The Dangers of Daring Officer Dolly

Chapter 42. Problems in the Night

by Skytower 

In 1964 Gladys Humplemyer, daughter of the World War 2 heroine the Allied Siren found that she had inherited her mothers sonic powers as well as her good looks. In 1966 she’d debuted as Golden Siren. Her history grew a little fuzzy after that. Some said that one of her mothers old foes had mind controlled her, others thought that she simply fell prey to the radicalism that was prevalent on college campuses in the mid to late 60’s. What ever the reason was, by 1969 Glady’s had changed her name to Radical Siren and was involved with hyper-radical protest groups. Groups that considered the Black Panthers pacifists. But where a normal college girl could get away with a few protests a famous superpowered one could not. Each arrest brought more publicity and the public reaction drove her deeper and deeper into the radical underground. The public wasn’t used to a heroine who didn’t appear to be mom and apple pie. Her Playboy spread-the first by a heroine-hadn’t helped. Old guard superheroes-themselves a bit puzzled by the new times-began to berate her when they teamed up. Some wouldn’t team up at all. She was denied membership in Force Group J. After that Radical Siren started to call them part of ‘the military industrial complex’. Then she started to hit corporate offices for records and then banks to fuel the revolution. In 1971 her mother and father died at the hands of the nazi supervillain Storm Trooper. Storm Trooper was himself dying of cancer and was dead an hour before Siren found him. After that her life went further down hill. She became the Outlaw Siren and turned her back on politics for crime. A stray bullet during a bank robbery in 1979 nearly destroyed her vocal cords and robbed her of her powers. She got out of prison in 1990 and had a brief run as an adult film actress before opening Siren’s, a heroine strip club/brothel.

The club had a simple theme, girls who looked enough like heroines danced and stripped on stage. The costumes were very similar to the heroines they looked like, but not similar enough for a successful court case. The strip club was a converted industrial park near the Union Lake Gas works in Seattle. The brothel part was on a small cruise ship that was anchored on the dock behind the club. The ship often went on long holiday cruises with select clients in combination party/smuggling trips.

Mary knew some heroines who hated the idea of the place. Miss Shadow (one of them anyway) had sued it three times and nearly knocked it down twice. Most heroines like Mary and Lucy really didn’t care. When you wore next to nothing in public-as many heroines did-getting mocked about it was part of the deal. Mary and Lucy were almost never imitated. In Mary’s case her Ms. Dream persona was of a woman clothed in misty rainbows and in Lucy’s case a seven foot tall amazon. There weren’t a lot of look-a-likes out there for those body types. Short girls had started to copy Prudence’s Tiny Titania look-one of the reasons Mary suspected that Prudence kept changing her costume-and there was at least two Moon Girl’s at the club. Three now if Mary included herself.

The place itself was well set up. At one end was the stage for the strippers. It was about fifteen feet long and at the ten foot mark split up into three stages like a giant cross. Three girls worked constantly, one on each stage. There were poles set up at the center of the cross and on each stage. Around the stages were table. Beyond that was an area with six pool tables and past that was more tables surrounding a half round stage. On the left wall were large screen TVs with benches in front of them and on the other side of the room was a bar that ran the length of the building.

Mary stood back stage and prepared herself. It was a hard thing to do and without her new choker the task would have been impossible. In the past she had used a short cloak to enhance and focus her powers and Mary had been very vulnerable when it was torn off. But Gadget Gal had worked the same circuitry into a wide choker. It was about two inches wide and flexible. The thing was blue and Mary didn't mind the way it looked, even though it did make her look a bit like a long-necked chicken. As Ms. Dream Mary could look however she wanted.

Siren’s could hold about two hundred people and most nights held at least a hundred. That was a lot of minds to cloud. Plus she had to cloud them while doing a full aerobics work out and shutting out the music and the lights and the chatter. The marijuana smoke didn’t help. Mary guessed that a lot of the profit of the place was going to the city and state governments. In five minutes she’d spotted enough drug traffic to fill a courthouse for a year. Most of it was low level though, nothing large enough for a big television style bust. On the far stage a female rock trio was playing to a crowd of college students. That was another reason the place managed to stay open. Siren had managed to cultivate an ‘edgy but safe’ image that allowed rebellious college kids to play at being bad. It would do a district attorney no good to raid a place and end up arresting the son or daughter of a mayor, senator or congressman. Siren's used vampires as bouncers and they made sure that if anything happened to those kids it happened far away from the club. Most of her strippers were freshmen college girls dipping into the wild side of life.

Like me, Mary thought. Mary Melinksi, dumped college girl from LA who hitched up here with a singer from a rock band who dumped me penniless on Siren’s doorstep. Tall and stacked enough to look like Moon Girl with the right makeup.

This was the end of her first week at the club and the end of the third week in Seattle. Athena’s clues had consisted of visions that Lucy had interpreted as drawings. Deciphering them had been like playing Pictionary. It had been impossible at first until Prudence had spotted something. She had walked across the table dragging the drawings one way and the other until they combined to form an image of a giant needle with a saucer on it. In the background was water. The Space Needle in Seattle had been everyone’s guess.

The second clue was figured out by Gadget Gal. A buffalo head with crossed swords was the logo for a biker gang that had once been henchmen for Death Cycle. From that they guessed that they were looking for a biker or ex-biker.

So Mary, Esmerelda and Savage had gone to Seattle and started to prowl the bad side of town. They had no luck and Mary decided to settle on Siren’s for the next try.

Getting a job there was easy for someone who could make her body look like anyone. Mary faked putting on makeup to imitate Moon Girl’s golden skin and had been hired the first night.

Mary wished that who ever it was would show up soon. Siren wasn't an idiot and she hated undercover feds. She’d never killed anyone, but a few had ended up in the hospital or worse. Mary had Esmerelda and Savage as back up but this was a low profile gig and they had to keep it that way. No one wanted word of the scythe to leak out and have the thing for sale on eBay. So far Siren had done a back ground check on the new girl and Mary was followed home every night. Her apartment was searched and her cell phone tapped. Mary had been forced to keep up he false life. She lived in a cheap apartment, littering it with college applications and generally behaving like a 19 year old. But she couldn't keep it up forever.

The girl Mary was replacing stepped off stage and a stage hand did a quick clean job on the stage and the pole. Mary stepped on and sauntered toward the first pole. For a few minutes she knew that the acid smell of the cleanser would be worse than the smell of marijuana and cigarette smoke but she was used to that. Harder to handle was the bad cover of 'Dancing Queen' that played at full blast over the sound system. Mary was beginning to hate that song.

Mary was wearing a bad copy of Moon Girl’s first outfit. A short black skirt, loose black halter top and knee high black boots. No underwear. Over that she was wearing a Japanese school girl outfit; a loose white blouse and short blue pleated skirt. The anime craze had hit the stripper circuit. The heat from the multicolored stage lights hit hard as it always did and she started to sweat. Mary wrapped herself around the poll and her mental image did the same. Mary might have just cast an image of Moon Girl dancing in everyone’s mind but it would have been harder and she wouldn’t have been able to visually scan the crowd. And when ever she did that she messed up with the shadows of the mental image. So she had to do the moves. That was becoming a problem.

Mary spread her legs wide around the pole. Holding onto it with one hand she leaned back, bending her head nearly to the floor. The pole pressed hard against her pussy and the crowd cheered. The physical sensation and the lust of the crowd worked their way through her mental barriers and Marry started to become aroused. The pole was deliberately kept ice cold so that the dancers could stiffen their nipples by rubbing on it. In Mary’s case an ice cold metal pole against her vagina stimulated her even more. There was a visible wet spot on the pole as she left it. The guys cheered.

Mary left the pole and strutted over up to the center stage and then to the left. The men on either side of cheered for the most part. Some of them were too engrossed in illegal deals to really pay attention. Mary strained her ears as much as she could but barely caught one word in ten. That was another reason that Siren’s was popular with the criminal crowd. The noise level made electronic surveillance nearly impossible.

Mary went through her routine and kept her eyes open. She moved seductively to the music and peeled off more and more of her clothes as she did so. The men around the stage cheered. Mary smiled. Let them cheer. Even though it was Mary standing on stage stripping off layer after layer of flimsy cloth it was Moon Girl’s body that they were seeing. Or at least as close to it as Mary was going to come. After a week Mary couldn’t deny the thrill that went through her. It was the ultimate cheat, a way of having the joy of performing with none of the cost. So she could bend down and let them nearly touch her breasts and lay back and spread her legs and know that no one was seeing anything real. But it left a mark. A couple of times in the shared dressing room Mary had lost the image for a few seconds. A few of the other girls were gay and they hit on her, making it even harder to keep in control. When Mary got home at the end of the night she had to masturbate to blow of the steam. It had been years since she’d had so much sex.

By straining her sight Mary caught a glimpse of Savage playing pool. He was wearing a leather biker get up. Beyond him in the crowd watching the female band Esmerelda played the cool college student, chatting with friends. Out on a private yacht on Lake Union Gadget Gal had an array of sensors tuned into the club. With a press against her choker Mary could summon help.

Mary stood on her hands and spread her legs, causing her top to fall off. It’d taken some work to get that move down, but it was worth it. Since her skirt barely covered her thighs there was no covering there when she was upside down and with her top gone she was hiding nothing. That never failed to get everyone’s attention and in that moment of pure lust Mary could scan the crowd with her mind. Usually that brought her nothing but lust filled dreams, sometimes that gave her information on a drug deal. Tonight it gave her a word: Dollopolis. Someone in the crowd was talking about Dollopolis.

Mary scanned the crowd again as much as she could but the moment was gone. The hand stand was her big climax and she danced her way off stage.

Mary leaned against the wall after she got off stage. She was as hot as she had ever been in her life. It took a few minutes for her to cool down enough to move.

She walked into the dressing room and in the split second that it took to realize that a trap had been laid Mary cursed herself for not being prepared for it. But her curse did no more good than her struggles. Her arms were grabbed and a chloroform soaked cloth was clamped over her face. Mary could barely find the strength to fight back and her body betrayed her by climaxing as the drug put her to sleep.

Oh god this is embarrassing, Mary thought as darkness took her.

Lizzie sighed as she watched the tv show. She and Jessie had never watched as much tv in her life as she had the past month. She was bored. On the screen an old man lectured a younger one about something. It wasn’t even good tv, it wasn’t even in color.

"Wanna change the channel?" Jessie asked.

"Yea." Lizzie said. "Man I don’t know why Merry like’s this stuff. I mean it’s not even color and the guy looks old enough to be dead by now."

{He is dead.}

{And for a show that was made in the early 1960’s it is quite good.}

{The modern Dr. Who is a bit more sophisticated.}

{You can change it if you want.}

"Thank you mistress." Lizzie said. She reached over and touched the screen. On the com screen she saw Jessie do the same. Lizzie and Jessie had tried to like the kind of shows that Merry liked but for the most part had failed. Simone called it a ‘generational problem’. The girls were used to clean special effects and color programs. Merry liked the really old stuff. Lizzie wasn't sure why, it seemed silly to watch old black and white versions of Star Wars. At least it did after she and Jessie had watched Star Wars.

Lizzie settled on NCIS. On the screen to her right Jessie did the same. They both loved the character of Abby.

At least we're in good ships, Lizzie thought. She and Jessie were both in small Klingon Birds of prey. Her’s was named Corpse Maker and Jessie’s was named Star Eater. Twice as large and far stronger than the Star Wars ships they had nearly gotten killed in last time they had gotten involved with Earth Force.

"Ke..ti..hy…" Lizzie gave up. "How do you say 'Abby is cute' in Klingon?"

"I don't think they have a word for 'Abby' in klingon." Jessie said.

{They don't.}

"We'll make one up." Lizzie suggested. "Klingon is hard."

"Yea, but Merry wants us to learn it." Jessie said.

And that was enough for both of them they knew. In their lives Lizzie and Jessie had switched back and forth being the older sister, taking turns depending upon who was in more trouble. That flexibility had helped them to survive. But in Merry they had found a true older sister. Merry taught them everything about how to survive as shrunken women. She brought them gifts from the outside world and had never once shouted at them. She had taught them how to fight and work out so that it wasn’t just boring exercise. Lizzie was willing to do-or at least try-anything if Merry thought it was a good idea. The only one the girls loved more was Simone.

But those old monster movies and tv shows were just silly. How Merry could watch Godzilla was beyond her. There had been times that she could actually see the wires on the monsters.

"Ms Dream's dancing again." Jessie said. On the screen they saw her dancing. Or they saw Moon Girl's double dancing. Gadget Gal's collar was good enough to fool most cameras.

"Yep." Lizzie said.

"I wish they'd find this thing." Jessie said.

"Me too." Lizzie said. "It was nice to be out for a while, but this is boring."

{Imagine how Ms. Dream feels.}

{However she is quite a good exotic dancer.}

{Consider yourselves lucky girls.}

{As long as Gadget Gal and Prudence keep an eye on Mary and the others you can stay safely far away from that bar.}

There was that. If she were full size Lizzie would have loved the place, but shrunken down it scared her. There were too many in Siren's who'd treat her and Jessie like dolls or worse. Big people could be dangerous. If Ms. Dream hadn’t been in there dancing Lizzie or Jessie might have had to go through the air vents and wait for the contact to come in. That would have been dangerous and scary.

Of course being bored wasn't fun either. She hovered above the smokestack of the small yacht that Gadget Gal and Prudence were staying on. The first night they had tapped into the computer and bugged the ship. Since then they had simply sat and watched and waited. They took turns for the most part. When the sun set one of them would fly out to the ship while the other stayed on the Dead Siren’s camper. They switched halfway through the night. One of the bright spots of the mission had been time spent with the band. Holly, Dead Heart and Thunder loved to talk rock and they had a lot of stories to tell about big time stars. Lizzie was sure that a few of the stories were even true. And Holy and Thunder loved to play with Lizzie and Jessie’s shrunken bodies and loved the tiny women wanting to play with their bodies. That was another thing that Merry had taught them; how to use a tiny body to bring a large one to a climax. The rock band had crossed paths with them a while back and the Giant’s used them for stuff. Lizzie wasn’t sure what else they did besides driving her and Jessie around (and she really didn’t want to know) but they were trustworthy and fun to be with.

"Another dead night." Gadget Gal said. Lizzie touched her screen and the small camera they had hidden in the cabin of the yacht showed her the two girls. Gadget Gal was working on a little gray box and Prudence was reading a book.

"How does Mary stand that place?" Prudence asked. "Having guys watch you take your clothes off?" She shuddered.

"It’s fun." Gadget Gal said. "I used to do it for my dad’s friends."

"He made you do it?" Prudence asked.

"Yea it was a way to get mom mad." Gadget Gal said. "And anything that got her mad..."

"Hourly check in." Esmerelda’s voice came over the com line. "Anything?"

"Negative." Gadget Gal said. "Nothing on the screens."

"Roger." Savage said. "Looks like I have another night of pool to get through."

"Don’t suffer too much." Gadget Gal said smiling.

"I’m getting tired of this band." Esmerelda said. "The Nine Inch Nails played Sin far better and I didn't like them singing it either." She signed off with a click.

"Well another night of monopoly?" Gadget Gal asked Prudence. Prudence wasn’t looking at her and Gadget Gal grabbed a spray bottle from one of the pockets of her jump suit and sprayed it over the young woman. She replaced the bottle before Prudence turned around.

Prudence yawned and put down the book.

"Not tonight ok, I’m really tired."

"Ok, I’ll take the first shift."

Prudence yawned again and got up. She staggered a bit and then sank back into her chair. Her head nodded and she fell asleep. Almost instantly her body shrank into her clothing.

{Look alive Knightlings, this is new.}

On the screen Lizzie watched as Gadget Gal lifted a tiny sleeping Prudence off of the chair and placed her on the table. She spent a few minutes putting pair of tiny pajama’s on the unconscious girl and then placed her into a small brass bed. Once that was done she turned and opened the gray box. Inside was a small submarine. For a moment Lizzie thought that Gadget Gal was going to put Prudence into the sub, but she didn’t. Instead Gadget Gal walked out onto the deck and tossed the sub into the water.

"What’s she doing?" Jessie asked.

{She is in Seattle.}

{Our guess is that she is sending a message to someone.}

{Could Lucy’s team have a spy in it?}

{If so she’ll have to be dealt with.}
"I better warm up Star Eater." Jessie said.

"Good idea." Lizzie said.

She watched on the screen as Gadget Gal started to pace up and down the small deck. She kept peering into the dark water. After a half of an hour she was rewarded as a dark figure surfaced.

"Well met Gal." The figure said.

"What took you so long?" Gadget Gal demanded anxiously.

"Your sub doesn’t move fast." The figure said tossing it too her.

On the screen in front of her the monitor removed the darkness and showed Lizzie the figure in full light. He was slim and tightly packed with muscles. Bare chested he showed a few scars and a line of intricate tattoos on his chest. They looked like sea waves. His short hair was white and so were his eyes. His ears were pointed. As he leaned against the ship a long fish tail rose in the water behind him.

"A merman?" Lizzie gaped.

{Yes.}

{Whiptail, a renegade rictonian.}

"Do you have them?" Gadget Gal demanded. Her anxiety was growing and Lizzie recognized it. Suddenly she knew what was going on.

"I got them." Whiptail said. "Now what will you give me for them?"

"The money’s in your account." Gadget Gal said defensively. "You know that."

"Yea, but I upped the price." Whiptail said. "I want to know what you all are doing here."

"He’s a pusher." Lizzie said.

"Do you think he has sea bliss?" Jessie asked.

"Yea, she must be hooked." Lizzie said with some sympathy. She and Jessie had heard of sea bliss. It was a drug the mere people made. It made you happy enough to forget everything and killed any sort of pain you were in. The stuff was only a legend in the circles that they had run in. It was super expensive.

"That wasn’t part of the deal." Gadget Gal hissed angrily.

"It is now." Whiptail said smiling.

"All pushers are the same." Jessie said and Lizzie nodded.

"Whiptail I can’t blow it with these people!" Gadget Gal pleaded. "Some of them really don’t trust me yet and if I mess up I’ll never get out of prison again. Please don’t do this to me!"

"You want the joy you pay the price." Whiptail said almost singing the sentence. "I can go down the coast and sell this for ten times what you are paying me."

"Ok!" Gadget Gal said. "Look they’re looking for something from Dollopolis, a box that has a weapon in it."

"What sort of weapon?"

"A battle scythe that Mystery Woman uses." Gadget Gal said. "She’ll do almost anything to get it back, even join Earth Force."

"They want her in Earth Force?" Whiptail demanded.

"Yea." Gadget Gal said.

"Why are they looking around here?" He demanded.

"Some guy with buffalo tattoo on his body knows where it is." Gadget Gal said.

"Ok." Whiptail said after a moment. He raised the back of his tail out of the water and curled it over the deck. Lizzie was amazed how long the tail was. "That’ll do for a start." At the end of his tail was a small wooden chest. Gadget Gal grabbed for it but he pulled the chest out of her reach.

"What else do you want?" Gadget Gal demanded angrily turning back to him.

"Take a swim with me." Whiptail said smiling.

"No!" Gadget Gal shouted with a voice full of revulsion.

"Ok." He said and started to leave.

"NO!" Gadget Gal shouted desperately this time. "Come on, you want more money? You want..."

"I want you now." Whiptail said smiling. "Or I leave and I take the bliss and the extractor with me."

"You..."

"Lover?" Whiptail said when Gadget Gal trailed off. "Perfect merman? Master? Call me anything else and the deal’s off."

"Alright!" Gadget Gal said and this time her voice mixed fear and anger. "Just give me a minute."

She darted back into the cabin and started to work on the computer.

"Is he really trying to get it on with her Mistress?" Lizzie asked.

{That was our reading of the conversation.}

{He is, as you noted, a pusher.}

{This is sadly typical of the breed.}

{No matter what the species.}

"But how Mistress?" Jessie asked. "I mean mermen don’t have... do they?"

{Observe.}
One of the screens lit up and showed an animated merman. His fish tail was nearly three times the length of his torso and as Lizzie had always guessed there was no sign of a penis. Then she gasped as the picture changed. A slit opened up near the end of the tail and one appeared. Sort of. Lizzie could guess what it was, but the shape and the color were enough to gross her out. It was orange and shaped like the tube on a vacuum cleaner.

"She must really be hooked on the stuff." Lizzie said.

{Hooked enough to betray her team mates.}

{This can not be tolerated.}

{Earth Force is becoming a very good super group.}

{And it took too long to build them up.}

"Should we steal the stuff Mistress?" Lizzie asked.

{A good idea.}

{But not all of it.}

{Just a few samples.}

{It will be interesting to analyze them.}

"You’re taking a long time." Whiptail sand casually slapping the water with his tail.

"I had to set this up so they won’t know I’m gone." Gadget Gal said. She came out onto the deck.

"Sure you weren’t calling them for help?" He taunted.

"You think I want anyone to know about this?" Gadget Gal demanded.

Whiptail smiled.

"Well you pay me and I’ll never tell." He slapped the water with his tail again. "If you pay me."

Gadget Gal sat down and pulled off her sneakers. She muttered something about the water freezing.

"She’s going into the water with him?" Lizzie asked.

{Mermen can only make love in the water.}

"How will she breath mistress?" Jessie asked.

{She will have to keep kissing him.}

{His lungs will supply her with air as his gills convert the water to oxygen.}

{It will be a very long kiss.}

{Long enough to steal what we desire.}

Gadget Gal stood up and unzipped her jumpsuit. As she shrugged out of it she tossed her head and Lizzie spotted something.

"Mistress, did you see that on her neck?" Lizzie asked.

{Yes.}

{A electrical interface of some sort.}

{We wouldn't have seen it except for the toss of her head.}

{She must have bionic implants.}

"Should I scan her Mistress?" Lizzie asked.

{No.}

{You might be detected.}

Gadget Gal pulled off her bra and tossed it to the deck. She was a small woman but solidly built. Her beige nipples stiffened in the cold night air.

"It's freezing." She protested as she pulled down her panties.

"I'll get you hot." Whiptail laughed.

Without another word Gadget Gal jumped into the water.

"Man she's really hooked." Lizzie said with sympathy. She and Jessie had done drugs but had managed not to get addicted. But they'd had friends who had and it had never ended well.

{Land.}

{Jessie is on her way.}

Lizzie carefully landed the ship onto the deck and opened the hatch. The sea air hit her immediately as did the gentle rolling of the yacht in the water. Lizzie stumbled a bit as she walked down the ramp. Now that she was out of the ship the sounds of the city reached her. In the distance she could hear cars and sirens. Overhead a plane flew by. Lizzie was wearing a Star Trek classic uniform; a short red miniskirt with black boots. The chill air wrapped around her legs and a breeze made her wish for underwear. Cold drafts always seemed colder to Lizzie now that she was shrunk. She often wondered if Merry or Jessie felt the same way, but always forgot to ask. Jessie landed her ship across from Lizzie's and stepped out. Together they walked over to the chest avoiding the puddles of water.

"Old fashioned." Lizzie said looking at the wooden box. It was shaped like a pirates chest. There was no lock on it.

"Give me a hand." Jessie said.

She took one edge of the box and Lizzie took the other.

"Hey it’s plastic!" Lizzie said as she felt the box. Close up now she could see the ridges on the plastic that had been left by the mold.

"Yea." Jessie said.

"He’s a cheap pusher." Lizzie said.

Grunting and groaning they managed to open it. The top had some sort of spring and once it was open a little bit it slowly opened the rest of the way. Jessie jumped up and sat on the edge. After a moment Lizzie joined her. The edge of the box was thin and bit into her butte but there was some foam to lean on. In the box nestled in foam rubber were five bottles filled with a murky gray liquid. Next to them was a blue box with strange writing on it.

"What’s the box Mistress?" Lizzie asked.

{An extractor.}

{There is a tiny sea creature in there that secrets the Sea Bliss if fed the correct food.}

"You mean sea bliss comes out of something live Mistress?" Jessie asked. "I thought it was like crack."

{Everything has to start somewhere.}

{She must really be hooked if she’s paid enough for an extractor.}

{She couldn’t have stolen the money from Lucy.}

{She’s been moonlighting.}

"Should we steal that too Mistress?" Lizzie asked.

{Yes.}

"Security check." Esmerelda's voice sounded from the cabin.

Lizzie and Jessie gasped and almost fell off of the box.

"Security check go." Gadget Gal's voice came from inside the cabin.

Jessie and Lizzie looked at each other and then jumped off of the box and ran into the cabin. On a computer screen Gadget Gal's face looked out at them.

"Do you have a track on Mary?" Esmerelda asked. "She's been offstage for longer than her break."

"I've got nothing from the emergency signal." Gadget Gal's image said. "Her vitals are stable."

"She might be resting." Esmerelda said. "Keep and eye on her."

"Right." Gadget Gal's image said.

{Clever.}

{An artificial intelligence program.}

{But it's wrong. Mary's vital signs indicate that she has been drugged.}

{She is in trouble.}

"Should we help her mistress?" Lizzie asked.

{Not yet.}

{Get two of the bottles and the blue box.}

{Ms. Dream should not be in immediate mortal danger.}

{Most likely she is being sexually assaulted again.}

Jessie and Lizzie hurried back to the box. Lizzie wasn't happy about it, she had spent time with Ms. Dream and liked her. But even though she and Jessie had moved up in the world the Giant's were still the Giants. She hoped that Ms. Dream could handle what ever it was that was happening to her.

"You load 16 tons, and whatta ya get, another day older and deeper in debt."

Mary came awake to the song. It was sung in a rasping voice that was female, but hard to listen too. Mary was sitting in a chair with her wrists handcuffed behind her back. Her mouth was taped shut. She opened her eyes and looked around. Across from her Siren was sitting behind a desk. The office carelessly cluttered and on the walls were pictures of the various girls who had worked their. Mary noted that there were no personal or family pictures. Siren leaned back in her chair and smoked a cigarette. The woman had embraced age. Her once blonde hair was white and her eyes were a little glazed behind the thick glasses she wore. Her complexion was grayish and there was an ugly scar on her throat. Siren was wearing a loose gray sweater and a tweed skirt. She stopped singing when she saw that Mary was awake.

"Merel Travis 1947." Siren said. "Though rumor is he stole from George Davis. Everyone steals something from someone."

She stood up and walked over to Mary.

"You were stealing from me." Siren said. "You were stealing my time." She slapped Mary hard across the face. "I knew there was something up, just didn't know what. Then tonight on your first show when you did the handstand you had no bush, but on the last one it was full and fuzzy. Now you tell me Ms. Dream, why are you in my club." She reached over and took hold of the tape. "And I got a guy with a gun watching this on tv, you try your powers he'll put a bullet in your head."

She tore off the tape and Mary gasped in pain.

"Why the hell don't you guys ever use low tac tape!" Mary demanded flexing her stinging lips. A damn simple mistake, that was all it took and she had made it.

"Why're you here?" Siren demanded.

"I'm looking for someone." Mary said.

"Why?"

"He has something or he knows where something might be." Mary said. She wondered how far she should go. Siren was a mercenary and she knew who to sell too. On the other hand Mary didn’t have a lot of options. She hoped that by now Gadget Gal would have sounded the alarm, but even if she did a fight wouldn’t do any good. They had no official standing, any fight that they started could be turned on them in court. Lucy didn’t need another lawsuit against Earth Force.

"Who is it and what does he have?" Siren demanded taking a puff out of her cigarette.

"Don't know who he is exactly." Mary said. "I think he's a biker, has a tattoo of a buffalo head over crossed swords somewhere on his body."

Siren put out her cigarette and then sat down on the edge of her desk.

"I know him." She said. "What's he got?"

"Something that could open up a lot of trouble for him." Mary said.

"This guy wouldn't mind." Siren said.

"You set up the meet it'll worth something to us." Mary said.

"Yea I bet." Siren said. "You got nothing I want. I got money and I got my club."

"How about just helping us out then?" Mary asked.

Siren laughed; a deep cackle that ended in a bitter cough. But there was pain in her eyes. More pain than Mary could imagine. Mary had been worrying about burn out for a while now; this was what she feared becoming. There wasn't enough booze or drugs or sex to ever make Siren into a whole person again.

"What's this guy got?" She demanded again.

Mary stayed silent.

"You know one phone call and I'll get ICE here." Siren said. "Or what's left of them. They want you, would have sent the Baggers after you already if you weren’t part of a team. Bet you got some team out in the club now."

"You don't want this kind of trouble Siren." Mary said. "Like you said you got your club and your money, this could take them away."

Siren laughed again.

"I got too much money rolling through the government to worry about that."

"This thing goes beyond that." Mary said hoping that she could trade on Merry’s reputation.

"What is it? Who owned it? What he'd do, steal it?"

"You hear about Mystery Woman?" Mary asked.

That got her attention. Siren nodded seriously.

"It's hers." Mary said. "She doesn't know about it yet, she thinks it was blown up with her world. But she’ll find out it survived sooner or later and she’ll start looking for it. You don't want her coming here Siren."

"I got protection." Siren said lighting another cigarette.

"Against the woman who took out Sidonia and Hellspite?" Mary demanded. "Siren this girl doesn’t care about laws, you hear about the Diamond’s ship? She did that. Come on, you lead a quiet life, let's keep it that way."

Siren studied the end of the cigarette for a moment. Then she looked up.

"I know where you can find him. I can tell you that. But not for free."

"How much?" Mary asked.

"How much you want this?" Siren countered.

"Pretty much." Mary said.

Siren got up and went behind the chair. Mary felt it as she unlocked the handcuffs.

"Tell ya what you do." Siren said. "It's almost closing. You get out there and do your act one more time and I'll tell you where to find this guy."

"Just that?" Mary asked rubbing her wrists.

"Yea, just that." Siren said as Mary stood up. "But I want you out there, not some hologram. You do your act in your own body."

Mary looked at her as the idea sank in.

"Take it or leave it." Siren said smiling. There was a bit of payback in that smile. Mary understood that. Siren was in pain. She wanted to share that pain. Sharing it with another heroine, something that Siren used to be; that was pleasure to her. A twisted pleasure. And she was risking a lot to get that pleasure. Siren was right, she had her club and her money, but she lived half way in the shadows. Too much attention of any kind would be the wrong kind of attention. On the other hand Mary didn't have a lot of options. She thought for a moment and then realized she didn't have any.

"Ok." She said. "One more dance then."

Mary swallowed as the other girl came off of the stage. She stepped out from behind the curtain and did her best to saunter over to the pole. The response was mixed. They stared, they were men after all and she was a woman. But there was a lot less interest. Mary knew that she wasn’t the stunning beauty that Moon Girl was, but this brought it home in a very humbling way. Mary straddled the bar as before, pressing it against her sex and bending back. It was the same move but it didn't get the same yells or cat calls as before. She didn't feel the lust as she had before. There were some jeers instead.

"Hey old woman get off the stage!" Someone yelled.

Mary ignored him and twirled around the pole, showing her ass to the crowd. Then she danced across to her own section of the stage. The same men watched her as she started to dance around the pole. But as much lust as she was feeling from them Mary wasn't feeling it herself. There was no need to fight it down now. This wasn't turning her on a bit.

Then suddenly it was. Mary felt the lust of the crowd, more specifically of one person in the crowd. Someone in the audience wanted her. They wanted her body and they wanted it bad enough to push their way through her mental defenses. Mary kept on dancing, trying to stop the tide of lust that threatened to engulf her, trying to focus on who it was that was so turned on by her humiliation. But who ever it was seemed to be invisible. She scanned the crowd again and again as she wrapped herself around the pole and shrugged her breasts out of her top before letting the top settle down again. Mary bent forward and backward and whipped her pale white hair wildly around her head as her emotional barriers caved. When she at last did the hand stand there were some cheers, but not the reaction that she'd gotten as a Moon Girl look-a-like.

Embarrassed, more than a little ashamed and still turned on Mary stumbled off of the stage and into the back. She came face to face with Siren and there was a sick smile on the woman's face. Mary knew suddenly that Siren had been the source of the lust. Before she could react Siren had pulled her into a dressing room and two men were holding her down. They tore off the rest of her costume and Mary was still too dazed to put up a fight.

"Private dance just for me." Siren said pulling up her skirt. She had a strap-on vibrator between her legs. Shaped like a man's penis it hummed and before Mary could do anything Siren had it between her legs. She thrust it into Mary's sex and the men fondled and squeezed her breasts. Mary screamed out her defenseless, frustrated passion. One of the men took advantage of her open mouth to stuff his cock into it. Mary reacted on instinct and began to suck it. He held her head firmly and twisted it so that Mary could get more him into her. The other man was kneading her breasts. Siren was thrusting away and snarling at the same time. Under the combined assault it only took a few minutes for Mary to climax. Just before she did so the man pulled out of her and came in her face. The sticky warm liquid got into her eyes and hair and he made sure some of it got onto her chest. Siren pulled out of her.

"Turn her over." She said.

The men rolled Mary onto her stomach and she felt the pain as Siren took her from behind. Mary cried out and in the back of her mind she wondered where the hell her back up was. She hadn't been able to touch the collar but Gadget Gal should have seen the spike in her vital signs.

Siren thrust into her and Mary cried out in pain. The former heroine pulled out of her and pushed Mary to the floor. Mary cried out again as Siren started to whip her ass with something. After a few minutes she stopped.

Mary lay on the floor panting and gasping in pain.

"Get her up." Siren ordered.

One of the men grabbed her wrists and the other her ankles and Mary was lifted off of the floor and held suspended between them. Siren let her get a good look at a large board and then she started to spank her. It went on until Mary's ass was throbbing. Mary shouted out her pain, there was no sense in trying to hide it.

"My arms tired." Siren said after a while. "Let's get her out of here."

The man holding Mary's wrist let go and she fell to the floor. The other man hadn't let go of her ankles and Mary landed chest first onto the hardwood. Then they each took and ankle and dragged her out of the room and into the hallway.

"The guy you want is a vamp now." Siren said as the men dragged Mary over the rough carpet. "Go to the Fremont Troll and he'll let you into the Fremont Underground. Better have something good for the Mechanical Vampire, that's his turf."

They had reached the door and the men picked Mary up and slammed her against it. They held her up as Siren slammed her fists into Mary's stomach a few times. Then she held up a check.

"Here's your pay." Siren said and stuffed the paper into Mary’s wet pussy. "That’s your check for the week. Don't spend it all in one place." Siren said pressing the paper in deep and twisting it. "Next time you talk to me before you sneak into my place. Some courtesy would have been nice."

The men tossed Mary into the alley and slammed the door behind her. Mary hit hard against a dumpster and cried out in pain. She sank into a pile of garbage bags and struggled to recover.

"Loose woman you dare flaunt you nudity in public?"

Mary looked up and saw a homeless man sitting near the dumpster. He was wearing the remains of a frock coat, black pants and white shirt and bowler hat and was reading a copy of the Real Change News. The man looked gaunt and yet somehow sturdy. Somehow even elegant.

"Sorry." Mary said struggling to get to her feet. She made it too her knees. "Not my choice."

"Well I suppose since you are here I will indulge your womanly urges." The man said. "You are not the first to come to me thusly and will no doubt not be the last. Never let it be said that Chester Arthur Hilton left a lady in distress or desire. But you should wash before we engage in the passionate ways that are the characteristic of man and woman. And this is no place to indulge in such saturnalia. I know of a place far better suited to our passion. In the parking lot of the Cherry Street Coffee house there is an enchanted tree in which lives a fairy sorceress who will for a price shrink us and allow us entry into her boudoir. She enjoys my company and I'm sure will enjoy yours. It is a perfect place for such bacchanalia if you do not mind being shrunk."

"Thanks anyway." Mary said. She wasn't sure of all of the words he used but she got the gist of what he was offering.

Yea, this is the capper to my night, Mary thought.

"She offers both room and bath." Chester said. "And I am always welcome there."

"Yea, thanks. But I got some friends coming and I have to be someplace soon."

"You mean you have friends who will be here soon." Chester corrected her. "Use proper English at least."

The man stood up and held out his hand. Mary sighed and took it. Help was where you found it. She got to her feet and steadied herself against the dumpster.

"You are a mess young woman." Chester said swiping at the garbage that clung to her with his newspaper.

"Yea well you get thrown out of a door into an alley and that happens." Mary said stopping him as he swiped at her breasts.

"Allow me." He said taking off his coat and hanging it over her shoulders.

"Thanks." Mary said. It may have been dirty but at least it was covering.

"You may return that to me when next we meet." Chester said. "I think I see your friends approaching."

Mary looked down the alley and saw Esmerelda and Savage running toward them. But when she looked back Chester was gone.

"Oh yea, this is what I needed tonight." Mary said. "A mysterious benefactor." She touched her collar. "Gadget Gal where the hell are you?"

Nearly naked and shivering in the cool night air Mary steadied herself. She was cut, scraped and sore in a dozen places, her butte was throbbing and there was garbage covering her body. Her breasts bore scratches from the rough carpeting. But what really bothered her was the fact that she had climaxed. Twice.

"Great, first time I really came in years." Mary sighed. She had really climaxed. And for a moment it had felt good. It had felt great. Better than great really, she'd tasted nirvana the second time. Mary tried to shake off the feelings but they lingered. Had she really gone this far out? Was masturbation and supervillain rape the only way she could satisfy herself? Or was it the smoke in the club and the lust of the men and women in it? For a moment she'd even been tempted by Chester.

Mary stood up and pulled the check out of her body. The stray and slightly absurd thought came to her that she’d have to dry it before she cashed it. She started to brush stray bits of garbage off of her nude body. After this was over she was going to take a vacation to some place. Some place where there were willing gentle women. Mary started to laugh for a moment as she realized that she had just described Dollopolis. She stifled the laugh and forced her mind back under control.

"And for my next trick I get to talk to vampires." She said as Esmerelda and Savage came running down the alley. "What fun." She touched the collar again. "Gadget Gal? Tiny Titania? Come on you two wake the hell up!"

Lizzie watched as Gadget Gal climbed onto the deck of the yacht and collapsed into a sobbing, retching heap. She’d been down there at least an hour. After a few minutes she crawled over to the box and opened it. She cursed loudly as she realized that some of it was missing. Then she took one of the bottles and drank from it. Her cursing eased and she sighed. Lizzie saw all of it but her attention was on Gadget Gal’s back. Beneath her skin a metal framework glowed an angry red. The metal traced her spine and branches were set into her other bones.

"Is she a robot Mistress?" Lizzie asked.

{No.}

{But she has many implants.}
{Gadget Gal indeed.}

{Pity we can’t risk a scan.}

"Gadget Gal where the hell are you?"

Mary’s angry voice snapped Gadget Gal out of her pleasure and she grabbed the box and stumbled into the cabin. She cut off the A.I. before it could respond.

"Right here." She said a little desperately. "What’s wrong?"

"I was just knocked out, made to dance and that bitch raped me!" Mary said. "Why didn’t you tell anyone?"

"I’ve got nothing here but normal readings." Gadget Gal said. Lizzie watched as she worked desperately at the computer. "According to my readings nothing happened."

"Well something sure as hell happened!" Mary snapped. "Bring the ship in, I need a shower and a med check, then we have to get to Freemont before sun up."

"Right." Gadget Gal said. "I’ll meet you at the dock."

Lizzie watched as Gadget Gal signed off and then gathered up her clothing and the box and went bellow. She noticed that the glowing metal frame under her skin had vanished.

{This will be a problem.}

{What should we do about her?}

{For now nothing.}

{But if this persist we shall deal with her.}

Lizzie swallowed. That was Delilah and of all of the Giant’s she was the most dangerous. Gadget Gal didn’t know it but she was on very thin ice.

"Mistress what is the Freemont Underground?" Lizzie asked.

Almost every major city in the United States had some sort of underground city. Seattle had two. The one that all of the tourist knew about and the one that they didn’t really know about. The Freemont Troll was more or less well known. What was less widely known was that under the Aurora bridge was a colony of trolls that served as guardians to the Freemont Undead Underground. The Undead Underground was a colony of vampires, trolls, goblins and witches that had decided to live a quiet life one hundred feet bellow the ground. The king of this community was the Mechanical Vampire. MV-as he was known-was a vampire killed with a stake through the heart and then given a new life with bionic implants. His creator had hoped to conquer the world with a race of such creatures. He’d expected to create a creature with the cunning of a vampire and the computational power of a computer. He had succeeded but MV lacked the one thing that might have made him a danger: Ambition. Being a vampire he was immortal and being a computer MV did the math and concluded that mankind would kill itself off sooner or later. Why go through all of the trouble of conquering the world when you can just wait it out and win by default? Under the control of his creator MV had given it a shot anyway. Goddess of Justice and Force Group J had stopped him but MV had escaped and after a few years had surfaced-if that term could really be used-as head of the UU. Through a careful combination of bribery and public relations he had kept the place intact. Like Siren he cultivated a ‘safe but edgy’ image that appealed to the people. The city governments didn't mind as long as there was no snacking on sewer workers and the local residents were already used to the trolls anyway. The place was on the edge of reality in many ways and everyone in Freemont seemed to be happy with that. They liked each other and didn't like outsiders.

And here we are, Mary thought as they tied the yacht up. She was wearing a loose skirt with no panties and a sweatshirt and had her illusion of mist and rainbows firmly in place. The loose skirt stuck to the salve that Esmerelda had used on her ass but there was no way to avoid that. The shower had helped and the medical check had been clear. That was a relief. Mary always worried about STD's when she was raped in a place like Siren's. But she was clear except for the soreness and humiliation. That she could handle. But Mary was still worried. Gadget Gal had fallen over herself apologizing and promising to find out what was wrong and fix it. But they were about to go into a dangerous place and Mary didn't want surprises. If Gadget Gal's tech couldn't be trusted she'd be a liability. Or it might mean that someone was on to them already and was jamming her stuff. Either way things were getting sticky.

"Esmerelda you go on ahead and see if you can smooth the way for us." Mary said.

"I think they may remember me from some of the times I came with my Mis… with Sidonia." Esmerelda said.

She trotted down StoneWay North and took a left on North 34^th street, changing into a werewolf as she did so.

"Shouldn't we call mom?" Prudence asked. She was wearing her latest Tiny Titania outfit, a short red skirt and a gray sleeveless top with a black half-mask.

"Yea I don't think that MV has good memories of her." Mary said. "Sides if we can wrap this up quick we should. Siren might blab or sell what we're doing here. Esmerelda used to work for Sidonia, I hope she's got some friends around here."

"Trolls are tricky to fight." Savage said. He had changed into his full metal and leather armor. "Short but strong and tenacious."

"Yea, well let’s try talking first if we can." Mary said.

After about twenty minutes Esmerelda trotted back to the boat.

"Sidonia is still remembered and MV says that he'll meet with us." She said.

"Oh happy nights." Mary said. "Any idea what the mood is?"

"Curious." Esmerelda said.

"Better than nothing." Mary said.

They walked along N.34^th street until they came to the Auroa Bridge and then turned left. As they walked Mary could sense the trolls and other creatures of the night watching them. They watched from houses, from rooftops and cellars and cars. The place was truly a borderland. In one house she could sense a human family asleep, in the next a group of trolls and vampires played poker and in the next and old witch talked to the spirits. A troll in a pair of red overalls worked with a spiked-headed demon on a motorcycle. Mary couldn't imagine what Halloween was like in Freemont.

Once under the bridge they walked until they came to the Troll. Mary had seen pictures but they really didn't do the thing justice. Half buried in the ground the troll held a Volkswagon in one hand and one of the eyes on its face was missing or covered over. The other eye was silver and gazed out at the world. It seemed to be climbing out of the ground and the right hand was braced into the dirt. Its body seemed to merge with the dirt and concrete. Its head nearly touched the underside of the bridge and Mary could hear cars moving above them. Not many since it was about three a.m. Around the Troll dozens of trolls danced and drank and sang with humans. No one was sure if the troll was a real troll that had been caught in a trap or a statue created by the town. But through the troll was the Undead Underground. A mystical portal that was as well warded as it could be. When it was active it looked like an infinite stairwell descending into darkness. Mary had never been down there and she didn't want to go now.

The trolls and humans dancing around the statue ignored them openly, but there were many sidelong glances and whispered conversations. They were interrupting a party and Mary sensed that it wasn’t a special occasion party, this was just another night here. Fire sprites moved around the dancers and they kept the place warm and the sweet smelling smoke from their flaming bodies mixed with the other scents. The place put Siren's to shame.

Sitting on the Troll’s right hand was a tall thin man with long black hair. He was wearing a loose cloak and pants. One of his arms was mechanical, the other real and one of his eyes was a red lens and the other was real. His face was long and clean shaven. A metal fabric was partly woven into his chest and a series of mystical tattoos graced his stomach. Floating above him a trio of female vampires sang a low trilling melody, their bodies shifting from mist to solid. Esmerelda led them past the dancers to the man on the hand.

"Hello Ms. Dream." MV said and his voice was a heavily synthesized tone much like an electronic guitar. "I saw your final show at Siren's. Very well done."

"Yea I like to leave with a bang." Mary said. "Did Siren fill you in on why we're here?"

"She mentioned that you were looking for Scrounger." MV said. He looked to his right and a vampire faded into being. This vampire was a ratty looking gaunt man with no hair. One of his ears was missing. He wore a pair of jeans and a blue work shirt. Over that was a leather bikers jacket.

"This is Scrounger, last of the Buffalos." MV said.

Scrounger smiled showing a set of yellowed fangs and turned around. On the back of his jacket was a buffalo head over two crossed swords.

"I find stuff." He said proudly. "What do you want? If I don’t got it I can find it."

"It’s a small box." Mary said. She held up the picture that Lucy had drawn. "Ever seen it?"

Scrounger looked at the drawing and nodded.

"Pulled it out of a car wreck last year." He said. "Never could get the damn thing opened. What’s in it?"

"Just some stuff we need." Mary said.
"You can do better than that." MV said smiling. "Siren dodged the question too. What have we got here Ms. Dream? How valuable is it?"

"Plenty I hope." Scrounger said. "Been a while since I had a really good score."

"Oh the joy of living in a capitalist society." Mary muttered. She let the paper float over to MV.

"Scan the picture." She said. "Recognize the royal crest?"

"Scanning." MV said. "Accessing database. Results negative."

"It’s the royal standard of Simone of Dollopolis." Mary said. "The box belongs to Mystery Woman."

The vampires stopped singing and the name seemed to ripple through the dancers. Suddenly Mary and her group were the center of attention. A few weapons were drawn.

"Mystery Woman." MV said. "So it belongs to her. We’re all very curious about her you know."

"Yea, join the club." Mary said. The flame sprites were flickering nervously.

"Hellspite wandered through here from time to time offering me an alliance." MV said. "So did your former mistress Esmerelda. I told them both that they were fools. Mankind will die by its own hand or collapse under the weight of societies grown soft with moral decay. They were never happy to hear my refusal and there was always a battle. They both fought myself and my personal guard to a stand still. Mystery Woman killed them both, and Hellspite twice I hear. And this box belongs to her?"

"Yea, and we’d like to get it back to her before she comes looking for it." Mary said.

"Is that a threat?" MV asked.

"Nope." Mary said. "But where ever this girl goes trouble follows. You hear about the Diamonds?"

"That was her?" MV said. Mary nodded. "We suspected as much. Well she is effective against her enemies. But if she wants this box I’m sure she won’t mind paying."

"Neither will we." Mary said.

MV was silent for a moment and Mary guessed that the part of his brain that was computerized was working through various scenarios. The atmosphere had gotten very tense around them. Savage was ready to fight and Prudence and Esmerelda were sticking close together. Gadget Gal had her hands in her pockets: for her that was being ready for battle.

We can't have a super battle in a residential neighborhood, Mary thought. Hell we'd have trouble with MV alone.

Look MV" Mary said "I've spent some time with her, she's about as stable as nitro. Right now Dollopolis has about six people in it, it's a fragment of a doomed world, they don't have much. They don't have much to loose. Besides you don't have any way to get in touch with them."

"She'd come looking for us." MV said.

"She might." Mary said. "Do the math, what do you want to deal with, someone you know or someone you don't?"

"Why are you so intent on getting this for her?" MV asked.

"It's part of a bargain." Mary said. "We hope to get her to join us."

"You'd want her?" Someone from the crowd shouted. "That bitch killed my brother!"

Mary looked around but she couldn't identify the person at first.

"What is in the box?" MV asked ignoring the outburst.

"A weapon." Mary said. "Her weapon."

MV nodded.

A shot rang out but before Mary could do anything Gadget Gal's force field appeared around them. The shot hit the field and ricocheted into the bridge. MV moved with an inhuman speed. He rushed into the crowd and grabbed someone. One blow knocked the man senseless and MV dragged him back to the hand.

"My apologies." MV said tossing the man up to the trio of singing vampires. They caught him and floated away, laughing at his weak struggles. "You never met Tom Diamond did you? Seems he bore a grudge."

"People do." Mary said. "All the more reason to get us out of here and not get Mystery Woman's attention."

"Trouble is not something I invite but it is not something I fear." MV said. "And I might have a way to get in touch with Dollopolis. But what can you offer me for this?"

Not a lot damnit, Mary thought. It cost a lot to keep Earth Force running and Lucy wasn't as rich as she had been.

"Well you don't need money." Mary said. "What do you need?"

"We do need money at times." MV said. "But not at the moment. My cash flow is very nice thank you very much. But I think Gadget Gal may have something we could use."

"Me?" Gadget Gal asked. "Like what?"

"Bliss." MV said. "And the extractor."

"What?" Mary asked.

"Whiptail was here earlier tonight." MV said. "He talks when he drinks."

"What is he talking about?" Mary demanded.

"I don't know." Gadget Gal said backing up a step.

"This night she met with Whiptail on your yacht." MV said. Gadget Gal turned white as his mechanical voice filled the air. "She paid him money and even gave him her body to use. In return Whiptail supplied her with a chest that contained five bottles of Sea Bliss and the extractor that she could use to make more."

Gadget Gal stopped moving and hung her head.

"So that's why you didn't know I was in trouble." Mary said. She was trying to keep the anger from her voice but failed. "Why?"

"I need it." Gadget Gal said looking up at her with a pleading look on her face. "I need it for the pain."

"You're hooked." Savage said.

"No, I'm not hooked I need it!" Gadget Gal insisted. "I got tech inside my body and it hurts. Bliss is the only way I don't go crazy from the pain."

"Now tell me another one." Mary mocked her. "You've been in prison the past few years. How the hell did you get it in there?"

"I worked for it!" Gadget Gal snarled. "Every gadget, every gun and every guard! I worked and I worked and they got me what I needed to keep on working!"

Mary thought back over the past few months. There had been times when Gadget Gal had been edgy, but could she really have hidden her pain that well? Probably. She was an outsider to begin with and everyone else had their own problems.

"As interesting as this is it does not matter to us." MV said. "We now have a price Ms. Dream, can you meet it?"

"Whiptail lied." Gadget Gal said bitterly. "When I opened the chest he gave me there was only four bottles and no extractor."

"How many you need?" Mary said.

"I need them all!" Gadget Gal snarled.

"How many!" Mary demanded.

Gadget Gal stared at her for a few minutes with a face of stone and eyes that seemed to be made of ice. Then she started to crumble. Finally she looked away.

"I need to use at least one a month." She said.

"Let us keep two of the bottles." Mary said to MV.

"NO!" Gadget Gal shouted.

"We'll get you more or we'll find something else." Mary said. "Trust me or walk right now. Walk away from this, from Earth Force. Walk away or stay and trust me. Your choice."

It was harsh and a little mean. More than a little mean. Mary could taste the fear and desperation in Gadget Gal's soul. Mary had gone through a taste of addiction once. After a beating from a supervillain she'd been hospitalized and nearly gotten hooked on morphine. Even now she remembered the sweet taste of the stuff and how hard it had been to turn away from it. And if Gadget Gal was telling the truth she actually needed it. But bliss was illegal. Really illegal. Earth Force couldn't take a scandal right now. She'd help the kid, but right now they needed that box.

"Ok." Gadget Gal said putting her head down in defeat.

"Is that agreeable?" Mary demanded turning to MV.

"Fine." MV said. "So long as Earth Force remembers that we did them a favor this one time."

"We'll remember." Mary said.

They left the yacht at a public dock. Either Lucy or someone else would pick it up and carry it back to Maine when they got a chance. The van ride to their private plane was a quiet one. Prudence had realized that Gadget Gal had drugged her to keep her assignation with Whiptail. She wasn't happy about that. The rest of them were angry with her and try as she might Mary was angry too. She had no way of knowing if they really could find something that could work as well as bliss. Yoran had medical knowledge that went back centuries so that was a hope. But if they couldn't find a substitute what then? Gadget Gal sat in her seat and clutched the chest that contained her drugs.

"Well at least we have the box." Esmerelda said as they got out of the van.

"Not for long." A calm voice said.

The explosion that followed the voice caught them all by surprise. It was not an explosion so much as it was an implosion. For a brief moment all the air around them simply vanished along with the heat and gravity. They were all picked up, thrown together and knocked to the ground.

Mary struggled to pull herself together but a red beam hit her and pain exploded into every inch of her body. It wasn’t only Mary that was hit. The beam expanded into a dome and lightning filled the dome and hit them all. It lasted a few minutes when it was over the only thing that Mary could do was lay on the tarmac and breath. Her body shuddered from the aftereffects of the shot. Every nerve in every part of her was screaming at her brain and the brain couldn’t handle it all.

"Thank you." The voice said again. A medium sized man in a gray flannel business suit bent down and took the box out of Esmerelda’s hand. Behind him Mary could see the sun starting to rise. It made him look ten feet tall. Esmerelda tried to hold on but he easily pulled it out of her grip. The man looked like he had stepped out of the 1950’s, right down to his short cut hair style. Behind him was an odd assortment of creatures. A red skinned female gargoyle with a metal patch over one eye and a mechanical wing smiled at them. She was wearing light chainmail over her chest and hips. Beside her was a short swarthy man wearing a black robe. Yellow flames crackled on his hands. A little apart from them two large gray apes each with eight arms glared at Mary and her friends. The last person was a short man wearing a black pair of coveralls. Mr. Business, Deadly Beautiful, Incinerator, the Next Step Brothers Al and Bal and Mr. Tech. A mercenary supergroup for hire, one of the dozens that had popped up with the crack up of ICE and the dissolution of Force Group J. They called themselves Muscle Inc. There was a slight flash of light and standing between Al and Bal was Teleport-her.

"Your dead!" Gadget Gal managed to shout at Mr. Tech. "I killed you!"

Well that was a fact Mary hadn’t known. She was trying to pull herself together but Mr. Business’s spell had hurt too much, her head was scrambled. Her mind felt as like she was waking up from a hangover. Nothing was processing well. She needed time to recover.

"A shot through the heart doesn’t kill us Letitia." Mr. Tech said. "You should know that." He took a gun out of his pocket and fired at her. But the shot hit the chest on the ground. Bliss oozed out of the shattered containers. "But pain is something else."

Gadget Gal screamed and tried to stand but failed.

"Teleport-her is this it?" Mr. Business asked showing her the box.

"That’s it." Teleport-her said. "I saw them make the exchange."

"Then we can..."

Now it was Muscle Inc’s turn to be surprised. Green/white beams hit Mr. Business in the chest and threw him back. More beams hit Al and Bal and small red explosive bursts hit Deadly Beautiful and the Incinerator. Teleport-her screamed as the two small klingon fighters appeared and flew around the supergroup firing wildly at them.

Mary didn’t stop to think of how long the two ships had been following them. With Mr. Business stunned she struggled mightily to shake off the effects of his spell. Telekinetically Mary grabbed the box and pulled it out of his hand. Esmerelda in her wolf form tackled Deadly Beauty, Savage attacked Al while a twenty foot tall Prudence threw Bal away. Gadget Gal and Mr. Tech grappled with each other and sparks flew out of their suits as the electronics each of them wore struggled as they struggled. The looks on their faces was one of mutual hatred.

That left Mr. Incinerator and Teleport-her. She was down on the ground stunned. Or pretending to be stunned. The terror had paralyzed her mind. Terror that one of those ships might hold Mystery Woman. Mary paused, taking a few valuable seconds to look into her mind. Teleport-her was too terrified to even notice. That was all she had time for before Mr. Business recovered and Mary found herself under attack. A sick black smoke erupted out of the ground around her.

Mary leapt clear and one of the klingon fighters started to attack him again. At the same time Mary saw that Incinerator was in a pitched battle with the other one. Suddenly Mary was hit from behind by Savage as Al tossed him into her. Savage was stunned but Mary still had enough strength to hit Al with a mental bolt. The pain appeared in his mind and the ape staggered.

They were in trouble Mary realized. Incinerator had managed to take the wing off of the klingon fighter that he was facing and it flew off and skidded into a crash on the tarmac. Prudence was loosing her battle with Bal and Esmerelda was barely holding Deadly Beauty at bay. Mr. Business had the box and his shield was holding against the other fighters weapons. Mary was clouding their minds but Mr. Business was a warlock, he’d throw that off sooner or later. Suddenly Prudence went down as Bal smashed her knee. The ape whirled and started to join his brother’s attack against Savage.

Mary concentrated and then shouted; "Merry Teleport-her’s here!"

Teleport-her’s scream of pure panic cut through everyone and they turned to see Merry heading toward them and behind her were the ships Dagger and Deathflame.

"We got it!" Mr. Business shouted. "Everyone out of here!"

He let loose one more bolt of force that sliced through the last klingon fighter and then touched a band on his wrist. Out of the corner of her eye Mary saw the others do the same. Suddenly it was all over. Mary let her illusion of Merry and the ships fade. Then she stood up and took stock. Gadget Gal was down with a knife in her shoulder but she was the only one seriously hurt. Prudence was back to her normal size and up to one knee.

A small explosion sounded and Mary looked over to see the remains of the klingon fighter explode. The one that was already down exploded as well. Mary saw two small figures crawling toward each other and ran to them. They had reached each other and collapsed by the time she reached them. She recognized Lizzie and Jessie.

"Pru you ok?" Mary called.

"Yea." Prudence said. She and Esmerelda were helping Gadget Gal.

"How’s Gadget?" Mary called.

"She’ll be fine." Esmerelda said.

Mary looked over and saw that a greenish ooze had mixed with the blood on Gadget Gal’s clothing.

"Savage?" Mary asked.

"Fine." He said coming over to her. "You know these two?"

"Lizzie and Jessie." Mary said. "I wonder how long they’ve been following us."

"Seems as if everyone knew about this mission." Savage said.

"Yea, probably read about it in Secret Mission’s magazine." Mary said. "Pru come here will ya?"

Prudence hobbled over to them.

"Shrink down and see how bad they are." Mary said.

"Right." Prudence said. She shrank and bent over the two girls. Mary was sure that they weren’t seriously hurt but she wasn’t going to take any chances.

"I think Jessie’s got a broken arm." Prudence said. "And Lizzie’s got a broken leg."

"Wait sec I’ll get you something to make a splint." Mary said standing up. She went over to where Esmerelda was tending to Gadget Gal. Gadget Gal had fainted and Esmerelda had pulled of her shirt and was holding it against the wound.

"How bad?" Mary asked.

"She’s lost blood and that other substance." Esmerelda said. "But she’ll be alright."
"I’ll get the med kit from the plane." Mary said heading toward it. "Let's get everyone on board as soon as we can. We need to get back to Maine."

"There are hospitals here." Esmerelda protested.

"We need Yoran." Mary called back. "And I don't want to chance putting Lizzie and Jessie in a normal hospital. We need Merry and Simone to come to us."

"Why?" Esmerelda demanded.

"Because if they don’t come to us they'll go to the people who were paying Muscle Inc." Mary said. "No way in hell we can chance that."

She ducked into the plane and grabbed the med kit.

"Not with what I know now." Mary said to herself.

"How are they?" Lucy asked.

They stood by the door to the infirmary. The infirmary was a large room in Rothschild Mansion. It featured a bay window with an incredible ocean view. Once Mary had told Lucy all that she had learned from reading Teleport-her’s mind Lucy had made the decisions that Mary had guessed she would. Lizzie’s and Jessie’s bones were already mending by the time Yoran got to them. Once he treated them as much as he was able to he had put them into the infirmary. Gadget Gal was in the room as well. Her wound didn’t seem that bad at first but it had worsened. Mary could feel her pain and it was getting worse. She hadn’t woken up since the attack.

"They’ll be fine." Yoran said. "I had the same problem with them that I had with Merry. Any sort of sophisticated medical scan is blocked. But they weren’t seriously hurt. I had to draw the curtains for Lizzie however. She’s a bit agoraphobic. They keep asking if they can use Prudence’s ship to call Dollopolis.

"I’m sure Simone and Merry are on their way here now." Lucy said.

"I should warn you Lucy they don’t want to talk to you." Yoran said. "They still hold that grudge."

"I know." Lucy said. She took a breath. "And I’ll have to work with that. We have to know."

"Good luck." He said.

There were eight beds in the infirmary. All but two of them were empty. On the first one Gadget Gal lay under a sheet and trembled in a troubled sleep. Mary felt fear and pain as soon as they walked into the room. Even asleep Gadget Gal was in pain. Yoran was trying other drugs but he was beginning to think that they might need bliss. He was doing more test to figure out what was truly wrong with her.

The fear and resentment rose sharply as Jessie and Lizzie saw Lucy. The sun was shining around the edges of the closed curtains giving the room a pleasant glow. Later on Mary hoped it would be warm enough to open the windows. She hated the smell of medicine that lingered in the room. The girls were sitting up in bed watching a tv. On the screen one giant robot battled another. Lizzie and Jessie were twins and cute. Slim with black hair they were wearing red Star Trek uniform tunics and miniskirts. Lizzie's leg and Jessie's arm were bandaged. They were laying next to each other against the pillow. Mary thought that they looked for all the world like two dolls that had been left out.

"Good afternoon girls." Lucy said pleasantly.

Both of them ignored her and kept watching the tv.

"Sorry girls but you have to talk to me." Lucy said shutting it off.

"Why?" Lizzie demanded. "Are we prisoners?"

"Or pets?" Jessie added.

"You are neither." Lucy said. She pulled over a chair and sat at the foot of the bed. "You are recovering guests."

"We don’t have to talk to you then." Jessie said.

"What about me?" Mary asked.

"We don’t gotta talk to you either." Lizzie said.

"It would be helpful though." Lucy said. "If you want to help Simone and Merry."

"Yea right." Jessie said. "Like you really care."

"I do care." Lucy insisted. "Girls I’ve always cared."

Both girls just looked away from her.

"Girls you are here, in comfort and we’ve tended your wounds." Lucy said. She leaned over and folded her arms on the bed fame and then rested her chin on it.

"Yea, so you can ask us more questions." Jessie said. "Just like last time when you pretended to like our music so that we’d talk."

"We weren’t that good but we were trying." Lizzie added.

"I’ll admit that I did need you to talk then." Lucy said. "But it wasn’t a selfish motivation. I needed to know how to work with the laws of Dollopolis and the only way to do that was to actually know some of the structure of those laws. I didn’t know that Simone would punish you just for talking to me. I’m sorry about that."

"Just like a cop." Lizzie said folding her arms in front of her chest. She made the word a curse.

"Yea, always sorry when you want something." Jessie said copying her sisters movement.

The resentment was deep and hard. Mary had seen it many times from street kids. They were the ones who viewed the law as just another bully.

"So what could I want now?" Lucy asked.

"We’re not telling you where Dollopolis is." Lizzie said fiercely. Mary felt a spike of fear at her words.

"I don’t need to know that." Lucy said. "But I am curious about how you showed up in Seattle. We’re you following Mary?"

Jessie and Lizzie looked at each other and shrugged.

"Yea. We followed your jet and then we followed them around." Jessie said.

"By the way you dance real good." Lizzie said to Mary.

"Thanks." Mary said blushing.

"That hand stand where your bottom fell off was a great bit." Jessie said.

"We could never do that when we stripped." Lizzie said.

"When did you guys strip?" Mary asked.

"Before Dollopolis." Lizzie said. "I think we were about twelve."

"Dad needed the money so we did it for a private club." Jessie said. "He fixed us up so we looked old but we didn’t get a lot of money cause we didn’t have boobs like you, but some of the guys liked us better that way anyway."

"So Simone didn’t know that the scythe was in Seattle?" Lucy asked. Outwardly she didn't show it but Mary knew that she was outraged at what they girls had just said.

"Nope." Jessie shook her head.

"She’s got no way to find it like the other stuff." Lizzie said.

As soon as she said the words Lizzie’s face went white.

"You bitch!" She cursed. "That’s what you wanted to know!"

"What?" Jessie said.

"Yea, that’s why they’re being so nice!" Lizzie looked at Mary and Lucy. "You’re trying to get stuff out of us again!"

"Yes I am." Lucy said. "But I’m not being selfish girls, I’m trying to help."

"Yea right." Lizzie said. "Just like last time when you got us in trouble."

"Try to understand." Lucy said. "Lady Highfield’s daughters lives were at stake. I didn’t mean for you to get punished."

"Besides how bad was it?" Mary asked. "You went from Knights to Knightlings, what was that about?"

"They were mad at us!" Lizzie shouted. "Just like when we first got there!"

"We tried to kill Merry." Jessie said. "So Simone took us and shrunk us and said we were slaves."

"It was hard at first." Lizzie said. "But we worked and helped out and after a while we got our own house. A house of our own!"

"And we got everything we wanted or needed as long as we worked." Jessie said. "And Simone taught us stuff and..."

"She was nice to us." Lizzie said. "Then one day she gave us a choice, said that our punishment for killing Merry was over and that we could go or stay as citizens. We stayed and then we became Knightlings and then knights and she was never mad at us again until you showed up!"

"Then after we talked to you we had to go back to being Knightlings!" Jessie said. "And then you almost got Merry and Simone killed!"

"And you almost got us killed too!" Lizzie said.
"Are they still mad at you?" Mary asked.

"No." Lizzie said after a look at her sister. "But we still aren’t knights anymore."

"We could have been knights if we got that box back." Jessie said.

"Now that you’ve got what you wanted we’ll probably go back to being citizens." Lizzie said miserably.

"Perhaps not." Lucy said. "I’ll talk to Simone."

"She’s as smart as you are." Jessie said. "She won’t be fooled."

"I wouldn’t even try." Lucy said. She stood up and turned on the tv again. "Would you like some ice cream girls?"

"Yea…" Jessie started to speak but Lizzie interrupted her.

"No it’ll be drugged." Lizzie said.

"Prudence and Esmerelda will bring it to you in the carton and have some as well." Lucy said. "How’s that?"

"Ok I guess." Lizzie said.

"Chocolate." Jessie said. "If you got it."

"We have some." Lucy said.

"Well you were right." Mary said. "We’ve got a break, Simone can’t go to ICE and they don’t have anyway of contacting her. That’ll give us some time."

"Enough I hope." Lucy said. "But you were right as well, those children in there see me as Merry sees me. I hadn't realized how much they blamed me."

"Not used to being the bad guy are you." Mary chided her gently.

"No and I will not let those feelings continue." Lucy said.

"Don’t take it to hard Lucy. You heard them, Simone and Merry are the first good people they’ve met. And I get the feeling that Simone did some manipulation there."

"Yes I know." Lucy said. "But no more than I have done at times. And they are happy with her, far happier I’m sure than they ever were with their father."

"Yea, so you can work with that." Mary said. She put her arm around her friend. "They’ll get over it."

"I know." Lucy said. "But…"

Her com unit buzzed and Lucy answered it.

"Yes Carl?"

"Thunderbird 2 just showed up at the cliffs outside the hanger Ma’am." Carl said. "Simone’s asking to come in."

"Is she alone?" Mary asked.

"She says she is."

"Let her in." Lucy said. "Ask her to fly the ship around the house and into the conference room."

"We’re making progress." Mary said. "She didn’t sneak in."

{This probably won’t work.}

{You know that don’t you?}

"Yes." Simone said. "But I don’t think it will do any harm and I have to try."

{We agree.}

{We’ve increased your mental shielding so that Ms. Dream will have a difficult time reading your emotions.}

{So long as you keep them as real as possible.}

{But you have grown very used to the Duchess persona. We are not worried.}

You’re never worried, Simone thought as she guided the ship toward the open window. Lucy Rothschild's mansion was about the same size as Simone’s. The difference being that Simon’s mansion was built along semi-gothic lines while Lucy’s was done in a colonial style. She also had an ocean view, one of the best Simone had ever seen.

I have to do this, or something, Simone thought as she landed the ship onto the conference table. Mary and Lucy were standing near the door. They were good people. Merry thought of them as the best of people. The thought of living with them, fighting beside them day after day and still having to lie to them had drive Merry into Simone’s bed for the past week. Into her bed in tears until she fell asleep. And every night the nightmares had become harsher and move violent. Even the Group was concerned.

"So here I am." Simone said to herself as the cargo pod separated from the rest of Thunderbird 2. "About to try and thwart the will of the Goddess? I pray not. But I have to try and give Merry some more distance from these people. I won't have my lover driven insane."

"Good afternoon Mrs. Rothschild." Simone said as she walked down the ramp. She had dressed for the occasion in a blue gown and half mask. It was understated but still regal. Lucy was wearing a fashionable white and blue blouse and sweater vest with a cream colored skirt. Beside her Mary wore a T-Shirt and jeans. "Hello Ms. Dream."

"Hello." Lucy said.

"Hi." Mary echoed.

"Before you ask Simone Lizzie and Jessie are in the infirmary." Lucy said. "They aren’t prisoners."

"I did not think that they were." Simone said looking around the room. The table was enormous, almost the size of a tennis court. Beneath her slippers Simone could feel the smooth wooden grain under a heavy coating of wax. The smell of Pledge was faint but there. The place was well lit but far clearer than when she had seen in through the holographic transmission. But Simone wasn't ready for the size. She felt as if she were an actress on a stage.

"But I did not come merely for them." Simone said bringing her mind back to them. "I wished to talk to you and once their ships were destroyed I realized this might be the best time. To be plain about it Mrs. Rothschild the thought of Merry joining your group terrifies me."

"There are risks for us all Simone." Mary said. "She’s in danger all the time anyway."

"That is not what I mean." Simone said.

Lucy and Mary sat down and Simone started to pace. She looked around as she did so and the size of the room continued to bother her. Simone had wandered through her own mansion while shrunk, but that had been a novel experience. Seeing everything she had seen from childhood in a completely new way. This was vaguely frightening. It was suddenly easy to understand why Lizzie had a bit of agoraphobia.

"Merry’s nightmares have increased." Simone said. "Worse than in years. Somehow she knows that the scythe is on Earth. She’s looking for it, I know that even though she won’t speak to me about it. Merry never keeps secrets from me."

"I’m sure it is the repaired scythe." Lucy said.

Simone had reached the end of the table and looked down. It was only four feet but it was a height never the less and the hardwood floor didn’t look safe to land on. She turned around quickly and walked back to them.

"I hope it is. But I’m worried Mrs. Rothschild that you don’t realize what you are getting yourself into. You live by a very strange set of laws. Laws that may be a bit similar to ours in form but not in concept. It has taken me the better part of two hundred of your years to get Merry to live by our laws. I’m not sure she can adapt to living under yours."

"I can understand your concern." Lucy said. "But I think Merry can adapt. But I have to admit it is hard to know when all I have to go on are educated guesses and a few fragmented stories."

This woman’s middle name is persistence, Simone thought. The Group had guessed as much which was why she and Merry had spent hours hammering out a background story. And Simone had spent the time traveling to Rothschild mansion making it more extreme. Simone hoped that maybe she could get Lucy to change her mind if Lucy thought that Merry was too unpredictable. And now was the time to really push Merry's savage image. Simone hoped that Merry would understand. She'd decided secretly to paint a far darker picture of Merry than ever before. She didn't want the woman she loved playing the kind of dangerous superhero games that Lucy Rothschild did.

Simone let out a tired sigh and put on an air of aggrieved patience.

"I am not in the mood for this game Mrs. Rothschild. You wish to know about Merry, myself and my world. You already know more than anyone else does on this world. Perhaps that is for the best. Very well. But you know how Merry and I found each other, I don’t see what use going over that again will be. However ask you questions; ask them now and openly and if I feel you will not use the answers against me I shall answer you."

If Lucy was caught of guard by the directness she didn’t show it. Instead Simone had the feeling that Lucy had been preparing for this all along. The woman was brilliant, Simone reminded herself. She might have even planned part of it.

"I'd like to hear it from you." Lucy said. "What was your life like before Merry? And how wild was she when you first met?"

"I led a very dry life before I met her." Simone said with a little sadness in her voice. As her uncle had told Simone when he was teaching her how to lie: make it feel true to yourself and they’ll believe it. All great liars are storytellers after all and all great storytellers draw from their own life. Simone was ready to mix her reality and the fiction of Dollopolis into one narrative pattern. She hoped.

"I played the political games of my world and that was that. I would like to say that I was someone special but that would be a lie. I was the elder daughter of a small kingdom in the middle of nowhere. I was much like everyone else of my class. Vain, selfish; indifferent to the suffering and problems of my world. I" Simone stressed the personal identifier "was the only important thing on my world. Myself and my power and second to that was my kingdom. Somewhere far down on that list was the welfare of my people. Then I was struck sick, my brother locked me into my room to die and I was forced to look long and hard at my life and my world. I had a year in that room with only my thoughts and view of the kingdom I had once ruled to keep me company. I saw my brother rule as I had ruled. I learned shame, not a common feeling for my people. I was near death when Merry crawled into my room through a crack in the wall and gave me the cure. Then she helped me escape and even let herself be captured so that I could do so."

"She didn’t love you then?" Lucy asked.

"Far from it. I was a noble; she hated us as a breed. I saw the purest hate and anger in her eyes as she stood over my brother’s corpse. She killed him by shrinking down, climbing down his throat and into his stomach and growing to her full size.

That got them squirming. Simone pressed on.

"That is when I truly realized who she was." Simone said. "Before then I had thought that she was simply an agent of another family. I did have a few friends after all. But when I gathered my men and came back to my castle I found her standing over my brother's corpse. I had come to arrest my brother. For Merry that would not have been good enough. She stood there, naked, covered in blood and held one of his ribs as a weapon. She charged at me swearing to feast on my heart."

"But she didn't reach you." Mary said.

"No." Simone said. "She charged me but the Four Great Powers appeared and gave me control over her size and then bid me to keep her. I was stunned. Here were two legends suddenly appearing in front of me, and I had their favor. At least I had the favor of the Powers. I didn’t understand until much later that they had already chosen myself and my kingdom to become Dollopolis. At the time they bid me to keep her they gave me some limited control over my size. They never gave a reason and I never asked."

"And Merry?" Mary asked.

"Bloody Merry was a legend on my world and she chilled me. But I had been ordered to keep her while the Powers concerned themselves with other matters. As scared as I was of Merry I was far more scared of them. In that first year I had as little to do with her as I could get away with."

"How did she end up leading your men?" Lucy asked.

"It was a year after she was given to me." Simone said. "I had never allowed her to grow back to full size, keeping her small was dangerous enough. In the first year I awoke three times to find Merry standing on my chest ready to drive a nail into my eye. Even at her size she could kill a man. Guarding her became a punishment duty for my men, a duty much feared."

Simone paused to let the image settle in for them. Then went on.

"As I said my brother ruled my kingdom, but he was very bad at it. His economic and agricultural policies were terrible and very hard to correct. My crops failed two years in a row. My funds started to run low. My brother had used mercenaries in his time and I made the mistake of keeping them on. Many of them turned to spying on me when I couldn't pay them. A sickness ran through my people. I was weak and known to be weak. The family of my neighboring kingdom attacked. My army was being pushed back and I had nothing left to lose. I made a deal with Merry. A pledge of loyalty if she'd fight for me." Simone paused. "I had no idea what I was unleashing."

"She won for you?"

"She took what was left of my army and led it into the field." Simone said. "Outnumbered three to one and yet she decimated the other army by a clever maneuver. But that was only the start. Once my enemies were routed Merry pursued them. She was two days gone before I even thought to try and stop her. I had too much to do putting my kingdom in order. But soon reports came to me. Disturbing ones. Peasants she let go if they surrendered. Any officer of noble blood she tortured to death. No exceptions, no mercy. When she caught the general she tore the heart of his chest and ate it before his eyes while he died. When I received that report I realized that I had to stop her. There were too many family connections in the armed services and Merry was inviting retribution on a grand scale. By the Law of War the nobility could not be tortured and they could not be killed once they surrendered. Traditionally peasants were the ones who were tortured. But she was too far ahead of me to stop her quickly. When she took the castle of my enemy she tore the arm out of his socket and beat him and his wife to death with it. Then she ordered that stakes should be prepared so that she could impale alive the rest of the family. When I got to the castle Merry was preparing to impale them all. Only the strength of her oath and my power over her size stopped her."

Simone paused again. So far their reactions where what she had expected. They were both repulsed by Merry’s fictional behavior. Good.

"That night I awoke to find Merry with a knife at my throat. I had let her stay at her normal size and left her in nominal command. I thought that she had mellowed somewhat or at least become too tired from all the fighting to try anything. My misjudgment nearly killed me. I shrank her before she could do more than cut me, but in the instant before I did I looked into her eyes. I saw anger; rage nearly beyond measure. But something else as well. I held her securely in my hand and tried to figure out what it was. While I was doing that she tried to bite my finger off."

"Merry has strong teeth." Lucy said.

"Yes she does." Simone said. "It took a blow to the head to get her to stop biting me and she had drawn blood. Then I did something that I hadn't done before; I turned her over my knee and spanked her."

"You spanked her?" Mary asked. "That's it?"

"Ms. Dream I spanked her until sun up." Simone said. "And even after I set her down so that I could find a string to tie her up with she charged at me again and this time bit my toe. It took two of my guards to get her to let go and I have the scar to this day."

"That doesn't sound like a promising start." Mary said.

"But it was." Simone said. "You see after I calmed down a bit and made sure that Merry had not coated her teeth with poison I recalled that look in her eyes. That puzzling look. I studied her campaign. Up until then I had thought of Merry only as a maniac. A butcher. But then I saw the pattern of her campaign. I saw that she had burned some places to the ground while leaving others un-touched. Some peasants she had helped with money and medicine. The common denominator for what she destroyed was whether it belonged to a noble house. If it bore the mark of a noble house Merry would destroy it. I began to wonder what could make someone hate so. You have to understand that even then I hadn't realized what my class was. I'm sure you've read Dickens? A Tale of Two Cities?"

"Lucy reads, I see the movie." Mary said.

"Well we were very close to the French nobility before the revolution. Actually we were far worse. But until I realized what drove Merry's rage I had never thought about it. Never questioned that other lives were put there for my use or amusement. Oh I had an inkling of it while I was imprisoned, but I had never put it all together. My brother you see had treated the peasants as I did, it was the lesser nobility that he had truly miss-treated and that was what had driven my feelings. But when I realized what Merry had done I realized why she had done it. I looked at my world and our way of life completely differently."

"Must have been hard to handle." Lucy said.

"The complete shattering of my world view?" Simone laughed. "I was drunk for two days. But after that I decided that there might be more to Merry than a homicidal maniac. I had a special cage built for Merry and had it hung in my chambers and had her carried around with me during the day."

"She must have loved that." Mary said.

"There are many forms of profanity in my world and Merry knows them all." Simone said. "And do you have any idea how hard it is to gag her? It took three people. Three! There she was twelve inches tall and she squirmed and fought back with every muscle in her little body. I had a servant loose a finger. And then once we got them on she took to biting the gags apart and eating them no matter what material I used. Eventually I gave up and took another tack. The more she cursed the more I spanked and after a while she kept her curses to a low voice, but still cursed."

"What did your people think?" Lucy asked.

"I just told them it was the order of the Four Great Powers." Simone said. "If you think Merry scared people on my world it was nothing to what the Powers did."

"It went on like this until something that truly astonished me happened. It was when I was resolving a land dispute between two peasants. I was trying to understand them, to understand the world that I had ignored for so long." Simone paused. "I wasn't doing very well. The very idea that they had lives and problems that were important… It was just so alien to me. But I listened to their arguments and was about to pass judgement when Merry spoke up. She knew the law." Simone paused. "She knew it better than I did. You can't imagine my shock at that. A tiny naked woman in a cage, her arms bound behind her and her ankles chained to the floor of the cage; helpless by any normal standard, stood up and talked for an hour upon the legal merits of a case using precedents that I have never heard of! You could have heard a pin drop in my palace."

Something was wrong. Simone wasn't sure but something was wrong. She ploughed on anyway.

"Well after that I found myself arguing law with her constantly. I allowed her to become the advocate for the peasants. Can you imagine that? Tiny, nude, in cage and with her arms bound behind her most of the time and yet she could still argue legal rings around some of my best lawyers. It didn’t take long for my public hearings to become spectacles."

"Did that help?" Lucy asked. "Knowing Merry I can't believe that she enjoyed being the center of that sort of attention."

"As long as she could defeat my lawyers-all of whom were nobly born-Merry didn't seem to mind." Simone said. "So long as they were in some sort of discomfort she was pleased."

"I can see it." Mary said. "There she is, supposedly tiny and helpless and she's dealing out pain. Yea, I can see Merry enjoying that."

"I would always talk to her at night after the hearings." Simone said. "And those conversations led to others. She opened up to me. I learned what had created her, what had created Bloody Merry. I saw brief moments of her without rage."

"So you kept her talking." Lucy said.

"As much as I could." Simone said. "Even so I found it too dangerous to give her much freedom. She often escaped anyway, that woman can make a lock pick out of almost anything. And once she was out I was her primary target. She was determined to kill me."

"How long did that last?" Mary asked.

"Years and years." Simone said. "It was a battle really. A contest between my spanking her and her trying to find ways to kill me. I gained a great advantage one night when I realized that spanking Merry was only making use of one part of her. I turned her over and began to stroke between her legs. The poor girl was shocked. She could take pain; she could take more pain than I could ever dish out. But pleasure? That was another matter entirely. It confused and puzzled her and that was tripled when I found that she could be tickled."

Simone knew that something was wrong, but she couldn't figure it out. This wasn't having the effect she wanted. Why weren't her words scaring them? From the looks of Ms. Dream she was turning her on!

"I gradually wore her down." Simone said. "And there were more attacks. I found that if I let Merry lead the army she would be calmer afterwards. And with her in charge of my army it developed a reputation for blood lust that few wanted to challenge."

"That's gotta be the weirdest story I've ever heard." Mary said. "How long did it take before she stopped trying to kill you?"

"Fifteen years." Simone said. "Just a year after the plague struck." Simone sighed. "Women were dying in uncounted numbers, even Merry was sickened by it. The Four Great Powers helped me create Dollopolis as a haven and I named Merry First Knight."

"Must have been one hell of a knighting ceremony." Mary said.

"This explains quite a bit." Lucy said. "About both of you."

"I haven't told you the darkest part." Simone said. She was struggling to get control of her story again and wondering how it had ever gotten out of her control in the first place. "It was during the plague years that I truly saw the best of Merry. She went out into my world and saved women and nearly died doing it. No risk was too great for her and she was captured and tortured many times. Each time she escaped and each time she killed her captors in horrific ways. For years and years it went on like that. I'll never know when she began to love me. No doubt Daisy has told you of when I realized it."

"Yea, that whole bit with the kidnapping." Mary said.

"That was a glorious night." Simone said smiling. Her smile faded. "But it also led to problems. Merry loved me. Any slight toward me was in her eyes unforgivable. After all my time and effort I hadn't tamed her rages, I had simply given her a new reason for them."

"I'm still not seeing a problem here." Mary said.

"I am." Lucy said.

"So clue me in."

"Merry still did the same things she had always had done." Lucy said. "She simply claimed a new justification for them."

"My people became fearful of coming near me lest they unintentionally insult me and face her wrath." Simone said. "Only the many laws held her back. I drummed it into her time and again not to break those laws. Once Merry gives herself to you Mrs. Rothschild there are no limits."

"Oh I'm seeing it now." Mary said. "You think once she joins up she'll start slicing and dicing her way through supervillains no matter what oath she takes."

"That is part of it." Simone said glad that she was getting through to them at last. "But killing is the least that she'll do. If she comes to regard you as part of her family, as part of Dollopolis, then Merry will respond to a threat to you as the First Knight would respond to a threat to me."

"Tiger by the tail." Mary said.

"I have considered this Simone." Lucy said.

"Have you?" Simone said. "Mrs. Rothschild you know that once I was struck down by a telepath and Merry pursued him. I never told Daisy how she killed him."

"No you didn't." Lucy said.

"This is gonna be gruesome isn't it?" Mary asked.

"First Merry buried him up to his neck in the ground." Simone said. "Then she drilled a hole into his skull and placed a small insect into it. Then she bandaged it and gave him a healing potion. Soon the man had a colony of insects eating their way out of his skull and through his brain. Merry kept him alive with healing potions and sat and laughed as he screamed in pain. This was in sight of his home city. For nearly two weeks she did this day and night. And when he finally died she vowed to do the same to everyone in his city."

"Oh god." Mary said.

Done it, Simone thought triumphantly. They were both pale.

"It is a frightening concept." Lucy said. "But Merry did this when she was under the influence of the faulty scythe didn't she?"

"Yes." Simone admitted slowly. What happened? She had them and suddenly she lost them. Simone's thoughts were suddenly scattered and she was unsure of herself. That hadn't been the story she had wanted tell! Why hadn't the Group interrupted her?

"Simone I know what you are trying to do." Lucy said leaning forward. Her face filled Simone's field of view. "And I know why. But the raging creature your describing is in the past. I have seen Merry and I have spent hours talking to Lady Highfield. She saw Merry on Faerun, she saw Merry hold to an oath to the bitter end. I have stood beside Merry as Goddess of Justice and I can tell you that there is no evil in her. Once Merry takes the Earth Force oath I will not worry about her anger. You might not realize it but you have chained that anger to a bedrock of principle."

What the bloody hell is going on, Simone wondered. How does this woman…

And suddenly Simone realized why. A slight laugh echoed in her mind as the influence left her. She'd tried to fight the will of the Goddess and failed. But not just one. Athena was guiding Lucy as much as Ida was guiding her.

"Are you alright?" Mary asked.

Simone realized that she had nearly fallen over.

"I'm fine." She said recovering. "Just the weight of painful memories."

"I'm sorry to have to bring them all back." Lucy said.

"The fault was mine Mrs. Rothschild." Simone said straightening. "But my story has done no good has it? You still mean to see Merry as a member of Earth Force?"

"I do." Lucy nodded. "For her sake and for yours and your kingdoms. You need our help Simone."

We do not! Simone wanted to shout. But any chance of saying 'no' was long gone and she knew it.

"Very well." Simone said. "It goes against my pride but I could be wrong."

Lucy relaxed and so did Mary. Simone sighed.

"Well before we go any further may I see Lizzie and Jessie?"

"Of course." Lucy said.

"You want to grow or…" Mary asked.

"I only brought this gown with me." Simone said. "And only Merry's combat clothing grows and shrinks with her. If you would Ms. Dream."

"Call me Mary." Mary said picking her up.

Simone felt as if she were surrendering to fate as she felt Mary's fingers close against her. For the first time she truly understood how Merry must have felt that first time the Group had shrunk her. It wasn't just that she was shrunken woman in Mary's hand, she was a mere woman trying to push the world the way she wanted it to go. And the world hadn't even noticed her efforts. As she settled into Mary's hand Simone felt the enormity of what the world truly was.

Well I'm not giving up, Simone thought. I won't have Merry go crazy. I'll be there for her every night and she can soak my mattress with her tears but I'm not giving her up!

The determination helped steady Simone's mind as she was carried down the corridor.

…To be continued.

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