Adventures in Parodyverse: Adventure in Babysitting Part 3


    Marie Murcheson, the Lair Legion’s resident ghostly banshee, lighting the basement tunnel and floating in front of Faite, Magweed and Griffin, said,  “You’ve awakened something you should not have.”

    Faite reached out and touched the Lair Mansion’s resident spirit, and suddenly she was solid flesh again.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“What...?  How did you...?”  Marie started to ask.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“It’s temporary,”  Faite corrected her.  “Spirits tied to Earth have a lot of sorrow, and it clouds their thinking.  So I had to break you out of it so I’d get a clearer response than I’ve awakened something I should not have.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh.  Well...when you wake up the Lair Island defenses, they don’t just go away when you want them to.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Are you saying that...?”  Faite sighed.  “Oh, great.  So how long are we trapped in the Mansion this time?”

    Marie shook her head.  “I don’t know.  As long as it feels like keeping the defenses up.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Kids,”  Faite turned to Magweed and Griffin, “Looks like I’ll be watching you a little longer.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Faite, could you please...?”  Marie began.  “It’s just that I...I hate the anticipation of when it will wear off.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No problem.”  Faite touched her again, except this time her hand went right through the Banshee’s body.  Then Marie smiled, and faded away.

    Faite thought for a moment.  The Lair Mansion defenses couldn’t be something automated on a timer, it was more like a reactive consciousness.  If the defenses were still active, that meant the Demon was either still trying to get in, or resisting being expelled.

    That meant Faite had to find some way to get it away from Lair Island so the defenses would calm down.  And to do that, she would need more spells.
    
    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Magweed, Griffin...how do you two feel about a little research?”


---


    Liu Xi Xian lay on her stomach the floor, with a bunch of books spread out in front of her.  None of Xander’s books mentioned this Demon that took Pandemonica.  There was no reference on the internet, either.  But oddly enough, in Sir Mumphrey Wilton’s library, there was a very old book he collected that did have the information.

    Vincent De Soth had been ordered by her to stay put in a room in the Mansion to heal completely from his burns and regain his strength.  She told him he would need it when his family returns.

    She still felt a little sad about him.  They were still close, but he hadn’t made love to her since the wedding.  He said it was because technically he was still wedded to Pandemonica, and until that was straightened out he didn’t want to do anything that might make things more complicated.

    Liu Xi could sense that even though he didn’t say, a large portion of that was him feeling guilty that he let this happen, and also that he slept with Pandemonica.

    But she went on, hoping things would become better over time.

    Behind her, Hatman watched over her shoulder as she leafed through the book.  As she went through it, something fell out.  She opened the piece of paper, and then shrieked and dropped it.  It was scalding hot.

    The room erupted in flame, and Liu Xi backed up close to Hatman’s feet as he rose quickly and began fishing for a Paradopolis Fire Department helmet.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Perfect.  Just what I needed, Envy and Lust.”

    Hatman began blasting the Demon with a fire hose to no effect as the flames reached out and engulfed him and Liu Xi Xian.  The two were gone, and the room was scorched black and smoky, but mostly unharmed.

    Faite burst in with the kids, but they were too late.  Magweed walked ahead of her into the room.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Careful,”  Faite urged her.

    The young girl reached down and picked up the scorched book that Liu Xi was reading earlier.  She held it by the spine, and looked at Faite.  “I think this is what we need.”


---


    Visionary watched in amazement as Shen Rae’s ship, the Heart of Light, turned into an attack fleet.  It contained dozens of tiny remote fighter ships that worked in autonomous teams, like a flock of birds with cutting lasers.

    The only problem was, the Z’Sox warships were huge.  One of them could swallow the Heart of Light five times over.  Those little fighters were working hard, and strategically, but they simply weren’t doing enough damage.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Can’t we just make a run for it?”  Visionary asked the captain.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“If we do, they will follow us to Earth, which has no defense against them.”  Anna pointed out.

    Shen Rae didn’t speak, but she ran to a console and sat in a chair in front of it.  The structure of the chair changed so it wrapped around her like a fighter jet seat, and holograms appeared all around her.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m going to use the plasma cannon.”  Shen Rae told the other two.  “It can only hit one of their ships at a time, but it’s going to tear large holes in them.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Do you have a powerful transmitter?”  Anna suddenly asked.

    Shen Rae immediately knew what Anna was suggesting.  She knew of the android’s capabilities.  She pressed against the console in front of her and pulled a fiber-optic cable out of it.  “Can you use this?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yes.”  Anna took the cable and reached behind her hair to the back of her neck.  There was an almost inaudible click.

    Everything on Heart of Light moved fast.  It had flows of data that Anna had never seen before, zipping by at speeds she never thought possible, but using very little power.  Hallie would love to see the systems aboard this ship, she thought.

    But then she went back to her task, and quickly found the transmitter.  She shut down all transmissions first, because those could feed back and damage the ship’s own systems.

    She sent the full power of a rapid non-repeating sequence of signals that overran anything capable of signal processing on the other ships.  In a few seconds, just about all of them were electronically deaf and blind.  Some of them had engines shut down, as they contained sensors that calibrated them to the exterior environment.

    It would not completely destroy or disable the fleet, but it did mean the chase was over before it started.

    Shen Rae fired an Anchor from the Heart of Light, which opened a small tear in space, and then pulled the ship through.  Shortly after, they were in orbit around Earth. 

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“We made it.”  Visionary said with a sigh of relief.  “I’m glad that’s over.”

    Just as he finished that sentence, the bridge of the ship filled with flame.  Shen Rae tried to get up and mold her bracelet into something to deal with it, but it was too late.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Now I have Gluttony and Wrath!”  the Demon announced!

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Gluttony?  Hey!”  Visionary protested as flames enveloped both him and Shen Rae.

    Then Anna was left alone on the ship.  She looked around for a communications console, and tried to call Hallie.  But there was no response.


TO BE CONTINUED...


Story written and copyrighted (C) 2011 by Jason Froikin, and may not be reprinted without permission.  Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow.  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin.  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin

An interesting collection the demon has going there.  I can't imagine it will lead to much good... but then it also seems like the kind of thing that will come back to bite him in the ass as well.