Misplaced Soul (Darkstalkers/Multicross - Lilith SI)

I woke up on the floor.

Well, a floor. I’ve slept on floors a couple times in the past but generally I had an idea how I got there. This looks to be an office building. And not a familiar-

THOOM

-what in the fuck was that?! The whole building shakes, and I grab a cubicle wall for balance. Speaking of balance, something feels… off. The fuck is going on here? Where am I?

I turn to look out the window and suddenly my attention is taken up by the woman I see reflected in the glass.

I open my mouth.

She does the same.

I close it again, and yep, that’s… that’s how reflections work, alright. Raise an arm, hesitant little wave, either she’s really good at this game or that’s me now.

Which is odd, because I don’t remember being that petite. Or a she, come to think of it. And the red-over-blue tights is just a little bit too tacky for me. Then again, I’m not sure how much input she really had in the matter.

Still, out of everyone I could wake up as, why Lilith Aensland?

I’m familiar with the character, of course. Morrigan’s sort-of-sister from Darkstalkers. A portion of Morrigan’s power that was sealed away in her youth and gained a mind of its own, given a body by the demon Jedah Dohma in exchange for doing his dirty work.

Gingerly, I reach back to touch my… yes, I have wings now. That’s… going to take some time to get used to. I mean, along with the rest of it. I suppose I should be thankful Lilith is fairly… underdeveloped, compared to her sister. I’m not sure how well I would have adapted to Morrigan’s figure.

I barely manage to keep my feet when everything shakes again. Then half the damn building is smashed aside like so much cardboard and suddenly I have a bigger problem.

A much bigger problem.

A golden one.

With three heads.

That’s a big fucking lizard.

King Ghidorah, the three headed monster, is one of Godzilla’s most persistent foes. His goals vary from version to version but a lot of the time he’s just a great big asshole from space who goes around wrecking up planets because it’s fun for him. Not someone you want to have show up in your city, in other words.

Of course, even if I hadn't known that, the sheer scale of the monster would have been more than enough to scare me shitless.

He crashes through the building like it wasn’t even there - to him, it might as well not be. His sheer presence dominates everything I see and hear - it's all golden scales and a cacophony of screeching and yellow beams tearing up the city. My mind blanks and I just stare.

The sole thought that settles in my head is that I very much do not want to be here, standing in this wreck of a building, trapped in a body I don’t understand, with a monster that could end me in an instant if I wasn’t so far beneath it’s notice that I doubt it even registers I’m here.

I run - scramble, more like - away from the empty sky where there used to be the other half of a perfectly serviceable building. Gone. Gone. Gone. Just get me somewhere else -

My hand doesn’t hit the floor. There’s a hole in the air. I fall through. It closes. Then I’m just falling through the sky. I see a forest - trees - coming in too fast -
Fly! Fly you fool!
Something tells me this is gonna hurt.

. . .

Turns out I’m right.

Then it’s all black.

 

“So do you think we can eat her brain?”

“Can’t say I’ve ever known a succubus to have much in the way of brains in the first place, sis.”

“Ohohoh, known a lot of succubuses, have you…?”

“Hey, that ain’t what I meant! Besides, I dunno if she’s actually dead.”

“Well, I could eat her brain. Then we’d know.”

“Don’t think she’d much appreciate that.”

I make a vaguely pitiable groaning sound.

“Oh, hey, she’s alive! That’s fine too. I was bored, nobody comes to visit us anymore.”

“Can’t imagine why.”

Slowly, hesitantly, I sit myself up and open my eyes.

There’s a girl with a fairly unhealthy green pallor to her skin looming over me and grinning. Her eyes light up and she gives me a jaunty little wave as she sees I’m awake. “What’s shakin’?”

I lean to the side. The other guy’s standing back a bit - arms crossed - and he’s built like Frankenstein’s goddamned monster, only burlier. Same greenish skin as the girl, too.

I sit back up straight. I think I’ll focus on the one who doesn’t look like she could pop my head like a grape.

“So, uh…” I clear my throat. “Am I dead?”

“Yep!” she says, sounding remarkably cheerful at the prospect.

“Nah,” says the guy in the back at the same time. He eyes his partner. “Quit teasin’ her, sis.”

“Aw, c’mon! I’m just having a little fun, Abner.”

Abner. That’s his name. Abner Cadaver.

I recognise it from somewhere. It’s on the tip of my tongue, but most of my mind is still preoccupied by the tree-inflicted head trauma. I can’t quite seem to focus right.

Either way, I’ve got the girl’s attention again.

“So watcha’ doin’ on Spiderweb Island, huh? Most people don’t come here. ‘Cause of all the brain-eating zombies, see.” She grins just a little too wide for a moment. Then she pauses, considering. “...Well, that and the spiders. There’s a lot of spiders here.”

“Hence the name,” Abner adds.

“Right, right,” the girl nods. “Great web coverage though.”

“Didn’t exactly plan to land here,” I grumble, rubbing my head. “There was this… dragon, thing, and I panicked and ran away and then I fell out of the sky and hit my head on a tree.” I don’t do words so good when my brain’s all woozy.

The two of them exchange a look. “...Hit ya head pretty hard, then.” Abner says.

“Mmph.”

The girl is grinning again. A hint of something flickers through her eyes. I’m starting to get a little concerned that this strange green girl who lives on an island full of spiders might not have my best interests at heart.

“What’s your plan now?” she asks, as I slowly manage to stand back up. “Gonna see the sights while you're here?”

“Does the spider island have a lot of sights to see?”

“Well-”

“Sights that aren’t related to spiders, ideally.”

She pauses. “Hmm. Not so much, then.”

I think I should maybe get off this island.

Abner sighs. “Look, whatever you’re doing we gotta get moving. Poe wanted a hand fixing the wagon or somethin’. Sis, you handle her.”

“I’d love to,” she says, giving me a look that makes me fear for the sanctity of my newly-acquired body. Abner grunts and stalks off into the forest.

Guess it’s you and me, suspicious green girl.

“C’mon, new girl,” she says, slinging an arm over my shoulder and leading me along in Abner’s wake. “You just let Rottytops take care of everything.”

Rottytops.

Her name is Rottytops.

ABNER AND POE AND ROTTYTOPS.

...

Oh my god. I’m in Shantae.
You wish.
...

Wait, were they going to eat my-

 

“So where you headed, new girl? On your way to Hypno Baron’s castle?”

“Firstly, my name is Lilith.” Or I guess it might as well be, for the time being. “Secondly, why would I go there?”

Abner glances back. “Ain’t that where you lot hang out?”

Rottytops’ grin widens. “Oooh, is that why you spend so much time there?”

“I-no! I’m conductin’ important business!”

Hmm. I do vaguely recall some demon-lady looking enemies running around there. Guess that’s the local equivalent of what I am? Whatever, not important. Now that I know where I am, where do I want to go?

Well, weird magic seems to be happening, and I got transformed into Lilith. Maybe I oughta go talk to that one half-genie who deals in magic and transformations. Or her uncle, the exposition guy with the workshop full of magic artefacts and wacky inventions.

Also, I kinda just wanna meet Shantae. I’m a fan. This is a rare opportunity, damnit!

“Scuttle Town,” I decide, interrupting the zombie siblings’ bickering. “I’m headed to Scuttle town. I, uh, don’t suppose you guys can help me out...?”

Abner fixes me with a glare. “Why would we care about that?”

“Aw, c’mon. Where’s your sense of community spirit?”

“Right, yeah, community. We’re all about that. That’s why we live out here on the island fulla monsters where nobody ever goes.”

“...Caaan I borrow a boat?”

“No.” says Abner bluntly. “We ain’t got a boat, anyway. Can’t you just fly?”

“Not that far.” Well, maybe that far, I have no idea. I don’t know if I can fly at all. Randomly darting about above the open ocean doesn’t seem like a smart way to find out, though. Even ignoring the whole potentially drowning thing, fantasy lands like this always have sea monsters. I’m just saying, Risky’s giant amphibious slug-monster had to come from somewhere.

“You could go check out that dock out west,” Rottytops says with a shrug.

Huh. There is a dock on this island, isn’t there? It’s where Shantae lands when she comes here. I guess that’s the logical place to look for a dinghy or something.

“Works for me. How do I get there?”

Rottytops points off somewhere to the left as we make our way into a large clearing. There’s a house made out of a hollow tree here. Guess we’ve made it to their home, then. “There’s a path over there, leads right to the dock. Well, it’s kinda twisty, but I guess I could show you the way.”

“...Is it safe?”

“Aw, we’ll be fine. C’mon, it’ll be fun.”

“Well, alright...”

* * * * *

Thirty minutes in and it turns out Rottytops is full of shit.

“I am not having fun, Rottytops!” I snap, as yet another feral zombie launches itself at me.

She shrugs, watching with mild amusement as I try and fend it off. “Well, I’m having a good time. And you’re getting way better at this, so you’re welcome.”

One of my wings reforms into a blade to cut the feral in half, and I’m forced to concede the point. A swamp full of zombies might not be my idea of a good time but it’s forcing me to figure out the basics of Lilith’s powers pretty quick. The bit that revolves around turning my wings into stabbing implements, anyway.

Still. “Are we nearly there, at least?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s just through those trees. We’ve been backtracking for like five minutes.”

“What? Why?!”

“You were getting so much practice in! I didn’t want to interrupt.”

I grumble something unintelligible and stomp in the indicated direction. Sure enough it doesn’t take long for the forest to open up and reveal the edge of the island.

It’s not much of a dock. There’s a half-rotten pier, a few crates and barrels, and a squat stone building with a glowing blue lamp on top that I would tentatively title a lighthouse. Probably about what I should have expected on an island like this.

Something’s notably lacking, though.

“Rottytops.”

“Wassup?”

“There do not appear to be any boats here, Rottytops.”

“Well hey, look at that!”

I sigh. “There are never any boats here, are there.”

“Oh, sometimes there are, sure! But not often. No-one else seems to come here much.”

“Well, that’s… great,” I say, sitting down on a crate. “Now what?”

“You could build a raft,” she says cheerfully, giving one of the barrels an experimental kick. “That might be fun. Or funny, at least.”

“Do you know anything about building rafts?”

“Nope.”

Great. Although I have to wonder…

“...How did you guys get here in the first place, if you don’t have a boat?”

“Chit chat spider," she says, making a vague gesture in my direction as she leans over to inspect the barrel. "Checked the web to find out who was going this way, then we just hitched a ride.”

Right. Zombies in this setting have a great big network set up via these special spiders. They can use vibrations to communicate with each other and trade information from all over through the web. I guess it’s something like a chatroom.

“Can you do that again? Maybe I can catch a ride.”

“Sure, I guess. Hold on a second.” She sits down as a spider drops down in front of her, weaving a web and settling down in the middle of it. Rottytops reaches out and starts plucking away at threads. It almost looks like she’s using a computer keyboard. Just… more spidery.

It takes a couple minutes of poking at strands of web and complaining about bugs, but soon enough she has an answer. “So I’ve got good news and bad news.”

“What’s the good news?”

“There’s a ship that’s been making the rounds of all the islands in the area. If they keep at it they should hit up Spiderweb Island some time tomorrow.”

That’s awful convenient. “What’s the bad news?”

She shrugs. “Actually it’s not that bad. I just always wanted to say that. Anyway, how do you feel about the Ammo Baron?”