Prologue

Monica Mechanic was not your typical, every-day Damsel. She was almost anything but. Well, actually not almost, because anything on the wimp scale would not apply, and as the case with all Damsels, her beauty was extraordinary. She also wanted a baby, oh so desperately she wanted a baby, but she didn’t want to be given a baby, she wanted to take her baby. She knew how babies were made, of course, but going off, allowing a rape or two, then being rewarded by some muscle bound, preening Hero just wasn’t her style. But she really, really wanted a baby, so she applied to become a Damsel.

Before she reached menarche, she stumbled upon a documentary on Onna-Bugeisha, the female Samurai warriors of feudal Japan. She was fascinated. She joined martial arts clubs – weapons and hand-to-hand – and decided that the theory she learned (and surreptitiously practiced) would someday be put to practical use.

Monica was competitive. She didn’t always win, but when she didn’t win, she finished with a Cassandra equivalent of bronze or silver. She won footraces – short races and endurance races – and she placed at least second overall in every swim meet. Monica had no equal, not even close, when it came to Chaos trivia contests.

She was the first in her peer group to seduce a man, and she even managed to achieve more than one orgasm from the same man in the same day. (You thought that wasn’t possible? Well, she did! No, you aren’t going to find out how.)

Ménage à trois? Done that, with two guys, not with a pairing of women. That was another trophy on her shelf, but she decided another wasn’t worth the effort. Did we say that she really, really wanted a baby?

All of Cassandra knew that Damsels were selected by lottery, so she had to get into the pool. Monica suspected there was possibly another way to become a Damsel ... Whatever way that might be, she thought to use it, she probably needed to become a champion suck-up. She applied herself. She entered beauty contests, made herself into a world-class lover of women and men, and placed herself in predicaments where her rescue and simpering gratitude made all the news media – almost guaranteed after all those other championships. And, she researched, found the identities of several members of the Damsel Selection Committee, and allowed herself to be reluctantly seduced. Monica was competitive!

In spite of all her devious maneuvering, only The Powers That Be knew why Monica was eventually selected to be a Damsel. Maybe she was just lucky. Maybe she had fucked her way to being tapped. She had left no possibility uncovered. Maybe, just maybe, there was a Hero out there that The Powers That Be felt pushed the boundaries a little too much and needed a comeuppance? Could it be that said Hero’s name was Pēteris Aloysius Boyle, Junior? Maybe. Looks like we are going to find out.