Team Decopunk--Epic Tales from Beautiful Minds

Chapter 6: Blades of Mannahatta

Love Guides The Wandering Star--Part Five: By Holly_Gonzalez

She detached from Nicholas Lott and returned to the certainty of Inge-Margritte Helmrich. Links between the four previous trials clarified in her memory, each a piece of herself and of the others she'd become. She remembered Fray's words and focused them into a sequence as the Psychometer resonated above her. Psi-space flowed about her like a shimmering cocoon. The faint scent of smoke and spiced cologne wafted to her nose. A dark gateway spun before her eyes, the connected symbols aswirl in gossamer threads around it.

Flames to cleanse, to purify. I carry them even now.

When the judges spoke, she imagined the psi-force intensifying around them.

The female judge folded her arms. "A destructive element surfaces again. The Fraulein's inner nature is vain and fractured. And still no trace of American enthusiasm. I--"

The judges let out startled cries when the panel desk sparked and smoked before them.

Margritte gasped and focused her mind. The psi-portal expanded, and power from the multiverse flooded through it, bending to her will. I can use this force, she realized with a grin.

The stage crew rushed out with extinguishers and smothered the fire.

"What's the meaning of this?" one of the judges bellowed. "Has the Psychometer malfunctioned?"

The Professor shot Margritte a sidelong glance. "It must have been some faulty wiring. Let's cut to a small break."

While the crew fixed the supposed electrical mishap, the Professor hovered near Margritte. He whispered, "Don't do that again. Control yourself, or I'll set the Psychometer to fry the last of your insolence."

Margritte uttered a small laugh and answered in her native language, lowering her voice. "Subdue me? Never. I see through you, German deceiver. And I suspect you love the Fuehrer enough to bring this mind-melting machine into his enemies' midst. Confess."

The Professor's lips twitched into a slow smirk. He muttered in flawless German, "If you survive the final trial unscathed, I'll decide the truth." He turned his back and ignored her glare.

The judges resumed their places and called for the last trial.

I'll show them all. This time I'll drag the evidence through the portal with me.

"Your final episode is the trial of retribution," the Professor said. "We will at last find out who--or what--you consider an enemy. Your true opposition."

The Psychometer resumed. A new universe, a new vessel to inhabit. Elements from every trial she'd undertaken thus far poured in. Too much at once. She tossed and tried to shout, but her voice became a static pulse. A bright field of light surrounded her. Convulsions tore through her, her body alight, rings of force gliding around the Psychometer and shooting toward her in spidery bolts. Her flesh blinked in and out, her skeleton visible through the brilliant shock waves. She disappeared from her own universe in a blinding flash.

When her senses returned, she was immersed in psi-space once again. She stood on a darkened city street. Overhead, auroras undulated in vast rivers of color. Structures rose out of the night.--towering monoliths, proud and immovable. Skyscrapers. They shouted and summoned her to fight. Her awareness splintered into many facets, each embodied in a tall pillar, their heads in the sky, booted feet planted firm in battle stance. The buildings laughed, wept...were they really alive?

Explosions thundered over the ground. Raid sirens howled. Shouts of terror mingled with war cries. She recognized the skyline of New York City, one of her favorite getaways when she'd been famous. The beautiful city was under attack. She surrendered to the tug of psi-force one last time.