Chapter 1 - Recovery and discovery
-------------------------------------
A beam of sunlight streamed through the partly opened curtains to herald the start of a new day. The light shone down on a female figure lying in the middle of the room who was partly covered by a satin blanket . Pulling a washcloth that was draped across her eyes , the raven haired beauty groggily pulled herself to her feet. Dressed in a green unitard with high heeled boots and gloves that ran from her fingertips to just past her elbows, the woman was known to the hero populace as the matter transmuter known as Sersi. Born of a race of immortals, the heroine was known as much for her parties as her combat fighting abilities.
At the present time, fighting was the last thing on the sexy woman's mind as she staggered through the debris scattered throughout her home. She raised her right hand to her forehead oblivious to the fact that the top part of her outfit was partly pulled down exposing her ample left breast and just a little of the right one.
"That's the last time I serve 800 year old wine at any of my parties . My head's buzzing worse than when I hosted that party in Greece a while back. The press I got then thanks to that guy Homer was not fun at all," Sersi muttered to herself as she started to pick things off the floor and straighten up her home.
She stooped down to pick up a red unitard that was lying on the floor next to a matching cowl and thigh high boots. "Hmm..why would Wanda leave her costume behind when she left for the night? Maybe she tried one of her hexes last night and screwed it up like she does half the time," she said snickering to herself as she thought of a very naked Scarlet Witch appearing in the middle of some darkened street.
As Sersi staggered around the apartment cleaning up, she found to her amazement a large amount of uniforms that belonged to her guests last night ranging from the familiar blue and white costume of the Invisible Woman to the thin strips of crimson satin material that barely contained the voluptuous form of the vampiress/heroine known as Vampirella.
"What the hell happened here last night?" Sersi wondered aloud to herself as she plopped herself down on an overstuffed chair. As the haze from the alcohol began to lift from her mind, she began to vaguely recall conversations from the night before. She remembered lurching forwards more than once slapping a guest on the back of the neck before her hands started to glow and then... nothing.
The heroine leaned forward and pulled up her uniform top as an after thought. "What's with all these receipts lying on the coffee table?" she wondered as she picked up a pile of papers that were tossed loosely on the bronze surface. As she looked through them, she noted they were all for items that were picked up and sold the previous night. Stranger still, the bills showed her as the seller and the various stores as the buyer who had already picked up the merchandise. Attached to the receipts were various checks made out in her name for fairly large amounts of money.
Puzzled, Sersi stood up and looked around her immense home and the various objects she had acquired over the centuries. "Why would I be selling stuff out of my house at weird hours of the night to places I don't even buy from?" she muttered to herself as she wandered from room to room looking to see what was missing.
After 45 minutes of searching carefully throughout her two story mansion, she couldn't find anything missing save for a few broken plates and glasses - no doubt fallout from her party. She walked into her private art gallery thinking that maybe she should re-check those receipts to see if maybe they belonged to one of her guests. After a cursory glance around she began to walk out, heading back to her main entertainment area, when she stopped suddenly and turned.
Sersi strode quickly back into her gallery and walked to the section where she displayed her statues and marble busts. The area where the pedestals were set up interested her the most, judging by the perplexed look on her face as she walked across the marble floor with her high heels clattering on the hardwood floor.
Three pedestals stood in the far left corner of Sersi's gallery, all made of glistening white marble. Standing approximately five to six feet tall each, the statues on them consisted of carved nude female figures posed in various ways. The first two depicted women with hands raised above their heads as if they were holding up the various art pieces that were currently resting atop them. However it was the third pedestal, which currently was barren, that interested the immortal woman the most.
Unlike the other two, the figure that formed the base of this pedestal was posed with her hands on her slender hips. Her ample breasts seemed pushed out further than the other two and the nipples on them seemed far more defined than the other two shapely marble figures. The most disconcerting of all was the strangely blank look on her face showing little or no emotion whatsoever.
"Oohhh.....!!!" gasped Sersi out loud as she suddenly recalled why this piece of art seemed so unique. At her party last night, she remembered showing one of her guests around her home in a bit of tour. The guest, a heroine with weather controlling abilities known as Rainmaker, was fascinated by all the unique ancient works Sersi had accumulated over the years. A native american, Rainmaker was particularly interested in Sersi's display of Indian artworks in her gallery. As the young heroine wandered a bit wobbly about, she kept muttering how she was tired of being the main support for the team of heroes she belonged to. In her wobbling about, she bumped into and knocked over a large vase that sat by itself in a corner. The vase was not particularly valuable but was treasured by Sersi as a gift from a human lover she had several centuries who had died tragically young.
As Rainmaker bent down clumsily trying to pick up the pieces, Sersi approached her from behind mentally raging at this event. Normally, she would just use her powers to fix the vase good as new but in her inebriated state she decided to fix the perpetrator instead.
She reached into a small pot in the gallery and pulled out a small metallic device that glowed brightly along with a barely perceptible hum. It was known as a "brain mine" to Sersi and her fellow immortals, a device of completely inhibiting a subject's mental thought process effectively putting them into a kind of " living sleep" where their body would stay in whatever pose or stance they were left in till the device was removed.
Bending down , Sersi slapped the device onto the back of Rainmaker's neck with a bit of force. There was a bit of a twitch noticeable from the squatting heroine and then nothing. Walking in front of her, Sersi reached down and pulled the heroine to her feet. Clumsily, she stripped the red and black leotard off the heroine as well as her boots and silver bracers. Sersi then placed Rainmaker's hands squarely on her thin waist and arched her back slightly so that her chest shoved out prominently. Flashing a silly smile on her face, Sersi briefly played with Rainmaker's taut nipples causing them to harden and jut out quite prominently
Staggering backward and muttering something about making Rainmaker a long term "support", Sersi raised her hands and pointed towards Rainmaker. As her hands began to glow, her target's skin color changed from it's normal flesh tone color to brilliant white marble. The effect rapidly went up her body enveloping her sex up to her bountiful bosoms and slender shoulders. The effect claimed lastly her face and hair turning her eyes into clear circles of alabaster white which still reflected the oblivious state Rainmaker had been placed in.
Sersi had then staggered over and picked up the living marble pedestal which she lugged over to where several others already stood. After polishing it with her gloves, she had staggered back to her party's guests leaving a new work n her gallery.
Recalling all this, Sersi nodded slowly to herself and stepped in front of the pedestal . "Better start setting things right!" she muttered to herself and raised her hands once again. Cold unfeeling marble quickly changed to warm pink skin as what was recently an erotic piece of art became again a sexy, nude, and immobile woman standing with her hands still on her hips and staring blankly straight ahead.
Sersi was about to remove the neural inhibiting device from the dazed heroine's neck when she stopped herself literally in mid motion. "If I remove this device now, I could be spending the next several hours calming this woman down and if I did this - or something similar - to any of my other guests, I had better find them while I still know where they might be.. " she reasoned mentally to herself .
Stepping back reluctantly, Sersi muttered "Well, you won't be going anywhere soon so I don't have to hunt around for your outfit, my dear. I'll be back soon and I'll make it up to you all, I promise."
Sersi then went out into her entertainment area and scooped up the bundle of receipts. "Times a-wasting. I've got places to go and people to change back," she said confidently, before strolling out her front door determined to right a very wrong night.
Next : First stop.........