Owls in the Vortex

THE CYBER WITCHES: PART 2

Lilith's thoughts were transfixed on these Cybermen, she pondered on just how dreadful they were. In her mind, she pictured something akin to suits of knights' armour or a coven scout captain with visible brains encased in glass. The thought of what they might look like sent chills down her spine that would haunt her into her very dreams.

She began to have a nightmare, she was strapped to a table and surrounded by emotionless metal figures, all of them operating on her, she watched in terror as they slowly and methodically dissected her without any anesthetic to numb the pain. She felt a scalpel pierce her chest before gliding the blade down to her stomach. In horror, she watched as they cut away and removed the natural flesh of her internal organs replacing them with the synthetic artificiality of replacement parts, she screams and cries in protest only to have a cold hand tightly grip her throat while another forces her head to the table while another pair of hands go in to remove her tongue and sew her mouth shut. Next on the chopping block were her vocal cords, they were cut out and tossed aside while some contraption was put in their place. She then saw one of the metal figures holding a modified coven scout mask slowly walking up to her, its head tilted."You belong to us, you shall be like us." the figure said as it placed the mask upon her face. Lilith woke up screaming, resulting in Eda quickly coming to comfort her.

"Hey it's okay Lily, it was only a dream." Eda cooed as she stroked her older sister's hair.

"I-it was horrible Edalyn." Lilith cried, she began to go into detail about what happened in her bad dream as she got more and more choked up. She couldn't see it but she knew Eda was most likely making a face of regret, no doubt kicking herself for even describing the Cybermen.

"Listen, Lilith, I'm sorry I shouldn't have described those things," Eda broke the hug exposing a melancholic look etched upon her face "The last time I encountered those mechanical monstrosities I lost someone near and dear to me. Because of that, I've grown bitter and volatile at the mere thought of them."

Lilith wasn't sure, what to make of this revelation: on one she felt a great deal of sympathy for her sister, but on the other hand, she wondered if she should pry and get more information on this lost loved one, perhaps it could prove a valuable tool to get her to finally get her to join the Emperor's coven. She'd run a great risk, just asking about this loved one, just asking her about them could make her suspicious. With a steep breath, she calmed calm her nerve and ran the gambit.

"Edalyn, if you don't mind me asking. Is there a chance that you could tell me about this friend you lost?"

"Ha, tough luck Lily. loose lips sink ships and I'm not so foolish to let the Iceberg that is the emperor's coven sink my Titanic."

Lilith just gave a confused look, she had no clue as to what Eda was referring to. But she wasn't surprised that it didn't work out, she was always stubborn that way.

"Anyways I've got almost everything set up and ready while you were asleep," Eda said as she walked Lilith to the kitchen "I have some climbing equipment in case we get separated from our Palismen, lock picking tools for traditional locks, a first aid kit, incendiary concoctions and Gelignite in case we need to blast something open or permanently decommission something, and finally twenty-five pounds of fine grain Gold dust."

"Gold dust, what possible benefit would that provide us?"

"Well Lily, the Cybermen have a pretty glaring flaw: their air filters can't process gold particulates, the stuff just clogs the system and destroys them from the inside."

"How did you get this much gold powder?"

"Your's true, Hoot, hoot!" Hooty exclaimed cheerfully

"Do I even want to know how he got it?" asked Lilith

"Probably not, let's head out," Eda whispered as she packed everything before making her way to the door "Are you coming or what?" she impatiently asked. Lilith groaned before following her sister out of the house.

When the sisters arrived at the apartment building, the building was on the corner of Mondas and Badwolf. Eda began looking for sewer entrances. This confused Lilith to a degree, if the Cybermen were taking tenants wouldn't it make more sense to investigate the building and not the sewers?

"Eda, why aren't we going to investigate the building if these Cybermen are kidnapping tenants, wouldn't it make sense to go there?"

"We're more likely to find where they're cooped up if we investigate the sewers. The Doctor once-"

"Doctor, I guess loose lips do sink ships, mind telling me about this Doctor?"

Eda just ignored Lilith's question and continued her search, oh so she wanted to play this childish game. She thought it fitting to pull a page from her sister's playbook and kept persisting and repeating the question to her, hoping to wear her down so she could answer by the fourth or fifth try she managed to accomplish that.

"Oh Titan help me fine I'll tell you, Lily. but only if you swear that you don't tell Belos."

Lilith rolled her eyes, of course, Edalyn would make her do such a childish thing. She just could not understand why her sister was so resentful of Belos and his governing, let alone why she didn't think he'd help with her curse. But never the less she swore to never tell Emperor Belos about the Doctor or anything related to them, however, she was not ready for the explanation she would get.

"The Doctor, he's what would most creatures call a Time Lord: old as forever but vast in his prime. He travels throughout time and space, saving lives and correcting wrongs along the way. The Cybermen are but one of many dangers that he has encountered frequently throughout his travels and because of that he knows some of the basic strategies that they tend to use."

"Like hiding and roaming in sewers while using necessities as a way to lour hapless victims to be converted?"

"Exactly,' Eda said before pointing to a manhole cover, "I think that's our ticket in," she ran over to it and attempted to open it but it didn't budge "Damn, I forget how heavy these things are. Mind giving me a hand Lily, before I lose both of mine?"

Lilith nods and assists her younger sibling. Eda was right, the cover was ridiculously heavy, it took so much effort to remove the thing. Once open though, Lilith and Eda debated as to who would go down first: Eda insisted that she should go first because she's dealt with those "Silver nemeses" in the past, meanwhile Lilith stated that she would be damned if any harm were to come to her little sister. This debate would continue for minutes until two tentacles of abomination fluid wrapped around their throats and dragged them down into the sewer.