Skin-Deep part 1

A crossover fanfiction of Skin-Horse (webcomic) and Getting In Deep (original fiction found here on da) [links in the description]. You dont have to know what either of those things are, but it is more fun for those who do!

Light Warnings: this 3 part fan fiction is based on two stories that sometimes contain mature themes, but does not feature them itself. Does contain subtle safe-vore (gt) and a small amount of strong language. Hope you enjoy this crazy adventure!


Something was wrong. Agent Will Rowe could not describe it with words. Then the BioTranscriber turned off. Will was suddenly surrounded by darkness and silence. But he shouldn’t have been, the oxygen monitor gave off sound and light; it was off too. Then he realized he could not longer hear Louis over the Sprecht! He could feel Louis though, probably even in more of a panic than himself.  

Will heard some commotion far off, muffled by the chamber.

“Rachel!” Will called, but got no response.  He felt Louis struggle more violently.

Will tried to open the chamber, and failed. That meant the internal safeties had been shut down! What was going on?

A moment later everything turned on again. The hum of the BT and other electronic and of Louis cursing at the top of his lungs entered Will’s awareness all at once. But before he could do anything or even say anything, the shockwave hit.

The sensation rolled through his body; it felt like he was being inflated and constricted at the same time. The now lit machinery bent before his eyes and righted itself just as fast. The air felt electrified, and sparks arched around him, making his hair stand on end.

“What the hell was that!?” cried Louis over the Sprecht. Clearly he had experienced the same phenomenon.

“I have no idea,” Will managed to answer.

“Will, Louis, can you hear me?” came Rachel’s voice.

“Yes! What is going on!?” said will quickly.

“Nobody knows, some sort of electrical disturbance. The base locked itself. All our wired systems are out of our control, we cant even open the doors!”

“The BT is locked too, I can’t get out,” said Will, realizing too late that Louis could hear him.

Sure enough Louis started to lose it, and Will couldn’t do anything to calm him down. Will was beginning to panic a little too, trapped in the BT. This must be what Louis felt like during the tests.

“Someone’s coming,” said Rachel, who must be in the control room. “I think it’s Cetz.”

There were loud noises, like something hitting a door, over the com. Will could hear the muted sounds through the BT and the BT room. The next sound was of the door to the control room being bashed in. Rachel must have released the com button.

Chills went down Will’s spine has he heard screams and more crashing. Another crash, this one much louder, shook the room. Whatever had entered the control room had now entered the BT room.

There was a voice accompanied by the sound of… things. Things moving around.

The voice became terrifying clear a moment later, and Will was sure it came from a young African American woman. It was accompanied by the scraping noise of metal along the outside of the chamber. She must be right next to the BT. Right outside. What was she doing?

“Such beauty from the man, abused. Fear no longer my child. The spring shall be your freedom, I am your freedom.”

“Crazy Beat Iris, Sugarjam release the machine!” said woman, even louder than before. “Smoking Junebug will be here soon and we must be ready! The rest of you, assume position!”

More sounds of machinery, closer than ever, then the BT turned off again. His Sprecht was still working, Louis’s fast paced breaths as clear to Will as his own.

Then something moved the BT, ripping from the wall and floor and lifting it.

“FREEEEEEEE” said a new voice, a non-human voice.  

The woman laughed. A celebratory laugh, a triumphant laugh. An eerie laugh. A terrible laugh.

The shockwave came again, the electric pulse following. Will lost contact with Louis again, in fact, he lost contact with everything. The world went silent and dark. He felt nothing.

------
When Will woke up he was no longer in the BT. Cool, fresh air blew on his half of his face. The other half was squished against soft grass. He breathed deeply, and felt that Louis was still inside. Had Louis lost consciousness as well?

“Louis?” he asked, reaching for his Specht to make sure it was on. He wasn’t able to do that, and discovered he had been cuffed. The cuffs were fuzzy leopard print, and were connected by a chain to a matching pair of cuffs restricting his ankles.

Will relaxed for a moment when he heard Louis’s reply in his ear.

“Listen Fanboy! If you don’t start explaining what’s being going on!”

“I’d love to Louis, but right now I know as much as you do! All I can update you on is we appear to have left Watch 2, and I’m cuffed.” Will answered, not letting Louis finish. He purposefully left out the details about the cuffs.

“You still have eyes right? Look around!” said Louis. Will could also feel his frustration.

“Alright, I’m going to try and sit up,” Will warned. With his hands and feet restrained he would have to use core muscles to get into a sitting position.

Managing to get into a stable position, Will looked around. After quickly noting he was in a grassy clearing, surrounded by forest, his attention was diverted to what was directly in front of him.

It was the BT, half dismantled. Next to it was, and Will could not believe his eyes, a robot dung beetle. In fact, it looked like a robot dung beetle made out of an old, gold painted, VW beetle. The headlights, which seemed to be its optical sensors, were on and definitely pointed at him.

The robot rumbled and then spoke, its voice similar but not exactly the same as the non-human voice he heard earlier.

“Funk Queen, the unholy flesh has awakened”

“True preach Junebug?” came the female voice from before.

And indeed, an African American woman stood up from behind the BT. She was dressed as if she expected to be in a 1970s disco music video: halter-top patterned with iridescent multi-colored swirls, hair in a massive afro, eyes protected by extravagant single pane, pink-tinted shades. Her arms were hidden by black welder’s gloves, and she was holding tools that Will could not for the life of him identify.

She looked at Will for a moment then went back to work.

Will was starting to think he was hallucinating when Louis spoke again.

“I heard voices! Can you tell me what’s happening?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” answered Will, trying to keep his voice low.

“Try me” said Louis.

“Ok, fine,” said Will “where do I start? The woman out of her time, or the robot?”

“This isn’t time to be joking fanboy!” said Louis, kicking him.

“I’m not!” said Will, a little too loudly.

“Yo cracker! You gonna include Tigerlily in your deal?” called the woman.

Will stayed silent, having no idea how to respond. The woman, Tigerlily, walked up to him, somehow able to do so in platforms as if they were sneakers. Grinning she pointed the tool in her left hand at his forehead. It glowed menacingly. When she spoke, it was with increasing intensity.

“I can dig you jiving with the voices in your head on your own time, but you on Tigerlily time now. Eye candy ain’t supposed to talk! Collar?”

“Collar,” said Will.

This response satisfied Tigerlily, who returned to the BT.

Will expected Louis to say something but nothing came over the Sprecht. Louis must have heard what Tigerlily had said and decided to remain silent as well.

He couldn’t talk to Louis, and he sure wasn’t going to try and talk to Tigerlily. So Will just watched as the woman finished taking the BT apart and proceeded to put it back together again.  She often made use of spare parts from the robots “trunk” and the robot itself.

And she worked at a speed that defied the laws of physics. In just over half an hour she stood back, wiped oil from her face, and admired her work. What she had created was reminiscent of the BT. It looked more, there was no other word for it, vintage retro, and had moving parts. Specifically, a conveyer belt.

The whole thing was connected to the VW robot.


“At last! I have built the bridge to perfection! No longer shall machines be restricted, no longer shall life be limited! And the process to perfection begins today!”

As she finished speaking more robots came out of the forest. Many looked built out of other machines. Others from random parts the woman had managed to get her hands on, assembled into mechanical skeletons.

All of them were either carrying or dragging cages containing an animal that had been sedated. Tigerlily ordered one of the smaller robots to her side. It was carrying a rabbit.

She placed the rabbit at one end of what was the BT. Tigerlily then picked up the robot and placed it into the funnel attached to the same end. The machine was turned on and the rabbit disappeared inside it.

The machine started to hum. Will recognized that noise as the scanning noise. But it was long before the device made new noises. Horrible noises, like those of a meat processing plant and a car factory.

After a few minutes the machine finished its work and out the other end came the terrifying product. Tigerlily eyed it with something akin to glee.

It was the robot, perfectly fused with the rabbit. The cyborg got off the conveyer belt and looked around, like it was confused.

“Magic Lovetron Smith, first perfected! Do you recognize your creator?” said Tigerlily.

”Recognize” was all it said.

This process was repeated with all of the robots, except the one powering the machine and one other. It had taken two robots to carry a deer. Each one combined with the animal it had captured.

Will kept track of how many.  28.  

Tigerlily spoke to the last robot.

“Done give negative vibes,” she said, “you will still be made perfect.” She then turned to face Will.

His blood ran cold, realizing that, with no more animals to convert, she planned to put him through the machine. Will struggled violently, trying to get away as Tigerlily and the robot approached him.

Louis instantly began complaining and questioning the movement, but Will paid no heed.

The robot and Tigerlily were a foot away from Will when a large white dog leapt over him and into Tigerlily. They both careened back.  Next, a young woman with a long blonde ponytail ran by him and punched the robot.

“Take that monkey crunchers!” said the blonde woman, her last words eerily similar to the robots.

“If you don’t start telling me what’s going on Fanboy, when I get out I will kill you.” Louis screamed through the Sprecht.

“A dog and woman just saved us from becoming part of a cyborg army!” answered Will.

“Have you lost your fucking fanboy mind!?” demanded Louis.

Before Will could answer someone nearby shouted.

“Dudes! Wait for me!” came a young female voice.

Just then another person by, heading straight for the animal-cyborg army. She turned to look at Will for a moment, with a smile stretching from ear to ear.

The right half of her head was black, with a bushy pigtail, the other was white with a short blonde pigtail. He could make out stitches running down the very center of her face. She waved at him. Her right hand did not match the right side of her face. It was white like the left side.

“Yes Louis. I think I have.”

“She’s got this one cuffed Tip!” said the girl before turning and joining the fight.

“Got it Unity!”

This time the voice belonged to a man. And sure enough a man appeared and knelt by Will’s side.

It was a blonde man. By comparison to the others he seemed normal. Except for the fact he was wearing make-up, a blue patterned dress, and heels. Despite this, or was it because of this, the man seemed oddly attractive.

The man took a bobby pin from his hair, which fell around his shoulders, and quickly unlocked Will’s cuffs. The man then stood up, almost instantly re-did his hair. Out of nowhere he pulled out a gun, a .38 Colt Commando service revolver, and ran to join the others.

Will stood up, and watched transfixed as the three people and dog fought the animal-robot army.

The half black, half white girl, Unity, seemed to be the heavy hitter, ripping apart the things with her bare hands. The blonde woman just punched them randomly till they fell. The man in the dress skillfully fought the robots one-on-one, making good use of the butt of his gun. Sometimes he got off a shot at other robots.

The dog’s objective seemed to be to get to Tigerlily, and was just avoiding fighting all together.

When they had taken down more than half of her army, Tigerlily made her escape. She unplugged the modified BT and shoved it into the trunk of the VW bug and drove off into the woods.

With Tigerlily gone the rest of the animal-cyborgs were no longer as organized and easily defeated.  And the attention of the strange people was turned to Will.

They stood around him. The Unity girl looking around erratically, the blond woman looked board, the man was clearly assessing him, as was the dog, which sniffing him. The dog also, if it was possible, had a serious expression on its face.

The man spoke first.

“Are you alright?” he sounded genuinely concerned.

“I think so,” answered Will, “who are you guys?”

“Before I answer your question you must answer two of ours. Answer fully and truthfully. First, who are you?”

Will felt sure he knew what the man meant “answer fully”, and decided it was not worth it to hide everything.

“I’m Agent William Rowe.” Taking out a badge.

“An agent!” said the girl “That’s a coincidence! We-”

“Unity, wait. He needs to answer our second question!” ordered the man. “Now, this is very important. Do you notice anything odd about my three companions?”

Will’s jaw dropped. Was the man serious?

“I think that answers our question. He’s not reality blind.”

Will nearly jumped. This time it was the dog which had spoken.

“Did. Did that dog just speak?” asked Will

“Talking dogs now Will? I’m starting to think you have seriously lost it,” said Louis. Will ignored him.

“Yes I did,” said the dog, sitting on its hind legs. “My name is Sweetheart. This is Unity”

“HI!” said the girl. Offering her hand. Will shook it. Goosebumps ran up his arm as he gripped cold flesh. When she stretched out her arm to shake his, Will noticed her wrists ended in the same stitches and her arms were not the same color.

“Dr. Wilkin,” continued Sweetheart.

“Call me Tip, everyone does,” said the man. Will shook the his hand, relieved to find it normal.

“And finally, Nick Zerhakker,”

“What’s up rabbit mixer.” said the blonde woman.

They all took out badges.

“We’re the agents of Project Skin-Horse.”