FUBAR: Originally, short for Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.
Enid's illustrated bit in the collage comes from https://www.tumblr.com/kris-6758/732439792025010176/butcher-or-maim-3-happy-halloween-yall.
Also, slight warning: The Brigh One talks and mentions some nasty/unpleasant stuff.
As the saying goes, there was something about the whole thing that stank.
Larissa Weems had seen many extraordinary, disturbing, unnatural and just plain weird things in her life as a member of the Nevermore Society.
Tooth-eating fairies, hive-mind fungi controlling armies of reanimated corpses, puppies shooting laser beams out of their eyes, the rash of Fester Addams…
So when she followed her agents and the extradimensional interlopers they had insisted on supervising without following standard procedures and watched them deal with the new intruder, she didn't even arch one of her eyebrows. A lycanthrope, partially forcibly transformed and apparently possessed or controlled by some sort of substance made of shadows that served as a medium for another entity to act as a puppeteer from another dimension? Ok, sure.
It was outlandish, but really, not by far the strangest thing she had seen in her long career.
And yet…
Larissa had seen a lot in her life. And she had fought, accomplished missions and done things that would not let her sleep easy. She had seen the best and the worst of all species of humanity and over the years she had learned to trust her instincts. Hence her nervousness.
For the enemy seemed to have been reduced and defeated, and yet…
She could not shake off the growing feeling that something was really, really wrong.
§§§
"I've always adored that part of you."
The words left the lips of the possessed corpse of Esther Sinclair with a twisted sincerity that caused Wednesday Addams for the first time in many years to feel a discomfort that was not at all pleasant to her.
As if something had tainted her to her very soul.
Enid noticed her beloved's discomfort instantly. The lycanthrope, still fully transformed, took a step forward, emitting a low, deep growl, her gaze fixed on the intruder as she gently placed her left hand on Wednesday's shoulder, seeking to reassure her.
Her gesture immediately attracted the attention of the entity possessing the deceased Esther Sinclair. It smiled, a smile that seemed more akin to the grimace of an awkwardly sculpted wax statue.
"And you!" it exclaimed, "Wonderful! Marvelous outburst of violence!"
Enid responded by intensifying her growl. Her whole body was in tension. One more word out of that thing’s mouth and she would rush in to finish it off.
As this was happening, Agent A approached Wednesday's other side and whispered in her ear, "Keep it talking. I'm going to try to create a containment seal so I can move it to a more appropriate interrogation area, but I need a few minutes."
Wednesday nodded, turning her attention back to Enid and the intruder, who was still chattering happily in that artificial-sounding voice that undoubtedly masked their real one.
"Ruthless! Merciless! You cracked her head open like a watermelon!"
"For your own sake, you'd better..." Enid began, but was interrupted again.
"I mean...Wow! What a number your Esther Sinclair must have done on you if the mere fact that an alternate version of her calling you 'daughter' is enough to throw you into homicidal rage just like that," the intruder continued, "I could almost taste all that pent-up trauma and anger. You didn't even hesitate."
Enid advanced another step, the claws of her right hand extending.
"I mean... the multiverse is infinite. You have no idea where I got this Esther from. For all you know maybe this was just an innocent woman and a genuine loving mother who adored all her pups. No favoritism, no reservations, no impossible expectations."
Enid froze.
"Haven't you even noticed how young she is? Somewhere out there is a little Enid Sinclair mourning the mother she's never going to get to see again because you're responsible for her brutal death."
The she-wolf felt like she was about to vomit. Her muscle mass began to decrease, as if her transformation was going to begin to reverse itself. But the feeling of anguish that was beginning to scream inside her was silenced when she noticed Wednesday's hand resting on hers still perched on the Addams' shoulder.
"Enid. Don't listen to a word they say," Wednesday said, "That creature is lying."
There was a moment of silence before the intruder began to guffaw, loudly. It got to the point where their laughter started to sound like something more akin to a cracked noise, like the croaking of a grotesque frog.
"Oooh, that's good! Calling my bluff that fast! It's always nice to see a Wednesday Addams being the emotional support. It never fails to be refreshing," the stranger said, resting their gaze on the pair and smiling beatifically, "But it's true, there's nothing for you to worry about. My little Hound, this Esther, was an abusive scumbag of a degree the likes of which you rarely encounter. She sold her daughter as breeding stock to another pack in exchange for wealth and prestige. It wasn't a pretty story."
After those words it was Woe who had to restrain Saint-Clair so that the werecat would not launch herself roaring at the intruder, although the young Addams was tempted to join her.
For her part, Wednesday had recognized the tactic right away. Lies mixed with half-truths calculated to cause the greatest possible pain, discomfort or shock to the other party. In other circumstances she would have admired it, but that this being had dared to utter such words to Enid meant that they had signed their death warrant.
But she had to keep them talking, so she opted to take the most obvious route.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The intruder looked at her, smiling again. They almost looked eager.
Wednesday merely raised an eyebrow. The silence continued for a few seconds until the possessed corpse frowned and snorted, like a small child who had been forbidden to have dessert.
"Oh, come on now! If I don't answer you're supposed to start listing a series of creative and gruesome threats of torture."
"Something tells me that merely ignoring your childish pretensions and waiting patiently is more likely to hurt your ego," Wednesday retorted, crossing her arms.
The interloper's eyes widened like saucers and they whistled in admiration, "Phew, that was good! I knew you were one of the solid ones!" they exclaimed, nodding enthusiastically, "And if it's a name you want...they call me The Bright One."
Yoko laughed, "Ah, great, it's one of those, using a title as a name."
"In my defense I didn't choose it myself, and I've gotten used to it over the years. Anyway, it's on brand," replied The Bright One.
"But you use shadows...," Pup mused, incredulously.
"Consistency is for wimps," retorted the intruder.
"And hypocrisy must be your bread and butter," Wednesday finished off.
Something crossed the gaze of the corpse possessed by The Bright One, but Wednesday couldn't say for sure what. It was difficult to read the expressions of a body that was, for all intents and purposes, a puppet of flesh. Depending on the control that entity exerted, even the slightest muscle movement could be calculated to make it difficult to interact with it.
"Or maybe I'm just looking to enjoy the ironies and surprises of life," they replied, "Look at my Hound. Esther Sinclair. Oh, the number of times she's helped me search for trails, I knew I had to use her to find yours."
"She hasn't been much more effective than your Shadow Hyde," Woe replied.
The Bright One looked at the Addams with genuine surprise before starting to laugh again, "Oh dear, is that what you call my vermin? That's too dignified for those things," they said, before pinning their gaze on a still-transformed Taylor, "Scum never stops being scum, no matter how useful it turns out to be."
The Hyde, ironically, showed more self-control than expected, merely returning the stare with her huge, bulging eyes glued on the intruder with the utmost contempt. The Bright One ignored her and continued speaking.
"But yes, they have been of little use against you. You have proven to be a most unusual and elusive bunch. Luckily with the memories extracted from my vermin and my Hound I could track you, and it was mostly thanks to those two," they said, as they pointed to a suddenly startled Dora and Theo.
"Us?" the young lycanthrope asked, uncertainly.
"Blood," The Bright One replied, "Is a very strong bond to trace through the endless realities of existence, especially with a direct tie. And while I didn't have your blood but I had the closest thing possible at hand..."
Theo stepped forward, his hands crackling with barely contained electricity, his hair and short mustache bristling from the static surrounding his body, "What have you done with our mother?" he asked, in a tone of voice that reminded Wednesday of the very few times she had seen her mother furious.
The Bright One smiled, amused, "Easy sparky! Your mother is fine, she's still in her processing cell, she didn't even find out that a drop of her blood was taken while she slept."
"Why are you looking for us?" asked Wednesday, seeking to channel the conversation again and try to limit as much as possible that creature's interactions with the rest of the group, "Why do you capture the various Wednesday Addams?"
The Bright One shrugged, "What can I say, I gotta catch 'em all."
Wednesday frowned, "A Pokémon reference? Really?"
"Ha! You got it! Do you have any idea how many Wednesday Addams's there are who have no idea what I'm talking about?"
"What's Pokémon?" whispered Pup to Taylor. The still-transformed Hyde merely shook her massive head slightly, also unaware of the answer.
The Bright One pointed at them with a shake of her head that made the bones in her neck creak, "Case in point!"
Enid advanced again, leaning over the still kneeling possessed corpse of her mother's variant, throwing an intense roar in front of their face, making it very clear that with a simple bite their head could be separated from the body. The Bright One leaned back slightly, looking at her with wide eyes.
"Answer the question," said Enid.
"You're an interesting one too, Enid Sinclair," said The Bright One, in a suddenly quiet voice, "Don't think I haven't noticed."
"I said…"
"That I answer the question. Yeah, yeah, right," sighed the intruder, "How about this... How about you three come with me and we have a nice chat in private, eh?" they said, as they pointed at Woe, Pup and Wednesday. Their smile turned almost obscene.
"Enough!" a new voice interjected.
Larissa Weems had approached the group, walking briskly, "I think we've heard enough for the moment," said the head of the Nevermore Society, "Agent Addams?"
Agent A, who all that time had been circling around the group like a stalking predator, nodded at her boss's call, "I have the mental layout ready and the precise energy built up to…"
"... perform a magical sealing," interrupted The Bright One, "That's what you were going to say, wasn't it? I figured I was smelling some magic in the air for a bit now."
"We'll see if you're still as talkative in a while," replied the Agent, "We'll keep this body immobilized and your mind anchored to it. Even if you are universes away your consciousness will not be able to leave this puppet without our permission. And you won't get it until we obtain real answers."
"Oooh, scary," The Bright One said, mockingly. But mockery wast not the only thing in their voice...
And something instantly changed in the air.
Agent A felt all the magical energy she had accumulated and was about to use for the execution of the magical sealing vanish, absorbed by something unseen.
At the same time, the feeling that something was terribly wrong that kept plaguing Larissa Weems intensified alarmingly. It was as if a loud alarm had suddenly begun to ring in her head.
And the eyes of Esther Sinclair's possessed corpse began to glow with a golden radiance.
It happened in the blink of an eye, a mere instant. Suddenly the shadows that had entered the reanimated body burst out through all its orifices and covered it, leaving only a mass of trembling humanoid darkness in sight in which two golden eyes shone like little luminous pins, like the last two stars in a dead firmament.
The golden glow turned white, and gained in intensity. The two eyes seemed to merge into a single spherical focus of white light that flickered for an instant, and then…
"Everybody take cover!" shouted Larissa, but it was too late. They couldn't really hear her, for the ensuing detonation of magical energy was of such intensity that it would have driven any measuring instrument haywire.
There was a flash of white light, intense as an explosion, accompanied by a discharge of invisible force. More than half of the soldiers fell to the ground, fainting at best, hemorrhaging in their brains at worst. The various Addamses and their companions were thrown to the ground, pushed as if they had been hit hard. And it was not far from the truth, they all felt as if their stomachs or heads had been struck by an anvil.
Maybe it was willpower, maybe it was her innate stubbornness, or maybe it was because Enid shielded her at the last moment, but Wednesday was the first to rise slightly from the floor, until she managed to sit up, covering her face with one hand to protect her eyesight from the intense brightness.
The glare of the light was blinding and intense. A sphere of white light burned in the center of the hangar hovering over the charred and smoking remains of Esther Sinclair's corpse. It floated in the air like a new sun, but despite its intensity it did not seem to burn anymore.
In fact, the whole temperature of the place had suddenly turned cold. Wednesday could see her own breath coming in vaporous puffs from her mouth.
She also saw how the light became more focused, diminishing little by little until it took the form of a humanoid silhouette. And then, it dissipated, as if the light had turned into shards of glass leaving behind it a figure still luminous but at least not totally blinding that she could observe with her own eyes. They were tall and imposing, wearing an all-white armor of medieval design but crafted with highly advanced materials and futuristic technology, something denoted by their helmet, which sported a single crystalline and pearly visor covering the face in its entirety.
They stood there. Still, hovering in the air serenely.
"Oh God," muttered one of the still conscious soldiers, breaking the dreadful silence that had fallen over the area.
"Oh, no. No God. Nothing about God," said The Bright One, "There's only Me."
NOTES
BWA-HA HA HA HA HA! 😈
HA HA HA HA!
HA... ha ha...
ha...
...
...
Oh, we are fucked.
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