The Clockwork Conundrum : A Beatrix Belladonna Tale

A sepia miasma rolled across the cobblestone streets and parted in wispy vapors each time a carriage passed. The clop of clockwork hooves were muted by the dense pea soup fog, the automatons directed by their drivers down gas lit roads lined in lamps. Dark clouds swirled around a pallid moon, the backdrop lined by a series of weathered buildings.

A clock tower that loomed above the cityscape chimed at the stroke of midnight. The deafening sound carried the ominous promise of doom, a reminder that with the deepening darkness, the monsters came out to play.

Few dared linger here at this late hour. Especially a lone woman, save the rare prostitutes who plied their trade, brought to destination and forced towards the ghettos, out of sight from the rich, so-called nobles that ruled like parasitic vampires.

A lone female figure approached the hookers who hid near the alleys, and would step out when a potential customer passed by. “Hey honey,” called one of the three sisters who strolled out with a click of heels. “A female customer? How unusual,” said the apparent leader of the three, orange poofs of curly hair hanging behind her. “Or do you intend to join us?”

“I don't trust anyone who wears a veil,” noted the second, purple hair done up in twin tails. Like her sisters she wore a corset, black dress, and heels, ample cleavage bared although she was the most slender of the trio.

“Aw, she's no harm I'm sure!” The third sister was the shapeliest, her blue hair tied up in a thick ponytail. She beamed wide at the prospect who had approached. Offering a hand she said, “We didn't catch your name, miss...?”

“I did not provide it,” answered the woman, whose wry smile spread beneath the black silk veil. She too wore a black dress and heels, her rich brown hair done up in a bun, a tiny hat with a bow tethered to one side of her head. Over her slender shoulder she allowed a parasol to rest, as if the touch of moonlight on her deathly pale skin was somehow offensive to her.

“You have lovely eyes,” said the leader who stared into those chestnut brown irises. She placed a delicate hand on her bare cleavage. “I am Adagio Dazzle, and these are my sisters, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk. I take it you have business with us?”

A titter arose from the stranger. “Adorable names. Hmm, yes I am interested in the three of you. I can pay handsomely.” She undid the tied ribbon that restrained her own top, partially bared her pale breasts as the thread unraveled. The lumps were partly freed with an ample bounce, and she reached between the crack, removed a pouch heavy with a clink of coins.

“Check them Sonata,” commanded Adagio.

Sonata took the bag, studied the contents, and placed a gold coin between her teeth. After a bite she announced, “They're real! Gold and silver! There's a small fortune here!” She failed to hide her giddiness as her wide eyes lit up.

Aria crossed her slim but toned arms. “So, I assume you want a go with all three of us at once? We normally don't do that...”

Adagio added, “But for this price we can make an exception! Oh yes, you could have all three of us until the dawn.”

The woman swiped back her pouch. “Certainly. But I showed you mine, now you show me yours. A final test to see if you fit my...specifications. I must ascertain if you carry any diseases.” The siblings appeared offended at the implication, but shrugged and decided to deliver what a potential customer wanted. Gradually, all three of them started to strip in the mists.

She leered at the three with a lick of her lips, watched their clothes pool at their ankles and their undergarments followed. Tits were freed with jiggles, Sonata's bulbous, Adagio's also quite sizable to a lesser degree, Aria's small but perky handfuls. Each of them had a neatly trimmed bush that matched their hair color, and accentuated their tight slits.

Adagio asked, “Like what you see?” She and her siblings started to strike playfully provocative poses. They stuck out their titties, hips, and asses, bent over for her, coyly giggled and smoothed hands over supple flesh, their nipples erect in the cold.

The woman offered up a gold coin. “May I touch?” They rapidly nodded as Sonata greedily swiped the coin from her, and she set her parasol aside and took the heavy tits into her palms. “They're perfect,” she noted as she kneaded and squeezed them. She went down the line, stop to similarly play with Adagio's and Aria's sweet, luscious melons, as pliable flesh squished in her hold.

“Ooh~,” cooed Sonata as her nipple was pulled on, her breast distended to its fullest under the harsh tug.

“Exquisite indeed.” She leaned in, took one of Adagio's tits into her mouth, and hungrily suckled on it. The hooker moaned and closed her eyes, her cheeks colored as teeth gently nipped at her pink bud and a warm tongue traced circles around her areola.

“Enjoy all the foreplay you want,” said Aria as their inflamed, puffy pussy lips moistened under the stranger's lusty attention.

The stranger undid the back of her dress, allowed it to fall around her, completely naked below. She reached back for her parasol. “Oh, I will.” A metallic swish sounded as a blade extended from the cane and caught the glint of the moon's rays.

There was barely time to scream as their silhouettes twisted, reflected off the filthy alley. The assailant shed her garments so their filthy whore blood wouldn't stain her, felt the warm scarlet messily, noisily splash over her pallid contours.

A cackle sounded as a puddle of crimson washed over the attacker's heels...

*****

Sunlight poured over the city once dawn passed. The crime scene was blockaded off, surrounded by investigators who drew chalk outlines to estimate where the bodies had fallen, dried blood still on the sidewalks. Yet whoever, or whatever had done this, had also somehow spirited away the corpses. Cameras flashed as reporters and mobs were kept at bay.

“Bloody jackals,” grumbled the officer in charge. “All three of them must have been completely drained of blood.”

Unable to do more than watch from a distance, a fresh arrival in this world watched from a distance. From the moment the woman arrived Beatrix Belladonna realized how scandalously under dressed she was, and with a hand wave altered her usual leotard, wide-brimmed hat, cape, gloves, and heeled boots combo to something more conservative...but still on the flashy side.

“Better I hope.” She stared down at her shapeliness, caught her reflection in a dingy puddle, her bright eyes violet and her long hair platinum with a purple tinge. She struggled in her form-fitted, frilly dress, tempted to loosen her top and let her cleavage spill free...but thought better of it as most would assume that she too was a whore. “Damn it, I feel naked without my hat!”

She shuddered at the murder scene in the distance, unable to break past the rowdy crowds that bayed for justice even if she wanted to. She could sense her magic was intact after her arrival but dared not cast a spell in the open, uncertain how they would react. But she could not simply skulk in an alley forever, either! Her mind raced through her limited options.

“I need answers. Hum.” She stroked her chin with an index finger, surveyed the area, and spotted a shoddily dressed boy who shouted and waved a newspaper he tried to peddle. A stack rested near him. “Sorry about this, kid!”

Her hand glowed as she wrapped a paper up in her aura and quickly pulled it into her hand. Guilt bit into her heart, and so she replaced the stolen item with a stuffed animal she had planned to give to her daughter, hopeful it would suffice.

Unfolding the paper, she rapidly skimmed it for information about this world. She needed to learn the customs here, what might get her thrown in jail or worse, as this place looked far more uptight than most of the worlds she ended up in.

“Stuffy, repressed, conservative...check. But with a hidden sleazy side, like expected. Weird mix of high and low technology.” After she finished reading she crumpled up the newspaper and tossed it into the nearest bin with a sigh.

Eventually, she would have to mingle. Better to get started already! She swallowed hard, then stepped out.

Fortunately, few people paid attention to her with all the bedlam around her. She watched in fascination as a clockwork horse went by, gears spinning and clicks sounding as the machine moved with unparalleled, unnatural grace.

The witch wanted to flag down a coach for a ride, but reminded herself she was pretty much broke here. Worries about where she would stay for the night and how she would eat filled her thoughts, but she decided to shake them away for now.

“Never used to worry about this stuff so much,” she muttered. “But that's before I had a daughter to think about.” Not that she would trade little Abby for the universe. No,she was partially why she still traveled, as she needed to increase her potency with her portals and passively gather energy here to someday reached the far away plane of existence where the child was trapped.

Thinking it over, maybe there was a way she could approach the crime scene. But it would be risky.

She wound her way back through the maze of alleys, taking her close to the cordon as she could without revealing her presence. Darting her eyes about to make certain she was not observed, she wiggled her fingers which glowed as she worked a spell.

She wove a complicated series of illusions like her mother had taught her from childhood, brought down an inky black cloud that blossomed over the area. From what she had read the citizens here rightfully feared the night, and what lurked in it.

Like expected panic immediately set in. Officers screamed and fled the scene. The onlookers threatened to riot.

Beatrix paled and feared she would set off a stampede, so she quickly made her way into the black cloud, searched it quickly, and found a bloodied gold coin she scooped up with her aura, intrigued as she secreted it away in her dress.

Curiosity sated, she escaped and banished the illusion. Quickly as it came, the 'darkness' vanished.

As an alchemist she would study the object, learn what she could from it in private. Once she was far away she held it up to the sunlight and watched the sun's rays glint off it, and her smirk fell when she remembered what happened to those poor streetwalkers. “I'm hardly a detective, but maybe I can help solve this case? Maybe I should have taken my teacher with me.”

She put the coin back away, thankful the dress her magic woven functioned like the inner folds of her cape and had a seemingly infinite amount of space to call on. No doubt linked to her Prima Materia, the eye-shaped piece of jewelry on her choker.

Setting off in a random direction, the witch was blissfully unaware someone observed her from a rooftop...

*****

In the labyrinth of sewers there was housed a secret laboratory. Placed upon the beds were the corpses of the sisters, completely nude and pale, tubes shoved up their orifices. Machines whirred to life and pumped them full of a replacement blue blood. After they were filled, diodes buzzed and they were shot up with electricity that make their naked skin jiggle and limbs kick.

“I could almost believe they're resurrected already,” mused the woman who had slain them.

“Patience,” answered a bald, muscular bulk, obscured by a button up lab coat and goggles. “Soon, I will conquer death itself.”

“No one will miss these whores,” she stated.

“Prostitutes they may be, but I will help them ascend beyond their humble origins.

Despite his warnings she wandered closer to watch, her eyes lit up by the volts zapped into the denuded beauties. She cupped her hands behind her, leaned in so close her cleavage almost spilled loose from her top. Licking her chops while she watched flesh wobble and fill with color, soon moans arose from the sisters, so stimulated by the shocks juices leaked down their inner thighs and over their puckered up assholes. Several minutes later, the electrical bombardment finally reached its end.

The machinery wound down. The scientist stomped over to her side to overlook the test subjects. “You've done well, Penny Dreadful. The finest of my creations.” Gloved hands caressed her chin and cheeks with paternal affection.

“Thank you, Kilroy.” When he released her she did a twirl that made her skirts sweep.

“Unfortunately the cuts will leave some scars.” As he spoke she traced said cuts she'd made to drain them. Their life force had blood away on the promise that her master and creator would build them into something superior. “They'll be faster, stronger, unable to die of age, and most importantly, loyal to us. Unfortunately, society will never understand my work.”

“I'll teach them,” assured Penny whose slasher smile widened. “Just point me to who you want killed!”

“Subtlety, my dear.” He patted her head. “What I need is more components to create more of this artificial blood. I spent most of my reserves to resuscitate these three.” He nodded at the nearly empty tanks by his lab equipment. “Take them with you. Consider it a...test run. Here are your targets.” He handed her a document with a list of places to hit in the dead of night.

“Leave it to me!” Penny Dreadful curtsied and scooped up her parasol from her corner of the room, situated by a frilly bed. “Oh, but I could use a tune up! If you would, master...?” She undid the strings on the back of her dress, let it pool at her ankles to leave her completely nude. On the surface she appeared to simply be a human woman, albeit quite beautiful.

Yet when he started to peel back the artificial skin on her buxom breasts, the transparent shell that made up her frame below revealed a series of cogs, gears, and other machinery, not unlike the creations used to travel the city above. Only her design was even more advanced, of Kilroy's own creation. She was his masterpiece and she beamed with shared pride back at him.

A hushed moan escaped her lips when he opened her up and started to oil and tune her. He called her a perpetual motion machine, told her she would 'outlive' him many times over. The idea filled her 'heart' with an unspoken, existential dread.

“Remember,” he said and looked to the Dazzlings. “They're more fragile than you.”

“Of course,” she replied as he closed her shell. She redressed and shook the sisters to stir them. Grumbles arose when they stumbled to their feet, took in their surroundings, memories suppressed but their basic personalities intact. “I'm your mistress now.” She prodded at each of them with the tip of her parasol. “Dress yourselves and prepare to follow my lead!”

They slipped into similar costumes they had worn as streetwalkers. The lowliest of low to polite society.

Aria rubbed her scalp. “What happened? My head aches something fierce.”

“You probably drank too much like usual,” answered Adagio who crossed her arms under her breasts.

“Or maybe our last clients got a little too rough,” reasoned Sonata who giggled to herself.

Penny prodded them some more while they bantered. “You work for me now. I'll explain more on the way. Consider yourselves our eyes and ears. I know you whores maintain a network of your own. Can you defend yourselves?”

“We usually leave our protection to Aria,” said Adagio who nodded to the middle sister as she flashed a switchblade she found.

“I can brawl. And I won't hesitate to cut anyone who hurts my sisters,” assured Aria who twirled the shiny blade. “Won't be the first time I had to put down some animal who threatened my family.” She lifted her skirt and tucked the sheathed weapon into a garter around a bare leg. Despite being the slimmest of the three, her lithe body was well-toned with taut muscles.

“I'm the cute one,” chirped Sonata who beamed wide to show her teeth.

“For some reason she's the most popular one,” noted Adagio whose eyes rolled towards Sonata's impressive bust. “I'm the brains of the operation. After you and your master, of course.” She curtsied back, pride still written all over her movements.

The sisters took a moment to take in their surroundings, which included the partially finished machinery and other such experiments in the lab. One of which included a miniature reactor that resembled a mechanized human heart. Shrunken creatures were trapped under bottles, curled up and surrounded by discolored fluids that bubbled.

Satisfied that they would obey and serve their purposes, Penny took one last look at Kilroy who had returned to his experimentation before she marched from the lab. The prostitutes followed her into the murky maze of the sewer system.

Muck rolled down the reservoirs. A number of rancid stenches filled the atmosphere. Their shadows crawled over the walls. Each step they took echoed, alongside the drip of fouled of water that sluiced in a drip-drop from above.

Aria smacked Sonata aside with a thrust of her slender hip when she attempted to hug her for comfort. “Watch it, sis, or you'll take a bath in that piss and shit!” She stomped on ahead in her heels, face drawn in a perpetual sneer.

“This place is scary,” whined Sonata who tried to cling to Adagio instead, only for the eldest sister to evade her.

“There's nothing to fear, I assure you. We're the scariest things here,” promised Penny who smirked into the darkness. Already she liked these lively, lovely lasses with cute asses. She slowed her stride to fall behind them and admire their backsides, the roll of hips and buttocks, barely contained within their prissy attire. She licked her chops and couldn't wait to test run them later.

Yet for now business came first. There would always be time to feel them up some more and explore their treasures later.

Under the cover of darkness, the foursome climbed the ladder and pushed aside the manhole to surface onto the streets.

*****

At roughly the same time Beatrix flipped the gold coin in her hand and followed the faint trace of a magical signature she sensed on it to the source. Whoever once owned this positively radiated with the supernatural. Night had fallen, and she trailed the invisible thread down the blocks, all the way to what appeared to be a factory which loomed in the distance.

“That's ominous,” she murmured, the structure framed by the moon. “Dare I break and enter...?”

The witch was still unaware that a duo atop the rooftops continued to shadow and observe her. She clambered up the structure, thankful that after the last time her cute butt had nearly been sold into sexual slavery, she had practiced her ability to pick locks!

She summoned up her tools and set to work. While she was still clumsy at it, after a couple minutes the padlocks popped open with a click. Slowly she opened the side door, cringed at the rusty creak that split the silence, and slipped inside.

Like expected, once she crept deeper inside the dusty, dim interior it proved to be a front. Whoever claimed this place had hidden a laboratory deep below, which she discovered easily enough after a a few minutes more of scouring and searching. The hidden panel peeled away under her magic aura, whereupon a staircase was unveiled which she walked to the bottom.

Her heart skipped a beat when she realized why she had uncovered the secret passage so easily. Someone had already beaten her here, and she caught them far up ahead With no time to turn back, she ducked into the shadows to hide.

Sonata turned and tilted her head to one side. “You hear that?”

“Probably a stray rat,” spat Aria who poked her sister in her bouncy, bared cleavage.

“I'm serious! I swear someone's there,” replied Sonata who stamped a heeled foot. She started to creep closer.

“Not now,” said Adagio who grabbed her arm and yanked her back. A glow smothered the three of them and their leader, Penny Dreadful, who waltzed ahead and tapped her umbrella tip on the tanks filled with bubbly liquids.

“Pay dirt,” said Penny whose eyes widened to saucers to match her slasher smile. “Master will be so happy!”

“I could swim in this stuff,” said Sonata happily, who had already forgotten the potential intruder as she spaced out. “Oh, but um, how will we transport all this? It's not like we can carry them in our milkers!” She squeezed her voluptuous titties.

“We'll take a little at a time. We can always return for more,” assured Penny. “Oh look, how convenient! They already have bottles ready to siphon the substance!” She noted a number of empty containers on the counters.

Adagio crossed her arms. “And what if the owners show up? I take it we deal with them?”

“Precisely,” said Penny whose skirts swished when she spun. Her wide eyes easily penetrated the darkness, and narrowed when she spotted the witch who hunched down, frozen in place by sheer dread. “Speaking of which, here's your chance, girls.”

“Told you it wasn't my imagination,” chirped Sonata who beamed bright.

“Shit,” cried Beatrix who scrambled from the dark and attempted to climb the stairs.

Long before she could hope to reach the exit the foursome were on her tail, swifter than any normal human. One of the hands that reached for her seized an ankle, yanked her down. She cried out and winced as her chin slammed on the stairs.

A coppery taste filled her mouth when she was pulled between the four who surrounded her. The sisters held her down. Beatrix started to fire up a quick spell, only to have the umbrella tip pressed between her breasts as a blade popped from it.

“Don't move,” warned Penny who prodded her under the chin. “Who are you?”

“Just a curious traveler,” mumbled Beatrix with a nervous chuckle, color drained from her face. She shivered as the blade lowered, back between her breasts, the front of her dress shredded open to let her tits wobble free.

“Ooh~,” whistled Sonata who stared. “They're almost as bouncy as mine!”

“Incredibly soft and supple,” observed Adagio as she reached out and began to fondle them. Pale flesh gave between her fingers when she squeezed, wide nipples pinched until they were erect and an involuntary moan escaped their prisoner.

“Think the slut likes it,” said Aria as Penny continued to drag the blade down, cut through the dress which fell away and came to rest on a mound contained by panties. “Gross,” she cried when the witch messily emptied her bladder.

More nervous laughter arose from Beatrix. “So,, I'll be on my merry way now...?”

“Not a chance,” said Aria. “Why don't we get this bitch's panties off?”

“Swell idea. You do it,” commanded Adagio. Aria shot her a dirty look, but since Penny didn't step in to correct her she had no choice but to hook her digits in the panty line, where she slowly pulled down the urine-stained pair to expose the witch's yummy muffin. “Looks like the drapes match the curtains,” snickered Adagio as she studied the wet, platinum pubes around a tight slit.

“What to do with you?” Penny mused aloud. “Do I take you to the master? Or...?” She prodded the cool metal blade against Beatrix's snatch, made her squirm and quietly whimper, as she toyed with the idea she would suddenly shove it deep inside.

Beatrix clammed up further while she tried to think up a way out. But she couldn't work a spell faster than this madwoman could stab her, let-alone open a portal and escape from this crazy world in time. No, she was absolutely at their mercy!

Yet she refused to be resigned to her fate, no matter the odds! Not when there was a daughter out there who needed her!

Again she started to weave a fresh spell, only more subtle this time. She would have to call the magic slowly so as not to be noticed, until the predators were akin to the frog that didn't realize the water around it had started to boil until too late.

Her fingers wiggled at her sides. She would only have one shot. To fail would mean certain death!