“You should be ashamed of yourself,” she said as she floated into the air a few feet and came back down. “It’s a crime not to showcase this array of powers.”
“They’re…my powers,” I managed to painfully squeak out. “My business…how I…use them.”
“Well, they’re my powers now,” she declared. “At least temporarily.”
I tried to move, but only managed to groan in pain. I began trying to tweak my systems to stop the pain, but found limited success.
“Oh, cheer up,” she admonished. “I didn’t drain you completely. You still have your powers; you’re just too weak to use them – like a bodybuilder laid up with the flu. He’s still got his muscles and physique, but just lacks the stamina to do anything.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, trying to get to my feet and failing, while at the same time continuing my efforts to stop the pain. “You’re a…real…humanitarian.”
“That’s actually kind of prophetic,” she retorted. “Anyway, I can’t stand here jawing with you all day. I’ve got work to do.”
With that, she stepped over to the Construct. I couldn’t see exactly what she was doing, but it appeared as though she was moving the doomsday components around.
“We really need to thank you and your friend Mouse,” Cat said as she fiddled at the Construct. “It would have taken us quite a while to open this thing up on our own.”
“Ha,” I groaned weakly. “We’re…closing it. Sending…you back.”
“You were. But did you know that if you realign some of these articles, the exact opposite happens? It’s kind of like reversing the polarity on a magnet, so that instead of attracting, it pushes away. In this instance, instead of sucking Busuigno in, it’s going to push them out. All of them.”
I had trouble keeping my mouth from dropping open.
“Are you shocked?” she asked with a grin, stepping back from the Construct and turning towards me. “Of course we knew what you guys were up to, but what you didn’t know was that we wanted you to take those components – wanted you to reconfigure them to interact with the Construct. I mean, we’re smart, but your friend Mouse is in a league by himself. It might have taken us years to do what he did in days.”
“You’re lying,” I uttered hotly. “You tried to stop Mouse every step of the way.”
She shook her head. “No, once we figured out what he was up to and knew we could use him to help us, it was all we could do not to giftwrap those components and hand them over. However, we knew that if we made it too easy, your friend would get suspicious, so we feigned trying to stop him, and–”
Her words were cut off as I suddenly rocked back on my heels and leaped at her. I hadn’t been able to stop all the pain, but had eliminated enough of it to be somewhat mobile again. More to the point, my lunge seemed to take her by surprise.
I didn’t make any attempt at truly trying to engage with her. Instead, I simply used my momentum to thrust her aside and sent her sprawling. I then turned my attention to the Construct, and began hastily trying to move the components back to their original positions.
However, I hadn’t managed to shuffle more than two of them before I felt a hand grip my wrist, and once again I screamed in agony as it felt like my soul was being sucked out of my body. It wasn’t as bad as the first time, due to the fact that I had deadened a lot of nerve endings, but it was impossible to stop altogether because much of the torment I was feeling wasn’t at the physical level.
It seemed to go on forever, but was probably no more than a few seconds, following which I felt myself forcefully shoved aside – probably telekinetically. I landed in a heap on the floor.
“You should really be thanking us,” Cat declared as she began reorganizing the components on the Construct. “After the Busuigno take over this planet, there will be no more wars, no more poverty, no more injustice.”
“No more people,” I added as I struggled up to my hands and knees.
“There’ll be people,” Cat countered. “They just won’t be quite as you remember them.”
“What about me?”
“There are bound to be some like you and your friend Mouse,” she said, turning in my direction. “Those who are immune or whom we can’t control. But don’t worry – we’ll find a place for you.”
I didn’t respond, as her words seemed to nudge something at the back of my brain. A moment later, it came to the fore, giving me the rudiments of a very basic plan. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but it wasn’t like I had a lot of options.
As quickly as I could, I executed a maneuver similar to what I’d done before, drawing my feet under me with a little hop and then charging at Cat. This time, however, she was ready for me.
I came at her with hands outstretched. That said, I must have been far weaker than even I thought, because she simply grabbed me by the wrists. Afterwards, she simply held me there, like a petulant child, as I tried yanking my hands back and forth in an effort to break her grip.
“You must really have a death wish,” Cat noted as I struggled. “You simply aren’t going to be happy until I drain you dry.” She seemed to contemplate for a moment, and then stated, “Fine then – wish granted!”
As before, I wailed as I suddenly felt my very essence being siphoned out of me. However, I had been expecting it, and at the very moment it began, I opened a telepathic channel and shouted, mentally, as loud as I could into Cat’s brain.
My telepathic yell appeared to startle her, because she blinked several times as if caught unawares by something. She then appeared
