Crossing Worlds 03: Bow to the Queen

    The city of Las Angeles, in this world it was once a grand metropolis until they came. Visitors from the stars arrived above this world, however rather than make peace with humanity they instead sought to control the planet and all its resources. In what can best be described as an overly elaborate and demented move they unleashed pods upon the Earth, hitting each of the major cities. These pods unleashed nanites programmed to alter human physiology into that of mindless flesh craving zombies. These zombies would be programmed thanks to the nanites to target other human beings and infect them while also consuming a small amount of flesh to insure a quick, painful, and visually traumatizing death for any survivors. The end game of this alien race known as the Cohora doesn’t seem to have been the eradication of humanity but rather a massive reduction in population and wide spread demoralization. Some beings of this Earth would learn during this event that the Cohora planned to step in when the human population was down to ten percent of its previous population and shut down the zombies in a display causing the humans to see them as saviors; having pretended the pods from before had been dropped by an opposing alien faction.

    As things go, the intent of this is unclear; something to do with humans being able to adapt faster than the Cohora with more abstract minds; in fact its highly likely this overly elaborate plan was stolen from human media that they intercepted. What ever the reason for this madness it would not come to pass; for the Cohora were un-aware this world is home to more than just humans. This particular Earth has a dimensional connection with a region of Other World known as the Makai Cluster, from here various powerful beings such as Rhuen of the Rai, Litmet of the Lit, and Ahm of the Hinnen; have made regular appearances. Amongst their races, related races, and various other races of this region other individuals have appeared and interfered with this Earth’s natural development. As far as this scenario is concerned the major involvement from recent history was from a company founded by a Rai named Censa; this company the Oblivion Corporation, and her secret society the HEP; have introduced into this world alternate humans, Furre-Shifters, Beast-Shifters, Transjins, and many others on top of the more ancient experiments such as vampires and werewolves amongst other fabled monsters. These beings and their creations would prove immune to the nanites plague; and thus this Zombie Apocalypse, became the Genesis of a new world in which the beast people and ancient monsters would be forced to become the new dominant races. The ancient ones from the Makai Cluster, rose up; as their rules of secrecy placed upon themselves no longer applied and took the world.

    The city of Las Angeles in this strange new world belongs to the vampire faction. A great red dome of energy surrounds the city, protecting the inhabitants from the sun and from outside forces. Surviving humans, as well as the nearly human shifters such as the Furre-Shifters, Transjins, and others make their way to the dome cities like Las Angeles. Although it means living in a dictatorship run by beings who demand they pay taxes in blood it’s still preferable to the zombie and monster filled wildernesses. Some of these dark powers wanting more of the land have brought monsters from their native lands with them and unleashed them onto this poor Earth.

   One would not think the world was in such turmoil from Rick’s point of view; although the scenery from the window of the floating castle is a city bathed in red light with bat people flying about and vampires leaping across roof tops like they were side walks; its still a calm view. Rick stands here in his black exoskeleton armor watching the streets as behind him Litmet sits upon her throne while the pink scaled female Doh-Rong Ananth speaks to her about some matter involving vampires poaching humans from the human quarter. Rick turns and looks at Litmet; one would not imagine looking at this pale beauty of a woman, her paleness exaggerated by her black dress, that she could transform into a large feline demon creature.

    Ananth leaves after Litmet whispers something to her, Rick turns back to the window. It’s in moments of peace like this that one’s mind can wander. As Litmet’s mind wanders now. It was over twenty years ago, long before the Cohora attck, when she first met the man named Peter Jones; her consort Ananth had found this human in a most unusual place for a mortal, an HEP secret prison facility. She had brought the man to her. This mortal intrigued her as he had a personal vendetta against some of the Rai and one of their creations. She had thought at the time to undo the law amongst their races to remain secret to the humans, but have it done in a way that didn’t point to her. One of the Rai this man had a vendetta against was known to her, Rhuen, self proclaimed god of darkness and ruler of the Makai world known as The Dark Forest. She sent the man after Rhuen in the hopes his famous anger would get the better of him and expose himself in the middle of Las Angeles. No such luck, as one of his mates was there and calmed his anger. However rather than simply kill the mortal he transported the man to The Dark Forest.

    It would be many years later when Litmet found him again, somehow he had survived living in a forest filled with dangerous beasts. Litmet found him on the streets of a city on a different Makai world; the Law Lands, the home land of the Hinnen. He was disheveled and was carrying around Silver Thorns, and a Mota Deer skull as weapons. Her reason for being there was a vague memory triggered by her daughter Sehkmenta who had heard a Kuhrai ship made to resemble a massive pirate ship was leaving port from the Law Land on a secret mission to go to a world called Aesperia in search of something called Polymoebial. When Litmet heard the name the image of a golden woman with dragon heads around her popped into her mind; as it turned out this was a close description to what it was from the Kuhrai intelligence her daughter’s henchman had stolen. Her original intention was to sneak into the crew herself as an Immortal or a vampire. However with Peter Jones there her plan changed.

     She told him what she thought was a tall tale about science, not sorcery, that could grant him the power to fight the Rai with out being turned into a vampire or other supernatural monster; the story flowed from her from deep with in. She couldn’t be sure if he believed her or not, but it would seem her further promise to take him home cemented his resolve. She had used him as a spy, but what she heard about the underground tunnels of Los Rodos brought weird flashes to her mind. She went there herself and found machinery she somehow knew how to operate, her story was true. She watched the fantasy like groups battle Polymoebial, a feat her mind told her was incredible, and then watched as they battled a monstrous abomination from the ocean. As fate would have it she met up with Peter Jones as he ran from the pirates he had joined up with.

    ******

    Litmet shifts in her throne as she *sighs*. Ever since she stuck Peter Jones in that machine and turned him into a super-soldier of a man weird memories have been flooding into her mind. At that very moment she remembered how to operate those machines; even to the extent of using them to scan for similar technology. She told Peter Jones of deadly weapons he could obtain in the west and teleported him there with a device in that facility. Other memories have been coming back since then; bits and pieces of a strange life haunting her at every calm moment.

    “Fine” she tells herself as she leans back, “I’m tired of fighting you come on then you bizarre images, tell me a story.”

    ******

    The face is familiar, everything else however is not. The face of Litmet, wearing glasses, with her hair a few shades lighter and up in a bun. This woman in a lab coat is running frantically down the halls, with four other people in lab coats, a man next to her with short black hair, a thin plain looking man, a tall man with very long ponytail, and his wife a voluptuously built woman.

    “His wife,” thinks Litmet, her voice trailing over the images as she hears them shouting something about the wormholes combining, “I know these people, Kathryn, Raymond, that man next to…me…that’s Riff….that other guy is our assistant we brought with us…and me…I’m…Lily? My name is Lily?”

    “We have to hurry,” says Lily as she shuts a door behind them. Beyond the door the hallway retracts away from them as a metal panel slides down blocking the small window in the door.

    “Outer shell locked,” says Lily, “we need to get to the lab.”

    “You sure this is going to work?” asks the assistant.

   “The assistant,” thinks Litmet over the action, “I remember now…James Porter…wait…what?!”

    “Do we have a choice,” says Raymond, “it’s either this or die on the surface.”

   The image goes hazy and fades back in to them, Raymond, Kathryn, Riff, and Lily, inside four large fluid filled tube like containers, various devices are hooked up around the base of the machine. A machine she recognizes as the same machine she used on Peter Jones. James Porter is operating the controls.

    “I…remember this,” thinks Litmet, “the world was ending, the crusts was being destroyed by two worm holes created by a free energy company. The radiation caused mutations, monstrous mutations. We…we found a way to control the mutations…give people the power to shift between a powerful monster form and a human form, a body that could survive in a world filled with radiation…that’s right, before the worm holes went critical there were energy domes expanding from them that were mutating people, plants, and animals. We were trying to find a way to not turn into the same mindless beasts everyone else was, all that power with our minds in tact. But there was something else…we…we calculated the wormholes would…”

    The facility begins to shake in her mind, “Not now!” yells James, “the sequence isn’t done.”

    “Escape,” whispers Litmet in her mind, “it’s an escape pod…dimension drive…escape…”

    Her mind shifts from third person to first person as she sees the scene now from her own point of view inside the tube. Her face distorted into a feline muzzle, her arms becoming wings, she sees the man next to her becoming a similar black cat-cat, Raymond too is something black…only wolf like, Kathryn has become a white furred wolf thing.

   “No…” says Litmet inside the dream…Lily says, “no” as she sees the unmistakable wormhole energy appearing inside the lab. Through the haze she sees James Porter vanish and what might be a woman standing there before everything goes black.

    Her mind returns to third person as she sees herself, now as Litmet, with Riff…no…its Rhit, the black furred lion headed Lit that was her mate long ago. They are in a desert land… “The Land of Dao,” thinks Litmet, “In the Makai Cluster,”

    She and Rift are mindless beasts flying this land, feeding on the life energy of large herbivores that would later come to be called Ooputerra, and upon various other creatures including dragons. Their numbers would swell, many more Lit would be born before their minds evolved to become sentient…but with out memories of much before becoming sentient other than being hungry beasts. The
entire race turned sentient all at once somehow, and pretty much stopped reproducing so fast…but not for lack of trying.

    “how,” thinks Litmet, “and how come I never questioned that before…did I know?”

   “Hold on!” shouts Litmet snapping out of the dream startling Rick, “why would I remember all this in third person?”

    She stands up quickly and shouts with a queen’s voice, “Who is in my head? Reveal yourself or face the wrath of the goddess of destruction!”

   Ananth rushes into the room, “Is there an intruder?”

   “Aaahhhh!” screams Litmet grasping the side of her head as she collapses to her knees.

   “Litmet!” shouts Ananth and Rick together.

   As they try to run to her a strange force pushes them back and turns them around to see the windows flash red and then…no city.

   The pain in Litmet’s head stops. She walks over to the window with them to see not Las Angeles but a vast arid desert.

   “The…sky…” whispers Ananth in astonishment.

   “My god,” says Rick looking up to see that the sky is a sea of fire.

   Litmet touches the glass, “not…hot…” she says.

   Rick looks at Ananth before saying, “right…the glass is…just glass.”

   He looks up confused.

   A hot wind blasts through the room despite the windows being closed.

   *Come to me child of Darkness.*

   “Who are you!?” demands Litmet.

   Rick and Ananth look around; the voice was not so much a sound as thought and a feeling like hot water being poured in the ears.

    *Your mind, your soul, and this beast*

    “What the hell is going on,” says Rick.

   *thump*

   The body of a man falls from above them onto the floor.

   “Who…” starts Ananth looking at the bullet ridden body of a very hairy man with claw like fingernails, “Do I know him?”

      “Peter Jones,” says Litmet, “I…think.”

      *Live once again*

        The bullet holes sizzle away. The fur vanishes like smoke, as do the claw like nails. He once again looks like a normal human.

    “wha…” says Peter looking around, “Oh shit.”

    He looks at Litmet and the others there, “I…those bastards shot me…I didn’t kill the general those…witches…that sorceress and
that cat bitch! And those ass holes shot me!”

    “A sorceress shot you?” asks Rick

    “No dumb ass,” says Peter, “the sorceress and that cat bitch, I…they must have killed the general, then the soldiers shot *eiah*”

    Rick grabs Peter by the throat, “Show respect for the king!” and tosses him to the ground.

    “Yeah, respect this!” Peter lunges at Rick, almost knocking him off his feet before Rick lifts him and tosses him across the floor towards the window.

    *Enough!*

   *wwoooosh!*

   The hot wind is almost unbearable for Peter as it spins through the room around them.

   Peter looks at his hands and glares at Litmet, “you…you did this didn’t you, I’m like Mike now aren’t I?”

   He stands and points at her, “First you say I am super-human, then I turn into a monster. You said you’d make me super-human but that sorceress said it was something that happens to all humans who go that world. Then I die, then I’m normal again. I bet I’m going to be doing that change back and forth none sense like Mike…now…”

   Peter looks around, “come to think of it I’d expect him with you people.”

   Rick is about to approach Peter when that mysterious force pulls him back, in fact they all suddenly find themselves dragged towards the window.

   “What the fuck is this?!” yells Peter towards Rick.

   “How would I know? You’re the one that fell out of the ceiling!”

   “What?!” yells back Peter.

   They all stop just before reaching the window.

   *Really? You brought that whole castle to Hell?*

   *I suppose that was a bit much, after all I only need Lily.”

    “Who is that?” asks Peter, “and…whose Li…”

   Everyone is surrounded by a red light. When it’s gone they find they are still in the castle, except that its one again over their Las Angeles, and Litmet is gone. Litmet now finds herself standing on a sandstone platform amongst the sand looking up at a sky scrapper sized woman wearing a red flowing dress…literally flowing like a river of crimson souls. Although at this angle its hard to see up past her large breasts, Litmet can tell she has hair the color of blood and a pair of odd shaped horns. The tan bone colored horns go backwards from her temples, stop before going past the back of her head and make a sharp turn back over themselves and past her forehead before coming to their points; giving an appearance similar to that of some demonic counterpart to a Roman laurel crown.

    Litmet and the sandstone pedestal she is standing on are levitated into the air, she now is floating many hundreds of feet from the face of this being; yet still with in its arm’s length. Its mouth moves, and the same hot wind encircles Litmet with that voice melting into her ears.

    *Welcome little warrior of darkness. I am the Queen of Hell.*