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Part Twenty-Eight: Dragonfall

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

Lung's Base

After the death of Oni Lee, Lung had tightened down on his leadership of the ABB. Lisa could appreciate how he needed to make sure that nobody doubted his power, or his ability to lead. This was a valid concern; Hax had humiliated him personally, and Pwnage had robbed him of three-quarters of a million dollars. Lung had dedicated time and effort to ensure that nobody questioned his orders.

This had its downsides, however. When the three massive dogs had burst in through the wall of the building, resistance had been sporadic. There was no concerted rush from other parts of the building; it was almost as if they were waiting on orders to move. Lisa suspected that Lung's attempt at proving his strength in a leader had inadvertently removed those with enough initiative to react quickly in such an unexpected turn of events. He ordered them to watch for a teleporter, she judged. Instead, they got us.

This area of the third floor was relatively clear, both of enemy combatants and Grue's darkness. It didn't mean that there was none of either, but Lisa was able to avoid both with relative ease. Angelica was still rampaging elsewhere on the third floor, with Rachel giving orders and Brian supplying cover; Lisa could hear the occasional shattering crash as the immense beast decided that a wall was in the way. She followed the path of destruction that Brutus and Judas had followed to get to Lung, picking her way through the rubble toward where Regent had called out. A door creaked as she passed it; straight-arming her pistol in that direction, she fired a shot, angling downward. There was a strangled scream, a thud, and some thrashing. Left kneecap. He'll live.

When she got to the appropriate room, Alec was leaning out through the hole in the wall, looking down at the ongoing fight. Lisa had a good idea of how it would go; early on, Brutus and Judas would dominate over Lung. However, as the ABB cape ramped himself up, he would first match and then overwhelm them.

"Stop sightseeing and watch my back," she told Regent, then pulled out the wire-cutters that Taylor had told her to pack. She knew that her teammate was giving her the finger where he thought she couldn't see, but she didn't care. He would be paying attention.

"Hey, there," she said to the girl in the chair. It was truly amazing; looking at physical appearance only, this girl was a perfect match with Taylor. Only a certain lack of life in her eyes gave her away, and that was something that Lisa had to watch carefully for. Full AI or semi-autonomous puppet? Puppet, she decided.

"Hello, Lisa," the girl said, surprising the absolute crap out of her. "Lung is here." 'Taylor' didn't say any more than that, but it was still creepy as hell. Whoa. More autonomous than I thought. Worse, she was showing all the signs of human responsiveness; eyes flicking from point to point, skin twitches and even micro-expressions. Is Taylor back in control? No; she's running on automatic. Lots of pre-programmed responses. Responding to my presence.

"Yeah, I know." Lisa knelt next to the chair; the girl turned her head to watch. Did I say creepy as hell? I meant creepy as fuck. If this is what she's like when nobody's home, there's no way that even I could tell when Taylor's actually running her.

Taking a deep breath, she forced her mind back into the game. Plastic explosive … there. Taped on to her body. Detonators … wires … pressure switch. Lung, you're an asshole. Sky is blue, water is wet, news at eleven.

Separating out one wire, she clipped it, then bent both ends back away from each other so that they couldn't accidentally brush together. Then she started cutting the ropes. She knew how they'd been tied, of course, and how to untie them as quickly as possible. It was just that whoever had tied them was a lot stronger than she was – that guy over there, on the ground – and it was quicker to cut them than to try to undo all the knots he'd put in. He worked on the waterfront. Why am I not surprised?

Once 'Taylor' was free, Lisa surveyed the plastic explosive, then looked around. "Alec. Get me a shirt." She turned back to 'Taylor' and began cutting the girl's shirt up the sides. Tape had been wrapped around her, binding the blocks of Semtex to her shirt; it would be literally easier to cut the shirt off than to separate one from the other.

"What am I, your personal tailor?" snarked Regent. "No, wait. That's her." But he went over to the guy on the ground, who was starting to come around. There was a snap of electrical discharge as he shocked the guy again, then started dragging his jacket off of him.

By the time he was finished, Lisa had the T-shirt cut up the sides and under the sleeves, the faux Taylor obediently raising her arms to let her finish the job. She held out her hand without looking. "Gimme. And turn your back."

"Yeah, yeah. International sisterhood of women and all that crap." But she felt the jacket being shoved into her hand. Footsteps indicated Regent moving away, probably to check on the fight down below. Lisa could already tell how it was going; Lung didn't have the upper hand quite yet, but he was getting there. Gonna have to hurry this up.

After one last check to make sure that there wasn't some sort of failsafe that she'd missed, Lisa cut through the last section of the shirt. Standing up and guiding 'Taylor' to her feet, she pulled the shirt away from the girl's body. Bundling it up, she put it down on the floor, nudging it under the chair with her foot to get it out of the way. Oh, good. She's wearing a bra. Her power told her that yes, the animatronic puppet before her was indeed anatomically correct, but she really didn't need to see that. Holding up the jacket, she guided the girl's arms through the sleeves. Without prompting, 'Taylor' began doing the jacket up, impressing Lisa yet again. Lots of preprogrammed actions.

"Okay, guys!" she yelled. "Time to go!" And just about time, too, she decided. Lung's getting too powerful for the dogs to handle.

Only a few moments later, Brian emerged from the clouds of dust and blackness which permeated the rest of that floor. Plaster dust coated his leathers, rendering him into a ghost in the uncertain light. He was limping a little, and his right arm hung uselessly at his side. Bullet wound in the trapezius muscle. It'll need attention soon, but it's good for the moment. Rachel, behind him, just looked like she'd been dunked in talcum powder. At her heels trotted Angelica; the monster dog looked as satisfied as any of Rachel's oversized creations could get.

Leaning over the side, Rachel grimaced, then whistled sharply. Crunching sounds heralded the monster dogs leaping, then climbing up the side of the building. They scrambled into the room, suddenly making it a lot more crowded. Then there was another crunch. Lisa's power filled her in, and she indicated the hole in the wall. "Rachel!"

As Lung's face – metallic, flaming and utterly pissed – appeared over the edge of the floor, Rachel pointed and whistled. Angelica thundered forward, lowering her head like a bulldozer. In a move not unlike the one that had sent Lung out through the wall before, she head-butted the ABB leader solidly in the face and chest. Brickwork tore free; this dislodged him from the side of the building and sent him flailing down toward the ground once more. Lisa felt a brief wash of heat before he disappeared; there were scorch-marks where his claws had dug into the floorboards. Oh, yeah. Getting out now is a really good idea.

"Let's go! Taylor, you're with me!" Lisa scrambled on to the nearest dog – Judas, as it happened – then gave the faux Taylor a hand up to sit in front of her. Not losing her now. Rachel was already on Angelica, and Brian was just using his left arm to haul Regent up on to Brutus. One after another, the dogs thundered toward the hole and leaped toward the building opposite, their riders ducking low to clear the upper edge of the hole.

Below, Lung roared in fury and leaped upward. He made it to the edge just after Brutus made the jump, sending a billow of flame chasing the dog and its riders. Lisa watched, heart in mouth, as the dog emerged from it looking a little scorched. It landed hard, its right leg almost giving way. Brian nearly came off, only Regent's grip saving him from a nasty spill.

Brian needs medical attention. We don't have time to do that right now. Here's hoping Taylor gets her shit sorted out on her end real soon. She took a deep breath. "We gotta go."

Bitch shot her a sharp look. "Brutus is hurt. Lung hurt him." She set her jaw. "I'm gonna kill Lung." Lisa could tell that she meant it. She would go down to the wire to save any of her dogs.

"Later!" Lisa snapped. "We can't win this fight right now!" She pointed. "We have to go!" Come on, Rachel. Learn to fight another day. She urged Judas forward, toward the far edge of the roof.

Rachel wavered, then Lung roared, from right at the foot of the building. There was a loud crunch on the side of the building. Lisa looked back and saw the massive metallic-scaled, razor-taloned hand as it reached over and took hold of the stonework. "Come on!" she yelled.

Brian kicked Brutus into motion, following Lisa, then Rachel followed. Lisa could have kissed them both with relief. As Lung, already more than eight feet tall, pulled himself over the edge of the parapet, the three dogs galloped toward the next building. Snarling, the metal-scaled draconic cape gave chase. Normally, they would have easily outdistanced him, but Brutus was slowing them down.

Lisa looked back again. This is gonna be close. Taylor, I really hope you can get your shit together soon.

That was when 'Taylor' turned to her and said, "Hi, how's things?" This was not the same as the other responses that she had made. It had come out of the blue, and did not sound like a preprogrammed response. This is Taylor. The real one.

Lisa felt a smile spread across her face. Oh, yeah. Let's do this. "Pretty good, you?"

Lung's Base (again)

Jin groaned as he regained some level of motor control. The last thing he recalled was facing a boy with a fancy stick … Regent, of the Undersiders. The little shit tased me. He pushed himself to a sitting position, trying not to throw up. Then he looked down at himself. His jacket was missing. Where the fuck's my jacket? Those assholes stole my fucking jacket. It was a good jacket. He'd been very proud of it.

Ken staggered in from gods-knew-where, covered in plaster dust and nursing a bruise that covered half his face. "Fuck, man, what happened to you?" He stumbled over to Jin and offered him a hand up.

Jin accepted, levering himself to his feet. "Little fucker tased me." He leaned on the chair and stared down at the cut ropes. After all the time I spent tying those fucking knots. Unsure as to who to be more pissed at – Lung for ordering the knots to be tied, himself for tying them, or whoever it was who cut them – he collapsed in the chair and vented his feelings with a thoroughly heartfelt "Fuck!"

"I fucking hear you, man." Ken wandered around the thoroughly devastated room, poking through rubble. Jin looked out through the hole in the wall, wondering if the boss had caught up with the Undersiders yet, and exactly how many pieces he would leave them in. "Hey, what's this?"

Jin didn't feel like getting up. "What's what?" Turning his head, he peered at the device Ken was holding. "Holy shit, it's the radio detonator." That had been his own idea; if Hax got away with the Hebert girl and somehow managed to avoid setting off the pressure switch, they could still deal with the problem, one way or the other. After all, if they'd gotten away and Jin hadn't had some way of killing them at range, Lung would likely have eviscerated him. It must have fallen out of my jacket pocket when they took it off me.

"Hah!" shouted Ken. "I wonder if it's still got range?" He flipped off the plastic cover, then switched the detonator on. "Hey, it's got a signal! They must be in range still."

Jin held out his hand. "Give me that." He had started out feeling a certain amount of sympathy for the girl, but after being tased and having his fucking jacket stolen, he couldn't give a fuck any more. Sorry, girl, but if it's a choice between you dying and me dying, I'll pick you every time. Nothing personal.

"Aww, I wanted to do it." Disappointment chased over Ken's features. His hand hovered over the button. Jin could read the eagerness in his eyes. He wanted to blow something up.

"You want me to come over there?" Jin hardened his voice. "Give me that." To be honest, he didn't think he was capable of getting up right now, but the idea of vengeance against the Undersiders, and of being the one who took out Hax, was a strong motivator. He locked eyes with Ken. "Now."

"No. I found it." Ken stared at Jin defiantly. "I should be the one to blow them up." He slapped his palm down on the button. It didn't move. He pushed again, harder. Nothing happened.

Jin sighed. "Ken, you're a fucking idiot. Give it to me, now." So I did have it locked. Good. This means I get to be the one. Holding out his hand, he took the remote from a crestfallen Ken, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a key. Good thing this wasn't in my jacket as well, or we would have been screwed. Inserting it into a keyhole on the side of the detonator, he turned the key. "Now I can set it off."

More men were now filtering into the room. Some were obviously injured, leaning on their comrades, while others were suspiciously unhurt. Jin glared at the latter. "Where the fuck were you?" If they were hiding, I'll fucking kill them myself.

"The stairwells were blocked," snapped one of the newcomers, anger in his voice at the unspoken implication. "We only just got through." He pointed at the detonator. "What's that?"

"Remote detonator," Ken said. "We wired the bitch up. If Hax is with her … boom." He turned to Jin. "Well, what are you waiting for? Hit it, man! Blow the bitch sky high!" His eyes were alight with anticipation. "I hope we hear it from here."

"Yeah, me too." Taking a deep breath, Jin poised his hand over the button. This wouldn't get his jacket back, but it was going to be very fucking satisfying anyway. "Bye bye, bitches." He slapped his hand down on the detonator button.

A series of beeps in a rising tone came from directly under the chair. Ken's eyes widened. "Jin -"

In the instant before the explosion, Jin closed his eyes. Did I say bad decisions? I meant really -

The three blocks of Semtex blew out the third floor of the building. With many of the load-bearing walls damaged, the floor collapsed in on itself. This precipitated a collapse of the whole building, floor by floor. By the time the rubble finally subsided, it was less than twenty feet high. There were very few survivors.

The Azn Bad Boyz, as a gang, had functionally ceased to exist.

Pwnage Base

I connected power to the last of the tau-field pillars, then glanced at my HUD. 2% power remaining. However, we were three minutes ahead of schedule. Excellent. Alibi was still riding the dog with Lisa, but a glance behind indicated that Lung was starting to gain on them.

"Okay, you can come in now," she/I told Lisa. "We're ready to receive visitors." Through Alibi's senses, I felt her relax slightly in relief. Which reminded me; Alibi was not wearing the shirt or the hoodie that she'd put on that morning. But that was a question I would save for another time.

"Best news I've heard all day," she said, holding up her hand and pointing. The dogs swerved in that direction; the one that Brian and Regent were riding was now limping quite badly. I hoped that they would make it.

"See you then," Alibi told her. She glanced back again; Lung was definitely closer. Even if they make it, it's gonna be tight. I took hold of myself. Stop thinking like that. They're gonna make it.

"Okay," I called out. "Hit it!" I watched the pillar as L33t applied power; lights ran up and down it in the approved sequence. It looked like all the connections were working correctly. Excellent. Of course, the power bill was going to be astronomical, but then, we could handle that.

Moving more casually – we had plenty of time up our sleeves now – I headed back to my workshop. L33t was working on the control panel, removing everything that could be used to manually shut it off, or even identify it. "Holding steady at a hundred?" I asked.

"Hundred it is," he confirmed. "Pretty sure we can't do it for too long, though." He was correct; I had found that ratios of ten or less could be maintained more or less indefinitely, but anything over that imposed progressively more wear and tear on the system. But then, all we needed was a few hours.

"Long enough," I said. I hoped so, anyway. "Timer?" I had worked this out with L33t while we were dismounting the pillars. Part of the plan involved a timer set to go off at a specific moment.

"I'll rig one up once I'm done here." He waved impatiently at me. "Stop fussing. Go do what you have to do." Turning back to the control panel, he finished dismantling the ratio display. There was, of course, no need to let Lung know what was going on.

Going over to the rack in the middle of the room, I backed into it and let it take hold of my armour; as I did so, the charge meter ticked over to one percent. Just in time. The charge ports opened automatically, allowing plugs to slot into the appropriate sockets; the armour began to power up again. I used the HUD to trigger the opening sequence for the armour and stepped out of it. For the first time all day, my body odour registered on me. "Oof. I need a shower."

"Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but …" L33t grinned at me and theatrically held his nose. I thought about throwing something at him, but decided not to do it, mainly because he was doing delicate work and I didn't want to screw it up for him. Instead, I checked the frequency step-down module for the charger, then switched that on too. It would draw power like a son of a bitch, but it would cut down the armour charge time by about ninety percent.

Strolling into the little nook where I kept my changes of clothing and toiletries while living on base, I picked out what I was going to wear. My towel went over my shoulder and I headed out into the main living area, where Über was lugging the big-screen TV over to the shimmering portal in the middle of the room. "Whoa, hey," I said. "You need a hand there?"

"Wouldn't mind," he grunted. He wasn't weak, but the TV was both large and unwieldy; I could see him dropping it in the next five steps.

Dropping my clothes and towel on the nearest chair, I moved over to grab one end of the set. He gratefully shifted his grasp to let me take some of the weight, and we carried it into the dimensional hole. I hoped that Lisa wouldn't be too disconcerted at Alibi's sudden lack of animation. If she even noticed it.

"Thanks," Über said as we set it down. "I thought I had it." He looked rueful, rubbing his back. "That could've gone badly."

"Yeah, well," I teased him as we stepped back out of the portal. "It just shows your priorities, doesn't it?" A quick check on Alibi showed that she was still on the dog. I couldn't tell any more, given that it would take too long to make her turn her head and look at anyone. Lung, I had no doubt, was still in hot pursuit. "It's a shower and change for me, so I'm fresh for our guests, when they get here."

"And when's that gonna be again?" he asked curiously. "I mean, I'm used to L33t doing weird things to the fabric of space-time, but this is beyond ridiculous." He chuckled and flopped down on the sofa.

I checked my watch, then did the mental calculations. "Two or three hours. Call it two and a half. That should be time enough to get everything loaded into the base, right?" I raised my eyebrows to make my point, leaning against the back of the sofa.

He let out an exaggerated sigh. "So not only do we have two different Tinkertech devices making physics cry in the corner, but now I have to do manual labour as well? The world is truly an unfair place." His tone, however, belied his words as he grinned up at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Be careful, or you may find yourself demoted to minion." Über let out an offended cry behind me, but I ignored him, going instead to where I had left my clothes. Picking them up again, I headed for the bathroom. I grinned as I turned the shower on, only to find out the downside of my preparations; the shower pressure was almost nil, affording only a thin trickle of water. Oh, well, I sighed as I prepared to sponge myself down. Can't have everything.

Lisa

"Whoa!" shouted Regent. "Shit! I think Grue's unconscious!" They had descended to ground level a minute or so ago because Brutus was having trouble with the jumps, but the dog was definitely not doing well. With Rachel in the lead, they were riding in vee-formation down the middle of the road, and woe betide any cars that got in their way. As Lisa looked over, the smaller boy tried to steady the larger one on the dog, but Brutus' right front leg was obviously almost unable to hold him up by now, and the jolting motion was not helping.

"Rachel, catch him!" Lisa called out; however, Angelica was already dropping back under Bitch's guidance. With a pained grunt, Regent made a huge effort, pushing Grue over toward her. Rachel grabbed Brian's leathers and braced herself, heaving him to lie across the dog's back in front of her. Hope there's no spikes sticking into him.

As soon as she had him steady, she turned toward Regent and grabbed his wrist, hauling him bodily from Brutus' back. "Hey!" he yelled in protest. "What the fuck?"

"I'm getting you off my fucking dog," she gritted, holding him off the ground one-handed.

"Fuuck, this whole day is a bad idea," Alec complained, scrabbling to climb on to Angelica's back.

"Think about all the video games you'll be able to buy with your pay," Lisa called out encouragingly. She grinned at the profane response, but Regent scrambled up anyway.

They turned a corner, the dogs' scrabbling claws ripping chunks out of the asphalt. "Come on!" Lisa encouraged Judas. "Just a little bit more. Come on, you can make it." She looked ahead, to the remarkably unassuming building that Taylor had assured her was the base that she shared with Über and L33t. She also said that once we made it, we'd be perfectly safe. I hope that's true.

Behind them, Lung roared. His voice was hard to make out, but Lisa picked out the word 'kill'. She was sure that it was not a coincidence. Under her, Judas probably hadn't understood the word, but the dog definitely got Lung's meaning; all three of the beasts increased their pace a little.

Forty yards to go. Behind them, there was a shattering crash as Lung went through the corner that they had gone around. Lisa stared ahead at the building. Was that some sort of field over it? A Tinkertech force field? It'd better be pretty tough to be able to withstand Lung. And what are we going to do? Wait him out?

Thirty yards to go. There was definitely something going on. The very faintest of shimmering rainbow effects was visible on the outside wall, but only if she looked at it with the right angle. What the hell is it?

Twenty yards to go. She didn't have enough data to go on. Taylor said we'd definitely be safe. All we had to do was make it there. But she had to set something up first. Argh, not enough data!

Ten yards to go. The field vanished, and the doors opened. Taylor stood there, clad in gleaming metal power armour. No holocloak. I wonder why … ah, yes. Power issues. The armour's running on minimal power.

Hax stepped aside, giving the dogs a free run into the building. Lisa and 'Taylor' both ducked as they entered the cool sanctuary; the dog slowed under her commands, as Lisa turned to see what was going on.

Bitch had stopped outside the doors, and was looking back toward the labouring Brutus. "Come on!" she screamed, and whistled again, summoning. Lung was so close behind him; if he stopped or fell, the monster would be on him in seconds.

Hax darted outside, the power armour moving with speed and grace. Lisa saw her reach Brutus; she heaved her shoulder under the dog's bad leg, and lifted. With the extra support, Brutus found the strength to push on. Ahead of them, Bitch rode Angelica in through the doors.

'Taylor' slid from Judas' back, and bolted toward the doorway. Lung, behind them, roared again and let out a long plume of flame. It enveloped dog and power-armoured girl alike, tongues of fire licking into the base itself. They emerged from it, blackened and smoking, but still moving.

As Brutus' tail cleared the threshold, 'Taylor' slammed the doors. "Now!" she shouted. The shimmering field sprang up again; it was harder to see from the inside, but once Lisa knew to look for, it was there. Silence fell; nothing could be heard from the outside.

Regent slid off Angelica and flopped on to his back on the floor. His costume had burns all over it, and his hair looked more than a little frizzled.

Lisa got off of Judas a little more circumspectly and looked him over. He got burned when escaping Lung's base. His body armour protected him from the worst of it, but he's got some first and second degree burns. With proper first aid, he should be fine.

Über crossed the room and began to help Hax get Brian down off of Angelica's back. There was a large and comprehensive-looking first aid kit on the ground nearby, and as Lisa watched, she saw Brian move slightly.

His bullet wound is giving him trouble. He's alive but semi-conscious. We need to stop the bleeding and get fluids into him. He won't be able to use that arm for a while.

Rachel was kneeling next to Brutus, pulling apart the battered flesh as it began to degrade. Lisa went over to assist; the stocky girl said nothing, but made room for her. Reaching the amniotic sac in the centre of the beast, Rachel tore it open. Brutus, unhurt, sat up and licked her face.

Okay, so we're all safe. We're all going to survive. Lisa stood and headed over to the doors. Grimy windows adorned them, and she rubbed at one to get rid of some of the dirt. That done, she peered outside, and immediately recoiled. Lung was poised there, not five yards away, staring right back at her.

Wait, something's wrong. Her power picked at the image, and started forming hypotheses. She snatched another glance, and saw that she was right. Leaning against the door, she began to giggle semi-hysterically. Part of it, she knew, was adrenaline come-down, and part of it was sheer relief.

"You okay?" It was L33t, standing nearby, watching her with a little concern. "You hurt? Need a hand with anything?" His sheer lack of urgency, with a homicidal cape right outside the door, struck her as downright bizarre.

"No … no, I'm fine," she assured him. Fighting down the giggles, she composed herself. "This … this is a time-differential field, isn't it? Hundred to one, or so?" The number she plucked out of the air sounded astounding, but it felt right to her power.

"I'm impressed," he said. "You got it right first time." A wry grin crossed his face. "Of course, this is you, so slightly less impressed now. Just saying." He tilted his head. "We can't let him hammer on the outside for too long, or he'll realise what it is. So we're going into the bolt-hole. Everyone's invited."

"Bolt-hole?" She looked around, puzzled. The only two people in sight were Über and Grue, the former supporting the latter as they entered a doorway. Stopping, she took stock of the room itself. It was large, with the scents of having been lived in for some time. But there were things missing; squares on the wall where pictures had hung, patches of dust where a sofa would have been. Her power filled things in. The gaming console would have been there, and the kitchen nook is over there …

"Bolt-hole," he repeated. "Come on, you're gonna love this. Or freak out. One of the two." Turning, he headed for the doorway. Not quite sure how she should react, but deciding to go along with it for now, Lisa followed. They passed the decomposing remains of Brutus' monster suit, as she privately called it, and reached the door. Within was …

"What the hell is that?" She looked at the shimmering grey square that stood in the middle of the room. Benches surrounded it, with enough hints to show her that this had once been an active work-room of some sort. But it was the square that kept drawing her attention.

"I told you. It's the bolt-hole." L33t turned back to the doorway and punched a quick code into the keypad which had been screwed into the doorframe. Relatively recently, if the splintered wood was any indication. An hour ago. Wait, one percent of an hour ago. She felt the beginnings of a headache coming on. Having to deal with two different time rates was a pain.

From outside, in the main room, there came a thunderous crash, as of doors being smashed in. Lung's roar echoed throughout the enclosed space, as if she needed proof as to who actually did it. She stared at L33t, eyes wide. "What did you do?"

"Set the field to reverse in ten seconds. We need to go. Now." Grabbing her by the arm, he hustled her up to the grey surface, and …

… they stepped straight through it.

Oh.

A portal of some sort.

Where am I now?

She was standing on a shimmering grey surface, not unlike the portal she had just stepped through. Beside her, L33t pressed a button on a black plastic device with way too many buttons, plus an LED screen and blinking lights. "And … done," he said with some satisfaction.

Blinking, Lisa looked around. The shimmering surface extended to the walls and the ceiling of the space that she found herself in. Behind her (she checked) the wall was actually solid; she didn't feel like having Lung burst through and join the party.

Height: ten feet.

Width: eighty feet.

Length: one hundred feet.

Pocket dimension. Holy crap. I'm standing in a pocket dimension the size of a large house.

Directly ahead was a van that had apparently had the roof sliced off, and another roof hastily welded in place. There's a story there, I'm sure. She suppressed her power when it tried to figure it out, and looked around further. Grue, his jacket off and shoulder bandaged, was lying on a camp bed. His helmet was on the ground – the shimmering grey surface, which I'm pretty sure isn't any type of matter that I've ever heard about – next to him, though they'd given him a domino mask. Regent, his shirt off, was being treated for his burns by Über, while Bitch sat on the ground with Brutus, the two other massively overgrown dogs lying next to her.

And all around them, piled up almost randomly, was the assorted crap that must have come out of the base. Chairs and a sofa, TV and a gaming console, piles of Tinkertech in progress, and just random everyday stuff. They emptied their base into here, then turned the original base into a trap.

"Wow," she said out loud, then stopped. L33t's voice had sounded a little weird, but she hadn't really registered it. But when she spoke, it really showed. "No echoes? That's bizarre. This stuff …" She went to rap on the wall with her knuckles. Felt the impact, but there was no sound whatsoever.

"It dampens all sound." The voice came from right behind her. Lisa jumped and turned so fast she almost fell over. Hax was standing there; or rather, Taylor wearing the Hax suit. "I know, it's really weird. But you get used to it." From the sound of her voice, she was grinning.

"Right." Lisa took a deep breath. Pocket dimensions come with air. Good to know. "So, what are we going to do with Lung? He'll figure it out eventually."

"Well, you see," Taylor explained, "we actually called the PRT before we activated the tau field. So they've been on the move for about five minutes." She sounded very pleased with herself. So pleased, in fact, that Lisa hated to burst her bubble.

"Uh, you do realise that …" She stopped talking. She's using my powers. Of course she's using my powers. And she knows what I'm about to say.

" … Lung's all ramped up, and will be really hard to stop?" Taylor didn't even sound smug. She didn't have to. Her tone was matter-of-fact to the point that it was even more irritating than mere smugness could have managed. "Why, yes. I did actually think of that."

So. Very. Irritating.

In the same matter-of-fact tone that she had to know was pissing Lisa off more than Alec crowing over his high scores, or the fact that Taylor could use Lisa's powers better than Lisa herself could, Taylor asked, "So, would you like to come watch?"

A number of possible responses passed through Lisa's mind in the space of a few seconds. I should say screw you. I'm better than this. I'm smarter than this. I'm not as easy to manipulate as you think. You can go off and be a smartass somewhere else, thank you very much.

What came out, however, was "Yes, please."

Taylor (Back in the Real World)

"How long till they get here? I'm bored." Regent dug his toes in the gravel on the rooftop, sending some skittering away. Beside him, Rachel stood next to her three dogs, all now back to normal size.

I sighed. Even after being patched up for first and second degree burns, Regent was still irritating. "They'll get here when they get here. It shouldn't be too long now." Turning to Lisa, I gestured with my free hand. "Any idea?"

She tilted her head. "One minute thirty. Plus or minus ten seconds." That sounded remarkably precise. Suspiciously so, in fact. Putting the light-spot on her, I tried to figure out what she knew.

Ah, of course. Very faintly, I could hear the engine of Armsmaster's bike. There was also a Hummer and two trucks. They're really going all out on this. Good.

Grue was looking better now; or at least, he could stand without swaying. Über stood near him, just in case he needed a hand, while L33t was caressing the Snitch and whispering to it … or maybe he was just programming it. I was never quite sure, when it came to him and that thing. Alibi stood next to me, on my left, where she wouldn't get in the way.

"There they are." Lisa pointed. I activated the zoom on my goggles, and saw Armsmaster's bike, followed by Miss Militia in the Hummer I had heard, and finally the two trucks. Just as I had predicted. Lisa's power really is bullshit.

"Forty-five seconds till showtime," I said quietly, even though nobody was close enough to hear us talking. Shifting the weapon I was holding in my right hand, I made sure that the charge meter was full. L33t released the Snitch; it zoomed away, hovering above the building to make sure it had a good line of sight.

Armsmaster pulled up first, followed by Miss Militia. Third on the scene was Velocity; he'd probably stopped for coffee somewhere. Finally, the two trucks lumbered up and disgorged a couple of dozen PRT troopers. Fully half of these were armed with foam sprayers, and the other half with …

"What are those things?" muttered Grue. The weapons he was referring to looked vaguely like foam sprayers, but with wider muzzles. I dipped into Lisa's power, and identified the unknown weapons as high-impact fire extinguishers. Really high-impact. Against unprotected flesh, they would leave bruises.

"Fire extinguishers," Lisa supplied, half a second before I would have. "They fire extremely high-impact fire-retardant foam." I took a moment to think about this. They wanted Lung taken down. This was no half-assed effort. But still, if we hadn't been here, some of them almost certainly would have died.

A few shouted orders later, and the PRT troops were arranged in a double line, the men with the containment foam in front, and the ones with the fire extinguishers at the back. They began to advance on the doors.

"Three. Two. One," I said, and triggered the self-destruct on the tau-field pillars. Upon their destruction, the field went down, and Lung came back to normal time. As far as he knew, he'd been in the base for all of ten seconds, looking for us. Given that he was experiencing time at one percent of normal rate, we'd been out here for the last fifteen minutes, patiently waiting for the PRT to arrive.

"Lung!" shouted Armsmaster over some sort of bullhorn. "We know you're in there! Come on out with your hands over your head!" This was not, of course, going to happen. Lung just wasn't a 'surrender peacefully' sort of guy. But they had to make the effort.

Lung burst out through the already-broken doors; he was about twelve feet tall by now, covered in metal, with flames wreathed about him. His jaws were oddly deformed, so that whatever he roared at them was hardly understandable. It might have been 'fuck you', but I couldn't be sure.

I brought up the stun rifle and took aim.

Gathering himself, he prepared to leap into their midst.

The red outline around Lung's monstrous figure turned green, and I squeezed the trigger.

ZORCH.

As the rifle jolted gently against my shoulder, the actinic violet beam leaped out to strike Lung; I kept it on him like a fire hose. He roared, fighting it; purple lightning crawled all over his body. Looking up, he saw me. Made to leap over the soldiers, toward me.

And then … the beam cut off, and he fell on his face.

"Okay, now we go," I said. "They're gonna be looking for us, and it won't be to give us a medal." In fact, if I'm not much mistaken … On a hunch, I flicked my goggles from standard HUD back to parahuman detection. And not a moment too soon. No less than two dots were closing in on our position; one from the front, and one from the rear. The latter was moving much more swiftly; I had a good idea as to who it was.

I'll only get one chance at this. The stun rifle was out; there was no way I could traverse fast enough with it. But that wasn't my only armament.

Everyone except Über and Grue had vanished through the portal by the time Velocity came into view. As soon as he got within range, I put the light-spot on him, and even then I was nearly too late. He got to within six feet of me before I realised what he was doing; at that speed, he would never be able to hurt me, but all he really had to do was attach a containment foam grenade and I was history.

Using acrobatics learned via Über's power, I rolled out of the way. Pulling my wireless taser, I tracked his movement, led by a fraction, and fired. He frantically tried to dodge, but I followed, keeping the beams on him until the electrical discharge reached him. He went sprawling, just as the head of Armsmaster's halberd clamped on to the edge of the rooftop.

I retrieved the con-foam grenade from Velocity and stuck it to the wall just under where Armsmaster would appear, then dashed back to the portal. When he came over the wall, his eyes were on me. He stepped over the edge of the wall just as the grenade went off, enveloping him in the yellowish foam. I watched in slow-motion, still using Velocity's powers, as the realisation of what was happening dawned on him. Just before it closed over his helmet, I held up two fingers. That's twice.

Activating the Manton field generator, I flipped it to its alternate setting and went over to the mass of containment foam. The non-stick field let me draw a large smiley face in the foam covering his helmet. This was all filmed by the Snitch, which was now hovering over my right shoulder.

My point was made. I mimed blowing him a kiss, and stepped through the portal.

"Director Piggot? This is Danny Hebert. I just thought I'd let you know that my daughter was dropped off safe and sound a few minutes ago. Who? Oh, someone calling herself Hax. I just thought I'd let you know, so you could stop looking. Oh, that's no problem. You have a good night, now."

Lung's Cell

Kenta paced from side to side in his tiny cell. He balefully eyed the containment foam nozzles that tracked his every waking move. It was intolerable that he be caged like this. When I get out, I will have revenge on every single one of them …

Turning, he frowned. There was a folded piece of paper on the concrete slab that served him as a bed. Where did that come from? It had not been there a minute ago.

Picking it up, he unfolded it.

Pocket Dimension Base: $80,000

Time Dilation Field: $120,000

Stun Rifle: $76,000

The Look on your Face: PRICELESS.

Oh, and guess how we paid for it all?

Love, Hax.

The note was incinerated in an instant; his scream of rage echoed through the cellblock.

"Central? Yeah, this is Smith down in Secure Holding. Yeah, it's Lung. Yeah, he's foamed himself. Again."

End of Part Twenty-Eight