by Oblimo
Nyx emerged to confront her creator. She wrapped her arms around Ursula's neck in a fierce, desperate hug, conveying more affection, anger, and defiance in that single gesture than anyone could speak in a thousand words.
"Fine," Black Cherry sighed. She unreeled Urusla's braids until the goth girl dangled to the ground. The growing math-tattoo breached the scarlet surface of Black Cherry's wings. Tension gathered in her gel as she prepared a final swing. "Then die."
"Do it," Ursula mumbled, eyelids fluttering, eyes rolled back.
Nyx craned her neck. One gaunt arm raised, too thin to support a hand. The tapered tip curved into a hook, its inward edged polished sharp.
"If you say so," Black Cherry shrugged, the living tattoo encroaching the very tips of her wings. She rocked her arms back, dragging Ursula along the pavement.
Nyx's hooked arm whistled down. She hesitated at the last instant, hook trembling above Ursula's creamy throat. Her skin grayed to a matte black.
Ursula grimaced. "Do it!"
Black Cherry poured power into her throw. Nyx turned her head, and, shuddering, slashed sideways. Black Cherry toppled backward. Ursula and Nyx skidded across the pavement.
Yves found his voice. "Oh, God, no."
"Did it work?" asked Dee from his hole in the pavement.
"Did what work?" Raspberry cried. "Ursula's dead!"
"Lookit," Yves whispered.
"You fucking asshole." Raspberry's tears burned little holes in Yves shirt. "You should have let me nuke the cunt. I don't care if…"
"For once in your fucking life would you just shut your mouth and lookit?" Yves hissed.
Raspberry purpled, then turned and lookited. Black Cherry sat up, perplexed. Numbers and symbols spun beneath the surface of her skin. She held two long, black braids, one in each hand. They danced in the air, totaling six feet of plaited pigtails, their ends shorn shear. The living tattoo completed a full circuit, and the scarlet girl was covered head to toe in a madman's idea of math homework.
Ursula propped herself up, blinking sleepily. The remains of her pigtails stuck out straight from either side of her head for a good half foot before puffing out into black pompom tufts.
"Well, shit," Raspberry grumped, "She's cuter than ever now."
"Then Ursula's okay," Dee said. "Thank God. Nyx too?" A rampart of granite pebbles and chips encircled the hole in the pavement. "Did it work?"
"I think Ursula's okay," Yves answered. The goth girl plopped down onto the pavement, exhausted and huffing. "More weary than wounded. Nyx is looking pretty gray, though, like a wool sweater. And I have no idea if anything worked because you didn't clue me in on your plan this time." More pebbles appeared. "Speaking of which, what the Hell are you doing? Trying to dig upwards?"
Dee's fingertips waggled above the ring of rock. "I've barely got one arm free down here and I'm trying to make some room. Superhuman strength is pretty useless when you're pinned in place by plate-freaking-tectonics." A finger stabbed out at an angle. "What's happening to Black Cherry?"
"She's covered in that magic square number stuff," Yves said. "And she's just…sitting there."
"Maybe it did work, then," Dee said.
"Master?" Black Cherry dropped the severed braids and tried to stand. She stepped on one sagging wing and flumped back down on her ass. The wings on her head shriveled and paled. "Master?"
Yves adjusted Raspberry's weight in his arms, taking the edge off the fire in his shoulders. "What were U and Nyx trying to do? Magic, right? Not number games. Real magic." The lines of cipher wrapped around Black Cherry's body looked less like crazed math and more like an elegant but incomprehensible foreign language. "But magic to do what?"
A face hidden by a drab olive hoodie and green, wraparound Onasis sunglasses poked out of the driver's side window. "To take the Devil out of Black Cherry," Eurydice answered, pushing herself up by the palms and flipping down onto the pavement.
Black Cherry wobbled to her feet, gawping at Eurydice. Her head wings furled inward and melted away. The wings on her back faded and shrank until they were little more than the toy devil-wings of a Halloween costume. The green girl turned to her.
"Hello, baby sister," Eurydice said.
Black Cherry twittered, pointing at Eurydice but peering over her shoulder. "You made another one, Master?" She shook her head. "See how replaceable she is. Not like me. There's nothing like me. I'm nothing." Her bravado failed. "I'm alone." She glanced about, desperate and lost. "Be with me." Her gaze fell on Eurydice, darted to Yves and Raspberry, to CeeCee, then Ursula and Nyx, before circling back to Eurydice. "Become me. Name me."
Ursula rolled onto her side, reaching for the hem of Eurydice's fatigues. "Hurry. The binding won't last. She's strong." She smiled before slipping back into exhaustion. "Just like you."
Eurydice nodded, pulling away the glasses and the hood. Jellied dreadlocks tumbled free. Black Cherry tried to sneer. "So young, he made you so young this time. Just like I remember you." Black Cherry pressed her palm over her mouth. "I remember you? I do." Her hand trembled as she pointed. "I know you…"
"You know me of old," Eurydice finished for her. "Yes. Things echo. But echoes have never been enough. Not for you."
Black Cherry backpedaled, almost tripping herself up on crumbling cement. "I don't understand."
"Neither did I at first." Eurydice unzipped her hoodie, molding the pliant garment into a peculiar sash, leaving her left breast bare. "Now that I've seen you, though, everything's so clear. We've done this so many times, you and I." She stepped closer. "But things are different this time. Everything can be different, if you let it." Black Cherry stared wide-eyed and silent. Eurydice pressed forward. "You don't have to be alone. Be with frends, with us. Become yourself." She held out her hand. "Adrasteia."
Black Cherry fumbled backward. "Ide," she gasped, and at first Yves thought she said, I Dee, or maybe Idly. She bumped into a fallen slab and sat down hard. "It is you, Ide.".
Eurydice reached out to her, smiling. "Call me Eurydice."
"What the fuck is this shit?" Raspberry called out. Eurydice turned and shushed her but Raspberry just stared. "Jesus fuck, check out those tits."
Yves whispered, "Nursemaids."
"What?" Raspberry asked.
"They were sisters," Yves answered. "Nursemaids." Another piece clicked into place in the puzzle.
["...That depends, is Cherry Cupcake Dee's psycho bitch ex-girlfriend from Hell..."]
"Black Cherry's always been the eldest before," Yves explained. "But not this time. That's what's different."
["...No one's ever gone lime first time before..."]
Eurydice smiled, opened her hands to Black Cherry again.
["...Hello, baby sister..."]
"Dee made Galatea first," Yves said.
"Wait. Nursemaids? Of what?" Raspberry narrowed her eyes at the ample curve of Eurydice's bare breast. "Buffalo?"
"Gods."
"Names," Black Cherry said. "Why do you have so many names?"
Eurydice's brow crinkled in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Ide," Black Cherry said, and stood up. "Eurydice. Galatea." The little wings on her back flushed red. "Shamhat. Meliboea." Black Cherry advanced, her sneer returning. Eurydice dropped back. "Brunhild. Marya." Two curved horns budded from the top of the scarlet girl's head, opening as embryonic wings.
"I'm clueless," Raspberry hissed.
From her muddle on the pavement, CeeCee said, "We know, honey. We know."
Eurydice zippered her hoodie. "Adrasteia, please. I used up so much nanomek to put myself back together after the crash, just to talk to you. Listen to me, please."
Black Cherry tipped her head, listening to some distant voice. The wings on her back grew, gorged on blood red gel. "Zeus loved you best."
Eurydice shook her head. "You don't understand, Adrasteia."
"That's not my name," Black Cherry muttered. The symbols tattooed on her skin writhed and danced. "Zeus loved you best. Herac
les loved you best. Sigurd loved you best." The little wings on her head spread atremble. "Dee loves…They all loved you best!"
"No." Eurydice fell back against the Jeep. "You can't love what you don't trust. And, in the end, none of them trusted us. Ever. Because of you," Eurydice added, eyes brimming with tears and defiance, "Adrasteia."
"That's not my name!" The mathematical formulae binding Black Cherry's flesh distorted, wavered, and finally faded into black veins marbling crimson gel, devoid of pattern or meaning. Her great wings opened, spanned the road, and a scarlet curtain of crushed velvet dropped between Yves and Eurydice. A battle cry built in Yves' throat.
"Hey, fruitcake!"
Yves clapped his mouth shut and spun about.
Tomoe strolled up the double yellow line in the center of the access road, white blouse ruffling in the sudden wind, little black miniskirt hugging above her knees, snake-skin purse slung over one shoulder. She dismissed Yves with a wave, dark eyes shining. "Pfft, not you." She pointed. "That fruitcake. The crazy lady with wings."
Black Cherry slumped. "This nick-of-time thing really gets tedious. Who ever heard of a team that doesn't team up? Ah, well, who is it now. Another shocker reveal?" She turned. The curtain rose on Eurydice, squashed against the silver Jeep, trying to peek around Black Cherry's head-wings. Black Cherry stood dumbstruck before stuttering, "Tiamat?"
"Say, there's an old nickname." Tomoe folded her arms. "Who's been giving the crazy lady flashbacks?"
Eurydice poked up a hand. "That'd be me. Sorry."
From his hole, Dee asked, "Are you okay, Eurydice?"
"Yeah. Plan B didn't work, though, so get your ass outta there."
"Working on it." Chunks of granite flew up. "Just a minute longer."
Black Cherry shrugged with arms and all four wings. "Tiamat," she whispered, pacing this way and that in the middle of the road, eyeing Tomoe from every angle. "You can't be here."
"No rule against it," Tomoe said, one black pump tapping on the pavement.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" Raspberry asked.
"Me?" She met Yves gaze, matched his poker face. "Nothing."
Yves smirked, "Ah." He went down on one knee and lay Raspberry down onto the pavement.
"That, that's right," Black Cherry said, confidence returning. "You can't interfere."
"Yep. I can't interfere. Now there's a rule I never break."
"What're you doing?" Raspberry whispered to Yves.
"Don't worry," he whispered back. "You'll be fine. Besides, my arms have gone numb and I think I'm slipping a disk."
Wing claws clicked together over Black Cherry's head. "You can't interfere. So what are you going to do?" She edged closer to Tomoe. "Stand there and watch?"
"Pretty much," Tomoe answered, "Yeah." She adjusted the strap of her purse, looking bored.
Yves could not take any more. "You're asking the wrong questions." He shook his head, wore an idiot grin. "You stupid psycho-bitch."
Black Cherry shot him a worried glance. In the distance, an engine revved up.
"The question is," Yves said as the engine grew louder, "how did she get here so fast?"
"Oh." Tomoe brightened. She stepped to the side, inspecting a finger nail. "I drove."
A rose Mini Cooper raced around the bend in the access road. It bounced up a jagged slab of fallen concrete, soared through the air, and bore down upon Black Cherry, car horn meep-meeping. The car's grimacing oval grill rippled, split, and thrust out a single, diamond-tipped, ramrod spike.
Black Cherry reared back, eyes bugging. "Oh, shi—" The scarlet girl flew backward, impaled. She threw her wings around the little car, claws raking the sides and scourging the rear bumper.
Eurydice swore—"Whoa-shit!"—and dove away as the charging Mini Cooper clashed Black Cherry against the silver Jeep. The sideways truck folded up like a cardboard box. The little rose car disappeared in the vortex of crushing wings. Black Cherry's face contorted in some intense, silent emotion that Yves could not distinguish between exultation or exquisite pain.
Scarlet wings ruptured, falling away in splattering petals. SB ascended in the rain of crimson honey, muscles bunching beneath her tight dress, monstrous pink scimitar twirling a glorious arc in her arms. The hooked tip of the blade sped downward, shearing through the carriage of the Jeep. SB yanked back on her swing as the scimitar's curved edge cleaved into Black Cherry's hair. Black Cherry twittered nonsense words, shut her eyes and chewed on her fingers.
SB's rosy skin and coppery dress were plastered with cherry nectar. Black Cherry pushed her twitching fingers between the folds of her sex before mashing them back into her mouth. SB glowered, muttering, "Worse than Atlantis." She hefted the scimitar out of Black Cherry's hair and the scarlet girl fell into a post-coital fit, head rocking and feet drubbing the pavement. Her pageboy bob now bore a perfect, midline part.
SB lanced the scimitar down into the asphalt, crossed her arms and propped herself against the sword's hilt. "Well, cousin," SB sighed, "I hate family dramas so I'm going to cut this short." She exchanged a quick glance with Eurydice, who nodded. "Your sister, for some reason, wants to present you with a choice. Do you think you could, just this once, get over yourself, move on, and maybe—Oh, I dunno—try for happiness instead of the usual boiling bunny bullshit?" Severed wings wriggled past her, as flat and wide as Persian carpets, crawling up to bind with Black Cherry's back. "Aw, eeew. So much worse than Atlantis. Anyway, you can either cheer up, emo kid, or you and I can keep doing what we're doing now and you can cum yourself to death. Your choice."
Black Cherry gulped, "Who were you?"
"Oh, you know, you and your sister filled them with honey." She plucked her scimitar out of the ground and slung it over her shoulders. "I brought the milk. I offered them my horn." Her diamond-white eyes flashed at Yves. He felt a guilty flutter in his stomach and heat in his face. "They gifted it back," she finished and leveled the scimitar at Black Cherry's crotch. The scarlet girl crossed and uncrossed her legs beneath it. "So what's it going to be?" SB asked.
"Tiamat," Black Cherry spluttered. "Tiamat?" SB shrugged, moved aside, but kept her scimitar in striking range of Black Cherry's belly and sex. "Are you going to let her do this?"
"Sorry." Tomoe worried an unruly cuticle with her teeth. "There's nothing I can do. Can't interfere, remember? And call me Tomoe, or 'T' at least. Can't use the old nickname any more thanks to Gary fucking Gygax."
"I'm running low on nanomek and patience, little cousin." SB etched little circles around Black Cherry's belly button with the keen tip of her blade, making the scarlet girl shiver and pant, her cream-candy skin prickled with brandied dewdrops. "And frankly I'm inclined to keep cutting and cutting. But that's my dick talking and it's not my decision to make. What say you: sister, or sword?"
Black Cherry's lips curled up into that lazy, coquettish smile that Yves had grown to loathe. "I'll take the third option," she said, and rolled her eyes upward.
Yves, SB, and Raspberry followed her gaze, and swore in a ragged chorus. "Oh, shit."
Three half-naked coeds—the blonde, brunette, and redhead E-Z sorority sisters—their nests of bedraggled hair twisting serpentine in the wind, perched on the corrugated steel barrier running along the lip of the overpass, almost two stories above the litter of ripped asphalt and craggy hunks of ferroconcrete spiked with barbs of distressed rebar. Their arms shot out straight into the air, releasing their clutches of clothes. Yves thought of Hollywood Frankenstein monsters, or swimmers positioning themselves to dive off a high board. His blush faded and the butterflies in his stomach grew icicles.
"What the—Oh, yuck," Dee groused from his hole as the last of the coeds' skank-wear pelted down onto the road. "Why is it raining soiled panties?"
"Shut up, Dee." Yves limped to the center of the road, never taking his eyes of the girls above. "Black Cherry's got the skank-bots back and she's going to kill them."
Yves heard a growl and hiss from the hole in the roa
d, sounding more locomotive than human. Yves spoke as fast as he could. "Dee no-it's-too-late any move and they're dead."
Tomoe paled. "I'm so sorry. I can't interfere, I really can't." She stared at her hands. "If I do, it just gets worse, so much worse. So I can't. I can't."
"I know," Dee said.
Tomoe looked up at the three girls. She balled her fists. "I can't!" Yves felt the breeze blow stronger and the ambient temperature drop.
Dee spoke in his new voice—"No more, Tomoe,"—and Tomoe gasped in relief, letting her arms fall, her purse slip from her shoulders. The electric tension in the air evaporated.
She wasn't apologizing for staying out of it, Yves realized, She was begging someone to stop her from getting into it. Yves turned to SB. The rose girl stepped back, choking up on the scimitar's grip. The first pinpricks of migraine pain skewered behind Yves' eyes. "I need a minute," he said.
"You won't get it," Black Cherry grinned, sitting up.
I need to think this through. Yves held up an open palm. "You kill them, SB kills you, and you know it." How is this supposed to end? Just like I said this morning: 'Galatea divided, brothers and friends dead.' How do I stop it from happening all over again if Cherry Cupcake's too much of a psycho-bitch to let it go? The pinpricks grew into stiletto points and Yves had to bow his head. Black Cherry. Party tonight. Skank-bot army. Dee sublimed. Eurydice fragmenting. Galatea divided.
["… She's lying. Black Cherry. About Galatea…"]
"Oh." Yves stood straight. "Duh."
From the hole in the road, Dee said, "Yves?"
"Let her go," Yves answered. "You already know what you have to do."
"SB," Dee ordered without any hesitation, "let her go."
SB shouldered her scimitar, fuming. Black Cherry sat up and brushed herself off. "Well, this was fun."
"Cherry," Dee said, "set the girls free, safely, or I let SB finish if she wants."
The huge scimitar thrummed in SB's hands as she rolled her shoulders. "SB wants," the rose girl purred. Eurydice came up behind her and gave SB a fierce hug.
