Metalax Ch 04 Cherry Frosting

Chapter 4 - Cherry Frosting

A shower of deathly red crescents rains down on the filthy, wet, diseased streets of safe zone 42 of the Eukarion habitation cluster. Cyberbrutalist glass facades and metaclassicist pillars are showered in scarlet light. Overhead, an eclipse of the Red World blots out the distant light of the Sun. It's unremarkable in the distance, merely a dim, red crescent peeking through the cosmic archipelago of the Astrophalinx. But the light cast by the eclipse is a spectacle on the ground. Not exactly novel, but Jenny and Beth are thankful for the mild division of public attention as they wander the streets.

Window after window displays phoney hiring signs. The government requires these signs to disclose their authentic intentions in some form, which translates to chip reads and code scans to bring up a complex and technical explanation. No one wants to scan them in the first place, but the possibility of scanning a fake chip and downloading malware drives off any remaining people who would scan. Anyone with life experience can recognise a phoney ad.

Beth finds herself more and more conscious of the hand over her AK-24 Nasledie as she notices passersby leering at her. Sniffing the air as she draws near them. Growling howling scowling as they stamp and scuff the ground, wild looks in their eyes... Beth catches her mind wandering fearfully in response to the increasing number of leering men. Only having a man's memories, Beth finds herself appalled and humbled at the realisation of the fright endemic to her new living reality.

Jenny's hand swings near the QSZ-92 holstered on the leg that isn't restraining the massive penis. Without having figured out a solution to contain it, Jenny has resigned to the humiliation of the cock's fluids leaking onto her and her clothes. She is encouraged to find that no one seems to pay her any unusual attention.

Hours or minutes pass as Jenny and Beth follow the path. At eternal or instant long last, they find themselves reaching a buffer zone. This being a frontier, there is no border wall and flying fortresses are few and far between. Those living on the edge are well armed and put out whatever fortifications they can muster. Defunct, complacent, and substandard Astynomes respond to local unrest but otherwise, the denizens are on their own. The frontiers are wild, perilous places, but due to the perils, they are considered a land of opportunities.

Beth and Jenny stand at the buffer and look at each other, then out at the sprawling urban ruin ahead. Only death lies beyond the frontier. But where there is desperation, there is opportunity. The merit of taking risks is an engrained value of society in the Desmoterion. Life is about accepting. Accepting debt. Accepting loss. Accepting acquisitions. Accepting the opportunities that appear before one, and then accepting the profits. The more opportune, the more risky, the more profitable. It is this ideology that frequently leads to pacting with patrons and various other entities to try to barter the opportunity to rise to the top, or beyond the Desmoterion and gain eternal life, free of debt in Panorama.

Looking at each other, they realise they're already two dead people, living aberrant second lives. They find each other's hands and step in unison over the border and into the frontier. Everything is the same. And yet their hackles are raised, their hearts racing and fight or flight responses queued. Suddenly sheepish of the moment of intimate contact, they drop their hands. Nodding to one another, they take another step, and another. Moving toward...something.

They talk as they move along, in hushed and breathy tones. Hopeful of finding a village. Of finding a foothold. Anything. They didn't plan this and both agree to support each fearful other. Every rustle might be an ADR drone taken over by a semi-organic cell colony from the Astrophalinx. Every breath of wind could be a Nycterid's wingbeat. Every shuffling crunch may foretell an ambush by Ghosts. This is a deadly place.

The first creature they spot, or creatures, is a pack of feral cats. Their eyes flash in the dim, starry light. Their fur dark, spotted, and splotchy, like stars and mottled rubble. The cats stare dolefully, warily at them, scattering in a radius from their approach. This one has a thick speckling of splotchy greys with white spots. That one has faint grey stripes, the stripes themselves comprised of layers of black and grey. This one has grey and white patches like the VR depiction of a cow. That one has wiry, wolfy hair perpetually stuck out like quills. To the cats, they are all cats, and they quickly retreat into the drains.

"It's amazing, seeing wildlife irl and not just VR."

"Ya know, we could go camping. Out here. Like as a date or whatever."

"That sounds profoundly dangerous."

"Isn't that our existence now?

"Haven't lost your wit."

A moment of awkwardness passes between them.

"That was...you know...like that was okay right?"

"No worries. You don't need to be that sensitive. It's just your best friend Beth."

"Is that really what we are?"

"This is the furthest place from where to discuss that. Don't get me wrong, it seems like one of my core desires is to bend over and spread these cheeks. I have no memories to draw that feeling from. But I have to have the stability of friendship first right now."

"I understand. Can I be honest with you?"

"Yeah."

"I really miss Seth and I need to lean into him and hear him tell me I'll be okay."

"...I see."

"I'm sorry. Babe I'm hardly making it, everything about this is torture. I need to be held. To be close. And I know. I get it. But I still have needs and now it feels like I have so much less. Not to undervalue your friendship but I feel so alone. I need it. I need comfort. I-"

"Hey. Come here." The tone, the posture, it's so much like Seth, and in her grief, Jenny can even hear him in her voice. Hesitating for a moment, she leans down and rests her head on Beth's shoulder. Jenny groans softly at the relief of feeling the give and warmth of human contact.

"I l-"

"Shhhh shhh shhh. I've got you."

Jenny acquiesces and stands in silence, basking in the closeness. Beth wraps her arms around Jenny's larger frame and rubs, pats, comforts her. As if nothing changed. They stand in otherwise silence. Just being close. Not even as lovers, but a tender moment between loves.

"Hee hee hee."

"Hee hee hee."

"Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee!"

From one side and then the other, quickly apparent as circling them, yips and giggles interrupt the silence. Both women freeze and look around, hands on their drawn weapons. The laughter persists, heightening their growing apprehension.

Out of the darkness, a beastly creature darts. Six eyes, six snorting nostrils, a mane of quills, handlike talons, dual long, prehensile tails covered with rows of scales like razor blades. Glanoid. Not good. The Glanoid leaps forward, pawing at the ground with its claws, lashing around with its swordlike tails.

"What's the strat for dealing with Glanoids?"

"Get a hit off in the neck. Their hearts are situated high, and they have a high oxygen requirement. If you miss their spine, your round will still fragment and tear up the arteries."

"The neck is pretty thick and that looks like keratin plating. Where do I aim?"

"Two inches off the axis. There's a gap in their armour."

"Understood."

The two women line up their sights as the Glanoid darts back into the shadows with a yap.

And the yipping and laughing continues. Suddenly two more Glanoids peel from the shadows to dart in at them. Shots echo off the abandoned walls and rubble as Jenny and Beth open fire against the Glanoids, not waiting for them to land the first attack.

The bullets glance off the plating, but one of the rounds bursts against the Glanoid's armour on impact and several of the fragments penetrate the creature. With a yelp, it retreats to the shadows.

The yipping, clicking, chittering, laughing noises increase in volume and frequency. More Glanoids begin to dart inward, and as Jenny and Beth forge ahead in hopes of finding a stand, the circle begins to close in.

"Jennivere..."

"Beth..."

"I am starting to have second thoughts about crossing the border."

"Honestly, me too. I don't really want to be here anymore."

"Turn back?"

"Is uh, is that an option?"

The two women steal glances behind them. There are few gaps not quickly closed by circling Glanoids. Furthermore, being beyond the frontier, they're in unmapped territory with no clear route back but intuition.

"At this point anything is about equally an option."

"And what are we looking at, for the outcomes?"

"No cover behind us. Too far to make it to the border. If we continue ahead, possibly cover, possibly other advantage, maybe even allies...and...possibly something worse."

Right on cue, a zapping, creaking sound coincides with stripe after stripe, polygon after polygon wavering and decloaking. Skitter after skitter signals the halt of the Glanoids at the sudden appearance of the panther drone. The PNTR-06 biodrone is the ultimate predator of the creation of a long dead civilisation's military ingenuity. PNTR-06 are comprised of both organic and synthetic components, allowing them to consume organic matter and metabolise sunlight to gain energy and chemical resources to self repair. The onboard nuclear battery can be disabled by an EMP but the organic components are nonferrous.

The panther crouches in a looming stance, not yet preparing to pounce but showing off its prowess. Such behaviour has been evolved over the eons that the drones have been feral. Whether any of it was in their original programming, now they are territorial and demonstrative. As the women and the Glanoids watch in apprehension, the panther turns to its side, arches its metal spine, segmented like a chain, and raises its hackles. It then unleashes a simultaneously mechanical and animal but aberrant series of pitched screeches.

"Do we shoot?"

"No. We pray."

"..."

"This is why no one leaves the frontier."

"What do we do, really?"

"Wait for the Glanoids to act. They'll either try to flee or attack. Either way, let the panther kill its first one. Chaos breaks out. We make a break to the side."

"And we'll be out of its sights?"

"Honestly? We'll probably be in its sights for the rest of our lives."

"Because we're...or...you know...?"

"I get ya, but trust me Princess now is not the time."

"Call your best friend Princess often do ya Longstrider?"

"That would make a good call sign if we ever became Ghosts in a...you know, Ghost...gang..."

"Kind of weird that you've put thought into that, but I get it."

As their hushed conversation continues, it is suddenly interrupted as the Glanoids dart forward and coalesce into a pincer formation around the panther, yipping ferociously.

The panther rears on its hind legs and emits an ear shattering yowl. The first Glanoid flank wraps behind and the charge leader snaps at the panther's heels. The biodrone reacts with uncanny precision, spinning in an optimal but alien motion to face the attacker.

The panther brings down a mechanical talon on the morph, smashing its thick skull to bloody pieces as the predator's powerful body slumps in a deathly instant. The panther yowls again as a Glanoid leaps from the opposite flank onto its back, attempting to tear out its spine. The carbon panels on the beast's neck open and racks of tiny missiles arm and target. The missiles zip in a flurry of smoke and steam before impacting all the nearby Glanoids, including the one on the panther's back. The missiles explode on impact, tearing and burning into the Glanoids' tissue through the gaps in their armour.

The panther rears on its hind legs again, claws extending to full wingspan as it twists on the axis of its waist. The organs, muscles, bones, and nerves realign to follow the rotation, allowing the biodrone several charges of this twisting attack. With each swipe, the Glanoids yelp as the impact shatters their armour.

As the chaos of battle erupts, Jenny and Beth flee somewhere, anywhere else. They run, and run and run, until they cannot even hear the distant sounds of whining and whimpering Glanoids as they are torn apart by the feral panther drone.

Breathing hard but stifled to keep quiet, Beth and Jenny eye each other between deep sighs.

"I don't know where we are, do you?"

Jenny shakes her head.

"Okay. Honestly...we are probably going to die here."

"Seth had a very stupid and irritating mannerism where he would say something and it was genuinely not clear if he was joking or delivering upsetting news. And you know something Beth? Of the traits you incorporate from his memories, I don't think it's a good idea to make that one of them."

"Now who's doing all the talking." Beth speaks with a grin and twinkle, impish and cute but in a different way than when Seth would do this.

"Okay. Real talk then. We are lost. Our only bearings are a sky that it's not safe to clearly view. We haven't found any friendly life and we have found multiple predators. It is likely things only get worse from here. If we can't find help, we really are probably finished. No one knows we're out here. No one even knows we're still in the Desmoterion. Anyone who cares where we are thinks we're in Panorama."

"Why on earth did we do this?"

"Hey, it might not be so bad. We're armed. We have some light supplies. We know we can't be more than a few hours' distance from the frontier. We can surmise what the rest of the ecosystem is like based on the pack and alpha predators. If we can find a herd to hide amongst, we may be able to find resources."

"You're talking like a real Craig McGill right now, are we about to become urban waste commandos or something?"

"Joke, but I'm serious Jen. This is a potentially fatal survival scenario. We just escaped two forms of certain death."

"Understood. Sorry. I'm...kinda terrified."

"It'll be okay babe. We're gonna be Craig McGill."

"Um, my best friend is calling me babe?"

"I'd like to squeeze off at least one before we die, but ya know, babe is also kind of a normal thing for girl best friends to call each other, right?"

"Huh. I mean I guess, I just...I don't know, you kind of talk like a man sometimes. And you...you know, used to...well, not used to but you have the memories of a...I guess, I guess it's weird because you just sort of...became a woman, and now you're talking like a woman and I...I don't know. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"It's okay. Hey look, Jen it's okay. I get it, you're being considerate. I don't think there's like a trial period. I'm not Seth, I'm Beth and Beth is a woman and I want to talk like a woman. I understand your discomfort but I don't know what to do to alleviate it. I'm not going to regress into Seth, Jennivere. Not ever."

"I'm not asking you to nor thinking you would or even could. I'm so sorry I made you think that. You're right. I don't know what I expected. This is all so...different. I guess I wasn't prepared. Not even like I've never known people who've gone this way or whatever, I just... I don't know how to deal with it being us. You. Me. Us. Ugh. And I need Seth so much. I'm so sorry but I miss him and I need him!"

Beth takes hands off her AK to put them around Jenny as she leans against her to grieve. Jenny sobs quietly, stifling the volume but not frequency nor intensity of the tears. The two stand there for an eternity, letting grief and dread wash over them.

The air begins to groan and rumble and hum as whalesong rings out overhead. A pod of Astroketes floats past the boundaries of the magnetic field and begins to roll and bask in the aurora. Their astral song echoes from every surface and in every one of Jenny's and Beth's bones. It's remarkably like the recordings of whales of old, preserved in mystic archives.

After a moment of watching the spectacle, Jenny and Beth break for a high place where they can make a lookout under the protection of the Astroketes. Rarely do aerial predators try to compete with their presence in the skies.

Jenny and Beth stealthily but briskly march through the streets of the long abandoned urban jungle. Carefully they make their way through the broken glass of a shattered door front of a glass and concrete tower. The interior is desolate, filled with dust and debris and lit only by the flickering light of emergency lights whose nuclear batteries have kept them lit for untold eons of abandonment.

The lifts are all far too aged to be safe or operable. Stairs it is. Two flights up, Jenny and Beth stop in unison, their faces each reflecting great discomfort.

"The uh...sorry, I don't know about if 'friends' talk about this. Um. The straps on my uh, well my penis, are um. Not made for stairs."

"My...mm my body is not made for stairs...!"

Beth's eyes are watering profusely and her legs are bowed. Jenny is shaken from the fixation on her own discomfort to acute concern for Beth.

"What's going on, are you okay?"

"I am...

so

sensitive."

"Like your uh...?"

"Yeah. I am guessing it didn't feel like this for you."

"Sounds like not. What now?"

"We need to make it to the roof. We shouldn't split up, but between splitting up and getting a higher view, and staying on the ground, this way is better."

As Beth talks, Jenny gets a contemplative expression and then approaches Beth.

"Are you thinking-?"

"Yes. I've been feeling it ever since we... well, since being remade I guess. This strength. I can carry you."

"... Okay. I trust you."

Jenny begins to bring down her trousers, reluctant but determined.

"Wh what are you doing?"

"I'm sorry. I have to unstrap this. This is really awkward for me too. The chafing is unbearable."

"I get it. I uh, will try to keep my eyes on the horizon I guess."

"You keep eyes on your weapon and I'll keep eyes on mine. Heh."

Jenny holsters her sidearm and allows Beth to hop on board, carrying Beth much like Seth had once carried her. With an initial strain, they reach an effortful rhythm up flight after flight.

It soon becomes apparent that their proximity is having an effect on Jenny. As Beth's fluids soak through her clothes and Jenny both smells and touches Beth's secretions, she begins to move with more purpose and less effort. Grunting like a stallion, Jenny purposefully and powerfully carries Beth up the tower. As they continue, the continue effect is more pronounced. Jenny's muscles ripple and flex and spasm in response to the stimulus. Dutifully Beth tries to keep her eyes off it, but it also doesn't escape her attention that Jenny's penis is rippling with swollen veins and twitching and straining as if desperate to penetrate.

Beth is increasingly conscious of both of their fluids as the exertion carries them up on their perspiration, but Jenny is unperturbed. Seemingly unperturbed by anything, as she marches relentlessly up the stairs.

Glances in stairwell door windows on the way up permit Beth a view of dismal, frightful mazes of partitions, tables, strange objects and devices. Who knows what old world this building existed in, and what purpose it served.

At long last, Jenny arrives at the final step and onto the level that has become the roof. The true topmost level was blown off long ago, leaving however many levels beneath to become a morose new eyrie. Beth hops down and investigates the edge. From here it is possible to see the border of the frontier! Beth's excitement quickly shifts. From here it is possible to see on the distant horizon, the safe zone has been breached. A deep scour of fire divides the landscape, raging infernally. Efforts to put it out are unsuccessful. Phosphorus flame.