5.34 – Recharging

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“Tell me something, Aurora… When did you become an expert in alien tech?” Bombshell asked, looking around from a seated position.

Aurora smiled and shrugged. “This ship’s Empyrean. It dates back to before the corruption… Our racial corruption. You know I have Black Angel inside me. She still has memories and a consciousness. She was a pilot. We’re fixing up this place together. You wouldn’t believe it, but I’ll tell you what made my mind up about her. She rejected a chance to serve the Oubliette creature that was living in this ship. It gave her a way to live again and instead, she chose to protect me.”

“Well, be careful,” Bombshell said, reaching to pat Aurora’s shoulder. “You’re still pretty green. Don’t let that figment of a villain in your head trick you.”

“Hmph…” Black Angel crossed her arms with a smirk. “I would guess that she knows all about being tricked. She doesn’t seem all that bright.”

Bombshell got up and looked around. “Does this spaceship of yours have a bathroom?”

Aurora relayed the question to Black Angel with a meaningful look as she resumed the last of the checks.

“Are you serious? Of course there are toilets. Tell your friend to go into the hall and turn right. It’ll be on her left, along the outer edge of the saucer.”

Aurora relayed the information and Bombshell gratefully left the room as Aurora worked.

Eventually Bombshell returned to comment, “Wow… Empyreans are weird… no water. There was a loud noise and it was destroyed when I was done.” Bombshell’s eyes were wide open.

“How cute!” Black Angel laughed. “You do tend to waste good water on your waste. The sonic disruptors break down soft biological tissue and radiation sterilize our toilets while evaporating and disposing of any remaining toxic remnants. I wonder if it’s working efficiently after the centuries this thing’s been resting here.” Black Angel raised an eyebrow and danced over to Bombshell with a teasing smirk to mockingly pat her head. “We should get this thing working to be sure. In an unrelated observation, her code name probably relates to her waste as well.”

Aurora winced, not able to help a chortle, almost losing her focus. “Oh jeez…”

Working with Black Angel’s guidance, Aurora finished this portion of the repair work. Black Angel asked, “Good job, but I can sense how tired you are. You really should take a break for a change.”

“Yeah.” Aurora said, letting herself feel her weariness while wiping sweat from her brow.

“At this point, we’re pretty much done and the last part is going to be toughest. I’ll go check on Gothschilde and Crimson. It might be the best idea to sunbathe a bit outside.”

Aurora gestured for Bombshell to follow her out into the hall and with a nod she followed. They walked through the ship to arrive at the room where they first encountered the Void Wolf and Aurora saw the two on the floor with their wrists zip tied around the base of the chair. Redline paced around, not having seemed to notice their entrance for a few seconds, but rushed to them. “Everythingok?” she asked (in rapid fire).

“HiyaBombie.Feelingokayorbetteratleastareweleaving?”

“There’s a bit left to do.” Aurora chuckled. “The repairs are done, but I’m still drained. I’m thinking about stepping out to sunbathe a bit before we get this baby charged up so we can take off. More importantly, I want to talk about Gothschilde and Crimson.” Aurora looked at the two heroines and then specifically at Redline. “Have they done anything to warrant their arrest before we met today? Have they served time?” Aurora pointed at the villains.

“I don't know, offhand.” Bombshell offered a shrug. “They are known criminals.”

“Well, if we’re going outside, we can check their records. Why does it matter?” Redline asked.

“Never minding what could have happened if things worked out differently, we all had to work together to solve this. I don’t think they’ve done anything bad today. We fought them, sure, but that’s not a crime in itself. Gothschilde comported herself mostly honorably and in the end she stuck to the deal we made with her. Whatever faults she may have even though she’s a villain, we should concern ourselves with judging her based on what she’s accomplished with us today. We don’t judge people on that basis in the legal system enough. If they haven’t done anything they’re wanted for, I’m inclined to release them. Let’s step outside and bring them along so they can get a breath of fresh air. I’ll make something to help transport them outside.”

“Wait a second,” Bombshell said. “If it weren’t for them, Onslaught might not have been here and if they weren’t trespassing, we’d be back in San Isidro or at HQ. I’d be there at any rate. They’re at least guilty of trespassing based on what we know.”

“Well, officially, this whole ship isn’t supposed to exist. So they might have committed some kind of information theft or something related to this,” Redline added.

“Yeah…” Bombshell admitted, jerking her thumb towards Redline. “You’re right, Redline. They’ve probably committed some kind of crime just to find their way here.”

Aurora thoughtfully nodded. “That’s a possibility, but this shard was active. Gothschilde is sensitive to these energies. It’s not a crime to use your powers. If they’re trespassing, it’s up to whoever owns this pile of rocks the Saucer’s inside, but if this Saucer doesn’t exist, it might be a null issue. People would want to know why there was a huge fight in the middle of nowhere. They really helped, even Gothschilde’s familiar Big Evil occupied Onslaught which gave us time to investigate. Then Bombshell took over. It’s appropriate for us to hold them until we confirm their records. Let’s step outside and relax a bit.”

Aurora pointed to an empty space to create a hotel cart from light with rails.

Redline smiled. “I can live with that decision.”

Bombshell shook her head. “Bad idea. Don’t trust villains!”

Since it was two versus one, Aurora cut the wrist ties that bound them to the chair and touched the two apparently unconscious villains to place them into the cart. They headed outside the system of caverns and the moment the sunlight fell onto Aurora, she sighed in relief, feeling her dwindling reservoir refill more quickly.

“What a depressingly bright day.” Gothschilde muttered, sitting up.

Aurora pulled out her card and started checking the database information regarding Gothschilde and Crimson Coil. Each had an outstanding warrant for them. Breaking and entering, vandalism, along with the rest of their group for invading a property and setting up a shop. Crimson Coil was wanted for questioning about some thefts she was supposedly part of. Gothschilde had some outstanding warrants for vandalism related to damage done to a graveyard. Big Evil was wanted for the same charges, not that he was present.

Aurora gestured and turned the hotel cart into a comfy sofa that firmly held the villains. With a soft sigh, Aurora regretfully said, “Too much to hope that you two haven’t been up to anything. I don't think there’s much in a graveyard to be worried about, but I guess if you’ve been breaking people’s tombstones and monuments, I’d hope that it was limited damage and you have a good reason for doing it.”

Gothschilde didn’t respond and Crimson Coil was still unconscious.

“Sorry, Gothy. You’re under arrest. For what it’s worth, if you’d like, I’ll speak on your behalf.”

Gothschilde scoffed. “Yeah, what good would that do? It’s not like I was innocent. They’ll try me as an adult, you know.”

Redline hopped over the back of the couch to have a seat with the two. Bombshell followed suit on the other side with a sigh of her own to lean over the back of it. “You weren’t seriously going to let them go, were you?” She looked at Aurora.

“Only if they had no outstanding warrants. The simple fact of the matter is they’re the reason we won. If it wasn’t for Crimson, Redline and I’d have been stuck in the warped space. If it wasn’t for Gothschilde, we’d not have made it to the Saucer to deal with the Void Wolf. The shard was breaking space-time in this area and it could have been worse. The old ones were touching the world through it. That scares the hell out of me.” Aurora let out a sigh and joined the four on the sofa and basked in the sunlight. “Oh… the sun feels wonderful after facing so many soul-swallowing shadows…”

Redline looked at Bombshell. “Aurora’s right. Gothschilde used her powers to protect us from the warped space.”

“Completely for my own benefit,” Gothschilde didn’t help her case with her comment.

“You say that, but it’s not beneficial to empathize with others' discomfort. If Big Evil can show that kind of an empathy when he’s a demon from hell, no matter what you say about contracts, it’s definitely not too late for you.” Aurora smiled at the dark child. “You’ve a friend waiting for you if you ever go straight.”

“Ha! That’ll never happen.” Gothschilde chuckled.

Crimson Coil started to squirm and squeal and tried to raise her hands to her head. “Arrrrrgh …!”

Gothschilde chuckled and looked at Aurora. “Don’t be worried. It’s a part of her problem. Her connection to wherever her powers come from makes the world go crazy for her, or so she’s said.”

“S-ss-ss-sable shards …!” Crimson Coil squeaked. She started squirming more fitfully. “Hu-hurtsss …!”

Redline hopped off the couch and put her hands on Crimson Coil’s shoulders. “Hey …! Are you okay?”

Aurora looked at Gothschilde. “Anything we can do for her?”

“It’s best to leave her alone. It’ll be over in a few minutes unless she starts having seizures. After that, her powers will go crazy for a couple of minutes.”

“Let’s knock her out.” Bombshell clenched a fist as she stood.

“That might work,” Gothschilde smirked. “Maybe make her completely lose what sanity she has.”

The choice was taken out of their hands when red tentacles erupted from Crimson Coil’s body. Aurora gestured and bubbled her, letting the sofa disappear. Gothschilde fell to her backside in the dirt.

Aurora focused on maintaining the barrier, but the pressure elevated to ridiculous levels. It was another otherworld experience to say the least. It was like an epic wrestling match that Aurora wasn’t sure she could win.

“Tough to hold her down, isn’t it?” Gothschilde snarked.

“Let your field down.” Bombshell said, sounding further away than she should have.

The tentacles thrashed and lashed at Aurora’s bubble to create flashes of red light. “Sure.” Aurora grunted. “If you think you can handle her while she’s having fits.”

With a gesture she bubbled Gothschilde and yanked her away from the out-of-control villain. Reducing her bubble around that one to just around Crimson’s head, Aurora watched Bombshell spring into action, flying past Aurora to see her twist enough so that the blow was only glancing when it landed. Crimson’s head flitted back and she slumped, supported by Aurora’s bubble.

Bombshell landed and cracked her knuckles. “That--- was satisfying.” She said with a little grin. “Thanks!”

Aurora sighed, Crimson was obviously suffering from her condition. It didn’t feel right to abuse her, even though they had to take some sort of action. “Back to relaxing, but before that, I want to see what I can do for her.” Aurora knelt by the villain and put her hands on Crimson’s head to wrap it in halos. Forcing them into her body, Aurora watched for a time and then stood back.

She couldn’t tell whether her halos did anything for her, but she at least had the knowledge that she’d done what she could for the tormented and seemingly good person even though she was a villain.

“Laudable, but ultimately pointless.” Gothschilde frowned.

Aurora stood and closed her eyes, letting the sun soak her body, but a call came that broke her reverie. The ringtone was Avenger’s, a tick-tock and the classic jingle some clocks played when both hands pointed directly up.