Annie LXXIV: Old Friends

(Chronological index: New World Order #15)

Denise welcomed a busy night in Portion Control. Right after they reopened, the place was packed. Deliah had to call in most of the wait staff and was happy to hear Denise volunteer to help out.

Of course, the newly famous rat fighter had non-altruistic motives. Mainly that sylphs had no cell phones.

Modern technology had done wonderful things, but hadn’t quite managed to miniaturize the things to be as handy to sylphs as they were to humans.

Plus, Deliah wouldn't have allowed her staff to use them on the floor. So as long as Denise was waiting on the giants, she was incommunicado.

Ray couldn't call every hour to say he heard about the rats and update his travel back to DC.

Annie couldn't call every third hour to both congratulate her and to ask if she was suicidal.

Pet couldn't call every time she passed a phone to ask if Denise knew rats in the walls were not the same as rats in pet cages.

Denise loved them all and hated that she'd scared them, but really wouldn't have changed any decision she made. They'd eventually understand that. Annie seemed to already grok her explanation.

But she was getting really uncomfortable with the reputation of a rat-killing-freak since she had no rat's blood on her hands. She really felt that the worst she'd done that night was look a sylph abuser in the eye and not scream out his crimes.

So, she was too isolated to talk to her closest family. And she was too busy to dwell on how close things had gotten. And she was surrounded by giants that wouldn't see skewering a rat as all that heroic anyway.

Perfect.

She swung the drawbridge across to the next table and carried her clipboard over.

"Welcome to Portion Control, sir. I'll be your server tonight, my name is-"

"Denise," the man said. She looked up sharply, expecting to see a familiar face. The expression looming over her was...strangely familiar but she couldn't place it.

And she couldn't identify the man.

"Sir?" she asked. "Have we met?"

"I believe I later described you as a territorial feminist," he said. Nothing moved on the face but her mind reclassified the smile he bore as a leer.

She remembered a date. With a man that gave Pet an obnoxious teddy bear...

"Chester...." she said softly. He nodded his head then looked thoughtful.

"You know, I think I liked it better when you called me, sir."

"I'll call you a cab, how about that!" she snapped.

"What?"

"We refuse the right to refuse service to fuckheads," she said. "I kicked you out once, I KNOW my boss'll support kicking you out tonight."

She turned to scurry towards the drawbridge. The table cloth under her feet was yanked. She rolled across the table and felt a hot hand pin her in place.

"Maybe we won't tell her," Chester said. Quick as a wink, she was bundled up in a napkin and shoved into a pocket.

She felt him stand to leave. His hand was in the pocket with her, his thumb pushing her stomach in. She could barely breathe enough to avoid passing out.

She couldn’t pass out. She wanted to see the look on his face when the security system detected her chip going through the exit.

Sam hired some of the biggest men on the planet to discourage people taking 'souvenirs' home. And Chester was a giant, now, but he wasn't even in league with Tony or Dan or-

She heard brakes. Street noises. He was on the sidewalk. How had he gotten past security?

Well, she had been there when Angel and Cruiser invented gnomes. It didn't take much these days to qualify as sylph oppression.

It would be a bit disappointing if she and Pet were no longer the same size, but the little sylph would understand.

And she still couldn't wait to see Chester's face.

----------

Chester brought her out of his pocket when he got into his car. She tumbled across his hand, then fell a short ways to a soft surface. There was a metallic clang that sounded...final.

He started the car and drove off. Her eyes adapted quickly to the dark interior.

He had a cage resting on the floor of his car. A folded towel was the only thing inside it. Aside from her, anyway.

He was on the freeway pretty soon. She could tell by the acceleration then the lack of stops for lights or traffic.

Once he set cruise control, he leaned back and looked down at her. Or down at the cage, there wasn't a lot of light for human sight.

"Oh, I've missed you, Denise," he said. She thought he sounded way too full of himself.

"I think of you every time I see an ugly teddy bear," she said.

"You know, I still have that thing. Somewhere. But that was for Pet." He laughed. She didn't want to think about what he found amusing. She stood to pace, staying close to the bars.

He jerked the car to the side but she managed to grab the cage to stay on her feet. He made a sigh of disappointment. So he could see her...

"You know, it wasn't an accident I found you," he said.

"Couldn't be," she agreed. "You had to be prepared for Security, for one." The hinges of the door were as big as her leg. They looked brand new or at least well cared for.

"These days, I'm always prepared for Security." He laughed again. "You guys got it backwards."

"How's that?" she asked. "Got what backwards?"

"Alchemy. Everyone knows it's Earth, Water, Fire and Air. That would be gnomes, undines, salamanders and sylphs." He shook his head. "Of course, if you're an Initiate, you know it's supposed to be the other way around. Sylphs come first."

"And they did," she replied, just to feel like a participant.

"Yes, they did. Then came the salamanders."

She shook her head. "It was sylphs for 28 years. Then Mia...then Undines. Then-"

"You just never knew about the salamanders," Chester said with a shake of his head. "But that's okay," he said.

The dashboard lights made an eerie gleam out of his smile. Green and not in the fun-zombie-Ray way, either. "It's okay," he repeated. "I'm going to make a salamander out of you."

She stood still in the corner of the cage, flexing her hand and wondering when the gnome fire was going to issue forth.

Hopefully, the magic knew to wait until the car came to a full stop. Being outside of the cage might help, too. She waited patiently, but her patience was wearing.

----------

Chester was silent after his odd promise. She felt him come off the freeway, travel a short way on surface streets, then park.

He grabbed the cage and lifted her to the dashboard. He let her see the area around the car.

Dark. No lights were visible, not headlights, not streetlights, not houses... "No one to hear me if I scream, eh?" she remarked.

"Exactly," he said. He got out of the car and walked along a sidewalk. It was a ghostly grey in the night, leading to a hulking shadow.

He got out keys and opened a door. Light flooded out of the doorway as he entered.

There was a fairly Spartan living room. One bookcase held a few magazines. A worn easy chair was in the corner. He walked through to another doorway. Beyond that...her first thought was a movie set.

The walls were covered in black velvet. Track lights illuminated bright paintings here and there. The subjects looked to be Tarot cards. There was the Magician, the Chariot and... The Fool was twice as big as the other paintings.

A table with a long lace cloth held a deck of the cards, a Ouija board, and a hamster cage.

The carpet was thick red shag, and diamond-shaped mirrors dotted the wall.

A set of curtains hung around the door frame. He drew them and blocked off the room.

Electric sconces flickered in the corners.

"Black velvet and diamond mirrors, Chester? Can't decide between a whore house and-"

He slammed the cage down on the table. She was airborne for a moment, then crashed to the base of the cage.

"No mockery," he said in a calm voice. Then he opened the hamster cage lid. After that he opened the cage Denise was in.

She shot through the opening like a guided missile. Annie always said, she who hesitates gets stepped on. The table was a short sprint, then a leap to the Louis the XIVth chair (green velvet. How tacky, she thought.)

Denise took a moment to get her bearings. That gave her the chance to spot the Monster.

Under the table was a black cat. A huge beast with short fur, the malevolent eyes were pointed at her at the spot she landed. Before she even landed, it was looking at the spot she was going to be.

"Uh...."

The cat licked its lips. Slowly and carefully, never looking away from the sylph. She felt quite certain that it was doing it for the effect, as an act of intimidating will.

It worked. She stood still, coming off the balls of her feet to stand up straight. "I'd like to cooperate, please," she called.

The hand reached down to pick her up.

--------------

The cage had a gel bed, a flat floor and bird seed in the food bin. There was a hamster wheel attached to one of the doors. A vertical tube led up to a covered 'penthouse.'

She looked around then up at Chester.

"Naked," he said. Somehow that was worse than an order to undress. She hesitated.

He reached over and touched the cage. Against all logic, electricity sparked between his finger and the plastic.

She watched the tiny lightning bolt slither through the yellow tinted casing, then out onto the cardboard floor.

Denise yipped and tried to jump out of its way. It twisted to follow, zapping her foot. The pain was sharp, hurting her foot, ankle and shin.

He started lecturing when she started stripping. "Earth Mother made sylphs for a reason. But she's big and slow, Earth. Sediment forming rocks kind of slow."

There was a bottle of something on a small table. He poured a drink and sipped at it. "Fire, though. Fire's quick. Has to be. Find a god of fire, you'll find a god that won't wait thirty fucking years to see if people got his message."

He glanced down and found her half-nude. He touched the cage again. Denise started to protest and to yank at her skirt. But the energy bolt slid over to her shucked clothing.

It burst into fire. In seconds there was the tiniest scorch mark on the floor...and nothing else.

She got her skirt off and threw it as far away as she could manage.

"Some time after Gaia made the sylphs...the Wise Ones made contact with Brother Fire. He's taught us a lot." Two more taps, her skirt and her panties were gone.

She stood in the corner. He gestured and she stopped trying to cover herself.

"Niiiiiice," he said. "I always did think you'd look pretty good naked." After a moment of silence he tilted his head. "No smart assed remark? You're learning."

He tapped the cage, tossed off the last of his drink and started to stand.

"Hey! Chester!" she called. "What... What do you want from me?"

"Gold," he said simply. "I think you're the Sylphlosopher's Stone." He left, turning off the spotlights and electric flames as he opened the door.

Denise was alone in the dark. And just as she started to relax, the monster under the table mewed. She sank to the cardboard and shivered.

----------

She woke to clanking. Light shone into the room from the cracked door, then Chester was turning on the lamps.

He carried in a disposable barbeque. It was small, square and designed to rest on a picnic table.

She watched as he removed everything from the table except her cage, and he moved that to the side. He never spoke as he set up the fire pit.

There was another switch on the wall. No lights came on but some huge fan started to suck air. Denise's ears popped as the thing started to draw a vacuum.

He started a fire, watching the smoke rise quickly up into the exhaust. Satisfied that it was operating, he nodded and turned away.

She was alone again. Hungry and cold and naked and so very, very far from home.

She found a piece of millet that Pet had said was the yummiest and popped it into her mouth. Pet was a very convincing liar, she discovered.

Still, she had to eat something. She climbed into the hamster wheel and started running, trying to build up some body heat.

After that lost its appeal she tried leaning on the cage closest to the BBQ. It was noticeably warm, but not terribly warming.

"Well, shit," she swore. As soon as she spoke, the door opened. She imagined microphones and punishment and looked around wildly.

Chester just brought a cage much like the live trap in. It might even have been the live trap she'd been in. There were four sylphs standing in it.

They looked a little odd to Denise. They were women, but all had blue hair....all over. Their eyes were wide and their movements were...lazy? Like they were drugged. Had that bastard doped them? And dyed them?

"Say hello to Densie, everyone!" Chester said heartily. He walked out of the room as the four women all waved and said 'Hello to Denise.'

Their voices and their movements were in perfect synch. Denise backed away from the bars. After they spoke they all just froze like...like robots with no further instructions.

Chester came back inside with an odd metal globe. There was a chain attached to one side and it looked like it came apart.

He also had a plastic bag. It bulged with something but she couldn’t tell what.

He set the bag down and opened the globe. He showed it to her. It was about eight inches across, hollow inside. Without speaking, he reached into the bag and pulled out...garbage. Table scraps, wadded paper, plastic wrappers and a cigarette carton. Handful after handful was stuffed into the globe.

When it was well packed with trash, he reached into the other cage. With a hand still flecked with coffee grounds, he grabbed one of the sylphs. She didn't react.

"This is Silver," he said proudly. And he stuffed her into the globe. The lid was snapped in place and he swung it by the chain for a bit.

Denise watched. Then he moved the globe over the fire burning in the BBQ set. "This," he said, "is the neat part." He didn't do anything but the flames climbed up as if reaching for the globe.

"NO!" Denise screamed.

"Yes," he said calmly. And lowered the chain.

There was no screaming. Silver didn't scream, the sylphs in the cage didn't scream, Denise was shocked... There was no rocking. The globe just hung there, licked by the flames.

After a few moments there was one puff of steam jetted from the lid's flange.

"Done!" Chester said happily. He lowered the globe to the top of the cage. It was evidently cool to the touch or he had no feeling in his fingers. He simply removed the lid and poured the contents into his hand.

Silver slid out. She was unmarked, unchanged, and holding a shiny metal ball.

Chester plucked that from her grip and put it down by the side of Denise's cage. It was silver, of course, or at least as far as Denise could tell.

Silver was lowered into the cage. She looked sleepy and curled up on the floor of the cage and took a nap.

The others stood by as Chester packed the globe again. He demonstrated the abilities of Nickel, Copper and Copper Two. They converted matter to an element.

"These salamanders are the true elementals," he said at the end. The four were sleeping in their cage and the globes were resting in a row.

"Gaia opened up the door when she made sylphs. Surtur couldn't have made sylphs. But he could adapt sylphs." He played with the four balls, pushing them around with his fingertip. "Or, he could help his worshipers adapt sylphs."

"Where do the ghosts fit in?" she asked.

Chester laughed. "Silly girl. There's no such thing as ghosts."

So he didn't know everything, she thought. That had to be useful.

--------

Tony stood in the corner of Sam's office when Ray arrived. No one actually ordered Tony to stand by and protect Samantha and Amelia from any sudden rage on Ray's part.

But everyone knew how much he loved Denise. No one knew how he'd react to the news or any discussion. So when the front desk reported that his lift from the airport had pulled in, Tony walked into the office and stationed himself in the corner.

Samantha was about to order him back out when she realized why he was there. She nodded. "Just...don't hurt him, please?"

"HIM?" Amelia asked in mock surprise. "I thought he was here to protect us from PET."

There was a small laugh from her partner. Then there was a knock on the door.

Ray carried Pet and Annie in and slumped into a seat. He was unshaven, with deep bags under his eyes. Food from at least two different meals stained his shirt.

The sylphs looked nearly as bad as they hugged each other on Sam's desk.

He glanced at Tony. It took him about as long as it had taken Sam to figure out the security guard's presence. He snorted.

"I haven't slept in two days. I... I haven't got the energy to slap desks and make outrageous demands. But if it makes you feel any better, Sam..."

"No one is going to feel better until Denise is back, Ray," Sam replied. Amelia stepped over the blotter to hug both of the other sylphs. "We don't know too much about what happened."

"How did it happen?" Ray asked.

"Someone," Sam said, calling something up on her computer, "sat in the waiting room for Portion Control for 82 minutes. When he got a table, he sat and spoke to his waitress for about a minute. Then he got up and walked out."

"Chip?" Ray asked.

"The security system, the entire Sylph Center system, blinked just as he passed each scanner. And the outdoor cameras went offline as soon as he stepped through the door."

She nodded at the guard. "Security has been looking through the system for a cause but-"

"But you won't find it," Annie said. "This here's magical shit. I mean, more than likely."

"No one knows," Amelia said. "No one's seen anything like it."

"All we have," Sam said, "is this picture from the waiting room." She twisted her monitor towards her guests.

"Oh, no," Pet said softly. "No, no, no, no...."

----------

Denise was prodding at the doors of the cage when Chester came back. She hadn't seen the salamanders after his little demonstration.

He pulled the chair up opposite her cage and sat down. She watched as he pulled out a camera phone and took her picture.

"Want to know how to make a salamander?" he asked.

"Not particularly."

He smiled and took another picture.

"Want to know what salamanders can do?" he asked.

"If you feel like talking," she said. All the villains feel a need to explain. She wondered if that was what made them become villains? So they could make a captive audience?

"Well, you know the obvious bit. They can use fire to make matter into a specific element. Each salamander has one and only one element they can create.

"But they have their uses." He reached into a pocket and pulled out another little woman. Her hair was blue and her expression dazed.

"Who's she?" Denise asked.

"Francium," he said cheerfully. "A radioactive material that has a 22 minute half-life. Perfectly useless. No point in boiling her in garbage. Is there?"

"No point," Francium said.

"But...Surtur gives us some other uses for little salamanders like Francium here. See this?" He turned his phone around to show Denise a picture of herself standing in the cage. She glared at him.

"Well, let me try this again. Francium? I want you to keep the camera from taking her picture."

"Stop the camera," Francium said. Chester took the shot. Then he showed the display. She saw the table, the cage, the top of Francium's head. Where she had been standing was a grey area.

"She can also turn the whole camera off or make every computer in fifty feet reboot." He put the camera on the table and started to grope the little woman. She showed her first emotion then. She smiled as he pushed at her boob.

"Surtur figured no one else was claiming electricity as an element." He pushed the salamander over onto her back and rubbed her body intimately. She started to moan.

"And he decided that electricity is kind of like a form of fire. So he claimed dominion over the fires in wires, as it were." He laughed at his little word play.

Then he slid a presentation pointer out of a pocket. The end telescoped out. But attached to the long end was a small metal sculpture of a penis.

He stood up and poked it into Francium, diddling her from three feet away, with a dildo seven times as long as she was.

Denise thought he couldn't possibly have enough precision to be pleasing to her. The vibration she could see was more than her hands' width across.

But the little woman oohed and aahed and orgasmed and licked the penis clean when he put it by her mouth.

"Oh, Master, you do me so WELL!" she said enthusiastically. She limped a bit as she stood and Denise saw blood on her thigh.

"None of my girls have complaints," Chester said. He tapped the cage. She looked up at his face. "Soon, you won't either."



----------



The next day he brought in a sylph who looked normal. Well, she had auburn hair and a real expression. She was confused and terrified, rattling the bars of her cage as Chester carried her over to the table.

"This is... I'm sorry, what was your name, dear?" he asked.

"June," she said. "Who are you?" she asked Denise. "What's going on here? Why did he steal me from my home? Are we going to have sex?" She looked around the room. "It's decorated in hooker-"

Denise shook her head in warning but it was too late. Chester slammed the top of the cage. June fell to her knees and apologized for mocking.

"Anyway," he said, "I have high hopes for June, here. I won't go into the details too deeply, but I suspect she's going to produce something profitable."

"Produce?" June asked. "What's he talking about? Am I an art project?"

"I don't-" Denise started to say. Chester slammed the table between the two cages.

"NO FUCKING TALKING!" he thundered. They shut up.

He pulled a couple of phone books out of... Well, she really wasn't paying attention. They were there, he stacked them and put her cage on top of it. She could see down into the new disposable BBQ pit he'd brought in. He started a fire and sat down to wait for the coals go get good and hot.

About ten minutes after he lit them, he pulled a plastic bottle out of his pocket. It was full of baby oil. He slathered a handful over June, careful not to let her get away from him.

She whimpered a bit but didn't offer any resistance. He produced another bottle that resembled a doll's baby-bottle. The end of the plastic lid was sharp with a tiny hole.

"You can drink this or I can squirt it up your behind," he said. "All the same to me, as long as it's inside you."

"Drink," she said dully. He picked her up and squeezed it between her lips, then forced the fluid.

She slapped and sputtered but drank most of what he gave her. Then she coughed and wretched. "What was that?" she asked.

"Spanish Fly," he said.

"No such thing," she protested. He just smiled.

After a few minutes, June started to pace the cage, then to fidget then to jump up and down. By the time the coals were ready she was touching herself and demanding release.

"Perfect," Chester said. He brought out the penis probe and offered his palm to her.

"Oh, yeah," she said. "Yeah, yeah, yeah." She climbed into his hand and lay back, legs spread and hands beckoning.

He did her with the tool. He didn't stretch it out this time and his precision was a lot better. Her response was more believable.

His thumbs squeezed and caressed her breasts, his ersatz penis probed and stroked, his tongue touched at the knees every now and then.

June shrieked. At the moment of her orgasm he slid her off his hand and onto the grill. Flames danced all over her, kissing and licking and her hair burst into fire.

There was a bright flash and Denise turned away. When she looked back she found another salamander. Blue hair shook as she climbed to her feet and walked over the bars of the grill.

She was covered with some sort of flakes. Chester peeled some off as he put the new salamander into the cage. "Interesting," he said. The material melted in the palm of his hand. "Might be gallium." He poked at the puddle. "So," he said conversationally, "you're wondering why I haven't been sylphed by one of these sylphs turning into a gnome."

"I am," she admitted.

"Surtur protects us all. Or he does the veterans, anyway." And on that note he collected June's cage and stalked out of the room.



----------

Denise had no way of tracking time in the room. Even the light from the doorway was artificial, no way to see if the sun was up or not. She only knew that she'd been there long enough to have a favorite seed among those in the bin.

That's when Chester started to prepare her for her transformation. He brought in a throw pillow with lengths of twine attached to each corner.

He plucked her up out of the cage and held her down in the center of the pillow with one finger. Then he tied her spread-eagle with the twine.

She wasn't surprised when he started to stroke her with his pointer. The cold metal rubbed over her belly, hips, thighs. Every so often he bumped it into a breast.

"What are you doing to me?" she asked, trying to make it sound as if she was bored.

"Well, you have to come when I slip you into the fire or you just burn up," he said, just as conversationally. The strokes started to center around her center. "Usually I just pump a girl full of aphrodisiac and call it good."

She wasn't 'ready' in any respect. The prods at her dry lips didn't make her any more excited. It just hurt. He didn't seem surprised by her lack of response. She wasn't surprised that he didn't even pause.

"OW!" she cried. "Stop!"

"Like I said, that's our usual method." He thrust and she pulled against her restraints. "You... I've been thinking of you for a long time, Denise. I'd far rather...train you to the whip, as it were." The long slow strokes scraped across her insides. "You'll like it...eventually."

---------

Pet asked Amelia if she ever had trouble sleeping. Amelia shook her head. "I have trouble getting to my bed, but once I'm there, no, I go out like a light."

Pet slumped.

"Why?" Amelia asked.

"Well....we're all sleeping and trying to have those dreams where people tell us what we need to know so that we can go where Denise is and rescue her but either they don't know or something's blocking them and I was wondering if maybe we're just not sleeping deep enough, you know, to reach the ghost level or whatever it is and I was hoping some sleeping pills would.... Um, take me deep enough to talk to Daddy. Or Chuck. Either one would move Heaven or escape from Hell to save Denny but I don't think they're in Hell, it's just an expression."

She wound down as Amelia came out from behind her desk to pull Pet into a close hug.

The older sylph talked about the forces and resources Sam was putting into the search, by begging, borrowing, stealing or bribing. And the current administration was cooperating where they could and looking the other way where they shouldn't.

Pictures of the man drew a little interest and his ability to walk through security and turn off cameras at will made a lot of people interested in having a little talk with him.

So the hounds had slipped their leashes and there was no place on Earth Chester could hide for very long.

And... Pet looked up after a long silence. "What?"

"You're not...thinking of taking too many pills, are you, Pet?" Amelia took Pet's silence as an answer. "You're going to volunteer to go be a ghost so you can find Denise and help Annie go kick Chester's ass, huh?"

Pet started to cry. Amelia held her, calmly explaining the problems with that plan. Starting with how Ray and Annie would feel if they lost another wife. And how Denise would feel if she escaped and came back and found she'd missed her ittle Pet's funeral.

And they both cried for a while.



----------

Denise was curled up in her corner following another training session. It hurt to move and it hurt to breathe and it hurt to think about him coming back in to do this again.

She refused to believe the repeated torture would ever 'turn' her. He was just having fun because he was still pissed at her.

One day, he'd just dose her and be done with her 'silly resistance.' She wondered how she'd look with blue hair.

"Ahem."

She looked up. Outside the cage a large, dark man smiled down on her. No. No, he was leering, too. She sank back down.

"Ahem!" the voice repeated. There was a prodding against her foot. She looked around. A sylph was in the cage with her.

A tall, slender woman in dark tights glared down at her. She had platinum hair in a short, severe cut. She looked like a fashion runway drill sergeant. "Get up, bitch," she said.

"I can't stand," Denise said. "I've been-"

"You've been rogered by Chester, we know. They're all rogered by Chester. Get off your ass or I'll kick you right in the scabs." Denise glanced down to see the pointy toe of her boots. She rolled to her knees and tried to stand.

An iron grip took her upper arm and yanked her up. She stood and looked at the new woman.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"I want to be an alchemist," the woman replied, "but I came too late to the party."

"Sylphs can't be alchemists?"

"Sylphs can't make salamanders," she said. She turned to point towards the deck of Tarot cards on the table. As Denise followed the gestures, the woman whipped her arm around and slapped Denise's face.

She staggered against the side of the cage. "What? What? What do you people FUCKING WANT FROM ME?!?!"

"The day before you sylphed," Sergeant said, "My lover made three salamanders. I watched." She flexed her hands into and out of fists and walked slowly towards Denise. "I was finally ready to graduate. I prepared the sylphs. I prepared my brazier. I prepared my magic dildo and-"

She paused as Denise burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, I can't help it... Magic Dildo."

"I'm quite serious, Mrs. Foster."

"I know, I know. My nose is bleeding and I have a loose tooth. You're serious." She bent to take deep breaths. "But you're serious...about a ..." She dropped her voice. "Magic Dildo."

"Gaia uses love for her magic," Sergeant said. "Surtur uses sex. It's much faster. The phallic power has long been recognized as-"

"Tinkerbell!" Denise shouted. "I need my happy thoughts to fly. FETCH THE MAGIC DILDO!"

Sergeant whaled on her. Over and over, dragging her across the floor and beating her face, belly, arms and breasts.

Denise couldn't stop laughing. The pain was excruciating, but the very sight of Sergeant's face made her think. She saw Gandalf telling the Balrog he wouldn't pass because...of the Magic Dildo.

It was what Gollum called his Precious. And throwing it into Mount Doom became a scene from giantess porn.

Agent Bristow used the clues from a long-dead philosopher to find the Magic Dildo before the agents of SD6 could.

Conan was a little leery to use it in battle but Valeria was adept at-

Over and over, Sergeant could not get her little speech made, she couldn't get her victim to take her seriously.

Denise bled and cried and laughed and laughed. And she heard Chester swearing about damaged goods. And she imagined Chester dressing the Magic Dildo in the teddy bear's suit.

Then she went to sleep. And dreamed of the sorcerer's apprentice, smashing the dildo and making an army...

Two state borders away, Ray twisted in his sleep. The other two spilled around a bit on his pillow. No one had wanted to sleep alone since they'd gotten together again.

"Those are funny looking brooms," Ray mumbled, still mostly asleep.

"They're dildos," Annie replied, just as asleep.

"MAGIC dildos," Pet corrected.

"Ah!" the other two agreed. They went back to sleep.



----------

Denise woke up without pain. It was a novel experience for her at the time. She stretched and nothing complained. She stood and looked around. The cage was still in the same room but the table had bandaids and ointment and Bacitracin and other first-aid supplies.

She looked all over but couldn’t find any bruises or scratches or scabs. She'd been out long enough for everything to heal. That took a while.

They must have given her up for dead by now, she thought. Then, clear as day, Pet was standing in the cage beside her. "No, Denise, we've given you up for Lost. But no one's stopped looking. No one."

Just as Denise reached out to the apparition she was gone. Was she seeing things? She waved a hand through the air. She thought she caught a hint of Pet's shampoo. Well if she was going to hallucinate, that beat the hell out of some alternatives.

"Up?" Chester asked. He came across the floor and sat down by the table. There was a bowl of hot water steaming on a tray. And a towel.

"What happened? How long was I out?"

"A few days," he said. "I figured you'd rather sleep through the healing process. So I made you a draught." He opened the cage and sat back. "Would you like a bath?"

She nodded and stepped out of the cage. She still moved gingerly, half expecting old pains to spring into life.

The water was a little hot so she just stood by the bowl and washed herself off with handfuls at a time. Chester watched her closely, licking his lips from time to time. At this point, though, she couldn't have cared a whole lot less.

"What was with that psycho?" she finally asked. She giggled a bit at the memory.

"Suzette? Suzette blames you for her situation."

"She thinks I sylphed her?" She giggled again. "If I had that sort of power, Chester, you'd be inside your own shoe right now."

"Kinda sorta your fault, Denise. Suzette was in training to make salamanders. It's a tradition we've grown since The Day. Find sylphs, make salamanders, then make elements."

"Is there money in little nickel medallions?" she asked.

"We're looking for the sylph that makes Gold," he said softly.

"Oh, yeah. You mentioned that. You think I'm the Philosopher's stone. The tool used to make base elements into gold, if I remember right."

He nodded. "Yes. Thing is, the day before you sylphed, there was no problem in our search. The day after you sylphed, oh, don't look so shocked, we know things. Anyway, that day, the act of making a salamander stopped working."

"Aha!" Denise said. "So, Gaia is more powerful than Sir Turd!" He seemed to miss her mocking pun on Surtur's name. He didn't slam the table anyway.

She was clean, but she kept dipping up water. Whatever was going to happen after the bath, she wanted to put it off for a while.

"Oh, we've always known that. Surtur's advantage is in speed. Anyway, on that day, anyone who had made a salamander was unchanged, but initiates couldn't.

"But Suzette didn't stop. She kept trying and trying. Didn't care how many sylphs got second or third degree burns."

Denise shuddered. He smiled.

"And then, the day your friends invented gnomes... That's when Suzette tried it for the last time."

He picked up a fluffy washcloth and wrapped it around Denise. He pawed at her through the cloth and then put her in the cage, mostly dried off.

"Something you did...it changed everything. It woke up Gaea, it made her protect you sylphs, it made her block Surtur... A bit, anyway.

"Your change was special. I hope that means you're special. I really hope that means you're going to be named Gold tomorrow."

She gasped. "Training's over, Denise. You're mine. And you're going to become mine in every way...."



----------

Blaster and Special Agent Genevieve Stone were walking back and forth behind the shooting line. Ray and Annie and Pet were trying to hit the Chester-painted targets with their pistols.

Gene kept having to help Pet center her sights. Pet finally put her gun down. "Where's Daddy? Can't Daddy help me learn to shoot?"

"He's looking for Denise, Pet," Gene said. "All you guys' ghosts are looking for Denise. But something's blocking them."

"We're here," Blaster said, "to try to make sure you guys are ready for whatever you may be called to do."

"Okay," Pet said sadly. She took a deep breath and lifted the pistol again.

"Wait," Annie said from her shooting station on Pet's right. "Wait, wait, wait. This is a dream?" She put down her pistol and lifted an M41A1 Pulse Rifle. "Fires ten millimeter explosive tipped caseless light armor piercing rounds," she said and sprayed the range.

Gene shook her head but Blaster nodded approvingly. Ray kept plugging away with his nine millimeter pistol.

"You should try this, Ray!" Annie shouted over the sound of the target being disintegrated.

"Maybe later," he said. "But I have a chance of getting a nine mil."

"Good point," Annie said. She looked down at her rifle. "I will name it 'nothing.' Because when the chips are down, nothing can save you."

"She's ready," Blaster said. "But I'm afraid that...."

"What?" Gene asked when he paused.

"Where's Pet?"

Everyone looked around the shooting gallery. There were no doors, no places to hide...and no Pet.

Then there was the sound of a door opening. Pet walked in and up to her station.

"Where did you go?" Gene asked.

"Oh, Denny was starting to give up. I told her we're going to find her. That we haven't stopped looking."

This time it was Blaster that shook his head. "That's not possible, Pet, if we can't find her...."

"Actually," Gene said, putting a hand on Pet's shoulder. "If there's anyone in the universe that can reach Denise right now, my money's on Pet."

"Yeah," Annie said. Ray just took his wife into a hug. Pet fought back a sob. Annie joined the hug. Blaster and Gene looked around the room, anywhere but the unhappy trio.

"Well?" Annie asked. She and Ray had arms out. The ghosts stepped into the hug.

"This," Gene finally said, "may be more important than gun practice."

"You're a lean, mean, Denise finding machine," Blaster said. "You guys go out and save her. Save everyone."

"Everyone?" Ray asked. But when he looked, he was laying in his bed in the apartment at the Center. Annie and Pet were clamped to his throat and hugging tight.

"Of course..." Ray said softly. "Of fucking course." He rolled to stand up. The others complained. "Wake up. We gotta find Denise."

If Chester or his protector, or some partner in crime, was able to alter cameras, then there was no trail of his vehicle traveling over the streets.

But if they could detect that interference...if there was a gray area traveling around through roadside cameras....

----------

She was getting a bit blurry. There was something she was supposed to remember but Chester's touch kept driving it away. Don't let.... Damn.

She stretched her limbs and felt the heat coming off of him. Off of his hand, into her body, into her sex, the pulsing of his little phallic extension.

He loved her and wanted her to be happy and she wanted to please him. If nothing else, she wanted him to want to churn that sculpture in and out of her.

She was warm. She was hot. She was deeply in need of puking on Chester's face.

Oh! That was it! Deny Chester. Avoid Chester. Don't give Chester... Okay. She would hate him. Her lips curled and she tried to snarl. She'd tell him she hated him...right after she got release.

"Something's wrong," Suzette said. "She's fighting you."

"You wanna do this?" Chester snapped.

"She can't," Toby said. Toby. Toby was Sergeant Suzette's commander. She hated him. But she couldn't hate Suzette. Silly Suzette of the magic phallic fake.

She started to laugh again. Toby lifted Suzette to Chester's palm. She started stroking Denise, making her happy, making her come.

"You need your athame," Denise giggled. "Your manhood-shaped athame. Thame on you, you dirty, dirty girl."

Suzette snarled and made a fist to punch Denise. "LATER!" Chester snarled. "Do whatever you want to her AFTER she becomes a salamander!"

"Oh, hit me, baby, one more time," Denise crooned. Just don't stop touching me. Oh. Oh.

------

Ray had only been able to narrow the search to a five block area of a Raleigh suburb. He'd offered the information to the FBI who promised to evaluate it.

And when they didn't dispatch four HRU's to the city on his tenuous word, he jumped in his car and drove.

Pet and Annie both perked up as he came off the freeway. "Take a right at the light," Annie said.

"Are you getting a message?" Ray asked as he complied.

"I smell her shampoo," Pet said. Ray nodded. There was no chance that Chester had sought out Denise's brand. But whatever information Pet was getting, whatever bond told her where Denise was, she interpreted it as a smell.

Maybe.

But it beat the hell out of wandering the streets hoping against all reason. He followed orders from one or the other sylph and drove along unfamiliar streets.

"HERE!" Annie and Pet both shouted at the same moment. Ray slowed. It was a normal-enough looking suburban house. Two cars were in the driveway. One sedan had local plates, one pickup was from South Carolina.

And the third car in the two-car driveway looked like Denise's. The car that was locked in their garage in Jacksonville.

He stopped and backed up. Then he took a deep breath. "Shall we see if the front door's locked?" He hit the gas.



----------

There was noise, there was screaming and there was a crunching sound. A biiiiiiiig crunching sound that sounded just like Annie did when she... Or when Ray was busy.... Pet? Had Pet ever made a noise like that?

Denise couldn't remember exactly when either of her wives or her husband made a crashy crunchy metallic smashy noise like that, but she knew it sounded JUST like them.

Chester dropped the sylphs to the table. She had a brief image of the two men moving to fight Ray, but he had a baseball bat. Annie had told her about Ray and baseball bats.

Suckers didn't know what they were up against. And they just had long knives. Kinky long knives like an athame.

"Thame, thame, thame," she said. Then a fist was wrapping itself in her hair. Something cold touched her throat.

And Suzette snarled. "Back off or I kill her."

"Then I'll kill you," Annie snarled. She spun something long and metallic. How did Annie get on the table? Where was the cat? The Monster Cat?

"Denny?" Pet called. But she didn't sound afraid. That was cool. Denny wasn't afraid. Annie and Pet weren't afraid. Suzette acted pretty desperate.

The men's fight went on pretty well. Something cracked and they swore and they staggered across the room and knocked the table to one side.

Suzette lost her grip on Denise. Quick as a wink, Annie short forward and pushed the bitch back. Pet grabbed Denise and pulled her away from the fight. Denny lay against her legs and watched the other two.

Suzette waved one of those silly knives. "I forged this on the full moon of my birth month, quenched it in the blood of seven virgin sylphs!"

Annie watched her wave for a while then feinted, poked and stabbed the bitch through the heart. "I pulled this outta my old carrier's door hinge."

Suzette dropped to the table and her knife bounced over the edge. That's when the cat leapt up onto the chair and put his paws on the table.

Annie looked up at him and snarled. "Come on if you've got a pair, pussy."

Denise fell to the table as Pet ran to help Annie.

She couldn't see much until Chester staggered into view over her head. He was bleeding from a few places and missing three teeth. Denise hadn't seen anything that made her so happy in a long, long time.

"One chance," he said. He snatched her up into his grip and licked her. The tongue swirled and guided both of her legs into his mouth. He sucked on her, tongue working furiously at her legs, pussy, ass.

Happy as she was to see his condition, it was the sound of Toby begging for mercy that set her off. She started to arch her back, to moan. She grabbed Chester's nose and called his name.

"Please!" she begged.

"Put her down!" someone shouted.

He spat her into the fire. Flames, oh they curled around her and licked at her and fired her center. She saw the universe as a blueprint. She blinked and the blueprint had a hypertext link to the periodic chart.

Wow. It was a lot bigger than she remembered. There was one spot, though... It shone. It sparkled. It grew bigger and bigger and it was happy to see her.

It was hers and hers alone.

She reached out and touched it. It enfolded her, like a lover that knew her every reach, her every surface and nerve and want and need.

Hugging it to her, she withdrew from that vantage point. To find Ray.

He reached into the fire to pull her out, horror on his face. But she was fine. She felt fine. There was some metal powder on her skin but it was flaking and falling off.

Then there was Pet and Annie. They had some scratches but they were okay.

They walked over to her. They hugged her and looked in her eyes. Annie pulled her hair with a look of surprise. "Denny?" Pet called. "Denny, say something." "Something," Denise said obediently. Then she stood there, waiting for further instructions. "Denny?" Pet called again in increasing alarm.



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