A Bitter Pill To Swallow

The bomb that is Eva's right hand comes whistling, but the woman pulls the blow up short when the fucker in front of her gets into a guard. She wanted to break his jaw, not both of his forearms. Instead, a split-second after the instant when the man expected to be struck, Eva drives her left into this stomach, doubling him over, exploding the air from his lungs and sending him tumbling backwards. And then, it's like a switch has been flicked in the woman. Her instincts kick in, and she smells blood. It's on.

The dazed, wheezing interloper isn't even able to get to his feet before Eva is back in front of him, but this time she tangles her hand deep in his hair. She knows better than to try and do what she wants with anything less than a full handful. Dragging the man forward by the hair, Eva turns, spins, and hurls the goon -- at least twenty feet, straight into the blasting jukebox. Glass is smashed, bones are broken, and the music stops after the man slides nervelessly to the floor.

At center stage, Eva's eyes blaze, her chest rises and falls, and her raised fists are balled.

She hears his voice. She had been so despondent, raised to be a porcelain doll, a wind up toy to astound and amaze. What preparation had she had to harness this rage and the urge to destroy? Dave came along, then, and his patience and understanding brought her back from the abyss of those primordial instincts. He reiterated the advice he'd given before, tonight: "It sounds good. Joining two halves of yourself together, that is. Truth is that it's never just that simple...or easy."

But then he gave her the advice she needed most: Honestly though, Augusta, your 'goblin half' is something you're going to have to come to terms with rather than repressing it.

She turns to look up at the man who wants her in his bed. She turns her head up as if waiting for a kiss from the taller man. Her skin ripples under her arms, her chest and abs, her legs. Savage strength twists her bones and sharpens her ligaments. Her hand, now as strong as an oni, clasps his balls. But she holds her face as Augusta, keeps her body looking human. It's a struggle, she's fragile and off balance, but determined and holds it together through the sheer orgasmic pleasure of unleashing her darkest emotions. Not the goblin's, hers.

She squeezes. "Yesssss, scream how much you want me!" Squeezes hard.

Graybridge, 1 NOV 2023
The Hop Spot

Something about dancing to the music set part of Eva free, some lost piece of the jumbled puzzle of her mind neither of them had seen before. Dave was lost in thought about whether to let her ride out the moment or bring it to her attention. The abrupt bump of a solid shoulder brought him out of his, in his estimation, solid dance routine. The Trio were muscling in on his dance floor. "Sorry, fellas, but my dance card is full." They mostly ignored him and engaged Eva. She gave him that pleading look as the mouthy one stepped up to her. Dave gave her a "be my guest" shrug but hadn't waited to indulge the poor biker in a lesson of 'be careful what you wish for.'
His eyes shot to the other two, "Tiny" and "Rooster" he'd named them in his mind, for their reactions as Eva put their leader through the jukebox in a move that might've been quicker than they could visually follow. Rooster pulled a wickedly long Bowie knife from the sleeve of his leather jacket and Tiny stood there blinking as he tried to figure out what just happened. "Oh, I think a spot just opened up for my favorite dance..." a grin spread across Dave's stubbly face and he feinted at Rooster. The biker's blade flashed in the strobing light of the flickering LEDs of the damaged jukebox as he and Dave danced a deadly tango in the crowded bar. Dave was clearly enjoying himself, grinning from ear to ear, as Rooster slashed and stabbed at Dave in mounting frustration and anger.
A wholly unnecessary flourish in the knife fight/tango puts the biker overextended and Dave shoves him into Tiny's bulk...blade first. The man-mountain howled and collapsed on one leg, Rooster's oversized blade jutting from his meaty leg. Infuriated, Rooster yanked the blade free of Tiny's tree trunk leg and lunges back at Dave murderously as his friend howls in pain. A crimson stain floods the front of the huge biker's leg as several other bar patrons scream.
Throwing up his left arm to block the furious Rooster, the blade sinks all the way through Dave's forearm. "Didn't your mother tell you not to play with sharp objects?" Dave retorted as he lunge-kicked Rooster in the hip, sending the biker skidding across the barroom floor to end up beside the shattered jukebox. Rooster's pretty blade still stuck through both sides of Dave's arm. He looked over at Eva and recognized that bloodlusted look. It looked a lot like the one she had the first night they'd met and that didn't bode well.
He chanced a quick glance around to check on Augusta, Bree and Tim. Looked like they had their own troubles. Augusta could handle herself...the other two maybe not. The night was getting lively!

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
The Hop Spot
Even only partially transformed, Augusta's goblin half gives her enough strength to easily make the man howl in pain. He's curling in, his eyes bulging as he desperately tries to fight Augusta off, though without much success after her surprise attack to a very sensitive area left him vulnerable. He's stammering, trying to get out an apology and to beg for her to let go, when Augusta is interrupted.
"Or this, asshole," Bree replies in her brother's place. While Tim distracted the man, she has reached into her purse and drawn a small can of pepperspray which she is now discharging straight into the tall man's eyes. He lets out a pained howl, stumbles backwards and lashes out, his arms flailing as he blindly misses her.
Unfortunately for Augusta, pepperspray in a closed room isn't always that great of an idea and as the cloud spreads, she feels a sudden and intense burn in her eyes, strong enough to make her involuntarily let go of the man next to her, who immediately uses the opportunity to scramble away and limp out of the bar as fast as he possibly can - not that Augusta can see that as her eyes are burning like fire.On the other side of the bar, Eva and Dave are absolutely demolishing the three men who were foolish enough to approach them. While Dave managed to get stabbed, he didn't even feel it, something that clearly intimidated the two men who had thought him an easy enough target far more than if he had simply evaded the attack. It also means Dave now has a pretty nice weapon at hand - or in his arm, to be precise. Heavily injured, the two men who decided to mess with him are barely able to move anymore. The man Dave dubbed Rooster is dragging himself across the floor while the other, Tiny, is limping towards the back exit of the club.

The third man, the apparent leader of this whole group, who was foolish enough to pick Eva as the target of his 'affection' is doing the worst out of them all as he is lying broken by the smashed jukebox. He's unconscious, maybe more than that. But he's definitely not getting up again.

All of this took only seconds. Seconds inbetween five assholes deciding that tonight was the perfect time to pick on some strangers in the Hop Spot and a small bloodbath on the dance floor. And with that brief flash of violence over, the shock and surprise also ends. Screams erupt all around the bar, people scramble for the door, others hide in the bathrooms, take shelter behind tables, people get thrown to the floor in the mass panic.

As Eva and Dave find themselves standing rather clear of all the panic since nobody dares to approach them, Augusta, Tim and Bree - whose own struggle has mostly been missed by the other patrons next to the far more showy fight on the dancefloor - are caught right in the middle of it as people scramble past them at the bar, trying to make it outside before they can become the next victims of these two maniacs.

Augusta collapses against the wall, her eyes burning in pain that only seems to get worse as she blinks rapidly trying to tell if she's still in danger. She makes no sound, but all of the energy leaves her body. The wall provides little support but it keeps her upright. Her attempt at harnessing the goblin was mixed results. She was able to hold it long enough to do the damage, but the struggle took everything that she had to maintain.

She pulls out her phone to check her messages, remembering the buzz of an incoming text, but can't see well enough to read. Melissa? Is that bitch in trouble and needs a ride? She closes her eyes again. I just can't.

Graybridge, 1 NOV 2023
The Hop Spot

"Not the tunes..." Dave sighed as he looked over to Eva. "Tunes make the fight fun. Try and avoid the jukebox next time." He wasn't really sure if she could hear him in her current state but it was worth maybe engaging her to break her out of that battle rage state that occasionally consumed her. Bar patrons stampeded out the exits away from the fight, the screaming a bit more shrill and choked from the bar end of the Hop Spot.
Dave walked nonchalantly over to the biker laying in the smashed jukebox and rifled through the man's pockets for a wallet, ID and keys before heading back to the bar area to check on Augusta, Bree and Tim. "Woah. Who ordered the 'spicy air'?" he waved the toxic fumes around with his hand, knife flashing in the neon bar lights as it moved with his arm.

Eva's been activated. She's on the balls of her feet in the middle of what passed for the dance floor, her blood is up and her eyes search for her next opponent. But there isn't one. This wasn't her typical solo op, and her companions have put down the rest of the opposition quickly, and with prejudice.

"Sorry," she says to Draven when he mentions the tunes, her eyes glassy and her pulse still pounding in her temples. She's vaguely aware that the crowd is scattering and dispersing, and then she's dropping her fists and looking at the man she might have badly injured.

"S-sorry."

Graybridge, 1 NOV 2023
The Hop Spot


"Here ya go, kid." Dave leans over the bar counter, drawing a hose from the well and handing it to Tim before snatching it back and replacing it with a different hose. "Nope. That was seltzer, try this one. That should be water. maybe..." he flashed a grin at the Judge siblings that was less than reassuring.
"Don't worry. Just a flesh wound." Dave said nonchalantly as he recovered his pilsner glass from earlier. Wiping the mouth of the glass on his shirt he leaned back over the bar to fill the glass from the tap and take a long drink of the good stuff. Bree looked at him, almost expecting him to start leaking beer from any other unseen holes in the big man. He flipped open the wallet snagged from Eva's would-be assailant/dance partner and have it a once over before taking a snapshot of it with his archaic flip phone. Bree's mouth still hung open, wheels in her head turning but getting zero traction. "Look, that guy got all up in Eva's face, tried to get handsy. She don't like that. Guess no one does, really." Dropping the wallet on the bar, Dave looked over the bar at the two bartenders hiding below it. "Put the jukebox on this guy's tab. I'd bill him before the ambulance company does though." He added a couple of crumpled up twenties for their tab.
"You 'bout done with 'Jukebox Hero' over there?" he called over to Eva. "Nothin' much we can do now. Nothin' but let the medics sort things out."

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
The Hop Spot
Kneeling for a moment in the blood, broken plastic and glass, Eva feels her breath catch in her throat. She's not hovering over some dumbass thug in the Hop Spot, she's looking down at Henry Fikes, the drug kingpin. She's looking at the man she killed at the ski lodge, with her bare hands. She sees the senator she held under the bathwater until... she understood.

"Fuck," she says, overwhelmed as she stands up and heads for the door. "Fuck!" she repeats as her head swims, ignoring Dave as she runs past him.

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
The Hop Spot

The debilitating effects of the pepper spray sting like hellfire and she finds a tissue from her bag to dab at her eyes. "You can make it up to me," she says to Bree sassily and with a wry smile and then wonders what it it's she's saying. She wants to get close to the girl and then what? Pump her for information?

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
The Hop Spot
Tim hands the extended hose to Augusta to let her more easily wash out her eyes until they still sting but she can properly open them and see again. Bree looks surprised by Augusta's comment but her expression quickly shifts into a smile and a nod. "Yeah, of course. Awesome," she replies. She unlocks her phone and opens her contacts, handing it to Augusta. "Just put your number in and I'll call you. Drinks are on me. And I won't burn your face again, I promise."

Tim looks visibly uncomfortable with his sister's apparent dating success, so he turns to Dave, clearing his throat. "Eva just, uh, ran off," he states the obvious, indicating towards the door. "Should we check on her?"

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
The Hop Spot

"I want to check on her, I do but mostly I want her digits." She enters her own into Bree's phone then sends a text to herself. She then takes a picture and adds that to the new contact, showing Bree. "Drinks would be lovely, somewhere less full of stale testosterone."

She then asks Dave to send Eva's contact info to her by text.

Watching the door, she sighs. How can I worry about someone so undeniably capable? So powerful?

She touches Bree on the arm and then says, "I best get to the remainder of my evening. It was really nice to meet you."

When she leaves, she checks her phone again for that message from Melissa:

Hey. I'm really sorry about Brian. I swear he has some kind of unnatural power over me. I am going to try and get to the bottom of it as soon as I can. We just had a sort of fight and he walked out on me in the restaurant. He fucking left me to eat alone!! Want to come on a shopping spree with me? He left me his credit card. LOL

She texts back.
I can do that ❤ just finishing up here. Text me the addy

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Augusta Ang's Luxurious Studio Apartment

Augusta wakes up in the morning, and showers in her oversized open concept shower. She wraps her hair in a towel, and after pat drying her skin, applies her imported from Korea moisturizing lotion.

With hot white tea made in the kitchen, she returns to her bedroom and finds the days clothes. Thong underwear, invisible bra, painted-on-tight leather pants and a loose fitting peasant blouse, then calf-height suede boots. Lastly, she combs out her hair, then pins it in an updo with vorpal hair spikes.

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Crazy Ronaldo's Used Superbike Emporium

When Melissa meets her there, she hands the woman a tall fresh-press hot liquid cocaine from Dark Lips Books -- four shots of espresso, four pumps of white chocolate syrup, hold the ice. "Today we're testing superbikes, high end Japanese barely street-legal rice rockets, and we'll use Brian's card for the damage deposits."

Putting on a smiling face which she struggles with because she was such a bitch, and why did Augusta even agree to meet her, she takes the coffee and sips it.

"OMG! Is this what I think it is, that insane heart-pumping combo? It's amazing, thank you, and thanks for meeting me here. You're really are a good sport. I was awful. Selfish. That fucking man, he has his talons in me and I'm not exactly sure why. Sure he's good lay but there are a few of those out there so I'm damned if I can think of what it is. He's so arrogant too. It seems like I hate him, so why don't I?"

Shaking her head she looks at the bikes. "Want to have some fun then with his credit card, huh. Perfect. I rode one of these once. It's quite a trip let me tell you. We could, oh, I don't know, send one into the lake?" The sneer of revenge marks her face as she dreams about what Brian's reaction would be to the bill.

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Crazy Ronaldo's Used Superbike Emporium

"Even a good scare would serve him right." She stands perfectly straight, as is her way, and pets a Ducati Panigale V4. She whispers to Melissa, "1100 ccs between your legs will make you forget that toadstool."

She gives her a complex look, as if deciding how far to go. "What's the real reason? You had me nearly convinced that he had slipped powder into your drink immediately before your alteration. Why did you invite me to sit with you and then give him another chance?" She feels the sting even more, and adds, "I cared about him more than anyone I've ever dated. To watch him pass over me for another, that was uncalled for."

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Crazy Ronaldo's Used Superbike Emporium

If Melissa wasn't so embarrassed she would have enjoyed Augusta's toadstool comment.

"Look. I have no excuses. He took me completely by surprise. I didn't expect him to be so upfront about wanting me back. He wasn't embarrassed to say he had made a mistake and that he wanted me back. I mean what guy does that? He has this hold on me. Shit, I almost feel like a battered wife. He slips a roofie in my drink and I take him back anyway. Isn't it some kind of syndrome?"

After an uncomfortable pause, Melissa runs her hand along the bike, then stops abruptly and faces Augusta. "I was afraid of him. I wanted you to come for moral support. It didn't turn out anything like I expected. I'm really sorry. I'm a wimp. I won't blame you if you hate me. I hate me."

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Crazy Ronaldo's Used Superbike Emporium

She stares at the other woman, letting the silence germinate for a moment, then nods. "I've said my piece. I'll not bring it up again,"

She slaps the seat. "Look, the sign says 210 horsepower. That seems like a lot. Let's sign out two for a test drive. I get mistaken for a Japanese woman often enough I might as well really lean into that!"