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Sorry about the absence. I hope to be back by September 15 October 6, with a full explanation. Or, at least, a decent excuse.
Panderson had a look that killed, and it was killing Lissa. She... she could feel herself shifting, to repair the damage the look did. But the look was unwavering, and shifting was so tiring. So damned tired. She lay on the cement floor, human.
The pain stopped. It was as if someone flicked a switch, and the world went away. The bad world. Lissa tried to sit up. "Wow!" said Panderson, rubbing her eyes. "I can't believe you survived my Death Glare."
Neither can I, thought Lissa. But the gonner was still unable to see. If Lissa could attack now...
She was too tired to cat!
Banny stood over Victoria. She was covered in blood, her clothes were ripped, but she herself was unhurt. A kick up told Banny why he shouldn't have stood over her. Now he was on the ground, and she stood over him, twisting his ankle like an old-time wrestler. Sucking air, Banny kicked her away and regained his feet. He was hurt. Victoria wasn't. No matter how good he fought, he would eventually lose. Why couldn't he win? Video game time! What object, skill, person, or magic item was he missing? The Ring of Beneficience! Neither he nor Lissa ever killed a gonner without a Ring. You didn't need to activate it, but you needed to wear it. That had to be it.
Or Banny was dead.
He circled with Victoria. Then, when he was closest to Panderson's purse, he turned and ran!
Human, Lissa walked toward the blonde gonner. Panderson reeled out her finger-lines again. As she flicked Lissa called up her reflexes to dodge. But not enough; she still took hits. Lissa suppressed the healing. She needed her strength for other things.
Banny limped on his twisted ankle, and running on a cement floor let him know exactly where all his other pains were. "God, I need an aspirin!" He felt sudden painful heat across his butt. Victoria apparently had no difficulty seeing there. He turned and looked at her. "I said 'aspirin', not 'ass burn'!" He grabbed Panderson's purse, dumped it out, and there it was.
Panderson was panicking. Her glare failed. The wires barely slowed the tramp down. Her command would only work if the bitch would let it. I just need the right command ... "Attack Victoria instead of me!" shouted in panic. It seemed like an excellent idea. Lissa turned to face the new gonner.
"What?!?" screamed Victoria. She wasn't used to gonner treachery. But then Banny was on her, chains flailing like a Weed-Whacker. She made a very small explosion. Had her clothes not been previously ripped and bloodied, any dry-cleaner could have fixed the damage her explosion had caused.
Attack Victoria instead of me! Lissa followed the thought. Attack Victoria instead of me! Victoria is dead. Victoria is nothing. Attack nothing instead of me! Therefore, attack me!
The gonner order reinforcing her desire, Lissa leapt, in cat-girl, on Panderson, before she could say anything or glare. Panderson knocked on her back, Lissa's feet on her breasts, the cat-girl tore off any part of the gonner's face that looked like Lizzie. Including the eyes. After five minutes of screaming and grabbing ineffectually she went after her voice-box. Then Lissa jumped away
Panderson's explosion was bigger than any previous, deafening. Lissa hit the far wall, collapsed, sat on the cement floor, stared expressionlessly at the scorch-mark where her friend's duplicate had exploded. She cried quietly. There was no anger visible in her face or her body, none whatsoever.
* * * * * *
Just under a year ago, Banny, Lissa, and Lizzie (the real Lizzie) had been eating lunch at outside at Harvard Square. Lissa had gotten up to chase after a driver who had shouted something crude. Harvard Square traffic is bad enough that she could walk, and still catch his car.
Abandoned by her, Banny said to Lizzie, "wow! That girl has some temper. I just wish I knew what to do for her when she gets that angry. I mean, aside from staying out of the way and hoping she's all right."
Lizzie thought for a moment. "Nah, when she's fighting mad she's okay. Listen, Banny... You really care for her, right? Well, I'm gonna tell you something that's sorta, though not exactly, a secret, but you may need to know. The bad times for her is... is when something's so bad she can't hit it or even run away... when she's not angry, but she's beaten down, in tears... All you can do then is hold her, maybe rock her a little, let her cry, and let her know you're there. That's all you can do, but it's what she needs the most".
* * * * * *
Now, in the blasted basement, Banny knelt down, put his arms around Lissa, rocked her a little as she cried. He whispered, "there, there, Lissa. I'm here for you. It's okay, baby. I'm right here."
Go to Chapter 64: Just Put The Ring On Your Finger
Go to Chapter 66: This week suked!!!
Bring your friends into the Gonspiracy! Tell them about
Banny
And
Lissa
and get their eternal gratitude, and a chance to win $10,000 and a Sony DVD Player, because using your friends for your own personal enrichment, and having them owe you for it, is the gonner way!
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Dave Lerner Stories (note that to use the mailto you'll need to edit it in your 'send to' window. I apologize, but I've already lost one address to spam, and if I get inundated again, I won't have time to read your letters.) - All Rights Reserved. Note that this includes images of the Tricryptogon, and the name "Tricryptogon".