Janista looked around cautiously. She was leading this group of anxious youths into the heart of the White Hellfire Compound. The compound itself was one of the oldest structures in the city, and had thus achieved national monument status. Tours regularly went through to admire the victorian beauty of the old mansion grounds, but none suspected the state of the art surveillance technology that lay tastefully hidden in the sculptures and fountains. Shockwave had come up with the infiltration plan, but it had seemed much easier on paper. They had successfully breached the perimeter wall by having Belasco mass up and set them all on the other side. Janista had simply psi-blinded the outer guards to the process. Then their plan hit a snag. Janista had been unaware that the guards within the compound wore standard psi-armor and thus were immune to her telepathic probes, and any direct confrontation with the guards using a more physical power would only alert more guards. So the six teens crouched under a flowering shrub in the garden and discussed their next move.
"As much as I enjoy being down in the dirt with you ladies, I think my room at the BHC mansion would be a more appropriate setting for this," said Belasco as he not so accidentally put his hand on Glittergirl's thigh.
"Hands off demon-boy or I'll glitterspark your butt back to Limbo," hissed Shae under her breath.
"Will you two cut it out," Shockwave whispered urgently. "If we get caught, there's no telling what those guards will do to us."
"She started it," chuckled Belasco. "wearing those shorts....I mean it's practically a neon sign inviting people to look at her legs."
"Look....Not touch, Horn-Head," Psi-Shot said. "Now leave her alone and let's get on with this."
"Let's justturnback. We'venotdone anythingwrongyet. Wecanstillgobackto the academyandactlikenone of this happened," said Johnny Blaze in a blur of words.
Shockwave put a hand over Johnny's mouth to quiet him down.
"It'ok Johnny, calm down," she said. "But you guys just gave me a great idea. Shae, you think you can put on show and turn a few heads for a minute or two."
"Puuuuh...lease and a half, Margaret. The day I can't turn heads is the day I turn in my glitter," countered Shae.
"OK OK...so here's the plan........."
Shae Marquette crawled from under the bushes, dusted herself off and began to walk towards the guard closest to the entrance of the academy's main building, swaying her hips as she went.
"Now that's what I call a super power," whistled Belasco under his breath.
"DUDE!!!!! Will you shut up, before we get nailed," Psi-Shot hissed.
Glittergirl approached the guard smiling innocently at him. His eyes travelled up her lithe young frame and he watched her approach.
"This is a restricted area, miss. You are going to have to come with me," said the guard.
"OOOHHH Thank goodness I found you, sir," cooed Shae breathily. "I've been wondering around for what seems like hours. I got separated from my tour and I can't find the exit. I'm such a silly with directions and your grounds are soooooo big. Is there anyway you can find it in your heart to show me the way out."
The guard gave a small start as Shae pretended to slip and fall forwards. Her arms flailed and he caught her as she fell against him. Shae looped her arms around the guard and leaned further into him.
"My goodness, sir...Thank you...all this looking for the exit must have made me feel faint. It's a good thing, you were around to catch me," continued Glittergirl.
"Now, Johnny........ GO!" whispered Shockwave urgently.
At first young Johnny Blaze lay motionless on the dirt. He wasn't cut out for this. He never asked to have these powers, why was he even here? But one look into Margaret's determined eyes, and he knew he knew he couldn't say no. This hesitation which might have taken other people seconds took Johnny only a fraction of the time. With his excellerated rate of doing everything, the entire decision making process was done in about one second and he was off and running before anyone knew he had hesitated in the first place.
Moving in an almost invisible blur, Johnny Blaze ran past the guard who was stooped to help Shae, removed his wallet, took the keycard that Janista had said would be there, replaced the wallet and was back under the bushes with the rest of the group almost before anyone knew he was gone.
"It's terribly windy here tonight," said Glittergirl as Johnny whizzed by, "and I still feel a bit faint. Could we go sit on that bench over there and let me rest a minute before you show me the exit?"
"Sure," the guard said as he patted her lower back slyly. "I think we can spare a little time."
As soon as they had seated themselves on the bench. Shockwave sent a bolt of kinetic energy to the back of the unsuspecting guard's head knocking him unconscious. Belasco dragged him under the shrubbery, and they once again began to ease towards the main house.
"You stay here Glittergirl, and stall him if he wakes up," said Shockwave.
"O.K.....O.K....but you guys hurry up, I don't want Ronnie Rent-A-Cop to get too touchy feely if he decides to wake up befor you guys get back. Polyster pants and hips...ewwwwwww," said Glittergirl
The other five students hurried to the main building and Janista slipped the card into the card slot. It immediately prompted her to put in a four digit security code.
"Remember we only have 10 seconds from the time you push the first button to get the code in correctly or the alarm is sounded," whispered Janista.
"Like we discussed, Johnny...you can do this," said Shockwave.
Johnny looked around quickly and then his hand began to fly over the console in a blur of motion. Momentarily they heard a click and the door slid open silently. Johnny had tried every four digit code possible until he had hit on the right one, and it had taken him all of 7 seconds to do it. From here it was easy.....sneak into the building.......get everyone into a white hellions uniform........find out what was going on.......and then get back out again before the guard woke up.
Shortly, five students dressed in the red and white uniforms of the Hellions strolled down the halls toward the White Queen's office.
"Now what?" whispered Psi-Shot. "You said the White Queen's door isn't open to any of the staff, so this card won't work."
They all looked around at each other as their plan hit another snag.
"O.K. you guys," said Belasco suddenly " I'll do this, but if you tell anyone, I swear i'll mass up and stomp your bones into jelly."
The rest of the assembly looked strangely at Belasco. What was he going to do?....mass up and kick the door in. That wouldn't be very discreet and would surely bring more guards down on them, but before any of them had a chance to argue, Belasco began to SHRINK. They noticed that he had begun shrinking from the floor up as well, somehow he was holding himself in the air, while he shrank his mass. When Shockwave looked closer, she noticed bat like wings had begun to grow from Belasco's back, and they had begun to move in a blur, much like those of a humming bird. By the time he had reached the size of a wasp, the buzzing noise was evident and one by one they all began to giggle.
"Remember you dweebs, I can still get huge again and take you all out....you don't wanna laugh at me!" buzzed the angry Belasco in a voice that sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks.
The others stifled their giggles, but had Glittergirl still been among them, none of them would have been able to contain themselves. Belasco did a quick buzz around their heads and flew down to the floor. He looked up at his friends as he touched down. He groaned to himself. How could he ever look them in the eye again after letting them see him as the incredible shrinking bumblebat?....ACK!!! He peeked under the door and saw the room beyond. He especially noted the white leather riding crop sitting on the antique white laquer desk. This White Queen might be nice to know more about. He slipped under door and was about to change back into his normal size and reopen it from the other side when a deafening hiss was heard from behind him. He took flight just as Birtha's jaws snapped closed inches from where he had been standing.
Birtha was fast, however, and batted the intruder from the air with her tail. Belasco fell to the ground and tried to run, but he realized with a searing jolt of pain that his wing had been broken. As a demon, Belaso's wounds healed at a preternatural rate, but he didn't have time to waste with Birtha hot on his trail, so he began to run. He could have easily transformed back to his regular size or larger had he had the time, but the process took concentration and with the pain in his wing and the pursuit of a three foot rattlesnake, Belasco wasn't in the concentrating frame of mind. Birtha's jaw snapped once more behind him as he hurdled a computer cord that lay on the thick white plush carpeting. Just when he thought he would never escape being lunch for Jon's pet snake, he felt his wing snap back into position as the magic that flowed through his veins knitted his body back together. With one movement, his body seemed to explode outward as he regained his normal size. Birtha stopped in her tracks and coiled to strike. Like lightning, however, Belasco's hand shot out and grabbed the rattler behind the head, preventing her from biting. He thought about popping the squirming serpent into his mouth and swallowing it, just to show her what it felt like. After all he had seen the other demons in Limbo eat much worse, but he thought better of it and simply held her as he opened the door to let his companions in.
"What took you so long," blurted Johhny Blaze.
"Don't ask," said Belasco holding out Birtha.
"No time for that," said Janista, "Put her in her cage and let's get the information we came for. I work with the White Queen as her cataloguer. It's sort of like your scribe, so I record the minutes of their meetings and things like that. Sometimes, though, when meetings are important and of a secretive nature, I am kept out of the loop and Jon records them for herself to look at later. I have seen her view the files though and I think I can get the information we need."
Janista sat down in front of the White Queen's computer and punched in a few lines of text bringing up a standard media selection menu. She selected laser disc and the gathered group listened as a smooth hum began in the cabinet next to the desk. Another menu appeared and Janista selected today's date. The hum continued and a list of files came up. The final file had a time stamp on it of an hour and a half previous to the time the computer clock showed. Janista selected the file and it began to play.
ON THE MONITOR
"It's about time you got here," Nytshade said nervously.
"We came as soon as we could," said Mischance.
"We?" Jon questioned.
"Yes," Mischance continued. "Remember I spoke of a plan. Allow me to introduce you to a friend of mine....Ms. Vanessa Lopez."
"You can call me Psyche," Vanessa said extending her hand.
"Charmed, I'm sure," Jon sneered as the woman approached.
Psyche was dressed in all black, and not in the evening attire that Jon was accustomed to. Instead, she wore tight fitting jeans along with a leather motorcycle jacket and boots. When the woman grew closer, Jon realized what a beauty she was. At first glance, Jon had seen only the biker gear and didn't notice what the loveliness of the woman underneath. When the woman removed her sunglasses, Jon was again surprised. Her eyes glowed a brilliant cobalt blue and Jon caught her breath involuntarily. So she was a mutant. This could be interesting.
"What of this plan, Victor?" Nytshade said. "We must act quickly."
"Among Vanessa's many talents, she has the power of psychometry," said Mischance. "This gives her the ability to actually read the history of an object simply by touch. Where is the handkerchief?"
The White Queen looked doubtfully at the woman, but handed over the handkerchief. Psyche took it in her hand and closed her eyes. Suddenly she gasped for breath and her head was filled with tortured conflicting images. Psyche exhaled and dropped the handkerchief and Mischance caught her in his arms.
"Vanessa, are you ok?...Vanessa...Wake up." he said as he scooped her up.
"I...I'm fine, Vic, Just give me a sec here," Psyche replied jerking her arm away from him.
"We don't have a moment," Nytshade hissed. "What's wrong with you? What did you see?"
"I don't understand what I saw," returned Psyche. "I will admit, sometimes my visions are not clear, but this one was painfully so. I see a man in a dark cloak capturing a struggling wildcat of a youth and leaving with him. His thoughts are some of the most evil I have ever seen, and there is no coherent pattern to them. Only one word rolls through the red haze that compromise his thoughts......Elaida!!!!"
"Only Gregor knows me by that name. I knew it!!" Jon hissed. "What did this hooded man look like, Psyche? Tell me!!"
"That's what's so wrong with this vision. He had no face!!!!" she said almost hysterically. "My veiwings are of a person's astral self not their physical so there should only be the astral avatar. There are always slight variations between the physical and the astral, but this was a total lack of recognition between the two. Almost as if the man doesn't even know who he is, himself!!!"
"No matter," Jon said. "It was Gregor." Of this she was sure. This woman was unreliable at best, but she did pick up the name and that clearly indicated Gregor. He would pay for this interference, and she would have her student back.
"Gather the council, Mischance." Jon Commanded. "We are about to show the BHC we can give as good as we get."
Janista looked from one to the next of the five assembled youths, and slowly began to speak.
"Nytshade thinks that Gregor is responsible for the initial kidnapping, and Gregor thinks that Nytshade is......but from hearing what they say, neither side is responsible.....but then who is?" Janista breathed frantically.
"That doesn't matter right now!!" said Shockwave. "This file was made over an hour ago.....Jon and her the rest of the IFHC have probably already made their move. THE WAR'S ALREADY BEGUN!!!!!!"