DISCONTINUED ---- Iris: Giant Black Widow

Chapter Seven: Oswyn

The flash of a long shadow moved across the walls of the alley in which Iris had been chased not long ago. A flash of light shot out and the robot labelled A1, lurking in the alley collapsed to the ground and short circuited. The figure gently blew smoke off the MAW (Mutation Advanced Weapon) Scorpion they had used to fell the metal abomination. Using a pocket knife to pry open one of its storage compartments, the figure snatched the auburn braid and walked away silently, leaving the smoking and fizzing wreckage behind as the sun finished setting. There was no sign of a struggle, as if the robot had turned itself in.

...

Oswyn von Braggenschnat cursed in his office as he glared with his bronze eyes at the walls. The candles flickered eerily across the room, angry, scorching, and red light against the pale tile walls as he stroked his cat's white head. A dark blue tongue flicked out of her mouth, framed by her pointed white canines.

"Don't worry, Sockes. You can go hunt them down later." Oswyn comforted his cat icily as he poured a cup full of chardonnay and sipped it tightly, an aura of cold hate surrounding him. Sockes yawned and walked over to one of his old shoes and started sharpening her claws.

Every now and then, a trapdoor would open in the ceiling of the room and deposit a corpse. After a moment of delay, Sockes then strutted over to it, then she flicked out her claws and began to shred the pile of corpses. Her tail flicked back and forth as she sharpened her claws, causing a little breeze in Oswyn's office. Sockes also supplied her master's lab with ingredients such as lion's mane, bear tail, scorpion poison, bat dung, rattlesnake rattles, sheep ears, oil of vitriol, blood of serpents, etc.

Sockes, like most pets, loved her master. Her large blue eyes stared at him happily as she sat obediently, waiting for a command. Her gold-tipped tail curled around her baby blue paws as she stood up and stalked the trapdoor, trying to jump up, only to be pushed back down by another corpse. She bared her teeth at the trapdoor, pointed white canines gleaming viciously as she prepared to pounce.

Oswyn began to ponder silently. Whoever these 2 people were, they were definitely trying to collapse the empire that Oswyn had so painstakingly brought under his power. They had to have some non-human assistant, as there were strange footprints that didn't exactly look like feet found everywhere, but almost as soon as they were discovered, they turned into moon-colored ash and blew away into the wind.

There was a knock on the door, pulling Oswyn back to present-time in his office. He rolled his eyes, annoyed. "Don't you know I want to be ALONE?" he yelled, banging his fist on the table and making Sockes stumble back in surprise. He took a deep breath as there was the sound of a quiet "Y-y-yes, sir" and the sound of someone scurrying away. Oswyn sighed and leaned back into his chair. "Finally." Then he settled back down on his chair and went back into deep thought.

These two people had to be working together - why else would the assassin steal the genetic evidence held by one of his own servants? Especially one of his favorites and a general commander, one of the original and best ones too, Bot A2.

The glass he held shattered and along with the chardonnay splattered across the table, mixing with blood. Sockes leapt back with an amused hiss, dotted with red spots. Oswyn got up and began to pace the room. He read through the forensic file once again. No fingerprints, that was easy to do. No footprints, neither partial nor whole. The surveillance had obviously been tampered with. Fine. They wanted to play dirty? Pulling out a radio, he activated the transmitter and quietly yet firmly said into the radio, "It's time to bring in the big guns."

...

Screams rang out throughout the basement of a shop called "Clive's Potions and Mechanics" followed by a cat hissing. With glee or anger, Clive Fagenbush couldn't tell. All he knew was that he was having fun torturing these feeble and weak humans.

The door tinkled as it opened a crack, and some crates were pushed in on the floor by baby blue paws, followed by a pure white body and a gold-tipped tail. Clive smiled, showing off his crooked yellow teeth. "Good. Now, let's see... You brought seven crates, each with the contents of 10 each lion's mane, bear tail, scorpion poison, bat dung, rattlesnake rattles, sheep ear, oil of vitriol, blood of serpents, and... that should be it for the next week or so, unless the boss calls me up for overtime working, but that's unlikely, looking at the ways the world is running now."

He paused. "Well, considering this Ashstep has appeared, I just might be promoted." Sockes seemed to frown and slipped back through the doorway, leaving Clive behind in his thoughts.

...

"So, Iris, are you... actually planning to run for president, exposing yourself to the world, possibly killing yourself, and if you do survive, notorious current world president Oswyn von Braggenschnacht will chase you down until the end of your life as long as you live even somehow and you have a HUGE price on your head?" Wiz asked.

"Uhhh... When you put it that way..." Iris slowly said. "Of course she is! Right, Iris? What could possibly go wrong?" Cocorito burst in.