It was a cold winter night as the moon shone dimly over the misty city streets. The sounds of sirens filled the air in several districts. On a gargoyle jetting out from the top of a tall skyscraper, sat the heroine Mistress Icewind keeping watch over her city. She scanned the wide cityscape back and forth while carefully tuning the portable police scanner on her utility belt. She stopped as she picked up on some interesting chatter.
“Attention all units. Be advised. Silent alarm has been triggered at the Sugar Tree Candy factory. Suspects thought to be the Chocolatier and the Sweets Gang. Any units near the Sugar tree…”
Icewind stopped listening and smiled as she heard that. Ever since her Last encounter with the silly rabbit obsessed vixen, She had been looking to bring them to justice. Icewind stood on top of the gargoyle and spread her arms wide, slowly leaning forward until she was falling toward the ground. She let herself free fall for a few seconds to build speed, then with one quick motion, drew in and extended her arms again with a click. Her cape quickly stiffened into a sturdy glider. With it, she easily soared over the city streets toward the factory.
Soon, the candy factory was in view. Icewind looked down and watched as the police struggled to deal with the gang below. She watched as they tossed grenades that exploded into super sticky cotton candy, trapping the police in place. She rolled her eyes and continued her glide onto the factory roof. She then quickly moved from sky light to sky light, looking for her target. Soon She saw them, the familiar floppy white ears and cotton tail of the Chocolatier’s outfit. They were heading out of the owners office holding a large manila envelope marked “company secrets’. Icewind scoffed as she realized this was nothing more than a petty theft attempt. Still she was going to bring this criminal to justice. She smiled and jumped down through the window, crashing through the glass and landing on a catwalk below, directly in front of the villainess vixen with a thud as glass shard rained down around her.
“Going somewhere little “Rabbit”,” Icewind said slowly looking up at her and rising to her feet.
“Well well well, if it isn’t my little chocolate dracobun. I wondered where you were after the Hero league broke into my factory,” The Chocolatier said with a smirk. “Still got that creamy center I pumped into you?”
“Yes, I escaped your clutches. It took the White Sorceress a month to undo whatever strange magic you had done to me. But that doesn't matter now. I’m here to take you in for your crimes you vile vixen,” Icewind said as she took on a fighting stance.
“Well there is just one thing you forgot,” The vixen said, raising a finger.
“And what is that,” Icewind asked, raising an eyebrow.
The vixen smiled and inhaled loudly, before turning and running the other way down the catwalk. Icewind was stunted for a second before she raced down the catwalk after her. She shouted after The vixen, demanding she stop and surrender as they ran over various Machines all making various types of candy. Icewind chased her for several minutes before the catwalk came to an end, right above the Taffy line. Icewind and the Vixen were both panting heavily as they came to a stop. The Vixen looked around in a bit of a panic, trying to find any escape. Icewind stood panting heavily as she smiled.
“Nowhere to go now, Chocolatier. Time to turn yourself in,” She said, starting to move toward her.
“Hey now…1’m not out of tricks yet...I’ve uh got this,” She said before reaching into her pocket and pulling out something. She then threw it at Icewind. She easily dodged the object as it stuck to the ceiling and a pipe above her.
“So desperate, but your tricks aren’t going to…” Icewind started to say. But she was interrupted as the pipe above her creaked and cracked. Icewind looked up just in time to see the large pipe break and swing down. Before Icewind could react and move out of the way, the pipe struck her hard in her head, knocking her over the railing. She yelped as she fell down into a large copper kettle with a loud thudding clang. She groaned as she was left dizzy and confused. The Chocolatier on the other hand looked around for a second and smiled before looking down at the heroine.
“HA! See I told you I had tricks up my sleeve,” She said looking down at Icewind’s limp form. She then smiled and looked at the line she was on before pulling out a small bottle of blue liquid. With a pop of the cork she began to Pour it down over the Dragoness below, letting it all soak into her form.
“I was saving this for a rainy day, but now is a better time than any to help “soften” you up,” She said with a giggle. “Toodaloo silly little dragon. Next time I see you, it’ll be on store shelves,” She said, tossing the bottle away and running off.
The kettle Icewind was in then began to move. She groaned as she started to recover from the fall. She reached up and held her head in pain just as the kettle stopped under a nozzle. She looked up in confusion before a valve opened up and gallons of corn syrup poured down over her. She let out a yelp as the sticky liquid stuck to her body and covered her,weighing her down as it rose inside. She grunted as she tried to reposition herself and try to climb out, but the thick fluid around her made it difficult. She slipped again and again as she tried to climb out, only serving to cover her in the mess. Soon the second ingredient was added, pounds of white sugar. Icewind yelped as she quickly turned into a candy coated super hero. Then before she could react, she watched solid blocks of butter plop into the beside her. Once all the ingredients were together, the kettle moved again.
As it moved Icewind again tried to climb up, but the corn syrup and sugar held her in place. The kettle stopped over a large gas burner, which turned on with a loud WOOSH, altering Icewind to her next problem. She scrambled as she felt the kettle begin to heat up, warming the ingredients around her. Slowly Icewind was able to move around more and the corn syrup heated up, giving hope, but soon those hopes were dashed away as she looked at one of her arms. As she watched, she noticed it was starting to shift and droop, almost as if it was melting. She looked at her other arm and it too was doing the same. She started to panic as she felt her whole body starting to shift and droop. She was melting into the mess below her. She tried to let out a yell, hoping someone was around to hear her, but all that came out was a bubbling gurgle.
Before long, Icewind watched as a mixer began to lower into the kettle. It had two arms that slowly spun horizontally with two paddles that spun vertically. She gurgled again as the mixer started up, breaking up all the butter, sugar, and corn syrup, along with the dragoness. She bubbled as she felt herself slowly at first, but gaining speed, getting mixed around. Up, down, left, right, in and out she was swirled around and heated up into the makings of fresh saltwater taffy. She started to get very dizzy, not knowing where she even was any more. After ten minutes the mixing stopped and the mixer slowly pulled out, letting the kettle move away.
Icewind bubbled, lost in a dizzy state that she had never been in before. She then felt as the kettle stopped and tipped over, spilling the dragoness and mixture out onto a large table. She moaned as she tried to recover. Soon though, she began to shiver as her new form began to quickly cool thanks to the refrigerated table she was on. She then felt as a series of arms with paddles came down and began to fold and squish her all around. She groaned as she left pressure all over again and again as she continued to cool to a solid but pliable state. More arms then came down with mechanical hands attached. They then got to work folding the dragoness over again and again, trying to get all the air bubbles out. Icewind blushed and groaned, trying to figure out what was coming next, or even how she would get out of this mess.
The arms then lifted her up, carrying her over to the next station, pulling and flavoring. The pulling machine slowly began to spin, each arm moving in synchronous rhythm as it waited for its next batch. The arms draped the mass of dragon taffy on one pole, letting it pull it around before the next pole came around and grabbed the mass, stretching it more. Icewind groaned as she felt her form get pulled and stretched again and again, slowly but surely getting longer and lighter. As she was spinning around in the machine, two nozzles came over and began to squirt two more ingredients onto her form. One was a dark blue dye and the other was a clear blueberry flavoring. Icewind blushed as she could taste the flavor as it slowly mixed around, getting into every aspect of her form until it was all she could smell and taste. After 30 minutes the machine stopped and the arms came back and pulled her mass off to take to the next stop, wrapping and packaging.
The next part went both slowly and quickly for the now taffy dragon. The arms dumped her into a hopper connected to an extrusion machine. Icewind blushed as she felt her mass get pressed down into a long, thin, inch in diameter strip of candy. The strip was then quickly cut and placed into a wrapper before being twisted shut and dropped down a chute into a bin below. Icewind could still feel each piece as they tumbled down and collected. Once all of the mass was used and wrapped, the bin moved to a packaging machine. She felt all her pieces were dumped down into another hopper where she was then measured out by the pound and dumped into plastic bags. Each one had the company log, candy name, and a smiling cartoon blueberry. She then felt as the bags slid down another chute onto another conveyor belt, being carried down to be put into shipping boxes before being put on a pallet and wrapped for shipping to stores.
Icewind blushed as she felt herself getting loaded onto the truck, confused on what she was going to do next. All she could do now was wait and hope her fellow heroes would find her again. The next morning the truck left to drop off the latest load of fresh candy to local stores. Icewind watched as she was spread around town, being placed on store shelves next to all the other candy like her. Hours later, after the last bag had been removed from the box and placed out, Icewind saw a familiar face through the package. It was the Chocolatier, only not dressed as her usual bunny self. She smiled as she picked up one of the packages and looked at the candy inside.
“Well well well, so this is what became of you silly heroine,” She said with a giggle. “I hope you had fun during your first hand trip with taffy making. The machine has an interesting choice in flavor. Blueberry. I would have pegged you more as a sour grape.” She then smiled and tossed the bag into her cart before grabbing another, and another, slowly filling her cart.
“Well I certainly won’t let you go to waste, or give that silly league recollect and change you back. You’ll make a wonderful treat at my monthly villain meeting. I know they would all love to get a taste of dragon taffy,” She said as she emptied the shelf. She then laughed triumphantly and began to head to check out. Icewind on the other hand wiggled in her packaging, panicking as to how she would get out of this mess. She could only hope that she didn’t taste as good as she looked. Only time would tell.
