Issue 1 Downtime

Onyx steps out of the shadows in front of a fairly non-descript building.

Keeping her head down, she walks inside.

The secretary at the front desk looked up as Onyx entered.

"Name?"

"I am number 180xe," Onyx says, bowing her head, "And I am defective."

"My Mistress has requested I turn myself in for immediate termination."

Large men step out from the back and lead Onyx away.

The shadows around them, though, seemed to grow and waver, and they could almost hear a faint voice. "No, you bloody go through, I can only let you in from this end!"

The men ignore that bit of weirdness as they continue walking down the hall. The secretary seems interested though, stepping out into the area where the shadows are going weird.

"Ok, ok." Alyson hissed, stepping through the portal that Victoria had made.

Victoria stepped out behind her, wearing a new costume for the occasion. She didn't even hesitate, grabbing for the secretary's head to slam it into the wall.

The secretary's head collided roughly with the wall and knocked her out almost instantly. It seems that the administrative staff was not trained for combat.

"Lets get out of here." Alyson said, putting a hand on Onyx's shoulder.

"You should not have come here!" Onyx snaps angrily, "Now they will be after you as well."

"Good," Victoria said coldly. "They've had one coming from me for over a decade."

"Its too late now." Alyson said "So lets get you out of here."

"You are both stupid, frustrating women," Onyx says, fighting back tears.

"Which is why you fit right in with us, love," Victoria said. "Now... Aly and I are going to take care of the vermin problem in this building. We would greatly appreciate your help in the matter."

Onyx throws a light punch towards Victoria's solar plexus in response.

Victoria gasped for breath for a moment, then gave Onyx a hard glare. "Feel better now?" she rasped.

"You are not trained for this, Ms. Valentine," Onyx says, her voice shaking, "I can beat you."

"Give up," Onyx says, getting into a fighting stance.

"I'm not tr- Oh, bloody hell, are you serious?" Then the dagger was in Victoria's hand, and the shadows of Onyx's body were suddenly bending to her will. "Let's get one thing straight, little girl," Victoria growled. "I'm not going off every new moon just for a pleasant chat and tea. You get a pass because I love you... but you don't know even half of what I'm capable of." She threw, from nowhere, the batgirl costume at Onyx. "Now put this on while no one's bloody looking at us."

"I am not afraid of you," Onyx says, "And I will protect you even if I have to hurt you to do so."

"There is no reason you should risk your lives for mine. I am nothing but a slave. Disposable. Please. Just go away."

"Sorry, but I don't consider you disposable, love." Alyson said "Will you please stop trying to get yourself killed?"

"Because in case you haven't noticed, we'd much prefer a bit of risk to ourselves over losing you."

"I am not trying to get killed!" Onyx snaps, "It is inevitable. And I have accepted it."

Onyx clenches her fists. Looking down at the floor. She was crying and completely unable to stop it.

"No its not." Alyson said, as she bent down and tried to pick Onxy up. If she managed to do it, she and Victoria would carry Onyx out "You're going to live."

Onyx struggled for a moment but allowed it ultimately, bursting in tears and pressing her face into Alyson's chest.

"There is something wrong with me," Onyx sobs, "I don't want to die."

"Nothing is wrong with you." Alyson said, jerking her head at Victoria indicating that they should get Onyx out of there.

Suddenly Onyx began convulsing. She went limp and wasn't breathing.

Down the hall a man in an expensive suit was holding a remote.

Victoria's eyes went wide. "Kill him! I'll try to help her!" she snapped, moving to catch Onyx and try to find... well, whatever it was he'd triggered.

Alyson laid Onyx down carefully, and then ran towards the man.

Victoria would notice that Onyx's collar had lit up. The collar that was linked to her nervous system.

Blood was running from Onyx's mouth and nose.

The man pulled out a gun and shot at Alyson.

"Damn it," Victoria said, first trying to open the collar, and then trying to reach Onyx's body with her magic. She wanted to make her body reject the mechanism, which she knew was an easier task to propose than to accopmlish.

The bullet bounced harmlessly at Alyson's force field and a moment later one of her hands was crushing his windpipe while the other was grabbing the remote.

As Victoria did her best, Onyx's blood began turning black.

The man wheezed, glaring at Alyson as he tried to say something. Unfortunately he was a bit impeded by the vice like grip around his throat.

Victoria looked at Onyx for a moment, then her eyes blazed. "Little fools... you have no idea what powers you're playing with." She held the dagger in her hand like a wand, extended in her outstretched arm. "Wind and ice, storm and shadow, air and darkness, serve my will! Pain and death and oblivion come, for your mistress calls thee!" And even though they were indoors, a gale erupted around them, arcing carefully around Victoria, Onyx, and Alyson, but frightfully cold even to them... yet their skin still felt warm. The slavers in the building, though, began to cry out, as the very heat of their life began to be dragged from their bodies.

Alyson shuddered as she felt the man she was holding die, well, die faster and not because of the throat squeezing thing. She let him drop and grabbed the remote, looking at it to see how to shut it off.

She could shut it off but there was no switch to reverse. It was designed to torture and kill misbehaving slaves.

And torturing wasn't what he had in mind.

"Rip the collar off of her. I'm not strong enough," Victoria said through gritted teeth as she kept up the magic. "Not without hurting her, at least. You need to do it."

Alyson took a deep breath and, offering a silent prayer to a God she didn't quite believe in that this wasn't going to just kill Onyx faster, she ripped the collar off of her neck.

Onyx's body kicks for a moment before falling limply to the floor.

And then slowly her body begins to disintegrate. Losing any sense of solidity. Shadows all around them begin sliding towards her as she stretches out becoming more two dimensional then an actual person.

Weakly she begins to move, sitting up slowly.

"I feel strange," Onyx says in a strange tone of voice that seems to echo from the shadows in the room.

"You just almost lost your nervous system, love," Victoria said through gritted teeth. "I think 'strange' is to be allowed.'