Esmeralda von Krauss sits outside in the parking lot of the hotel that she’s rented fully. She has some of the chairs from inside of where they eat breakfast in the morning sitting out around a roaring bonfire. Esmeralda sits in a shimmering blue evening gown and six inch stilettos while calmly smoking her Egyptian cigarette in a blue foot long holder. Some of her companions sit in chairs and sip at adult beverages while others jump and dance around the bonfire, letting their party animals out.
Esmeralda: Sinclair Godfrey and her goons made sure to eliminate my one chance to get at the Red Thirst. Might as well prepare for my match against D. You say I took away your choice, D. That I was as foul as any man stalking the night alleyways on a campus town.
I say that I set you free of the need to make a choice. I had given both you and Alyssa a gift of myself. Had you at least been virile as I believe Steve Awesome to be, I would be with child. You wouldn’t abandon yet another child, would you?
I think that this match for Alyssa’s freedom is only for her freedom. You want her to be free of the bloodshed. You want to engulf yourself in my world once again and bring down the terrors that prey upon the innocent.
You know what I do isn’t a simple vanity play. It isn’t the ramblings of a bored girl who doesn’t know what to do with herself. It’s a higher calling and I know you hear it too. You don’t want other heroes like “F” to try to take your place in this dangerous world. They wind up dead…
Alyssa is a powerful girl. She just doesn’t know it yet. She has the capacity to keep you under control. Keep your darker urges at bay and such. She will keep you focused and that is why I intend on defeating you in that cage. I will keep both you and your little Alyssa. I will have my best Judge back at my side with Minerva.
Yes, yes. I have other Judges on the payroll that are doing missions for me. This is my new batch. A new set of Judges for the future.
I will have to reconstruct you once I have defeated you in that cage. I mean, I might even need reconstruction as well and I am certain that I will come out the victor. I have not been tested properly in some time and we will show the others what the greatest of Justice are capable of doing.
The jubilation comes to a halt when a girl in a white dress walks up to the bonfire. Her dress was pretty enough, but her skin was pale to almost a blue tinge to it. Her face was like something out of a horror movie. Esmeralda sees her, her eyes sparkling with recognition.
Esmeralda: Why, it’s my old friend, Tabitha Osborne.
Tabitha gives Esmeralda a fierce, angry look. She takes up a fighting stance, sheer power coming off of her in waves that only Esmeralda, Minerva, and Sticky can see. Esmeralda’s eyes narrow as she watches Tabitha’s moves.
Tabitha: My name is Zolothach.
Esmeralda only smirks, blowing smoke into the air from her Egyptian cigarette.
Esmeralda: That’s not what your father told me.
Tabitha grits her teeth, striving hard to control her anger. She eventually smiles.
Tabitha: And what would your father call you?
Tabitha closes her eyes with a smile, spirits from the ether whispering dark secrets into her ears.
Tabitha: Your name is Alyssa?
Now it is Esmeralda’s turn to look angry.
Esmeralda: That name died before the fall of empires, dear child. Do not use it!
Tabitha walks closer to Esmeralda, who has now gotten up out of her chair.
Esmeralda: Do you miss this, dahling? The times that you spent fighting for your life in my husband’s Kharnival? You miss being tortured to toughen you up for your next fight?
Tabitha: Do you miss what D and Alyssa had? You miss the deep, passionate feelings that they had for one another? That they still have? Do you miss having any feelings? How long has it been since you burned away your real ability to feel love? Ten years? A hundred? A thousand? I pity you, Esmeralda. Not to the point where I won’t kill you on this very night. For all your tragedy, the world will be a better place once you are gone.
Esmeralda von Krauss stands perfectly still as she regards Tabitha with wide open eyes and her jaw hanging slightly open. A single tear rolls down her cheek as she thinks back to her days with Armand that were full of love and devotion. Days now long dead. She sits back down in her chair, seemingly weakened. She flicks her cigarette butt away with a sigh.
Esmeralda: Sticky…be a dear and kill this girl for me.
Sticky the Clown steps out of the shadows. Most noticeable is his peeling face paint that looks long past the stage of just being touched up. His red nose is painted on, around his eyes are red, and his lips are blood red. However, when he smiles an impossibly wide smile. The teeth are needle sharp, framed by black gums that he pierces with his teeth when he gives his creepiest grin. The gums ooze a black sludge that should be blood, but it is not. The putrid looking fluids drip off of his chin to the ground at a glacial pace. Was it mentioned that he stands over eight feet tall and looks to be over five hundred pounds. A giant of a monstrous clown that looks like he could eat her up and ask for seconds.
Tabitha breaths in deep and thrusts her hand into the air while maintaining eye contact with Sticky the Clown.
Tabitha: I call forth into the ether for the living storm! Habob, Lord of the Violent Storm, I invoke thee! Habob, bring your power down upon this place and show us mere mortals your strength!
It sounds like a great grunting in the air as the wind picks up speed and begins to swirl around Tabitha and Sticky like a great whirling storm. Rain begins to pour and lightning flashes through the air as a grouting becomes a roar as Habob’s power is become manifest upon the material plane.
The storm grows within seconds to being twenty miles across with thirty mile an hour winds and double that in gusts. Habob is here! His visage can be seen in the sky between flashes of lightning. A disturbing sight for those looking into the storm indeed.
Tabitha’s hair blows nearly sideways from the blowing winds. Sticky frowns as the winds buffet him and attempt to keep him from Tabitha, but step by step he gets closer to the young would-be assassin. Tabitha just grins.
Tabitha: I have defeated all of my nightmares. You’re no different!
Sticky licks his lips, smearing the black ooze from his gums around. A high pitched, ghastly sound spills from his mouth that’s very different from his voice. A nightmarish giggle.
Sticky the Clown: You are a liar, my dear. I can taste the fear coming off of you in waves. There’s no wrestling rules binding us now.
Tabitha: You are right. SPECULUM MURI MORS SCIENTIA!
A wall of mirrors thrusts up from the ground to surround Sticky. Each mirror shows Sticky how he will meet a grisly death. However, Sticky laughs long and hard at the sights presented to him. Tabitha is transfixed in horror as it does not show her deaths, but Randy’s. Over and over again.
Sticky lunges through the mirrors, shattering them all into nonexistence. He seizes a stunned Tabitha by the arms, opens up his mouth impossibly wide, and bites down on her shoulder. His teeth sink in and the pain brings Tabitha back to the real world as she lets out a scream of pain, blood gushing from the wound.
She responds by bringing her index and middle finger together like she were forming a gun with her hand. She places this “gun” at Sticky’s crotch, struggling to form the words from the pain in her shoulder.
Tabitha: F-f-ferrum! Ferrum! FERRUM SPECTRIS!
She whips her hand up from Sticky’s crotch to drag her glowing fingertips across his belly, chest, and eventually the side of Sticky’s neck. Sticky releases the bite and backs up a few steps, his body cut open badly as if he were being disected. His guts and other organs hang on the outside of his body as black blood gushes out everywhere, coating Tabitha in the splatter. Sticky falls onto his face, forming a large pool of the black ooze from his body. Esmeralda laughs.
Esmeralda: He is immortal. That body will heal itself in time.
Tabitha stands, covered in black blood with her fists clenched at her side.
Tabitha: Maybe, but I’ll still have enough time to kill you.
Esmeralda sneers, dropping her foot long cigarette holder to the ground.
Esmeralda: Clear up some space, my dahlings. Momma has to clean up a mess.
Valkyries and Einherjar clear out of the area. Minerva stands by Esmeralda.
Minerva: Let me handle this.
Esmeralda: No. See to the others, I will handle this.
Once Minerva leaves the area, Tabitha stands by the remains of the bonfire and holds her hand over it.
Tabitha: Obex doloris!
About five hundred feet from the smoldering fire, a glowing white line appears on the ground. Despite the pouring rain and wind, the line is clearly visible. Esmeralda nods her head, glancing at the line.
Esmeralda: My my, you have become quite the witch. A barrier of pain so that I don’t escape your clutches? You know that this will prevent your exit too?
Tabitha: I don’t need to escape. FERRUM SPECTRIS!
Tabitha slashes through the air, sending a wave of energy at Esmeralda. She lunges at Tabitha, ducking under the arc of energy. She plants her hand onto the ground and uses it to pivot for a double footed kick at Tabitha’s legs. Tabitha jumps up into the air, doing a flip, and coming down to where Esmeralda’s torso is.
Esmeralda rolls sideways out of the way of Tabitha’s landing. She gets back to her feet where Tabitha goes for a roundhouse kick. Esmeralda seizes the leg to stop her momentum and pulls her into a palm strike to the face.
Tabitha’s head snaps backwards, sending blood in a high arc from her nose as she falls backwards as Esmeralda releases her leg. Esmeralda thrusts with her hand, aiming for Tabitha’s ribcage with a grasping claw. Tabitha deflects the hand just as Esmeralda digs her fingernails into flesh. Tabitha quickly slashes through the air.
Tabitha: FERRUM SPECTRIS!
Esmeralda dives to the side and rolls back to her feet, a spray of dark red blood indicates that Tabitha’s spell had struck something. Esmeralda grasps at her left arm just above the elbow where blood trickles through her fingers. The driving rain cleanses the blood from both her wound and Tabitha’s as they both stand back to their feet. Esmeralda just tuts.
Esmeralda: Only know one spell?
She releases her arm where Tabitha can see that the cut reseals itself within seconds. Tabitha grits her teeth.
Tabitha: I know another.
Tabitha launches herself at Esmeralda again, catching her in a bear hug.
Tabitha: CHASMA AD INFERNOS!
The ground begins to shake violently, but Tabitha refuses to release Esmeralda.
Esmeralda: What have you done?
Tabitha: Damned us both, bitch!
The ground splits open, a deep orange glow from within the world, and both Esmeralda and Tabitha fall into the depths. The crack reseals itself up and the barrier of pain flickers out leaving Esmeralda’s followers looking at one another in confusion.
To Be Continued!