A confused Naya stared. The bulldog yawned, the unicorn growling and dishing out copious amounts of 'side eye'.
Good!
Unicorns were not supposed to growl. Also fuck her, it, whatever pronoun it didn't prefer. White light drew her eyes. Where the spine split a fine mist bubbled. A touch produced oozing tentacles that latched to her arm.
Her brain was dragged off a cliff.
There was a rush like nothing she could even dream. Only it wasn't air passing, it was feeling, wordless words, nameless emotions washing over her, sinking her into synchronicity with her soul. Her heartbeat synched with the horse. She could see through its eyes, move it, even hear its thoughts.
Impact.
Not even the sound. Just a reverberating sensation, activating old body networks.
She plunged into a pool of deeper information but sunk through to the other side, splashing into her own body. One that knew what to do. Naya pulled out a straight line of white air, controlling the gas as if it were run entirely through her imagination. The thin but malleable mist solidified into a yari. The staff was the length of the horse, the blade pushing it far past.
She had armour and was a member of the Calvary, capable and willing to charge into hundreds of infantry on her mighty steed, cleaving those too slow to move out of the blade's path. The adrenaline the charge gave her; her grip tested every time. There were others. Yells and screams, hundreds of hardened samurai, all giving their lives for the shogun. The weak, the disloyal, the feckless turned tail and ran before her.
It was a dream, horrific but beautiful. And just too real.
The entire time Drake stood, shivering, wet. Stunned, intimidated.
"You're glowing. That's amazing." Gasped Drake.
"Yeah, check, I can hold this thing without getting tired."
It whizzed as it moved, it became a blur. She swung it at Drake. Glossy silver stopped short of his neck.
"Careful!"
He jumped, tripping on his heels and dropping. He tapped his neck to confirm it was still there.
"What is it?" Drake said pointing at the two headed horse.
"It's a horse charge, whatever that is."
They were in pictures with too much going on. Too much of her real world, too much in the horse's imagination. Worse off, she was dealing with two other minds.
"It's hard to explain" Naya said concentrating. "Ok, I can't explain but I'm getting the picture that these things… these charges… these charges…"
The word echoed constantly. Something was frozen, the systems over cooling.
The panicking and running around stopped. Hundreds watched as, against her will, her thoughts flashed over the skies, on monitors, projected on the walls, everywhere, buttons pressed levers pulled on their own. It was…
They were browsing her mind!
There was a pull on her heart strings, a heavy blast door started to open. There was a hiss from the massive hydraulic system straining under the sheer gravity.
Naya was in there but not alone. There was a kid with features rough enough to sand wood, but adorable…
Thousands of hands, more than should have been on shift, all united as one and grabbed at the door, pushing, pulling, trying to turn off the power, flipping switches, pulling plugs, toggling…
Not there, never there!
The Naya inside, shadowed, dark, made eye contact with herself. Guilt exploded out of the safe. It was base, alkaline, a tidal wave rising into the sky, growing, widening, its roar deafening, threatening to crush her skull.
She reached in, hands of ethereal steel tore through the reactor walls, grabbed at the doors and with a scream, guttural, desperate, she pushed. The mega wave borne of bloody guilt and hate foamed as it crested. A violent vacuum pulled, threatening to drag her in, crushing her bones. Nothing helped, she could only endure the pull, her throat sore, muscles aching, sinew bulging.
Push! Push! Push!
It clicked shut and the reactor hummed.
The panic, the pressure, the guilt had sprayed her red and was a fraction of what'd been.
It'd taken forever to close. There was just so much.
Naya blinked back to Drake's world and smiled, her shoulders acting as a handkerchief.
"There's some kind of…"
Naya paused.
She'd seen a magic of sorts.
No.
A meaningless word like 'magic' or 'spell' stole from it, hollowed it.
"Something happened that makes them invisible or partially invisible."
If they were there then they were special, but what did that mean? They were in a city with millions of people. A million anything wasn't special.
If that's the case… you sure you know where you are?
Naya dismissed what fragment had made the suggestion, without severance. She'd not torture herself. She had a pony that went full dinosaur. And a giant people slicer, she was special.
"If you can see it then you have one."
Before Drake could comment, Naya lifted her pike and raised it as high as she could, gripping it in both hands. She took a breath, trusting what she'd seen, and sent the blade hard to Drake's torso.
A swing that'd cut an oak in half.