Overestimation (Part II)

Thankfully enough, my brain decides it cannot just leave my best friend kidnapped somewhere in the ether, so tonight I once again dream of this strange situation.
By this time in Dreamland, I have established my superhero base, and am busily researching on my laptop, tracing the possible locations of the villain that has kidnapped my best friend and fellow super, Amanda- or, by her super pseudonym, "Syca." My sister Laila (or "Electra"- not the common one, a cooler one that has uncanny powers in the field of meteorology as well as typically enhanced fighting skills, though she will later take to calling herself "Lisirena," the healer, when she becomes a counselor) has invited some guy from school over, and he keeps bugging me. He's the sort of muscly, preppy-jock-rockstar-narscissist that makes me weep for humanity. Were I an alien, I would love to drop a bomb on him in a very un-heroic way. He even has the gall to pull off the towel which I had draped over my head in order to concentrate, and I spend ten costly minutes of rescue time bartering to get it back from him. Exasperated, I turn to Laila and whine, "Why'd you have to bring him over, I'm trying to work!" Just then, my laptop beeps at the arrival of a new message: a ransom note from the kidnappers.

I turn back and stare at the screen: "ARTEMESIA MOONE: YOU AND YOUR PARTNER WILL MEET AT MIDNIGHT TOMORROW ABOVE THE NEW STADIUM WHICH HAS JUST BEEN ERECTED IN A PLACE YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH. DO NOT INFORM ANYONE ELSE WITH YOU, ANY POLICE, ANY OTHER SUPERS, OF THIS LOCATION. YOU WILL COME UNARMED WITH ONE MILLION DOLLARS CASH TO THE DROP SITE, APPROXIMATELY FIVE THOUSAND FEET ABOVE THE STADIUM, AND LEAVE IT ON THE PLATFORM. THERE, YOU WILL FIND YOUR FRIEND. DISOBEY, AND SHE WILL DIE. SINCERELY,
the MAROON MARAUDER."
I stare at the screen in disbelief. Mumbling, "This just keeps getting cornier. Could they be any more cliche?" I grab my jacket and hat and call to Electra, "We're going out. I should've gotten this message yesterday, but you know- dial-up internet. This means we've only got three hours to get to the drop site and save Syca from the least creative supervillain this side of the Mississippi..."

Back to the perspective of the villain. He sits in a tiny cabin, floating above a cheering crowd of avid spectators of some sport-or-other he cares nothing about. Pressing the record button on his camera at three minutes to twelve, he whispers, "Second test initiated."

Laila and I arrive at the football stadium at two minutes to twelve, hoping to surprise the Marauder with our unaccustomed earliness, and thus somehow foil his plans. Alas, when we arrive, there is only a projected hologram on a small platform hovering in the sky malevolently. I set down the sack of "money" with an angry slump, and rant, "Okay, wise guy, you said you were gonna give Syca back, now WHERE IS SHE???"
"All in good time," the 'gram replies pertly. "First, the money." It points with a maroon-gloved hand to a teleport chute on the left side of the platform. I reach to throw the sack in, but at the last second, leap in with it, praying the Marauder isn't quick enough to cancel the signal and leave me hanging somewhere in limbo. For a scrambled moment I can't think, then reappear in some sort of dark space which is very unhelpful in gauging my surroundings. Then I stub my toe on a large metal cabinet, and realize I am literally INSIDE the villain's massive safe. I feel my way over to the door, cursing and with a profound new respect for the blind, carefully pick the lock, and sneak outside. The hallway is carpeted plushly. I am soundless as I tip-toe around the corner of the living room and peer over the couch at a very flustered villain, his back to me, ranting at a computer screen. On it is a tiny holovid of Electra, responding, "I don't KNOW where she went, sir, but I can assure you she'll be back momentarily..." "Not good enough!" he fumes. "You are spoiling the second stage of my plan...not that you need to know that. What you need to know is that if she does not return right away, your friend will DIE!!!..." Oh, please, I think, spare me the melodrama.

Knowing that my sister can handle the trickiest of diplomacies, I turn to explore the rest of the small cabin. In another room, I find boxes and boxes of photographs, lying all over- just people of various ages, each paper-clipped to some diagrams of complicated-looking machinery. In another, I find what looks to be the assemblage of a machine, and on a nearby desk is another picture, with some notes...it is the girl scout, from the store! So, this guy is making a technology that brings a person's memories to life, hacking into the subconscious events network and using its projections as a sort of armada. Quite clever, for a small-time money-grubber. But why did he take Syca? I shuffle out of the room, pondering this, when I come upon a locked door at the end of the hall. Phasing through, I see a pulsing maze of lazers and electrodes all reaching up to one place: the head of a certain girl, tied to a metal chair.

"Amanda!" I cry, starting forward, and her eyes dart open. "It's me, Art.! We've come to get you out of here." She looks up blearily and whispers hoarsely, "It's too late for that now... You see, I thought it would be okay to open that present when you guys were gone. I didn't know what was inside, waiting for me..." She stares at me pleadingly with her crystal blue eyes. "It's in my head, you see," she smiles apologetically. "It's controlling my thoughts even now, and I can see- He knows you're here. This criminal- he's not so bad, yet. All he wants is money. But soon he'll want power and destruction, and do anything to get it. I can see him running down the hall... I think you set off a silent alarm somewhere." I can hear his footsteps, and turn back urgently to Amanda. "Concentrate, you can beat this thing, this probe or whatever it is, just remember who you are. You're the strongest of all of us! Just...know we believe in you, however cheesy that may sound." I put my hand on her shoulder, and at that moment a man breaks through the door, a strange-looking weapon in his hand, and fires- just as Syca projects a force-field from her mind, regaining control once again, and snaps the cords tied to her head with a single blink of her eye.

"Great," she laughs, even as we are tying up the Marauder and confiscating his plans for world domination with Electra. "I feel like a Dalek. It took human contact for me to regain my powers." "Nah," I reply, "Just luuuurve. Although, I'm sure never going to underestimate a cliche enemy again, or overestimate my power in dealing with him! Cliches are there for a reason, I suppose." We all return back to base, to watch some Doctor Who and tease the guy I forgot Laila had over, who we abandoned for over five hours. He is intently curious about what we were doing, but Laila pats him on the head and replies: "Oh, just nerd stuff. You wouldn't understand." And he leaves it at that and goes to raid my fridge.