Evil Empire

After another endless two days and nights of idleness, desperation, and staring into cereal bowls, Vinyl finally managed to get back onto her feet. It was Friday afternoon, the final band performance at school just about six hours away. The time to get some preparation done had come around, always assuming someone knew where to start. Unfortunately, she herself hardly even felt motivated, and Trixie seemed to be the sole person able to help her out. Vinyl hadn't seen the blue-skinned magician anywhere for days at a time, and she could have gotten god-knows-where by now.

Vinyl didn't see any way of motivating herself to save the world all alone. Instead, with Wednesday's anonymous note in mind, she left the house, strolling off to the local library. That wouldn't save the entire city from its potential, upcoming doom, but at least it was a distraction for a few hours.

Stepping out into the bright sunlight for the first time in days, she hastily flung her shades over both eyes. A low groan escaped Vinyl's throat, as she truly hadn't expected for this so-called good weather. There were exactly two reasons for her to hate this sunshine bearing down on her right now. One: The showcase would get blown off in case of bad weather, since it happened outdoors. That way, she at least wouldn't have to worry about rescuing everyone she knew for another week or so. As for her other reason...basically, she always hated bright sunlight, Nazi mass hypnosis or not.

Passing several blocks on her way around the streets, Vinyl noted the many, one-story homes around her with greatly antagonized emotions. Somehow, these hives of suburbs really did reflect on a - she hated to say it - mindless, consuming society. In a way, Trixie's influence on her world view could truly become depressing. Was that a bad thing? Probably.

Also, none of them served chocolate milk. And neither did the library, or so she guessed.

Vigorously shaking her head, Vinyl tried to snap out of it. She really had to stop, before one day would turn her over to the harder stuff. Seeing the effects on peanut butter crackers on Trixie had been more than enough to begin with.

Arriving at her destination, Vinyl's eyes widened in a mixture of shock and surprise. Wherever she had presumed the building lay nothing but some burnt out ruins, covered in black pieces of rubble. With a gasp, she turned to the sign put up in front of the front lawn.

Golden Oak Library closed indefinitely due to a lack of books...and library buildings

She couldn't help but roll her eyes. The text was written in Comic Sans, and a lime green color. Though initially wondering whether the Dazzlings were behind all of this, Vinyl's mind quickly turned over to a number of alternate possibilities. Maybe the Crusaders had to prepare another research paper? She thought it over for another few seconds, just before a seemingly fakened, deep voice tore her out of her thoughts.

"You don't watch a whole lotta news, do you, Mr. Wayne?"

Vinyl turned on her heel, trying to make out its source. She stopped dead in her tracks, ending up face-to-face with an extremely bizarre apparition.

A poorly dressed-up, female figure stood before her, pushing one hand to her hip, while presumably raising an eyebrow. Vinyl couldn't actually tell, since they stayed hidden beneath a giant pair of cheap sunglasses. A fake beard, matching the platinum shade of a long, disheveled haircut, covered the lower part of her light-blue face. The girl also wore an oversize, white t-shirt, red shorts, and a pair of plastic sandals. A worn-out, light brown bathrobe was loosely flung around her shoulders. Its fuzzy, lower edges reached well below her knees. Her left hand held an opened package of milk, an unpleasant stench rising up from it.

"...what the hell?"

Vinyl finished her sentence in quite a different manner than anticipated, but that wasn't the important matter at hand, now. The essential question remained, whether to cry, run away, or simply double over laughing for no reason.

She decided to settle for the latter.

"You makin' fun of me, or what?" the girl asked, clearly offended by the DJ, who was basically choking her guts out with incessant, clearly audible chuckles. Though considering the past few days, nobody could have actually blamed Vinyl for the unnatural behavior from he part.

"N-no...nevermind," she replied,  briefly lifting her shades to wipe a few, remaining tears from her eyes. "Let's just...don't we have any preparations to do for tonight?"

"Yeah, yeah, for sure." In a moment's hesitation, the girl quickly gazed over to the ruined pebbles. "The great and powerful dude has it all planned out...might've forgotten about a detail or two, though. Guess we gotta move our sh...stuff someplace else." She hinted over to the opposite side of the road with her head, then started crossing over. With a sigh, Vinyl started to follow her.

"You can drop the act now, Trixie. You know that, right?" she asked. And yet, all her sudden companion did was raise an eyebrow, while mustering her with suspicion.

"Man, in all honesty? I really dunno what you're talkin' about."

Arriving at CHS half an hour later, the two of them found most of the building deserted. A number of newspapers, among other garbage was scattered all around the arid, brown front lawn. Several missing doors, shattered windows, and walls covered in graffiti rounded up an image of utter decay and abandonment.

No wonder Trixie had chosen this place. She didn't even question the unusually quick deterioration of the building's facades. Then again, she might also have settled for the ruined Golden Oak building. The way she knew her, Vinyl guessed being grateful for this choice was more of an appropriate response.

Of course, she still wondered about it. None of her surroundings made her feel particularly eased up, but Bearded Trixie told her not to worry. Entering the building, they quickly found themselves in one of the main corridors. Walking down the hall a few steps, the so-called dude suddenly slapped his hand on Vinyl's shoulder a few times.

"Alright, pal," she said, pointing towards the girls' bathroom. "Gotta take five. S'ppose you might wanna go ahead 'n get started. I'll check back with ya there."

  Taking another sip from his (or her) stained milk package, she pushed through the door, and disappeared from view. Shaking her head in disbelief, Vinyl continued making her way towards CHS library. She never considered this a suitable place for making up a plan to defeat the Dazzlings, but more like unnecessarily entering the lion's nest. Then again, was there any point in arguing with Trixie on a subject like that? Still rather clueless, Vinyl turned another corner...

"Well, you've certainly taken your sweet time, Scratch."

She could almost feel her eyes bug out, with a simultaneously dropping jaw. Of all the things she had anticipated, this was definitely one of the least. And she couldn't say for sure whether to feel sad or happy about this sudden revelation.

In front of her, like on any other day, stood Trixie. She even wore the very same clothes as always, including those tacky, azure boots of hers. A cone-shaped hat of the same color, covered in silver stars, rounded up the ensemble. Two navy blue eyes darted out from below, examining Vinyl with little more than just slight suspicion.

"What kept you so long? I've just come back from the airport, thought you would be at it since last night, or so."

"What..I, but...you did..." Vinyl felt herself at a loss of words. This really was unprecedented, to say the least.

"I did?"

"Yeah, well...wasn't that you, with the fake beard, and the spoiled milk, and all?"

"Fake beard..." Letting the words echo through the corridor, Trixie froze for a short moment, one eyelid twitching slightly. It took her a moment to catch her breath, and return to the same, old confidence. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Let's just get this done now, shall we?"

"Wait! What was that about an airport, just now?" It took Vinyl a few yards to catch up with the magician, who already started directing her steps towards the library rooms. When the DJ arrived by her side, Trixie turned her head several times, looking out for any possible bystanders. After making sure they were alone, she sighed.

"I've had a short, and spontaneous trip to Saddle Arabia," Trixie explained, as they continued closing in on their destination. "Got a little deal running for my  new company, Lulamoon Enterprises."

"Uh-huh..."

"I know what you're gonna ask. And to answer it beforehand: Yes, that's what I do, planning ahead for the future. I mean, sure, I'm the sole board member so far...and we're far from going public just yet. But if we ever do, I'll make sure you'll get some stocks for a friendly price."

Vinyl scratched her forehead. "Yeah...I don't think the stock market works like that. Also, what exactly is it you do? Potential investors might be more interested in that?"

"Oh, nothing much," Trixie answered with a shrug. "Evil things, mostly. In a capitalist society, these tend to get you pretty far, pretty quickly."

"Evil things?"

Trixie rolled her eyes. "We steal candy from toddlers, and sell for a fixed price. That money goes to a publicly listed foundation on the Cayman Islands, with 51% of the stocks owned by us. Said foundation proceeds to use its tax revenue by buying nuclear warheads from corrupt European arms manufacturers, then transfers the weapons' ownership back to us. Eventually, we finish off the deal by selling the bombs to non-trustworthy, middle-eastern dictatorships. Evil things, like I said."

While Vinyl could indeed think of several answers to give to that, she ultimately decided to keep her mouth shut. This wasn't going to get her anywhere in the first place. Also, turning around yet another corner, the library doors came in sight at the corridor's far end. In other terms, there literally was something to look forward to, now.

As they approached, another thought occurred to Vinyl.

"So, uh...what exactly is it we're gonna do now?"

Trixie looked at her in confusion, as she produced two peanut butter crackers from her pocket, and started chewing on both at a time. "Why, I thought you had it all figured out by now?"

Vinyl shook her head.

"Well, there's obviously some historical background to these girls," Trixie started. "If they appeared in our time and place, as well as another, I'm sure there's more to discover about them. And whatever we do find will surely give us some information about a weakness of theirs. That's what we'll use to destroy them tonight, save the world, and stop by at Sugarcube Cafe on our way home, rewarding ourselves with a nice, big milkshake for an accomplished task."

For a moment, Vinyl eyed her companion's expressionless face in disbelief. "Let me guess," she asked. "You forgot your wallet, so I'll have to pay for that reward."

A quick smirk escaped Trixie's lips. "Scratchie, sometimes I feel like you're reading my mind."