[LNHY/ACRA] The Daily Super Short-Short Story #50

[Saxon Brenton]

The Daily Super Short-Short Story #50
 
A Devil Came Down to Georgia 32
 
Last time: TJ gave Martin a run-down on what their diabolical opponents 
were up to.
 
     TJ looked at Martin and asked, "Are you going to be all right?"
     They were standing outside of an abandoned building that was back 
in towards the city center. After TJ had given his outline of what was 
going on, Martin had agreed that urgency was needed for a snatch-and-grab 
raid to retrieve Delroy, and had flown them back to near where TJ had 
said Tsurlich was keeping the other seminary student. Then they had 
quickly walked (well, approached silently with extendible limbs) to just 
outside their target.
     Martin returned TJ's gaze but found himself numbly unable to give 
an answer. He was still feeling shook up by the revelations that TJ had 
given him earlier. This was... this was all getting a bit much for him. 
He knew it shouldn't be, since this was more or less was Saint Christopher 
had warned him about, but still the pace of events was wearing. Banjo 
Duelling Kangaroos and demonic socks and another Teenaged Giant Halfbreed 
Fallen Angel who wanted to mate with him and Frankenstein's monster-esque 
succubi created by underground cults in ancient @lantis... And Martin had 
instinctively kept his mind from even touching on this issue of how he'd 
castrated TJ; his emotions were too mixed as far as that was concerned.
     For his part TJ worried that Martin would be overcome with numbness 
and simply stall in shock. The student hadn't even taken any pleasure from 
his newfound ability to fly, which as TJ understood it was a very common 
human ecstasy. The mutant waited patiently while Martin composed himself, 
like a character in a video game who was in standby mode waiting for the 
player to do something. Not even shifting his weight to relieve muscle 
tension. He was a really strange guy, Martin thought to himself, not 
for the first time. Then Martin sighed and said, "I'll be fine. Come on, 
let's get this done."
     They snuck into the building and found that Tsurlich was exactly 
where TJ had remembered her being. Martin didn't recognise the man 
kneeling on the floor, trembling and weeping, but he could guess that this 
was Delroy. He felt himself turn a queasy green at the sight of Tsurlich, 
since she was doing something approximating the Dance of the Seven Veils 
in front of Del, and was everything that TJ had described her as.
     "She's like a human body constructed out bits and pieces," TJ had 
said. "I guess that each bit might be beautiful on its on, but put 
together she's a patchwork horror. But if I understood things right, 
that's not the worst bit. The worst bit is that she was built to be a 
succubus, a sex lure. I only got to see her face when her hood was pulled 
back, and that was bad enough, but apparently she can cloud a man's mind 
with lust so that he doesn't see how hideous she is, or worse, can make 
him screw with her despite him seeing what she is, and the experience 
drives him insane."
     Martin had exclaimed that that was sick. TJ's only disagreement 
had been that, considering what Tsurlich was and who she hung out with, 
actively and deliberately evil was probably a better overall description, 
and sick was just a means to an end.
     Now the pair of them burst in and while Martin covered the room 
with suppressive fire, TJ scuttled over and grabbed Delory. The skin of 
Delroy's current face was more olive than the original, which should make 
proving what had been done to him easier. TJ remembered the young latino 
businessman who the diabolicals had brought, already dead, and how 
Tsurlich had used her flesh sculpting abilities to swap their faces. They 
were still keeping Delroy in his underwear too, he noted clinically.
     As he hustled Delory to the door, TJ couldn't help but notice Martin 
having trouble with Tsurlich. He had collapsed on the ground, weeping, as 
she advanced on him in a provocative manner.  .oO( So much for the 
Catholics' vaunted powers to resist the temptations of the flesh, ) he 
thought with distant irritation. "Fight her!" he yelled at Martin. "Say 
the Lord's Prayer. Think self-flagellation and hair shirts if you have to!"
     Martin opted for the first option, causing Tsurlich to hiss in anger 
as she felt her hold on him slipping. She hated it when libidinal young 
men were able to resist her.
     TJ made a snap decision in the instant that Tsurlich was distracted 
by her anger at Martin's act of piety. He wasn't fully sure whether his 
emasculated state would protect him from her, or whether her abilities 
directly manipulated the pleasure enters of the brain or somesuch. In any 
case, he dashed up behind her with his slightly greater than human speed, 
grabbed her around the throat, and twisted her head through 180 degrees. 
There was a snapping sound as he broke her neck, and her struggling ceased.
     Martin stared at the body, then demanded, "What did you do that for!?"
     "What?" said a suddenly confused TJ. Did this idiot have some sort 
of pacifism thing going? Didn't he realise how dangerous these monsters 
were? What, he could destroy a wondersock but wasn't able to kill a flesh 
golem? How did he expect to deal with Lisa and Kien, who both looked much 
more human than Tsurlich did?
     "She could have put Del's face back!" practically shouted Martin.
     "And I would have dearly loved for her to put my balls back too! But 
she's too dangerous!" shouted TJ in return. "Get over it!"
     "Boooooyyyyss," moaned Tsurlich as she struggled to her feet. Martin 
and Delroy's hair stood on end, while TJ just became more urgent. "Kill 
her! Toast her with your laser or something!" he yelled.
     Martin retained enough lucidity to doubt whether the IR laser would 
work against the naked, patchworked and head-back-to-front woman advancing 
on him, as well as the fact that he had no idea how to make a flamethrower 
out of himself. He settled for forming blades and slicing her to pieces. 
There was a moment of consternation as the bits continued to wriggle, but 
Martin had made enough MST3K comments about bad horror movies to know that 
you don't stop dismembering a zombie at limb level: if you wanted to keep 
the disembodied hands from chasing you down and throttling you, you had 
to sever all the fingers as well. Which is what Martin did.
     When he was done Martin looked over at TJ, who was gathering up 
Tsurlich's cloak. "What are you doing?"
     "If those bits are still active, we can't risk someone coming along 
and putting them back together," he answered. "We'll gather her up, get 
some more gasoline, and incinerate her as well. And all of her stuff too," 
he added, picking up her panties and throwing them into the improvised sack 
he had created. "Just in case."
     (Hmmm. Looks like I was able to fit in a panty raid (of sorts) in 
after all.)
 
Tomorrow: The boys go into hiding.
 
The Daily Super Short-Short Story series and the wondersocks created 
by Arthur Spitzer, and used with belated permission.
 
All main characters created by Saxon Brenton are Ask First Before Use 
for the duration of this storyline, then they'll probably go to Usable 
Without Permission.
 
-----
Saxon Brenton University of Technology, city library, Sydney Australia
     saxon.brenton at uts.edu.au
The Eyrie Archives of Russ Allbery which collect the online superhero
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