Minx Ep. 05: Sphere, Age of Arachnids

"I'm okay." Once released, Vanessa hurried over to Dragon's cage and laid down in front of it. She cradled her left arm on her chest.

"Tell me what I want to know!" screamed Mahar, aiming his pistol at her.

"Okay! Okay!"

"Go ahead and tell him what you did to his ship, Vanessa." Dragon smiled at her when she turned to look at him in surprise. "You have my permission to do so."

"I did exactly what Dragon told me to do," explained Vanessa, "though I didn't really understand what I was doing." She played along, taking the role of the simple stooge who'd been following the commands of a hyperman mastermind. "He told me to disable your ship so you couldn't use it."

"Tell him everything about how you disabled his vessel," urged Dragon.

"Okay. I began with sitting in the cockpit and accessing the computer system..." Vanessa recounted what she'd done as best she could, though it lacked many of the details Mahar needed to repair his vessel.

"Why won't it work?" he demanded. "I'll put you right back in that beast's mouth if you don't tell me!"

"She doesn't know," explained an exasperated Dragon. "The instructions I gave her did three things. First, it granted her access to the entire control system of the ship. Second, it activated all energy systems within your ship and the commands she entered caused the primary background energy engine to completely shut down. Third, she entered a sequence of keys that caused your batteries to bleed out all energy in the same way that Minx's ship was depleted of energy."

"Why did you tell him, Dragon?" Vanessa asked. "Now he'll just fix it."

Mahar grinned evilly. "She goes back into the tyrannosaur's mouth, now, and you endure an eternity of pain..."

"You've missed the point entirely, you deluded fool."

Mahar shot Dragon with his pistol. Dragon flinched but made no sound.

"Tell me!"

"Without any battery power in reserves your engines will take at least two or three days to power up. That ship is useless to you and Minx is almost here. The closer she draws to the tower the more likely it is that she ambushes you. You're doomed, Mahar."

"You're lying!"

"Of course, if you'd built a redundant engine into your ship - as any forward-thinking hyperman would do - you could have had your vessel fully operational in minutes. My own vessel has a secondary engine using nuclear fusion, of course."

Mahar's face went blank with utter defeat. Then, his brow furrowed. "I'll still get my revenge upon the two of you..." he reached down for Vanessa. She cringed away from him.

"Of course, you will," said Dragon with a sigh. "You act out of emotion and not out of logic, or even logical necessity. You'll put Vanessa back in the dinosaur's mouth to be eaten slowly and you'll have me endure indescribably pain. However, there will never be a record of either event saved for posterity. You will be dead. Minx will likely arrive in time to pull Vanessa from her doom. It will take her longer to figure out how to undo the stasis field but she has some experience with the technology from when she and I first met. Her solutions to facing overwhelming technological superiority are quite ingenious and quite final. She's very impressive to those who are capable of appreciating that. My own fate is more murky. I'm not sure she'll arrive in time to prevent hours or days of torture from affecting my mind. In any event, I'm sure her human compassion will compel her to care for me should the worst happen."

Mahar stood, then walked over to the displays which were currently off. His fist slammed onto the bench top.

"I'll have to deal with Minx first, then return to create art with the two of you."

He flashed an evil smile at his seemingly-uncaring hyperman rival and then he stormed out, leaving his two scorpion guards to watch over his prisoners.

"You were never as bad as him," observed Vanessa. She winced as she forgot her injury and put weight on her dislocated arm.

"You haven't known for me that long, Vanessa. I have grown in recent months, though." He glanced at the impassive guards. "Can you stand?"

"Yes."

"Keep your feet in front of the control baton that's stuck into the base of my cell."

She rolled over and stared at the device in surprise. With winces and gasps of pain she rose to her feet and came close to the energy bars of his cell.

"What now?" she asked.

"First, I'm going to fix your shoulder. It will be painful, but it will allow you to use both arms again."

"I understand." She closed her eyes and waited.

Dragon reached between the energy bars grabbed her shoulder and arm and then made a quick movement that caused her to cry out in pain. She took a few steps away from his cage involuntarily.

"The pain should fade over time..."

"It's already much better," she said with a nod. Tears rolled down her cheeks. "What do you need me to do?"

"You have grown! I need you to crouch down as if you're resting near my cage and get ready to manipulate the control baton. If you set off the torture setting simply reverse what you've done. Don't worry about hurting me. I'll give you guidance."

"I understand. You'll take care of the two scorpions once the bars are gone?"

"Child's play."

XXXVI

Minx surveyed the gulley. There was only a two-metre descent down each wall, but it was wide at the bottom, wide enough for a hand-to-hand fight between two combatants. On the plateau, a little distance away from the gulley, was a patch of vegetation with a familiar collection of bushes, thorny vines and berries. She glanced at Alice who was watching the skies for any signs of their enemy.

"There are lots of hiding spots, cracks and holes and such in the gulley walls and overlooking the gulley. If Arachne and her people are still around they'll have many places to conceal themselves. You recognize those berries and thorns?" asked Minx.

"Yeah. Do you mean to throw him into the thorns?"

"I think it unlikely he's aware of the danger of the thorns or the benefit of those berries." She searched the sky. "He spends all of his time flying over things and very little time interacting with the environment. I doubt Arachne or her people would have warned him."

"So, what are we going to do, then?"

"We'll set up camp..." Minx surveyed the area once more and pointed into the gulley, "...there. Let's get a fire going and cook some food. The smoke will attract his attention. He'll want to land and gloat, believing he has us at his mercy. I have to think he's getting rather impatient with our slow pace."

"I'll gather some firewood." Alice immediately moved off to a nearby copse of what passed for trees.

Minx watched her protectively. She spied movement in the vegetation all around them but nothing within five metres. It had to be Arachne and her people. She was confident her friend would figure out her plan. Minx brought her hand up to her mouth, then repeated the action while facing in different directions.

"What are you doing?" asked Alice, her arms full of dried vegetation.

"Ordering delivery, I hope."

Minx led the other woman down into the gulley where they took their time lighting a fire. They spent a few minutes carefully gathering a few of the berries then returned to their camp. A faint clicking noise sounded above them some time after they were ready.

"Stay here," cautioned Minx.

She rose and clambered up the rock and dirt wall. There was a large insect feebly struggling to crawl away from her. It had only four legs remaining. She smashed its head with a large rock then carried it back down to Alice. They skewered it and put it over the flames.

"It's not a pizza," observed Alice. "You said you were ordering delivery. I wanted pizza."

"Pizza would be nice. A normal steak would be nice."

"Whiskey would be nice."

"Wine would be nice. Pasta would be nice, especially with a rich cream sauce and some fresh seafood mixed in."

"Pastries."

"Soon enough if all goes well," said Minx.

"What do you miss the most?"

"A modern refresher."

"I miss books." Minx looked at Alice in surprise. "Before I was...traded to the King Midas, I read a lot. I even read as a kid. When I became a pirate I never really had the time or opportunity."

"What do you want to do after this is all done?"

"I don't know. Part of me wants to get in a spaceship and fly far away, but wherever I go there will be people who want to use and abuse me. Part of me wants to stay here. Maybe set up a farm. Just relax and grow things. It would be nice not to have to worry about life and death situations anymore." She gave Minx an embarrassed look. "Maybe I could forget ever being a pirate...the things we did. Bounty hunters were really looking for pirates? And they're like you?"

Minx ignored Alice's questions about pirates and bounty hunters. "The mammal zone has a lot of good farmland, and a lot of crops that should be familiar to you. There are dangers but if you work in cooperation with the proto-humans I'm sure you could set yourself up in some nice little area. You could teach them about farming and the good things about civilization."

"And raise furry, monkey kids?"

"No-one says you have to get married or whatever. You'd be perfectly free to do as you wished."

"What does your A.I. think about my odds of survival?"

"Aphrodite?"

"I'd give her a sixty per cent chance of getting through her first year, then an increase in her chances by five per cent each year after that. That's assuming she lived peacefully with Butler's people."

Minx relayed the information.

"That almost sounds nice..."

Minx hissed her into quiet. "He's coming. I recognize that sound that his flight gear makes. Let me do most of the fighting but if I run into trouble you're welcome to pitch in. He'll be much stronger and faster than you, so you'll have to strike from his rear. He can kill you with a single strike when it comes to close combat. If you get hurt stay down and hope the rest of us win without your help."

"I'll help."

"Don't get yourself killed needlessly."

Mahar alighted above them, leaving the poisonous bramble at his back. He looked down on them.

"So you decided to come in person, did you?" taunted Minx. "Did I destroy all of your little holographic emitters?"

"Why are you taking so long to get to the tower?" he demanded. "Don't you want to rescue your friends?"

"They're not my friends," said Alice.

"Won't you come down into our trap?" asked Minx, motioning for him to sit across the fire from them.

"There's no trap. Your ally has left you. I'll hunt the remnants of her people down later. All you have now is your fellow human." He took a couple of steps down into the gulley. "I would like to know something."

"And what is that?" responded Minx. Her attention was completely focussed upon Mahar.

He took another couple of steps into the gulley. "How is it that you have survived all the dangers within this world?"

"Clean living? Exercise? Survival training? I've been a bounty hunter for quite a long while now; you learn how to survive in that job. Or you die."

Mahar drew his laser pistol and pointed it right at Minx. "Dragon believes you are going to kill me."

"It's on my to-do list."

"Cast away that spear."

Minx reached out for her weapon and threw it further down the gulley. It clattered against rocks before finally coming to a rest well out of her reach.

"You need a laser pistol against two unarmed, human women, do you?" asked Minx. She gave him a contemptuous stare.

"You did announce that this was a trap," he responded, though he holstered the weapon. He took a few more wary steps toward them. "This arroyo is too narrow for long distance weapons. Hand to hand fighting would have an edge here. Do you really believe yourselves capable of physically overpowering me?"

"Unlikely," answered Minx. "You outweigh me by at least twenty-five kilograms. It's hard to tell with your cloak. It will have to be a battle of wits."

The hyperman tilted his head. "If your lover," he showed clear disgust when he uttered the word, "could not outwit me then how could you, a mere human?"

"I'm rather clever. I outwitted Dragon when we first met, and he's the smartest person I've ever known."

Mahar stopped and his brow furrowed. "You're lying."

"Ask him if you see him again."

"I'll do just..."

"So, you admit he is alive. I was beginning to wonder. You weren't speaking of him in the past tense, but I haven't actually directly spoken to him in some time."

There was a sudden sound above the gulley on Minx's right and Arachne leapt across the gulf toward Mahar. He had his laser pistol out in a flash, fired and missed. His left arm struck straight out and he redirected Arachne mid-leap to throw her across the gulley and into the opposite wall.

In those fractions of a second Minx had leapt from a sitting position and had kicked his right forearm, flinging his weapon well beyond reach. Mahar stepped back in surprise at her speed then stepped forward and threw a punch which she easily dodged. Minx tried her own punch at his face and Mahar blocked it, grabbing her arm as he did so.

Alice rose to her feet and took a step toward the fight. Minx and Mahar wrestled a handful of metres from her, Minx trying to pull herself free in the direction of her companion, and Mahar trying to pull Minx up the gulley. Suddenly, Minx planted her feet and leapt. She went over Mahar and he threw her clear of the gulley and out of sight.

Spiders began to climb down the gulley walls as Alice ran for the hyperman and Arachne finally righted herself. He reached under his cloak and launched into the air just as several spiders threw themselves at him from the tops of the gulley walls. All missed, and he spun in the air and dropped toward the helpless Minx.

Alice reached the top of the gulley surrounded by spiders, and saw the hyperman striding toward Minx as the woman stumbled into the thorny bramble. Alice reached into her pocket and grabbed hold of some berries in preparation for a fight among the poisonous thorns.

"You fool!" Mahar called out. "You've doomed yourself! Those thorns are poisonous!"

Minx rolled over and turned to stare at the hyperman, realizing her plan had failed. Berry juice ran down her chin and stained her hand.

"You can't blame a girl for trying..."

XXXVII

"A little to the left..." advised Dragon.

"Shhh!" Vanessa followed his instructions then pressed the button on the baton.

The energy bars flared from red to green and then into blue. A strange buzz arose from the cage over Dragon. Vanessa risked a quick look up and then concentrated on adjusting the baton to the correct setting.

Clicking behind her told her the scorpions were advancing on her and she bit her lip as she once again tried to follow Dragon's instructions. The hyperman came right up to within centimetres of the energy bars and reached out through an opening. He grunted. She could hear clicks of scorpion feet upon the floor directly behind her.

"Hurry!" he said, trying to force his voice to sound calm.

Suddenly the energy bars disappeared with a pop. Dragon batted her aside and stepped off the octagon, his right hand gripping a scorpion tail immediately below the venomous barb as the other scorpion advanced on him with its claws opening and closing. Vanessa watched as Dragon grabbed the same scorpion's tail with his other hand. He shifted his weight, lifting the creature off its legs, before he slammed it down on its counterpart.

Vanessa scrambled out of the way of the battle. Dragon danced back with a turn as a stinger darted out toward him. A claw reached for his legs. He crouched, grabbed the claw and performed a twist while rising to his full height. The unfortunate scorpion was swung high in an arc that almost touched the ceiling of the room before slamming down upon the octagon. It spasmed a couple of times then feebly reached out with one of its claws in the general direction of its foe.

Dragon leapt, performing a back flip that brought his feet squarely down upon his remaining opponent. Once again, he grabbed its tail directly below the dripping stinger though with both hands this time. The muscles of his back and arms strained as he struggled to rip the end of the tail from the creature.

Vanessa, fearing the stunned scorpion would soon recover and attack Dragon, flung herself across the floor and reversed the adjustments on the control baton until a red energy cage surrounded the beast. Sparks flew as its tail and one of its claws burned against the bars of its new prison.

There was a spray of a thick greenish liquid as Dragon finally wrenched the stinger free of his foe's tail. The beast squealed in pain. The hyperman now grabbed his foe more firmly by the tail and swung it against a wall. The third impact rendered it immobile, with its legs hanging loose.

Dragon turned to the remaining scorpion and raised an eyebrow. "Well done, Vanessa."

"I had to do something...". She was elated by his praise, especially after experiencing a sudden doubt that he would in fact behave differently that Mahar had.

"You did quite a bit, more than I'd expected or hoped. Now let's see what we can determine about the locations of Minx and Mahar..."

XXXVIII

Alice let out a scream and charged at Mahar's back. Dozens of spiders joined her, crawling from different directions directly toward their enemy. The hyperman whirled around to face his attackers, his cape billowing about him. Minx spied the briefest glimpse of gleaming metal high on the hyperman's back.

In an instant she realised exactly what would happen. As the hyperman's hands rose to the controls on his shirt her hands thrust into the thorns seeking something to throw. The fingers of her left hand partially closed about something hard. Without another thought she threw it as hard as she could at the spot on Mahar's back where she'd seen the flying equipment.

The rock flew like a bullet, crossing the distance before the hyperman could activate his controls. There was a loud clang and the man was thrown forward, landing on all fours an instant before a wave of spiders swarmed over him. He screamed, tried to rise to his feet and collapsed back onto the ground.

Alice covered her mouth in horror at the spectacle before her as the spiders plunged their fangs into Mahar again and again. His face bloated and turned colour as venom was pumped into him. In a couple of seconds he collapsed fully upon the ground. His chest rose and fell for a few more seconds then his body was still except for the dozen or so spiders crawling over his clothes.

"Well, that deals with that," said Minx as she rose to her feet.

Alice hurried to the edge of the thorns and helped the bounty hunter step away from the vegetation. "Are you okay?"

"A little woozy...but feeling a lot better right now. I think they did it."

"We did it. We all did it."

Arachne whistled and was joined by the battalion of smaller arachnids who raised the first pair of arms in her direction. Minx waved to her friend, and Arachne waved a claw back at her.

XXXIX

It was a couple of days later that the four remaining humans met in the control centre Mahar had set up in the arachnid tower. Dragon and Minx, with Alice and Vanessa's help, had cleared the building of scorpions. Mahar's creatures had mostly fled once their master had died, and it became clear that the spiders were the masters once again.

Hephaestus waited outside the tower with Aphrodite safely stowed away in his best hangar. Arachne had been very busy in the lower depths of the tower with a number of the males. Somehow Dragon had found the time to activate training machines, devices that would help Arachne and her people once again achieve the technological pinnacle of their development. And that was while he remotely shut down the laser torches blasting away Arachne's home, re-established a night and day cycle within the Sphere, and began organizing the maintenance robots to begin repairs and maintenance.