Shattered Skies: The Morning Lights

CHAPTER 34: Prisoners of War

Chapter 34: Prisoners of War

The Lighthouse

Vertex Point Five

Homura Akemi watched and waited.

*****

La Fin de Toute

(formerly Galactica Palace)

The Merry-Go-Round

"So congratulations to you all! Mission accomplished." Joker applauded, and the assembled forces of Dead End cheered, watching from the upper rings of the Merry-Go-Round's vast circular chamber. Among the clamor of their varied shrieks and howls and bellows, Alph caught fragments of speech: "Kill them!" "Tear them apart!" "Let us feast!"

Alph took stock: she and the rest of the team were all immobilized by Droid Jamanen's viscous gel and at Dead End's mercy, surrounded by an army that included some of the deadliest and most dangerous beings in all the worlds. That included one of their own, poor Cure Fortune, apparently brainwashed into Jamanen's puppet and converted into a gelatinous monster just like her. The prisoners they risked so much to rescue were right in front of them, bound to the massive technorganic monstrosity... so close, but impossibly, maddeningly out of reach. And with Sakura Kinomoto in his grasp, Joker had all he needed to bring about reality's end...

Calm, Alph thought. She had to stay calm. If there was any hope of surviving this fiasco, they all had to stay calm. Far easier said than done, as the mere sight of Joker's toxic leer set her insides aflame. It took everything she had to suppress the urge to rip that damned smile off his face with her claws, to shred him to pieces, to make him suffer as he had made Fate suffer, made them all suffer...

Her teammates, to their credit, stayed still and quiet, in states varying from stunned shock to stony defiance. Even Iron Mouse lay motionless, though she might have been simply struck dumb with fear. Alph's heart surged with pride for them all; even the smaller ones refused to give Joker the satisfaction of seeing them angry or hearing them scream. Would that she could only manage the same... Other than Viluy, if there was anyone whom Alph would gladly tear the throat out of without a second thought, it was Joker. It was all his fault. For Fate's sake, he had to pay...

The harlequin tilted his head at her, sensing her anger. "Dear me, mon chiot, could it be you're actually trying to think your way out? Please, don't force yourself. You'll hurt something from the strain."

Laughter. Waves of laughter that made the blood boil in Alph's veins. If Joker would only come within reach of her teeth...

As if he could hear her thoughts, Joker leaned in close, millimeters from touching her. "Nothing to say, chiot? None of those long, inspiring speeches that your lot are so wont to launch into?"

It was a chance, however slim. Alph shifted to wolf form and gnashed her jaws. By any fair standard, it should have worked. The sheets of wine-colored gel that bound her should have been unable to handle the sudden alteration of her mass and body shape, it should have burst apart or at least loosened... Instead, the foul ooze stretched with her movement, then snapped and shrank back into place like elastic, leaving her stuck as ever.

Joker cackled, unharmed and unafraid. "Non, non, bad dog! Someone needs obedience training, I think." Turning, he called to his army of monsters. "Ah, is there perhaps a Dogba model Droid among you? Are there any Dogbas here?"

"Here, Master Joker!" One came running from the crowd, a thickly-built Droid with tomato-red skin and white hair gathered in a severe knot at the back of her head. With great enthusiasm, she brandished the whip she carried in a kind of salute. "Droid Dogba No. 111, at your service!"