Lycaon

Von Lycaon's ears rotated towards the hallway. Footsteps, or at least the steps of things that resembled feet, were moving quickly down the hallway in his direction. The woman's agonized shriek had certainly drawn attention to this part of the Hollow. Lycaon needed to go. Now.

Yet a task for Victoria Housekeeping could not be abandoned so readily. Lycaon cradled the unconscious and twitching human awkwardly with one arm against his hip and used his free hand to fish out the mini-HDD from his pocket and place it in the nearest server stack. Nothing. It was supposed to glow red if it started working, but it didn't react at all. The servers were dead then. No real surprise there after all that electrical surge, but it was necessary to try.

Victoria Housekeeping Tenet #2: Abandon no task.*

*(Unless that task is proven impossible by sincere attempt.)

Lycaon recovered the drive, replaced it in his pocket, and manipulated his upper body in a way that rearranged his living burden to again lay in both of his arms with as much comfortable dignity as he could manage to provide. Search and rescue was a more uncommon objective, but Victoria Housekeeping was always ready for the potential needs of any client- and the proper hand-transport of unconscious humans was a fixture of the final exam (had been for years).

And while the woman in his arms was not officially a client, Lycaon thought no proper butler of any respect would fail to rescue someone in distress. The obligation to act came with the coat tails.

The powerful, lithe form of the wolf thien gilded swiftly into motion, the unconscious woman's head barely bobbing in his arms thanks to the smooth grace of his motions. Lycaon ran for the stuck door, heard a sound just outside the door- he stutter-stepped in anticipation, slowing his pace. To expectation, a gleaming orb of an ethereal's headcore entered the room at the fore of its rock-like body. Lycaon bounced on the ball of one foot, maintaining his forward momentum, and then push-kicked the ethereal right in it's would-be face. Lycaon's booted foot impacted its target with the focused intensity of a jackhammer.

The ethereal's headcore exploded into shards and the creature's body fell to the ground, immediately disintegrating. Lycaon rotated his arm that was cradling the wounded woman's head, the back of his forearm deflecting a few flying shards of the ethereal's shattered face before they struck the woman's cheek. The client's face was untouched.

Victoria Housekeeping Tenant #4: Defend the client from all harm.

Lycaon came to a sliding stop- his grounded booted foot screeching metallically against the floor. Another ethereal slithered through the doorway, a strangely reptilian one this time. Lycaon's maw opened slightly in a slit-mouthed snarl, revealing perfectly white canine teeth. These creatures were truly being bothersome.

His smallest toe on his airborne leg triggered the accelerator of the boot-engine on that limb. The propulsion drive on the back of his calf whirled up and iced over as it sucked in heat to power itself, and it then fired a sharp jet of force, propelling Lycaon's right leg back around the centrifuge of his planted left foot, spin kicking the next ethereal in its head, shattering it across the floor like the first. Lycaon bounded gracefully over the second disintegrating corpse and out into the hallway, careful to keep his cargo's body as cushioned as possible.

Victoria Housekeeping Tenet #27: Grace. Whenever possible.

"Rina," said Lycaon, seemingly to no one, as he took off running down the hall. "I need the carrot."

"Yes, sir," said Rina's dreamy voice in his ear.

On solo missions, Head Maid Rina provided the proxy support- one of her two bangboo's acting as a scout. This saved on month-end expenses as most missions did not require Rina's combat assistance, so she was free to manage support in lieu of a specified proxy. Professional proxies were brought in during larger commissions. They were expensive.

Lycaon ran, his legs a blur, bounding him off walls as he took the corridor's right-angled turns at full sprint. He didn't know where the Hollow exit was, as they were unstable and random- but Rina had identified an area of chaotic ether before the mission. It was over this way. Most likely, an exit would be available there and she would hone him in on it as she gained up-to-date intel on the area through her remote bangboo drone.

If the injured woman's scream had alerted any other ethereals, Lycaon was now far enough away from that area for it to be relevant. But that didn't mean his swift passage couldn't attract new dangers- so without pursuers and without a destination, Lycaon slowed his pace to a more cautious trot. He would prefer to avoid further conflict. Meanwhile, the woman in his arms stirred to life.


Belle

Belle fell into a river of numbers, the endless digits were each like a drop of water, enveloping her as she splashed into them, running wetly over her body, flowing into her screaming mouth. She thrashed for the surface, unable to breathe, choking on integers. Her body swirled, spun around, as if the river's current were propelling her through rapids, or perhaps the numbers were waves hitting some coastline, swirling her around and around in endless breakers.

Belle awoke screaming, and the first thing she saw was the wincing maw of a wolf thien, his white ears flat back on his head, his pain-filled grimace revealing a mouth of bestial canine teeth right in Belle's face. She screamed again, this time because of the unexpected big-bad-wolf-scenario in which she found herself.

"My lady!," said the wolf in a deep, vibrating voice of genteel urgency, "Kindly lower your voice! You are in safe hands, I assure you of only good will and care!"

Belle was too panicked and confused to listen to the wolf's words. She realized she was being held and she began to struggle. The wolf was taking her somewhere! What was going on?!

"Let me go!"

"Loath as I am to reject the lady's reasonable request," grunted the wolf as he clutched Belle more firmly against his chest, locking her arms and legs between his biceps and his pectorals. "There are now far too many ethereals aware of us, at the moment."

One word from the wolf's snout broke through Belle's panic. Ethereals? She turned her head to look ahead of her captor's path of travel. Two machine-like ethereals were charging right at them. Belle screamed a third time, shocked to be moving towards ethereals at a speed more akin to a car than a running person. Then, she felt herself go weightless as the wolf carrying her leapt into the air, kicked off the nearby wall, which caused them both to soar to the opposite side of the wide alleyway, wherein she felt him kick off that wall, too- and meanwhile the ethereals passed below them harmlessly.

Belle felt butterflies in her stomach as her captor fell to the earth and landed gracefully, barely breaking stride- she was entirely secure in his arms the entire time.

"While it is certainly not my place to offer constructive criticism," said the wolf, his voice gaining a somewhat exasperated tone. "I would remind the lady that ethereals are drawn to noise."

Belle was now self-aware enough to get the message. She was not being kidnapped. She was apparently being rescued, and she was messing it all up. With new obedience, Belle fell quiet in the wolf thien's strong arms and allowed herself to be carried along.

The wolf's head was obviously canine in structure, an elegantly snubbed snout ended with a cute black nose. But his crimson eye was alert and confident, its position in the face giving him a strange sort of human-like gaze. Two pointed ears emerged from an elegant mane of long white hair, grayed slightly at the tips. His shirt looked like that of a formal butler- he even had a neckerchief.

Belle's immediate reaction was to think him ruggedly beautiful. His clothing certainly looked high-quality and well-made. Logical or not, she felt like this thein was most trustworthy all of a sudden.

A lupine ear twitched. The wolf skidded to a stop. Belle's neck strained against a sudden deceleration and sharp turn.

"Understood," said the wolf. "Impeccable service, as always, Rina."

Belle realized the wolfman was talking to a proxy. So, he was a hollow raider of some sort? But it was rare to run into mere raiders with a dedicated proxy- usually they ran around with their own bangboos and rolled the dice on finding an exit in time. This thien seemed to be a part of a group that was much more organized.

"Who are you people?" blurted Belle.

The wolf's crimson eye spared a half-second to glance at her as he continued running. "I am Lycaon of-"

Lycaon's eye abruptly darted away from Belle and towards their shared front. Belle followed his glance and her eyes widened. The alleyway opened out into a ruined courtyard, and standing amidst it was an enormous stone golem of an ethereal- this one taking the physical form of a vaguely humanoid pile of broken red bricks about two stories tall.

Belle saw Lycaon's ear twitch again.

"The portal is at its feet? But of course it is," said Lycaon to someone other than Belle. Surely that was Rina, the unseen proxy on the other side of Lycaon's communication equipment.

He skidded to a stop and looked behind him, then Belle was gently set down to her feet. She immediately stumbled as her weight returned to her legs, she almost fell, but Lycaon's large, and surprisingly gentle hands/paws reached out and caught her. He leaned her against the nearby wall at the edge of the grassy courtyard. The ethereal seemed to be noticing them, its massive form turning around in the lumbering fashion of an unwieldy colossus.

Belle looked up at her rescuer full on for the first time. She realized he was wearing a system of head straps that functioned as a sort of eyepatch- Lycaon's right eye hidden behind gleaming black leather. He bowed stiffly to her, his visible crimson eye regarding her intently.

"Please, my lady. Take your ease for but a moment. I shall handle this obstruction and return for you."

"Oh- okay," said Belle. Deal with the obstruction? He was going to fight that giant golem? Why not just find another exit? Was he insane? Stupid?

Insanely stupid?

But Lycaon was already running away from her along the edge of the courtyard, fluffy white tail billowing behind him. The giant golem in the center was rotating slowly to follow his progress. Belle watched the wolfman's steel boots suddenly flare up in blue fire and his speed increased exponentially. In an instant, Lycaon was not running around the courtyard on the grass, but on the broken brick walls themselves, the vertical surface apparently of little navigational difficulty for him. The golem lumbered over to intercept, swiping an enormous stone fist at the wall-runner.

Lycaon leapt. Landed upon the golem's fist as it swung. Leapt from that, his leg jets again firing, until he soared in the air above the golem's massive headcore. Only one leg jet fired this time, and it spun Lycaon around in the air like a bladed top, his tail and extended kicking leg whirling like duel sides of a saw blade. He shot downward, his rocket-accelerated shin blasted through the ethereal's head, shattering it into a cloud of sparkling diamonds, and then Lycaon slammed into the earth on his feet, rolled gracefully forward with the momentum, and hopped up with stiff back and perfect posture, walking with clear purpose back towards where Belle watched, mouth and eyes agape with astonishment.

Meanwhile, the brick colossus disintegrated into a pile of construction debris behind him, fragments bouncing and rolling across the courtyard chaotically, but Lycaon did not look back even as dust licked at his heels- the corpse of a fallen enemy was apparently beneath his notice. His single crimson eye was upon Belle and he stiffly walked back to where Belle waited, taking a small, chained watch from his pocket and checking the time briefly upon it.

He put his watch away, stopped before Belle, and bowed formally to her. "I do apologize for the rudeness of that interruption. But to answer your question as to my identity: I am Von Lycaon of Victoria Housekeeping, and it is most assuredly my honor to make your acquaintance, my lady….?"

Belle blinked up at Lycaon, her mouth still embarrassingly open. She closed it with a click of teeth, swallowed to moisten up her dried mouth, and said, lamely: "Belle. M- my name is Belle."

"Lady Belle," said Lycaon with a polite smile that made his leather-strapped, one-eyed, lupine face seem somehow gentle and deferential. "Now then, Lady Belle, with your assent, I will again take you into my arms and whisk you from this Hollow. Our exit is right over there."

"B- by all means," said Belle.

"Absolutely," said Lycaon.

Belle, her legs still unsteady, allowed herself to be scooped back into Lycaon's arms. Her weight seemed of only minor significance to the brawny muscles hiding under his butler-like shirt, meanwhile Belle adjusted one of her arms so that it 'accidently' touched the thien's forearm where there was a gap between his rolled shirt sleeve and his gloves, a patch of the wolfman's white fur available for contact. It felt very silky and pleasant on Belle's skin.

Purely a scientific observation on her part. Definitely.

Meanwhile, Lycaon turned back towards the dead ethereal, now just a pile of broken red rock, and trotted easily with Belle gently cradled against his chest. As they neared, the tell-tale visual anomaly of the ether portal appeared- a break in the fabric of the Hollow and a pathway back to the outside world. Lycaon stepped through it.

They emerged in an empty parking light- unremarkable and like thousands of other small parking lots hidden in the labyrinth that was New Eridu City. Belle heard Lycaon sniff loudly and she watched his ears rotate about, presumably checking his surroundings in ways a human could not hope to manage.

"We're through," said Lycaon. "My thanks, Rina. We will see you at headquarters."

Belle had the distinct impression that she was a part of that 'we'. And while she was grateful for the apparent rescue, she was quite done with new people and unknown situations today, thank you very much. She wanted to go home and see people she knew and be in places she felt safe.

"Please put me down, Lycaon," said Belle suddenly.

Lycaon froze in his step. "Of course, Lady Belle." And he set her down gently. "Are you sure you are well enough to-?"

"Quite well, I thank you," said Belle, insistently, even as she teetered slightly on the still, flat pavement of the parking lot. Something seemed off with her sense of balance, but she would be fine. "I wish to go home now."

"Please allow me to escort you there, Lady Belle," said Lycaon. "You took a nasty shock. Seeing a physician would be advisable and-"

"Thank you, no, Mr. Lycaon," said Belle, turning herself away from the looming figure of the wolfman. "I assure you I am quite-"

Belle's world suddenly faded to black. Her foot lifted and never seemed to come back down. She had a sense of falling, of the pavement rushing towards her face- but then something gently caught her before she landed. Her cheek pressed into silky fuzz which smelled pleasantly of burgamot and earl grey.

She lost consciousness.