A Little Voodoo (Clover/Madeline)

The lights of Louisiana sprawled across the transcendent seascape. Each light waved over the darkness of the polluted waters, looking as though they all slowly dwindled and drowned in their own reflection. Drowning within those doomed lights was some image of the truth in the case of the recent crime spree facing New Orleans. A number of robberies, murders, and kidnappings rocked the local population, with each culprit in one crime being the victim in the next case. It went beyond vigilante justice and straight into a different realm. A realm Bliss hated. Magic.

Stepping into the streets of the lower ward with her hoodie pulled over her head, Bliss looked down the street to see a local seance parlor. Oddity did not exist in New Orleans. Neither did Sailor Bliss. A pair of jeans with basic tennis shoes would do just perfectly for Bliss this time. Somethings even New Orleans would find a little too odd. Then, an intoxicated man wearing a superhero get up lunged in front of Bliss, securing his hands around the rim of a trashcan, but failing to lift the mask before vacating his stomach. Bliss stepped past him to see two women dressed as faeries pat him on the back with their glittery wands. Maybe Sailor Bliss would have fit in just fine.

The crowds rested by the parlor like a deluge once the rain stopped. How could a seance parlor be so popular? Bliss pushed between two men getting closer to the scene, and witnessing the appeal of a strip club, situated directly beside the seance parlor. "I don't know who I feel worse for." The trek became easier once Bliss passed the strip club. A solid oak door with carvings of a creature with horns leading children through the forest stood before her. She reached up and took hold of an iron gargoyle knocker. Two solid strokes opened the door. "That's cool."

The first antechamber moved towards a room draped in silks and seeping incense. "Excuse me." Bliss pulled back the curtains and stepped into the circular room. A crystal ball rested in the middle of the room, flanked with a deck or tarot cards. Only one door stood behind a cloaked woman dragging on a long pipe. "I need to ask some questions about the recent events. Could you tell me about a woman who came here last week, her name was-"

"You should take a seat. We can have a consultation." A trail of smoke floated through the air. None of the features of the woman stood out in particulat under the hood. She did not appear old, but also not young. None of her features stood out in ascetic beauty, but she did not harbor any marks against her. A perfectly plain face. Perfectly.

"No, that's okay." Bliss remained on her feet, looking to the doors in front and behind her. "I just want to know if you remember a woman named Leslie Manks."

"You don't believe, but you come to me. What do you expect me to do?" Her smoke blew out, distorting the image of her face to resemble an older hag in the shadows, and a beautiful woman in the light. The smoke faded and she was plain. "How can I explain what you do not know?"

"I can pay you. Do you understand that?" Bliss reached into her back pocket, pulling out two hundred dollars and putting them on top of the tarot cards.

"To touch the deck is to tempt fate. You may wish you had not." The perfectly plain hand grabbed Bliss' wrist, holding it with unnatural strength. The woman pushed Bliss' hand on top of the deck of cards. "But, you don't believe in any of this, so what fear should you have. Flip the card."

"I just need to know about Leslie Manks, and what happened to her. Where is she and why did she rob the estate of a man who murdered-"

"Flip the card." The two bills tumbled to the side. Bliss flipped the card outside of her own will. A card with two trees on either side flanked a man and a woman embracing each other. "The Lovers. Fate has spoken."

"I didn't hear fate say a thing. I'm just going to show myself out-" Bliss failed to break the woman's grip.

"You're going to stay. Fate has spoken."

The woman sat alone in her parlor with no sign of Bliss. She could not break from the plan. It fit into the fates like a needle fitting into the grooves of a record. "I knew someone would come." She tapped her hands around the crystal ball. "The non believers always make the best tools. I may not control fate, but I love to lose myself in it."

Ah the wonderfully dark state of Louisiana, the one place Madeline loved to frequent more than anywhere else in the United States. No matter where she set foot, the air was ripe with dark magic and sin. To be totally honest it was almost like a home away from home for the mischievous redheaded demon queen. Madeline had ventured onto the busy streets of New Orleans in a dazzling display of fire and force.

Normal such a display would draw a crowed or at least a few curious minds, but the patron’s around her were far to inebriated to pay her any mind. The demon goddess scoffed at the lack of attention she received. It was so typical of humans to believe in something one minute and completely forget about it the next. That being said, Madeline wasn’t here to recruit, she was here to cut loose, something she seemed to be doing quite a bit of lately to be honest.

The first bar Madeline passed on her trip down Bourbon Street was an immediate turn off as a rather out of shape individual sat outside the pub, letting loose the contents of his stomach into a nearby trashcan. Two fairly attractive girls stood behind him patting his back and encouraging him to continue on with the party. “Amature.” she muttered as she passed by the pathetic sight. A corner of the street seemed to draw more attention than the rest of the establishments lining the historical area. A large congregation of men and woman had gathered around the entrance to this one building in particular and it caught the demon queen’s curiosity.

Madeline pushed her way through the bustling crowd to find that they had all gathered outside of a strip club. There was certainly a few witty remarks she could make about this but she instead pushed her way through the crowd and up to the front door. A single bouncer stood between her and the inside of the club. “I’m sorry ma’am but I’m going to have to ask you to go to the back of the line.”
Madeline let out a small chuckle and placed her hand on the bouncer’s broad chest. “You’re really adorable and all, but I don’t have all night sweet heart. How about you let me in.” She gave the large man a wink and he slowly stepped aside. “My apologies miss, please go right in.” The bouncer then motioned for Madeline to enter the busy club. Manipulating people was far too easy, she almost found it boring sometimes, but this was not one of those times, and she was quite amused with herself. She let out a small chuckle and flipped off all the poor souls that were forced to wait outside as they all gave a collective sigh to her sudden allowance into the club.

Once inside Madeline made her presence very clear and known and indulged herself in all manner of nefarious acts during her stay. Eventually even this proved to be rather boring to the enigmatic demon. She had nearly drunk the place dry and partook in several other illicit acts but nothing seemed to bring her any pleasure at all. Eventually she pulled herself out of her seat in the VIP lounge and headed back outside. There was a slight chill in the air, nothing that bothered the demon queen, but she habitually pulled her hood over her head and made her way down the sidewalk. Several partygoers were scattered about, completely passed out from their night or partying.

In attempting to avoid tripping over a passed out individual, Madeline’s amber colored eyes caught a glimpse of something she had always found interesting, a séance parlor. The bright neon glow of the signs in the window seemed hypnotizing to the slightly inebriated goddess who chuckled at the idea of having her fortune read. Madeline rushed inside the parlor and was immediately bombarded by a thick blanket of smoke. Oddly enough it almost felt like it was guiding the demon through the building, eventually leading Madeline to the back area where the readings were actually done. The room itself was empty except for the table that sat in the center, adorned with a deck of tarot cards and a crystal ball.

Madeline paced around the seemingly empty room, finally coming to a stop before the crystal ball. She reached out for it with her metal hand but was caught off guard when she heard a woman’s voice. She got a further shock when her gaze turned to where the voice came from, and found a woman sitting at the table. “You seem lost child. Perhaps you’d like to take a seat. Maybe even coddle your curiosity a bit?”

Madeline rubbed her eyes, believing that she was either extremely drunk, or this woman had just appeared out of thin air. The feeling passed when Madeline could feel a strange energy emanating from the woman. She arched a brow before circling around the table and sitting down opposite from the fortune teller. “Good at reading otherworldly beings are we?” she said with a chuckle as she leaned forward and rested her arms on the top of the table. The woman remained wordless and reached for the deck of cards, to which Madeline reached out and placed her hand atop the fortune tellers. “No cards.”

The woman slowly removed her hand out from underneath Madeline’s and then leaned forward in a most sinister manor. “You do not belong here child. Your time is far from near. But you do have a propose to serve.” Madeline arched a brow, but before she could open her moth to issue a response to the woman’s cryptic words, she was whisked away.

Stupid wizard woman. Sitting inside of Bliss' own head was on the list of places Bliss loved to be but would hate to go. How she even ended up in here could only be blamed on something stupid like magic. Stupid wizard woman. In front of Bliss played out a scene of a much younger version of herself with a back pack opening a door to a store. Bliss tapped on a lightpole to get a fixation for what she could and could not interact with in this world.

The ageless woman walked past Bliss, pulling Bliss' attention with her hand. "We had a guest. She will be here soon, I bet you're wondering why-"

"No, shut the fuck up. Get me out of here now!" Bliss shoved her finger into the sternum of the oracle.

"You may not have a grasp on the strands of fate, but they still-"

"Shut your stupid whore mouth. I'm in here. Put me out there. Got it?"

The lines conjoining a worried look began to form a brief smile. "I'm going to enjoy ruining you with all of your-"

"I'm going to enjoy ruining- blah, blah, blah, I'm a stupid whore. Is that it? Can I leave now or are you needing me to help you perform at a six year old's birthday party? They get kinda cranky." Just behind the duo sprung forth a portal. Spiraling purple and black energy opened up to a horned figure being pushed through.

"Oh, here we are now, my next guest has-"

"Shut up. Shut the fuck up. Shut your, dumb whore mouth and go."

A puff of smoke left Bliss alone in the room. Alone with a singular portal pushing someone into the mindscape of Bliss. "Well, crap. Looks like I gotta go push through all of my previous memories to get back to reality. And I have to do it with you. I only like you when alcohol is involved. And then I really like you. Otherwise, you being evil is more unavoidable."

A serious rush of force overcame the demon queen and before she could even adjust to what was happening to her, she found herself being forced out of a distorted portal that looked eerily similar to the ones she used to travel. The initial rush was enough to send her head spinning, though she was pretty sure it was the excessive amount of alcohol she had consumed prior to being thrown into some mysterious plane of existence. Madeline did her best to remain in the portal but somehow she was being overwhelmed by another force that was doing its best to force her through.

Madeline wasn’t sure what to expect once she was completely forced out of the distorted portal. She immediately took notice of the fact that everything around her seemed relatively normal. It was almost like she had just been teleported to a different part of the world. Madeline would have believed this thought, if her senses weren’t being overloaded by the sheer amount of mystical energy that bathed this place. She rubbed her temples to alleviate the small headache she got from the sudden sensory overload. As Madeline attempted to recover from the side effects of being thrown into this world, she heard an all too familiar voice and couldn’t help but laugh as she looked up to see Bliss standing before her.

“Believe me when I say, there was a TON of alcohol involved. Well that and strippers. Trust me it was great.” she said. Madeline’s glace trailed just over Bliss’ shoulder to see a small child with an adorable little pink backpack entering a convenience store. Though she could only see the child from behind something made her feel like she knew who it was and as her gaze trailed back to Bliss, the expression she had on her face was all the confirmation that Madeline needed. “O M G! Is that…Is that you? You were soooo adorable. What happened?” she said in a joking tone.

Madeline then circled around Bliss while taking in the surrounding area. “Any idea what all this is?” she asked, rotating her metal hand through the air to sort of point at everything at once. The demon goddess had her own suspicions about what was going on, and where they were, but she wanted to hear Bliss’ take on the whole situation before she jumped to any conclusions.

"I wish I could enjoy alcohol and strippers with you. I guess you don't have to be there. And, I'm only into strippers for comparing that my life is in a better place. You get the point. I'll get the door." Bliss walked towards the door. "I'm still adorable. This is just proof I never changed." A click of the knob sounded as the door pulled closer to Bliss' chest. For a brief second she could survey the room from a distance. After another second, she witnessed the room from a different vantage point.

"Wow, my skin is way smoother now. I gotta figure how to bottle being eight." The much younger Bliss, adorned with a Sailor Moon shirt and green shorts continued to try and make some sense out of this terrible debacle of an evening.

"Did you get the Pikachu for your birthday?" A brown haired girl a year younger than Bliss tried to look through Bliss' binder of Pokemon cards, flipping through unorganized pages of random cards the young Bliss thought were cool, until she stumbled upon a Promo Happy Birthday Pikachu card, complete with Bliss' name written in the ______ section at the top of the card.

"Hey dummy!" A round boy with long brown, unkempt hair pushed past Bliss and stuck his greasy finger on the page. "You're not supposed to write your name on it! Now it's worthless and you can't even play with it at tournaments. I thought Asian kids were supposed to be smart." A taller blond boy and a skinny boy with wired glasses looked over to join in on the laughter.

"Hey fuck you!" Little Bliss stuck her finger in the fat folds of the larger boy, squeezing until he let out a cry and hopped back. "Touch my cards and I'll cut your face!"

"Bliss, you can't say swear words! We'll get in trouble!" The younger girl looked nervously around the store to see if any shopkeepers noticed the sudden change in Bliss' demeanor.

"Oh shut up, Becky. You move away in two years and I don't talk to you again- actually, maybe I should look you up." Little Bliss rubbed her chin as the large boy with the blood rushed red face began looking for words. "I don't need to worry about any of you-" Bliss pointed to the skinny kid. "In eighteen years, your name changes from David to Daniella, so I'll let you fill that one in-" Her finger moved to the taller blonde boy. "You actually turn out pretty well. I should look you up too. Remember me in twenty years, okay? And you-" Anger in her vindication quickly subdued as she rested her appendage at the large boy. "Oh yeah, we all kinda get sad, because you die around junior year when you get your head stuck in a laundry machine. I have no idea how you even do that, but it definitely happens."

While Bliss continued her new job as the Little Oracle of the Omaha, the woman of esoteric proportions touched upon the back of Madeline's arm. "Just remember, the more Bliss changes her memories, the more it impacts everyone else in those memories. I wonder what else she might stumble upon?" Just as quickly as the woman appeared, she vanished, leaving only the light traffic of late 90s Nebraska.

The demon queen arched a brow in confusion as one minute Bliss was leading the way into the nearby shop and then she had suddenly vanished. The sudden disappearance forced Madeline to rub her eyes, thinking that this was definitely the alcohols doing. She took several steps towards the door and swung it open cautiously hoping she didn’t vanish like Bliss did. The second the demon goddess opened the door she could hear younger Bliss insulting two boys that had been picking on her. If it wasn’t for kid Bliss’ ominous prophetic explanation of each kid’s fate, Madeline would have just chalked this up to Bliss being Bliss, but the fact that she was spouting out each kids future with such detail, told the demon queen that there was far more at play here.

It was then that Madeline felt a hand on her back. Her head turned very slowly, as an annoyed expression took hold of her. The fortuneteller stood behind the demon queen, and gave her a brief warning, as though Madeline was going to do something about it. “You’re joking right?” she asked sarcastically as the mysterious woman faded out of the so called dreamscape. Madeline let out a loud and aggravated grunt as she grabbed at her horns. “I swear, it’s like no one see’s the fucking horns sticking out of my head.” she said to herself. After having a mini hissy fit, Madeline regained her composure and entered the shop. A few of the patrons gave the goddess strange looks, not sure what to make of her appearance.

Madeline’s heavy black boots echoed of the concrete floor of the shop as she slowly approached the arguing children. She crouched down next to Bliss with a large grin on her face. “So um…I uh don’t know how to say this, but Miss Cleo said if you keep this up your going to alter the future or something ominous like that.” The red headed demon gave the now young Bliss a shrug of the shoulders. The fortunetellers message was pretty straight forward, but Madeline was a demon, she thrived on chaos, placing the responsibility of preserving the past or future in her hands was a very big mistake.

“I say you go wild and have a blast. After all your only young once right? Well I guess twice in your case but meh.” Madeline stood up and looked down at all the children. It made her chuckle a bit at how she towered over all of them. When she had stopped reveling in being larger than Bliss for the time being, her amber eyes drifted up to all the prying eyes of the people in the store. “I think the damage is done here. We should probably see what other memories of yours we could ruin.” she said in a playful tone while offering a hand to Bliss.

Little Bliss did not leave her house that day planning to give a fuck. The older Bliss made sure she did not break those plans. "Ruin the future in Nebraska? We might need to go to a more interesting place if I'm going to do-"

"Shit." The world changed around Bliss and Madeline. The walls adorned with Pokemon and Sailor Moon gave way to a still city street. "I'm going to miss being eight. Do you have any idea how much I could do if I went back to being eight, but still be me? I got invent- wait." Bliss looked over and saw Madeline's hips. "I'm still eight." A deep sigh pushed past Bliss' front teeth, opening a divide between the gum line and her tooth. "Tooth fairy can pay what she owes." With a sharp tug, Bliss yanked out the offending tooth- probably sooner than should have been given the blood pooling up in her mouth. "Hold on, I gotta take care of this." Bliss tucked around at her short pockets until she felt something paper like. A look of disdain came over her as she pulled out a Charizard she folded to make travel size. "Dammit little Bliss! You put a goldeen in a binder and Charizard goes in your pocket! I hate you so much you little moron."

Situated above the city rested a massive ship pouring forth a flight of vessels. "Crap, New York. We gotta find, Ice Bliss. Like Now." Little Bliss took off, but her stature greatly kept her pace in check, as did her greatly out of shape lungs. Blasts of energy broke pavement, building, and vehicle apart equally. Bliss stopped as a creature with mass tendrils lifted a car into the air. "I need a new body. And, some powers." The car slammed heavily to the pavement, dislodging the hubcab with enough force to knock a hole through the used tire banner hanging above Bliss. "Um, Madeline? Kinda useless here."

Madeline felt extremely confused by the sudden shift in scenery, though she would have blamed this on being drunk, the truth was she had lost her buzz a while ago, her innate healing factor had seen to that. Now it was just a matter of her trying to make sense of things, which if it were up to her she’d rather just get drunk again and pretend none of this was happening. Her amber colored eyes trailed down to mini Bliss as she yanked the loose tooth from her mouth. A small chuckle escaped the goddess’s lips as the girl spoke with a lisp. Whipping an imaginary tear from her eye, Madeline crouched down to be eye level with Bliss. “Oh man you are just too precious right now.”

The light hearted atmosphere quickly turned to something that Madeline was all too comfortable with. Pure and total chaos gripped the small town as a strange ship loomed overhead with various smaller ships cascaded out of the ships insides. “Looks like I missed one hell of a party while I was out.” she somewhat mumbled to herself. Somewhere in the depths of Arcadia, was a mini Madeline still learning all about her new life.

A loud bang snapped the demon queen back to reality, her eyes wiped around to see a strange creature towering over kid Bliss. The girl didn’t even need to say a word for the demon queen’s instincts to kick in. It posed a threat to Bliss, whom Madeline had grown to call a friend and she wasn’t about to let anything happen to the small and frail girl.

In the blink of an eye Madeline had propelled herself forward, covering the distance between her and the creature in the span of a heartbeat. The goddess of war’s right arm rocketed forward as if launched from a cannon, a large and magnificent swordspear forming in her grasp mid thrust. The blade of the swordspear pierced trough the tendril monster’s torso causing it to let out a screech of pain. “I know I’m usually the one that walks around like a talking encyclopedia when it comes to history lessons, but would you mind telling me what in the name of Arcadia is going on here?!” The demon goddess said, Looking over her shoulder at kid Bliss.

The creature continued to writhe on the end of Madeline’s weapon, prompting her to turn around and lay into the beast with her metal arm, jarring it loose from the end of the swordspear and causing it to stagger backwards. Madeline then lifted her Spear so that it was vertical, with her left arm she drew back from the shaft, causing an arrow of shadow fire to form. Before the tendril creature could regain its composure, Madeline loosed the arrow. The arrow tore through the creature leaving a massive hole in what the demon goddess assumed was its torso. “We can’t be walking around out in the open like this. Though I love this new adorable compact thing you got going on, your pretty vulnerable out here. Any suggestions?” The fiery redhead said as she turned away from the monster and approached kid Bliss.

Madeline stepped in to save the day, but Bliss found herself elsewhere. At least the older Bliss did. The younger Bliss remained, cowering under a dumpster, hugging her knees with tears cascading down her cheeks. "Are you going to eat me?" Lil' Bliss choked up a small response as she looked down at her Sailor Moon shirt for possibly the last time. "Please- I wanna go home!"

A frigid wind picked up from the rooftops. Thick layers of ice began to form around the dumpster, turning Lil' Bliss' tears solid. "This is New York. During the invasion." Stepping out with a red bandanna wrapped around the bottom of her face, a slightly younger Bliss came to life. "Things around here might get hairy if we don't- holy shit! She's still here?"

"You aren't supposed to say swear words." Lil' Bliss looked up and sniffled, most likely from the crying, but possibly from the extreme cold Bliss brought with her.

"You aren't supposed to bend expensive cards! Or write your goddamn name on them. Fuck. And don't worry about Madeline. The fact she has horns coming out of her head is only like the tenth worst thing about her." Snapping back into action, Bliss abducted her arm into a position to aim it downwind. A blast of ice rang out, impaling a monster as it approached. "I need to get this back again. Other than the fact I'm literally dead inside from having no pulse or heart beat, and my body temperature is somewhere in the low Kelvins, this is pretty cool." Bliss snapped her fingers, letting an ice fixture fall. "No pun intended."

Bliss reached down and grabbed Lil' Bliss. "You need to come with me, because I don't want to know what happens if something terrible happens to you. Madeline, I have no idea how we move around this place. I wonder if we can check out your memories for once."

Lil' Bliss broke her hand away from her older self's grip. "Your hand hurts."

"Fine. Get lost and die. See if I care. Madeline, I'm leaving. Come with if you want." Bliss took one step forward with confidence, walking into the side of a wall. "I thought that would open into a new time or something." A throbbing nose would soon pass on her list of cares under the shadows of creatures large enough to cast neighborhood wide shadows took to the skies. "New plan. I need to do something that changes the past in order to leave this place. That sounds about right, right?"

A thick red brow arched in confusion as Madeline crouched down in front of kid Bliss. For some reason she was acting…well like a kid, which wasn’t entirely the oddest thing to happen today, but it most certainly caught the demon goddess of guard. Things continued to move along at a chaotic pace as a sudden cold front moved in. The air drastically came to a chill, and a thin layer of ice began to claim the dumpster and the area around Madeline and the child. The sudden decrease in temperature prompted Madeline to fold her arms across her chest in an effort to keep whatever body heat she had from escaping. Of all the things the demon hated, shear cold was at the top of the list, especially for what it did to her body.

A voice called out in an all too familiar fashion. The fiery red head stood up as a young adult Bliss approached. “Only the tenth worst? Awe that’s so sweet.” Madeline joked, whipping an imaginary tear from her face. Her amber colored eyes shot wide open as a blast of ice raced past her and collided with another monster. The altercation was enough to make Madeline cringe a bit in annoyance. “And I thought you had a chip on your shoulder before. What’s with the bandana? Local gang holding tryouts or something?”

Adult Bliss had a point, the fortune teller did say that anything that happened in these memories could have real world implications, and if that was the case, then they couldn’t leave kid Bliss behind to fend for herself, even if the real bliss didn’t seem to care all that much. Before the child could run out of the alleyway, Madeline snatched her up and tucked her under her metal arm. “Not so fast little one.” she said before her attention shifted when a thud rang out nearby. Madeline burst out into laughter, nearly dropping kid Bliss on her face in the process. “Smooth move Mr. Magoo.”

The laughter faded as the area became blanketed in the shadow of a much larger monster. Whatever it was that had decided to invade New York in the past was lucky the people of the modern world had all but forgotten about Madeline. If she had been there, there wouldn’t have been an invasion, it would have been an outright slaughter. The fortuneteller obviously had a reason for keeping the Bliss’ and Madeline in the particular scenario, what that was, had yet to be determined. Madeline placed mini Bliss gently on the ground next to her. “Look, I know Elsa over there seems really rude and mean, but I’m gonna need you to stand next to her for a little bit ok.”

After making sure the child was safe, Madeline turned to the large creature looming overhead. “What would we consider changing the past in this scenario?” She shouted back to Ice Bliss. Madeline hadn’t been around to witness the invasion of New York. By this point in time she was still undergoing training and learning the ins and outs of Arcadia. Her fiery red mane of hair wiped back and forth as she shook the thought from her head and turned her gaze back to the monster. “I’m open to suggestions.”

"If you're open to suggestions, I believe we can first start with getting rid of most of what you claim passes for personality, and then start working on the rest of your-"

"Look out!" Lil' Bliss broke Bliss' grip and dove behind the dumpster. The impact of a telephone poll into a wall served as the first sign of the impending creature's assault. The second signal did not come across as subtle.

A massive tentacle flung forward with no intention of leaving Bliss standing- or unbroken. Whatever fluid coursed through the tentacle gushed onto the ground around the alley. A sharped blade of ice stretched seven feet in the air with a five foot base all etching into a fixed blade. "I forgot how great this stuff was. Madeline, are you up for a robbery when we get back? Someone stole this from me, and it is too good to not be in me."

A ravaged shriek came from the creature. Stability coursed out more quickly than any bodily fluid- or tear in reality. Slowly another world appeared just under the creature, growing stronger and more vibrant as the creature cascaded away from life. "Madeline, finish it off! That's our ticket out of here-" Nothing shook the alley quite like a full swing from the vicious creature flailing in pain. A tentacle brushed just over Bliss' head, missing her by a safe enough distance for Bliss to keep her head both in the moment and on her shoulders. The second pass cried out with a much smaller voice in much more trouble. "Hold on little me!"

Bliss threw a block of ice to create a braced foundation along the edges of the dumpster, holding the advance of the tentacle at bay. Lil' Bliss locked her fingers together behind her head as the metal dumpster began to fold in the middle. An icy hand grabbed the smaller version, pulling her out just as the dumpster slammed against the wall. "Hey, Madeline! Remember when I said finish this guy? Would you kindly do that!?"

With a smaller version of herself tucked under her arm, Bliss ran towards the light behind the creature, dodging and deflecting blows with ice as she moved closer to impending danger and hopeful opportunity.

“Awe you’re so sweet Bliss. How could I ever get by without you in my life?” Madeline said, peering over her shoulder at Bliss. Her gaze snapped back to the large creature as it sent a telephone pole hurdling into a nearby wall. It wasted no time in following up its attack with another. This time instead of flinging a piece of the environment, it lashed out with one of its elongated tentacles. Older Bliss was proving to be rather resourceful with her powers, using her control of ice to cleave the tentacle clean off. The creature reeled back in pain, shrieking at the sudden loss of one of its tentacles.

It seemed Bliss and Madeline were on the same page upon seeing the tear in reality. Hearing Bliss state the obvious was more than enough to prompt a sigh from Madeline as she held her swordspear at her side ready to finish of the bizarre creature. “Oh! That’s how we get out of here? The giant swirling portal to a different world? I would have never guessed. Thank you for that astute observation.”

Amidst the banter between Bliss and Madeline, the creature let out another shriek of pain as it writhed about before unloading another attack. The tentacle barely avoided liberating Bliss’ head from her shoulders. Madeline took one swing of her swordspear and cleaved the tentacle off, causing the beast to reel back once again. The tear in reality below the creature grew larger in size signaling that they were correct in assuming that killing this thing would help them move on.

Moments later Bliss rushed past Madeline, mini Bliss tucked under her arm. The two were making a dash for the open portal. Bliss did her best to avoid being hit by the beast as she drew closer and closer to the opening. If the trio were to move on through this twisted game the fortuneteller had placed them in, they were going to have to make up their own rules as the went along. She had warned about changing events in the past and the effect they could have on the future, but with no other clear signs of how to advance through this twisted and warped reality, they were going to have to break a few eggs.

Madeline drew her arm back, a swirl of black fire formed around the tip of her blade. With an excessive amount of force, Madeline thrusted her weapon forward and a beam of pitch black energy shot forward. The beam tore clean through the weird creature, leaving a hole the size of a small car in what the demon goddess assumed was its torso or head. The attack didn’t stop there, as Madeline quickly retracted her blade before swinging it Diagonally in the creature’s direction. The swing sent forth a sharp wave of shadow fire that cleaved the beast in two.

With one final shriek from the monster, the portal expanded for the last time, and Madeline quickly rushed after the two Bliss’.

Any door would do just fine. Leg door. Alley door. Blue door. It did not matter in this case; anything would be better than a stroll through New York City in the process of its imminent doom. "Oh great. Words. From Madeline. Always a winner." Bliss did a barrel roll. Any dimension where Bliss successfully performs a barrel roll has no warrants in the current realm of time and space, but Bliss could deal with it. Even, if it did mean New Orleans would need to wait. "Where are we now?"

"I wanna go home." Lil' Bliss hung from under Bliss' arm, gingerly kicking her feet in an attempt to get comfortable.

"Well, I have no idea how to do that, so it looks like you're going to be hanging out with me for a while." All color in the room began to turn from a brown blob into a more formulated coat of brown. "Now, be good while I try to find a-"

A gentle sob turned into a more expansive cry. "I wanna go home!"

"Well fine." Bliss dropped Lil' Bliss to the ground. "Cry about that."

Lil' Bliss cried even more as she grabbed her body. "That was mean!"

"This looks like a lab. I don't remember one particular bad thing, but I do remember a lot of individual ones happening." The brown turned gray. Form became sheets of metal wall plating. Each bolt pressed deeply into the floor to create a cascade of perfect mechanism. The body slumped on the floor in the middle of the room offered no opinion. "Oh dammit. Now I know where we are."

A woman with a syringe walked towards the unconscious body of an older than New York, but younger than current Bliss. "Well, I guess I need to save- oh wait. Madeline. I've got an idea. That voodoo lady said nothing bad would come from changing stuff in here right?"

Traveling through the weird memory portal was definitely nothing like the last change of scenery. Where the transition from the small store to war torn New York was seamless and easy to adjust to, this portal was the opposite. The bright blue infested skies of New York had been traded out for a murky brown blob that gave no context what so ever as to when or where they were. Up ahead, a few feet from where Madeline had landed, were the younger Bliss and kid Bliss, both having a mini argument. The altercation made Madeline chuckle a bit. It was quite a treat to see just how irritated Bliss could make herself.

As Madeline drew closer to the dynamic duo the brown blob began to change shades and slowly take form. Before long the void turned into a laboratory, one that Bliss was familiar with. That last bit shouldn’t have really come as a surprise to Madeline seeing as how they were casually strolling through Bliss’ memories. The demon goddess came to a stop at younger Bliss’ side, before her eyes fell upon the collapsed body a few feet away from them. The sudden appearance of a mysterious woman wielding a syringe appeared from seemingly nowhere and slowly crept towards the unconscious Bliss like some cliché bond villain.

Younger Bliss broke the silence of the whole scene by abruptly asking Madeline about the cryptic warning the fortuneteller had said earlier. Madeline arched a brow, the look on her face should have been all the answer Bliss needed as it was an expression that pretty much screamed ‘Are you serious?’. The demon queen’s metal arm raised up and she outright buried her face in her cold steel palm. Madeline lifted her head out of her palm to finally respond to younger Bliss. This was the perfect opportunity to be a massive ass to the woman, luckily she and Madeline were good friends. “She didn’t say anything about the actions having a possative or negative outcome. She just said whatever you did would affect the people in those memories.”

There was a slight pause as Madeline stared at the younger version of her friend, her expression made it seem like she had an idea that was dependent on Madeline’s answer. “What is your planning on doing exactly?”

"Okay, but nothing negative will happen. That's all I need to know!" Ice began forming around Bliss' hands as she began to cause the room to grow more cold.

"That's not what she said! If you change things, bad things will happen..." Lil' Bliss picked herself off the ground and scuttled towards a wall. She looked to Madeline as she came through the portal for support, then remembered everything about Madeline. Alone, Lil' Bliss just slumped to the ground.

The more astute and lively Bliss went to work heaving the lab coated woman out of the room with a bolt of ice, but keeping her lab coat pinned to the wall. "Now, that means she has a syringe on her. If I can just-bingo." Bliss pulled out the syringe and placed it in her pocket. "I don't know how carrying things from area to area works around here, but that little thing is still here, so it can't be that hard. I guess we'll just-"

A sudden life exhaled into the room with a thick level of smoke. "Well done Bliss." The slow clap of hands arose from the other side of the room. "You've managed to change your life for the better. Or worse. I'm no one to judge."

"I wanna go home..." Still slumped on the floor, Lil' Bliss wiped a tear from her cheek.

"Wait, she's still here?! Send her back! I don't want her!" While happy she stole the serum, raising a kid would definitely complicate her home life. Giving it to Madeline would cross her mind, but Bliss did not hate herself enough to do that. Madeline tormented an adult Bliss enough for her to believe giving her a small one would be any better. "Wait, what about those murders and all the other weird stuff from around here?"

"Those still happened. This is New Orleans, but most of them did not happen in this time line. Some took place in other places, while others in other-"

"Oh god, I don't care. Madeline, grab Lil' Bliss and let's get the hell out of here. Do you think injecting myself with this unknown substance to try to get ice powers back is a good idea?"