank you.”
Renee snickered at them. “I didn’t think the good doctor was so feeble-minded for that to work.”
Akako turned back to Renee, this evil version of the baby she had loved. “Renee, you have to stop this. What you’re doing, it’s wrong. You must know that.”
“Maybe you should get a better understanding before you judge it too harshly,” Renee said. “I think your friend had better stay up here. I doubt her tiny brain could handle it.”
“Akako—”
“No, it’s all right. Stay up here and keep watch. Renee and I are going to talk.” To emphasize this, she left her weapons on the floor.
“If you’re sure that’s best,” Dr. Reed said. Her voice quivered slightly; after what Renee had done to her, she probably wanted to run and hide somewhere. Instead, she hefted her rifle and then went to the front door.
Akako followed Renee through the parlor, which looked almost the same as the last time she had seen it. Along the way, Renee sang to Agnes until the baby finally fell asleep against her shoulder just as Renee had on Akako’s. “She’s so well-behaved for a two-year-old,” Renee said.
Akako said nothing; she knew her daughter—if this person could even be considered her daughter anymore—wanted to get a rise out of her. She wouldn’t take the bait. She did sneak a glance at Agnes as she slept and noted how peaceful the baby looked. Was there anything left of the old Agnes, the witch she had fallen in love with?
Renee led her downstairs, into the basement. Only it wasn’t the basement anymore. Sylvia’s weapons and styling paraphernalia were gone, along with the vault that contained Agnes’s
potions and magical ingredients. In their place was the nursery Emma and Joanna had described. As they walked past a pink plastic castle, Akako recognized the girl with the brown hair in a bun and glasses as Agnes’s sister Sophie—the one who had taken Renee from her and sent her back to her world. She couldn’t feel any joy at Sophie’s fate, not since she knew who had brought it about.
On the rugs in the center of the room, a group of little girls with paint on their fingers rested. Akako saw Becky as Emma had described her. Next to her was a little girl with black hair dressed in a witch’s costume who was undoubtedly Glenda and beside her a brunette in a Milton school uniform who had to be Regina Milton. Just as Akako had feared, Renee had turned against the coven and transformed them into small children. They passed little Megan Putnam, who constructed a city out of blocks, her face vacant of emotion.
Akako noticed two babies weren’t here: Sylvia and Louise. Did Isis have them now or had Renee thought of something even more terrible to do to them? She shivered at the thought.
In one corner of the basement was a round wooden table and chairs sized for toddlers. With a wave of her hand, Renee made the chairs expand to accommodate her and Akako. Renee smiled again; the grin didn’t seem quite so evil this time. “Aren’t they beautiful? My sweet little babies. It’s almost a shame I’ll have to let them grow up again.”
“Renee, please, this is wrong. You’re hurting innocent people.”
“They weren’t innocent. Not when they tried to kill my master and I. We made them innocent again. We freed their minds from their stodgy old notions of what was possible, of what was good and bad. Now I can reshape them to see the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That Isis is what this world needs. Under her guidance we’ll create a paradise where everyone can be happy and free.”
Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Wrath of Isis Page 177
