There is a New Villainess in Town

© 2011 by: Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Chapter Sixteen

A month and some days after that fateful meeting Captain Fluffball was waiting at her next trap. She had noticed quickly that since the last meeting that the heros were working in pairs. Quietly she wondered what they would think if they knew that their secret meeting room had been bugged by one of their own members, though for the FBI not Fluffball. That bugs frequency though had been given to her and with it she had quietly listened in to every meeting since arriving in New York. Well aware of Nights decision she had been avoiding the dangerous woman, but tonight Night was paired up with the woman Fluffball really wanted to catch. Catch, and turn. As Fluffball waited she ran through the response to her report that she had sent off this morning, apparently the Committee was very happy with her performance, as her monthly supply request had arrived safe, sound, completely filled and with private letters from Pat and her husband.

They wanted her captured, they wanted her to appear in court, then they would help her escape. Her answer had been short and simple. ‘When they catch me, and they will, I will surrender. Never before.’ A cats cry caught her attention, making her smile. Something was coming her way and if Night’s obsessive schedule was still in effect she was about to capture her prize. Picking up her remote she waited for the two flies to step into her parlor.

Night drifted twenty feet above her partner and was already bored to tears. Her partner, a naturally platinum blond called Mist, was walking below her physically checking doors and garbage cans. Though Mist could fly as easily as Night she was subject to winds over a certain speed. In Nights opinion she should have called herself Fog since she was affected by the environment exactly how a fog was. Last night they had patrolled Nights area of responsibility, tonight it was Fog’s little patrol area. Professor Q had determined that between them their abilities were too diverse for one opponent to effectively block. Professor Q would soon learn that his computations contained an error, a critically serious error.

Fluffball waited in the dark of a windowless room, overlooking the sight of her trap. She was three stories up and just far enough back from the window that she could see, but Night couldn’t. With her dark green uniform and her fur breaking up hard lines even had Night looked directly at her odds were that she would have missed the villainess. It was, Fluffball decided, nerve wracking waiting for the two carefully patrolling women to get in exactly the right place. Taking a few seconds she used her standard, military issue night scope to scan the skies above them. Yes, Solar man was still at the bridge a mile away, he could respond in time but he would be leaving his partner Kato in the lurch. There was still a chance the flying hero would respond and with his night vision it would be iffy for Fluffball to escape. Still this was her first best chance, so she would take it.

Turning to her ‘liberated’ laptop she watched the screen before her, at the same time carefully aiming a large barrel homemade plastic cannon directly at the approaching Night, then another at the walking Mist. When she was certain that both were in the right position she pressed the fire button. Immediately three things happened, both barrels fired lumps of plastic-like goo at their targets and a very short range jammer kicked on, so much for calling for help.

Night heard the thump and started rising instantly, unfortunately that was her standard reaction to attack so she rose directly into the expanding goo’s path. This goo as it expanded released electrical charges almost as powerful as a taser, but for a great deal longer time. Stunned, her brain completely overloaded by the electrical impulses the flying heroine fell straight down. When the goo hit the pavement it stuck, still expanding as it did. Only the moisture of Nights own breath kept it from covering her mouth and slowly killing her.

Mist too reacted as promised, beginning to shift from her solid form to a semi-gaseous one. In her case what struck her was a liquid polymer, being liquid it enveloped her entire body quickly, then began to inflate as she continued to change. Fluffball wasn’t exactly certain what the cloudlike heroine was trying to do, since designed specifically for Mist the polymer was very flexible so all she did was cause it to inflate into a huge black beach ball shape. Deciding to deal with Night first Fluffball removed another compress from her belt, soon the dark skinned warrior was again sleeping the sleep of those that were drugged.

For Mist Fluffball had a different humiliation in mind. Hurrying over to a large rust covered tank the feline removed a flexible hose. To one end of the hose was connected a brass quick connect fitting, to which she attached a large transparent glass needle. Reaching over to the tank the feline Villainess opened a ball valve, then hurried back to the now stable ball. It would become very fragile in half an hour, a serious weakness of this particular formulation. With a mighty shove Fluffball managed to penetrate the balls skin with her razor sharp glass needle. Once that was done she opened a second ball valve that was directly behind the quick connect.

Before her the still flexible black ball began to shrink as the no longer solid Mist was quickly drawn into a very large pressure tank, one currently holding a high vacuum and with a large capacity. When the black plastic ball had shrunk to slightly larger than a volley ball in size Fluffball closed her valve, removed her glass nozzle and let the hose fall. It’s existence should be enough to clue in any hero coming to these two’s aid. Still the hose hadn’t anywhere near the strength of that pressure tank, so she closed that valve too. Done Fluffball checked the skies around her, still no enemies approaching from the sky but her self imposed time line was almost over, so tapping on the tanks wall she gave her prepared speech.

“I am aware that you can hear me Mist” she said in a conversational tone. “I’ve left enough clues that your friends should be able to discover your prison, but if they don’t I will return in a week to collar you and make you my property.” She paused, listening with a smile to the hiss as Mists gaseous form searched for an escape route. “Now, do not over pressurize the tank my sweet, as you recall there is a grade school across the street and you might kill so many innocent children. Goodbye my little pet, I truly look forward to leading you around my lair on a leash and nothing else.”

Returning to Night she removed the chloroform pad, tossing it into a trash can as she left. In another ten or fifteen minutes her jammer would burn out its tiny battery and Nights GPS system would be able to scream for help. What little of Mist that hadn’t been captured by the vacuum trap would dissipate, it was in her records that Mist always lost some mass while in her strange form which why she ate like a pig and rarely gained weight. All in all a fun night but she was a thief so on the way home Fluffball robbed a coin store, carefully ignoring the huge displays of fake jewelry. As the sun rose Fluffball, by random ways, had returned to her lonely home.