Chapter 2:
Most people go through life without ever having to figure out what wasps taste like. Fewer people, but still a significant majority go through life without ever learning what spiders taste like.
Alexandria was now in the minority that had tasted both. She regained consciousness rapidly, one moment she was lying in the cold, slick, snow. The next moment she was on her hands and knees retching, just barely cognizant of the time in between. Of course, her perfect memory meant that she only had to think back and then the memory hit her full force again.
Insects, wasps and spiders and other bugs plunging down her throat. Filling her lungs, packing in until she had no way to breathe. She coughed, only bile leaving her lips. Through a haze, Alexandria looked at the white snow beneath her, spotted with bile. Why were there no insects?
And why was there snow? She had gone to her death on the 14th of July. Even in Brockton Bay, there was no snow in July. Slowly, Alexandria got to her feet, taking in her ruined suit as she did so.
She had gone to the negotiations with Skitter without even bothering to change out of the suit she had visited her mother in. After all, with the reveal of her identity, there was no point in bothering with staying incognito anymore.
Her expensive suit was torn, covered in concrete dust. Surprisingly enough, she still wore her black heels, even if they were scuffed and scratched. They didn't shine anymore. Alexandria wiped snow from her face and brushed off the suit quickly.
One thought dominated her mind, what had happened? The last thing she remembered was slowly dying, suffocating as her lungs were filled with insects. She vomited again, still bringing up nothing but bile. Shakily she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, before brushing her hand off in the snow.
It was truly a unique experience to feel such revulsion. She hadn't been sick since the Siberian killed Hero. She had never been sick after her return as Alexandria except in cases of psychological pain.
Her hand closed around a tree branch as she hoisted herself to her feet again. The branch broke under her grip, as she expected. However, instead of falling to the ground and laying in the snow like an ordinary branch, instead, it collapsed into a filmy goop which gradually evaporated away.
Alexandria stared at it for a moment. A shaker that created trees? Or a master, perhaps? She scanned the surrounding area, only now noting the grotesque appearance of the trees around her. At first glance, they looked like normal trees, but a closer look revealed that the trees were twisted into a facsimile of a tree. Roots didn't connect to the trunk, and pine needles shifted as if they were part of an animal rather than a human.
Alexandria stepped away, floating off the ground. She raised a hand to her ear.
"This is Alexandria, status report," She spoke, touching her earbud to transmit. A moment later she realized that her ear was empty, her earbud gone. She rose higher into the air, but not quite clear of the strange trees.
"Door me," she said quietly. She waited a moment before glancing around. She expected one of Doormaker's portals to open nearby, but that didn't happen. Instead, nothing happened. The world was still and silent. Just snow falling down into the strange trees. Alexandria rose into the air, higher and higher.
Clink!
A blur smacked into her, before careening off quickly. Alexandria startled, for just a moment she flailed, statuesque form impacting the branches around her. They broke with the sound of rough boughs snapping. She turned on a dime midair and cast her gaze around, looking for what just hit her.
A little ball of blue light, drifted away, down a suddenly appearing trail in the forest. Alexandria's mind flashed back to when she first appeared in the clearing. Her memory was clear, there was no path then.
"Door me," Alexandria tried again, making sure to keep her eye on the ball of light. Just as before, nothing happened. Her mind considered the possibility. Either Cauldron instructed Doormaker not to listen to her, or something else had happened.
With the memory of the bugs still fresh in her mind, Alexandria was tempted to say that something else had happened. After all, why would all the insects be gone from her lungs? She clearly remembered choking to death, suffocating...
Alexandria looked up, tangled boughs and tree limbs, all subtly distorted. She rocketed upwards, the air cracking below her. Finally, after a far longer time than it should, she broke through the uppermost levels of the forest.
A world tinged with white was revealed to her eyes. Barren and cold, no civilization in sight. Snow and frost tinged all things. The trees were bent over from the frost, deep snowdrifts covered the land, and even the rocky crags in the distance were spotted with snow.
"Door me," Alexandria tried yet again. She carefully looked around, but eventually conceded that there would be no door for her to escape this place. She looked up still farther. Her face twitched as she compared the starry constellations above to what she was used to.
Long ago, she had traveled the world, studying what the stars looked like from each corner of the Earth. The stars she was currently under were not Earth's stars. In fact, the only star that was in the right place was the North Star, and Alexandria couldn't even be certain that it was the North Star since all the other stars were wrong.
No, this could only be an alternate world of some kind, possibly another planet. One that even Doormaker couldn't reach. If that was the case, and she wasn't just trapped in a pocket dimension of some kind, then it was a wonder that her Agent even still functioned.
Of course, even if her passenger abandoned her she would still have her strength. She knew from experience with power nullifiers, that when she entered the zone of someone like Hatchet Face, she did not revert to an unpowered human. Instead, she would become an inviolate statue, dead to the world.
Alexandria descended. Since she had nothing else to work off of, then why not follow the floating ball of light?
Chapter 3:
Her high heeled feet floated just above knotted and gnarled roots. Alexandria frowned, the expression visible only because she was not wearing the iconic suit she had worn for most of her career. Her current suit, an actual business one, was iconic for a different reason, it was the same cut and style as the one she had appeared as the Chief Director of the PRT for nearly 18 years.
The main reason she floated above the ground and didn't walk was for two reasons. The first was that she could fly and there was no point in walking for someone like her except for when she didn't want to be noticed or for public relations reasons. Obviously, since she was deep in a strange forest neither of those reasons mattered.
The second reason she was floating down the path was because of the roots. To tell the truth, she had tried to walk in the beginning but the roots seemed to move on their own, constantly seeking to trip her. Of course, her strength and the nature of her power meant that such attempts came to naught. When she walked it was not with the strength of an unpowered, but the strength of her superhuman body, which was in itself capable of feats just shy of two million tons of force. Hence, she regarded the repeated attempts to snare her feet as barely an annoyance.
It had, however, made her consider where exactly she was and what exactly the forest was. Initially, she had considered the possibility that it was a cape, or perhaps she had somehow accidentally entered Sleeper's domain. Nobody knew for sure what was in Sleeper's little demesne in Russia, except maybe Contessa, who had been there before.
Theoretically, it was possible but Alexandria considered that unlikely. Doormaker's portals weren't activating nor was Doormaker even responding and Alexandria knew that they would still work inside Sleeper's domain. Cauldron had interacted slightly with Sleeper before after all, even if it was only Doctor Mother through Contessa.
She had also considered the possibility that a cape controlled the trees and maybe even the little blue ball of light that was floating down the trail in front of her. Slowly but surely matching her slow levitation.
Alexandria's frown deepened and she rubbed at the deep scar around her eye, the rough texture of the scar tissue not giving way at all under her fingers. She was careful not to press on the eye itself, the delicate tinkertech within was liable to break. By this point in her career, she had gone through several eyes, all purchased anonymously from Toybox's Cranial by Cauldron. Of course, Cranial needed to know who she was making the eye for, but Cauldron's ability to intrude even in the safe haven that was Toybox made sure she kept her mouth shut. The million-plus dollar payment also helped some on that front.
No, Alexandria decided, it was probably a cape unless the trees were part of some super organism in this other dimension. It wouldn't be the first time, there was the incident with Eidolon and the giant fungus planet on Earth Tzadei-7. A flare of amusement spread through Alexandria's mind, it had been an amusing read in Cauldron's reports. Additionally, Eidolon had been quite embarrassed at the time, which made the whole thing even more amusing.
That was neither here nor now. No. Alexandria only had herself, the forest and the mystery cape which was affecting her surroundings. Instead, she focused on the little ball of light. There was a more technical term for it, Will-o'-the-wisp. A ghostly light, which, according to folklore would lead travelers astray. Alexandria did not put much weight on ancient English folklore, but the name did fit.
The will-o'-the-wisp continued to float, it was unbothered by the grasping roots. Now that she watching acutely, Alexandria was able to notice how the tree trunks around her bent and swayed, slowly shifting, opening a path where there was no path before. She was being led somewhere. Most likely to something or someone.
A short distance later her suspicions were proven correct as the will-o'-the-wisp led her out of the grasping forest. Alexandria cast one glance behind, back into the dark boughs and knotted limbs before turning away, following the little will-o'-the-wisp into a broad field. It wasn't covered in snow like it was inside the forest, instead, there were only patches here and there.
Peat moss covered various spots in the clearing, which was spotted with grass and snow. Desiccated dead trees, many of them rotten and hollow showed that this clearing was once part of the larger forest. The trees looked more real here, and the roots didn't try and grasp at her feet.
The will-o'-the-wisp floated forward over the clearing, Alexandria started forward, her sharp eyes immediately noticed that she had been mistaken. The peat moss wasn't peat moss at all, instead, it was a greenish film, similar to duckweed but not quite algae. The will-o'-the-wisp had led her into a bog. How fitting.
Alexandria ascended a little higher, now floating more than a few feet off the ground. The clear supernatural folklore influences, from the will-o'-the-wisp to the grasping trees, were a little too much to ignore.
Alexandria's caution was awarded a moment later, as she spotted a ripple on the surface of the water. The wind was dead, no movement around her. No cries of swamp animals, no signs of life beyond the bobbing will-o'-the-wisp.
There was a distant splash and Alexandria turned her head slightly towards it, only to spot more formless bog. It stretched far over the ground, terminating at the base of the same rocky crags she had spotted after ascending within the forest. The bog itself was covered in a creeping fog, not high or deep but enough to enhance the otherworldly aspects.
Ker-plunk.
Alexandria pivoted, her center of gravity moving around one leg as she used her flight to turn in the air. There was nothing behind her except more bog and the dark branches of the forest.
She heard the rustle of grass, the sound of disturbed water and turned around, this time utilizing her full speed. Whatever was out there had no chance but to be exposed. A twisted mockery of a lobster was slowly easing its way out of the water. Two tall black eyestalks rested over a domed black carapace.
Alexandria flashed forward, her movement too quick for mortal eyes, seizing the over large crustacean by its claw with one indomitable grip and hoisting it out of the water. For a moment, all was quiet, as if the swamp itself was stunned by her passage and then it erupted.
Mottled and pitted black mutant lobsters crawled out from the water, claws snapping and letting out the most awful screeches. Alexandria grimaced, immediately reminded of the infamous monster producing cape, Nilbog. These creatures were not at all like what Nilbog made, these were deformed but appeared to be based off a real creature, in this case, lobsters or crawfish. Nilbog preferred the fantastical and based his monsters off creatures of legend, like goblins and gnomes.
Alexandria threw the mutant lobster she was holding, it soared away, landing in a distant part of the swamp with a faint splash. A splattering of black liquid, almost like an oil-slick covered her hands. The other lobsters gave no indication that they were bothered about the fate of their fellow lobster, and continued to attack.
Alexandria floated up and out of the way of the claws of the lobsters below her. One which had evidently managed to come up behind her even managed to scrape along the back of her heels with a well-timed swipe of its claws. It was all for naught, however, the lobsters were not very tall, and they didn't have any ranged weapons.
Instead, the water fairly frothed below her, as at least several dozen of the lobsters tried to reach her. They even tried to climb on top of each other to reach her. Alexandria was reduced to watching in distaste as one of the climbing one overreached and was subsequently devoured by the other lobsters around it.
Alexandria was already turning to float away, she had no need to stay and destroy whatever these lobsters were, but paused for a moment when the lobster's swarming ceased. As one they froze, almost seeming to dance in place on their many legs before slowly edging back into the water.
"Hello," A sickeningly sweet voice said. Alexandria had heard such a tone before during her many years as a heroine. It was the voice of someone that was most definitely amused by something but it was also not a pleasant amusement. It was the voice of someone that was gleeful, believing that someone had fallen into their trap. Or it was the voice of someone who was preparing a trap which they believed she would fall into. Alexandria's eyes narrowed as a figure rose from the water.
"I don't often get visitors, especially not here," she said, smiling slightly. Her smile revealed hideous dark green teeth, which looked almost black under the cold winter sun. Her hair was brown and green, and was both broad and thick, reminding Alexandria of seaweed. The main thing Alexandria noticed was the haunting but wrong beauty. The proportions of her face were off slightly, just enough to both appeal while appearing unearthly.
Alexandria stiffened slightly, despite the fact that it really made no difference to her body. This inhuman thing was either an alien or a changer. It wasn't a monster cape, she had made sure to memorize the faces of all volunteers, both before and after their vials.
"Who are you?" Alexandria asked, still floating out of reach. The cape below, if she was even a cape, just smiled up at her.
"Wouldn't you rather tell me your name?"
Alexandria paused, looking down at the creature below. What could it really hurt? Her identity was already blown, and by all indications, this was another earth, dimension, or planet.
Of course, she wasn't going to give her real name, there was no need for that. She had spent long enough escaping her old life before being forced back into it for the good of humanity. Instead, she was an ideal.
"I am the Library of Alexandria," Alexandria spoke, her voice softly carrying to the creature below her.