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For one wild, terrified moment, Amber half wished she’d never stepped through the stupid Gateway.
But the moment passed. And the brief regret, too. Leaving just the terror for her to deal with, as Metre made good on her promise of Reunification.
The Trio weren’t screaming anymore.
“Good,” Metre purred, tall and poised like a high class business executive from the worst kind of cyberpunk dystopia. “Very good, my girls. You are almost back to being- perfect.”
Amber wanted to throw up.
Inside the huge glass orbs, blazing light started to die away, revealing her trapped friends again. Circa, Reco, Point - for months, they’d let Amber tag along on their adventures through the multiverse, sharing stories of fantastic worlds and epic fights but never, never so much as a scrap of a tidbit of the place they originally came from. “We’re never going back,” was all Circa had said, the one time Amber pressed. “Metre wouldn’t let us ever leave again.”
And now, hidden in an overhead ventilation shaft, watching with wide eyes and a hand clapped over her mouth, Amber finally understood.
Circa’s huge afro was gone, cut down to a bare minimum of fuzz across her scalp. Reco’s hair instead had grown, a straight curtain dropping past his shoulders, while Point’s went from their haphazard mohawk to a neat pixie cut. All of their eyes were supposed to be different shades of brown; under Metre’s control, they instead glowed, solid blue and red and green, respectively. The flamboyant outfits they’d been wearing to fit in with the last visited world were gone, replaced by armored jumpsuits, the handles of holo-weapons obvious on each of their belts.
They looked like- like mannequins in a store, posed and staring blankly ahead.
Metre clapped her hands together. “Excellent! Defensive measure One.”
The Trio moved, flowing together to form a protective circle, weapons held at the ready. Amber recognized the arrangement, remembered being startled the first time they’d ever done it, putting themselves around her to ward off a pack of circling lava-cats.
“Scout formation Four.”
More movement, pulling them apart into a staggered line, Point at the front, then Reco, then Circa, each in a low crouch and scanning the area ahead of them.
From her hiding place, Amber could see Metre’s lips sliding into a smirk. “Attack position Nine.”
They pulled close together again, Circa in the center, dual maces clipped back onto her belt so she could hold her hands at the ready to pick up Reco and Point and throw them towards a target - Amber remembered that one too, and the ice giant they’d taken down because of it.
“Shift two slices counter,” Metre called, and Amber’s next breath caught in her throat as the Trio rotated in place, putting them in a position where their eerie blank eyes looked up directly at her hiding place.
Metre’s smirk grew. “Now, my girls. Dispose of our invasive pest, will you?”
“Yes, Mother.”
