Milton and Anaera were sent airborne by the powerful blast. Flames tried to engulf them, incinerating their clothes in seconds. The flight and the pain were foreshortened by their landing in the River of America. Anaera, who had already unconsciously drained the life from all the surrounding plants on Tom Sawyer Island before the blast, fully awoke when she hit water. She began thrashing about in Milton’s arms as panic set in. She started to scream, but water filled her mouth. She always knew she’d die by drowning…

Then, she was on the bank, coughing up water and shivering weakly with reaction. Milton looked down at her from where he was standing in the shallows. It had been difficult to get the dark-haired girl to the opposite bank, with her panicked thrashing. She’d nearly given him a black eye with a flying elbow. Out of the water, though, she seemed to be calming rapidly – and recovering rapidly. And she was still hanging onto the strange black sword.

Milton took a deep breath and surveyed the damage around him. The Island was ruined! He could only be thankful that it was late enough in the day that the attraction had been closed to prepare for Fantasmic. No children had been caught in the inferno, although he could make out a group of local teenagers running onto the scene, asking if anybody had marshmallows. He shook his head in disgust, and caught something in the corner of his eye. There were some dead ducks floating in the water, but there was no mark on them. He turned back to Chichiri no Otaku, and saw a circle spreading around her. It was a circle of dead plants, and as the swathe spread, Anaera grew stronger and healthier. And the spot of darkness in her already dark eyes grew harder, colder.

“My father’s legacy,” the girl muttered bitterly, clenching the hilt of her sword more tightly in her hand.

Milton tried to calm her down a little, hoping to keep her from immediately chasing down Nyx. “Um, where is your Guardian?”

She laughed humorlessly. “This is Disneyland! Don’t you know how many gay men work here? I told her I’d be fine.”

“Her?”

“Him! I meant him,” she lapsed into silence after this, touching her cheek. She looked down over to the dead ducks in the river. “Hera’s black CRAP! If I could’ve controlled the healing I would have stopped it! It’s gonna scar for sure now! If only Orpheus could have stitched it first!” She seemed to remember something else. “She drained me! She took MY energy! I haven’t lost energy of my own since before Daddy left, and then, I always GAVE it!” Her body would have shook with fury, but the coldness of the black blade in her hand prevented that. “At least I’ll know where to find her. As long as she has MY energy, she’ll be a part of me.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” Milton said, getting agitated.

“That’s how it works with me,” she called over her shoulder as she took off at an impossible speed.

Surprised faces blurred by her as she ran full tilt through the park to It’s a Small World. It was exactly on an hour, so the figures were emerging from the façade of the building to proclaim the time. There Nyx stood, chopping the head off each one as it came out and shuddering in masochistic glee as the most annoying song in the world played.

“My turn, b____!” Anaera yelled as soon as Nyx turned toward her approaching form with a malevolent smile.

“Ah, Anae-chan! Come to play again?”

Anaera coldly assessed the situation. Nyx was too powerful at close range, and she couldn’t kill her, but she might be able to cause some pain. She reached into HammerSpace and pulled out a recurved bow and a long-shafted arrow, strangely marked. Yes, the Hammershaft Nitro-Arrow™ from the Antioch surplus store. A cold smile overspread her features as she gently held the arrow in her teeth and strung her bow. She surveyed the area. Good, the ride was closed for repairs. She nocked the arrow, brought the bow up, drew, sighted, and shot.

It hit home in the weird smiley face clock.

Where it exploded.

Nyx and Small World were swallowed up in flames.

If the cold presence of the sword had allowed it, she would have laughed. She calmly analyzed the effect so much nitroglycerin, held in the small HammerSpace in the arrow’s shaft, had on a theme park attraction. She bet that hurt. Good.