Chronicles of a Caped Crusader: Long Shadows: Part One

      "I don't like this plan,” Aisheena said, watching over the monitor as the guards entered the cell. “I've read her file; she was a real psychopath. We have one Nefarious trained villain running around; this could so easily blow up in our faces.”

      “Yes, it very well could,” Loraine acceded. “However, we're no closer to finding Iniquitous as it is, and we're out of options.”

      “I still don't think this is the right way to do this,” Aisheena protested. “Morphica, back me up on this, as a fellow Defender who was not there when she was taken down. We're making a mistake, aren't we?”

      Chloe glanced over at Aisheena and back to the screen. Pictured in it was a secure cell in a prison built for one purpose, housing the disciples of Captain Nefarious. They were considered the most dangerous criminals in Neopia. They put a lot of the entries of the Book of Evil to shame, and their combined villainy rivaled some of the top Dark Faerie offenders.

      The one they were watching was the original of the group. The Plushie Draik sat still in her cell, staring at her guards with eyes that were much too large. Some fourteen years locked away had not robbed her of her creepy doll-like stare. She put her head on the side and smiled a question at them. Chloe could feel her skin crawl, and she looked away from the screen and back at Aisheena and Loraine.

      “I don't like this plan much either, but I agree with Loraine that I don't have a better idea. The Beauty Contest debacle proved that we have no way of anticipating their movements or plans. Veronica was in and out without a leaving a trace of herself, Degrass proved a dead end when it came to getting information, and we've only ever seen Veronica since the initial clash. We know Iniquitous is out there, but he's so far behind the scenes, pulling the strings, that I worry that even if we get Veronica, she might not be able to lead us to him,” Chloe said, smoothing her cape back over her shoulder.

      “It's true,” Loraine said. “I'm sure Veronica fancies herself an equal partner, but she's a dupe. Iniquitous is using her as a pawn to do the dangerous parts of their work. I'm sure she's very expendable, and if she were caught, he'd have no trouble going to ground and operating alone from locations she has no idea exists.”

      “For a girl only slightly less smart than Nefarious, she's kind of an idiot,” Chloe commented. “He's only using her to get back at her mother for unmasking Nefarious in the first place. Unfortunately, she's as good at evil as her uncle was.”

      Aisheena sighed in annoyance and nodded. “I still don't think that this will go the way we hope it will. The Painted Lady had no ties to the other disciples, that was clear from the beginning. I'm sure that because Iniquitous was something special, he was probably kept further from the disciples than all the other disciples. I just can't see her going to form ties with them. If anything, she'll likely resume her mission, to do her utmost to cause havoc across Neopia and destroy the Defenders.”

      Loraine shrugged. “Things have changed dramatically in the last decade. It's hardly the world she left. She may find that things have changed enough that she will need allies, perhaps to avenge her master.”

      “In that case, why wouldn't she just turn around and come back here to destroy the prison and let everyone out?” Chloe said.

      “No, because she doesn't know about the others. We've kept them isolated from each other for a reason. Once on the outside, she'll be covertly exposed to the information that Nefarious' heirs are still loose. She shouldn't learn about the disciples until she meets with him, and that's why we're not releasing her from this location. She'll be being released in the peaks of Terror Mountain, far from this place. After all, there is a reason we never put this place down on paper or in computers anywhere. The knowledge of the prison stays securely in the heads of those associated with it and nowhere else,” Loraine explained.

      “We really don't have records of this prison anywhere?” Chloe asked.

      “You never searched our computer databases for records of it?” Aisheena said. “I mean, you spend a ridiculous amount of time reading the old files, you nerd.”

      “I'm a geek,” Chloe shot back. “Geek.”

      Aisheena waved her hand teasingly, as if to say there wasn't a difference in her opinion.

      “Ladies, keep bickering to a minimum please,” Loraine said, giving them an indulgent smile.

      “Yes, mom,” Aisheena snarked.

      “Aisheena, Loraine can totally kick your butt even with your super powers. I would so not antagonize her,” Chloe warned.

      “She's not worth my time, Morphica,” Loraine replied. “Besides, I hired her. I know everything about her down to every embarrassing thing she did in grade school. She knows better than to push it too far.”

      “I'm so glad she turned good. Could you imagine fighting her? She'd probably be the one who was taking over the world now,” Aisheena said with a relieved laugh.

      “Not me, whomever I worked for. I was an follower back in my evil days and happy to be so. I didn't have ambitions back then,” Loraine explained.

      “You have ambitions now?” Aisheena asked, her voice a vaguely sarcastic tone that invited her to prove it.

      “Yes, I do. One of them is to ruin your reputation by sending the aforementioned embarrassing details to the entirety of the Defenders' personnel if you do not stop attempting to snark me,” Loraine told her.

      “I am shutting up now.”

      Chloe looked back the screen. The guards were taking their time getting the Painted Lady ready to move. A good thing, of course, given how dangerous she was, but she also suspected it was because she was just so incredibly unnerving. It must be hard to focus on her for any length of time, no matter how short a time it was. They blindfolded her so that she couldn't see where she was being taken, but her smile simply grew wider, making up for the lack of the over-sized empty eyes in creep factor. Chloe glanced away again, more unnerved by the Draik than before.

      ***

      Chloe had entered the Defender's Headquarters that day expecting it to be an ordinary day filled with the typical sort of crime. Various petty theft, harassment complaints caused by some young Dark Faerie who was a little too bored and good at magic for her own good, and the other nonevents that filled the usual day for the Defenders.

      “Meeting in ten; don't bother to change just yet,” Lighting Lenny said, zipping up to her and smacking the dossier into her hands before zipping off just as fast.

      “Good morning to you too!” Chloe shouted after him.

      She opened the dossier and wandered into the control room to read it. Loraine was manning the console and she looked over at Chloe, who looked up from the dossier with a question on her face.

      “You'll find out at the meeting,” Loraine said with a shrug.

      “A dossier with the Painted Lady's file inside, an entire organization-wide meeting, and yet no one is panicked. That means she's not loose, thank all that is magical, but it does raise the question of what the borovan are we up to?” Chloe asked.

      “As I said, you'll find out at the meeting,” Loraine replied.

      “Aw, come on, Loraine. Not even a hint?”

      “You truly cannot wait five minutes?” Loraine asked with a wry smile.

      “Well, I can--” Chloe admitted.

      “Then you will,” Loraine cut in, wearing a smile that told Chloe she had won that round.

      Chloe frowned and just turned back to the folder. She'd read the file once before, but it had been a long time ago. The Painted Lady was a shadow from the Defenders of Neopia's distant past. She had shown up just after their formation, the first disciple of Captain Nefarious. She was a dark mage who had wrought havoc upon Neopia Central simply to cause Judge Hog and Orig trouble. She had been taken down with the help of Dr. Flexo, who had joined the Defenders as their resident physician and a fellow crime fighter immediately after. She had been apprehended, and had been something of a pain to hold onto until they had finally transported her to some unknown secure location. All the disciples had simply disappeared off the face of Neopia Central after their captures, though Judge Hog had once mentioned that they were being held somewhere secure where they would never escape from.

      The disciples were never going to see the light of day as free Neopets ever again. Their crimes had been great enough to warrant that, it was common knowledge that they too dangerous to be released into Neopia again. Captain Nefarious had picked absolute psychopaths for his disciples, those who only desired to cause suffering on a grand scale. The Painted Lady was out only a few days on her spree, but she had caused the most damages total, only second to Nefarious and Iniquitous in her crime total. The other disciples had caused trouble, but much of it had been enough just enough to draw the Defenders out to fight them. There was a suspicion that she had a history before becoming the Painted Lady, but she had buried whatever past that was and they had never had much luck discovering who the disciples had been before their recruitment. Only Veronica and Nefarious' histories were known, and Veronica's only because she was related to Nefarious.

      Chloe was still lost in her musings over what could have made the Painted Lady a concern again after all that time when she heard Loraine rising from her chair.

      “Come, impatient one,” she said teasingly with a wave of her hand. “Time for the meeting.”

      Chloe closed the dossier and tucked it under her arm as she followed Loraine from the room.

      To be continued…