Through the Looking Glass: Chapter One

This wasn't Vestia.

It definitely was not the Vestia they knew.

In the observatory where the dimensional travelers were sent to, they could easily see from the outside how twisted and mangled this Vestia was. The collar on her painted hull digging into her swollen sides. No doubt their presence would soon be known, but the stench of blood and sweat drifted into the room, as well as echoing howls of sobbing, maybe pain if the time of day was right.

This was Vestia, the Slaver Ship. And Vanessa was currently freaking out about the fact the theory of the Mirrorverse was just proven true -- in the worst of ways.

Ellie grabbed onto Shane's arm tightly, gagging at the smell and the sight of this bizarre, twisted Vestia. She couldn't think of what to say.

Asher gripped Kay's hand, being careful to not hold it too tightly. "Are you all right?" he murmured to Kay.

Tala sniffed the air, more intrigued than disgusted. She twitched her ears forward. Something smelled good and familiar in here, and she could feel it tugging on her. If the smell were stronger, she knew she'd instantly recognize it.

James bowed his head miserably. Whatever they were about to face, it was his fault. And that feeling really sucked.

One rusty camera pointed its scratched lens toward the group, watching the newcomers. These guys looked very familiar. Proper authorities should be alerted immediately, or she would be punished later. She didn't want that.
"Captain Heny, Ma'am," Vestia said fearfully, activating the comm in her owner's quarters, "We have intruders."

Shane looked around, holding Ellie close as he did. "What is this place? This is not our Vestia."

Starr shook herself at the lessened pressure on her body then looked around unhappily, but glad that the kids wouldn't have to be here.

Dawn and Rigel (forgot them before, lol) were holding one another as they also looked around. Rigel recognised the smell of kept slaves in a confined place and frowned. He didn't like what this could mean for them.

"I can't believe this!" Vanessa was squealing, "The Mirrorverse is real! Do you know what this means?! The theories revolving around it might be able to be confirmed now, the properties this mirrored universe might possess could be completely different to our own -- "

"Vanessa! Vanessa! Chill out." Merith grabbed the woman to keep her still, "Stop and think for a moment. If we ARE in the mirrorverse, and even though this DOES prove it. What situation are we in right NOW?!"

"Well, considering..." Vanessa suddenly stopped, and then her gaze hardened in concern. "Oh..."

John was standing there, frozen in shock as he coughed at the awful smell.

Shock paced nervously, looking up at Vestia's camera. "Guys..."

Sara was hiding under the fur of Third, who actually for once didn't seem to mind. Lilian had a single pistol out and ready to fire.



"Intruders?" The red-haired woman asked, before looking into the computer camera and suddenly chuckled after going silent in shock for a few seconds. "Well... This is interesting. Round them up, send them here... Notify Kaylr about this as well. I think he'd be interested."

Mirror Saraphine hopped up on the desk, a saucer of cookies precariously balanced on her back, almost squashing her as she tried to set it down, panting heavily.

"As you wish, Ma'am," Vestia said.

She activated the comm nearest to Mirror Shane, "Sir, we have intruders. The Captain wishes for them to be rounded up." She'd give him directions.

Next she contacted Mirror Kay. "Sir? The Captain wanted me to inform you that a number of intruders just appeared on board. Some of them bear a striking resemblance to our crew. Including one that looks like yourself."

Mirror Shane looked to the camera then called for his security team to go with him, all with anti-magic and tranquilizer guns on them. They headed for the observation deck, slowing when they approached it.

~~~

"Merith, do you know anything about this place?" Starr asked with concern. She didn't like the looks of this place at all.

~~~
Skye appeared in the hallway,looking around in confusion at the sudden change of place. She didn't know what was going on now. She actually felt sick from the transportation and had to sit down.

"Well, yes and no." Merith said sheepishly. "Theoretically? Yes. Specifically? No." He looked to Vanessa to explain for him.

"Where we are, Starr, is a place the Guild and other seekers of knowledge only speculated -- The Mirrorverse. So to speak. The other side of the coin of our universe."

Starr shivered then frowned "A mirrored universe?" She asked thoughtfully then looked to this Vestia's slave collar "Would everyone's personalities be reversed on this side?"

~~~
Mirror Shane's men easily took Skye and had her sent to a cell before opening the door tot he observation deck and looking at the newcomers. "Hands up and do not fight" He called out before sending the mooks in with their weapons.

Kay nodded to Asher, the smell was bad enough, but he flinched at the pain in the air.

Mourn hissed, tail swishing.

Matt held Thalia who was clinging to him. This was all a bit too familiar for them, the smell of blood and the screams of pain. "no no.. not again.. not again... " matt mumbled, he looked pale.

Esk drew his gun, his expression stony.
"Other side? What does that mean?" He snapped.

Luka looked around in horror. "This.. this is still Vestia.. what have they done to her!?" She looked out at the hideous distorted hull in disgust.

[She's not our Vestia... ] Kay wrote shakily.

Everyone looked up as Mirror Shane's mooks came in.

Matt raised one hand, keeping the other firmly around his fiance. "We're not hostile! We're just really lost!" He protested.

Armin raised both hands as told. "please do not harm us."

--

Meanwhile,

Mirror Kay smirked up at Vestia's camera. "Intruders? mmm, new playthings. " His medical room was a grimy awful place with blood stained walls and floors. This was no pristine operating room, this was some awful house of horrors. Kaylr himself held a crazed half grin as he turned to the line of cages along the back wall and peered into the nearest. "you hear that Doctor Heinz? Intruders." He giggled.

The doctor, a dark skinned blonde man with exhausted green eyes glared defiantly at Kaylr.
His face was badly scarred and he looked like he hadn't slept in weeks.
"well then, why don't you go introduce yourself." He spat. he spoke in a thick Satare accent.

Kaylr laughed. "Don't worry Doctor, i'll leave a few for you!" he sang merrily. "And don't think i've forgotten you either dearest brother." He leered at the sick looking wretch in the next cage. He was hooked up to an IV, his amber eyes sunken and dull. He didn't say anything, he just lowered his head and stared at the floor.

"Asher!" Kaylr shouted. "Prepare the lab, Vestia says we have guests!"
With a mad cackle he headed out into the hall to get a better look at this little group.
Dopplegangers huh? well, that was interesting.

--

Mirror Matt headed toward the observatory with Shane and the security attachment.

He drew his own gun, he half hoped they didn't surrender easy. It was so much more fun when they fought back.

--

"No, we're not hostile." Merith said dully, "But if we aren't I can tell you with absolute certainty that they are." He shook his head, trying to shake the woozy feeling from the stench in the air.

"Yes Starr, you could say that." Vanessa said, turning to face the Mirror Shane and Matt. "Those in our world who are inherently good, might be completely wicked here, through and through... and those that might be completely against slavery in our world, might find an appeal to it here... Including ourselves."

Saraphine peeked out from underneath Quinn, terrified. "What is going on?!"

Shock watched angrily as Lilian and John slowly decided to surrender to not cause further trouble. "What? Are we really surrendering on a SLAVE SHIP?! What the Hell are you guys thinking?!"

mirror Matt tilted his head at his double and started to laugh at Shock's words, training his gun on Thalia's head.

"Oh go on, try to fight your way out. It'll be FUN." He smirked.

Matt glared at his evil twin. "Why are you doing this?" He couldn't quite wrap his head around this whole mirror universe thing. This was.. him? He looked like him, but didn't act at all like him.

"Don't bother Matt." Esk told him dully. "He'll just shoot your pretty little girlfriend." He looked the duplicates up and down. "Hmm."

"Who are you people?" Mirror Mattias demanded.

"uh.. from what she said, we're you and you're us... " Matt glanced to Vanessa. "is... is that right? " He kept one hand up. "You're not really going to hurt yourselves right?" He sounded worried.

"Depends how much you piss us off." Mattias told him flatly. He looked to Shane, hoping for the command to shoot. "What you think boss? Could be shapeshifters trying to fuck with us. They medics could uh.. run some tests. "

"Why the hell would we want to look like you?" Esk spat.

"Shut UP." Matt snapped.

Mattias just smirked and kept his gun trained on Thalia and Matt.

"Sort of." Vanessa frowned, "It is complicated."

Shock snorted at Esk's words. Why the hell would we want to look like you? "Okay, that's funny. I'm gonna give you that one."

Merith slolwy stepped in front of Matt and Thalia, staring at Mattias with a cold, harsh look of, I dare you to.

A shadow slipped into the room and it giggled, "What's this? What's this?" A familiar female voice that usually comes out of the maw of a black fox echoed in the room. Quinn did a double take and looked around quickly.

"Well what can we say, it's been fun. Let's go now." Esk crumpled up the chip package he was still holding and watched the shadow.

"New playthings my dear, new playthings!" Another voice came from the doorway, one that was eerily familiar to some of the group. Male, with a distinctly Nordic sounding accent. The short redhead barged past a couple of the guards to get a better look at the group, grinning broadly. "Ooo she was right, what a haul. And we didn't even have to lift a finger. Don't you love it when they just give themselves to us? " Kaylr grinned nastily at the group.

"Wow Kay, even in bizarro land you're still a dick." Esk remarked flatly.

Kay shot Esk a withering look, but couldn't quite take his eyes off his own duplicate. This was beyond weird, it was downright creepy.

Kaylr smiled sweetly at Esk. "I like him. I think i'll keep his tongue."

Mirror Shane glanced to Kylar when he came in then looked back to the group of strangers. He had seen his double, protecting a girl. Hm. "Cuff them" He gave that order, sending a glance over to Mattias. "Damaged slaves don't sell as well, though I get the feeling these won't leave this ship."

~
Starr growled and took a step back when the mooks started moving. She did not want to be chained again. She remembered last time vividly still.

Shane frowned at the conversations then shook his head "They are not us, they are opposite." He said, moving in front of Ellie now. He would try to protect her.

Dawn looked around then shook her head, holding to her uncle's arm then making the air form a strong sudden wind to push the mooks out of this room.

Rigel blinked at the wind then focused on the mirror people. "I will not be enslaved again" He declared before focusing on the metals around them to try to distort the guns of the enemies.

Tala snorted and drew her gun. These strangers might smell hauntingly good, but they still were trying to capture her people. That was not acceptable.

Asher looked at the soldiers, feeling a slight sense of deja-vu. This was not good. Not good at all. He forced himself to not draw his gun.
He couldn't help staring at Mirror Kay. This was... disturbing.

"Fuck you!" Ellie shouted, "I am so not doing this again!" She moved out from behind Shane, drawing the gun she had started carrying a few weeks ago.

James really had nothing he could do. He just kind of watched and felt sick.\

Bianca had totally hidden again.

~~
Mirror Asher quietly readied the lab for Kay, tense with permanent anger.

Mattias laughed. "oooo they're gonna fight. I LOVE this bit." He took a step forward, smiling at Rigel and Dawn as he holstered his gun and raised both hands.

"Don't you DARE" Matt let go of Thalia to try to tackle his double.

Esk sighed, and calmly took off his gloves. "So... who wants to cuff me? Anyone?"
He shot the nearest mook a challenging look.

Kaylr laughed manically at the sudden erupting chaos, ducking back out of the room to avoid getting shot or anything.
"Don't kill them just yet, they're no good to us dead." He called in a sing-song voice.

Kay backed away, dragging Asher with him and shaking his head. No, they couldn't do this again, not again. His heart was racing. They couldn't run, there was nowhere TO run. They were trapped.

Luka drew her weapon and brandished the gun threateningly as two mooks tried to approach her. "Touch me and i'll break your arms!" She yelled.

Mourn howled, drew his sword and charged at mirror Shane. He'd run out of bullets firing at the boy creator earlier.

Armin pressed himself against a wall and continued to mumble a prayer, wringing his hands. He didn't fight any mooks who tried to restrain him, he knew he couldn't. "please do not hurt my friends." He begged.

Asher looked at Kay--the real Kay--sadly. "They won't kill us, at least," he said. Well, they wouldn't kill the organics, anyway. He had no idea how valuable androids were here. "We could fight them. They'll hate us even more, but it looks like they're going to hate us regardless."

[There's nowhere to run. ] Kay wrote, shaking his head.

Mattias punched Matt in the face as the two tussled with one another. Matt bit him, hard on the arm. Mattias howled in pain, the crunching sound was pretty horrendous.

"I won't let you do this again. Not again, NEVER AGAIN." Matt's tone was cold, he wiped blood from his mouth and lunged at his doppleganger again.

Mattias drew his gun, just in time to get a swift kick to the face from his duplicate.
Spitting blood and clutching his injured arm close to himself, he opened fire. He didn't really care who or what he hit.

Esk drew his gun, strode forward and pressed the barrel against Mattias' neck. "So, here's the thing. My brother is an asshole, but he's still my brother. I don't care who you are, only I get to hurt him."

Mattias started to chuckle. "What the fuck are you talking about?" He dropped his gun though, and remained still.

Matt kicked the gun away. "Esk, stay out of this. "

"Why thank you dear brother of mine, for saving my arse. I really appreciate it. Thanks Esk, hey any time Matt." Esk snarked and narrowed his eyes at Matt.

Several of the mooks trained their guns on Esk now.
"We got a nice stalemate here. See, you shoot me, I might shook this guy through the neck. Killing him instantly and making quite a mess of your nice floor. Then again, given the stench in here, hygiene doesn't seem to be high on your list of priorities. Considered hiring a janitor? We have a few here if you're looking to employ."

Matt snapped his attention to the mooks, raising one hand.

Someone shot him in the back with an anti magic weapon, closely followed by a tranq.
He pitched foward and collapsed in a heap.

"Well that was effective." Esk sighed and pressed the barrel of the gun harder into Mattias' neck. "So, they stupid enough to try that on me? Or do they give a shit about your pathetic life?"

Kay started when Matt collapsed, no no not again.
Matt! He yelled psychically. Okay, fight it was. Better to die free than live a slave right?
He managed to make eyecontact with James, tossed him his gun and shifted into his true form.

James yelped and grabbed the gun out of the air, turning to fire on the attackers without hesitation. Screw these guys, they were trying to hurt his friends!

Asher drew his own gun and started shooting as well. He wanted to stay near Kay to protect him, but decided that with a gun, he'd be better off doing that from a distance. He did aim for the people who were going after Kay, because yeah, he wasn't letting Kay get any more hurt than necessary.

Ellie screamed a warcry and started shooting like a maniac. She had 36 shots, and she was going to use them all, damn it!

Tala bellowed and threw herself into the sea of soldiers, shooting them at close range and tossing them about when she got too close.

Esk grabbed Mattias by his shirt and dragged him away from the fray, gun still held against his neck, challenging the mooks to fire on him.
Mattias was sensible enough apparently to play ragdoll and not fight back. He really didn't much want a bullet in the neck thanks.
he kept glaring at the mooks.

Kay waded into the fray, ramming those massive claws through the chest of the nearest security mook, hesitating at the sudden shock of actually doing that and then using his taloned foot to push the bloody corpse off himself.
That hesitation caught him a glancing blow in the shoulder from something, he wasn't entirely sure what. He hissed and used his wings and tail to trip anyone rushing toward him.

Armin screamed in terror as bullets and other projectiles started flying around, he'd been cuffed by the mooks but that didn't stop him from throwing them off himself so he could curl up in a defensive ball out of sheer fright.

Merith and Vanessa soon linked, Merith form being engulfed in a green aura to that of Vanessa. Before they could attack, however, he suddenly cried out in pain and fell backwards. A knife had inserted itself into his blind eye. More important, the kind of knife. A dakkan dagger.

Mirror Heny calmly stepped into the room. "It seems I am a bit rusty. I was trying to blind his other eye."

"Hey Captain, so glad you could make it!" Mattias called out, sneakily snaking his hand up to grab Esk's hand.

Esk didn't notice what he was doing until he felt fingers on his skin, reflexively he let go of the gun, and dug his nails into Mattias' wrist as he started to drain his life force.

Mattias hadn't been expecting that, he'd foolishly assumed this Stellan had the same power as their one. That touching him would cause him to go into a trance and surrender some of his energy to Mattias, distracting him and weakening him enough to be captured.
He was half right.
Esk did go into a trance, and he did let go of the gun. But HE was draining the energy, not the other way around. Mattias tried to wrench himself out of Esk's iron grip. "SHOOT HIM, for the love of all things, fucking SHOOT HIM already!" He yelled to the mooks.

Starr hissed and used her magic, making a black hole in the hallway to stop any other reinforcements from coming at least and trying to catch these bad guys in it if they didn't do something about it.

Shane growled and used his magic to change gravity in the room near the mooks and opposits randomly.

Mirror Shane looked at the group, focusing on Esk and Mattias. He frowned and looked around then at the door as Heny came in."Aim better then" he grumbled then looked to the group again, shooting at Ellie

Dawn and Rigel were soon coordinated, using earth and air to throw off the mooks shots at their friends and themselves.

"Enough of this." Mirror Heny sounded almost bored as an incredible amount of magicka energy filled the room. She was trying to use her own magics to shut out the opposing forces. "You come onto my ship like this, thinking you can walk away without repercussion? I doubt that." She walked forward towards Merith, who lied there, stunned and groaning, on the floor. With his yelp, she had tor the dagger right out of his socket and began walking towards Esk with a malicious, angered look in her eye.

Kaylr cackled as a black hole appeared and grabbed onto the door frame, calling into the room. "Oh just knock them all out already!"

Mourn tried to stab mirror Shane with his sword.

The mooks opened fire on Esk who couldn't really defend himself in this state.

"you idiots, don't hit me!" Mattias screamed, twisting so he could kick Esk and try to get him off him. "Fuck he's strong. " He headbutted him a few times in the face as he tried to turn around to face him.

Finally someone managed to shoot him with the anti magic gun. He let go of Mattias immediately, eyes snapping open as his power cut off suddenly. They both stared at one another for a second, then both went for the dropped gun and ended up wrestling on the floor, Mattias punched Esk in the head a few times and stood up as Heny approached.

"He's all yours Captain." Now BOTH his arms were hurt, eugh.