The Dangers of Daring Officer Dolly

Chapter 29. "Island hell"

by Skytower

As the sun set Ms. Dream moved in and out of the deepening shadows. She loved this time of day. In full daylight her powers weren't as effective. Ms. Dream relied on illusion as a large part of her arsenal of weapons. By concentration she could project an image around herself. The image she frequently chose was a rainbow hued mist that revealed only her face and hair, and even those were hard to focus on. The illusion was not completely a mental projection. Ms. Dream could use her telekinetic ability to hold the mist around her. But that was very hard in direct sunlight since the water kept evaporating. At dusk or dawn or in buildings the illusion was easier.

It wouldn't have been difficult now anyway. Ms. Dream was on a South Pacific island. The balmy winds carried the ocean breeze over the island and through the palm trees. At another time Ms. Dream would have loved nothing better than to vacation on the island. Even now she could feel the allure of serene mental activity. Around her plants, animals and insects moved through their lives with purpose but no malice. They preyed on one another but not out of hate, simply out of need. It was a harmony of nature untouched by evil.

But the cloak she wore prevented that. It was a specially fabricated quantum-circuited piece of technology that boosted her natural psychic powers. Instead of feeling what was only a little distance around her Ms. Dream could feel nearly the entire island. Not the individual thoughts of each inhabitant but their general moods and feelings. It was a connection to the life flow of the planet and Mary loved it as much as she hated it. There was no being alone as long as she was wearing her cloak. But for every person she touched who felt joy there was another who felt sadness. With the cloak there was no way to tune out one or the other.

As Ms. Dream let her mind join the flow of island life she searched through it, seeking other human minds. What she found wasn't very pleasant. Mary could feel pain, fear, terror and a grim determination combined with optimism. ICE agents were on the island. But Lucy was somewhere nearby and so was her daughter Prudence. Mary had touched Lucy's mind enough times to recognize it. Lucy and Prudence were in trouble. That meant that Ms. Dream couldn't rest.

But even though she knew that Lucy was somewhere to the north Ms. Dream kept moving Northwest. There was an ICE base there and hopefully some answers. Over a decade as a superhero had taught Ms. Dream that rushing in to help was never a good idea. It was just a great way to get yourself caught. Especially when you dealt with International Criminal Enterprises. That organization knew all about Ms. Dream's powers and how to fight them.

Ms. Dream moved slowly, from shadow to shadow, tree to tree, bush to bush. Slowly Mary made he way toward the ICE complex. As she came out of the jungle Mary realized that much of her stealth wasn't needed. She had expected three Quonset huts, maybe a few auxiliary buildings and armed guards. The huts were smoking wrecks, the other buildings were shattered and all around the compound were body parts. A small war had been fought. But who and why?

"South Seas, what a vacation spot." Mary said as she looked over the compound. After nearly ten minutes spend looking for active security sensors and finding none active Mary walked into the open. After another few minutes of the image walking around and not being attacked Mary stepped out of the shadows herself.

The first bodies she found told part of the story. A man in an ICE gray uniform lay dead among a dozen or so shrunken women. His body was stuck with dozens of tiny spears and green liquid oozed from the wounds. The spears were poisoned. The man's face was frozen in a horrible grimace.

Ignoring her revulsion Mary bent down and examined one of the shrunken women. She was Asian, but her arms and legs were extra long. Her hands were too small. Mary examined some of the other bodies and found similar distortions.

"Tryouts." Mary whispered. "Before they got the potion right."

The evil of the concept was enough to make her shudder. Mary looked around a bit more. There were more bodies both of normal sized and shrunken women. As she looked Mary accumulated a belt of grenades, a blaster gun, a knife and other weapons from the dead ICE agents. Experience had taught Mary never to rely only on her powers. The look on a supervillains face when she simply shot him was always one she treasured.

In an hour she had found all that she could in the compound. The huts were charred and she would get nothing useful from them without a full crime lab. The ICE agents carried nothing but their weapons.

"No survivors." Mary said looking around. "But no Little Darkness. No ICE supervisor. And I'm getting mental impressions of life from all over the island."

Mary sighed and bent down next to the body that looked freshest. It was a man of about fifty years old with a shock of white hair around a bald scalp. It took Mary a minute to firm up her resolve and erect mental defenses. Then she eased into his brain.

There was always a danger in reading the left over thoughts of the dead. Mary had to use a part of herself to re-animate the brain tissue. But she needed to know what had happened. So she gave a false life to those dead brain cells and as they revived memories flowed past her mind's eye. His name had been Peter and Mary relived the last few minutes of his life.

Mary/Peter saw Little Darkness come out of the main hut. Mary/Peter saw a dozen shrunken women coming charging at her/him. Mary/Peter fired her gun and saw one of them fall, but there were too many. She felt the spears hit her body and the poison start to work. Mary fell and as she lay on the ground she saw other ICE agents fall. She tasted the bitterness of disappointment as ICE agent after ICE agent was overwhelmed by numbers and ferocity. The shrunken women fought like angry wasps. Together he and his fellow agents had overwhelmed small cities in Africa and Russia, yet doll sized women were over powering them. Mary saw Little Darkness taken down by a net wielded by at least twenty shrunken women and despite her struggles bound.

But then Mary saw something that caused the Peter part of her to welcome death. A creature strode into the clearing. He was at least eight feet tall, reptilian with gray mottled skin. He walked upright on bent legs and his tail was spiked and those spikes dripped with venom. His head was like an ape's but with the jaw extended like a crocodile's and lined with sharp teeth. Around his waist was a black loin cloth. In either claw he held Prudence and Lucy. Their naked limp bodies were covered in welts and bruises.

"Take the living for sacrifice!" He shouted and the shrunken women obeyed him. He bent down to Little Darkness. "Time to honor our bargain wench."

Peter's mind squirmed out of her grasp and Mary almost followed it into its second death. At the last moment she pulled out of him and fell to the ground. Mary lay there trembling as her will forced her mind to work once more. That was the real danger of mind-linking with a dead man. You had to pull them back a bit from death and they always wanted you to come with them after it was over.

"Hellspite." Mary said sitting up. "Hellspite is here. And he's up to something. Sorry Merry, but the deals off. We need help."

Ms. Dream pulled her mind in and then sent it from her body again, traveling over the island and out over the ocean. To deal with the demon she needed help. But five miles out from the island Ms. Dream ran straight into a barrier that shocked her mind and sent it screaming back into her body. As mind and body joined once more Ms. Dream screamed and blacked out.

Merry kept her head bowed as she was carried into the house of Scalius. She rested on a soft cushion of leather, her slim body wrapped in fine silk. It had taken years and years of practice before she was considered good enough to dance for the great wizard. She had danced from day to night, starved herself into the thin body he was said to prefer and now all of it was paying off. She was the size he enjoyed thanks to his potions and her training had included all of the sexual techniques he favored. With any luck she could become his next wife.

As the slave carried her into the wizards house Merry kept her head down despite her curiosity. It was said that Scalius kept a house of miracles that would blast the mind of those who looked upon them without permission. Instead she let her hand drift down toward her own sex. Her pubic hair was neatly trimmed and scented with the oils that would drive a normal man wild. Merry had picked the flowers and made the oils herself. She had done it that morning after talking with Simone.

Simone?

Scalius?

The illusion shattered like glass around Merry as she remembered who she really was. Some force made her take a step forward. Merry realized she was in a dimly lit room. But there was only a moment for her to grasp what was happening before darkness took her again.

Merry woke to an aching body. It was how she had woken for many years now. The harsh tropical sunlight shone full upon her nude body. There was no door covering in her hut. In the beginning Merry had kept one there, a simply leave hung from the doorframe, but the giant ones had stolen each one while she slept. They did not want her to have anything of her own. They only allowed her to keep the hut because of the rains. A shadow appeared at the door and a harsh voice rasped out a command. The command was followed a foot stomped onto the ground causing her hut to shake. Merry dragged herself out of the pile of leaves that she called a bed and stumbled to the door. Beyond her door was the farm that Lord Scalius had ordered built. Merry had been among those who had built it, when her body was young and strong and she had never slept alone. But that had been years and years before, when she was first taken and shrunk. Merry barely remembered her life before that. It had been the life of a Roman wife and in truth no better in some ways. But at least then she had been taller than a dog.

Merry nearly stumbled as she walked toward the fields. Desperately she tried not to. But the age and the elements that had taken away her ability to walk with certainty, that had turned her skin into leather, her hair white and her breasts into flattened lumps had at last caught up with her. Fear kept her going now. There would be no grave for her, only the private grove of Lord Scalius's favorite wife who fed old shrunken women to her ants, not caring if they were alive or dead.

Merry did stumble and fall. Try as she might she was not able to get up. A shadow fell over her as the guard reached for her body.

They have to grow me, Merry thought. The Group has to grow me.

The Group?

Once again Merry's memories shattered the illusion and this time she had a glimpse of standing between two glass coffins and reaching for a metal rod. Then darkness claimed her again.

Merry sneered as the gates were opened and the beasts were let loose. In her time she had stood in the arena and taken on lions, these were but ants. Blindly they stepped onto the field their antenna searching the air.

"Come and die." Merry whispered a smile on her face as she readied her small sword. Lord Scalius and his current wife would get a fine show from this.

"I don't think so." Merry said. This time the voice was her own voice and the thoughts were her own thoughts. She lowered her sword and stood still as the ants swarmed over her body. She offered no resistance as they pulled her down despite what the other Merry wanted to do. The other Merry didn’t matter, she wasn't real and the real Merry didn't care as the ants pulled her body apart.

It's not my body, was Merry's last thought before the illusion shattered.

{Merry smash the glass!}

Merry didn't even think when the order came into her mind. She was standing between two glass coffins and in each one was a body. One was an old man, the other was a young woman. Her left arm was about o take hold of a metal rod. Her fist came down just as another illusion was about to take her mind away. As the glass shattered a scream of pain and fury filled Merry's mind and she blacked out.

Psychic feedback was the worst, the absolute worse kind of pain. Experts had tortured Ms. Dream and none of them had ever generated the kind of tooth-ache/sunburn/hair-pulling type of pain that was psychic feedback. Ms. Dream opened her eyes and turned away as the rays of the dawn burned into her.

"Right. South Pacific, what a holiday spot." Ms. Dream said. She felt her body and was surprised to find that she was both clothed and not bound. Ms. Dream sat up and looked around. She was still in the compound, still surrounded by dead bodies. It took her a moment to remember where she was.

"Barrier." Ms. Dream said standing up. "No way to call for help. Maybe I should just strip naked and tie myself up now."

Ignoring her own sarcasm Ms. Dream opened her mind and let it feel the island again. She sensed pain and torment to the north. Nothing specific. If Lucy and Prudence were still on the island they were either unconscious or shielded somehow. She focused more and searched for Merry's mind. But there was nothing there.

"It's morning and she's not here." Ms. Dream said. "Hell if she's smart she's gone. Hell if I were smart I'd be gone."

Ms. Dream sighed and started to head north. By now she knew Merry enough to know that the First Knight would not have gone without trying to find Lucy and Prudence. She was still on the island somewhere, but her mind was closed. Not asleep, just closed.

"Hell if I were smart I'd start swimming." Ms. Dream said. "But with my luck I'd probably run into Man-shark again."

"Merry!"

Merry opened her eyes. She was on her back and the remains of a headache were starting to fade.

"Merrrrrrrrryyyyyy!" A different voice called out. Merry sat up and looked around. At the top of the domed ceiling the vines and stones had been cleared and Jessie and Lizzie were looking down at her.

"I'm awake." Merry called out.

"You ok?" Jessie called out.

"Oh… Yea I'm ok." Merry said.

{You had a close call.}

{Your brain activity stopped dead about four times until you were able to break free of the mental assault.}

"I was re-living past lives." Merry said. She stood up. "But they weren't mine."

{We guessed as much.}

{But decided that you might need help and dispatched Lizzie and Jessie to the island.}

Merry looked at the shattered coffins. The one with the man had been inscribed with a strange geometric shape. A magical one Merry guessed.

"I guess I owe Sidonia for this one. When she put me into that chess game it was the same sort of possession. After the first few lives I realized what was going on. I was able to fight it."

{This was Scalius.}

"And this was his favored wife." Merry said. The memories that were not hers were still with her. Merry knew they'd always be with her. "And this…" She looked around slowly so that they could see. "Was his palace. When he put himself and his wife into the glass coffins he used slaves to bury the place. Then her ants obeyed her last command and killed everyone."

{Why?}

"So that he could live again." Merry said. "His body was preserved so his mind could live on. By the time of his death something was going on, something he couldn't fight or control. He had this place built, hid it. He took a chance that someday someone would find the road and the palace. He must have left clues all over the island. I'm surprise none of the archeologist ever found this place."

{We're not.}

{No doubt they were satisfied with the shrunken woman formula.}

{Greed and hedonism took over from there.}

{And Lady Goth wouldn't have the background to think of looking for more ruins, especially not shrunken ruins.}

"This place isn't a ruin." Merry said.

She was standing in the center of a domed room. It had been a throne room. In front of Merry were two thrones, one was larger than the other one was and they were set on a raised dais. Around the room were tables that were covered with clay writing tablets and half-unrolled scrolls. Behind the throne was a doorway. Merry wandered over to one of the tables. The writing tablet was still legible.

"What are these?" She asked.

{Household accounts.}

{He may have been Greek but he lived as a Roman.}

Merry's head snapped up as one of the past lives she had lived supplied her with a memory.

"I think I should explore this place."

{We do not have that much time.}

{It is nearly mid-morning, your rendezvous with Ms. Dream is overdue.}

{And the time when the island will vanish off of the face of the planet is at sundown today.}

{You can not be there when that happens.}

"There's something you need beyond that doorway." Merry said. "I know it, one of the lives I was through knows it. Let me look."

{Very well.}

Merry walked over to the doorway and looked in. Once again her helmet made the dimly lit corridor look as if it were brightly lit. She walked through it carefully. On the walls were murals of Scalius and his life. Merry ignored them. He was like so many brilliant men: a megalomaniac. To him other people weren't slaves or subjects they were pets. The murals celebrated his life, the man who painted the murals had wished to end it. She had lived the life of seven of his people and each one was filled with misery and fear and pain. Emotionally Merry was in shock; she knew that. Later the lives would come back to her. Merry knew that sooner or later she would have to deal with memories that were not her own. She could feel them even now, at the edge of her mind. A group of restless voices that whispered to her of tales that needed to be heard before they could rest.

But that was for later. For now The Group needed her.

She ignored the doorways that led to his private room and his favored wife's room and his harem.

"I cleaned these rooms." Merry said. "I crawled to his wife and begged for my life. But I also worked in here."

Merry kept walking until she reached the end of the corridor and the doorway that was there. She looked into a room that was filled to overflowing with scrolls. They lined the walls and in the center of the room was a table filled with glasses and instruments. It was a laboratory. A primitive one, but a laboratory.

"He was an alchemist." Merry said. "A sorcerer. For a lifetime I was his scribe. He had my tongue cut out so that I could never speak of his secrets. He had my legs cut off so that I could not run away. I took all of his writings and copied them onto these scrolls and then the original scrolls and I were thrown into the tallest volcano. This was his library."

{And it will be ours.}

{Well done Officer Dolly.}

{Very well done.}

{We shall reward you for this.}

"Can… Can all of this fit into Thunderbird 2?" Merry asked. She stumbled and leaned against the doorway. She had felt the spirit of the old scribe; it was a pale sad spirit. But then they had praised her and Merry couldn't deny the joy that filled her spirit as they voiced their approval. It was nearly orgasmic and Merry's heart leapt into her throat.

{Yes it can.}

{Lizzie and Jessie will join you soon.}

{They are getting ropes from Thunderbird 2.}

{You might have found what will become the Library of Dollopolis.}

"I hope Ms. Dream doesn't come looking for us before we get this place looted." Merry said.

Ms. Dream moved closer to the edge of the jungle. In front of her was an archeological dig. Or it had been once. There was a tiny city laid out at the edge of a volcano. Half of it was buried. That part that wasn't buried looked like a miniature version of ancient Athens. In the streets of the city lay tiny skeletons. The small city stood at the foot of a half buried normal sized city. Someone had started an orderly excavation of the sight, but that had stopped at some point. The stakes were mostly up-ended and the string markers were mostly gone.

"Oh yea, a vacation spot." Ms. Dream said. "Sun, sand and bones. No wonder Merry's so paranoid. Must have been like a Pompeii done small scale. How do ants feel when they live next to elephants?"

The pain she felt was further north so Ms. Dream walked around the remains of the city.

Merry took hold of the rope and held it as Lizzie climbed down.

"Man you look strange in that." Lizzie said as she looked at Merry. Merry was wearing a skintight gray suit and multifaceted helmet. It was actually a living skin that functioned as a survival suit.

Merry was glad that the helmet hid her face. Lizzie was wearing a short gold sleeveless vest over a green under-tunic that barely went past her thighs. The vest was belted at the waist and on the chest was a shield. The shield was divided into four sections. The upper left was a small blue square with a gold butterfly on it. Next to that was a small nude woman silhouette in gold and next to that was a larger nude woman silhouette in blue, both of them in two gray rectangles. Silver arrows went from the larger to the smaller woman. Bellow that was a large rectangle with a large white castle and small golden houses on a green background and bellow that in silver Gothic script was the word 'Dollopolos'. The costume was Simone's idea of what a Knight of Dollopolis should wear. Merry had worn her outfit only once. The thigh-high black boots that Lizzie wore clashed horribly with the colorful top.

"You feeling ok?" Merry asked.

"Yea, they put me and Jess into a jelly jar and when we came out we were all set."

"Regen tank." Merry said.

"Yea, I guess. Simone said that Ms. Dream was really sorry she broke my arm and stuff."

"She probably was. Mind control is never fun." Merry said. She looked up at Jessie who was looking down at them. "Jessie, set up another rope and throw it down. We'll tie stuff up and you pull it up and put it into Thunderbird 2. Pack it tight, there's a lot of it here."

"Right." Jessie called. "But I got some lights first."

"Send'em down." Merry called. "Sometimes I forget you guys can't see in the dark without one of these." Merry said to Lizzie as she tapped her helmet.

"What else can it do?" Lizzie asked.

"Pick up sound, screen out sound, it has sort of an X-ray mode too."

"Wow!" Lizzie stepped back. "So you can see through clothes?"

"Yes." Merry said.

"Now?"

"No." Merry laughed.

Two cubes were lowered on a rope and Merry took one and pressed the sides. After a second she felt a snap inside of the cube and it started to glow white. Lizzie did the same to the other cube and the chamber was soon well lit.

"Whoa!" Lizzie said looking around. "This is like 'Pharaoh's Slave's number 4'."

"What's that?" Merry asked. "A video game?"

"A porno flick that me and Jessie worked on once." Lizzie said. "Back when we were ten."

"You did porn flicks when you were ten?" Merry demanded.

"Well…" Lizzie backed away quickly with a look of fear on her face. She hugged her light cube to her stomach. "Dad's un-employment ran out and he said we had to eat… We just had to be on display at first…"

"It's all right Lizzie." Merry said realizing that she had let her anger show in her voice. "I'm not mad at you."

"Oh." Lizzie said. "Sorry, it's kinda hard to tell. I mean… I know you're still kinda mad at us… cause'a what we did and…"

"I'm not mad anymore." Merry said. She put her arm around Lizzie's shoulder and drew her close.

"I know it was pretty bad." Lizzie said. "Simone's kinda mad too."

"What makes you say that?" Merry asked as she guided Lizzie down the corridor.

"Well… nothing."

"Tell me." Merry ordered. After Lizzie stayed quiet Merry added: "Lizzie we're Knight's of Dollopolis now. No secrets."

"Well, she used to take me and Jessie to bed with her all the time, you know, us being small and her being big and… Well we'd roam around a lot and have fun. But she hasn't done that since you and her started… and I figured it was because you told her and you were still mad at us and…"

"It wasn't that." Merry said as Lizzie's voice died. They had moved through the corridor and into the library.

"Ok." Lizzie said.

She doesn't really believe me, Merry realized. But hell I haven't even thought of those two doing that to Simone. Am I jealous?

Merry pictured a tiny Lizzie and Jessie roaming around Simone's full sized nude body. She wasn't sure how she felt about it.

"I… I know you got the better body." Lizzie said. "I mean the boobs and everything…"

"Simone doesn't go that way Lizzie." Merry said. "Trust me, what ever body you have she can make the best of it."

"She hasn't for a while." Lizzie said sadly.

"Here we are." Merry said deciding to deal with it later. Better yet Simone could deal with Lizzie. "We've got to get all of the scrolls and some of the stuff on the tables up to Jessie."

"What goes first?" Lizzie asked putting her light cube down.

"We'll start with these." Merry said going over to a shelf. She pulled out a scroll and opened it. It wasn't paper. She knew from the scribe's thoughts in the back of her mind that Lord Scalius had created a paper substitute from dead sharkskin. One side was as rough as sandpaper, but the other was smooth.

"What?" Lizzie asked.

"What?"

"You said something funny."

"I did?"

"Yea."

{You were speaking Greek and said 'Observation's of potion five in males'}

"Let's get moving." Merry said. She had slipped and the scribe had talked through her. It was the closest Merry ever wanted to come to ghostly possession.

Mind control is hell, she thought.

Ms. Dream had been to at least three dimensions in her career that had called themselves hell. She knew what they looked like and this part of the island came close to them all. The volcanoes had covered the ground with a layer of gray ash and black rocks. The contrast between that and the diamond blue see and sky was jarring. At the northern tip of the island was the last volcano. It was active enough to send a stream of sluggish lava flowing into the ocean. Ms. Dream looked at the base of the volcano through a pair of salvaged binoculars and saw what she had expected to see. Prudence and Lucy were staked to post driven into the ground. Each of them was naked and each of them had been raped. Dried cum coated their pussies and some of their legs. The post held them about ten feet off of the ground, split into an X-position. Lucy looked horrible. Her brown hair had gone to silver and her short body was covered in whip marks. She had to be at least 90 by the way her skin hung off of her body. Beside her Prudence was in better shape but only because she was younger. Her brown hair was worn to her shoulders and for some reason the demons had left Prudence her mask. Bellow them set into the rock wall of the volcano was a round portal of flame. Hellspite floated off of the ground and currently was in front of Prudence. She was talking to him and he was laughing as he played with her body. Ms. Dream watched as he raped her. As she climaxed a demon stepped out of the flame. There were five demons so far and Ms. Dream knew that there would be more to come. They would not be as powerful as Hellspite; he would make sure of that. But they would make a powerful force. Little Darkness met the demon with a smile on her face and gave her body to him eagerly. With a smile Hellspite moved over to Lucy. Gifted with her powers Ms. Dream could see the lines of force that went from Lucy and Prudence to the portal. They were bright and red. A shorter line went from Hellspite. He was using their life force to keep the portal open and some of his own to direct it into the right dimension.

There weren't any good options. Ms. Dream knew that. Hellspite was too powerful for her to defeat alone. There was no way to get help from any of the supergroups currently on the planet.

"Merry's all the help I got." Ms. Dream whispered and started to send her mind out in search of the Knight. But she stopped as the sound of a tail scraping along the ground alerted her to danger. Ms. Dream leaped out of the way as the demoness charged at her, leaving the creature to attack an illusionary double.

"Well hi there." Ms. Dream said gaily as the demoness grabbed at the spot where she had been. The demoness continued to swipe her claws back and forth over the illusion of Ms. Dream. Within its small mind puzzlement was rapidly growing. Why wasn't the mortal screaming in pain?

Ms. Dream backed away a few more steps and pretended she was a rock. She wasn’t facing a biblical demoness. Though Hellspite had traded on the religious side of humanity for fear and profit for decades his race was not really biblical demons. They were a race of creatures that dwelt on one of the lower planes of existence. They dwelt in a place of endless war and savage fighting. Hellspite himself had been brought to Earth accidentally by an ICE R&D project. He had found common ground with ICE and had worked for them as an enforcer and assassin. He was damn powerful and had once fought Goddess of Justice and Captain Pharaoh to a stand still. Only help from Moon Girl and the Young Ancient had beaten him and he had since escaped from prison. None of his race was as powerful as Hellspite or as smart. Most of them were near mindless animals that lived only to hunt and kill.

The demoness in front of Ms. Dream was close to that level. But there was semi-intelligence behind the red eyes. She was vaguely human shaped, but had a pair of bat-like wings and a spiked tail. She wore a long loose tunic formed from the bones of dead animals and foes. Her body was slim and whip-like and her skin was black but covered with red and yellow stripes that looked like flames. Her face was human, but with a long pointed nose and chin and two sets of fangs both on the upper jaw and the lower jaw. Red and black hair flowed from her head to between her wings, looking almost like a mane. At the tips of her wings were small claws.

Oh baby you are just what I need, Ms. Dream thought as she attacked the demoness. Her first blow was a flying kick to the shoulder near the wings. The demoness howled in pain and surprise as the mortal in front of her vanished. She spun around but by then Ms. Dream was a rock again. The demoness kept spinning, looking for her attacker. As soon as the demoness back was turned Ms. Dream struck again, this time aiming a blow at the creature's tail. But the demoness dove to one side and her claws barely missed the heroine. The creature opened her mouth and a jet of flame shot over Ms. Dream's head. The flames ended as Ms. Dream's foot found the demoness throat. The creature staggered back, the aborted flames causing her to choke in agony.

Ms. Dream pressed her attack. Using her telekinetic powers to aid her blows. She drove her fist into the creature's stomach and breasts as fast and as hard as she could. The creature staggered back and fell but her tail lashed out as she did and the spikes on the tip slashed across Ms. Dream's stomach. Ms. Dream dropped back as her blood flowed. But it wasn't a deep cut, merely deep enough to sting and there was no venom.

The creature used the brief respite to attack again. She leapt on top of Ms. Dream and brought them both to the ground. Her fangs sought Ms. Dream's throat only to be stopped by a telekinetic barrier. Meanwhile Ms. Dream grabbed the bone tunic the creature wore and tore it off. Small red breasts with yellow nipples were revealed. Each nipple was pierced with a black iron ring.

"I love it when they got rings." Ms. Dream said. She hooked her fingers into the nipple rings and jerked down. The creature hissed in pain but that was cut short as Ms. Dream head butted her. Then she twisted the rings and the demoness cried out in pain and reached down to grab her wrists. Ms. Dream twisted harder and the demoness reared back and tried to escape. Ms. Dream jerked down on the rings again and again head butted her foe. The demoness was stunned.

Ms. Dream shoved the creature off of her and rolled away. The demoness staggered to her feet. There was pain in her eyes now, and a little fear. The mortal was not easy food, and in her life she had learned that meant that the mortal might think of her as food. If her wings hadn't hurt so much the demoness would have fled. But like all cornered animals she started to grow desperate. She charged at Ms. Dream.

Ms. Dream let her come and side stepped the demoness but as the demoness rushed by Ms. Dream telekinetically lifted a rock and slammed it into the creatures stomach. The demoness staggered and fell to her knees. Ms. Dream moved in and started to hit the creature again and again. She moved fast and used her mental powers to hide her position. Blow after blow landed on the demoness stomach and chest and then Ms. Dream moved lower, kicking the creature again and again between the legs.

Totally overwhelmed the demoness cried out and fell back, trying desperately to get away from her attacker. But Ms. Dream did not allow her to escape. With a kick to the jaw she felled the demoness and then jumped and landed on top of her, pinning the creatures wings against the ground. Ms. Dream sat on the demoness stomach and locked her eyes onto the demoness eyes.

They both were still, but the true battle was not over. In the demoness mind Ms. Dream bashed her way through mental barriers and sent pain through the creature's spirit. When it was over she held the demoness by the throat physically and mentally.

"What is your name." Ms. Dream demanded in a voice as hard as the rock.

The demoness squirmed in her grasp and whimpered. With her last bit of strength the creature kept silent. Ms. Dream slammed her free hand between the demoness legs and pressed her finger into the creature's sex.

"What is your true name." Ms. Dream demanded again as her fingers worked their way into the demoness. "You will tell me your true name."

The creature whimpered and squirmed. She would have cried for mercy if she had any knowledge of the concept of mercy. But she didn't, she knew the thrill of the hunt, the fear of pain and the pleasure of mating. But she had never known all of them at once. Ms. Dream pressed on, stimulating the demoness sex and hammering at her mind. It took barely five minutes for the demoness to give up and at last she fell limp. From her lips came a long string of grunts and hisses.

Ms. Dream repeated the grunts and hisses, the demoness name in her own tongue. With that knowledge it was as if a key was turned in a lock. Ms. Dream shattered the demoness mind and took complete control. It was a cultural quirk of the demoness kind; they had been taught from birth that when someone knew their name then that person had power over them. The more powerful the person, the more power they held. Ms. Dream had beaten the demoness physically and mentally and sexually. The creature now believed that Ms. Dream held absolute power over her, and because she believed that it was true.

Ms. Dream felt sick as she moved through the demoness mind. The creatures earliest memory was hatching and killing her nest mates as they hatched. Then her life became a blur of killing and hiding, living in fear constantly. Until a portal had opened up near her nest. She and a few others of her kind had flown through the portal looking for food. They had been caught by Hellspite and ordered to guard the area around the portal. Not following the orders of a demon as powerful as him had never entered the demoness small mind.

The heroine allowed the demoness to keep her memories and her personality, what little there was of the later. But her loyalty was completely changed.

"Your true name is now Dummy." Ms. Dream said. "No one knows your name but me. When anyone ask what you are called you will call yourself Flame, but your true name will now be Dummy. You are mine."

Ms. Dream released her and stood up. After a moment so did the demoness. She got to her knees and bowed, her face touching the ground at Ms. Dream's feet. A forked tongue reached out and tentatively licked Ms. Dream's foot.

"What is your bidding mistress?" She asked. Her voice was surprisingly smooth.

Ms. Dream formed a map and a picture of the members of Earth Force in front of her. She changed the picture so that it flowed from the island to Maine.

"Go to these people in this place. Tell them what has occurred on this island. Tell them that Ms. Dream wants them here as quickly as possible. Tell them that the mansion is infested with Bug Master's surveillance devices and they have to look for real small bugs. Tell them that the safe word is 'bluebell'. When you have told them this follow their orders. Do this as fast as you can."

"Yes mistress." Flame said. She turned and ran, first along the ground and then as her wings spread out she took to the air.

"Some times FedEx just won't do." Ms. Dream said sitting back against a rock as the demoness flew out of sight. She looked down at her stomach. The blood had stopped flowing but it looked ugly. Ms. Dream shrugged. It was going to get uglier. She was going to get uglier. Mary had gotten uglier and uglier since the day she'd gotten her powers.

"No mirrors." Mary said as what she had done flooded over her. "Damn it to hell no mirrors. God what am I doing in this line of work? Why can't I quit?"

Mary realized that tears were running down her face. It wasn't the first time she had used her mental powers to overwhelm someone. But usually she settled for a few semi-hypnotic commands. Even then she made sure that they were not permanent. Not this time, this time she needed the demoness to be completely loyal, no matter what. The fact that the demoness was barely as smart enough to be self aware didn't matter. She'd taken another beings mind and turned it into cotton candy and then she had eaten it. And Mary knew that she'd probably never fix the demoness.

"Dream Girl." Mary whispered. When she had been Ms. Nightmare the young woman with the bright smile had come looking for her idol Ms. Dream. She'd been a mentalist with a lot of potential. With Lady Goth pulling the strings Mary had used her powers to overwhelm Dream Girl. Mary had turned her into a parody of a side kick, a twisted idiot with an insatiable desire for sex and bad puns. Dream Girl was still in a special asylum, a place Mary wasn't allowed to go. No one was sure if she would ever recover. Everyone was sure who was to blame except Mary. To Mary the fact that Lady Goth had forced her to destroy the young woman's mind was beside the point, it was still Mary who had done it. The look on the young woman's face as she realized that her idol was nothing but a toy for Lady Goth would always haunt Ms. Dream.

"Enough!" Ms. Dream snapped. She forced the memories out of her mind. "Focus Mary. Focus on Lucy. Focus on Prudence. Deal with guilt later."

She closed her eyes and concentrated. Slowly an image of the demoness she had just defeated formed around her. It took a few minutes and when it was done Ms. Dream stood up. Flame's mind had given her all the information she needed to know about Hellspite's plan. Ms. Dream ran her hands along her collection of captured grenades.

"Portal here I come." Ms. Dream said. With her demoness form in place she started toward the base of the volcano.

Merry pulled with all her might as Jessie and Lizzie pushed the huge sphere away from the hole. As soon it as it was clear Merry eased the rope down and the sphere settled onto the ground.

"What is this thing?" Lizzie demanded panting.

"Heavy." Jessie said painting just as hard.

Merry walked over to it. The sphere had been in a side room and it had taken all three of them to roll it into the throne room. Then Merry had moved Thunderbird 2 over the hole so that she could throw a rope over one of the landing pads and the three of them could pull the sphere up. It was as big as Merry and was made of black metal. There were designs on it but they were hard to make out since they were a slightly darker shade of black than the metal was.

"I don't know what it is." Merry said. "She tapped it. It's not a bomb and it's not hollow. None of the memories of the people I have recognize it."

"Why'd he do that anyway?" Jessie said. "Why have so many people try to take over your mind?"

{They weren't trying to take it over.}

{The idea was to layer the personalities over Merry's own and instill fear based loyalty.}

{Each one of those personalities obeyed Scalius, either through fear or love.}

{That loyalty would have stayed with Merry long enough to release him and his wife.}

"He didn't count on me already having gone through something like it." Merry said. "Come on, let's role this thing into Thunderbird 2."

"Don't you ever get tired?" Lizzie asked as she and Jessie climbed to their feet. "We've been hauling stuff around all day."

"I get tired." Merry said. "I just keep working till the job is done."

"Can't you just grow and lift it?" Jessie asked.

"If I grow the suit gets shredded." Merry said. "And it hurts. Come on, you two are doing fine."

"We're never going to be knights like you." Jessie said bracing her back against the sphere.

"You don't have to be." Merry said bracing her back as well. "Gotta remember girls that The Group has a lot of different things for us to do. I'm good at some things, you'll be good at some things."

"What things?" Jessie asked bracing herself. "We don't got a real good record."

"You'll do better with some training." Merry said. "All together now… PUSH!"

They all pushed and the sphere rolled up the ramp and bumped against the ropes they had set up for it. All three women sat down breathing heavily.

"Are you sure that thing has to come with us?" Lizzie asked.

{Yes.}

{From what we can see we suspect it is an historical record, but it is not from Earth.}

{Nor is it even from this dimension.}

{Study will prove useful.}

"Maybe Scalius got his advanced knowledge from it." Merry said.

"What sort of training?" Jessie asked.

"What?"

"What sort of training for knights and stuff?" Lizzie asked.

Merry wanted to say 'when I know you'll know', but she realized that Jessie and Lizzie weren't looking for that sort of answer. It was actually strange to be working with them. Merry had known the twins almost a year and a half, but she had deliberately avoided them, even after her anger at them had faded.

I didn't think of them because I didn't want to, Merry thought. They were my replacements when they met Simone. I was scared when I found out. I didn't want to be someone The Group could just throw away. But that isn't it. Come on Merry, admit it. You just didn't want to know anyone, not after what you went through. Ida was right, I was building myself a cave. Thank goddess for Simone.

"You ever see Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back?" Merry asked.

"No."

"Uh-uh." Jessie said.

"Well it won't be like that." Merry said. "I do a really bad Yoda anyway."

"Who's Yoga?" Lizzie asked.

"Star Wars." Merry said. She looked at them and saw the puzzlement on their faces. "What was the last movie you two saw?"

"Dr. Cock versus Super Slut." Jessie said.

"What? Did you two ever watch anything but porn?"

"Sometimes." Jessie said. "But if we swiped any tapes from the vid store they'd have to be porn or Dad would make us return them. He got a lot of points from the socials when we did that. If he was busy with the tapes he left us alone. And Mike loved'em."

"Did you?" Merry asked.

Lizzie shrugged.

"It kept'em happy."

"We usually slept through them." Jessie said.

Merry had to fight to hold her anger down. It was anger at herself as well as the twins father and Mike. Where was she when two girls were growing up in hell? She was a cop, why hadn't she found out and done something?

Because that wasn't part of the job, Merry heard her own voice in her head. It was something she had said many times to many people. I was too busy being Merry McCormick super cop. I was into solving crimes, not social work.

"We did see Robocop." Lizzie said.

"Ok, part of the training is going to be watching a lot of movies." Merry said. She shoved her feelings to the side. It was just more guilt and doubt to deal with and she didn't need that now. "You can find a lot of solutions to the things we have to face in movies."

"What the hells that?" Lizzie said pointing toward the sky.

Merry looked up and saw what looked like a winged demon flying across the sky.

"What ever it is I'm glad it's not stopping." Jessie said.

{That is a demoness.}

{It seems that Merry's time on the island is not yet done.}

"I've got to find Lucy and forgive her." Merry said. "If I don't she'll never stop looking for me. And I'll bet this island that she's in trouble and that things connected."

"Do we have to help?" Jessie asked looking at the demoness as she flew off.

"No, you take Thunderbird 2 to Dollopolis." Merry said. "I'll take the X-wing and go find Lucy."

"What about the other X-wing?" Lizzie asked.

{Keep it on the island for now.}

{It may be useful if Merry has to rescue the heroines.}

{As she probably will.}

{It is a good thing we put weapons in the ships.}

The closer Ms. Dream got to the portals the more tightly she clung to her illusionary body. There were thirty demons now, some were smaller versions of Hellspite, others were four legged and armored and a few were almost human looking. The more power the portal pulled from Prudence and Lucy the weaker the two women became. The stocks they hung on were covered with magical writings. Prudence wore a collar around her neck that glowed and kept her from changing size. Lucy hung limply in her bounds. She looked even more ancient. Her hair was white and her skin hung loosely on her bones. Each time a demon emerged from the portal they both screamed.

Little Darkness greeted each demon with a smile and a kiss and then dragged them onto the ground so that they could have sex with her. She was nude except for a collar around her neck.

Ms. Dream moved slowly closer and closer to the portal. She could close it by killing Lucy or Prudence. Lucy looked close to death as it was. But Ms. Dream wouldn't do that. Instead she edged closer and closer to the portal and held two of the grenades ready.

"You!" Hellspite shouted pointing at her, his powers easily seeing through her disguise.

"Damn! Recognition is the price of fame." Ms. Dream said. She keyed the grenades and threw them into the portal. Then she formed an image of Goddess of Justice around Hellspite's body. The result for the demons was instant. With a roar they charged at Hellspite, ignoring his commands. While they battled him Ms. Dream telekinetically un-strapped Prudence and Lucy from the stocks and lowered them to the ground. By the time she reached them the portal flickered and Ms. Dream covered them with a telekinetic shield just as flames shot out from it.

If there had been chaos before there was pandemonium now. Demons started to emerge from the portal but many were on fire and dying nearly as soon as they got clear of it. The ones who were not on fire attacked Hellspite instantly. But the portal held open.

"Mary!" Prudence said as Ms. Dream let her demoness illusion drop. "How did you find us?"

"I got help." Ms. Dream said as she started to work on Prudence's collar. It was a standard ICE neutralizer. Ms. Dream had worn them herself at times. They numbed the part of the brain that controlled a person's powers.

"I hope you brought your help along." Lucy rasped out the words. "We shall need it."

"This is all we got." Ms. Dream said handing Lucy a blaster. "The rest may be coming but they won't be here for a while."

"We shall have to last then." Lucy said getting to her knees.

"Can't we run?" Prudence said as the collar came off of her.

"We are on an island Prudence." Lucy said. She raised the blaster with both hands and fought to steady it. "We have no place to go."

Ms. Dream gasped in pain and grabbed her head. Above them Hellspite had finally thrown off the Goddess of Justice illusion. Angrily he spotted the heroines.

"Take them!" He roared.

"I'm sorry Prudence." Lucy said as she started firing the blaster. The ray stunned the demons but did not kill them. "I'm sorry for bringing you into my world. You should have never put on the costume."

"I got powers now mom."

"You should be safe!" Lucy cried out.

"Apologize later fight now." Ms. Dream said.

"LUCY ROTHSCHILD!"

The voice was loud enough to stun everyone on the battlefield. Hellspite looked wildly about for the source but it was Prudence who spotted it.

"Look!" She said pointing in the sky.

"Just gotta be dramatic about it don't ya." Ms. Dream said. She looked and spotted the Star Wars toy hovering near the edge of the volcano.

"THIS IS MYSTERY WOMAN OF DOLLOPOLIS. LUCY ROTHSCHILD I FORGIVE YOU."

The effect was instantaneous. Lucy dropped the blaster and fell to the ground. She breathed heavily for a few moments and then froze. Her hair turned brown and her skin seemed to shrink onto her body. But the change did not stop there. Suddenly Lucy grew in size and a costume took shape around her body. Her hair went from brown to gold and her eyes glowed with power as Goddess of Justice sat up. She was over seven feet tall and wearing a sleeveless chain mail tunic that reached down to her knees. Twin beams of pure white energy erupted from her eyes and tore their way through the attacking demons.

"Well that ought'a do it." Merry said as Goddess of Justice suddenly charged into the demons.

{Agreed.}

{She should be able to handle herself until the rest of Earth Force arrives.}

{You should go now.}

{Quickly.}

"Whoa!" Merry shouted as three flying demons headed toward the X-wing fighter.

She slammed the throttle wide and was rewarded by being thrust back into her seat as the ship shot forward. But another flying demon suddenly appeared in front of her and Merry had to cut her speed and dive.

The demons followed.

For the next few minutes Merry got to live every Star War's fantasy her fan-girl heart had ever dreamed of. But even as a part of her gloried in the aerial dogfight another part was keeping an eye on the reality of the situation. Merry knew how to fly but she didn't have the skill of creatures that had flown and fought in the air nearly from birth. Merry twisted and turned the ship wildly and they followed every twist and turn. She power-dove toward the ground and they followed her. She tried to gain altitude and found herself cut off by larger, higher flying demons.

{This is not working.}

{There are too many of them and more coming.}

{The portal is still open. Hellspite is using his own spirit to power and direct it now that Lucy and Prudence are not there.}

{And the ships fuel supply is not un-limitted.}

"I've got to help them take him out then." Merry said turning the ship around to avoid a few of the demons that were clustered ahead of her. "How much time do I have before I run out of gas?"

{At full combat with speed and weapons about ten minutes.}

{The fuel cells will recharge but not while you are in combat mode.}

{We really have to redesign for the next upgrade.}

{It seems that every time we do Officer Dolly requires better toys to play with.}

"Sorry." Merry said.

{Don't be.}

{It spurs us on to greater achievements.}

{Hellspite has made the portal wider and is calling on more demons.}

{Earth Force will not arrive before Lucy and her friends are overwhelmed.}

"And if they go I'll never get clear of the island." Merry said. "So I gotta help them."

In a grand melee Ms. Dream had found that her best defense was looking as if she had an offense. Standing under a twenty foot five Prudence Ms. Dream shot at demons randomly with her blaster. At the same time she pasted illusions of herself or Prudence over demons that were in the center of thick crowds of other demons and those demons were instantly attacked by other demons. Meanwhile Prudence was slugging away at any demon who came close to her. But she was still un-trained as a fighter, relying on brute strength and size more than strategy. The longer the fight went on the more of a problem that was becoming. More and more demons were coming through the portal and the only thing that kept Hellspite from joining the fray was that he was using his own power to keep it open. Goddess of Justice was tearing through the demons with a fury that Ms. Dream loved to see, but there were still only three heroines and by now Ms. Dream had lost count of the number of demons. And more were coming through the portal at the rate of at least two per minute.

Four flying demons dove down and tore at Prudence's face while three more leapt onto her ankle and started to bit and tear at her calves. Two more attached themselves to her breasts and started to bite. Prudence screamed and tried to kick them off but nearly lost her balance as the flying demons grabbed her by the hair and started to pull her over.

Ms. Dream shot two of the demons that were going at Prudence's leg. She was aiming for another when Prudence reached down and tore him off and then threw him away. A second later three of the flying demons hit the ground and lay still, their wings shredded and smoking. A moment after that a Star War's fighter flew between Prudence's legs with two more demons' after it.

"So much for orders." Ms. Dream said. She didn't spare a moment to wonder why Merry had suddenly decided to help them, not with three demons charging at her. She brought up her gun and took them out but behind them was Little Darkness. She had her own blaster and fired, barely missing the heroine. Ms. Dream was about to fire back when Prudence reached down, grabbed Little Darkness and threw her into the portal.

"Have fun." Ms. Dream said as she fired at another demon.

"This is a hell of a lot of fun." Merry said through clenched teeth. She wasn't sure if she was being ironic or truthful or just talking to keep her own spirits up. She banked the X-wing to the left and barely missed slamming into the volcano.

{We are glad you are enjoying it.}

"I didn’t say that." Merry said pulling up sharply. "I just said it was fun."

{Ah. You will have to explain this to us later.}

An indicator light on Merry's display started flashing red.

"I've got two minutes of firepower left." Merry said. She twisted the fighter into a turn and looked at the battlefield. Prudence was down and was normal sized and her leg was bleeding. A spear lay on the ground next to her. Ms. Dream was standing over her firing a blaster and Goddess of Justice was standing in front of them. With a wave of her hands Goddess of Justice surrounded them with a dome of semi-transparent golden light. At once the demons started to pile on the dome and soon it was lost under their numbers.

"She could have waited until I got there." Merry said as the power reading dropped further.

Hellspite raised his hands at the pile of demons over the globe and a black lightning bolt cascaded over the demons. They howled in pain as their bodies were melted together, arms and legs joining until they were all linked. Merry watched as they started to pull at each other. She could imagine the stress on Goddess of Justice's dome.

"Oh hell!" Merry swore as she fired her last shot at a flying demon. There was no choice now, she had to land and land fast. Merry was still looking for a spot when a flying demon flew close enough to her so that it's wing claw sliced off the tip of one of her wings. Alarms sounded in the ship and the world turned into a Tilt-a-Whirl as the X-wing fighter rushed to the ground.

With what little control she had left Merry aimed the fighter at a pile of bodies. The impact was like driving into a pile of wet sandbags. The wings broke off and the sharp nosed craft plowed into the bodies and came to a stop embedded between someone's legs.

"Oh man!" Merry said. The straps in her seat had saved her from being crushed against the control console but they had dug into her skin through her suit. The sight outside of cockpit was sickening. Merry controlled her stomach. It was the pile of corpses or crash into the rocks.

Merry opened the cockpit and looked around. She was at least fifty feet away from the portal. The X-wing had landed on top of a mixed pile of dead ICE agents and shrunken women. More and more demons were piling onto the dome and as they did their bodies were melting into the other demons. Hellspite was laughing even though Merry could see that keeping the portal open was weakening him.

{We are dispatching the second fighter to you.}

"I still can't get away without help." Merry said as another flying demon came through the portal. "I gotta close that thing somehow."

{How?"}

"Hellspite is keeping it open."

{You would have no chance against Hellspite no matter how large you grew.}

{The creature is a sorcerer, his skin is like armor and he can breathe fire.}

{If you run now at your current size you might be able to avoid the demons.}

{You are un-able to help Merry, you have no weapons and even if you did Hellspite is out of your league.}

Merry looked around and saw that they were right. All of the demons were now clustered about the spot where Goddess of Justice was shielding Ms. Dream and Prudence. She should run; she should get away.

But Merry knew that she wasn't going to do that. Not unless they ordered her to do it. She couldn't leave three people to die and worse. It just wasn't in her. Merry looked around and something gleamed on one of the bodies. It was an ICE agent and he still had on his belt of grenades and his blaster. Merry climbed over to him and looked at the weapons. The blaster was like a match against steel and the grenades would fare no better against Hellspite's hide. Merry stood over the dead man and waited for the order to run. She could picture The Group sitting around a display. Their intellects would grasp the situation more completely than Merry's would. They would tell her to run. They were right of course. Hellspite was one of the most powerful supervillains on the planet. He had killed four superheroes in his career.

"I'd have better luck against Godzilla." Merry said. She stopped and looked at Hellspite. Then she looked at the grenades. "Godzilla?"

{You have a plan?}

"I think I got a way to take out Hellspite." Merry said.

{You would.}

{But we are reluctant to allow you to attempt it.}

{You are very far away from us Merry.}

{There is no guarantee that even if you plan succeeds we will be able to get you back. As dear to us as you are we will not put Dollopolis and all we are working on in jeopardy to save you.}

"Trust me." Merry said. "This ain't suicidal. All I have to do is get close enough to Hellspite and then make it back to the second fighter. I'll either kill him or distract him, if I kill him the portal goes and Lucy and them can handle what's left, if I distract him the portal still closes and I'll be able to get away while he battles Lucy."

For a few minutes there was silence and Merry could see the dome of demons start to contract. Inside she knew that Lucy was holding it together by sheer force of will. The laughter of Hellspite was sickening to Merry. It was evil. It was evil on a primal level and Merry's soul wanted to crush that evil.

"Please!" Merry shouted. "I just need about five minutes at full size! Let me! They'll die if I don't do something! I'll make it to the fighter, I promise! I won't fail you!"

The dome of light was still holding but Ms. Dream didn't think that it was going to last. Goddess of Justice stood with her feet apart and her arms raised. Her body trembled but her voice was steady as she spoke.

"So you have actually been to Dollopolis?" She said.

"Oh yea, fun place." Ms. Dream said. She loosened the tourniquet around Prudence's leg. The bleeding was slowing as the young woman's own powers healed her.

The dome buckled for a moment but Goddess of Justice held it.

"Mom we don't have time to talk." Prudence said. "We gotta get out of here!"

"How?" Ms. Dream asked.

"At the moment Prudence escape is not possible." Goddess of Justice said. "I can keep the dome intact until Earth Force arrives."

I wouldn't bet on that, Ms. Dream said to herself. It was not that she didn't have faith in her friend, just that she knew from past experience that even Lucy had limits.

The ground buckled and twisted beneath them and for a moment Ms. Dream wondered if the volcano was erupting. Then she was sure it was because there was a wave of heat and pain that followed a scream of agony and surprise. It was a type of scream that none of them had ever heard before. A scream that wasn't only sound but spirit as well. After the scream the demons on the dome shuddered and then lay still. Cracks appeared in their skins and soon all of them had crumbled to dust.

"Ok, this is different." Ms. Dream said as a wind blew the dust away. "Did everyone just give up?"

Goddess of Justice lowered her arms and the dome faded. They were standing near the center of a vast field of skeletons. Demon and human remains stood starkly against white ash.

"Look!" Prudence shouted.

They looked and saw the head and torso of Hellspite lying in the ash. A look of surprise and terror was frozen onto his face.

"By Athena!" Goddess of Justice whispered.

They walked over the to remains of the demon. They walked slowly in case in was a trap. But it wasn't. Goddess of Justice bent down and examined the corpse.

"He's truly dead." She said.

"He's got no legs!" Prudence said. "If he ain't dead…"

"He's lost arms and legs before." Ms. Dream said bending down. She touched the corpse and let her powers search it. But there was no way to re-ignite the dead brain cells of the demon. They had been blasted apart. "He's always regenerated. But not this time. I don't feel anything."

"His spirit was powering the portal." Goddess of Justice said. "Something must have hurt him so much or disrupted it so completely that he could not keep his soul on this side of the divide. Either it wanders in limbo or is once more trapped inside his home dimension. He is truly dead."

"Something or someone." Prudence said.

They all looked around as they realized what she was saying.

"No way." Ms. Dream said looking around. "She's good Lucy, but not that good. Take away the shrinking she's no stronger than I am."

"Then where is she?" Prudence asked.

"Heading back toward Dollopolis probably." Ms. Dream said. "I'm amazed she stayed to help. Duchess Simone's orders were for her to get back as soon as she forgave Lucy and not to risk herself for us."

"Yet she did." Goddess of Justice said. "I saw her in the fight. She could have run."

"She's still here." Prudence said. "I feel it." She cupped her hands over her mouth and called: "Mystery Woman!"

Only silence answered her.

"Gone." Goddess of Justice said. "Not again, she can not do this to me again!"

"Hey Lucy…" Ms. Dream started but Goddess of Justice interrupted her.

"I will not have this Ms. Dream! She forgave me in name only! I must talk with her; I must settle things between us! I will not have this noble woman think of me as an enemy!"

"Look!" Prudence shouted pointing.

They looked and saw a Star Wars X-wing fighter land by some tall rocks.

"Come!" Goddess of Justice said.

Ms. Dream felt the golden platform grow underneath them and once it was solid they rose into the air.

"I'd forgotten how single minded you can be." Ms. Dream said. "Look Lucy this girl doesn’t want to talk to you or me or anyone! As far as her and Simone are concerned we aren't… aren't…"

Ms. Dream felt her voice and her thoughts die as they got close enough to the fighter to see the ground near it. Five feet away was a small broken figure that was dragging itself toward the ship. The figure stopped and looked back as Goddess of Justice landed the golden platform near her and it dissolved.

"Merry?" Ms. Dream asked as they settled onto the ground.

The tiny woman ahead of them looked like a broken doll. Her right hand was missing and her skin was burned and bloody. She looked at them with one eye the other eye was swollen shut. After seeing them land she turned and started to crawl toward the ship again. Ms. Dream was used to seeing people in pain and she was used to see them struggling against it. But seldom had she seen the standard pushed this far. Merry was literally dragging herself forward with the one hand she had left. Her other arm ended in a bloody stump.

"Go away." Merry said. Her voice was as hurt as the rest of her and came out in wheezing pain-filled gasp.

"Merry wait." Goddess of Justice said. She took a step toward the tiny woman and her shadow fell across Merry.

"Leave me alone!" Merry hissed turning back to them. The tone of her voice was so full of anger that Goddess of Justice took a step back. "It's over Lucy! You got your powers back, you got your daughter back, I killed Hellspite for you! Now just leave me alone!"

"You… You killed Hellspite?" Ms. Dream said. Logically she knew it had to have been Merry, but having fought and lost to the demon before Ms. Dream found it hard to believe.

"I just have to get back to my ship." Merry said ignoring her. "I promised. I won't fail, I don't fail, I can't fail…"

"Let me help." Goddess of Justice said taking a step toward her again.

"Don't touch me!" Merry shouted. She snarled something in a language that sounded like Ancient Greek and then started to crawl again.

Goddess of Justice looked at Ms. Dream for help and Ms. Dream shrugged.

"Merry at least let us help you get to the ship!" Prudence pleaded.

It was almost absurd, Ms. Dream thought. The three of them were begging a broken woman no more than half of their size if they could help her move a few feet and she was refusing.

Merry had turned back to reply when they all felt the ground shake. The shaking got worse and in the distance Ms. Dream saw more smoke pour from one of the volcanoes.

Oh yea, Ms. Dream thought, please let's have a volcano erupt, we haven't had that yet today.

The ground started to subside but before it stopped the rocks near the X-wing fighter cracked and broke apart. Some of them fell onto the ship and crushed it.

For a moment Merry looked at the remains of the fighter. Then she rolled over onto her back and lay still.

"Merry please let us help you." Prudence pleaded again.

When Merry didn't reply she walked over and carefully picked up the tiny woman. Goddess of Justice and Ms. Dream walked over to them.

Close up the wounds looked worse. There wasn't an inch of Merry's body that hadn't been scratched, cut or bruised. Ms. Dream was actually amazed when Merry found the strength to sit up. Now that she could see the other side of Merry's head Ms. Dream could see an ugly wound across the scalp.

"You caught me." Merry whispered fiercely. "What now Lucy? Dissection? Glass trophy jar?"

"We are not your enemies!" Goddess of Justice said her voice taking on a pleading tone. "Truly we are not!"

"Liar!" Merry hissed. "You've hounded me with nightmares." She held up her ruined arm. "Two times in a row I've lost one of these for you."

"Merry please…" Goddess of Justice started but Merry interrupted her.

"Oh shut up! You got what you wanted, you all did."

"I just wanted to talk to you, to tell you I was sorry!"

"Yea right." Merry said scornfully. "Power's and Prudence were all you cared about. It's over Lucy, you got what you wanted."

"Merry we need to get you help." Prudence said.

The ground started to shake again.

"You need to get off the island!" Merry whispered with a scared look on her face. "The sun's setting! Get moving! Now! Before the sun sets. You gotta get off…"

She fell limp in Prudence's hand and closed her eyes.

"The island!" Ms. Dream said. "Merry said they were going to take care of it! Get us out of here Lucy. Now!"

A golden globe of light formed around them and instantly they were airborne. They flew straight up and bellow them the island grew smaller. Then it vanished completely in a blast of water and steam. The island seemed to blink out of existence, re-appear once and then it simply wasn't there.

"Oh my god!" Prudence said.

"Great Athena!" Goddess of Justice echoed her daughter's amazement.

"Well Simone said they were going to take care of the island." Ms. Dream said. "I guess she meant it."

They watched as the sea rushed into where the island had been.

"Mom she needs help!" Prudence said as Merry moaned in her hand. The tiny woman started to mumble but not in English.

"Then she shall get it." Goddess of Justice said firmly. She closed her eyes and the sphere they were in reformed into an arrow. As soon as the change was complete the arrow shot forward and they heard the slight echo of a sonic boom as it sliced through the air.

Prudence set Merry down and Ms. Dream saw her brow furrow in concentration as she shrunk. Once she was the same size as Merry Prudence felt for a pulse.

"It's not good." Prudence said looking up at them. "It's barely there."

Merry started to talk again and then fell silent.

"What did she say?" Prudence asked.

"It was Latin." Ms. Dream said. "Something about the yearly crop yield."

"Crops?" Goddess of Justice asked. "Is she a farmer?"

Merry suddenly opened her eyes, said something in a language Ms. Dream didn’t recognize and then closed them again.

"What was that?" Ms. Dream asked.

"She just said 'I'll meet you on the holodeck.'" Prudence said with a puzzled look on her face. "She said it in Klingon."

"Klingon?" Goddess of Justice asked.

"Yea, Klingon, like in Star Trek." Prudence said.

Merry's body spasmed wildly for a few seconds and then lay still. Prudence's face went white for a moment but then she found a pulse again.

"She's still alive." Prudence said.

"And she will stay that way." Goddess of Justice said. "I can have us to the mansion in an hour."

"Lucy even if we get her to the mansion I'm not sure the medical unit can help her." Ms. Dream said. "She's too small, she needs a hospital her size."

"Where else can we take her?" Lucy asked and Ms. Dream saw the torture on her friend's face. "Do you know where Dollopolis is? How to contact them?"

"No." Ms. Dream admitted.

"So we will take her home." Goddess of Justice said.

Merry suddenly started to talk again. This time Ms. Dream recognized the language.

"What was that?" Prudence asked when Merry stopped.

"She said that the sunlight looked very good on the mistress's skin." Ms. Dream said. "But she said it in Greek."

"Call ahead Mary." Lucy said. "Tell them we are coming. Yoran may have a healing spell or potion that can work. I will not have this woman die thinking we are her enemies! I will not allow it even if I have to drag her soul back from whatever heaven or hell awaits her and force it back into her body! Not after what she has gone through for us!"

"Oh yea let's do the impossible and save her." Ms. Dream said. But she said it softly and cleared her mind. She sent it away from her body and on ahead of them. Ms. Dream didn't think Merry would make it, but she wasn't going to say that. Not to Prudence and definitely not to Lucy.

Besides they had done the impossible before. Friends and teammates had died only to be miraculously revived. And from what little Ms. Dream had learned Merry had certainly beaten death many times before in her life. But even if Merry survived Ms. Dream wasn't sure how happy she would be. They had no way to get in touch with Dollopolis and Ms. Dream knew that Merry had disobeyed Duchess Simone's orders to save them. Simone had already kept Merry in a dungeon and whipped her for what had been Lucy's crimes. The fact that Simone loved Merry might not save her from the consequences of breaking a direct command and if Lucy decided to intervene in that punishment…

Hell keeping her alive may be the easy part, Ms. Dream thought. The hard part will be getting her home.

…To be continued.

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