The commands come up as Robin indicated. He punches in the responses accordingly. After a couple of minutes, he realizes something is wrong: the relay isn’t shutting down. The amber glow is actually getting stronger. “What the hell?” he mutters.
He abandons the commands Robin told him to use. Whoever programmed this system really knew what they were doing. The encryption actually keeps changing in order to deflect his commands. It’s a pretty clever system, but he can break it. He needs a few more minutes—
The amber glow around him turns to bright pink. He hears a hum that’s louder than a ship’s foghorn. From the glow, the hum, and the readings on the cell phone, he knows the relays are being put to use. If he works quickly enough, maybe he can force an overload.
He’s not quick enough. There’s a surge of power through the relays that sends him flying through the air, until he smacks into a gear. He crumples to the “floor,” where a wave of pain washes over him. It feels like his entire body is on fire. Through the haze of pain he sees his chest expanding before a veil of hair drops over his face.
“Oh shit,” he squeaks before he passes out.
Chapter 27
The world explodes with pink light. Midnight drops to her knees and tries not to scream as her body burns with pain. She knows what’s happening to her when her mask and hood droop over her face. She’s getting smaller and smaller, her hands becoming lost in her sleeves and her pants pooling at her feet.
Then she hears Dalton scream. Midnight tosses her head back to shake off the hood; her mask slips down to hang from her neck like a necklace. She sees Dalton has gotten a taste of her own medicine. The major’s body has shrunk and lost most of its muscle tone, so that her uniform hangs off her like it’s still on the hanger. Her breasts have shrunk to nubs and pimples have popped up on her face to indicate she’s just a teenager now, maybe fifteen at most. Straight black hair hangs down to the middle of her back to make her look almost like her freshman yearbook picture.
A gasp prompts Midnight to turn to the Super Squad. They’ve undergone changes too. Elise has undergone the most radical change. She’s become a real mermaid now with a glistening turquoise fish tail from the waist down. Her upper body is covered in silvery-blue scales. Her hair has turned into a lank green mess that puts Midnight in mind of seaweed. From the way Elise’s gills flap impotently and the gasps escaping her mouth, it’s obvious she’s dying, a fish out of water.
By comparison, Starla and Allison have gotten off light. They’ve become funhouse mirror versions of themselves. Starla’s body has turned so scrawny that her ribs are visible against the fabric of her costume. Much of her hair has fallen out, to leave only a dry, boyish mop. By contrast, Allison has ballooned with fat, to the point she’s probably four hundred pounds. She’s so fat her chains actually bite into her gut and saggy biceps.
The pink light finally fades away. Before Midnight can scramble to her feet in her now clown-sized boots, one of Roboto’s hands grabs her by the front of her shirt. Her legs and feet are pulled right out of her pants and boots. That’s no problem since her shirt and vest cover her like a nightgown.
In Roboto’s chrome finish, she sees the face of a little girl maybe seven years old at most. Wavy copper hair falls past her waist and her pudgy cheeks turn red as she begins to cry. “Lemme go!” she shrieks, kicking furiously at him, not that it does any good.
“I must say this is a definite improvement,” Roboto says. He keeps her in one hand while he stomps over to where Dalton lays in a heap.
Dalton fumbles around in her oversized uniform until she comes up with a square of black plastic. She pushes a button on it, her cheeks getting redder with each press of the button. She finally hurls the device to the ground and begins to cry. “No, this isn’t supposed to happen! You were supposed to use the device only on them!”
He seizes Dalton with his other metal hand. “Did you really think that program could control me? Did you really imagine I would be your slave?”
Midnight isn’t surprised the program didn’t work. She had long ago determined it needed more refinement, but she hadn’t ever gotten around to making those changes. Obviously Dalton’s programmers hadn’t either. Why should they when it must have seemed to work so well?
From behind them comes a wheeze. Elise thrashes from side to side on her gurney as she struggles to breathe. “You gotta get her in water,” Midnight says. “Or she’ll die.”
That’s probably what Roboto intends. Midnight and Elise haven’t ever gotten along, but she deserves a better end than this. They all do, except perhaps Major Dalton; she’s getting exactly what she deserves for betraying all the people who trusted her.
To Midnight’s surprise, Roboto says, “Don’t worry, little one, I have prepared for this circumstance.”
A hole opens up in the floor in front of Elise’s gurney. The gurney tilts up to allow her to slide down into the hole, where Midnight hears a splash. The hole in the floor opens wider, enough to allow a clear globe of water to rise.
It’s a giant fish bowl, complete with a plastic castle and frogman. Elise thrashes around in the water to free herself from the chains. She’s finally able to free herself, but there’s nowhere for her to go. She does a few laps of the bowl before she pounds against the glass. “Let me out of here!” she shouts, her voice sounding as if she’s chewing on gravel.
“I’m afraid if I do that, you’ll die,” Roboto says. “It’s your choice.”
Elise ponders this for a moment and then goes still. “This isn’t over,” she grumbles.
Midnight would like to believe that, but the fact the machine is still working indicates her ace-in-the-hole has failed. She wonders what happened to Melvin. Maybe he ran away after she dropped him. Or maybe some of Dalton’s goons killed him. Or maybe he died in the bowels of the machine.
Tears come faster to her eyes as she knows his blood is on her hands. She sent him to his death. She should have done it herself. Instead she left it up to an amateur, an amateur with a good heart and plenty of brains, but short on the street smarts necessary to survive in this business. She knows better than that; that’s why she never worked with a sidekick before.
“Now it is time to move on to the next phase of the plan,” Roboto says. “I will require your assistance, Miss Dalton.”
“Why would I help you?”
“You don’t have a choice.” Roboto’s red eyes begin to change colors in a seemingly random way. Midnight knows what’s happening as she watches Dalton’s eyes widen and then become fixed. “From now on, Miss Dalton, you will be my eager servant. You will follow my commands without hesitation. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Master.”
Roboto’s eyes turn on Midnight. They run through the same sequence. By all rights the hypnosis should work on her too, except Midnight long ago trained her mind to resist all forms of mental manipulation. Nevertheless, she forces her eyes to widen and fixate on Roboto’s eyes. “And you, little Miss Holloway, will treat Miss Dalton as your big sister. You will eagerly do what she—and by extension, me—tells you to do. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Master,” Midnight squeaks.
“Very good. Miss Dalton, tell your compatriots to come here so I may make use of them.”
“Yes, sir.”
Roboto drops Dalton to the floor. She reaches into her pocket for a radio. She lowers her voice to make it sound more normal as she tells her men to come into the main chamber. The voice that comes back has the higher pitch of a girl’s. “We’re on our way.”
“While we wait for them to arrive, you two can change.” A closet opens behind Roboto. Inside are an array of clothes for girls. Roboto had clearly been planning for this outcome.
He drops Midnight to the floor. She cries out as pain overwhelms her childish tolerances. She rubs her sore bottom until her “big sister” takes her hand. “Come on, sweetie, let’s fi
nd you something pretty to wear.”
***
Midnight yearns to pull the ribbons out of her hair. She’d like to take off this stupid plastic tiara too. And cram this plastic scepter up whatever passes for Roboto’s ass. But she can’t without tipping her hand.
She isn’t sure what difference that would make since she’s only a little girl now, even punier than when she was a teenager. There’s no one who can save her either, not with the Super Squad incapacitated and Melvin missing and probably dead.
As for Dalton and her goons, they’re of no use now. Dalton’s “men” have become a gaggle of pubescent girls like their leader. They submitted to hypnosis just as readily too. They all wear cheerleading outfits, as does Dalton, which Midnight finds somewhat appropriate since they’ve become Roboto’s cheerleaders now as he unfurls his scheme to take over the world.
Midnight adjusts her tutu, trying to get it into something like a comfortable position. Whatever Roboto has in mind, a part of Midnight wishes he’d get it over with and kill her already so she wouldn’t have to endure this humiliation. The more disciplined part of her brain tells her to bide her time and look for an opening.
Humiliation is clearly what Roboto has on his mind as he has Dalton and her fellow cheerleaders rig up a television camera. Midnight is positioned on a tiny pink chair at one end of the camera’s field of vision while the rest of the Super Squad is assembled beside her. Allison is free of her chains now, but from the way she sweats and wheezes, it’s clear she isn’t in any shape to fight. Starla’s chains have been replaced by flimsy ribbon, the same type that holds Midnight’s hair in pigtails. Starla strains at the ribbons, but now that she’s an eighty-five-pound weakling she can’t break them. Elise continues to swim in her bowl, more helpless than any of them.
Roboto finally takes his place in front of the camera with Dalton at his side and then motions for Dalton’s minions to turn it on. “Greetings, people of Earth. You may already be familiar with me. For those who are not, I am Dr. Roboto. Soon I will be your new ruler.
“With me is my adorable assistant, the former Major Carrie Dalton.” Dalton waves gleefully at the camera. Roboto continues, “And behind me are your greatest champions, the Super Squad. For those of you who are not familiar with them either, I will take a moment to acquaint you.”
Roboto stands beside Elise’s tank. “This is the Sea Hag. This outcast of the ocean repulses all sea life with her pitiful cries.” Elise pounds on the glass and shouts at him, which Midnight supposes only fits with Roboto’s description.
He moves down the line to Allison. He puts one hand to her protruding stomach. “This is Flabby Girl, the world’s fastest eater.” Allison’s sweaty face reddens and her fists clench, but she does nothing. She’s smart enough to know there’s not much she can do like this.
Roboto puts his hand on Starla’s shoulder. “I’m sure you all know Anorexic Girl, the puniest woman on Earth.” Starla thrashes against the ribbons that hold her fast like two-ton chains.
“You won’t get away with this!” Starla shouts in a voice even tinier than Midnight’s.
“My dear, I already have gotten away with it. For as the world can see, there is nothing anyone can do to stop me. I have defeated your greatest warriors.” Dalton bends down to scoop Midnight from her chair. She presses Midnight to her chest the way a real big sister would. Roboto pats her on her the head. “Even the fearsome Midnight Cutie has been bent to my will.”
Tears spring to Midnight’s eyes. It doesn’t take much effort for her to shout pathetically, “I wanna go home!”
“If you so-called leaders do not believe this demonstration, I have another prepared for you. Soon you will see all of Tokyo reduced to my groveling minions like Miss Dalton and the ‘Super’ Squad. There is nothing you can do to stop me. Any who try to interfere will end up as these have. Enjoy your last day of freedom, for the time of Dr. Roboto is at hand!”
Roboto continues to laugh mechanically even after the camera cuts off. Dalton grins like an idiot and says, “That was great, Master.”
“It’s not going to work,” Starla says. “The people of Earth aren’t going to sit by and let you do this.”
“I’m sure even now they are preparing a nuclear strike against this position,” Roboto says. “It will not matter. Your foolish attack was only successful earlier because I allowed it to be so in order to draw you all here. Any further retaliation will fail.”
“You can’t hypnotize an entire planet,” Allison says.
“I won’t need to hypnotize them. You fools never understood the true purpose of the alien weapon. Its ability to turn males into females was only a side effect. Its real function is to quickly subdue an entire population by making them into weaklings. Surely you noticed what became of Miss Holloway the first time. Once the ray has done its work across the entire planet, the human race will be a bunch of puny cowards ripe for my dominion.”
“That’s impossible,” Starla says. “It hasn’t worked on us.”
“It does not work the same on superhuman or alien DNA,” Roboto says. “But it seems to have done well enough to neutralize you three.” Roboto pats Midnight on the head. “You can let her go play. We have work to do.”
Dalton lets Midnight go. She gives Midnight a pat on the head like her boss. “Have fun, sweetie.”
“I will,” Midnight chirps. She prances around in her ballerina costume, waving her plastic wand around like a fairy princess. Once she’s sure no one is watching her, she hurries over to Starla. The edges of the wand aren’t very sharp and Midnight’s muscles are nonexistent, but after a few minutes of work, she gets the ribbon to break away. Starla collapses to the floor with a groan. She struggles to get up until Allison finally hauls her up.
“We gotta find a way outta here,” Midnight says.
“What about Elise?”
“We’ll come back for her later.”
“No—”
“Rob’s right,” Elise says. “Just leave me. Find a way to stop that son of a bitch.”
“Let’s go!” Midnight says. But by the time they can get across the room, Allison is winded and Starla has to prop herself against the wall to remain upright. Midnight’s feet ache inside the impractical ballet slippers, but she’s not about to give up.
She’s on her tiptoes, about to hit the door release, when it opens on its own. Roboto stands there, red eyes blazing. “Where do you fools think you’re going?”
“I had to go potty,” Midnight says.
“That seems unlikely. I should have known mere hypnosis would not work on you.” He yanks her into the air with one hand. He gives her a little toss so his hand can catch her by the neck. “Now you will pay.”
“Leave her alone!” Starla shouts. She throws a punch, but all it does is make her cry out in pain. Midnight hears bones crack. Undeterred, Starla opens her mouth, but all that comes out is a tiny puff of white smoke.
Roboto grabs her by the neck. He hurls her across the room. Midnight is sure a few more bones crack as Starla lands hard. Her body twitches, but she’s too weak to get back to her feet. “You monster!” Allison shouts. She charges forward, bumping Roboto with her gut like a sumo wrestler. His metal body weighs too much for that to do any good. He swats her across the face to bring her to her knees. She kneels there, wheezing and bathed with sweat.
“You fools can do nothing to stop me,” Roboto says. “Now you will see the next phase of my plan unfold. Soon, Tokyo and then all of Japan will be mine.”
Roboto’s eyes light up for a moment as he sends the command to activate his machine. The room becomes bathed in light a moment later, but it’s bright red instead of pink. Roboto’s grip on Midnight’s neck loosens as he flails around frantically. “No, this cannot be! Someone has tampered with the machine!”
Even as pain washes over Midnight, she smiles. Melvin did it. He did even more than she expected o
f him. He found a way not just to sabotage the machine, but also to reverse it. As she lies on the floor, Midnight feels the seams of her leotard tear open as her body grows. She hopes it will grow back into a man’s body, but it soon becomes clear it’s reverting back to that of a teenage girl.
Beside her, Allison’s body thins into that of Velocity Gal again. Midnight isn’t sure what’s become of Starla and Elise until the former flies across the room to slam into Roboto. This time when Starla punches Roboto, her fist tears through his armor plating. She lifts him into the air with one hand and then slams him down onto the floor.
“Master!” Dalton shrieks from the doorway. She’s an adult again, but still under Roboto’s hypnosis apparently. Behind her are a group of young women in ill-fitting cheerleader uniforms. They turn to run, but Allison zips away to block their path. Dalton’s troops drop onto the floor in cowering heaps.
Dalton drops beside her master, cradling his body in her arms. That is until Elise yanks Dalton to her feet by the hair. “Don’t worry, you’ll get to see plenty of him when you’re both locked up in Gitmo,” Elise growls.
Midnight picks up the remains of her pink leotard and tutu to try to cover her privates until she can locate her costume. She drops both of these when a teenager with light brown hair and a pair of thick glasses resting on pimpled cheeks stumbles past Allison and Dalton’s minions. Tiny breasts are visible against a black T-shirt with the Batman logo. The girl’s face goes red as she stares at Midnight. “Robin?”
“Melvin?” Midnight rushes forward to catch the girl before she faints.
Epilogue
Elise stands in front of the door and takes a deep breath. She catches her reflection in a window and runs a hand over her top to smooth it down. She shakes her head and then tries to fluff the top out to fit looser over her midsection.
The intercom comes to life. “Can I help you?”
“Paul, it’s Elise…Ellis. Remember me?”
“What do you want?”
“I want to talk for a couple of minutes. Please?”