Chapter 21 – To Catch a Pussy
“You don’t think the FBI is in with Pink Pussy and trying to throw us off the trail, do you?”
Laura snorted, sipping at her cold coffee. “That sounded like a conspiracy theory, Walsh.” Their stakeout of the museum was on its third night now, both of them managing some sleep during the days, but she’d still been restless, her thoughts on Catherine. Would she finally be able to catch up to her this time? Had she put together that cage in her bedroom for nothing? The fact that it was taking several days for Pink Pussy to show either meant that the tip was bad, and possibly a diversion, or there was something else going on. “Maybe the cult decided to wait until they were both on display and send in Pink Pussy for the grab then.”
“Cult? When did we decide there was an official cult?”
Laura shrugged. “Makes as much sense as anything else, doesn’t it? Who else would want a couple of ancient artifacts tied to the occult?”
“I could name a few dozen ultra-rich collectors of rare items in the States alone,” Walsh replied.
“Point,” Laura replied. She rubbed at her eyes, turning to look over the monitors in the museum’s security room. No changes, just the usual guard patrols, the staff safely in its display case in the main exhibit hall, and the dagger in the secured facility in the basement, still being prepped for display. “But maybe they got wind that we’re watching them. The FBI could’ve screwed something up on their end, and now Pink Pussy is being more cautious, and whoever the buyer is. Hell, I don’t know, maybe it has something to do with the new moon; it’s darker than usual out there tonight, so it’d make for a good time to sneak around. And evil occult stuff happens in the dark, right?”
“Either way, Sullivan isn’t going to let us stay here again.”
Laura nodded tiredly. “Yeah…I don’t even want to think about how she’d react if we asked for another night. I say if nothing happens tonight, we assume it was a bunk tip and move on.” Laura stood, stretching, her muscles stiff. “I’m going for a walk; let me know if you spot anything.”
“Will do,” Walsh replied, leaning back in his chair to sip at his coffee while watching the screens.
The two of them wore the same uniforms as the museum security for the moment, but unlike the official security, the two of them were armed with guns, not tasers, and had their police IDs ready to flash. Laura was still trying to puzzle out how they could possibly apprehend Pink Pussy on their own, but hoped that she could talk some sense into Catherine if she could only manage to speak to her.
Laura left the security room and tugged on her borrowed hat, heading down the hall toward the elevator. As she rode it down to the basement, she heard her radio crackle, then a status report came in from the security team. All clear, as usual; even they sounded bored by the status quo. She was on edge, Walsh was too, but there was something different about tonight besides the moon. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
Exiting the elevator, she nodded to the guard that waited by the doors, got a nod in return, and strode by him, looking along either side of the hall at the closed offices and restoration rooms. She took out her flashlight, shined the light in the windows, through the partially open blinds, and saw nothing she hadn’t seen the last two nights. A few minutes later had her outside the secure room where the recently arrived ritual dagger waited, still secured inside the locked case as the display was prepared.
Her light lingered on the case. What was it about that thing? Even though she couldn’t see the dagger, she could…feel that it was there. It was more than just being told it was there, more than having seen it before the curator had shown it to her and locked it back inside, taking the keycard with him. It was like she could…sense it. Shaking her head, Laura swept the light away from the box, and forced herself to move on. That was odd. What had caused that feeling? Was it just her nerves getting to her? A lack of sleep leaving her a bit loopy?
The rest of her sweep of the basement went smoothly, but when she walked by the room with the dagger, that same feeling crept over her. There was something to that…what was it?
Feeling that her mind was starting to play tricks on her, Laura nodded to the guard again as she hit the button for the elevator, the doors opening immediately since nobody else had been using it. She went to the main floor of the museum, and exited out into one of the side hallways, turning toward the exhibit rooms. She nodded at the more numerous guards walking about when she passed by them, and walked through the doorway to the main exhibit hall.
She stopped when she spotted the central display, the staff behind its glass case, and sucked in her breath. She saw the staff, but that same feeling crept down her spine again. There was something about it she could…sense. At that thought, Laura’s skin got goosebumps, and she shivered. She keyed the mic on her radio. “Walsh, have you seen anything on the cameras?”
“Nothing we haven’t seen a few hundred times already,” he replied, sounding as if he’d stifled a yawn. “It’s quiet as always. You see something?”
“No…” Laura started slowly, taking a few steps to the side, behind a large, round pillar that supported the second floor walkway that circled the rotunda. She could still feel the staff behind her as she leaned her back to the pillar. “I’ve got a feeling though. Something’s not right, but I don’t know what it is.”
“You probably just need more coffee,” Walsh replied with a laugh. “It’s midnight, so why don’t you grab lunch, step outside for some air? I’ll keep an eye on things.”
Laura was about to reply when she froze.
What was that?
There had been a sound. Faint, almost imperceptible. There it was again, a very light thump, somewhere above her, but in a different direction, further away. Why did it seem familiar?
Once again it sounded, this time with a slightly sharper sound accompanying it, a clicking sound. Laura’s eyes widened as it suddenly slid into place in her brain. She hadn’t heard that sound in a long time. Big paws with sharp claws, hopping from one pillar to another.
Laura snatched her pistol from its holster and turned down her radio, hoping that Walsh was paying attention to the main hall. Pink Pussy was here!
Careful to keep her shoes from scuffing against the floor and giving her position away, Laura eased herself around the pillar as the sound came again, almost overhead. She inched her way around the pillar, looking skyward just as something thumped directly overhead, maybe thirty feet up.
There was nothing there.
Laura opened her mouth wordlessly. What was going on?! There was another thump and the click of claws on the next pillar, slightly lower now. Was…was Pink Pussy invisible?! No, how could that be?
Hearing the squawk of radios echoing through the quiet of the museum, Laura made out Walsh’s voice announcing that the cameras in the main exhibit hall had gone down. She heard the pounding of shoes running toward the exhibit hall.
It occurred to Laura that something had been wrong much sooner, but she nor Walsh had noticed it: there had been no guards in the main exhibit hall! The last two nights in fact, as she replayed several images through her mind of the camera feeds, there had been no security present! And nobody had deemed that unusual! Why hadn’t she realized it? That was more than a little screw up…
Over the growing din outside, Laura heard the invisible something land on top of the display case holding the staff, and her eyes focused on a…blur. There was definitely something on top of the case, distorting the light around it, just a faint shimmer, vaguely humanoid.
Laura stepped around the pillar, raising her pistol toward the shape. “Freeze! SCPD!” she shouted, just as chaos erupted. Multicolored light exploded from around the display case, forcing her to close her eyes, but not before she caught a brief glimpse of Pink Pussy, crouched atop the case.
Before she could recover, Laura felt something impact her, like a strong gust of wind that actually caused her to slide backward on her feet, though she kept her balance and didn’t fall. Doors to the exhibit hall slammed shut all around her.
“Freeze where you are, Pink Pussy!” blared a cold, robotic voice.
“Yeah, your crime spree is like, totally coming to an end tonight!” said another voice, Laura recognizing it immediately; there weren’t a lot of valley girls in Sentinel City these days.
Opening her eyes, Laura noted several things at once. There was a strange shimmer in the air all around her, like little motes of light sparkling in the gloom that seemed to be everywhere. Some kind of more substantial glow surrounded the display case, and Pink Pussy was still crouched atop it, wearing some kind of mask that resembled her actual face, but for the dark, emotionless glass eyes and the unsettling, pale porcelain.
Standing directly in front of Pink Pussy was the walking tank, Mecha Musume, her big cannon pointed at the pink feline, said weapon whirring angrily as its charge threatened to release at a moment’s notice. Behind Pink Pussy stood the one calling herself Cyber Seer, armed with some kind of futuristic-looking rifle, pointed at the thief’s back.
Pink Pussy tensed as she slowly turned her gaze from one heroine to the other, a low growl coming from her as she readied to pounce.
“Don’t even think about it, Pink Pussy!” called a third voice from somewhere above, on the second level of the exhibit hall. “You’ve got nowhere to go, and nothing is getting through my wards! Might as well surrender now and save yourself the embarrassment of losing to us!”
Laura thought she recognized that voice too. Was it the young woman who had broken out of the police station? It certainly sounded like her. What was she doing here?
Gathering herself, Laura strode forward, her own gun still pointed at Pink Pussy. “Better listen to them, Pink Pussy! If you surrender now, you’ll have an easier time in court!”
Pink Pussy’s head turned toward Laura, that strange mask leaving her expression unreadable.
“Come on, Cat! It’s me, just listen and make this easy!” Laura thought.
“Uhhh…like, what’s she doing in here?” Cyber Seer asked, tilting her head as she turned her goggled gaze toward Laura. “I thought you said nobody else would be in here!”
“I’ll explain later!” the mystery girl, likely the one from the police station, replied from out of sight above them.
Laura ignored the newcomers for the moment, stepping forward again. “Put your hands up and come off there, Pink Pussy. Listen to me; it’s in your best interest if you surrender now.” Laura’s tone went from commanding to a more pleading one. “I know this isn’t you; you’re not a criminal. Just surrender and tell us why you’re doing this!”
Pink Pussy’s large, clawed hand rose, shaking as it reached for the mask. The shaking grew more violent, and the hand stopped before actually reaching the mask, almost as if something had grabbed it. A low, angry growl sounded from deep within her throat, and her fur bristled.
“Please, Cat! Just take it off and surrender!” Laura pleaded silently.
Hands balling into fists, Pink Pussy’s head whipped around rapidly, looking in all directions. She growled again, her muscles tensing.
“Got her!” cried the voice from the second level.
Laura wasn’t sure what that meant, but Pink Pussy extended her razor-sharp claws and snarled, swiping at the air around her in a frenzy. What looked like an invisible box shimmered briefly where her claws sliced, then the shimmering broke into pieces and shattered with a barely audible pop.
“She cut through my force cage!” shouted the mystery woman, her voice filled with surprise.
Then Pink Pussy pounced.
* * *
“She cut through my force cage!” Liz shouted, eyes wide, staring in shocked disbelief at the Pink Pussy. When a magical construct was made of pure force, they were exceptionally resilient to damage, usually requiring nothing short of a spell of disintegration or a powerful dispel, like what Liz had set up to trigger when Pink Pussy had tried to go for the staff that had gotten rid of the pink feline’s invisibility and phasing spells. The fact that Pink Pussy’s claws had been able to shred her invisible force construct was something Liz hadn’t been prepared for. It shouldn’t have been possible!
Pink Pussy was in the air in the blink of an eye. Mecha Musume fired her cannon, a wide, purplish bolt of energy arcing with electricity lancing toward the target, but Pink Pussy had been too fast, leaping over the shot and plowing headlong into the armored woman with all claws swiping. Armor shredded as the large claws tore through it like paper. Liz heard Mecha Musume’s terrified scream in the earpiece she wore, even if there was silence from the outside of the suit.
A high-pitched whine sounded from the other side of the rotunda, and a spray of bluish-white energy bolts fired from Cyber Seer’s conjured weapon, something from a video game of some kind she had said earlier, though Liz hadn’t bothered to ask how she could have conjured something that detailed from the blocky graphics in the arcade machines, or from an Atari.
Pink Pussy pushed off of Mecha Musume at the last moment, elegantly flipping into the air and landing twenty feet away. By the time her feet had hit the floor, she was already moving, charging forward almost faster than Liz could follow. She couldn’t be using an acceleration spell, could she? Liz couldn’t be sure; she didn’t dare activate her magical sight in the same room as the staff; it had nearly blinded her when she’d tried a couple days back, when she had first started setting up the trap wards. Thankfully she’d shut it off before getting fully sickened like in the apartment.
“Black Cat, what do we do?!” shouted Cyber Seer, backing off as she sprayed energy blasts at the scrambling feline, not landing a single shot.
Snapping back from her stunned state, Liz, remembering that she was going by Black Cat now, stepped over the railing and took to the air with a creak of leather from her new costume, working her fingers rapidly as she chanted the power words. After going through a multitude of outfits during that wild night with Cyber Seer and Mecha Musume, Black Cat had finally settled on one that mixed sexy with practicality, leaving at least Cyber Seer a little disappointed in the smaller amount of skin it revealed compared to several other designs she had presented.
The costume itself was mostly black leather, and resembled the classic ‘sexy witch’ costume one would see on Halloween, with a black dress and pointy, wide-brimmed hat, though there were perfectly placed openings for her ears to protrude from said headgear. The dress itself was still on the revealing side, hugging at Black Cat’s curves while leaving her shoulders bare and no small amount of cleavage visible above the bustier-style top, her figure further enhanced by the snug, but not overly tight, corset that wrapped around her midsection. The lower part of the dress was composed of several wide sections that circled her body, leaving her legs plainly visible through the openings, revealing the fishnet stockings upon her thighs beneath. A pair of tight-fitting, opera-style gloves covered her arms, accented with several jeweled charms at her wrists and biceps, and a similarly styled pair of high-heeled boots were on her legs, extending above her knees; more jeweled charms accented the boots around her ankles. There were more of the charms dangling around the brim of the hat, and a final accessory, a domino-type mask, served to further obscure her identity.
Their simple plan had gotten complicated all of a sudden. It shouldn’t have been possible for Pink Pussy to have broken through that cage! How the feline had managed such a feat was still beyond Black Cat, still gnawing at her thoughts, but she pushed the uncertainty away; she had to focus on her spell.
Glowing symbols appeared around her as she circled the rotunda, turning from blue-white to red as she released the cloud of arcane missiles, swarming through the air like angry wasps as they tracked Pink Pussy. Liz had added much more energy to them than she had with the maids, and they were faster, would pack more punch.
Pink Pussy had leaped at Cyber Seer, coming down with both sets of foreclaws as if to tear the heroine to shreds. She tore through something, but it shimmered and dissolved into a greenish swirl of strange symbols. As Pink Pussy realized she had only gotten an illusion, the missiles struck.
An angry, hissing screech sounded from Pink Pussy as magic exploded upon her skin, and she dove forward, rolling between displays, the remaining missiles tracking her, but impacting the obstacles instead, sending bits of paper, wood and stone flying.
Damn, she was fast!
Black Cat saw Cyber Seer appear behind Mecha Musume, a hand touching the armor’s thigh, and the channels that had been carved through the armored chest plate were suddenly covered in more of those green symbols, which then fell away, revealing shiny new armor beneath.
“Flank her!” Black Cat called to her allies. “I’ll try a different spell to capture her!”
“Roger!” Mecha Musume replied, flaring her thrusters and shooting forward, low across the floor, plowing through several more displays. Cyber Seer was already gone.
Gritting her teeth, Black Cat began another incantation.
Mecha Musume’s charge was met straight on by Pink Pussy, the feline’s big, clawed hands meeting the armor’s gauntlets. The claws on Pink Pussy’s feet tore into the stone floor tiles as she was pushed back, but her muscles bulged, and she roared into the armored visor of Mecha Musume, and somehow, Pink Pussy actually managed to overpower the armor’s thrusters, stopping short of being slammed into the pillar behind her.
The armored heroine’s heavy feet crashed into the floor, tearing up more of the tiles, and the two maintained their deathgrip on each other’s hands, arms shifting back and forth by inches as they stomped around the floor on equal footing. The armor whined as the two pressed together, and Pink Pussy snarled up at the visor, her mask nearly touching it.
“My suit is at maximum output!” Mecha Musume said, her voice strained over the radio. “I can’t hold her long like this. So strong!”
Cyber Seer appeared behind Pink Pussy in a flash of green symbols. She had something in her hand that looked like a gun with a small vial on the top, which she then moved toward Pink Pussy’s neck.
Black Cat couldn’t believe how quickly the pink feline moved, somehow twisting herself to avoid getting touched by Cyber Seer’s attack, while at the same time shifting her weight and getting Mecha Musume off balance. Pink Pussy suddenly let go of Mecha Musume’s hands, slipped between her legs and rolled, coming up with a solid kick with both feet to Mecha Musume’s back, pushing herself off the floor with her arms to add to the striking power.
The armor of Musume’s backpack deformed from the immense power of the blow, and Mecha Musume flew forward, slamming into Cyber Seer, then crashed into the pillar. A cloud of dust flew around them, and the pillar groaned.
“Shit!” Black Cat spat through clenched teeth, hoping that the impact hadn’t just flattened Cyber Seer. She continued her incantation. Almost done…
“Stop it, Pink Pussy! Just stop and surrender right now!” shouted the cop, coming around behind Pink Pussy, gun aimed at the crouching feline.
“Damn it, don’t do that!” Black Cat thought as Pink Pussy whipped about and came charging at the detective.
For her part, the detective managed to fire off a few shots, then more impressively, dove to the side and rolled behind another pillar, Pink Pussy’s claws tearing up the floor inches behind her.
“This isn’t you, cat!” the detective shouted, already on her feet on the other side of the pillar. “Calm down and let’s talk about this! I want to help you, you know that!”
Pink Pussy didn’t seem to have given the cop’s words much thought, dropping low onto all fours again and charged around the pillar, kicking off one of the big statues resting next to it. She was through the air and atop the detective in half a heartbeat, claws extended for the kill.
At the last moment, Pink Pussy closed her fist, angled her strike downward, catching the detective in the stomach.
Black Cat heard the detective cry out as she went sailing through one of the glass displays, hitting the floor with another cry and rolling to a stop a dozen feet away, somehow still clutching her gun as she curled up, holding her free arm to her gut, another pained groan escaping her. How was she still awake from a strike like that? More importantly, why had Pink Pussy pulled her punch at the last moment?
Turning her eyes back to the whole reason they were in the museum in the first place, Black Cat saw Pink Pussy standing there, her shoulders and hands shaking as the dark eyes of her mask looked at the detective. One of her hands reached for the mask, shaking more violently. Her claws touched the smooth surface, then recoiled as if she had touched an open flame, flexing and balling into a fist. Pink Pussy dropped to all fours, roaring, her claws digging into the stone beneath her as her fur bristled.
Something clicked in Black Cat’s brain at that moment. The mask! There was something about the mask! She couldn’t be sure exactly what it was without examining it with her arcane sight, but that had to be it! “I’m going to stop her in her tracks! Go for the mask!” she shouted, hoping that Mecha Musume and Cyber Seer had heard her, then called out the spell she had been holding onto.
“BANDS OF-!”
Pink Pussy pounced, her claws extended toward the detective, hungry for blood.
The cop tried to scoot backward, a look of utter terror upon her face, but was too slow this time, unable to get traction in the scattered debris covering the floor.
Black Cat dropped the spell before it could form and potentially go out of control, and uttered a quick word without really thinking it through, shunting the gathered power she had amassed for the binding spell. She blinked, and was no longer in the air, rather, on the ground.
Right in between the struggling detective and the raging beast barreling toward her.
Gritting her teeth, Black Cat activated her arcane barrier, holding her hand toward Pink Pussy in a split second before the wildcat crashed into it, the runes flaring to white-hot light in the air in front of her. “Holy shit…” she muttered, feeling the pressure upon her barrier, the cracks already forming as multiple claws tore into it. “What are those claws made out of?!”
Wincing, and trying to think of something else she could try, Black Cat threw her other hand toward the detective. “Get clear, Crockett!” she shouted, barely thinking as she sent a wave of force toward the cop that had her scooting across the floor, behind the stone pillars, and out the immediate reach of Pink Pussy.
Black Cat’s eyes darted across the room as she saw movement. Mecha Musume was stirring again, pulling herself out of the pillar.
The arcane barrier shattered.
Black Cat yelped in surprise at the suddenness of the breaking, seeing only the glittering points of light sparkling at the tips of Pink Pussy’s claws drove toward her.
“The mask!” she cried, knowing she was done for. She’d not gotten a response from Cyber Seer or Mecha Musume the last time. Had they even heard her?
The claws disappeared, then a Mack truck slammed into her gut.
Black Cat flew through the air, crashing into the arcane barrier she’d set up around the staff’s display case. She heard a roar fading into the distance as she fell to the ground and was consumed by darkness.
* * *
“You know, I’m totally glad you didn’t go for the big-breasted robot chick design,” Cyber Seer said, blinking behind her goggles, her vision getting an up close view of Mecha Musume’s recently repaired chest plate, so close in fact that her goggles were touching the heavy metal.
“Me too,” came the faint, staticy reply. Something was wrong with their radios.
When Pink Pussy had delivered that kick to Mecha Musume’s back and sent her flying at Cyber Seer, she had just barely managed to get her arms and legs in position around the unarmored heroine to absorb the impact of them hitting the pillar. For her part, Cyber Seer had managed to erect a barrier at her back that had absorbed much of the impact; it only felt like she had landed hard on the ground, with a couple of rocks poking into her back.
A burst of static filled her ear, and she heard Black Cat shouting something, only catching a couple of words. “Did she like, say something about a mask?”
“I think so,” Mecha Musume replied, pushing herself backward. Chunks of wood and concrete rained down atop her. “Something about Pink Pussy’s mask, maybe?”
Cyber Seer’s hands touched Mecha Musume’s hips, immediately linking in with the suit’s systems, reading the damage. It was minor, thankfully, and easily fixed; aside from a couple of thrusters that were damaged, a power surge had shorted the radio system that they were all piggybacking off of. She concentrated and reconstructed the systems back to their original state.
As the power levels that had caused the static in their radios stabilized and the circuits were realigned, Cyber Seer winced at the sudden shout from Black Cat. “Get clear, Crockett!”
Looking past her bulky partner, Cyber Seer saw some kind of shield shimmering around Black Cat as the police detective went scooting across the floor, out of range of Pink Pussy.
Then the shield shattered.
“The mask!” Black Cat cried, just before she was sent flying backward into the magical barrier around the staff display, slumping.
“Oh shit!”
“Is she…”
“I don’t know,” Cyber Seer said, wincing. She saw Pink Pussy on all fours again, roaring as she stalked toward Black Cat, jerking like she was fighting at something. “Like, I’m going to distract Pink Pussy. Get Black Cat clear, the cop too.”
“You should do that!” Mecha Musume said quickly. “I can take more hits than you.”
“You’re like, a lot slower than me, and those claws totally shredded your armor a minute ago,” Cyber Seer replied. “You remember when we were playing in that Mobile Warrior tournament back in Cali that time? The one where the guy was using all the hacks and we still beat him?”
“Yeah…”
“Same plan here.”
Mecha Musume’s head nodded slowly. “Roger that!”
Becky slipped into cyberspace, or tried to, noticing that she couldn’t move very far, couldn’t make the full shift, in fact. Whatever energy field Black Cat had set up, warding as she called it, was glowing like a firewall around her. She managed to get far enough, though, coming out on the upper level of the exhibit hall. Keeping her back to the pillar, peeking around and down at their target, she called up some of the internet’s best pop-ups.
A glowing banner advertising erectile dysfunction meds popped into existence in front of Pink Pussy. The feline hissed, swiping at the illusory image.
It vanished, but two more popped up in its place, hot XXX girls and free samples of real powdered rhino horn. When she swiped through these, four more popped up, and she roared with frustration, swiping the air all around her, trying to ward off the ever growing wall of annoyance.
Mecha Musume’s thrusters fired, and she had Black Cat cradled in her arms a moment later. Pink Pussy turned toward the sound, but roared angrily again, still swiping at the pop-ups, which had formed something of a dome over her, apparently unable to see through them.
The cop had finally found her footing by the time Mecha Musume swooped by, grabbing her up and angling upward, depositing both of them on the upper level. “Black Cat’s alive, but she’s out cold. Stay up here and let us handle this from here.”
Cyber Seer heard Mecha Musume’s robotic voice, addressing the detective. Down below, Pink Pussy had stopped trying to swipe at the pop-ups, and was looking in Mecha Musume’s direction, ears laid back, tail darting back and forth. “Musume, she’s totally tracking you now; I don’t think she can see you, but like, she knows exactly where you are. Starting the next wave; get ready; I’m going to see what I can figure out about that mask!”
“Roger!”
Cyber Seer kept the ads in place, swirling them around Pink Pussy like a tornado.
She went into a defensive stance immediately, claws raised.
Letting the tornado fade out of existence, Cyber Seer un-digitized a little device she had been playing with recently, which looked like a high-dollar router with several antennas and more than a few wires sticking out of it, with an attached battery pack. She slipped back into the edges of cyberspace and to the lower floor, and sat the device behind a pillar, flipping it on.
She was gone from sight a half-second later, but could still clearly see the Pink Pussy as she made ready to leap at Mecha Musume. That was, until the digital cavalry showed up in the form of a dozen special operations soldiers stepping around the pillars, aiming their M4 rifles at Pink Pussy and opening fire.
Reacting on instinct, Pink Pussy dropped and scampered for cover, avoiding a reign of bullets that did absolutely nothing when they should have been tearing up the room. It wouldn’t take long for Pink Pussy to catch on, but it should be long enough for Cyber Seer to get her next task done.
Shifting through the ether between the real world and cyberspace, Cyber Seer focused her goggles at Pink Pussy, and started scanning. She met resistance at first, almost like an X-ray machine trying to scan through lead, but when she changed the spectrum in which she scanned, she was able to penetrate the material. There was a lot of energy flowing around the mask, of a type she didn’t recognize, though it was very similar to what she had picked up when Black Cat used magic. “We’ll just call it what it is…” she thought wryly.
Looking at the magical energy on Pink Pussy’s mask as she ran up one of the pillars, the feline leaping off and landing atop one of the soldiers, slamming him to the ground, where he dissolved into a quickly fading burst of glowing code before she pounced the next one in line, Cyber Seer discovered the electronics hidden beneath the outer insulating materials. She also picked up the very well-hidden wireless signal linked to it; why hadn’t she been able to spot it before? She could see hundreds of wireless signals at any given time, from each and every device attached to a network. Was it because this one wasn’t relying on a normal network relay, perhaps? Or was it hidden beneath the magical energies that seemed to be intertwined with the mask’s construction?
“I’m poking the Pussy,” Cyber Seer said, watching as her digital soldiers flickered; the battery was already dying on her device. “Go!”
“Did you seriously have to phrase it like that?” Mecha Musume asked as she jumped from above.
Snickering, Cyber Seer isolated the signal going to the mask, tracing it back to its source in fractions of a second, and then killed it.
Pink Pussy’s roar shook the exhibit hall.
* * *
With the Pink Pussy in her sights, Mecha Musume jumped from the balcony, keeping her much louder thrusters in check for the moment. With the feline distracted by Cyber Seer’s digital soldiers she should have a chance to land a knockout blow.
She swore she could feel Pink Pussy’s roar through her armor as the feline’s hands suddenly shot to her mask. Mecha Musume engaged thrust and barreled at Pink Pussy, one hand clamping down atop the mask, the other held close to her body so that her shoulder could impact Pink Pussy’s gut.
Blackish-green energy spewed from the mask, which didn’t budge from Pink Pussy’s face. Pink Pussy roared, and warning alarms blared inside the armor’s helmet. The feline’s claws were cutting into the armor’s legs as she kicked to free herself, and the suit’s systems were encountering some kind of interference from the unknown energy signature coming from the mask, causing the display to flicker, the power feeds to falter.
The momentum of the blast from her thrusters carried Mecha Musume and Pink Pussy across the length of the exhibit hall, and both slammed into the wall, leaving a deep hole in the concrete.
Seeing that the impact may have actually stunned Pink Pussy, Mecha Musume set her feet and pulled back, flipping the feline over her shoulder and slamming her down against the floor, leaving another depression in the floor, cracks radiating outward from it.
Pink Pussy kicked and clawed at Musume, and more alarms sounded as armor shredded along her legs and the rear of the suit, then along her arms, the metal squealing as those deadly claws tore through the plates like they were made of cloth.
“Stop fighting me!” Mecha Musume shouted, squeezing her gauntlet around the mask. She grimaced as the strange energy continued to build. She could feel the heat on her hand now as temperature alarms went off, seeing that her gauntlet had started glowing as the metal heated. What was inside that mask?!
Pink Pussy thrashed beneath her, trying to dislodge the iron grip, but Mecha Musume refused to give ground, picking the feline up and slamming her downward again.
The struggling feline’s claws found purchase in Mecha Musume’s back, an explosion of sparks and coolant spraying from the armor’s backpack.
Immediately all of her internal displays turned red in warning that she had lost her primary cooling systems, but still, Mecha Musume’s grip did not falter, even though she could feel the heat stinging her hand now, could feel the oven around her growing toward painful levels. She had a few more seconds before she would have to shut down!
“I’ve hacked the mask!” Cyber Seer shouted, coming in garbled through the radio.
Suddenly Pink Pussy went limp, and Mecha Musume felt the mask slip from the former heroine’s face. Turning her eyes toward the mask, Mecha Musume spotted a line of drool coming from the phallic-shaped gag on the inside, the heat readings fading from her gauntlet. Reflexively, feeling a deep revulsion at the thing she held, Mecha Musume squeezed, and the mask deformed, groaning with surprising resilience, then was crushed in her grasp.
Releasing a breath she hadn’t been aware she was holding, Mecha Musume finally looked down at Pink Pussy, who looked back tiredly, no, absolutely exhausted, not even moving but for the quick rising and falling of her chest as she tried to catch her breath. She even looked smaller, almost fragile as she lay upon the broken floor tiles. Suddenly feeling the need to be gentle, Mecha Musume carefully rolled Pink Pussy onto her stomach, brought her hands behind her, and snapped a set of heavy-duty, custom-built shackles upon her wrists, a matching pair going to her ankles.
“Pink Pussy has been captured,” Mecha Musume said at last, looking up, finally paying attention to a timer counting down in her visor, a different one from her overheating warnings. Cyber Seer appeared at her side, and the warning alarms began to slow and shut off as the armor began repairing itself under her touch.
The special timer reached zero, and the shimmering that had filled the air around them the entire battle faded and vanished. As it dissipated, though, the damage that had been caused around the room reversed itself. The cracked depression beneath her was gone, then the damaged pillar and destroyed displays faded into their fully intact, unmarred selves.
Cyber Seer whistled. “Dude! That’s totally awesome! I totally didn’t believe it when she said that would happen!”
Black Cat had insisted on setting up the special magic along with her other wards; it had taken the better part of two days for her to do so, in fact, while she kept herself hidden from casual observation in the museum. In addition to subtly keeping the guards away from the main rotunda via some kind of mental suggestion, the magic had created a window of a handful of minutes in which time would revert to some extent, to the moments when the spell had first activated, at least for their surroundings. She had phrased it as avoiding a tragedy when it came to protecting the historic relics in the museum, a sentiment Mecha Musume had shared.
Mecha Musume was just about to respond when she saw the magical shield around the staff flicker out, and could finally hear shouting from outside the room. “Black Cat’s pretty impressive; do you think-”
“Who the hell is that?!” Black Cat shouted from above them.
A quick glance showed Mecha Musume that Black Cat was standing again, leaning against the police detective.
A swirl of energy atop the staff’s display case drew Mecha Musume’s attention. With a sudden flash and a shower of multi-colored cherry blossom petals, a figure appeared, crouched atop the case. It was a female, obvious from the skin-tight black and gray latex costume she wore, highlighting the curves of her hips and chest. Nine shiny tails floated behind her, tipped in gray, wavering in an unfelt wind, and her face was covered by a mask similar to the one Pink Pussy had worn, only shaped like a fox, not the more human-looking design Pink Pussy had been sporting. All other details about her were hidden beneath the latex and the mask, not even her hair was visible.
“And why does she have the dagger?!” asked the detective, raising her gun toward the figure with the hand that wasn’t holding onto Black Cat.
Not having noticed it at first, Mecha Musume’s jaw dropped. Sure enough, the mysterious figure had the ritual dagger tucked into her multi-pouched belt.
Before anyone could respond, the figure flickered, appeared briefly behind the display case, flickered again, and then was crouched in front of it, holding the staff in both hands. A squawk of static came through the speakers that lined the rotunda, filtering in an upbeat face-paced tune with a distinctly Japanese sound to it, with lots of quick plucks on a shamisen and a taishōgoto. Over the music, several voices, male and female, came through, sounding like something cobbled together from soundbites from radio or TV:
“Thank you for all your help, Pink Pussy! You’ve been a useful tool; sorry to see you go! Unfortunately for you, your new friends are just too slow!”
The stranger’s tails danced behind her as she rose to one foot, spun in place, then gave a quick, exaggerated bow in Pink Pussy’s direction, the motion clearly mocking, before her tails stood out straight and she disappeared in a flash of light, leaving more rainbow-colored cherry blossom petals floating in the air, dancing on an invisible wind until they dissipated into nothingness a few seconds later.
“Kitsune…?” Mecha Musume stammered, barely registering that Pink Pussy had said the exact same word by her feet, though without the questioning tone.
Well, how’s that for a big fight? Hope you enjoyed the battle. I had a fun time writing it; action scenes are one of those things that I need more practice with, so I hope this one flowed well (was a bit challenging fitting in four POVs, I will admit).
The Pink Pussy is captured, but now that Kitsune has been revealed, what else is going on? What will Pink Pussy tell our heroines? Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out!
Would love to hear any feedback you might have! Hit me up here or over on DeviantArt, or on my Discord server!
Till next time, y’all!
