Tales of Carrion Mansion. Episode 17
Elvira Peterson has defeated Georgia Sylvana and returned to the reletive safety of Carrion Mansion. But now an old horror from the past is about to emerge.
@1999 by Skytower
The Return of Aunt Petunia
Deep within the cavernous vaults of Carrion Mansion Elvira Peterson lay on a table, slowly waking to a world of pain. She had beaten Georgia Sylvana, freed Mary Marvelous and Wonder Lass, but it had meant running, climbing and fighting, as well as shrinking and growing. Every muscle in the young girls body ached. Elvira was in great shape, but she had her limits. The young woman barely remembered stumbling off of the teleport platform and collapsing onto the table.
"She's awake." Jeremy said.
"About time." Helga replied.
Elvira opened her eyes, looking around. Though she often called Jeremy's lab a dungeon it wasn't. It merely looked like one. Large stone blocks, green with moss held up a vaulted ceiling. Few details could be seen of the ceiling since the room was light by harsh flourescent worklights. Tables were set evenly about the room. On them were set electronic equipment, large books and chemical brews bubling away in beakers. Elvira lay naked on a raised table at the far end of the room. The table was human shapped and mounted on a universal ball joint. Above it was a round ball with a variety of antenna's and sensors. Further on was a raised platform with a large computer center set against the wall. On the central screen of the computer was an image of Elvira on the table. Elvira was a little over five feet tall, with just past shoulder length brown hair. Solid legs traveled to wide hips and a fuzzy stripe of brown hair between her legs. Her stomach was flat and further up were a pair of small breast with exagerated brown nipples. Elvira's face was composed of a pair thin arched eyebrows. The eyebrowse rode above a pair of brown eyes, set far apart. The effect was a face that was very open. Often what Elvira felt could be easily seen.
Jeremy and Helga Carrion sat at the computer. Twins, each with red hair, his cut short, hers wore long, each with green eyes and deceptively inocent faces. Elvira wasn't sure what age they were, but she was sure it was over fourty. True, they looked ten to fifteen, but the young girl was sure they were older.
I know for damn sure their not inocent, Elvira throught. Elvira was proof of that. Jeremy was the reason she shrunk and grew, and Helga had turned Mindy into a fairy, just to test a potion.
"Good morning." Jeremy said, glancing at her.
"Is it morning?"
"About 3:30." Helga said.
"Technicaly that's morning." Jeremy said. "Now that your awake care to tell us what happened last night? I've been studying the nanites and the changes in them are incredible."
"No problem, but you got a robe or a blanket or something?"
"I'll get one." Helga said, walking over to a storage locker.
"You and clothing." Jeremy said, rolling his eyes. "Helga and I both have photgraphic memories, we can call up a mental image of you at any time."
"Call it a cultural thing." Elvira said. "I was brought up by people who wear cloths, my freinds all wear cloths." Helga handed her a terry cloth robe. "I'm going to wear cloths."
"Not for a few minutes yet." Jeremy said. "I still have to run a few scans."
Elvira sighed in defeat and handed the robe back to Helga.
"You guys had any luck with Mindy yet?"
"Not really, no." Helga said, putting the robe on a chair next to the table.
"What have you been doing?" Jeremy asked. "The nanites are almost completely changed, only their basic structure is intact."
"I was afraid of something like that." Elvira said.
"Give me a run down of your activities from the begining." Jeremy said, picking up a notebook and pencil. "Helga could you run a check on vital signs so she won't lie or omit facts?"
"Right." Helga took a seat next to him.
Ignoring the insult Elvira took a deep breath and told them about her run in with Georgia Sylvana, wicked girl scientist. Infuriated that Elvira had interfered with her plans for Mary Marvelous, Georgia had dipped the babysitter in honey and dropped her into a maze with a shrunken bear. Elvira had escaped only to be captured by Sir Softy, a giant animated towel charged with keeping the Sylvana Sky Palace clean. Elvira had used him to masturbate to her normal size.
"Before you grew, was the honey still covering your body?" Jeremy asked.
"Yea."
"And aferward?"
"No." Elvira said after thinking about it. "Come to think of it no, it didn't. I didn't think about it at the time."
"Very well. Go on."
Elvira took another deep breath and told them about her battle with Georgia, her defeat of Georgia, and the wicked girls shooting Elvira with a Geta radiation based shrinking ray.
"Geta radiation?" Helga asked, giggling.
"She's still using Geta radiation?" Jeremy asked, giggling as well. "I'll wager the gun was a; "Buck Rogers" style ray gun."
"It sorta looked like one, yea."
The twins broke out laughing.
"Geta radiation." Helga said. "That's like using vacume tubes."
"No wonder her family never conquers the world." Jeremy agreed.
"Hey it worked!" Elvira shouted. "A little slower than yours, but it worked. Infact I shrunk smaller."
"Really?" Jeremy said, sobering up.
"Yea, about half the size I normaly end up at."
"Hummm."
"Was that a good hum or a bad hum."
"That was not a good hum." Jeremy said. Turning to the computer he tapped out a quick instruction. "Go on."
Red faced Elvira told them of her capture by a lust crazed Wonder Lass and about making love to her in a blue berry pie.
"Then I was normal sized again." Elvira finnished.
"Were there any other pies on the table?" Jeremy asked.
"What? Yea, I think. There was chocolate, some green stuff I wasn't sure of and cherry."
"And you couldn't have picked the cherry." Helga said sadly.
"It wasn't really my choice." Elvira said, a little puzzled.
"Cherry would have solved the problem." Jeremy said, a concerned look on his face.
"What problem?"
"Usually does." his sister agreed.
"What problem?" Elvira asked again.
Jeremy touched a control and suddenly Elvira's arms and legs were held in place by metal bands.
"I'm not going to like this am I?" Elvira asked, looking at the bonds.
"The neural portion of the nanites had mutated." Jeremy said. "The honey started the process, it was absorbed into them when you grew. At that point I could have still fixed them. But then you got hit with Geta rays. That fused the some of the control elements in the mechanical part of the nanite. I might have still been able to do something, but then the blueberrys..."
"Blueberry's aren't good for neural networks." Helga said as Jeremy trailed off. "If only you had grown in the cherry pie..."
"I didn't know." Elvira said, starting to get worried.
"You didn't know that cherry pie absorbed through the skin can repair the neural net of a nanite?" Jeremy asked, as though Elvira didn't know the sun came up in the east.
"But it's such a basic peice of knowlege."
"Public schools." Jeremy said sadly. Helga put her hand on his shoulder in support.
"Bottom line this for me will ya?" Elvira asked. She could feel herself breaking out in a cold sweat.
"Well after I learned that the nanites were still working I emailed my whole class about it. Everyone wanted to talk to me, my professor even asked for a sample nanite." He shrugged. "But now there's no proof, no extra credit."
"He so wanted to take you to show and tell." Helga said.
"Calm blue ocean." Elvira repeated the phrase for a few minutes. After that her rage was under control. "Jeremy, not that I don't feel bad about show and tell and all, but what does this mean for me? Am I still going to shrink and grow?"
"Oh indeed." Jeremy said. "Infact both the range of size change and the stimulus required to trigger that change has been increased." Shaking off his depression the boy turned back to the computer. "Before it took tickling you into a sexual frenzy to trigger a reduction, now that trigger level has been decreased. Though I have no real way to test it, I can guess that laughing for more than 2.45559 minutes will shrink you. Also any sort of sexual activity will trigger a growth spurt. If you feel arousal for more than 5 minutes 5.56566 seconds you will grow. In both cases the trigger still has to be physical, you can't just imagine the feelings. Finaly their is a certain type of food that will cause you to shrink, but the time you remain small will be proportional to the amount you consume. The computer is working on identifing the food trigger now."
The calm blue ocean was now a raging tempest and Elvira wanted nothing more than to get her hands around Georgia's throat. Or Jeremy's, Helga's or just about anybodys.
"So I now have to avoid laughing and sex." she said.
"And chocolate." Jeremy said, reading off the computer screen.
"Chocolate!?"
The computer started to beep.
"Gosh!" Helga said, pointing to the screen. "I've never seen anybody's blood preasure go up like that."
"Good thing I have her restrained." Jeremy said.
The sound of metal straining made them both look over at Elvira. The band holding her wrist was slowly starting to bend.
"I can't laugh, I can't have sex and I can't have chocolate." Elvira said, her voice a deadly calm. "Some body better give me a reason to live. FAST!"
"Excuse me sir, madam, Miss Elvira?" A cultured English voice made them all look at the doorway. Standing there was a teddy bear wearing a tweed suit.
The sight of a teddy bear standing in the doorway to the stairs broke Elvira's rage. She knew him as Theordore Y. Bear, the spirit of an 18 century Englishman channeled in Helga's teddy bear. He now served as the butler the Carrion family.
"You have been working non-stop for many hours now, would you like something to eat? An early breakfast would be appropriate given the hour."
Calm down, Elvira told herself. They may be demented, but they are brilliant, they'll find a cure.
"Now would be a good time." Jeremy agreed. "The usual Helga?" She nodded. "Elvira?"
"You going to let me off this?"
"That depends, are you still conceiving of various ways to hurt us?"
"Yea, but relax, I won't do any of them."
Seemingly satisfied Jeremy touched a control on the computer and Elvira's restraints retracted into the table.
"What would you like madam?" Mr. Bear asked.
"6 pancakes, 3 eggs straight, 16 bacon strips, a cup of oatmeal, 4 slices of toast sprinkled with cinemon, not butter and a glass of choco... Milk. Plain milk."
"Very well."
"Do you always eat all that for breakfast?" Helga asked.
"No, sometimes I skip the oatmeal. Better see if Mindy's up." Elvira looked around. "Where is she anyway?"
"There's a story we should tell you." Jeremy said, activating her restraints once more.
"I can't believe you turned my best freind into a fairy and let her get kidnaped by spider people." Elvira said. "And now you don't know where she is."
"It is not polite to talk with your mouth open young lady." Mr. Bear corrected her.
"Sorry." Elvira mumbled through the bacon.
"At the time we were pre-occupied with your problem." Jeremy said.
"It's very rare for the spider people to be so aggressive." Helga added.
"Where did these spider people come from anyway?"
"We're not sure." Jeremy said. "Though my mother has narrowed it down to either an escape from the secret millitary base or Aunt Petunia mating with a male spider."
Elvira groaned at the mental image of the half human half spider mating with the real thing.
"We don't know that much about them." Jeremy said. "Their development is low, tribal society, elder ruled with ancestor worship. They also worshiped Aunt Petunia as a goddess. We think your arrival may have set them off."
"Me?"
"Well you did defeat her, and in doing so strained the fabric of their society. God's are not supposed to be beaten you know."
"Oh."
"Your battles with her have become one of their great epic poems." Helga said. "They call you: "Arch Demon, the Goddess Hunter".
"Arch Demon." Elvira said. She thought for a moment, finishing off the toast. "I like that."
"Little spiders are told that you will come in the night, destroy their webs and drink their blood." Jeremy said.
"I'm not that bad."
"To them you are. Infact one of their legends has it that if a warrior defeats you and feast on your still beating heart he will become a god."
"These spider people need a television." Elvira said, reaching for the syrup. "But your sure they don't have Mindy right?"
Jeremy touched a control on his watch and a holographic cube appeared in the center of the table.
"Our security camera caught this picture last night." The scene showed Mindy flying out of the chimney, partialy tangled with webbing. The camera followed her as she flew out of sight. "The spider people went after her, but apparently failed." The scene changed to show three spider men flying back toward the chimney on flying rats.
"I'm not going to ask where they got the rats." Elvira said. "If she got away and she's mobile she'll head for my house."
"What about her own house?"
"Not when she's small and naked, her little brother's a creep. No, she'll head to my place. Probably hoping to get my little sister to call me."
"Excuse me sir." Mr. Bear said, appearing in the doorway. He moved to the table and quickly cleared a spot in the center.
"Hey,I'm not done yet." Elvira protested.
"Hey is for horses young lady. I am not removing the food young lady merely clearing a space. My dear Lucretia has informed me that Miss Carrion will be here shortly."
"Your mother?"
There was a sparkle of light in the center of the table and a slim figure formed. She stood at twelve inches tall. Red hair cut short framed a delicate face with deep set green eyes. The woman wore a simple tunic that barely made it past her thighs and revealed long thin legs.
With a yelp Elvira leapt off of her chair and dove behind it.
"Now Elvira," Aunt Petunia said sweetly, "is that anyway to greet an old freind?"
"Freind?" Using the chair to support herself Elvira walked around and sat down again, closing her robe tightly as she did so. "The last time you were here you tried to eat me."
"Tried?" Aunt Petunia's cultured English lilt betrayed an ironic amusement. "My dear as I recalled I did eat you, and you enjoyed it."
"Aunt Petunia is the only one qualified to handle the spider people problem." Jeremy said while Elvira blushed.
"Besides I'm not as you knew me." Petunia walked over and sat on the edge of Elvira's plate. Coyly she looked up at the young woman. "Not entirely." Elvira quickly drew her arms to her side. "My sanity has been restored, my rage controled."
"Your still small." Elvira said, cautiously reaching for another piece of bacon.
"That is my choice." Petunia said, breaking off a small piece of the toast she started to eat. Elvira pulled her hand back. "You see Elvira I was completely cured some months ago, but encountered some dificulties."
"She tried to rob a bank." Jeremy said.
"But blew it up by mistake." Helga finished.
"They put a service charge on my savings acount." Aunt Petunia said. "I think I was justified in lodging a complaint. It was an ugly building at any rate. However the statute of limitations won't run out for a few years, so I've decided to spend them here. As a spider goddess I did have a very nice life."
Elvira nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
"I was honored, well fed and my subjects always provided me with Vogue every month. All I really missed was another woman." She smiled. "At least until you showed up."
God I wish this was chocolate, Elvira thought drinking her milk.
"But I find I miss the constant adulation."
"Your not a spider lady anymore." Elvira said. "I don't think they'll welcome you with open webs."
"Easily solved." Petunia said, pulling off her tunic. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and changed. Elvira watched in amazement as the small woman grew. Her chest grew longer and gained another set of breast and arms. Her hips widened and just above them another set of arms grew. Her toes grew in length, as did her fingers. The process took only a few moments.
"Excuse me sir." Mr. Bear said, appearing in the door way. "My dear Lucretia has observed something disturbing on the security monitors."
"Good." Elvira said, not able to take her eyes off the spider goddess. "I haven't had a heart stopping shock in at least two micro-seconds and I'm over due."
"Instruct her to direct the image to this location." Jeremy said.
"Very good sir." Mr. Bear left.
"Do I bring back memories dear?"
"Memories no, nightmares yes."
Aunt Petunia laughed and walked over to look up at her. Elvira instinctively pressed back into her chair. There was a small beep and the holographic cube sprang to live once more. In the cube three spider men on flying rats came toward the house. In a thick net strung between them a small figure with wings could be seen.
"They got her after all." Elvira said, letting out a small growl. "Jeremy get me some chocolate and shrink me down a hockey stick, I got some spider heads to crack."
"There are fourty warriors in the colony." Aunt Petunia said.
"So?" Elvira demanded, not taking her eyes off the cube.
"And women and children." Petunia said, for once her voice serious. "They could be hurt if you go charging in."
"I should have left well enough alone." Elvira said, tearing off a piece toast. "The shrinking and growing wasn't that bad, I was handling it. The kids loved it, I was making good money as the: "Shrinking Sitter." She took a deep breath and let it out. "Ok, so how do we get her out of there with minimal loss of life?"
"I have a plan." Petunia said, smiling at her.
Ages of waiting, Jill thought. Literaly eons of patience to be rewarded only by this. A sacrafice to a false god. Truly the fates are too fond of comedy. She had been thrown clear of the car just before reaching the poison gas cloud. But had landed litteraly in the laps of one of the spider men. He had stunned her with a blow to the head and when she woke up Jill was cocooned and suspended between three flying rats. They had drugged her as well, as they had Mindy, but Jill was easily able to throw off the effects of the drug. A fairy had complete control over her body. It was something she had hoped to teach Mindy, after convincing the girl to remain a fairy, but now that seemed unlikely.
Expelling gas the rats gently descended into the chimney. After a time they stoped and the spider men dismounted, hopping to the walls. The largest took Jill and stepped through an opening in the bricks. The great hall was as Mindy remembered it. Jill let herself look through the transformed girls memories, seeking a way of escape. But the only practical way was the brick entrance, and that was quickly sealed by two spider men. As a massive brick was put into place Jill realized there would be no escape for her.
Jill sighed. She did not fear death, for no fairy can truly die as mortals do. When mortals died they left the world never to return as they were. But a fairy's spirit would travel to one of the sacred pools and grow a new body for itself. Or at least they used to. Jill knew there was a chance that none of the pools had survived the ages. Mindy's memories and knowlege told her that man had grown all over the world. He would have destroyed the pools without even knowing it. If that was the case then Jill could find a body just about to be concieved. Her spirit could live in that body, but at the cost of the knowlege of her true self. For the persons life time Jill's knowlege and power would be held in the deepest recesses of the man or womans mind. Only at death would she come to herself again, but without the sacred pools she would just have to repeat the process.
Jill didn't want that. Her knew body was so well designed, it offered so much...
But then I do not have much to say about the matter, she through ruefully.
She was carried through the great chamber to the alter. The webbing was sliced from her body and Jill was rolled out onto the floor like Cleopatra being freed from the carpet.
"This is not Big Breast Blonde." the old spider said.
Mindy is right, Jill thought wyrly, men are men.
"She has wings." the warrior protested.
"She is not the one."
"To get her we faced the Owl, the Red Witch, the cloud of death." as he spoke the warrior became more and more angry. "Doorknob is cripppled."
"In the service of the goddess..."
"Enough of her!"
"Nails!" the old spider exclaimed, his voice burning with anger.
"She lost!" Nails shouted. "I watched from the shadows as the Arch Demon defeated her, bound her in her own web!"
"Silence!" the old spider shouted.
"Yea, be quiet."
The voice was low, but well projected. In the wake of the comand total silence fell upon the great chamber. Only breathing could be heard. As one ever eye in the room looked to the main entrance.
Elvira, Jill thought, but there were subtle differences between this girl and the girl from Mindy's memories. She still was solidly built with wide strong legs, wide hips and small breast. But this Elvira glistened in the dim light. A thin sheen of oil covered her body, naked but for a silver band on her wrist. In her right hand she held a hockey stick. Beside her two spider guards slumped unconcious. She smiled and gave out a shrill cat-like yowl.
As the battle cry echoed through the chamber chaos errupted. Mother's abandoned their webs, taking small spiders with them. Some of the spider men shot arrows at her, but the arrows bounced off.
If she was ever able to do that, Jill reflected, she kept it from Mindy.
"Where is the goddess?" Elvira shouted, stalking across the chamber to the alter. "How dare she capture..." for the first time Elvira got a good look at her and Jill could see the confusion in her face. "Who the...Where is she?" Elvira recovered.
"You ask that?" Nails demanded. He hadn't moved, nor had the old spider. "You took her from us, I saw you..."
"Fool!" Elvira said, swinging her hocky stick at him. "You saw only the first period! Now give her up or I'll start tearing this place apart!"
With a snarl Nails charged her, but Elvira skillfully used her stick to trip him and stun him with a blow to the back of the head.
"Enough!" another voice shouted. Again everyone turned to look, but Elvira took the oporatunity to bend down.
"When the action starts head toward the door." she whispered. "But do it slow."
Jill nodded. At the far end of the chamber a door had opened, and another creature stood there. Taller than Elvira this creature seemed to be a hybrid of woman and spider. She had six arms, two pair growing from her torso, another pair growing from just above her thighs. Four breast, not two adorned her chest. When she opened her mouth Jill could see fangs.
"Aunt Petunia." Jill whispered.
"You think you could run away from me?" Elvira taunted, giving Nails another hit on the head.
"I was not the one who ran." Petunia said.
All eyes in the chamber were on them and Jill started to crawl toward the main door.
"I tied you up in your own web once." Elvira taunted.
"A refreshing amusement." Aunt Petunia said. "It was rare for one such as you to enter my webs, I enjoyed toying with you, giving you a taste of victory."
Jill was halfway to the door when the two started to fight. Elvira used her hockey stick to leap into the spider goddess, knocking her down. She used the stick like an ax, but Petunia rolled away and it stuck into the floor. Petunia leapt into her foe and the force of that leap carried the two of them into the alter. Jill watched the battle out of the corner of her eye. Petunia had more arms but Elvira was the more cunning fighter. Slipping under the taller woman Elvira rolled behind her. A kick to the back of the leg brought Petunia to her knees. Elvira leapt onto the spider womand back. Grabbing Petunia's hair Elvira pulled her head back, at the same time locking her legs around the spider womans waist. Two of the spider womans arms kept her upright while the other four pulled at the girls legs. Elvira kept up the preasure, letting go of the hair she wrapped both hands around Petunia's mouth and nose. For long silent minutes the two stood there. Elvira pulled with all her might, nearly bending the mutated woman in half. Aunt Petunia's struggles were going weaker as her lungs fought for air. Jill was nearly to the exit, but by this time the fairy was sure no one even remembered her. They were starting to chant.
It was a wordless chant, a low bass rumbling that filled the hall and seemed to fill Aunt Petunia as well. She rose and despite the ravages of Elvira's hold leaped up into the ceiling. Elvira took the brunt of the hit and when she came down Petunia went to work. Blow after blow drove Elvira back toward the entrance, untill finnaly the shrunken babysitter was realing, barely able to stand. By that time the chanting had turned to cheers. The cheers rose to a crescendo when Petunia held Elvira stretched out, holding her by wrist and ankles. With a savage roar the spider woman burried her fangs into Elvira's throat. Elvira gave a choked cry and then went still.
The spider people cheered as Petunia ran her hands up and down Elvira's helpless body. Then she threw the babysitter down next to Jill and turned to them.
"We're outta here." Elvira whispered, grabbing Jill's wrist she hit the silver band on her wrist.
Well Elvira has a fairy, but not the one she was looking for. What has happened to Mindy, Jack and Calliope? Stay tuned.
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