Castaways

 

Part 5.  Hellrooms

 

by Skytower

 

 

            There were some moments in life that shouldn’t end.  Tania knew pain and she knew pleasure and it always seemed to her that moments of pain lasted longer than moments of pleasure.  It wasn’t fair.

            But every moment has to end and Tania realized that this moment’s time had come.  She pulled away from her daughter and they both sighed.  Tania’s face was wet with tears and so was Julia’s.  Memories of the little girl who seldom cried came to Tania’s mind but she pushed them away.

            “We don’t have much time,” Julia said.  “Raven can’t keep me hidden for too long.”

            “How many of the Teen Titan’s survived?” Tania asked.

            “Robin, Cyborg, Starfire and Raven including me, Liberty Girl.”

            “Liberty Girl?”

            “I couldn’t be Ultra Girl after…” Julia broke off.

            “After what?” Tania demanded.

            “There’s no time…”

            “Tell me quickly then,” Tania ordered.

            Julia smiled and then gave a light laugh at the command. 

            “You are my mother,” She said.  Then her face grew serious.  “You were missing for months before I finally convinced them to let me look for you.  I traveled the outside world, but I didn’t know all of your enemies.  Lady Drow captured me, hypnotized me… twisted me.  I became the Teen Titan’s greatest foe.  Vile Woman.”

            Tania gasped in horror at the name and Julia shrank away from her.

            “I did… Oh mother what I did…”

            “You did not,” Tania said firmly gathering her daughter into her arms.  “I’ve been there my daughter.”

            After a moment Julia pulled away from her.

            “But they freed me and we defeated her.  It was Robin who said I should not be Ultra Girl.  It wasn’t only the amazon curse; to control me Lady Drow increased the curse.  If I become aroused, even a little bit, I start to loose my strength.  She made all that she did to me public knowledge.”

            “Oh daughter…” Tania whispered again.  Lady Drow had been a tenacious and vicious villainess.  Tania and Wanda had always defeated her.

            “Until we could find a way to break the curse I had to become Liberty Girl.  It worked until Lady Drow escaped and attacked us again.  But we won and were taking her to the island to be judged by the gods when the skies turned red.  Lady Drow’s spider goddess Lloth reached through the nightmare to grab her priestess and got all of us as well.  But Raven separated us from them and we ended up here.”

            “Who owns you?” Tania demanded anger rising in her.  No one owned her daughter.  If Tania had to shred the entire universe to pieces to free Julia then she would.

            “No one,” Julia said.  “Raven found a place, a whitespace between the game worlds.  And there’s more.  We’ve got an ally and together we’ve almost finished a transport machine.  It can take us to another reality.”

            “How soon before you finish it?” Tania asked wondering if she dared to let hope into her soul.

            “Sooner with yours and Auntie Wanda’s help,” Julia said pressing a small bag into Tania’s hand.  “We need four more parts.  All of them are located here, in the UnderTaker’s maze.  You and Auntie Wanda have to find them.  When you put them in the bags the parts will be transferred to where we are.”

            “What are they?”

            “A power crystal, a small powerful motor, a lens and precision clock.” Julia looked around as if hearing something.  “The spell on the bag will guide you to them, but there is something else.  When you get to the center of the maze you’ll face the UnderTaker.  Mother you must loose that battle.”

            “What?”

            “We can’t go to any of the other game worlds,” Julia said.  “We can barely stay hidden here.  If you and Auntie Wanda are to come with us you have to loose the fight, you have to be slaves.  We’ll find our way to you after that.”

            Tania nodded.

            “I understand.  How can I find Wanda?”

            “You’ll both be looking for the same things,” Julia said.  “Someone else is telling her about this.  You’ll find each other.”  She looked around again.

            “Julia…” Tania started but stopped as her daughter began to turn invisible.

            “Mo…”

            She was gone before the word was done and Tania sank back against the wall.  It was too much.  The memories and emotions wouldn’t stop.  She closed her eyes and let the emotions wash over her soul.  It was hard but Tania knew that she had to use her emotions to power her through this struggle, not allow them to guide her.  She had to feel them, not bottle them up.

 

 

            “I’m taking advice from a worm,” Wanda said angrily as she made her way down the corridor.  “No, I’m taking orders from a worm!”

Mr. Mind had been impatient, imperious and Wanda hated the fact that he was her only chance.  Assuming this wasn’t just another game someone was playing with her.  Or that she wasn’t hypnotized again.  Or locked into a virtual reality machine.  Or maybe just having a nightmare.  That was what was truly making her angry.  Wanda had never felt less in control of her life.  Even when Peitro had been pushing her around with the over protectiveness of an older brother Wanda hadn’t felt this helpless.

            The small bag that she had tucked into a pocket of her cape glowed and Wanda stopped.  A door was to her right.  Wanda took a deep breath and opened the door.

            “Within lies the lens,” A voice whispered in her mind.

            Beyond the doorway lay a forest of crystal trees and a waterfall that fell from a sheer diamond cliff.  The sky was the clearest blue that Wanda had ever seen.  The water fell into a large pond and trickled off down a stream into a smaller pond.  Grass grew around the pond and so did flowers of dazzling colors.  The air was fresher than Wanda had breathed in years.  Crystal trees swayed in the breeze.  It was a place of peace.

            “A lens,” Wanda said softly as the image appeared in her mind.  The image was distorted but it was probably one of the crystals.  Cautiously she stepped into the room and onto the grass.  It was soft and Wanda had to fight to keep her guard up.  The entire tableau was real but she had known many a dark spider to spin webs of beauty.  The more steps she took toward the pond the more Wanda became aware of her surroundings.  It became harder and harder to focus.  The light did not come from a sun but from the waterfall itself.  She could see the source dancing in the water.  It was round and about as large as a small car.  The closer she got the more clearly Wanda could see and the waterfall was revealed to have thousands of crystals suspended in the water.  They didn’t fall or move with the stream, they hung in the water and reflected and refracted the light from the large ball.

            “No!” Wanda shouted tearing her eyes away from the spectacle.  “I’m not being hypnotized again!”

            “What ever is wrong with being hypnotized?” Asked a soft voice to her right.  Wanda turned and saw a tall slim elf woman.  She wore a silver sleeveless wrap dress tied with a blue rope.  On her wrists were gleaming gold bracelets with crystals in them.  On her head rested a crown of ivory with a black gem in its center.   “Relaxation is important, don’t you agree?”

            “Shut up,” Wanda ordered harshly.  “We’re gonna fight so lets get it over with!”

            “You’re going to fight Scarlet Witch,” The Elf said.  She leaned back on a couch that was made of spiderwebs and grass.  One hand lounged out from her body while the other gestured toward Wanda.  “I’m going to watch and when you are defeated I shall own your body.”

            “Isn’t anyone straight in this world?” Wanda demanded.  “I’M NOT GAY!” She screamed.

            “You don’t have to be,” The Elf Woman said laughing.  “Why should I care how you feel?  We take our pleasure when we can.  On my world I made many such as you beg for the Rainbow Queen’s touch.  Your breasts, your legs and that firm waist…  Yes I would have taken you after you begged.”

            “Yea in my world you’d be another extra in Lord of the Rings,” Wanda snapped.  She started to cast a spell.

            “Defend me!” Rainbow Queen said.

            Wanda jumped back as crystalline men in armor erupted from the ground.  There were two of them made of colored glass crystal; one of blue the other of green.  Both carried swords.  There was no life or movement on their faces.  Wanda dodged one and kicked out at the other.  It as if she were kicking plate glass.  She barely avoided the guards counter blow and that left her open for the sword of the other guard.  Wanda felt a sharp pain on her thigh as the sword cut into her flesh.

            Wanda tucked in her cape and rolled between them.  She came to rest on her back and they closed in. 

            “Shatter!” Wanda cursed as she formed a hex sphere.  Their swords hit the sphere and sound exploded from it.  The guards staggered back as the sound vibrations traveled over their crystalline bodies.  Wanda rolled again and used her cape to shield herself as they exploded showering her with fragments.

            “Defend me!” the Rainbow Queen said.

            “Hell!” Wanda cursed as three more guards grew out of the grass.  Again she cast a hex sphere and again they shattered.

            “Defend me,” The Rainbow Queen called.

            The shards of crystal on the ground trembled and then started to move.  Pieces joined themselves together to form small legs and bodies.  Eight legs.  Tiny glass spiders grew from the fragments and within each was a small light.  Their bodies cast rainbow auras as they moved toward her.  Wanda turned and found herself surrounded.  Their speed was incredible.  Before she could cast a spell a half dozen of the crystal spiders were climbing her boots. 

            Screaming Wanda jumped away from the rest and ran.  She only managed a few steps before tripping and falling.  Looking down Wanda realized that the spiders had spun webs of clear crystal chains around her ankles.  Once she was on the ground the rest of them swarmed over her body.  There was no way Wanda could cast a hex sphere, the sound would shatter her body as well.  Rolling hard she shook some of them off and then started to bat and claw at the rest. 

            This isn’t going to work, Wanda realized as more of them came toward her.  Already more lines were being cast around her ankles.  Wanda had faced spiders before and been cocooned.  Think Wanda, the witch thought desperately as she grabbed and clawed at them in a futile effort to fight back.  Crystal; basic properties…  Strong, semi-conductive… how is it made?

            Wanda struggled to her knees as the spiders continued to attack.  Her legs were trapped quickly with the crystal chains and they were crawling up her body.  She batted at them but even as she did that more of them appeared.  Wanda threw them off but she saw that they had attached crystal chains to her wrists.  She was pulled off balance and onto the ground.  Desperately Wanda bit at the chains and was grateful for the way they crunched between her teeth and her mouth was filled with a salty taste.  But there were too many of them and she couldn’t eat them all.  Too much salt was bad for her anyway. 

            That was it!

            “Storm!” Wanda screamed tearing her arms free and casting a hex sphere that fell back onto her and enveloped her.  Within the sphere a monsoon broke out and for a few minutes Wanda was drenched.  The spiders and the chains dissolved and flowed back into the ground.

            The sphere broke and Wanda got to her knees.  Her costume was soaked and the top half was torn away exposing her right breast.  Her hair was plastered against her head.

            “Salt crystals,” Wanda declared standing.  “They may look like diamonds but they aren’t as hard.”

            “They’ll do.” The Elf Queen said.  “Defend me!”

            Was it Wanda’s imagination or was there a bit of fear in her voice now?  She had no time to think about it though as new crystals grew from the ground and formed into a giant snake.

            Wanda dove out the way of the head as the snake lunged at her but the tail caught her in the stomach and sent her flying.  She slammed hard against a crystal tree and fell to the ground.  Wanda was barely able to get on all fours before she realized that the tree was growing hands.  She rolled away from it quickly and was rewarded with more pain.  Wanda hugged her side and realized that the impact against the tree had cracked one of her ribs.  She looked up and saw that the hands had stopped growing and that the snake was moving toward her again.  The Rainbow Queen was lounging on her couch but she wasn’t so relaxed anymore.  She was tense now, her muscles straining.

            Wanda got to her feet and dodged as the snake hit the tree.  It shattered and she used her cape to shield herself from the shards.

            “You’re tiring,” The Rainbow Queen said as Wanda faced her again.  “Gay or not Wanda come to me, I can heal your wounds and I am ever so sweet to the taste.”

            “If you don’t have a cock I’m not interested!” Wanda snapped. 

            “Defend…”

            “Stop!” Wanda shouted and threw a hex sphere at her.  A crystal shield sprang from the ground and the sphere shattered it just yards from the Rainbow Queen.

            She still hadn’t moved.  Wanda realized that now.  The elf woman’s right arm was stretched out away from her body while her left arm did all of the moving.  The crystals on her bracelets were glowing.

            Wanda smiled as the answer came to her.  The Rainbow Queen saw that smile and fear filled her eyes.

            “What do rainbows fear?” Wanda demanded and launched a hex sphere at the waterfall.  “Darkness!”

            “NO!” The Rainbow Queen screamed.  “Def…”

            It was too late.  Wanda’s hex sphere exploded against the water and transmuted it to mud.  The light dimmed. 

            “No!” The Rainbow Queen shouted again and stood up.  But she was slow and by the time she was fully standing Wanda was close enough to slam a fist into the elf woman’s jaw.

            “How’s my body look to you now!” Wanda snarled.  The queen feel back onto the couch but kicked out at Wanda.  The flat of her foot hit hard between Wanda’s legs and she fell back.

            “Bring it back!” The Rainbow Queen screamed leaping on top of her.  She grabbed Wanda’s throat with both hands and started to squeeze.  “Bring the light back!”

            Wanda broke the elf woman’s hold on her neck and rolled them over so that she was on top. 

            “How do you like my body now?” Wanda demanded again.  “How do you like my elbow?”

            The Rainbow Queen screamed in pain as Wanda drove her elbow into the queen’s breastbone.

            “No…” She begged.

            “How about my hand?” Wanda snarled and started to slap the elf woman’s face as hard as she could.  The queen managed to raise her arms but Wanda ignored her.  Anger and hate were burning through Wanda’s spirit and for once she could do something about it.  Wanda grabbed the Rainbow Queen’s left arm and pulled it out and then fell on it, pinning it under her side. 

            “I need this,” Wanda said as she started to pry the lens out of the bracelet.

            “NO!” The Rainbow Queen screamed.  She tried to pull her arm out from under Wanda’s body but failed.  She reached over Wanda’s shoulder but Wanda leaned back and over, pinning the elf woman beneath her.  The lens was secured to the bracelet by four brass arms and Wanda would have to bend each of them to free it.

            “No please!” The Rainbow Queen begged.  She reached around Wanda’s body with her free arm and and grabbed at anything she could reach.  Her hand closed on Wanda’s breast.  “I loose, you win… I can be your slave…”  Almost hysterically she caressed Wanda’s breast, toying with the nipple. 

            “I’m not gay!” Wanda said as the second arm gave. 

            “Please no…  Mercy…”

            “You weren’t big on mercy a few minutes ago,” Wanda said working on the third arm.    

            “I was a champion of my people…” Rainbow Queen begged.  Her hand was clutching Wanda’s breast. “Please…  You and I… we were alike…”

            “The hell we were,” Wanda said.  “I was an Avenger!  You bragged about raping people.”

            “No…” Rainbow Queen said and her voice was fading into a hoarse whisper.  “I was a queen, they loved me… I protected them… Please… show mercy… I beg you…”

            “Shut up!” Wanda said pulling the lens out of the bracelet.  She tossed the Rainbow Queen’s arm to the ground and sat up.  The lens was only a half of an inch round and easily fit into the bag.  Wanda turned around  “I need this to…”    

            The Rainbow Queen’s face was still and her eyes stared sightlessly at Wanda.  She was dead.  Wanda knew that even before she felt the elf woman’s neck for a pulse.

            Avengers don’t kill.  Wanda had said that many times to defeated foes, she had heard it many times in Steve’s strong voice. 

            “Oh no,” Wanda whispered.  “Oh god no… I’m… sorry… I…”

            Wanda started to cry and then tried to stop.  But as she looked around the tears came again.  The light in the waterfall was buried under a mountain of mud.  The flowers were dying and the trees were starting to crack.  Climbing to her feet Wanda watched in horror as the beauty died.  Because of her.  The color was going out of this room and it was her fault.

            “Nooooooo……” Wanda moaned and fell back to her knees as the world around her died.

 

 

 

            Tania stopped at the doorway.

            “Within lies your friend,” the bag whispered.

            Tania opened the door and stepped inside.  The smell hit her first.  It was a rank smell of death and dying.  The sky was gray and charred black trees reached toward it.  There was broken glass everywhere and a river of mud churned from a waterfall.  Tania saw Wanda kneeling in the mud.  Quickly but cautiously Tania moved toward her.  As she got closer Tania saw that Wanda was shaking.  In front of her was the corpse of a dead elf woman.

            “We could have talked,” Wanda said softly.  “I would have traded my body for the crystal.  I’m not gay but I can fake it.  Why couldn’t you talk to me?  Why does everyone have to play the bully?”

            “Wanda?” Tania asked putting her hand on her friend’s shoulder.

            “I’ve never made it with an elf before,” Wanda said ignoring her.  “Maybe there’s some elf trick you could have done?  Something… I don’t know…”

            “Wanda.” Tania said more forcefully.  Wanda looked up at her.

            “New outfit.” Wanda said looking at Tania’s costume.  “Doesn’t suit you.”  Wanda climbed to her feet but Tania had to steady her.  “We don’t need clothes you know, everyone wants us naked anyway.”

            “Wanda what happened?” Tania asked worried about the numb tone in Wanda’s voice.

            “We needed the lens,” Wanda said.  “I got it for us.”  She pointed to the elf lady and then to a cliff of dark mud.  “There was a little sun in the water, she used it to draw power through the lens and make crystal fighters.  Men, little bugs…  But then I turned the water to mud.  I wrestled her to the ground, pinned her down and tore the lens off of her.”

            Wanda reached up and touched her exposed breast.  Caressing it as she talked. 

            “She begged.  Really begged.  Offered her self to me.  She asked for mercy.”

            Wanda started to sink to the ground again and Tania quickly grasped her in a hug to keep her standing. 

            “You know what I said?  Me?  The Scarlet Witch?  An Avenger?  You know what I said?”

            “Wanda…”

            “I told her to shut up,” Wanda said.  “I killed her and I told her to shut up while I was doing it.”

            Wanda seemed to fold into her self and Tania hugged her as tightly as she could.

            “What am I Tania?” Wanda demanded weakly.  “What have I become?”

            Tania looked her in the eyes. 

            “You’re still an Avenger.  Your still one of the most virtuous women I’ve ever known.  You didn’t know that she’d die.  You were angry.  We’ve been through too much Wanda.”

            “So much that we’ve turned into what we fought against?” Wanda demanded.  “Who else do we have to kill?  And for what?”

            “Come on,” Tania said guiding her toward the door.  Wanda stumbled a few times and Tania had to hold her up but they made it into the corridor.  Once the door shut Wanda leaned back against the wall and slowly sat down.  Her costume was torn and there was a slash across her thigh but she didn’t seem to notice.

            “Avengers don’t kill,” Wanda whispered.

            “Wanda.”

            Wanda looked at her as Tania knelt down.  Tania had seen Wanda hurt, confused and broken in torture but she had never heard the pure despair in the voice of the Scarlet Witch that she heard now.  Taking a deep breath Tania viscously slapped Wanda across the face.

            “What the hell did you do that for!” Wanda snarled recoiling from the blow.

            “I’ll do it again if I have to,” Tania said.  “You are an Avenger Wanda.  What would Captain America think if he saw you now wallowing in self pity?  The woman was trying to rape you, enslave you and you feel guilty because in the battle she died?  Would she feel guilty if she had won and you had your face buried into her pussy?”

            “No,” Wanda said after a few moments of silence.  She took a deep breath and stood up.  “No she wouldn’t.  But I have a conscience.”

            “And without it you wouldn’t be an Avenger or the woman Steve loved,” Tania said.  “Honor him Wanda.”

            “By surviving and getting out of this hell?” Wanda demanded.  “I just took orders from a worm Tania.  How do we know we’re not going to a worse hell?”

            “We don’t,” Tania said.  “But where ever Julia is I’ll find a heaven.”

            Wanda sighed and then looked at Tania’s costume.

            “Isn’t that White Owl’s costume?”

            “Yes,” Tania said.  “Circe’s joke turned out to be more than a joke.  Vile Woman is hated by all the heroes.  I barely escaped and I’m afraid I had to strip White Owl naked to do it.”

            “Enough is enough!” Wanda snapped.  She cast a hex sphere and it enveloped them both in a mist.  When the mist cleared Wanda was wearing a red one piece swimsuit and a red body stalking with a red cape and headdress.  Her wound was healed.  Tania was in a blue and gold bustier and swimsuit.  “If we’re going to fight we’re going to fight as UltraWoman and the Scarlet Witch!  And I included underwear in the spell!  I swear I will kill the next villain strips me!”

            “Lead the way,” Tania said with a grand gesture.  She let herself smile as Wanda strode angrily off. 

 

 

            Within lies the motor and the clock, the bag whispered.  Wanda took hold of the door, looked at Tania and then opened it.

            “Another pretty place,” Wanda said bitterly as they stepped into a forest grove.  The air was sweet and warm with the scent of honeysuckle and rosemary.  Elm, pine and oak trees reached to the sky.  Their branches swayed in a slight breeze.  Birds sang in the trees and at the far side of the grove a rabbit and a squirrel sat playing chess.  They looked up and at the sight of the two women grabbed the chessboard and vanished down a path that led into the woods.

            Well at least someone is scared of us, Wanda thought.

            “What now?” Tania asked. “Follow them?”

            “Seems like a good idea,” Wanda agreed.

            They walked to the edge of the grove and stepped onto the path.

            “Do you have any idea what kind of reality Julia is planning on getting us to?” Wanda asked.

            “None,” Tania answered.  “But she is my daughter.”

            “I don’t trust the worm.”

            “I… Wait.  Did you hear that?”

            Wanda stopped and listened.  There was music. Faint but there.

            “Music.”

            “This way,” Tania said pointing further down the path. 

            “Let’s go.”

            For the next few minutes they walked carefully down the path.  Wanda strained every sense she had, determined not to fall into another trap.  After a while they stepped out of the woods and into another grove.  The music was louder now and Wanda recognized it.

            “That’s a gypsy song,” Wanda said.  She looked to her right and thought she saw a movement near the woods.  She went toward it.  “The Way to Mandalay.”

            “I thought it was an Amazon song,” Tania said.  “Dance of the Virgins.”

            Wanda had taken a few steps when she realized that the direction had changed.  The music now seemed to be coming from her left.  She turned and saw that Tania had been walking that way and now she had reversed course.  They walked past each other, both of them seeking the source of the music. 

            It changed again and Wanda changed with it, turning and stepping even as she saw Tania do the same. 

            We’re dancing, Wanda thought before the music took her away.  The direction changed again and Wanda followed it, bounding across the grove.

 

 

            Tania leapt over a rose and in her mind felt the memories come.  The Dance of the Virgins, a dance taught to every Amazon daughter by her mother and danced on the night she first became a woman.  She remembered her own grand night and the grand feast and party.  The music of the Amazon’s mixing with the music of the Earth and the Stars and the Gods.  She twirled and remembered her joy at finally being accepted as a woman in the eyes of the world.

            Let the music see me, Tania thought as she started to shed her Ultra Woman costume.  For I have no secrets from the music.

 

 

            Wanda felt it again.  She felt the music and the joy as she danced for the crowds, but more for the other women in the tribe.  She remembered herself stumbling about.  A little girl of ten trying to match the adults move for move, not caring how silly she looked.  Laughing as they laughed and singing as they sung.  Wild abandon in the moonlight celebrating the simple joy of life.  Breathing in the heady air of the fire and the smells of the forest.  Growing with the music, year to year becoming a little less clumsy with her movements.  Glowing with pride as the gypsy women smiled in approval.  They taught her the simple steps that the outsiders saw in the shows, and then in the summer solstice celebrations they taught her the secret dances that only women knew.  Dancing in the moonlight awash with power and joy Wanda had never wanted to stop.

            Let the music see me, Wanda thought as she cast away her cape.  For I have no secrets from the music.

 

 

            Men always believed that fighting was like dancing.  Tania laughed as she thought of that, one of her on-going arguments with Ultraman.  Fighting was nothing like dancing.  Dancing was joy and freedom and giving of oneself.  Fighting was all rules and pain. 

            Tania leapt and twirled welcoming the feeling of the sun on her body.  Let the world see her, what did she care?  She was alive and what else mattered?  She remembered well teaching Julia to dance.  The wild Dance of the Virgins, the funny dance of the Comedy, the Sensual Dance of the Stars!  They had both laughed themselves silly after that one, falling down in the warm grass.  Julia thought it was so funny because the dance was designed to interest men and she had never met a man.

            Tania giggled as she danced and remembered trying to describe what a man was to her very young daughter.  The laughter of that day was never supposed to end.

 

 

            Oh Sindella you would be so proud of me, Wanda thought as she felt the cool air and the moonlight flow over her flesh.  Sindella had been two years older than Wanda and the kind of older sister that all young girls should have.  She taught Wanda to tease, to read the cards and pick the pocket for the foolish villagers.  Giving hope and taking gold.  And dancing.  For Sindella was a beauty that a young Wanda could only envy.  Sindella with midnight hair and wide hips who could have danced in front of a statue of a man and gotten a reaction. 

            Wanda felt her presence as she danced.  She could see Sindella’s face before her nodding in approval as Wanda’s hips matched the rhythm of the music.

            But why do you dance for no one little witch? Sindella demanded.

            I dance for…

            Wanda broke through the spell briefly.  Just long enough for her to see Tania dancing nude in the daylight.  She was dancing in front of a satyr who played a set of pipes.

            Then Wanda was swept away and the only thing she could see and hear was the music and the moonlight.

 

 

            Tania was dancing the Chain Dance when she missed a step.  She had turned on her toe and felt a harsh pain as a sharp pebble pressed against her skin.  In the moment that she took to start the dance again Tania saw the satyr playing his pipes.  The rage that she felt lasted only a moment before it was drowned by the music.  Satyrs and Amazon’s were ancient enemies.  More than one of Tania’s sisters had been mesmerized and raped by a satyr.  The children born of such a union were torn between two worlds and almost never happy. 

            No, Tania thought. I won’t…

            But the music called to her and Tania felt her thoughts slip away into the song.

 

 

            This can’t be magic, Wanda thought.  It was a thought so deeply hidden in her mind that the music couldn’t touch it.  Wanda knew magic, she had been entranced by mystical music before.  This wasn’t it.  But what ever it was the power of it held her as securely as any set of ropes or chains ever had. 

            Wanda had managed to split her mind and in her dual sight she saw herself and Tania dancing nude in the grove while the satry played.  But at the same time she saw the seductive sight of her and her sister gypsies dancing in the moonlight.  The moonlight was winning and it was taking all of her might to maintain even a little of the truth.

            A plan came to Wanda and with everything she had the witch started to dance toward Tania.  It seemed to take hours but she made it, step by step and twirl by twirl, swaying her hips and bouncing her breasts and hoping her enchanter would pay too much attention to both to notice where she was going.

            She made it and grasped Tania’s wrist.  Their dances merged and Wanda felt a wave of joy nearly swamp her.  She wanted nothing more out of life at that point to just dance with Tania and forget everything else.  But she didn’t.  Instead she started to spin Tania around and Tania did the same thing.  Wanda saw a brief flicker in her eyes and realized that Tania too had broken the spell just little bit.  Maybe enough.

            They spun around each other until at last Wanda let go and danced away from Tania.  She danced right into the satyr and knocked him down.  The pipes fell from his hands and the music stopped.

            Instantly they were in a black gray room with a machine the size of a car in one corner.  The satyr was revealed to be a man wearing a black body stocking with a green cape who was wearing a fishbowl on his head.  On the floor next to him was a multi-keyed control unit.

            “Do you ever wonder why we bother getting dressed?” Tania asked walking over to her.

            “Frequently,” Wanda said.  She reached over and pulled the fishbowl off of the man’s head.  He was groggy from the impact and dazed gray eyes tried to focus on her.  He wasn’t an ugly man.  He had a strong jaw a somewhat pointed nose and sparse gray hair.

            “I’ll get the motor,” Tania said walking to the machine.

            “Who are you?” Wanda demanded.

            “I am Mysterio!” He declared.  “And you will be my slaves!”

            He reached for the control unit and Wanda jammed her elbow into his crotch.  He gasped in pain and she picked up the control unit and smashed it over his head.

            “Done,” Tania said.  She had gathered her costume and handed Wanda hers.  Wanda stood up and started to put her clothes back on.  “The motor and the clock.”

            “Bitches!” Mysterio cursed.

            “Who did he say his name was?”

            “Mysterio,” Wanda said.  “I’ve never heard of him.”

            “Bitch!” The man cursed staggering to his knees.  “Bitches!”

            “Shut up!” Wanda snapped.  “I swore I’d kill the next villain who stripped us.  Guess what you are?”

            “Avengers don’t kill,” He laughed.  “Not on my world.  “You’re no different from my Scarlet Witch!”

            Wanda knelt down and grabbed his costume to pull him up. 

            “You’re right Avenger’s don’t kill!” Wanda growled as she let him go and then slammed her fist into his jaw.  He crumpled to the floor and Wanda shook her hand.  “But we do break jaws you son of a bitch!”

            “Feel better?” Tania asked as Wanda rubbed her sore knuckles.

            “Is it wrong to say yes?” Wanda asked standing up.

            “Not at all.”

            “Then I feel great.”

 

…To be continued.

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