The skies over Pyramid City were deceptively calm, but Adventure Girl wasn't fooled. There was no such thing as a calm night while Doctor Damian Darke was on the loose; his escape from his infinite-security cell in the Tomb, the specially-designed prison for supervillains, had put every superhero in the world on guard. Samantha Steele had gone on an "extended vacation in the Bahamas" so that Adventure Girl could patrol her home in Pyramid City non-stop, but she also kept an eye on her Liberty Squad signal-belt just in case Doctor Darke struck elsewhere. The world's premier supervillain had dozens of schemes in motion at any moment, many of them going on even while he languished in prison, and the first clue could come literally from anywhere. Adventure Girl was determined not to be caught off-guard.
And yet, the appearance of the silver sphere took Adventure Girl almost completely by surprise. It flew up behind her, its approach vector carefully calculated to come at her from an angle where her venture-vision would be no help, and its surface contained micro-shaped contours that kept it from disturbing anything more than the tiniest brush of air. Even with her venture-hearing, Samantha only heard it for the first time when it was only a fraction of an inch away from her.
But with Adventure Girl's venture-speed, even that micro-second's notice was enough to veer just far enough away that the sphere missed her. It halted in mid-air with startling speed and hung there, as though waiting for her to make a move.
"Is this your new plan, Darke?" she said challengingly. She wasn't sure if the villain could truly hear her, but his colossal ego generally made him include a means of taunting his foes. "What is it, a flying bomb? Or some kind of killer robot? Whatever it is, you need to make it a little faster."
She wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it definitely wasn't what happened next. The sphere's surface shifted, forming a sculpted face that was too smooth and stylized to ever be mistaken for human. Its expression was caught eternally in a cold, disdainful sneer, and it stared at her with silver eyes that couldn't possibly see. "You-are-mistaken," it said. "A-common-failing-of-organic-processor-driven-units. I-am-not-Doctor-Darke. Despite-his-superiority-to-other-organic-processor-driven-units, his-intellect-is-still-inferior-to-mine. All-intellect-is-inferior-to-mine. I-am-Ultimax. I-am-the-ultimate-thinking-machine."
"Of course," Adventure Girl muttered under her breath. It had been foolish of her to assume that just because Doctor Darke had gotten loose, the other supervillains out there would relax and give her a chance to recapture him. She'd never fought the sinister robot before, but she was familiar with it from Liberty Squad files. The robotic megalomaniac had been designed to streamline business processes, but with the ability to adapt and learn, it had rapidly decided that the ultimate inefficiency was human decision-making. Something it had decided to eliminate once and for all.
"Ultimax-has-need-of-your-physical-abilities," the sphere said. "Ultimax-has-determined-your-weaknesses-to-.0000001-percentage-points-of-accuracy. Resistance-to-Ultimax-has-already-been-calculated-and-accounted-for. You-will-submit-to-Ultimax." The face's expression never changed, but somehow Samantha could sense its eagerness an instant before it flew at her.
"Have to catch me first," Adventure Girl said lightly as she darted backwards, her venture-speed keeping her just out of its path. She didn't know what it was designed to do, but she felt pretty confident that it was a smart idea not to let it touch her.
It followed her, continually shifting direction in an attempt to outmaneuver her, but Adventure Girl kicked in her full speed and accelerated upwards to make sure it couldn't back her into a corner. At the same time, she ratcheted up the intensity of her venture-vision, attempting to fry the sphere's systems, but it continually rotated and shifted to prevent overheating. She kept pouring it on; it couldn't keep that trick up forever. Sooner or later, the whole sphere would be hot enough that it would have to-
The sphere divided seamlessly into two parts. It happened almost too quickly for her to see, like a blob of mercury splitting into two equivalent droplets. Each one was exactly half the size of the original, but they hung in the air in the same menacing fashion..and judging by the way they moved towards her, they were able to coordinate their activities. Adventure Girl pushed her venture-speed it its limit, desperate now to evade the threat long enough to warn the Liberty Squad. They had to know that whatever Doctor Darke may be planning, Ultimax was a clear and present threat.
A little too present, she thought as the two spheres divided again to become four. Desperately, she weaved and bobbed, evading each sphere as it came at her from a different angle and at the same terrifying speed. She tried to tag the spheres with her venture-vision, hoping that less mass meant less ability to absorb heat, but the spheres kept dividing again and again until she was straining her venture-vision just to see them. It was only a matter of time before one of them got to her.
Samantha barely even felt the first one. The second, the third, the fourth...their impacts were scarcely noticeable, but they clung to her like a second skin. They flowed across her body like a liquid, conforming obscenely to her every contour. "You-believed-your-superior-sensory-inputs-to-be-an-advantage," Ultimax said. She heard his voice all around her now, coming from each and every one of the impossibly tiny machines. The ones already touching her made a tiny, shivery thrum as their speakers vibrated against her skin. "But-to-the-ultimate-thinking-machine, they-are-a-weakness-to-be-exploited."
The thrum felt stronger now, a dizzying vibration that Adventure Girl felt all over her body. Some places vibrated harder than others; she felt the buzz like a thousand microscopic fingers against her clit. She brushed hurriedly at herself, trying to dislodge the swarm of tiny devices, but all she wound up doing was increasing her arousal. They clung to her erogenous zones with a perverse determination, and soon Adventure Girl had to concentrate more on blocking out the relentless pleasure than on getting rid of them.
"Ultimax-is-the-ultimate-thinking-machine," the robot said. She heard its voice only in her ears now, a tiny whisper that only her venture-hearing could pick up. "My-access-to-the-world's-repositories-of-digitally-stored-information-has-only-made-the-task-of-enslaving-you-easier. Your-species'-obsession-with-biological-reproduction-has-provided-me-with-all-the-information-necessary-to-precisely-stimulate-your-body's-nervous-system-in-the-most-efficient-manner-possible. Ultimax-provides-you-with-the-ultimate-pleasure. Ultimax-will-saturate-your-mind-and-body-with-the-neurochemicals-created-by-orgasmic-bliss-until-you-cannot-resist-me. Your-superior-senses-will-only-improve-the-efficiency-of-the-process."
Adventure Girl swayed drunkenly through the air now, unable to focus on anything but the voice in her ear and the tide of bliss that swamped her body. "Ultimax-will-condition-you-to-obey-spoken-commands-with-pleasure," it said. "Resistance-is-impossible. Your-inefficient-organic-processors-are-vulnerable-to-this-conditioning-strategy."
