The Vanguard Falls: The Shattering of Shard (Part 1 of 2)

Within his remote, secret mountain lab facility, Doctor Daedalus continued with his ominous scheme for the world. Through his augmented manifold transponder, he connected with a realm beyond time and space and conspired with a potentially powerful and ungodly ally with a similar desire for conquest and domination.

"Your transdimensional bridge is complete then?" the yet unseen entity spoke, it's voice like the menacing rumble of thunder. "I will be able to escape this realm into yours?"

"The machine's structure is just about complete, yes." Daedalus adjusted the large, round lenses of his goggles with his long, black-gloved fingers as he spoke. "My bioborgs are at the island facility working non-stop on the machine and putting the finishing touches on it. I will be travelling there to oversee its completion."

"Then when?" the voice demanded impatiently.

"Only once I have the necessary resources required to power such a magnificent device. It's not as if this will run on diesel," the mad doctor explained with an indignant shrug. Quickly, he raised a hand and continued, "I can assure you, Gorerath?-"

"LORD Gorerath?"

"I can assure you? Lord Gorerath," Daedalus corrected himself, "plans are already in motion to acquire this power source. I expect we'll be able to proceed shortly. Besides, you've waited a few centuries, what's a few days, comparatively?"

"Do not test my patience!"

"Now, is that any way to speak to not only an ally but your potential saviour from your permanent confinement?" Daedalus asked in mock offense. "May I remind you that I hold the key to your freedom?"

Gorerath fumed silently.

Daedalus arched a thick brow high above his goggles. "I can also bring you the sustenance you crave to feed your physical hunger and your? other appetites?" he reminded.

The alien demon god rumbled, "Mmm? yes. Your world is indeed teeming in that nourishment."

"I'm certain you will be satisfied." Grinning sharply, the mad doctor nodded. Ever since he had sent the data profiles of the various and plentiful enhanced individuals to be found on the planet to the imprisoned demon, he could practically feel Gorerath's illicit thoughts and urges coursing through the dimensions. He found the human female heroines to be most desirable, his candour when he spoke about them was brutally explicit. The carnal salaciousness in the beast's tone almost instilled a peculiar sense of woe over what was to become of the heroines of the planet. "They will be yours for the taking."

"Yes," Gorerath rumbled, sounding as if he was licking his lips. "I will conquer their bodies and break their souls. Then I and my forces will fill each of them repeatedly with my potent seed of darkness to make them slaves for my pleasure for all eternity."

"I would recommend one test before we fully open the bridge. It will require your assistance," Daedalus explained. "Then there will be nothing to stop us."

"Make it so, Daedalus. Then that puny world will be yours and I will resume my rampage through all the dimensions."

Daedalus bowed his head. "That's all that I ask."

The chilling laughter of the two made the very foundation of the mountain tremble.

XXXXX

"You sure about this, Lizzie?" Fastball asked as he ran alongside his Vanguard teammate, Shard, who preferred flying in her mini stealth "bullet" aircraft. "They seemed a little too forthcoming about spilling the beans."

"I'll eat those beans. The intel those agents of Daedalus' gave us sounded convincing to me," Shard replied.

"Well, yeah. I guess any guy would probably sound convincing when their leg is being sawed off by a laser beam," the speedster said with a shrug in between strides.

"It was at the ankles? and it was only halfway."

"I meant, you're sure you don't want to report back to Athena and the rest of the Vanguard?"

"Why?" Shard scoffed and fluttered her lashes at him. "You don't think you and I can't take out a measly bioborg manufacturing facility on our own?"

"You do cocky well, I give you that." Fastball grinned and rolled his eyes. "You look motivated enough to take down Doctor Daedalus on your own. But I'll be sure to keep an eye on you, anyway? for moral support."

"I know you will," Shard chuckled at his playful wink, then added assuringly, "We'll be back before breakfast."

"Good. I'll need to consume a grocery store to replenish my strength after the mileage I'm putting on tonight."

They sped over the ocean with haste. Even though he had to slow his enhanced speed down to allow Shard to keep pace in her craft, Fastball was still fleet of foot to the point he skimmed above the waves without sinking.

As they headed to the remote uncharted island, Shard was aware she had deliberately avoided answering her teammate's questions directly about why they were attempting this mission alone.

One reason was that the Vanguard teams around the globe had been stretched thin and worn out from a month of stepped-up attack by Doctor Daedalus' dark forces. Somehow, he had also enhanced his minions considerably, no doubt a result of one of his vile experiments. Before, the bioborgs and thugs fell before the Vanguard like leaves from the trees in late-Autumn. Then their power and strength suddenly increased and the heroes were often fortunate to avoid fatal injuries during their confrontations. Panzer, Ion, Red Torrent from their team were all out of action already.

Another major reason was that there was no way their leader, Athena, would allow her to go into a fight which could possibly lead to an encounter with the nefarious Daedalus on her own. Yet, Shard was determined to be the one to both rescue her friend, Flare, if she was still alive, and to make Daedalus pay dearly for what happened to her at the hands of the doctor's genetic experiment, Damon the Tamer.

Athena had no problem with the rescue of Flare. Her concern was to what extent Shard would try to mete out justice upon the mad doctor.

"He's not worth your life or soul, Elisabeth," Athena had counselled in private a couple of weeks ago.

"You saw what he allowed Damon to do to Kayla, Kim!" Shard fired back, her face red and body shaking with desperate rage. "The bastard was able to defile her over and over again only because of Daedalus' experiments."

It had been only the two of them who had watched the holographic video recording of the crimson-haired Flare, aka Kayla, being beaten down, submitted and sexually taken for what seemed like hours by a monstrously enhanced Damon, renamed 'The Tamer'. Though they gave no further details to the rest of the Vanguard other than that Flare had been captured by Daedalus, it was obvious that Shard had been shaken by what she had seen.

"You said we would make him pay!" Shard insisted.

Athena nodded with grim resolve, placing an assured hand on Shard's shoulder. "I did. We will? but not without knowing more about what he's up to first. There's something different about Daedalus now, about the situation and what he's capable of. I just know it's too dangerous to go in not at full-strength and in your current mindset, Elisabeth."

"Dangerous for Daedalus," Shard muttered and shrugged Athena's hand off her shoulder. She looked away, a sharp gleam in her cat-like icy blue eyes.

"Just don't go maverick on the team," Athena warned. "That's an order."

Shard eyed her with a rebellious glare but relented. "Yes, ma'am," she grunted, then left the room, fuming.

Now, as they approached the island without having informed Athena and the team of where they were headed, she grew antsier about getting her hands on Daedalus. Actually, she didn't even need to get that close to him, just within distance to slice his head off with a swift strike of one of her blades of light. Anyway, she had brought along Fastball, so she wasn't completely alone and disobeying orders.

It was easy to convince the speedster to come along and keep quiet about it. First of all, he didn't sleep much so he had no problem joining a mission that could go late into the night. Secondly, being a bit of a hotshot, he also didn't mind tossing aside the superhero playbook once in a while. Finally, as one of the elder members of The Vanguard --eighteen years senior of the 28 year-old Shard-- he seemed to have a better 'read' on the others on a personal level than most, even Athena. He was like a big brother --or the fun uncle-- to many of them, maintaining a watchful eye but also unafraid to loosen the leash.

Nathan had everyone's back but had a particular soft spot for Shard, who looked to his support so often. She even allowed him, and only him, to refer to her as 'Lizzie'. He could tell she was in distress over the loss of Flare; they were like sisters. She needed to work it out, and he'd help her the best he could to do so.

The sun had just fallen over the horizon by the time they hit the beach of the island. Fastball skidded to stop on the sand while Flare slowed to a hover and landed her small craft beside him. It was already dark as she climbed out and joined him on the beach.

"Need a light?" she said, and her slender body suddenly began to sparkle and glow softly with a 'second skin' of crystal diamond. As she liked to do so often, she manipulated the light around her into small, beautiful angel wings on her back. They weren't able to lift her more than a few inches off of the ground, but they made her lighter on her feet, enabling her to travel faster over terrain and even incorporate them into her combat techniques.

"You know how much I love it when you do that," Fastball said, "but do you think it's a good idea to give away our positions to our enemy?"

"Not if we spot them first," she replied, winking. She circled her finger through the air. "Split up and recon."

Fastball flicked on his visor's night vision. He nodded towards the north end of the deserted island. "Dibs on the dormant volcano. If that doesn't advertise 'secret evil robot lair', I don't know what does."

"I've also detected some energy fluctuations toward the south end as I was landing. I'll check out that way," she said, and nodded to him. "Radio silence, for now. Get going."

"Watch yourself, Lizzie," he replied, then sped off.

XXXXX

Daedalus observed the duo on the beach on his holographic monitors. He had already identified the lanky male in the streamlined, aerodynamic blue costume, cowl with visor and reinforced footgear to be Fastball, Level-3 in terms of power. He was more interested in his counterpart, though, slender and glistening in her sleek bodysuit, predominantly silver to match her signature vibrant, sterling hair.

Shard was simply a vision, just a lovely, powerful vision, with the sculpted, nimble body of an elite dancer, porcelain skin, and a face that made mirrors jealous. Yet, it was the power -- a Level-5 with full-potential yet to be achieved-- that she wielded which was most enamouring. That luminescent cascade of light that ebbed and flowed from the inside out of her alluring figure was something he needed to possess, something he required.

He leaned forward in his chair and tapped his lips --stretched to a tight smile-- with his fingers as he planned how he would roll out the welcome mat. Shard was already heading south. Good. This would expedite matters.

"Security patrol to the western face of the mountain to greet the speedster," he ordered into the comm system. "All other strike teams are to pull back to the facility along the south transport corridor. Reception team, by all means, please guide bursa eskort our lovely guest to the front door."

Daedalus sat back, tapping the tips of his fingers of his gloved hands together under his pointy chin, still smiling and confident.



XXXXX

"Fastball! Report," Shard called through her ear-com piece. She looked up towards the side of the dormant volcano where a series of explosions detonated, lighting up a patch upon the darkened mountainside. "What's going on?"

"Well, we definitely stumbled onto something," he replied. The sound of energy blasts and plenty of commotion came through as he spoke. "I ran into a bioborg welcome party. Good thing I brought some party favors."

She presumed he was talking about his stash of sticky bombs and mines he carried around in his pouches. When Fastball zipped along through his foes, he liked to either adhere his bombs on them or lay the mines out around them causing both destruction and confusion. Those were likely the popping explosions speckling the volcano right now.

"Hold on, I'm coming," Shard exclaimed.

"Unnecessary," he said. Despite his running, he spoke as if he were on a morning stroll. "Don't worry. I've got everything under control. There's just a few of them and they aren't even coming close to touching me. How about I distract them and try to draw more of them to me? You look for an entrance to the facility. Tell me when you find one and I'll come running."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah. This is more of a workout than I had anticipated, so you're making a vat of your Lizzie deluxe Spanish omelettes for me when we get back to base for breakfast," he said.

Shard winced. That was going to be a lot of onion and potato she'd have to chop. "Fine. Just please don't get yourself killed. Focus."

"Didn't know you cared," he joked, "but thanks. Out."

Shard flitted silently deeper into the forest, buoyed by her miniature wings. Suddenly a flash just behind her head struck the trunk of a tree. She dove out of the way just as the tree fell over like a snapped match stick. Through the brush, she sighting two bioborgs 20-yards out. Springing backwards and letting her wings carry her up, she fired two razor-thin lasers from her fingers, each pointed like a barrel of a pistol and scored direct hits on the clam-shaped heads of the biomechanical sentinels.

As soon as she landed, a flurry of energy orbs was launched her way from the dense forest. A squad of bioborgs was making its way towards her.

"Is that all?" she thought to herself, smirking confidently.

Instead of taking them on directly, she decided on a tactical retreat instead. Moving through the thick foliage, using the natural surroundings as cover, she fell back. Every few yards she would stop and spin and fire off her deadly white beams or light spikes, taking out another one or two of the advancing guards. As they got in closer, she ignited her close-range weapon of choice, a broad sword made of pure light. Sliding and tumbling and spinning away from their attacks, she sliced them apart with surgical grace.

By the time she had backed over the edge of a cliff overlooking a large forest clearing, she snuffed out the last of her chasers as it came within six feet of her, slicing it right down the middle, its fluids spurting from its twist of tubing and mechanical organs.

Taking a deep, gratifying breath, she turned around and scanned the clearing below. Illuminated by the moonlight she realized she was actually standing at the edge of a giant circular crater. Clear of trees and other vegetation it was obvious that it was man --or bioborg-- made.

Suddenly, a ring of spotlights circling the hole lit up and flooded the area with a bright light. Shard immediately ducked and covered, before continuing to observe the activity below using a set of compact binoculars.

On the opposite side of the crater, at the bottom of the rocky wall, two large metal doors slid apart slowly. Then a cohort of bioborgs marched out, stood aside in two rows and waited.

"Fastball," she called to her teammate, "I found an opening."

It looked like the doors were the entrance to a tunnel that led directly underneath the dormant volcano.

"Fastball? Do you read?" she said again.

"Hey. Yeah. Sorry," her teammate finally acknowledged. He sounded distracted. "Things have gotten unexpectedly sticky here. Looks like I drew their attention, alright."

"Don't bother with those sentinels anymore. Withdraw and rendezvous with me at my coordinates," she ordered. Her eyes narrowed on the entrance.

"Sorry. Can't do that right now," Fastball said. The pop of his bombs and mines could still be heard going off in the background, followed by a static crackle.

"What? Say again?" Shard asked, suddenly flustered as now a stealth carrier craft arrived above the crater then descended to the ground. She insisted, "Somethings up. I need you here."

"I spotted a huge hidden missile installation on the north face of the mountain during my recon," he responded.

"That's not our priority!" she snapped.

"They're fueling the birds and are prepping to launch them right now. I gotta get to them and take'em out," he said, then added, "Lizzie, I also think they've jammed our comms beyond the island. I can't reach any of the other Vanguard."

Back at the entrance, a few more guards walked out just as the aircraft touched down. They were followed by a single figure, the glint of his large, round mirrored goggles catching the light of the spotlights.

Shard's eyes widened and she gasped, "Daedalus."

"What?" Fastball exclaimed.

The tall, sharp-as-a-knife figure stood amongst his attendants, adjusting his long, black laboratory gloves while watching as the carrier's cargo bay opened. A couple of bioborgs escorted a floating gurney down its ramp and towards him.

Shard leaned forward, trying to get a good look at the clear glass casket that was on top of the gurney. It was a body, female. She lowered her binoculars and blinked before looking again anxiously. "Oh my God," she breathed, "it's Flare."

"Shard! Come in," Fastball shouted through the static. "Did you say Daedalus is here on this island?"

"Yes, and he has Kayla!" Shard said excitedly and stood up. "I'm going in!"

"What? Flare? Wait... Lizzie!" Fastball insisted. "Hold on! Wait for me! Do not engage Daedalus on your own. Repeat. Do not? FZZZZ!"

"Fastball?" Shard called, touching her ear-com. All she got back was crackling static. She continued to call for her teammate while watching Daedalus approach the casket and inspect the incapacitated Flare within. Then he motioned for the bioborgs to follow him and take her into the tunnel.

"No!" Shard spat, sensing a golden opportunity to save her friend and take out The Vanguard's arch-enemy was slipping away. Without a second thought, she stepped around from her cover and fired a bolt of white light aimed directly at Daedalus.

At the last micro-second, a bioborg moved in the way of the strike and intercepted the beam, its head exploding upon impact.

In an instant, Shard was ducking again, inundated with the bioborg cohort's plasmablasts. "Shit!"

She whirled around, staying close to the ground and rapidly fired her light spikes back. A few sentinels stood stepped forward, blasting away at her, while the rest escorted the doctor and the gurney into the tunnel.

"No, you don't," she hissed, then took a running leap off the side of the crater. As she fell, her angel wings lit up behind her and buoyed her safely to the ground while she continued her rapidfire shots.

With the doors starting to close, she sprinted forward, carried by her nimble feet and wings, slipping aside and dodging the blasts lighting up the equipment and crater around her. Even when she was clipped by an explosion, she rolled forward and resumed her progress without missing a beat, knocking out more guards, always focused on the closing doors.

As she approached, the remaining bioborgs that were still operational fell back to the tunnel entrance. Shard didn't let up and illuminated her broad sword, hacking and slashing her way forward till she drove the blade through the chest plate of the final guard.

Just before she rushed through the doors as they were about to close, Fastball managed to reconnect with her. "Shard! Where are you? Don't engage Daedalus on your own," he shouted. "Do you copy? Do not --- FZZZZ!"

Shard's ear-com went dead again? just as the doors sealed shut behind her with an echoing slam.

XXXXX

Back in the facility's control room, calmly awaiting the arrival of his guest, Daedalus spoke with the alien overlord through the transponder once again.

"It's time for me to request your assistance," the mad doctor explained. "I will soon be in possession of just enough of the energy I require to conduct the test of the transdimensional bridge."

"What is it you request of me?"

"I will open the portal for a few seconds, and for just a mere crack in the fiber of time and space," Daedalus continued. "At that moment, I was very much hoping that you would be able to possibly transport a weapon that I may use to subdue a particular enhanced individual of my world."

"Who is the pitiful soul?"

"The one known as Shard."

"Ahh, yes. Hmm," Gorerath breathed, sounding pleased, "the angelic female of brilliant light and gleaming crystal. She would be a most delicious initial prize to force down and submit before me."



"I'll need her alive," Daedalus noted.

"Unbroken?"

"Mmm? physically intact would be preferred. Otherwise, you may indulge in her as you please."

"I have the ideal emissary to send, then," Gorerath mused with a low rumble. "A son of darkness to take a daughter of light."

XXXXX

"Fastball? Come in, Fastball," Shard called, tapping her ear-com while she stood just on the inside of the sealed doors. "Nathan, do you read me?"

Her comm device was dead. She gazed down the long corridor before her. It was dark and there were no guards left behind near the entrance. Of course, this was a trap. She still was eager to charge ahead on her own, but now alone and having calmed down after that initial fight moments ago, a sense of caution crept in. At the very least, she needed to contact Fastball. Finally, she turned around with her broad sword of light and prepared to attempt to cut through the thick doors to the outside.

"Leaving already, Shard?" a sharp-tongued voice echoed through the corridor. "You only arrived."

She hesitated before turning around again. She grimaced and snarled, "Daedalus."

"Indeed," the doctor replied teasingly from his safe distance. A holographic image of him from the waist up appeared before the wary heroine. "I'm so glad we're able to meet again, Shard. It's been too long."

"Yes? it has. Why not come meet me at the door then, properly, with a hug and a handshake?" she sniffed, tilting her head and smirking at him. "Oh, I'm sorry. I cut off your hand the last time we met in person, didn't I?"

A twitching, crooked grin exposed Daedalus sharp, yellowing teeth. "Just two fingers and a portion of the palm," he noted. He raised his glove hand and rolled his fingers open and closed a couple of times. "I actually should thank you. The replacement hand I constructed is much more dextrous and durable than the bone and flesh I lost."

"Well, I'd be happy to offer to do my part for you to have to replace the rest of your body escort bursa parts," she scoffed, rolling her blade with her wrist.

"I'm sure you would," he replied, always grinning. "Alas, while your bravado is very alluring, I'm quite preoccupied here keeping my other guest entertained."

The projection widened revealing the glass casket, now propped up beside Daedalus.

"Flare," Shard breathed. Leaning forward in her boots, ready to strike, she steadied herself, her heart racing as she gazed at her missing friend, nude, unconscious and at the mercy of their enemy. She was so close to saving her now.

The doctor turned and stroked the side of the container. "She's been a wonderful specimen, not to mention a very willing and giving test subject."

"Test subject?" Shard seethed. "What have you done to her?"

"Oh, interested in a demonstration?" he asked, then nodded aside. There was a buzz of energy then the whir of a motor could be heard.

Suddenly, the crimson-haired Flare's eyes and mouth opened wide and she loosed a sharp gasp. Her body shook inside the casket, quivering uncontrollably behind the glass, her breasts shaking and trembling as she continued to gasp and moan aloud.

"What are you doing to her?!" Shard shouted.

"Not to worry. She's quite used to such activities by now," Daedalus chuckled.

The image pulled further back to reveal the full casket, now. Mounted on the bottom of the container was a device placed between Flare's feet. From it rose a long rod that extended right up between her legs and white thighs. At the end, a thick mechanical phallus, glowing with some unknown green energy, was pumping repeatedly into the heroine's puffed snatch as her belly hitched and twitched with each long, vibrating stroke.

"Oh! Oh, God!" Flare moaned, throwing her head back and forth in her restrictive confines. Her bright green eyes rolled up into her head as she continued to take the quickening thrusts of the devious device. "Oh, GOD!"

"I'd also say she's quite enjoying it," the doctor chuckled. "Why don't you come join the party? It's about to go into overdrive."

The device buzzed louder, the phallus glowing brighter, the motor going faster. Flare's uncontrolled cries reverberated around Shard, filling her skull, tormenting her, before the hologram faded away.

"You son of a bitch!" she yelled down into the darkness. She touched her ear-com again and shouted, "Fastball! Do you read me? Fastball? For God's sake, Nathan, answer!""

Nothing.

"Goddammit!" she snapped.

The next moment, Shard was running down the corridor alone. At the first sight of bioborgs in the distance, she screamed with rage and opened fire with her pulsing blasts of light.

XXXXX

Further away from the fight in the tunnel, Daedalus had moved to a hangar area of the facility. While a cohort of bioborg sentinels stood watch, he inspected a large circular platform built at the center of the space. A complex mechanical array hung high directly above it, suspended from the ceiling. With a nod of satisfaction, he smiled and said, "We are ready to commence our test."

Now he just needed the energy to power it. For that, he turned his attention to the large monitors and the earnest battle taking place in the corridor. While he watched calmly as Shard advanced steadily through a small army of bioborgs with her beams and blades of light, he stroked his chin with his glove and continued to nod and smile.

On one side of the hangar, rows of large metal and glass cylindrical energy receptors, 15-feet in height each, stood. They were interconnected and linked to an even larger device, shaped like a cube, which in turn had a series of thick conduits that ran to the platform and up to the array.

As Flare continued her charge, a light within the first cylinder illuminated, softly at first. With every flash and discharge of her energy during her attack, the light surged and expanded, like the pulse of a strengthening heart.

"Yes. Good," Daedalus cajoled. On the monitor, he saw Shard execute a blinding burst attack which spiked the glow within the cylinder further. "Very good."

He ordered more of the bioborgs to confront her, to ensure she expended more of that precious light of hers and distract her from the nefarious design of the corridor. The entire length of it was engineered as one long conductor, intended to absorb and transfer an extremely specific and rare energy, Shard's energy, which she was so freely discharging during the conflict.

After a few more minutes, the first cylinder had reached capacity. Good. Despite his enhanced bioborg forces, Shard was approaching fast. Gorerath and his weapon had better be ready.

"Initiate the sequence!" he said to a team of bioborg engineers at the control station.

With an immense thrum and a crackle of energy in the air, the transdimensional bridge came to life. The doctor looked upward to the array and raised his hand. "Open the gate!"

Instantly, a one-foot wide beam of sparkling golden light discharged from the array, onto the center of the platform then held there. Jagged tendrils of what purple-blue energy circled and twisted around it. For the next few seconds, as the light drained from the collector cylinder, the beam glowed white hot. Then for an instant, it flared brightly, enough so that even the doctor with his goggles protecting his eyes had to turn aside.

Then the machine quickly powered down, exhausted of all of Shard's captured power in a mere few seconds. Daedalus turned back slowly towards the platform. There, floating in the center of it was a small orb of shifting mist, no larger than a baseball. It was as black as the night, moving and swirling like thick ink.

Behind his goggles, Daedalus' grey eyes narrowed. "What is that?" he asked aloud.

"Not what, Earther," a hollow, monotone voice breathed from the orb, "Who."

The ethereal orb expanded rapidly and shifted into the still pliant form of a small cloud, yet it did not appear to lose any of its density. It was still as dark and foreboding as the heart of Satan himself. Daedalus smiled crookedly gazing upon it. It was beautiful.

"I am Ceremant of the Obsidian Void," the black cloud announced, its voice bleak and cold as if a corpse were to speak, "I am prime general to Lord Gorerath. He has given me the honour as his emissary to subdue the forces of this dimension prior to his arrival."

Daedalus was still in awe of the being and savouring the excitement of what was yet to come through his operational transdimensional bridge.

"Where is the female element known as Shard?" Ceremant inquired.

Suddenly, there was the sound of distant explosions and a firefight emanating from down the corridor that led into the hangar.

"She's fast approaching from that tunnel," Daedalus said. "I'll warn you, though she's likely worn down from her efforts to reach me and her friend, she's still quite the formidable foe."

"Good. For far too long, I have longed for battle..." Ceremant said while pouring his onyx cloud form like smoke into the corridor to confront Shard, "...and conquest."

XXXXX

"WHU-UFF!" Shard's back slammed against a wall after a blast knocked her off her feet. Though winded, she quickly regrouped and continued her forward assault with the same steel-eyed look of determination on her now flushed face.

Flashing her beams and striking with her spikes and blade, she battled on. Though she left more and more pieces of broken bioborgs in her wake, she felt the fight was endless. The corridor couldn't go on forever, could it?.

Then suddenly, the blasts of plasma fire bearing down on her stopped and the remaining bioborgs withdrew quickly. Standing amongst the sudden stillness, Shard gazed down the corridor, frowning, taking a moment to catch her breath and anticipating Daedalus' next move.

As the dust from her battle with the bioborgs settled, she noticed more smoke approaching her from the front. Her silver brows knitted as she eyed it suspiciously. It didn't look, or even move, right. Billowing and pulsating as if it were alive and organic, it continued towards her in uneasy silence. Then ten yards away, it stopped as if halted by some invisible wall.

"What the hell?" she muttered.

Was Daedalus going to try to smoke her out?

To her amazement, the pitch black cloud shrunk then shifted its form into a humanoid face about two yards high, eerie, dark, hollow eyes forming upon it.

"You are known as Shard, a self-declared hero of the Vanguard," the cloud suddenly spoke before Shard could move on it.

Hearing the emotionless voice emanating from the alien entity gave her momentary pause, but she had already decided it was a threat and remained at the ready. She cocked her head and frowned. "What the hell are you?"

"I am Ceremant. I am the one who will claim you for my master."

Shard's brows pinched, her blue eyes narrowing warily at the shifting entity. She sneered and said, "Your master? Daedalus?"

"Lord Gorerath," Ceremant replied. His giant, dead eyes locked onto her. "You will be one of many to service him."

"I don't know who that is, but no one's claiming me today, and I don't service anybody!" she said defiantly, igniting her light sword and her diamond layer of body armour. "I have no time for this!"

"The decision has already been made, child of light. Prepare to forfeit your life as you know it to the emissary of Lord Gorerath." The dark face folded into itself as Ceremant returned to his cloud form.

Shard charged the dark entity and took a large swing of her sword, slashing through the center of it, then spinning around and following through with another deep cut. Ceremant didn't move at first, but as her light swept through his swirling form again, he backed off.

"Interesting," he mused. "I felt that. I felt your light."

Shard stood back at the ready again and grinned sharply. "Good for you. Care for some more? I'm happy to bring the pain, monster."

"It is not pain I feel, woman," he replied, moving quickly towards her again.

Shard launched her light spikes at him. They sunk into the crawling cloud and burst within with loud pops but no flashes could be seen through the dark veil of black smoke.

"More," Ceremant urged, sounding invigorated by her attacks. "Give me more of your light."

A thick tendril stabbed out from the shifting form, and Shard just managed to duck as its blow struck the wall and splashed outward like water. As another tendril chased her, she ran to the other wall and then up, carried aloft by her wings and did a backflip. The smoky strap crashed, barely missing her. Firing more of her laser beams and light spikes she dodged and wove around Ceremant's attack, trying to figure out a way around his billowing mass.

"Uhh!" A tendril smacked her shoulder sending her crashing and sliding on the sleek metal floor of the tunnel.

She rolled onto her back, but before she could kip up to her feet, a pillar of black smoke crashed down on her chest, pinning her to the floor, and knocking the wind out of her. Immediately, as the cloud smothered her, she felt a coldness creep into her chest.

"Get off me!" she shouted and unleashed a flash blast attack, lighting up her body like a massive bulb.

Ceremant recoiled, more amazed than anything else. "Strange. I have never felt a power like yours," he remarked. An odd tone of craving seeped into his monotonous voice. "It is? beautiful. It attracts me. Calls to me. I? want to experience more of it."

Escaping his grip, Shard rolled onto her feet and slid aside. No more pleasantries, she thought, she needed to either take this thing out or get by it. Evading more of his swift strikes, she unloaded with everything she had, but again, she was struck down by another blow of a tendril across her face, like a violent open-handed slap that dropped her to a knee. Before she recovered, another strike to her chest knocked her back against the wall.

Before her, the burgeoning form of Ceremant expanded, filling the space around her, stretched wide but still as black and bleak as ever.

Cornered and grounded, she launched more of her light spikes in desperation as Ceremant closed in on her, over her, all around. Her attacks had little of the effect she desired, but seemed to stimulate the ominously dark cloud as it moved upon her.

"I have never felt such an allure," Ceremant breathed, the hungry voice no longer masking its intent. The giant face returned within the onyx blanket as it closed around Shard "I must sample you for myself and consume your light."

"Fastball!" she urged. "I need hel--!"

The gleaming heroine and her light were swallowed by Ceremant's dark mass.

XXXXX

"Lizzie," Fastball grumbled to himself as he sped towards the southern part of the island after having just succeeded in taking out the missile facility. "C'mon. Where are you, girl?"

Not only could he not connect with his teammate, but he couldn't track her either. Daedalus had jammed their communications real good.

He knew he was slowing down, his energy level dropping after already expending so much effort without sustenance or rest, but he was going to have to find her or a way into the facility the hard way.

He quickened his pace and zoomed through the forest.

XXXXX

Shard was cold, shivering, still on the floor with her back against the wall.

Her blue eyes scanned carefully, uneasily. Ceremant had disappeared.

"Something's not right," she said hesitantly, shaking her head. Although she appeared to still be where she was in the corridor from a moment ago, there was something off. She rubbed her eyes and blinked. It was as if all the colours had dulled, a strange, smokey lens cast on the world around her. It felt like she was in a dream -- a cold, foreboding dream.

"What's happening?" she asked cautiously, as she stood and walked forward.

"I happened." The face of Ceremant appeared before her again.

Shard flicked her wrist to draw her light sword. Nothing happened. She tried again with the same impotent result.

"Within my existence," Ceremant explained, "your powers are restrained."

"I'm inside of him?" she thought to herself, uneasy about being engulfed by her enemy. She regarded herself: her skin remained under the sparkling layer of organic diamond armour, so she still had her powers. Yet, when she tried to throw her light spikes and fire off her laser beams from her palms, nothing happened. None of her offensive weapons were working.

"Your light remains within you," Ceremant said. "I seek to experience it."

She didn't like the sound of that. She realized she couldn't fight, so she had to escape. Still able to sprout her angel wings, she took flight down the tunnel, away from Ceremant. After about fifty yards, though, she was still trapped in the strange, dull void within the ethereal entity.

"Dammit," she muttered, slowing to a stop. Before she could contemplate her next move, a long, black tendril suddenly darted out from the black mist surrounding her. She managed to evade it by ducking and spinning away, but then another serpentine length stabbed out from behind, then another from beneath her, and more from all around.

Tumbling and diving aside desperately, Shard only eluded the attack for a few seconds more before being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers striking from every direction.

"Ung!" she grunted as one thick tendril slapped her against the side of the head. The blow spun her right into another one that drove up into her gut, knocking the breath out of her. "Uumpff!"

Even as she fell to her knees stunned, more of the black tentacles whipped against her face and body hard, knocking her back and forth, side-to-side so fast that she was unable to cover herself from the onslaught. While her diamond layer protected her from physical damage to her body, she could still feel the pain of the blows.

"Guh! Uhn! Ahh!" she gasped as Ceremant continued to beat her senseless. On her hands and knees, she attempted to crawl away when suddenly she felt one of the tendrils coil around her neck like a thick cable and yank her back.

As Shard grabbed desperately at it, gasping to keep the airway to her brain open, the dense length dragged her back up to her feet. More stinging strikes hit at her stomach and back. Fighting against both the noose around her neck and the tentacles smacking her body, she cried out sharply, losing more of her precious air by the second. Her layer of armour began to sparkle and flicker as her resistance was broken down from the relentless assault.

With her strength waning, she offered little struggle when more tentacles wrapped around both of her wrists and ankles and then pulled her limbs wide apart.

"Uhh! No!" she gasped, finding herself suspended and restrained a foot above the floor, spread eagle.

Her heart racing, she felt a cold numbness creeping up her arms and legs. As her eyes began to flutter and roll up into her head, her diamond armour flickered, then finally faded, leaving her exposed to her foe.

"Now, daughter of light," Ceremant declared, as his large face loomed towards her, "I will partake in your power from within."

The length around Shard's neck loosened just enough so she could draw a wheezing breath. It was too late for her to realize her defences had fallen, her armour gone. Before she could even protest, a long, thick, black tentacle spiked towards her, punching upwards between her legs, burrowing against her crotch.

Wriggling against the vulgar touch of Ceremant, she hollered, "No! Don't! Get the fuck away from me, monster!"

Ceremant ignored her protests, continuing to drag and slink the black tentacle forcefully and provocatively at her crotch. Then the tip hardened and sharpened as he continued to press the dome against her, drilling forward till it finally tore through the fabric of her silvery, body-suit.

"Ung-AHH!" Shard groaned aloud as the tendril nuzzled apart the lips of her pussy and flowed into her warm passage unabated. "No!"

"Yes," Ceremant breathed, sinking into her slowly, deeply. "Your power? I feel it flowing within you, taste its sweetness. I need more."

Manipulating his density, the tendril snaking within her stiffened to a rigid shaft. Then it began to slowly expand, pressing against her inner flesh.

"Oh my god!" Shard cried through gritted teeth as the black staff sank deep into her pink pocket, her inner walls clenching against the drag of the shaft but unable to stop its steady advance.

Filling her completely, Ceremant then sent pulsating ripples up along the shaft of the tentacle. Each forceful, throbbing bulge coursed through her, rattling the heroine deep and to her core.

"Uhn! No! Stop!" Shard insisted through grinding teeth of anguish, her hips shuddering with every rolling throb. "Stop, dammit!"

"I will not," Ceremant rumbled and just increased the flow of ripples in response. "The sensation of your corporeal form pleases me."

Shard's body began to buck and shake, still restrained at the wrists and ankles as Ceremant began his thrusting machinations, the thick shaft pumping and churning with long, deliberate, probing strokes. With each potent thrust, she rattled and groaned, "Uhn! Ah! AH!"

The tips of other snaking tentacles were now engaged, dragging all over her body. They coiled around her body like tongues sampling her attractive wares. Each an entity unto its own, they found other routes through her costume to engage her trembling skin. One slipped down her collar and curved and swirled around her breasts. Others worked together to pull off her boots and slide underneath her pants, up her legs.

"I still crave more," Ceremant warned.

Shard recoiled at the icy cold touch of all the twines swirling, circling against her skin like nimble fingers, all over her at once. She yelled, "Stop! Uhh! Sto--UMFF!"

With her mouth wide open from her protests, Ceremant took advantage and stuffed another dark tentacle past her gaping lips, effectively gagging her.

Shard squeezed her eyes tight as she took the unearthly phallus into her mouth, gasping in shock. Her head angling back, she choked as the stiffening shaft snaked deep into her throat. "Ugh! Ungh!"

"More. More," Ceremant repeated with haunting desire even as he plunged into her mouth and thrust faster and faster at her quivering pussy. "I will experience all that you have."

Still gagged, Shard's mind screamed in horror as she felt the tentacle slinking around her buttocks find passage into her via the puckered star of her ass. She stiffened, clenching her butt cheeks tight but to no avail as Ceremant simply narrowed the tip till he gained entry, then expanding the tendril as it probed and stretched her dark, tight hole.

"Oh, fucking god, it hurts!" her mind screamed as she felt the same ripple effect throb within her breached ass.

With each of her orifices filled and taking the steady thrusts of her foe's relentless lengths, Shard could find no comfort, no position to ease the sensation and humiliation of Ceremant's domination over her body. Under the watchful eyes of his giant face looming before her, she remained helpless as he shredded and stripped her of her costume, exposing her glowing, nubile body as it was plundered ceaselessly.

"I feel your anguish, your humiliation, your submission," Ceremant spoke with a grim, cool intonation, then added in a low murmur, "I claim all that you have? daughter of light."

Her body rolling at the mercy of his tendril's undulating motions, Shard's watery, wide blue eyes stared at the ceiling in shock. She clung to only one saving grace, "Fastball? help me."

XXXXX

Daedalus leaned forward in his seat, staring at the monitors with a heavy frown over his mirrored goggles. "What is happening?" he grumbled.

The cameras in the corridor captured a large black cloud, billowing and shifting but remaining in the same area. He was unable to see what was occurring within; even his various scans couldn't penetrate the dark entity.

"What is he doing?" he asked aloud. Finally, he called through the facility's speakers, "Ceremant. Have you been able to capture Shard? I require her to power the bridge."

The onyx, smoke-like shroud didn't reply.

"Dammit, Ceremant," Daedalus insisted, "respond!"

When the alien entity still remained silent, the fuming doctor considered ordering a security detail of bioborgs to go investigate.

Just then, one of the engineers announced, "Doctor, the other Vanguard member has found the entryway to the southern transport tunnel."

Daedalus checked another monitor. Fastball was in the crater, just outside the large metal doors to the underground corridor, contemplating a way in.

"Hmm," the mad doctor mused for a moment then ordered, "Open the doors. Allow him entry."

He observed closely on the monitor as the large doors opened. The speedster immediately slipped through.

Daedalus stroked his chin with his black rubber glove and grinned. "This should be interesting."

XXXXX

To be continued...