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Chapter 36
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They had to know. They needed to know.

Mai walked and trembled through the long hallway of fiberglass and metal, and other materials she didn’t care to name off right now. There were voices at the end. She knew these voices, and they were the ones she sought after. She turned left into the main room where she presumed the League met regularly.

“Blaze and Rampart reported nothing there,” said Walter. “Anything in Striga Isle?”

“Nothing that I’ve seen,” answered War Lagoon.

“What about Founder’s Falls?”

Princess Undercut said, “Sorry, sweety. Psi Wizard and I have been looking there all week. The only thing we found was an eerie house away from the mainland, but there’s no sign of Arachne Regime activity there. Hey, Mortar, didn’t you say there was a tracking spell?”

Mortar Mage said, “It’s temperamental at best, and requires more than we alone can give it if we want to search over a hundred mile radius for anyone we’re looking for. Maybe if we used Pixeletta, but . . .”

Mai gasped at hearing her daughter’s hero name. She wasn’t sure why, but it didn’t matter.

Everyone in the meeting room looked over at Mai as she turned the corner to enter it. Her body continued to shake. She raised the bracelet slightly that she had seen Pixeletta wear a number of times.

“How did she get past the defense system?” one of them asked.

“D-N-A scan, probably,” said Mortar. "I hope no one has an evil twin out there."

Psi Wizard and Walter, however, hurried to Mai and guided her to a seat by the table.

“What’s wrong, Ms. Tanimoto?” asked Princess Undercut.

“They took her,” Mai announced. Saying it crushed her harder than she ever thought it would. “They took my baby girl.”

“What? How?” asked War Lagoon.

“I don’t know. I was getting off work when the news reported an attack on the Shiva Bay bridge colony. I went there because an old friend of mine continues to live there when I keep telling her to move her business away from the area for safety reasons. She told me about a girl who stayed with them a few days, and another who went to see her. That was when I found this.”

Mai extracted another bracelet from her purse. It was the flowery one that Judy got for her birthday.

“She thought it might have belonged to one of her girls at first, and that she’d have to reprimand them for leaving jewelry laying around. But, It’s Judy’s. I know it is.”

Walter said, “You don’t know for sure. Judy could be anywhere.”

“I went home to find her, but her costume and her other armlet were both in her room. She wasn’t there. There was no note or anything. The only time my baby girl goes out in civilian clothes is with me or her friends. You don’t understand, my baby girl is missing. I can feel it in my bones that something is wrong.”

“Dear, oh dear.”

“Then Stone has her,” said Psi Wizard. “Where are Dissarap and Adamast Cross?”

“I don’t know. Could you head outside and summon them? Hopefully, they’ll both be wearing their bands so they’ll know to follow the signal.”

“Right away.” Psi Wizard walked out of the room.

Mai stood back up and shook her head. “You’ve all been good friends to her, but what can you do? You still can’t find Denise or the other girls. Not sitting around here or searching the city when they can all be anywhere.”

“Please, Mai,” said Walter.

“No. You have a psychic among you, and a man who acts like he can always plan several steps ahead. Did any one of you ever consider how brokenhearted Judy was to know that you knew who they were after? Do you actually care?”

“This is the worst déjà vu ever. Look, Mai, we know we messed up. But what can we do now that we haven’t already done? Only expand our search and hope we can do something about Stone’s next move when it comes.”

“I’ll look for them myself if I have to.” Mai grabbed Walter by the suit. Her eyes were filled equally with anger and desperation. “I don’t care how far I have to go or how long I have to go. I will find her, unless you can tell me you have a better plan than sitting around like you’ve done for the last six months.”

“We will find her. You have my word that we will find her, and she will come home in one piece. If she doesn’t, then you can take it out on me.”

Mortar Mage said, “We might be able to do it, after all.”

“Do what?” asked Princess Undercut.

“It’s like I was trying to explain earlier. The caster has to be connected to the person they’re looking for, or the tracking spell can send you in any other direction, for a fraction of the distance. That's not counting the cost in reagents. Mai, could you hand me those bracelets, please?”

She let go of Walter, and held on to both the League’s band and Judy’s bracelet for a moment before handing them over.

The hooded hero enveloped them in a blue field of magic. He turned them over a few times. He hummed inquisitively.

“Damn, it’s no good,” Mortar said. “There’s too much interference. It’s not your fault, not exactly, but . . . well yes, it’s you.”

“What?” Mai asked.

“These have your strong emotions tied to them just as much as any Judy might have poured into them. There’s a small trace from her friend too, I think. This could send us almost anywhere.” He handed them back to her. “We need something that’s clearly Judy’s, and Judy’s alone, if we are to find her with the tracking spell.”

“Something like a diary?”

Judy winced. Her head ached, her stomach felt like it twisted in agony for a time, and the room she was in was dark. The floor was hard, and there didn’t appear to be any sort of cushion or blanket when she felt around her current space.

“You’re up?” someone whispered. It sounded like Denise.

“What happened?” Judy asked.

“We were drugged and kidnapped, but keep your voice down. I don’t . . . I don’t know how long we have.”

“Where are we?”

“Somewhere far away from home. We were drugged the whole way. I feel so stupid. I led them to you, and thought I got away. I should have known it was too easy.”

“You said something about not having long. What do you mean?” said Judy.

“They told me what happened to the other girls they’ve taken. It’s terrible. They were sent to be brainwashed by one of the Arachne Regime’s lieutenants. This lieutenant is supposed to be here to take me to the others once we’ve said goodbye.”

“Leaving me to face Stone, alone. Damn it all. I was supposed to prevent this.”

“Do you think, maybe, when this is over they’ll let us be together?”

“I don’t know. It depends what they make you do, or what they have planned for me.” She grasped for her friend in the dark. “It depends on a lot of things.”

Her hand found flesh. It was soft to the touch, and came with a moan. Judy withdrew her hand with a blush. A moment later Denise leaned against Judy and wrapped a hand over her other side.

“You’re more accident prone than you realize,” Denise whispered.

Judy said, “I sometimes think I feel more than I realize.”

Denise kissed her on the cheek. Judy didn’t flinch.

“You never know. Maybe, any minute, Swan Diva will come crashing through this place and save us. Then we can go home, and never part again.”

She tried to sound as sweet and comforting as possible, but Judy felt and heard her friend weep into her shoulder.

A sharp, hollow sound filled whatever room they were in. Metal creaked. Suddenly, there was light beaming in from beyond an opening to one side.

“Come,” a man commanded. “Stone wishes to meet you at once.”

Judy struggled to fling herself in the door’s direction, to use her power, but she lacked the strength that moment. Two men in armor came and separated her from Denise. Denise screamed out for her. The door was closed again, and Judy’s eyes, head, and stomach all betrayed her ability to fight.

She was led down a number of corridors until they reached a large room with a body of water, from which a low light rose to add to the room’s already moderate lighting. There, sitting at a small table by the pool, accompanied only by more food than most men could eat in a single serving, was Harvey Stone.

“Welcome,” he said. “Join me. I’m sure there’s something here you can eat or drink.”

“Well, we’re here,” said Adamast Cross.

“Yes, but where’s here? What is this place?” asked Blaze.

It was night, a whole day after Mortar got his tracking spell working, and the Dallevan League was sitting amidst the trees on the side of a hill.

Below them was a large lot and factory-sized building, most of its walls and windows showing signs of wear from years of no one using or maintaining it until now. All around the once-abandoned factory, there was a massive army of agents from the Arachne Regime. All this time, they had gathered about seven hundred miles outside of Paragon, only sending people into the city to pick up someone they’d thought was Pixeletta.

Psi Wizard was rubbing the sides of his head and looking concerned when Princess Undercut asked him, “What’s wrong?”

He said, “There’s a powerful mind here. Not just Stone. I mean a psychic. We need to come up with a plan of attack before they . . .”

Searchlights turned on, aimed in the League’s direction. There was shouting below. The Arachne Regime knew they were here.