When Eneit Synklar managed to overcome the disorientation caused by the unexpected interdimensional jump, she almost wished she hadn't.
She had to suppress a gag as her incredibly developed sense of smell was assaulted by an indescribable stench. The air was foul to the point of being almost unbreathable. A stench of chemicals, plastics, pollution, and burnt toxic materials permeated the atmosphere.
Managing to control herself so as not to vomit, something a warrior like her would consider quite embarrassing, the next thing she noticed was Taylor Galpin's voice next to her.
“Where the fuck are we?” asked the Hyde.
And it was a good question, indeed. Or at least that's what the barbarian werewolf princess thought as she glanced around.
The place where they had found themselves was unlike anything they had ever seen before. Eneit had seen worlds far more technologically advanced than her own since she had met her friends and variants from the multiverse, but this place would certainly have been strange even to them.
However, she couldn't spend too much time observing when Taylor muttered a name in a tone of voice that was both pitiful and terrifying.
“Weds?”
Eneit turned around and saw her companion spinning in circles, looking frantically in all directions, searching for someone she couldn't find. The lycanthrope knew immediately what was happening.
Taylor Galpin was a Hyde who had found her mistress naturally, something that greatly helped keep her more monstrous side under control.
But her mistress, the Wednesday Addams known as Pup, was not there with them.
Oh, oh.
“Weds!” Taylor shouted, breathless with panic, “Wednesday!”
“Friend Taylor!” exclaimed Eneit, placing her hands on the other woman's shoulders and holding her still. Easier said than done, because despite her smaller size, Taylor was almost as strong as the lycanthrope. And everything seemed to indicate that she would soon be bigger, as her eyes had begun to bulge and her skin had turned grayish.
“Wednesday!” she screamed, revealing sharp teeth beneath her lips. “Where is sHe? wHere IS WeDs?” The last question was as much a cry of fear as it was a roar of rage born from it.
“Taylor, calm down!” ordered the lycanthrope in a firm but gentle voice as she exerted more force to keep the other woman still, “Your Lady Wednesday is simply in another universe. She is surely safe, accompanied by one of our other companions or even one of her own variants. Please, focus, take a deep breath, and stay in control…”
Somehow, her words had struck a chord with the Hyde's rational side. Or at least they had partially done so: Taylor was still halfway transformed, to the point that her clothes had begun to tear in places. But the rest of the monstrous metamorphosis had stopped, at least for the moment.
“I caN't fEel heR...” said Taylor, with a pitiful growl, “I can alWAys feEl her, evEn wHen we're fAr aPart, but from ONe uniVerse to anoTher, I can't...”
“Lady Taylor,” said Eneit, “She will be all right. Trust our family, for that is what we all are. Now, I need you to remain calm and stay with me, for if you recall the words of the nefarious entity that threw us here, another Wednesday and this entire reality are in danger.”
“A Wednesday I don't care AboUT wHile mine IS lost God knoWs wheRe,” grumbled Taylor.
“Mayhap. But given the circumstances, and knowing that Lady Pup, your Wednesday, is in the same situation as us... What do you think she would do?”
Taylor fixed her enormous eyes on Eneit for a moment, her brow furrowed, before finally relenting and lowering her gaze in embarrassment.
“She wOUld save her. And she would waNt me to do the sAMe for the ONE here.”
“And that's exactly what we'll do,” said Eneit, “Are you with me, friend Taylor?”
Taylor nodded, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Her skin regained its healthy pink tone, her eyes returned to their normal size. The claws on her fingers turned back into nails, and the muscle mass on her body shrank, returning her to the tall, slender woman she usually was.
“Okay, okay,” she said, taking another deep breath and exhaling forcefully. “I'm better, I feel better… I think I can control myself...” she added, patting one of Eneit's hands gently. She was still holding the Hyde by the shoulders.
The werewolf nodded, letting go of the woman and turning around to look around again. “Well, I hope you have some suggestions, because I don't even know where to start.”
With her mind more focused, her reason holding down her Hyde instincts like a shackle, and trying to ignore the emptiness in her soul caused by being separated from Pup, Taylor allowed herself to take a good look around.
They were clearly on the roof of one of the skyscrapers, although obviously not the tallest, as half a dozen others could be seen rising into the sky. Swarms of what appeared to be vehicles flew in controlled chaos, following routes and paths that were apparently marked but invisible to the eye. The sound they made mingled with the noise of the wind and the music and advertising jingles echoing from multiple loudspeakers.
The sides of the buildings were covered with huge neon signs, illuminated billboards, screens, and what looked like holographic projections. Many of them were clearly advertisements, filling the space between the skyscrapers or projected high into the sky, flooding it with an artificial glow that made it impossible to see the stars. Many of the signs also appeared to be the names of corporations and companies that owned the gigantic towers of steel, glass, concrete, and neon. The vast majority seemed to be written in Chinese or Japanese, but others still used the Western alphabet, and among them Taylor recognized a name from the many stories shared with Wednesday and Enid.
[[ CRACKSTONE CORP. ]]
Shit, that can't be good, she thought.
Taylor turned around to begin an exchange of ideas with Eneit, but the question she was about to ask died on her lips when she saw how the werewolf was on high alert, with her claws extended and her muscles tense, staring up at the sky.
Specifically, she was looking at the two vehicles floating in the air about fifteen meters above them. Taylor almost jumped out of her skin in surprise. How had she not heard them coming?
They were made of shiny black metal that reflected all the light from the city around them. Their shape resembled what one would expect from some kind of futuristic, unnaturally silent, floating motorcycle, but there were no riders visible on them, and Taylor was pretty sure that what could be seen on the front were some kind of guns.
Suddenly, a mechanical voice emanated from the vehicles as two intense spotlights turned on, shining down on the women: “UNAUTHORIZED OUTCAST PRESENCE!”
“That doesn't sound great,” Taylor whispered, letting her instincts run wild again. Her eyes bulged once more and her skin turned gray in an instant.
“Certainly,” Eneit replied, discreetly moving her hand to her back, where she kept a hidden axe covered with special runes under her fur cloak.
The machines, drones, continued talking, their mechanical voices booming in unison: “PLEASE, GET ON YOUR KNEES IN SUBMISSION AND WAIT FOR YOUR IMMINENT EXECUTION!”
“Plan?” whispered Taylor, pretending to kneel.
“Transform. We can't fight head-on without knowing more, so we have to run.”
“Time to jump off the edge, then,” replied the Hyde. They hadn't spotted any way to get inside the skyscraper they were standing on. At least, none that they could see. So...
“NOW!” exclaimed Eneit as she threw her axe with supernatural strength. The object flew through the air, spinning and gaining speed, and struck one of the drones. The force of the blow and the magical properties of the weapon were enough to send the axe through the metal as if it were hot butter. The drone exploded in a ball of fire and the shockwave from the explosion momentarily disoriented the other one, causing it to tumble through the air.
Taylor had completely transformed. Her torn clothes fell to her feet, but her body was still covered by a suit similar to the one Enid sometimes wore, a special fabric used as underwear that adapted to the changing morphologies of its owners if they could alternate between a human form and another that was less so. Eneit jumped onto the back of the now much larger Hyde, grabbing hold of her thick mane while cursing the fact that she couldn't count on a full moon to even the odds.
“Run, friend Taylor! Run!”
And Taylor ran, with Eneit on her back like an Amazonian rider, heading straight for the edge of the flat roof. Her earlier assumptions proved correct when the drone opened fire on them. The Hyde dodged the shots, zigzagging across the roof, and Eneit could see that the projectiles were some kind of darts as they bounced off the hard concrete.
Finally, Taylor reached the edge and jumped without thinking. Eneit let out a howl that was equal parts panic and joy as they fell into the abyss.
Except that wasn't the case. They were so high up that they couldn't see the ground, hidden by what appeared to be clouds or fog and the swarm of flying vehicles. It was on top of one of those vehicles, a large, square-shaped one filled with normie passengers, that Taylor landed. Through the glass, the Hyde and the she-wolf could see the horrified faces of dozens of individuals dressed in bizarre clothing, some of it semi-transparent or as luminous as the advertising billboards. Others were visibly naked, with parts of their bodies strategically covered by holographic projections acting as moving garments.
That and the rest of their appearance suggested that the vast majority were, if not wealthy, at least given to excess.
The Hyde ran on top of the vehicle, ignoring the panicked screams, and jumped off again, landing on another transport. And another, and another. Ascending and descending throughout the swarm of flying machines, on more than one occasion nearly getting run over in mid-jump, always dodging the shots from the drone that pursued them with admirable relentlessness.
“UNAUTHORIZED OUTCAST PRESENCE IN SECTOR ALEPH! REQUESTING REINFORCEMENTS! CITIZENS' COOPERATION IS REQUIRED!”
Eneit cursed not having any more axes handy. For a moment, she considered jumping onto the machine to see if her claws could do anything against its vile metal. But the appearance of three more drones dissuaded her. She had no guarantee that a frontal attack would achieve anything, and while she was busy with a single opponent, the other three could flank her...
“Taylor! We have to try to throw them off our trail so we can set up an ambush!” exclaimed the werewolf. “We must descend into the fog!”
“Oh, I wouldn't recommend that, it's highly corrosive if you don't use the proper protective gear,” said a voice out of nowhere.
Eneit and Taylor turned in surprise to see a male figure flying alongside them on what appeared to be a floating board. The newcomer was dressed entirely in black, wearing a suit that looked like flexible military-style armor but very heterogeneous in design, as if someone had assembled it from pieces of different models. He was covered by a black hooded coat, from which curly black hair peeked out. His face was hidden by a mask with air filters and dark glasses with a faint reddish glow.
It was impossible to determine his age from his appearance, but his voice sounded young despite the filter covering his face.
“If you'll give me a moment...” said the stranger as he extended his arm. In a flash of light, a weapon materialized in his hand as if it had been conjured. It was a strange-looking rifle that seemed to hum with barely contained energy. The hooded man spun around, doing a somersault in the air to turn toward the drones, and fired...
“Eeny…”
The drone flying ahead was engulfed in an electrical discharge after being hit by something resembling a plasma projectile before exploding.
“…meeny…”
A second shot rang out and a second drone fell in the same way as the first.
“…miny…”
Another twirl in the air, dodging a barrage of shots from the drones. Another blast from his rifle, firing a blue-glowing plasma projectile that hit the third drone dead center. It exploded with such force that its remains hit the fourth and final drone flying alongside it, causing the last machine to crash onto the rooftop in a cloud of flames, sparks, and screeching metal.
“…and fucking moe.”
The last drone was still “conscious,” if that word could be used to describe its state. The machine, immobilized, continued to screech as the stranger climbed down from his board and began to walk calmly toward it.
“FUGITIVE G.A/11-19-93 IDENTIFIED! FUGITIVE G.A/11-19-93 IDENTIFIED! CEASE RESISTANCE AND SURRENDER YOUR WEAPONS!”
“Damn, they're programming you worse and worse,” laughed the hooded man, pointing his weapon at the immobilized drone. “What makes you think you're in any position to demand anything, you pile of junk?”
“FUGITIVE G.A/11-19-93 IDENTIFIED! FUGITIVE G.A/11-…!”
The audio stopped abruptly, once again with a single shot destroying what remained of the drone's operating systems.
Eneit and the still-transformed Taylor watched as the hooded man simply turned his back to the fallen machine before it exploded into a ball of flames, walking away from it with an almost lazy and apathetic demeanor, allowing the weapon in his hand to dissolve back into fragments of light.
He coughed a little.
“And the name is Glicker,” he said, “Joel Glicker.”
NOTES
Uh… 👀 surprise, I guess… :P
I'm not entirely happy that Eneit and Taylor had to momentarily fall into the role of badasses in distress (kind of), but I needed a shocking introduction for the newcomer so...
Also, a no-prize for whoever can figure out where the 11-19-93 number comes from.
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