Party of Three
Everyone kept a safe distance from the flames. Madeleine Smith flicked particles of ash off her shoulder. It didn’t look like her dress was damaged too badly. She’d have to make yet another awkward explanation to her dry-cleaners, but all in all, the night could’ve gone worse.
There was a sudden thud. She turned. Madeleine blinked. She was staring at an angel. Golden halo, shining aura, fluttering wings, the works. The angel dramatically produced a clipboard. “Right, where’s the party?”
“Excuse me?”
The angel sighed. “I’m supposed to be tracking the Holy Grail, but then I got pulled to save a bunch of people at a party from some attacking supervillain dude. The Whomping Rhino or the Blue Terror or some idiot like that. So, tell me where the party is, I’ll save the people, then I can get back to Grail-searching, ‘kay?”
Madeleine, being a superheroine herself, was used to odd things like this. At least it wasn’t a time thing. She hated time things. “Sorry,” she said, “but I already saved the people. It was Crudmuffin, incidentally. With his Pastries of Fiery Peril. That would be why the building’s burning.”
She pointed to the building. The angel looked at it, then had a sudden thought. “Oh, darn. Late again. I keep forgetting you people have that Daylight Savings time thing.” She paused, slightly hesitant. “There weren’t, ah, any casualties, were there?”
“Only my mom. Killed in the fire.”
The angel gasped. There was another thud. A grim figure in a dark cloak had just materialized. “Hi,” the new arrival said. “I’m Rain. Current incarnation of Death. I hear there were casualties?”
The angel narrowed her eyes. “I thought Winifred was Death.”
“She switched jobs,” Rain said, in a somber voice like the tolling of a church bell. “She’s the incarnation of Time now.”
“Oy,” the angel said. “You’re away from Earth for a while and everything changes. There’s new incarnations, people are wearing these acid-washed jegging things, there’s a new Star Wars movie….”
“Yes,” Rain said darkly. “I have seen it. It was… satisfactory.”
“REAL-ly,” the angel said, her wings perking in sudden interest. “Last time I was here there were these prequels, and you know how those went-”
“Oh, look, there’s my mom,” Madeleine said. She pointed to a slender woman who was nonchalantly strolling out of the flames.
“Er,” the angel said. “Wasn’t she supposed to be dead?”
“Not another false alarm,” Rain sighed.
“No, she was dead. It’s just that my mom’s a superheroine too. She comes back to life in 17 seconds.”
“REAL-ly,” the angel said. “Resurrection Lady’s your mom? So that makes you….”
“Yep,” Madeleine said. “I’m Gaseous Girl.”
“Constance,” the angel returned. Her halo shone brightly, reflecting her burst of enthusiam. “Say, Gaseous Girl, old pal, ever wanted to look for a shiny gold cup that may have been the one Christ used at the Last Supper?”
“The what?” Madeleine said.
