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Chapter 26
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Mary and Kyra had both gone missing. Mortar Mage was the first to arrive at the school, dirtied and bleeding from a couple minor injuries, but neither he nor the others learned much from the students, teachers, or talking guinea pig.
“Nice fellow, that guinea pig,” said Mortar as the heroes left.
Night was falling, and the four heroes sat in the mansion, recovering from all that had happened that day.
Mortar Mage was tinkering with an array of machine parts on the floor that had come from the old base. He managed to bring the vital pieces of the computer and power supply, both of which he planned to upgrade anyhow. Still, he had a lot of work to do to get it all working like it used to, if not better.
Princess Undercut sat at the bar shivering and crying, with a glass of cider in front of her. She wanted so much for it to be alcohol right now; she had never been so scared, not just for her own life but for another at the same time.
“What are we doing?” she asked.
“I know,” said War Lagoon, “we’ll look for Mary and Kyra as soon as we’re able.”
“That’s not what I mean! Why do we keep risking ourselves like this? We’re not the same heroes we were five years ago. We used to set the traps and leave lasting marks on people everywhere we went. Now we just fall into someone else’s bullshit. Now we lose people left and right. Today, I finally realized how weak I really am . . . how weak we all are. The next mission could be the last for any of us.”
Psi Wizard reached for her drink. “I think you had enough, my love.”
“It’s not alcoholic. I can’t even have the stuff now. If the next mission kills me,” she felt for her belly, “kills us, then never again.”
“Tatiana . . .”
“I didn’t want to tell you like this. I should have said something last night when we were all here having a good time. It’s finally settling in, and it scares the shit out of me. What kind of mother am I, or will I be, if we keep doing this? What will happen if any one of us gets killed?”
Psi Wizard pulled her into his full embrace. He might have wept a little. “Then let’s save the girls,” he said.
“How, though?”
“She has a point,” said War Lagoon. “We don’t even know where to look.”
“Not only that, though. The attack on the bank was meant solely for us as though the few of us had been expected out of all of the heroes in Paragon. Bullman said some Vambraceman creep put him up to it. A captain. Probably the same one we’ve been dealing with for the few days.”
“Then we’ll start with every Vambraceman facility on the planet.”
Mortar Mage said, “I don’t think so, my friend. The captain, Bates, isn’t who he seems. I doubt we’ll find Mary or Kyra anywhere near the Vambracemen bases."
Bates? Come to think of it, War Lagoon was sure he had heard that name before, and not during his own military days. He wasn't sure now if it was worth digging through his memory for where he heard it.
Princess Undercut said, “I think you’re both missing the point. If we do this, then we’re going to need help. We’re going to need a plan.”
A man in a suit entered the massive room, standing on top of a flight of stairs. He had picked the lock, sneaked in, and listened to his old friends. He said, “What you need . . . is me.
Everyone looked up at the man who had long been missing until now. It was a man they had not seen for years.
Walter smiled down at them and said, “Long time, no see.”
Mary rubbed her aching head as she sat up. The sound of metal scraping against stone accompanied her while she got up, and she realized that she was chained by the arms with enough slack to move around the dark room. Her mind slowly registered how much her surroundings had changed.
Beyond the few, small windows, Maryann saw a sky in which day and night supplemented one another like clouds, and the formations of light and dark shifted as much as clouds did on a windy day, though there was no other sign of wind as far as she could tell. No trees, no pounding of air against the walls outside.
She turned to see what she was chained to, finding a pair of columns with plenty of space between them, and then she saw Kyra in a strange robe — one designated for a special kind of ritual. Kyra’s head tilted. Her eyes were as white as they had been in the last week, but now the veins around them glowed white as well.
Please no. Phoebe whispered inside Mary’s head.
Mary yanked at the chains, and tried to break them. But, no avail.
“That’s not going to work,” boomed a voice. A man stepped into the dim lightning of the vast chamber. It was that Vambraceman captain from before. No, that had been an illusion, which was long gone now before the true form hit Mary’s eyes, revealing a winged demon who stood eight feet tall. “I have waited long for this day. I see my minions have taken the liberty to change your attire already.”
Mary looked down. How had she not noticed the corset and garter belt with stockings, and the lack of any other clothes? Her wings were out too.
“What have you done to Kyra?” she asked.
“I have claimed her as my own. She was supposed to be host to the succubus queen, but something went wrong. Now, she serves me utterly, as you will. The difference is that you will have a choice. My choice, but a choice regardless.”
“Who are you?”
“I am the demonic master your mage friends feared and worked for. I am the arch-demon who orchestrated everything as far back as the queen being born and eventually captured. I tracked every descendant of the man responsible for sealing her away, and stoked her need for vengeance, until one such descendant could stand here this evening.” He smelled Kyra’s hair. “Oh, the joys of fear, hatred, revenge, and all-around scheming. You humans never truly know what you’re a part of until it’s as good as over.”
“She descended from the man who captured me? The succubus within me?”
“And now she is the perfect instrument of making you cooperate. Either you will bear my new world, or you will watch as she does and know that, every moment, whatever’s left of her soul will be in torment while her body commits to growing it inside her womb. Isn’t that right, my pet?”
Kyra sank to her knees, and reached for her master’s tool beneath the cloth he wore. The master laughed.
“Not now, my dear. Not yet.” He spoke to her so gently, but his power was undeniable.
“Don’t you dare touch her,” Mary demanded. “Kyra, snap out of it. We have to get out of he—“
She was interrupted when Kyra, moving at blinding speeds, smacked Mary across the jaw.
Mary said, “Why? Why do you do this? What do you even hope to accomplish?”
The arch-demon said, “I always wanted to see a world ruled by demons. In the many millennia that mankind existed, demons never got the chance. How could we with the others present? We were made from humans, most of us anyway. You’ve heard of the scars from drawing too much mystical energy at once? The first demons were born in attempt to prevent them, much unlike you succubi. You were born as an excuse for infidelity, created by men and taken in by us true demons. You were molded into the perfect soulless, carnal fiends to serve our whims, and those of men too foolish to see beyond their own release.
“You want to know what my plan is? The time has finally come, after centuries of your demonic essence in captivity. That is why I decided to break her free, and give her a new body, because she could no longer hinder my plans with her trail of pleasure and death that she once rained over humanity. It was amusing during her time, but not what I needed.
“I have everything I need now to make this happen. All you need to do is take my seed, and pleasure me. The surface world will change while you carry my child. Oh, the child will be another demon, but so will everyone else out there. All of Paragon City will change first, then the world while the demons out there feed and grow in numbers. And, best of all, not even my worst enemies can stop me from making it happen.”
“Then what?” asked Mary. “Aren’t you forgetting something? If the whole world changes into a realm filled with demons, then what will they feed on? You know what happens if I don’t feed. What a terrible plan.”
The master cupped her chin with his fingers. He replied simply, “Silly girl. A queen among puppets is still nothing more than a marionette.”
“No,” said Princess Undercut. “No, you’re not coming back. You can’t walk in here and expect us to just follow you after everything that happened.”
“Hello, Tatiana,” said Walter. “Congratulations on your pregnancy.”
“You think being nice and changing the subject is going to change anything?”
“Tatiana, please,” said Psi Wizard. “Let’s hear what he has to say first.”
Princess Undercut was furious at Walter for being gone so much of the time that they needed him. They thought he was returning sooner, but he did not. So much happened because he wasn’t there.
Walter adjusted his suit jacket, and descended the stairs. He said, “I have more to apologize for than is humanly possible. I get that. I had hoped to be able to manage this group from other countries while I was in service of diplomats, often filling in for ones who were assassinated. However, my sudden departure, and the death of our beloved friend, left a rift I could not mend or control.
“I did get better at pulling strings from long distances, or making things happen, but it was clearly not enough. I meant for one of our own, Blaze, to take in this new girl, Kyra, but he died at the hands of a mafia family before that could happen. I know the mark of the Circle when I see it from the other side of the planet, and she needed our help. I wish we had gotten to her sooner. I’m positive that things would be different now.
“There is another mastermind in play, you see. This Bates character, if I’m right. No, I’m not looking for an excuse for my failures, but I wish to exact the cause for our troubles that we face now. I’ve come home because we need one another. You can be angry at me all you want, but we must move forward and correct every mistake that we can, being the best group of superheroes I’ve ever had the honor to work with.”
War Lagoon said, “What’s so special about Kyra? She’s a good girl, don’t get me wrong, but why did it have to be her?”
“She is the last known descendant of a demon hunter from the early 19th century. Captain Patriot was the first official hero over a century later, as you all know, but this man and his family worked in the shadows doing the grim work while humanity convinced itself that its problems were nothing more than a romanticized dream. He wasn’t the first to do so, but his legacy must still be protected.”
“Kyra disappeared with Mary.”
“Mary?”
“David. David became a succubus named Maryann.”
“Oh. Then we have two people we need to save, don’t we? Possibly the whole world if my information is anywhere near accurate. And we will need to do so tonight.” His walking cane stamped the ground.
Princess Undercut said, “How are we supposed to do that, Walter?”
“Piece everything together that we know. Who are we fighting against?”
“The Circle. You said so yourself.”
“As would Warren, I’m sure. Isn’t that right, Mortar Mage?”
Mortar said, “An arch-demon, to be precise.”
“Where does our tale begin? Anyone? Surely, either Kyra or Dav— sorry, I mean Mary would have told one of you by now.”
“Peregrine Beach?” said War Lagoon. That was where everyone had reunited, and took down the Freakshow Gang in the sewer. “Or do you mean before we met that girl? Then Nerva. This tale began in those islands when she discovered the Circle was after her.”
“I’ll bet my best suit that our tale will lead us back there as well. Mortar, how good is your tracking ability these days?”
“Magically? All I need is something to tie my spell to what I’m looking for. If it’s in Nerva, then all we have to do is get over there, and I’ll find what we’re looking for in seconds.” It would take longer, otherwise.
“Good, then we will need something belonging to one or both of the girls. Princess Undercut, since you have the teleport ability, and probably know of something Mortar Mage can use, then I’ll leave that up to you.”
She nodded.
Walter said, “Psi and War, we’re going to need some help in this fight. Preferably someone who can take a hit.”
“Why not me?” asked Princess Undercut. “I’m not letting you save the girls without me.”
“Nobody’s implying it. You do understand the risks, of course. No, I need someone to run in and trip the Circle’s defenses if they have any nasty surprises waiting for us. Someone who can wreck stuff, as a certain friend of ours liked to say. If one of you knows someone who’d be willing to do that, then I will leave that up to you.”
“Wreck stuff, save the day,” Princess Undercut said.
“For the friends and allies we’ve lost. For the good of the city, and the survival of the world as we know it. Let’s get to work.”
The circular section in the middle of the floor opened, with Kyra, Mary, and their master standing to one side. A red crystal larger than the three of them rose through the opening. The ground surrounding the crystal closed, leaving a pool of water that would come up above Mary’s or Kyra’s waist if either one of them stood in it.
The arch-demon raised his hands, and spoke to the other demons and spirits and mages beyond the room, “Let us begin the ritual.”
Mary looked upon Kyra one more time, and clasped their hands together.
