“Welp, Watson, looks like we’re in a bit of a brie-zaster.” She slapped on a fake British accent and sniffed. “Seems like a jolly old time!”
She gave her fallen compatriot a half-hearted kick for old time’s sake. Ravager’s corpse rolled to the side, body stuffed to the brim with shards of glass.
A couple of days ago, she might’ve felt bad about that.
But even her wondrous mousey heart had limits.
Like stealing her cheese. Leaving her out of the gossip. Or calling the fucking Nine, of all people, to kill her.
Watching the psychos double-cross and capture Ravager had been satisfying as hell. That satisfaction had evaporated the second she realized she was next in line for things worse than the darkest garbage she’d ever stumbled across online.
At least there was a hope, though. The crazy bastards had let them “escape.”
Unfortunately, Ravager had refused to see reason and work together. She kept running her mouth even after being handed a miracle. Now she was dead for it. Ravager had always been an idiot villain, sure, but this? This was amateur hour at life.
“Hey, God. Or Buddha. Heck, maybe Zeus or Odin or whoever’s on duty.” She kept moving as she spoke. “Little old Cheese never prayed much, but I swear if you help me out, I’ll be a good little mousey for the rest of my life.”
Brick shattered behind her.
She whipped around just in time to see the grinning, black-and-white striped form of the Siberian stepping through the dust.
“Ahhh, come on!”
The naked woman lunged.
Madelyn didn’t bother arguing with reality. She teleported to the trash can she’d tagged fifty feet back, hands already moving. Fingers brushed walls, pipes, broken crates, anything she could get her hands on.
Tag, tag, tag. Never stop touching. Never let them know her next move.
Stone exploded again. She teleported to a length of rebar she’d brushed earlier.
She leaned against a crumbling brick wall in an empty stretch of the warehouse and forced herself to breathe.
Think, Madelyn. Think. How do you get away from a band of murderers?
She’d tagged a dozen objects in the little “pen” they’d shoved her into, but every time she made a break for it, the Nine somehow knew. It was like they could feel her getting close to freedom.
They were at some dumpsite on the edge of Boston. That much she’d pieced together.
Madelyn dragged her hand across her forehead, smearing sweat.
That was what scared her the most. They weren’t even trying.
She wasn’t a challenge, so they were taking their time. Like cats with a wounded—
No.
Bad Mouse Protector. Focus on the cheese, not the mold.
She peered around the warehouse interior. East was a nightmare of broken glass; she wasn’t confident she could dodge Shatterbird even with her powers. West meant Hatchet Face. She’d caught a glimpse of him earlier and had zero interest in testing how close she could get before she got stuck in axe town.
“That just leaves Mr. Knife Face and Alice in Butcher Land. Great…”
Still, the West was her only real option.
She scurried forward, as quiet as a mouse, nerves climbing with every silent second that passed.
Were they baiting her out…?
The explosion nearly knocked her off her feet.
Her head snapped toward the sound, jaw going slack as fear and exhaustion burned out of her system in an instant.
A dragon.
A real, balls-to-the-walls, fire-breathing dragon tore through the skyline.
Glass shattered again, but this time it wasn’t just debris. Shards lifted from every surface and shot upward like reverse rain, a glittering storm trying to drown the beast in a razor hurricane.
It did almost nothing.
The pieces pinged off scaled hide, barely pricking it. Then flame roared outward, heat washing over her even from this distance. The glass storm shattered under the inferno.
Like someone had cut the strings, every shard fell at once.
And she saw why.
Dropping from the sky, charred and ruined, was Shatterbird. Her glass dress had melted into bubbling goop around her corpse.
Madelyn cackled.
“Good riddance.”
The dragon took off again, wings beating hard enough to rattle the air. The sounds of fighting carried after it—metal on scale, something massive slamming into concrete.
These new capes were the perfect diversion. She didn’t have her armor. She didn’t have her weapons. Logically, she absolutely should run, but…
“Mouse Protector is the mightiest mouse! She ain’t no bitch!”
She snatched up a shard of glass and started moving, fingers brushing walls and debris as she refreshed her pool of tagged teleport targets.
Crashes echoed through the yard ahead.
She edged around a corner and peeked.
Crawler stood there in all his ugly glory, and the sight still sent a chill through her. The monstrous brute’s black-scaled, titanic body writhed against the rubble, hundreds of eyes blinking and rolling across his hide as something dragged out of a nightmare. He looked like a monster from a badly illustrated children’s book.
Which somehow made his opponent even more fantastical.
A tall, shadowed knight stood before him, clad in the greatest armor she had ever seen—dark, gleaming, almost unreal. In his hands was a katana, and he wielded it like a master. Each slash was clean and precise.
Crawler could only sit there and take it as he was carved apart like a plate of meat. And the weirdest part?
He wasn’t regenerating.
Did that amazing Chad even need her help?
She glanced down at her tiny shard of glass. Maybe she’d ask for tips later.
Her eyes snapped to the side as she caught another shape creeping along the perimeter of the fight. A mangled, segmented figure moved low and quiet.
Mannequin.
The sneaky bastard was lining up a strike on Mr. Badass.
“Oh no, he ain’t!”
She hurled the shard at the tinker. Mannequin twisted instantly, dodging the projectile as it sailed past—but that didn’t matter.
The world folded.
She reappeared behind Mannequin.
There was no way she was denting that body, so—
“Haiyah!”
Her leg shot out and slammed into his center mass. The impact knocked him forward, balance breaking for half a second. Almost impossibly, his arm snapped backward toward her head in a mechanical blur.
She was already gone.
She blinked to another mark, boots skidding on broken concrete.
“Mister Knight, behind—!”
The knight didn’t even turn.
With a casual motion of his hand, something unseen seized Mannequin mid-lunge and yanked him to the side. The tinker flew as if grabbed by an invisible hook. The knight stepped back once, blade already aligned, strike already committed.
In one perfect motion, the katana split Mannequin cleanly in half.
The cut didn’t stop there.
The arc continued down, biting into Crawler and dragging a raw, furious scream from the brute. A second flick of the knight’s hand sent both Slaughterhouse capes flying back across the yard like discarded trash.
Silence followed.
The shadowed knight turned to her and gave a thumbs-up.
It took every ounce of her willpower not to squeal.
“Please make me your student!?”
There was a brief pause. For one horrible second, she thought she’d overdone it.
The knight tilted his head slightly. Then, slowly, he reached behind himself and drew out a short sword. He extended it toward her.
She took it reverently, hands almost trembling.
Another thumbs up.
Then he was gone, sprinting toward the blasted remains of Crawler as if this was just another Tuesday.
Madelyn stared at the blade in her hands.
“Best,” she breathed, grinning despite everything, “worst day ever.”
The initial ambush on the Nine had gone well.
Very well.
[Feat Achieved! Crispy Bird!]
[+1 Gold Gacha Ticket]
[Feat Achieved! Broken Doll!]
[+1 Gold Gacha Ticket]
Ridley and Igris had made quick work of two of them. I didn’t doubt they’d finish Hatchet Face and Crawler soon enough.
Unfortunately, my side of the ambush wasn’t going nearly as smoothly.
“Well, quite the pickle, Master.”
Francois Prelati lounged across my shoulders, the little shit grinning as if Christmas had come early. We floated above the junkyard while he likely treated the Nine to whatever personalized hellscape he’d cooked up.
Below us, three members of the Nine sat nearly frozen on the ground.
Bonesaw. Burnscar. Jack Slash.
All trapped inside Prelati’s illusions.
The plan had gone off cleanly. Prelati had struck fast, drowning them in maddening illusions before they could react.
But whether it was bad luck or Broadcast screaming a distress signal, there was one massive problem.
All three of the downed Nine had turned monochrome.
And on the ground below, the naked form of the Siberian prowled and growled.
That was a problem.
“Still not working?” I asked.
“Nope,” Prelati chirped, kicking his legs against my back. “That strange cat lady is utterly immune to my illusions. How fascinatingly wonderful.”
I scowled. “Any spell that can just kill them? I’ll even burn a Command Seal.”
“I doubt it. Unfortunately, my beloved Master, I am quite the one-trick pony. Nature transformations and curses were never my specialties. Even with a Command Seal, my tiny little means would likely fail.”
Maybe…
I ripped the first Gold ticket.
[Bloodless]
|Uncommon Trait|
Blood loss who? You don’t bleed as they do. Even if your body is drained of most of its blood, as long as there is a cupful left, you won’t feel its effects.
Not particularly helpful right now.
A rock hurtled toward us. I dispersed into a storm of roses and drifted higher.
“Wheee!” The madman on my shoulder sounded delighted.
I tore the second ticket.
[Novice Fine Arts]
|Common Skill|
You are a novice artist, someone who pursues fine arts, having a beginner level of skill in most arts such as Painting, Engraving, Sketching, Sculpting, etc., and in general have some skill in making things more aesthetically pleasing. But it would be a stretch to call you a real artist.
Knowledge flooded my mind.
Come on. Twice?
Damn it. No choice then.
“I order you by the power of this Command Seal!” My wrist flared hot. “Seek and reveal to me the enemy hidden from my eyes!”
Prelati laughed as magical energy gathered. A spectral bird formed and launched into the sky.
Good. It would lead me where I needed to go.
I dissolved into roses again and sped across the junkyard. I dropped Prelati onto one of the surrounding rooftops.
“Keep them trapped. Run if the Siberian comes for you. If she disappears, don’t miss the chance—end them.”
“Aye, aye.” He waved cheerfully.
I rolled my eyes and shot back into the sky, tracking the bird.
It didn’t take long.
At the edge of the junkyard, parked along the street, sat a black van. The spectral bird circled above it.
The road was empty save for the van.
Lucky me.
The only risk was if Manton recalled the Siberian before I finished this.
I triggered my transformation. My body thickened, bones stretching, muscles packing on in brutal waves. Fur rippled across my skin as I grew into a towering bear.
I grinned savagely and cut the cloak’s flight.
What better way to kill a man than to make sure he never even knows it’s coming?
I angled my massive bear form straight at the van and let gravity do the rest. Trusting my Cat’s Feet trait, I didn’t slow my descent at all.
With a violent crunch, I tore straight through the cheap van roof. Metal and plastic exploded outward as I crashed inside. I didn’t hesitate. My paws swept left and right, shredding everything in reach to ensure Manton died on impact.
“Huh…?”
I blinked, staring at the empty wreckage beneath me and the distinct lack of blood.
“How rude.”
I turned.
A young girl stood a few feet away, blonde hair falling neatly around a face far too calm for her age. Her green eyes locked onto mine, and for a second, it felt like she was looking straight into my soul.
A blackened shroud draped over her shoulders, stitched from what looked disturbingly like the remnants of a prison uniform. Around her hovered three ghosts, each wearing distorted, stretched versions of their old costumes. Their bodies were shadowy and transparent, edges fraying like torn fabric in water.
At her feet lay the dead body of William Manton.
“The Eye was correct to seek me out,” she said. Her voice carried the layered echo of a hundred broken voices speaking in unison. “My eyes see true. I see no Faerie within your heart. Yet you wield great magics and play ruin to the tapestry’s design. What say you, interloper?”
The Faerie Queen had come out to play.
***
Comments and Thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Likes are like a drug to me and boost my creative juices.
I have advanced chapters if you wanna read ahead.