[Cortex] Into the Crimson Code [EN] | ходы игроков | The Quiet Enfield

  It was a long day for Margaret, as she landed in her chair before her PC. One look was enough to see a couple of hundreds of notifications and even the thought of getting through them was disgusting, as half of them were probably haters, and the other half had no meaning. She was too tired after catching another criminal. Had to run around a couple of quarters as that mobile motherfucker was pretty much not on board with an idea of rotting in a prison. In the end after some mostly legal beating he gave up, as the jail was a better alternative to poison injection…

  Fighting with her own desire to rest she put her hand on the mouse with closed eyes and felt… nothing. Then she started to fall…



  All the colors of rainbow were flashing around as she continued her fall. It looked like a black nothingness of space with some stars scattered around. With difference that the stars were much closer and if she tried she could’ve reached one… On the first glance. As she reached here hand towards the random purple sphere, it almost felt the intent and moved away, dodging the attempt. There was no time for the second touch, as Widowmaker was still falling down until she reached another sphere and then… Darkness. Until she felt that she hit the ground. The grass kindly prickled her back and her eyes slowly adjusted themselves to... whatever that was.

  She was lying on the edge of the road. There was a sign not far away, but eyes still resisted to the idea of being used. And it was quiet. Even cars didn’t ride past her. Only the cat was meowing in the distance. She had all the time she needed to acclimate to the new surroundings. Now even the sign was readable. It said “Enfield Golf Club”. The closest street sign was Uplands Way and the couple of cars was standing on the left side of the road. She didn’t see any people, but the place looked and felt like Britain…

  And then she heard a gunshot. Then another one. And then on the other side of street a massive white figure crossed the road, running on all fourth and then jumping on the roof of the house. It them went away from the golf club into the city. Widowmaker didn’t see police, but she heard it, as the cars turned on the signal, ruining this peaceful night for everybody in the miles radius…

  And Margaret still didn’t know what the hell happened to her. She was certain of only one thing: that beast was a werewolf… And probably the only way was to follow the white… not-rabbit. Still, chasing it through the streets wouldn’t have been easy and she could fail. But there is something in that werewolf. Something familiar? Something that she wants to see? Or is that just something about white and fluffy animals running around and making people follow them?

  New gunshots were heard, but now they didn’t stop and then there was a loud cry. It was closer and closer… And now she saw the whole police squadron shooting at the roof of the house where the werewolf was chewing on something, not even hiding from shots. In his mouth was someone’s arm and behind shooting policemen there was the whole pool of blood, where one poor guy was lying and crying as remains of his arm were being covered in bondages by his colleagues.

  The bullets just ricocheted from the skin of the beast, so it ignored them all. Meanwhile the police were panicking, as whatever they did was useless, so they just continued shooting…

What. The. Fuck???
Or should she say "what the bloody hell"?? Where is she?? She... she must be dreaming, right?? It must have been a dream, there is no other explanation! Except... telepathy... reality warping... teleportation... fuck, this should better be a dream!
And then Margaret saw the white beast, and her heart skipped a beat. Was it... could it be...??? No, it couldn't. Earl was dead, he died many years ago. Was that one of these dreams when she saw them together like nothing happened and then woke up realizing it was just a dream? Or is someone messing his her brain?? Well, in that case... THEY SHOULDN'T DO THAT, SHE WILL FIND THEM AND PLAY WITH THEIR HEART IN THE MOST MESSY WAY. Chaos, is this you, mortherfucker?! NOT! FUNNY! AT ALL!
Margaret looked at herself - she was still in her green superhero costume, and her metal claws were hanging on her belt. Or was she? She wasn't sure anything was real. But she was in her Widowmaker persona, so she started moving, getting close to the werewolf, trying to stay in the shadows and not attract the policemen attention. (Yeah, the policemen looked most definitely not American.)
Then she smelled blood and saw the torn off arm in the beast's mouth, and she felt anger building in her. This wasn't her Earl! He would never do this, especially to a public servant! This moron will pay for!... okay, calm down, Margaret, it was you who confused him with your last boyfriend. But he WILL pay for what he's actually done!
Okay, what's the plan? - she needed a plan! Quickly and silently, like a snake, she moved closer to the house, trying to approach it from behind - she didn't need to scare the "bobbies" even more. She was going to climb on the roof and ask some questions. And so she did - the crazy snake girl suddenly appeared behind the murderous werewolf and hissed loudly:
- FREEZE! - this was meant more to the policemen so they would stop shooting in her direction. - WHO. ARE. YOU?! - the gaze of her snake eyes were piercing the monster's very soul... the only thing they needed was some eye contact.

  Margaret's plan was quite easy to execute, as it was quite dark and police was too preoccupied with the main villain of the scene, who ended his meal and was slowly getting frustrated with all the shooting. So much, that he didn't even notice the snake closing in from behind. Only when here scent hit his nostrils, he quickly turned around. Looking down on the Widowmaker, he slowly assessed the situation, while listening to her shouts.

WHO. ARE. YOU?!

  "Lord," he answered and the parody of a smile touched his maw fool of sharp teeth. He didn't look her in the eyes, slowly researching her with his own... "And let me guess, you are a desser-r-rt?"

  The only thoughts Margaret was able to detect were miniscule: hunger, bloodlust, shame and terror. Nothing concrete, just the emotions and shadows of someone's mind. While she was searching through, the beast received another painful but ineffective shot in the back and growled. The eyes fixated on the hero.

  Now there was only bloodlust.

  Werewolf jumped on her, trying to reach with his sharp claws, while policemen from the bottom were guessing who was that beautiful woman, who tried to save them. Or something else, not like Margaret had time to jump in their brains and try to find some creative descriptions of her great assets.

But Widowmaker was ready - he anticipated the creature's maneuver before he stroke, and she gracefully dodged his attack, leaping into the air and landing on the roof behind the wolf. Now she was sure it was not that one werewolf she knew - it was nothing but a wild rabid beast, a monster she needed to put down.
"Lord?!" she taunted, sticking out her forked tongue. "With a capital L? You know what - I hate people with superiority complex! And I eat scum like YOU for breakfast!"
As she tensed, preparing for the creature's inevitable attack, her mind raced, trying to figure out a plan. This monster has regeneration, just like her, and she has no silver weapons, no means to actually harm it. Then... there was only one option.
"Hey, officer!" Widowmaker tried to reach one of the policemen mind with her telepathy. "No, time to explain, can you call for backup while I'm distracting this moron?! Someone with silver ammo?! PRETTY PLEASE?!"

  "Well, let's see who is prey here, you little shit!", he was angry now as his move went into nothing and his claws only left some heavy marks on the roof, destroying bunch of tiles. But it was too predictable, as Margaret just jumped away and found herself behind the target. She used this time to communicate with an officer. The policeman that stood out the most was a high and wide man with impressive facial hair. he didn't even flinch when an unknown woman in spandex casually dropped some words into his mind by telepathy. He even smiled and winked at her.

  "Aye-aye, mam," the officer with solid mustache said loudly, so that she can hear him, "We already called'im, he is close. Appreciate your'elp, we'll try to cover."

  As epically tashed bobby said that, the air was cut the sound of the shot. Widowmaker didn't see where that shot came from, but now she felt, that someone is watching them, like an unseen warden.

  "Or he is already here, mam..." corrected officer with undernose forest himself and then shouted at the closest underling, something about ambulance for Rodgers and shooting the beast. Just much more explicit.

  Meanwhile the white wolf was scared! Or at least looked scared as he stood back on four feet to decrease his profile, thus making himself a harder target. It wasn't supposed to work, but it was better than nothing. Still he wasn't going to go down easily, as he once again jumped forward, but now with a little bit of strategy. Now he wanted his opponent to dodge the same way and just continue his move on 180 degrees to catch her! Maybe he wasn't a good boy, but at least he wasn't a dumb boy!

"Ouch!" despite all the Widowmaker's nimbleness and the fact that she was reading the beast's mind, he nearly got her! - but she rolled on a tile roof, quickly getting back on her feet. And then she... made a leg move that would be more suitable in a strip club than in the midst of battle.
"So, you wanna eat me, huh?" she made sure the monster could see that body part of hers he could "eat" under the fabric of her costume. "Hey, my eyes are up here! Gotcha!" and after this distracting maneuver, she spat a glob of poison at the monster's face. He may be not susceptible to conventional weapons, but he must've had sensitive sensory organs!

  "Argh, you cat," growled the beast as poison started to drip down his face. He was rightfully distracted by her move, and nobody could blame him. Even the sniper was probably distracted, as he didn't shoot this time. Or he probably was just readjusting his aim. Or even recharging.

  The wolf meanwhile jumped forward once again, but this time he didn't aim for Viper, he aimed for the roof and with mighty hit he broke it and jumped down, hiding from the never ending barrage of shots... He then tries to Run, destroying all the furniture on his way! At least the hope that family isn't home was still alive, as there was no screaming... yet.

"Shit!" That wasn't what Widowmaker expected... and she could've turned the situation to worse, endangering innocent people! "Where are you going, COWARD?!" she called with both her voice and telepathy, as she dove into the hole, landing on the floor, and ran fast after the werewolf, leaping on him from behind, wrapping her legs and arms around his frame and driving her fangs into his furry (yuck!) flesh. "Come on, I'm only getting ssstarted wisss you!" she hissed angrily. The beast tried to shake her off, but she held tightly, guiding the werewolf to one of the large windows.

  It looked like the idea of Viper was right and this guy wasn't able to resist her... poison. He definitely looked weaker, and as such it was possible to take him down! Viper jumped on him and bit, injecting her poison inside poor wolf's veins.

  "Argh, fucking cat!" that was probably a racist slur or something, but who would even react to that? Baskerville hit the wall very little close to a window, destroying new wallpaper with his claws. The sound was very loud. So loud that somebody finally came to check... Viper's eyes blocked by fur didn't notice closing person. In the doorway to this guestroom was standing a lone woman in her thirties. She looked at the scene silently, as werewolf momentarily leaped forward, trying to close the distance to the woman...

"Cat?! I'm not a... Shit!" Widowmaker froze for a fraction of second when she saw the woman... except she didn't have such a luxury. "Not this way!" The solution came quickly - she drove her metal claws into the monster's face, yanking his head back - and spat some more venom right into his eyes. "RUN!!!" she called the woman telepathically.

  The werewolf growled as his face once again was melting with poison. He was able to regenerate but at some point the pain is too much even for him to handle, and so his leap ended with him slamming into the wall. Then he fell, on his way down he turned over the dresser and stopped moving.

  "Thank you..." the scared woman was able to say only this as she was still standing in the doorway, looking at Margaret, destroyed hall and an incapacitated werewolf on the ground. "Thank you."

  The beast on the ground was breathing heavily. Like a dog scared of the thunder. It wasn't reacting at standing women at all. And then slowly started to shrink. It looked familiar. The fur slowly revealed a naked skin with normal hair. The size decreased and it wasn't even that much higher than Margaret. Comparing to 2.5 meter beast it is. In the end on the ground was lying a man in his twenties. He looked like he was tired and he was shaking. Which wasn't surprising since he had no clothes on him at all and was lying on a naked floor. His long hair was touched by his werewolf's fur. And other that that he looked as normal as he could. He opened his eyes...

  "Oh no. No-no-no. What happened. I was in the prison. How?"

  He looked around and then rapidly jumped on his feet and run into a corner. He wasn't trying to escape as he sat there and screamed.

  "Don't come closer. It's dangerous. He is angry. I can feel it. I don't know how long he will be inside."

  And those were his genuine thoughts, as Margaret could tell. He was sincere, scared and using almost everything to cage the evergrowing rage and passion inside him... This guy was a mess.

  And then somebody knocked the door. The woman finally moved, but then looked at Viper with silent question in her eyes (and head). "Should I? Or better to leave it to you?"

"Oh, man..." for a second, Widowmaker felt guilt - this man looked pitiable, vulnerable, scared... absolutely unlike the raging savage beast he was a few seconds ago. But he was dangerous, and there was no other way than to put him down.
"Well, looks like my work here is done - it's time for me to leave the scene!" she grinned, stretching her body... and in a few leaps she climbed back onto the roof of the house through the hole. She didn't want to answer any questions from the local police... but she was still looking down through the hole, hiding on the roof, just in case the werewolf starts turning again... And she was thinking what to do next. She still didn't know what is real, was it not a dream, where is she at all, how did she get here and how to get back home.

  The poor woman also looked at ex-werewolf pitifully. He didn't look like he wanted to harm anybody, but... he did. And he should be happy that it was unlikely that the law would issue a death penalty. At least Margareet thought like that. Britain she knew had no executions for long time. Meanwhile the unknown pale woman came to the police officer and talked about something, while the police entered the house and shot the poor guy with a tranquilizer. The pale woman also entered, checked the wife in case she was bitten, put restraints on the "Lord" and saw through how he was escorted to the exit. Then she looked directly above her in the hole.

  "Hey! You on the roof!" Margaret heard her voice. Looking down she could see a pale woman better. She was in her late twenties. Her athletic build and white hair for sure would be enough for her to stand out from the crowd, but adding to that was an eyepatch crossing her face and covering her right eye. "Wanna explain yourself? Are you an indie?"

  That was an unknown word... Well the word itself was known to Widowmaker, but the context was definitely new. She never heard that word in use. Britain, am I right?

  "I know you are there. I've seen through the scope how you fought and then ran here when he broke the roof. Good job here..."

  "Hellsing!" known voice of an officer called the huntress from inside the house.

  "Officer Braum," she replied.

  "We weren't able to identify this sexy woman spitting venom in a spandex in the database."

  "You listening there?! They say you are not indie. I advise you not to run from the police... With your skills you should register and stop imitating Viper."

  "Is she there?"

  "I don't know, just guessing. Or maybe I am crazy and like talking to the roof. Will you fix it?"

  "Already placed a working order, couple of days in the queue, as demand is very high with an outbreak. You sure that lady isn't one of the convicts?"

  "She would be in the database then..."

  They were casually talking like they really didn't believe that Margaret would stay. Or this was just a psychological trick to make her look down...

Widowmaker moved silently behind the roof ridge, listening carefully - she realized she doesn't understand a thing, but wasn't sure whether to come out and surrender herself or not.
"Indie?" she called the white-haired woman telepathically. "Is this some British thing? I've got zero idea what are you talking about... and I'm NOT impersonating Viper, I AM Viper. If you wanna ask what am I doing so far away from home..." she stuttered, unsure whether to tell the truth or not.
"Alright, I'll be honest: I have NO IDEA how did I get here... except for a small guess... Could you please tell me where I am, actually?"

  "Wow, telepathy," thought white-haired to herself. "Then we can talk like that, nice. Indies is a solo vigilante who went through the registration. For example me... But not you or Viper. You can't be Viper, as he died a couple of days ago. I wish that was a prank."

  Her thoughts were kind of dry compared to how she talked. And she was confused. Widowmaker sensed that there was something off about her mind. But she clearly was used to telepathy for some reason. And easily continued to answer questions.

  "Enfield. Gladbeck Way, 200 or something. North London. Great Britain. Earth. Take whichever you need, hon. I hope you have an answer, because it's creepy and creepy stuff is my job."

  She audibly laughed and reached for the pocket taking one cigarette from there, while the officer was talking on the phone with somebody.

  "Yes, mam... Yes, we just encountered her fighting with werewolf... I mean she helped to restrain an escaped convict Baskerville... Yes, that's good... But that's a protocol. If she is a vigilante we shall take her to the court for unlicensed activity... If we won't any other decent policeman will do exactly that... I mean, we didn't stop here already... Alright, I'll call back the boys... What?.. What? Password?.. Wait what? What's happening there?.."

  The phone call ended and the little bit scared policeman walked back to the whole:

  "Miss, will you accompany me? It's not police staff, just my friend wants to see you because you, I quote `came from another universe`. Don't what that means but I can drop you there. Doubt you would want to wait for the transit..."

  "Officer, you are bad with women."

  "What?"

  "She had a mystery I wanted to know and you just dropped the truth like that. Too straightforward. But that's still fun, so let me also accompany you. Hon, with me around they won't take you, so it's safe." She was telling the truth. She had enough power to be above the police. Still not above the law, so. "Let me just take my rifle."

  And Hellsing took off, walking towards one of the closest buildings.

"Dead? Ah, look, I guess Viper is not a unique superhero name..." Margaret replied, unamused. "I was called Viper back in... the city where I'm from... and I'm not related to 'your' Viper."
What she heard next was bad... she somehow managed to be thrown off in the middle of the UK... UK of another universe, and she was going to be arrested for unlicensed superhero activity. No good deeds go unpunished, huh? Maybe it would be better to hide and silently crawl away... but she had no one to rely on in this strange universe.
Widowmaker crawled over the roof ridge to the edge of the roof, hiding no more. She needed eye contact... to look into the policeman's and the vigilante's eyes and to know whether she could trust them.
"I'm curiousss... what zze lawss of Her Majessty ssay about interdimenssional travelerss?" In her own world, Widowmaker heard... rumors... about Code Black supers - so dangerous in the eyes of the officials that their very existence was kept secret.

  "So convoluted... You don't look like Viper to me, so I'll call you Alice for now... Because you are in hell of a Wonderland."

  Hellsing thoroughly researched person standing before her. She was really interested. Mostly about the background. She wasn't even surprised by the news of different universes and all of that, just excited. It didn't show on her face though, she looked quite emotionless on the outside. She definitely had some questions, but she was a host today, so questions were her to answer...

  "His Majesty," corrected Hellsing, "But yes, government aren't the fans of such abilities, because they can't do anything about them. They even tried to build some kinds of `Anchors` but it didn't work. As you can see, you are here. And such is status-quo: laws are bad and we rely only on the forces of our vigilantes to keep an order. Is your universe also like that? Or maybe they made a better system like Soviets? Heard they are more pragmatic and count economical damage as the main contributor. Haven't checked it, but heard that MCR will steal it in a couple of years, because nobody gives a fuck about the current one. So, you are lucky that we are a mess, hon. Otherwise... coffin, coffin, graveyard, gay..."

  She still was containing her curiosity. Asked only one answer. Probably expected to have a long talk on the move, so she was quite casual: didn't lie at all and her frustration with the world was very clear.

Widowmaker frowned. "I have no idea what are you talking about... well, seems like I'm really not in Kansas anymore: you have a King instead of a Queen, Soviets still exist, and my alter from your dimension is... was a dude." She grimaced. "Widowmaker. You can call me Widowmaker. I stopped using my old name years ago anyway."
She looked at the werewolf hunter intently. She still thought that trusting her was dangerous... but trusting no one and trying to survive all alone in this strange new world would be extremely difficult.
"First things first, I AIN'T got no dimensional travel mumbo jumbo whatever powers... which means I'm stranded in your dimension with no means of getting back, yeah." She leapt down from the roof, landing on her feet and hands, then stood straight. "Guess I have no other choice... I have no friends in this world, so... could you be my friend?" She faked the friendliest smile she could... though her elongated fangs could ruin the impression.

  "That's better," for the first time Hellsing smiled, when heard the name. "Actually we also had a Queen, but some punk from another universe decided to make this world into his sick playground. Or something like that."

  She threw away the butt of a cigarette and reached for a handshake.

  "Helen. Helen Sinclair. Or Helsinc, if you prefer aliases. Let's go, while Braum is friendly and helpful."

                  

  The road was quite a long one. They basically had to get through the whole city of London. So GPS of the service car casually announced the time of one hour approximately and let their small adventure begin. Helsinc sat to the side of the driver, whose wide shoulders blocked the view. She tried to squeeze her head to look back but it was hard, so she looked at the officer with tired eyes and leaned on the window, trying to talk to Widowmaker, without turning her head back.

  "So, hon. You can ask me whatever. But nothing too intimate, or we will have to take transit," she smiled after a joke... Or it wasn't a joke, the huge officer clearly wasn't in the mood, even if he masked it with a friendly face. It was understandable, he was working a night shift, chasing werewolf, one of his subordinates got chewed on, the house needed a renovation and now he was asked to bring a stranger from another universe to a secret base of a dead hero. Quite a day.

The passenger was nervous. Super nervous. Super passenger was super nervous and super paranoid. She scanned the car interior several times for any possible traps like poisonous gas and other supervillain (or anti-super superagent) stuff, probed the air with her tongue repeatedly, tried making eye contact with the driver through the rearview mirror, and the fact she didn't see anything didn't convince her she's totally not in danger. But she gave Helsinc a crooked smile.
"Oh, boy, I have so many questions I don't even know where to start... First thing first: how did you find me? And how do you know I'm from another dimension? Like, dimensional travelers are not a rarity in your world? In mine, it's different... long story short, before I got here, I wasn't sure other dimensions exist at all."

  Either Helsinc didn't notice her new friend's nervousness, or just didn't pay it any attention. Not like she herself was comfortable, sitting in a front seat of a police car and watching night city before her.

  "Oh that's easy, it's an accident. I was called to hunt down the werewolf, you fought him. Or how they found you? That's a different question. Either some scientific bullshit or magic, I am not very knowledgeable on those matters, hon. But you are not the first. Remember what I told about Queen? Well, conspirologists believe that the bastard who killed her was not from this universe. And then there is also Merlin, but he is persona non-grata. Other than that... well we never before had a rain of sexy snake ladies, if you care."

  She wasn't lying about things she didn't know. But she wasn't very informative either. Partially because she actually didn't care about the truth behind those mysteries, even if she was glad to answer questions. Meanwhile using a pause to his advantage Officer Braum put his own five cents:

  "Pardon me, ladies. The one who called is a subordinate of a Prophet. He knows a lot of things, so he is probably the one who found a way to find you and others like you. Don't know how does it all connect, though..."

  "Thanks, Officer..."

  "Resolving misunderstandings is my job."

  "Well, you heard him, hon. My bet is that somebody purposefully snatched you from your world to ours. If you are not alone, as Officer says, than it's even more likely. Magic is a strange thing..."

  The last words were muttered with some deep understanding in them. But Helen's face as always was neutral, as she waited for reaction of Widowmaker. She could be a great poker player...

Widowmaker grimaced. "Whoever they were, they'd better have a good reason to snatch me from my world, or I'm gonna rearrange their face." She didn't say much afterwards, sitting silent at the backseat of the car.