1.8
Brian was patient.
Their new boss paid twice as much as Coil, and her schemes, while not one hundred percent legal, were much more harmless. True, their reputation was basically tanking, in a kind of Über and Leet sort of way, except that they were more likable. But in the end, he was in it for the money.
Techno Queen (who was surprisingly calm and levelheaded when out of costume) had apparently easily hacked into the Wards patrol route. She'd said something about it not having too high end protections as it wasn't really that valuable information. They learned nothing but where and when anyone of the Wards were. Brian thought that was actually quite valuable information, but he supposed everything technological got easier when you were a Tinker.
It was just him and Bitch and the dogs, waiting patiently behind an AC thingamajig atop a roof. Technically, with Techno Queen's teleportation technology, he didn't really need Bitch's help, she was just here in case things went awry.
"Target approaching, over." Said a robotic voice over the coms.
"Roger," he replied.
He tensed, ready to spring up at a moment's notice. Thirty seconds later Clockblocker appeared, running and leaping across rooftops, patrolling. He jumped atop the rooftop Brian and Bitch were on, he was getting closer… closer…
Brain squeezed the trigger of the knockout gun he'd been given. The hero went down immediately, falling unconscious before he'd even hit the ground. Bitch took out the… rope (who used rope?) and tied Clockblocker's hands behind his back. Him, the dogs, Bitch, and the unconscious body, all gathered into a tight circle, and Brian made the subtle hand gesture that the Tinker tech bracelet around his wrist interpreted as "base".
He tried not to cough as the smoke dissipated to reveal Techno Queen's throne room. Underneath one abandoned apartment complex, she had taken over a basement and two subbasements, making the first into a throne room, the second into a workplace, and the third into a living place, now remodeled to house for five people in a pinch. The throne room was needlessly vast and empty, torches spaced out evenly on the walls, doors that led to stairs that went either down or up at one side of the room, a throne with dark red cushions on the other.
Techno Queen and the rest of the "Dastardly Techies" were standing in front of it, arguing. For lack of a better word.
"Come on. Please? Please, please, please?" Techno Queen begged.
She was holding two… costumes, he realized they were, in front of her. At first, he'd thought they were rags made out of silk or something, but really they were just incredibly skimpy costumes.
"No." Tattletale said, arms crossed.
"Double no." Regent agreed.
"But every good villain needs to have two sexy henchmen!"
Brian cleared his voice, to bring attention to the fact that, hello, they were here. How had they missed the giant poof of smoke?
"Oh! Grue, no, you misunderstand! I wasn't saying you're not sexy, or not sexy enough to be my token sexy male henchman, I just-"
"Its fine, Techno." He tried to say over her. "We've got-"
"It's THE TECHNO QUEEN!"
"-Clockblocker. We've got Clockblocker."
Bitch threw said Cape to the floor for emphasis.
"Oh!" she threw the skimpy costumes to the side and sprinted for her throne. Tattletale shot him a grateful look.
The next fifteen minutes were spent carefully readying everything. An email was sent, Clockblocker was chained to a chair facing the throne, the room was cleaned up a bit, and Techno Queen spent at least five minutes arranging herself in her throne, constantly asking for feedback for how she looked.
"Okay, Tattletale, to my right, Regent, to my left- this really would have looked better with the skimpy costumes you know-"
"No it wouldn't have," Tattletale said.
"Definitely," Regent agreed.
"-but whatever, maybe later-"
Headshakes all around.
"Bitch, make your dogs a bit bigger, and prowl around the room in a menacing yet backgroundish sort of way okay? Grue, atmosphere."
He let his darkness pool around the room, casually letting it curl around a robot or two, the things semi regularly being spaced out around the room, guns at the ready, backs ramrod straight.
"Aaand… blast him, minion."
One of the robot minions that had been standing by Clockblocker leveled its slightly different looking gun at the Ward, and triggered, a white cloud thing being shot out of the nozzle. Soon, Clockblocker was coughing and sputtering.
"Ah, Clockblocker, my arch enemy… So we meet again." She said, her voice much loftier and theatrical than it had been two seconds ago.
"T-THE TECHNO QUEEN?" he shouted, despite having just woken up from unconsciousness.
"Yes, Clockblocker, it is I, the one mothers tell their young ones stories about to keep them in line, the monster under the bed, the cracked closet door, the darkness in the cellar, the creaking door hinge in the night, THE TECHNO QUEEN!"
"What's going on?"
"Isn't it clear, nemesis? My DASTARDLY TECHIES have retrieved you for me. So that I can enact my evil plan. MWAHAHAHA!" She didn't reveal her evil plan. There wasn't one. This was all pretty much a spur of the moment sort of thing, after the team had spent forty minutes just staring blankly at the TV, not even knowing what they were seeing.
"Are you seri… I mean, no! You'll never get away with this, THE TECHNO QUEEN! In the end, good shall always triumph!"
Holy shit. He was actually playing along.
"Ah, but that's where you're wrong, Clockblocker! I'm not a villain who pulls her punches, you know!"
Tattletale visibly held back laughter at this statement.
Clockblocker seemed to grasp for a suitably clichéd comeback for a bit too long. Grue took pity on him and leaned in close to the Ward, over his shoulder, whispering into his ear, "The Power of Love and Friendship shall always prevail, THE TECHNO QUEEN. You do not scare me, for I know that my friends will save me."
Clockblocker repeated his words in a relieved sort of dramatic tone of voice.
"Very well, Clockblocker. We'll see if your pitiful friends will come for you. But don't be too surprised if they're a no-show. Ha, ha, ha!"
Well. This was embarrassing. Also, kind of sad.
"Base System, any signs of the Wards yet?" the Techno Queen asked for the fifth time in as many minutes.
"Go fish!" Tattletale said vehemently, laying out her cards for Regent to see.
Bitch, lying atop three sleeping dogs, snored loudly.
"No signs of the Wards yet, High Royal Superior Mistress."
Silence.
"High Royal Superior Mistress?"
"Shut up, Grue."
The Techno Queen turned her sullen, slightly flustered gaze on her captive. He shrugged defensively, or as much as he could in his binds.
"It's not my fault! They should have been here by now, honestly!"
The villainess began impatiently pacing back and forth in front of her throne.
"I just don't understand! Why would the Wards abandon their dear friend in his hour of need like this? It isn't like them! For god's sake, did they get lost on the way or something?"
An idea began to dawn on Brian. A stupid, stupid, sad idea. Which mean that it was most likely true.
"Techno Queen?"
"It's- oh, who cares? What!?"
"Did you remember to tell them where your base was?"
The silence took on a distinct embarrassed flavor now.
"… Really?"
"Stop judging me, Grue!"
"My ass is numb."
"Shut up, Clockblocker. Captives aren't supposed to complain." The Techno Queen said.
"Yes they are! And don't you tell me to shut up, I am perfectly in my rights to be annoyed, god damn it-"
The Techno Queen began to hunch her shoulders and shrink back.
"- because…" Clockblocker floundered.
Grue was a very sympathetic man.
"What did you do them, you monster?" He whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
Clockblocker repeated his words. They seemed to be the boost he needed to jog his imagination.
"You villain! You cretin! You dare lay a hand on my friends? I swear upon my honor and integrity as a hero, I won't rest until the day I defeat you for good, THE TECHNO QUEEN! For now and forever, you shall always be. MY! RIVAL!" Clockblocker shouted in a booming voice, the acoustics of the room complimenting his melodramatic tone nicely.
The Techno Queen hesitated, before throwing back her head and laughing maniacally.
"Oh, Clockblocker, my dear eternal rival, you don't stand a chance! Just you wait and see, this is merely the beginning of the game of cat and mouse between us. But the question remains: are you the cat… or the mouse?"
"That doesn't make any-" Tattletale slammed a hand over Regent's mouth, their card game forgotten. She was looking at the Techno Queen and Clockblocker in a very… disturbing way.
"I… am the lion." He answered.
Regent's cries of how idiotic that was were muffled by Tattletale's hand.
The Techno Queen cackled again and snapped her fingers. One of the robots gassed Clockblocker and he sagged, limp and unconscious in his chair once more. Promptly the Techno Queen switched into Serious Mode, which was always terryfying after being around her when she was always in Silly Mode.
"Grue, get him unchained. Take the teleporter back to the roof from where you took him and leave him there."
She turned around, her back facing them dramatically. A subtle flex of her shoulders made the wind generator hidden in her cape begin to blow so that the cape wafted behind her theatrically.
"The game… is on."
