Chapter Six – “From Above”

Simone bulwarked the entryway to the room she shared with Haley. Her shoulders spanned the width of the doorframe, and she was tall enough that her fiery crimson tresses looked like a mountain peak above the header. Anyone would be foolish to try to get past Simone as she performed her duty as a sentry. The giant woman was by far more solid than the door she blocked, and considering whom she was protecting, there was no way she would allow anybody to pass.

However, some people will persist no matter what the obstacle placed in front of them. Jenette was one of these people, especially when she knew that her sister was one of the people on the other side of that door. Curious by nature, the shapeshifter did not want to pass up the opportunity to watch, or even better, participate in the operation to give her sister a new eye. It was bad enough that she was held at bay while Haley repaired her cybernetic arm, but it was just not fair that she was not allowed in there now.

“Come on; let me in She-Hulk! I would do a much better job than Robo-girl!”

“For the last time, no. Haley said that this is delicate work and that she doesn’t need any distractions.” Simone responded to the relentless demon.

“Well I wasn’t going to distract her. She can take a nap and sob about her dead robot while I shove Ani’s new eye into her socket.” Jenette smiled up at the much taller woman. “Us demons are the best at delicate operations. I remember this one time that I replaced a man’s still-beating heart with an armadillo.”

“Why would you even do that?” Simone asked in disgust.

“I don’t know. It was a Thursday and I was bored.” Jenette shrugged. “Anyway, my point stands!”

“And you’re still not going in.”

Jenette quickly wrapped her arms around Simone’s waist, with a little help from her shapeshifting abilities. Her arms became like the coils of a python, wrapping around the larger woman to the point where she had more than an adequate grip on her. The demon heaved with all her might, but she could feel Simone’s muscles tightening beneath her grip as the woman held her ground. All in all, the show of force did not budge the giantess even an inch.

“Grah! Quit being so muscly!” Jenette commanded, not liking the idea that a human could be stronger than she was.

Simone sighed and pried the woman from her body, pushing her lightly against the other wall. Despite her actions earlier in the day, she really did not want to hurt anybody unless it was entirely necessary. Immediately, Jenette’s arms unraveled and shortened back to their usual size, but she was not ready to give up yet. Her body shimmered as her demonic features faded away, quickly shifting herself into a direct copy of the young inventor on the other side of the door. Simone looked down at Haley’s clone with her arms firmly folded beneath her chest.

“Aww, pretty please let me in Simone. How could you possibly say no to your pretty Robo-girl?”

Jenette stepped forward and took hold of one of Simone’s impressive biceps, pulling the bigger woman’s arm down like a lever. The intent was to hold her hand and try to seduce her way into the room, but Jenette was not her sister. Simone’s arm instead windmilled around until her gigantic fist bludgeoned Jenette right in the center of her noggin.

“Ow! That thing’s like a bowling ball!” The demon rubbed her head, still in the guise of Haley.

“That’s what you get for trying to look like Haley.”

Jenette’s form quickly reverted once again, her chest inflating like a pair of hot air balloons as her clothes shifted to a punkish look. Other than the long curled horns that protruded from her forehead though, she kept her demonic features hidden as she slumped against the wall opposite Simone.

“What’s your deal with her anyway? If you’re in love with her you should go and sweep her into your arms right now!”

Simone stood there stalwartly, though a thin band of red appeared on her cheeks. Her sudden decision to go mute created quite the awkward pause. Jenette snickered until the statuesque woman cleared her throat.

“I’ve been wondering, what’s the deal with your names? Anibelle and Jenette are not very demonic sounding.” Simone asked, desperate to change the subject.

“We can’t all be named Samael or Azazel. Besides, only the elder demons were fallen angels. The rest of us are new generations, or as in Ani’s case, formerly human. I am a half-demon for instance. Only my father was a demon, and he’s not the one that named me. What kind of name do you think I should have?”

“I don’t know; something like Drax maybe.” Simone guessed.

“Drax? Like the Marvel Comics character?” Jenette giggled at the name.

“You read comics? I wouldn’t think that they’d have them in Hell.”

“Oh, no, we get all the same comics that you guys get up here. The only difference is that all of ours are either drawn by Rob Liefeld or Humberto Ramos. It is Hell after all.”

 

***

 

Anibelle propped herself up on her elbows, resting on the hotel bed. The room was bathed in shadows, but the pale moonlight reflecting in through their 20^th floor window was hardly bright enough for a surgical procedure. Ani watched intently as Haley leaned over her temporary workstation, looking down at the cybernetic eye with her headlamp. The green pupil stared back at Haley, surrounded by a gunmetal grey iris. It was far from perfect and not gone through human trials yet, but Haley doubted that the demon would care about any of that.

“I never expected that I’d be installing this myself. I always assumed that this sort of thing would be left up to a doctor, you know, someone with surgical experience.” Haley explained.

“Why does that matter? It’s just an eye. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“I don’t know. I could fry your brain for all I know.”

“Why do humans keep thinking that demons work the same way? I could put a walnut in my eye socket and my body would accept it, but I can’t see out of a walnut so I think we’ll stick with this option.” Anibelle shot back.

Haley’s shoulders slumped forward as she stared at her invention. She was hesitant to give up the eye after having already lost Brute that day, and nearly losing her arm. Wherever they were, she was not pleased with the fact that the place seemed to be taking her work away from her bit by bit.

“All right, let’s get this over with.”

Anibelle lay back, settling her head on the marshmallow-like pillow. Haley slowly approached the girl, setting her tools down on the end table. Her headlamp shone in Anibelle’s one good eye, which quickly dilated and then shut to keep out the bright light.

“Now hold still, there’s not much light to work with and I don’t want to screw this up.”

Anibelle hummed a tune, though it was no song that Haley recognized. From the few words she heard, it sounded more like the demon girl was just making it up as she went along. All she could make out were the words ‘awesome’ and ‘eye’.

Haley’s lamp focused on the open socket on the left side of Ani’s head. She was trying to locate the remnants of the optic nerve, something that she could attach the new eye to so that it would send images to the brain, but the hole she was looking into was like a black hole.

“Hurry up and do it before some birds decide to make a nest in my head!”

“But I can’t find the–”

“Don’t worry about that. Just stick it in there. My body will do the rest.” Anibelle interrupted.

Hesitantly, Haley began to thread the small cable protruding from the back of the eye into Anibelle’s eye socket. Almost immediately, she felt a tug. Nerve endings shot out like tendrils, latching onto the cable and pulling it in. Haley jumped back as the cable disappeared, leaving the optic implant bulging out of the demon’s head in an awkward and creepy manner.

“It just grabbed it!”

“Yeah, I told you my body would do the rest. Our bodies quickly accept implants so that we’re never left with a disadvantage. Plus, it’s awesome to be able to replace your hand with a chainsaw if the need arises.” Anibelle said mirthfully. “Now can you finish up? I don’t want it to go in crooked.”

Haley’s heart was beating quickly, as her fingers pried open Ani’s eyelids and pressed the eye in gently. Slowly she adjusted it, until it looked perfectly centered.

“There, now to turn it on–”

A whir came from the demon’s new eye, like the sound of a computer starting up. The mechanical green pupil started to glow and Anibelle sat up, scanning the room. She stopped on Haley, who quickly came into view, though there seemed to be some underlying static as if she were looking through a security camera. Still, it worked quite well, even with her night vision.

“You do good work Haley. It’s not perfect, but I’m sure the bugs will work themselves out. Now I’ll only have to wear an eye patch while I’m pretending to be a pirate!” Anibelle exclaimed with glee.

“Thanks. Can you leave now? I’m tired.”

“Nope.” Anibelle sprang off the bed and bounded towards the door. “I want to go to this meeting they have planned. You’re coming along.”

“No, I’m going to bed. I’m sore, tired and not in the best state of mind. I also wanted to go back out into the jungle early tomorrow and retrieve Brute before it rains. I need my sleep.”

“Too bad, you’re coming along or else I’m going to get grumpy!” Anibelle demanded, swinging the door open and looking up at the wall of a woman that blocked her path. “Simone! Pick up Haley; we’re all going to go listen to what these humans have planned.”

Simone looked over the hard to please demon to Haley. She did not need to be able to see in the dark to know that her friend was in need of some sleep. Simone ducked underneath the doorframe and then approached the blonde inventor. She lowered herself into a crouching position, offering her friend a piggyback ride.

“Are you sure about this Haley? I could probably fight them off if you wanted.”

“No, don’t.” She responded, climbing onto Simone’s ample shoulders. “I don’t want you to get hurt. Besides, your back is comfortable enough. I think I can manage.”

“Where’d Kacie go!?” Anibelle shouted from the hallway. “You suck at keeping an eye on people Jenette! You let one of my crew get away. Now I’m going to have to find a new lesbian.”

“Ooh, pretty.” Jenette’s finger lifted up, inching closer and closer to the new prosthetic, only to be slapped away before she could poke it.

Orchestral music echoed in the dark halls, catching Haley’s attention. It seemed to emanate from one of the rooms a few doors down from where they were gathered. The piece that was playing seemed synthetic, and considering they were at a convention, she thought it highly likely that it was somebody playing video game music through a stereo.

“I played the cello before I lost my arm you know.” She commented.

“Well, aren’t you just full of talents?” Anibelle replied as she led her motley crew towards the stairwell.

The emergency door opened from the other side, right as they reached it. An unassuming man in white Stormtrooper armor stepped out. He had his helmet cradled in his armpit and what looked like a small flashlight emitting blue light was in his other hand. He stopped in his tracks and looked up at the two demons and the giantess like a rabbit caught in the headlights. His back pressed against the wall as four sets of eyes followed him down the hall.

“You know, for a dark stairwell, there sure are a lot of people coming and going every time we use it.” Anibelle smiled.

 

***

 

“Well, he is a bit grumpy and he keeps insinuating I have parasites.”

Sekkai hunched over a leather bound book; its pages open as she spoke. The small clearing that they settled down in was only just wide enough for a campfire and for her and Jason to have a little space to themselves. However, they did not have a campfire. Jason sat at one side of the glade, thumbing through the pictures on his camera, the pale bluish glow from its screen making his face look ghostly. Sekkai took the other side, whispering in hushed tones with a book open in front of her.

“No, I don’t need you to hit him for me. I can handle myself just fine.”

Jason looked across the clearing, wishing that there was a fire. It was not so much that it was cold out, he just did not trust being out in the wild in the middle of the night where there could be snakes, tarantulas and even jaguars. He definitely would have felt much safer with a fire.

“I don’t think the Professor will notice that you’re missing. He almost never goes into his library.” Sekkai said, pausing for a moment afterwards. “Yes, I sent the message to Irene. It’s hard whispering to moths though, they never sit still and I think they assume I’m going to eat them.”

“Who are you talking to over there?” Jason blurted out. “Please tell me that you’re not talking to yourself. Last thing I need is a psychotic furry on my hands.”

“Nobody!” Sekkai shot back. “Just the trees; they talk if you take the time to listen.”

The cat girl shut the tome in front of her and stuffed it back in her travel bag. It was quiet, but Jason could have sworn he heard her apologize when she did it. The girl then scampered over closer to Jason’s side so that they could talk.

“I still think starting a fire would be a good idea.” Jason started.

“How would you like it if somebody ripped off your limbs and then lit them on fire?” The girl responded. “If I didn’t think you could save us, I’d wonder if you weren’t just like the Professor. Humans are all alike. They never think about anybody but themselves.”

Jason grunted, fantasizing about ripping the cat’s arms and legs off.

“You know, I never asked you something. How is it that you know this professor so well? I mean you practically rifled off the man’s entire life story earlier today.”

“I’m his assistant, duh!” Sekkai stated, as if it were common knowledge. “I helped him make his potions all the time. I’m practically an expert on them! He’s really done a lot for me, you know. I mean, he taught me how to speak, and then read and write. He says I’m the best of all of his creations, and I guess that’s true because I’m the closest to fully human he’s ever made.”

“Great, just wonderful. Now I have another thing to worry about. For all I know, you could be leading me into a trap so that your Professor can experiment on me.”

“I would not do that. You would be tied to a pole right now if that was the case!” Sekkai replied adamantly. “Now get some sleep Jason Grey, we have a long distance to go still. Tomorrow we will cross over the bridge and reach the edge of the Professor’s land. There are a lot of transformed animals that would like to meet you I’m sure.”

“Fantastic, I get to meet more furries and there’s not a redhead in sight. This is quite possibly the worst nightmare I’ve ever had.”

 

***

 

The dealer’s room was packed corner to corner. By far, the largest room available in the convention center, it was often used for any number of exhibitions. Normally, it would be filled with tables where fans could purchase merchandise from all of their favorite fandoms. This year, however, the wares were packed up and the folding tables were all left in a neat pile at the edge of the room. Instead, there were over a thousand people packed in as if it was the Super Dome after Katrina. The clamor of the crowd was a steady buzz, and outside of the occasional light from somebody’s cell phone, camera or laptop, the room was just as dark as the rest of the hotel.

Robin’s palms felt numb as he looked out at fifteen-hundred fatigued conventioners. Some of them were still wearing their costumes from earlier in the day. Spandex and battle armor were not the best things to sit around wearing in a humid jungle, he thought. He worried that he would not have the answers that they were looking for, but he spent the day talking to people and coming up with at least temporary solutions to most of their problems.

The number one topic on everybody’s mind, however, was rescue, and it was the one thing that he had no clue as to what he would say. Anne, who was now at his side, her hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down, worked all day trying to find a spell that would send them home, but she came up empty time after time. Her expertise was in altering reality and transformation, not transporting skyscrapers through space and time.

Like a procession of Druids, each of them carrying candles so at least some of the crowd could see their faces, Robin led his staff out onto a raised platform. Robin took the center of the stage, with Anne immediately to his right. Madison, Andrew and Elise followed, each taking a seat behind Robin. Last, was a man with wavy brown hair and rather thin glasses. He had movie star good looks and was dressed in a suit and a tie. He was the only one without a candle, instead using a pocket flashlight as he wheeled Amellia out on a dolly. He busied himself with her as Robin prepared to address the crowd.

The lack of light had its advantages, as it allowed Anne to amplify Robin’s voice and leave none the wiser that it was not the microphone in front of him that was carrying it.

“Okay, I know everybody here is tired, so I promise to make this as quick as possible. My name is Robin Ericson. You all may wonder why I’m qualified to tell you what we should be doing, why some nobody member of NOW’s event staff is making this speech instead somebody higher up. Well, I’m not qualified. I have no intention of being a leader, but if we did not act quickly to organize, this place would be in chaos right now.” Robin started, his voice a little hoarse. “We will work towards finding better leadership once we’ve addressed our basic survival needs. Let’s start with our most basic need, food and water. I’ve talked to hotel staff, and they tell me that their refrigerators were fully stocked before we came here. This means that we have plenty of food for all of us stuck here for the time being, however, we will be rationing any nonperishable food items for use in case we run out. As for water, we suggest you self-ration what you’ve got in bottles now. I’m told by those with rooms on the upper floors that they can see a river a few miles out, but we do not yet have a way to transport water from there to here.”

The buzz of the crowd grew louder at the thought of rationing. If there was one thing that would make people angry in a hurry, it was denying them full meals. Robin began to explain his plan for security, right as Anibelle, Jenette, Simone and Haley walked in, standing at the back of the crowd. Anibelle stared on, seemingly more interested than the rest of her crew in the young man giving the speech.

“That woman up there is using magic, Ani.” Jenette immediately pointed out, her eyes focused on Anne who was broadcasting herself to every magical being in the area and did not know it.

“I know, Jenette, now shut up so I can listen.”

“That’s why we’re going to make the hotel lobby and anything below the second floor off limits at night. We’ll have the stairwell doors locked and post sentries at each entrance to the upper floors. It’s not a fool-proof plan, but it should work until we know more about the enemy.” Robin continued. “As you all know, we were attacked earlier today. The inhabitants of this world ambushed us and took many men with them. I want you all to know, that we are not going to forget these people. Once we know more about where they were taken, we plan on sending a force after them to retrieve them. Elise here will lead the team. She has a lot of experience trekking through jungles across our world so we think that she–”

“They’re dead!” Jenette shouted from the back of the room.

“I told you to shut up Jenette.” Anibelle elbowed her sister in the side.

Immediately, the clamor became deafening. Robin could feel the crowd turning into a mob. He could feel their hearts and minds leave him and turn to worry. They were already on edge, so it left him with no other choice than to use his only ace in the hole.

“Turn on the lights, Damon.” He instructed the man working on Amellia.

Floodlights flickered behind the panel then bathed the room in bright light. The crowd fell silent, and then some started to clap and cheer. A heavy set of cables trailed from Amellia’s back to the lights, though nobody seemed to care what the source of the light was. They were just glad to be out of the dark. Near the back of the crowd, Haley lifted her head. Unlike everybody else, she looked straight at Amellia and then the man standing to her side, Damon Blake.

“As you can see, we have already made headway in restoring power to the building. This is Damon Blake, one of the inventors that was going to be featured at the robotics expo. I’m going to let him speak and tell you what he has planned. While he’s doing that, I’d like to speak to whoever it was that interrupted me.”

Errant whispers from the crowd seemed to echo even louder now, as the majority of the people there were rapt with interest since the lights came on.

“He looks like Gaius Baltar,” a fan dressed in a Battlestar Galactica jumpsuit muttered, referring to Damon Blake.

“Isn’t that Anne Onymous up there?” Another fan said.

Damon coolly walked over to the center of the stage as Robin departed, making his own way off to the side where he intended on meeting whomever it was that nearly caused a riot.

“First, I’d like to thank Robin for giving me this chance to address you all. As he already told you, I am a scientist. Primarily, I work in robotics, but some of you may know that my company is one of the leaders in developing future tech. We create it, and then we leave it up to the other companies to make it affordable for everybody else.” The man started, a certain charismatic tone in his voice that kept at least the women in the crowd attentive. “You may have met Amellia when you arrived at the convention. She is perhaps one of the most advanced robots in the world, and is the reason you all have light in this room right now. Amellia’s battery life is amazing you see, and she can easily keep this room lit for quite some time. However, she cannot bring power back to the entire building. That’s where you all come in.”

Anibelle and Jenette were pushing their way through the crowd, though most of the people in it were more than happy to give the entire gang a wide berth. Simone garnered respect from them simply because of her size. Haley stared up at the stage, and was sure that Mr. Blake was addressing her more than the rest of the people in the room. She could see his eyes following her, even though he maintained the illusion that he was talking to the whole room.

“There are plenty of other inventors here, who could prove useful in finding a solution to our power problem. There also might be others amongst you that have some sort of background in power management. Anybody that can be of use should stay behind after the conclusion of the meeting so that we can discuss what our options are. I look forward to seeing you all there, especially you, Miss Ravenlock.” He flashed a smile at the tired blonde perched on Simone’s shoulders.

 

***

 

The television in room 2008 flickered red and purple as the spiky-haired sprite on it cast a spell. Momentarily the perfectly rendered man disappeared from the screen as a knight in full silver armor charged over the horizon, his lanced pointed towards a beast that looked to be nothing but a mess of tentacles. Synthesized orchestral battle music boomed from the television speakers, nearly shaking the walls with its heavy bass.

“Can you believe that people used to play games like this?” A young man with short, scruffy hair holding a boomerang shaped controller in his hands, asked his friend. “They call this rendering? The characters faces don’t even look realistic.”

“You have no appreciation for the classics, Midea. I grew up on games like this. Sure, they might look a bit blocky and strange by the standards we’re used to, but the game play is still top notch.” His friend, who was tall and tanned with black hair and brown eyes, responded.

By all appearances, they were just a couple of college students. They both dressed casually, the one called Midea wearing a blue button-up shirt over a plain white t-shirt, his friend in a navy blue jacket and grey t-shirt. While moderately handsome, neither one probably stood out in a crowd. There was little even to distinguish one from the other aside from a color swap on their clothing and their hair.

“Don’t get me started on the game play. This game is beyond clunky, not intuitive at all.” Midea complained again.

The console that sat in front of them was slightly curved, but otherwise looked like a shiny black monolith. The wires that ran from both it and the television dead-ended in a small glowing purple cube.

“Oh come on, they’re not that bad. Our pal Alex seems to like them after all.”

Another man sat on the bed behind the two gamers. He wore a pinstriped dress shirt and looked like he was once rather well groomed. Now, he was tied up with his own tie used to gag him. There was nothing but worry in his eyes as the tanner of the young men waved a firearm about as if it was an extension of his hand.

The door clicked open and in walked another man dressed in Stormtrooper battle armor. He looked to be sweating profusely and was quite out of breath. His face also looked about as pale as the costume he was wearing.

“Agent Midea, Agent Cronocke, turn that game off!”

“Don’t have an aneurism, buddy. It’s just a game. What’s the harm in playing a game?” Cronocke, who was the tan-skinned young man, spoke up.

“What’s the harm? Two of our primary targets were staying right down the hall from you. I passed them in the stairwell. What if they’d found us? The whole operation would be ruined. I’m sure you do not want to be the one responsible for a failed mission.”

“Are you whining about failed missions again?” Midea interjected. “We haven’t even been activated yet.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. The order just came down. All five primary targets, including Mother’s great enemy are now inside the building. As of this moment, the Agents of Ananke are on active duty.”

Midea dropped the controller and looked to Cronocke, who just shrugged. Their sweaty commander looked at them sternly as he caught his breath.

“You know the mission, separate and then eliminate them one by one.”