Soft footsteps could be heard, accompanied by the crunching of gravel on the ground. The figure walking seemed to be doing so carelessly and deliberately to provoke the sound, even stepping loudly in a provocative manner.
The Tuskville Obelisk was visible in the distance, and the snorting sound of that figure before it stopped walking. The sound of inhaling and exhaling could be heard, along with a rather soft female voice.
"How I love the smell of human blood in the morning," the figure began to laugh, and at this point, it was a good thing that no one was around.
No one was supposed to hear this unusual laughter.
The one who laughed was a woman who could be described as a ravishing beauty. With a long black dress, red eyes, and long hair with the same color as her clothes.
Her laughter seemed to attract some small animals who gathered around her and stared at her, all in awe of her beauty, only the woman was in their eyes.
"But I smell Operators," the woman stopped laughing at once, such a sudden and unnatural movement only showing a little more of her inhuman nature.
"No, doesn't your presence make the situation more interesting? Especially since I felt my Lady here," the beautiful woman muttered before walking away again, this time followed by the contingent of animals.
Birds, rodents, insects, all in harmony behind her, as if she were some kind of mother duck with her young behind her. Although some people noticed the strangeness of this situation in the city, no one paid any attention to it.
Because the woman was too beautiful to be strange, wasn't she? That's what everyone thought when they saw her. No matter if they were men, women, or old people, no one could resist the deep charm of her appearance and figure.
Only children seemed to be immune to her influence, but she did not stop at them, nor at the people who were enchanted by her charm. She had a clear purpose, to amuse herself.
Soon she saw the huge metal machine on rails: a Steam Train. It was quite impressive what humans could create with technology.
The train in front of the woman was just a small sample, and as she looked up, her eyes caught a glimpse of a large metal airship, spewing white smoke as it soared through the clouds.
"I'm always impressed by what blood bags can do. But they're boring," the woman shook her head before walking toward one of the entrances to the interior of the train, but an arm stopped her.
"Did you buy a ticket?" asked a middle-aged man in a dark uniform with a baton in his hand.
"Ticket? What's that?" the woman asked, blinking several times to increase her charm, but the man simply ignored her and continued his work.
"Ah, don't you know how a train ride works? First you buy a ticket to wherever this train is going, then you come here, I see it, and I show you where to go," the man was sympathetic, explaining to the woman how to make the purchase and even pointing out where the tickets were sold.
"How could he not feel anything?" the woman muttered as she dutifully went to the line to buy a ticket.
"This is getting more interesting," the woman finally said, before finally buying, well, getting a ticket.
For she had no money and used her charm to get the clerk to give her a ticket. The woman's eyes glowed red for a moment as she received the time-wasting piece of paper.
However, while she was waiting, she could hear what the other people around her were discussing, which made her red eyes glow more and more with interest and even gave her some ideas.
"Did you hear about what happened to Hansen family? They say the husband of the family died early this morning and .... it seems the widow was hospitalized after attempting suicide," one woman muttered to another, and though they tried to keep their voices down, the people around them could hear them clearly.
"I know it was because of what happened in the ruins that I woke up scared that day when I heard so many gunshots. What could have happened there? It seems that UNMSO has a lot to do with it," the other woman replied with fear in her voice.
"If it has something to do with UNMSO, it must be something terrible. These people are like crows, where they appear, something bad happens," said the first woman with a bad expression on her face, but an older man who was standing nearby spoke up.
"Shut up, you gossipy woman, do you know what the UNMSO have to do for us? Officers died, but here you are, making light of their deaths. Do you know that if they didn't die, we would?
My daughter Sophia was one of those officers...but I know that because of her I am still here, and in her honor I will travel by train as she would have wanted," said the man, his eyes red from the tears he tried to hold back, without much success, but he paid for his ticket before leaving.
The murmuring women stopped at that moment, passing the strange and beautiful woman with crimson eyes, who watched the situation with great curiosity.
A smile appeared on her full, black-painted lips, revealing two small, elongated fangs that stuck out quite far. Her loose hair seemed to flutter without the influence of the wind, and several strange ideas appeared in her head.
"I'm going to enjoy this trip," the woman whispered before walking back to the train, this time being able to enter it.
...
"So, you want me to draw power lines for this thing?" asked Jack, reading several blank sheets of paper Alexis had handed him, focusing on the details written on what appeared to be parts for a weapon.
"Yeah, I want to start with the basics, I don't want this gun to explode in my hand. And if it does, I don't want to get hurt," Alexis replied as he adjusted his glasses.
"Hmm, Alexis, is this piece what I think it is?" asked Lisa, her purple eyes glowing as she pointed to an intricate design on the sheets of paper Jack was holding.
"I knew you'd see it, I was inspired by the Pneuma Cannon, it's just a low quality replica, but it's what the weapon I have in mind needs," Alexis explained with excitement in his eyes.
"These gun nuts," Irina sighed, twirling a dagger between her fingers with much boredom, and next to her sat Laria, gently shaking a bottle before stowing it in the pouch at her waist.
"Better that than vices," Laria replied in her usual cool tone, though her voice was unusually deep and somewhat raspy, a detail that made Irina smile mischievously.
"Laria~ Would you like a mint for your throat?" Irina asked in a mocking tone, but Laria just stared at her with her gray eyes.
Though Irina had a smile on her face at first, it slowly disappeared from her face before she looked away with a bit of embarrassment and awkwardness.
Irina cursed herself, how could she provoke Laria like that? She could already feel it, the next time she hurt herself, she would probably suffer even more during the recovery.
The woman touched the bandages on her arms, although she hadn't needed them since yesterday, she still felt a little soreness in her muscles, and the minty warmth the bandages gave her was the work of her friend Laria, that's why she still had them on.
The team was in a small cabin, 'First Class' as the promotional brochures said. It was well furnished for such a small place, with three pairs of seats and a small table with a bowl of fresh fruit, the number of which was dwindling due to the other members.
While Jack, Lisa and Alexis were discussing the design of this strange weapon, Laria had finally finished a potion she had made in a hurry, that's why she was shaking a flask in such an inconvenient place.
But instead of drinking it, she just listened to that little voice in her head about 'letting the aftermath heal itself', only to further etch the impression of her memories of the night before.
A smile appeared on her face, but it disappeared before any of her friends could notice it. Then everyone's attention was drawn to a strange rustling sound produced by a black-colored object on top of the cabin door frame.
"Attention, all passengers!" the object said, somewhat garbled, but the voice was clear enough for everyone to understand.
"I am one of the stewards of this train! We are taking the last steps before we begin our journey. This is one of the trains that travel throughout the Rosicrucian Federation.
We now announce that we will be arriving at our first stop in 6 hours, and we hope you will enjoy the ride and the beautiful sights you will see along the way.
The dining car will be open for you at all times, and food carts will be available in all cars at all times. We hope you enjoy your stay on our train.
Have a nice trip," the voice ended with a crackle, and then a soft melody began to play from the dark object.
"I like this song," Lisa said suddenly, shaking her body gently to the melody.
"Too popular for my taste," Alexis complained, sighing in annoyance as he watched Lisa and Jack begin to sing the words of the song he found annoying.
"Come on, Alexis, join in," Lisa took the redhead's hand before leading him in the dance, though Alexis resisted a bit, eventually letting go.
Jack, for his part, approached Laria and showed her his hand in an inviting gesture, while raising one of his eyebrows. His girlfriend saw the gesture and stopped, looking at him coldly for a few seconds before taking his hand.
So they all danced together and let themselves be carried away by the good music. Although the space was small, they were able to have a good time, laughing and having fun. Only when the upbeat song changed to a much slower and quieter melody did they stop.
"Ah, I know what we should do when we finish this mission. We should go to one of those dance halls," Jack said, suggesting such an idea.
"A Dance Hall? Sign me up," Irina exclaimed, excited by the idea, she really liked moving her body to the sound of music.
"Okay, noted," Jack made a wooing gesture with his finger as he smiled.
"This mission is easier, it's just a Mimic," Lisa said, snapping her fingers one by one with extreme care, a habit of hers that she repeated from time to time.
"Yes, apparently it hasn't caused any deaths yet, but it has left one man very scared. Imagine finding out in a night of passion that your wife isn't your wife," Alexis said before pulling out the twentieth edition of the book 'Record of Anomalies, Oddities and Contamination Zones' and quickly getting to the section on Mimics.
"Mimic, a creature of humanoid appearance but indeterminate features with a slight ability to use Pneuma. Its body possesses an abnormal consistency and malleability in its indeterminacy.
Its pneuma allows it to 'copy' the appearance of a living organism, allowing its body to transform into the being it has copied, achieving an almost exact replica except for certain key details that it cannot emulate.
A Mimic cannot emulate tattoos, piercings, or metal prostheses, but it can accurately replicate the voice, autonomic reflexes, and even some of the personality or attitude of what it has copied.
It can also modify its limbs for warfare purposes, though this depends on the creatures it has previously copied. If a Mimic copies a bear, it might replicate its mouth or claws, even if it copied a human some time later.
It is known that it can learn much from the being it has mimicked, if it manages to 'ingest' it directly. Mimics are stability-seeking creatures, but their anthropophagous habits when they choose to mimic humans have made them an enemy of humanity.
UNMSO members are warned that should they find themselves fighting a Mimic, they must find a way to raise the creature's temperature, thus preventing it from modifying its body to mimic other figures or for warlike purposes," Alexis closed the book before looking at his companions.
"This will be what, the fourth Mimic we will hunt?" asked Lisa, and Laria was the one who answered her.
"Yes, it's the fourth. The first one almost slit Jack's throat by attacking him with eagle talons. The second tried to save itself by appealing to Alexis' compassion by transforming into a little girl. The third... turned into a rat and tried to escape through the sewers, but the Slimes stopped it before Irina stepped on it to its death," Laria said, recounting the three times they fought the Mimics.
"The Slimes saved me that time," Irina said before sighing.
"Slimes are cute," Lisa said suddenly, attracting the attention of her companions, who looked at her strangely.
"They're just translucent slime that literally eats garbage and shit, how can they be cute?" asked Jack with a frown, as if he could smell something ugly in the air.
"I don't mean their weird habits! But they look funny when they jump up to move," Lisa defended herself, and even looked in her suitcase, pulling out a small stuffed animal.
In the girl's hand was a rather strange cloth toy, it had no fixed shape except for two black dots and a bow that simulated a smiley face. This stuffed animal was green, and Lisa squeezed it, causing it figure to change its shape severely as it let out a high squeak.
"I don't want to know why you have that," Jack replied quizzically, while Laria and Alexis laughed at the surreal situation.
"I still don't understand what the Federation did to convince the Slimes to live in the sewers. Aren't they oddities, too?" after the chuckle, Irina asked herself this question, but it was obvious.
Whatever the answer was, only the top brass of the nation knew.
"I don't know, but it's good that there are oddities that are not very harmful to humans, isn't it? They're really few and far between," Laria said in response, causing the topic to drift a bit.
"They're not intelligent, I'm talking about the Slimes. But while there are other species like the Reptilians or the Bienen, only those two are classified as 'People', and the oddities that show some intelligence are just that, damn oddities," Jack said before sitting down again, spell book in hand.
"Because for Reptilians and Bienen, we have a record of their existence even in the distant past. Whereas the oddities, however intelligent or wise they may be, are different in nature.
These races aren't rejected by this world, even if the Reptilians are somewhat wild and even have animosity against us and the Bienen, the world does not reject them. By the way, would you like some bee honey?" offered Lisa, before patting her stomach in a gesture of hunger.
"Bienen are really nice, even if they look like Giant Bees. It will always seem strange to me that they sell this product, but I appreciate it because it's really delicious and I couldn't imagine some cakes or ice cream without this honey," said Irina, approaching Lisa with the intention of getting some bee honey that they would surely sell on the train.
"Bring me a jar, please," said Alexis, who had been sitting on one of the seats in the cabin, holding the inaccurate toy that predicted the weather, the one with the rare color photograph inside.
"We'll bring you all, I don't want to be taken from my glass," Lisa said before leaving the cabin with Irina.
When they got off, the conductor announced the beginning of the train ride by sounding the train's horn in the classic way, along with the sound of the large vehicle running that could be heard faintly in the cars.
Choo! Choo! Chuck! Chuck! Chuck! Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!
On the way, the two girls passed a beautiful woman with red eyes and black hair, but except for a curious look, they showed no change and even started talking to each other about makeup as they walked away from the woman.
As they passed from one carriage to the other, Lisa and Irina stopped and stared at each other in silence before looking back to see how the woman was looking at them, but the way she was doing it was particularly eerie.
Her head turned 180 degrees, her body still facing forward, and her face was now facing her back, a broad smile on her inhumanly beautiful lips Her prominent fangs dropped a few drops of blood to the ground.
"Looks like you noticed, little prey," the woman said before jumping up, her body twisting to accommodate her head.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Snap!
Her neck thundered several times as she shook her head, as if to rearrange her bones. The woman flexed her legs and a familiar pulse of energy surged from her body, distorting the air and emitting a rather annoying shriek.
Scree! Scree! Scree!
Pneuma, but it stained the air with an ominous purple hue that soon clung to her skin. Fortunately, there was no one in the corridors of these wagons, as they were the domain of the rich, but the blood spurting from under the doors indicated the tragic fate of some poor victim.
"Damn, what's that doing here?" asked Irina as her heart pounded, sending this invisible energy pulse through her body before an invisible oriental sword appeared in her hands.
Ommmmm!
On the other hand, Lisa quickly drew a pistol as some points in the air around her distorted, pneuma balls spinning around her, waiting for Lisa's command.
Fuom! Fuom! Fuom! Fuom!
"This technique is incomplete, but without it, I won't have much of a chance against that damn thing," Lisa complained, her mind racing at this tense moment.
She had reason to be tense, because the woman in front of her and Irina was one of those intelligent creatures that were not considered a 'Person', a highly intelligent oddity with a code name worthy of a fantasy story.
A Vampiress.