The next few minutes were a labyrinthine race, vertically and horizontally, through the gargantuan city.
The man named Joel Glicker had urged Eneit and Taylor to follow him, promising a safe route to avoid further encounters with patrol drones, and so far he was delivering. Neither Eneit nor Taylor knew the man, nor did they trust him blindly, but they recognized his name from Woe's stories. So following Joel was also born out of the need to fulfill their mission, as his presence was, in principle, the most direct contact they had to find the Wednesday of that universe.
From a certain point on, their entire journey became a descent through stairways, platforms, and freight lifts converted into public elevators on the increasingly gray and greasy concrete exterior walls. They passed through the cloud of pollution and finally caught sight of the lights on the surface of the rest of the city, which was bathed in shadows.
Finally, they stopped for a moment in what could only be described as an elevated alleyway between two buildings. Joel had lowered his hood and removed his mask, revealing a middle-aged face marked by what appeared to be scars from cuts on the skin and small metal rivets at various points on his jaw and temples.
“We just left the High City; this is the Middle City,” Joel explained. “There aren't as many restrictions on movement against outcasts here, so we shouldn't have to worry about anything as long as we don't cause a scene.”
“Are you an outcast, Joel?” asked Eneit. At her side, Taylor had begun to revert to her human form, something the man observed with visible interest before answering.
“Technically, yes and no. Not genetically. Many of us who are born with a mundane, normal genome are lumped together if life and circumstances lead us to not strictly follow the directions of those who run the circus.”
“The same old story,” said Taylor, back in her fully human form, moving her neck and cracking her vertebrae and stretching her limbs as if she had just finished exercising. She removed the remains of her torn clothes, her modesty protected by the special fabric suit that could cover her body even after her metamorphosis. Although she had to walk barefoot...
“If you're not welcome there either... What were you doing up there, Ser Joel?” asked Eneit.
“Oh, nothing unusual. Just a little private job, my own business... And where did you two come from?” asked Joel, “Because let me tell you, seeing a Hyde out in the open without a control collar is unusual, to say the least.”
Taylor frowned, “Control collar?”
“Yep honey. The Hydes are one of the few outcasts you’ll see in the High City, mostly because they’re servants to someone. But even with the bond of their transformation, the paranoid jerks up there make them wear explosive collars for fear of potential disobedience.”
“The more bits and pieces I hear about this place, the more disgusting it sounds,” said Eneit, looking up at the clouds. The sky was hidden by a blanket of toxic smog, and the only light came from neon signs and streetlights.
“Damn, you guys really aren’t from around here…” said Joel.
“We are... we are from quite far away,” said the barbarian princess, “In truth, we found ourselves here somewhat by accident.”
“Don't sugarcoat it, we're here against our will and by pure chance,” interrupted Taylor, “And we have to find someone...”
“We're looking for someone named Wednesday Addams,” Eneit continued, fixing her gaze on Joel, “Does that name ring a bell?”
Something flashed in Joel's eyes, a glimmer of recognition mixed with suspicion. He moved his hand discreetly, making a gesture with his fingers that someone without Eneit's senses would not have noticed. But the she-wolf could see the almost invisible metallic glint emerging from the flesh of Joel's wrist. Some kind of weapon hidden in the flesh of his own arm.
“Let's just say I've heard of a certain Wednesday Addams,” he said. “What business do you have with her?”
“We have to save her life,” Taylor replied, crossing her arms.
Joel raised an eyebrow, incredulous.
“Wow. Okay. That's...” Joel muttered before starting to laugh, which was cut short when he began coughing, forcing him to momentarily put on his air filter mask. “Ah. Sorry, sorry... my damn lungs are cannibalizing themselves. And saving Wednesday... Well, of all the reasons I expected to hear for someone wanting to find her, that's a new one.”
“Then you truly do know her,” said Eneit.
“Yes, yes, I know her... What's this about wanting to save her?”
Eneit and Taylor exchanged glances. Finally, Eneit nodded silently before turning back to Joel.
“Well, you see...”
And they told him everything. Who they were, their names. How they came from different universes. How they had met other versions of Wednesday. How they had been sent there by an individual who called himself Morningstar to save the local Wednesday, because if she died, that entire universe would be in danger.
And after hearing the story, Joel fell back into a fit of laughter and hiccuping coughs marked by hysteria.
“Ha ha ha ha ha! Oh my God! That's... Ha ha ha ha ha!” he laughed, looking at them as if they had grown an extra pair of heads, "Damn, that has to be the craziest thing I've ever heard. I had my doubts, but now I'm convinced you must be fugitives from some Recreation and Pleasure Center in the High City, your brains probably fried from a bunch of simulations."
“Excuse me?” said Taylor.
Joel pointed at her, “You're a Hyde, the only kind of outcast you'll find up there,” he said, before turning his attention to Eneit, looking her up and down, "And you're obviously the result of a lot of steroids and internal implants for muscle fetishists. Probably some fantasy based on old pulp novels or some old amazonian smut. A job well done, I have to admit: you almost look natural and you don't have any noticeable anatomical disproportions for how tall and huge you are."
Eneit frowned. She didn't fully understand what Joel had just said, but she could tell it wasn't something positive. She considered showing her claws to reveal her lycanthrope nature, but before she could do anything, Taylor took a step forward.
“Look, Joel...” said the Hyde, “I personally don't give a damn whether you believe us or not. But we have to find Wednesday Addams, and if you know where she is, I recommend you tell us...”
The Hyde's eyes bulged slightly, popping out of their sockets as her skin turned slightly gray.
“... for your own good.”
“Woooah, okay, okay, calm down, wild thing,” Joel laughed, although a hint of nervousness returned to his voice. He put his mask back on for a moment to catch his breath before continuing, “There's no need to resort to mutilation, okay? We're all friends here. Besides, I'd be an idiot to pass up the chance to work with someone as fucking useful as a Hyde.”
“And what exactly does that mean?” asked Taylor, reverting her face to normal human features.
“It means I'll take you to Wednesday,” Joel said with a sly smile, “and she'll decide whether she believes your story or not.”
He put his mask back on and nodded before starting to walk toward the alley exit, indicating that it was time to move again.
They followed Joel, descending another couple of levels until they finally reached a street on the surface, touching pure asphalt. Joel led them to a manhole cover, which he lifted laboriously, then pointed to the hole as if it were an open door, inviting the two women to enter.
“Ugh, really?” asked Taylor.
“You two want to see Wednesday, right? Well, that means you have to go deep.”
So that's what they did. They followed Joel through the sewers, entering tunnels that led to what appeared to be an abandoned subway station, and then more tunnels... a veritable underground labyrinth where they occasionally crossed paths with other people. Some gave Joel knowing looks or slight nods, while glancing at Eneit and Taylor with barely concealed curiosity.
Eneit noticed, not without a certain irony, that despite the closed nature of the place and the interesting scents, the air in general seemed cleaner and less toxic than on the surface.
Finally, Joel led them to an old circular door similar to what one would expect to see in a vault, although it was ajar. Passing through it led them to a platform and...
“Oh my God,” whispered Taylor.
The place was a cavern. A gigantic cavern, because buried beneath the ground and lit by electricity stolen from the surface, there was an entire street, with buildings and apartment blocks. An ancient city buried beneath the surface of the monstrous metropolis that was growing above ground.
“Welcome to the Low City, also known as the Old City,” said Joel. “Home to the outcasts and anyone who doesn't want or can't be part of the circus up there. Now, follow me...”
The street... no, the multiple underground streets were bustling with activity. Eneit and Taylor recognized several outcasts among the crowd by their appearance and scent: lycanthropes, gorgons, vampires, even some noppera-bō (faceless). There were also a large number of normies, but their scents were strange to Eneit. Along with the scent of flesh and blood, there was also the smell of metal, acid, and chrome.
The stench of despair was everywhere.
Joel led them to a secluded corner near the edge of the gigantic cavern, a dimly lit place. There they could see an industrial building, an old warehouse whose doors opened automatically when Joel waved his hand in the air. Eneit and Taylor noticed the camera watching them, half-hidden in the shadows, but neither the werewolf nor the Hyde said anything.
The interior was spacious and, despite the dilapidated exterior, clean. Almost sterile.
To the left was a workshop with a huge armored vehicle, a sports car that had seen better days, and an engine hanging from chains. At the other end was an area that looked more like an operating room, with a stretcher, medical equipment, and a rack with what appeared to be robotic arms and legs of various designs. And right in the middle was a living area with a sofa, a cot, a refrigerator, and a television.
Behind it was a series of huge monitors displaying data and images of the city, graphs, news, and lists of numbers and indecipherable code.
Standing in front of the monitors was a figure manipulating the data on the screens with a holographic interface, her hands dancing in the air with calculated finesse.
“Greetings, Joel. You bring company.”
“Wednesday,” Joel replied with a respectful nod.
Wednesday Addams, for it could be no other, turned to look at the new arrivals.
The face was very similar to Woe's and immediately recognizable to Eneit and Taylor. But her voice sounded much more mature, older, and with a synthetic tinge... and her face had an artificial quality, almost as if it were a porcelain mask made up of multiple moving pieces. Her hair was pulled back into the familiar braided pigtails, the feature that had changed the least.
And her eyes shone like camera lenses, dark and unnatural.
“Eneit and Taylor, right?” she said.
The werewolf and the Hyde couldn’t conceal their surprise at being recognized.
“How did you…?” Taylor began, glancing sideways at the monitors. “Wait, have you been spying on us since we got here?”
Wednesday Addams let out a dry laugh, crossing her arms and shooting a sharp glance at the two women in front of her. Eneit could see the metal marks on her arms, the lines that marked the mechanical nature of the joints in her elbows... no doubt those limbs also had more hidden weapons.
“I knew you from before, I never forget a face,” said Wednesday, “Although I suppose it’s normal that you don’t remember me… there were thousands of Wednesdays and Enids in that damn army against the shadow creatures… Good times, although technically I wasn’t paid for the gig.”
Joel looked from one to the other, “What the hell are you talking about?”
“It's a very long story, Joel,” said Wednesday, “Suffice it to say that they are telling the truth, if I am correct in assuming that they have told you who they are.”
“Fuck me,” muttered the man.
“Lady Wednesday,” said Eneit, “You must know that we have come with the express purpose of protecting you and ensuring your safety.”
“There’s a group of interdimensional lunatics out there killing Wednesdays and destroying their universes,” added Taylor.
Wednesday tilted her head, frowning with a mechanical creak, “Damn, people from other universes never come with good news, do they? Although it's kind of fortunate, I guess. It turns out I have a new gig in the works and I'd feel a lot safer with some extra muscle watching my ass.”
“Uh... what kind of gig?” asked Taylor.
“Tell me, girls... would you like to take part in a heist?”
NOTES
Be careful girls, heists in cyberpunk universes rarely end well... 👀😨
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