"Huh? Wait, you're not really the Princess of Carpathia. Who are you?"
She grabbed his arm as he tried to struggle. The intense pain of her grip brought the King to full consciousness. But then he saw the blood shot eyes of Ali, holding a needle. The Princess grabbed his other arm as he struggled, but her weight and strength controlled him.
"No!" he hissed, as Ali pierced his skin with the needle. Ali pushed the plunger in, as Alex immediately relaxed, and his eyes rolled back.
"Help Ron! I'm bleeding bad!" DynaGirl heard the heroine cry.
She opened her eyes to catch the wonderful sight of goody two-shoes with a gusher, only to see the mind piercing pattern of the electracomps! She couldn't close her eyes as the pierced the inner most corners of her psyche. She struggle back and forth, violently, screaming into her gag. Then, she passed out.
"Nice lie, ElectraWoman," said Ron.
"Whatever works. How long will she be out, Hefflin?"
"With her strong will, she needs to rest at least an hour." The blond stood up, and flung her charge over her shoulder.
"Lead the way." Ron was amazed by her strength, as those powerful thighs packed a lot of muscles. The stone stairway encircled the whole tower in a step wide stepped pattern. They seemed to climb far too high, as ElectraWoman's legs were beginning to shake.
"Want me to...."
"No," she curtly responded. Every so often they would pass a small opening, where ElectraWoman would see another part of the castle. Her breath was getting heavier. They reached an upper level where the stairs curved inward, and finally, up to the tower room. With all her control, she bent down to gently put her protege on the cold stone floor. She then detached her cape, placing it underneath DynaGirl's legs, as Ron placed his jacket over her body. Sweat covered both of the superheroines' faces.
Then ElectraWoman stood to look around. They were in a lookout room, again made of ancient large stone blocks. Above them was a wooden ceiling. The outside wall featured numerous openings for observation and weaponry. In the middle of the room was a large stone column. Ron was sitting on a ledge off of this, going through a storage cabinet. He tossed ElectraWoman a cold pack. She smashed it, pressing it against her partner's face.
"What's the history behind this place, Ron?" the vixen asked.
"This is one of the castle's great defenses. Observation tower, with a marvelous view of the harbor, sharp shooter spots, a last defense for the king. We still run drills up here." He rummaged some more, finding bottled water and some energy bars.
The blond came over, and looked at her electracomp. "OK, it's 1AM. Little dinner, Heavy calorie burning..." she thought, grabbing two bars as she ravenously bit into one. She walked over to an opening that looked down on the front side of the castle. She could see the lights coming out of the King's suites. In the distance they could hear more reports.
"Is he still alive?" she solemnly asked, chewing her bar.
"I don't see how they could kill him. Not yet." responded Ron.
"What do you mean?"
"Why are these thugs taking over the kingdom? Coup?"
"Rival family of nobility?"
"Minister Berger was from one of those families. They killed him. No."
"For the Crown Jewels?"
"All these soldiers killed? The stones are so well marked, they'd never to be able to sell them anyways."
The blond was starting to chill from her sweat beads. "OK Ron. You tell me."
"No. You tell me what you know." The blond turned around, placing her arms akin. She looked at Ron, who was leaning back with another smoke.
"Hefflin received communications from the CIA. They've reported chatter. Something about Project Unstable Elements."
He blew out his smoke. "So, reporter. You tell me. Doesn't our wealth seem odd?"
"For a Mediterranean kingdom? This part of the world does all right."
"You know where we rank in world in Per Capita Income?"
"Yes. You are just below Kuwait."
"Why? We have no oil." She lowered her eyebrows, dropping her arms, but keeping her legs spread. He continued. "Let me tell you a little bit about Tourenbourg-American relationships." She sat down.
"In 1938, Europe met to avoid a war with Germany. They decided to sacrifice the Czech Republic to prevent war. One party sided with the Czechs against that. Tourenbourg. That was Alex's Grandfather. Now, this wasn't a simple disagreement. He walked out on the meetings, understanding that Britain, Spain, even France to the north of us now had justification to invade us. For three years things were tense. We understood the only reason they didn't attack us to show token support to the Nazis was because of Roosevelt. I heard he laughed at them for their talk.
"Finally, the Nazis made their way into the Mediterranean. For some reason, Hitler decided the isles of Greece were more important strategically. Now, these times were incredibly dark. The King had broken off from Rome, again in dealing with support over those Nazi thugs. Other than America, we had nothing but enemies. The only thing that saved us was Pearl Harbor."
"Germany declares war on the US."
"Stupid move. America had some ships in the area. By December 10th, 1941, they were harbored here. Within three months, our port was crawling with American GI's. Not Limies, not Frog refugees, but yankees. We like Americans in this county. Many settled here after the war. We speak your dialect of English because of that. And this led to a very close and secretive relationship. Where does the US get its materials for nuclear weapons?"
"South Africa," she replied.
"Anywhere else?" She shook her head. He continued. "Tourenbourg Castle sits on the edge of an incredible deposit of plutonium. After Yalta, Roosevelt came here to 'enjoy the warm royal springs', or so he said. In reality, he was negotiating a top secret deal for plutonium with Alex's granddad. The King wanted to limit the use of this, but then again, he was never fooled by Stalin's charms. First in Berlin, then Hungary, Berlin again, and then Chechoslovakia, again. Each time the US received more materials, and all secretly. The weapons programs under Kennedy?" He looked at her as she nodded. "All Tourenbourg plutonium. Always one condition. That it remain top secret. Very few Americans are aware of this. Several US Presidents were not. Now, if Ali wanted to score a big one, all he would need to do is to sell some materials to rouge countries or terrorist groups. One hundred million dollars, two hundred.....and he might finally get some power out of this."
ElectraWoman unzipped her right boot. "So you're saying that this is over nuclear materials?"
"You tell me. Your boy has intercepted chatter. We have been invaded by some sort of Arabian force. What's here for them? Pot? Reformed Catholicism?"
She took off her boot slipper, revealing a badly chewed foot. She looked through the supply box for bandages and rubbing alcohol.
"What happened to your foot?" Ron asked, leaning back and watching.
"Oh, a trap Ali set. Rats were chewing at my feet." He could see blood smeared, as she took off her belt buckle. She sliced open her footed tights. Then she pulled apart the electracomps.
` "Frank? Were you listening?"
"Why yes. Should I not have been?" Ron grabbed DynaGirl's electracomp. It lit up, showing a brilliant high resolution screen no bigger than 2" by 4".
"No, that's OK. Does the Minister's theory mesh with yours?"
"Yes it does. The chatter recorded suggested a rouge terrorist group stealing these materials to create their own bomb. Bye the way, good evening Minister." Ron jumped. ElectraWoman was cleaning her foot wounds.
"Frank, would you check possible connections between Ali Baba's ancestry and former royal lines of Tourenbourg? Also, whether he has direct connection with any known terrorist association."
"Will do. How's DynaGirl?"
"Out like a light bulb."
"She needs the rest."
Then, the amazing device went dark. ElectraWoman unzipped her other boot. "I can only imagine what diseases these things carried."
"What else happened to you too?"
"Bad stuff. He got the upper hand. So, did Tourenbourg have a difficult time during the Inquisition?"
"Shamefully, yes. We were major Counter-Reformationists."
"You never got rid of your machinery."
"You mean the North Tower?"
"Is that what you call it?"
"It's sealed."
"Not any more." She finished with that foot, and began to run her fingers up the seams of her tights. Ron tried not to be obvious, but he could not take his eyes off her as her fingers went up one leg, all the way to the spandex, then down the other. She went for DynaGirl's boot, and pulled out a kit.
"It's the only setback to this outfit."
"What?"
"These tights. They run easily." She started mending with nail polish.
"Why do you wear them then?"
"It doesn't happen much."
"You don't fight often? Don't you need shielding?"
"Thanks to that wonderful invention called the electracomp, we rarely use force. It provides shields, defense, apprehension, you name it. Besides......" she looked up at him, with blond locks brushing against her face. "We want to look feminine. Preserve the lines, the beauty."
The electracomp silently pulsated a light. "Yes Frank. What do you have?"
"We're still working on that. But I must read you the latest headline from the AP. 6PM MetroCity: Superheroine Identity found? With a question mark. An anonymous high ranking official in Tourenbourg revealed that ElectraWoman is actually a journalist named Lori Evans. She works for the magazine NewsMakers. NewsInc, the owner of the magazine, would only comment that Ms. Evans was on assignment in Tourenbourg." The blond vixen put closed her eyes, lowered her head to her arms, and fell silent. Ron watched stunned, as the Amazonian did not move.
Time passed. His cigar burned low. Then she sighed. Her head came up and looked at Ron. Her strong look was terrifying. But she drifted her gaze ahead, to the lights of the harbor. He then noticed that amazing aroma, her body scent. He inhaled subtly. But he viewed her as the King's woman, and tried to suppress his attraction. More time passed.
"This has not been my night."
"I didn't tell anyone."
"You didn't have to. I did. Ali was torturing us. I exchanged our identities for time." She drank some more water.
"People never figured out who you were?" She looked at him.
"They never got close enough to. There are no clear pictures."
"But you don't wear masks."
"Ron, what color are my eyes?"
"Blue."
"They're as green as yours. People don't look at our faces. For some reason they're always distracted. Ali rarely looks at mine. He's too busy drooling."
"And no one figured it out? Alex did."
"We didn't know that. He never asked me. Now, one person I dated did figure it out. But I had interviewed him before." She stopped. "This looks like the end." She paused again for a long while. She took off her gloves, and pulled back her spandex sleeves, revealing bad bruising. Ron cringed. She grabbed a cold pack, and smacked it.
"So why do you think the King loves me?"
"It's my job to know. Now, after the Glitter Rock situation, he became infatuated with ElectraWoman. He collected as many clippings as he could. I believe he figured it out during that event. Still, he always held you in a special place in his heart."
"How?"
"You both lost your mothers at a young age. Good friends at school, never dated. He stayed in touch with you. But he did most of the calling."
"Do you know what it's like to try to dial the King? Your secretaries never put me through."
"Good point."
"Well, it's all for naught. A Tourenbourg King can't marry an American commoner."
"Lori, you're no commoner. Oh, by the way, this is for you and DynaGirl." He reached into his jacket pocket and grabbed the neckless and pendant. He handed it to her as she inspected it. "This will identify you as loyal Tourenbourgers if we meet any Castle Watchman."
She studied the pendant, which was an ancient carved stone, bearing the letters of NRT over the crest of Tourenbourg.
Dynagirl began to stir. Immediately Ron went over, kneeled beside her, and placed her ID neckless around her neck. Judy's eyes opened. "Where am I?" she said.
"You're up in the west tower." She smiled when she saw his face.
"The last thing I remember is being in the armory." She startled up. "ElectraWoman? Is she alright?"
"I'm here, DynaGirl," the mentor smiled, fastening the neckless.
"And the King?" ElectraWoman's face went blank.
"We don't know." Ron replied. He helped her up. "Ali captured him. But we got you two away."
She stood brushing off her cape. "What happened after I went blank? Why am I all sweaty? I didn't.......Noooo!"
"Yes, DynaGirl, you were evil again."
"And boy, what a pistol you were. I got to see you fight your partner." Ron chuckled.
"Yes, but now the score is 1 to 3. I hope we don't have another rematch."
"So, what do we do now?" DynaGirl asked, rummaging through the supply box.
"I would recommend that we make our way to the Castle Watch barracks. From there we can figure out who is left, and maybe make our way down to the plutonium port and mines."
ElectraWoman smiled. "You don't think it's left yet?"
"Why would Ali still be here if it had?" DynaGirl started stuffing her face.
"So, Ron, how old is this Snickers?"
"Oh, we restock this every few years."
"Electrastale, but satisfying. Ohhh, my body, it's so sore!" She wiggled her shoulders and hips. "Boy, that rack did a job on me!"
"We'll talk to Alex about using his royal masseuse." The blond joked as she grabbed her cape. "Now, Minister, how do we get to the barracks?"
"At the bottom of these stairs is a door to the roof. I would suggest that we take it, and make our way across to the other tower. That tower contains a passage down to the barracks, and from there, to the plutonium port."
DynaGirl swigged some water back as ElectraWoman put her gloves on. "No time to loose!"
"Let's go!" They chirped together.
Silently they stole down the stairway. They heard another report from inside the tower, telling them that the Lieutenant was still alive. Finally, Ron stopped. He cocked his rifle. "You two will need to follow the roof ridge to the opposite tower. We will be exposed, so I will cover you."
Ali was making last minute preparations before leaving the castle. The King was in a bed, hooked up to an IV. He did not move. Ali was visibly upset. Without his right hand man, he felt exposed at a flank. Worse, the Arabian Legion had lost members in pursuit of ElectraWoman and DynaGirl.
"Master.."
"Yes, Princess."
"There's movement on the roof."
Ali grabbed his night vision glasses. He caught two capped heroines, cautiously creeping. "Can you hit them, Princess?" He asked while getting a rifle.
"I have them in my sight."
"Fire!"
ElectraWoman crept slowly along the ancient slate, trying not to slip. The pitch of the roof was steep, and the stones were damp. And those boots were not meant for this. "ElectraWoman, the electracomps are picking up an alert! Press you electra..." at that point the roof erupted with flame and a jolt. Both heroines fell, grabbing the crest of the roof with their hands!
Ron was stunned by this, but saw where it came from. He leaned against the tower wall, and let loose with his rifle.
Ali and the Princess were stunned at the bullets bouncing off of the windows and walls, as they ducked for cover.
"That's Minister who killed Gene! He's up there!"
The Princess peered up. "I have him in my sight."
"Can you focus your energy better? Your shot spread out. They are at least a hundred meters."
"Hold on."
Ron stepped out, seeing no one at the window. The heroines were back on their feet. They looked behind them, as he gave them the go-ahead. They only had about twenty feet to go.
Blammm! Another eruption of flash, but as ElectraWoman and DynaGirl looked at each other in disbelief. But the junior realized to look back at the West tower. Ron had been hit, and thrown against the tower wall. He slammed against the stone blocks, and bounced back onto the damp roof slate, and instantly went sliding down the slope. He tumbled over as he picked up speed, then spread his arms and legs, trying to stop. But with nothing to grab onto, he slid down fast, towards the edge. As he was about to slide off the roof, he hit a gargoyle on the fascia. As he grabbed it with all his might, his body swung over the edge.
"Uargg!" he grunted, as he hung on over a 150 foot drop.