“What’s wrong?” Sheriff Harper demanded. “Who is she? You know her?”

  “Yeah. Local Dominatrix. Hates men with a passion. And she’s a Mentalist Class with a Slaver Profession. Her CHARM spells can make you do whatever she wants if you can’t resist her. She also has MASS CHARM. Shit!” I cast a PSYCHIC SHIELD on Bhaarrt.

  “Worthless cretins, male scum. Rejoice! Your Goddess is here. You are the first of the masses who will submit to MY control over this city. Superior women of Eddington. Take up your sacred place and rule with me. Take control over the male filth that has denied us our rightful place above them as they grovel at our feet. Make them beg for the scraps of attention we deign to throw to them.” She slapped her flogger against her hand about every fifth word. That wasn’t the end of her monologue about how women should rule men.

  My next PSYCHIC SHIELD went to Shadow. In five seconds, Ingrid would be next; she could resist longer.

  [William of Brinsford:] [PARTY] [She’s a Mentalist. Has MIND CONTROL. PSYCHIC SHIELDs going your way as fast as I can. If you feel it and resist, pretend to obey. Need time.]

  [Ingrid:] [PARTY] [???]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Ingrid] [Ask later.]

  As soon as I could, I gave Ingrid her shield. I’d hoped you could directly target party members with buffs from the interface…and it worked. They just had to be in range. They didn’t need line of sight.

  “How can I help?” Agent Pozarkova asked, nearly interrupting my casting. Her voice sounded calm, but her face looked worried.

  Glancing back at her, I had an idea. “Accept the join,” I said, sending her a Party Invite. Her eyes widened as the party interface popped up in her peripheral vision

  [William of Brinsford:] [PARTY] [Blaze asked to help. Got an idea.]

  It was close. I barely had enough time while Boudoir was still monologuing and gloating to cast a PSYCHIC SHIELD on Blaze. I hoped I was high enough to resist anything she threw at me.

  [Blaze:] [PARTY] [Hi. This is a shock. PSYCHIC SHIELD? Why? How?]

  [Ingrid:] [PARTY] [Welcome]

  [Bartholomew Ironshaper:] [PARTY] [Howdy. Who Bhaarrt smash?]

  [Urako Sarutobi:] [PARTY] [whatcha want me to do? slit her throat? hi.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PARTY] [Not if we can help it. Shadow, keep her too busy to cast and stun her if you can. Alive is best, but stop her spells. You won’t see them, but she’ll cast when she stops monologuing. Blaze. Get behind her and light up her chair. Bhaarrt, turn her away from people. I’ll keep her busy. Go!]

  [Bartholomew Ironshaper:] [PARTY] [Roger that.]

  Bhaarrt muscled his way through the crowd. People scattered fast as they saw the Gray Ogre bearing down on them.

  “Now! You are all mine!” Madame Boudoir finally shouted, and I felt the MASS CHARM spell hit.

  MASS CHARM RESISTED flashed in front of me. I countered with a basic MANA BOLT. It rocked her back, but ten points of damage only annoyed her. Still, I had her attention now.

  “Hey! Bedroom bitch! Over here!” I shouted.

  That got her attention. Her gaze snapped to me, her painted eyebrows arching. “You! Ki...”

  Shadow’s hand appeared across her mouth, her dagger tracing a thin red line across Boudoir’s throat as she tried to recoil.

  “Say sumpthin’ and die,” I thought I heard Shadow mutter.

  Bhaarrt CHARGEd into one of the front litter bearers, knocking them all sideways. The impact twisted the chair, exposing its back to Blaze. Her FIRE BOLT slammed into the rear of the seat and exploded into flame. The jolt flung Boudoir forward, right into Shadow’s arms as they both fell out of the chair with Shadow twisting in mid fall to be on top of her.

  Looking up, of course they were directly under a sprinkler nozzle. “Hope this works,” I muttered, casting a MANA SHIELD over the sensor. Minimum power with a five-minute duration.

  Shadow rolled off Boudoir into one of her men, but quickly got back to her feet. It looked like she was stomping something, or someone. I hoped it was who I thought it was. I could see Boudoir’s health bar on my interface dropping steadily. She’d started with 35. No bonus to CONSTITUTION, but her leather gear had solid armor stats. Still…she was down by half.

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  Most of the crowd stood there, blank-eyed and motionless. Her MASS CHARM had taken hold. I shoved through them toward my party.

  Ingrid reached them first. I lost sight of her, then heard her shout, “Stop! She’s out.”

  [William of Brinsford:] [PARTY] [Blaze. Rules say you can absorb your element. Absorb the fire. Bhaarrt, No Smash!]

  “No smash, no fun,” Bhaarrt muttered.

  A box saying 20 EXPERIENCE flashed across my vision. The fight was over.

  “Good work, folks. Ingrid, what did you do?” I asked as I reached them.

  “I carry sedatives. I gave her a dose. I’m not sure how long she’ll be out.”

  “Thank you for saving my half assed plan.”

  “You’re welcome.” Ingrid’s smile lit up her face. She turned to her husband. “You, OK?”

  “Yeah. Guy went down when I CHARGEd him. Didn’t know it would hit that hard.”

  Clapping Bhaarrt on the shoulder. “Now you do. Make good use of it.”

  Suddenly, noise returned to the room. Either the charm wore off, or her unconsciousness ended the spell. Another thing to research later.

  Waving, I called out. “Sheriff Harper! Chief Brown! We need help over here. Gonna need an ambulance, too.” They didn’t respond, just pushed their way through the crowd as fast as they could.

  “What happened?” Harper asked. “One minute you’re gone, the next you’re over here, and she’s unconscious. Is that fire I smell? The back of her chair looks burned.”

  “It is. Agent Pozarkova, Blaze, is a Fire Mage. They do that. She can also put it out. And…I hope I stopped the sprinkler. Otherwise, we’ve got about four minutes before we get wet.”

  Sheriff Brown was already on the radio. “If you want to cuff Boudoir, now’s the time,” I said. “Just don’t let her wake up. Ingrid knocked her out, I don’t know how long it’ll last.”

  Boudoir looked rough. Shadow’s stomps had left marks. “Oh. Boudoir’s not her real name. No idea what it is, but that’s what she works under.”

  Looking closer at Boudoir, I saw her throat wound was gone.

  [William of Brinsford:] [PARTY] [Thank you for healing her, Ingrid. Shadow, sorry, I told Bhaarrt to knock her around. Even with my shield, I didn’t want her single person CHARM PERSON to hit you.]

  [Urako Sarutobi:] [PARTY] [k. work part time cook. sharp knives make work easier. she moved. almost killed her. damn that scary.]

  [Ingrid:] [Party] [Shadow. I saw the cut. She wasn’t gonna bleed out. You're fine. Good work.]

  [Blaze:] [PARTY] [Yah. Saw Shadow stomping her flat. I think she did the most damage. Been an agent for almost seven years. Never been in a real fight. I’m shaking.]

  [Ingrid:] [PARTY] [Breathe. I’m used to trauma. Daryll’s a combat vet. He can help.]

  [Blaze:] [PARTY] [I’m better standing. I have to deal.]

  [Ingrid:] [PARTY] [Adrenaline dump. It’ll pass. Eventually. Then you’ll want to sit down.]

  [Blaze:] [PARTY] [Thanks. I think I’m OK now. You all helped.]

  Chief Brown looked up at me as he finished cuffing Boudoir. “We’ve had dealings with her before. I know who she is. How do we keep her powers from working?”

  “Until we get Wards, I don’t know. Put her in a coma maybe? Keep her there until we have WARDs? A regular jail won’t hold her. It won’t hold a lot of things that are likely coming.”

  Brown nodded. “Now I get what you meant. We didn’t have a chance against her. Are there more like her?”

  “Count on it.” I answered.

  “How did you all resist her?”

  “I cast PSYCHIC SHIELDs on the party. I went last, and gambled I could resist her. I did. MASS CHARM’s weaker than a targeted CHARM PERSON. Spellcasters can resist it easier. You need EGO and INTELLIGENCE to do it, our main Stats.”

  Casting REVEAL STATS on him, I said, “You didn’t spec into either. You stacked STRENGTH, CONSTITUTION, and DEXTERITY. That’s common for Warriors…and makes you a target for Mentalists.”

  He processed that, nodding twice as he thought about it.

  “Chief Brown. You want our help, or not?”

  “I think we don't have a choice. You were right. Dave? What do you think?”

  He looked at Sherriff Harper.

  “I already said yes,” Harper said, looking down at Madame Boudoir. “Will convinced me before she showed up. Now? No question about it. We need them and people like them.”

  “I’m here part time from the state field office,” Pozarkova said. “I asked to help, and he added me to their party without hesitation. The rest accepted me. I should’ve thought of the sprinkler...but didn’t.” She blushed.

  “Let me tell you.” She added. “Casting FIRE BOLT is…a rush. Seeing it work, then putting it out. Quantico had nothing like that. I’m with them. We’re needed.”

  “You say we like you’re one of them,” Harper teased.

  “I’m still in the party, so I guess I am. If they’ll have me, I’ll stay.”

  [Bartholomew Ironshaper:] [PARTY] [If we get a vote, I vote yes.]

  [Ingrid:] [PARTY] [Same. None of us knew each other an hour ago…well, except Daryll and I. :) We need more DPS. Fire helps. Shadow? What say you?]]

  [Urako Sarutobi:] [PARTY] [i good with more womyn. next time don’t aim so close]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PARTY] [We all gotta agree. I said that when we added Shadow. We’ve all got things to learn to survive this. We all got EXP from Boudoir. Not everything needs to die. I hope to stay on the right side of the law. That means giving as well as taking. Blaze has skills and sense. I vote for Blaze to be in. Welcome to your new PARTY home. Or… is it a party house?]

  Blaze blushed… then laughed. A good sign.

  [Blaze:] [PARTY] [Thank you. All of you. Played RPGs with a long ex-boyfriend , but never thought I’d live one. Let’s level up fast. We need WARDs...yesterday.]

  “You know,” Sheriff Harper said, grinning, “it’s downright rude to talk in front of folks when they can’t hear you. You keeping her…or do we get her back?”

  “They want me!” Blaze said brightly, hugging Ingrid. She tried to hug Shadow, who sidestepped and stood back, arms crossed, watching her.

  “Bhaarrt get hug?”

  “Yes, you big...Ogre,” Blaze said, and wrapped her arms around him as far as she could. He patted her back and grinned.

  “That almost makes me wish I was an ogre. Almost,” I said, grinning.

  “Don’t worry,” Blaze said, letting go of Bhaarrt. “I won’t forget our fearless leader.”

  She hugged me too, strong. I didn’t mind. “Welcome to the party." I told her. "Now…how do we get the rest of this going?”

  “I don’t know,” Blaze said. “But we’ve got the people. Let’s do it.”

  “Then Bhaarrt smash?” He raised his maul and laughed. People nearby flinched. I didn’t blame them.

  We laughed with him. Then we got to work.

  The sprinkler never went off.

  Chapter title updated.

  Let this be a reminder to all you would be villains. Don't monolog and don't wear a cape. OK. She didn't wear a cape but she also wouldn't shut up.

  Musical Interlude:

  The Addams Family Intro