Ms Patriot: Monster Mayhem (Chapter 5) (Patreon)

Ms Patriot: Monster Mayhem

Chapter 5

“I can’t believe Wicked Wanda got away again! I swear, I’ll arrest that witch if it’s the last thing I do!”

Ms Patriot was starting to feel herself again after Justice Girl helped to clean the orc spunk off her. Her face burned when she remembered what went down with the orcs.

“I think they dosed me with Bliss,” Ms Patriot said. “Though, I don’t recall smelling roses.”

“Roses? Bliss?” Justice Girl asked. “What are you talking about?”

“You know, Bliss. The super-powered aphrodisiac.”

Justice Girl just stared at her a long second.

“I don’t know. Never heard of it,” the blonde said. “Where are we again?”

“Grimme City,” she said. “On the east coast. You’re from the west coast, right?”

“Yes. Ocean City,” Justice Girl said. “I’ve never heard of Grimme City.” She looked around. “It looks pretty big, too.”

“Second only to New York City on the east coast,” Ms Patriot said. “And I’ve never heard of Ocean City. Is it very large?”

“Not as big as Grimme City, but it is the sixth largest city in the US, and second largest in California.”

“Huh, that’s weird that neither of us has heard of the other’s hometown,” the raven-maned beauty said. Then her baby blues widened. “Oh no. Do you think?”

“Think what?”

“Wicked Wanda cast a spell to pull monsters out of other dimensions, other worlds…” Ms Patriot said, eyes unfocused as she considered the ramifications. “Could you be from an alternate Earth?”

“Oh! You think?”

Ms Patriot shrugged uncomfortably. “That seems to be the best explanation. We’ll do our research, though. I’ll do my best to help you get home, but I have a very bad feeling that only Wicked Wanda will be able to send you back.”

Justice Girl considered that a moment. Ms Patriot watched, feeling guilty because the witch accidently pulled the other heroine in her world to fight her. If she hadn’t pressed the fight so hard, maybe Justice Girl would’ve never been snatched away.

“Can you at least tell me how to contact the local Sisterhood?”

The raven-haired beauty paused. “Sisterhood? Like a sorority? There are a lot of sororities at the local universities.”

“No. Well, it is a sorority of sorts, but for Alpha Meta women,” she said. “I meant to say the Sisterhood of Alpha Meta Super Heroines. I’m an Alpha Meta and an Electric Power, as I’m sure you noticed.”

“I’ve never heard of any such sorority, or any super heroine organization for that matter,” Ms Patriot said.

“None? What about the FEM Fighters?” she asked. Justice Girl indicated Ms Patriot’s power belt. “That is obviously a FEM Belt, which makes you a FEM Fighter.”

“You’re speaking Greek,” Ms Patriot said. “This is my power belt, my Object of Power, that taps the Otherworld to give me super powers. I’ve never heard of this Sisterhood, Alpha Metas, or FEM Fighters. I’m more convinced than ever that you come from an alternate Earth.”

“Oh crap. Shitshitshit!” Justice Girl cried, starting to feel queasy. “This is a nightmare! Magic isn’t real, but…but… Here I am.”

Ms Patriot watched the blonde heroine start pacing. She felt so helpless. Her job as a heroine was to help people, and she found herself stumped for a satisfactory resolution. Capturing Wicked Wanda had proven impossible so far, and if they could manage that feat, how could they force the witch to send Justice Girl back?

Hell, Wicked Wanda could send her to the orc world, or worse, and I wouldn’t know it, Ms Patriot thought. From the look on the other heroine’s face, she’d come to the same conclusion.

“I’m fucked. Royally and thoroughly fucked,” Justice Girl said, looking so sad. “I can’t go home, so I have no home. Nowhere to go. No friends. No family. Nothing.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you as much as I can,” Ms Patriot said. “You can stay with me until we can get you a place.”

“And a job.”

“What did you do back home?”

“I was a writer. Fiction,” she said. “Kind of successful at it, too.”

“Great! We have writers here,” the black-haired beauty said. “You can continue writing for a living here.”

Justice Girl stared at her a long moment. “It’s not that easy. It takes time to write a book, then publish, and then start getting sales. It could take many books before I catch fire, or I might not click with this world’s readers. Writing is a crapshoot.”

“We’ll find something for you to do,” Ms Patriot said. “In the meantime, I guess I should take you home. You’ll have to swear on your honor to never reveal my secret identity.”

“I swear I won’t, but you’ll know mine as well.”

“True. We’ll both be careful,” Ms Patriot said, turning on a heel. “Come. My Patriot Mobile is this way.”

“Great,” Justice Girl muttered, sounding dejected. “But it’s still early. Can’t we go look for Wicked Wanda?”

“And do what?” Ms Patriot asked. “I’ve been trying to capture her for seven years. Wicked Wanda is uber powerful, and even slipperier to catch. I think we need a plan, because catching her will be easier than forcing her to send you home. If she even can.”

“Wow. I feel so much better,” Justice Girl groused. “My life just gets better and better.”

“Hey, at least your super powers work in this world,” Ms Patriot said. “And no one here has seen anything like you before. You could devastate the underworld.”

“I’d rather struggle in my own world,” she said. “But thanks. If I’m stuck here, then I do want to make a positive difference in this world.”

“Of course you do. You are a super heroine,” she said. “You’re good people.”

The Patriot Mobile waited hidden in a nearby alley. Ms Patriot tingled with pride when the other heroine looked it over with wide eyes. Justice Girl ran a red-gloved hand over the red, white, and blue, stars and stripes Ferrari.

“This is worth a small fortune in my world.”

“In this one, too,” she said. “But I needed something sleek and fast, and something that impressed the bad guys.”

“Yeah. This definitely impresses everyone.” Justice Girl cut her a wary look. “How rich are you?”

“Very,” she said. “Get in. I’ll take you home with me.”

“Wow, I can’t believe I’m falling for that lame pick up line,” Justice Girl said, slipping into the passenger seat. “My mother would be so disappointed.”

Ms Patriot chuckled and grinned. “If you think this is impressive, wait until I show you the Patriot Cave.”

“The what?”

Ms Patriot wagged her brows and started the car. They roared out of that dark alley, speeding through the deserted streets of the city. The heroine took a circuitous route home to ensure no bad guys followed her. Advanced electronics also ensured no one followed her.

Soon, she pulled off the highway heading north, and into a very rural setting. Justice Girl looked around, but couldn’t see much in the dark. Ms Patriot sped up on those back roads, and then suddenly turned down a dirt road. The gate opened in an instant, before she roared up to a steep hillside. She grinned when Justice Girl braced herself for impact, and the secret door opened to admit the car.

“You could’ve warned me.”

“It wouldn't have been as much fun,” Ms Patriot said.

“Yeah. Fun. Right.”

Ms Patriot accelerated through the tunnel. It was a long passage, too. But she slowed when the markings on the wall indicated the Patriot Cave was close. The heroine drove into that underground headquarters and parked on a carousel. Justice Girl sat there, mouth open, staring at all the wonders.

“Oh. My. God,” Justice Girl whispered. “Do you live here?”

“No. I live in the house above,” she said. “This is an old cave system under the house that my ancestors worked on to create the ultimate smugglers’ tunnel.”

“Smugglers?”

Ms Patriot grimaced. “One of my ancestors was a criminal. A big smuggler during Prohibition. He transformed the family from wealthy gentleman farmers into a very rich high society family.” She indicated the bank of computers and monitors. “I transformed this cave into my super heroine lair. My headquarters, my Patriot Cave if you will.”

They got out of the car. Ms Patriot led her guest over to a computer station. She sat and crossed her long, thigh-booted legs. Pulling up a database, she paused to look up at Justice Girl. She bit her lip, sighed, and stood up.

“Watch this. More magic for you,” she said. Then in a commanding voice, “I am Jennifer!”

Light flashed around the shapely super heroine. Justice Girl averted her eyes, and then she cried out when she looked back.

Before her stood a tall, busty beauty in a bright yellow, uber expensive bandage dress and matching stiletto pumps. Her jewelry was understated, but looked expensive.

“Hi. I’m Jennifer Jade,” she said. “I figured I should unmask first, since I’m asking for your trust.” She indicated the database. “I want to search for you both as your super heroine and alter ego on the database, to see if another version of you exists on my world.”

“Hello, Jennifer. I am touched by your generosity and trust,” Justice Girl said. She looked the young beauty over again. “And, wow, you are even more gorgeous out of costume.”

“Thank you,” she said. “I’m sure you are even more beautiful as your alter ego, too.”

“I don’t know. My mask gives me a certain Je ne sais quoi,” she said, grinning. The blonde paused, before reaching up to her mask. “Sorry, I don’t have any impressive magic to dazzle you with, but my mask is a technical marvel. It can only be removed by me.”

Ms Patriot perked up. A mask that criminals couldn’t remove? A marvel indeed.

She watched Justice Girl reach up and press firmly into several spots around her mask at once. The mask came off when her hands moved away from her face. A supermodel gorgeous face was revealed.

“Call me Nicole,” she said, now with a thick southern accent. “Nicole Boudreaux to be exact, of the New Orleans Boudreauxs.”

“Talk about gorgeous,” Jennifer said. “So you are from a wealthy family, too?”

“No, but I can put on airs,” she said. “I personally am a millionaire, but my parents are firmly upper middle-class.”

They turned back to the database. Jennifer first searched for “Justice Girl.” Seven hits. Three were older, no longer active heroine names. The other four were spread out across the US, Canada, and Great Britain. None of them in California. They discovered there was an Ocean City, but it was in Maryland, and much smaller. No Ocean City in California.

“There are a boatload of Nicole Boudreauxs, some spelling your last name a little differently,” Jennifer said, increasing the size of the file photos. “None of them appear to be you.”

“So, I didn’t exist in this world until tonight. Good to know I don’t have to worry about running into myself,” she said. “We’d probably explode if we touched, like matter and anti-matter.”

“We’ll continue this tomorrow,” Jennifer said. “Let’s get you upstairs, find you some clothes that fit, and get you settled into a bedroom.”

Jennifer led the way to an elevator. It lifted them up to a dressing room with a few side rooms. Justice Girl explored a bit, finding a laundry room with some soiled costumes. A “trophy room” of sorts, with lots of super heroine memorabilia. Even a full bath. Then Jennifer led her through a secret door and into the most fabulous closet she’d ever seen.

“Are you a movie star or something,” she whispered, an incredulous look on her face. Before her were more evening gowns, of every color, than she’d ever seen in one place. Jennifer’s shoe closet was even more impressive. “Your closet is almost as big as my house!”

“Yeah, well, I’m kinda known as a fashionista,” Jennifer said. “Some prefer to call me a clothes horse. Or a clothes hoarder.”

She led the blonde out of the closet, through her sprawling bedroom, and out into the corridor.

“Whoa, Nelly. Is this a mansion?”

“Yes. Jade Manor,” she said. “My ancestral home.”

“Wow. I’m not rich enough to have ancestors,” Justice Girl said.

“You’re funny,” Jennifer said, turning into the next bedroom down. “This is my former protégé’s room. She’s been elevated to full heroine, and moved to another city. She had her final growth spurt, so left all the clothes that no longer fit her. I think you should be able to wear them. And they are very nice clothes, too.”

Justice Girl stepped into another giant walk-in closet. Not even close in size to Jennifer’s, but still bigger than anything Nicole ever had. It was three-quarters full of more fabulous haute couture and other sexy designer dresses and heels.

“I can…um…work with this,” she muttered, eyes huge.