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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 221: Takano 153
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Cooper 70
For an eternal instant Tommy stared at the incoming pair of brutes. She was on her back with her head toward them, her kawanaga awkwardly splayed on the floor beside her own splayed body. This did not look good.
Abruptly one of the attackers spun toward the other, crashing into him and putting both on the floor. There was the clatter of a blunt-tipped crossbow bolt.
“I thought you girls might be able to use a little help,” William Tell Junior said.
Tommy rolled to her feet. Vashti had reduced her opponents to one, the other rushing out the door toward what Tommy presumed was the loading bay.
“Well timed, and thank you,” she said. “Let’s mop up the rest of these.”
It was at this point three against maybe ten, but the three were all trained and practiced fighters and the ten were just barroom brawlers who relied on strength and weight with very little skill. Tommy secretly thanked God and Lauren for the training she had received in fighting as she punched and kicked and roped and hooked all comers. Soon the last of them was fleeing through the door toward the loading dock.
“After him?” Vashti asked.
“Careful,” Tell replied. “Derek saw Lady Nightmare in charge of things at the dock. She’s very dangerous.”
The girls nodded and readied their weapons as they followed Tell down the corridor. He might know what to expect, Tommy thought; and anyway, she certainly didn’t.
The door led into a corridor, not more than twenty feet, to double doors, fire doors, which were just closing as the last of the Blackmask boys raced through them. The trio walked cautiously, Tommy’s eyes darting about looking for any hazards from cameras to embedded weapons or traps, but soon they reached the far end. Tell reached out but seemed to hesitate, then opened the doors and stepped through, the girls following.
They were on a loading dock. Ahead of them was the figure of a woman guarded by three of the Blackmasks.
“This should be easy,” Tell said, and raised his crossbow.
Abruptly there was a wall of flame between them and the enemy. It rose high enough to obscure their vision, and Tommy could feel the heat, smell the smoke, hear the crackle. They were going to have to get through the fire, or find a way around it. She scanned the room, looking for a solution. The flames were lapping the roof and the walls. She could occasionally see their targets through the fire as it shifted and flashed, but there was no way she could reach them.
Wait--the flames were licking the roof and the walls, but these weren’t charring. In fact, the fire seemed to be contained, not spreading either toward them or toward the enemy. All her senses told her that there was a real hot fire in front of her, but nothing was burning. There was one obvious conclusion.
It wasn’t real. It was in her mind--and if it was in her mind, it was there because Nightmare was putting it there. But how could she get it out?
She was going to have to block it.
Gathering her will, and every bit of psionic knowledge she had gained in the past few weeks, she focused on pushing out the invading telepathic illusion. She closed her eyes, stopped listening, held her breath--all that was left was the heat, and the flickering light passing through her eyelids. She gave a mental push--and abruptly it was cold and dark. She opened her eyes.
“It’s an illusion,” she shouted, and then transmitted the skill she had just created to Vashti before racing forward at the enemy.
The men seemed surprised; apparently they were also seeing the illusory fire, and had just seen her run through it unscathed. She did a flip, kicking two of them backwards, and leapt toward the Lady behind them. Swinging her kawanaga, she wrapped it around the woman’s neck, and pulled it tight. Lady Nightmare’s hands went to her throat, and Tommy yanked forward to put her off balance.
Suddenly she was surrounded by a swarm of bees. Derek had summoned bees; was Lady Nightmare doing the same thing? Tommy had faced bees before, against Beekeeper, but then she had been able to keep them at bay with the kawanaga which currently was wrapped around her enemy’s neck. As the bees began to attack, stinging her, she dropped the rope.
Mercifully, even as Lady Nightmare fell forward Vashti rushed in and gave her a swift kick. The enemy wasn’t going to escape--but Tommy was too preoccupied with warding off bees and struggling against the pain of the stings (for which she was liberally using Derek’s pain reduction skill).
Then she realized: bees weren’t usually out at night. This had to be another illusion, not real bees but the sight, sound, and feeling of the bees. She had just ejected one illusion; she drew her mind away from the bees and back to her mind, and once more pushed her enemy out of her brain.
Giving herself a shake as the residual illusory pain faded, she rushed forward scooping up the kawanaga, and bound Nightmare with its cord. She then slammed the villain’s head against the floor, rendering her unconscious. This ended the illusion for Tell, who immediately loosed his bolt at the one confused Blackmask member still upright, bringing him down.
“She uses telepathic powers to make people see things that aren’t there,” she said. “For the moment our best defense is to keep her unconscious; they’ll have to figure out something else when they get her to the prison.”
Tell nodded, and said, “I’ll take her back to where Sockajawea is guarding Sewer Savage.” Then as if an afterthought he added, “Maybe one of you should come with me, in case she wakes up.” They agreed, and the trio headed into the darkness.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
