Blowing off steam!

Stepping inside the bar where rock and roll music could be heard overhead from stereos, the trio looked around to find several men around tables or at the bar front drinking. Card games were being played at the back where a few women sat in the laps of some of the players. The entire lot had stopped what they were doing to eye the newcomers with a distrustful gaze. Susan Von Doom even noticed a few smirks with amusement at her and the other’s appearance and attire while others slowly lowered their hands to inside their jackets where she spotted hidden weapons. The place looked unkempt to put it mildly, almost no care was made to keep it clean or presentable. But then again there was no doubt ‘new’ patrons had not entered the bar until the three just did now. Eyeing the bar from within, Susan Von Doom scrunched her nose in disgust, not only of the smell but of those taking up the seats and bar stools around her, leering at her body and smiling with dirty teeth.

“hey der hot stuff, wanna lil of dis?”

“Hmm… Different reality, same outcome…” She mused.

“What was that your highness?” Hissed Malice, looking over her shoulder to the green cloaked woman, equally disgusted by the seedy appearance of the place but helpless to act out in rage or indignation.

“The reason my former ‘beloved’ reduced this rat’s den to cinders was because it was the front for a local criminal organization.” Explained Doom, tracing a metal finger across the surface of a nearby table and being sullied in the act when it came back covered in dust and grime. “Foolish too, since they tried and failed to rob our palace for goods and trinkets, if this place wasn’t obliterated for the dimwits inside than certainly for the risk of hygiene to the rest of the populace.”

“Hey! Who the fuck let you three in here? Where the fuck is Bosco?” Barked out the man at the far back of the bar, shoving off the woman in his lap to glare at the three women at the door.

“Bosco?” Wondered Von Doom with a raised eyebrow, her arms folded in front of her as her attention shifted back to the vampire.

Looking over her shoulder with a smirk and a knowing look, the pale skinned vampire woman nodded her head back to the bouncer outside, the man still staring off into the distance transfixed under her enchantment. Turning her attention back to the man as the rest of his entourage got up from their seats, the woman raised her hands innocently and stepped forward.

“Your bouncer and local muscle was kind enough to let us in for a bit of… Amusement, I hope you do not mind entertaining us while we are here.”

Hearing laughter from the men and even some of the women there, the man sat back down and pulled the woman previously on his lap back to sit and waved his arm out. “You want fun? Fine! Looks like its ladies night boys, hope you girls don’t have next of kin.”

Leaning into Von Doom’s ear, Malice had a sneer of barely contained rage as she hissed out a whisper. “You were right about their incompetence, tell me then you undead thing, why are we even here?”

“To test a hypothesis…” Moving over to the jukebox nearby, she traced a sharp fingernail over the glass and narrowed her eyes over its inner workings. The shadows inside its neon glowing interior suddenly coming alive from within, fluid and shifting, they moved with the twitch and bend of her fingers like a puppet and puppeteer to pluck a small vinyl record out of its holster to replace the one being played under the needle and change the music.

“Hey! You got a Deathwish bitch? Put the music back!”

Ignoring the man and stepping back from the jukebox, the undead Susan Storm closed her eyes and smiled, swaying as violin music began to play. Raising her arms over her head and spinning on her toes with the same grace as a ballerina, her flowing black and red gown was matched by her long snow-white hair. Her gestures and poise were hypnotic to those still sober, but unappreciated by the boss and his crew at the back. Ending her dance and sauntering up to the bar and resting her hands over its smooth wooden surface, the vampire leaned forward and gave an open view of her cleavage to the bartender, tenderly biting her lower lip in an inviting and luscious gleam of her red eyes. Just like the bouncer outside, the man suddenly became focussed on her burning red eyes, completely swept into their depths and finding himself shaking his head to clear it.

“So… Uhm… What can I getchou, a drink?” The man asked, chuckling to himself at the sight of the almost albino beauty and over her shoulder to the leather clad dominatrix and the green robed armored woman behind her. Eyeing the man up and down, the vampiric Invisible Woman smiled more impishly before tilting her head in a coy gesture.

“You.”

Blinking back in confusion, the bartender looked to the others for a second before turning his attention back to the woman in front of him, not getting the reply.

“What?”

Grabbing him by his shoulders with enough ferocity that her fingernails dug deep through his shirt and drew blood from his skin, the man cried out when he was pulled off his feet and over the bar table where Susan sunk her fangs into his neck and drank deep of his lifeblood. By then, the entire bar had fallen into pandemonium at the sight of the pale woman gnawing on the man’s throat and ceasing his gargling screams to silent twitching, overpowering any attempts he made to break free only for his blood to be completely drained and his pale corpse tossed to the ground where the vampire stood up to her full height with a look of ecstasy visible on her panting face, wiping traces of blood from her lip and feeling up and down her face and neck as her eyes fluttered from the sensation of slaking her thirst at last.

“Exquisite…”

Everyone else had pried free weapons from holsters and behind their backs to aim at the vampiric creature in front of them, barking and yelling demands for answers. All rightfully ignored by the three women present who had far more pressing matters occupying their attention.

“HAVE YOU GONE MAD?!”

“FOOL! YOU’LL ALERT HER TO US!”

Breathing hard and turning to the other scared women behind her, the vampire smiled a toothy grin and giggled with elation as her eyes darted around the bar, still ignoring the armed men behind her as they yelled and threatened. Gunfire filled the bar with muzzle flashes only for specks of hot lead to stop mere inches away from the woman, floating in mid air as if caught by some shadowy ****. Reloading, everyone went silent when the pale woman began to laugh, bringing the back of her hand to cover her fanged lips as her cold and lilting laughter grew in intensity, stretching her arms out, she spun around dancing to the music that continued to play from the jukebox near her.

“YES… It’s been too long since I’ve tasted fresh living blood… I feared I would have withered away staying in that chicken shack of a room any longer.”

“Mutie Freak! You better fucking get out of my fucking bar or so help me I am going to…”

Raising her hand as if to silence him, the vampiric Susan traced a finger through her platinum hair to clear it away from her smiling features, wiping what little trace of blood there was left on her thumb and fingers and swooning from the taste. Looking around, her eyes darted all across the bar, as if she were looking for something, and when she did not, her smile grew.

“She doesn’t see us out here…”

“DON’T IGNORE ME YOU FUCKING…”

Turning her hand and making a gesture like she was crushing something in her hand, the lights all around the bar grew dark, draining of life and light while everyone present gasped and coughed for air as if an inhumanly strong grip strangled them on the spot. Her laughter returned, crueller than before as she turned her attention back to Malice and Lady Doom.

“She doesn’t see us out here among the rabble… Either we are beyond her gaze, or perhaps… Because of priorities… THEY are not her concern.”

Looking back at each other, the other two women began to realise that nothing was happening. They were still here and not reduced to dust like the other Susan days before them. Realising this, their smiles grew just as dark as the vampire in front of them.

“Do you know what this means sister?”

“Yes…”

Raising her own hand towards the ringleader at the back, Malice’s smile became almost manic as she used her powers over the man and pulled him towards her with invisible shackles of solid light binding his arms, legs, and neck. His gasps of suffocation changing to cries of agony when he felt spikes and needle-thin quills burrow into his skin where his unseen shackles bound him like some invisible iron maiden. Staring into his frightened eyes and feasting on the look of terror and pain he exuded, Malice purred with delight.

“It means I get to play, at long last.”

Pointing at the man’s forehead, an invisible scalpel carved at his brow, causing him to scream out louder as blood trickled down his nose, what threats and bravado he had minutes ago giving way to screams and a puddle of ichor growing under his shoes. Enjoying the scene, the vampire turned her attention back to the group of mobsters and hyperventilated with excitement before lunging for another victim, pouncing on one of the women at the back of the bar and sinking her teeth into her throat while the others were helpless to watch and cry out in horror. Impressed with the other two indulging themselves, the Latverian Queen shook her head and scoffed.

“Honestly sisters, you are both FAR too messy for my liking.”

Lady Doom then approached one of the flailing, screaming men being held up in the air, her iron mask clasping around her skull and enveloped her face in a ****-mask of steel. Her gauntlets began to glow with energy, her body levitating off the ground just before an intense light filled the bar and lightning spilled from her open palms to cause bottles and glasses to burst and ignite behind the bar and on top of the tables around her.

“Deaths to the unworthy must set an example to the peasantry, otherwise you might end up with reprisal… And who has the tolerance for that?”

*

Standing outside the locked doors to the Two-Leaf Clover bar, unmoving, unthinking, and unwavering, Bosco was unfazed by the screams and noise behind him. Flashes of lightning and fire blazed behind him from inside the bar where the silhouettes of shadows and blurs could be made out with every lightning flash or explosion. Screams and cruel laughter could be heard almost across the street as the windows lit up with fires and flashes, the shadows of some terrible massacre playing out inside and left unseen thanks to the tinted windows.

One of the men managed to reach for the door, scrambling to unlock it and pound his fist against the heavy glass to scream at Bosco’s back before the vampire lunged for him from behind, sinking her teeth into his neck and prying him off the door before he could ever open it. Minutes went by until everything went quiet, even the music. Eventually the latch to the door clicked, and the three Susans stepped out of the bar with mirth after the little exercise inside. Still looking around them for any action from the cosmic being back at the Baxtor building, the three women did not know why they were left untouched, but now they found there was a blind spot to the entity’s gaze. And that blind spot gave them ideas.

“So… We are not so helpless in this universe after all.”

“Indeed sister, perhaps she is not as omnipotent as she let off, hmm?”

“I want her DEAD. All that power WASTED by being idle.”

“I whole heartedly agree, if only there was a way of neutralizing her powers.”

“Doing so would shift the flow of power within that dung heap, and we can return to our home realities.”

“Or perhaps…” Tapping her lip in thought, Von Doom looked up at the Baxtor building off in the distance, plans already forming in her mind when she turned her attention back to Malice and the vampire. “I’ve always prided myself at being a Queen, but to have access to infinite realities and infinite kingdoms? That is an empire! And I rather like the title of Empress.”

“I like the way you think sister.”

“Infinite worlds in the palm of my hand…”

“OUR hands! Once that fool Reed manages to correct his mistakes with the portal device.”

“And when he does, we shall strike, and all the treasures of reality will be ours.”

“Uh…” Snapping their attention back at the bouncer standing in front of the empty bar, still staring off vacantly, the trio of Susans giggled as they almost forgot about the man during the entire affair in the bar.

“I had almost forgotten about him, still in a thirsty mood sister?”

“No… Besides, I have fed off enough fools already, I don’t want to catch his idiocy.”

Circling and surrounding him, they thought about his fate until Susan Von Doom plucked a small device from her belt and pressed a dimple located on its top, the device now blinking with a beeping sound that increased in urgency. Handing it over to the vampiric Susan, the woman pulled Bosco’s chin down to have him stare back into her smouldering red eyes.

“Bosco… You look cold, you should step inside and warm yourself up.”

Slipping the device into the breast pocket of his jacket without much reaction from the man save for him nodding sluggishly, the bouncer agreed and slowly turned to enter the bar. “I should get warm, feelin chilly tonight.”

Blowing him a kiss, the vampire joined her other compatriots after they already left, and they began their trek back to the Baxtor building. It did not take long for the explosion to go off, enveloping the bar in a plume of intense blue flames that consumed everything and already caused the floor to collapse as roof collapsed under its bearings like a house of flaming cards. By the time the fire brigade arrived to try and put out the flames, all there was left was dark smoke and cruel laughter in the distance.