Larissa Weems advanced through the corridors of the Nevermore Society complex with a firm, determined stride. Any technician, soldier or agent who came across her imposing figure stepped aside after a brief but respectful salute.
Contrary to what many of her subordinates thought, Larissa did not at all enjoy having to "play diplomat." Oh, she recognized that it was necessary to maintain contact and relations with the other major survivor sites. Only an idiot would deny something like that, the problem and what made her mad and exhausted was that technically it was not her job.
Larissa was the leader of the Nevermore Society. For all intents and purposes, a paramilitary organization. She was a soldier, a general. Some of the diplomatic duties should fall to her civilian counterpart, but Normanmeyer was an incompetent buffoon who got his position by buying votes. The fool had at least the minimum common sense to dedicate himself to the internal government of the survivor community and delegate to Larissa the foreign relations issues, for it was well known that if they left them in Normanmeyer's hands they would surely be at war with the other survivor communities in less than a week.
But damn it, that was not her job. It irritated her to no end not only to have to take on extra duties but also the perception of “supreme leader” that was slowly being forged. There were some local community leaders who were beginning to contact her directly to solve social problems for which she legally had no authority. It was a mess, and she worried that if her position accumulated more power than it should, however unintentionally, some future successor might really screw things up.
With all that in mind, Larissa Weems could not be blamed for coming away rather cranky from the most recent long-distance meeting with the other settlements and enclaves. At least the network connection had remained stable this time.
Adding to that irritation was a tip-off from one of her soldiers, informing her of a recent irregularity. Alford was a rat and a parasite, driven not by any sense of duty but by the hope that he could thrive on favors. He would snitch on his own mother if he profited from it.
In truth, she shouldn't call him a rat or a parasite. Larissa was being terribly unfair to the rats and parasites of the world by making such a comparison.
But at least thanks to him she had learned promptly of a small-scale extradimensional incursion, that the entities brought in by said incursion were in the residential areas of her base bypassing security protocols, and that the ones responsible were her two best agents.
Wednesday and Yoko were also her two biggest headaches, there seemed to be no middle ground there.
She did not slow her pace when she reached the gates of the residential area. She pushed them open with a thunderous sound. She noticed the startle of the figures seated at the table, but all her attention was fixed exclusively on Addams and Tanaka at that moment.
"Agent Addams! Agent Tanaka! Are you aware of the breach of procedure you have incurred!?"
Tanaka merely bit her lips, though she appeared to be holding back a smile. Addams had the gall to roll her eyes, as if it was Weems who was causing trouble.
"Good morning to you as well, Director Weems."
Oh, for all the unmitigated gall!
"Save the greetings Addams," replied the head of the Nevermore Society, approaching her agent and leaning over her like a gargantuan human tower, "You know as well as I do that there are regulations to follow, Wednesday. Would you mind telling me why one of my soldiers had to inform me of this instead of receiving a formal heads up from you and the corresponding report?"
Agent A raised an eyebrow, unimpressed, "It was Alford, wasn't it?"
"It doesn't matter who it was. If extradimensional elements are involved security procedures must be followed to determine if they are hostile or not."
"Larissa, take a deep breath, calm down, stop trying to intimidate my wife and look around," Yoko said, barely containing her laughter, "You'll see right away why we didn't consider them hostile and bring them here."
Larissa shifted her attention from the Addams to the vampire, and finally took heed, giving a good look at the other individuals present in the room. Her initial surprise was to realize that they were a group of teenagers and young adults, but she quickly noticed...
"Oh Heavens, no," she muttered.
"Oh, yes," replied Agent A, with a toothy shark-like grin.
Larissa couldn't identify some of the young people before her, but it was clear that there were three Wednesday Addams sitting at the table, watching her with varying levels of interest. One, in a dark blue dress, was looking at her with curiosity and a very faint but cordial smile. Another, dressed in black presented a disposition that could only be described as one of reserved hostility, with a sharp look under a scowl judging Weems' every move and act.
But the one that really caught her attention was the third. Her wardrobe was dominated by white, black and gray, but instead of the simple dress of the other two Wednesdays, this one wore black jeans, boots, a black and white striped sweater and a dark gray coat over it. Her gaze was riveted on Larissa with something indecipherable glinting in her dark eyes. There was curiosity, and interest, almost analytical as if Weems was something that needed to be studied. But Larissa had been leading individuals for years and knew how to read people, and after that she could see something else in the gaze of that Wednesday Addams... she could see respect, and no small dose of guilt.
"Oh my God," muttered a voice next to Wednesday, and Weems' gaze fell on the figure of a ghost. There was an Enid Sinclair there. She blinked, realizing with dismay that there were two Enids present.
Well, that certainly explains Addams and Tanaka's blind trust, she thought.
"Principal Weems!" exclaimed Enid, unable to contain some excitement at seeing a version of her Academy's old principal, "Or maybe I should say director... uh... because of the... Yeah, I'd better shut up," she finished, noticing the woman's gaze boring into her.
"Enid Sinclair?" asked Weems, resting her eyes between Enid and Saint-Clair.
"Saint-Clair in my case," the werecat clarified.
"'Principal?" said Yoko, watching the scene amused.
"Larissa Weems was the headmistress of Nevermore Academy, where Enid and I attended our studies," Wednesday explained.
Larissa raised her eyebrows, and couldn't help but feel a certain longing at that. A career as an educator... helping future generations instead of having to send them to their deaths on harrowing missions in a dying world. It didn't sound bad at all.
"She died, horribly poisoned and in agony, giving her life to protect the school," Wednesday added.
Okay, that did sound bad.
Though Weems found there was a certain irony, twisted as it was, that a dimensional variant of her from a world that seemed considerably safer and dedicated to a career in education had "died in combat," so to speak, while she was still alive.
Larissa Weems plopped down on one of the free chairs next to her agents, sighing and holding a hand to her forehead, "I think I'm going to need a drink."
"On it," Yoko replied, getting up and approaching the bar cabinet again.
For her part, Enid gave Wednesday a gentle slap on the arm.
"Weds! A little more tact!"
"What? I was simply being honest," the Addams retorted.
Yoko appeared next to Weems with a full glass of whiskey, which the director took with a gesture of thanks before turning her attention back to Wednesday.
"From what I can gather from your expression, you feel some responsibility for my death," Weems said, before frowning slightly and correcting herself, "Her death, I mean."
Wednesday nodded slightly, "Our Academy had become the target of a murderous conspiracy. Principal Weems assisted me in an attempt to reveal and apprehend the culprit, and it cost her life due to my overconfidence."
Weems took a sip of the drink, "Well, I can't speak for her, but if she was anything like me I'm sure she wouldn't want you to blame yourself."
"I wouldn't know what to tell you, she was a woman who knew how to hold a grudge very well."
"Ha," Agent A muttered, shooting a glance at Weems.
Larissa merely let out a small snort in response, "Yeah, well... I guess no one's exempt from having skeletons in the closet one way or another."
"But if you have even half her fortitude," Wednesday continued, "It's more than possible that the two of us... well, we won't get along, but I'm sure we can reason with each other to some extent."
"At this point I don't think I can ask for much more," replied the director, "But I'm curious, how did you all get here, and for what reason? Because I really doubt that coming to this specific dimension was a conscious decision."
"Our jumps in the multiverse to new realities are blind," interjected Theo, "But we can safely return to our home dimensions or those we have previously visited."
"And the reason they're here is because apparently someone is sending shadow monsters across the multiverse to capture different variants of Wednesday Addams," Agent A finished off.
"Oh, of course," said Weems, "Another thing for the list of headaches, I guess."
"It won't be that big a deal. From what they've told me, while those beings are dangerous they're no more so than many of the things we deal with here almost daily," Agent A said.
"Careful. Overconfidence, remember?" Wednesday said, "It is true that this dimension and your abilities to deal with supernatural threats are several orders of magnitude above what we know, but we must be cautious. The enemy is not to be underestimated. Never."
"Least of all when it's someone we don't really know anything about outside of our conjecture," Woe added, "It may well be that the Shadow Hyde are only a minor sample of their true arsenal."
"Yeah, I wouldn't be at all surprised if that piece of shit threw something more fucked up at us any moment," Dora said, unable to be aware of how prophetic her words would be in a few minutes.
"We've neutralized gods, you know," Yoko pointed out.
Before Wednesday, Woe or anyone else could respond, a loud alarm began to sound flooding the entire complex. Weems stood up as if propelled by a spring, her face paler than usual, looking at her agents, who had also joined in. Agent A frowned under her dark glasses.
"That's not the outer perimeter alarm, that's…"
"An internal, on-base manifestation," Weems added.
The sonorous cacophony continued. The lights suddenly went out only to come back on with a reddish tinge. A voice echoed over the base PA system, joining the shouts of alarm.
"Alert all armed personnel! Alert all armed personnel! Extradimensional incursion in the access area!"
“The entrance hangars!" exclaimed Yoko as her body turned into a cloud of darkness and bats, "I'm going ahead!"
"It must be a Shadow Hyde," said Wednesday, "If that's the case, we must capture it alive."
"We? No, no... You people stay here, let my agents and soldiers handle it. I can't worry about a group of unknown civilians getting in the line of fire at the same time we deal with an unidentified threat that has somehow managed to teleport into the interior of the base despite all our magical defenses," Larissa said.
"Director Weems," said Agent A, "Three of them are versions of me. Do you really think they will listen to any order you give them and not look for a way to intervene?"
Weems frowned. After a few seconds that felt almost endless, she planted herself in front of Agent A and began tapping her on the chest with her index finger, punctuating each of her words, "Very well. But they will be under your supervision and they will be your responsibility, understood?"
After a silent nod from Agent A and a gesture with her head for them to come with her, the group set out to follow Director Weems and the older Addams in the direction towards the center of the action. Surely, with all the extra personnel and help it would be relatively simple to capture a Shadow Hyde, wouldn't it?
And yet, there was something in the atmosphere that didn't feel right.
Taylor leaned closer to Woe, whispering in her ear, "Aren't you going to give them an 'I told you so'?"
"No need," replied Woe, "It seems that reality itself has decided to remind them."
Beside her, Pup nodded, "Icarus flew too close to the sun. Like him, it would be very sad to see these people burn up."
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