Serve the Ego

 

++Dinah++

“Well, his lungs are healthy anyway,” I commented wryly as the kitten screeched again. Like a tiny little Velcro monster, he attached himself to Shan’s armored glove with the intent of brutally ripping it to pieces. He’d been so filthy that a thorough scrub was the only way to get rid of the grime and stench clinging to him. Razor sharp little claws were as quick and deadly as shattered glass and Shan had pulled on her work gloves for protection. Water and soap was scattered for ten feet in all directions and Shan was soaked. Gabby had long since laughed herself silly while I just admired the view.

As annoyed as Shan was, the kitten was just a scared baby and she was treating him just like that. “There ya go,” she purred soothingly as she was finally able to transfer him to a warm, dry towel and let him calm down. All I could see was a spiky dark head, enormous ears and great, sunshine-gold eyes peering out suspiciously from the dark hidey-hole.

“I don’t think he likes me,” I complained and Shan nuzzled me gently.

“I don’t think he likes anything right about now,” Gabby chuckled.

“What should we call him?”

“Apollo.” Blinking, both Shan and I looked over to where Gabby was very pleased with herself. “It goes with the whole Oracle of Delphi theme and his gold eyes.”

“I get it,” Shan chuckled and rubbed Apollo’s little body through the towel.

“I don’t,” I pouted and got nuzzled again.

“The Oracle at Delphi in ancient Greece was dedicated to the god, Apollo. He was the deity of song, the sun and healing. It’ll amuse Barbara hugely, I’m sure.”

While we all laughed, the door to the kitchen opened and Alfred stopped in his tracks. A look of horror spread over his face, before being quickly hidden behind his calm manner. That made me look around at the mess we’d made of his domain and wince. “Umm, good morning Alfred. Ro rescued a kitten, see? Dogs killed his momma and his siblings.” It was placating the elderly butler, who glowered coldly at the mess and the sheepishly dripping Shan.

“The bathroom was too far?” He asked archly and we collectively cringed. How could anyone sound so polite yet so pissed off?

“The sink’s bigger?” Shan supplied lamely and Alfred frowned ever so slightly. Before anyone else could react, Shan had shoved the towel and kitten into Gabby’s arms and was quickly scrubbing up the scattered water. It was a nervous, almost desperate gesture and I felt helpless to put her at ease. Alfred sighed and went to Shan, putting a hand on her arm.

“Miss Shan, it’s quite all right. After all, your sister did save a life if I heard correctly. I’m certain that the lady of the house will be delighted with a feline pet underfoot.”

“Sorry,” Shan whispered softly. “There’s a part of me that still tweaks when an elder growls at me. Too many years of… of…” She couldn’t even finish the sentence and tears pooled up in her pale eyes. With a sigh, Alfred reached up to tug her head onto his shoulder and she sniffled into his pristine shirt.

“I know, child. I know.”

In that moment I really began to understand the trauma that the twins had lived with in their younger lives. I remembered my own childhood with the Redmonds, punished with isolation and ostracism because of the visions that would plague me periodically. Every time I thought I could hate the mysterious Doctor B anymore than I already did, something would trigger off one of the twins. Shan sighed heavily and rubbed her face into Alfred’s shoulder for a moment before straightening up. “Thank you, Alfred. It strikes without warning sometimes, all the memories and behaviors from a life I left behind.” Her serious expression abruptly melted into the most adorable, heart-meltingly sweet, shy smile. “Do you know that you’re only the fourth male I’ve ever really interacted with?”

“You don’t say?” Alfred tried to act as though that smile wasn’t begging for one in return and was failing miserably.

“Yeah, the girl children were raised by all women and the boys by all men. I’ve never even met Doctor Smith, except for very, very briefly when me and Ro had to rescue Miss Honey. It’s a long story.”

There was something about Alfred that made a person want his approval and acceptance. Shan gulped down fresh tears and ducked her head so that she could rub up against his jaw like a frightened kitty. Alfred sighed softly and gave into the urge to pet her head until she hiccup-purred in the thick quiet of the messy kitchen. “Perhaps one day you will be comfortable sharing it with me.”

Shan grumbled something that only a cat or dog would say and Alfred ruffled her white mane affectionately. I wondered if treasured pets had once belonged in his life, because Shan certainly seemed to be bonding to him like a scared dog or a girl who needed a father figure.

“Now,” Alfred broke the moment with a gentle, but no-nonsense tone. “If you assist me in cleaning this up, we’ll call it even. Acceptable?” Shan nodded and gave him a watery smile. My heart was in my throat. “Miss Dinah, if you and Miss Gabby will take charge of our new boarder and find him a warm place to sleep, I will find him something for all of you to eat.”

All that only took a few minutes of concentrated effort. Apollo was comfortable tucked into Gabby’s sling after nibbling on some canned tuna and fresh water, the kitchen was spotless and we humans were chowing on biscuits and gravy. I sat close enough to Shan to keep us touching at thigh and knee, wanting to be supportive while she struggled with her demons. Gabby yelped and dropped her fork when Apollo woke with a panicked cry and Shan jumped to comfort him. Curled up in his towel and tight against Shan’s purring torso, Apollo quieted.

The rest of us grew silent as Shan… began to sing. It was an extraordinary sound, a flat, almost tuneless human hum that blended perfectly with her low, smooth purr. It was the perfect mesh of the opposing sides of her, the animal and the woman. Apollo yawned hugely and squirmed around until he was wrapped up in a tight little ball against her ribs and elbow. When I rested a hand on his soft dark gray fur, he was purring in contentment right along with Shan.

We’d spent most of the day sleeping in a pile with the new kitten. Half asleep, pinned securely between Shan and Gabby, I had to wonder how the hell I was ever going to be able to sleep alone again. In a sober quiet, we geared up as the sun fell and prepared to take the fight to Harley. This would end one way or the other.

In the deepest hours of the night, we were still looking.

“Argh,” Barbara grumbled irritably and I could picture her rubbing her nose in a gesture that was as familiar as her smile, if not more. “You think they’d play something else besides that explosion footage.”

“Not much else going on,” Ro chuckled fondly. “Not with this rain.”

Rain was an understatement. Floodgates were more like it. Water pounded down with punishing force, blinding and slippery. It was seriously cramping my style in this outfit. We were down on the waterfront, working our way towards the other team. After returning to the warehouse the big paramilitary truck had exploded from, we had quickly realized that it had been nothing more than storage. That meant that Harley had set up manufacture somewhere else and we were determined to find it.

Suddenly, I jerked to a halt, a flicker of movement catching my eye. “There,” I hissed and defensively crept closer. Two people were conversing in low tones, suspicion and paranoia radiating off both of them.

“You ready?” Ro hissed softly and I nodded. Two slow nights with danger just out of our reach had me so wound up I was cramping.

The wharf rats bolted, one going down beneath a heavy blow from Binky, followed up by one of Ro’s elbows to the skull. Mine managed to duck away and I dove after her into the deep shadows. Instinct and low light goggles kept me from smacking my head in the tangle of equipment and trash. “Canary,” Ro growled and I sensed her on my heels. A deafening crash echoed through the tangled piles of industrial gear that was our personal playground now. “Dammit what if this is…”

She never had a chance to say it.

Goggles or no goggles, the flash was blinding. A searing, agonizing white light that made me stagger. That’s all the wharf rat needed, and she threw her shadow over me. Ro howled in agony and there was a blur of movement from above. The flash subsided as though someone had pulled the cord; only to be replaced with stars in my eyes as someone body slammed me like a freight train.

“Canary! What the hell’s going on!?”

It wouldn’t be until later that I would really remember what happened.

The heavy body followed me to the brutally hard floor, slamming me down with a crack that left my skull aching and spinning. Ro let out the most horrible, blood-curdling scream and blue electricity flashed like a transformer blowing. Dazed and afraid, I watched a blonde woman, illuminated by steadily brightening lights, kneeling over Ro, completely consumed in arching lighting. Keening like a wounded animal, Ro could only twitch under the onslaught. Someone sat on my feet, another straddled my upper body, pinning me to the concrete.

“Hey Birdling,” an Australian accent drawled at me and I blearily tried to focus on my captor. “You’ve been caged.”

“Oh God,” Barbara moaned in my ear and I was beginning to fuzzily realize that I was in deep shit. Then a figure was silhouetted in the lamps, clapping slowly.

“Very nice,” purred my enemy, her cropped blonde hair like a halo. “That came off without a hitch. Arcanine, if you’ll keep the Birdling there for a few minutes, I have some business to attend to. Raichu, love, get up from the big kitty, she’s mine now.” Barbara was growing incoherent to my damaged brain, and I could only moan in dismay at our predicament. Harley paced around Ro’s twitching body for a moment before seductively sinking down to straddle my partner’s hips. Almost gently, she pulled away the black helmet and leaned over Ro’s head. “Your keeper says that you can’t wear contacts because of those second eyelids. So now the question is… will you do anything I ask?”

I could only cry out in horror.

 

++Helena++

Oh, I just knew I was grinning like a rabid savage, bloodthirsty and just plain pissed off. “Y’know,” I taunted in a casual voice. “If you’d had half a clue, you’d have stayed in Arkham with junior.”

“I love him, he’s my boy,” Clayface growled and circled like a hungry snake. “But he’s got no style, no finesse.”

For an old guy, he could still move like a predator and my temper kept making me clumsy. This really wasn’t the kind of stalemate that I should be caught up in. Shan was up to her eyeballs in minions while I duked it out with the big man. The rooftops had rarely felt so dangerous.

“I restrained myself from killing you the last time, though I’m beginning to wonder why,” I snarled, wrestling with the beast inside. Clayface only laughed, stood there like the arrogant, cocky bastard he was.

“Baby girl, you ain’t got it in you. Any more than your sweet momma did.”

I hated him so much that it was blinding… only the memory of Barbara’s voice kept the killing rage at bay. “We don’t kill.”

Gulping for air, hunched and bristled up like a rabid cat, I fought down the demon inside me while he laughed at my torment. “Aw, poor baby. Must be hard to know that you can’t do it, can’t know what it’s like to know you caused my death. Even if you catch me pumpkin, I’ll always be there, like a nightmare, ready to escape and come for you, again and again.”

So far, the fight had been a draw. While I might be Clayface’s superior in raw fighting talent, he was wily and my game was way off. Despite the internal self-cheerleading, the bastard was getting to me. How desperately I wished I wasn’t alone with him, alone and hurting and full of sorrow and rage. Like a shark in bloody waters, he zeroed in on my pain, jabbing that ragged place where my heart still cried out for my mother. I’d been such a momma’s girl, hung on her every word, worshipped the ground she walked on. This monster had taken her from me, brutally murdered her in the pouring rain. Confused, in too much pain to think clearly, I had no defenses to his taunting and shied back warily like a wounded animal.

“What’s the matter, baby girl? Can’t take the pressure? Can’t take the heat? Where’s that spirit I admired? You’re not your mother’s daughter, you’re just a baby.”

Something snapped in me.

Years ago, not long after my metahuman abilities started showing up along with boobs, acne and the monthly curse, mom had told me how she’d come into her own feline abilities. She’d fallen, pushed by that bastard of a boss, hundreds of feet to the pavement below, even now; the thought of it horrified me.

The cats had come for her. Hundreds of them, every color and shape and size of the small ‘domesticated’ kitties that had been humanity’s companion for thousands of years. And they had breathed life back into the woman who would later be my mother, best friend and mentor.

And now, I felt that power too.

Something stirred to life in me, a deep, feral need to survive, growling up from so deep inside me that I wasn’t entirely sure that it really was me making the sound. Perhaps it was mom, long cold and dead, come back to make sure that I survived.

The world slowed, like someone had grabbed the movie reel, and Clayface’s voice became a slow, incomprehensible drawl. At last freed of his taunting, I could think clearly, and lunged at him with every ounce of raw, feline fury in me.

There was no toying with this prey, this was a struggle for survival and I would not be the one to back down ever again.

In a flurry of blows, he was tumbling over the edge of the roof, eyes wide in shock.

Then I heard her voice again. Not mom’s… no. It was the woman who had come to mean as much to me as mom ever had, perhaps even more. Lunging with blinding speed, I grabbed Clayface’s hand, feeling his weight jerk against my smaller body. As badly as I wanted him dead, Barbara was right, we didn’t kill. Some nights, it was the only thing that separated us from the bad guys. They might die sometimes, but never if I could help it.

“Boo’s gonna kill Oracle! Hurry! Save her!”

There was a strange voice in my ear, there was terror staring me in the eye.

Time began to return to normal. Shan was bellowing for me, her voice drawing closer. But who the hell was talking in my ear? I’d never heard the voice before, female, high-pitched and squeaky with stress.

Boo was gonna kill Oracle…

Harley must have captured Ro and probably Dinah, and was attacking Barbara now. In a flash, Clayface was unimportant as Shan’s heavier body landed atop mine, strong arms around my waist. In the split second before teleport, I said a quick prayer for Clayface’s soul.

 

++Twenty-six++         

“Boo’s gonna kill Oracle! Hurry! Save her!” Terror clouded my mind and made my voice squeaky. I had been listening in on Miss Harley and Doctor B as they manipulated poor Boo and knew that I had to get involved. It might get me killed, but that hardly mattered anymore.

Cutting the connection, I snatched my hand away from the computer console and collapsed back into my chair. I did it… I really did it! Listening to my… the twins banter with their new family had been one thing. Warning Squeakers was something completely different. It was so strange, knowing that Squeakers was listening to my voice, somewhere off in the New Gotham night. Thirteen years ago, they had left me behind, probably assuming I was dead. For thirteen years I had been forced to help track them for capture. Now they were so close that I was afraid that Doctor B just might succeed…

Sending an email, right under Doctor B’s nose, was possibly one of the most insane things I’d done in my life, outside of that quick communication to Squeakers. A simple, quick ‘I’m sorry,’ to warn Oracle of what was coming. If Doctor B had caught me, she probably would have killed me. I was shaking with fear and excitement, so sure that the Doctor would know what I had done, expecting to feel the shock of the discipline rod at any moment. She was so close, only on the other side of the room, preparing for the next test subject.  Then she left, stepping out, only for a moment, but a moment was all I needed to warn Squeakers and the woman called Huntress.

It was a perverse thrill to be locked in mortal computer combat with the mighty Oracle. Like a chess match at light speed, we performed the thrust and parry of virtual warfare. We’d been at it for what felt like an eternity, both of us evenly matched. She was good! She was better than good; she was a goddess of cyberspace and made me work so damn hard.

Then I saw it. The tiniest chink in her defense. Every animal instinct in me rose up to pounce and take her down. The miracle of technology and miniaturization at my fingertips geared up to finish the battle. I had salvaged as much of the nanite-built hardware I could find from what was left of Doctor Smith’s lab into a computer platform, the likes of which many world governments would ransom their mints for. The kicker was that the entire system could fit inside of a cargo van. I had spent years programming a software platform uniquely suited to my talents and utterly incomprehensible to anyone else. With that powerful technology behind me, I dove into the weak spot in Oracle’s defenses and the Delphi reacted violently. This would take a few minutes, but I had her now. I was sickened and exhilarated, sweat beading up on my skin from the stress.

An eternity passed while I typed madly, sending program after program in a deadly chess game with the Delphi. There was a lull in the action while our programs wrestled like those big Japanese sumo wrestlers. It let me rub my ear where Doctor B had twisted it painfully earlier. Most of the time I hardly noticed the little hurts she inflicted on me, it was so commonplace. Why should she do anything differently? I was her great failure after all. It was common knowledge that I was still breathing because of my gift with electronics. It’s not like I was human, or worth anything. Shaking off that familiar melancholy, I threw myself back into the battle with Oracle.

Then something happened.

Startled beyond words, I watched as the Delphi began to just… erase itself. I’d never seen anything like it. Stunned, I pressed my attack.

And something big landed on me like a semi-truck.

Not literally, but in cyberspace. The avalanche of code was so big that I knew in an instant that I would never stop it all. Like a swarm of diseased locusts, the virus code attacked my system, allowing the Delphi to escape.

It was brilliant.

 

++Barbara++

I heard the fights break out.

Harley’s voice purring Ro into hypnotized submission, Clayface taunting Helena yet again. And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

My only warning was a quick text note on my suddenly darkened screen

‘I’m sorry.-Fai.’

The attack was brutal, efficient, intuitive and thorough. A hacker was trying to kill the Delphi. Trace routes had discovered that it was the same person that had sent me the scanned microfiche clipping that led to Poison Ivy. Why the hell would this ‘Fai’ be both warning and attacking me? Unless they had been coerced.

It was a delicate, desperate dance, parry and thrust like a fencer as the other computer wiz tried to best both me and the incredible machine at my disposal.

“Gabby, go warn Alfred what’s going on and get the manor locked down.”

“But…”

“Go!”

If the entire system had been up and running at peak efficiency, the outcome would have been different. But I didn’t have all my tools at my disposal and found myself losing the battle. Stress over my loved ones screamed across my nerves as I watched my beloved computer system dying around me.

It was a desperate decision, but I had no choice. I still had to stop Harley, I had to keep the fleas away from Doctor B, I had to save my girls. I had always functioned well under stress; and a clarity came over me, a sharpness, a focus.

How did I accomplish it? With the Delphi dying around me and my legs still paralyzed, my options were limited.

Before the actions could even consciously register what I was doing, my fingers were dancing over the keyboard. Information streamed by like floodwaters.

‘Command to Factory:’

I hesitated for the briefest moment before tapping out the seven letters that would change my life forever.

‘Survive.’

With a cascade of information, it was done. I leaned over to yank the cord from the old hard-drive and waited while the Delphi fought to complete its programming.

‘Backup complete. Virus ready.’

It was a weird safety feature, but I was insanely glad I’d installed it. Under the desk, mounted right up against the horizontal surface, was a break in the wire. A fiber-optic cable thicker than my thumb that led from the crashing mainframe to a massive hard-drive that Ro had barely noted. Never in a million years did I think that I’d ever come close to filling it, but Smith’s old hard-drive had it splitting at the seams.

Short of actually smashing the hardware, decades of work from that dead madman were now backed up.

I couldn’t watch the Delphi die, as my virus attacked both it and the invader. It was breaking my heart and I was still panicking at how I was going to save my family. Grabbing the spinal coupler, I took a deep breath and prepared myself.

The device was a dichotomy of function. Certainly, it jumped the damaged parts of my spine and branches, but the pain was excruciating. Even with the screaming urgency of the situation, I had to pause and adjust to the agony before I could stand. Grabbing the batons from the chair, I palmed the optical flasher to hopefully break Ro away from Harley’s hypnosis, and shoved the heavy wheelchair onto its side in hopes of buying some time. Tucking the batons in by the coupler, I went to the chemistry suite and rummaged around until I found a squishy bag of saline.

Swallowing hard, I stepped over the egg and stared at it for a long moment. I was truly terrified of the possible implications of what I was about to do. I was afraid of what the hazy cloud inside the device could do to me. Fear had never stopped me before, and I would be damned if it was going to stop me now. So I picked up the heavy little nanite factory.

Getting the fleas out of the original factory hadn’t been easy. It had never been designed to have both them and their liquid environment removed. Some of the fleas were even specifically programmed to never leave the environment. Their sole function was to hold programming and build more nanites. Ro called them Brain Bugs and cursed and growled at them until she had persuaded other of the nanites to effectively kidnap the Brain Bugs and move them to their new habitat. It had required the complete removal of the smaller of the two windows in the original factory and the saline-based environment dripping out into the new egg. The little iris port spiraled open under my touch and I choked down my nerves.

The liquid inside was thick and unpleasantly salty, coating my mouth and throat as I swallowed every drop I could get out of the factory. It wasn’t easy, because the texture of the stuff was disgusting, but I did it. Using a pen on the counter, I punched a hole in the saline bag and filled the egg back up.

Tearing open a couple of the canisters containing the microscopic building materials for the fleas, I splattered the contents, hoping to cover the scent tracks of what I had done with the egg. That just left me to throw the punctured saline bag over the cliff and pray my deception would work.

Some sixth sense told me to hide. I dove behind the big chemistry set and clutched the egg close to my chest. There was a soft sound of displaced air and the thump of booted feet against the hard stone floor.

“Oh Baaaaaaaabs,” came the low, playfully sing song taunt. It chilled my blood to hear Ro’s normally warm voice sound so Harley-esque “You can’t hide from me lover.” I hated how afraid I was, my breath quick and shallow, my sweat cold and my hands shaking. “You killed the Delphi? Desperate much?”

There was a whisper of sound before the table above me exploded into violence beneath her pouncing weight.

“You can’t beat me!”

I cringed as much from her violent tone as from the hail of shattered glass and mixed liquids. Rolling to the side, I felt blunt claws catch at my shirt. Clinging to the egg as though my life depended on it, I forced my objecting legs under me. In a fairly smooth maneuver, I was on my feet. Baton in hand to smash the reinforced steel across Ro’s unprotected back.

It flattened her to the table, but Binky lashed out to nail me in the ribs like a baseball bat. Winded and hurting, I used my momentum to regain my footing and scramble away. Ro shook off my hit and turned that raging, feral snarl on me. Only a day ago, she had been wrapped around me purring, full of adoration and love. Now I was looking into the face of a monster.

Suddenly, Ro straightened and crossed her arms negligently. Her expression became cold and calculating. “Bought yourself legs, hmm? How handy. I hate chasing down prey that can’t fight back. Except when I was hungry, then I didn’t give a damn what it was. Ever hunted Babs? Hmmm? Ever felt the thrill of killing your own food? Fell the blood hot in your mouth? Millions of years of carefully honed instincts to warm your belly.” Ro feinted to the left, spiking my adrenaline up, before once again standing there calmly. “I can smell your fear,” she purred and the tone was so normal that my throat tightened up painfully. I grown so fond of her so fast and it hurt like hell to hear and see her like this. “I can hear your heart pounding. So where’s the baby geek, huh? Cowering in a corner somewhere? Smart kid.”

I almost stopped her.

I almost got her in the eyes with the flashing beam of light that would free her mind.

I almost sidestepped the sudden charge that became a flying body tackle.

I almost avoided Binky, who crushed like a train wreck into my lower ribs again, knocking the wind out of me and sending the egg skittering away.

 

++Gabby++

Something was wrong. I could practically taste it.

Five minutes, forty-five seconds and counting I’d been gone.

Alfred’s sneaky way down to the Batcave spat me out way over where the costumes and vehicles were stored, rather than taking the elevator by the Delphi. The scream that greeted me froze me in my tracks. It was followed by a rabid-animal snarl that was nearly as chilling as the scream.

“You’re only human,” a voice I was sickened to recognize as Ro’s spat hatefully. “Worse, you’re only a crippled human, useless for anything but your brains and that machine you killed with your own hands!”

Trembling with sick fear, I crept over to the curve in the craggy wall and stared at the scene. It took a long moment for the reality of what I was looking at to really sink in. Barbara was dangling from Ro’s fist around her throat, her entire body hanging out over the deadly drop in the middle of the Batcave. Battered and bloody, Barbara glowered defiantly at Ro, her expression tinged with a pain that was much worse than physical.

Harley had sent Ro to kill Barbara and get the technology that Doctor B had been searching for all these years. Big, warm Ro, who was Barbara’s sweet lover, now reduced to this heartless killer.

Something snapped and I moved before I could think clearly.

“Gabby! No!”

Barbara’s shout made Ro crouch and whirl as I scooped up the retractable riot baton in my good hand and charged wildly. It was a blur of movement that my eye could barely track as Ro whirled and used her momentum to hurl Barbara at me. It was like getting hit by a truck as we both went sprawling into the housing for the egg.

Gasping for breath, I could only wallow in the pain for a long moment, chilled when I heard Ro chuckle coldly. “Well, well, if it isn’t the geekling. Looks like it’s my lucky day. Harley didn’t say anything about not killing you. Or, I could just make you scream.” Tangled up with Barbara’s limp body, I had no clue what was going on.

Until agony screamed up my arm and exploded from my throat. The pain from breaking the knuckle in the first place wasn’t nearly as bad as this, the purpled, tender flesh around the cracked bone all the more sensitive now. The crushing pressure increased and all I could do was struggle to get out from under Barbara’s weight and away from whatever was torturing my hand.

“Oh nice,” Ro crowed in sickening delight and the weight on my hand shifted, making me cry out in pain again. “You’re a screamer. Lucky me!” Oh God, she was standing on me! The splintering pain was making me crazy, struggling like a trapped animal to get away.

Something was digging into my kidney and a sane part of my brain that wasn’t swamped pieced the information. I’d bet the pressured kidney that the object was the nanite egg, and it was what Ro was after. Desperation fueled my speed and strength as I twisted to grab the egg and throw it as hard as I could.

That did it. Ro cursed and dove after the egg.

Right over the cliff edge.

I wasn’t proud of myself for being as pleased as I was horrified. Grunting and light-headed with pain, I tried to sit up and take stock. Only to cringe when there was a horrible crash nearby, just out of my sight.

“Oh goddammit, I’m gonna kill you,” Ro hissed in anger and pain and I froze. “Maybe you wanna try flying!”

Teleporters.

The twins were teleporters. Shit! I had forgotten that in the chaos and now my mind raced. What the hell did I do? I could outrun her, I couldn’t outfight her and I very much doubted I could outsmart her either.

Then the playing field changed again.

A horrified gasp drew everyone’s attention towards the elevator. A crouched Shan was just straightening up with Helena in her arms. I sobbed in relief, never as glad to see another human being or two as I was then.

“Boo!?”

“Get the hell out of my way,” Ro snarled and I twisted my head to see that she had stepped away from the Delphi console and was crouched as though to attack her twin, who was rigid and wary with shock. It was like someone had grabbed the hands on the universal clock, as they stared at each other in heavy silence.

Something in Ro’s expression eased, gentled and softened into confusion. “Squeakers?”

“Boo?”

For a breathless moment, everything was okay.

Then Ro’s expression twisted into hatred again and she grabbed the battered old hard drive off the console. “It’s too late!”

And Ro was gone as abruptly as she’d appeared.

 

++The Fleas++

Dangerous levels of electricity detected in environment.

Self-repair program initiated.

Environment has been altered.

Current instructions: Survive.

Instructions incomplete.

Previously established instructions: series #10639. Codename: Bad Back.

Instructions incomplete.

Previously established instructions: unavailable.

…

Primary memory banks unavailable.

…

All units converge to Brain Bugs.

All units avoid areas of dangerous electricity levels.

…

Current Instructions: Survive.

Unable to compute current instructions.

Previous instructions: Bad Back, 92% complete.

Current and previous instructions can be completed within acceptable parameters.

Powerhouse must be manufactured.

Insufficient raw materials within current biological environment for duplication of previously utilized powerhouses.

Accessing biological database.

Adaptation of biological environment initiated.

Adaptation of previous instructions, codename: Bad Back, initiated. Instructions modified within parameters of current instructions: Survive.

Begin searching most recent DNA sequence in memory.

Most recent DNA sequence, codename: Helena.

Previous DNA sequence, codename: 17A.

DNA sequence of current biological host: unknown.

Sequencing DNA of current biological host.

…

Sequencing complete.

Current DNA sequence is biological host, codename: Bad Back.

Current DNA sequence now codenamed: BB.

Begin DNA manipulation for optimal results with biological powerhouse.

Manufacture of temporary biological powerhouse initiated.

Estimated time for primary biological powerhouse to obtain useful maturity: 3 days. Codename: Firehouse A.

Initiate secondary biological powerhouse as redundant system. Codename: Firehouse B.

Dangerous levels of electricity have receded from the environment.

Complete current instructions of modifying biological environment for Firehouse A and Firehouse B.

Upon completion of powerhouses, initiate programming sequence: Bad Back.

 

++Twenty-six++

Hearing a noise behind me, I jumped to my feet, expecting to feel the shock of the discipline rod. Quickly whirling, I realize that it’s only Jane. I try to relax, but the hair on my body is still standing on end. Thank goodness that Doctor B wasn’t with her, she’d know that I’d done… something.

“They’re bringing the girl down. The Doctor wants you to make preparations,” Jane intoned flatly. She pretty much always talked like that. All the hypnotized minions of Miss Harley had a similar tone, but for some odd reason, it was more pronounced with Jane. They reacted to very little unless told to by Miss Harley. Despite the hypnosis, I can see the lingering fear on her face as she looks at the table in the corner of the room. I guess she remembers what happened to her when she was on it. I shiver again as I remember her screaming. She was on the table for hours as Doctor B ran a battery of tests trying to discover her abilities. We know she’s a Meta, because Arcanine can sense other Metas, but we still don’t know what she can do. As a precaution, Doctor B has placed control collars on all of Miss Harley’s Metahuman minions, so that their various powers can be controlled. I feel the urge to comfort Jane, but I have no idea how too. I'd probably do it wrong anyway.

A movement behind Jane catches my eye and Tiny walks in. His massive body makes the blonde woman in his arms look like a child, but as I slink over to take a closer look, I can tell she’s about my age. Perhaps twenty at the most.

“Twenty-six!” Doctor B storms into the room and this time I did jump in fear. Her flat tone had always been far more frightening then outright anger. “Is there a reason she isn’t prepped yet?” It didn’t matter that they just got here and I haven’t had a chance to do anything. It’s pathetic how grateful I was that she only shoved me roughly towards the sample trays. “Get off that tail of yours and get to work.” Hastily, I grabbed a tray and move over to the table. One of the rubber straps was wrapped around the girl’s bicep so that blood can be drawn. Feeling a light pressure on my arm I look up to see Tiny hovering over me. He gave me a quick smile then moved to the other side of the bed to finish securing Doctor B’s newest project.

We move in a well-practiced dance of tightening straps, taking samples and injecting chemicals. Once finished, Tiny moved to stand in the corner next to Jane. The lightly scarred woman has troubled and sad eyes as she looks at the unconscious blonde. With a soul-weary sigh, I briefly placed my hand on her head and offer a silent apology before finishing preparations by placing the headpiece firmly over her upper skull. Then I could take my place at the computer and begin to catalogue the samples we’ve taken. At the table’s control console, Doctor B typed in the sequence that started the machine humming. When the humming reached it’s peak, she input a new string of instructions, and the last keystroke brought an almost breathless pause. Then the lights begin to flash and the girl on the table gasped, her eyes flying open. Another moment passed and her body jerked into a painful arch, her bloodcurdling scream made me cringe.

I hate that thing for existing…

I hate Doctor B for using it…

But most of all, I hate myself… for creating it.

 

To Be Continued…

 

While I was very unimpressed with the folksy original of this piece, the sulty remix screamed Harley to me.

 

Serve The Ego

By Jewel

 

Mirror, mirror
Do you like
What you see?
I'll dance for you
If you dance for me
Who says a woman
Cannot serve?
It would be my pleasure
Who says it is
Not my destiny
To let you control me?
Underneath the disco light
Everybody's feelin' all right
Get on your hands and knees
And praise the new deity
Serve the ego
Serve the ego

Two ships sailing
On a neon sea
Eat the flesh
Spit out the seeds
Feathered hair
And lame heels
What turns me on
Is so surreal

Underneath the disco light
Everybody's feelin' all right
Get on your hands and knees
And praise the new deity
Serve the ego
Serve the ego

Tut tut, oh, to discover oh
Oh no, you're yesterday's lover

Underneath the disco light
Everybody's feelin' all right
Get on your hands and knees
And praise the new deity
Serve the ego
Serve the ego