"Soon I will have my revenge on those thankless fools! I have finally found it! The Atlantean Font of Power! It is MINE for the taking!" These sinister words were spoken by a strangely out-of-place character.
A young woman, no more than 30 or so, stood among the ancient, moss-covered pillars. Her perfectly coiffed hairstyle, fashionable glasses, manicured nails, designer shoes, and smartly ironed grey suitcoat and skirt contrasted sharply with the ancient hieroglyphics inscribed on the moss-covered walls.
Her laughter echoed through the underwater chamber as she bent down to drink from the glowing waters. On her hate-distorted features, the light took on a diabolical hue. As she downed the mystical fluid, the eerie glow crept it's way along her skin, only making the vision more hideous.
Suddenly, a second source of light appeared unnoticed behind her, this glow seeming to emanate from a hole which was rapidly forming in mid-air. Drinking the waters of the mystical font, the woman did not notice as the hole expanded out of nothingness. Three oddly dressed figures stepped out of the hole, and the first she was aware of them was a mechanical sounding voice announcing "Destination confirmed. Temporal/spatial translocation successful. Beginning temporal alignment reset - MARK."
The woman immediately spun around to stare at the intruders in astonishment. The first, the one who had spoken, was obviously a robot of some sort, though with a human-like chassis. It's face, if you could call it that, consisted solely of a large convex lens, glowing a bright red. It's metallic body was blue in color, all except for a lit section of the chest, which glowed the same red as it's face in the shape of a "Power On" symbol.
The second figure was even more out of place than the first. From his fringed leggings, holstered pistol, meztica-weave coverall, sheriff's badge, and grizzled features, the fellow may have just stepped out of a John Wayne movie. However, something silvery gleamed out from underneath the coverall where the left arm rested, indicating that there was more to this man than first met the eye.
The last figure was the least out of place, as her tight blue spandex one-piece and green boots, cape, and gloves seemed to fit whatever theme of interior design the long-dead architects of this mystic place were following. Even her completely bald head, reflecting the light of the font before which stood the astonished woman, seemed to belong in this place. Reacting before any of the newcomers could stop her, the first woman bent down to retrieve a small laptop, turned, and sprinted out of the room as fast as possible.
"Oh no!" exclaimed the bald woman, "We're too late! She has already drunk from the fountain!"
"My apologies, Visionary. The interference from my eighth form as we traveled here along the time pathways disrupted my homing signal. We arrived at the specified temporal/spatial coordinates 5.06392 minutes after we were scheduled. I can reset the chronometer to the correct coordinates"
"Y'all might want to reconsider that," drawled the cowboy. "She just ran out the door, and ifn we don't stop her now, she gonna kill the whole Freedom Five."
Suddenly the Visionary gasped in pain, fell to her knees, and clutched at her skull. "The...Five. Diversions are keeping them...away. Explosion...in the lab. A powerful energy being at...the airport. An apparition of fear in the streets of Megalopolis. She has divided them and sent them into danger."
Momentarily stunned by the psychic visions, she told the others to go ahead of her and stop the woman before she could escape.
As the two ran down the hallway, the robot spoke, "Will she be alright, Chrono-Ranger? My understanding of human psyches is limited, but I calculate that an episode such as that is not normal."
"Normal, Ten? I'm a gun-toting bounty hunter from 1883 A.D. who traveled to the far future, got ma arm ripped off, got a new one" at this, he displayed the mechanical replacement that was previously shrouded by the coverall, "and now I travel back in time hunting the beasts that will eventually overrun the Earth, hoping to put a stop to 'em. And you're a robot who travels through time, seeking a way to destroy yerself! We left 'normal' behind us many moons ago, my friend."
"Technically, I seek not self-destruction, but the termination of my original form, so as to prevent the many hundreds of deaths resulting from it's free rampage through the centuries. While that would result in the termination of my own existence, I believe that the sacrifice of one intelligence for the survival of the many is for the Greater Good."
"I still say yer a nut."
"I am an inorganic intelligence composed of silicon, steel, and fiber-optical cables. I am not, cannot, and hopefully will not ever be the seedling fruit of a large arboreal."
"No, I meant...," he sighed, "Nevermind. Woah! Watch out!" "Energy beam defenses detected! Activating elemental exochassis and repair functions!" This last came as they burst into what once had to have been a throne room and a series of violet and emerald beams of energy blazed from concealed points in the elaborately carved walls, striking down at everything in the room, including the prone figure of the woman just ahead of them, her suit scorched by one of the laser beams, but looking otherwise unharmed.
"Aminia Twain, aka Miss Information, cease and desist. We cannot allow you to destroy the Freedom Five. They must survive in order to effect the final destruction of my original form."
Standing up, looking both awed and angry, the woman grinned evily as she turned to confront the two heroes. "Miss Information? HA! I like it. I am indeed the mistress of information. I know everything about those pathetic so-called heroes who allowed me to die while they saved five pathetic nobodies. Me! Their loyal and dependable servant. They thought it more important to save five unimportant STRANGERS, than to save the woman who had served them faithfully for so long! Well, now we'll see who has the last laugh.
"I heard Dr. Stinson talking about experiments she wanted to conduct on the font of mystical energy that they found here. She seemed both afraid of and excited by the possibilities for human psychic and physical enhancement it represented.
Well, I decided to test her theory, and here I am! A new woman, stronger, faster, more hardy than before. Now I can finally get revenge for what was done to me!"
As she spoke, she took off the now smoking ruins of the professional outfit she was wearing, revealing a fighting-trim spandex suit underneath. The symbol emblazoned in the center of her chest was the famous "FV" of the Freedom Five, but this one was charred and wreathed in flames.
"First I'll take care of you interfering fools, and then I will put a stop to the charade that is "The Freedom Five" once and for all!"
"Not if we have anything to say about it," coughed the Visionary, as she stumbled into the room, obviously still in pain from the psychic backlash of her vision. "You two subdue her. Quickly, before these beams lock onto a wavelength that is deadly to us. I'll keep her from bringing her psychic faculties to bear on the two of you. This one has a stronger mind than most I've encountered, though, so make it fast. In my weakened state, I don't know how long I can hold her back."
"Right." "Affirmative."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Visionary collapsed as Miss Information broke through the last of her defenses. Laughing, she dodged a hasty shot from the Chrono-Ranger, deflected a focused beam of super-heated plasma from Omnitron-X, and bent over the prone form of the Visionary. As the other two heroes contended with the summoned projections of the "minor diversions" she had used to get the Freedom Five out of her way, as well as the still active beam defenses, she bent down to Visionary's ear and whispered,
"Let me tell you something, VANESSA. I knew you three would be here to stop me today. I am currently sending myself a vision last-night informing me of your plans and the necessity of preparing ahead of time. I was ready for you. And once you are out of the way, I'll have no trouble dealing with the cowboy and the machine."
"Let me tell YOU something, Aminia," Vanessa Long, aka The Visionary, coughed weakly, "You forget two things. First, that we've been doing this a great deal longer than you have." As she spoke the projections burst apart in an enormous blast of electrical energy, emanating from the various components of the robot. The lightning struck out at Miss Information, bringing her to her knees.
"And second, that these ruins have other guardians than these beams."
With a tremendous crash, a pair of mighty tentacles burst through the stone wall, knocking the Visionary to the far wall.
After pushing her mind to the breaking point to summon up the Kraken from the depths, rending time and space to give her comrades the tools they needed to defeat this villain, and fending off her impossibly powerful psychic blasts, the Visionary's powers acted to cocoon her away until she could recover.
"Now this here's one varmint I CAN appreciate," said Chrono-Ranger, stepping back as the mighty beast took ahold of Aminia Twain, dragging her backwards towards the watery depths from which they came.
"NO, NO, NO! I won't have my revenge ruined by some anachronistic fools such as yourselves!" she screamed as she scrabbled at the stonework, looking for something to hold her back from doom.
"Yer finished, little lady. As soon as I get out of here with my friends, we're going to your employers to tell them what yer up to."
Seemingly giving up at this pronouncement, Miss Information swiftly slid out of sight into the watery depths, but not before tossing something small, silver, and blinking onto the floor.
Just as Chrono-Ranger prepared to blast what he thought was a grenade into the next room so it wouldn't harm anyone, the device went off in an explosion of red light.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Somewhat confused, Jim Brooks, the Chrono-Ranger, panned his surroundings. He was in some underwater ruin covered in strange markings, and water was pouring through a huge hole in the wall, beginning to fill the room.
Nearby were the forms of two of his fellow heroes, the Visionary, and Omnitron-X (Ten, as Jim called him). Both were severely damaged, Omnitron obviously in self-repair/reset mode and the Visionary encased in the telekinetic cocoon that she used when her psychic powers had been pushed to the limit.
"What in blue blazes happened here?" he said as he pulled his two companions out of the water and up onto the platform next to him.
Obviously there had been a battle of some sort, but with whom? And where were they now?
Still unsure of what was going on, but knowing he couldn't wait much longer before the roof collapsed on him, the Chrono-Ranger activated his communication device, told Con to bring him home, and the three figures disappeared into a Time Portal.
As the last vestiges of light from the portal faded, a well-manicured hand appeared at the edge of the hole in the wall.
Chrono-Ranger at 18hp
Omnitron at 17hp
Visionary at 3hp, after a Kraken Limb grabbed her.
Miss Information defeated by a Kraken Limb when she was at 2hp!