Stanley Court Mall

"Cornelia apologized, for she had already uncurled it as far as it would go. She could curl it back in now, but alas, the extension was complete and that would serve little purpose," Cornelia responded. If it wasn't for her grandiose way of speaking, it'd be hard to hear her over the sounds of the monster rattling against its tracks. As Leslie got a certain distance outward, however, she heard Will's mixed cackle/giggle again... not a good sign.

"One of the buttons pressed in by itself, Cornelia gasped!" Cornelia shouted from the cockpit, but it was too late: the tongue suddenly began to get slimy and soft and most importantly: very very wet. Water began to spray from hidden pores along its surface in jetstreams that made it hard for the climber to keep her grasp and left her drenched as well.

"Hahaha! That was a warning shot Leslie! Keep it up and the next one won't be so cool and refreshing!" Dr. Wilhelm snickered from the cockpit.

"Someone could really get hurt!" Cornelia complained, but that, of course, fell on deafears. "Leslie, are you alright?" the author called out. Without her narration, she was using a different accent entirely, something foreign that truncated many of her syllables and made the words come out faster.

From this point, Leslie could stare up into the octopoid's eyes, gelatinous and menacing. It looked like they might provide a foothold up, however. On the other hand, Cornelia could move the tongue... it might be possible to use those to move herself as well. Heading for the top point of the robot could be the wrong move altogether though... there was no way to know. Trying to stand up on the tongue as it was would certainly mean slipping and falling to a messy doom, however. She was only secure now by virtue of starting with a good hold.

And so, Leslie made her way out. Ugh, that stupid laughter...what she wouldn't give to shut him up...but, wait a sec. Was it just her, or was the tongue getting softer? And if he was laughing, he must be about to try-

BAM!

...Something. She remained motionless, trying to refocus, and not just lunge at the cockpit in a moment of rage. It helped that the very thing that made her so mad was cooling her off immediately afterward. "I'm...fine." It struck the martial artist that Cornelia was speaking differently, more like a regular person. It probably meant something, but she didn't really have time to think about it. Her goal was to get up, find the mad scientist, and make him stop this. Preferably, via her fists.

Now, she just needed to find a way to get up there, preferably without risking her life in the process. While maintaining a tight grip with her legs and hand, Leslie sat up, and looked up at the eyes, still noticably and utterly soaked. Nothing overly explicit was available, but there was very little left to the imagination about the shape of her chest, as her sports bra became 100% form fitting. If one looked very closely, they could also see the outline of her underwear beneath her shorts.

If she was aware of any of this, however, she showed absolutely no signs of it, and tried to reach up towards the robot's eyes. She wasn't sure what would potentially happen, but it couldn't be more dangerous than trying to use the tongue to get up there...

Cornelia let out a sigh of relief, seeing that she hadn't inadvertently gotten somebody killed by a criminal she thought was her closest confident during an elaborate kidnapping she thought was a PR stunt. She kept quiet, hoping that perhaps Will couldn't see what Leslie was doing out there... unfortunately, the robots eyes shined and through the transparency, Leslie spotted cameras. At least the bubbles held under the weight of her hands, so she didn't go sliding back down towards her fate.

The evil doctor switched audio outputs and began communicating through booming speakers somewhere at the robot's sides. From her current distance, it was as though his voice surrounded her, echoing through the tunnel. "If you're just pressing your wet boobs against my cameras, that's all well and good... but could you be attempting to climb up Mindroot's face? Let's see what other tools I have available..." his voice addressed her.

The eyes of the octopus monster began to flash like strobes while the tongue angled upward grotesquely. "Ugh! Have you ever tried to comb your hair in the mirror and you just can't get the direction right because your directions are all backwards? That's what this is going to be like. Hold still!" he chuckled.

Although it was somewhat hard to see, Leslie could make out eight eyes, almost like grips up a rock climbing wall. She could use both for maximum stability, but that tongue was going to swish down onto the creature's face like the world's nastiest giant flyswatter. Leslie would have to either think of a way to save herself or otherwise trick him.

As Leslie looked back to notice the tongue moving, she let out an exasperated sigh. He certainly wasn't making this easy. She did, however, have a small idea. She didn't think it'd work, but eh, worth a shot. "So...let me get this straight. You're perfectly fine with killing me or inflicting other bodily harm. Me, the daughter of who many would call the greatest karate master in all of Electopia. The man who currently only manages to keep a grip on reality because of his beloved daughter. So, what I'm trying to say is, whatever you do to me, be prepared to be on the receiving end of worse, because you're going to draw the rage of a man even crazier than you, that knows how to break every bone in your body a hundred different ways, and is capable of much worse. No smug answer that you can come up to that will change that fact. He would find you, no matter how long it took, and break you in half...if you were lucky. That all sounds like hyperbole, but I assure you, it's not. Man has few enough marbles as is with me around, so if he found himself without a family...well, your funeral." It was weird to say it like that, but none of what she said was really inaccurate.

Still, just in case he was stupid as well as crazy, she needed to come up with a way to get past that tongue...and, for better or worse, she had one: the extremely innovative 'wing it', which meant bracing herself, and waiting for the tongue to start to move. From there, she'd gauge where it'd hit, and move out of its way. After all, what good was spending an entire life honing martial arts skills if she couldn't pull off a superhuman reaction or two every so often?

"Ha ha ha! Your big scary dad is going to come teach me a lesson? That's cute! I guess he's got his own robot and mind control devices to fight me with," Will gloated. "When my master plan comes to fruition, he'll be using those muscles to build my new palace! Maybe you'll get to see it if you get down from there and stop making me try to kill you?"

As if to demonstrate, the huge tongue flapped inward to smack its owner in the face, which might look comedic from a distance but was pretty darn scary up close. Leslie moved out of the way,hanging on to just one column of eyes, as it impacted between the two columns. As it hit,Leslie heard a searing sound... and realized that the tongue was now glowing with heat. "Darn, missed! Maybe I would have better luck if I came out there and licked you myself, huh?" he chuckled. Thankfully, she seemed to be able to get out of the way, but advancing up like this might be impossible. "Speaking of which, I bet you can't dodge the tongue twice! Why don't you try so I can show you some more of my fun features?"

Hearing Cornelia would be impossible at this point, unless Leslie lowered herself back down.

Truth be told, nothing that happened was surprising Leslie a bit. She expected him to actually try to hit her, she expected that she would be able to dodge the strike, and she expected him to not believe her about her father. Well, his funeral...she just needed to be sure it wasn't hers, as well. "Actually, Father's not that big. He's muscular, but he's not that much taller than me. But, well...if you think your little toys can stop him, you might want to look up some of Takeshi Battle's public demonstrations. And mind control devices only work on people that actually have minds to control!"

Heh, now she was thinking of some of the stunts he pulled...like getting through a laser trip grid by ONLY using karate techniques, or splitting a boulder with a single hit, which, unknown to him until afterward, was actually a metal ball with a rocky exterior. In Netopia, he once managed to destroy full plate armor, and chain mail underneath it, using only his fists...all while intentionally not harming the person that was inside it. She had to admit...when he wasn't a total drunkard, he was actually quite the badass. Too bad that was basically never nowadays.

And, oddly enough, she actually DID have a plan for how to avoid a second strike...but it all depended on how he did it. She clung onto the robot's left eyes (from the robot's perspective) with her right extremities, waiting for the perfect chance to make her move. It was risky, and she only had one try to pull it off, but a Battle didn't surrender just because something was 'dangerous' or 'something you'd have to be crazy to try'.

"Fantasize too much and you might end up as crazy as that comic writer," Will's voice warned Leslie from MindRoot's speakers. "You have to be able to distinguish fantasy from reality! And, while this might seem rather fantastic, I assure you, your present danger is quite real!"

On queue, the giant tongue slapped back down. This time it was a little off the mark such that she probably would have dodged it even if she hadn't tried. "I had been wanting to use this one! What's the good of building a giant octopus if I can't get a little freaky, huh?" he joked... only he wasn't really joking. Some sort of (fairly nice smelling) pink good began to spray out of the pores of the tongue, making it look revoltingly like the tongue was gushing blood.

Of course, the substance that had sprayed out wasn't blood. It was actually, seemingly, soap. It was also soap that Leslie had some experience with: a rare sort of aphrodesiac substance that began to activate upon skin contact, causing heat and tingles in various places. "Why don't you climb back down and join Cornelia, huh, Leslie? One of these times MindRoot is going to get lucky and when he does... whack!"

Fantasy? Ha. A memory wasn't exactly fake. Plus, sh-

...iiiiiiiiiiiit! Though she wasn't as well-prepared that time, Leslie managed to dodge the tentacle strike, thanks to the aim being a bit off. Speaking of which..."You don't need to be a little freaky. You're already a freak!" Her thanks for the quip came in the form of being splattered with pink goop...at least she didn't get any in her eyes. And...ugh, was it just her, or was it getting kinda warm all of a sudden...no. That couldn't be...she knew what it was he sprayed. She'd experienced it once during her stay in Netopia...

But now, in addition to fighting the tentacle tongue thing, she had to deal with her (admittedly not sudden, but now far more pronounced) desire to hop down and go make out with Cornelia (and maybe not stopping there). Defying all logic, however, she held on to the eyes, essentially hanging on with raw finger strength at this point. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I took a shower before I got here!" It was pretty obvious that she was going to keep hanging around...though less obvious was how much longer she could keep ahold of the eye. Or how long she could resist urges to hop down and give the artist a lesson in fingerpainting.

"Oh, Leslie! Leslie, Leslie, Leslie! You're trying to make a fool out of my gorgeous octopus, making him lick his own face like this, aren't you? Too bad nobody's around to see your efforts... or save you, for that matter," Will's insufferable voice taunted her again. "Another spray ought to take your mind off of your predicament, don't you think?" he asked, knowing full well that Leslie did not want another spray of the goop. Still, the tongue came back down for another imprecise strike, which Leslie managed to barely move out of the way of. Will started laughing...

... and laughing...

... and finally stopped. "What the hell... it's not coming out!" he growled. "Did I really order that little to pump into the tongue? Or is it jammed? No, it couldn't be jammed! I built this machine by hand, it's flawless! There must be something wrong with the interface! Dammit, that stupid navi... that stupid, stupid navi! If I didn't need her for my hypnotization scheme's fruition, I would see how her tentacles stand up to the four winds! That's a medieval torture device, if you didn't know," he sighed. He apparently thought this level of reckless, plan-revealing exposition was okay at this point, because that's what all evil scientists tend to think. "Ha...! No matter! I'll have it fixed in un momento, then I'll simply slide his tongue across his forehead and knock you onto the tracks. This would be a great time to retreat back into the mouth though, if you like!"

Though she managed to avoid the third tongue strike, the fact it didn't miss by much worried Leslie; it meant his aim was getting better. And-crap, another round of that soap, and even she wouldn't be able to resist it. She closed her eyes, and braced for impact...

...But nothing happened. First one eye opened, then the other, and was soon followed by a smirk. Looked like his toy robot was out of juice. "The Battles have passed down their martial arts for hundreds of years, all to make sure Electopia is safe from jackasses like you! I won't rest until my fist is firmly implanted in your face! And besides...so far, you've been better at hitting yourself than me!" Bravado aside, though, she needed to find some way to break the stalemate. She couldn't do anything via Martia, so she was on her own...

...Wait, of course! If he was fixing something, it meant that he had to focus on that, instead of her. Which meant that this was a great chance to try and shimmy on up, and put herself one step closer to putting an end to a madman's evil plot...it was worth a shot, anyway. Time to move on up in the world...or octopus robot, whatever.

Leslie managed to gain some distance, moving from one row of eyes to the next, before Will spoke up again. "There we go. Now, let's not play any further... we wouldn't want you to do anything unseemly..." he chuckled. Te tongue rose up behind her and its tip lulled back, seeming to follow her movements. "Time to turn on the window wipers-!"

Defiantly, the tongue seemed to shoot straight outward suddenly like a party blower, shooting a diluted,runny mess of mildly warm pink goop and water. The liquid smeared all over Leslie's thighs and lower body, but no higher. "Is she under attack?! I need to pull her back but... no, then I have no defenses! Sorry, Leslie, but someone is trying to interrupt our fun... I'm going to have to cut this short..."

Leslie had made it to the top row of eyes; from here, she could more easily grab his head spines and work her way around the creature. Of particular interest was the hatch on its head, but there might be another entrance somewhere around the back, which had always been hidden. She would still need to be careful; none of this thing looked very safe to stand on while moving at sigh high speeds.

Upping the ante, two tentacles arose from the monster's side. Both looked porous, like the tongue. Slowly, they moved towards her position. "You know what's great about these? I can control their movements much more precisely..." whether that was a bluff or not was unclear, but she had to wonder why he'd be moving them so slow if he was in full control of the robot.

Far ahead in the tunnel, Leslie spotted a slowly brightening light and heard a hatch moving; they might be getting close to the end.

Window wipers? Crap. Leslie stopped her ascent, and braced herself for the mother of all lightning fast reactions...only to get blasted with more goop. With that, everything below her waist was now warm and tingly...everything. It was starting to make her mind come up with some freaky things to do with those tentacles...

...But even that wasn't enough to stop her. She didn't know who, but apparently someone was trying to sabotage the robot. Cornelia, maybe? No, if it was her, squid boy would've said something about it. Well, whoever it was, she was pretty grateful for them, whoever they were. She hoped it was a cute girl, so she could...properly thank her.

Argh, no time to think about that. Shaking her head, the martial artist grabbed a head spike, and started to make her way up top. She couldn't let her guard down, though; she was up against a crazy person, and being on top of a speeding octopus robot wasn't exactly safe. And sure enough, he had more tentacles, which seemed to be slower, but more precise, which was a bit of a problem. Also a problem was that light ahead. That couldn't be good. On the plus side, there was a nice hatch next to her, begging to be opened. She gave it a quick lookover, to see if there was a way she could open it.

"Dammit, the movements are so sluggish... She must be entirely unfocused. I sent her in to do one simple thing: wait, out of sight! What the hell happened?!" the mad scientist growled. Leslie could almost hear him banging his fists inside the cockpit. "Hold it right there, you!"

As if mocking him, one tentacle suddenly exploded into streams of pink goop; even though the machine parts were still in tact, the octopus-looking skin ripped right off of them, leaving only a big metal tube, so powerful was the force of the release. More of the stuff coated Leslie, but it looked like the tentacle was entirely out of commission. "No no no! Rrrrgh!" he growled, still lurching the other one towards her.

Leslie found that the climbing was getting a little easier, as it became more of a crawl thanks to the slope. She managed to find the opening to the hatch and poke it open; inside, she could see a ladder leading down to a control panel. In front of the control panel was Will, bushy blond hair and all. He was furiously trying to work two control sticks and didn't seem to realize he'd opened up the top lid; it looked like he had earphones on.

As she was just moments away from reaching the source of all of her troubles, the remaining tentacle wrapped around her ankle. "Got you!" he cackled, his voice sounding out twice: once from the speakers and again from the cockpit. "Now I'll just drag you down into MindRoot's mouth..." With any luck, the sabotage would kick in and save her again. It was also possible she could disrupt Will, now that she had a clear line of view to him, but she would have to make sure it was a good opportunity so she didn't waste her surprise attack.

It sounded like some kind of voice was coming through a megaphone somewhere, but it was too far away to make out any words...

The exploding tentacle was both a blessing and a curse, as while it did stop it, Leslie found herself covered in more of the agonizing bliss the pink goop was causing her. If she didn't have a fighter's iron hard will, she'd probably have completely given in to her urges after that last burst of soap, and that would be bad on so many levels...

But, she persevered, and managed to get the hatch door open. And there he was. Octopus Man. Oh, she was going to have SO MUCH FUN beating the everloving crap out of him-

...And in a moment of not minding her surroundings, the fighter felt something wrap around her ankle. "...Oh, fucking hell!" She was strong, but not strong enough to force a robot to release its grip on her. Of course, given how things were going lately, this was right about when she caught a lucky break. But, she knew better than to bank on that. Not with her traditional luck (or total lack thereof). If only she had a way to distract him...

...Of course she did. She had the perfect pair of distractions for him. The kind of distraction that only a woman could provide...with only a faint ripping sound, probably because it was absolutely drenched in various things, Leslie tore her sports bra off her body, leaving only her open karategi jacket for upper body clothing. She took a moment to sop up some of the soap off her chest and stomach, scrunched it into a ball...and tossed it down, right at Will. Her father would probably kill her for destroying a perfectly good piece of clothing, but eh, that one was pretty old and wasn't fitting her right anyway. Now, let's see how HE liked getting hit by pleasure inducing soap...

"Hrk! She sounds so close now," Will murmured, slowly turning his head upward... only to spot his hostage glaring down at him from above. "Aaa-mrfurgg!" he screamed and then subsequently cursed after having his face covered by a well-aimed soaked t-shirt. He grabbed it off, but continued clutching at his eyes as he stumbled backwards. Unsurprisingly, the eyes were about the last place you wanted aphrodesiac soap and no pleasure was being induced. It was plenty distracting though.

In a flurry of motion, the scientist hurtled through a door behind himself and slammed it shut. Leslie felt the tentacle loosen around her leg for some reason... it may have to do with the fact that he had taken his PET with him. Regardless, the robot wasn't exactly stopping, and that might be the most important thing right now.

Because things had to be annoying, the console had entirely receded into the wall after he pulled out his PET. All that was left was a slot for a whole PET to be mounted (somewhat unusual, as usually one just uses a jack-in port), a microphone, and a monitor, which currently displayed Cornelia. She looked like she was doing some sort of meditation, sitting Indian-style with her eyes half shut. The monitor might be displaying one-way or she might be unable to see like that, but whatever the case, she didn't say anything to Leslie.

at this point, Martia's operator had a few options: firstly, she could breach the big metal door behind her and chase Will down. Second, she could use the trap door beneath her; she heard engines below and it was feasible she may be able to stop the robot somehow. Finally, she could speak with Cornelia and explain the situation.

A fourth option presented itself: follow the instructions of some guy with a megaphone. "Captives! Stay where you are! I'm an investigator looking for Wilhelm Jacques! Wilhelm, please stop your robot and slowly approach the barricade with your hands up!" a man's voice demanded. "If you do not comply, I'm boarding the vehicle! You have three... uh one second to deccelerate! Alright, I'm boarding!"

Perfect. Yeah, right in the eye. She would've preferred to hit him in the face with her fist, but Leslie was perfectly content to watch Will's soap based agony, and subsequent retreat. Now she could get down there and try to stop this stupid robot. And so she did...only to find out that apparently, the mad scientist took the controls with him or something. Hmm...she wasn't exactly an expert in robots, but that slot looked like it was exactly big enough for a PET. Deciding to take a chance, she pulled hers out (luckily, she had it waterproofed a long time ago after an unfortunate accident involving a broken gutter) and placed it in to see if it'd do anything. It'd be nice if she could somehow regain a line with Martia, but she didn't want to chance getting her zapped if she had the choice. In the meantime, why not let Cornelia know she was all right?

"Hey, Cornelia! I'm in the control area now, safe as can be! That idiot ran off before I could get to him, though...anyway, I'm gonna try and stop this thing. Hang tight until then, okay?" And naturally, some guy picked that time to make himself known. Just a liiiittle bit late there, chief. She'd stop the robot if she knew how, but exactly how? Well, if the PET thing didn't access anything, she could always try that door; it sounded nice and mechanical...

And, of course, at no time during any of this did it dawn on Leslie that she MIGHT want to consider doing something to cover up her breasts, since the one thing that usually did so was rendered unwearable. But nope, she was perfectly content to stand there, fully exposed from the waist up, as she sized up the situation...

Unfortunately, the PET didn't fit into the slot right, let alone allow the console to pop back out. The slot looked PET shaped at first glance, but the hole had some odd depth to it... Will's might have something sticking off the side that plugged in, perhaps even. physical key. At least she managed to activate Cornelia, who popped awake from her meditation. She appeared to be back to her old third person, fantasy world self. "It looked to Cornelia like Leslie had gone through a lot but come out safe. Cornelia had prayed to Red Nova, hoping her wishes would be heard, and perhaps they were! The missing shirt wasn't part of the artist's wish, and yet..."

Before she could finish that thought, a hand reached frantically up over the hinge, then another followed. A man in a cowboy hat slowly peeked over, then fell through, missing the ladder. Evidently, he had climbed up the wrong side.

He landed in front of Leslie with a crash, face-planting against the ground upside down. He looked like a skinny guy, tall and dressed in a white shirt and black tie. Along with that were black pants, shoes, and gloves, giving them an altogether strange look. Their shades had fallen off coming over, as well as the hat, revealing a mat of bushy, unkempt brown hair, almost like the style of the popular old rockers, but with no sideburns.

Quickly, he corrected himself, tucking back in his shirt swiftly and replacing the hat, all after making very sure the shades were back in place. He had a moustache that didn't seem to suit his otherwise pretty face. "Alright, jackass, it's time to... uh... wait, you're not the jackass. Holy crap! What'd he do to you?!" the stranger gasped, only now noticing Leslie's state of repair. His face turned red in a mixture of arousal and indignation. "He's gonna pay for this, I swear! Where'd the rat bastard go?" However, the more the character talked, the less the gruff and tough manner seemed to fit... With the shaggy hair and lanky-but-pretty features, it almost looked like Will in a bad disguise.

As if in answer, Will's voice came over the speaker. It turned out to be one of the much nicer sounding prerecorded ones. "Escape vehicle preparing for departure..."

...Great, her PET didn't fit. But at the same time, it didn't seem like it was just that she had the wrong model...meh, she didn't have the technological knowledge to figure it out. And she really, REALLY hoped that Cornelia wasn't serious about praying to a superhero...one that she herself created, no less. And what did she mean about a shirt? She couldn't even remember the last time she wore a shirt...

...Wha-? Sensing something, Leslie looked up at the hatch, and noting a hand emerging from it. She braced herself, ready for a fight if she had to...only to watch as some guy completely missed the ladder, and fell the entire way down. Ow. Upon standing up, she got a good look at him, though it wasn't obvious whether he wanted to be a pretty boy, or a Netopian cowboy. Meh, whatever. He then proceeded to (mistakenly) refer to her as a jackass, which caused the martial artist to fold her arms (though low enough that her breasts remained clearly visible) and shot him a dirty look. "Yeah, no shit, Sherlock!" And then there was embarrassment for...some reason or another. "What, you never seen a soaking wet woman before?" She let out an annoyed sigh...which caused her boobs to touch her arms, and made it pretty obvious why he was reacting the way he did. "...Oh, that." With absolutely no sense of urgency, she untied her headband, closed her jacket, and used what was actually a belt to tie it up. Though, whether or not it was intentional, she still had a fair amount of cleavage exposure..."Actually, that part was all me. ...It's a long story..."

But before she even had a chance to hear it, a prerecorded message blared, filling her heart with momentarily quelled fury. "Oh, no he doesn't...you! Stay here and figure out how to slow this thing down! I'm heading off to kick that guy's pasty ass clear to Yumland!" With that, she ran over to the rather large door Will had gone through, and through it, to try and get to the criminal mastermind. She did NOT want him to get away: doing this again was not something she really wanted to do...

The would-be savior, might-be cowboy looked on in utter confusion as Leslie showed neither a hint of modesty nor a particularly great need for him to have come in to rescue her. "Oh, uh... pardon, ma'am. I'll just stay here then," the cowboy answered, speaking in a quiet voice. He turned and examined the console as Leslie barreled through the octopus towards whatever kind of escape vehicle it was planning to crap out.

As Leslie entered the back room, she spotted a tall, standing pod near the back, about the size of a man. Various other supplies were stacked in drums and crates around her, secured to the floor by nets, but the pod looked by far the most likely to be the "escape vehicle." The glass door was sliding shut slowly... inside, she saw a glimpse of Will's evil scientist labcoat.

At this point, she had only a few options. There was no time to look for machinery to operate the pod. She could either climb in with Will and hope the thing didn't shut on her, try to hold the door open and also hope it didn't shut on her, or grab hold of the pod and try to go with it, which might be even more dangerous than the other options. She had only a moment to consider any other options she might want to pursue.

Aha, a pod. That had to be it, especially since she saw some lab coat inside. No time to stop and think things through, this was a time for action. Fortunately, Leslie was better at action than think things through logically, so without delay, she raced over, and tried to sneak in the door. And then, if she was successful, she'd be able greet him with a nice, friendly, "'Sup, asshole?"