Daughter, Lover, Superheroine Ch. 07

Cindy's gaze hardened, and she looked at Barbara as well. "I'm up for a full test anytime she is, Mom. Want to referee?"

"It should be a proper contest with a prize. Or forfeit. What do you think the winner or loser should do... Battleborn?"

"Maybe it should be up to the winner to decide... Conqueress. But I think it should definitely involve Mom in some way."

"Agreed."

Barbara's throat had suddenly gone dry, and she could feel her heart thudding in her chest. She swallowed hard.

But before she could say anything, there was an alert - bank robbery in progress, near where they were. They were probably the closest Heroes on hand.

"The both of you can go together," she told them. "I'll stay here as backup."

The two heroines nodded. "Take it easy, Mom. Watch us clean house!" Cindy said.

"We'll be back before you know it. They don't stand a chance against the both of us!" Vicky asserted.

She was very proud of the both of them. They didn't have to know, Barbara reflected a little guiltily, that she wanted to hang back for this one because if she went out in their company, and watched them both trying to outdo each other, she wasn't sure she could keep from embarrassing herself by showing visible arousal in public.

***

It was a group of Freakshow, from nearby Boomtown - "Baumton", before the War. They had just exited the bank entrance, and were making a break for it.

A police sergeant waved to Cindy, and did a bit of a double-take at seeing Vicky as well. "Battleborn! Didn't know you had a... a friend? A twin?"

"Never mind that now," Cindy said hastily. "What's the situation?"

"Freakshow hacked bank security and broke through the vault. On their way out, they were stopped by Rose Star, but... she couldn't stop them. And neither can we!" The police sergeant wiped the sweat from her forehead. "But now you're here... um... the both of you are here, so we're ready to assist, Battleborn!"

"I don't know who Rose Star is, but she must be a very brave heroine to have faced them by herself!" Cindy said. "Sergeant, I'm going to have to ask you to check on Rose Star and see to her safety - get some paramedics here as quickly as you can, while Conqueress and I go stop the Freakshow from hurting anyone else!"

"On it, Battleborn!" The sergeant snapped a quick salute and turned to bark orders.

"Damn undisciplined hordes!" Vicky growled, glaring all around.

"They really are a menace," Cindy concurred.

"I meant them, sister!" Vicky gestured to the scattered groups of civilians running around pell-mell, away from the escaping Freakshow. "Running around like headless chickens, getting in the way! Don't they know how to vacate the area in orderly fashion?"

Cindy quirked an eyebrow, but decided to ignore that non sequitur. "We have to make sure none of them get hurt - that's our priority! We'll take in the robbers in plenty good time when they get clear of the crowds!"

"Inefficient," Vicky retorted. "We'll stop them here and now. I'm going in!"

"Wait!"

But Vicky had already jumped far ahead. "Vile miscreants! Prepare to be smashed by the Conqueress!"

Some of the Freakshow wielded submachine guns, which thankfully they'd only been brandishing and firing into the air so far. At Vicky's approach, however, they seemed to panic, and took aim at the onrushing superheroine.

Vicky landed and began to dart swiftly from side to side, displaying superb agility and jumping power, closing the distance with her oblique movement patterns. This, however, put civilians in the line of fire, as the Freakshow gunners took aim at the approaching blur and fired wildly.

Cindy just barely managed to interpose her body in between the hail of bullets and a small group of civilians, including a mother and a young girl. She gasped in pain as the bullets struck her flesh - thanks to Michelle's training, she could now repel small arms fire, but they still hurt, as she was finding out.

Damn it, Vicky! she thought, gritting her teeth. To the civilians she said, "Please, get indoors and off the streets! Now!" They scrambled to obey. "Help each other!" They did so as well at her instruction, stopping to help the children, the elderly and anyone who seemed hurt or unable to move fast.

Vicky didn't seem to care about any of that, though - she had dived in among the Freakshow, laughing with wild abandon. Some of them had replaced their arms with giant sledgehammers, and they swung at her - but she blocked the blows easily on her forearms, grabbed the mechanical limbs and slammed the luckless Freakshow Smashers headfirst into the ground. Three of them were disposed off in this way before the rest fled helter-skelter, eyes wide with terror.

Cindy froze, horrified. The Smashers weren't robots - could they survive such impacts? She rushed over to check on them, even as Vicky continued her pursuit of the others.

They were all still alive - thank goodness. But one of them had a broken neck - likely, he would end up being paralyzed from the neck down. All three would probably have concussions, at the very least, with the possibility of brain damage - one of them was bleeding already from his nose and ears.

Cindy could only hope the paramedics would arrive quickly so they could be sent to the hospital and patched up, as per normal procedure. In the meantime, she had to stop her violent Praetorian twin from doing any more excessive harm!

She found her way barred by two more of the Freakshow, however. Never the most even-tempered of criminals at the best of times, these two seemed to be in a battle frenzy. "We gonna permaban you, hax0r!" one of them screamed. "Only one account allowed per player!"

"Ph33r us! We r l337!" the other roared. "Banhammer time!"

As usual, Cindy was unable to understand the imprecations hurled by the Freakshow, but as usual, that didn't matter. She took some blows to her belly, but nothing she couldn't shrug off. Her own punches, though, soon put them out of commission. None of the injuries she caused, of course, were as severe as those Vicky had inflicted on the others.

Cursing her Praetorian twin under her breath, Cindy went in search.

It wasn't hard to follow Vicky - she had left a trail of barely alive, terribly injured would-be bank robbers in her wake. Some of the human-machine hybrids had been virtually dismantled - and it seemed that Vicky had made no distinction between living tissue and grafted metal parts, in terms of the damage she had wrought.

The sight of the broken bones poking through bloodied flesh, juxtaposed with the twisted hunks of metal still attached to the Freakshow bodies, made Cindy feel sick. There'd been damage to public property, as well - Vicky had made liberal use of the surrounding structures such as fire hydrants and street lamps. One of the Freakshow had in fact been forcibly jammed against a fire hydrant; judging from the amount of wiring jutting out from his skin, he had command of electric powers before Vicky had short-circuited him, and half-drowned him into the bargain.

There was a huddled group of civilians gathered around the entrance to an alleyway, peering within fearfully. At Cindy's approach, they shrank back. They had never done that before! They had always reacted with gladness to Battleborn's appearance on any scene.

"Where is she?" Cindy said urgently, though she hardly had to ask. As one, they turned their heads back towards the interior of the darkened alleyway. Cindy went in.

Vicky was there, perched over a Freakshow lieutenant - the last of his group. This one was more heavily modified than the rest - both his arms had been replaced by giant robotic pincers, lined along the edges with sawblades. The pincers had been twisted all out of shape, and were quite useless for anything. His face, at the moment, was a bloody mess - this was on account of the fact that his jaw was missing. Vicky had it in her hand - it was a metal jaw implant.

She stood, with one foot atop the whimpering Freakshow Swiper, as she examined the artificial jaw curiously. "This doesn't seem good for much," she commented critically. "The teeth aren't suitable for mastication, which means even if you've had your fellow profligates helping to feed you, the most you could eat would be porridge or soup. And soup would probably leak through the holes in this thing. Nah. This is trash. Don't weep over it."

With a single clenching motion, she crushed the jaw, turning it into useless scrap. She let go, and it fell beside her victim's face, a useless hunk of metal. He turned his face to look at it, wide-eyed. His tongue lolled uselessly from the gaping broken maw that was his face.

Vicky laughed - a cold, merciless laugh. "Degenerate scum," she spat. "That's the last financial institution you will ever rob. This world lacks proper rehabilitation facilities, to turn you back into a productive member of society. But count yourself honored to have your criminal career ended by me, Conqueress!" She raised her arms and flexed them, glaring down at the helpless thug with a sneer of cruel disdain.

Cindy found her voice. "Stop that at once! Conqueress! You cannot do that!"

Vicky turned, surprised. Then her eyes narrowed, and she lowered her arms, but her fists stayed clenched. "Sister. You're just in time. I've finished cleaning up these worthless insects - I must say, I didn't like having to do almost everything myself."

"You... you..." Cindy was beside herself. "This is not how we do things here!" she finally managed to say. She marched up to her counterpart, who crossed her arms and glared back. The fallen Freakshow whimpered and tried, in vain, to drag himself away from the two women - it was a pitiable sight.

"We put criminals down - that is what we do, isn't it?" Vicky said. "These villains were making their getaway, after having stolen money that belongs to lawfully established entities! What problem could you possibly have with what we're doing?"

"Not like this - not like the way you do it! We subdue and arrest them - we don't cripple or maim or... or kill!" Cindy spluttered. "We're Heroes, not Villains - that's the line that divides good from evil!"

Heroes who killed or did something equally reprehensible were regarded as Vigilantes, and were blacklisted in reputable circles - redemption was possible, but took time and effort. Cindy didn't think Vicky would be receptive to that explanation, somehow. She seemed to be operating on a different plane of morality entirely.

"Don't talk to me about that hackneyed 'good and evil' rubbish! Our job is to enforce the law, and we show no mercy to those who willfully break it!" Vicky said angrily. "If they knowingly do something illegal, there is no excuse, none whatsoever - they must be crushed, and made examples of, to deter others from doing the same! And sometimes, that does mean they have to die - and it's good if their deaths can be made to serve some useful purpose!"

"We are not judge, jury and executioner on the streets!" Cindy shouted. "We take them down, with the minimum force needed, and we let the authorities take over from there! We also try to stop others around from getting hurt - we avoid collateral damage, we don't cause it! Do you know how many people you put in danger out there?"

"These citizens need to be properly drilled in public safety procedures - it's not my responsibility if they behave like headless chickens!" Vicky snapped. "You'd think a city full of people who lived through an alien invasion, surrounded by War Walls built during that same invasion, would have learned some lessons about vigilance and emergency response - not these citizens of yours, apparently!"

"You need an attitude adjustment, sister!" Cindy yelled, stabbing her finger into Vicky's chest.

But Vicky didn't back down. "No, you do!" she yelled back, giving Cindy a shove that sent her staggering back. "It's your fault, what happened to our Mother, you weak-willed, wishy-washy, namby-pamby snowflake!"

Cindy stood, open-mouthed.

They had, of course, shared the whole story with Vicky - their duels against Vicious Vixen and Vixenette. Vicky had glowered dourly throughout the entire telling, only muttering a terse "Good" when they described how Barbara had snapped Valerie's wrist. This was the first time since they told her that she was bringing it up.

"If you hadn't been weak and careless, you'd never have gotten kidnapped and used as bait to trap our Mother!" Vicky snarled, advancing on Cindy. "And after that, there were dozens, literally dozens, of chances for you to exact proper revenge on that depraved pair! There were so many things you could've done to make them suffer like they should have! You should've hunted them down in whatever hole they'd crawled into, struck when they least expected it, and let them have a taste of their own sick medicine!

"But no... no, you let yourself get ambushed by them again, and trap you into yet another rigged fight with the game stacked against you! And you watched Mother suffer, yet again, in a brutal fight against a vicious enemy... you watched her abs, those beautiful muscles of hers, get tortured every which way... you watched our wonderful mother pushed to her breaking point... and you let them put those suppressor cuffs on you so you couldn't put a stop to it!

"And now, they're in the Zig, your local metahuman penitentiary, you say - only it's the most porous prison not counting a pineapple under the sea! Praetorians have been put into it, and let me tell you, they had next to no trouble getting out! In fact, I could do it, if they ever tried to put me in there!

"It's only a matter of time before Mother's nemesis and her perverted daughter get out again, and they'll come after Mother, and you won't be able to guard her properly, because you're soft-hearted, and indecisive, and unwilling to do what needs to be done to make sure your enemies don't win. And that's why your villains keep coming back, time after time, causing no end of trouble and all kinds of lawlessness...

"Let me tell you, Cindy - if I had been in your place, neither of those vile vixens would even be capable of walking today, assuming they even lived! And that's no less than what they deserve. You know I'm right!"

Cindy was speechless in the face of this diatribe. She knew Vicky was in the wrong - and yet, when Vicky brought up the travails Barbara had gone through, it seemed very hard for Cindy to articulate why.

She did, indeed, blame herself at some level for having been kidnapped on that occasion. And, on some level... she knew it was quite possible she would do anything for her beloved mom, including taking a life. Things had never yet come to that - but she could not answer for a hypothetical.

"But that won't happen, Battleborn - they will not be able to go after Mother again, or if they try, they will regret it," Vicky continued, lowering her voice. "I will personally see to it. I will pound their sniveling, smirking faces into the ground. I will conquer our enemies - anyone who dares threaten Mother and me will be an enemy."

"You... what are you saying?" Cindy gasped, finding her voice. "We're not supposed to sink to the level of the villains we face!"

Vicky's voice was dangerously soft. "You can't do the job, Cindy. Step aside. You can't protect Mother from the dangers of the world - but I can. You can't even protect yourself." So saying, Vicky launched herself forward.

Punch after punch, kick after kick they landed on each other's bodies, in that alleyway. Time after time, they came together in a grapple, pushing and grunting, before one or the other broke the grapple and resumed brawling.

Then a well-placed kick sent Cindy flying backwards, back out onto the street, scattering the crowd of gathered onlookers there. Vicky followed with a huge jump, aiming to land her knees right in Cindy's belly. Cindy only just managed to roll away in time, and Vicky checked herself, landing on her feet instead, sending radial cracks through the pavement.

They continued battling, even as Cindy called for Vicky to stop. "There are civilians here - they could get hurt!"

She threw a punch - but Vicky caught it in a gloved fist, and twisted her arm hard, causing Cindy to gasp in pain. "That's why you aren't good enough for our mother, Cindy - you worry too much about things that don't matter!" She sent some more punches into Cindy's exposed gut, grabbed hold of Cindy's body, lifted it, and brought Cindy's lower back crashing down on her knee.

Cindy rolled off, groaning, clutching at her hurting lower back. Vicky followed up with a kick to her ribs that sent her flying against a stationary car - fortunately, no one was inside. Cindy barely recovered in time to dodge a jumping knee that smashed the car off the road and into the window of a nearby store.

"Vicky!" she yelled, her voice edged with pain. "Vicky, stop it! Fight me somewhere else! Otherwise... otherwise you're the criminal!"

That brought Vicky up short.

"Reckless endangerment of bystanders..." Cindy said through gritted teeth, forcing herself to stand upright, "wanton destruction of public and private property... disturbing the peace... your hands aren't exactly clean, Conqueress!"

Vicky considered this briefly, glancing all around, noting the assembled crowd. She grimaced. "Maybe so. Very well, then. Let's settle this back at base."

With a haughty tilt of her head, she turned and disappeared into the distance with a giant leap. Cindy was left behind at the scene of destruction, as police and ambulance sirens wailed in the distance.

"Battleborn?" one of the civilians asked, hesitantly. "Who... who was that? Do you know her?"

"Is she a villainess?" a child piped up.

"What she did to those... to those Freakshow... was horrible!" a bespectacled middle-aged woman said, shaking her head disapprovingly.

But an elderly man rebutted her angrily. "It's no less than scum like them deserve! I have my life savings tied up in that bank!"

"Sir, a bank robbery doesn't mean we lose any money..." the woman tried to explain. But he wasn't having it.

And soon, the crowd was embroiled in an argument over the way Conqueress had systematically and callously destroyed the Freakshow. It seemed about evenly split down the middle, as to whether her actions were justified or not.

Cindy sighed. This situation wasn't hers to resolve - the question could only be answered by the people she served.

But before she could chase after her rogue sister, she had questions of her own to answer. The press had arrived.

"Who exactly is she, Battleborn?"

"Do you condone this level of violence against criminals?"

"Who will be responsible for this destruction to property?"

"Battleborn, would you care to comment on..."

"Battleborn, we need a statement from you...!"

"Don't you think this could lead to..."

"Surely the public has a right to..."

As it turned out, it was quite a while before Cindy could return to base.

***

"Vicky?"

Barbara had to throw on a bathrobe hastily when Vicky returned to base. She hoped she didn't look too flushed. She had been in bed, dreamily fondling herself, thinking - of course - of her daughters, feeling puzzled but happy that now she had two. It would be quite the adventure to see how things went on from here.

But now Vicky seemed to have returned alone. This was concerning.

"Where's Cindy?"

Vicky waved dismissively. "She's still out there. Doing some public relations."

"Is she... alright?"

"What? Oh, yes, Mother, she's fine. We destroyed the Freakshow troublemakers. They were properly punished for their transgression."