Lastland AU: Cybersteam

Masquerade Brawl

"Hmph!" Storm crossed her arms and looked away. Iris sat on a glass guardrail. At night, the edges would glow neon, yellow arrows pointed in the direction of the road. In the daytime, only the arrow was visible. The dynamic duo waited outside the local Mach vehicle hub and were waiting on a representative to help them test-run some of the various hover vehicles on display, some for rent and some for purchase. There were skates, boards, bikes, cars, just about anything shy of a bus or train.

"Come on, Storm, it's a practical thing!" Iris pleaded, grinning. "You said so yourself that technology in the Cyberpunk region is better!"

"And you said so yourself that "modern" isn't always "better". I didn't even say "better" anyway. I said "modern"."

Iris sighed and shook her head, but they were already at Mach, so she was getting her new wheels either way. The smile on her face got wider. As much of a pragmatic decision as it was, the truth was that Iris was dying to taste the G-force of a hover car down an abandoned cyberpunk road.

"I did not wish to waste another day in another town," Storm muttered. Regardless of the superiority of cyberpunk technology, they wouldn't find it here. The City of Glass wasn't one of the larger cities in the region, brought down by a slow-rot of corruption over the years. It was a good place for a pit stop, but no more than that. Again, she questioned fate for sending Iris to her, such a physically weak patron despite her morbid connections to the afterlife and underworld.

"This isn't a waste! This is preparation!" Iris sighed. I swear! You mortal heroes are all the same! You think you can just rush off at the first sign of danger without taking stock first! And you call ME the audacious one! I may be a little naiver to life, but even I know that!

Maybe Storm thought Iris was the immature one in need of protection, but in Iris' opinion, it was the inverse. Iris' steampunk body may have been more fragile than Storm's, but Iris was already upgrading to replacing the robot parts with human ones. As a ghost, bodies were like houses to her, rather than extensions of her. Likewise, even though she was smaller than Storm, that didn't automatically make Storm immortal or invincible.

I may have never raised children, but I wonder if this is what it would be like! Iris thought with a dry smirk as her eyes—one human and one cybernetic, both purple—stayed fixated on Storm. Eventually, she conceded to at least inspect the hover vehicles in the front lot of Mach.

"STORM!"

"What the—?!" Storm only had enough time to look over her shoulder before something slammed into her stomach and sent her flying backward. "Midflight", though, she felt something grab her and pull her to the side. Next thing she knew, she was standing beside Iris' body again.

"What was that?!" Storm demanded the moment she was on her feet again.

"Ghost powers!" Iris' body gave a laugh as her purple eyes lit up again, Iris' "ghost" inhabiting the metal frame once more.

"No, not you! That!" Storm and Iris looked up. Leering down at them from atop the glowing logo of the Mach vehicle hub was a tall, thin, shadowy figure. It lunged at them suddenly, landing gracefully on the pavement across the lot from them, clad in dark red and black.

Storm and Iris both recognized her. "Masquerade!" She was a vampire countess—or so she claimed—that both of them had run into on separate occasions in the past. She was chaos in its purest sense, friend and foe, switching at seemingly random intervals. Tonight, though, it was clear that she would be an enemy. Always was she self-preserving, never was she predictable.

"Ah! You two simply cannot get enough of me, can you?" she taunted gaily, nose in the air. "Do you wish to dance? I do so love a good Masquerade Brawl!" She recognized them too. She hailed from the Steampunk region, but she'd traveled all over the realm. Ever opportunistic, the City of Glass was just another cog in the machine for her, another way to keep her well-oiled machine moving.

The city was named for the glass building at its heart, a hall of justice that since had become the opposite, criminals and corruption from right beneath the city rotting it from the ground up. Already, Masquerade had a pack of powerful new friends, unsavory allies, that she was in the process of aiding in a smuggling operation. That was why she was so quick to attack tonight, when she usually preferred diplomacy and defense.

"We've got a big shipment coming, and I refuse to let you interfere!" The vampire countess hissed, lunging again. It was a dark irony that Masquerade was so quick to jump onto the offensive that she wound up being her own worst enemy. Despite her initial fears, neither Iris nor Storm was there for her. But because she misunderstood and assumed they were tracking her down for some old debt she probably did owe them, she alerted them to the smuggling operation by being the first to bring it up. Had she chosen diplomacy or defense, she might've gotten away without a fight, and Iris and Storm would've never known about the shipment.

In one swift, fluid motion, the vampire lunged, right hand outstretched, morphing into a steampunk canon, cylindrical and metallic.

"Woah!" Iris leapt one way while Storm leapt the other as Masquerade fired her first volley of explosive bullets. They struck the Mach building.

Jeez! She's NEVER like this! Iris thought, looking over her shoulder. It was the first clue that perhaps there was more adventure closer by than Iris or Storm first realized. There was no time to hypothesize, though. Masquerade was loading the chamber for her next shot.

When Iris and Storm split, running in opposite directions, Storm intentionally ran slower than Iris, hoping it would draw Masquerade to her.

I'm the fighter between the two of us, after all! she thought confidently, reaching over her shoulder and behind her back. Strapped to it was an axe that glowed with power, alternating between gold and blue, Storm's hair and eyes. It hummed as Storm activated it and swung. Let's go, Labrys!

When Iris looked over her shoulder and realized what Storm had done, she smirked. Silly woman! She keeps forgetting I'M not the one in need of protection... Iris left her body again, resting it in a safe, hidden place, in a bush near the from of the vehicle hub, then her essence rose into the sky and hovered after Masquerade. A vampire and a ghost, how funny.

"What the—?!" Masquerade hissed as she felt something dark chill her insides. She clutched her heart and turned around slowly, seething. She saw a black wisp levitating before her, dark purple wisps occasionally rising from the top of the black. Masquerade hissed again, baring her fangs as she surged forward at Iris, also morphing into shadow. Storm could only watch helplessly from the parking lot below as Masquerade and Iris spiraled away into the night sky. By the time Iris returned, Masquerade was gone, but Iris still had a trace of her.

Hmm... Remind me not to underestimate her in combat anymore, Storm thought, begrudging but genuinely impressed.

"Wanna go on a side quest? If we pick up a vehicle, we can reach the docks in no time!" The moment Iris returned to her body, part of the Mach vehicle hub sign finally broke from the wire it was hanging from, crashing into the street below, some of the debris flying and striking the hovercrafts closest to the sign. Iris and Storm both flinched. "I'm going to guess they won't give us any discounts... Then again, it was technically Masquerade's fault, not ours!"

AN: This chapter is my lesbian vampire OC (yes Carmilla inspired) "Countess Katarina Bathory" (fake name), updated for the Cybersteam-verse.