Inevitable Ascension

Chapter 4 - Hunting the Victim

Violina's own words put her into a feverish daze. She was plotting to kill a man—a man who was fighting against the most ruthless mass-murderer the world had ever known. How had her life come to this?

The door to Schlau's laboratory was rather pathetic. Lux was ready to kick it in the moment Ms. Helga took out the hinge, but the impact of the hammer alone sent it crashing down in a cloud of dust.

"So what are we doing here?" asked Lux. "Shouldn't we be heading toward Kza's fortress?"

"We'll be quick," responded Violina. "Look for anything that might give us insight on how he was planning to stop Kza."

Workbenches lined the walls of the cramped room, each topped with a dozen sheets of parchment detailing various blueprints and notes. Violina was able to read and understand most of them as they were simply primitive versions of devices she was well-acquainted with: explosives, electromagnetic pulse emitters, hydraulic systems and more.

"Violina! Take a look at this! I think it's Kza's Dreadnaught!" There on the wall hung a detailed sketch of a heavily fortified battleship. "It's nothing short of insane! Or maybe genius?"

Violina recalled the steam-billowing fortress she had seen from the tree. They were one and the same. "Well, the difference between insanity and ingenuity is measured by success. I'd say he is a twisted, murderous genius." Even she could recall from history that when The Golden Legion attacked Kza's fortress, it unexpectedly became mobile and plowed through the forest toward the Western Sea, crushing everything and everyone along the way. Comparing such a brilliant mechanical monstrosity to her humble bungalow, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy.

"No wonder Kza was bent on world domination," remarked Lux, not taking her eyes off the sketch. "He was so far ahead of his time, or even ours for that matter, who could stop him from doing whatever he wanted?"

Violina shrugged. "And who wouldn't want the world to themselves?"

Lux looked a little sheepish. "Well, to be fair, I always thought it would be wonderful to just start the world over. No more dealing with all the wackos—just everything fresh. We could make it a paradise."

"Yeah, minus the mass extermination of mankind to get there, I can see the appeal in that."

"Well, of course!" retorted Lux. "This is different! Kza was a psychopath bent on destruction for his own selfish gains—a world apart from my hypothetical wish."

"Fair enough," conceded Violina. "Anyway, we know Schlau has electromagnetic pulse emitters, which means he's more than likely going to target the power generators. The question is how in the world would he get to them? The diagram shows them in a room some ten stories up."

Lux put her hands on her hips. "Well, how could Schlau have gotten all this detailed information about the inside of The Dreadnaught unless he had managed to get in there himself at least once before?"

"True," agreed Violina. "Looking at these schematics, I'd venture a guess that our best bet is the roof. Perhaps via the balconies?"

"Sounds like we'd better liberate some rope and a grappling hook."

Violina nodded. Searching through the engineering laboratory, it wasn't long before she found just such items and fastened them together. "We need to beat Schlau to The Dreadnaught's generators."

"He's already got a solid head start on us, plus he's got a horse," noted Lux. "Perhaps we should find some horses of our own?"

As they stepped across the broken door of the exit, people on the street eyed the girls with suspicion, but no one confronted them. With vigilant eyes and ears, Violina and Lux hurried up and down the streets in search of a stable. It agitated them to no end that despite having a quarter-million platinum in the Steam Age monetary, they had no option but to find some "creative" way to acquire what they needed.