Madam Marvelous: Chapter Seven -- "Will You Be My Valen-clone?" (Collaborative -- Open to All)

    Futurina had accompanied Wyldfyre to the empty parking lot.  She watched as the heroes scoured the place looking for a hidden lair.  Her eyes flashed with psionic energy.  She knew where they needed to look.  She smirked and sent a telepathic message to Starmaster.  Look where you are standing.  That oddly square patch you are on also has a metalic border.

I was standing within line-of-sight of Starmaster and watched him levitate up and backward from where he floated. A blue wash of telekinetic energy flowed from his forehead to the ground below where he had been. Peebles and dirt began to bounce about where his telekinetic field extended, and after a few seconds, a large metal panel bent up and revealed a hidden tunnel. Sparks flew from broken wires pulled from their housings and machinery that secured the secret door.

"How did you know that was there?" I asked. I hadn't seen anything there that hinted at a passage.

"Futurina. It's helpful to have a powerful precog in your corner," Starmaster said. "This metal plating is very dense. It is most likely protecting these corridors from being scanned. Let's divide into three teams. One to explore below, one to watch up here for attempts to escape from bolt holes, and one to keep this entrance secure."

"I'll go in to search, if you don't mind," I said.

"Thanks. Anyone else?" Starmaster asked.

    Keri looked at Doug, "We've come this far, let's see it through to the end," she stated.  "We'll go in as well."

    "We've a score to settle," Doug said.  "Saving Ian is more important."

"I'll lead the group that searches up here," Chained Angel offered. She typically led the Star Force during League Wars, so her ability to command a mission was one of her strengths. "There's really a space ship there?"

Prysmatica nodded. "Let me shift the light a bit so you can see through the hologram."

Where the outbuilding sat, a disruption in the air came into view, similar to viewing the waves of heat rising above a campfire. The center of the distortion pulled apart, and through a visible window, the gathered heroes could see the shiny metallic saucer in the center of the area where the building appeared to be.

The alien observed the happenings all around the abandoned lot as various groups continued their search. His augmented trans-dimensional apertures gave him the opportunity to study the actors on the field. The advanced technology of his instruments identified the searchers, and their powers. A red light flickered on his command console, alerting the presence of the true target he was after.

He activated the particle assembler aboard the vessel he had hidden to begin to create elemental components for dispersal. His calculations were approaching the nexus point he required for his plan to succeed. Then, he activated other motivators upon his command console. A screen came up of Ian's cell. He waved a hand over a flashing yellow section.

Ian sat up from where he had been lying on his cot an screamed in pain. His body grew as if inflated by air like a balloon. After a second, he was twice his size. A tear in his flesh appeared and a section of his body fell away, becoming a duplicate of Ian.

The duplicate blinked, its eyes black as a moonless sky, and walked out of the room. It walked to a row of armored suits on hangers and laser pistol on a table. Equipping the items, it moved to the end of a corridor and waited. Behind it, it could hear another scream as the process repeated.

    As they went down into the secret space, Astra telepathically spoke with Madame Marvelous and Doug. Doug, you really need a hero name.  Have you thought of one yet?

    How about Doogie McBotbody? Madame Marvelous teased.

    Ha ha, very funny.  I was thinking Robot X as a play on the word robotics. Doug answered.

    I was just teasing.  Payback for the alien lizard crack earlier. Madame Marvelous stated.

    I did point out that not all shapeshifters are alien lizards. Doug retorted.

    Knock it off, you two.  We have a mission to complete. Astra reminded.  As they reached the bottom of the shaft, they found a dimly lit hallway.  Starmaster took the lead.

    "I have a bad feeling about this," Astra stated as someone or something came towards them...

If Starmaster hadn't had his telekinetic shield up, we would have been struck by the blasts of energy from a mounted laser-cannon hidden in the ceiling. "Astra, keep searching for thoughts ahead of us. I'll keep the automated defensed in check."

"You got it, boss," Astra said. Her own telepathic field lit up with a faint lavender hue, shifted from its typical red from the luminous glow of Starmaster's blue psychokinetic shield. "I'm getting something roughly fifty feet ahead of us. Multiple sources, but all the same thought. It's weird."

"What's the thought?" Doug asked. "Are they wondering what happened on last night's episode of Stranger Things?"

"No, Doug," Astra said. "Their all thinking on very simple terms. Shoot whatever moves."

I gulped a deep breath of air. "That definitely doesn't sound friendly. Do you know how many of them there are?"

Astra's face showed strain for an instant. "Maybe a dozen. It's hard to tell. I'm not getting any sense of self from them. No personality or emotion, just a single thought repeating in their minds."

"Oh, great," Doug said. "We're fighting the Borg."

"Whomever is ahead of us may be under some form of mental control, acting on some type of suggested state," Starmaster said. "I propose we try to render them unconscious by--"

"Too late," Astra said. "They're coming."

A door burst open and beams of laser-fire swept through the tunnel. None of the blasts were able to bypass Starmaster's telekinetic shield, but as more and more blasts struck, Starmaster seemed to struggle.

MM-MM-MM-MM

Above ground, the other heroes of the Star Force teams were spread out and searching the grounds when Astra sent out a telepathic burst message. We're taking fire down here. Watch out for ambushes.

Chained Angel reversed her forward motion and held herself aloft with powerful strokes with her white wings. On the ground below, where Wyldfyre and Arcane Ace crept forward, two hatches lifted up and armored figures with some form of laser rifle popped out. They began firing at the two ground-bound heroes. "Wyld, Ace, watch out!"

The beams of orange light struck an invisible magic shield, the enchantment becoming visible as the energy struck it. Wyldfyre took a blast to his chest, but the armor he wore seemed to absorb any damage.

"Tempest, cover the field," Chained Angel ordered over her communications earpiece.

A white fog rolled out of nowhere, covering the ground and hiding her companions. High pitches whines from other weaponry erupted from the bank as wild shots flew up from the ground.

Chained Angel studied the battlefield below. It seemed as if an army had been hidden in the abandoned lot. The cascade of laser fire went wild, striking in every direction. The fog cover had protected her teams, but also hid the assailants from those on the ground. Above it all, she could see where some of the greatest concentrations of attackers might be, as the flares of the lasers illuminated the gray fog and gave their positions away.

    Astra added her telekinesis to reinforce Starmaster's shield taking some pressure off him.  Doug moved forward and shifted his arms into Stun Cannons.  He looked back at Madame Marvelous.

    "Well, Madame Marvelous, looks like we're offense and Starmaster and Astra are defense," Doug stated.  "Let's see what you've got."  He began to fire.

***

   Futurina made it look easy to avoid being shot.  She used her combat sense and acrobatic skills to dodge the shots.  In truth she was hit three times, but her Biokinesis allowed her to regenerate before anyone knew.

    Chained Angel thought Futurina briefly looked older for a second.  You can't de-age, though, can you?

Prysmatica quickly discerned the wavelength the laser blasters used to emit and created a refractory field to bend the beams. At long distances, she could have altered their course by miles, but within the short arena of battle, her efforts only directed the blasts up a few feet. Knowing that few of her companions were over 7ft tall, since Highlander wasn't around recently, it should be enough to protect her friends.

"Keep low, people," Prysmatica said as she warned her companions.

"Got it," Arcane Ace said. "Watch out, those of you in the sky."

Chained Angel dropped down above a hatch their attackers were firing on. With a mighty flap of her wings, the fog billowed out from around her and revealed three identically armored people below her. They were smaller than she expected, not the typical muscular build of mercenaries of the World Corps or Wyldfyre, who worked as pay-for-protection agencies before joining the Star Force. She reached down and lifted one of them out from the hole in the ground he stood in and she grappled the rifle out of their hands. "Cool it. I don't want to hurt you. Message your comrades to drop their weapons. You're outmatched here."

The merc struggled in her grasp, trying to bring the weapon to bear on her. Chained Angel gave him a good shake and his poorly fitting helmet dropped off his head, revealing Ian's face beneath it. His eyes were milky white and showed no emotion in them at all.

"What?" Chained Angel said. "What did they do to you?"

As Doug used his stunguns to incapacitate the armored foes in the tunnel, I morphed into pure electricity. I'd been practicing some alternate energy forms over fire while preparing for league wars. Electricity could be an effective means to subdue people without doing much damage, as opposed to fire. I concentrated hard to maintain a certain amperage and voltage, the same as a taser would employ, so I could disable these mercenaries.

I shocked two of the armored figures as I moved forward. Doug fired with his blasters, but stopped firing after stunning four of our attackers. "Mad Marv. Hold on for a second. I'm getting a message you want to hear."

I changed back into my natural shape and tuned into the league frequency.

"The people in armor," Chained Angel began over our comms. "I've gotten to a few of them and they all look like Ian beneath their masks."

A few foes still firing from the other side of Starmaster and Astra's shields, I knelt down and pulled a mask of one of the ones that Doug stunned. It was indeed Ian's face beneath the mask."

MMMMMMMMMM

The fog disappeared rapidly as Infinite Tempest allowed the moisture to dissipate. The blasts from the laser weapons headed over the ground-bound heroes' heads due to Prysmatica's efforts. They all advanced forward, preparing to disable the remaining armored opponents. The team passed near to the illusory building disguising the spaceship as several of the redirected blasts struck the illusion.

KABOOM

The landscape changed dramatically as the illusion dropped away and was replaced by a billowing cloud of smoke coming from the side of the spaceship. The explosion threw dusty particles to fall on the heroes as the fought to remain standing from the concussion of the blast.

"What was that?" Wyldfyre said from the ground. "Spaceships never blew up from just one shot in any of the Star Wars movies."

Prysmatica, Ace, and Catalyst started to cough, the particles in the air from the unexpected explosion being drawn into their lungs. Futurina had a far more pronounced reaction.

"AAAAGGGGHHHH!" She screamed as she collapsed to the ground, clutching her head. Her body shook violently on the ground. More of the particles fell on her torso, a golden hue collecting in the folds of her leather armor.

"Rina," Wyldfyre said as he stumbled up from the ground, rushing to aid her. Before he could reach her prone body, a glowing golden aura surrounded her and she faded out of sight in a cascade of glittering lights.

In the underground corridor, all the armored figures fell to the floor, collapsing like deflated balloons. I looked down at the one at my feet, and the armor was there, but Ian wasn't.

Astra dropped to a knee brought a hand to her temple. "We've got to get back up top. Something's happened."

"Wha--," I couldn't complete my question as Astra teleported away in an angry red flash. I looked at the empty suits ahead of me on the ground, then at Doug. "What's going on? Where did they go? Where did Astra go?"

"You two go up and help Astra," Starmaster said. "I can handle the search down here. I don't sense any minds ahead of us at all."

"Help Astra?" I asked. "What about finding Ian?"

"We haven't given up on him," Starmaster said. "But the problem has escalated. Furturina has been taken."

Doug's eyes went wide. "Holy $#!%."

    Astra appeared beside WyldFyre, "What happened?  How did they get Mom?" she questioned.  She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.  She was concerned.

    "The starship exploded and released something in the air," Prysmatica informed her.  Astra took her white gloved hand and dusted WyldFyre's shoulder.  She looked at it carefully.

    "Gold," Astra stated.  "They used gold dust against her.  Someone did their research, Mom hasn't been an active hero in over a decade."

***
    Futurina awoke strapped to a table with gold restraints...

Searching above the ground and below revealed no sign of either Ian, the alien rogue, or Futurina. The disguised spaceship debris was junk, disintegrated by the explosion. The thoroughness of the destruction could only have been planned.

Astra had moved aside with Doug and talked in quietly. Her face hardened for long moments and a red haze surrounded her head as she psionically searched for her adopted mother.

"I hate this for her," Madam Marvelous said to Prysmatica. "She's already lost contact with her birth parents after what these aliens did to her. Futurina helped her survive that. Thank god we found Doug or else she'd be alone again."

"She's a member of our league, so that means she's never alone," Prysmatica said. "We'll find Futurina and reunite them. We'll be her family until then."

"Yeah, we will," Madam Marvelous said, trying to force herself to be bright and cheerful. The empathy she felt for Astra kept her from remaining so for long. "It's not the same, though..."

    "Doug, I can't find her," Keri sobbed.  She kept searching with her telepathic powers.  "I can't find mom.  Where did they take her?"  She was leaning on her best friend who now resided in a robotic body.  He held her arms.

    "We'll find her, Keri," Doug reassured her.  "It's not she hasn't had these things happen before, and she is far from helpless."  He looked her straight in the eye, "Hey, you never gave up looking for me.  You'll find her.  I'm sure."

***

    Keri walked into her home where she and Futurina lived.  She had the unpleasant job of contacting her adoptive siblings.  She hugged a pillow and reached out telepathically.  Silverhair, Thraviel, mom has been taken by an alien scientist.  The Star Force and I will return to searching tomorrow morning.  I needed to let you know.

    Keri, Silverhair replied first, I'll come by the home and make sure you're alright.  We can talk about what happened then.

    Silver's right, Thraviel stated.  I'll offer to stand in for mom with Krystal Fae until she is found.  The Princess knows I reject magic because of what the elves did to mom, but she has my sword.  If you need woman to woman advice, I'll be there for you.  Silver can handle the mundane things better than I can.  Be strong, little sister.

    I'll be there in the morning, Silverhair said.  Try to get some sleep.  It won't be easy.  You'll need rest though.  She could see him reach out to her.

Krystal was reviewing the articles of her advanced journalism students, when she felt a sudden wave of pain, followed by a sense of emptyness.

She concentrated on the feelings, and determined that the presence missing from her mental landscape was Theressollae (Futurina).

She summoned her BADGE comm, and put in a contact request for Astra.

"I have lost contact with Theressollae, is everything ok?", she asked when they connected,

"No... it's definitely not ok... an alien has taken her.", Keri answered frantically.

"I'll be right there..."