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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 228: Takano 156
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Cooper 72
Deciding twice fooled was more than enough, the remaining girls tied Lady Nightmare up very tightly. This would not stop her from mind-warping them, but it would make it unlikely for her to escape even then. They tied Sewer Savage up less so in part because he had not done anything so bad to them, and because he stank. As he snored, his breath spewed out of his mouth with all the charming aroma of the liquid in the bottom of a commercial trash can in a restaurant at the end of a long shift. With both tied up, Sockajawea slung them over her shoulders to Lady Nightmare’s complaints.
“My ancestors would have scalped you,” Sockajawea said, and that got Nightmare to be quiet. Sewer Savage just slept on. Traipsing over to the gate in the fence, the duo and their prisoners headed toward the would-be spaceship. A shape in the night went by overhead toward it, and then before they could get there a brilliant light streaked across the sky, and circled back, and landed in front of them.
A blonde girl with an almost solid black costume except for night stars randomly placed on it glowed in front of them. The light was warm and friendly, and she broke out into a smile.
“Socky! How you been?” She came closer for a hug, got a whiff of Sewer Savage and backed off.
“Star Miss, heroine of Yellowstone City, this is Truth, heroine of Berkeley. We stopped Doctor Mordenslice, but we lost a few brave warriors.”
“Oh no.” Star Miss put her covered hand to her face, and Truth shook her head.
“No,” she said, “well, I mean, they’re not here anymore, my friends. But they’re alive, just in a different universe.”
“Oh! That’s weird. When will you see them again?”
“I don’t know. I miss them already.”
“Can we just get to the point where this gab fest ends, and I get to sit down in a chair instead of lying across Squaw Girl’s shoulder?” Lady Nightmare complained.
The three girls ignored her, and continued chatting as they walked toward the spaceship. Long before they could arrive, The Eagle landed in front of them with Tell.
“Star Miss, Sockajawea, Truth,” The Eagle said formally. “The Avenging Angel has fallen, and we can’t find Doctor Mordenslice either.”
Tommy suddenly gulped. Lauren’s worst nightmare was if an evil person became an immortal verser. What then? To make matters even worse, Mordenslice, if he was a verser, was no ordinary man. He was a supervillain, a genius, a man of grand and grandiose plans that might not always make sense. And according to what she had heard, he was one of the most dangerous supervillains in this universe. It would be bad enough if someone like Sewer Savage became a verser, but Mordenslice was far more dangerous on many levels.
“Is--?”
“Star Miss, the Avenging Angel is out there, in some other timeline, but what I’m afraid of is that now Doctor Mordenslice might be as well.”
“We’ve done what we can for the night. Let’s get the prisoners to the jail, and we can head back--”
“You two men can head back, but I think Truth and Socky need some care, and hot chocolate,” Star Miss said. The prisoners were dumped on the two men, and Star Miss took both the others’ hands and launched skyward at a great pace before coming down in her suburban backyard. Tommy noticed that it did not feel as if she were being pulled through the sky, but more like she was being levitated, lifted by some kind of shift in gravity.
Leading them quietly into her parents’ house, Star Miss explained that her parents knew she was a superheroine, but Father needed his sleep so ‘be vewwwy vewwwy quiet’. Then with hot chocolate and buttered toast the trio relaxed in Ellen Jennings’ bedroom, reminiscing about past battles, lost friends, and good times as Truth made two more friends to join the few she still had left in this world.
Finally Ellen, that is, Star Miss, had fallen asleep, and Tommy was yawning and looking over at her new friend with a degree of wonder.
“That’s Ellen all over. She could tell you were hurting, even if they are alive elsewhen,” Sockajawea said softly. “The Eagle fights because someone has to. Star Miss fights because she sees people in pain, and she wants to take that pain away.”
“Why do you fight?”
“I--don’t know what else to do, Truth. I’m an Indian in a White world. I’m heiress of an ancient tradition of my people, as a warrioress. We were warrior tribes. I think these people’s ancient ancestors would understand me better than they do; even as I smile and laugh, and enjoy my time with them, part of me is still the savage huntress whose ancestors crossed the Bering Strait to find the sons and daughters of Ham already here, and take their land from them. What else am I to do with my life?”
“Have you thought about a man?”
“Oh, now we’re getting to the real girl talk. Sure. I wanted to marry Green Hawk, but he said he’d be old and I’d still be young. Maybe he was right, but it’s hard. I’m probably going to live two to three hundred more years if I don’t die in battle. That’s a long time to be alone. A long time to mourn a husband dead from old age, as well.”
Tommy cast her eyes down, and wondered for herself. Sockajawea had the lifespan of a sea turtle, and was worried about her romantic prospects. What of Tommy, who might be immortal? And with that thought, she drifted off to sleep as the Indian warrioress kept watch over the two lest bad dreams bother them in the night.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
