by Madam Marvelous
#26130
Part 3:
The final round of League War 12: Year of the Tiger was
going strong. I’d agreed to meet Starmaster outside our locker room in an
access tunnel the station’s maintenance staff was meant to have access too. When
everyone was caught up watching the match between the Star Force: Junior League
leader, Arcane Ace, fight against Flame of War of the Bomb Squad, I went wet
and spread underneath a door.
Strangely, being water isn’t as relaxing as I imagined it to
be. I love to soak in a tub like any other girl, but when you are pure liquid,
there isn’t anything to hold you in place. Without muscles to move me, I had to
rely on my shapeshifting ability to maneuver me into tiny waves, which allowed
me to rise up and fall, pulling myself forward by inches, like an incoming
tide.
Plus, I could tell that the robotic cleaning staff needed to
be reprogrammed. I was picking up particulates into the pool that was my body
that I definitely didn’t want to absorb into myself when I returned to my Madam
Marvelous form. Ewww, just ewwww.
One I made it beneath the barrier into the service corridor,
I shifted into elemental flames to burn away any waste I had collected, then
took shape as my heroic self. Starmaster was already there waiting for me.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
I nodded and started to speak but paused to pull a rogue strand
off my tongue. “Who has flame retardant hair?”
“What?” Starmaster asked.
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.” I breathed in a calming
gulp of air. “I am ready. Where are we going first?”
“New Amsterdam. There is a school there that the World Corp
is trying to take students that have gathered at,” Starmaster said. “Have you
ever heard of the Sagan Academy?”
I smiled. In my secret identity, I was actually a 13-year-old
girl who went to that very school, but he wouldn’t know that. Or at least he shouldn’t.
“Yes.”
“I’ll teleport us into a forested area outside the main building.
How long will you need to study the targets once we arrive before you can
assume their form?” He held out his hand for me to take before switching to
telepathic communication. Have you ever teleported before? I forgot to ask
first. It can be disorientating.
I’ve done it with Astra (Astra being a member of the
league he created, the Star Force). I’m five-by-five. Even thought I’d been
a part of the Star Force for a few months, Starmaster and I hadn’t worked
together. We knew many people in the same circles of BADGE, so I’d heard many
stories about his abilities and felt confident I was partnered with a more-than-capable
hero. I can shift as soon as I see them clearly. In fact, before we go, let
me shift into a form that will give me my best vision. Hold your arm out for me
to perch on.
He released my hand, and I promptly became my favorite shape
to fly in. A gorgeous bird with gray, black, and white feathers, and the most
imperial beak I’d ever seen. A peregrine falcon. When I shifted my form, I did
so by drawing my body upward from the ground, so once I fully changed, I was
already airborne. I pumped the air with my wide, powerful wings and grabbed
onto his arm, careful not to dig my sharp talons into the flesh beneath his costume.
OK. Let’s go then. With that, the air around us went
hazy blue as we moved into a different dimension for less than a second and
reappeared on the campus grounds of the Sagan Academy.
MMMMMMMM
Midgardsormr kept tabs on the Star Force: Junior League’s
schedule, waiting for Madam Marvelous’s matches. He’d taken her under his proverbial
wing, overseeing some degree of her training as a fighter. His own matches had
gone exactly as he had expected them to, so he had retired to the WMD: Black
Order’s special observation box, taking a moment to contemplate.
Nearly every being aboard the space station, and on the
world below, saw him as a fearsome being, sometimes villain, sometimes hero,
always monstrous. Very, very few knew him, and fewer understood what it meant
to be him. If they did, they would be driven mad.
He knew what Chase had seen a few months ago when she and
the other heroes fought Father Time. Her vision of things yet to come. She saw
a man hovering over a burning city, dressed in an ominous gray super suit, his
skin colorless, his eyes glowing, and the bodies of heroes littering the ground
amongst the fire.
Midgardsormr also had seen it in his mind’s eye, before even
she had experienced it. He waited for Ragnarök. He was the World Serpent and
knew the signs that would be seen before the world would come to an end. Nobody
else but him knew how often these mortals drew close to cataclysm. It drew near
on more than one occasion, and nobody else wanted to admit the truth of what
may be.
A signal chimed, alerting him to an appointment he had with
un-Magnificent Punlork. Midgardsormr smiled as a starving beast would a fresh
kill. “WHEN I AM FINISssHED WITH YOU PERHAPS YOU WILL BE FORTUNATE AND NOT BE
PRESssENT FOR THAT WHICH IS COMING.”
Leaving behind his thoughts of potentials for approaching apocalypses,
Midgardsormr left the WMD box to have fun.
MMMMMMMM
Starmaster and I used the grove of trees outside the main
campus building of the Sagan Academy as cover, refraining from using our powers.
The three enhanced, or augmented, people we once fought alongside the other
heroes from BADGE in Washington D.C. were extremely powerful and nobody knew
the true extent of what they could do.
There were several busses lined up in the school driveway
with children gathered around their doors. I spotted the team of armored goons
from the World Corps first as the scanned each group of my classmates for
Morphon-enhanced individuals. My blood boiled as my wings rose up to my sides,
my animal instincts kicking in with a fierce desire to claw out some eyes.
Calm down. Remember our mission.
Starmaster’s thoughts came into my mind loud and clear,
helping me to assert control back from the more primal aspects of being a bird
of prey. I’d deal with the World Corps minions later. First, I needed to find
their super-powered guardians. I spotted the first of them hovering over one of
the lead busses, but his back was to me. I can’t see his face. I’m going
airborne.
Keep your distance from them. We don’t know for sure what
the range is on their instruments. Starmaster cautioned me as I took
flight.
I soared through the branches of the trees surrounding us
and around the gymnasium to a point where I believed I could see the floating
target of my hunt. I rose from behind the wall of the gymnasium, a couple
hundred feet from where the busses were parked and found myself perfectly
positioned to view his features without obstruction.
I’ve got him memorized. I thought strongly, certain
that Starmaster would be telepathically listening for a message. I took up to
the air again, ready for my next hunt. Can you see his partner?
She’s searching the interior of the second bus.
I only needed to have eyes on her for a second before my
shapeshifting memory captured her image. I didn’t have an eidetic, or
photographic, memory for facts and figures, but part of my power as a
shapeshifter allowed me to quickly catalog the three-dimensional forms I wanted
to morph into. If I could catch her in my line of sight for just an instant, we
could be done and move on to the next site of the World Corps inquisition.
I gained height, climbing higher into the sky as I prepared
to use one of the innate gifts of the form I had taken as a falcon. These
majestic birds were able to dive at some of the fastest speeds in nature as
they hunted. When I reached my desired altitude, I circled once to position
myself to come down alongside of the bus on the opposite side of the door and
strafe past the vehicle’s panes of windows.
The acceleration as I descended was exhilarating, possibly the
most thrilling experience I could imagine. The air curving around my aerodynamic
body. The pressure on my face as I pushed myself to go faster and further. The
rapidly approaching ground beneath me growing larger and larger each second. If
things went badly, I would be nothing more than a broken body after crashing into
the pavement, but I found I had no fear of that in any part of my avian body. I
completely trusted my ability in what I sought to do, and that faith in myself
was perhaps the most invigorating sensation of all.
The floating pseudo-hero pivoted as I came down, not showing
concern but curiosity. I let my wings unfold and caught the air at just the
right time, taking my dive into a run parallel to the rows of windows on the
bus, my reflection clear in the glass. Within the bus, the female pseudo-hero stood,
rifling through a child’s backpack, her face unblocked from my view.
Several alert beeps sounded from the World Corps goon’s
devices. “We have the presence of Morphons. They just appeared out of nowhere.”
Crap!
The woman inside the bus turned to look at the children
outside of the bus. The floating hero over the first bus move closer to the
edge of the bus, possibly putting two and two together as I soared below him. “This
bird is not native to this region. Capture it.”
Double crap!!
Beating my wings with all the strength I had, I headed away
from the busses and the school campus. I turned my head and glanced over my
back, catching sight of the female pseudo-hero tearing a hole into the side of
the bus and taking flight after me, her companion slightly in the lead as he did
the same.
I passed over the wall surrounding the campus grounds and angled
my wings so I could follow the clear path of the road. As soon as I spotted a
tree that I could hide behind, I flew to it and dug my talons into the bark of
a sturdy branch. I shifted into the form of a gray squirrel and scurried down
the tree’s trunk to the ground.
The male pseudo-hero flew down the road past me. “I have
lost sight of it. It might have been one of the heroes of BADGE. How should I
proceed?” He hovered above the pavement for a minute while the other caught up
to him. “We are to continue with our mission. It is too late for BADGE to stop
us, no matter what it discovers.”
Both figures rose above the tree line and returned to the
Sagan Academy side by side.
Are you OK? Starmaster thought to me.
I’m fine. I’m hiding just outside the gates to the school.
They’re flying back in. Starmaster appeared on the sidewalk after
teleporting to a few feet from where I had taken cover. I darted out from
beneath a pile of dry leaves and morphed back into my Madam Marvelous form. “Let’s
get out of here.”
He put a hand onto my shoulder and we were instantly gone.
“Where is she this time?” Arcane Ace said to Kyrie E. Laser
as they watched Obsidian Strike fight against Flame of War. The matches so far
in Round 3 had gone well enough that if the Star Force: Junior League could win
the rest of their matches, they could take the Gold from the Bomb Squad. He
checked the time on his chronometer. “They were supposed to be back an hour
ago.”
Kyrie swiped at her computer screen, manipulating the video
recording she was making of Obsidian Strike’s fight by adding special effects.
His punches created gigantic word bubbles as they struck, with words like “POW”,
“WHAP”, and “ZONK” when viewed on media devices. “She’ll be here.”
“She’d better get here soon then. The challenges need to be
made in the next few minutes,” Ace said. “Just in case, get prepped to go in
and challenge The Skinny.”
“Are you sure? Geomaniac only gave me a 44% chance of
winning against him,” Kyrie said.
Arcane Ace nodded.
MMMMMMMM
Starmaster teleported me to the entrance to our locker room.
“Last stop. Good luck in your challenges.”
“Thanks,” I replied. He and I spent the last half-an-hour
taking images of the forms I memorized. One by one, I morphed into the pseudo-heroes
we observed as he photographed me. None of the other encounters with the World Corps
were as cat-and-mouse as the first, so we managed to gather dozens of
portfolios over the day’s excursions. “I hope BADGE can make use of the images
we collected.”
“Time will tell,” Starmaster said. “I’ll turn these over and
then come back to cheer you on in your matches. It was nice working with you. I
hope we can do it again soon.” With that, he teleported away in his signature flash
of blue light.
“Must be nice to be able to zip around like that,” I said, taking
a moment to gather my wits after having morphed into so many different forms in
short order.
“Ace is getting so uptight playing cards are falling out of
his sleeves,” Gold Standard said as he walked up to me with a bottle of Hatoraide
in hand. “You’d better get in there before everyone starts vomiting colorful
handkerchiefs.”
“I’ve got plenty of time,” I said checking the clock on my
comms unit. My eyes went wide when I realized how late it was. “It was 5pm when
I last looked. What happened? Did Father Time show up again?”
Gold Standard grinned. Physically, he was perfection in
every detail, and with a smile on his face, he looked even better. “Did you
look last when in a different time zone? You and Starmaster were teleporting
around the world, weren’t you? The comms units auto-synch to whatever region you
are in.”
Triple Crap!!!
I ran through the locker room doors like I was on fire.
MMMMMMMM
Mean Farmer stood before me like a jolly green giant. Based
on our studies, he was one of the Bomb Squad’s top competitors. His powers came
from a variety of abilities, primarily magical and physical. I’d defeated all
the rest of his league, but in order to win the round, I needed to defeat him
in both fights. Every consumable I had to aid my battle was running through my
system, same as the rest of my league.
Pressure built inside of me like I was a bomb in need of a
squad to disarm me. It had come down to me and my fights. Ace played it safe and
captured a number of wins for us, but a defensive win for them would tilt the
scales back in their favor.
We fought, and despite all my preparations, I lost. The
first fight. I felt horrible. We weren’t out of the game, thought. If I rallied
and defeated him again, we had banked some challenges with others on my team
that were risky but could earn us a point if we were lucky. I took a breath,
waited a moment for the combat clock to reset, and charged at him again.
And lost once more. What was wrong with me?! I should have
won over him like the rest. I’d done something wrong again. Something foolish
and now my team would lose because of me.
“Madam Marvelous, you’ve been recalled to your staging area.
Obsidian Strike is called to the field in a challenge to The $tranger,” the
robotic referee announced.
I picked myself up from the floor and hung my head as I
headed back to my spot on the bench in our team’s dugout. I was late all the
time, I’d make everyone nervous by having Midgardsormr looming over them for
the past few days, and now I lost my final matches. They’d put on brave faces,
but I knew in my heart, they all regretted having me on the team. I sucked.
Obsidian Strike held out his fist to me as I passed by him
as he took the field. I weakly bumped him back, barely listening to him or the
stadium around me. “Good try, Kitt’n.”
I kept my eyes on the grass as I walked back. I was certain
Midgardsormr was in the stands watching disapprovingly again at my failure. He
likely wouldn’t want to train me further, knowing I wasn’t worth wasting his
time on.
“Great effort,” Ace said as I made my way into the bullpen. “Pick
your chin up. We’re not out of it yet.”
I nodded, slipping as quietly into my seat as I could and
watched the next match. Obsidian Strike fought hard with his martial arts, but The
$kinny defeated him. If I’d done my fight correctly, he wouldn’t have needed to
have challenged that foe. My chest grew heavier.
Obsidian Strike challenged his opponent for a second match.
This time he won. Everyone around me started to cheer as The $kinny fell out of
the sky. My spirit started to rally as I clapped at his success. Maybe I hadn’t
sunk our League War 12 ship after all.
Kyrie E. Laser was called to the field next. She withdrew her
two laser pistols and twirled them as she approached her opponent Flame of War,
giving Obsidian Strike a short salute as they passed one another. Her hover-cam
was joined by a second floating drone that would capture her opponent’s POV of
the fight.
Flame of War was a very tough opponent. I’d faced him multiple
times in KOTM events. Kyrie would need to fight really smart if she were going
to beat him. I stood up from my seat and leaned on the half-wall that let us
observe the battlefield from within. The rest of my league cheered her on, just
like they had for me when I fought. I paid attention to their faces, and while
they were all hooting and hollering for her to win, I couldn’t see any
judgement on them, despite my knowing that she didn’t have a good chance of bringing
such a fierce foe down.
I was right in that assessment. She fought him with her
various rays emitted by her guns, but in the end, he defeated her with an
effective combination that threw her flying thirty-feet before she crashed to
the ground.
My league mates were frustrated at her loss, and the loss of
Cheese Wiz afterwards as he took the field, but they were never mad or
disappointed at the effort. I suddenly realized that I wasn’t either. Why did I
think they judged me so harshly when I failed? The weight that I felt on my
shoulders lifted, and I was reminded of how I felt as the falcon, diving from
the sky with such ease, not caring that if I made a mistake I could crash to
the ground in a painful mess.
“Ace,” I said. “Put me back in against Mean Farmer. I’m
ready to take him down.”
“We’re not going to win this Kitt’n. You don’t need to. We’ve
fought a good fight, there’s nothing more to prove here,” Ace said as he
clapped as Kyrie drifted back into the bullpen. “Good try, Kyrie.”
“I know the match is over, but I need this,” I said as I
looked at my parent’s armored conveyance, Eggie, and Midgardsormr as they
prepared to leave the stands. “I can’t go until I know I’ve left it all on the
field. It’s not going to hurt us if we lose by two more points, right?”
“Whatever you say,” Ace said as he typed in the challenge to
the battle computer. “You don’t have to do this for us, you know?”
“A challenge has come in for Mean Farmer from Madam
Marvelous of the Star Force: Junior League. Combatants, please take the field.”
I nodded to Arcane Ace as stepped to the threshold of the bullpen.
People took their seats once again, murmuring gently as they wondered why the
challenge had been issued, the scoreboard clearly showing the points wouldn’t
make a difference. Only Midgard seemed unsurprised, his face stoic. “This is
for me.”
Mean Farmer returned to his starting point for our battle,
shaking his head in confusion. I took my spot and transformed. The giant Mean
Farmer was now face-to-face with a second Midgardsormr. I roared at him as the
chime range and tore into him without any concern for winning or losing. All I
wanted was to fight without fear holding me back. I struck him with a clawed
hand, which just for the sheer joy of it, I surrounded my fist with an aura of flame.
MMMMMMMM
“A Gold, two Silvers, and a Bronze,” Starmaster said as we
had our merged leagues celebration party. “Everyone did a fantastic job. I couldn’t
be prouder of you all.”
“CHEERS,” we all replied as we raised our glasses of various
beverages in response.
I mingled for a while before nodding to my teammates. “We’d
better go. Don’t want to let our invitation to the WMD: Black Order celebration
go to waste.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting this Wizard they have,”
Unearthly Mitch the Lich, aka Archibald Braithewaite, said. “Maybe he would be
interested in trading some spells.
As a league, we walked the halls proudly as we celebrated
our Silver Medal and commented on improvements for next season, as well as discussed
our plans on returning to Earth and dealing with the World Corps.
Midgardsormr waited at the entrance to their secure league
war box. He motioned for me to step to one side with him.
“You guys go on in,” I said as I waved them on. After they
entered, I stepped up to the World Serpent, uncertain why he didn’t meet me
inside as usual. After all, my parents were in there, as was the training area
he and I used after the party. I prayed he wasn’t going to tell me the details
of his plan to disembowel Infinite Tempest for our not making it to the WMD League
HQ. “Hi?”
“YOU DEFEATED YOUR ENEMY” he said with a quiet rumble to his
voice, slightly less commanding as usual.
“I did like you said. I fought them all,” I said.
“NOT THE SssILLY BOMB SssQUASssH.” His tongue stuck out and quivered
as he tasted the air, his head tipped back as if laughing. “THERE ISss ONLY ONE
TRUE ENEMY FOR A WARRIOR”
Understanding struck me to the core. I feared giving up
points to another league. I feared how my team would feel about me if I lost. I
feared taking the battlefield against a stronger foe. “Fear. Fear is the enemy
you’re talking about.”
“FEAR IS A SssHACKLE ONLY ONE CAN PLACE ON THEMSELVES”
Midgardsormr said. “OTHERS CAN USssE IT AGAINSssT YOU IF YOU ALLOW IT TO BE
THERE”
“And if you can control fear, you can then use it against
others,” I said.
“YESSSSSSssssss”
I smiled at him and offered for him to take my hand. “Why tell
me this out here? You could have done that at the party.”
He took my small hand in his own monstrous one. “SssECRET I
ONLY SssHARE WITH YOU. ALL ELSssE MUSssT DISssCOVER ON THEIR OWN.”
Together, we walked past the BADGE guards and into the elevator
that would take us up to the WMD box.
“DIRE FEAR WILL SssOON BE HERE. YOU MUSssT BE READY TO FACE
IT.” Midgardsormr said to me as the doors closed behind us.
I looked up at him, wondering what he seemed to know was
coming, but knowing he would only tell me when he was ready to do so.
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