Blood Sisters
Chapter 20

Allison Ashton spoke hurriedlyinto her Bracer Communicator “Liberty to Goldstar, I need my Knightin White Satin.” “Groovy, beright there babe!” came the reply. Miss Liberty closed her eyes tothe ensuing chaos as the new humans, armored humans, agents andsynthoids began to clash. With deadly calm, she reached out with herbio-energy sense to make a map in her head to where her most powerfulopponents were, then in a blur of red, white and blue Mighty MissLiberty launched herself against her foes.

Miracle flashed into the fray.She decided to see if she could take out Wildfire, who appeared tohave only beta-cloth for protection. Before he was able to bring uphis flames, The Golden Girl was behind him and kicked out savagely,hitting him squarely between his shoulder-blades. Jenny was in nomood for caution, and they were badly outnumbered. She let loose aforce-field spark as her heel dug into Wildfire's back. Mark wastaken completely by surprise, he let out a low grunt and fell forwardonto the polished concrete floor, his back smoking.

Cricket charged the nearestbloodsister, digging her shoulder into it. The mute synthoid had noexpression as she was knocked off her feet and slid across the floor.The Mighty Bug spun around with a back-fist and hit anotherbloodsister synthoid across the side of its head, who fell stiffly tothe floor with a blank face.

Titan had been standing next toWildfire and turned to face Miracle. He uttered “Sorry Jenny” ashe grew above her and brought his mighty fists down on herforce-field like a sledgehammer. The golden shield of energy buzzedin protest, and Miracle was knocked onto her back, looking up at theTowering Titan. With no satisfaction he kicked at Jenny, hard, like abig yellow soccer-ball; sending her arcing into the air right out thebig doorway. Jenny felt that, wincing as her force-field sparked allaround her and hummed loud in her ears. Miracle shook it off quickly,and still in mid-air she acrobatically oriented herself. Jennyglanced over her shoulder, waiting until she started angling downwardtowards the ground. “Surprise” she said with a grin. In a flashMiracle teleported up behind Titan, with all the momentum she stillhad from the kick that sent her flying. She came down hard on hisshoulders, wrapping her legs around his big neck and juicing up herforce-field. As he fell forward next to Wildfire she started tosqueeze his neck between her thighs and calves. Miracle wrapped herarms around the big man's forehead and gripped as hard as she could,her whole body now pressed against the back of his head, holding onwith her arms and legs wrapped around his face. Jenny sparked andsparked; Titan yelled loudly into the floor as his head began tosmoke.

Broadsword shouted in alarm“TITAN!”. He threw his heavy metal body against Miracle, justmanaging to break her grip on Titan's head. Todd bellowed in pain ashis head snapped around, following Jenny as she was tackled off ofhim. He ended up on his side as The Metal Man and The Golden Girltumbled away from him. Titan's body was still smoking from hisshoulders up. He moaned and rolled onto his back.

Iron Gorgon hesitated, she wasnew to all this, and everything was crazy. But when she saw Titan godown, that was something she understood. Her armor came to life as itcarried her quickly through the battle. Gorgon did a quick medicalscan of Titan with her new sensors. A flexible carbon-nanotube cablewith a utility head shot out of a panel at the top of Medusa's headon her armored breastplate. Iron Gorgon sprayed an anestheticprotective foam over Titan's burns then gave him an injection to helpwith the pain and clear his head. She gave him a little shake on hisbig shoulder “You okay Todd?” her voice came over his earpiece.“Yeah, thanks” he moaned. He looked over at Jenny and shook hishead. Miracle indeed.

Peregrine hit her plasma jets andlifted up into the air towards the ceiling high above. Her scannersand battle systems sprung to life and information streamed in quicklyon her HUD. She picked up Miss Liberty's transmission and spoke intothe USSM comm system “Goldstar incoming, heads up”. Lisa cursedand added “I have several alarms coming in from the Ops center,it's a safe bet Goldstar freed North Star. Grr”. Peregrine startedlocking in the unfriendly targets for her weapon systems to track.

D-Day hated this. He knew MissLiberty was already steamed at him, so he might as well try to drawher fire. With his thick armor he might be able to take a hit or twofrom her... maybe. Paul's hands flew over his control panels as helocked his target in. With a frown he saw the shape of his long timefriend come up in the crosshairs. He closed his eyes as his fingerspressed down on the launch control.

A swarm of tracking mini-missileslaunched out of a pod on D-Day's battlearmor. They streaked at MissLiberty leaving ribbons of white smoke behind them.

Agent David tapped his earpiece,giving instructions to the revenant operators. The bio-energy dronescame to life as the commands came through the sub-dermal implants intheir heads. Goliath took a knee and brought his AR-15 to bear. Thegolden globe around Miracle was hard to miss. He clicked his ammoselection switch to concussive and fired off a burst. The high-techbullets slammed into her halo with surprising force and she wasknocked across the floor away from Broadsword. “Oof. What the heckwas that?” Jenny looked over at the agent with the assault rifle.She had not considered him a threat. “Huh” she muttered, flashingback to her feet.

Several of the bloodsistersynthoids tackled Cricket, trying to pull her down, she went to punchone, but her arm was grabbed, then her other arm. Another one got herarms around Cricket's legs and she went down with a yelp. Hersynthoid twins swarmed over her. Pinning her to the ground. “Crap!”Cricket yelled. Twisting herself side to side trying to break free,all Cricket could see was girl bodies all around her. “Get off me!”she shrieked. Her bloodsisters bore down until Cricket could barelymove, and was struggling to breathe.

Goldstar had held back as hiswife and the girls had gone in to see D-Day, just in case somethinglike this happened. When it was clear it was going to be a fight, hestreaked into the Ops center in his energy form until he foundWinter. She stood up when she saw him “Goldie... its a” Heshifted to matter and blew a hole in the wall. “A trap, yeah weknow. Lets rock North Star, Ally needs us!” then he was gone like aflare arcing around towards the other side of the mountain. Winterjumped from the smoking hole in the wall and made herself a slope,skiing down to the ground. Icing the ground in front of her sheforced water jets out of her body, following behind as fast as shecould.

In little over a second Goldstarhad covered the distance between the Ops center and the open doors ofthe R&D facility on the far side of Shay's Mountain. He couldsense all the radio transmissions around him, voice communication andotherwise. He followed the signal from Agent David to the facilitycontrol room. He shifted back to matter and his force-field flaredaround him. Goldstar smiled at the startled personnel. “Now, whereare the dudes pulling the strings of those Frankenstiens. I'd like aword...” Several of the staff pointed over to where there wereuniformed US Marshals hooked into VR systems. Just as Marty broughtup his hands to take them out he was hit really, really hard frombehind. Goldstar flew into the armored wall of the control center,denting it as he hit with massive force. Marty yelled out his pain ashe fell to the floor, fighting for consciousness. Were it not for hispowerful force-field that blow would have killed him instantly.Struggling to his knees, he looked up at a revenant crossing thefloor to finish him off. Straining with effort he raised up a hand,and discharged a cannon of bright gold energy, striking the revenantcenter mass, and sending it catapulting against the far wall of theroom. Grunting, Goldstar struggled to his feet. He saw the repulsiveclone of his wife do the same across the room, whisps of greenbio-energy leaking out of it. “Oh hell” he muttered.

Out in the cavernous main room,Miss Liberty's eyes snapped open as she flew into battle. Bio-mutantenergy exploded behind her as she pushed for as much accelerationpossible. With her fists before her like a battering-ram she flewright through one revenant, then another, then a third. They allbroke apart, green energy and flesh exploding everywhere. Allisongrabbed another revenant as she swung around, hurling it fullstrength at D-Day. The synthoid's body catapulted through the air andsmashed into Paul's walking red and silver tank. Armor dented andsparks flew as the unit tumbled over. Alarms blared and flashed inthe cockpit as the acceleration compensator was overpowered and thehydraulics failed. The small man was shaken around as the D-Daybattlearmor crashed into the floor. Miss Liberty shouted in anger“DAMN YOU PAUL!” as she pulled up in the air. Pointing her fistat D-Day, a globe of bright bio-mutant energy gathered around herhand, with a battle-cry Miss Liberty released it. Like a comet itflew into the D-Day armor, scraping it across the floor into thewall. More sparks flew and pieces of twisted armor exploded into theair from the impact. Where the bio-energy struck steel armor itsmoked and melted. In the cockpit, many controls blinked out and themaster alarm sounded. Paul's face was tinted red as more and moredisplays showed system failure warnings. Miss Liberty took abreath, feeling slightly weaker after her flying rampage and largedischarge of bio-energy at Paul's armor. While she hovered, D-Day'smissiles finally hit home. Miss Liberty was blown through the air asdozens of missiles designed to destroy tanks exploded against herflesh. She tumbled high up into the wall in a cloud of fire andsmoke. Shaken, Allison put her hand on the wall and steadied herself,30 feet up in the air. She shook it off and looked down, assessingthe battle.

Peregrine took the opportunityand flew over at Miss Liberty, her plasma jets flaring. When in rangeshe quickly slowed to a stop, plasma flaring around her, and launchedback away from her target, almost blacking out from the staggeringg-force. The superheated plasma from Peregrine's maneuvering jetsburned into Miss Liberty, who screamed as she was scorched and blownagainst the wall. Her beta-cloth blackened and melted to her flesh.Despite the pain and smoke, Allison's skin was only red below thespots where the jets hit and burned away her uniform. Ally looked atPeregrine through narrowed eyes. Lisa gulped.

Miracle teleported across theroom, appearing beside Goliath, taking him by surprise. Jennyeffortlessly kicked him into the wall, no spark. He fell against thearmored wall with a sickening crunch, likely cracking a few ribs. Hishead hit the wall hard, and he slumped to the floor. The AR-15dropped into his lap, but his sunglasses stayed in place, showing nodamage from the impact. “I need a pair of those” Jenny quipped.She then spun around with a kick, stretching out her energy field tocarry the force of it to Wildfire, who was just getting to his feet.

Mark saw the glowing pseudopodcoming at him just in time and he ducked away from it. He could feelhe heat of its discharge right behind him, where his head was asplit-second ago. He glared at The Golden Girl and his body explodedinto flames. Wildfire gathered up a fireball and hurled it atMiracle, but she teleported away, and instead the fire exploded onthe big agent behind her, scorching his clothes and his hair andmaking a circle of black ash on the wall around him. “Damn thatPhilly’s quick” he twanged. As he was turning to see whereMiracle went to, he noticed that big agent's sunglasses were stillsecurely in place, unaffected by his blast. “Damn, I want a pair ofthose” he said.

Broadsword saw Miracle take outGoliath, then saw her flash away from Wildfire's attack. He had beenstudying Miracle's tactics and anticipated her move. Just as Jennyappeared behind Wildfire, Jack swept a long flat blade that extendedfrom his arms and cut through the twelve feet of air between him andWildfire. The heavy blade cut into Jenny's force-field, which sentsparks rippling over it's surface as it dented in. The field held,but Miracle felt the impact. Taken by surprise she tumbled offbalance across the floor. “Ow” she breathed. Miracle flashed toher feet, wincing as a pain shot through her still tender side.Wildfire gave Broadsword a grin “Thank ya”. Jack nodded grimly.He was not happy about any of this.

Iron Gorgon looked at her medicalstatus readout and saw that Paul's condition was fine, though he wasin a battered, smoking wreck. She hit her jump jets and crossed theroom to where Goliath was slumped. A quick scan showed he had aconcussion and some broken ribs in addition to his obvious burns.After spraying his burns with the protective anesthetic She applied astabilizing foam to his torso and neck that quickly hardened, holdingthe big Agent's injured body in place. Another black carbon-nanotubecable shot out of the metal head of Medusa on her armor's chest andwrapped around the agent. Gorgon lifted Goliath with it, and movedhim several yards to a safer area behind a metal stairway. Sheunwrapped the cable, and it whipped back into the armor. Iron Gorgonthen started to turn back to the fight, when she suddenly stopped.Gorgon's head looked back towards the stairs, the mirrored visorreflecting the room around her. Without a word Iron Gorgon ran forthe steps, servos whining and steel thundering as the armor moved.

Cricket finally managed to getsome wiggle room and kicked out savagely, knocking one of thebloodsisters back. Then another as she was able to get a punch off.The Indestructible Girl with staggering effort rose to her feet, hersynthoid sisters grabbing at her every limb. Cricket swung her armaround and another bloodsister tumbled away “This... really...sucks!” the girl said in protest.

Titan had gotten to his feet,Excess foam dripping from his face. He saw the flash of light asMiracle came to her feet after Broadsword's blow. With a single longstride, The Towering Titan moved into range of her and sent his bigfist down. Jenny looked up as his shadow fell on her and she rolledaway from the strike, the same way she had practiced over and overagain with her trainers. With a loud kiai She kicked Titan in theknee hard as she could, hitting him solidly with a spark. There was aloud snap as the joint bent sideways, and Titan fell hard, howling inpain and grabbing his leg, the beta-cloth over his knee smolderingfrom Jenny's kick. “Stay down dude, your a mess” Jenny saidsympathetically.

A revenant stood up from thewreckage of the D-Day armor. Bio-energy leaking all over from it andpooling at its feet like dry ice vapor. It's controller had it targetMiracle and it stomped over towards her. Jenny, who's attention wasjust leaving Titan, snapped around towards the sound of it just amoment too late. The smoking fist of the revenant collided withJenny's force-field, there was the sound like a thunderclap, andbolts of energy struck all through Miracles protective bubble, herfield stretched to the limit, pressing against her before it recoiledand she was thrown back from the force of the blow. Jenny's facecontorted with pain as her guts got crushed and her flesh was searedfrom her own fields discharge. The armored wall of the room wascoming up fast, the whole mass of the mountain behind it. Miracleknew she would at least be out of this fight if she hit that wall, ifnot worse. Barely clinging to her senses as waves of pain wereshooting through her Miracle trusted her phenomenal luck andteleported blindly, straight up.

Highabove the frey, Miss Liberty was angry. She rocketed at Peregrine andsmashed the breastplate of her flightarmor. The full force ofAllison's momentum and strength was focused down onto the surfacearea of her fist. Even though Allison pulled her blow at the lastmoment Peregrine's armor was crushed. The shock absorption layerbelow did its job, spreading out the force of the impact, however,Even Miss Liberty's pulled punch was a mighty blow that far exceededwhat the armor was able to withstand. Most of the force was directedaway from Lisa's body, but it moved in a shockwave through thecomposite layer below the titanium armored shell. Pieces ofPeregrine's armor blew off her, raining down on the combatants below.As the flightarmor fell apart a fail-safe system automatically shutdown the magnetoplasma engine before the magnetic fields failed andcaused an explosion of plasma. The armor completely lost power andshattered, destroyed by the overwhelming energy of Allison's punch.The ejection system launched Lisa from the armor as it disintegratedaround her. Airbags inflated out of Peregrine's beta-clothflightsuit, surrounding her completely in a protective polyhedron.Lisa pounded into the wall then fell to the ground, bouncing again,and again before finally rolling against the far wall. As she came toa stop, the bags around her deflated, and the unconscious body ofLisa Shaw lay still on the floor. Miss Liberty looked down at thefallen hero, and her anger washed away. Ally was stunned by what shehad just done. Then with a shock, she saw her daughter hit by therevenant, heard her cry of pain and watched her vanish out of thinair a split-second from hitting the armored wall above where Lisa wassprawled. “This has gone too far” Allison said to herself. MissLiberty lifted her arm to speak into her golden M-Tech bracer. Butbefore she got a word out, everything around her suddenly went dark.