The Venus Flytrap Attack

A schoolgirl is interrupted on the way home by a woman claiming to be her arch nemesis.

A blur of green zipped past me, whipping my skirt up in the ensuing wind. I clutched at the plaid monstrosity, desperate to keep what little dignity as a teenager I had to call my own.

The screech of metal on glass made me turn. A figure in a long green dress was swaying beside a shop display with several deep grooves in the window. She turned and pointed a fan at me.

            “Ah ha!” the woman cried. “Prepare to meet your doom you insipid little heroine!”

            I shielded my eyes as the fan gleamed in the sunlight and looked around for the person the woman was addressing. The small circle of bystanders were giving me a wide berth.

            The woman waved her fan, sending more piercing rays of light into my eyes. “Hey, you! Pay attention to your nemesis!”

            I turned back and squinted at the green woman. “Me?”

            “Yes, it is I!” she struck a delicate ballet pose which looked completely impractical. “The Venus Flytrap!”

            “…are you a street performer?” I ventured.

            The Venus Flytrap dropped her leg and pouted. “No! I’m a super villain!”

            “Okay, cool. I gotta go now.” I turned and pushed my way past the crowd which was starting to lose interest in the display.

            “Hey, wait!” the woman ran after her. “You can’t just leave, I’m your arch nemesis!”

            I tucked my head down and walked faster.

            “Hey!” The woman snarled. I jumped as several shiny objects pinged off the concrete near my feet. I crouched down and picked one of them up. It was paper-thin and had four points. It was sharp.

            The Venus Flytrap snatched it from my hand. “Gimme that. Shuriken are expensive you know.”

            I stared at the woman. She had vibrant green lipstick and thick tropical eyeshadow that drew attention to her surprisingly plump lips and disturbingly flat black eyes.

            “Why are you following me?” I asked as the woman carefully slid the collected shuriken back into the pouches sewn into her bodice. As her head tilted forward I glimpsed a small bun with two wooden chopstick with strange metal tips poked through the centre.

            “What part don’t you get about arch enemy?” she snapped. “God, you heroines are all alike, all looks and no brain.”

            “I’m not a heroine.”

            “Bullshit. You’ve got an aura on you a mile long.”

            I raised an eyebrow. “An aura? What are you, a psychic?”

            “I’m eastern! Chakra, aura, chi, all that stuff.”

            I eyed the straight black hair that was clearly from a bottle. “Uh huh. Well I’d love to stay and talk crazy but I got homework.”

            The woman gripped my shoulders and thrust her face so close that our noses touched. “Listen here missy, I spent twenty seven days making this dress. Do you know how many pockets I had to make for all my weapons? The hours of careful weight balancing so I didn’t clank or fall flat when I walked out the door?” She smooshed our noses together until her lashes brushed my cheek with each blink. “I have been practicing tactical ballet for twenty years preparing for this moment and you are not going to ruin it. Now admit you’re a heroine and fight me!”

            I stumbled back as the woman let go. “Woah, woah, woah, who said anything about fighting? We don’t need to fight! I don’t even know you!”

            The woman struck another elegant yet ridiculous pose where she balanced on point and raised her arms above her head. “I told you, I’m THE VENUS FLYTRAP.” She ruined the effect by reach down and pulling back the front half of her split skirt. “See? Just like the plant, green on the outside, tropical on the inside.”

            “Oh pretty! You should be a designer.”

            Venus relaxed her pose and smiled. “I know, right? I had this totally kickass idea of combining skirts and pants so girls could be pretty and practical but my mum was all ‘we have tights for that’. And I was like ‘excuse me? Skants are the bomb.’”

            “I wouldn’t call them skants, it sounds too much like skank.” I advised. Venus’ smile froze.

            “Foul heroine!” she yelled, pointing a finger at me. “You dare mock skants!? Defend yourself!”

            A new wave of shuriken flew past me. One scratched my arm as it passed. “Hey, watch it! You could take out an eye with those things!”

            Venus laughed maniacally. “An eye is nothing! Watch as I take out your legs!”

            Standing on point once more she began to pirouette, her skirt billowing out as she gathered speed. In seconds she looked like a green spinning top, slowing moving towards me, one rotation at a time.

            I collected the shuriken from the footpath and held them out for the woman. Venus leant back to touch the ground and the skirt flicked out in an arc. As it passed it sliced open my index finger.

             I dropped the shuriken. “Ah, mother of god that stings! What the hell?”

            Venus laughed maniacally once more and stopped spinning. “Yes, taste the cold steel of my blades!” I sucked my finger and looked at the tip of the woman’s skirt. It had silver spikes sewn into it.

            “What the hell, that’s really dangerous! You could hurt someone with that!” I mumbled around my finger.

            Venus slumped. “You really don’t get this super villain thing, do you?”

            “I don’t get why you’re attacking ME.” I grumbled.

            “Oh for the love of-“ Venus struck out at me, fist first. I moved my head to the side and back again, neatly dodging it. A kick followed, the toe perfectly pointed at my ribs. I stepped back, leaving the woman to complete the arc.

            “That! That right there! You can’t tell me that’s not heroic moves.” She exclaimed when she’d spun back to face me.

            “I’m agile, so what?” I rubbed the sore finger on my school skirt.

            “So? I, just, argh! You know what? Forget it.” The woman turned and stalked away, skirt spikes clanging against the shin-pads she’d sewn onto her ballet slippers.

            I looked at the shuriken still at my feet. I picked one up carefully and threw it experimentally. It flew through the air and hit the back of Venus’ dress.

            “Whoops.”

            “That is it! Hero or not you are dead!” Venus screamed and ripped the chopsticks out of her hair. Silver light crackled around her hands as she thrust the two metal ends together and twisted, interlocking them. Before my very eyes the chopsticks grew into a full-length staff with vicious-looking curved metal blades on both ends. Venus pulled the wooden staff to her side and aimed on of the blades at my heart.

            “Holy crap.” I whispered.

            Venus charged. I stepped to the side and kept running as the blade swung around to follow her. I leapt out of the way as the blade swung past, slicing through the edge of my skirt.

            “Nowhere to hide hun!” Venus crowded and continued to spin the weapon above my head, advancing on the girl.

            “Police!” I yelled. “Fire!”

            The blade swept out towards me again, this time at my stomach. I rolled back, ignoring as gravel dug into my shoulder and knees.

            “Someone freaking help me!” I shouted, trying to rise up enough to run. The blade swished through the air again forcing me to drop back down. Strands of hair fell in front of my face, cut free from the ponytail.

            “She’s going to kill me!” I screamed and against all logic launched myself towards the woman as she brought the weapon around for another swing. Wood smashed into the side of my ribcage, knocking the last air from my lungs. Out of instinct I grabbed the smooth staff and hunkered down.

            “Hey!” Venus tugged at the weapon. “Hey, give it back! It’s mine!” She let go with one hands started pulling my ponytail. “Let go!”

            I leant back and rammed forward, smacking my forehead into the woman’s. She reeled back, slicing her bodice open on her own blade. Blood trickled down her side.

            I yanked the staff out of the woman’s un-protesting hands and threw it onto the road where it clattered to a stop and shrank back down into a pair of interlocked chopsticks.

            Venus glared at me, clutching her wound. Blood seeped through her fingers.

            “You b***h.” She hissed. “Pretending to be a civilian. You lying little b***h.”

            “I’m not a super hero!” I yelled.

            Venus reached behind her and pulled out the fan she’d brandished at me when she’d first arrived.

I watched in slow motion as the fan unfolded to reveal an onslaught of metal blades travelling in a wide arc towards my eyes. My body shut down, unprepared for the speed of the attack, but adrenaline pumped twice as hard so I could watch the inevitable.

Liquid fire seared through my body as I pushed away with fleshy limbs that wouldn’t move. In my minds eye golden arms of pure energy reached out and shoved the fan away as hard as they could.

Time sped back up and I watched amazed as the fan flipped out of Venus’ hand and clunked onto the pavement several metres away.

We both stared at the fan.

“I freaking knew it.” Venus grinned. “Just gotta push hard enough.” She stood up, silver lightning flowing around the wound in her side. The spilled blood become red orbs that were sucked back inside as the skin knitted together.

Venus stood up straight and pointed a finger at me “I called you first, got that?”

She clapped her hands together and in a flash of silver light the weapons on the street reappeared on her person. “It’s a neat trick, you should learn that one. Oh, and get a costume.”

I nodded numbly, still staring at the spot where the fan had lain.

“So what do I call ya, heroine? Goldilocks? The Golden Flash? Golden girl?”

I blinked. “Golden arms.” I mumbled, stunned.

“Nah, not catchy enough. Tell ya what, you go think about it and make a kickass costume to match and when I next see ya you better have an awesome intro sequence too.” She checked her watch. “Oops, I’m missing prime TV. Later Goldy.”

And that was how I learnt that I was a super heroine.

 

Author's Note

The Venus Flytrap was a character I designed and animated a while ago. You can see her magical girl transformation sequence here: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150496008026097

Reviews

[Wolfwind]

Holy wow that was awesome! =D A wonderful read, full of intensity and wit. One doesn't know how it's going to end till you get there. Great Ink! Much Enjoyed!

Aaron