The Clockwork Conundrum : A Beatrix Belladonna Tale

Returning home, Penny Dreadful stretched and yawned in the lab. “Another uneventful day,” she mused. She smiled at her creator, who wandered over and accepted the latest supplies she and the Dazzlings delivered.

Kilroy placed the containers on a counter and asked, “Were you seen?”

“Of course not. I know better than that,” she assured him. “The girls are working out well, so far.”

He tapped the glass and watched the bright blue substance slosh within. “Excellent. It's time you all refueled. Please, make yourselves comfortable on the tables.” His sleeved arm pointed at them, and the four women began to disrobe.

“He'll be with us in a moment,” said Penny, who knew the good doctor was a consummate professional. Her eyes trailed to the artificial heart amidst his lab equipment, only for her eyes to widen as a shadow crept into their lair.

The gunshot exploded out before she could react. She froze with a gasp, ears filled by the shrill screams of the Dazzlings, eyes filled by the sight of a bullet that ripped through her creator's muscled chest, his lab coat turned red by the hot splash of blood that soaked her face and naked body. The assassin came into view, Esmerelda followed close by Camellia and Beatrix.

“Bullseye,” said Esmerelda who blew smoke from the pistol's tip, then leveled it at Penny who snarled. “Nuh-uh-uh. Don't move, dear.” The mad doctor had crumpled on his bearded face and a sticky pool of scarlet spread around him.

“I'll skin you alive,” swore Penny whose eyes watered.

“Doubtful. You're in no position ot make threats.” She waved with her sidearm. “Now come over here, and-”

“Watch out!” Camellia barely raised an invisible barrier in time when Aria struck from the shadows, a razor-like knife in hand that arced with such force the masked vampire was knocked back under the wild blow.

Esmerelda spun, took aim, and was tackled by Adagio. She misfired and beakers exploded into shards and smoke, left to bubble over and fizz around the lab while the pair of them struggled, Adagio snarling and clawing at the woman's face.

A fresh spell flared in Beatrix's hands and transparent unicorn horn, only to feel her stomach grabbed from behind. “Don't forget about me,” said Sonata as she wiggled in her grip. “Look what you've done to our home!”

The spread of ignited chemicals formed a blaze that quickly spread. Like before the artificial blood proved quite flammable, the laboratory buffeted by explosion-after-explosion that rocked the area. Sludge spilled in from the cracked ground.

Between coughs Aria yelled, “Stay here and we're all dead!”

Adagio's smoke-filled eyes ran with tears. “Mistress, we have to escape!”

Penny cradled her creator's limp body. “I won't leave him behind-” A wall crumbled beneath a blast, a tidal wave of muck unleashed that washed all over the lab. Screams were lost when they were swallowed up and cast into the labyrinth of sewers.

Beatrix seized a brick, clung on with all she had, and used her aura to grab Esmerelda and Camellia. She wanted to shout for them to hold on, but dared not open her mouth, the putrid stench of water mixed with waste already filling her nostrils.

Finally, the waves came to an end. The three of them clambered from a manhole back to the surface, thoroughly drenched. With a hand wave, Beatrix removed the foul moisture from them and cast it aside, while they took shelter in an alley. “Well, that was a bust! Or was it? I really doubt old mad doctor Kilroy survived that, but what about the rest of them...?”

“Without him Penny Dreadful will be more unstable. Desperate.” Camellia's mouth pursed behind her mask.

“There's no way to tell if they survived or where they are now,” mused Esmerelda who checked her weapons, thankful that due to Beatrix's spell, seemed to be in working order. “Let's return home. I could desperately use a fresh bath.”

Beatrix sniffed herself and scrunched up her nose. “Yeah, sadly I don't have a spell to get rid of nasty stenches!”

They kept away from the public on their way home. After the experiments done to them, Beatrix doubted the Dazzlings would perish so easily, let-alone Doctor Kilroy's masterpiece, Penny Dreadful. She feared they would be back sooner than she liked. But she had done her part, hadn't she? She reminded herself that, through a portal, she could abandon this place at any time.

Yet she couldn't deny she enjoyed their company, and was curious about this world, not to mention the familiar mansion she found herself back in. The maids hurried them back to a tub, where they submerged in the heated waters and were soaked down.

She drifted off under their tender touches. Her dreams started off innocent enough, about the love of her life, Lady Oona Ewe, and her daughter Abadonna, who she hoped to be reunited with after her travels increased her prowess in spacial magic.

Then came the more lurid fantasies. Ones where Esmerelda and Camellia pretty much made her their love slave.

Finally came the horrific face of Dhullex, the alchemic vampire trapped in the basement, who again tried to invade the most private portions of her soul and make her into his thrall. She thrashed and woke up with a start.

“Shush. It is okay,” assured Camellia who tucked her into bed.

“No one can hurt you now,” said Esmerelda who smiled and touched her lips, the two nude women encircled around her.

“Y-yeah.” She sleepily fluttered her lashes, sandwiched between the warmth of their soft, supple flesh. Soon she was lost in a familiar sea of peppered kisses and bites, as the two vampire huntresses took more of their fill from the witch.

Resigned to her pleasant fate, Beatrix happily sighed and surrendered to their deft touches.

*****

While the good doctor had taught her much, Penny Dreadful lacked his technical skill. She was bitterly reminded of this when, in the section of the sewer where she had washed up, she tried to insert the artificial heart into the open wound in his chest. “No, no, no! This need's a surgeon's touch~,” she wailed in shrill desperation in an attempt to save Kilroy from his fate.

Yet his corpse was already cold, pale, and she swore had started to bloat. She barely heard the approach of the Dazzlings, who had finally tracked her down. “You were supposed to make this wretched world better! Come back to me, master!”

Adagio folded her arms and shook her head. “So...what do we do now I managed to grab a canister...” She nodded at it.

Sonata squatted and tapped the can. “Should be enough to keep us afloat for a while!”

“I don't know about you, but I want revenge!” Aria smacked a fist into her palm.

Penny huffed and rose to her feet. “We'll have it,” she assured them. For now, she had no choice but to leave Doctor Kilroy here, but assured herself she could somehow return him to life. After all, in a world of mad science and the supernatural, anything was possible, was it not? But first she needed to deal with those who dared to invade their home!

“We might know where they live,” suggested Adagio. “Back in the day, we used to hang around the area.”

“Until we were driven off!” Sonata made a sour face.

“Yeah, I remember that rich bitch with the pink hair.” Aria snarled. “Wouldn't give us tramps the time of day! Lives in a mansion and probably has hundreds of servants! I say we skin her alive!” She flashed her knife.

Taking but a moment to think it over, Penny nodded, certain the four of them could take the huntresses. All they needed was the element of surprise! And after they were slain, their manor would be hers, alongside all the resources she would need to return Doctor Kilroy to life! She planted a chaste kiss on his wrinkled forehead, parasol in hand when she readied to set off.