Betsy Visits River City.
CHAPTER 35
Betsy was halfway down to next corridor when she heard click-clacks behind her. She turned around and saw her five bimbos hurrying to catch up.
“What?” she asked.
“We’re going to help you,” said one. “It’s not fair you have to do this alone and we want to help.”
Betsy smiled. “Thank you,” she answered and they all walked towards the trophy room together.
“Just out of interest,” asked Betsy, “what would you do if you came across something different, something not covered by any instructions?”
The chattering ceased for a moment then increased again as they thought about this. Then they coalesced on an answer.
“We’ll ask you.”
“What if I’m not there?”
“Then we’ll come and find you.”
Betsy didn’t pursue it. She had the answer anyway.
“How far away is it?” she asked instead.
“Four minutes,” was the reply.
Betsy stopped then.
“Listen, will you all walk silently from now on? And be silent as well?”
“Oh yes.”
They continued in silence. Betsy was unnerved. This was creepy. She was used to walking silently but her assumptions about these bimbos were being dispersed one by one. She stopped again.
“Look,” she asked of them, “do you find it difficult to walk silently? How long can you keep this up for?”
“As long as you want us to,” came the reply.
But Betsy didn’t accept the non answer. That’s what she did and she didn’t like others doing it on her.
“Does it hurt you?”
“Oh no.”
“It doesn’t hurt and you can keep it up forever? Why don’t you do it normally?” Betsy was trying to work out if she should worry about anything they did. They had surprised her a lot recently and she didn’t want any more surprises. Certainly not at a critical moment.
“Because our owners liked the sound. It was evoc… they liked it.”
The bimbos’ background was now silence and they were talking in whispers.
“What about those stilettos? Do you want to take them off?” Betsy assumed that would be easier for them.
“Oh no,” came an immediate whispered response. “We like them. They’re sexy.”
Betsy stared at them. “OK. We’ll discuss your feet’s health later.” They carried on to the doors to the trophy room, which Betsy investigated thoroughly and found nothing.
Betsy wanted desperately to open the door as little as possible then slip through, but the thought of leaving the bimbos out here in the corridor to make their own decisions about anything that happened disturbed her.
“OK, I’ll open the door and slip through, you all follow me silently, one by one. The idea is not to let anyone in there know we’re there. After we see what’s happening we can decide what to do next.”
They did that and Betsy looked around and saw Vicky working away in the distance. It was a big room. Vicky looked up as soon as Betsy focused on her. Betsy hadn’t bothered tightening her mind when she entered as the bimbos would give the game away anyway and Betsy would lose energy for no reason.
Vicky was shocked and struggled not to show it. “Betsy,” she shouted happily. Then she noticed the bimbos. “Oh fuck, are you with them now?”
“No, they’re with me now.”
Vicky saw the truth of this and smiled.
“Good.” She focused and probed the surface of Betsy mind. Betsy let her, carefully, as she probed Vicky’s. Eventually they both smiled.
“Good. I’m going to need exact details of how you survive a shot to the head and you get your brains blown out all over the walls and the…” she stopped herself when she realised the bimbos were there and listening. Anyway, we’ll do that later, for now meet Sonia.” Sonia stepped out from behind some containers, replacing her weapon as she did so. But she was still wary. Betsy stared at her.
Betsy hadn’t detected her and was shocked and tried not to show it. She probed Sonia mentally and found nothing to detect.
“Where do you find them Vicky? Are there any more around?”
“No. Sonia’s unique as far as I know. As far as she knows as well.”
She addressed Sonia specifically. “Don’t worry. Betsy has similar abilities to me. If I can tell, then so can she. She knows already.” Sonia gave a tight lipped smile. “And,” she went on, “Betsy here is weird, but even she doesn’t normally wander around coated in blood.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry to upset you,” Betsy was back to normal sarcasm levels, “but I don’t have a change of clothes.”
“Whose blood is it? It would be too much to hope for if it was yours.”
“You are funny. I’m laughing me head off. It’s Stewart Herschel’s. He’s now dead.”
Vicky looked at how much dried blood Betsy was wearing. “I would hope so,” she said. “If he survived that much blood loss I’d start worrying. But the question I’m asking myself is—is Mr Herschel going to return to us, perhaps at an inopportune moment?”
Betsy turned monosyllabic. “No.” She said and changed the subject. “These bimbos are on our side now. It’s a long story and I don’t know if we have the time to tell it now, so take that as read for the time being.
Sonia looked at them. “Are all the bimbos on our side now?”
“I don’t know,” responded Betsy. “What do you say, girls?” she asked of the bimbos.
One of them answered.
“We don’t know. Dr. Orlof may have left some with specific orders after he left and the two groups we know of came up with different answers.”
Betsy left it at that.
“Do you know how much time we have?” she asked of Sonia and Vicky, “and what are you doing?”
“We’ve decided those two,” Sonia pointed out a globe with a man and a woman inside, “are the best bet to defeat that thing Vicky’s talking about. It’s guesswork really. We don’t have time to do any more. In fact, they’re ready to come out now.”
Betsy looked at the open panels and the loose cables strewed across the floor.
“You’ve been busy. Know what you’re doing?”
“Being sarky doesn’t help,” replied the Essex girl. Sonia watched this interplay with interest.
The globe opened and Sonia and Vicky ran in to support them as the two heroes returned to the here and now. Betsy could tell, even now, that they were more physically powerful than anyone she had met or heard about and she had seen Ultra Girl. She worried about that. Too much power was dangerous. Unless she had it of course.