Mirror Soul

Chapter Twenty Six: Courts in Session

Clover was awoken by the screams of people. She could see many of the gamblers fleeing Vertex. Her head was throbbing; what happened? 

Duchess was attacking me. Clover thought, piecing it all together. I shot her in the head, Ravel tried to stop me and everything went dark.

Clover’s eyes widened as the memories flooded back into her mind.

Ravel! 

Clover looked around the destroyed casino area. It looked as if a hurricane had come through, or a bomb had gone off. There was no sign of the perky redhead, until Clover noticed a crushed piece of metal.

Underneath one of the blown aside pool tables was Ravel’s crushed wheelchair.

Rage and sadness filled the blond woman. 

“Damn you, Duchess.” She crushed weakly. “Damnit all.”

“Wow! Who knew you had such a dirty mouth.”

Clover’s head whipped up to find Duchess walking up the stairwell, completely unharmed.

“H-how are… w-what the hell did you do!” Clover pushed through the pain in her head and stood to her feet, manifesting a simple handgun.

Duchess was on her before she could even pull the trigger. The silver haired woman slapped the weapon out of Clover’s grip and hauled her up by the throat.

“You got some questions, babe?” Duchess lowered the girl’s face closer to her own and whispered in her ear. “I’d love to fill you in.” Clover, disgusted, rammed her knee into the woman’s gut, causing her to release her grip.
Once free, Clover rotated and roundhoused kicked the woman in the face, sending her flying away. Not trusting the distance Clover jumped back, formed a machine gun and lit the woman up.

Duchess exploded in a brown light, as the rounds connected, with enough force that, even with the distance, Clover still had to cover her eyes.

She exploded!

“Damn, you like it rough I see.” Came a voice from behind her. Clover didn’t waste a second, now having a good understanding of the explosion’s range She flipped and cartwheeled to the corner of the gambling area and shot Duchess.

Again the woman exploded, with Clover out of range.

“I’m a natural blond ya’know.” 

Clover wasn’t surprised when another Duchess walked up the stairs and into the room.

“So I’m askin ya to not make us look any dumber than people already think we are.”

At this point Clover had a good guess what the woman’s mystic was, but knowing didn’t stop the sensatiation of dread as a dozen more Duchesses joined her in the room.

The one leading the others pulled a crowbar from her knee high biker boots, signaling all the others to do the same thing. 

Clover did her best  to look like she wasn’t going to pass out from the throbbing in her head. The first Duchess had blown up less than two feet from her face. She didn’t know if she’d be conscious right now if Ravel hadn’t pushed her back at the last second. Clover’s teeth grinded against each other as she remembered what Duchess had done.

“Haha!” The lead Duchess laughed. “Come on, keep shooting. I wanna see if I can blow that little dress off of you before the whole damn nightclub crumbles on us!”

All thirteen Duchesses laughed hysterically in unison at their own joke.

“You killed her.” Clover said through clenched teeth, her head angled downward.