Consensus, Day ???

Christina awoke… or had she? The world around her looked no different with her eyes open than it had with them closed. Where was she?

She needed to focus. All this hyperventilation and stress was not productive. The world was so close to being hers, Violet was in her grasp right then and there, then… what had happened, exactly? Reality itself appeared to be there one second, then it simply was not there the next. This was no time for a mild distraction such as the world ending. After all, Christina still deserved to rule it!

Reality was not a tool for the void to reject her with. It was hers! She had stolen it fair and square! And she was going to use it to achieve the status and power she rightly deserved. All that remained was Violet. She just needed to find that slippery little shit and the world would be right once more.

And, because reality responded to her and not whatever contrivances it could throw her way, she became its sole commander. At first, she quite liked reality. It was quaint, and only needed occasional whipping to be kept in place. But now, it was being naughty. It veered too far out of her control, and now required a firm overcorrection to bring it to where it deserved.

While still sensory-blind to everything, she pulled all the information she needed out of her new toy that proved pertinent. She found where she was, a rift in between time itself that had opened upon her powers making contact with Violet’s own. That wasn’t enough info, of course.

With a little extra emphasis—wringing reality like a lemon wedge until it buckled under pressure—she discovered the ‘when’, no matter how unhelpful it turned out to be.

Christina was rapidly traveling forward in time, reality revealing the sun rising and setting rapidly every few milliseconds as the day and night cycles became mere ticks in a greater machine full of whirring gears. She watched whole civilizations fall without context, only to be rebuilt into sinister, surveillance-state panopticons that stretched into the sky. A timelapse of truly terrifying proportions.

But Christina didn’t care. All of this could be undone in an instant by her if she caught Violet. She knew how to construct a draining device from spare car parts at this point, not to mention what her reality manipulation could do for her now that she knew it was loyal to only her.

And then… she caught a glimpse of Violet. A blink and you’d miss it moment, only Christina wasn’t blinking and she certainly didn’t miss. She pushed reality to its limit, sic-ing Mae’s strength manipulation and Carrie’s obeying powers onto it until it acted exactly as she desired it to. Like a puppet on a string, reality gave way and she was thrust from the void, landing back into the real world and falling right before Violet, descending slowly like an angel from heaven.

Violet herself seemed equally confused about the sequence of events that had just unfolded, not to mention the trauma of witnessing the one person she loved being murdered before her eyes. Christina may have been confused as well, but she wasn’t about to let such trivialities get in the way of her goals.

Christina said nothing, making no grand gestures nor taunts. Hunting Violet was like trying to kill a fly with a bazooka—it could be done, but it was ultimately a helplessly inefficient strategy. Though at this point Christina cared very little about the resulting collateral damage.

An advanced prototype of Christina’s new draining device generated itself on her arm, grafting its augments alongside her skin. Yet, this brief downtime was just enough leeway for Violet to be made aware of her rival’s approach, becoming frightened like a rabbit and zipping away throughout time and space. The businesswoman’s advanced intelligence informed her that the attempted attack was mere millimeters from her opponent’s flesh before she was removed from this time altogether. Once more, a mere inch away from success.

But Christina was not perturbed, quite the opposite in fact. The slippery little slut had just given her an idea, and it was one that required Violet to believe she had finally gotten away.

Christina may not have been able to change time and catch Violet, but reality was still her bitch. She forced reality to stay its course in case her little adversary decided to change history, a bubble unalterable by time surrounding her. While she couldn’t follow Violet into whatever time period the once-paraplegic decided to waltz into, Christina could, say, alter the destination of Violet’s next desperate time warp so that the two would collide once more. Violet still commanded the action, Christina merely altered the result of it to fit within a logical purview. That opening would be all the businesswoman needed for her reign to be set in stone.

And since time for her was relative, such an opening should be arriving soon.

~

Violet landed in a sun-soaked suburbia, a far cry from the hazy apocalypse she had become subjected to for a second time, though her discomfort did not leave. She was sitting in her wheelchair out on the front porch. For a brief moment, everything seemed normal.

Her eyes dropping to her body reconfirmed that nothing could ever be normal again. Firm, sinuous musculature that coated her arms and legs like chain links of taut beef, twin hemispheres of supple flesh that hugged her two-sizes-too-small hoodie and time itself still flowing within her veins.

The all-too-familiar sound of two subsequent discord notifications back-to-back caused her heart to skip a beat. Peering ahead at the computer monitor before her, Violet’s tearful eyes fell upon an otherwise mundane sight. Zach was texting her. Actual messages of his, appearing on screen. Despite everything, he was alive and well once more.

Violet then turned off her screen. This all ended now. Once and for all. No time for such distractions, as enticing as they may be. She needed to end Christina’s reign before it even began.

Doing a bit of intense internet sleuthing, Violet managed to track down the location of where her old middle school acquaintance worked. The buff, buxom blonde stifled a giggle when she discovered Christina’s janitorial juxtaposition. Christina Atelier: Floor cleaner at some office building older than both of the women combined. Who would have guessed that a woman so terrifying and smart would be trapped in a dead-end job like that?

Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she forwent the typical time shenanigans and let her massively muscular body do all the work for her. Her strides were leaps and bounds above that of even the most prestigious olympic athletes, allowing Violet to outrun cars on the road. Oh well… so much for not drawing attention to herself.

But when she arrived, Christina was nowhere to be found. Even though everyone at the office seemed to regard the janitor as the new boss for some reason, no one knew exactly where Christina had stepped out to. Just when Violet thought all hope was lost, someone rather familiar piped up.

“Psst, Violet, over here.”

She didn’t recognize the voice, but attaching a face to it drudged up vague memories. This woman… hadn’t she just recently helped Violet? Well, perhaps “recent” was relative. A beautiful blonde, radiant in her stunning beauty, was standing in a desolate corner unfit for such a pretty face. Of course, not even a shadow could hide a stunner such as her.

“You’re looking for Christina, aren’t you?” came the woman’s ethereal voice. Violet had never suspected she was bisexual, but the cadence of the dialect that passed this woman’s lips certainly had her questioning. Violet nodded out of sheer instinct, barely able to process the woman’s question.

“She’s at 6109 Bamboo Drive. If you’re fast enough, you might even be able to catch her in the act,” the woman added. “Though I wouldn’t use any time manipulation. She already suspects that much.”

“Why are you helping me?” was all Violet had to say, her dopey, worried face clashing with the massive musculature that resided beneath it.

“Because, you’re my last hope,” the spirit woman replied, her voice desperate as if she knew exactly what Violet had endured to get to this point. “The very balance of magic itself is at stake. You’ve managed to catch her at a vulnerable moment, seize it if you can.”

Violet balled her hand into a fist with newfound resolve. “I won’t let you down, ma’am!”

~

Shit. Shitshitshit… I hope she didn’t see me! Violet thought to herself, terrified out of her wits at the sight of Christina, who herself had an element of surprise as she sauntered towards the house of interest with a swagger in her step. Even a girl who could literally reverse time to fix her mistakes was terrified of the imposing fear Christina exuded.

Violet, having chosen a rather poor hiding spot behind some shrubs in a neighboring house’s yard, fell to an army crawl as she prayed to whatever deity would listen that Christina didn’t notice her. Thankfully for her, the businesswoman appeared to be more occupied with making an entrance as her knuckles rapped upon the door.

A girl Violet didn’t recognize answered the knock, though judging by her face, she seemed frightened of Christina as she gazed upon the confident woman on her doorstep.

“Wow, nice place you got here,” said Christina, her voice dripping with a sarcastic edge, as if complimenting the house was just a way of downplaying the inherent fear factor that was her presence. “I certainly couldn’t afford it with the salary of a janitor… but as the new lead manager… who knows?”

Christina invited herself in, strolling casually past the woman in the door. Violet could make out complaining within the house, though complaining that appeared to fall on deaf ears as the businesswoman continued to make her way into the house. Violet tracked Christina’s movements, keeping her distance as she still desired to remain out of Christina’s point of view.

“Hey! I asked you a question, bitch!” came another woman’s voice from within the house, now within earshot of Violet. Strangely enough, Violet found herself almost compelled to answer this query that wasn’t even directed towards her. She didn’t think much of it, as what she now saw captured her full attention. While the blonde woman sitting on the couch was shouting her head off, Christina was retrieving a strange device from her pocket. The exact same one she was going to use on Violet. Clearly, this woman had some sort of unique power she wanted!

She needed to be stopped. Doing so could change the course of history.

Shifting into third gear, Violet used all her strength to tackle Christina to the ground, catching her off-guard and taking the pneumatic extraction tube from her hand. At first, she merely desired to restrain Christina, not being one for violence. But then she remembered how Zach had died by this bitch’s hand and suddenly she didn’t feel so sympathetic towards preserving Christina’s life.

With the extraction device in her hand, Violet wasted no time jabbing Christina with it, draining the power and life from her body instantly. A scream came from the woman by the door, but Violet didn’t dare take her eyes away from witnessing the satisfaction watching the life drain from Christina’s eyes.

She giggled like a madwoman, a long, languid smile growing across her face as a sense of finality washed over her. Violet had done it. Christina was dead.

“Heh, glad to know that my compelling beauty extends to random passersby on the street,” came the voice of Carrie from the couch. “Now, be a good little girl and bring that little device to me. I want to see what it’s all about.”

While Carrie clearly misunderstood the situation, Violet was unable to correct her. The beefy blonde’s body moved independently of her own wishes, her trembling hand passing the device over to the prettier twin for proper examination. “Hmm, and what exactly does this device do?” she said aloud, not exactly expecting an answer from anyone, though Violet’s traitorous lips were happy to provide one.

“It’s a power-transferring device. If you’ve used it to steal power from a woman blessed with it, the pneumatic device allows you to transfer it to yourself, alongside the beauty of the victim,” Violet said, her throat, teeth and tongue forming sentences she would never have thought to say otherwise based on spurious information and gut feelings. More importantly, it was the revelation of beauty that had Carrie’s eyes widen with excitement.

Carrie moaned with rapturous pleasure as she injected herself with all of Christina’s telekinetic prowess. More importantly, the former businesswoman’s stolen attributes manifested themselves atop her own. Her bust size increased, adding inches upon precious inches of voluminous flesh. Her ass was quick to follow, filling up her loose-fitting lounging sweatpants until they were as tight as skinny jeans upon her expanding thighs. A Highlight of black hair streaked down her blonde tresses.

Down with one horrible narcissist, up with another.

Carrie shot a dirty glance to her sister, Terri’s face falling deeper into depression accordingly. With the ever-improving Blonde’s focus being directed away from Violet, she now saw her chance for escape. Stepping through time to nowhere in particular so that she could escape the range of Carrie’s voice and return to her designated time period…

…Only to warp right into Christina’s pneumatic extraction device.

“Gotcha, you little slippery shit. Your time can’t escape this new reality.”

Those were the last words Violet heard as her magic essence—along with most other essences that she needed to function—were unceremoniously drained from her body in an instant. Violet was now the fifth person reduced to a starved, arid body. All of her dreams and future had been denied as she choked on her own upchucked bile to a slow and painful death.

Christina’s plan had worked. All known Grove-related anomalies had been taken care of. The power of time was in the palm of her hand. With it, she could undo the dark future Violet had trapped her in and return to molding the world to her whims. But then again… where was she?

She focused her attention on the world around her, and all of its surreality. The horizon was on fire, a lone, endlessly tall tower stood above the harrowing flames, stretching far into the hazy orange skyline. Towers around it had crumbled and collapsed, as if the inhabitant of the main tower couldn’t stand having competition, even ones of their own selection. Thick, black clouds choked the sky, circling around the silhouetted structure as if they knew their place second to its haunting stature. Corpses littered the ground, charred beyond recognizability, only the vague shapes of limbs and skulls remaining.

The only problem with this world was that she wasn’t the one ruling it!

All she’d need to do is waltz up to the top of the last remaining bastion of authority and behead whatever fat and happy bastard was running the place. While the tower itself wasn’t her ideal shape or color—a little too phallic for her tastes—Christina was thankful that whoever this was saved her all the busywork of actually constructing an empire.

Without a second thought about it, she injected Violet’s time powers into her body, moaning with euphoric satisfaction. This was it... the world she deserved, handed to her on a silver platter. All she had to do was reach out and take it.