My Beautiful Misery

We reach the Asylum and I place Cheryl in my chambers. She's curious about my painting, but I tell her I'm too exhausted to explain. She nods in understanding and lets me crash on my bed.

I don't know how long I sleep, but a knock at the chamber door wakes me. It's insistent and I can hear Vasilikos' panicked mind calling for me. I jump up and throw a blanket over the dozing Cheryl, who's curled up on the chair.

What little sleep I'd had combined with the shot of adrenaline that usually comes when you think something's wrong helped me construct an illusion that made her disappear. I also checked to make sure my mental block was firmly in place before opening the door.

Mother Mayhem is leaning against the door frame and looking drunkenly at me. Actually, she is drunk. She leans in and plants a kiss on my cheek, hugging me to steady herself.

"I want to have fun tonight!" she shouts, her voice sounding oddly like it's two instead of one.

I don't need to think very hard to know what kind of fun she's talking about. I push her away slightly, but I make it seem like I'm only trying to get a better look at her face.

"Oh, my lovely goddess," I chant, "I have been yearning for a night like this..."

I am so going to get wasted when this is over...

"Really?" she asks as she presses against me again, "Oh, Malaise... I've been so worried about you..."

"Really, my love?"

She pulls away and advances deeper into my chambers. She locates the painting, sitting on its easel next to the very chair Cheryl sleeps on, and folds her arms over her chest as she glares at it. I step up behind her, hoping my illusion over the girl doesn't falter.

God, I hope I've got the colors right...

"This monstrosity you faced" Mayhem explains, "It was psychic?"

"Indeed... Or at least..." I hiss, "It had a psionic presence. It was surrounded by lessers, but they all spoke with one voice..."

Which is true... Normal heroes can't tell because the Clockwork King uses crude voice emitters in his machines and each one's different, but Penelope, Psyche and other psychics have always heard the similar tone in the "minds" of the robots. It makes me wonder why it wasn't one of us who figured it out before those heroes working for Saramango, Anderson, Montoya, Greene and even Synapse. Synapse, of all people, finally established a link to the King and sent a force of heroes to shut him down...

It didn't stick, but still! The fact that he'd figured it out, instead of Shalice or Aurora or... Well... Me...

I've got to admit, it stings a little.

"I believe I'm getting better," I rasp, hoping it's the sort of thing my opposite does, "In fact, I-..."

"What happened to your face?" she asks; in my musing, I didn't realize she'd turned to look at me.

"I don't remember," I lie, though I do suddenly remember the right cross Calvin clocked me with when I woke him up (my cheek must have finally bruised), "I woke up once with my face against the tub..."

"We should have Vasilikos take care of you when we're done, then," she coos softly, lightly brushing her hand against my cheek, "For now... Focus on one thing..."

She makes a grab for my... Um... Personal area... And I'm so shocked that I c-grhblablghablabblabbl-*POP!*-Aaugh!

AAAAAAAAAAUGH!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!

She looks at me curiously. I think some of my internal screaming had got through the mental barrier.

"Did you hear that?" she asks, turning to look down the hall.

She's so drunk she thought it was one of the "patients." Thank whatever gods remain watching over me in this world, they're on my side!

"I'm sure it's just one of the inmates, dear..."

I notice a slight tremble in my voice. God, I hope she mistakes it for desire...

A plan is forming in my head, but it's going to require... Well, finesse is the wrong word, but I'll go with it...

"I suppose you're right..." she sighs, then whirls around to face me, an evil glint in her eyes, "Mal... Dearie... Let's have fun like we used to. Let's make Calvin watch you defile his wife's body!"

"Sounds like a fantastic plan... I'll meet you in your chambers, my love... I think... I think we should have the painting in the room while we... Do it... I'll join you shortly..."

She nods and licks her lips. There's a gentle sway to her hips as she sashays out my chamber door.

When she's gone, I let myself tremble and fall to the floor. This is all getting way out of hand. I need to get out of here. No more waiting.

This ends tonight!

I tell Vahzilok to watch my room. He and Cortex nod quietly. Apparently, the psychic zombie had been keeping its maker appraised of the situation I was going through. I don't know if it could read my thoughts, but Demetrios stops me before I leave, concern creasing his already wrinkled face.

"Do you know what you are doing?" he asks, genuine worry creasing his already wrinkled features.

"I'm sorry, doctor, but I believe this is the end for us. After tonight, we won't see each other again."

Vahsilikos nods and gives me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. I leave with the painting tucked under my arm and make my way up the nearest elevator for Mother Mayhem's chambers.

I can hear the pained voices of the "patients" (Who am I kidding? These poor, demented souls are victims...) growing in intensity inside my head as the elevator car rises. There are so many in their own personal chambers between me and her... But none of them would dare interrupt their mistress' "fun time."

On her floor, the cacophony of of voices assaults my mind. The barrier I erected to protect my thoughts against Mayhem's probes (most of which, I'm realizing, had to have been instinctual rather than intended; perhaps if she were trying harder, she'd have broken through, but the few times she actually did try to force through (probably trying to "rehabilitate" me), I didn't have to struggle too hard to fend her off. With her in the drunk state she's in, I should be able to pull this off...

Reaching Mayhem's chambers, I take a deep breath and remind myself that this is not Sister Psyche. It's... It's important for me to remember that. Some feelings linger, but this isn't the time to fall into delusion. This isn't the time to start thinking "Well, this is close enough," because...

Because...

I'm trying to be better than that.

The world flickers, and for a moment I think something's wrong with my black-and-white vision. After taking a look around, I see it's just the hallway... Stained gray walls, I don't care to learn by what.

My vision flickers back to grays again and I shake my head. I wish I could figure out the trigger for it. It's not excitement, it's not situations... It never stays one way for any predictable amount of time and I never feel anything to tell me there's about to be a change.

If there were some kind of significance to it, I could probably use it... If I could just determine what was common with each instance... I guess I could check with the doctors again. Maybe some new technology is out that could study the damage in my brain better.

The door opens and for a moment, I can't breathe. I couldn't believe an outfit like Aurora's could leave much to the imagination, but I clearly wasn't looking at the woman properly. This lingerie she's wearing... My God...

The outfit is all purple, in varying shades, and it's mostly a corset accentuating her chest in ways I would never have thought possible, and fishnet-stockings on her legs. She was also wearing a pair of those clear high-heel shoes, which made her seem taller (or floating off the ground; I don't know why those clear high-heels are so sexy, but they are).

"Took you long enough," she sighs huskily, "I was about to start without you..."

"Oh, baby," I say, my voice going breathless as I realize this outfit is affecting me worse than I expected, "That would have caused me no end of upset... This is to be a special night... I feel... I feel as if I may finally break free of this wretched block that has kept my handsome mind from your rapturous one..."

I may have gone a little overboard on that...

"Mm... You think maybe we just needed to unlock it... Carnally?"

She steps forward, reaching out to trace the back of my ear with her fingertips. Rubbing me gently, she leans in and gives me a kiss.

I'm sorry, but it felt electric. I felt a chill run down my spine, and for a moment, I almost felt like I would take the opportunity to be with this woman for the night... I'm ashamed to admit that this sensation persisted until we basically danced into her chambers, arms intertwined, kissing each other passionately...

It's strange the thoughts that went through my head. In an instant, I thought I could save her, thought I could change her, take her back to Paragon and show her a better way to be...

I turned around to start pulling my shirt off when I saw what it took to break me of such foolishness. Seeing Calvin stuck in that chair, locked in his last moment of freedom and how it turned into a hideous nightmare, looping over and over again, cured me of the stupidity that had plagued me.

Mother Mayhem was a monster, plain and simple. As kind and caring as Shalice is, this woman is not.

I nodded absent-mindedly and walked back to the door to retrieve my painting. Setting it next to Calvin, I looked at it once more.

I wonder if the Clockwork King is out here. Could he be considered heroic? Is he still human? Or did he have a better body built for him, like Nemesis? Does he watch these events? Does he know I'm here?

I don't have time to ponder anymore.

"First," I say as I lick my lips and prepare to go to work, "We wake up Calvin..."

I press one hand to his forehead and the other to his mouth. His eyes focus and he blinks before looking up at me. Pulling my face into a determined mask, I nod.

Mother Mayhem doesn't see any of this, however. Instead, she sees Calvin wake up, shake his head clear, and then he starts screaming. He tries to pull himself free of his chair, but I've only opened his mind, not restored his motor functions. He shouts curses at me, many of which I'd heard from fellow heroes already. I try to keep the insults generic, if I use anything about how "I look too much like my opposite," I might draw suspicion.

She revels in the litany of insults. I walk over to her, crawling onto the bed as I peel my shirt off. Leaning in close, I kiss her neck and gently work at tying her wrists to the headboard.

In reality, I'm helping Calvin get to his feet while my illusion causes her to reach back and grab the headboard in a vice-like grip. His legs have atrophied some through the years of disuse (man, it's amazing what a sudden surge of adrenaline can do; he probably could have kicked the crap out of me that day if I didn't get my senses back, but now he can barely keep steady), so he shakes. It's not as bad as it could be. He must have been unconsciously flexing his muscles, or maybe he hasn't been rigidly trapped in this chair for the past three or four years like I thought.

"I've been waiting so long for this," the illusion of me says as we walk out of the room.

"Oh baby," Mayhem moans, "Give it to me..."

"As you wish," he says before promptly turning into the monstrous image of my father I used to defeat my doppelganger.

Mayhem screams and the psychic backlash from it causes both Calvin and I to stumble to the floor. The patients throughout the complex let out a wail of torment, but the image of my faceless, monstrous father, made mostly out of anger, remains solid and drooling over her face. She struggles to break free of the bonds, never realizing she's just holding the headboard.

"Come on!" I groan as I pull Calvin to his feet, "We've got to move, now!"

"MALAISE!" she shouts, "WHAT'S GO-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Her wails continue as we reach the elevator, each scream causing our pain receptors to flash. It feels like a heatwave across my skin. I don't know why, but when the elevator closes us off from her, the pain stops. Gasping, we collapse against the wall.

"What did you do to her?" Calvin asks.

"I made her meet my dad..."

But now the illusion must have dissipated... She'll realize she can get free and she'll be after us...

----------

"Where's my daughter?" Calvin shouts as we reach my chambers.

He's not yelling at me. He's yelling at Vasilikos and his assistant. Vahzilok raises his hands in supplication and soothingly assures him that Cheryl is perfectly fine. My door opens and the young girl is standing there, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"I had a scary dream," she squeaks, "A witch was flying through the air and throwing fire at me... I threw a rock at her and she fell..."

Excellent. A psychic battle Mayhem wasn't ready for, and Cheryl was able to fend her off better than I'd have expected. The crazy woman was probably dizzy after getting hit like that. She probably wasn't running any kind of defense, she probably didn't expect to run into another psychic in this fight.

"She's not," Cortex answers my unvoiced thought, "I cloud things around here. She hasn't noticed."

"It's how I've stayed under the radar," Vasilikos chuckles, "But I believe the proverbial jig is up. We should probably move."

"You're not coming with me," I hiss, "I can't keep an eye on everybody, and I can't make enough illusions to mask all of us."

"That's fine."

Cortex starts walking toward the very elevators Calvin and I had come from. I get a faint thought about what he intends to do.

"You can't beat her!" I shout while surprised I'm so concerned for a shambler.

"That's not my purpose," the creature replies in that cold, neutral tone of voice, "I will give you time to make your escape."

"Thank you, Cortex," Vasilikos draws his large scalpel-knife (it's like a freaking shortsword!) and gestures down the hall, "I'll lead the way! If anybody crosses us, I'll take care of them..."

"If you die?" Calvin asks, quirking his eyebrow.

"I won't," the mad doctor gives a knowing wink.

I wonder if this one truly did learn how to conquer death. If that's the case, that Cortex who's about to sacrifice himself isn't just some shambler, but a real reborn psychic hero!

We charge down the hall. Behind us, we can hear Cortex shouting a challenge to an unknown opponent. I can feel it's Mayhem and a contingent of her patients. I can also feel that they weren't expecting this, Mayhem's still drunk and her patients are all injured from her screaming. Cortex actually carves a swath through them and I wince as I briefly feel the pain of their brains hemorrhaging. Mayhem doesn't drop that easily, and she throws Cortex against the far wall. He remains standing, however, and delivers a barrage of psychic lances at her. She counters with a focused telekinesis, however, and starts peeling his skin from his musculature.

As we flee, a pained scream echoes down the halls. It doesn't harm us in the slightest, though, instead spurring us on and encouraging us. In his last tortured moment of living, Cortex launched a powerful psychic wail of his own, hurling Mayhem back into the elevator and overloading the emergency panel, causing the car to close and lock, trapping the lunatic woman inside.

We face little resistance on the way. Many of the orderlies are actually loyal to Vasilikos, not "me" or Mayhem, and they try to clear the way for us. Mayhem may not be able to assault us from her prison, but she's still able to order the "patients" and loyal orderlies to attack us. I can hear it, as can Cheryl. The little girl looks up at me, worried, but I assure her we'll be fine. Oddly enough, it's the truth when I tell her the command is faint.

----------

The entire Asylum is chaos as we break through to the lobby. A contingent of Vasilikos' orderlies have fortunately taken the doors and are clearing the lunatics away. It's a massive, bloody affair, and I'm thankful Calvin is covering his daughter's eyes. The orderlies motion for us and Vasilikos stops as we reach the doors.

"I believe this is far enough for me," he says in a gasp, "Just running down these halls... I am tired..."

"Wait!" I shout at him, "You can't just abandon us!"

"I must. My orderlies and I, we have to break this facility. We must make it crumble around Mayhem's ears..."

"Tyrant will come after you," I remind him.

"They all will," Vasilikos sighs, "At least now... Now we have some semblance of hope."

"Why?"

"Because of you, Mal. You will go home. You will tell your friends what you've seen, you will show them, in your way, what is happening here. The years of oppression under the Tyrant's rule will come to an end soon... Even if I'm not around to see it."

I don't know what to say. Frankly, I hadn't considered what my report would be. I didn't realize the importance of what I was doing. I just thought I was saving two people who didn't deserve the fate they were suffering.

"Goodbye, Demetrios," I reach out to shake his hand, "Your help has been invaluable."

"Farewell, Malaise. May you find what you're looking for."

I don't know how he knows I'm searching for... Well... I don't know what. Assurance I'm not insane? Love? A sense of belonging? The list goes on, but those three are pretty much the highest priorities.

I nod to him and usher Calvin and Cheryl away from the building. As we leave, I stop hearing Mother Mayhem. This is good. From where she's trapped, she can't send a signal to the other Praetorian leaders... At least, not until she sobers up.

That gives me time. Not much time, but time. Remembering the portions of the Babbage I'd painted, specifically it's hips and ribcage, I reconstructed my mental map to the facility where we could find the portable interdimensional devices. Once I was certain, I transmitted the image to Cheryl, as well as a rudimentary idea as to the method I'd used to access the building in the first place. If anything happens to me, she should be able to do the same.

Cheryl looks worriedly at me. While she's excited that she's finally leaving this god-forsaken place, she's also prudently terrified that we'll get caught and butchered. Frankly, so am I.

"Let's go," I rasp as an explosion rocks one of ground floor windows, "It won't do to be here when reinforcements arrive."

Excellent work as always, Mr. G.

We have to move fast. We have to be offworld and back home, and we have to be there yesterday. I never understood what that saying meant before now.

I certainly wish I was home today.

The best place to go is the lab where Antimatter's technicians are building more of those interdimensional transporter devices. While my report indicated he'd gotten the coordinates wrong, he already knew the device itself worked. They'd already be mass producing the damn things to outfit Tyrant's invasion forces. Once Antimatter figured out the right coordinates (or that I'd lied to him), it wouldn't take long to program the machines and then the heroes of Paragon City would have a real mess on their hands.

Again, I found myself wondering if the Etoile Isles here provided some kind of outpost against "Emperor Cole." I push the thought out of my mind, however, and focus on Cheryl and Calvin.

I need them to be able to blend in... I need them to appear as if they would be able to walk into a manufacturing plant like anybody else would. I concentrate a little and before they know what's happening, Cal's in a lab coat and Cheryl... Well, she doesn't look too different, but they both look like they've been able to shower recently. They don't look like they just came out of a firefight. They could be any other father and daughter on their way to a tour of "where daddy works."

"Alright, I'll lead the way," I explain, "You two don't say anything... I just... I hope we can pull this off."

"I'm sure you can do it!" Cheryl says cheerfully as we head in the direction of the laboratory I'd infiltrated before.

Mayhem must have gotten the word out. I can already see the patrols stepping up. Antimatter and Neuron's robots, mostly. They're not affected by my illusions, but they're not too bright, either. They're currently programmed to patrol and look for anything out of the ordinary, not eradicate everything in sight like back in Independence Port (or Subject Harbor, or whatever they call the place in this topsy-turvy abomination). So long as we walk casually, they pass us by.

Everything goes fine and we reach the laboratory. People inside are a little on edge. Robots have been brought in to boost security and I can feel that the people here have dealt with their "overzealous nature" before. Apparently, the last time there were so many Neuron-Antimatter Clockwork in the facility, there had been "accidents," and a few people never made it home.

The security guard recognizes "me" as I try to access the lab, but informs me that I should talk to my superior and tell him to let me do homework for a few days until my new card is approved. He won't be able to let me into the labs and he doesn't have to explain it's because of the trigger-happy machines. Even if I couldn't read his mind showing me his vivid memory of one of his partners being vaporized before his eyes, I would have known because of the looming Baryon-class robot that gazes at us with cold, impassive calculation.

I laugh off the guard's concern and nod. I turn Calvin and Cheryl away and start heading back for the door.

"Well, unfortunately, Professor Scott, I won't be able to show you and your daughter to your new office and workspace because of a problem with my security card. I'm sure we can find another technician here with access to show you to your new offices..."

Cheryl looks at me reproachfully. She can sense what I'm about to do and what terror it will bring about. I send her a mental apology, but things are getting cut too close.

We walk into a break room. The people inside are tense. There's a green-skinned man who can alter energy fields, a blue-skinned woman who can levitate objects (but thankfully can't read minds) and a normal-seeming person tinkering with a device. The normal-seeming one is an inventor of some kind, young, nervous. Apparently, he barely got this job because he had a talent for building nick-knacks that were tiny technological marvels.

"Dale," I say to the young man as if I've known him all my life, "This is Professor Scott. He's transferring over here and the boss wants me to show him the labs, but my security card is all wonky... I don't want to upset Doctor MacIntyre, so could you take them into the lab?"

He looks at me, trying to place me. I fit myself into a few of the memories he digs up, usually putting myself in the background, other times usurping words of encouragement. Poor human, he feels so out of place among people who can mess with quantum physics with just a wave of their hands, he's desperate for any appreciation.

"Uh, sure..." he says as he fumbles in his pocket for his keycard, "Let's show them around..."

Sometimes, being psychic is too easy. It's a good thing most people fill in colors for themselves when it comes to their memories. I wasn't even trying to "paint-by-numbers" myself properly. Adding color takes effort and energy that I'm sure I'll need later.

Dale takes us back to the security door that leads to the labs. A mild probe keeps the security guard from doing more than waving to us. I can't have him acting as if he just told me this next bit wouldn't work.

Dale walks up, slides the card through. He gives the guard the same story I gave him. The guard waves him and the Scotts through. The Baryon, however, does not.

"Halt!" its voice buzzes out of its emitters like a swarm of angry bees, "All employees entering the labs must present identification!"

"But these guys aren't even in the records yet!" Dale shouts back, creating the story before I can even implant one, "They want Professor Scott working in Cold Fusion as soon as possible!"

Wow. I didn't even realize they needed somebody on their Cold Fusion project. I didn't even know they were working on that!

"Regardless..." the machine gets out as it levels its extended, glowing palm at Calvin.

I push with my mind and shout "Malfunction!"

The security guard jumps up at once. His sidearm is decidedly NOT your typical pistol, and a red lance of energy scores into the Baryon's faceplate. Dale shoves one of his projects into the machine's chassis and pulls the Scotts into the labs with him.

I'm able to jump over the security guard's desk moments before an explosion sends metal bits hurtling throughout the room. The guard looks at me when when we can both hear again and I see realization dawn on his face.

"Wait a minute," he gasps, "You don't wor-!"

His sentence is cut short when his own shadow reaches out and grabs him by the face, muffling his shout. I lean in close and pull his energy pistol and keycard away.

"Listen," I hiss, "I am trying to keep as many of you from being hurt as possible! All I need is to get home, and this will all be over!"

It won't. I know. These people will probably suffer because they didn't stop me. I can't help that. If they're smart, they'll get the Hell out of here before things get out of hand.

"I'm sorry," I say sincerely, "I wanted to be quiet and subtle, I wanted to get out of here without raising a commotion, but I'm out of time and my options are dwindling. You'll be alright in a moment... Your shadow will let you go shortly after I'm gone. I just want you to know how sorry I am this had to happen to you today..."

His shadow pulls his face down so he can't see me anymore. He knows where I'm going, though.

I scurry next to the desk and swing around the side nearest the security door. Peeking around, I can see people and robots headed my way. I don't like what I do next, but I'm hoping I'm a little luckier with this stunt than I have been so far.

I fire a pair of shots, one at a robot, another at the floor next to one of the people. The shot at the robot scores off one of its shoulder panels. The shot at the person strikes the floor too close to me. Oh well, I can still use it.

I send a panic impulse into the crowd. They think the robots are malfunctioning and starting to shoot randomly into the crowd. Never mind that they just saw two thermal beams and not radiation blasts, and that they'd come from me and not the machines. A little nudge, a little push, and bam! Instant riot.

A moment later, the machines were trying to fend off the legitimate employees of Antimatter's laboratory. Their targeting systems were making it nearly impossible to let any of the people come to harm, but the people wouldn't stop hitting them with chairs, computer monitors, and their own intrinsic powers. While the crowd dismantled the robots, I used the guard's keycard to get into the lab.

----------

I catch up to the Scotts and the technician I've turned in the first laboratory. Unfortunately, Technician Simms isn't in a helpful mood anymore. He took them to his workstation first and has turned a magnetic accelerator pistol on them.

"What are you doing?" I ask as I walk into the lab.

"I'm saving my skin!" he shouts shrilly, "You've [messed] this all up! Who are you!? What are you doing here!?"

"I'm a man who's growing increasingly agitated as you point that possibly defective at my friends."

"Defective? How would you know-!?"

"I can read your mind, Dale. I can read that you've been struggling for the past three months to get that little toy to work right, but the best you've been able to get is barely enough power to toss a paperclip five feet. You only think this latest adjustment, an adjustment you haven't been able to test, will do something lethal and prove your worth to these proper meta humans..."

He looks worriedly at me. His aim starts to waver and Calvin yanks the weapon from his hand. Shocked, he stumbles into the corner of his workstation. His face is turning pale as he thinks of how bad this can get for him.

Fortunately for him, we don't care. I lead them away and deeper into the labs. Before long we can hear the machines bursting in. It won't be much longer before they find us. We need to find the interdimensional doohickeys, and we need to find them fast!

Cheryl leads us into one of the labs and I see them. Racks and racks of them. They look like video game devices like the kids play with. There are a few modified ones, with antennae and other weird gizmos attached, but they all look basically the same. I take one off a rack and mess with it for a while.

"They don't have any power," Calvin explains as he looks over some of the notes, "Their supplies are in a different floor."

"There's got to be something here!" I shout as I search frantically, "There's got to be something we can-!"

"What?" a voice calls out behind me and my blood chills.

I recognize the voice. Steven Berry in my world, also known as Synapse, the fastest man alive. Here, he's Neuron, still the fastest man alive.

And he's looking at the back of my head. He doesn't recognize me without my uniform on. I can't let him have a chance to figure me out.

I don't know why he's here, but I figure it has something to do with the Tyrant telling him to go over Antimatter's work and determine what went wrong. He seems to have come to the same conclusion Antimatter should have (and probably already has), that the devices do work and that something fishy is going on. Now he's just milking the time, possibly waiting for Antimatter to have some sort of presentation ready.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" he slurs.

For somebody who's supposed to be so quick, he's surprisingly sluggish when he's just waking up. Seizing the opportunity, I turn and Neuron doesn't see me.

He sees Dominatrix.

God, I hope the files I've read about our counterparts are accurate about this...

Oh! So curious to see what your take on Domi is.. ;-)

"Woah..." Neuron almost burps, "Hey, baby!"

I was wrong. He's not just waking up. He's part drunk, maybe even a little high on a combination of narcotics. I don't know if it's recreational or if he's self-medicating. I know Synapse is decadent and a bit aloof, but at least he isn't this reckless. Still, in a world this insane, I suppose it wouldn't be outside the realms of reality for somebody to just consume narcotics wholesale to numb the madness.

"Hey, sexy," I make the illusion of Dominatrix say, "Marky-mark wants to know how you're... coming along... with the investigation..."

Heh heh. Marky-mark. I need to remember that.

"Oh... Right... Jeez, girl, that outfit doesn't leave much to imagine... I mean! Right! Antimatter's gizmos... Eh, they're working fine! I hate to say it, but Ray did a damn fine job with those doohickeys! Just... Jus-ss-ss-shh! Don't let your Emperor Cole know that! I'm trying to find out how he still went wrong!"

"You jackass! Of course Ray's devices work! He's a genius! Unlike you..."

I tried to put the right inflection in the voice, make it sound caustic and playful at the same time... Like she's playing a game with him.

"Hey!" Neuron sounds a little more lucid, "I'm good at... other things..."

He gyrates and loses his balance a little. He grasps the shelf he's next to and steadies himself. I'm both disgusted and amused at the same time. I need to chalk this up to yet another strange feeling.

"Do any of these work, baby?"

"Oh, Hell no! Anti got it into his nonexistent head that some of these techies might try to use the devices to go intergalactic or some other nonsensh. Excuse me... Nonshensh. *cough* Nonsense. Thersh. Nonshensh. Godammit..."

"So none of these work?" the faux Dominatrix pouts and I realize I can see in color again.

I've got her all gray. I guess I'm lucky it's dark and he's drunk. I try to get the colors right, inflecting deep crimson red and black into her outfit where Ms. Liberty's would be red and blue... And leather where her's is not leather.

"Sorry, baby-girl," Neuron sighs, "Just enough for diagnostic tests. But, hey! If you want, I can show you the monitoring station! You put those-sh bugs all over that other world, and Andimadder and I sometimes watch what's-sh goin' on in there... You want to see what your shister's up to?"

"Yeah, baby, that sounds like fun!"

This is a dead end. I need to find another way. However, on the same token, there is something else I can do here...

"Calvin..." I whisper while Neuron tries to describe where we're going to go next, "We need to destroy these things... Make it look like an accident..."

"I don't know if we have anything that would work," he replied, "Wait... Where'd you get that blaster?"

He yanks the energy pistol out of my hand and looks it over. Nodding, he starts fiddling with it until he has the energy cell popped out. He holds the battery-like item to my face and smiles.

"This!" he announced, "Got a lighter?"

"No..."

"Then let me try..."

He fiddles with one of the devices and pops out its energy cell. He looks the two over and nods. I guess he has a plan.

"When we're ready to go, I'm ready to make these things explode."

Which is good, because Neuron is ready to go. Everything is coming to a head at the moment, too, because I can hear the robots outside the room, clomping up to the door.

Neuron doesn't notice and star walking out of the lab. He beckons for "Dominatrix" to follow and that is when the doors burst open. The Baryon-class Clockwork robot that storms in, flanked by two Mesons, announces that it is seeking out the intruders. The supervillain starts laughing.

"You must be malfunctioning!" he chuckles, "There are no intruders here!"

"We must acquire the intruders!" the Baryon shouts again, this time raising its glowing palm to Neuron.

"God damn Clockwork," the man curses and lightning bursts from his body, lancing through the machines, causing them to short out and crash to the ground, "Stupid, generic pieces of crap..."

Steven turns to "Dominatrix."

"M'lady?" he made to bow and stumbled a little, "Woah..."

We follow him into the other labs and I can distinctly smell ozone. The current had torn through all of the robots, so that issue was settled. We pick our way through the wreckage while our "guide" apologizes for using too much power.

"Just follow me, and everything will be alright!" he chuckles as Calvin catches up.

We're reaching the lab door when the room holding the interdimensional devices explodes. Neuron, in his drug-induced state, doesn't notice. Nor does he notice the alarm klaxons and the panicked technicians storming into the lab to try to salvage the fruits of their labors.

Calvin holds Cheryl close. I keep them between me and the illusion of Dominatrix. The illusion flickers a little bit. I'm trying to keep it less "solid" so I can conserve energy. I think I'm going to need it.

Wandering through the devastation, I find myself hissing every time Synapse opens his mouth. The things he wants to do to Dominatrix are not the stuff of polite conversation. What's more, I have to make the illusion respond.

It's actually pretty easy. I would listen to his behavior, then I would respond in a manner I figured Libby never would. I've perused numerous works of unusual... Art... So I was pretty deft at making the illusion match the conversation. I clamped my hands over Calvin's, which were over Cheryl's ears, as the conversations took place, of course. I don't know what good that did, the girl could hear our thoughts, so I'd hate to think what she may have gleaned despite our efforts...

Anyway, we made our way to the north... To an old facility which was apparently a Portal Corporation facility in this dimension... Or whatever Tyrant's dimension had as Portal Corporation.

It was dingy and run-down, but the robots were in the process of fixing it. Well, they were at least cleaning it up. There were some sections that were torn apart and exposed to the open air, but it was like they'd been carefully picked apart. I almost got a flashback to the Clockwork back home, but this seemed more controlled.

Neuron led us through the halls and I saw that the entire building seemed to be getting renovated. Recreational rooms or offices were getting stripped down while energy management facilities were getting reinforced and shored up. Considering the fact that the human element was being rapidly eliminated from Antimatter's employment, that made sense.

Neuron led us to a monitoring station and I saw the truth of it. Monitors, hundreds of monitors, and they all displayed the goings-on in Earth... Prime Earth. My Earth.

I'm glad to say that I felt understandably violated by that.

"Look! Look! She's heading for the shower!" Neuron shouted.

...

I don't know HOW Dominatrix got a bug installed in Libby's bathroom, or why she installed it in the shower, but-...

...

...

I lost my train of...

...

Damn.

...

Just a moment...

Cheryl's voice rattles through my head, bringing me back to reality...

"Mister Jeanne-Pierre!"

What? Huh? Oh! Right! Oh shoot...

When I came out of my trance from the many mixed emotions that came to mind from seeing my boss in the buff (oh man, I gotta keep an eye on myself to keep from ever, ever making the mistake of forming that image in front of Ms. Liberty; alright, I'll try to forget that sight *sigh*), I realized I'd lost my concentration and the illusion of Dominatrix was almost faded. I whipped another one up and I guess the adrenaline surge from coming so close to discovery reinvigorated me, because it was a fairly decent illusion.

I don't like to think it was easier to make because I'd just seen her twin naked. Still... I can't discount the idea, either...

Neuron seemed impressed. In fact, he was more than impressed. I wish I knew why we wore tights, and I'm saying this now: I want to get some baggier pants. Baggy pants should be freaking mandatory for heroes, or heroines need to start covering up more.

Anyway... Neuron had a strange idea. He wanted to have some fun with Dominatrix. I tried to have her dissuade him, but he kept making "enticing offers." Apparently, he had intended for this little trip to end with nookie, and unless I thought of something fast, he was just intoxicated enough to get aggressive.

I couldn't let that happen. Aside from the fact that I'm opposed to such behavior morally (HEY! I've got morals! Awesome!), if he... Did what he wanted... He would wind up... Puncturing... The illusion.

I... I guess I could reinforce the image, and make it more... Realistic... But frankly, I don't feel like-

"OH! The portal chamber!"

What?

"Oh?" the Dominatrix Illusion asks as she taps the handle of her whip threateningly, "What's this, then?"

"Itsh a totally awesome idea, babe!" Neuron shouted, "We do it in the portal chamber! We can do it right on the control board!"

"Does... Does the portal still work?" the illusion rubs her chin in the same manner I do.

"Of course!"

I can't pass this up. It's over. It's done! I can get Cal and Cheryl out of here, we can be free...

"Let's do it!" I make the illusion say breathily and she gives Neuron a predator's mischievous smile.

Neuron almost leaves us in the dust as he speeds away in his enthusiasm. He comes back and chuckles a little nervously before taking Dominatrix's hand (which I have to put a little more energy into in order to make it "solid") and leading her down the hall.

We descended for what felt like ten flights of stairs. Apparently, at some point the elevators got wrecked. Neuron blamed it on the Phalanx attack. Frankly, I figured it could have been anything. It didn't look like these guys had been maintaining much of anything until very recently.

The chamber he eventually led us to was almost the spitting image of a Portal Corp. portal chamber. It even had the rotating ring at the far wall and countless tubes leading to it. The ring was still spinning, which I thought was a little odd, but I guess they need to always be spinning once employed... Maybe the portal it develops breaks the thing apart once the stability is ruined or something.

A faint glow rests in the center of the slowly rotating circle. Hopefully, that means it won't take much effort to reset the coordinates to Prime Earth.

This next part of the illusion is strange. It takes work to make somebody think they're doing one thing, but in reality they're doing another. I'm not proud of the image I put in Neuron's mind. Cheryl covered her own ears as I did so... I guess it means she's shutting me out.

Huh... Interesting idea. Willfully shutting someone out... I wonder why I never thought of-Later! I can consider that later! There's work to be done!

I reached into Neuron's alcohol soaked (and it turns out drug-addled, too) mind to and rooted around for his understanding of the portal technology. He had quite a lot of information stored in here, a lot of quantum physics and mechanics equations that I can't make any sense out of. What I can figure out, however, is the instruction on how to activate the portal and set the coordinates to Prime Earth. He's had to do it so many times, he could probably do it in his sleep...

Neuron started gyrating his hips while typing on the console. He thinks he's banging Dominatrix on the control panel. Calvin turns his daughter away and shakes his head in disgust at me. I don't notice at first because I was shaking my head at the same time.

With an electric sound and a bright flash, the portal came alive. The loud, oppressive whirring roared around us and I waved for Calvin to take Cheryl to the portal. For some odd reason, he hesitated.

"No..." he shouted over the roar, "This is a trick! THIS IS A TRICK!"

Now he doesn't trust me? Now!? Of all the times he could have distrusted me...

"Daddy..." Cheryl says softly, yet we both can hear her.

Neuron hears her, too. He stops gyrating and looks around confusedly. I can feel that his inebriation has just evaporated. That mind-clearing thing the girl does has just proven to be a double-edged sword at the worst possible time.

Mon... Dieu...

"Run!" I shout at them and Cheryl tugs insistently at her father's sleeve.

Neuron takes a moment to try to place them, but he can't figure it out. He's also suffering from a moment of indecision... He finally decides the prudent thing to do would be to shut down the portal.

Hitting the terminate sequence in a blur makes my heart leap into my chest and I start running after my charges, pushing them along as quickly as I can. The portal fades slowly, though. Apparently the process can't be opened and closed like a door.

Cheryl leaps through the energy hole (I wish I knew a better word...) (Aperture, Mal) (Oh, thanks...)... Cheryl leaps through the apertureand vanishes. Calvin, in a moment of sheer panic, leaps after her.

I stop. Not because I want to, mind you. It's because a pair of energy beams just burned into my leg and caused me to stagger. I turn back and Antimatter is standing on the overlooking catwalk.

"I knew it," he announced as Neuron approached me, "I knew my calculations were correct. We just brought back the wrong Malaise."

"What're you talking about, Ray?"

"We sent Malaise to ambush theirs... Apparently, theirs got the drop on him somehow... Possibly through the large mechanical beast he mentioned."

"Babbage and the Clockwork cause psychic disruptions," I replied, "And we disrupt them a little, too..."

"Duly noted..." the armored man tapped the railing, "Neuron... Bring him back."

It was then that I realized the crucial detail. Neuron mentioned it earlier. Antimatter was still an energy being encased in armor. He must have known that his counterpart wasn't anymore. That had to grate at him fiercely.

"You ever wonder what the major difference between me and your Malaise is?" I shouted as Neuron grabbed one of my arms roughly.

"No," Keyes replied in a peculiar monotone.

"Well... Ergh..." Neuron's hands were making my arm feel numb or buzzy, "The difference between us... Is... Ug... The things I make can turn real..."

I have to sell this.

"What?" I can hear Antimatter's interest immediately.

"Yeah!" I shout, "Why do you think Positron is human again? Why do you think you never see me in action? I got a hold of pages of the Malleus Mundi, and now I know how to alter portions of the world with just my mind! They keep me under wraps because of it. Hey! You let me go, and I'll fix you, too."

"I don't believe you," he said prudently.

"Yeah, Antimatter! Can you believe this-"

"I knew you'd say that," I say, inflecting a lack of surprise, "That's why I already started. Can't you feel it, Raymond? Can't you feel the helmet closing in? Can't you feel the need to breathe?"

A mind is still a mind, even if it's composed of incandescent... Whatever. With a little push, he takes an involuntary breath. With a little more, he feels the helmet pressing against his skin.

"What?" Neuron asks and I look back at the portal.

It's not closed to that faint light, yet. I could make it if...

I look back at Neuron and he glares at me. I smirk and wink at him before nodding my head back to Antimatter. The armored man is about to take off his helmet. My captor realizes what I'm getting at.

"NO!" he shouts before rushing away and I'm free.

He almost reaches Antimatter in time.

I almost jump into the portal in time.

The last thing I see, as the universe warps and distorts, is a green flash as Antimatter's armor is breached and something flash fries my spine.

----------

The destruction of the portal facility severed the connection between Prime Earth and Praetorian Earth. When I came to, I was floating in a pocket dimension. It wasn't like D.J. Zero's Pocket D. It was like... It was like those shows where the character is dead.

Not only was everything gray, it was blurry now, too. I could see a large harbor, some ships... Large, writhing tentacles. Ah. Independence Port. Fantastic.

I get to spend eternity looking at the patrol zone of my mentor and my replacement for all eternity, and they'll never know I'm here. I'll live forever in suspended animation... Unable to move... Unable to blink... Just an eternity to my thoughts, but for once it will be only my thoughts. They won't bleed out, they won't be interfered with or monitored, and I won't be hearing the surface musings of every passerby.

I know this because for once... I hear nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The only thing I wish is that there was no pain in my back. I feel like I'm on fire, but it's just the intense sensation from the momentary contact I had with Antimatter's radiation. It will never leave me... It will never end.

I could make it end, though. I could overload my nerves with sensation, force my brain to shut down and-

There's an audible pop that turns into a loud, thunderous boom. I take a gasp of breath and proceed to plummet to the water below. I braced myself, tried to land right, but I was falling about fifteen feet to the water. It was gonna hurt, and I was already in pain.

When I landed... I'm just going to say this: I feel I've suffered enough now for whatever crimes I've done. That kind of pain... I'm surprised I'm lucid right now, two and a half months later.

I can't even talk yet, of course, my jaw's wired shut (the perils of landing on your CHIN).

So... That's my story. That's what I did over there. I may not have done the right things... But I did what I could. I don't know if it was enough. I don't know if I did any good... But I know I rescued two people from a fate worse than they ever deserved, so I don't have any regrets, nor do I have even a shadow of a doubt that what I did was right.

Can... Can I go to sleep now?

Yes, Jean. Rest...

----------

"And there you have it," Sister Psyche said to her friend, "Everything he did and what he was thinking... I'm sorry about how literal he got at times..."

Sister Psyche lowered her hands and rubbed her palms together. Statesman blinked as he looked at the ravaged body hanging in a harness in a special clean room. He'd never figured the young man was capable of the selflessness he'd demonstrated in the memories.

The young girl, Cheryl Scott, was causing quite a stir for Aurora, not to mention the presence of a second husband. The new Calvin seemed to be speechless when around this dimension's version of his wife, and Aurora could only cry around him. She explained to Psyche that it was because she could feel the pain of being with somebody you loved but could never have radiating from the man.

"What he did has consequences," Marcus said in his deep, authoritative manner.

Shalice just leveled a stern look at him.

"I know," he finally relented, "What he did took courage... Faith, even. He had no idea what he was getting into and no clue whether he would come back alive... Which is what makes it foolish."

"You can't win the war from a planning board," Manticore said exasperatedly, "He did what any of us should be willing to do anytime an opportunity like that comes along! He saw a chance to really do something, Mark, and he took it! He dealt with the trials and tribulations as best as he could, and that was certainly better than many would have done! I shudder to think of how many heroes have been lost to the horrors of that place!"

"As do I, Justin," Statesman sighed, "I guess... I guess the young man really has changed... But there's no way we can tell the rest of the world about it. Nobody will believe it..."

"Then tell Jessica to let him patrol again. Let him get his face out there again."

Statesman nods. While his granddaughter was loathe to do what he said out of some youthful notion of rebellion, she did tend to react well to reasonable requests. If he were to explain the main points of the young hero's adventure to her, she just might be willing to-

"Just..." Sister Psyche winces a little as she interrupts his musing, "Don't mention the surveillance."

Well done, Mr. G.

I have to admit that I never really liked Malaise that much, but you did a great job of giving him personality and making me care about what he was trying to do.

There's still more to go, an epilogue of sorts, but Malaise's adventure is about done.

I like to think that we can bring a little more life to these characters who are forced to stay so neutral in a game setting.