The Brothers Berenice: A Bit of Comedy, then Back to the Dark

     The improbable Berenice Dodecatuplets were dropping like flies. Benny, Beany, Bunny and Bony had been stabbed by Star Inkbright, Barry and Brady had been decapitated by Fabienne S, and Berkley had had his soul eaten by Ember Silver. That left Buddy, Borky, Burly, Boy and Betty-the-dude to bang on the wall, and try to avenge their brothers' deaths.
      "Ok brothers," barked Betty-the-dude, "Banging on the wall is not going to help us get in."
      Buddy, Burly, Borky and Boy all stopped banging in the wall. The brothers gathered into a huddle, and began discussing strategies, like they had so many times before, under less tragic circumstances.
     Borky wanted to blow up the building, but Buddy shook his head. "We can't. Mevolent wants the S person alive." The brothers' faces fell. "He didn't say unharmed though!" Buddy added, brightening the mood.
     "Umm...which S person? S for Star Inkbright, S for September Silver or S for Fabienne S?" Boy asked. He was not the brightest of the lot. In fact, none of them were particularly sharp pencils.
     Betty-the-dude nodded. "Yes," he said, not answering Boy's question.
     Burly, Borky and Buddy also nodded. "Yes," they agreed in unison, to what, they were not sure.
     Boy was considering asking his question again, when Betty-the-dude noticed something. "Umm...Dudes? Why is my sword a flyswatter?"
     "I don't know, why?" asked Buddy, as if on cue. "He waited expectantly for the punch line, but ended up being punched in the nose by the Fabi as she stormed out of the room, fist raised. He tried to stab her, but too late, he realized his knife was also a flyswatter. It did nothing more than poke her in the stomach, and her actually-a-sword stabbed him instead.
     Ember ate Borky's soul, while dodging Betty-the-dude's punches. Star Inkbright sliced at Burly, who was actually smart enough to block with his flyswatter.
     Boy stood and stupidly stared. Ember ate his soul, too.
     Betty-the-dude stopped punching nobody, and watched Star pull her sword out of Burly's chest. "My brothers!" he shouted and began to sob. "You killed my brothers!" Killing him was an act of mercy.
     "Alright then, we're out of here! And not to another supposedly safe room, either! Out of this building entirely!"
     Ember started to protest, but Fabi cut her off. "Mevolent has found it and gotten in twice. I think it's time for a change of location."
     "Agreed," Star piped up. "Not that I have anything against corpses. Actually, I DO have something against corpses. Let's go."
     Ember sighed, and led the trio to the nearest exit.
      ***********
     Not far away, eerily close, in fact, Mevolent was watching the entire scene from another fly-camera that had been riding on Betty-the-dude. He growled in anger as Fabienne S., again, escaped virtually unharmed. Next time, she would pay. Mevolent called for his general, and whispered his plan. The general nodded and left for the armory. Mevolent smiled, Fabienne would not be escaping quite so unharmed this time. He began to laugh, anticipating her screams of pain. He would have to make sure to be there, either in person or virtually. That was the good thing about all this new technology. He could, effectively, be everywhere he wanted to be.