Dangers of Daring Officer Dolly

Chapter 44. Danger From Above

by Skytower

"Dr. Smith." Lucy said as she and Mary sat at the table in the conference room. She'd decided to hold the luncheon there rather than in the dining room on the first floor. Then things had changed. This was going to be a late dinner rather than a working lunch. It had taken time to go through all of the photos from the Tide Crawler and Mary could tell that Lucy was trying to work through the wall of anger that Merry had erected around herself. She hadn't quite done it. Merry had been evasive and downright rude. But Simone had been there to constantly hold her First Knight’s anger in check. They learned how Merry had found out about the ship, a wild accident that Mary felt Lucy was suspicious about. That sort of major co-incidence was pushing things. It had taken time to go through all of the pictures and then time to identify the survivor through sketch reconstruction. Dr. Smith. If Lucy could ever be said to hate anyone it was Dr. Smith. After that Simone had finally prevailed on Merry to get some sleep. Now Mary felt the rare hate that was still in Lucy's voice as she spoke the name. Dr. Smith had been on Lucy's hit list for almost a decade. The man's crimes were numerous but he had a special talent for superheroines. Lucy had started out her career with Sun Woman, an older heroine who had taught Lucy a lot. Dr. Smith had been the man who had tortured and killed her right in front of Lucy. Lucy never really told what happened but Mary felt that Lucy blamed herself somehow.

"He would survive." Mary said. "And he's the one who worked on Agent Huang. We'll find him Lucy."

Lucy nodded.

"How did he manage to get away?" Esmerelda asked sitting to the left of Lucy. "None of the lifeboats were missing."

"Are we early?" Simone asked from the doorway.

"A little." Lucy said smiling and Mary felt her push the hatred away. "But that is not a problem. Please come in and sit down."

Merry carried Simone, Lizzie and Jessie into the dining room on a pillow. Part of the cargo in the Gamera had been dresses for all of them. And they were great dresses. Simone was wearing a sea green off-the-shoulder dress with a wide white sash. It fit her body perfectly and her red hair was done up in curls and twisted into the curls were strands of shining gold. Her eyes were subtly colored with blue and her lips a deep red. Lizzie and Jessie wore sweetheart gowns that were black with red sashes. Their look was Goth. They had each applied make up; darkening their eyes and sharpening their eyebrows. They were both wearing dark lipstick. Their black hair was straight but also hung with silver strands. Each of them wore one silver bracelet with a half of a spider on it. Against their normally pale skin the effect was exotic and a little erotic.

And then there was Merry. She wore a sky blue V-neck dress belted with a woven silver belt around her waist. If there had been any men in the room Mary doubted that they would have been able to take their eyes off of her cleavage. Her short blonde hair framed her face but she wore no make up. On her wrist was a gold watch. She was beautiful. Mary had only seen Merry look this good once before. She hoped that this meal wouldn't end up as bad as that one had. She'd half urged Lucy not to put out any knives.

            Trouble was this was only a dinner, not a dinner party. Either Simone had miss-understood or she had deliberately set out to show them up. Or maybe she always dressed this way to eat. There was still a lot that they didn’t know about them. In Mary's case at least they had succeeded in out classing them in fashion. Mary was wearing a blue and white floral print dress and sandals. Lucy was wearing a crisp white shirt with a long green skirt. Esmerelda was wearing a black turtleneck and jeans. Merry placed Simone, Lizzie and Jessie onto the table top and placed the pillow on the seat next to her. Then she stood back and surveyed the room. Mary could tell that she was looking for traps or other hidden dangers. There was a touch of fear in Merry as well as the constant anger. She was a little nervous.

            "I know it is a little impolite but Merry has decided to stay at full size for the meal." Simone said. A small table with four chairs had been set up next to Lucy's plate and she, Lizzie and Jessie walked over to it. Lizzie almost stumbled into a salt shaker but Jessie grabbed her.

            "That's quite all right." Lucy said.

            "Merry?" Prudence asked from the doorway.

            Merry turned to the door and smiled.

            "Sister." She greeted Prudence and Mary felt some of the anger ebbed away.

            "Goddess I wish someone had woken me up this morning." Prudence said walking over to her and hugging her. She was wearing a tight red shirt and shorts. The shirt was tight enough to show that she wasn’t wearing a bra. Mary sighed inwardly. Prudence still hadn’t settled down. Sometimes she wore modest clothing, other times she wore immodest clothing. Once she had walked into breakfast naked and that had to be pointed out to her. The kid had problems.

            "That's ok." Merry said hugging her back. "Nothing much happened anyway."

            We had enough problems without you kid, Mary thought but didn't say it aloud. A shouting match between Prudence and Daisy wouldn't have been pretty.

            “I really need to talk to you about Ida.” Prudence said.

            “Later.” Merry promised.

            "She isn't the only one who didn't mean to sleep late." Alpha said coming into the room. Behind her was Beta. They were wearing matching pink sundresses.

            Mary caught a sharp flash of fear from Merry. Slight but there. Did Alpha and Beta remind her of someone?

            "You carried a ship across the continent." Merry said reaching over the shake Alpha's hand. "That'd make anyone tired. Alpha right?"

            Alpha nodded.

            "Nice to meet you at last." Alpha said.

            "We owe you a lot." Beta said shaking Merry's hand.

            "Well to tell the truth it was a last ditch effort." Merry said. "Lucy was tied up and Count Intellect was going for her. I couldn't really help her against him, but I had a feeling that you two were mostly in the rings and not in your bodies. Hated to get you out of them just for combat but she needed the help."

            "Well thanks." Alpha said. "What ever the reasons."

            "Your welcome." Merry said. "I'm just sorry he had to die so quick, but at least I know he was broken up over Sidonia. After I snapped her neck he was really broken hearted about it."

            "He's dead and that's what matters." Beta said.

            "Simone, Lizzie, Jessie this is Alpha and Beta." Merry said turning away and letting them go to the table. "The Power Sisters."

            "Greetings." Simone said. "I am glad to see you well."

            "Thanks." Alpha said. She looked at Lizzie and Jessie.

            "Are you going to stay… small?" Beta asked.

            "As a sign of trust." Simone said. "When Mrs. Rothschild and her friends visited me in Dollopolis I was taller than they as befitted my rank, but here I am a guest and traditionally the guest must not be taller than the host. And in a setting such as this my height is a way of showcasing my trust in Mrs. Rothschild."

            "And Merry?" Alpha asked.

            "I got trust issues." Merry said.

            "Oh." Alpha said. She looked at Lizzie and Jessie.

            "We can't grow anyway." Lizzie said.

            "That's ok." Beta said. She sat down and looked at the twins. "I like your look. Custom made?"

            "Yea." Jessie said. "We have to make everything ourselves, most off the rack doll clothes are itchy."

            "They are quite the seamstresses." Simone said as Alpha sat beside her sister. Mary noticed that neither of them could take their eyes off of Lizzie and Jessie. "But it is rare that we all get to dress up. They are quite beautiful don't you think?"

            "Yea." Alpha said.

            "Oh yea." Beta agreed.

            I'm not the only one who’s suddenly turned on by shrunken women, Mary wondered? Or is it just curiosity. She noticed that Lizzie and Jessie didn't blush, rather they seemed proud of the reaction. And the way they looked at the taller twins left no doubt in Mary’s mind what could happen between the four of them.

            “Do you scale down the patterns?” Alpha asked.

            “No, we draw our own.” Jessie said. “We learned real early that if we wanted to wear something we’d have to make it.”

            “The first few weeks in Dollopolis we were naked all the time.” Lizzie said.

            “Yes, unfortunately there was a lot of damage.” Simone said. “And Merry and I were far too busy with structural repairs to worry about clothing. A dangerous rot set in from water damage and we didn't realize it. Most of my gowns had to be burned.”

            “For a while we were all naked.” Merry said. “Until I could get some cotton crops planted.”

            “Sounds like the worlds smallest nudist colony.” Mary said. The images that filled her mind were enticing but she held them back. She noticed that Merry wasn’t sitting down yet.

            “Once we acquired some fabric I taught the girls how to sew.” Simone said. “And as you can see they’ve turned out beautiful dresses for us all.”

            "And they are cute too." Yoran said walking into the conference room. He was wearing a Grateful Dead T-shirt and corduroy pants. Lizzie and Jessie looked at him and smiled. Mary felt their desire and a little surprised jealously from Alpha and Beta.

            "Healer." Merry said curtseying. "You honor us."

            "My pleasure." He said.

            "Our pleasure." Savage said coming in behind him. He wore a tight t-shirt and even tighter jeans. The effect was something like spray paint and this time Mary felt a definite spike of lusts from the tiny twins.

            "Warrior." Merry said and she actually smiled at him and slapped her hand onto his shoulder.

            "Fighter." He said in the same tone of voice and slapped his hand on her shoulder. Behind him was Gadget Gal.

Mary got a flash of real jealousy from Alpha and Beta. But before anything could happen Merry moved past him and over to Gadget Gal. She was shaky and pale but awake.

"How are you feeling?" Merry asked.

"Pains fading." Gadget Gal said. "It always takes a while if I don't get it in time."

"Sit down." Merry said guiding her over to a seat.

"Thank you for bringing the…"

"The drug is a special one only grown in Dollopolis." Merry said interrupting her. "It's so new we don't even have a name for it yet. But it's no relation to any Earth drug."

Ok this is new, Mary thought as Merry helped Gadget Gal over to a chair. She was feeling pure compassion from Merry. Anger as well but not the usual type of anger. This was outrage.

"Thanks for it." Gadget Gal said nodding.

"You'll never lack for it so long as we can make it." Simone said.

"Thanks." Gadget Gal said again.

"How'd you end up like this?" Lizzie asked.

"Let me guess." Merry said before Gadget Gal could answer. "Your dad was a crazy genius, he hung around with other crazy geniuses, they liked little kids to experiment on and you and your brother were handy. Putting the stuff in you let them see how a growing body would adapt. You and your brother were the trade he made for power and tech."

Gadget Gal nodded.

"I was about ten when it started." She said. "It didn't stop till I got old enough to run away. Mom never knew until afterwards. And she always had her own family anyway."

Merry hugged her and Mary could feel a rising anger in the First Knight. Then she let Gadget Gal sit down and turned to Lucy.

"Tell me again why death by slow torture isn't allowed in you laws Lucy." Merry demanded. "On Dollopolis I would have taken him into the Valley of Pain and left him there. Him and his friends."

"Valley of Pain?" Alpha asked.

"A volcanic rift in the extreme northern edge of my lands." Simone said. "The air is so filled with acidic mist from the volcano that in a few days it can melt the flesh off of a man. Merry stumbled onto it once and hid out there for a month while the men who were pursuing her died off."

"Afterwards I rigged up some chains on the rocks and put their bodies into them." Merry said. "It made a good threat to keep some of the people in line."

"Why did they stay?" Lucy asked.

"Their lord" Merry put a lot of hate into the word "ordered them to get me or kill each other. The fools were too weak to say no to him. They survived for a few weeks by dousing themselves with water every day, but the mist ate their lungs away."

"How did you survive?" Beta asked.

"Mud pits." Merry said. "If I got low enough into them and covered my body with the mud the acid didn't get to my skin and there was enough clean air to live off of. There was some moss growing on it that didn't taste that bad either if you didn't mind eating the mud with it. Water was kinda bad and ran through me but I smelled bad anyway after the mud."

"Why do we have to learn this stuff before we eat?" Mary asked. She wondered if Merry wanted to deliberately put everyone off of their appetite to cut the dinner short.

“Where is your father now?” Merry asked.

“He escaped into another dimension.” Gadget Gal said. “When the Nightcrawlers were after him.”

“And your mother?” Mary demanded.

“She’s… Well she’s with her own family.” Gadget Gal said. “They…”

“They don’t want you.” Merry said. “Letitia should we ever find your father I ask that you let me deal with him. What ever pain you have had in your life I swear he’ll feel ten times over.”

The anger in her voice was incredible. Gadget Gal wasn’t sure how to react but luckily she saw Lucy’s slight shake of the head.

“No.” Gadget Gal said. “Thanks, but… no. I want the law to handle him.”

“And your mother?” Merry asked. “Why hasn’t she tracked him down and killed him?”

“She’s got her own life.” Gadget Gal said. “It never much mattered to her about mine.”

That wasn’t completely true. Mary knew the full sordid story but now was not the time to go into it.

“Your laws puzzle me Lucy.” Merry said. “Your laws of family are nearly non-existent and your punishments are laughable.”

"Well to answer your question Merry the law can not be at the same level as the lawless." Lucy said. "There are limits to how a civilized society can punish the guilty."

"That leaves justice a rather impersonal concept for the victims does it not Mrs. Rothschild?" Simone asked. "How can there be personal satisfaction if you do not see your abuser in pain?"

"That would be vengeance Simone." Lucy said.

"That's the fun part." Merry said. "The screaming can be really satisfying."

"But it poisons society as a whole." Lucy said. "It teaches that dealing pain solves problems."

"It does." Merry said. "A little pain teaches you to be careful, a lot of pain tells you stay away, someone dying in pain tells everyone else to stay away if you can get’em to scream loud enough."

It was a good thing that Daisy and Brent weren’t there, Mary decided. That sort of talk would bring all sorts of arguments out of them.

"But if the person is innocent then they are suffering pain needlessly." Lucy said. "Our laws are set up to try to insure that the innocent do no suffer."

"Well that works in principle I guess." Merry said. "But what about the ones you know are guilty?"

"Personally we know that they are guilty." Lucy said. "But the law requires that even if they are guilty we hold ourselves to a higher standard of behavior."

"Gotta admit I don't really see it." Merry said.

"I had my own doubts too." Moon Girl said from the doorway. "And their system is not perfect, but then neither was the one on my world and I doubt that yours was perfect."

Mary had been worried about this meeting. More so than any of the others. Merry hated the concept of nobility, on her world she had made a habit of chopping the nobly born up. She'd nearly killed Lady Highfield in Dollopolis and had never been friendly to her on Faerun. Golden Girl was a princess, every inch a noble. She was also very sensitive and prideful. Just the type that Merry would love to mouth off too. Mary was expecting an argument at the very least. So it was with a bit of shock that Mary watched the First Knight go down on one knee, spread her arms and say something in the sing-song voice that was Moon Girl's native language. The rest of the room was shocked too, including Moon Girl. But she recovered and responded replying to Merry in the same language.

"I'm glad to meet you at last." Moon Girl said as Merry stood up. Moon Girl was wearing a shimmering silver dress that combined with her gold skin to emphasize her alien origins. Mary was beginning to feel very underdressed.

"And I am honored." Merry said. She turned and gestured to Simone. "May I present Duchess Simone of Dollopolis and Jessie and Lizzie, her Knightlings."

Simone nodded while Jessie and Lizzie stood up and bowed. Mary exchanged a puzzled looked with Lucy.

"So you have a different opinion of Mrs. Rothschild's concept of justice now?" Simone asked.

"I have seen it in action." Moon Girl said moving around the table to sit down. "It works best when anger dictates the actions of the individual and the wrong person gets hurt."

"It's a dry drink." Merry said. "And vengeance is a sweet one."

"For you drinking is dangerous so I have heard." Yoran said.

"You've heard right Honored Healer." Merry said. She looked at all of them and Mary sensed a bit of hesitation in her. But she seemed to gather herself. "I'm angry a lot. I used to be angry all the time. It's kept me alive and made me valuable to Dollopolis. Other people loose their heads when they get angry, I think more clearly. I think all of you should know that. Cause if I join you will see me angry."

"Will we ever see you when you're not angry?" Mary asked.

"Sometimes." Merry said. "But anger is a part of me Mary. It was burned into my soul when I was five. You can’t see the scars on my body but they are there. My childhood was one that makes me envy yours Gadget Gal."

She was calm but Mary could feel a definite fear from her. Merry was opening up, Mary guessed. Revealing herself and that wasn't easy for someone like her. But she was clearly making an effort. It was Lucy who asked the inevitable question.

"Will your anger be a danger to us?"

"No." Merry said. "Not unless I get drunk. My life as ‘Bloody Merry’ is over. Simone helped me with a lot of that.”

She looked at Simone and Mary was once again struck by how deep the love between them was. But there was a darker side to it. She could tell that now. Merry was almost addicted to the other woman. Very close to a dangerous sort of love.

“My memories fuzzy but I know I was shouting a lot when I got back from Faerun.” Merry said. “I don't remember much of that time." She paused and Mary hoped that her memory would keep failing her. "After the fight with Hellspite and the hit on the head I'm a bit hazy."

"You were a bit delirious." Lucy said.

"Well blows to the head tend to do that to people." Simone said.

"Whatever." Merry said. "Look I'm not even sure why you'd be scared of me. I'm really not sure why you want me to join Earth Force. My powers are basic; my greatest asset is stealth. But my anger is always focused. And my word is about as absolute as you're going to get. I've studied you. All of you. Exhaustively. I have my problems with Lucy. I have my problems with the laws you all follow. But I do respect all of you and what you do for this world. For your world. And if you want me bad enough to blackmail me onto the team then so be it.”

“It is not blackmail.” Lucy said.

“A bribe then.” Merry said sitting down. “But really Lucy, seriously why me?”

“I am surprised that you can ask that question.” Moon Girl said. “Merry I saw you fight against the giants, I saw you hold an ax to Sandy’s throat with an arm that was nearly nothing but bone and you could barely stand. To gain a victory over Hellspite that first time you sacrificed an arm.”

“I’ve had some luck.” Merry admitted.

“Not just luck.” Savage said. “Ability.”

Merry shrugged clearly uncomfortable at the compliment.

“Ok, so maybe I’m not a lightweight. But you guys... Savage you can lift up cars and throw them, Moon Girl you and Lucy can pick up trucks. Alpha and Beta just carried a yacht cross country. Gadget Gal’s a walking electronics factory and Esmerelda can track a person through a snowstorm. Yoran knows magic. Prudence has my powers and more, I can't grow large for very long, she can grow to a giant size for as long as she wants… I’m just not sure why with all of that you’d need me.”

Prudence shifted uncomfortably and Mary knew that Merry had unknowingly hit a sore spot with her.

            “I’m really not that great at the whole superhero bit.” Prudence said. “I’m terrible at it. I usually get captured.”

            “First time I met your mother she was in chains.” Merry said before Lucy could say anything. “Being tied up, chained up, raped, tortured... it’s just part of life. And your pretty damn young Prudence. I remember my first year on the run, I was damn lucky just to stay alive.”

            “You survived even without being able to shrink.” Lucy said. “That alone shows that you have an instinct for danger.”

            “That’s one way to put it.” Merry said.

"I don't." Prudence said. "I've been tied up so many times…"

“Prudence even before my family was slaughtered I wasn't living well." Merry said interrupting her. "Not by your standards anyway. I was the first born of the Roseskull's and that made me a target of my brothers and sisters. The Law of Family made it so. I learned how to fight and stay alive quick. At least for that environment. You think you've been tied up a lot? By the time I was your age the rope burns were almost permanent. My younger brother and sister walled me up in a dungeon cell to starve once.”

“Your brother and sister?” Alpha asked.

“They were within their rights.” Merry said shrugging. “And I got’em back for it.”

“How?” Beta asked.

“That is not something I will allow Merry to answer.” Simone said quickly. "It is best not spoken of at all."

Merry gave her a look of thanks and went on.

“When the invaders came and slaughtered my family I fought and lost. They made me a slave and I was just about your age Prudence. The lord decided to rape me. I got him drunk, bit his neck to get him bleeding and then gave him a blow job so that he wouldn’t notice while he bled to death. Then I used his sword to kill his wife and two of his sons before the alarm sounded. After that I was ‘Bloody Merry’ and on the run. I got captured and raped and tortured and I managed to escape and that happened twenty times in that first year. I didn’t know how to fight, I didn’t know how to survive in the wilds… I was about as pathetic as you can imagine. But by the end of the fourth year I’d learned. I wasn’t so easy to capture anymore. Fighters aren’t born Prudence, they’re trained.”

            “Who trained you?” Prudence asked.

            Merry shifted uncomfortably.

            “Gypsies.” Simone said. “As you would call them. A band of traveling entertainers. Merry was born a noble, no one ever looked for her among them. They taught her to fight since they gave shows where women would fight each other. They taught her many things.”

            Merry sighed and looked up. She was feeling the misery of her memories and Mary was hoping for a way to change the subject. They were all curious about her but the more they found out the more Mary didn't want to find out. These stories revealed a life that could have produced a monster, and maybe had before Simone. Mary had seen Merry’s rages, could she revert? How could someone with her background fit into Earth Force?

            “I’ll finish it Simone.” Merry said. “I was found. Mary has told you about the Trensia family. The first born son was in the crowd one night and he recognized me. By the morning everyone was under arrest. The entire troop, my friends the people who had saved me and taught me and… All tortured to death by the Trensia’s mind games. I got them into that, I couldn’t save them. They died cursing me. So Pru don’t think your not good at this, your just not experienced enough yet. Trust me, I can teach you.”

            “I’d like that.” Prudence said.

            Merry took a deep breath.

            “Sorry to bring the party down.”

            “We asked.” Moon Girl said. “And by your story Merry you have proved yourself. Any warrior forged in such a fire is welcome in this group.”

            “I thought it’d make you change your mind.” Merry said.

            “No.” Lucy said. "But we are sorry that you had such a hard life."

            Merry shrugged.

            "The dice roll one way you're happy, the other way you're sad. Whining about it doesn't do any good. The world doesn’t care, never has and never will."

            "Can I ask about something?" Esmerelda asked.

            "Sure." Merry said. "At this point we're on a roll, you people are hearing things no one but Simone has ever heard before."

            "When you turned me down at Count Intellect's castle you told me that your masters needed only you. But Simone was your mistress alone. Did you mean the ones who shrunk you, the ones Simone called 'the Four Great Powers'? You don't speak of them much. What were they like?"

            Merry swallowed and went absolutely white. Mary felt an eruption of pure terror from her. It only lasted a few moments and she hid it but the reaction was so intense Mary felt like she had been physically hit. Everyone at the table saw it.

            "We don't talk about the Powers Esmerelda." Simone said. "At least not that much. Though they did much to help our world their methods were… harsh. Particularly with Merry. The terror they inspired on my world was indescribable. Many were afraid to even mention their names aloud."

            "I'm sorry." Esmerelda said.

            "It's ok." Merry said. She took a deep breath. "When I said 'masters' I was talking about them. My head still wasn't that clear and in my mind I was still serving them. I didn’t want you anywhere near them."

            "Do you think they'll ever come to this world?" Alpha asked.

            "Goddess I hope not." Merry said. She took a deep breath.

            "Are we gonna eat soon?" Lizzie asked.

            "Soon." Lucy said.

Mary guessed that she was as grateful for the interruption as the rest of them. The mood at the table was getting too tense.

"But before we do I'd like to explain to Merry exactly why we'd like her in Earth Force.” Lucy said. “It will help you and Dollopolis Merry as much as it will help us."

"Help me?" Merry asked. "How?"

“To answer that Merry I think that you have to be aware of your place in this world.” Lucy said.

“My place?” Merry asked. "I have a place?"

“In the three years since we met Merry much has changed and you have always been at the center of that change.”

“The center? Lucy I’m on the edges, I try to stay there.”

“You’ve been failing.” Mary said. “Killing one of the worlds greatest evil witches isn’t keeping on the sidelines.”

“No one was supposed to know.” Merry said looking angrily at Lucy.

“No, they weren’t.” Lucy said calmly. “But they do. But your actions Merry have contributed-directly or indirectly-to the break up of Force Group J, the disbanding of the Earth Intelligence Agency and the formation of Earth Force. You killed Hellspite, twice, you destroyed Knife’s Edge and Arch Duke Darksun. Your torture broke Lady Goth’s will. And Dollopolis has also factored into matters. You destroyed an island Simone and kidnapped Miss Shadow.”

“Put it all together girls and what it comes down to is you’ve had a seat at the table.” Mary said. “And once you sit down you can’t leave.”

“Your name is known.” Lucy said. “Esmerelda can tell you Merry what effect it had on the underground in Seattle when your name was mentioned.”

“Ok, so I’ve got some name power.” Merry said.

"It is more than that.” Lucy said. “One of the things you directly contributed to Merry was the crippling of ICE.”

“I did?” Merry asked.

“When you retrieved intact the operational file after killing Knife’s Edge.” Lucy said. “With the information on that file and the knowledge of Timidious treachery we were able to mount several operations that crippled them. We hit their supervillains, their weapons plants and most importantly their money flow. Criminal enterprises of any sort function as much through reputation as anything else. At the heyday of the organization even some superheroes were scared to take ICE on. If they are perceived to be vulnerable they will generate less fear and will be less powerful. ICE is in that position now thanks to you. But now smaller groups are splitting off ICE. One of those groups is known as Crime Enterprises and it is led by Timidious. He has been behind the Baggers, using old information on superheroes that he gained while in Earth Force to take them down. We know of ten in the past year. They were not very powerful heroes and heroines, but very well known ones. Shining Gal was one. They are taken or killed. Some are de-powered and sold as slaves, some are mentally reprogrammed and sold as slaves or worse. Some have their powers stolen. That has been enough to gain Criminal Enterprises a bit of a reputation, but to truly make a splash they need a big target.”

“Or a small one.” Merry said.

“Exactly.” Lucy said.

"They come after me they die or I die." Merry said.

"The odds against the later will be far larger if you are a part of Earth Force." Simone said. "As will the chances that you will find more survivors from your city."

"It will be easier if there are no traps." Simone pointed out.

"Didn't we make this deal already?" Merry demanded.

"You did." Lucy said. "And I am sorry that it did not work out as I had hoped. Politics is uncertain in this world Merry."

"No kidding." Merry said. "So what are the guarantees that this deal will actually work for us?"

"You'll be part of us." Lucy said.

"Too much in the light for the shadow men." Merry said. "Killing them would be simpler."

"But you can't be certain to kill them all." Simone said.

"I know." Merry said. "Ok, so I join. But this comes with a price Lucy. Do you know where my scythe is?"

"I know who has it." Lucy said. "But not where it is. Timidious has it."

“Why?” Merry asked. “No one can use it but me, I’m not even sure they’ll be able to open the box.”

“I don’t know why.” Lucy said. “But I am close to discovering where Muscle Incorporated is. If we find them we will most likely find Timidious.”

“How soon?” Simone asked.

“A few days at most.” Lucy said.

“We find them they won’t talk.” Merry said. “Not with your methods.” Her voice turned cold and she nearly growled the next sentence. “They won’t stand between me and my scythe!”

“Calm down Merry.” Simone ordered.

Merry seemed to relax a little but her body was still tense.

“Sorry.” She said.

Man she is close to blowing, Mary thought. And I don’t want to be there when she does.

“So are we gonna stay here for a few days milady?” Jessie asked.

“Merry and I will.” Simone said. “Tomorrow evening you and Lizzie will use the Gamera to return to Dollopolis and help Monica on the farm. The harvest will be soon.”

“What about Corrella and Roxana?” Mary asked. “Don’t they do farm work?”

For a moment she only got silence and Mary felt a horrible premonition. Corrella and Roxana had been lost in England and found by the daughter of Lady Highfield. She’d tortured one of them and in the battle with Sernity’s daughter Hope and her father the arch duke Darksun they had both been hurt. Since then Mary hadn’t thought much about them. But the reactions from Merry and Simone were mixed. Sorrow, fury and worry.

“They didn’t make it.” Merry said after a moment. “Their injuries were too much.”

“They’re dead?” Prudence asked her voice echoing the horror everyone at the table felt. Horror as well as fear. Mary didn’t to be the one to tell Lady Highfield that her daughter and her friends had killed two people.

“Not quite.” Simone said. “Before they encountered Lady Highfield’s daughters Corrella and Roxana lived off of the land. Table scraps and what ever other food they could find. They ate some rat poison without realizing it. The Temple of Life was helping them, but it is powered by my life force. With the injuries to Merry on Faerun, to myself at the hands of Teleport-her and ICE... I was simply not strong enough to finish the healing. The poison had taken hold and I was too weak to fight it. When I realized that I opted for the rebirth option.”

“She made them babies again.” Merry said when Simone stopped talking. “About one or two years old. But the shock to the mind is too much, the memories are erased. They might remember a little bit of their lives now and then, but not really. It was the only way to save the bloodline.”

“In answer to your next question Mrs. Rothschild Verity Highfield is not in any danger from us.” Simone said. “Roxana and Corrella ate the poison before they were captured. By the Law they are safe.”

“Otherwise I would have dealt with them by now.” Merry said harshly. “And no one would have stood in my way.”

“Have you found anyone else?” Moon Girl asked.

“No.” Merry said. “It’s a big world you have here and we’re a pretty small group.”

“I’ve begun to think that there might have been a temporal shift when brought Dollopolis into this world.” Simone said. “It is possible that they arrived centuries ago or that they will arrive tomorrow or next year. Merry has speculated that they have already been caught by your shadow men.”

“I don’t think so.” Lucy said.

“But you don’t know.” Merry said.

“No.” Lucy admitted. “But neither do you.”

"No." Merry said. "Tell me Lucy if it came to a direct conflict, an order to take me in, would you?"

"No." Lucy said. "And once you join the charter of Earth Force would not allow them to force you to reveal anything. Privacy is respected here."

Merry nodded and seemed to be satisfied.

"Not that you have a lot left to hide considering how many times we've seen you naked." Mary said. It was the best she could to lighten the atmosphere and for a second Mary didn't think it would work. But Merry smiled at the joke.

"Being a heroine seems to be a clothing optional business." Merry said.

"It's not just the heroines." Savage said. “I once battled an hour naked against two savage foes.”

“Really?” Lizzie asked.

“Was Yoran there too?” Jessie asked.

“I was tied up at the time.” Yoran said with a small smile.

“Daisy we are ready to eat now.” Lucy said speaking into the intercom. It wasn’t a bad time to bring the food in but as soon as Simone and Merry saw Daisy their faces turned blank. The rest of the table missed it since they were both still polite, but Mary felt the sorrow from Merry and the anger from Simone.

I wish we had just sent out for pizza, Mary thought.

"Goddess Simone!" Merry said as soon as they were back in their room. She had gotten through it, somehow she had made it through the dinner. Looking into the faces of those noble beings and speaking lie after lie after lie. But now the guilt was eating into her.

"You did fine." Simone said as Merry put her and Lizzie and Jessie onto the bed. She put her arms around the girls. "You all did."

{You gave them a lot to think about.}

{Your life story as 'Bloody' Merry seems to scare them.}

{As it was intended to do.}

{The only dangerous point was Esmerelda's question.}

"Goddess I wish she hadn't remembered that." Merry. She unzipped her dress and slipped out of it. "I'd forgotten."

"That is the problem with lies that are told one on top of another." Simone said. "The foundations crack over time."

Merry stretched and hung up the dress. She had actually enjoyed wearing it, enjoyed dressing up. And she had enjoyed carrying Simone and Lizzie and Jessie around on a pillow. Merry had felt like a courtier. Underneath the dress she had worn a blue lace balconet bra and lace panties. When Simone dressed her up she dressed her up all of the way. And lately she had taken to doing it while Merry was shrunk. It was becoming a game between them, Merry struggling and squirming while Simone forced her into pretty gowns.

Merry sat on the bed and lay back against the pillows. It had been nice to wear but still it was good to get out of it. Even after all this time wearing clothes-especially underwear-that cost as much as a small car felt wrong to her.

"That's what I'm worried about. We almost lost it with Roxana and Corrella. How do we handle that if someone has to come to Dollopolis again?"

{You won't have to.}

{The lie we instructed you to tell is actually the truth.}

{We just aren't finished growing them yet.}

{Introducing variations in clones is difficult.}

"Clones?" Lizzie asked.

{Yes.}

{Think of them as little sisters.}

{Like, but not completely like you.}

{We intend to fill Dollopolis with survivors that are in fact clones of this or that person.}

"Survivors?" Simone asked.

"It makes sense." Merry said. "Artificially grow them, give them false memories… but Goddess you'll have to be careful. Even you."

{We will be.}

{We will grow them.}

{You will find them.}

{The first should be ready in a year or so.}

Merry leaned back and closed her eyes. It was the next step for them. The Group was always worried about loosing genetic lines; this would give them a farm of them. And it would solve the problem of Dollopolis being a ghost town. But even so it was staggering to think about.

"What about the two girls Merry has spotted?" Simone asked.

{The rescues will continue.}

{Those two are nearly ready and we'll pick them up next month if all goes well.}

{The mix of artificial and real people should be quite interesting.}

{And satisfying.}

Merry opened her eyes and glanced at her watch. It was a little past midnight. She pressed a button and got a reading on the ships. Both were untouched. The watch gave her voice control over them if she needed it.

"We need some sleep." Merry said. "How about we all take a bath first though?"

"That sounds like a good idea." Simone said. "You stay at full size Merry."

"Mistress?" Lizzie asked.

{Yes?}

"You can change bodies as well as grow them right Mistress?" Lizzie asked with a quick look at her sister.

{Define change.}

"Well…" Jessie trailed off and she and Lizzie looked at each other.

"We were… wondering…" Lizzie said. "Since we've seen Bitch-35 and that Whiptail guy…"

"Could you give us wings Mistress?" Jessie asked quickly.

Merry looked at Simone and Simone looked back at her with equal surprise.

"Like, black butterfly wings?" Lizzie asked. She paused and then added quickly "Mistress."

What the hell brought that on, Merry wondered? She'd never thought to ask about wings or anything different about her body. Why had Lizzie and Jessie thought about it?

{Why do you want wings?}

"Well… It'd be cool Mistress." Lizzie said.

"Yea." Jessie said.

"Girls why haven't you talked to me about this?" Simone asked. They looked at her and then looked away. "Did you think I'd say no?"

"Not really." Lizzie said.

"We kinda… sorta hoped to surprise you." Jessie said.

"Well you did that." Simone said.

{We understand.}

{The girls are trying to develop a new sense of self.}

{Crystalized by the idea of clones and new people in Dollopolis.}

{They fear being replaced.}

"Is that it?" Merry asked.

"With everyone else you might not need us." Jessie said. "But we've been thinking of this anyway."

"Goth fairies would be… So cool!" Lizzie burst out.

"Girls." Simone said. "Girls Merry and I will never stop needing you. I've loved you ever since you showed up in my closet that day."

"I feel the same way." Merry said picking them up. She pressed them to her chest. "You’re my little sisters and I love you."

"We know." Lizzie said hugging her breast.

"And we love you too." Jessie said hugging Merry's other breast.

"But wings would be cool." Lizzie said looking up at her. She eased her hand into Merry's bra and fingered the nipple on Merry’s large breast.

"Really cool." Jessie said doing the same thing. "I mean flying… We've been thinking of this since you came back from the place with the fairies and things, and the half horse people."

"Not that we want to be horses." Lizzie said. "But wings are cool."

“Real cool.” Jessie said.

{We shall consider this.}

{It might be interesting at that.}

{But it shall take time.}

{Do not speak of it again to us.}

"Right lets take the bath then." Simone said.

"Yea." Merry said getting off of the bed. When the Group used that sort of language it was time to stop talking. But the idea of wings was something Merry was going to have to get used to. She hoped that only the girls would get them, Merry wasn't sure that she was up to another change in her body. Shrinking had been hard enough to get used too.

Pain. Pain and terror tore though Mary's mental shields and she fell out of the bed struggling with her pillow as she came awake. Her eyes focused on the full moon out side of her window and Mary lay on the floor taking deep breaths. In the moonlight her room was full of threatening shapes and shadows.

"What the hell was that?" Mary asked the empty room. She slowly un-tangled herself from the sheets and climbed to her feet. She turned on the lamp by her bed and tried to pull herself together. Mary hadn’t reached the point in her life where she could wear sexy underwear to sleep again. She wore a pair of gray flannel pajamas. Now they were pasted against her sweat soaked body. Carefully Mary opened her mind again. The kind of psychic pain that could force its way through her mental shields after she was asleep was almost un-imaginable. She found sleeping mind after sleeping mind, most of them dreaming but one of them wasn't.

"Merry." She said standing up. She pulled her pajamas off as she walked into the bathroom. Mary threw cold water in her face and toweled herself off. "I should have known."

Mary walked over to her dresser and pulled out a plain nightgown. She shrugged it on and wondered what to do next. Sleep was out of the question, not with that sort of psychic pain close by. Mary sighed and turned on the TV. The best thing to do was to wait it out. Nightmares never lasted that long.

But as she flipped through the channels Mary felt the pain and fear continue. It couldn’t hurt her now, but it was there, like a radio playing loudly in the next room. Mary knew nightmares; these were not normal. They were too intense and they were lasting too long. Could Merry be under a psychic attack?

As she walked out of her room and down the corridor Mary got herself under control. It wasn't easy. She'd never felt that sort of nightmare from anyone and the closer she got the harder it was to tune it out. Mary paused at the door and knocked softly.

"Come in." Simone called.

Mary went in and saw that a full sized Simone was on the bed. She was nude and a nude Merry lay on her stomach with her head between Simone's breasts. Merry was still in the throes of the nightmare and she cried and twitched and screamed in her sleep. A nude Lizzie and Jessie lay on either side of Simone's thighs.

"I’m sorry she woke you." Simone said. "I should have realized that your mind might hear her nightmare."

"She goes through this all the time?" Mary asked.

"At least once a month." Simone said sadly. "She always has."

Mary shuddered. On Simone's chest Merry growled and clutched at Simone's nipple.

"Why not wake her up?" Mary asked walking over to the bed.

"If I do she'll refuse to sleep until she passes out from exhaustion." Simone said. "And the nightmare will just wait for her."

"It's kinda dangerous too." Lizzie said.

"She wakes up fighting and it takes her a few minutes to really wake up." Jessie said.

Merry whimpered and a wave of pain nearly swamped Mary's mental shield.

"I'm afraid the dinner stirred up memories." Simone said. "Mary may I ask a favor of you?"

"Sure." Mary said.

"When she wakes up Merry will need me. Would you mind taking Lizzie and Jessie into your room for the night?"

"Take them?" Mary asked puzzled. Then she understood. "So Merry wakes up horny after these things?"

"Yes." Simone said. "If you want to put it that way. The nightmare doesn't stop because her eyes open. It tears at her and early on I found that only by making her feel physical pleasure was I able to get her back to sleep, and it would be real sleep. But the kind of sex that Merry needs has to be only with me."

"It's really intense." Lizzie said.

"Scary." Jessie echoed.

"Well no problem then." Mary said fighting down her curiosity. She grabbed a pillow that had fallen on the floor and put it on the bed. "Climb aboard girls."

Jessie and Lizzie climbed onto the pillow. On Simone's chest Merry suddenly went completely still for a moment. Then she growled and pounded her fist into Simone's chest.

"You gonna be ok?" Mary asked.

"I'll be sore tomorrow, but I'll live." Simone said. "Thank you."

"Right." Mary said. She turned and headed toward the door. "Didn't bring any tiny nightgowns did you?"

"We never wear them when we sleep with the Duchess." Lizzie said.

"Of course not." Mary sighed.

Simone watched the door close and began to stroke Merry’s hair. There was no need to play act this part. She’d been expecting the nightmares and had warned Lizzie and Jessie to sleep away from Merry. She started to hum and on her chest Merry quieted a little. Simone kept humming. She hadn’t been lying. When Merry woke up she’d be desperate to feel anything to blot out what few memories of the nightmares were left. But Simone hadn’t brought anything to tie her up with so the sex was probably going to hurt.

“I will be sore tomorrow.” Simone said. “I do hope no one notices.”

She thought about Lizzie and Jessie for a moment. She’d given them no instructions but it was obvious that Mary was curious about shrunken women. Well by now the girls could handle themselves.

“Wings.” Simone muttered and went back to humming. She stopped again for a moment. “They want wings? Is this some new sign of adulthood for them?”

She shook her head and went back to humming. That was a problem for another time.

Mary put the pillow down on the bed and looked around. She thought that she could make up the draw with a few towels.

“Hey a big screen.” Jessie said heading for the remote.

“Dibs on the remote.” Lizzie called.

They reached it at the same time and started to wrestle with it.

“Cartoon Network.” Lizzie said pulling at it.

“Anime Network.” Jessie said tugging it away from her.

“Hey wait a minute.” Mary said. She reached down and picked them up. “It’s my set.”

“Yea but you were watching the ancient stuff.” Lizzie said squirming her hand. Jessie squirmed in her grip as well and Mary quickly put them both down. Then she glanced over and saw that she had left the TV on TV Land. The Brady Bunch was playing.

“Ok, well I wasn’t really watching it.” Mary said. She picked up the remote. “I guess you guys aren’t sleepy either.”

“Not really.” Lizzie said.

Mary sat down and propped the pillows up behind her. Lizzie and Jessie walked up and leaned on her thighs.

“Ok, what do you usually watch?” Mary asked.

“The Duchess likes cartoons.” Jessie said.

“Betty Boop.” Lizzie added.

“You’re kidding.” Mary said.

“Nope.” Lizzie said.

“Uh-uh.” Jessie said shaking her head.

“Ok, let’s just scan through and see what we can find.” Mary said.

After a few minutes of going through the selections and getting no response Mary was surprised when both girls spoke up at once.

“Wrestling!” They said at the same time.

“Undertaker!” Lizzie added.

On the screen a tall dark haired man was battling an even taller man in a steel cage.
            “You guys like wrestling?” Mary asked.

“We like that guy.” Lizzie said pointing to the dark man.

“He’s awesome.” Jessie said. “Do you got any popcorn?”

“Fraid not.” Mary said.

The match lasted ten minutes and to Mary’s surprise the girls got into it, shouting and clapping. When the Undertaker won they leapt up and jumped on her legs to give themselves a high five.

“What else is on?” Lizzie asked.

“Can you get Soap Opera Network?” Jessie asked. “We missed One Life to Live last week.”

“I… I think so.” Mary said. She brought the onscreen guide up. “You guys watch a lot of TV?”

“We get one hour per day, two on weekends.” Lizzie said.

“The rest of the time we’re working, singing with Monica or Simone reads to us.” Jessie said. "She says we shouldn't watch too much."

“We get a movie on Fridays.” Lizzie said.

“But Merry usually picks it.” Jessie said.

“And she likes monster movies.” Mary guessed.

“Anything with a body count.” Lizzie said. "Night of the Living Dead stuff, attack of the Mushroom People…"

“Yea, I…” Mary paused and held her head. The pain of Merry’s nightmare was gone. But it had stopped painfully and had felt like someone had snapped a rubber band against Mary’s ear.

“Well Merry’s awake.” Mary said rubbing her head.

“That’s good.” Jessie said.

“Yea.” Mary agreed. But as soon as she said it another wave of feeling hit her. This time it was lust. Mary felt her body react and it was a challenge to ratchet up her mental shields.

“Right.” Mary said picking up the remote. “Soap Net.”

She found the network and they settled into to watch an episode of Days of Our Live’s from the 1970’s. But Mary was bored five minutes into episode and she was still trying to deal with all of the emotion that Merry-and now Simone-was putting out. There was no way to ignore it and it was taking all of her concentration to keep it at bay.

“Are you ok?” Lizzie asked.

“What? Sure.” Mary said.

“You sure?” Jessie asked. “You’re really getting turned on by this stuff.”

“What?” Mary asked.

Jessie pointed between Mary’s legs. There was a dark wet patch over her pussy.

Mary blushed.

“It’s not the show.” Mary said. She shifted a little. “It's my mental powers. I’m getting a lot from Merry and Simone.”

“All this way?” Lizzie asked.

“Wow.” Jessie said.

“Yea, well… It’s nothing.” Mary said. She started to change the channels again. “I just need more of a distraction than a thirty year old soap.”

After a few minutes of channel surfing Mary stopped on Stage Coach with John Wayne.

“You know we could help you.” Lizzie said.

“Yea.” Jessie agreed.

“What? How?” Mary asked.

“We’re great at sex.” Jessie said.

“Yea, and after you came we could settle down and watch TV.” Lizzie said. “With some popcorn?” She added hopefully.

They weren’t mocking her, Mary knew that they weren’t. But that last line almost made her laugh out loud.

“No.” Mary said. Carefully she stood up. “No, we aren’t going there tonight. I’ll take a cold shower, you guys can have the remote for a while.”

She left them fighting over the remote and walked into the bathroom. Mary pulled off the nightgown and got into the shower. The ice cold water hit her hard but she took it, leaning into the spray and letting it flow down her body. It worked but very slowly. She could only marvel at the kind of sex that Merry and Simone were enjoying.

By the time their energy faded Mary's teeth were chattering. She shut off the water and stepped out of the tub. As soon as her body warmed up she felt herself become aroused again.

"Jesus what did they do to each other in there?" Mary wondered. She'd never felt this sort of lust from anyone close up, let alone at a distance. The after effect just would not let her go. Mary walked back into the bedroom and grabbed another nightgown out of her drawer. Lizzie and Jessie were propped up against her pillows watching an episode of Justice League.

"Feel better?" Lizzie asked.

"Not really." Mary said. She picked them up-and felt the reaction go through her body-and put them down again after she sat down. "You like this stuff?"

"Wonder Woman's cool." Jessie said.

"Must be kinda boring for you though." Lizzie said. "You get to live it."

"I'd rather watch it on TV." Mary said. "And Wonder Woman… Look at her. In real life that costume wouldn't last five minutes."

"Merry says that about a lot of the costumes heroines wear." Jessie said.

"Well she's right." Mary said.

On the TV Wonder Woman and the other heroes were knocked out by the Atlanteans and chained to a wall. Mary watched as they struggled and tried to fight the reactions of her body. It was no use. The more Wonder Woman struggled on TV the more aroused Mary became. She was grateful when she show ended and Futurama came on.

"Maybe we should try C-Span." Lizzie said at the end of the episode. Mary looked down and saw that the girls were looking at another wet spot between her legs.

"Simone says that'll bore you out of anything."

"I'll be fine." Mary said. She leaned back and watched as another episode of Justice League came on. As the show went on Mary's body demanded more and more of her attention. Finally she gave up and sighed heavily. It was either Lizzie or Jessie or the vibrator.

"Ok, guys maybe we'll give it a try." Mary said. She looked down and saw that they're faces wore disappointed looks. "What? You offered."

"Well we don’t wanna do it if you're like forcing yourself." Lizzie said.

"Yea, I mean, we gotta enjoy it too and you just…" Jessie said.

"Act like we're forcing your or something…" Lizzie said. "It won't be fun."

"Oh." Mary said. She rubbed her temples for a moment. "Excuse me for just a sec girls?"

Mary grabbed her pillow and put it over her face and then screamed into it.

"That's really weird foreplay." Jessie said when Mary put the pillow back.

"I go for weird." Mary said. "Ok, let's just give this a try ok? I've never done it before but if I don't do something I'm going to go nuts."

"Ok." Jessie said.

"Sounds good." Lizzie said.

"Popcorn after?" Jessie asked.

"Yes." Mary said with a straight face that broke with her next sentence. "We'll have popcorn! Now how do we start this?"

"Well usually we're all naked." Jessie said.

“But we could climb into your clothes if you want.” Lizzie said.

“That’s fun sometimes.” Jessie said.

"Ah... No thanks. " Mary said feeling more than a little foolish. She stood up on the bed and pulled off her nightgown. While she was doing that Jessie and Lizzie yelled and were nearly tossed off the bed.

"We don't do that!" Lizzie yelled.

"Remember we're tiny!" Jessie yelled.

"Sorry." Mary said sitting back down.

"Don’t you ever have sex?" Lizzie asked.

"Not with Barbie dolls." Mary said.

"Oh." Lizzie said.

"Well let's get to it." Jessie said. "What part do you want?" She asked her sister.

"Let's do what we do with Merry." Lizzie suggested. “Top to bottom.”

The two tiny girls climbed onto Mary's body and onto her chest. They had just started to kiss her nipples when the door flew open. Mary's lust evaporated under the force of Merry's anger. Merry was wearing a robe and carrying Simone in her hand. She put Simone down and in one fluid move had leapt onto Mary’s bed and onto her. Merry pinned her body down and grabbed the bottom of her face in an iron grip; gagging her.

"Look alive girls." Merry said. "We got trouble." She looked at Mary. “You got three coast guard cutters and five SUV's heading toward the mansion. And two fighter jets. Now I trust you Mary, but if this is a trap I swear I’ll take you out first!"

“Release her Merry.” Simone said climbing onto the bed.

"Oh hell." Mary swore as she was released. “Look I don’t know what’s going on but we didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“I believe you.” Merry said after a few moments.

“Lucy wake up!” Mary sent the message telepathically. “We’ve got trouble coming.”

“There’s a guard in front of the elevator to the hanger.” Merry said. “I’m taking everyone to our ships and I’ll got through him if I have too.”

“What is going on?” Lucy said appearing in the doorway.

“You have troops heading this way.” Merry said. “A convoy of black SUV’s, three coast guard cutters and two jets, and there’s a guard at the elevator to the hanger.”

“Security.” Lucy said pressing the intercom next to Mary’s door. “Report.”

Only silence answered her and Lucy pressed a combination of buttons. A soft chiming sound filled the mansion. Mary climbed out of bed and headed toward her drawer.

“That’s an alarm?” Lizzie asked in surprise.

“I thought they were supposed to be loud.” Jessie said.

“We have children in this house.” Lucy said. “The last thing we need is to have crying children during an emergency.”

“I’m taking everyone to our ships.” Merry said grabbing a pillow. “If the guy in front of the elevator tries to stop me he’s dead.”

“That action will not be needed.” Lucy said and her body transformed into Goddess of Justice. “Mary get everyone into battle positions.”

“It might not be about you." Mary said struggling into her bra. Mentally she started to fill everyone in. “We got a lot of enemies.”

"I'm not taking that chance." Merry said.

“If this is not about us we will not leave.” Simone said. “But I agree with Merry, if we must ere it will be on the side of caution.”

“I agree.” Goddess of Justice said. “Our security is down for some reason. How were you warned.”

“I’ve got this place watched.” Merry said.

“Plan ahead don’t ya.” Mary said pulling a T-shirt on.”

“I try to.” Merry said.

“Come.” Goddess of Justice said.

The guard in front of the elevator door was a solid looking six foot tall man with black hair that had gone gray. He’d been a former Secret Service agent and Mary had been there when Lucy and Carl interviewed him for the job. Arthur Nolan had seemed perfect then. Now he stiffened as he saw them coming but didn’t move. A large futuristic gun was in his hand.

“Security is down.” Goddess said. “Your doing Arthur?”

“I’m sorry ma’am.” Arthur said. “Orders.”

“A traitor.” Merry growled.

“No ma’am.” Arthur said. “I’ve been loyal and I will be loyal, but I have orders from a higher source.”

“You lady should be supreme in your mind.” Merry said. “Goddess I’ll...”

“This is my problem Merry.” Goddess of Justice said sternly. “What are your orders Authur? Who gave them too you?”

“Colonel Davis.” Arthur said. “His orders were to disable the security systems and make sure that no one leaves.”

“Why?” Goddess of Justice asked. Only Mary could tell that anger that was building in her.

“He didn’t say ma’am.” Authur said. “And I’m sorry.”

“Betrayed by the shadow men.” Simone said. “Things are not so different in your world after all Mrs. Rothschild. But we will not be taken.”

“I have no orders concerning you ma’am.” Arthur said. “I just have orders to see that no one leaves the mansion.”

“Author I will ask only once.” Goddess said. “Stand down.”

“No ma’am.”

Twin beams of white force shot from Goddess of Justice’s eyes and slammed him into the wall. He crumpled to the floor and lay still.

“And this is the type of person you wanted me to trust Lucy?” Merry demanded. “You wanted me to let this type into my mind? They don’t even trust you.”

“They trust me Merry.” Goddess of Justice said hitting the elevator call button. “But they are cautious as well. Get to your ship, I assume you can listen into our com system?”

“Yea.” Merry said.

The elevator door opened.

“I gave you my word, you can leave if you wish.”

“I am not worried about you Mrs. Rothschild.” Simone said.

Merry was silent as they stepped into the elevator just as Prudence and Esmerelda ran down the corridor.

“Come.” Goddess of Justice said as the elevator doors closed. “We have some answers to get.”

A few minutes later Mary and Goddess of Justice and the rest of Earth Force stood at the gates of Rothschild mansion and faced down a squad of black suited men with heavy duty firepower. The night air was cool but the atmosphere was heating up with the approach of dawn and the amount of anger Mary was feeling from Goddess of Justice. On the other side of the wrought iron gate Colonel Davis stood calmly.

“What are you doing here Dave?” Goddess of Justice demanded.

“I have orders to take everyone in the mansion into custody Lucy.” Dave said. “Timidious is on the moon, he has control of the defense satellites and he’s got them turned around. If the governments of the world don’t follow his orders he’s going to start blowing up cities.”

The pronouncement was made calmly but even though Mary couldn’t sense it empathically there was no way to mistake the tension in his voice. She felt mixed reactions of horror and anger from the rest of them.

“And what then?” Goddess of Justice demanded.

“We deliver you to the space port in Florida, in energy restraints and send you to him.” Dave said. “I’m sorry Lucy but he’s already taken out the land based defense missiles, we can’t touch the satellites and he’s only given us an hour. We don’t have time for plans, we just gotta do this and hope for more options later.”

“Define everyone.” Goddess of Justice said coldly. “Dave if you think you are going to touch the children you are wrong.”

“No.” Dave said. “Just the adults.”

“And?” Mary demanded. “Come on spit it out you cold son of a bitch.”

“Yea, and the group from Dollopolis too.” Dave said. “I’m sorry Lucy.”

"Do you think I'd go after your kids Lucy?" Timidious asked. His thin head appeared in the air above Dave. A psychic projection and Mary's anger began to mount. This was the man who had raped her physically and psychically for nearly ten years. And now he had the upper hand again. As her anger began to mount so did her fear. Timidious could torture her in ways that no other person could.

            “Timidious what are you doing?” Goddess of Justice demanded.

            “Taking over the world.” Timidious said matter of factly. He looked behind them. “And there they go, but this time they aren’t fading into the woodwork.”

There was explosion behind them and Mary and Goddess of Justice turned to see to streak of light head out toward the ocean.

“You won’t catch them.” Mary said.

“I don't want to catch them.” Timidious said. “And I don’t have to. All I have to do is kill them.” Even as he spoke two beams of whitish light with a yellow tinge shot down from the sky. There were two small explosions. “I ordered Dave to order his spy to put tracers on the ships.”

Goddess of Justice growled and Mary felt more anger than she had felt in a long time build in her friend.

“I’m sorry Lucy.” Dave said holding his ground. “We didn’t plan it, but when the orders came through we had to follow them.”

“Sieg heil.” Mary said coldly raising her arm. For the first time she saw a flash of anger on his face. Timidous laughed.

Dave tapped a badge he was wearing.

"This thing is a link to Timidious, he knows every move I'm making. I don’t have a choice." He looked at Goddess of Justice. “Lucy are you going to come with us or…”

“Are you going to shoot us?” Mary demanded. "Dave if we want we can take this force of yours apart and you know it."

Goddess of Justice turned to the rest of them.

"I can't speak for you on this. Timidious has all the advantage. We may be facing years of imprisonment and torture. We can fight now, get away and lead a resistance."

"If you fight I'll turn Bangor Maine into a giant smoking crater." Timidious said. "You know what energized particle beams can do to a city Lucy, you've seen it."

"We don't have much choice right now Goddess." Moon Girl said. The others nodded.

“We will come.” Goddess of Justice said turning back to Dave. Her form shimmered and faded into Lucy Rothschild. “But after this is all over Dave we are going to talk again about what you have done this night and the spy you placed into my house.”

"You can't win this one Lucy." Timidious said. "I've got the world by the balls and you can't touch me."

"We shall see." Lucy said.

Mary made herself stand still as the power neutralizing collar was locked onto her neck. Immediately a cold numbness started to spread through her brain. For Mary it was as if one eye was being forced shut. Following the collar was a metal gag for her mouth. Her arms were crossed behind her back wrist to elbow and ice cold metal clamps closed around her wrist. She shuddered. Shackles were put on her ankles. Mary had gone through this before many times, but this was different. The man and woman who were binding her had pained looks on their faces. Supervillains would have been smiling. These people-even Dave Mary supposed-would feel sick about this for the rest of their lives. After she was secured Mary was herded into an SUV with Lucy. They were all secured the same way.

There was one hope; she doubted that Merry would have been dumb enough to be in either of those ships.

Forms shimmered into being as soon as they were all in the cars. Mr. Business and Deadly Beautiful looked ready for action but relaxed quickly. He was as stone faced as ever. She smiled.

"Search the house." Timidious said. "I want to make sure she's dead. Colonel Davis, get moving."

Gritting his teeth Colonel Davis gave the order to move out. As they did so the men in the car with them put blindfolds on Mary and Lucy.

            "This is bad." Merry said.

            {Very.}

            {Mr. Business and Deadly Beautiful are searching the mansion.}

            {The eagle only has a stun beam.}

            {He will use magic to search for you.}

            "Simone take the wheel." Merry said getting out of the control seat. She had guessed that the Gamera and Thunderbird 2 wouldn't have a chance of getting away with the tracers on them. The pipes she had come in were probably sealed or being watched. Prudence's eagle was their only hope. With the other ships destroyed it might fool Timidious. The eagle's stealth shielding rendered them invisible. But Mr. Business was a sorcerer, he might see them. Merry moved past her to the main hatch. "Keep your hand on the stun beam. If they find us shoot him first, I'll handle the gargoyle. If it looks like I'm loosing get out of here."

            "And leave you?" Simone said. "I think not."

            "No." Lizzie said.

            "No way." Jessie agreed.

            "The worst happens to me is that they take me up to the moon." Merry said. "You'll still be free to mount a rescue attempt."

            "Timidious wants you dead." Simone said. "He's not as dumb as the other villains, he's learned from their mistakes."

            "It's our only chance Simone." Merry said.

            It's your only chance, Merry told herself. And if you don't live I won't want too.

            Simone was about to argue some more when the door to the hanger opened. They all froze and watched as Mr. Business walked into the hanger bay. His sharp face and business suit didn't match the look of a sorcerer. He looked like a stern shop teacher. He looked around and then held up a jewel and the bay was bathed in blue light. Merry felt herself tense. He was alone, she might be able to kill him if the stun beam worked.

            After a few minutes Mr. Business nodded to himself, put the gem into his pocket and left.

            "How come he didn't see us?" Simone asked.

            "Are we that invisible?" Lizzie asked.

            "No." Merry said. She moved up to the control cabin and sat down. "I think we had help."

            "Ida?" Simone asked.

            "Or Athena or both." Merry said. "We're being pushed, I can feel it."

            {We agree.}

            {Your discovery of the Tide Crawler was no accident.}

            {The gods need you to join Earth Force for some reason. Perhaps they saw this coming.}

            {So we had best set about rescuing them.}

            "Again?" Simone asked.

            "Again." Merry said. She leaned back in her chair. "Ok, what do we know so far?"

            {Timidious leading a small force has taken over the new German moon colony. From what we can gather he is using his mental powers to enslave the workers.}

            {He has taken the defense satellites and turned them around.}

            {He has used them on every missile base capable of orbital launching.}

            {He is having the governments round up a selected list of superheroes.}

            “Not all of them?” Merry asked.

            {No, not all.}

            “Why isn’t he killing them?” Simone asked. “He could have blown the mansion up while we were in there.”

            “He wants slaves.” Merry said. “Can I see the list of the heroes he’s having rounded up?”

            A view screen came to life and started to scroll down a list. To Merry’s surprise it wasn’t a very long one. But one thing about it stood out quickly. Most of the names on the list were female. But there were more males than she would have thought. Timidious like most male supervillains wanted to rape and humiliate heroines. After reading the list twice Merry noticed something.

            “Of all the male heroes” Merry asked “how many of them are strong men and wizards?”

            {None.}

            {That doesn’t really make sense.}

            {Mr. Circuit is far less powerful than Mr. Magic.}

            {And Miss Spell is far more powerful than Mechani-Gal.}

            “But Mr. Circuit and Mechani-Gal are more dangerous to him right now.” Merry said. “Magic doesn’t work well in outer space, it’s too Earth dependent. But if the tech heroes get together they could figure out how to get control of the satellites again.”

            “He’s grabbing a lot of girls too.” Lizzie said.

            “Must be horny.” Jessie said.

            “Half and half.” Merry said. “He can break them and bargain them away as sex slaves to men and women in power.”

            “But he wanted us dead.” Simone said. “Strange when you think about what Lucy said about your reputation.”

            “She was right and wrong.” Merry said. “He didn’t grab the scythe to get to me alone, he grabbed it to get to us. He still has no idea where Dollopolis is. He can’t leave a hidden base alone with what he imagines is our type of high tech resources. He guessed that we’d talk to Lucy sooner or later, we just showed up a little earlier than he thought.”

            {Well we know what the problem is.}

            {What is the solution.}

            {The Argo can reach orbit.}

            {But not the moon.}

            “Can we make it to one of the satellites Mistress?” Jessie asked.

            {One.}

            {But disabling one will do no good.}

            {There are a hundred of them.}

            {And the designs are so secret we have not been able to get them.}

            “Have the British captured Lady Highfield yet?” Merry said looking at the list.

            {Not yet.}

            {She’s being held captive by one of her foes.}

            {Villains acting at cross purposes.}

            {The London Police are negotiating now.}

            “That's our tech then." Merry said. "She knows the systems. She was one of the people on the design team.”

            "But if we rescue her won't they know that we're still alive?" Jessie asked. "And that she was free?"

            "She's right." Simone said. "Timidious will start destroying cities if she isn't turned over."

            "What about the lunar colonies?" Merry asked. "Can they do anything?"

            {Not from what we've been able to tell.}

            {They've been silent since the take over.}

            {He might have killed everyone in the colonies.}

            {He's also started blowing up space ports. The ports in Germany, England, France and Russia are gone.}

            "He blew up England's space port?" Merry asked.

            {Yes.}

            "But he doesn't have Lady Highfield." Merry said. "That's not a smart move on his part."

            {It is when you consider the hidden missile launch facility under the spaceport.}

            {There is a five-mile wide crater next to South Tottenham that is going to take some explaining when this is all over.}

            {Putting military launch sites in the middle of populated areas will be hard for even Churchill the Fourth to explain away.}

            "But it's a break for us." Merry said. "Even if they get her they'll have to get her someplace where they can get her up to him. We have to get her first or get to her while she's in route."

            "How?" Lizzie asked.

            "We have to do it the right way." Merry said. She leaned forward. "We need to get to England, rescue her, fake her death and then get her shrunk and into the Argo so that she can get close enough to the satellites to take them out. I'm betting that Timidious has the satellites rejecting any signal from Earth."

            {Correct.}

            {If she were in orbit she could use the Argo's computer to penetrate the satellites systems and shut all of them down.}

{And the Argo like all of our ships is very hard to track.}

{But how do you plan to fake her death?}

"You ever see a Disney special?" Merry asked. "It featured the Magic Mirror from Snow White giving a Halloween run down of villains. Basically a clip show, but there was one truth in it that I always liked: What does a villain not need? Another villain."

"Ah." Simone said. "So if one of Lady Highfield's old foes shows up…"

"With luck Timidious will think that someone's taking advantage of what he is doing. Looks like someone is already doing it. As long as he thinks that she's dead he won't waste any time on her."

"What villain?" Jessie asked.

{Dark Armor.}

{Or his daughter.}

{They both supposedly died five years ago in battle with Iron Mistress.}

{Get back here Dolly, by the time you do we'll have an armored suit ready for you.}

"I just hope we have time." Merry said as she started the engines.

Lady Serenity Highfield braced herself and lifted. Directed by her movements and thoughts the mystically powered armor she wore moved as well. But only a little bit. On a display screen in front of her eyes a diagram flickered in and out of existence. The fact that it wasn't steady was almost as bad as what it displayed. There was about twenty feet of debris above her, stone, wood, metal and assorted materials. All heavy and all doing their best to cooperate with the law of gravity.

"Blasted bitch why don’t you get us out of here." The man at her feet cursed. He was a wizened old skeleton of a man with no hair, a thin face and a bad disposition. Mr. Rasputin was a sorcerer and he had been trying to defeat her for ten years. His latest effort hadn't worked but it had damaged her armor and put her at his mercy for nearly a day and a half. But Serenity was sure that the building coming down was not his doing.

"Shut up." Serinity said through gritted teeth. "This is your bloody fault you know."

"I'm not the one who fired at the building." Mr. Rasputin said. "Those foolish peelers must have done it."

"No one calls them 'peelers' anymore." Serenity said. "Stop showing your age and be quiet."

"It's alright for you in that shiny suit of armor." Mr. Rasputin mumbled.

He muttered something after that and Serenity ignored it. Mentally she directed power to the force field around them. Then Serenity started to draw power from her reserves. She'd have to build up and direct a wide particle beam at the weakest part of the debris field and hope to shift it. As the power levels rose Serenity thought hard about what had happened.

Maybe Lucy was right, Serenity thought, perhaps I should form a supergroup.

Serenity had gone through an exhausting battle with an ICE remnant called 'The Crushers' and had needed Moon Girl's help to defeat them. But just hours after Moon Girl had flown back to Maine Serenity had been attacked by Mr. Rasputin. He had overwhelmed her armor with one of his chaos bolts and chained her up. What he hadn’t realized was that Serenity had recently upgraded her armor. She had broken free and attacked him. But during the attack the building had come down around them. It had to have been an outside hit, but who and why was a mystery. Mr. Rasputin was more amazed than she was.

Yes, some sort of partner or back up would have been welcome over the past few days, Serenity thought.

"Power levels are ready." She said. "Hold your ears or loose your hearing."

"You will pay for this Iron Mistress." Mr. Rasputin said. But he covered his ears.

Serenity directed her armor to channel the energy reserves into her forces field. She moved the energy along it, forming micron sized wave guides to guide the energy and collect it into a large focused beam of heat and force. The debris above her started to shift and then move. Serenity concentrated and felt the anti-grav unit in her legs start to push her away from the planet. Slowly they moved upward. The closer they got to the surface the faster they went and the more concentration it took for Serenity to guide the energy. Surfacing in a large blast would be dramatic, but dangerous to the crowds that always formed for these battles, no matter how dangerous it had been shown to be.

Still Serenity couldn't help but give a little push just before they surfaced. Not enough to cause a huge Hollywood style explosion, but enough to throw some dust and dirt into the air. The Earth settled in under her and Serenity landed just in time. She watched the monitor as her energy reserves went dangerously close to the red range.

"Iron Mistress you are under arrest!"

Serenity looked around with a surprise nearly bordering on shock. Mr. Rasputin's base had been an old warehouse next to an oil tanker on the London Docks. The tanker was broken in two and the warehouse was in ruins around her. Outside of a cordon a crowd was calling and cheering but there were too many people talking at once for her to understand anything. Holding the crowd back was a police squad but in front of them was a squad of army troops. They had impressive looking weaponry and looked ready to use it.

"What is going on?" Serenity demanded using her armor to amplify her voice.

"You've been boned you bitch!" A voice from above shouted.

Serenity looked up and saw a dark and bulky armored shape fly down. Rockets flew from the shape and started to impact the army troops. Electrical shocks and a gray gas filled the pre-dawn air. Before Serenity could do anything a spear shot from the bulky armor and went through Mr. Rasputin's shoulder. He went down screaming hysterically and the armored attacked paused for a moment.

"Mr. Rasputin isn't going to have you, Timidious isn't going to have you, your mine Iron Mistrss! You belong to Dark Armor's daughter!"

With that the armored figure flew into her with a flying tackle followed by a punch that sent Serenity sailing into what was left of a wall. She lay there stunned for a moment while her armors damage alarms went off.

Serenity managed to sit up in time to see the armored woman attack the rest of the army troops. She was wielding a clumsier version of the armor, but it was definitely based on Serenity's design. Anger started to push fatigue out of the way. Dark Armor had been a bitter engineer from one of her companies who had claimed to be a genius but in reality was a hack. He stole things, he didn’t invent them. His daughter was just as bad. Serenity thought that they were both dead but this wasn't the first time a foe had come back from death.

It took only a few minutes for the new Dark Armor to take care of the army troops. That was enough for Serenity. She didn't have enough power left for her energy beams but the armor could move. She grabbed a chunk of wall and threw it at Dark Amor. Armor ducked and the chunk totaled a police car. The car exploded and that only added to the confusion.

Dark Armor charged her and pounded her fist into Serenity's stomach. Serenity took the blows and head butted her opponent. The armored suits ringed and clanged as they clashed.

More army troops were arriving and heavy weapons were being set up. Serenity didn't dare pay them much attention; her foe was too good. The blows she was landing on Serenity's already damaged armor were starting to tell. Her systems were starting to fail when a discharge from a shock cannon blasted them apart.

"Stay out of this!" Dark Armor screamed and fired an energy beam into the cannon. It overloaded and exploded. Dark Armor turned back to Serenity and charged her. The charge carried them into what was left of the tanker.

Serenity's armor adjusted to the dim light instantly and she saw Dark Armor fire a missile back the way that they had come. The entrance exploded in flames.

"That should hide us for a few minutes." Dark Armor said. "There's a little oil left in here, great some things just go right!"

Serenity watched as Dark Armor opened her mask.

"Merry!" Serenity nearly shouted.

"I need you to trust me Lady Highfield." Merry said. "We gotta make it look like both of us get blown up."

"What? Why?"

"Please my lady just trust me!" Merry pleaded.

It was the word 'please' that convinced Serenity. She'd never heard Merry use the word before.

"How do we do this?" Serenity asked.

"Can your force field cover me too if we go underwater?" Merry asked.

"Not after what I've been through." Serenity said. I’ll be able to handle the explosion, but not much more than that.”

"How about if I get small and get into the armor with you?" Merry demanded.

"You'll have to be very small."

"I can do that." Merry said. She seemed to vanish into the suit and after a moment climbed out of the open faceplate. Serenity was still trying to recover her wits as she watched a tiny naked Merry climb down the armor. She ran over to Serenity.

"Open up and let me in." Merry said.

"You must have one incredible story to tell me." Serenity said bending down. She picked Merry up and opened her chest plate.

"We need to get down river to a yacht, the Barbie. It’s a pink two-decker. Simone's waiting there and she'll explain everything."

"A little smaller." Serenity said as Merry settled in between her breasts. Merry shrank again and then Serenity sealed her chest plate. Trying to ignore the presence of the other woman Serenity tore her way through the bottom of the tanker and into the water. Behind her the now empty armor started to fire randomly. They were about fifty feet away when the explosion slammed them into the mud at the bottom of the Thames. She dug her way out of the mud but her armor was becoming more and more sluggish. A bright red light started to flash on her display and Serenity started to swim toward the surface as fast as she could. She got as close as she dared and then started to head down stream. Serenity’s armor was mystically powered and when that power was gone it simply vanished until it could re-charge. That had given her trouble in the past but there was no solution that she had found. So Serenity swam as fast as she could. Tapping into the London Dock directory she found where the Barbie was docked and headed there. She was nearly there when the warning light turned solid and her armor faded and vanished. The ice cold water of the Thames hit her hard and for a moment Serenity was worried. Then a hand grabbed hers and held on. Serenity was sure for a moment that she had lost Merry but a sharp pain from her nipple made her look down. Merry was clinging to her with both hands.

“Here.” Simone said handing Serenity a cup filled with tea. “If you are truly English this should help.”

“Thank you.” Serenity said taking the cup. Part of the problem of her armor powering down due to loss of energy was that her clothing did not re-appear as it did when she simply shut the armor off. Being hauled wet and naked onto the deck of the yacht had not been one of her finest moments. Simone had hustled her into the cabin while Merry had gone naked to the wheelhouse and had gotten them going. A quick shower had cleansed her of the Thames water and while she had bathed Simone had told her what had happened.

I really should form some sort of supergroup, Serenity thought as she had dried herself.

“And that is where we stand now.” Simone said. “We were fortunate that I have been working on a suit of armor for Merry and that we had a large amount of black spray paint on hand.”

“We’re clear.” Merry said coming into the cabin. “No tracers, no navy ships. We weren’t the only one heading out in a hurry.”

“You had better clean up then.” Simone said.

Merry nodded and left.

The yacht was very luxuriously furnished and Serenity wondered how they had gotten it. But that was only one of the things she had to wonder about. Simone sat and sipped her tea in a way that Serenity knew well. Somehow Simone had gotten an English education. Only someone brought up in the rules of a formal tea would lay out the tray and behave this way. The tea came along with crackers lightly covered with jelly. Simone had even dressed the part by wearing a long cream and brown Edwardian style dress and blouse. The robe that they had given Serenity was a Vera Wang long black wrap around. Very expensive.

“You have a lovely yacht.” Serenity said.

“Thank you.” Simone replied. “And how are your daughters?”

“Worried no doubt.” Serenity said. “But I’m sure they will cope. This won’t be the first time I’ve been reported dead.”

“An occupational hazard?” Simone asked.

“Yes, very much so.”

She could have gone to school in England or Europe, Serenity mused. It’s so hard at times to believe that she’s from another world.

“Dead's a good place to hide.” Merry said coming back into the room. Her short white robe was barely closed and her hair was still wet. She went over to the window and looked out. “It’d be nice to have some fog too.” Merry turned back and walked over to the other window. “How long before your armor recharges?”

“Twelve hours.” Serenity said.

American, she thought, definitely American.
            Merry grabbed a remote and turned on a large plasma tv set into the wall. A BBC commentator appeared on the screen and she muted the sound. A black bar with his words appeared.

“Think Timidious will be fooled?” Merry asked.

“For a while.” Serenity said. “It depends on how busy he is.”

“He’s busy.” Merry said. “I think that when Simone and I showed up at Rothschild Mansion he was caught off guard.”

“That bloody bastard!” Serenity swore as she glimpsed his picture on the TV. “I spent a year, a solid year of ten hour days on the encryption to those satellites! It was myself and five of the best mathematicians in the world! How did he crack the code?”

“One of the five has a daughter.” Merry said. “Professor Kimachuri’s daughter Say-Lin vanished a few months ago. They found his body this morning. He hanged himself.”

“Poor man.” Serenity said remembering the sober Asian who approached mathematics the way a monk would approach prayer. The man whose mind was so involved in mathematics he sometimes forgot to wear shoes to the morning meetings.

“He’s got company.” Merry said. “The other three who worked with you are missing.”

“It was only a bit of luck that we had time to get to you.” Simone said. “Mr. Rasputin actually did you a favor.”

“I’ll have to remember to thank him at the trial.” Serenity said looking at Merry. “If he survives.”

Merry shrugged.

“If I wanted him dead the spear would have gone through his heart. I wanted him alive and screaming. Added to the confusion. There might be a lot of bruised and broken bodies but no ones dead back there. At least not on purpose.”

“I see you are as ruthless as ever.” Serenity said. She thought of the army men Merry had attacked. Even if none of them were dead there would be injuries and pain to deal with.

“We have other matters to deal with right now Lady Highfield.” Simone said. “We need to rescue Earth Force and the others that Timidious is gathering and we need to take those satellites back. I will not have Dollopolis living under his threat.”

“If he has the codes we’re doomed.” Serenity said. “I’m sure he’s already cut off the Earth link that could have given us a way in.”

“No code is unbreakable.” Merry said.

“No, but this is more than a code.” Serenity said. “The computer in each satellite is linked to the other satellite. A network. If a command is sent to them with the wrong alpha-numeric key they all switch to a different encryption set. There are over ten million sets and they are chosen nearly at random.”

“How do they do that and all stay on the same page?” Merry asked. “You can’t have two random actions at the same time.”

"You can." Serenity said.

"How?" Simone asked.

Serenity hesitated.

"You want to live under the Emperor Timidous?" Merry asked.

"I know." Serenity said. "But you are not the only one who worries about security.

“A moot point now that the security is broken.” Simone pointed out.

“Very true.” Serenity said sipping her tea. “The encryption key base is located in one hundred and five different places, all existing in the same place at once."

"Wanna clarify that a bit?" Merry asked.

"Professor Henry Karaptos was a man ahead of his time." Serenity said. "And sometimes beside his time." She added. "Brilliant, erratic… lecherous… He never told any of us how but he created a set of crystals that were in precise tune with one another. Anything that happened to one of them happened to all of them, no matter how far apart they were. Instantly. We even put them at opposite ends of the solar system and they still instantly synchronized perfectly. So we created an encryption code key and based it on the vibrations of the crystals. One hundred were put into orbit, one in each satellite. The others were incorporated into five keys. Hook the key up to a computer and run the key program and you'll have access to the satellite. Without the key the sun will burn out before you run through all the variations."

"So he got a key." Merry said.

"He must have." Serenity said. "They were placed in secret locations through out the world."

"That would explain why he's been hitting a few non-military targets." Merry said. "I'm betting the rest are all destroyed."

"He would have cut off the Earth link anyway." Simone said. "But without the key we can't do a thing."

"What about the professor?" Simone asked.

"Vanished." Simone said. "Into another dimension with his lab and the building it was housed in."

"So there's no way in from Earth, what about space?" Merry asked.

"There's no way in period." Serenity said. "Not without the key. There's nothing we can do on that side of the problem."

"Yea there is." Merry said. "You're just not thinking the right way. If you can't blow up one thing blow up another."

Definitely American, Serenity thought.

"What happens if one satellite gets a command different from the others?" Merry asked.

"It could never happen." Serenity said. "We ran every attack scenario that we could, there was just no way it could happen. Without the key it would simply ignore the command and the system resets after every command."

"So if it happens the system will probably crash." Merry said.

"I suppose so." Serenity said. She thought hard, her mind going over technical data and design specifications. It was one of those software problems that she loved to toy with; how could a computer cope with the un-copeable.

"But it could never happen. The key is sent first, it gets to the satellite instantly and then the duplicate key and the command are sent in the same sequence by radio. We literally send a copy of the key first, but since no one can re-create the crystal there’s no way for anyone to intercept it and it also forms the encryption basis for the radio signal. It’s a bit like making two keys for a house and sending one by runner and one by post, when the posted key reaches the house the runner is already there and if they don’t match you don’t get in."

"So the second message is in one packet that is decoded once it reaches the satellite. And it has the key and the command." Merry said. “But the crystals are the key right?”

"Yes." Serenity said. "You could jam the radio signal I suppose but the AI on the satellite would just go to a pre-loaded back up instruction packet and I'm sure Timidious has planned that side of things as well."

"What is your idea Merry?" Simone asked.

Merry paced for a bit and then walked over to the desk and took out a pad of paper. Walking back over to the coffee table she wrote something on the pad and then tore off the paper, tore it into three halves and put two of them next to Simone’s teacup and one next to Serenity’s teacup. Then she put the pad and the pen next to Serenity's teacup. After that she tossed off her robe and shrunk.

"Put me on the table?" Merry asked Simone.

Simone placed her on the table and Merry Walked over to Serenity's teacup. The sight of the twelve inch tall nude woman on the glass top table would have been silly if not for the serious look on Merry's face. Merry walked over and stood next to Serenity's teacup.

"Ok, say that your teacup is the moonbase pointing to Simone’s teacup." Merry said. "And Serenity's is the satellite. I'm one of our ships. Now I sneak up on the satellite."

"Can you do that?" Serenity asked. "Our sensors are very sensitive."

"What do they look for, heat? Motion? Radio signals?"

"All of the above." Serenity said. “At a range of 50 meters.”

"If we go slow enough we can fool them then." Merry said. "We can hold the ship far enough away and simply float to them."

"They'd detect the metal in your space suits." Serenity said.

"We don't use metal in our suits." Simone said.

"Ok, we get to the satellite." Merry took hold of the spoon and hefted it out of the teacup. She knocked off the drops of tea still on the spoon. The sound of the metal hitting the china seemed very loud to Serenity. Then Merry put the spoon a few inches away from the cup. "Ok, that is the antenna. We’re into the satellite through that.” She paused and looked up at Serenity “We can interface through that right

“No.” Serenity said. “But there is an access point behind the antenna for a repair drone to hook up too.”

“Can you get us hooked up through that?” Merry asked.

“Yes.” Serenity said. “And no, the door to the interface is locked and can only by opened by the repair drone.”

“What kinda lock?” Merry asked.

“A metal key.” Serenity said. “We thought ourselves quite clever on that point, how could a lock be picked in space? No one could get near the satellite to do it. So a simple metal key was all that was needed.”

“It’ll be a trick but I’m pretty sure we can pick the lock.” Merry said. “So we open that and you can interface with the system?”

“Yes.” Serenity said.

           “Ok, so we’re in.”

Merry walked over to the two pieces of paper and picked one up.

“Now follow me on this and tell me if I’m wrong. The key frequency is fed into the crystal right?”

“Yes.” Serenity replied. “And all the crystals vibrate at that same frequency.”

“At the same time?” Merry asked.

“Yes. We could never get them to carry a modulated signal, just vibrate at a specific frequency. It drove us mad trying. That’s when we came up with the idea of taking advantage of the time delay between an instantaneous signal and one that had to actually follow the laws of physics.”

Merry picked up the paper and carried it over to Serenity’s cup.

“The satellite now has the key, but not the command, the command is coming with a copy of the key that the crystal now has. And that’s coming by radio waves right?”

“Yes.”

Serenity was beginning to realize what Merry was up to. However the idea that she'd found a hole in a security system that took five minds-five brilliant minds-over a year to design was almost too much to take in.

Merry walked back over and picked up the other piece of paper.

“Ok, I’m the command with the key and I’m heading toward the satellite.” She said walking toward the teacup. “It’s not going to take me long. Pick up your paper and write something on it.” Serenity did so. “Now put your paper into the teacup.” Merry said.

Serenity dropped her piece of paper into the teacup. She knew what Merry was proposing now and it was staggering.

“The message is on the satellite.” Merry said. “With the right command key, in a few seconds the message I’m carrying will reach the satellite.” Merry dropped her piece of paper into the teacup with the other one. “So we have a command with the right key and we have another command with the right key. What happens to the rest of the system?”

"Dear lord." Serenity whispered and fell back into the couch.

"Can you write a program that will get the key from the crystal? Once we have that we just feed in our command. All of them will get one command from Timidious, but one of them will get his command plus ours." She looked at Serenity. “Did you ever plan for something like that?”

Serenity was too stunned to reply as her mind went through the idea. It could work. It would work.

"Yes." Serenity said quietly. "Dear Lord it could work. I know how to interface with the satellite… The system probably will crash and we could shut it down. Dear Lord! We ran through countless threat scenarios. Why did I never think of this?"

"How many foot tall women have you known in your life with spaceships?" Merry asked

"Do you actually have a ship that can reach orbit?" Serenity asked.

Merry and Simone looked at each other. Serenity couldn't tell if they were thinking or they were trying to keep a secret.

"It will also have to have a 3 tera-hertz processor able to run the operating system and compiler.” Serenity said. “OS Y.5 at least with two terabytes of ram. I can write the program, but I'll need a system that can run it, and my armor could never fit into your ships. My company makes the processors… but how can we…"

"I stole a crate last summer." Merry interrupted her. She shrugged at the look Lady Highfield gave her. "We needed the parts."

"That shipment was worth three million pounds!" Serenity said outraged.

"Yes well we can settle the bill later." Simone said. "The point is the processor is running in most of our ships and we've been using your chipset too."

"Then I can program them." Serenity said fighting down her outrage. She’d personally investigated that theft and now she knew why there had only been dead ends. Merry had somehow broken into her most secure high tech factory and walked out with a lorry full of parts. Serenity vowed to find out how later. "I can down load what I need from my armor."

"The trouble is the height." Simone said. "We've never gone beyond sub-orbital."

"The Galactica might be able to get that high if we loose some weight." Merry said. "And its computer is good enough."

"To loose that much weight we'll have to loose the weapons." Simone said. "And the life support system. We'll use up all the fuel just to get up there."

            "The skins can handle space." Merry said. Then she added uncertainly: "Can't they?"

            "Yes." Simone said. But her tone of voice wasn't solid. "I suppose."

            "You take Lizzie and Jessie and Lady Highfield up to the satellite in Galactica." Merry said. "I'll come along in the Argo. That can get orbital if we use a booster and loose life support and it does have weapons."

            "We'll have to work outside the ship." Simone said. "And Lady Highfield will have to be skinned as well. But none of us have ever worked in that sort of environment."

            "I have." Serenity said. "But another problem is the signal itself. We need to have a signal to intercept. I can get the key from the satellite, but only if a signal is being sent. The crystals are instantaneous, but the radio waves that the systems uses are not. I can get the key a few seconds before the command reaches the satellite, but it has to be a new command. A command with the old key will be ignored. Also the satellites were designed to be independent as much as possible. They could go for weeks without needing another instruction."

            "And in those weeks Earth Force could be reduced to mindless slaves." Simone said. “Or worse.”

            "We need to get him to send a signal as soon as possible." Merry said. "As soon as we're ready."

            "How?" Serenity asked.

            "We give him a new target." Merry said. "One that he has to hit fast.” She started to pace back and forth across the table. “If I stripped the Argo of everything, and I mean everything and loaded on booster rockets I could make the moon."

            "Merry no." Simone said. "Timidious will catch you."

            "Right." Merry said. "And he'll break into my mind and see what I know." Merry stopped and looked at her. "Simone you can fix my mind so that I'll remember what you and Lady Highfield are planning to do what we're doing, give him a false location of Dollopolis, but that you needed more time on the ships. He'll use the satellites to fire on that spot and that's when you'll make your move."

            "And five seconds later he'll kill you." Simone said. "Painfully."

            "If you have control of the satellites you can blast the moonbase." Merry said. "Not a big one, just hit the power units. I'll take it from there."

            "And do what?" Simone demanded.

            "Free Earth Force." Merry said.

            "Merry Timidious is a very powerful telepath." Serenity said. She was amazed at the plan but she wasn't amazed at Merry's attitude. This was the Merry she had fought with on Fearun. Absolutely fearless. Serenity wasn’t even sure Merry was planning to live through the mission. "He won't stop at a false memory."

            "Yes he will." Merry said. "He's a powerful telepath but he's a supervillain. He'll settle for a surface memory at first and save the rest for later. Time is the key here, he'll want to deal with the threat fast. And after the trouble I’ve caused he’ll want to torture me." Merry spread her arms. "This body of mine is too tempting for most people to ignore no matter how tall it is."

            "If you're wrong and he goes too deep your mental shield will shut your mind down." Simone said. "And I might not be able to start it again."

            "I'm not wrong." Merry said. “And even if I am the safety of the duchy and you comes first.”

            Her tone was firm. Serenity had heard it before. She guessed Simone had heard it before as well. For a moment they stood and looked at each other. It was a strange tableau to witness as the shrunken woman gazed at the tall one. Then Simone sat back in her seat. After a moment Merry went over and jumped onto her lap.

            “Simone it’s the best plan. You know how I feel about having my mind tampered with, but I trust you to do this.”

            “I won’t enjoy it.” Simone said. “But you are right. I’ll do it.”

            "Lady Highfield there is one other problem." Merry said turning to her. "For this to work you're going to see things no one else ever has. Not only Dollopolis, but the drydocks, the skin room… you're going to see our tech like no one ever has." Merry jumped back onto the table and walked over to her. Then she amazed Serenity by kneeling. "We’ll be like this to you, on our knees. The only thing you won't see is our home’s location. These are secrets I've killed to protect. I have to know if I can trust you with them. I trusted Lucy once and she betrayed that trust. You’re a lot like her. Can I trust you with this? Please tell me yes or no. We'll do it either way, we have no choice, but I have to know."

            "Merry I would never willingly reveal anything about you or your city." Serenity said. She was touched by the trust they were giving her and a little bit worried by it. Merry saw a betray of trust as a mortal sin, if someday Serenity was ever forced to move against them Merry would be all the harder to deal with. In the moment Serenity realized this she decided to go with the truth. "But I can't promise I won't use what I learn someday, but I can swear I'll never use it against you."

            Merry nodded.

            "Then that's what I'll live with." She stood up. “But I do want to knock you out until we get there.”

            “A strange way to ask for trust.” Serenity said.

            “It’s not trust it’s safety.” Simone said. “As you said Timdious is a powerful telepath. He may capture us. Merry, and I and Lizzie and Jessie have powerful mind shields. It takes years to construct them. You don’t have that protection.”

            “And you worked with Timidious for years.” Merry said. “He may have delayed commands in you the same way he had them in Ms. Dream and the others.”

            “You’re right.” Serenity said. Her stomach lurched at the idea of what the telepath could have done to her mind all those years.

            “The location of our duchy is known to the gods and us.” Simone said. She took the paper out of Serenity's cup and then reached into a pocket in her skirt. From it she took a vial and poured the contents into the teacup. “And I’m sorry if this offends you but I wish to keep it that way. This drug will cause you to sleep until we get to Dollopolis.”

            They didn’t like it and neither did Serenity, but she could understand why they wanted her to do it. Serenity smiled.

            “After the past few days a nap would do me a world of good.” She said putting a brave face on her actions. Then she drank the tea.

            “We’ll talk again soon.” Simone said taking the teacup out of her hands.

            “Man are we in the deep end of the pool now." Merry said when she was sure that Serenity was asleep. There was a slight shimmering effect and Serenity shrank to Merry’s size.

            "We have jumped in." Simone said. "But at least we can talk freely now." She reached over and took the now-small English woman in her hands.

“I was thinking off of the top of my head mostly.” Merry said.

{Your idea is simple.}

{So simple they never planned for it.}

{Poor woman, I think she nearly fainted when she realized it could work.}

{But there are problems.}

"How much of the plan would really work?" Simone asked stroking Serenity’s hair softly. "I didn't sense much enthusiasm from you."

{We were listening.}

{It is no wonder that the satellite's were considered so safe.}

{A very good piece of engineering.}

{Pity it's been turned around.}

"I'm just glad that you started using regular parts in the ships." Merry said. "Makes me feel a bit better about stealing the stuff."

"But can the plan work?" Simone asked. She put Serenity back on the couch and covered the sleeping woman with the robe. Serenity didn’t stir.

{Yes.}

{Maybe.}

{At least the first part.}

{You can get to the satellite and intercept the signal. We are working out the right ships to take now.}

"But my part is chancy." Merry said.

{As always.}

{Getting you to the moon will be hard.}

{And once there you will probably be on your own until the satellite is taken care of.}

{You will be operating as the First Knight and we will not be able to help you.}

"Well I've been through it before." Merry said. "The important thing is to stop him and free Earth Force."

"No, the important thing is you staying alive." Simone said.

"Simone that guy shredded Mary's mind, he spent years as a double agent. There is no way in hell I let him stay up there, even if…"

"You are not going to throw your life away for them!" Simone snapped. "Goddess Merry you aren't."

"Of course not." Merry snapped. "But I have to go into this and know that it could happen. If I don't then it's more likely I will die then I won't."

"I can accept that." Simone said. "Just for Goddess sake do not think your life isn't worth as much as any of theirs!"

"Simone it isn't!" Merry shouted.

"It is!" Simone shouted back.

            {Whether it is or is not is irrelevant.}

            {We are not about to let you go and kill yourself Dolly.}

            {There are going to be plans made.}

            {And we are making them.}

            Merry took a deep breath and stepped back. Her heart was beating in her chest and she was sweating. She couldn't stand arguing with Simone. But she couldn't hide from reality either. In the final equation the world's greatest heroes were more important to the world than one operative of an underground group bent on world domination.

            But there was no way she could say that out loud. Even if the Group weren’t listening Simone would never understand.

            "We'll be in France in an hour." Simone said changing the subject. "The jet is going to be a while getting home."

            {Hopefully things will not change that much.}

            {It will give us time.}

            {Once you are on the plane you can rest.}

            {We are planning.}

            Merry sighed and sat down next to Serenity’s teacup. Simone sat down in chair.

            "Tea?" Simone asked.

            "I guess." Merry replied.

…to be continued.

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