More Sleepy Adventures - Part 19
Sara
Rematch)
The Gadgeteer received the signal almost as soon as Ampere escaped.
According to The Anaesthetist the heroine was almost overcome with the
combined assault of his "orgasmic sedative" and the powerful
tranquillising mist. That didn't stop the villainess from loading her
bandolier with weapons before pausing to collect a heavy rifle from the
armoury.
For what seemed like the hundredth time, she bit back her comments. It
was so foolish to play games with these heroines. They always managed
to escape whatever trap you devised and then came back to lay waste to
your plotting. Why not simply collar and cuff them? Sure, it wouldn't
fit with some archaic notion of "fair play" but it would certainly
get the job done.
Still, there was one thing that she could try, it wasn't exactly
going against her orders, but it was certainly pretty close to the
edge. Smiling happily at the thought of saving her employer from
himself, The Gadgeteer picked Ampere's goggles from the workbench
where she had been making some "modifications" and clipped them to
her bandolier. Then, she jogged slowly towards the steam tunnel
entrance.
...
Ampere was heading to the same place, albeit from the opposite
direction. She was able to "spoof" the local sensors, convincing
them that she wasn't really there. All the while she continued to
carefully draw energy, alert to the possibility of more traps.
She reached the hatch shortly before the villainess and crouched in a
nearby alcove, trying to come up with some sort of plan that would not
get her immediately caught. She was still struggling with that
conundrum when the hatch began to open.
...
The Gadgeteer pushed the door hard, confident that the area outside was
safe. She hopped down into the tunnel, tracking her rifle back and
forth. The villainess was just about to make a decision about which
tunnel to search first, when there was a loud chirping from a small
cylinder on her bandolier.
She looked down in surprise as the grenade armed itself. In an instant
she was clawing at it, desperate to be rid of it and entire unaware of
her surroundings. The grenade arced away, before exploding with a soft
pop and filling the tunnel with pink mist. The villainess allowed
herself to breathe a sigh of relief then had just enough time to ask
herself why the grenade had gone off before Ampere's roundhouse kick
connected with her head.
...
Although she didn't know what any of the villainess' gadgets did,
it seemed fair to assume that she wouldn't want a grenade near her
when it exploded. Ampere then used the distraction to get into position
before launching her attack.
The jarring impact knocked The Gadgeteer back, stunning for an instant.
The heroine followed up with a swift punch to the ribs and then dropped
low, sweeping the staggered woman's legs out from under her.
...
The Gadgeteer landed hard, the wind knocked out of her. She wasn't
much of a fighter and it was clear that her attacker knew what she was
doing. She had dropped the rifle at some point, probably when she was
trying to deal with the grenade.
Ampere's right fist crackled with electricity, and she regarded the
fallen villainess with cold eyes.
"Where is Geist?" she demanded.
At first, The Gadgeteer was going to feign ignorance, but she had seen
that look before.
"I can show you, p .. please don't hurt me!"
In retrospect the stammer was too much, as the fist shot towards her,
she fired her "wrist launchers", hoping that even unaimed they
might put off the heroine. A burst of energy shot through her, shutting
down her muscles for a few seconds before she passed out.
...
Ampere looked down at the stunned woman, she had noticed the strange
way that she was moving her arms and realised at the last moment that
there was some concealed weaponry there. The two darts had barely
missed her, and she did not doubt that even one would have been
sufficient to fell her.
The heroine worked quickly, in moments she had stripped the villainess,
first of her weapons and then of her leotard. It was a tight squeeze,
but with some difficulty she managed to pull on the form-fitting
outfit. Ampere was somewhat surprised when she saw the narrow collar
adorning the woman's neck, but she pushed her questions aside, after
all, she still had to rescue her friend.
While she was unable to identify a large number of The Gadgeteer's
devices, Ampere knew a set of cuffs when she saw them. It seemed likely
that the villainess would know how to free herself, but once the
heroine had secured a sleep mask over the woman's mouth and nose that
possibility appeared to have been taken care of.
As Ampere had rifled through the various gadgets, she had seen her
goggles, still attached to the bandolier. Her natural caution
heightened by recent events, the heroine allowed her perceptions to
shift slightly, and began to examine them, watching how the energy
flowed. Something was different she immediately saw, extra circuits had
been added. It would take far longer than she had to work out what
these alterations would do, but she knew that it was safe to assume
that they would not be to her benefit.
Hefting The Gadgeteer's discarded rifle, Ampere stalked cautiously
back into the villain's lair. She had left the goggles where they
were, not wanting to risk even carrying them. Now clothed and armed,
the heroine felt slightly more confident. Still, she couldn't help
recall just how easily she had been captured before, and how much luck
had been involved in her escape.
...
Some time later The Anaesthetist bent over the prostrate form of his
remaining minion. Her wrists cuffed securely behind her, while her
glassy-eyed gaze showed that the sedative was working. The villain
shook his head in mock sorrow.
"Oh dear Emily", he whispered, "two mistakes I'm afraid will
cost you"
He reached over to the discarded bandolier and picked up Ampere's
goggles.
"Mistake one was thinking that I was unaware of your tampering", he
said as he hooked the goggles over her eyes.
"And mistake two was letting her get the drop on you", he added
before switching them on.
Outwardly, the goggles appeared to be working normally, but that did
not tell the whole story. Two tiny drops of The Confectioner's drug
had oozed from the edge of the eyepieces. Mixed with another chemical
they were rapidly absorbed through the skin. This left the wearer very
susceptible to the hidden messages which invisibly flashed on the
lenses.
"You want to lose"
"Too much effort to struggle"
"So much nicer to give in"
He knew that her sleep mask would stop working in a little over 5
hours, that should be more than enough time for the messages to burrow
into her pliant mind. He would then either step in to "rescue" her,
or she would be able to get herself loose. Whichever happened, she
would doubtless assume that the superheroine had put the goggles on
her.
Smiling happily, not really noticing that he was rapidly running out of
"help", the villain strode back into the lair. He had a heroine to
capture again, and the hunt was something he relished most of all.
...