Once again we join our Heroine, Mistress Icewind, as she fights her way through the casino lair of the evil Dr. Wesalbeter. She throw vial after vial of her signature fire bombs at all the playing card minions that got in her way, until she got to the back room where the evil doctor was located. She stopped and slammed open the door with her powerful tail and stood there triumphantly.
“Give it up doctor! I’ve already taken care of all your minions and you’ve got nowhere left to run,” She shouted, pointing out at the weasel sitting in a big office swivel chair.
“Oh but my dear, I don’t want to run,” he said, laughing at her and flipping a chip between his fingers. “I have you right where I want you.” With a snap, Three ray guns dropped from the ceiling, aimed right at the dragon. She let out a meep and tried to shield herself with her cap as they fired on her. After she opened her eyes in confusion, expecting to have been killed, or injured, or at least pushed back, but she was fine. She lowered her cape and looked over herself before looking back at the weasel.
“Ha! Did you think your silly little ray guns were enough to kill me,” She said, pointing her hands on her hips.
“Oh my dear,” He said chuckling, “Who ever said I was trying to kill you.” He then let out an evil laugh as Icewind looked on and confusion.
“Enough laughing, I'm taking you in,” She said, reaching into her utility belt and pulling out her zip ties. As soon as she did, they seemed to melt in her hand, dripping to the floor like ink. She looked at them in confusion before pulling out another, only to have the same thing happen.
“What in the world,” She said, pulling out more and more of her tools. Each time they quickly melted into a puddle of similarly colored ink.
“Do you like my little Inkification ray? It turns anything it hits into printer quality ink. Takes a little longer with organic stuff though. But that should happen right about….now,” He said looking at his wrist watch and pointing at her.
At that moment, Icewind looked down and watched as she began to sink into the floor, growing into a large puddle of blue and purple ink. She looked up and Dr. Wesalbeter and tried to reach out at him, only to have her arm drip down her body.
“You fiend! I’m going to get out of this and I'm going to kickmblobloblob,” She tried to say as her mouth melted down. Soon there was only a wiggling puddle of swirled blue purple ink.
“Sorry, I didn't catch that. You really shouldn’t talk with your mouth full,” He said giggling and pushing another button. A hole in the floor then opened up and began to drain the now inky form of the dragon into a waiting pipe and several squeegees pushed the rest of her in. THe was then funneled down into the waiting empty ink tank of a warming printing press.
As soon as every last drop was loaded into the tank, the press went to work. Thin, white, cardboard backings began to slide into the machine as the fronts of playing cards were printed on them, using the dragon as the ink! Hundreds of twos, threes, fours, Jacks, queens, and kings began to be printed on the car backings. Each with a special treat on them. All the Hears, clubs, diamonds, and spades being blue and having a small version of the dragon’s former face on them. The Jacks, Queens, and Kings also looked like her former self, dressed in her crime fighting outfit, in a tipping hat pose, confused look on her face, and mirrored at the waist.
Each card stack then had a blue fancy backing of the casino’s logo on them. They were then run through a large paper cutting machine that chopped the massive stacks down into the normal playing card size. The stacks were then picked up and loaded into a laminating machine, giving each one a perfect glossy coating. They were then all loaded into a sorting machine that made stacks of the 54 cards to make up a standard deck.
Finally each stack was pushed down the line into a boxing machine, and each stack was pushed into pre printed boxes. Each one had a sultry looking version of the dragon in a playboy bunny outfit printed on the front. As the last box came down the line it was picked up by the weasel. He thumbed through the cards until he found the joker card. It had the dragon in the typical silly jester outfit with a silly expression on her face.
“Hehe, you know this is a good look for you. I always thought you were funny looking, now I've made it a reality. Hope you have fun being handled by random people all day and night, as you’ll be working in my casino for a long long time,” He said before laughing at her. “Maybe once you’ve been well used I’ll sell you off as exclusive merchandise.”
He then pushed the card back down into the box and closed the box, before placing it into a box with all the other boxes. He then walked away laughing evilly as the large pallet of Dragon playing cards was slowly pushed out to a waiting truck. Icewind mentally screamed for help as the truck door was closed and pulled away. The heroine would have to hope that one of her partners or friends gambled at the many casinos the weasel owned and collect her back up. Until then, deal her in!
