Earth nodded in response, desperately trying to keep the smile off her face, all the time pretending to be far too shaken up to do anything else. Together, both of them crept along the street in near total darkness, both still holding hands, both pleased to get something of their breaths back. Kitty had done this hundreds, if not thousands of times before and could probably have done it just with the feel of her bare feet on the cobbled street, rather than using her eyes, which made little difference in the all encompassing black.
Edging further and further down the tiny little street, full of narrow three storey buildings, few if any showing any light at all coming from the inside, they quickly reached their destination. Like its neighbours, it was a tall, narrow building with its windows boarded up and a solid looking door, white paint flaking off the surround. Still holding her hand, Kitty sneaked around a set of rubbish bins, leant down and ever so carefully pulled back a huge piece of metal, all the time trying to be as quiet as she could. The metal was thick, and weighed an awful lot. Even using her full force, Kitty could only manage to slide it a little way. With a gap barely bigger than the women's waists showing, Kitty slipped through. Earth duly followed. A metal handle had been welded to the underside, which Kitty used to pull the metal back in place. Then she led them down the steps, stopping at a wooden door. Quietly, she tapped the door with her knuckles. Tap, tap, tap. She waited. A single tap came back. Tapping twice more, she stopped and then tapped twice more again. Silence ensued. It felt like an age, but moments later, rustling could be heard from behind the door. Eventually, it opened, well... a little anyway. A startlingly handsome man with a perfectly trimmed moustache poked his head through the gap.
"Ahhh... Kitty," he gasped in a distinctive English accent. "We weren't expecting you. Sorry, you set us all a bit on edge."
"We had a bit of a problem... a tail, but completely shaken off now."
"Excellent, excellent," whispered the man, pulling open the door and allowing the women to squeeze through, then bolting it thoroughly once he'd done so.
"Come on through, come on through," he urged.
Both followed into the basement that was... rather nice, all things considered. Apart from the boarded up windows, the rooms could have been taken from any city across Europe. It held comfortable furniture and was neat and tidy, with the smell of home cooked food mingling vicariously with cigarette smoke.
Seconds after entering the room, Earth clutched her head momentarily, feigning feeling a little faint, while actually sending out a signal to her comrades. The gentleman that had let them in rushed to her aid.
"I'm okay, I'm okay," she muttered. "Just felt a little light headed there for a moment."
"Understandable really," put in Kitty. "We have, after all, just spent the last twenty or so minutes running through the streets of Paris."
"Those damn Nazis will be the death of us all," added the gentleman.
'That's the idea,' thought Earth.
"I jolly well hope not," added another man, striding through the only other door to the room, clutching a steaming mug of something.
"I for one second that," chipped in a blonde haired woman from right behind him.
Before anyone else had a chance to say anything, a small bell attached to a line coming down from somewhere up above, dangling precariously over the fireplace, jingled uncontrollably. Each and every one of them stopped, too shocked to move. Kitty was first to speak.
"It can't be. It just can't be! We lost him... I'm sure of it."
The bell jingled again, more furiously this time.
"Questions for later!" exclaimed the man with the moustache, who had let them in. "Seems we definitely have company of some sort. Might even be time to bug out."
Nodding in agreement, they all made for the far door, all except Earth, who knew that the time had come. Kitty tried to urge her out through the door, but she was having none of it. To the young Resistance officer's surprise, Earth produced her best smile, knowing full well that once again, she'd won. Everyone in the room stood stock still, taking in a very different character from the one they'd so warmly welcomed only a few moments ago.
"YOU!" accused Kitty.
"Of course," replied Earth nonchalantly, slipping a cigarette between her crimson lips and lighting it.
"I... I... I... I don't understand," stuttered Kitty, to no one in particular.
"Ahhh..." said Earth, taking a long drag on the addictive nicotine stick separating her lips. "It was all so easy."
From nowhere, the other man in the room pulled out a .38 revolver.
"You may think you've caught us, but I can assure you it's the last thing you'll ever do," he announced.
Earth took another long puff on her cigarette, savoured the moment, and then blew out a long stream of smoke in the direction of the man holding the gun. You could have cut the tension in the room with a knife, along with all the cigarette smoke. Bizarrely, Earth burst out laughing. It wasn't just any laugh though. It was the kind of laugh that sent a chill through your very bones.
"What's so funny?" enquired the other woman in the room.
"Ohhh," said the Nazi stooge, looking up at the ceiling, "THIS!"
Instantly the air in the room became thick; the hum of static electricity pulsed through it. Earth dropped her cigarette and held out her hands towards the group of British Resistance operatives. The man with the revolver fired. One, two, three shots. Bright blue, blinding bolts of forked electricity arced from Earth's fingers, destroying the bullets mid flight, as the Resistance fighters looked on horrified. The bell in the fireplace rang constantly against the backdrop of something smashing down the basement door through which they'd previously entered. Acrid smoke and the smell of burning engulfed the room, overpowering the disgusting stench of the misguided dragon's cigarette. Both male Resistance fighters looked at one another, each with the same thought. Charging, giving it all they had, the one with the gun ending with a flying leap towards Earth. A deafening crackle whistled around the room as forked electricity streaked forth from Earth's fingers once again. Caught firmly in the neck, mid leap, the man with the gun promptly slumped to the floor, a sizzling black wound eating into his flesh as he did so. Taken off his feet by a massive static charge, the man with the moustache had come within a whisker of reaching his goal, only to be thrown backwards, smashing into the far wall where he remained, smoke steaming from his wound, totally unconscious.
Kitty and the other female Resistance fighter shared a look of resignation, but were determined, however helpless the situation, to follow the example of their friends. Before they had a chance, the basement door disintegrated in a blast so loud it knocked them off their feet. By the time they got back up, half a dozen uniformed Nazis had burst into the room, all pointing their Walther P38's at them.