The heroine breathed in sharply at the realization. Beside
her, Bright Blade noticed her mood had changed. "Are you all right,
my dear?"
Buttercup turned to him and smiled sweetly. "Oh yes, just
fine," she said glancing towards the doors. She leaned her head to
the side and pushed her chest out just a bit. "Are you sure we’re
alone?", she asked with a coquettish grin.
Bright Blade eye’s were
trying to bore holes through her thin shirt as he answered absentmindedly,
"Yes, yes…we are being completely alone. I have told them we are not
to be disturbing!" He leaned in closer to his conquest.
Buttercup
smiled evilly. "Good," and with catlike speed delivered a palm strike
with her right hand straight upwards catching the Tsoo leader directly
under the chin. His head snapped back and he yelled out in surprise.
She grabbed hold of his red flowing robe at the shoulder with both
hands and pulled him roughly down, burying her knee in his stomach.
The air in his lungs rushed out and she pulled him down again, the
point of her knee striking him between his nose and upper lip, and
Bright Blade fell to the polished wood floor unconscious and bleeding.
Buttercup stood over the man and brushed her hands. She sighed and
looked over at the display case containing the goddess’s statue. "Thank
you, Artemis," she whispered then leapt over Bright Blade and rushed
to the doors. She stopped before them and ran her hands through her
hair, making it look disheveled and wild.
She opened one of the doors
and, leaning against the edge of the other, cocked her head to the
side pursing her lips. The two guards turned to her then looked questioningly
to each other.
"You boys look tired," she said with a smile.
"Yeah,
take a break," Temptations said from directly behind the men. Her
hand grabbed the back of a guard’s head and slammed it face first
into the thick oaken doorjamb.
"Naptime!", Willow whispered and unleashed
a powerful blast of energy from directly behind the other guard. It
lifted him off his feet and hurled him into the trophy room. He landed
hard and slid several feet over the polished floor.
Miyaka and Temptations
grasped the unconscious body of the Enforcer she had struck and dragged
him inside the room. The whole incident took less than two seconds
and went totally unnoticed by the party guests. Buttercup closed the
door and turned to her friends.
Miyaka looked down at the unconscious
Bright Blade. "What, you tire your new boyfriend out?", she grinned.
Buttercup frowned with disgust. "You try spending a half hour with
the world’s biggest cootie and we’ll see what you do."
"Well, how
are we gonna question this guy?", Willow asked as she looked at the
display cases.
"No need," Buttercup said and crossed to the display.
She gestured to it like Vanna White and smiled. "Ladies, the Tablet
of Traume." The super heroines gathered around the case, staring at
their prize. They bent over to get a closer view, their eyes wide
with relief and amazement.
Willow glanced at Buttercup and nodded,
"You’re sure? This is it?" She turned back to the stone and watched
the low pulsating glow of it’s ruins.
"Positive," Buttercup smiled.
"It’s the tablet."
"Great," grinned Miyaka, "let’s get it and get
out."
Buttercup turned away and looked at the doors to the hall. "Yeah,
but we need to get it past the guards and all those people out there.
Besides I’m sure there’s some type of…," she looked back at her teammates
and her eyes widened in horror.
Temptations had taken a step back
from the display case, her arm was pulled back and her hand had curled
into a fist. With one quick powerful thrust, she punched through the
glass and pulled the Tablet of Traume from it’s resting place. As
soon as the glass shattered a siren began to wail and sheets of iron
plate slid down from the ceiling covering all the windows in the trophy
room.
"…alarm system," Buttercup finished flatly.
Temptations shrugged
and grinned at her friends sheepishly, a "Did I do that?" expression
on her face as she handed the stone to Buttercup.
"Opsie," Miya sighed.
WillowWind looked at the sealed windows and at the double doors in
front of her. "Gee, we were only surrounded before. Now we’re trapped
and surrounded." She shook her head at Temptations.
"You wanted the
tablet, we got the tablet," Tempt said with a firm nod of her head.
"Now let’s get out of here before…"
She froze in her tracks and she
and the other heroines looked at the doors. Outside, faint and coming
closer, were the sounds of boots. Marching boots. The sound of dozens
of soldiers heading straight to them.
Buttercup turned her head towards
Tempt and cocked it a bit to the side. She said through crooked lips,
"I cannot believe you."
Temptations shrugged and looked again at the
doors. The marching feet grew louder and louder then stopped abruptly.
Suddenly the doors flew open and the Tsoo practically flew inside,
weapons flashing, bows drawn and arrows ready to fly. The fists of
the Ink Men were glowing and the Sorcerers already had the air swirling
around them.
"Here we go," Willow whispered and the room exploded
in battle. She took to the air, her hands already glowing with power,
when she heard Buttercup call her name. Willow turned to the martial
arts mistress and saw that the Table of Traume was already spinning
it’s way to her like a Frisbee. WillowWind snatched it from midair
and tucked it under her left arm with a grim smile. Buttercup’s reasoning
was sound: while her three teammates, Buttercup, Miyaka and Temptations
would be on the ground in the middle of the fight, WillowWind’s power
as a blaster would allow her to strike from a distance. All she really
needed to do was dodge arrows and take out Ancestor Spirits, the only
members of the Tsoo that could fly. With her right hand free she zoomed
above the assembled villains hurtling bolt and blast into the melee.
Buttercup smiled, her lips pulled taunt across her white teeth. At
last she was in her element and she waded into the horde of thugs
without a second thought. Her elbow smashed into the face of an Enforcer
followed immediately by a left hook. Her right leg kicked straight
into the stomach of the next foe and as he bent forward the back of
her fist struck the side of his face. She leapt up and landed in the
middle of the mob, her hands and feet striking with such speed and
force that it soon became difficult to maneuver due to the unconscious,
broken bodies at her feet.
Miyaka backed up a few steps as the Tsoo
soldiers flooded into the room. Even though she could fight, she was
much more comfortable with a weapon in her hand. She surveyed the
oncoming thugs and her mind repeated the same phrase over and over,
"Get a sword…get a sword…get a sword…". Suddenly an Enforcer appeared
before her, his face shinning with battle lust and his sharp katana
arcing toward her head. Miya crouched low and, as the blade neared,
lunged forward and struck the Tsoo warrior as hard as she could in
the forearm. He yelled out in pain and surprise as his hand opened
involuntarily. The sword tumbled free directly into Miyaka’s outstretched
hand. She spun about in a wide arc and sliced the man across the chest,
blood spraying out in a circle as he twisted to the ground. Miya looked
at the sword and said with a smile, "You’ll do," then somersaulted
into the middle of a Tsoo mob, her new sword flashing in the florescent
lighting.
Temptations had waded into the fray at the start and, like
Miyaka, had taken a sword from one of the Tsoo Enforcers unlucky enough
to cross her path. Unlike her teammate, Tempt was not used to the
light weight of the katana and her skill with the great double edged
broadsword she normally wielded both helped and hindered her in the
fight. Temptations swung the light blade with the strength and power
as if it were her heavy sword and the blade cut into the Tsoo with
such force that soon the floor around her was littered with severed
bodies, torso’s hacked in half and a collection of arms and legs that
would take the city’s coroners several weeks to sort out.
It hindered
her because the steel blade was so light it threatened to fly from
her grasp on more than one occasion. Her broadsword was almost a part
of her and this light blade was taking too much of her concentration.
Still, she jumped into the middle of the battle, death and destruction
following in her wake.
Buttercup kicked the unconscious body of an
Ink Man away and buried her fist in the stomach of an onrushing thug.
The battle was going well and there was no doubt that eventually the
four super heroines would be able to defeat the army standing against
them. But Buttercup frowned. She looked about briefly and saw more
Tsoo warriors coming through the open doorway. "WE DON’T HAVE TIME
FOR THIS!", she shouted over the din of the fighting.
She scanned
the air overhead in the large room and saw Willow chasing down an
Ancestor Spirit that had gone incorporeal. It solidified for a split
second to strike the dark haired blaster but Willow was ready for
it and blasted it back into whatever netherworld it had come from.
"WILL! WILLOW!", Buttercup shouted. When she had Will’s attention
she yelled out. "NO TIME!! WE HAVE TO GO…SEND OUT THE SIGNAL!!"
WillowWind
nodded in agreement and shouted back, "RIGHT…WHAT’S THE SIGNAL!?!"
Buttercup jaw dropped and she stared up at the hovering blaster. A
Tsoo thug saw his chance and struck the heroine with a jab cross combination
and blood flowed from Buttercup’s mouth. With her teeth clenched together
she grabbed her assailant by his shoulder and yanked him to the right.
While he was still off balance and moving she clotheslined him so
viciously that he somersaulted over and fell to the ground unconscious.
Buttercup yelled up to Willow, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN? YOU DON’T KNOW THE
SIGNAL?!?!"
"WELL, NO ONE SAID WHAT IS WAS!!" Will yelled back as
she dodged a barrage of arrows.
"OH, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE!", Buttercup
shouted as she kicked a Tsoo Sorcerer in the head, "JUST SEND A SIGNAL!!"
WillowWind landed near the shattered case that formerly housed the
Tablet of Traume. "FINE," she cried out to Buttercup, "YOU WANT A
SIGNAL? YOU GET A SIGNAL!!" She stood with her legs bent and spread
wide, bracing herself. Her whole body seemed to glow as she drew the
energy from within herself. Willow held it, gathering it until finally
she could contain the power no longer. She threw her arm straight
overhead and a bolt of pure white energy leapt from her, through the
ceiling and the room above them and then exploding through the roof
of the mansion.
WillowWind smiled back at Buttercup and said with
a nod, "Now that’s a freaking signal!" Two Enforcers tried to tackle
her but she giggled and took to the air again knowing that her friends
were on their way.
On the hill overlooking the mansion the rest of
the team waited. The best case scenario would be their four friends
just walking out of the estate. But they knew that that would probably
not be the case. Too many enemies, too much ground, too little time.
So they waited.
Tropic had stood almost motionless the entire time,
arms folded across his chest, one hand tugging absentmindedly on his
goatee. Johnny and Elendil sat cross-legged on the ground, talking
about Azuria’s receptionist and her…interesting choice of undergarments.
Scrap leaned against a rock, Ryuu sat on one, and Cadecus stood, all
waiting.
Valya had almost paced a rut in the green earth. She looked
at the mansion again and shook her head. "Scrap, what time is it?"
General Scrap sighed. "It’s about two minutes later than the last
time you asked," he answered with a raised eyebrow. Val stared at
him for a moment and he sighed again. "It’s about one thirty," he
said.
"It’s too long. How long have they been in there?" Her eyes
never left the mansion. "We need to get down there and…"
"They’re
all right," Tropic cut her off. He turned his gaze to the red head
and nodded, "They can take care of themselves. They’ll be…"
He was
cut off by the faint wail of a siren. Top Ten rushed to the edge of
the hill and stared at the brightly lit estate. The alarm was still
shrieking and they watched as the Tsoo leader’s guests fled the mansion
and it’s grounds.
Ryuuhoshi grimaced. "You think that’s the signal?",
he asked looked sidelong at his friends.
"Naw," Johnny snorted, "that’s
way too tame for our girls!" He gestured at the mansion. "If they
were gonna send up a signal they’d…" At that moment a huge blast of
pure white energy erupted from the manor, blowing an enormous hole
in the roof, it’s shards raining down on the fleeing partygoers.
"I
think that might be it," Tropic smiled and as one Top Ten launched
themselves off the hill and raced to join their friends.
Johnny Cognito
nodded his head and said, "Now that’s a freaking signal!", then rushed
to catch up to his teammates.
Inside the huge trophy room the battle
still raged. Tsoo warriors were still flowing into the room and the
women, while holding their own were beginning to tire. Buttercup looked
up through the hole Willow had blasted in the ceiling and saw the
clear, starry sky over Founders Falls. She smiled grimly and returned
to the fight. "Well, I asked for a signal," she thought to herself.
Miyaka parried and thrust against the blades of the three Enforcers
standing against her. Her blade flashed and steel clanged against
steel as she danced among the enemy, slashing and spinning through
them. The floor had become littered with bodies and unfortunately,
slick with blood. She planted her left foot and thrust with her sword
but her foot slipped and she momentarily lost her balance.
One of
the men was on her in an instant, his blade arcing toward her head.
Miya was able to block it at the last second and, as the blades met,
she crouched low, spun and slashed the thug across the abdomen. She
rolled away and regained her footing only to be faced with the other
two.
Suddenly, from above, she heard her name. "MIYAKA!" She saw Ryuuhosi
swoop in followed by the rest of her team and he tossed something
towards her. Miya kicked the Tsoo in front of her in the stomach and
as he bent forward, leapt up, placed her boot on his back and launched
herself into the air. Switching her sword to her left hand she somersaulted
once and stretched out her right arm. The hilt of her blade, the one
she had to leave behind, found it’s mistress.
Miya landed lightly,
the two swords in her hands crossed over the throat of a startled
Tsoo guard. With a flick of her wrists she lopped the head off the
criminal and kicked his body away. She looked at her sword and said,
"Hello, baby. Miss me?", then flipped the blade around and, without
even turning, thrust it into a Tsoo solider trying to sneak up behind
her.
General Scrap landed beside Temptations and handed her the great
broadsword. Her eyes lit up as she practically ripped it from his
hands. She threw the light katana to the side and charged in among
the Tsoo once more.
Buttercup shouted out over the battle, "WE NEED
TO GO!"
"WHAT ABOUT THE TABLET?", Scrap called back, not wanting to
leave unless the mission was completed.
Buttercup pointed at WillowWind,
"SHE’S GOT IT!!"
Johnny Cognito had turned the floor in front of him
to tar and was holding several of the Tsoo thugs in place. "THEN LET’S
GET OUT OF HERE!", he turned to Buttercup. Then from the side, three
Tsoo Enforcers appeared and notched their bows. He turned back, ready
to jump away, when he saw them. Suddenly Tropic was there, pushing
him out of the way.
Johnny hit the ground roughly and spun around
to see what had hit him. His eyes flew open in horror. Tropic stood
where Johnny had just been, a surprised expression on his face. The
fiery hero looked down and saw five arrows protruding from his chest
in a tight cluster surrounding his heart. He looked over to Johnny
and smiled weakly then collapsed to his knees. The arrows began to
smolder and, as he fell over, they burst into flame.
The room became
unnaturally silent, all eyes drawn to Tropic’s fallen body. Then a
woman’s scream rent the still air. "TROPIC!", Willow cried out and
the room erupted again.