Madam Marvelous: Chapter Five -- Frozen Vacuum (Collaborative -- Open to All)

   Keri was waiting for Kitt'n to show.  Doug was still high on the fact he would have a human body back.  Nothing could hide his smile.  Keri knew they had to start with the devices Madame Marvelous found.  Doug may have to hack the system.  She was sure they would find something the agents missed.

   They were told their elders would handle this despite the fact MM found this.  She knew they wanted to protect the young heroes, but they deserve some credit and can aid the older heroes.  She kind of took offense to being left out.  The Sword of Gerraxia isn't that much older than them.  It's just not fair.

    "Hi, Keri," Kitt'n said as she approached.  "Where should we start?"

    "With Doug hacking into one of the devices you found," Keri stated.  Doug looked shocked at the statement.

    Kitt'n heard something close by, "I think we'll have a fight first," she said as three figures came out of hiding.

Out from the door to the abandoned kitchen of the old Malt Shop building, a hidey hole Astra, I  (Madam Marvelous), and a few others used as an impromptu meeting place, three warriors with skin as black as  night and wearing black studded leather armor rushed in with odd looking guns.

"Dark elves," Astra said as she threw up a protective shield around her body. Futurina had spoken of elves from different realms and dimensions, but never before had she encountered them first hand.

"That device is not for your prying eyes, children," a fourth, female elf said as she entered the room. She wore robes instead of armor. "Return it to us freely or we will take it from you and educate you in the weaknesses you each possess."

"Is your name written on it somewhere?" I asked as I shifted into Gar's powerful gargoyle body. "I looked and didn't see one, or else I'd have called and brought it to you when I found it."

"Are heroes in every realm always so trying?" She asked as she waved her hand and summoned two more elves from the kitchen, elves that restrained a young child, perhaps 12 years old, in some type of netting that crackled with occasional sparks of electricity. The girl spasmed and her body twitched as each shock seared her flesh. "Weakness one. You care for others more than you respect the needs of your mission, a weakness we do not possess. We were commanded to recover the device. We will stop at nothing to achieve our goal, even if that means slaying this and every other child in the city."

*At the same time as this assault is taking place, another group of these Drow alongside some unusual beings is even now beginning to besiege Ice Ray Academy under the leadership of the gruesome Lich de Sade.

He has with him a certain artifact he had secretly stolen from there the first time he visited months ago which will now be used to great sorrow against the Academy's magic users.

"While thisss isss active, the Drow and I will go after our victimsss and the ressst of you can rob and sssteal everything you want to here. There isss no one currently powerful enough to dissspel the power of this sssphere in resssidence right now except the hag AphraeltheFaeChildGoddessssssofInnocencever3.0 and I will personally make assure ssshe doessss not interfer with usss. Remember that while thisss isss active, you can only ussse physssical and technological abilitiesss which I can highly asssssssure you will come asss a nasssty sssurprissse to the wizardsss and witchesss here."

Singularity followed after the others in her group. The Lich de Sade knew where he was going, she cautiously observed. She did enjoy the idea of looting a school, even one she wasn't aware existed before today.

Keeping her Singularity inside its protective case until she was ready to make use of it, she found some trinkets made of gold and other precious metals. A few crystals that could be gem worthy and sold for some profit. There were a few textbooks on the floors she took a moment to examine. Most seemed magical in nature, or at least by the runes and text scribbled on the pages she couldn't read. There were occasional mathematic formulae that might be translatable.

Science and technology were the future of magic. They always were as they surpassed what spellcraft and trickery could accomplish.

She fumbled with the latch that held her pet. What would happen if when they left to go back to H-R Earth and she left the singularity here in the school to devour all that was left in it when they were done? It was an intoxicating thought. She might have to set some parameters for a new experiment...

    Morgothan twisted one of his rings as he entered the Star Force headquarters.  Why bother casting spell when magic rings can accomplish the same without draining power.  He snuck past many of the heroes and alarms set.  He spotted Prysmatica.  She was a major problem with her powers.

    He paid close attention and slowly slipped past her.  He found his targets.  Futurina, Starmaster, and Wyldfyre.  He stifled a giggle.  He twisted another ring.  He lept at his targets and his image split into ten copies of himself.

    His targets were surprised.  Hopefully this would be enough.

"WHAT?!" Starmaster said as he bolted up from his seat, knocking his plate of cheese and wineglass to the ground. "Who are you?"

Wyldfyre rose up from his seat while draining his glass of wine. "Who are they, technically. Can we just get to the fighting without asking so many question?"

Futurina remained seated. She glowered at the intruder, the one who twisted his ring to initiate its power to create duplicates. "That gimmick doesn't work on trained mental practitioners. On your average elf, perhaps, but not against me. I'm Futurina. I saw you coming yesterday."

    Futurina looked directly at Morgothan, "Starmaster probably knows there is only one mind, and can sense where you truly are.  All we need to do is Direct Wyldfyre where to aim."

    Morgothan twisted another ring to protect himself from fire and then threw a gold circlet at Futurina.  "I did my research, elf."

    Futurina caught the circlet in midair, smiled and said, "I told you, I saw you coming yesterday.  Gold only gives me a backlash if I'm wearing it."  She sent the circlet flying out of the room to alert others.  

    Starmaster sent a telepathic blast at the goblin.  Wyldfyre shot at him.

***

    Astra looked and weighed her options carefully.  She didn't want the young girl to be hurt.  Options? she telepathically asked.

    Doug looked with his robotic eyes scanning, "Hmm, that net must be magic.  I'm not picking up any electronic instruments."  He picked up the device and linked with it secretly hacking into it.   He downloaded the information.  "I guess we have no choice but to hand it over."  He offered it to the dark elves.  I got the information.  He winked at Madame Marvelous.

"Astra? I don't think we have a choice," I said. Saving the girl had to be our first priority, it just sucked that it meant losing the device and having these dark elves escaping. "You're the senior BADGE agent. What do you say?"

"Take it," Astra said through gritted teeth. "Take it and let her go."

"Such quick students. Well done," the dark elf female said with faux clapping. Her arrogance dripped like drool from Pavlov's dog after the bell rang. "You get to keep this child's life, and your own intact. For now."

One of the other three dark elves in studded leather armor came up nearest Doug and reach out, taking the device. He raised his top lip just enough to reveal a sharp canine fang as he backed away, a warning to keep our distance as he rejoined his group.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked. "We don't have to be enemies."

"You act like you have a choice in that," she said as she shoved the girl to the ground toward us. "Don't follow us unless you want to learn a second, more costly lesson this day."

Astra telekinetically buffered the girl's fall so she wouldn't be badly hurt on the rough floor. As the dark elves slipped back into the kitchen, Astra brought the girl to her feet and knelt before her, checking for injuries. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"

"No," she said between huffs of breath that carried her fear and anger into the air like a malevolent cloud. "I was at the playground and felt a bug bite my neck and then everything went black. I just woke up in that room when they slapped me and brought me in here."

"Lean forward, please, sweetheart," Astra said as she checked the girl's neck. A tiny stinger was stuck into her flesh just below her ear. Not touching it, Astra pulled it out with her TK and observed it in mid-air.

"What kind of bug did that?" I asked, never having seen anything like it.

"Not a bug. A weapon. It is a dart seeped in a poison their kind uses in battle." Astra pulled out a bag for collecting evidence from her a pocket and placed the dart inside it. "Mom told me a little about her dealings with them, and you have to watch any item they use or offer you, as they are notorious for underhanded sh--," Astra caught herself before she swore in the child's face, "-stuff like that."

"Ummm," Doug said as he placed his hand on a wall, his pallor becoming pale. "I'm not feeling quite like myself. Well, my body isn't feeling like itself."

Nyx, wearing a golden circlet to damp her thoughts from the telepaths, hovered invisibly and silently near the ceiling.

Her task was to observe and report the team's response to the unprovoked attack.

Their response, believing that they were unobserved, would allow her allies to gauge the effectiveness of the attack.

"Fire, fire, burning higher. Making music like a choir. But I'm protected from that element, fool."Wyldfyre's blast of flame bent around Morgothan, leaving the goblin unscathed. Then Morgothan staggered, feeling Starmaster's powerful mind pressing against his own. "Oww. That hurts."

"Stand down and tell us why you've chosen to attack our HQ if you want the pain to stop," Starmaster said coolly as he lifted into the air.

"Why would I want it to stop?" Morgothan said. He twisted another of his rings. "Pain I can use."

The goblin's body grew larger and his flesh denser.

Starmaster looked at Futurina and the two of them nodded in unison at their shared thought. He reached to his belt and brought out the hilt for his psi-blade. Futurina created one from thin air in her hand. Both shone with a fierce blue light, his a deeper richer blue seen in the night sky near dusk, hers like the purest bit of the unclouded heavens at noon.

Silver Paladin summoned his technomancer's armor to cover his body and twin blades erupted out of gems built into his gauntlets. "Oh, this is going to be better than the wine."



Prysmatica

*"Stop right there! Intruders!" came angry shouts suddenly.






As Lich de Sade and his company paused slowly, they were confronted by the furious wizard Chad Rockwell (The Inkling) and his witch sister Jenna Firemage. "Aphrael had a premonition trouble was coming so she had us set to patrol our academy." He looks at the Lich with a very temporary look of confusion and then serious recognition hits him. "You!? Jenna be careful. You are not strong enough to take him on. Leave him to me."

She looks at him in mild hesitation but steps aside to battle Singularity. "Don't think that just because you both have an Anti-Magic Sphere that we would have only magic as a defense. We have trained to face enemies magic can not defeat solely."

*********************************************************************

Meanwhile Aphrael, Bobby and James StarRunner, Sephrenia Darklighter, and Rhys Malachy Thuryn stand guard around the StarRunner children and the rest of the students in the Academy's Secret Vault and Archives. "This is bad. I sense that a familiar yet new evil has appeared here and brought with it an unfortunate way to deprive most of us of defending with magic or mental abilities," Aphrael said quietly. The Drow and Lolth are no doubt behind the misery still lately here on Earth."*

Singularity rolled her eyes at the firemage before her. "I do not know what it is you speak of. I do not possess an Anti-magic sphere-," the clip on her protective satchel for her pet opened and a ebon black sphere the size of a softball floated out of it, "-but I do have this sphere. Would you like to touch it?"

The mentally controlled singularity crept in between Jenna and Singularity menacingly.

"What is that? A portable hole?" Jenna said as she took a step back. She could feel the dark orb pulling at her clothing as if a stiff wind pushed at her from behind.

"An apt, if flavorless name," Singularity said. "Maybe if I showed you more of what it can do, you would understand why you should be running right now instead of asking foolish questions." The orb dropped to the stone floor. Pieces of stone cracked and became caught in its gravitational pull until a pit several feet deep and twice as wide was created.

Jenna felt something brush past her from behind. A white sphere, the same size as the black one before her had appeared and shards of stone flew from the ball at her in a narrow stream, ripping into her clothes and shredding her flesh. She dodged, taking only minimal damage from the unexpected direction of the attack. She turned her attention to Singularity and hurled a alchemical flask at her opponent. She may not be able to magically create flames, but there were plenty of ways to start a fire.

As the vial flew over the orb at Singularity, its arc lowered faster than it should have based on the throw. Paying closer attention, Jenna noticed that the view across the orb to Singularity was subtly distorted as if light was bending and disguising Singularity's true location.

*"Nice little trick there with the sphere hole. X3 Good thing I have been practicing on an inherited ability of mine just in case I fought another technological enhanced foe," Jenna Firemage said to Singularity with a sparkle of interest in her eyes now as her flaming body revealed no damage. "I go by the name Firemage not just because I mainly am known for using fire elemental abilities of magic. But also because even though I am human, morphons have bonded with me to grant me and my brother here a certain 'uniqueness' so to speak. And lately in the past several months I have been training myself to apply it when magic itself can not be used."

She smirked seeing Singularity's eyes looking bored. "So you think technology and math is everything and magic is nothing but ancient nothingness? And that is why you are an ignorant Muggle."

A bright crimson light suddenly shown from out of Jenna's eyes and slowly encased her in a glowing translucent shield of innate power. "My Bloodcurse and I await to see what else you dare try to mock us with. Do your best. I would not want to bore such a highly intelligent villainess after all."*

    Astra was concerned about Doug.  She decided to call one of two people who could help, "Catalyst, Something is wrong with Doug.  I'm teleporting to HQ with Doug and Madame Marvelous.  Stand by."  She took Kitt'n's hand and Doug's then in a flash of red psionic energy they were in the infirmary of the Star Force Observatory.

    She heard a commotion but believed it was just Catalyst on his way...

***

    Morgothan laughed as he saw the blades appear.  "Where's yours?" he asked Wyldfyre.  "My magic is more powerful than you."  He twisted another ring and a suit of shimmering magic armor appeared around him.  "Try your worst!"

    Notice how he twists his rings for effects?  I think that's where the majority of his power comes from. Futurina sent to the others.  Remove hos rings and we should make quick work of him.

    My thoughts exactly Starmaster confirmed.

    So. a little misdirection.  Attack physically while using TK to remove his rings? Futurina offered as an option.

"de Sade," Singularity said. "You're gimmick isn't working. The witch here is in my mind, knowing my details of my thoughts she could not be aware of. I hope they won't miss her too much."

With that, she commanded her pet to once again move between her and Jenna. The pull of its gravitational field increased, siphoning away the very power that created the translucent shield. As Jenna tried to bolster it, the pull increased until the shield was fully leached away.

"My pet can devour the surface of a star and not be sated. What do you think a, what did you call it, blood curse can do against that?" Singularity said. "Morphons have granted me abilities as well, but it is my power of my mind that was already my greatest gift. I'll give you some time to think on that."

The orb spun in a slightly different angle than it had been and a pale wave of distortion expanded away from its center, enveloping the area around Jenna. Everything around her sped up, moving as a blur as if played on 1000X fast forward speed on a DVD player.

"Throw your opponent in the temporal dilation field, de Sade, if you wish," Singularity said as she paced around the warping of space/time around her orb that contained Jenna and a fair portion of the room. "It will be a lifetime before her synapses will allow her process her next thought, let alone act. Shadow Spider, with my pet keeping her immobilized, I will depend on your defenses to keep me from harm."

Shadow Spider walked out of one of the shadows in the corner of the room, contained in her shadow shell in the form of a massive grey spider. "I have your back, S."

****

Catalyst grabbed his cyberkit and ran to the infirmary. Starmaster could handle whatever attack was going on with Futurina and the other's help. He needed to make sure Doug was OK. The young man had been through enough already. He found the four of them (the young girl included, because Astra wouldn't leave a young child unattended in an abandoned building) in the middle of the room. "What happened?"

"We encountered some dark elves, and they pressed us for the device. I'm afraid Doug interacted with it, hacking it to download its programming before we were forced to turn it over to them. They took it and left, and then he said he didn't, his robot body, didn't feel right," Astra reported, forcing herself to be as clear and concise as possible for her friend.

Catalyst tapped a command into his ever-present computer interface on his arm. "Turning off access to all Star Force wireless sources in this room. Lockdown protocol C-13."

The infirmary door closed and sealed shut and the lights brightened in the room.

"Doug, on table, please. Astra, help him," Catalyst said as he pulled out a cable and attached it to a laptop conveniently placed on a nearby table. "I'm going to access his systems and run diagnostics. Doug, what is the status of your body's system firewalls?"

"Where are we? How did we get here?" the small girl asked.

Still in the form of Gar, Madam Marvelous pulled out a chair for the girl to sit on. "We are at a safe place, trying to help our friend. As soon as we've done that, I'll get you home, OK? Do you like bunnies?"

The girl nodded.

Madam Marvelous shifted into a fluffy white rabbit with a pink nose and jumped on the girl's lap.

*****
Wyldfyre spat at Morgothan. "I don't need any stinking sword to fight you. Weapons are a liability. Just as rings are."

With a snap of his fingers, Wyldfyre directed waves of heat at Morgothan's fingers on his right hand. The bands began to glow as their temperature increased rapidly.

"Too bad you're not wearing a codpiece," Wyldfyre snarked. "But either your rings will melt away or your fingers will burn off. I can't wait to see which happens first."

    Morgothan Laughed at Wyldfyre.  "I already protected myself from your power," the goblin chuckled.  "What did you think?  I only have five rings?"  He twisted a ring on his left and a beam of icy cold shot out towards Wyldfyre.  Silver Paladin deflected the beam with one of his blades.

    "Goblin, you attacked my friend.  Prepare to defend yourself," Silver Paladin raised another blade towards Morgothan.  While he did that Futurina and Starmaster flanked Morgothan.  As Starmaster struck with his Mind Sword Futurina struck with her Psi-Sword and simultaneously removed his rings with their telekinesis.  Silver Paladin made a frontal assault destroying the magical armor Morgothan wore.

    That was when Prysmatica walked in...  

***

   "There you go, Doug," Astra stated as she lay him on the table.  She allowed Doug to answer Catalyst.

    "I forgot to scan for viruses when I downloaded the information," Doug recalled.  "Firewalls are still in place but failing."

    "What can we do, Catalyst?" Astra asked with fear in her voice.

Catalyst recognized the concern in Astra's voice. His amplified hearing through his auditory processer could hear her heartbeat quicken. Madam Marvelous's heartbeat changed when she became a rabbit and the little girl's slowed considerably as she held the shapeshifted hero. His own heartbeat was cancelled by his devices programming, and being a robot, Doug's artificial heartbeat was easy to distinguish.

Why then was he perceiving an extra heartbeat, smaller and non-human, in the room? He fought back his urge to panic, and focused on the problems at hand. Someone else was in the room, he needed to find out who, but also to help Doug. "Astra, protocol 8."

Being a part of the Star Force now, Astra knew that Protocol 8 was code for telepathic communications.
What is going on? Is Doug getting worse?

It is an unusual virus. The code is foreign to me, but I can bolster. Can you sense anyone else in the room? Hovering in the northeast corner I can hear another being's heartbeat. Catalyst activated a program and downloaded it into Doug's computer matrix. "Doug. This is an active hunter/killer anti-virus program. It should allow you to find the source kernel for the virus and eradicate it. Envision yourself within your programming and... well... seek, locate, EXTERMINATE."

Meanwhile Astra filled in Madam Marvelous on the strange heartbeat. I don't sense a mind there, but he hears something. It must be mindshielded.

What should I do?  Madam Marvelous asked. She pointed her head toward the position indicated and sniffed, flaring her big pink nose wide. There was a faint non-human odor. Hold on. I have an idea. Come and keep the girl calm. She might not like my new form.

Astra moved to the girl holding Madam Marvelous. "Do you know your parent's phone number? We really should call them so they don't worry."

The girl nodded and started offering the numbers. Meanwhile, Madam Marvelous squirmed out of the child's arms and leapt into the air, shifting into a bat. She let free a high frequency squeak and nearly instantaneously located the floating fairy in the air with her echolocation.

"Morgothan! What is he doing here?" Prysmatica said, recognizing the goblin. She raised her hand and sent a multihued kaleidoscope of colors directly into the unarmored creatures eyes.

Trying to close his eyes to protect them, the goblin weakened as he felt relaxed, almost sleepy. Dazzled by her hypnotic lightshow, Morgothan slumped at his shoulders and his body returned to its normal state.  

"How do you know who he is?" Futurina asked with surprise in her voice.

"I ran into someone familiar with him a while ago with The Sword of Gerraxia. I did some studying after that encounter to prepare for any retribution from extra-dimensional creatures," Prysmatica said. "The Redd Capp called out the name Morgothan at one point, so that was the first being I searched for information on."

"He seems particularly vulnerable to your power," Starmaster said as he collected the discarded rings.

"Goblin's eyesight is very good. They can see colors humans can't," Prysmatica said as she continued to project. "It is actually a very interesting topic to research. I'll forward you some articles. Needless to say, my Morphon gifts make it so I have no difficulty seeing and manipulating those frequencies."

An alarm klaxon sounded throughout the Ice Ray Academy. The attacking villains recognized it as a self-destruct warning.

"I'm not remaining here to see what will happen. It is time to go," Singularity said.

Fearing the worst, they headed to their escape route and departed the academy grounds.

After returning back to Earth HR, some of them wondered what was going to happen to the Academy and if it would ever be heard from again.

"Bah," Singularity said as she spat. "You know how it is with these heroes. None of them stay gone for long. They always come back eventually. We will be ready for them when they do."

"Invisibility isn't the advantage it once was...", muttered Nyx sullenly.

Prysmatica shrugged, then grinned.

"Look... I was bored... I decided to see what these guys were up to... they caught me spying, too...", admitted Nyx.

"Have they explained what they're doing... why they're attacking?", asked Starmaster.

"No... can I go now? I haven't done anything to harm any of you...", said Nyx.

"After we have you speak with a friend of ours,". said Starmaster, "... get Krystal on the comm."