METROCITY
Misfit Superheroine Underground
Invincibelle collapsed to her knees and wrapped her arms tightly around herself. The Ithornic Leech’s body began to morph and crystallize. Sections of it turned black and began to flake off. Her scientific mind catalogued a few stray thoughts about it being an energy-based life form and its destabilized matrix discorporating. Then she began to shudder. “Monster’s dead, Eva… Monster’s dead….” She clenched her eyes shut and rocked back and forth.
A figure in black and grey armor with a red helmet flew in through one of the shattered windows along the ceiling. An array of weapons on his arms, shoulders, and several drones hovering around him scanned the area for a second then fixed on the ring center. Captain Alpha fixated his HUD on the ring center and was stunned for a second to see his friend, Invincibelle, hurt.
“Open the cage!” his amplified voice reverberated through the building. Rita pushed the lever and the inertrium cage slowly began to rise. He flew under it then skidded to a halt as he entered the compression field and his grav thrusters began to sputter and fail. He triggered the emergency release on his armor and stepped out of it, placing a hand on Eva’s shoulder.
“Invincibelle…” she was bleeding and could have internal injuries, but what worried him most was that she was crying. “You did good, girl. You got it.”
“I thought… I thought I was going to-to die, Sam.” she stuttered.
“Hey, secret identity, lady.” She actually made a brief hitching chuckle at his scolding. Captain Alpha’s identity was widely known to the public. He put his arms around her shoulders and whispered, “Shhh. You’re okay.” The two of them stayed there for a minute oblivious to everything around them as the last remnants of the alien creature collapsed into dust.
“We’re going to get you to a hospital, Belle, okay?” she just nodded at his words but did not move. “I’m, uh… I’m not strong enough to carry you, Belle.”
“It’s ok, I’ve got her.” Hammertina was standing at the ring apron and ducked under the ropes. Captain Alpha released his friend and Hammertina gathered her up. At ringside Buffalo Rose and Fireplug held the ring ropes apart for them to exit. The rest of the misfit superheroines stood watching in respectful silence.
“Thank you.” said Invincibelle weakly.
“Thank you,” Hammertina responded. “That thing was… inside me. You saved my life.” She began walking towards the exit, carrying Eva effortlessly. “But I still want to fight you when you’re better.” Eva laughed and just shut her eyes, resting her head on the woman’s shoulder.
CAPE CITY
Home of Invincibelle (One Week Later)
“Looking good, Belle.” said Captain Alpha from the vid screen.
“I’m feeling better. Statuesque actually bought a nurse’s outfit to take care of me.”
“Yeah, that’s TMI.” he smiled. “Speaking of TMI, could you activate the alpha-level encryption on this line?”
Eva’s smile froze and she cocked her head to the side. She hit a few keys on her console and suddenly looked very serious. “What’s up, Sam?”
“We’ve analyzed what was left of the Ithornic Leech. Which wasn’t very much thank you for that by the way.” Belle just shrugged. “We have a couple ideas for theoretical weapons that could destroy one of these things. An electron-positron collider beam. An actual bullet with a magnetic resonance in a frequency that would disrupt its atomic structure.”
“That makes sense.” Eva nodded.
“We were planning to send out all the information we have on the creature along with the instructions for how to build these weapons. Get them out to our nearest intergalactic neighbors, pass the word out to the space-faring community in case another one lands somewhere.”
“So what’s the hold up?” Invincibelle sensed that he was hesitating.
“Belle…” he licked his lips. “Before we share any of that data. You need to know… There’s a good chance. A very good chance… one of those weapons could kill you.”
“Oh.”
“We can bury anything in our data that connects you to the leech. Only three people on earth know about this. Me, you and the head of my weapon research lab, Carlton Fung.”
“And me…” came a timid voice from the doorway behind Eva. Statuesque stood halfway in the doorway, wearing a nurse outfit.
“Dammit, Belle!”
“What? I activated the alpha-encryption! You never asked…” Stephanie stood just behind Belle’s shoulder and placed her hands on her patient’s hips. “It’s fine, Sam. Release the data. I doubt one of my enemies will just happen to encounter a rogue space pirate who shares a legend about a mythical, invisible parasite and somehow correlates that story to me. By sharing what we know, we may save an intergalactic empire from extinction.”
“Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that you… you know. Captain Alpha out.”
The screen blinked out and the room was reduced to dim light. The two heroines walked slowly towards the bath. As they left, one of the shadows on the far wall changed its shape into a vaguely humanoid silhouette and a pair of very human-looking eyes opened on the wall’s surface. “Now that is interesting indeed…” came a low, soft voice.
END ?