The House of Teeth

[Katrielle Layton]

Continued from You Have to Let it Go.

Mei sighed and glanced out the window, cracking a smile. How long had it been since she last had partners to travel with? Sure, Yuuka seemed sort of disenchanted about the whole thing, but her old science buddies were serious too. It wasn't really something she needed to get used to. Even better, if what Omni said was true, they wouldn't die; she wouldn't have to be alone again. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she'd find her old co-workers somewhere in this universe.

No. They had been confirmed dead. As far as she was aware, there had been no reports of dead bodies suddenly disappearing. She wouldn't  be able to find them. Not now, anyway. It wasn't like that sort of thing was impossible here-- after all, she had been rescued by Omni from death. Who knows?

She listened attentively as Fury explained his history, trying to take her mind off of her fallen comrades. So he was part of the police force? "You sound like a person Overwatch would hire," she chimed in. It took her a moment to realize that he lived in 1985. ...What?

Before she could get confused by it too much, Yuuka began to speak. Mei couldn't help but be enthralled-- it was quite literally a world of fairy tales! She had to wonder how it worked though. It was a shame that she couldn't visit it, but... maybe it was for the best. From the sound of it, Gensokyo was like a sanctuary for the forgotten. She knew better than to trespass there.

"Why wouldn't anything be able to leave?" she asked, turning her hair to stare out the front window. She waited a few moments for Yuuka's answer before speaking again.

"Anyway, I work for Overwatch. It's a group that was formed 30 years ago during the Omnic Crisis in order to keep the peace." She paused, realizing that the two probably didn't know what an Omnic was. "Omnics are kind of like robots." With a glance at Yuuka, she figured that the Youkai didn't know what a robot was either. "Think of a robot as a human made out of metal. It can be a little difficult to explain, but that's the gist of it. The Omnic Crisis further damaged the ecosystem, and they set up watchpoints all over the world for some climatologists to use so they could try and fix things. I happened to be one of them, and I worked in Watchpoint: Antarctica."

Before she could say anything else, they passed through the gate.

The most alarming thing was that the Lamborghini was no longer a Lamborghini. Instead, the trio now rode in a carriage drawn by a pair of majestic white stallions, which were carrying the group away from the gate at a speed that the climatologist thought impossible. The fog outside blocked most of their view, but this was apparently the Pale Moors.

Mei held her blaster out the window and tried to see if anything was outside, but the only thing she could make out was a shadow wavering in and out of the distance.

Suddenly, she wasn't so keen on exploring this place.