by Vee Bosse
She then saw a playground full of kids at happy play, just as though it was recess on any normal school day. Dre approached them with caution, expecting Belladonna to be nearby somewhere. “Where is Belladonna?” she asked them calmly, making sure to smile as not to alarm any of them. Just then, a girl who looked to be about six years old slid down from one of the slides, happily smiling at the sight of Dre.
“That’s my name! Have you come to play with us? You look a little too old for the slide.” The girl had a ponytail on each side of her parted hair, and they were held together with two pink scrunchies. To top it off further, she also had pink flower pins attached to the scrunchies that matched her floral pattern pink dress and shoes.
Dre continued to smile nonchalantly, noticing that the girl was wearing a pendant made of Sapphire Aura. “I’m actually looking for cigarettes. Where are they?” she bluntly asked, causing all of the kids on the playground to stare at her with happy curiosity.
“Hey, I don’t like cigarettes. Those smokes make me choke.” Dre pressed on, without wavering from her goal in the midst of Belladonna’s words.
“Then don’t stand next to me when I’m smoking. That giant tablet back there didn’t show any store locations for some reason, so tell me before the sun goes down.” The playful little girl suddenly let an angry frown creep on her face.
“You...you’re annoying me. Did you know that my best friend Jayce says that I am Number 10 in his Shadow Project? So, you have to respect me or you’ll be sorry!” the girl ended her sentence, waving her finger with a menacing smile. The other children watched on, admiring how their friend was able to keep their parents away so that they could do whatever they wanted.
“Kim! Kim, come home please, your dad and I miss you!” suddenly yelled a woman who had snuck up to the park, unable to endure her daughter’s absence any longer.
“Momma, I told you, Bella wants to play with us for a few more days. I’ll be home later, I promise.” The little girl smiled at her mom, who looked dreadfully desperate to get her child out of Bella’s manipulative clutches.
“That girl you all like to play with...she uses those disgusting abilities, and she doesn’t really care about you! Come on, I don’t care what she does to me anymore, I’m taking you all back to your parents where you are really safe.” Upon hearing this, Belladonna become livid and furious. Her face turned red as the kids looked on in horror, realizing that she was about to throw a deadly tantrum like she had done a few times before.
“Mom, help! I think Bella has really lost it this time!” The woman swept up her daughter in her arms as the other children ran to join her in fear for their lives.
“You are NOT taking away MY playmates!!!” Bella had screamed at the top of her lungs, stomping her legs in a crazed fury. The ground trembled from her massive strength, her feet causing tremors that knocked everyone down to the ground.
“My god, we’ll all be killed! Someone, help us!!” the woman screamed, desperately trying to shield the kids from the fury that was about to come their way. It was just as the nightmarish girl leapt forward to pummel the mother into oblivion that Dre blitzed to the girl’s right, following with an incredible thrust forward to blast them both away from the group so they could escape. It was a fearsome tackle as Dre shoved Bella viciously into the building a few blocks away, blasting a crater inside of it that shook its entire foundation.
“It’s good that I opted to come to this city alone. No one else on my team would have the heart to put a little girl down, even as disgustingly evil as you are,” Dre said as she stood at the foot of the building, not expecting Bella to be able to emerge intact.
“Jayce Wolfgain, I wonder if he has any cigarettes.” Andrea was suddenly shocked after she had just contemplated seeking out the girl’s leader when the entire skyscraper was violently thrusted forward by an unimaginable force on its opposite side. “What...the hell?!” Dre shouted in disbelief as the building snapped from its foundation, coming down on its side to land where Dre was standing. She was able to easily dodge in time though, leaping a block away as the massive tower came down on the city, crushing a few buildings in the process.
“This kind of power is ridiculous, let alone coming from a little girl.” Dre couldn’t believe the sight of Bella hovering in mid-air, flying carelessly above with a furious look on her face. Andrea’s tackle into the building that she single-handedly pushed over put her above the edge as blood spilled from her forehead.
“You are so, so ANNOYING!!!” the girl screamed her lungs out once again, as Dre realized that her tantrum could easily destroy New York City in just a few minutes.
“This isn’t the city to be pushing buildings over in.” Dre wasn’t able to fly, nor was anyone else in her group, but that didn’t stall her for even a second.
Dre leapt over to a hovercar nearby, in which she surrounded with her psych energy. She put all of her strength into throwing the car directly at the kid above, pushing herself to limits she had never approached before.
“You’re so silly, I hate y,” Bella’s was sentence was cutoff after she had easily flown to the approaching car’s side, missing it completely. But as her eyes were locked on the passing vehicle, Dre had the opportunity to send a bullet made of her psych energy clear through the girl’s chest. “Not...fair,” she said, falling to the ground limply.
But Dre winced inside as her humanity surfaced upon the realization that she had resolved to kill a seven-year-old girl, despite the fact that she had sided with the man that tried to wipe out Tokyo. Dre caught Belladonna before she hit the ground, holding her in her arms with regret on her face.
“Shit...maybe someone else should have come to kill the little girl.” Dre began to shed tears, presuming the girl had just died in her arms.
“You...bitch!” Belladonna suddenly muttered, with Dre feeling something go through her shoulder. Her eyes lit up in sudden horror at the sight of Bella having extended her arm, easily punching through her with ungodly strength. Dre threw the girl into yet another building next to them in a violent reaction, holding the grievous wound that was now in her shoulder.
“Shit, I’m badly wounded here,” Dre said, realizing that she was already losing a lot of blood.
But to her horror, Belladonna powered out of the building with trembling anger, making her face bloodshot red. “I’ll...kill...YOU!!!” the girl screamed, charging at Andrea without delay once again.
“Enough, I haven’t even smoked yet.” The psych energy wielder steadied her resolve, no longer caring about whatever age the girl happened to be. She felt sympathy for the snake, and because of that, she was badly bit by it. With lightning speed, Dre was able to let out another psych bullet from her one remaining arm that she could still use. The girl’s reaction time proved to be lacking in nature, as this bullet went clear through her leg and her pink fishnet stocking.
“All you had to do was shut your mouth, and tell me where the cigarettes were. I’m over it...Psych Bomb X.” Belladonna winced in pain as she fell to the street in agony. She couldn’t move on only one leg, as much as she struggled to get up to launch herself into flight, suddenly noticing that Dre was gathering an insane amount of her energy at the tip of her finger. It was so dense that it even seemed to bend the air around them, creating its own gravity that threatened to lure everything in the vicinity right towards her. “I...I’m sorry, even if you are really annoying. I’ll let you have this town if you just play with me awhile!” Belladonna pleaded, as Andrea avoided the girl’s desperate gaze. Dre’s eyes were terrified for what they were about to witness.
Upon seeing that Dre wasn’t going to cave in sympathetically any further, the girl’s face turned a furious red once more. She pounded on the street, cracking it mercilessly as the surrounding buildings shook from the tremors from her fists. “This is not fair, STOP IT!!” the girl screamed with tears in her eyes, unfazed from the two psych bullets that had earlier pierced her.
“Sorry, but...sigh, fuck th
is.” Andrea released the energy from her pointing hand, closing her eyes so that she didn’t have to see her painful resolve come to fruition in front of her.
The psych bomb blasted forth, hitting Bella square on as a massive shockwave erupted from the epicenter of the explosion. Scores of buildings fell, as Dre’s unbelievable energy toppled the landscape abroad. Dre shielded herself with a barrier of her own energy, leaving her unscathed amid the decimated scene.
Despite the severe wound the girl had heartlessly inflicted on Dre’s shoulder, and the tyranny that the girl had spread through the city of New York, killing #10 of the Shadow Project was a burden that no one else would have been able to approach. Dre did it because she had no other choice, or so she told herself.
The psych wielder who only wanted a cigarette couldn’t hold back the tears upon seeing one of Bella’s pink scrunchies fall in front of her to the ground below, burned and tattered. Dre picked it up, stuffing it in her pocket in a state of despondence. She turned around from the area that she had charred, finding that her smoking cravings had temporarily subsided as she disappeared into the dust.
Chapter Thirteen
Dragons and Discontent
The city of Chicago was abandoned, with only a few people remaining behind as the Eastern Latitude continued their movement from West to East. The western government had ordered evacuations for everyone in larger cities, setting up refugee camps in more isolated areas of the country. The few that stayed behind did so out of patriotic stubbornness, and the authorities gave up on trying to talk sense into them.
Now, it was Winkle who entered this city when no one else dared to approach it due to sporadic reports of people with strange abilities showing up across the country’s largest cities. She felt confident that if any of the Shadow Project’s members that had caused all of the havoc suddenly appeared before her, she could somehow dissuade them to change their ways. She marveled at the complete silence that had taken over the cityscape, looking for a place to relax and eat a long-awaited slice of Chicago-style pizza.
She had searched the streets for nearly an hour, when she finally came across a pizza place that seemed to have a few people inside of it. She smiled curiously, venturing into the pizzeria with a poignant stride. She was happy that the large number of patrons in the restaurant reciprocated her smile, seemingly delighted to be operating normally in the midst of the entire hemisphere shutting down amid an impending invasion. A jovial wai approached her with a menu in hand.
“Hello, please follow me to your seat,” she said, to which Winkle happily nodded and complied.
“So, you guys are really happy, considering the whole Latitude is crumbling and all,” The dragon summoner’s statement didn’t break everyone’s unwavering smile, even for a second.
“We’ve achieved a very high state of synergy with the Earth, as something about our newfound solitude has really shown us amazing things, you might say.” Winkle found herself taken aback at how all of the customers and staff alike suddenly nodded in unison, staring at her like owls gazing at their prey as she passed by.
She was shown to a corner booth next to a window, which gave off a peaceful view of Lake Michigan’s horizon. As the waitress handed Winkle a menu, she suddenly bent herself over the table, shooting her a look of seduction. “You take your time, and gaze over what looks savory to your pallet.” Winkle’s eyes grew wide in confusion, paired along with a playful hint of uneasiness.
“Umm, okay?” she said quietly, suddenly handing the menu back to her decidedly. “Nothing fancy, just plain cheese. Oh, and throw on every meat you guys have back there too. Garlic would also be sweet! Put a decent amount of any spices you have on it, too. No veggies...veggies kind of tick me off.” Winkle wasn’t shy despite the waitress and her unexpected advances at her, all while the entire restaurant still stared at her with doll-like grins. The waitress remained overly-jovial as she bowed once more her way, making sure to show off her impressive cleavage.
“Hmm, this is odd.” She turned to focus on the picturesque landscape ahead, uninterested in the patrons all slowly turning their heads back to concentrate on their food once more. She had waited for about twenty minutes as the restaurant remained hauntingly quiet, when the waitress appeared once more with the sizeable pizza in hand.
“Bon Appétit!” she yelled with exuberance, as Winkle’s stomach growled anxiously to get a slice of the beautifully made pie.
“Looks amazing!” Winkle declared, taking a slice in her hand as the entire restaurant suddenly turned to give her the creepiest of stares once again.
She looked it over in earnest, not noticing even a single flaw in its cheesy and meaty form. Just as the overwhelming urge to take a bite consumed her, she realized how wide everyone’s eyes had become as they sat waiting for her to sink her teeth in.
“Hmmm?” She sat the piece back down on its metal holding tray, feeling too uneasy about the people’s demeanor to ingest the seemingly beautiful pizza. “It’s too hot. I’m going outside to let it cool for a few minutes.”
The smile on all of their faces melted away slowly, as Winkle abruptly got up, shouldering her way through the impatient waitress who was about a foot taller than she was.
“You, you’re not satisfied? Has your experience here turned unsatisfying?” Winkle smiled back at everyone to reassure them, telling them that she would be just outside of the door.
She had stood in front of the window so that they all could see her, as she faced the direction of the lake in contemplation. “Something’s fishy here. I bet the Shadow Project has something to do with this.” She barely gazed over her shoulder to see what everyone in the restaurant was doing, and she grimaced to see that they were all still staring directly at her, looking sullen and dejected. “Creepy as shit!”
Not in the mood to back down from the conflict she was determined to confront head-on, she walked back into the pizzeria with determination. The patrons all seemed to slowly ease their dejection the closer she got to her would-be meal. With a deceptive smile, she glanced at the newly smiling waitress before grabbing ahold of the pizza tray. “I see an onion on this. Did I not say that veggies piss me off?” Without warning, she swung the pizza out into the aisle of the restaurant, forcefully sending it all to the ground below. The entire restaurant’s jaws dropped in bewilderment, as their eyes locked on Winkle with a look of fury.
“This is, unsatisfactory,” said a woman who suddenly appeared from the back of the pizza place, glaring at the disruptive patron with annoyance and lust. “You’ve made quite a mess, haven’t you?” Winkle smiled happily at the woman with long reddish-brown hair that went all the way down to her lower back. Her short dress was quite revealing, yet classy at the same time; her fashionable shoes also matched the crimson red hue for a truly stylish look.
Just as Winkle was ready to assess just who this woman was, she looked down amidst the shocked and staring faces to the mess of a pizza below. Her stomach suddenly turned upon seeing small, worm-like parasites emerging out from the pizza that she had come dangerously close to eating. She noticed that they appeared to look like green plant vines thanks to how they began to grow and branch out. “You seemed to have declined my succulent invitation to join the satisfied others here in Chicago. I am Desdemona LeRoux, and you are the first to reject my enticing advances.” Winkle noticed that this woman talked in a decidedly French accent.
“Are those things the reason why everyone here acts so creepy?” Winkle asked, as Desdemona shot her an intrigued look.
“Creepy? I have brought them into unison with my Plant Parasite Energy. My passion has spread throughout all of their bodies, attaching itself to their muscles and internal organs in affection. I have brought my will into all of their hearts, even if their minds scream in silent rebellion. Our minds after all, are the great destroyers in the face of my true blessing from our Earth!”
Winkle was now beyond disturbed when she turned around to look out of the large window in horror to see
that a massive crowd had surrounded the pizzeria. All of Desdemona’s victims now shot determined and cold looks her way, as she noticed a twinge of desperation emerging from their tortured eyes. “You...of all of the people we have faced up until now, you might be the biggest bitch of em’ all,” Winkle declared, now shooting the femme fatale a glare of fury. “I’m guessing you are a member of the Shadow Project, along with Jayce and Dylan, right?”
The stunning woman smiled charismatically, holding out her arm towards Winkle as though she had just blown her a kiss. “My love, I am #8. You and all of your charming companions will soon understand the nature of our passion. I’ll begin by commanding my love interests to hold you down, and show you by force just how I can become one with your heart and soul.” Winkle heard the glass break behind her while the restaurant staff and patrons also suddenly took action to lunge themselves her way.
It was set to be a massive dogpile of eccentrically grinning zombies when defiance overcame the panic that was welling up inside of the summoner. “Talking to someone like you won’t make a difference. If setting these people free from your disgusting parasites means killing you right here, then so be it. Come forth, Terramae!”With a furious rumbling from the ground, the entire building suddenly shifted from its foundation just before all of Desdemona’s victims were about to slam her to the ground in an effort to force the worm plants down her throat by force.
The building was suddenly nothing more than a pile of rubble, and the thousands who now stood around like ranked army soldiers in helpless obedience gazed on in silence as something exploded forth from the quaking ground without warning. Winkle’s smile was proud and defined as she rode atop of a wingless and brown dragon who treated the solid Earth itself like a vast sea to be swam in. With her bag of gemstones proudly in her hand, she gazed at a brown gem with admiration as the masses continued to stand like mindless drones all around.
“Terramae, that was easy thanks to you. The impact from that building falling on her surely crushed her to death. But, those other people inside,” Winkle said as a sense of despair came on her face at the realization that she seemingly had to take out many innocents at the expense of dispatching the powerful foe that had faced her. Just as she had become distraught at such thoughts though, Terramae’s gemstone lit up with a radiant brown energy that instantly comforted her summoner’s sadness. She smiled upon seeing her dragon smash a few solid dirt orbs above the mess of rubble, revealing that all of the innocent people had been protected by the wondrous creature’s orbs. “Terramae, you are a true friend.”
