Tales of the Kudoverse #9

Having finished up what I wrote of the origin cycle I was unsure what to hit next. The following story is what I decided on. This one brings our characters up to the "present day" (that being 2005), so obviously there's a gap in the middle between the last part of the Kitten origin and where they're all at right now. Don't worry, you haven't missed anything -- I'm going to fill in those gaps later on. This piece features Canary Kudo (how we get from Jillyana Von Zemo to Canary Kudo is another origin related story I have in mind, but haven't written out) and a character you haven't met yet named Wilhemina X.

The story is based on an idea given to me by my friend Matt. He threw the idea at me, and then I had to figure out how to make it work, and to get there I had to play around with some ideas about narration and point of view. I think it's really good. It's definitely me at my most Tarantino.

*****

West Texas. January 2004.

Ever since the incident at the Five Star Diner on Tuesday morning, the state police have kept a guard posted at the bedside of William H Arkle, 62. Mr. Arkle was hospitalized as a result of the incident, and has been in the intensive care unit, although doctors agree that his comatose state is the result of a heart attack brought on by the stress of the incident, not as a result of injuries suffered at the hands of the two young woman who were involved in the attack on the Diner. Mr. Arkle is the only person left from the scene who can provide authorities with any relevant information.

William H Arkle woke from his coma on Friday evening. By this time agents from the FBI, and three SHIELD agents joined the state troopers stationed there. The agent in charge, Sharon Carter, quickly took over the scene. When Mr. Arkle was well enough to talk, Agent Carter conducted the interview. Only the SHIELD agents and the ranking FBI agent were allowed to remain in the room while Mr. Arkle told his story.

"Mr. Arkle, can you tell me what happened at the Five Star Diner that morning?"

'I was there having some breakfast, like I always do. Every morning. Scrambled eggs and toast. And black coffee. Ever since Doris passed on I ain't felt much like cooking, or much else, and now that I'm retired there isn't much for me to do except mosey on down to the Diner and visit with the pretty waitresses for as long as they don't kick me out. Well, I guess I won't be doing as much of that anymore.

It was just like any other Tuesday morning. The interstate crosses right near there, and the Diner was loaded up, like any mid-morning with truckers and the local riff raff. I always sit at the counter, over in the corner, so's I can see everything that's going on. They came in around 10:00. The two girls, I mean. The one's that you want to know about. I ain't never seen the two of them in there before, and that pretty much means they weren't local. Just two pretty girls passing through is what I thought. And the locals being what they are, two little girls looking like them are going to attract some attention. And they did.'

"Can you describe them for me, Mr. Arkle?"

'They were both small little things. Five foot something, tops. Certainly no more than five-five. The one who came in first had long blond hair, practically down to her waist, I'd say. She walked in like she owned the place, and the way the boys were checking her out, she pretty much did. And it was pretty obvious she knew every eye would be on her, like she expected it. I guess looking like that, it prolly happened a lot. She didn't go about making eye contact with anybody. Even when some of the truckers whistled at her she didn't do nothing but smirk about it. She was wearing mostly red, and she was carrying a bundle of something wrapped in a blanket under her arm. I thought that was a might peculiar, but not as much as when I found out what was in there later on.

The other girl was a pretty little thing herself. I'm not saying the blond in red overshadowed her or anything, but she did get the fair share of the attention. This other girl had something of a pale complexion. Not sickly, but like she hasn't gotten too much of the sun, which is right odd for being in West Texas out in the middle of nowheres. She had kind of sandy blondish hair, and these big eyes. They stood right out, but I always had kind of a thing for eyes, you know? This one seemed a little more bothered by the boys and their nonsense. She gave a few of them the evil eye on the way past. With her size she didn't seem more dangerous than a white rose, but that glare she was casting kind of gave me a chill.

They took a booth not more than two deep from where I was sitting at the counter. I don't normally consider myself an eavesdropper now, but it isn't every day that two pretty girls like those two wander in to the Five Star, and I have to admit I was a bit interested. The blond girl had an accent on her, sounded German to me, and her friend had a different one...Australian, I'd say, like in some of the movies. I figured they must be a couple of whaddayacallit.....foreign exchange students from the University. They were about the right age for that. I couldn't really make out much of what they were saying, but I couldn't help but cast an eye on that booth. The second girl, the one with the big eyes, was sitting facing me, and she caught me looking a few times. She flared her nostrils at me, but she didn't glare like at the other boys. I've never been taken as a guy who's too threatening. Vera came by their table and they ordered their food, and everything seemed all right. Then.'

"What happened next?"

'For a while them two girls just ate their breakfast and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The one girl facing me just had some French toast and orange juice. The blond girl had a whole mess of food. There must have been five plates of things there in front of her. She didn't look it, but she sure could put the food away. She had just ordered something else, and Vera went off to fetch it. That's when the trouble started.

Big Bill, one of the regulars, came over to their booth. He kind of has a reputation as somebody who can be crude, especially towards the women, you know? The waitresses all are kind of used to him, and don't pay him no nevermind. But these girls were fresh out of wherever they came from, and they wouldn't know that Ol' Bill is really just a harmless old coot. The mousy one, she kind of cast a withering stare at him, but the blond girl didn't even look up. She just kept eating. Sittin' as close as I was, I could hear some of the conversation. In Bill's defense, I think he was just trying to make them gals feel at home, but sometimes he just doesn't have the smoothest approach. And them two girls, well....

They just weren't right.

Bill was saying something about how if they was new in town that he could show them some of the local sights, and could show them a good time. I'd seen this before and I just rolled my eyes at it. Nobody ever took him up on that. The girl facing me, she said, "I don't think so," and went back to her French toast. The blond girl never looked up at all, not once, like he wasn't there at all. Well, Bill doesn't always know when to quit, and he mentioned how the lake was pretty this time of year, and he could take them over there so they could see it. The girl said again, "I don't think so," and a little more sharply than the time before. I was interested in how this was going to play out, and I noticed the other blond girl look up from her bacon and eggs and look at her friend. She was facing the other way, but I would bet you she was smirking. You could just tell that Bill was starting to get embarrassed, cause most everybody in the Diner was paying attention to that booth. He should have just walked away.

But he was there with his buddies, and they was kind of egging him on. He kind of cleared his throat, looked back at the girl who'd answered him already, and said that she might not get a better offer than that. I could tell the girl I was watching was starting to lose patience with Bill, and she looked at her friend and just shook her head. Bill was still talking. Then the blond girl spoke up and said, "She already told you to FUCK OFF," and just went back to her eggs. The other girl smiled at her friend, and then looked up at Ol' Bill with this look like she was just daring him to say something back. Bill himself, well he looked like he'd been slapped right in the face. His buddies were snickering back at the counter behind him, and there was a different ripple going through the rest of the place. Then he said, "I was just trying to be nice. You don't have to be a cunt about it." I'm not superstitious by nature, but I definitely felt a chill come through the Five Star right then.

The blond girl stopped in mid-bite and put her fork down. Then she slid out of the booth, looked Bill right in the face, and she...how can I put it? She snorted at him, you know, like a pissed off bull might do. She had that bundle of whatever under one arm, and she walked by Bill and started looking around for something. The jukebox I guess it was, cause she focused in on it and her mouth turned up in a smile. Then she started looking around again, and her gaze settled on me over in the corner. Her demeanor weren't quite the same as when she came in. It was all serious now, and them eyes stared a hole right through me, and even in the 80-degree heat they covered my whole body in goosebumps. She stepped right over to me, got real close--closer than I'd be comfortable with even under normal circumstances. Her hand came to rest on my shoulder, and even though she weren't pressing down to hard on me, I could tell she was some strong girl. I felt her hair bump against my cheek, and then she was whispering in my ear. "Do you have a quarter I could borrow?" she asked.

I was dumbstruck for a few seconds, but then I fumbled a quarter out of my pocket for her somehow. She smiled a devil's smile at me, and said, "Thanks, sweetheart. Stay right here. Don't move." I was near to paralyzed as it was, so there weren't no problem in complying with that. Every eye in the place was on her by this point as she blew by Bill and sauntered on over to the jukebox. Bill had gone back to the counter by this time, talking to his buddies, but still casting a look at the blond girl. She took her time picking out a song, like she was deciding between a couple different ones, and then that quarter went in. The song started. It was one of those that the morning crowd doesn't play much at all, but the college kids at night were partial to.'

"What song was it?"

'Sabotage' by the Beastie Boys.

"And that's when it started?"

'The shit started to hit the fan almost before I even knew it. The blonde girl unraveled her bundle, and let the blanket fall to the floor. She turned around holding two swords. I swear to god. Swords. And her face. Her eyes were some angry, but she was smiling like the devil come up from Hell. One of the women on the other side, near the jukebox there, she started up screaming right away. Jack Harner was standing closest to her, and she swung at him without even barely looking his direction. The sword slashed right across his face and he dropped to the floor hollering in pain. A spray of blood coated the counter top. Then everybody panicked. Betty Lou from down at the beauty salon, she ran for the door, but right as she got there she went up in flames. It didn't take more than two seconds before she was completely ablaze, and she fell forward into the door, and then fell back. The smell of that burning flesh was nauseating. Between that and the blood, I could feel what I'd put down of my breakfast coming back up. I looked over at the booth and the other girl was watching Betty Lou burn up alive, and she was giggling about it. I don't know how I knew it, but I knew she'd done it. The other girl caused the fire. I know how crazy this all sounds.'

"It's all right, Mr. Arkle. Please continue."

'Well, the blond girl with the swords just kept cutting everybody anywhere near her. Bob Tarkins, he lost an arm just lickety-split. Joe Miller got run through with one of them blades. And some of the truckers, I don't even know who they were, you know, got cut down just the same. It didn't seem like she was even trying that hard. In the corner booth there was a family--a man, his wife, and two kids. I think he had the idea of trying to defend them, and he picked up a chair to hold her off. She just looked over at her friend there, who was still sitting in the booth, and just gave an amused look, and then kicked the chair right back into that guy's face. He went back first right into the table his family was sitting at, and then she split him right down the middle in front of them. The wife started screaming, but it only lasted for a second cause next thing I know her head came off and bounced against the front window. I couldn't look to see what happened to the two kids.

Around this time, Bill and his two friends had the idea to get the hell out of there before the blond girl got around to them. The front door was an inferno by this point, so they tried to get out the side door over near where I was. I'd have tried it myself if I hadn't been so scared shitless. I ain't ashamed to admit that. The second girl looked over in their direction, and I didn't see her do a thing but Bill's two friends went up afire just like Betty Lou had. She let Bill have an extra few seconds, and he looked at her, and he knew what I knew about her starting them fires, and he started to beg her for his life. She slid out of the booth and walked over to him, nice and slow. Ol' Bill was just a blubbering mess then, and he was down on his knees asking for forgiveness, from her or from the Lord--hell, I don't know. She leaned down to him and this weren't more than four feet from me, and I heard her clearly say, "I forgive you."

Bill seemed relieved and he started thanking her over and over while his two buddies burnt to a cinder right behind him. Then he started touching his chest, like he had some bad indigestion. Bill made some gurgling noises, and then he started to cough and cough and cough. He coughed up a little fireball just before a big hole burnt through his chest. Then it was seconds before the rest of him was burnt out....Jesus. She'd burnt him from the inside out right in front of me. She looked at me, all pleased with herself, and she winked at me, like I was in on the joke with her. I just wanted to scream.

Then the top half of Frank Nettle's head bounced off my plate, and landed on my lap. The blond girl had more than half the Diner hacked to pieces by then. I hadn't seen anything like that since Vietnam. All the bodies and limbs with no bodies attached to them. And I just sat there waiting for my turn, and wondering if they were saving me for last. I looked back into the kitchen, and Freddy the cook had his shotgun, and he pointed it at the blond girl, and I wondered why he didn't just run for it. I guess he thought he had to try and be a hero or something. He never got the chance, cause the other girl was standing right near to me and she saw what I saw, and next thing I remember pretty much the whole kitchen went up like it'd been bombed. It was that girl what did it. She exploded the gas stove, and it incinerated Freddy and anyone else who was still back there.

That's about when the state cops showed up outside. I caught sight of Vera hiding behind the counter, and I hoped neither of the two girls realized she was there. The whole Diner was on fire at that point, and I knew we were gonna be goners one way or the other. The blond girl was all covered in blood that had sprayed back on her, and she noticed the blues outside the same time I did. There was at least seven cruisers out there, making just over a dozen cops, and I knew those boys had handled some nasty shit in their day, but after seeing what I'd just seen, I didn't like their chances much. The girl near me, the firestarter, she told me to go outside. I was just paralyzed, I didn't know what to do. She yelled at me again, "GO", and that was all I needed, and I was up and out of that seat, hopping over the burning bodies between me and that side door, and out into the air.

The troopers were saying something on a megaphone, but I wasn't paying any attention to that. Something about letting out whoever was in there and then coming out with their hands up. Soon after that I knew that they'd caught sight of Vera, cause she got thrown through one of the front windows, and landed at the troopers' feet. I just sat there in the dirt watching, out of sight. The rest of it happened real fast. The troopers started firing, and then the gas pumps out front went up in a huge roar of an explosion that took half the cruisers with them, and pry about half the troopers. The rest of them were running for cover. The force of that explosion knocked me back against the wall, but luckily I was around the corner of the building otherwise the blast would have fried me right then and there. I was only half-conscious as it was, so I might have imagined this, but the blond girl came out the broken front window, moving fast, like a blur, and she cut the rest of the troopers to pieces.

The rest is hazy. I remember being dragged away from the Diner, I think by the blond girl, cause I caught sight of the other girl behind me, looking back at the fire like it was a dog she was leaving behind to fend for itself. They pulled me free of the fire and left me on the side of the road. I wasn't hurt much, and just a little scorched, but I was alive, for whatever reason. I just laid there, waiting for the end--I was sure it was coming any second, but the blond girl just leaned down and whispered in my ear again. "Thanks for the quarter." And then they were gone. I watched them walk away for a second or two, and that's when my heart decided it couldn't take the strain no more. When I woke up next it was here in the hospital.'

"Thank you, Mr. Arkle," Sharon Carter says. "You've been a great help. Get some rest now."

---

"You know what we're dealing with here, I assume."

Sharon Carter looks down, takes a deep breath. "Yes. I do."

"Canary Kudo is supposed to be dead," the FBI agent says. "SHIELD informed the Bureau that she died, along with her sister, in Munich last year. So, would somebody please tell me what the FUCK is really going on?"

"It's Canary Kudo, all right," Japser Stillwell says. "No doubt about it. And from the sound of it she was with Wilhemina X."

"You mind telling me who that is?" the FBI agent says.

"I can't release that information to you yet," Sharon says. "I have to talk to my boss first, and let him know what the situation is."

"Fury's not going to be too happy about this," Stillwell says.

Sharon gives him a look, and Stillwell falls silent.

"What do you mean? What do you mean you can't release that information? If Canary Kudo is out there somewhere, the Bureau needs to move on this. Like yesterday."

"Don't think I'm unaware of the implications of this," Sharon says. "It's much worse than you think."

"How could it....?" The FBI agent stops, his eyes widen. "You knew. You knew Canary Kudo was alive, and you didn't tell us. Her sister is alive, too, isn't she?"

"I can't--"

"ISN'T SHE?"

"Yes. Their bodies were never recovered after Munich. We've always believed they survived."

"Son of a...." The FBI agent starts to storm away. "You people are going to hear from us. Some heads are going to--"

The FBI agent drops to the floor. Jasper Stillwell stands next to him, holding they hypodermic needle he just stuck into the agent's thigh.

"Sorry," Sharon says. "I'm afraid I can't let that happen."

She checks his vital signs.

"He'll be all right," Stillwell says. "Won't have more than a headache."

"And he won't remember?"

"He'll barely remember showing up here at the hospital today."

"And by then we'll have this whole situation clamped down tight."

Stillwell glances down the hallway. "What about Arkle?"

"Relocation," Sharon says. "Tell him his life is still in danger, which probably isn't a lie at all, given who we're dealing with, and we'll move him to some beach on an island somewhere...for his own good. And as far as the FBI is concerned, he'll have just disappeared."

"When?"

"Start on it now," Sharon says. "Get it done. I have to go see Fury."