combined.
"Madam, if you allow me-" one of the men said as he stepped forward.
Lily did not allow him. With her other hand she was very well able to crack her whip as the man learnt. He landed on the pavement. Hard.
With a flick of the wrist, Lily undid the end of the whip from his ankle. "No tricks. I am here to bring order back to the area."
Her voice had gotten hard and strong, the way it always did once she became her true self again. The singing bit was just a cover for the daytime, no one should know who Lily Marin really was. The more out of sight she was in her public life, the better.
"Oh my God," one of the other men said. "It's her. It's the Masked Woman!"
Lily hated the unoriginal name the press had given her, but it was hers apparently. "Yes. I'm the Masked Woman."
"Behind you!" the man yelled as he and the other four dropped to the floor.
Nicely synchronised trick, Lily thought, just before she sensed something wrong. Behind her. She ducked and swivelled round, raising the rad-gun and blasting a round. The rock that had come for the back of her head fell harmlessly on the ground behind her, as the man who had thrown it fell on the ground in front of her. He was with a few more men. Or rather, he had been, as he was no more.
Crap, there are many more of them, was the first thing she thought. Then it dawned on her that the six she had taken for the gang were possibly a few of the not yet scared people that wanted to go against the vagabonds.
"Stay put, I'm going after them," she called to the six as the rock-throwers made a run for it, away from her. She saw how they turned left, back into Lowell and heard their footsteps echo away.
Lily slammed the gun back in the holster as she got up. She estimated where the vagabonds would be going and positioned herself as she reached into her pocket. She pressed hard on the ruby. It slipped into the copper tube. At the hiss from the backpack she braced herself; this was going to be nauseating again.
The fierce jolt from the pack pushed her upwards. She hoped that she had positioned herself properly, once airborne there was no way to make any changes. The thunder behind her deafened her, the skin on her face that was not protected by the mask wanted to retreat to her neck as she sped upwards. Up and higher she went, over the buildings.
Below her she saw the gang running. So far, so good, Lily the Masked Woman thought. A splutter from her pack told her that the flight was almost over and she prepared for the smack-down. Landings were unpleasant and she never got the timing right to make her boot extensions break the fall.
She started to drop. Falling was not so bad. It was the moment of hanging suspended in the air that made her stomach turn a few times.
"Oh shit," Lily said as a true Masked Woman. She had already spotted that her landing zone was a building. Before the stone masses took the view away, she saw that the motley gang had slowed down and was looking around. Somehow they never looked up.
Just before the last hiccups and snorts came from the backpack, Lily threw her weight into the straps, trying to turn herself in the least damaging position before she hit the building. She was lucky this time: she slammed into the wall only eight feet from the ground. The coat took most of the impact and she slid down the bricks, landing on her feet. "Oooomph....."
The Masked Woman shook her head a few times to get her senses back in place, then she ran out of the alley that her short flight had taken her to. She looked left, then right.
There they were. Blood was racing through Lily's veins now. She had gone through the transformation completely, all traces of the singer had vanished. She now was the hunter, the stone cold killer that stepped in where justice feared to go. She paced towards the group of five, rad-gun in one hand, whip in the other.
Two of the men carried swords, not an uncommon sight in these parts and hardly anything to be concerned with. The others had a small selection of hand weapons. One of these men aimed at Lily and fired without wasting time and breath.
The impact of the steel pellet barely stopped her progress. She'd have a nice bruise of it the next day, she realised in a fraction of a moment. Then she fired a blast from her rad-gun and the shooter went down, never to come up again.
One man stared at the figure in the long coat that came steadily towards them despite the shot from the gun. He almost dropped his gun for fear as a certain area of his pants coloured dark. The two sword-carriers had different ideas. As a trained team they each moved to a side and then charged at Lily.
She had anticipated that. The rad-gun was holstered again, and her hand came back with the umbrella. Lily flicked a small nob on it and the blade of a rapier jumped from the tip of the folded-up umbrella. She blocked a strike from one of the attackers and dove under a swoop from the other man, then turned quickly and lashed out to the second man with her whip in the same movement. It caught the man's wrist.
Lily yanked. Not with the minimal strength of the singer. No, she now had command of all her power, the power that had been unleashed when the experimental transformation-ray of Doctor Drosselmeyer had gone wrong and the device exploded, charging Lily with more than a thousand times the level that she was meant to get.
The man's wrist broke. Lily's ripping was so powerful and the whip's end so sharp that his hand came off. As he screamed and blood spouted from his stump, Lily was already on top of the other sword fighter.
Her handling of the rapier umbrella was so fast that she was no match for the man. A dozen or more deep cuts in his chest and abdomen sealed his fate. Lily turned to the two remaining men, one of which had fallen to his knees and reduced himself to a snotty heap.
The last one standing was a bear of a man. Not only was he huge, he also had a rad-gun and a very large calibre fire arm, and both of those were aimed at the Masked Woman. Oh shit, she thought. This could get really painful.
"Give up," she said, aiming her umbrella at the man. "You're alone now, nobody's going to save you."
"Who says I need help, bitch?" the man growled.
Lily saw his finger twitch and closed her eyes. The beam of electrons from the rad-gun hit her straight in the chest and face. The microfibre coat absorbed most of it, but the unmasked skin on her face stung and burnt. It was over soon, though. Rad-guns did not keep up such a power drain for long.
Lily forced air into her lungs and opened her eyes. She saw stars dancing in front of her eyes, something that hindered seeing. She knew he would shoot the other gun too, but when? Then the crack of a shot reached her ears - the bullet would hit any moment - but it didn't.
Another shot was fired and again the burning sensation of a bullet didn't come.
She blinked a few times to make the stars go away and saw the bear of a man on one knee, clutching his shoulder, blood seeping through his fingers. Blood also came from a thigh. Then she heard the panting behind her.
The men she had mistaken for the vagabond gang had come up behind her and someone from that group had fired at the last gang member standing.
With a groan the wounded man lifted his gun, aiming to hurt someone. Lightning fast, Lily grabbed at her tool belt and threw. The man fired the gun, but the bullet went harmlessly up into the air, as the dagger had pierced his forehead and forced him backwards.
"Dear Lord," she heard one of the men behind her say. "Madam, are you well?"
Lily turned towards them, ignoring the feeling of pepper under her skin that the rad-gun had left there. "I'm fine. Thank you for coming, gentlemen, and my apology for mistaking you for the gang."
She turned and walked towards the fallen bear. She yanked her dagger from the man's head which let go of it with a sucking sound. She wiped it clean on the dead man's clothes and tucked it away. Then she turned back to the small group.
"Perhaps it is best if you are not here when the police come to round up these folk," she said. "They will ask all kinds of inconvenient questions."
"But madam, we have nothing to hide."
"Suit yourself," said Lily. "I do, so I am leaving.
" She clicked her heels. The mechanism raised her up again and quickly, without another word, she walked off at a high speed.
None of the gentlemen even thought of trying to stop her.
Back in her small apartment she first took care of her equipment. The coat was cleaned, the rad-gun and the backpack were attached to their chargers.
She retracted the rapier, unfolded the umbrella and put the thing in the umbrella stand next to its harmless cousins. Her boots were already in the closet, wiped clean and ready for the next event. She checked the dagger for damage, but the fine Japanese blade had not suffered from the skull. Finally she took care of herself.
With a grateful sigh Lily sank into the tub, letting the hot water clean her skin and thoughts. She took her time to soak and relax, until the water was getting cold.
Drying herself in front of the mirror, Lily saw that she had a few massive bruises. Buildings and bullets never failed to do that. Also the skin on the lower part of her face looked damaged; the remainder from the blast from the rad-gun.
She sucked in air through her teeth as she touched it. Painful. Lethal as it would have been for regular people, she would heal in a few days, as she always did, but it meant that she was not going to sing the next day.
Her voice would be fine, but she wanted to avoid questions about her appearance.
Dudley, the neighbour's boy, would be glad to take an apology note out for her, as usual. He wasn't the