Betsy Visits River City.
CHAPTER 43
They arrived in the Trophy Room in double quick time and looked around. Everything looked normal.
“Is this how you left it?” asked Betsy.
“Looks like,”
“Lead the way then,” said Betsy. “What did you do here?”
Vicky led them to the two empty globes and investigated their control cabinets.
“Power’s gone,” she said before quickly checking the next one. “Same here. Looks like the power source is gone. There’s nothing here now.”
“Do we need to get it back up?” asked Betsy.
“Can’t. It’s not electricity. It uses cables but it’s not electricity. And I don’t know what it is. I tried tracing back but there wasn’t enough time.”
Betsy looked around at all the globes with all the people inside them. Both Vicky and Sonia saw her eyes defocus for a few seconds then return to normal.
“Most are dying and we can’t do anything about that. There are seven who are recovering. They’re returning to normal, but slowly. It’ll take a few hours. They’ll need medical attention. How many are there?”
“I make it a hundred and twenty seven in here. I didn’t find any more, but I can’t be sure about that.”
“Are they all super heroes?”
“I think so. Can’t be certain though.”
We need help with that monster. Can we accelerate their recovery?”
Vicky thought for a while. “Yes, I think so. I’ll have to direct the electric power and control while you adjust their minds to compensate and that should take a minute or two. It’ll be dangerous for them though. And I can only do one at a time with at least an hour between. I’m not guaranteeing anything.”
“D’ye know which ones have the power to help?”
“No.”
Betsy thought. “OK. You stay here and prepare as much as you can. I’ll get help in determining which ones to revive quickly.”
Vicky grunted assent and Betsy raced out, back up the steps to the exit. She started worrying how big her thighs would be after all this exercise.
Vicky now knew this area pretty well and she and Sonia started removing cable from its store and attaching connectors in preparation.
Betsy raced back out and grabbed some energy bars before grabbing Billie and dragged her down. She looked at the progress Fundamental and Fundamentelle were having and it looked like they were creaming the monster. But looks can be deceptive and now Betsy could discern the power levels in it, which were definitely higher than before. It was almost passive, just taking the blows. The two heroes were determined and kept on hitting the thing.
Once in the trophy room, Vicky showed Billie the heroes they could use and explained they could only revive one of them quickly enough to help with the monster.
Billie panicked and tried not to show it. She was the only one with appropriate knowledge here, but she always thought she was the weakest of all the heroes. She liked having a good time and generally took the secretary’s role in everything. She was just glad to be helpful. She liked to be helpful. In fact, she greatly enjoyed being helpful. Some would say she over-enjoyed being helpful, but that was in her spare time and not relevant to the heroing business she found herself in. It was because she was so helpful she found herself in charge now. This wasn’t what she wanted in life. She didn’t have the brains or the aptitude. Yet, here she was and she had to deal with it.
She calmed herself down and tried to think it through. Betsy, Sonia and Vicky watching impatiently didn’t help. She could see they were restraining themselves and giving her the time she needed as well as being very careful not to allow her to see these things. She looked through all the options. There was a preponderance of females in the frame, five in fact, but, for this job, based on her memory of them and their powers, she reckoned none of them had the power or knowledge to be of use. So, she reflected on the two males in the lineup, Joystick and Cerebral Man.
Each of these could realistically help with the monster, but which one was the best. She knew about them because she made it her business to learn all about the League when she took on this leadership role, but now she had to remember those reports accurately. Cerebral Man she knew could invade the mind of people and force them to do what he wanted. He didn’t exactly look the part of a super hero. He was on the small side with light brown hair. His head looked too large for his body though, although it wasn’t freakishly large. Just large enough to be noticed. She wondered how he managed his secret identity. He was definitely a possibility.
Joystick was different. He had the power to take another’s energy almost instantly. That sounded very useful in their present circumstances. But there wasn’t too much information about this one. He was active in the 1940s, as was Cerebral Man, but she was suspicious about the sparse information about him. There was far more information about Cerebral Man than Joystick, despite their respective careers overlapping to some extent. It was almost as if something about Joystick was being hidden.
Billie knew she had to choose quickly. She asked generally to her new friends, “I think Betsy and Vicky can both control minds. Is that true?”
Betsy answered, “Yes, technically. There are limitations. What are you thinking of?”
“Cerebral Man there,” she pointed, “has the capacity to do just that. He was extremely good at it. Can you say if that would be useful?”
“We can’t control or even influence that thing. It has no mind.”
“OK. You’d better release Joystick then.” She pointed him out to them. Vicky immediately started to work and Billie started to worry she made the wrong choice.
Betsy and Sonia helped, resorting to subordinate roles because Vicky was the one who had studied this system the most. Working together it took minutes for the Heath Robinson arrangement Vicky had worked out to be ready. Vicky stopped, checked over everything carefully, then pressed a button. She immediately started to adjust some makeshift controls she had set up based on the readings she was receiving while Betsy stood with defocused eyes. Soon, there was nothing left to do but wait.
They all looked at the globe containing Joystick, Betsy now munching on an energy bar. The snow stopped and they got a detailed look at the man. Being from the 1940s, he wasn’t wearing Lycra, just some tight cotton pants and shirt. His face was covered with a colourful and flamboyant mask. As the snow cleared, it became obvious why he was called Joystick.
Betsy looked at Vicky, who looked at Sonia, who looked at Billie, who looked at Betsy. All they needed was a gun each pointed at each other for it to become a film cliche.
“How long will it take?” asked Betsy.
“Just a few minutes,” answered Vicky.
Billie breathed a sigh of relief. She desperately hoped this would work.
“Do you fancy your chances after this is all over?” asked Betsy of the others. Betsy’s mind had dropped the urgency, as there was nothing she could do now to speed things up, and she reverted to one of her fave thoughts. She had seen what the others had seen and she wanted a piece of that. She was prepared to share as long as she was first.
Vicky still had the hots for Pearl Girl.
“Maybe later,” she said. I’m too worried about Pearl Girl to think of that right now.
“No. I have other things to do,” answered Sonia.
“Yes,” said Billie. She knew what Betsy meant.
Betsy saw a challenge but neglected to inform anybody, especially Billie, there was a challenge here.
Billie saw a challenge but neglected to inform anybody, especially Betsy, there was a challenge here.
Vicky saw the challenges and resolved to enjoy the infighting.
Sonia was oblivious to all this.
They all watched as the globe rotated, leaving Joystick standing and blinking. He was steady on his feet, which they all noted as a good sign. He looked around wonderingly.
Billie took the lead here. “Joystick,” she said. Joystick’s mind seemed to solidify at the sound of his name. He looked at Billie. “Joystick,” she repeated. “This is important, so try and concentrate. Do you know where you are?”
He looked at her. ”No,” he eventually answered. “Who are you? And who are these three?” He stared at Betsy, covered in blood, but said nothing about it.
“I’m Billie and these are Betsy and Vicky and Sonia, she answered slowly and clearly, pointing each one out as she spoke. Betsy liked it when her name was in front of Vicky’s. Sonia was still basically an unknown to her, but she still liked her name in front of her as well. “I am the League’s secretary at the present time. You had a secretary as well, didn’t you?” She wanted to relate back, as far as possible, to something Joystick knew about.
He nodded his head.
“You’ve been in that globe for a long time,” she said gently.
He looked her over carefully. “If you’re the League’s secretary then it’s been a very long time. Thank you for getting me out. He looked around. We have to get the others out now,” he announced.
“No,” said Billie quickly. “There’s no time. We have a monster creating havoc just outside what’s left of this castle and you’re the best one to help subdue it. We simply don’t have the time to revive the rest of the heroes right now. If we don’t stop the monster I don’t know what will happen.” She omitted to say the majority were already dying. That information could come later.
“Chaos will happen,” said Betsy. “You can say goodbye to all the rest of your heroes, for a start. Something that size will tear the state apart, literally. It needs to be stopped before it gets to Britain.”
Joystick seemed to swell with pride that he had been chosen for this task. “OK. Lead me to this monster,” was what he said.
“Not yet,” said Vicky, taking his arm and leading him to a pod. Vicky liked pods. She felt any film or story was enhanced when there was a pod in it, and she was entranced that Dr. Orloff used them. She was dying to try one out.
“Take your clothes off,” instructed Vicky. Betsy and Billie grew most interested.
All the girls expected him being a bit shy at this point. After all, he was American and from the 40s, which made it worse. But they were all surprised. He immediately removed all his clothes showing them all, especially Betsy and Billie, undoubted proof he wasn’t wearing any sort of enhancement. Vicky, not being specifically interested at this time, also noted his toned and waxed body as well. It was well worth looking at, as was his well defined musculature. The classic six pack was there is all its glory. Billie and Betsy wondered how erect his cock would get and wanted to experiment and find out. But, there were more important things to do right now.
Vicky connected him to medical equipment quickly. She was a trained nurse and talked as she went.
“This is to maximise your energy levels quickly. It’s safe but you will feel spaced out afterwards. You will tire quickly and we’ve got to prepare for that. The electrodes are to enhance your body’s ability to absorb energy quickly. The syringes,” she showed him three large ones, “contain all the nutrients and vitamins you will need immediately.” She didn’t ask for permission, she just injected him with the first one, then the second and then the third.
He was quickly finished. Vicky told him to get dressed and they all went outside to see what was happening. Strangely, both Betsy and Billie thought the other was the one favoured.