XLIII
Shortly after a brief call with a quick sitrep, all the Power Ghouls decide to assemble on the rooftop, and in no time they had Wonder Wolf, Ms. Dead Fast, Polterghoul, Cat Tastrophe and Webarella, on top of a building. Toralei isn't precisely a heroine here (not anywhere, not ever!), but she's not quite thrilled by the prospect of being skinned alive by aliens. And while they're taking a moment, is easier for Clawdeen to appreciate their new costumes as well.
For starters Cat Tastrophe, their (sometimes really but not so-)lovely crafty kitty of chaos and strangest sight among these heroes, stands as both The Lady and The Tiger. From head to toes, she's gone solid black — black, black, orange, white, black! — wearing a new larger and thinner black cat-eye mask that covers most of her devilishly pretty face behind golden mirrored lenses, proudly sporting a new black spy catsuit of mostly leather covered with orange stripes as a reverse tigress, two white leather gauntlets, which are fingerless on the indexes and little fingers, also with orange stripes that happen to match her claw polish and running along her forearms up to her elbows large tufts of withe fur dangling from the sides, two large glowing green eyes on her shoulders with slanted pupils work to emphasize the motif her costume. A zipper, which by the way, she has oh-so modestly pulled up only inches above her navel and just fewer below her bosoms, with the same white tuft running along the lines of the zipper on her chest growing thicker into a fur-lined neck to keep her warm, easy to see how this furry V-neck line is… practical in different ways — clearly she has any and every intention of using her greatest assets without risking getting a cold at night (or perhaps somebody didn't think it through when putting fur right along the zip line, but seeing her nature, is more likely the first case), anyhow there's no wonder how she got in second place in the Contest of Champions. On her neck she has a black collar with silver spikes and rudder diamonds, hugging her already magnificent waist, she added a black padded bodice that doubles as a light body armor and some… support to her charms, also stripped — and wrapped all the way around her waist and hips a metal belt which appears to be something fashioned out of razors linked together with a sharp tip on an end and seems to work also as a weapon — or at least that's what the blood stains all over it indicate — with an orange cat-like skullette for buckle. The zippered knee-high boots are white with red stripes, also with white fur running down the calves, with dark silver leg and kneepads added for protection, black platforms and heels that aren't as high as before lest she wants push her luck again. All in all, even with these new additions she keeps her game real tight and real close to her first costume only now she seems to appreciate more the importance of using more contrasting colors, without really giving away that much stealth but rather balancing both opposite concepts, as it blends better in the dark than the last given the stripes are thinner, darker and more streamlined as those of an actual tiger rather than big and jagged, and as for the other little accessories she keeps the old silver studded armband, mouse bracelet, two black stud earrings, and a black hoop earring and around her left thigh is a black utility kit with dangling orange feathers where she most likely carries her thieving tools, if not her bounty.
Now, for come reason Wonder Wolf can't help to hear a little voice inside her head that sounds like hers when she's mad and wary saying If that bitch is any fewer than ten feet away from Keith, I'll skin her myself — if she even dares to look a his direction or speak to him, I'll gut her like a fish! One annoying cat jumping between us is enough.
For some reason she feels that she can't trust her in the less to be anywhere near Keith — not wearing this outfi! So just so you know… she's jealous — she can't tell why, but she just feels she has to keep her away from him.
Maybe because her suit says I'm out for more than just the family gems tonight.
Spectra — Polterghoul, a sight from beyond the veil, a guardian that's anything but an angelic, the superhero that goes bump in the night, a true vengeful spirit, a terror for the evildoers! (Am I overdoing it here? I feel like I'm overdoing it.) When she once wore a simple black sleeveless dress covered with gray polka dots with starbursts and a silver skull on her chest, she now wears what appears to be a black leather legless leotard with lines of spikes along the sides of the sleeves and across the middle of her torso going all the way up to her neck, with a perfect spike circle around the keyhole (seriously, you too? is all WW can think), a silver ball-and-chain belt flicker around her waist. Her hands are covered by black gauntlets with bones glowing violet. The cape is rather a ragged and tattered-looking purple cloak that gives her every bit the appereance of a grimm reaper, made of coal-hued fabric, with starbursts and hints of a subtle swirling pattern of dark-purple embroidery — and for a brief moment there it seems to shift as smoke, surely a visual effect of her ghost fabric blowing with the wind — with the hood concealing most of her face when on, exposing only her lips, chin and nose tip — but when is off one must ask really, who the bloody hell told her grease makes for a good mask!? Maybe it makes sense if she had to improvise and decided to wear a purple mask of eyeshadow smeared all over her eyes and nose bridge instead of an actual domino mask which isn't that good either but still so much better than this, and… anyhow — as for the cape it falls over her shoulders reaching her tighs, concealing strings of purple chains that are held by a neck choker and shackles at the wrists (somebody has some really kinky side to her closet, uh?). The outfit is completed with silver knee-high boots with platforms and heels that are wrapped and accentuated by purple chains with the interesting detail being that they have keyholes cutouts over the knees. Accessories include — but might end up missing in the package and if so, then you got a collection item — a purple chain headband, purple starburst earrings, a claw gauntlet and a scythe.
So fairly enough to say she's going for the antihero look tonight.
Now, the real irony is not that, as is to be expected from a ghost, she looks anything but heroic. No, the irony is that she feels much safer with her around than with Cat Tastrophe
Ghoulia wears a new design that is every bit as chic and modern, as it is heroic, wearing a fitting black leather jacket that reaches down her hips with serrated hem and accentuates her narrow waist and makes her shoulders look slightly broader, zipped all the way up to the neck, with red lining on the sides of the arms and red padding on the sides of her torso, and the initials "DF" emblazoned in red on her chest contrasting against a blue circle, black leather pants with red stripes on the sides and blue combat boots with red laces. On her hands she wears blue leather gloves with snaps on the cuffs. Earlier she wore a red half-cowl with little lightning horns on top, her hair flowing out her back and large black googles, her ears exposed, but now a black hood that snaps on her jacket's neck covers her head and her face is hidden behind a red mask that echoes her usual glasses, with large black reflective lenses that must be enhanced with some of her techno wizardry to get night and infrared vision or something, or else she can't figure out how can she see anything in this dark, even if they got the same augmentation grade as her everyday glasses. Or maybe she's got contact lenses? Even then, she's defiantly must have enhanced them somehow. She recalls a time when she said I can usually see thing full HD when I got them this close, holding her hand two inches from her face. And on second thought maybe this mask are the mirrored googles from earlier. A blue and white utility belt with three pouches on the left side and a larger one on the right that fastens around her thigh and seemingly falls to that side with a skull for buckle complete the ensemble. In sum up, she looks like a super chick from the chic part of the city.
And at last, but not least, along came a spider!
Wydowna is here as her alter ego Webarella! She got fourth place in the contest and for good reason she blames Cat Tastrophe for it. The new costume is a modified version of her old suit, greatly departed from it yet mirroring many of it's key elements and colors, composed of a shiny skintight suit that zips on front all the way up to the neck, black and white on top with silver and golden padding on the sides of her torso and her underarms, white and black on the bottom with red padding on the outer side of the legs and thighs, the whole suit is detailed with an orb spiderweb with its center on the waist, contrasting in the opposite color of each half and outlined in red, which matches the red miniskirt with golden web held by a white utility belt with a black skull buckle featuring six red spider eyes and eight legs — clever from her since it totally looks like a spider resting in the center of its web. Attached to the belt is Webarella's silver lasso — and is that a gun holster attached to her right leg and belt? It's gotta be since there is a gun there and is not alone since she has another one in her left leg near the ankle.
I got a sense she's going with super spy now. A super spyder maybe? Clawdeen muses in her mind preferring not to guess whether she had a toy gun with her costume that became too real as well. On her chest is emblazoned a large red spider with golden eyes that cleverly conceals its resemblance with a skull until you stare at it for too long… a spider-skull. The lines of the webs and the spider-skull are all sleek, straight and kind of perfectly symmetrical, on her wrists she wears red gauntlets, apparently metallic, with a gold web. On her legs are silver studded knee-high spiderweb boots, the metal padding she wears for protection mirrors her gauntlets — no heels. Dangling from her neck is a bulky goggle with eight red lenses that would cover half her pretty face when she has it on.
Y'know, that's what a superhero's supposed to look like! I mean, first of all what's with the fur? Ain't you got enough in your body? Clawdeen thinks looking again at Cat Tastrophe, unwilling to let it go for a while longer. Then again, she is not really a hero, but even so! Any wilder with the fur and you could use it as a mop. Hopefully it is faux fur, and some poor animal didn't have to suffer because of your fashion choice. And if it isn't, I'm putting this sword to good use
"So everyone clear on the plan?" Ms. Dead Fast asks.
"What? Yeah, sure. The plan," Wonder Wolf utters at a lost.
"What's your part?"
"My part! Right, my part, right… I just… bash in with brute force, right? I mean, I'm the muscle, so you'll always leave the heavy lifting for me."
Ms. DF sighs deeply in a bit of exasperation, "Yeah, that is pretty much the gist of what you have to do."
"Then what are we waiting for!? Let's go save her!"
"We have to wait for the army to roam the streets again, that's when the tower is most vulnerable and we can get in easier. At least that's how she says they'll do it in the movie —"
While they discuss the plan unfolding any spoiler that can't be saved, inside the hideout the other youths lay their hopes in the hands and claws of their powerful ghoulfriends, while resting from the previous excitement.
"Are you ok? You look more sullen and sourer than usual," Draculaura asks Keith who stands next to the window staring at the chaos outside, his face pensive and his eyes disdainful. This world is a dream in every way and yet so very real and palpable it can bring so many real feelings buried deep inside him and memories long lost…
"Yes, I was just… thinking."
"Nothing nice I can tell by the look of your face," she sits next to him. "How about you think lovely thoughts?" She suggests, he answers with a sneer. "Hey, wanna play with my hair one more time?" Lala leans her head towards him.
Unhesitatingly, Keith raises his right hand to pull her hair one more time, then halts noticing how shaky his hand is, quickly clasping it with the left, also shaky.
"Maybe another time," says calmly.
"What was that?" She asks worried.
"Nothing."
"I saw your hand shaking, are you ok?"
"Yes."
"Are you still… paying? Should I be worried?" Clawdeen cuts in, returning from the plan meeting through a portal.
"I'm fine!" Insists without losing his control.
"Okay… well, I'm going to fight spoilers now. Anything you'd like to say?"
"Don't die and don't bring any of them back. Oh, and take her with you. She can be useful." Keith points at Selina.
"If you say so…" agrees Clawdeen, letting Selina jump on her shoulder.
"For the record, it was his idea, he wants us to bond or something, I guess."
"Right, and what can you do? And don't say stealing things. We already got a cat burglar, we need variety, not redundancy."
"I'm a magical cat with many magical powers, I can do more than just stealing."
"What about you? Sure you don't wanna come with us and play superhero monster?"
"I'm pretty sure the Power Ghouls is a ghouls only club."
"I reckon the name isn't very inclusive," she agrees. "But it doesn't mean is exclusive."
"You could be the Marvel Girl to their X-Men," Devi mocks with a sneer, getting the middle finger from him.
"We can —"
"Don't insist, that would mean teamwork and he's dreadfully allergic to it," Selina says "That's why he wasn't thrilled to join when you first asked him I guess. But don't mind me much, not like I know what's on his mind, I'm just his pet."
"You ghouls have fun doing you while I do me."
"Fine, just don't say we took all the fun."
"All right, if you're done here, I guess we can get going." Ms. Dead Fast says, putting away her gadgets in her utility belt, her half-cowl mask on.
Fear all who are wicked… he thinks, watching the Power Ghouls banishing through yet another portal, without much looking back, after all they're not scripted to die in the battle, right?
Soon as they leave, Devon asks his brother "Are you really going to sit here and do nothing? Doesn't look like you."
"Just watch me," answers without the slightest concern in his voice, as he sits on the floor with legs crossed.
