Fashionista

New York on a sunny day felt good when the sunrays beamed down. Only the good clouds hung around, and none of them posted a noticeable objection to the sun as it hung lazily just over the skyline. A brisk breeze furthered the calm, blowing the remaining strands of hair Bliss left out of her ponytail about her face. Bliss wore a pair of khaki shorts with a blue polo shirt hanging just below her belt line. Steam rose from the coffee in her hand, fogging the lenses on her sunglasses. Bliss kicked through the rest of her morning route on the way from the subway terminal.

In the shadows of an arching building, began what what end up being one of the major points of Bliss' day. Given the next few phases, it may take the major draw of her day.

Her younger half sister Mitsuko set up her new display on the far side of the block, fixated in a new storefront with money Bliss managed to find from asking Chelle. The storefront sat situated in the perfect location, with the right traffic, and the best look- but still no one was inside. Even Mitsuko.

Bliss pushed her sunglasses up and stepped through the French boutique door. Mannequins all lined the upper levels fully outfitted with the latest trends Mitsuko went with. Blouses, high waist pants, and a few pieces of jewelry pushed up the forearm made the lifeless forms look fashionable, much like the consumers Bliss wished would flood into the store.

A struggle sounded in one of the back rooms, prompting Bliss to push past the clothes rack and head for the door. As Bliss moved closer to the door, the mannequins around the room began to move with a stealthy resolve, falling in behind Bliss.

Alan and Aurora sat on top of a billboard somewhere in the downtown district of New York. From up here they had a birds-eye view of the streets down below and could scan for interesting sights and people at their leisure, "Hey Alan? Do you know why so many of the taxis in New York are yellow?" Aurora asked, sounding genuinely curious.

Alan took a couple seconds to ponder an answer before giving the closest thing he could to a shrug with his alien form, "Well, I guess it's so they're easier to pick out from the crowds of other cars, especially if it's not time. I mean, kinda hard to miss a vehicle that's a bright shade of yellow."

Instead of being satisfied though, Aurora frowned, "Yeah, but...don't they know there's other colors they can use that work just as well? I mean, red, blue, green, any of those colors would due. Using the same color all the time is bound to get dull and drab eventually..." With a sigh, she hovered into the air, "Ok, enough looking at steel and concrete. Let's go find a spot that can brighten my mood...like down there!" Aurora excitedly pointed down to what looked like a clothing store.

It was Alan's turn to frown, "I don't know, Aurora...clothing stores aren't exactly my forte.." However, upon turning to face his partner, he saw her wielding the most evil weapon imaginable: The puppy dog eyes. It didn't take long for the former human's resolve to falter and for him to let out a sigh, "Fine, fine.." With a giggle, Aurora hugged him before they flew over behind a nearby building where the two proceeded to fuse back into Alan's former human self.

They then proceeded to head inside.

If nothing else, someone needed to at least bring in foot traffic, but every employee Mitsuko hired seem to be away at the moment. "Not the greatest way of running a store, but if Mitsuko just wants to leave in the middle of the day, fine." The list of workers populating the boutique slipped Bliss' mind. There was the brunette, the blonde, the Japanese one, the Chinese one, and the other blonde. "Not a one. And the door was unlocked."

The mannequin following Bliss moved slightly to the left as Bliss turned back to look at the door. The features turned back to hardened plastic, completely escaping Bliss' revocation of responsibility for searching the back room.

"The lights were all on. And, there's a weird couple hanging around outside." Bliss tapped her fingers on the counter as her eyes drifted to the top of her lids. "I wonder what they want. Probably want to loiter. Or take pictures of things and see if they can buy it on Amazon."

The door opened and the couple proceeded to enter. Bliss maintained her hand on her chin, not giving a welcome while she maintained direct contact with the duo.

Just as the cold reception from Bliss continued to crawl, the door from the side room opened. A large amount of cloth rolls emerged with a pair of legs sticking out the bottom. "Not sure where I'm going with this Mitsy!"

"You're still here! Why aren't you watching the front!" Bliss shouted out, prompting the clothing rolls to fall to the ground.

A young girl with her hair pulled into a ponytail stood with eyes large with surprise. Or, maybe they were just always big. "Oh, Bliss. Hey! We have customers!"

"You. You have customers." Bliss kept her hand on her chin.

"Welcome to Mitsy's! What can we help you with today?" The girl stepped over the rolls in a knee length black skirt with a yellow vest over a white button down shirt. "I'm Erica."

Alan took a look around upon stepping into the store. It was definitely nice enough and much more colorful and lively than the rather bland stone and concrete outside. "Ahh...this is so much better..." Aurora remarked with a giggle in their shared mind, "Now come on. Let's go see if there's anything worth trying on!"

"Oh no!" Alan stopped her, "I only agreed to come in here and look around. I did not say anything about trying clothes on or buying them," Aurora let out a loud groan but he ignored her in favor of focusing on the lady whom was speaking to him, "Ah, hello there. I hope you don't mind. I saw your store and I just thought I'd come in to see if anything piqued my interest. Got anything here you'd recommend checking out?"

It was now he noticed the other girl over at the counter looking rather annoyed, "Umm...not to be rude but is she alright? She looks ready to tear someone's head off for whatever reason..."

Erica kept her eyes on the customers, making notations in her mind as to just what she would love to see Alan try on. "I've got some pants. We can try them with button up shirts, T-shirts, and then we can try sweaters over them. Oh, this will be great; Mitsy just sewed up some great patterns." Her attention and attitude drifted towards Alan's discovery. "Oh, she doesn't work here. She just gives her sister money and shows up from time to time."

While Bliss could hear the conversation, she did not interject in anyway whatsoever. Instead looking blankly towards the wall behind Erica and Alan. "I think he can pull off that green sweater."

"I agree!" Erica grabbed the sweater off the rack and held it around her torso. After selecting the other skirts, pants, sweaters, and shirts, Erica handed the garments over to each of the owners. "Let's get started!"

"The dressing rooms are just behind those doors." Erica pushed the first stall open, showing the cramped compartment with a mannequin in the corner. "Weird. I don't remember the mannequins being in here. Maybe Mitsy moved them so people could hang their clothes on them?"

A bump came from the backroom just behind Bliss.

Bliss put her phone down on the counter and looked to the door. The air conditioning kicking on never caused that much noise. Neither did any roaming from the neighboring stores. Seeing the customers taken care of, Bliss decided to look into it. Maybe Mitsy was busy cutting fabric and dropped something. It would at least give an excuse as to why she abandoned the storefront. Not a good one, but Mitsy typically had her mind elsewhere.

The first steps Bliss took when walking into the backroom caused a creaking of the boards. The hollow boards. She fumbled around for the lightswitch, eventually feeling the hard plastic against the side of her finger. Her thumb and index finger gripped the apex and brought forth light to the backroom. The light flashed on just as a scarf covered Bliss' eyes, pulling her away from the door and into the backroom.

Slowly, the door to the backroom slid closed.

"Umm...alright than," Alan said with a nod, just accepting what he was being told, his attention being set on the large pile of garments he was being handed. Seeing the Erica girl's smile though kept him from complaining, "Thanks," He walked over to the changing room and sorted out the articles, wondering what would go well together, "Any ideas, Aurora?"

"I agree with Erica. The green sweater would look good on you," Aurora remarked with a snicker, "Oh, and put on those black cargo pants with it. Also, I think the red shirt and brown jeans would go great together. That t-shirt and shorts would go well together, and..." Alan could do little more than face-palm, wondering if the rest of his partner's race were just as...eccentric as she was.

Regardless, he followed her advice and before long, he was coming out of the room wearing various outfits which included a brown fedora and duster like a detective in an old black and white noir movie, the outfits Aurora had suggested, and a couple of his own inventions like a black sweatshirt coupled with navy blue splash pants. Each time, he would get Erica's opinion before disappearing behind the changing room door yet again to change.

Erica went to her cell phone as Alan disappeared by the changing room door. Her finger moved an image of a shirt over to an outcropping of a mannequin, before pulling a picture of some pants. Before Alan even stepped out of the dressing room, Erica knew exactly what she would be seeing- and even then, she knew Alan looked nice. "Great! The app Bliss made- well kinda made, Nancy made it with Bliss' code, but, let's see what else you have."

Erica reached over and grabbed a host of clothes, pushing them into Alan's arms and watching him disappear only to reappear in a new fashion. Every time Alan emerged, a mannequin appeared closer behind the ever watchful and ever excited Erica with her mobile app. "Looking good. Looking good."

On the last time he emerged, Erica no longer stood waiting. Nor did the mannequin remain in the dress shoppe.

A door gently swung back and forth from the back wall. A simple storeroom full of bolts of clothing and an industrial sewing machine and a smaller, more personalized sewing machine. All along the rooms stood a number of mannequins, all facing a number of boxes moved to show a secret door.

Slowly the mannequins came to life to defend their turf.

Alan had never been a big fan of visiting clothing stores. Aside from the fact his Mom didn't have a lot of money to throw around when he was younger, the whole atmosphere of these types of stores always felt a bit...intimidating due to their size and scope. That, and trying on clothes could be just plain boring.

Nonetheless, he did eventually find himself getting into the mood and just went along with the girl's requests. Of course, there was the matter of him paying for one of these outfits, which judging by the work and detail put into each would likely cost a pretty penny.

However, his thoughts were interrupted when he came out the last time and saw that Erica was missing, "What the...Erica?" He glanced around the place, "Erica? You around here?" Suddenly, he noticed the mannequins starting to move and blinked in surprise, "Haunted clothing store...first time for everything, I suppose..." With that, his human appearance melted away to reveal the alien entity known as Siren underneath.

Her arm morphed into a giant curved blade, "Hang on, Erica, I'm coming!" With that, she dashed forward, swinging her weapon in the hopes of cutting through the opposition and reaching the door.

The first mannequin dropped to the ground, split in twain. The next two sprang forward, leaving behind their mannequin form and devolving into a gooey black mass resembling a human form. Their arms shot forward to try and wrap Siren's curved blade to her side, while the mannequin Siren split in half began to reform behind her.

From the corner of the room, another mass of blackness formed itself into a bolt like projectile, launching itself towards Siren with the hope to ensnare her ankles, leaving her immobile against the barrage of blows from the other black mass creatures around Siren.

Bliss tried again to pull her wrists out of the black mass binding her hands behind her back. "So, other than this little misadventure, how were the morning sales?"

"We had a good 10 AM hour. 11 slowed down." Mitsuko, her hair loose around her shoulders and wearing a pink button down shirt with a white vest over it, sat next to Bliss with her hands also bound.

"Did everyone who works for you get captured?" Bliss could feel Erica wiggling around behind her, pulling on the ropes tying the two girls together.

"Summer had the day off." Erica stopped long enough to position her head next to Bliss' ear.

"Why does she get today off?" Bliss looked over to Mitsuko.  "Her sales aren't great."

"It's the schedule rotation." Nancy, one of Mitsuko's friends from college whom made the trip from Japan with her sat tethered to Mitsuko's back. "We alternate weekdays according to-"

"Well, I think merit should constitute something when dealing with-"

The door to the room slowly crept open. The hinges thick with rust screeched as they exerted nothing but friction upon the bearings. "Planning our escape are we?" Out of the shadows stepped a woman clad in black, her eyes violet, hair raven, intention ill.

"No, we weren't!" Mitsuko struggled to turn to face the woman.

"We were going over employee rotation." Erica tried to look over Bliss' shoulder, causing Bliss to naturally use leverage to push back against the interloper.

"Alternating weekdays off is a good idea right?" Nancy followed Mitsuko's rotation.

"I-" The woman stepped from the shadows, her look of control slowly faded to bewilderment, followed by confusion. "Actually believe you. You're taking some of the fun out of this. Nonetheless, I have the requirements for the sacrifice, so it's time to begin the ritual."

Siren had to resist the urge to gag at the sight of the mannequin collapsing into black goo. Right away, she knew these weren't your ordinary living mannequins. She saw the other mannequins transforming and cursed to herself. Fighting so many of them at once was risky, especially since she'd hate to see Erica's reaction to her store being trashed. As such, she found her ankles being held down by another inky mass.

Raising her other arm and letting it morph into a shield, she used it to hold off the barrage of blows from the enemy. She then managed to swing her blade and cut through the inky tendrils holding her before backpedaling in the direction of the door, "Sorry, but I got no time for you chumps," She then reached out with her psychic power and lifted several shelves together to serve as a barricade, "That ought to slow you down..." With that, she turned and rushed towards the door, letting out a Xena-style battle cry as she launched herself through the air with a drop kick towards it.

"One drop of blood, and it all comes to fruition." An obsidian blade carved out a crimson tone from the hand of the witch clad in black. "Too bad it needed to be mine. I would have much preferred a little taste of someone else."

Bliss looked around at the stone walls fading into long abandoned archways. "Why did we not notice there is an underground lair in this place?" She kicked her feet to position herself towards Mitsuko. "Are we paying for this?"

"I- um." Mitsuko looked behind her. "Nancy?"

"I don't know. Summer pays the bills." Nancy took more time checking on the damage the binds did to her boots and dress than on the irrelevant discussion.

"Summer is the worst. She isn't even here." The malice from Bliss' eyes shot back to her fixated position. "Who gave her the day off?"

"It's alternating weekdays; we've been over this." The excitement from Erica's voice all but dropped as she entered round two of the discussion.

"Will you all shut up! I do not want to hear about your asinine scheduling. I once operated a cabal out of a necropolis with hundreds of minions and you know how I handled days off?" The witch pointed the blade towards her soon to be sacrifices. "I didn't give them any!"

Bliss stayed fixed towards the shadowy portal on the ground. It's slow growth towards the sides of the room gave room for an altar to begin to ascend. "Okay, she's way worse than any of us."

"No days off?" Erica bumped her head into the back of Bliss' in accidental protest.

"I need my days off!" Nancy's obsession with her dress met its match, and her attention fell on the black clad witch. "I'm taking tomorrow off, Mitsy."

"You didn't clear that." Mitsuko turned her head from the danger.

"One week's notice." Erica chimed in.

The altar stopped in its rise. The witch lowered her hands. "I'm getting gags."

Subtlety was not Siren's strong suit but that was fine with her as at the moment she had more pressing matters to attend to, namely knocking down the door in front of her. As it flew off its hinges, she ran inside, "Alright, you, let the girls go or I'll-" She suddenly stopped herself at realizing the kidnapper was nowhere in sight, "Huh...must've missed them..." At seeing Bliss and the others tied up, she immediately ran over, "Hang on, ladies, I'll get you out of there,"

She got to work undoing the ropes binding them, "Look, you probably have a lot of questions right now and I'd love to answer them, but we kinda need to leave before the mannequins out there get in. As such, I'm gonna need you to stay close to me, and I promise I'll get you out of here."

The door flew off the hinges, letting Siren make her way into the suspiciously empty room- empty of everything but the potential sacrifices bound and tranced on the ground. All of their focus fell in front of them with no acknowledgement of Siren as she entered the room. They offered no resistance when she began freeing them, and even felt their wrists once the bonds were loosened enough, but the emotion of the rescue fell flat.

Siren made quick work of rescuing the women from the clutches of darkness, ushering a promise of escape and a warning of the mannequins. No direct sound of conversation or thanks came from the four women as they brushed themselves off and began to look towards the hallway in which the witch had first descended down.

The traipse of footsteps began to echo one after another. A shadowed figure began to emerge with a pair of deep purple eyes offering a fixed position. "You didn't think it would be that easy did you?"

The four women lost their form to black pulsating forms. Blades and clubs began to form in their appendages, blocking Siren from escape. They did not jump to attack as they had like the others in the supply room, but instead kept their attention on the witch.

"You are going to find your friends." Shadows dripped from the witch's fingers as she brought a hand up to her face. "But, you may be doing so in a different fashion that you would have hoped for."

The lack of thanks was a bit annoying for Siren, but she shrugged it off and just focused on the need to get them out of there. However, thoughts of escape were erased when it turned out this had all been one big trap. She glared around her as she saw the shadow creatures with their weapons ready but not attacking...yet.

As she saw the woman enter, it became evident to her that she must've been the one controlling them...which meant as long as she was conscious and focusing her magic on them, they would likely never stop coming, "So, you're the one responsible for all this..." She morphed her limbs into a giant blade and a spiked mace, respectively, before raising the blade in the woman's direction, "Alright, start talking, who are you, and what do you want with those girls?" Siren eyed the altar warily, "Though judging by your taste in interior design, I can probably take a guess and say you want them for some type of sacrifice..."

"So you choose violence? An interesting choice." The witch kept her eyes focused on the blade looming towards her. "I was planning on a sacrifice, it's true. One of them even has powers to make it a little more special. Not that it helped her when she tried snooping around, but you would be something even more special. Now, I know you aren't going to accept my offer willingly-"

The shadow creatures behind Siren lunged towards her, trying to trap her arms at her sides and her knees in conjunction with each other. The drip of shadows from the witch's fingers only further powered the loss of mass from the apparitions, making their girth and power more than it once was.

"But, I have means of persuasion. What if in exchange for you, I allow the girls with no powers to leave unharmed?"