Specter

Chapter 26 (Night 3): You Can't Hold Me

We last read Chapter 25, in which Specter has yet another encounter with the mysterious voice from her dreams, who verifies her suggestion that the goons that were killed on Brownrig's battleship earlier that day didn't count towards freeing it because T.J. was technically responsible for their deaths. The voice then goes on to reveal that it knows a lot more than it reasonably should about Specter's origins, and continues to be adamant that it be given a corporeal form before further discussions can be had regarding its identity. It then says that another chance is coming for Specter to spill some blood and provide the voice with power, before Specter is whisked back to the real world again.

In the real world, Specter realizes that she's been apprehended and strung from the ceiling of the Pearly Skates Skating Rink within the Rusted Citadel, an abandoned establishment that had fallen from grace due to the excessive and false claims of a Karen and her friends. After successfully detaching herself from the ceiling, she is ambushed by Rogue---Imperator Barrows's number two---as well as her own two minions, Chopper and Slicer. Though Rogue inadvertently frees Specter from her restraints during a show of her power by slicing through every single one of Specter's ropes with her rapier, Chopper and Slicer are quick to leap forward and restrain her, much to Rogue's satisfaction.

Rogue then introduces herself and alludes to Imperator Barrows's motives, bringing up the "Mainframe" once again amongst other things. Specter then briefly tries to appeal to Rogue and convince her to abandon Barrows.....only for Rogue to rightfully call Specter out on immediately trying to forgive her and not Barrows due to Rogue being a woman. With disappointment in her voice, Rogue orders Chopper and Slicer to take Specter far away to one of the back rooms; the last things Specter sees are T.J. and Dashie---who were also captured by Rogue and her crew---and Rogue herself contacting Barrows to inform him of her success.

This time, T.J. and Dashie try to bargain with Rogue and her crew for Specter's freedom, while Specter begins engineering her escape.....

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"'Ey, Rogue!" the armed guard who was overseeing T.J. and Dashie called to his boss Rogue, a few minutes after Specter had been taken away by Chopper and Slicer. "The boy has something to say!"

Luckily for him, Rogue had just wrapped up her phone call with Barrows at that moment. "Oi! What are you waiting for, you arse? Let the lad talk!"

The goon frowned and ripped the tape off of T.J.'s mouth in a greatly similar fashion to how Specter had gotten her tape ripped off of her mouth mere moments before.

After T.J. had taken a few seconds to recover from the pain, he spoke.

"You're really Imperator Barrows's henchwoman?" he asked apprehensively.

"Yeah," Rogue responded. "He and his lot just got done with something else, and they're on their way here to confront Specter as we speak. What of it?"

"Come on, Rogue.....let me go and smooth things out with Specter," T.J. pleaded. "I'll just let her know that this was a big misunderstanding, and that it was just a lapse of judgment on your part. Then, you and your crew will get to walk out of here still conscious."

Rogue laughed. "This evening just gets more and more entertaining, doesn't it? In fact, I've half a mind to take things up a level!"

She made a very subtle gesture to the armed guard overseeing T.J. and Dashie, and---in accordance with her order---the goon pressed the barrel of his rifle up against Dashie's temple. The poor girl never looked more fearful in her life than right now; after all, her time on the mortal coil could be ended with the simple squeeze of a trigger.