As Amaretto rushed after her aunt who had run into the Cloister, she felt a sudden shiver as she crossed the threshold. It wasn't coldness, but Darkness that she felt, and it made her skin crawl. The inside had been doe in a Jacobean style Victorian period slump with a large aerie feel to the vaulted ceilings in the area. From the ceilings hung large chandeliers made of metal and gears that ticked and spun and whirled and clicked. Amaretto was more than sure that these gears were machine parts, but to what machine she was not sure as the gas lighting that came from the chandeliers was so low, she could barely see in front of her.
As Amaretto paused to adjust to the new lighting in the area, she heard her aunt hiss something in the darkness. She turned to see her aunt making a gesture with her hand, motioning her over to hide behind one of the pillars. Amaretto picked up her skirts, just enough so her jeans would not be showing, but to make sure that they would not get in the way, and hurried over to where her aunt was hiding.
Her aunt made a worried face. "It seems that we were expected," Katherine began. "However, not to worry. We still have Johanna to follow and Alice is more than ready with her pistol. The only real problem is avoiding guards. We can either go in guns blazing, or sneak our way through. I prefer sneaking, and Alice prefers to blaze though. Either way, we have to make our way up to the second floor of the Cloister to make it to the back stairs where Mother Chime supposedly has her suites."
Alice bustled over from behind the pillar she was hiding behind and then smiled at Amaretto, both of her pistols in her hands. "Mother Chime however also has the queen with her. So we have to be careful that we don't fall afoul of scientists of palace guards."
Amaretto looked a little lost. "Scientists? What would be the problem with scientists?" Amaretto pictured a short man in a white lab coat with thinning hair and really beady eyes.
Alice snorted and then said, "For argument's sake, let us say that the scientists are more modified than the regular palace guards."
"That would make no sense," Amaretto said furrowing her brow.
"Alice smiled rather wickedly and then said, "The last scientist I saw had modified his hand to apply a saw in place there. It was a little creepy."
Amaretto tried to smile back, but found herself a little horrified.
Katherine patted her god-daughter on the shoulder and then spoke in a low tone. "Are you ready Amaretto. I'm going to need you on the front line, think you can do it?"
Amaretto shook her head and then looked at her aunt. Her heart was pounding a million miles a moment and there seemed to be no stopping the dread that she felt encroaching on her.
Katherine smiled and then said, "do it and when we get back, I'll buy you a pair of Seven Jeans."
Amaretto's eyes widened. "Are you trying to bribe me with the most expensive jeans in the world?"
"You and I both know there is a reason they call them '7 for all Mankind' jeans," her aunt smiled.
Amaretto pulled herself up from the slump that she had begun and looked around. She stepped boldly towards the other side of the room and made sure that her shoes slammed against the marble floors. She wanted to make as much noise as possible. As she did so, she heard the familiar clanking of metal against the marble floors. She began muttering the incantation even before she saw them. As the IronMen came around the corner, she shrieked the last line of the incantation aloud, "Iron of Man you now shall erase!"
There was a shriek and a sudden haze of smoke as the IronMen twisted where they were standing and then violently shuddered before turning their gazes towards the skies before they spewed black smog from their mouths. Boiling steam jerked from their chests as the iron hearts in their chests burst violently onto the floors. The automation stood there with the smoke pouring from their mouths and Amaretto took another step forward. From behind them, she saw another set of the IronMen and jerked her hand forwards and began the incantation once more.
"Voices of Ancients long ago past," she began.
The first of the IronMen raised his hands and his fingers seemed to bend at an impossible angle at the knuckles. They bulged and then fell downwards in a short burst.
"Spirits of Earth and reminiscent grace..."
The second IronMan turned his left arm up at the elbow and pulled back at the cloth holding his elbow in place. There was a large hole there and a large set of tubing ran up his arm with what appeared to be boiling green liquid.
"Spark of Energy here now recast," Amaretto continued.
The first IronMan jerked his hands and there was a pneumatic hiss and Amaretto could see small black projectiles heading straight for her. The second Iron man seemed to turn a large spigot on his arm and a spray of what looked to be Green acid spewed forth from the hole in his elbow.
Amaretto screamed the last line as fast as she could, "Iron of Man you now shall erase!"
At the same time Katherine threw her hand forwards and screamed out, "Escudo de anciáns, Wall Redonda!"
A shimmering force exerted itself into a shield of multicolored hues in front of Amaretto. As the last line of teh spell was said, the first IronMan jerked and the strange black objects went flying around. Amaretto covered her face out of reactionary force and heard several sounds of marble being cracked into with resounding force. Amaretto had little idea left that the black balls were actually old fashioned bullets. As for the second IronMan, he jerked and the green acid fell all around him and also onto the first IronMen, as the black smoke roiled forth from their chests, Amaretto watched in horrid fascination as they melted slowly and the struts that were in the back of their feet began to collapse.
The first Iron Man suddenly ejected the iron heart from his chest and as soon as it hit the ground with a thud into the acid, there was a shrieking hiss as it began to disintegrate into nothing. The second IronMan twitched and collapsed backwards as the struts in his legs gave out, tearing into the cloth that covered his legs. As the pants were ripped, Amaretto saw that the man's legs had been replaced with a crude valve system and hydraulics that were made from what might have been bright and shiny new cogs and springs, if not for the massive amount of black oil that greased it all up.
Amaretto almost gagged and then shrieked as the IronMan's heart rocketed out of his chest into the air and slammed back down into the green acid as well. It hissed with the same shrieking sound and Amaretto felt like it sounded like two cars scraping together against a cement wall. As she clutched at her ears she heart something that sounded like a strange sound.
WHUMPT!
Amaretto turned around and saw an IronMan reaching for her. She didn't scream however, as the IronMan was twitching and then fell forwards. From behind the IronMan, Alice stood with one of her pistols, aimed right where the automaton’s heart should have been. Alice smiled grimly and then picked up her skirts as she walked forwards. "Gotta make sure you don't die then, don't we?"
Johanna had turned to Katherine who was already moving forwards. "How did you do it?" Johanna's voice was deadpan.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Katherine replied with an almost exact duplicate of Johanna's voice. Katherine moved forwards with amazing speed and began to make her way down the long hallway.
Amaretto's initial idea seemed to be a success. Make as much noise as possible and the IronMen who were in the vicinity would come to investigate. From there it was as simple as having Amaretto speak the incantation of her ring that Tempus taught her, or Alice shooting them with the Mongooses that Katherine had given her. From each side of the Gothic rendered hallway, IronMen came to investigate and soon were dispatched with remarkable ease. However, the hallway soon gave out into an open courtyard from the center and there, something that was more Neo-Renaissance was seen.
Katherine gasped. Amaretto looked a little confused as she stared at the staircase in front of her. "What is it aunt Katherine?"
"It is a rather ornate copy of the Grand Staircase at Château de Chambord. It is said that the spectacular double-helix open staircase is the centerpiece of the château. The two helices ascend three floors without ever meeting but the outside has been redone and it looks like rather than the original two stairwells have been multiplied by two for four of them, and that is most certainly more than three floors that it ascends."
Amaretto looked stunned. “I have a feeling that Mother Chime is up there.”
Katherine smiled. I think you're right. Standing here won't get us closer to the stone though.” Katherine turned to look at Johanna. “Do you feel the tug of the stone?”
Johanna closed her eyes and then pointed up the stairs.
Alice smiled as Katherine turned to her and shrugged. “Just our luck eh?”
Amaretto groaned.
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