The Archway, Part 10

We sat and waited in the storeroom as Cross made her preparations to leave. I was nervous, but also very excited. I had gotten the better of my jailer in the negotiations, and now I would have the opportunity to feast on an entire prison full of potential converts. I wondered briefly if it was wrong to be excited about stripping people of their free will and adding them to my army of loyal servants. I reassured myself that I would only convert the Knaves by force, and hope that enough of the Jokers and Oddballs volunteered.

Suki began to slowly come around as my quantum effect steadily seeped back into her. She still looked awful and was scarcely aware of her surroundings, but recovered enough to drink a little iced tea. Nurse Wipes gave Cynthia her first diaper change since her conversion, which they both enjoyed enormously. Jang-Mi's lightning bolt steadily regained its color, indicating that some back-up energy would be available in the near future. That was a relief.

Finally, Duchess Cross' face reappeared on the tiny screen.

“I have completed my preparations. Miss Strauss and the five Knights you converted are waiting for you on the helipad. I have prepared a preliminary draft of the treaty that will guarantee your rights to this facility. That will be waiting for you as well. Take this time to convert the remainder of the inmates. I will contact you when it is time to coordinate an attack on Peterson. Cross out.”

The image faded. We sat listening as the helicopter roared to life far above us, barely audible through the massive building. As the sound faded, a sigh of relief went up from my team.

“Yayyy! The mean boss lady is gone!” cheered Princess Boom-Boom.

I took a deep breath and stood up to address my troops, such as they were.

“Alright. This whole place is ours, people! I'm heading to the helipad to get Megan. Nurse Wipes, I want you to get Suki, Princess Boom-Boom, Jang-Mi, and Sammy up to Low Security. I want everyone to relax and get settled in. This will be our home now, maybe for a long time. Set up an infirmary for Suki and Megan, and get Jang-Mi and Sammy into some actual beds. Larry and Cynthia, you're with me. I'll need a hand bringing all those teddy bears down. Once we find the main security room, we can find Cross' files and figure out who needs to be converted and who can be released. Any questions?”

There were none. Nurse Wipes carried Suki and lead her group out through the heavy steel doors and up to Low Security, where there were comfortable facilities in place. I guessed that finding good quarters for everyone would be a major issue in the near future, since most of my future converts were currently housed in sparse little cells. There had to be some kind of on-site quarters for all the Special Containment staff, but that wouldn't be enough for everyone by a long shot. Then again, once my quantum effect had had a chance to seep through the building, I should be able to re-create it however I wanted, as long as it fit my theme. As Cynthia, Larry, and I boarded the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor, I wondered what this place would be like once Suki made me another power amplifier. I imagined drab gray walls turning into the bright pastels of a nursery. I smiled.

Then it hit me, like a sledgehammer to the gut. I moaned and fell backward onto my padded ass. Larry and Cynthia were immediately looking down at me with concern in their eyes.

“What's wrong? What happened?” asked Cynthia. She was trying to heal me, not realizing that this was something she couldn't undo.

“It's...it's Princess Boom-Boom!” I struggled out as I forced myself to my feet. The same feeling of icy pain that had shot through me when Suki and Megan had been zapped by Cross' nullifier had struck me again. Awful realizations hit me one after another. The nullifier was still in the building. Princess Boom-Boom was now lying somewhere emaciated and drained, just like Suki and Megan. Cross was still here. Cross had been lying the entire time. The others were in danger. And I had just lost the last of my enhanced strength. I had nothing.

“What? What about her?” asked Larry. He knew something was wrong, but I couldn't convey just how quickly things had turned around. The elevator slid to a halt, and the doors slid open.

Outside, Cross was waiting. Around her were her staff of Brights, all dressed in white coats and armed with machine guns. They were wearing odd-looking headbands that held small electronic devices to their foreheads. The Duchess held the door closed and aimed a machine gun straight at me. I felt sick. I couldn't believe I had been fool enough to trust her.

“Hello, Miranda.” said the Duchess coldly. “Get your hands up. This will go smoother if you cooperate.”

There was nothing I could do with the guns trained on all of us. I slowly raised my hands in surrender. Cynthia and Larry did the same.

“Your word of honor, huh?” I asked bitterly.

Cross frowned. “Sadly, in the present circumstances, honor is a luxury we cannot afford. You were far too aggressive in negotiations. I have been forced to take drastic measures to regain control of this situation.” She tapped at a tiny device lodged in her ear.. “Is it done?” she asked. Since no one around her answered, I assumed she was talking to someone on a radio transmitter, probably whoever was carrying the nullifier. She listened for a moment. I noted a slight twitch above her right eye. “Good.” she stated,  then tapped the device again.

“Bring her out.” she ordered.

This time, one of the nearby Brights stepped forward, dragging another prisoner. She was dressed in a drab prisoner's uniform, and was not wearing a headband. Instead she had a thick collar around her neck, with a red light blinking at the front. She had striking green eyes and black hair tied into a pony-tail. Had she not looked so tired and miserable, she would have been quite pretty.

“Miranda Hubble, allow me to introduce Nora Ellis. Nora, go ahead.” said Miranda, stepping aside to let the newcomer into the elevator. With guns trained on all of us, I could do nothing but shrink back from the strange woman.

“Nora here is going to explain how things are going to work from now on.” said Cross. “Don't try to resist.”

I tried to think of something, anything I could do right now, but anything I did could get Larry and Cynthia killed. Nora glanced back toward Cross, then stared straight at me.

“Stop.” she stated in a weary voice.

My body froze. I couldn't move a muscle. Suddenly, the entire universe was nothing except Nora, her green eyes and her tired voice.

“Sit down.”

I was sitting. It was as simple as that. Her voice seemed to go straight into my arms and legs without ever touching my ears. Larry and Cynthia sat as well.

“Listen to my voice. You are a servant of Utopia. You obey Duchess Cross. You are a servant of Utopia. You obey Duchess Cross...”

I felt her voice wash over me. The effect was not instantaneous, but I immediately began to feel the compulsion to let that voice become my whole being. To let it fill my mind with its comforting embrace. I wanted to be a servant of Utopia. I even wanted, on some level, to obey Duchess Cross. As Nora chanted the words over and over, I felt that presence in my mind grow stronger and stronger. Soon, I knew, there would be nothing left in me except the desire to serve Utopia and obey Duchess Cross. I struggled to move, to close my eyes, to stuff my fingers in my ears, anything to escape from that voice, but nothing would move. I strained my mind, feeling for anything that was still within my control.

The elevator! I had been on the elevator back when I had first arrived. That meant it had my quantum effect. Pressed against the floor as I was, I even had physical contact. I willed the elevator to become mine. I felt the floor I was sitting on turn from hard tile into yielding plastic. With every remaining ounce of my willpower, I sent the mental command to my newest convert: “Down!”

The elevator did not let me down. Or rather, it did.  It entered freefall before the doors even closed. Cross began firing the instant it began to move, and I my ears rang with the explosions. The door closed around Cross' arm, and she bent the steel door as she struggled to force the elevator to remain in place. Her arm vanished into the ceiling as the elevator shot downward. Without her Knight powers, her arm would have been torn clean off. Instead, only her gun was left behind, falling to the soft floor below. Nora was lifted into the air briefly, then she fell and bounced against the ground when we struck the bottom of the shaft.

The elevator now looked like the inside of a bouncy castle The floor was composed of an inflated rubber material, and was bright yellow. The walls were also soft and decorated with images of jungle foliage and happily playing monkeys. They climbed ladders and slid down slides, apparently demonstrating the purpose of an elevator. They all wore diapers, naturally.

Nora had been taken by surprise, which I suppose is only natural given the circumstances. Expecting a solid floor, she stumbled and fell onto the soft, bouncy one.

“Grab her! Don't let her speak!” I shouted. I could barely hear my own words. Gunshots in an enclosed space are no joke. Cynthia heaved herself to her feet, but Larry got there first. After a brief struggle, Larry managed to restrain her and clap a hand over her mouth. She glared at us angrily.

My legs gave out under me, and I fell to the yielding floor of the elevator. I hadn't even noticed that I had been shot. Looking down, two bullet holes were squirting blood onto the floor. Cynthia lost no time in grabbing me and filling me with soft, greenish light. The pain and blood were whipped away into nothingness.

“Th..thank you!” I gasped as my organs reassembled themselves. The ringing in my ears disappeared as every part of me regenerated. Cynthia smiled tiredly and whispered something I couldn't quite make out.

A loud slam above us alerted me to the fact that Cross was far from out of the picture. To a Knight, jumping down an eighty-foot elevator shaft was about as difficult and risky as putting on a hat. I heard her powerful fist pound on the roof of the elevator with incredible force. She was trying to tear her way in, and she would succeed before long. I willed the doors to slide open, and they did. Once everyone was clear of the elevator, I willed it to rise back to its original floor at top speed. It played a jangly xylophone rendition of “The Girl from Ipanema” as it shot upward, taking Cross with it. I reflected that no one had grabbed the gun, but it wasn't as though it was any use against Cross anyway.

“Alright, no time to waste! We need to rescue the others and find a defensible position to hole up! Quick!”

“Well what are we supposed to do with her?” asked Larry. Nora was still struggling to escape from him. He was clearly having trouble restraining her. Trying to keep both her mouth and her arms out of action was no easy feat, and it left her legs free to stomp and kick all she pleased. If I had had some rope it wouldn't have been a problem, but as it stood, we needed to move fast. Sending Cross up the elevator shaft might have bought us a single precious minute, which was already disappearing fast.

Seeing that Larry and I were at a loss, Cynthia came to our rescue.

“Oh for gawd sake! Here.” she muttered under her breath. She pressed her hands against both sides of the struggling woman's neck. Gradually, her struggles grew weaker and less coordinated. Soon, she collapsed against Larry.

“Sleeper hold.” she explained tersely. I whistled. Now that she was wearing a thick diaper and green footie pajamas, it was easy to forget how tough she was.

“Where did you learn that?” asked Larry.

“Right here.” said Cynthia. She she tore long strips and of fabric from her white coat and began quickly twisting them into bindings. “A lot can happen when you're working with Knaves and Oddballs. One of the Knights showed me how to do it.”

Cynthia had quick hands. She quickly crafted a gag for Nora's mouth and a thick binding for her wrists. Nora was already coming to when she finished. I wouldn't trust the setup to hold for long, but it was good enough to get us moving again.

I had been worried about what we would find when we reached Low Security. It was a relief to see Sammie keeping a watch near the door.

“Boss! What happened? Where's Megan?” she asked.

“Cross was bullshitting the whole time!” I informed her as I ran past her. “She figured it would be easier to mind control me than to stick to the deal. What happened here?”

“One of the Knights surprised us with the nullifier!” said Sammie. “She got Princess Boom-Boom.”

“Where is he?”

“It's okay. Wipes has it covered.”

Before I had even begun to consider what that might mean, I had arrived. In front of the television, Nurse Wipes had been in the process of setting up an infirmary. Jang-Mi was lying on the carpet with her thumb in her mouth, happily napping away. She probably would have liked to sleep on a couch, but the only ones available were occupied by the withered forms of  Suki and Princess Boom-Boom.

Seeing her like that was awful. Ever since I had converted her, she had been so consistently cheerful and full of life. Now, she looked half-deflated. Her skin was loose and almost gray in color. She lay still, hardly breathing. I immediately pulled her into my arms and embraced her, wanting to do whatever I could to make her feel better.. She made no move to respond. She didn't seem conscious at all.

I wanted to strangle whoever had done this to her. Unfortunately, I saw that the perpetrator was still in the room.

On a sofa sat a woman I recognized. She wore the same uniform that Princess Boom-Boom had worn back when her name had been Sonia. She had sandy hair and looked utterly lost and confused. She had led the unsuccessful attack that had brought me my teddy bears.

Beside her, Nurse Wipes was gently patting her arm and speaking to her in a soft, reassuring voice.

“Shhh. It's okay. No one is mad at you. You were just confused. Everything is alright now. Miranda is going to make you feel so much better.”

She looked up at me. Her eyes were bloodshot and she had streaks of tears running down her cheeks.

“I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! Is she going to be okay? Please...I didn't mean to hurt anyone.” she said. Her voice faltered as she spoke. Even though I had been mad a second earlier, I felt sorry for her.

Then I realized. She had gotten a full blast of my quantum effect back when my powers had been at full strength. And that had been almost a full day. She must have been feeling the same effects that Suki had experienced. She was being pulled over to my side. No wonder she was confused. She was becoming loyal to me, even as she was doing Cross' dirty work.

I put a reassuring hand on her other shoulder. “It's okay. I know you didn't mean it.”

She looked up at me with frightened eyes. “Please, miss. I was...I was just doing my job. Cross didn't even want me to. She knew I was...compromised. The other Knights are all locked up. I told her I needed to avenge my...my comrades. I'm sorry...”

She seemed to collapse into herself. Her breathing became more normal. I knew she was ripe for conversion, and I felt like taking her strength from her then and there. It would be wrong though. I needed to talk to her and come to an understanding with her before I put her back in diapers. I didn't even know her name yet.

It felt strange to comfort someone like this. She was an enemy falling prey to my mind control powers, and yet I already felt responsible for her happiness and well-being. I wondered what it would have been like if I had really been able to take the entire prison as my own. I would have hundreds of people, all looking to me for support and guidance. It was an amazing thought, but it was also terrifying.

Larry and Cynthia finally caught up with me, dragging Nora in. She seemed to have stopped struggling, but Larry kept a close eye on her. If she got out even one word, she could take over my entire team at once.

On the ground nearby was the nullifier gun. My impression was that the woman had used it on Princess Boom-Boom, and had dropped it to the ground when she saw what it actually did. Princess Boom-Boom was a terrible sight to behold, especially if one's loyalties were already shaky. I picked up the bulky weapon.

Cross was still coming for us, and she wouldn't be long. She had been inside my field, so now it was a do-or-die situation. She couldn't run away now that she was infected. She would be coming at me with everything she still had, and I had no way to know how much that could be. I had to be ready.

“This is my gun. This is my gun.”

The weapon twisted and contorted as the bizarre effect it had been exposed to when Suki first used it finally awoke. I tried to imagine what I needed it to be. Something that could focus that bizarre force my body was generating all the time into a coherent beam. Something that I could use to take down Cross with one blast. In seconds, I was holding something that looked like a heavy-duty squirt-gun. It was made of bright pink plastic, and was tipped with a large yellow pacifier where the barrel would be on a normal gun. I was tempted to test the new weapon on my new Knight, or even on Suki or Princess Boom-Boom. It might be able to restore them, but I couldn't take the chance that it would make things worse.

I took a deep breath. This was it. The final showdown. I would conquer, or be conquered.

Then, the lights went out.