At first, no one responded to Alison's demand. She hissed again, fangs fully extended and visible, glinting in the moonlight. Though she was a rather quiet, withdrawn, demure and reserved girl who did not like unnecessary death, violence or destruction, Alison did still enjoy a good battle every now and then. And she was really good at it too! Alongside being a princess, Alison was also a very fierce, fearsome warrior. She had never once lost a battle, and all of the vampire court could attest to it. They all knew that, although she erred on the side of pacifism, she wouldn't hesitate to fight, or even kill, if push came to shove.
And tonight, as unhappy with life as she was, Alison did not plan on going down without a serious fight. She would defend herself to the very last breath, and it would not be her last breath either, so whoever it was, out there in the shadows, it would be in their best interest to beware. Alison was still a very prideful creature at heart and she was more than ready to attack. She deepened her fighting stance, still on high alert.
"Come on!" she whispered to her unseen attacker. "Hit me with your best shot! You won't escape the night if you think you can defeat me!"
But for another few seconds, only silence reigned in the air. Alison finally lost patience. Even if this stranger meant no harm, Alison still knew it was there, so the least it could do would be to answer her fairly and make its presence known instead of hiding out in the shadows like some assassin. The vampire tried one last time to call out to her invisible company.
"Who goes there?!" she repeated. "Come out and show yourself! Reveal yourself! For I am not afraid of you, and if you had any sense of honor or courage, you would come out to fight me, face to face!" her desire for battle began to rise up in her chest with every word out of her fanged mouth. She tossed her head almost boastfully. "As the princess of the vampires, I command you to-" but before she could finish, someone finally replied.
"Whoa! A princess? Really? Cool! And a vampire princess at that!" she heard the voice laugh, but it was not mocking, scoffing or disbelieving. Instead, it sounded delighted and amazed. Alison was so shocked by such a jovial and unbothered response that, just for a second, her composure slipped. Who the heck was this? The strange voice sounded like it belonged to a young woman, even younger than Alison herself (or rather, younger than what she appeared to be. Doing the math, Alison should've been a very old lady at this point, but she still looked like someone only in their early 20s). This voice sounded even younger than that, but strangest of all, to Alison, was how unafraid the voice sounded. Despite Alison's best attempt at intimidation and dominance, the voice sounded more amazed and interested than anything else.
"I didn't even know they had monarchies! How cool!" the strange voice continued, still sounding quite delighted, but at last, such an interested remark finally managed to rouse Alison from her surprised, confused stupor. Although the voice had not meant this statement to be one of disrespect, Alison still took it as such. To her, this remark implied that the person believed that vampires were either too stupid or too savage to ever have the capability of banding together and forming an organized unit. Naturally, this wounded Alison's ego and she responded accordingly.
"Of course they do, you ignorant little peasant!" she snapped. "In fact, we possess a very elaborate and intricate form of government! It is a fully functioning society! A carefully organized hierarchy! Do you think vampires are only just a bunch of mindless, man-eating monsters?! No! Of course not! We are a highly skilled and sophisticated, intellectual species! Far beyond that of a common mortal human!"
Alison's sense of vampiric pride, though she did not have much, was shining through and bleeding into a bit of a superiority complex against other humans as she continued to lecture this stranger for the rather careless remark. Maybe Alison didn't enjoy being a vampire and maybe she didn't enjoy being a part of King Dorian's court, but even she respected vampire law enough to have developed some sense of arrogance over the years regarding her heightened physical and mental abilities. She was far stronger, smarter and faster than any human would ever be, didn't that warrant some level of respect? Or were all humans so daft that they believed the rumors of vampires being too savage to ever create their own functioning society!? Ha! What fools!
"Oh, no, no! Of course not!" the voice replied, sounding genuinely upset now. "Forgive me! I never meant to offend you, your highness! And I swear to you that I never meant to imply that your kind was in any way stupid or inferior! Not at all! Never! It's just that, well, I have never met a vampire before..." the awe slowly returned to the voice's tone after a surprisingly sincere apology.
"And you are an even bigger fool than I thought if you really are so happy about meeting one now," Alison snorted, battle stance slowly loosening up as her subconscious realized that this person was no threat to her. Someone this naive and childish couldn't possibly hurt her!
"Well, it's just that I've been cooped up in my boss' torture chamber for so long that I'm pretty sure I've forgotten what real people look like!" the voice snorted in response to Alison's harsh remark.
"Torture chamber?" without meaning to, a growl entered Alison's voice. Hmmm, maybe not as naive as she thought...
"Now, now, now, I didn't mean that literally!" the voice interrupted Alison's thoughts. "But it is sweet of you to worry," it added a moment later. In that instant, two questions came to Alison's mind. The first one wondered what the voice meant if the torture chamber was not a literal one. The second demand to know if the voice was so sure that she was "sweet". It wasn't exactly an adjective Alison ever thought would be, or even could be, used to describe her. And she was pretty sure no one else that she knew, living or undead, mortal or vampire, monster or human, would've ever used that word to describe her either. Yet here this voice was, so genuinely claiming that she was caring just because she'd asked a question about the "torture chamber" and had mistaken the question to be one of concern on Alison's part. Alison could almost laugh, when such a word didn't honestly give her pause...
"Yeah, it's just his little robotics workshop," the voice continued when Alison failed to say anything. "He's a mechanic, after all, a designer and engineer! He works in the art of machinery and building. And I'm his assistant. I've been so ever since I was about 15!" the voice paused, sounding quite pleased, but then a somber air returned to the conversation. "Cool as it may sound, however, my boss has suddenly gotten into something of a robot craze. That is, for the past few months, his entire life has revolved around trying to make robots! And that isn't anywhere near as cool as it sounds! Or, well, I mean, for the first little while it was, but now? Well, of late, it's become kind of creepy. Our whole store looks like a morgue right now, what with all the bodies and body parts... all fake of course! But they're just kind of... strewn about. Everywhere. Bodyless heads, headless bodies, scattered limbs, wires sticking out of empty eye sockets..." Alison heard the voice pause to shudder. "It kind of looks like a torture chamber and, honestly, almost feels like one at times too. It may all be fake, but it's not easy to spend all your life living around, and working with, nothing but body parts. And it really doesn't help if the only other living, breathing thing there is your cranky old boss..."
As the voice finally finished telling the story to Alison, Alison thought she could hear a note of despair within the voice and she suddenly felt a strange rush of... something, bubbling up inside of her. It was a strange feeling that she lacked a name for. All she knew was that this story made her feel just as trapped and lonely as the voice had been even though Alison, herself, had never even seen this workshop at all.
"And I'm guessing that's why you came here, then?" the vampire asked to fill the unhappy silence between her and the voice. "To get away from it all? And him? Your boss?" her voice was unexpectedly gentle, especially compared to earlier when she had been hissing threats and insults.
"Yeah," the voice replied. "I snuck out for a change of scenery. Could only do it at night, though, 'cause I know he won't be too happy to know I'm here instead of back home and resting up for another day of work tomorrow. Still couldn't help myself, though. I had to come out and see something else, just once, before I go back. Had to see something else that was alive, at least once..."
"And what will your boss do when he finds out that you are gone?" Alison almost found herself growing angry at this cruel old man for keeping whoever this was locked away for so long and she began to feel that all-too-familiar vampiric venom building up in the back of her throat and slowly coating her fangs, a clear sign of hunger... of thirst. She wanted to know, what exactly would this man do? And would it be enough to warrant a death?... Hold on a minute! Since when did Alison condone senseless killing? She was not like the other vampires! Killing just because she disliked someone was definitely not her style! And why was she suddenly so interested in the life of this stranger and what the boss might do to said stranger? Why was Alison suddenly so... caring?
"Nothing much. Just complain. Like always. Cranky old grandpa!" the voice snickered, seeming unbothered enough. Alison felt a strange wave of relief wash over her despite how conflicted she felt regarding her own feelings for this stranger. Good. At least the stranger would not be harmed for coming outside. "But even if he would, which I know he won't because he needs me too much even if he won't admit it, I would still come out anyway. It's far too lonely and cramped in that lab for me to be happy there for too long. I don't know how he does it, going so long without seeing a single other living being! Aside from me, of course," the voice added.
"Well, I hate to tell you this, but, I'm not exactly alive myself," Alison couldn't help but deadpan, but it earned a genuine laugh in reply. Alison was surprised at the second wave of relief she felt from receiving such a positive reaction.
"Perhaps that is so, but you are still a very nice change of pace from what I am used to seeing. You are no robot, and that is good enough!" the voice was still laughing a little, clearly amused by Alison's sense of dry wit.
"Good enough? I might take personal offense to such an insipid remark!" Alison continued in the same sarcastic humor she'd used before.
"Ah, forgive me, your majesty!" the voice snickered, and Alison could almost imagine the stranger bowing playfully to her, even though she still could not see anyone...
"Who are you, please?" as Alison remembered that she still had yet to see so much as a single inch of this stranger despite having carried on a pretty decent conversation, the vampire began to worry again, and an inexplicable wave of sadness and loneliness washed over her as she made another request for the stranger to come out of hiding and face her head on. This time, though, there was no threat or anger in Alison's voice, just that sad curiosity of one longing for a friend and fearing that the friend was about to leave forever, without another sound or look left behind.
That was a thought Alison found quite unbearable, even though the idea of her considering this stranger that she still hadn't even seen yet as a friend was quite laughable. But still, Alison really did feel quite drawn to whoever it was and she wanted desperately to know the face of the one she was conversing with, not just out of curiosity, but for the sake of one single memory to hold onto in the future, for surely this person wouldn't be crazy enough to ever come back. Not while knowing that this was vampire territory! So Alison needed this one face, this one shred of realism and humanity, to hold onto, and to remind her that she hadn't just been hallucinating and talking to herself this time. In the same way this person had come out to see someone else alive, Alison needed that same connection, and she didn't want the stranger to go before giving it to her. Just this one little piece to hold onto while she was stuck back in the vampire courts...
"Show yourself. Please, show yourself," Alison continued to plead gently and, at last, her wish was granted.
"Ok. Very well," the voice finally agreed. "But promise me you won't freak out when I appear?"
"I promise!" Alison replied, straightening her back both with interest and seriousness.
"Ok then..." the voice replied, then suddenly, a person finally came into view. It was, as Alison had guessed, a young woman, younger than herself by maybe a few years at most. This young woman had short, sandy hair and rich brown eyes. She also wore a long-sleeved, cream-colored shirt. Most of it was covered by a brown leather corset. And she wore long brown leggings with matching brown boots, a strange sight to Alison, who was more used to seeing women in skirts and heels. She, herself, was wearing her trademark black dress tonight after all, with black heels to match. But the strangest thing of all about this young woman was the weird, clunky device strapped to her back...
"The name's Jetpack Girl!" finally, a face was put with a voice and friendly hand extended itself out towards Alison.
"Ummmm," was all Alison could say as she tentatively took the hand that this Jetpack Girl (that seriously wasn't her name, right?!) offered her.
"And this is my invisibility cloak!" Jetpack Girl continued, holding up her other hand to reveal what it was she had used to conceal herself from Alison's sight for so long. It just looked like a simple black cloth, but Jetpack Girl promised her that this was not the case.
"Simple, though it may be, it's actually some pretty serious tech!" she bragged, grinning from ear to ear. "Y'see, I basically connected up a bunch of cloaking panels through a wiring system inside the cloth so that the cloak itself is coated in multiple tiny little panels, each that transmit an image of whatever is behind it so that anyone under the cloak is missed because all you see is what should be there if they weren't!" she continued to explain while Alison could only stand there and stare, hardly understanding any of the techno-babble that this "Jetpack Girl" girl was saying. Thus was the start of a very strange but very beautiful friendship.
AN: Congrats to AquaEclipse for guessing it! Jetpack Girl was the one hiding in the shadows!
And yes, in my canon, she and Alison were old friends, even though the webseries gave no indication of that.
Also, originally, this chapter was going to be longer and was going to look more in depth at Alison and Jetpack Girl's relationship, but that made it too long, so I'm splitting it in half. Tonight is Alison and Jetpack Girl meeting. Tomorrow night is that closer look at their growing friendship.
Read on for some Alison and Jetpack Girl fluff (platonic IMO because I don't ship them, even though I definitely see them both as queer women) and read on to see what Jetpack Girl's "real" name is.
