Standing in the small, dingy attic that they were using as a temporary hideout, Chaos lit a small frame in a brazier.
"We will remember our own," she said, her face stone. "He died fighting."
"Makes me the last one left," the Rat said with a shaky voice. "Last one of us, after that magic spill at the zoo. Anvil and Pigface and the weird demon thing and Googler and me. Don't think there'll be any more magical accidents, not with the Lightning Knight rules as they are…"
"Enough, rodent," Kila said grimly, her large hands forming thick fists by her sides. She looked at Chaos. "We attack, now. Destroy as many as we can. They'll expect us to be in hiding. We can surprise them."
Chaos nodded. "We're in a convenient location," she said.
Out of the window, they could all see a tall tower set in the middle of the city, its side decorated with a golden lightning bolt.
Sparx stared at it. The Knights she knew in her own world didn't have any building that magnificent.
"The main headquarters of the Lightning Knights," Chaos said, noticing the direction of her gaze. "Are you with us, Knight?"
"Yeah," Sparx said, meeting the other woman's gaze. "I'll fight with you."
"We have the power to destroy you should this be a trap," Kila said. "But even Louisa is more subtle than this."
Chaos scowled. "Knights. Can't trust any of them."
Kila shot her friend a quick darting glance.
"I don't betray anyone," Sparx said steadily.
"She rescued me once," Kellamy said, fiddling with his long braid. He met Sparx' eyes with a serious look. "I trust you, whether or not you're Destiny's Knight."
"I haven't got a clue what you're talking about, but I won't break that trust," Sparx said. "Now, how are we going to manage to kick some butt?"
-
At Headquarters, Louisa Lightning prepared to make her report, dreading the reprimand she knew would shortly follow.
None of three officers sitting at the desk bothered to acknowledge her salute, and she began to narrate her statement with trepidation.
"As per the instructions of the Lady Oracle and on the basis of calculations performed and confirmed by Tech, I used the convicted criminal Kellamy del'Fuerte to summon the Chosen One," Louisa said, making her report as brief as she could. "Chaos turned up, and managed to abduct both of them. I traced the teleport. Shortly after that, I ordered a group of Knights to attack the facility. We reported one human casualty, and seven wounded. We were able to destroy both the Googler and the facility, however our main prey escaped. It appears that the Chosen One has chosen to forgo fighting at our side, though this of course would be the work of Destiny."
The man in the middle, a tall, ascetic, balding man with a long ponytail of white hair flowing down his back, nodded slowly. "It appears you're finding it difficult to annihilate the last of the terrorists threatening the order of our world. You consulted the Lady Oracle?"
"She told me no more than it was Destiny," Louisa said. "I acted in full accordance with regulations and her instructions."
The man on the left looked at her steadily with piercing blue eyes that had neither pupil nor white, and Louisa had to fight to meet his gaze. He'd been her mentor, once; like her, he was one of the few born with powers, and had taught her—along with Chaos, though Louisa didn't like to remember those times—to use hers. "You failed," he said. "Doubtless Destiny is on our side, but you should have been able to eliminate the terrorists, Louisa."
The woman on the right, pale-skinned and wrinkled, nodded. "Chaos and her gang should not have escaped. I would suggest consulting the Lady again, and making preparations for another attack. Have you any information on their current whereabouts?"
"I have given all appropriate data to Intelligence," Louisa said steadily, "and I'm waiting on a reply."
"Keep doing all you can," the man in the middle said. "We'll be waiting on your success. Dismissed."
Louisa saluted, and marched out.
-
They'd planned to attack at nightfall, to swoop down out of the clouds and blast as many as they could. Kellamy's capture had given them enough information about the facility to know approximately where to strike.
"Get in, get out," Chaos said. "I'll get what I can from their machinery, the Rat acts as observer and decoy if necessary, and Kellamy wreaks as much havoc as he can."
"I'll watch your back," said Kila, "and the Knight can come with me."
Chaos nodded. "After we've blasted what we can and I've got the information we need, we leave. I should be able to block the scanners so they won't trace us."
"And what's Plan B?" Kellamy asked. "Assuming, of course, that we possess a Plan B…"
"We run as far and as fast as we can," Chaos said. "Hideout Seven, and if worst comes to worst, we seek shelter with your people. I won't pretend we aren't desperate." Her lips pursed. "There's only four of us left. We do as much damage as we can while they're not expecting it. Better than waiting like rats in a trap for them to come to us." She looked at the Rat. "With apologies to you, of course."
"Way to insult a valuable ally," he said with a sniff.
"Go fly over the area," Chaos said. "Report back to us in an hour."
The Rat departed through the window, and Chaos stared at the darkening sky outside. "We power up as best we can—the charges hidden here should serve us for tonight—and attack as soon as possible."
Kila grinned. "Sounds good to me," she said. "Let's spread some destruction."
-
Inside the Lightning Knight headquarters, Louisa raised an eyebrow at the rodent she was staring at.
"You're trying to betray your side?" she asked. "That's interesting. Why?"
"There are four of us left," the Rat said. "We can't win. It's simple, Knight. I tell you Chaos' plans, and you let me live. And you pay me an obscene sum of money."
"How much do you want?" Louisa said.
"I think…oh, three thousand would be fair compensation."
Louisa laughed pleasantly. "You're joking," she said. "I'll offer you five hundred; that's about as much as I can afford from my team's budget. Sorry."
"Two thousand," the Rat said firmly. "Not going below that."
Louisa powered up her wrist cannons. "That's all right. If I destroy you, there will be only three supervillains left. We'll get to them in time."
"You don't know how powerful they are," the Rat said desperately. "Kila's off the scale, really, more powerful than you, and Chaos controls machinery and the elf's a teleporter, and the Knight's joining them and they have powerups in their hideout and they're attacking tonight…"
"Go on," Louisa said, lowing her wrist cannons and smiling at him. "Keep talking, and I might reconsider my offer."
"They're attacking this building tonight. They think you're not going to expect that," the Rat said.
"Then I'll just have to prove them wrong, won't I?" Louisa said, still smiling, and suddenly fired at him.
The Rat collapsed, falling onto the neatly polished floor.
Louisa pressed a button on the wall, and spoke into it.
"Waste Disposal? Lightning here, room four-thirty B. There's some trash here I need you to incinerate…"
-
Sparx finished charging up, sighing as she felt her energy levels increase to full power. She turned to Kellamy, who was sitting nearby, braiding his hair.
"Googler was evil, in my world," she said.
Kellamy sighed. "He was not the most intellectual of underworld denizens, but he was brave, and fought for us. There will be no more like him, since the latest Knight regulations…"
"Sorry," Sparx said.
"That…reminds me," Kellamy said. "I promised you an explanation, though there's not much time…" His fingers twisted through his hair, taming it back into the braid. His hand movements seemed a little stiff, and Sparx wasn't sure if he was still feeling the effects of the chains or not.
"Keep talking," she said.
"The Lightning Knights summoned you here because they believed you would help them. That you represented the force of Destiny, and that you'd help them finally finish us off. I believe you're TNT's complement, from your universe…"
"Complement?"
"You look like him. Much prettier, of course," Kellamy added with a smile. "I think you are…who he might have been, if things had been different."
"Right, so…it's like an alternate universe thingie?" Sparx stared at him. "You look a lot like someone I know from my world, you know."
"Is it a flattering comparison?" Kellamy asked.
"Not really…though you're a lot more talkative than her, and have more hair," she said. "And you're…not evil."
"I am a highly unscrupulous terrorist and mercenary," Kellamy said, "and it is the Knights who stand for order on our world, the brave defenders of good and justice and righteousness..."
"Do they usually torture people?"
"No. They tend to prefer to deal clean deaths, unless they have some reason. More efficient that way, you see. They didn't get to rule this world by being impractical, after all."
"They rule your world?"
Kellamy looked surprised. "Yes. We're the last marauding supervillains that we know of."
"On our world, there's a saying that you have to be idealistic, abnormal, or stupid to be a Knight," Sparx said. "There aren't many of us, and we have our hands full trying to fight various supervillains trying to take over the world…"
"Which are you?" Kellamy asked.
"Abnormal," Sparx replied, materialising her sword briefly. "And I like the action." She blinked as she remembered what she'd left behind. "I have to return to my own world," she said. "There's just Ace and me and Random, and we have to win or else Lord Fear will take over the world."
"We don't have the power to take you back," Kellamy said. "Well, actually, we do, but none of us can afford to use our life force."
"Then I'll fight with you," Sparx said. "I could use the action."
"We can promise you action, Knight." Kellamy threw his completed braid behind his back. "You never told me your name, by the way. I hope it's not Timothiana or something along those lines?"
She laughed. "It's Sparx," she said, and held out her hand.
-
Kila stared into the sky. "He's not back yet," she said.
Chaos lifted her arm, and a small screen on the wall beside them lit up. The picture was fuzzy, but the voices were clear enough.
"…the Rat was the last known magically enhanced beast created by the well-known sorcerous disaster twelve years ago," the announcer said. "Since then, the Knights have been working to promote higher security and order in their world, and no further sorcerous accidents have been known due to tightened regulations. In latest news, a petty theft, the fifth this year, has been easily and quickly halted…"
Chaos flicked it off. "They caught him," she said, "and shot him down."
"Something else they'll pay for," Kila said, her tentacles curling around her.
"This could be our last chance to fight," Chaos said.
"Then we'll take as many of the bastards with us as we can." Kila bared her teeth in a half-smile. "Let them know we existed."
-
Louisa stood in the middle of the observation room, looking at a large screen showing the sky outside.
"A collective teleport would use too much energy," she said. "If the Rat was telling the truth, they'll try the sky."
Beside her, Tim shrugged. "I guess you're right," he said. "Let me go out there."
"You'd warn them," Louisa said. "Subtlety's never been your strong point. But don't worry. You'll get your chance to fight."
-
The four of them swooped down out of the clouds as silently as they could, approaching the giant skyscraper.
Kellamy turned to Sparx, who was sharing the flyer with him. "Going now," he whispered, and teleported off, leaving her to control the vehicle.
Chaos landed on the building's roof, and split the top hatch open, sparks striking off it.
Alarms started to go off as the three of them flew inside, but they ignored them.
"I can get into the control centre from the third room to the right," Chaos said. "Watch my back."
-
Louisa smiled.
"Teams Rain and Wind, attack," she said into her phone.
"What do I do?" Tim asked.
Louisa pointed to the screen where Kellamy had teleported in and was doing his best to fight, his blade flashing.
"Find him," Louisa said. "Might be tricky. He'll be moving around a lot."
Tim grinned. "Thanks," he said, saluting before running out.
The screen in front of Louisa crackled, and the face of the white-haired officer appeared.
"Sir," Louisa saluted. "I tripled the patrol numbers, and made preparations for the current attack. Are you safe?"
"We will not be attacked," he said. "We have guards, locked doors, and teleportation shields. What's your plan?"
"We've managed to lure the terrorists onto our home ground," Louisa said. "This is our chance to destroy them."
"I'm getting the power readings," the man said. "You will need all the resources you have. You and Tim are the best we've got…"
Louisa saluted. "I've sent Tim out to hunt the Dark Elf, and once I'm sure the others aren't going anywhere, I'll fight them."
"Do so," he said. "What about the Chosen One?"
"Her as part of the final destruction of Chaos is good enough for me," Louisa said. "It's Destiny, even if not quite as we envisioned it."
The man laughed, and made the sign of the hexagon.
"I'll leave it to you, Louisa," he said.
"Your confidence is not misplaced, sir."
-
Chaos finished with the machine, covering her tracks and causing enough equipment malfunctions for their attackers to have some serious problems.
She ran out, noticing Kila halfway down the hallway, standing to fight against at least ten Knights, and Chaos stood by her side.
"I got it," she said quietly, taking a blaster from her belt and firing, reaching for a phone in her other hand.
"Kellamy. Get out," she said into it.
"You get out of here," Kila said. "I can hold them off."
She lashed a tentacle into the hallway, clearing a distance.
"You have what we came for."
A Knight fired, hitting Chaos' upper arm and severing it from her body, and she gasped, blood pouring out of the wound.
Kila grabbed Chaos' fallen blaster and fired, cauterising the wound.
"Another…body part gone…" Chaos muttered, swaying on her feet.
Kila threw her flyer at Chaos. "Don't make me do this for nothing. Leave here, with all the information you can."
"Need to stay with you," Chaos said, taking the blaster from Kila with her metal hand and firing it again. "Won't leave you."
Sparx used her sword to beat her way through the crowd of attackers, to stand beside Chaos and Kila.
Avraam drew twin sais, and she stared at him.
I know him, she thought, we used to be friends, he's polite and likes reading old poetry books and sat next to me in blades training…
She blocked his attack with her sword just in time.
Not my world, she reminded herself, not the Avraam I know…
Another Knight attacked, a thick-bodied man wielding a battleaxe—she thought he looked like a prison guard she'd seen once, in her own world—and Sparx fought as best she could, quickly using her blade to cut across his torso, and he fell back.
Avraam threw a sai at Chaos, and Sparx used her sword to blast it to pieces just before it hit the woman. Chaos flung her a brief look of gratitude, and the battle continued.
-
Kellamy heard Chaos' words from the device he'd had strung on his belt, duelling TNT in what he thought was probably the Lightning Knight mess hall.
He felt sudden pressure as someone grabbed his braid from behind—a girl Knight, younger than him, with curly hair and an apparent ability to create small fires—and he struggled, aiming a kick into her ribs, quickly grabbing the end of his braid to stop the small blaze.
"Fairy," TNT said. "Anyone ever tell you long hair gets in the way?" He used the opportunity to press his attack, driving Kellamy across the overturned tables in the hall.
"Anyone tell you that you possess the manners of a leprosy-infested ape?" Kellamy jumped for the flyer. "We'll continue this later…honey."
Before Tim could react, Kellamy had disappeared in a teleport, and the Knight ran to find him.
-
Sparx found herself standing next to Chaos, sheltering behind a strut in the hallway, while the other woman fired a blaster from her metal hand to stop the Knights coming too close. They could see Kila, still fighting, though they'd been separated.
Kellamy appeared above them, his sword raised.
"Coming?" he said. He looked at the approaching Knights, worry on his face.
At Chaos' command, a flyer appeared, though the woman looked exhausted.
"Both of you. Go," Chaos said. "Escape while you still can."
A bolt from a blaster hit the second flyer, which started to spin irregularly.
In front of them, Kila fell. Sparx couldn't see what happened to her.
"She said to go…" Chaos said. "I'm not letting this go for nothing." Chaos stabilised the flyer, and shoved Sparx onto it. "I need to stay."
Sparx gasped at the flyer's irregular movements, unable to control it.
"We'll need you…" Kellamy said, glancing briefly at Sparx. "You can live to fight another day…"
Sparx took Chaos' remaining arm and helped her onto the flyer, using her powers to keep it balanced.
She tried to fire bolts from her sword to where she'd last seen Kila, but they didn't make any difference as the three of them made their way out of the building.
Chaos brought open the roof—she'd calibrated the building's electrical facilities to cater for them; the Knights were finding it hard to pursue them.
Louisa appeared in front of them, smiling.
"It's been some time since we got to talk, Chaos," she said. "Too bad it won't happen today."
She fired, and Sparx was just able to use her bodyweight to manoeuvre the flyer out of the way.
"We don't have time for this," Kellamy said, and reached to his boot in one swift motion, drawing out a small dagger and throwing it at the Knight.
It hit her in the shoulder, and as Louisa fell back the group used the opportunity to make it into the cover of the clouds, desperately trying to escape, disappearing into the night as the pursuit went on.
-
Kellamy took Chaos' metal arm, helping the older woman to remain standing, in the drab, darkened basement of the hideout they'd fled to. It was an old house, in the outer areas of the city, one Chaos had used her powers to take out an electronic lease.
"Took Kila," Chaos muttered. "I ran. Left her. With them."
"You got the information?" Kellamy asked sharply.
"Yes," Chaos said, resting her metal hand on the wallscreen. Information scrolled across it, moving more quickly than Sparx' eyes could follow.
"A map," Kellamy said, pointing to a fragment spooling across the screen. "That'll help."
"Not much good," Chaos said. She swayed on her feet, and Kellamy and Sparx helped her to sit down.
-
"We've got her locked up," Avraam Livingstone said, saluting Louisa. "It took us a while; her power readings are extremely high. And we know that Chaos is missing an arm."
"Which one?"
"The…human one."
"I was there when she lost the first arm," Louisa said thoughtfully. She had a dagger's hilt sticking out of her shoulder, Avraam noticed, but she didn't seem to realise. "It was for a more noble cause, though it wasn't long after that she chose to desert. But no matter. Terminate Kila, and dispose of the arm, of course," Louisa said. "Well done."
A voice crackled from the screen behind her.
"Override one of those orders, Knight," the blue-eyed man—Louisa's old mentor—said. "We with powers aren't so common as to be wasted."
Louisa nodded. "She is powerful," she said. "And her friends will come after her. Should we take advantage of that?"
The man laughed. "Now you're thinking," he said. "They are powerful. But time—and Destiny—are on our side."
-
Chaos sat down, her remaining hand shaping a second prosthetic out of a piece of scrap metal. Her face was expressionless and cold.
"Are you sure she's gone?" Sparx said.
"I cannot hope," Kellamy answered.
"Yeah, but they didn't kill you," Sparx said. She turned to Chaos. "Did you actually see her?"
"No," Chaos said.
"Then you don't know," Sparx said hopefully. "We can wish, right?"
"The price of hope is too high," Kellamy said, leaning against the wall with closed eyes, exhaustion drawn on his features.
Sparx fiddled with the screen on the wall, and Kellamy watched it with mindless eyes.
It took a while for the public announcement to appear.
"It is a trap," Kellamy said. "But they do not know that we know exactly where to go."
"The most secure cells are there," Chaos said automatically, the wallscreen lighting up to illustrate her point. "Can you take me in a teleport?"
Kellamy shook his head. "I'm not going to take you," he said. "It will be easier to transport her, and you have only one arm for now. But if we know where to go we should manage. It is a chance."
Chaos stared at him for a long moment, and nodded, falling forward into a dead faint.
-
They appeared together facing a steel door in a darkened room. Sparx disentangled herself from Kellamy, and looked up at him.
"Through there?" she whispered.
Kellamy shook his head, and she thought there was a bemused expression on his face, shadowed in the gloom.
"You took a wrong turn," came a feminine voice from behind them, and they both turned suddenly, hands gripping the hilts of their weapons.
Their eyes were quickly growing used to the dark, and they could make out a large crystal ball in the centre of the room. It was filled with smoke, and inside floated a luminous woman, semitransparent and greenish.
"I am the voice of Destiny," the woman said. "I knew that you would arrive, Kellamy del'Fuerte and Sparx, to search for your friend; and it was I who ordained that you would be summoned to this destination, Lightning Knight."
"Well, madam," Kellamy said, sweeping her a bow. "Could you possibly tell us just how to find the friend you mentioned?"
"I could," she said, and smirked. "But whether I will is another question."
Sparx rolled her eyes. "Right. What do you want?"
"Free me," the woman said. "Blast me out of this and I will help you. My powers are limited, and I am not real enough to do any damage."
"Why should we believe you?" Kellamy said. "You told the Knights to use me to summon her, didn't you?"
"And she helped you and your friends to fight," the woman told him. "It's the way of Destiny."
"That's still not a good reason to believe you," Sparx said.
The woman held up a hand. "I swear on the soul I gave away a long time ago that I will show you to your friend."
Kellamy shook his head. "Not good enough."
"I swear on the powers that were once within my possession that I will keep my word."
"Still not good enough."
"Fine," she said. "I swear on the most sacred oaths of the Sixth Dimension, on the Powers I am beholden to and any power I currently wield, and on my own death, and on my noble family name, that if it is within my ability I will help you."
She glared at them. "Satisfied?"
"Maybe. What is your family name?" Sparx said.
"That is the first time in three hundred and thirty-odd years someone has asked me that question," the ghost said thoughtfully.
"Well?" Sparx said, after a long pause.
"I am Lady Vincenza du Lac, daughter of a noble family when I was alive," she said. "Otherwise known as the Lady Oracle, voice of Destiny. Now, are you going to get me out of here or not?"
Sparx looked at Kellamy. He shrugged.
"Fine," Sparx said, and blew apart the crystal ball with her sword.
Vincenza sighed with relief. "So cramped in there. Incorporeal I may be, but that does not imply complete insensitivity to my surroundings…"
"We're going to rescue Kila," Sparx said, cutting her off. "Where is she?"
-
A/N: Thank you for the reviews, Flash and Hyperpsychomaniac! I LOVE feedback.
Flash: Sparx is special because Destiny said so. :P