ALICE Ch 397

“Just hold on,” Val says.

Erica sits in the armchair, naked below the waist, with a very inviting erection and an indignant expression. Val straightens her underwear and pads to the door, where she sticks her head into the hallway. Frowning, she looks in either direction, then ventures out. The stairwell is right there. She sticks her head in and pauses, seeing blood on the floor. She frowns, then looks up at the sound of rapid footfalls.

“Alice?” she says as a tall, thin figure in a cute robe comes flying down the stairs. “What’s wrong?”

“Faye’s in trouble!” Alice blows past and keeps going down.

Val hesitates, but only for a moment. It looks like it’s time for a little Gurlberg Cowgurls solidarity. She wonders if there’s time to put some shorts on. Doesn’t look like it. She hurries after Alice.

FF1

Irina appears curious as an amazon leans to whisper to her. Irina replies in Russian. She blinks several times and fixes her gaze on Aki. “You came here without a real gun?”

“We were just leaving,” Aki replies.

“I think not,” Irina says, signaling to her amazons, who start forward.

“Go,” Aki says to the women behind her as she tosses the gun, then pulls off her jacket and throws it aside.

“Wait. Irina, wait,” Glynda begins as Ingrid and Julieta make for the door, but she’s cut off by Lotte, who does not follow them.

The blonde pops her knuckles menacingly. “I don’t need a gun if my hands are free,” she says, taking her place beside Aki.

Everyone pauses as, instead of leaving, Julieta and Ingrid back nervously into the hotel room, then flinch. The door bangs open, and a bloody amazon crashes to the floor.

The nearest amazon lunges forward only to be struck in the face with a bright red fire extinguisher. Adella hits her twice more, then grabs her by the hair and bounces the amazon’s face off her knee.

Adella has obviously taken a fierce beating, but both amazons at her feet are out cold.

“Shit, babe,” Riley says, wide-eyed.

FF1

Alice tears through the crowded lobby and out into the kaleidoscopic madness that is the event on the front steps. Glitter flies, bright lights shine, headlights blind, and people teem, admiring VR demos, anime stuff, and an antique display car. People in costumes dance, and it’s so visually noisy that she can’t make sense of it.

But a black SUV is coming around the curve from the garage, and that’s… Mio behind the wheel.

“Son of a bitch,” Alice mutters.

Mio has to slow down as the people blocking her way are cleared. She glances over, and their eyes meet. Alice clenches her fist and starts forward. Mio responds by revving her engine; that gets people out of her way, and she pulls onto the street and accelerates.

“Move it!” Alice roars, shouldering through the crowd and knocking an older, nerdy-looking Japanese guy in glasses out of the way. She slides behind the wheel of the black and white Toyota on the steps and jerks the door shut, buckling her seatbelt and slamming the shifter onto D. She’s never been in a car this old, and she doesn’t care why these nerds think it’s cool; she just needs it to go, and it does.

The car shoots forward with a howl. People dive out of the way as she rips through velvet handrails and thumps down the steps, spinning the wheel to slide sideways into the street.