Let me tell you brother she's been sleeping in the Devil's bed;

There's some rumors going round someone's underground.

- Eagles "Witchy Woman"

KIDS REVENGE

Kid Göre stepped lightly as his eyes darted around the dimly lit ally way. The members of the House of the One God controlled an entire city block and rumor had it that the House kept the neighborhood poorly lit on purpose. Shadows of dark danced around corners and played tricks on his eyes. A stale wind blew through the buildings creating phantom voices that whispered in his ear.

After three left and one right turn he found himself facing their guild hall. The building an impossible design that made Kid sick to his stomach as looked upon with revulsion. The entryway was warped and twisted, tattered shades hung in the multi-angled windows and the multiple corners cast their shadows as unfeasible directions.

What little ambient light that was generated from areas that had no visible source.

"What sick mind thought this mess up?" Kid Göre wondered.

Rays of light bent and twisted itself around sharp corners. His battle avatar, although un-summoned, gave him a mental slap on the face, snapping him out of the hypnotic trance the building was casting on him.

He quickly walked inside, wondering if somehow this building could take control of his mind on the inside as easily as it toyed with him from the outside. The door opened up into the ceiling as he approached. His eyes tried to make sense of the situation that opened up before him.

"Did M.C. Escher and Edgar Allen Poe started up their own design company?" he muttered under his breath.

The earth realm’s laws of physics were ignored as stairs ran up along the walls, doors opened up in random directions.

A young male with lime-green hair and wild slate-gray eyes, wearing an alligator skinned suit, walked up to Kid Göre, extending his hand.

“Greetings and well-met, I’m Mr. Bun-Bun. I believe you have an appointment with the head of our guild, Baba Yaga?” he asked smiling at him.

Kid Göre felt his stomach turn as he shook his hand. It felt like he hadn’t eaten in a few days, this was unusually considering one tended not to have hunger problems in the astral plane.

After a few sickening minutes, Mr. Bun-Bun led Kid Göre to a door and stopped.

“Sir, our esteemed leader awaits your presence,” Mr. Bun-Bun said sharply, as he turned on his heels and walked out.

Kid Göre started at an iron door that wasn’t there before, with Baba Yaga written in red paint, or was it possibly blood he couldn’t tell or at this point even cared.

The Kid knocked on the door before entering. The inside of her office he noticed that it was constructed out of stainless steel and behind the heavy wooden desk sat an old crone. Her hands were steepled to cover her mouth. A black iron sun with black lightning bolts for the rays hung behind her. Her one green and one red eye were ravenously watching him as he entered the room. The veteran warrior felt that he was being sized up.

“I was by Lðki, the information broker, and he told me that your gang will help me,” Kid Göre said starting off the conservation. “I want someone embarrassed or humiliated, now!”

The old lady motioned him to sit down on the chair in front her desk. He ignored the request.

“Ssssit,” she commanded.

This time he did, he felt his body obeying, his mid dizzy and now under her spell. The only regret was that he should have meet the witch in a public place first, but the information broker told him he would have better success if he showed up in person.

The old crone pushed a few papers to the side and took her pen in her hand. She then crawled on top of the desk and sat cross-legged leaning over. Her lips were mere inches from his ear as she whispered to him softly.

“How shall the House of the 1 God be of service to you?” she whispered.

Kid Göre broke into a cold sweat.

“I want you to kill that newbie, her name is Anna Lee. The little bitch defeated me, and I want you to take the victory back, I lost,” he said quietly.

The old lady ran her finger across his cheek; it felt the very life began to drain from his body. He only managed to let out a quiet yelp of pain as she slowly stroked her grizzled finger across his face.

“Your guildies couldn’t assist?” she cooed.

“She had refused all challenges from anyone from my guild. The little freak’s reply was ‘I don’t fight the pathetically feeble’,” he said nervously.

Baba Yaga pulled back and looked at him in surprise. She never heard a newbie talk like this before, and apparently neither had Kid Göre.

“I am prepared to offer you 10 victories transferred to your guild, upon her defeat.” he said finally being able to regain control of his body. “I want back what I lost from the little bitch.”

Both Baba Yaga and Kid Göre knew that wagering on victories was recently banned. Trading away even 1 victory had dire results in the astral plane and the earth realm. A crooked smile shot through her teeth as she extended her wrinkled old hand.

“Half now, other half when you rape the whore on the battle field,” he said. Baba Yaga nodded, and sliced her hand open with her fingernail, Kid Göre did the same with a knife he had.

They both shook hands blood mingling with blood, as Kid Göre’s destiny changed. He quickly departed the House of the One God, looking to make up for the fee he just paid the old witch.

Baba Yaga called in her secretary, Whippoorwill. The demure tiny librarian-looking teen aged girl came into her room. She could easily be mistaken as a guy if not for the long hair and long dress she usually wore. She was the guild’s chief researcher, and her area of expertise was obtaining data profiles on potential and regular opponents.

“Yeah, what’s up?” she asked.

Her face was covered in ink stains and pencil smudges, whiles her eyes, vacant and hallow, stared back blankly.

“I require a dossier on newbie who goes by the name Anna Lee. This project had top priority.”

“Want me to find a natural enemy?”

“Absolutely, I would rather we avoid outsourcing,” she said.

Whippoorwill stared blankly at the wall behind the old crone. To any other onlooker would suggest she had no grasp of what was just asked of her, though her guild leader knew better. Whippoorwill was a cold calculating killer; every step by an opponent was carefully calculated and predicted. Although she had roughly five victories and zero losses, in all of her fights she only took a combined loss of 3HP.

***

What normally took Whippoorwill 10 hours, would take over three days.

“Information was scarce,” Whippoorwill said tossing a two-page report on her boss’s desk.

The old witch looked up from her book and raised her eye brow.

“My conclusion gives us an 87.56-percent probability of victory,” she said sitting down. “I found her natural enemy; we just need to hook fish with the proper bait.”

Nodding as her green eye scanned the report, she pushed it away and thanked Whippoorwill.

The letter was sent personally from Baba Yaga’s own account, challenging Anna Lee to one on one combat with the prize being a level up on any elemental skill verses the victory she gained from Kid Göre.

Two days went by with no reply. The guild leader made an inquiry to the Central Bank to determine if she quit the AFC. They replied back that she was listed as a current member.

Whippoorwill and her bodyguards were dispatched to investigate her whereabouts. It was soon revealed that she was often seen playing at the park in Fight Club – Atlanta with other children.

This time Baba Yaga sent Whippoorwill to deliver the letter personally. She soon returned with a reply.

It read, “Is that your best offer?”

“That little brat!” Baba Yaga snapped, “I’m going to take care of this personally.”

She wadded up the letter and threw it at Whippoorwill who was jumped out of the way.

Baba Yaga regained her composure by the time she located the park. Anna Lee was playing in the sand box with three dolls.

“You came home late again!” Anna Lee said imitating an older female voice.

“I’m sorry dear, I was working late at the office,” Anna said again in an older male voice.

“You are seeing that stupid slut again, aren’t you? Take that you two-bit piece of trash! (Making a punching sound)” she said in the female voice.

“Daddy, why do you have those owies?” she asked in her voice picking up in the little girl doll.

“It’s ok dear, its mommy’s way of showing she loves him,” she said again in dad’s voice.

Baba Yaga watched the display as the daddy doll came back in and began hitting mommy doll again. Finally, she had enough of the display, and walked up to Anna Lee.

“Are you combatant Anna Lee?” asked the old hag.

She stood up and wiped the sand off her white dress, adjusted the pink bow in her hair and curtsied to Baba Yaga giving her a big smile. The old witch was taken aback, was this the same person who sent the nasty reply?

“I am Anna Lee, mam. Do you have time to play with me?” she asked.

“No,” she replied, “I Baba Yaga, leader to the House of the One God. We would like to offer you a deal. A mutual friend of ours would like to buy his victory back. I’m prepared to offer sizable offer for it.”

Anna Lee shook her head no and said, “Uh-uh, no, my mommy might get mad if I go back on a deal.”

“What about accepting our challenge we offered?”

“If I do that I would get into big trouble, mommy (she patted the mother doll’s hair) said it wasn’t good enough.”

“What we double the original offer? I think your mom would like that.”

“Are you fibbing?” she asked throwing her hands on hips and pouting.

“I would never lie to a cute little girl like you.”

“Ohh…k, I guess,” she said accepting the new offer.

Baba Yaga looked at her for a moment studying her. Anna picked up the papa doll and began humming a song.

“I'm going to beat your champion so bad he will reincarnate as an abortion,” a voice echoed in Baba Yaga's head.

The little girl was busy adjusting the papa doll's pants, still humming her song. Baba Yaga checked her wards; there is no way this newbie could have gotten into her head. She also checked around for one of Anna’s wind up mice, none were present.

“Did you say something?” the witch asked suspiciously.

“No, why?” asked Anna.

The old witch curtsied and quickly left. She decided to digress from Whippoorwill’s suggestions. She was going to call in Taaoon. He belonged to guild’s honor guard known as the Four-Horsemen. He was currently sitting at 23 victories and zero losses. She would use him to teach the little brat a lesson in respect.