《Monster Brethren》


 The Line that was crossed 1

    Start of Part 1__________________________________________________________________________________________


    Ever since I was young I knew that I wasn¡¯t like other people. Growing up the faceless people around me seemed comedic and stupid. Their behaviors, their actions, their tantrums, their playful moods, their stern moods and stony faces, their determined glances and their sorrowful sobs. Their Serious demeanor, their complacent countenances, their serendipitous babble and their flippant personalities. When they are happy it¡¯s as if the sun is shining, when they are sad it is as if the clouds thicken and gather, when they are angry, thunder strikes and when they are without hope it is as if the world is swallowed up in eternal darkness. As if everything is hollow and meaningless. As if the land is barren and life cannot exist anymore. As if there is no point to anything. Ever since I was young I felt this way. This was is no small part because of my parents. My parents were really shitty people and they did a lot of shitty things to me. I lived my childhood the way a raccoon lives their life. I¡¯d scurry about and nibble on scraps before returning to my hidey hole and waiting out the day.


    Twenty years on I stared into my bathroom mirror. A long scar stretched from one corner of my mouth all the way to my ear. It was on the same side that I¡¯d had my eye gouged out as a kid. It made me look as if I had a constant sneer and had contributed more than a little to people keeping their distance from me. It was the last wound they¡¯d inflicted on me before the police took them away and I was carted off to the hospital and some time after to foster parents.


    The Yurman''s were a distant but kind old couple. They¡¯d raised their children well and they had been the owners of a successful business before passing it onto their eldest daughter. I was the only foster child under their care and after only two weeks they¡¯d been taken with me. They¡¯d adopted me themselves shortly before I¡¯d started primary school. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever understand what compelled them to adopt someone like me. But I think in their eyes they only saw the scared little boy and none of the nasty wounds that I¡¯d been inflicted with. Both mental and physical.


    It was on one winter day during my last year of high school. When I saw the sky ignite with an sparkling emerald light. The sky itself split apart and revealed a whole other world. Then it just stayed like that. No one knew what had caused it and yet there it was. A portal to another world. People were in a panic. Local religious figures claimed that it was a sign of the beginning of the apocalypse. The religious community was sent into a frenzy to run, to pray, to beg for forgiveness, to do anything to settle their weak hearts. I however didn¡¯t care. If the world were to end, then let it.


    I had moved out of the Yurman¡¯s house the summer before and although they made sure to check up on me from time to time. We didn¡¯t really have much to do with one another anymore. They¡¯d taken the first plane out of Sydney and I¡¯d stayed. Within a week the UN¡¯s soldiers swarming the city and forming blockades. Humanity first encounter with potentially an extra-dimensional existence was world wide news. Countless people outside the city tried to get in and countless people inside were trying to get out. The UN military was keeping everyone body out and refusing to let anyone leave. It was a full on quarantine. Supplies were aquisitioned from local stores and the owners were compensated for their service to humanity. For the next three years I sat in my crumby flat, ate the crumby supplies provided to me and played video games. With the shops abandoned you could just take whatever you wanted. The internet was provided free of charge and so was the water and power. Life in the city didn¡¯t function. Mostly everyone critical to the cities businesses and companies had been the first to flee. Everyone else was either just the homeless bums to poor or too stupid to get out before the blockade or the white collar workers and families that had been held up for one reason or another and found themselves unable to leave.


    I stayed because I found my purpose in life. That hole in the sky. That was my purpose. Every night I¡¯d watch it. The world on the other side rotated slowly and laboriously. At times it way night there but day here. At others it was night here but day there. I¡¯d figured out that every two weeks our night times matched up. Their cities shone with bright lines and sparkling lights. It was a world like our own. Planes flew through the sky and cars zoomed about through the city streets. As if we weren''t here at all, as if we were something to ignore. They functioned as normal. Business as usual. My mind would wonder each night as I wondered how similar life might be in that other world. That world that was both so close and so far away. Someday I will go there. Even if I have to wait until I¡¯m an old man. I¡¯m going to that mysterious other world that made life seem so much more vibrant.


    One cold night as I watched the other world slowly rotate I¡¯d noticed a quick flash of light brighten the alleyway by my unit complex. At first I¡¯d thought it was just one of the gangs that had been cropping up messing with fireworks. But I overheard them arguing as they drew close to the main street.


    ¡°I told you I¡¯d not hear another word of it. We¡¯re investigating this city in the sky and we will unlock its ancient secrets.¡± The energetic and punctual voice of a woman said. She had an english accent.


    ¡°Nonsense. We¡¯re going back immediately Malinda. It¡¯s the middle of the night in this city and we don¡¯t know what kinds of terrors await us in the dark.¡± What sounded like an older man with a scottish accent said nervously.


    ¡°Nonsense Welkin. It¡¯s my magic that brought us here and it¡¯s my magic that will take us back. And I¡¯m going back until I¡¯ve discovered something amazing.¡± The woman replied curtly.


    They gotten really close now and I thought for a moment to scurry on back into my room and pretend I wasn¡¯t here. However just as was about to get up the two came into view.


    ¡°Please Malinda. At least let us go back and bring a few mercenaries as bodyguards. We have no idea what the dangers are! One wrong step and we could be dead!¡± Exceed an absolutely huge light green skinned man with bulging muscles and short brown hair. He wore a short sleeved white shirt and black short pants that stopped slightly past the knee. His muscles were so large they would have looked ridiculous if his frame hadn¡¯t been just as large to match them. Under each arm he had a pistol holster for a stupidly large pistol.


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    ¡°Isn¡¯t it great!? Just like the adventurers of old. Delving into the depths of the labyrinths. Risking life and limb for untold treasures! Do you have any idea what this could mean for our people Welkin? This could be the second coming of the golden age of adventure!¡± Rejoiced a woman with red violet skin and bouncy curled white hair that came down past her shoulders. She wore blue jeans and a stylized leather jacket. She was much shorter than the massive green man. But even I would seem short next to him and I was 6ft 4inches tall. More than that the woman had small bat wings sticking out of her back and a long black tail of some kind that I could barely see in the moonlight.


    ¡°It¡¯s also incredibly dangerous. The life expectancy of an adventure was thirty minutes from departure. Malinda. Please. Let''s return before our window closes or whatever serves as for a local stumbles upon and and decides they¡¯d like to see us dead. We¡¯ll come back once we¡¯re proper equip to defend yourself in case of an ordeal. Please just- Wha- What is it?¡± The Big green skinned man stammered to a stop when the woman, Malinda, suddenly crouched and raised her hand to him.


    Malinda looked close at the road markings and sniffed the asphalt, ¡°Bituminous pitch, hints of burnt rubber. There hasn¡¯t been much activity here for a number of years. These markings seem similar to our own road markings. Very strange.¡±


    Suddenly she seemed to notice something and snapped her head up towards my direction. I clearly saw her large yellow slit eyes go wide as she noticed me. My phone vibrated and the screen turned on to indicated I was receiving an incoming call. The screen lit me up for them to see clearly. I¡¯d taken to the habit of watching the other world with the lights off because it interfered with my night vision. I squinted my eyes at the sudden light but other than that did nothing. The three of us stood there in shock for a time. I started at the both of them. Not quite sure whether or not to scream and run away or beg them not to kill me or otherwise. So I chose the third option. To stay silent. My scars make it very hard for other to determine my expression without me exaggerating it. So I¡¯d found that if I just stayed silent and started at people they found it unnerving. Actually smiling unnerved people as well. Maybe I¡¯m just scary.


    The big green man, Welkin, suddenly burst into action and drew a gun from an under arm holster. He leveled the gun at me and glared. Malinda glanced back at him and reached out her hand. Indicating that he should hold his fire. She made calm shushing sounds as she slowly moved over to Welkin¡¯s side.


    ¡°Welkin.¡± She said slowly.


    ¡°Yes, Malinda?¡± Welkin said vigilantly.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s a human.¡± She said in a whisper that failed to remain private.


    ¡°Maybe. But what''s wrong with it¡¯s face? You think it could be a wraith?¡± Welkin replied in kind with a whisper that also failed to remain private. Honestly sound really travels far when there''s no background noise around.


    ¡°No. If it was a wraith we¡¯d be dead right now.¡± She whispered with some degree of ridicule in her tone.


    ¡°Should we try to communicate?¡± Welkin whispered back.


    Malinda nodded her head very slowly. Welkin lowered his gun slightly but seemed ready to raise it and fire at any moment.


    ¡°I can hear you-¡± I said before they could try to speak to me.


    Welkin immediately raised his gun again when I spoke and I slowly raised my hands.


    ¡°I¡¯m unarmed and I can¡¯t hurt you. You¡¯d snap me like a twig.¡± I said in attempt to reassure them. Though I¡¯m not sure what they¡¯re afraid of. I¡¯m the one who should be afraid.


    Welkin just stared at me with his black eyes, gun raised and with his finger on the trigger. Malinda waved her hand to get him to lower the gun and he begrudgingly lowered the barrel slightly. At least it wasn¡¯t pointing straight at me for the moment.


    ¡°How did you get here human? Ah, my names Malinda by the way.¡± Malinda asked after slowly standing straight. Her large yellow slit eyes trained on my every movement.


    ¡°Ugh- I¡¯m Haris. I was born here?¡± I said. My tone turning it into a question as my voice cracked unnaturally at the end of the sentence. I tried to ignore too cold sweat dripping down the side of my head. But it was damn hard.


    Malinda seemed genuinely surprised and glanced at Welkin. Turning back to me she asked,  ¡°What on Grenoa happened to your face?¡±


    ¡°My parents were monsters.¡± I grumbled. Suppressing the whirlpool of emotions the mere mention of my parents brought up in me.


    The two glanced at each other before remembering they were being cautious of me and snapping their eyes back to me. I realized I¡¯d need to elaborate because I was talking to monsters and they might not know I¡¯d meant they were crazy as shit-ball, insane.


    ¡°They didn¡¯t like how my face looked so they ¡°fixed¡± it.¡± My voice went haggard with all the things just saying it had brought back to the surface with it.


    The two grimaced.


    ¡°Fuck.¡± Welkin muttered with a pained look in his eyes. Sympathy from an actual goes bump in the night monster. That¡¯s something I¡¯d never expected to ever receive in my life.


    ¡°I¡¯d heard of some monsters abusing their human born children before. But not to this degree. Ancient city indeed.¡± Malinda whispered to Welkin and again failed to keep it private. Welkin simply nodded his head.


    ¡°I can still hear you when you whisper.¡± I said dejectedly.


    ¡°Our apologies. So you live here? In this abandoned city?¡± Malinda asked me. I noticed Welkin had lowered his gun further. Though I was sure that if I made a movement he didn¡¯t like he could still raise it and shoot me in less than a second.


    ¡°Well- yeah. But it¡¯s not abandoned. C-come in off the street it feels weird to talk to you like this. Also we might attract the attention of one of the local gangs like this.¡± I slowly moved my hands to motion them towards the building. Welkin glared hard at me the entire time.


    They reluctantly agreed and I came down to let them in.


    End of Part 1__________________________________________________________________________________________

 The Line that was crossed 2

    Start of Part 2__________________________________________________________________________________________


    On the way down the stairs I answered my phone which was still wringing. The display said Mrs. Yurman. She never give up when it comes to ringing someone. Drives her kids crazy.


    ¡°Haris, honey?¡± A caring elderly woman''s voice came over the phone. Mrs. Yurman.


    ¡°Yes? Mrs. Yurman? Sorry for taking so long to answer. I was in the shower.¡± I said, forcing out a chuckle. I never quite got to calling the Turman couple my parents. My parents were monsters and I hated them. So I could never bring myself to refer to the Yurman couple like that. So instead to me they¡¯re Mr. and Mrs. Yurman, my guardians who raised me from the terrified six year old into a semi normal grown man. At least I like to think of myself as normal anyway.


    ¡°I¡¯m just checking to see if your okay honey. Your Father and I heard the news about the gang activity in Sydney over the last few days. You¡¯ll keep yourself safe okay? Don¡¯t go joining any gangs. You¡¯re not that kind of boy.¡± Mrs Yurman said in genuine worry. That made me smile despite myself.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine Mrs. Yurman. Thank you for the concern. Ugh- It¡¯s pretty late and I have to be up early to play some games online with my guild so¡­¡± I awkwardly said. Knowing full well that I was keeping the alien with the gun and the weirdly hot demon lady waiting.


    ¡°Of course, honey. Just wanted to see if you were okay. I¡¯ll call again on sunday okay? We need to figure out what to do for your niece''s wedding. It won¡¯t be the same without you here. She adore you and will be so heartbroken that you aren¡¯t able to come.¡± Mrs. Yurman chatted.


    The mention of my niece and their granddaughter made me frown. My scar turning it into more of a quiet snarl than a frown. We¡¯d be relatively close whenever she and her parents came to visit. Never anything romantic but we were good friends. I simply thought she was annoying and still feel that way. At the very least however I didn¡¯t feel disgusted whenever we spoke. Which is more than I can say for most people.


    ¡°Sounds like a plan Mrs. Yurman. We¡¯ll talk about it then. Now I should really get some sleep. G¡¯night Mrs. Yurman.¡± I said politely.


    ¡°Good night.¡± Mrs. Yurman returned.


    I Hung up and made my way out the door of my apartment and down the stairs to the ground floor. I made sure to lock the building up whenever I entered or left. There was no one else that should be in here and I don¡¯t want anyone coming in and stealing my stuff. I unlocked the apartment complex front doors and let them in. Welkin was even more intimidating up close. He was at least 7ft and had to turn sideways to get in through the door. Malinda was even more jarring up close. She¡¯s very beautiful and attractive in an otherworldly sort of sense. Almost like she walked right out of a hentai manga. Y¡¯know one of those ones with the monster girls that are kind of horrifying and yet you can still get off on it. You don¡¯t know what I mean? To each their own I suppose.


    I led them both up to my apartment and let them in through the door. Welkin again had some trouble getting in through the door. He had to squeeze through the door frame and I swear I could hear the wood crack. The two looked around the inside with some interest.


    ¡°Looks like my apartment in college.¡± Malinda commented as she took note of the pile of dirty dishes I hadn¡¯t gotten around to cleaning for a week now.


    ¡°A lot smaller than mine.¡± Welkin said absently.


    I walked over to my living room that joined onto the kitchen and motioned towards to a couch and some arm chairs, ¡°Feel free to make yourselves at home. I ugh, never went to college. The City was Quarantined before I got the chance.¡±


    Welkin plonked himself down on the couch and took up more than half of it. Malinda sat in one of the arm chairs so I sat in the arm chair across from her on the other side of the room. I rubbed my sweaty palms on my pants as I waited for one of them to speak.


    ¡°Is there some kind of epidemic?¡± Malinda asked with a degree of worry.


    I shook my head, ¡°Nah, there''s no terrible illness going around that can¡¯t be handled in one way or another. The city was quarantined shortly after the portal opened. No one gets in and no one gets out. At least not- well- on foot anyway. I¡¯m not really sure why they¡¯re doing this though.¡±


    Welkin and Malinda bot gave sighs of relief. I also noted that Welkin had thankfully finally put his gun away.


    ¡°You mentioned gangs before?¡± Welkin inquired.


    ¡°Ah- yeah. It¡¯s been three years since they imposed the quarantine. Some of the people that weren''t quick enough to flee seem to have gone a bit stir crazy. I stayed by choice though and had a feeling as to what I was getting myself into. Though I never expected to have aliens just suddenly show up one night.¡± I said. My mood was on the way up now that I was quite as afraid and they didn¡¯t seem one wrong move away from killing me anymore.


    ¡°Aliens? I take offense at that. I am a proud Succubus and a talented sorceress.¡± Malinda huffed cutely and swatted at a large curl in her white hair.


    ¡°No. Really, you¡¯re plenty Alien enough. I don¡¯t know how things are where you come from. On earth, other than apes and monkeys, nothing else is humanoid in form. Let alone intelligent enough to form a civilization. Just looking at both of you I can see you aren¡¯t human. This is really amazing.¡± I explained excitedly and leaning forwards in my seat.


    Malinda gave me a funny look like I just told her that rain fell up and the sky was yellow. Welkin was impossible to read as he was just glaring at me.


    ¡°Please. Humans have short lives. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve just forgotten us.¡± Malinda voiced her opinion hautilly.


    ¡°Well. We do have books that mention Succubus and many other kinds of mythical creatures. But they¡¯re just works of fiction. At least they were meant to be for the most part.¡± I said weakly as I wasn¡¯t really sure what to say.


    ¡°I see. Perhaps your people turned tales of our people into works of fable. Something must have occurred and resulted in monster disappearing from your world.¡± Malinda said almost to herself more than me.


    ¡°What was that magic device before that was making the noise?¡± Welkin spoke up during the lull.


    ¡°Oh, that was my phone. The woman who raised me in place of my parents wanted to know if I was okay. The local gangs have been becoming more active lately.¡± I took my phone out of my pocket and put it on the table for them to look at.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Malinda snapped it up and looked over the phone with great interest, ¡°The phones here are strange. How do you contact people without a landline? This is just a little metal box with a pane of glass on one side. Also the amount of magic contained inside. How does it all fit in there? Not even the purest of crystals can contain this much.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not magical. We don¡¯t have magic.¡± I said gruffly and extended my hand for her to give it back to me. She was getting fingermarks all over the damn screen. She ignored me.


    ¡°No, no. This is raw magic. I can feel it coursing through the magic runes inside this device. These runes are so intrinsic in their complexity. I¡¯ve never seen anything like this before.¡± Malinda squinted at my phone as if she could see through the metal and was trying to look at something very tiny. I snatched it out of her hands.


    ¡°It¡¯s just a smart phone. You can get a cheap one for a few hundred dollars normally.¡± I said trying to contain my frown. This was cool and all but I really dislike the way she¡¯s looking at my phone. Like she¡¯d take it apart if she had the chance.


    I turned on the screen and unlocked the phone before giving it back to her. Her interest reached a higher peak seeing the many apps on the screen, ¡°Here take a look instead of looking at the case like you want to eat it. Touch the screen to interact with the icons on the screen. Swipe your finger across the screen to change which screen you¡¯re on.¡±


    Malinda did as I said and looked through the phone for the next few minutes. Welkin had moved behind her so he could look over her shoulder at it. I felt like signing because they were acting the same way I did when I first got a smartphone.


    ¡°This is amazing.¡± Malinda finally said after almost an hour. He eyes had gone wide some time ago.


    ¡°Really?¡± I asked doubtfully.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Malinda nodded.


    ¡°This device is not only a phone. But also a camera, a television, an entertainment device, a calendar, a watch, a light source, a global network hub and a container for enough magic to sustain a defensive spell for several weeks.¡± She said placing the phone down carefully on the coffee table. Welkin shuffled back over the the couch and sat back down.


    ¡°And it lasts for all of four hours before we need to recharge it. Pretty great huh?¡± I said glumly.


    ¡°But that¡¯s so inefficient. The costs involved must be ridiculous.¡± Malinda said in horror. Her expression spasmed between horror and respect.


    ¡°It¡¯s not that expensive. In fact almost anyone with a job is able to afford it one way or another.¡± Malinda and Welkin both looked at me as if I was crazy again and I couldn¡¯t help but giggle to myself like an idiot.


    Malinda looked at me hard for a moment before asking me, ¡°How do you recharge the magical energy? As far as I can tell you don¡¯t have any training in magic and your don¡¯t have much mana stored in your body. You don¡¯t even have enough mana to activate your talent.¡±


    ¡°If mana is what I think you¡¯re referring to then we call it electricity. It¡¯s supplied to each house, so long as you pay the bills they send it to you. Just gotta plug it into a socket and it gets recharged.¡± I explained before raising an eyebrow.


    ¡°Also what do you mean by my talent?¡±


    ¡°Your talent. What you¡¯re good at. What you were born to do. My talent makes it easier for me to get people on my side and to help me. Welkin¡¯s talent lets him make his skin as hard as iron. Talent is like your inherent ability. Separate from your species ability. Which you also have too little mana to access...¡± Malinda explained with a surprising amount of disappointment.


    ¡°Oh¡­¡± I said disappointedly.


    Malinda smiled wryly and look at me with some curiosity, ¡°But if you let me look at your phone I might be able to alter it so that you can draw mana from it safely. Raw mana damages the body so it would just be silly to try using it without using a filter.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re okay with that? I might try to hurt you after. You¡¯re being a bit too trusting all of a sudden.¡± I suspiciously asked.


    ¡°The rule of guests. You invited us in so you can¡¯t rightfully harm us.¡± Welkin said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.


    ¡°Ugh- I guess that could be considered an unspoken rule.¡± I said giving Welkin a side glance.


    ¡°So¡­ you¡¯ll let me play with your phone some more?¡± Melinda asked with a large smiled stretched across her face.


    ¡°Sure. Just don¡¯t take it apart. It¡¯d be a pain to find another one. Most of the store have been looted.¡± I said before I handed over my phone.


    Melinda took my phone and looked at it from various angles with great interest. From time to time making comments such as, ¡°That¡¯s a strange rune.¡± and ¡°Ooh I get what that does now.¡± or  ¡°I have no clue what this even is.¡±. I couldn¡¯t keep the concern from my face. So I busied myself.


    ¡°Want any drinks? Food? Any allergies I need to know about? Actually they might not even have the same name so never mind. Eat at your own risk.¡± I stood and walked to the kitchen.


    ¡°¡°Coffee¡±¡± They both said at the same time. So at least that has the same name. I began getting mugs from the kitchen cabinet.


    ¡°Food would be good as well. We¡¯d waited all day for the correct window and never got around to eating lunch.¡± Welkin added and nudged Malinda who didn¡¯t seem very happy about being interrupted.


    ¡°And you spent all of it badgering me and trying to persuade me to put it off for the next nine months while we got ourselves better prepared.¡± Malinda sulked before trying to get back to the phone.


    ¡°We should have been better prepared. These gangs sound dangerous and not just my gun alone nor your magic will be enough to fend off a gang.¡± Welkin gruffly said in return.


    The two started bickering so I ignored them and made coffee for everyone. I also took out a pack of biscuits because they¡¯re the ones I like to dip into my coffee and I¡¯ll be damned if I don¡¯t dip my cookies in my coffee. Anything to ground my mental state and stop everything from feeling like it¡¯s spinning. I worked my mug and packed carrying skills and put everything on the coffee table.


    End of Part 2__________________________________________________________________________________________

 The Line that was crossed 3

    Start of Part 3__________________________________________________________________________________________


    ¡°Probably won¡¯t be same as you know. Actually I¡¯d be surprised if it was.¡± I said with a light shrug.


    I took my mug and grabbed a handful of vanila cookies from the packet before sitting back in my arm chair. Welkin grabbed the mug which looked tiny in his hands and sipped it.


    ¡°Oh, it tastes like instant coffee alright. Though it has a bit more of a smoky and less of a burnt taste to it.¡± Welkin commented. He then took a cookie and dipped it before eating it in a single bite.


    Malinda reached over to her mug without looking away from my phone for more than a second and took a sip. She coughed and maybe gagged a bit before waving her hand and saying, ¡°I forgot to ask for sugar. Also do you have any milk?¡±


    ¡°Ah, sure. Let me get it for you.¡± I went and retrieved them for her as well as a spoon.


    As I was walking to the kitchen Welkin chuckled and said, ¡°She just drinks it for the caffeine''s. But can¡¯t stand the stuff without adding ridiculous amounts of sugar and milk.¡±


    I placed a small container full of sugar and a bottle of milk of the coffee table before squinting my eyes and saying, ¡°I see. So she¡¯s one of those.¡±


    I handed Malinda a spoon and chuckled as I went to sit back in my chair. A little later Malinda had gotten your coffee to her prefered sweetness and milkiness. We¡¯d finished my coffee and cookies, and I¡¯d put everything back in the kitchen. I got bored so I¡¯d started watching TV with Welkin. There wasn¡¯t much on but he seemed really interested in the late night ads. Y¡¯know those ones with the sexy women posing in their underwear and advertising this weird company that just has women that have phone sex with people that call the number on the screen. It¡¯s really weird and I always feel awkward when watching those ads with other people in the room. Let alone two aliens and one of them, Malinda, seemed increasingly more attractive the longer I spent in her presence. Therefore I felt increasing more embarrassed every time the ad came on. I tried just switching the channel. When I did Welkin glared at me with bloodshot eyes until I turned it back and put down the remote.


    ¡°I¡¯m done!¡± Malinda exclaimed and raised my phone above her head, item acquired, Zelda style. So link even exists in their world¡­ Or is it something similar? In one hand she held a sharp tool she¡¯d taken from somewhere. In the other the now modified phone. The back of the phone case was now covered in numerous strange engravings. Welkin looked over and I took that chance to turn off the tv and move away from the remote. Malinda handed my phone back to me. I took a moment to look at it. The numerous scrawling engravings across the cases surface seemed to have no order or meaning to them. They did look pretty cool though.


    ¡°It should link with your magic circuit after you hold it for a few minutes.¡± Malinda explained with a proud smile.


    ¡°Oh okay. Will I need to do that everytime I let go of it?¡± I asked, still looking at the engravings.


    ¡°No. Once it¡¯s linked you¡¯ll just have to keep it within a meter of you. Unlinking is as easy as thinking it. If you do that then you¡¯ll have to link it like this again. Normally you¡¯d have to wait anywhere from a few days up to a year before being able to use something like this. But because you have such a miniscule amount of mana it¡¯ll only take a few minutes to normalise the connection.¡± Malinda made a pinching motion when she said how my mana was miniscule. Almost as if she was commenting on how small my penis was. Which it wasn¡¯t. I don¡¯t feel insecure about my size. Damn! Fuck!


    ¡°I see.¡± My voice a pitch lower than my usual. My face deadpan.


    I grumbled to myself for the next few minutes while those two started talking about their plans. I¡¯ll need to tell them about the military outposts dotted around the city. Who knows what they¡¯ll do if they get their hands on these two. Dissect them? Experiments? One thing I know from movies is that they won¡¯t have a fun time.


    Before long I felt a something foreign and alien circulating through my body. Almost as if I could feel my veins pulsating and the blood gushing through them. It itched slightly and I wanted to scratch but couldn¡¯t because it was inside of me. Letters appeared in the middle of my vision while I was distracted. Once I saw them I couldn¡¯t take my attention away from them.


    ¡°Booting¡­.. 1%¡±


    ¡°Booting¡­.. 24%¡±


    ¡°Booting¡­.. 46%¡±


    ¡°Booting¡­.. 68%¡±


    ¡°Booting¡­.. 82%¡±


    ¡°Booting¡­.. 100%¡±


    ¡°Core systems online¡­..BETA.0.4.5.72V


    Name, 52BUAAHW401SA(Haris Yurman).


    Gender, N/A(Human-Male cosmetic option).


    Age, 21.


    Species, Admin Server(Unknown Variant)


    Racial Talent, Curiosity of the Ancients, Core Programmer.


    Unique Talent, Backup Server Assembly, System link, System Transfer, Auto System Transfer, Assembly options.


    Mana, 3(28,000,003)


    Materials, 0S,0A,0B,0C,0D,0E,0F,0G.


    Primary values-/-/-/


    Physical Prowess, 37. G


    Physical Agility, 52. G


    Physical Durability, 63. G


    Processing, 49. G


    Secondary values-/-/-/


    Vitality, 94. G


    Strength, 19. G


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.Speed, 31. G


    Intelligence, 22. G¡±


    I realized I was looking at a black screen with grey letters in the center before I knew what¡¯d even happened. It explained my basic parameters. When I tried to look away from it I found that I couldn¡¯t move my head. A computer can display their hardware details so it makes weird kind of sense if I can.


    The screen closed and changed over to another screen that was transparent other than a basic UI with an icon in the corner that brought up my stats. Closing my stats again I took notice of Malinda and Welkin looking at me. Seeing me looking between the two of them Malinda smiled at me.


    ¡°Ah, he¡¯s back. Welcome back. It¡¯s pretty weird right? Usually you¡¯re supposed to go through it during puberty. So it¡¯s interesting to see someone fully grown go through it. Humans get the Curiosity of the Informant Racial talent. Apparently it gives them a weird sort of overlay to everything. I¡¯ve never really understood it but apparently it¡¯s a huge information overload at times. A lot of humans end up blanking out for hours at a time during puberty because they¡¯re working through information.¡± She explained gently.


    I noticed that when I looked directly at them a list of minerals and lots of other data that I didn¡¯t understand popped up. Whenever I focused my vision on something a loading bar would appear and once it filled up it¡¯d display absolutely everything about that thing. This was seriously some sci-fi level shit with all the information, diagrams, pictographs, illustrations, lists, values, bar graphs, pie graphs and loads of other things that I didn¡¯t even know the words to describe. Raw data that made zero sense what so ever and other shit got thrown at me. So much stuff flashed by that I couldn¡¯t get any of it other than that it was made out of stuff and it came from somewhere. It¡¯s like I¡¯m a really shitty supercomputer now. I¡¯m analysing everything I look at but can¡¯t understand it. Also Admin Server? And what the fuck do you mean gender N/A? Cosmetic option!? Oh no you fucking didn¡¯t!


    ¡°This will take some getting used to.¡± I said absently and rubbed my eyes. I think I feel a headache coming on.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. It takes everyone a while to adjust. When you spend the first fourteen years of our life thinking the world works in a certain way. Then everything get turned upside down when we start learning about our talents and magic.¡± Welkin said helpfully and pat me on the shoulder with far too much strength. I had to take a few steps to stop myself from falling over and even then I almost tumbled into a wall.


    ¡°Yeah. I was pretty horrified to learn that ¡°Essence¡± was synthetic semen and I had to eat it¡­ Or die of starvation. They don¡¯t like to tell you about that growing up as a young pup in Succubus camp.¡± Malinda shared with a dejected tone and expression. I can guess from how she¡¯s acting that she wasn¡¯t very happy about it. I feel like that was a bit much info¡­ I suppose I could have gathered that from her data if I was capable of understanding it.


    ¡°I see¡­ so you and Welkin-¡± I started to say but was interrupted.


    ¡°Hell no!¡± Welkin said with a degree of disgust on his face.


    Malinda shook her head, ¡°No, we¡¯re just friends. Also you don¡¯t have to be so disgusted by the idea Welkin. You¡¯ll hurt my feelings.¡±


    Welkin panicked slightly and stumbled over his words before getting out, ¡°Sorry Malinda.¡±


    Which was probably more than enough but then he kept going, ¡°I would if you ran out of essence capsules and we were unable to get more. But as a respectable Male Oru¡­ doing anything like that with anything other than an Oru woman disgusts me. Only those stupid orcs that can think of nothing but sex and violence would breed with other species. The Oru clan doesn¡¯t. As a higher species with intelligence, far above an animal like an orc. It would be an insult to my species if I did so while there was still another option.¡±


    ¡°Ah, we stepped on the landmine.¡± Malinda said with a wide smile and winked at me.


    Welkin ignored her and kept going on and on with his lecture before finishing up with, ¡°The Oru make a big deal about these things because we look so similar to Orcs. Orcs are about as intelligent as pigmen and little more than animals. To compare an Oru to an Orc is like comparing a human to an ape. We may have the same ancestor but we are nothing alike. Understood Haris?¡±


    Welken stared at me with bloodshot eyes. I felt like he¡¯d punch me through a wall if I said anything other than, ¡°Understood.¡±


    He nodded his head and sat back down, ¡°Just had to clear that up. So what were we talking about?¡±


    Malinda lifted up a small bag and shook it. It rattled and she said, ¡°Just telling the newb that I have my supply of man pellets in the bag Welkin.¡±


    ¡°Sorry.¡± Welkin blushed.


    End of Part 3__________________________________________________________________________________________


    AUTHOR complains: Ah! Game elements! Kill it like the plague! Settle yer buts it''s just a display of his hardware. Your computer can do this. Though I wouldn''t want to use Haris. Playing Minesweeper would be just too much trouble!

 The Line that was crossed 4

    Start of Part 4__________________________________________________________________________________________


    ¡°You¡¯re both going to need to avoid the military.¡± I said seriously. Taking this lull in the conversation to talk about something that needs to be talked about. Malinda and Welkin both looked at me like I¡¯d slapped them.


    ¡°They might not react well.¡± I said weakly.


    ¡°You did say that there were only humans here.¡± Welkin said while wiping his jaw.


    ¡°They¡¯d treat us like animals?¡± Malinda asked. She looked offended at the notion.


    ¡°Maybe not. If this was fifty years ago you¡¯d probably be treated as such. You¡¯d observed, dissected and put in a draw somewhere in a classified location. Now if the government doesn¡¯t end up killing you through some kind of misunderstand or something equally stupid. Then someone will try to kill you for one reason or another. You¡¯re not human in the end so people will either idolize you or fear you. Or they just won¡¯t give a shit.¡± I shrugged and slumped in my seat.


    ¡°You seem to know a lot about this kind of thing. Are you a government worker?¡± Welkin asked me, his expression sharpening.


    ¡°No. I¡¯m unemployed. I just making guesses based on various hearsay and the generally accepted consensus that the government is never to be trusted. Really I have no idea what would happen to you. But I¡¯d be surprised if you got to go home anytime soon if ever. Not to mention Malinda would probably die of starvation regardless of how things go.¡± I said with some resignation.


    ¡°Well, fuck.¡± Malinda said dejectedly.


    ¡°We need to return. Right now Malinda.¡± Welkin said forcefully. He stood and checked his gun holster and waited for Malinda to get up.


    ¡°The windows closed by now Welkin. We¡¯d end up in the forest of dawn if we went back now.¡± She looked at Welkin and sighed.


    Welkin visibly tensed at the mention of this forest of dawn and scowled, ¡°I don¡¯t care! I can deal with those bigoted fuck munchers. The forest of dawn is also the homeland of the Oru. We¡¯re going back. Right now.¡±


    Malinda gave wry smile and chuckled, ¡°You couldn¡¯t force me to enter that forest even if you bribed me with a lifetime''s supply of chocolate. I can¡¯t stand elves Welkin. You know this. We¡¯ll be fine. We just need to watch out for the local gangs and the military. Besides there¡¯s probably a bunch more things like Haris''s phone.¡±


    Welkin glared at Malinda. Malinda just smiled and kept sitting with her arms crossed.


    ¡°Haris.¡± Malinda said without looking away from Welkin.


    ¡°Yes?¡± I replied on reflex. A reflex I didn¡¯t realize I had.


    ¡°You said you were unemployed?¡± She asked me. Still not breaking eye contact with Welkin.


    ¡°Yes.¡± I said again. I began to get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.


    ¡°How would you like to be employed?¡± Malinda turned to me now and gave me a large toothy smile.


    I noticed she had perfectly white and straight teeth. Her gums however her a deep purple. Strangely that unnerved me. For some reason I wanted to truster her though. Maybe it¡¯s her talent working. Now that I think of it she never did tell me what her special talent was. But considering what she is I probably couldn¡¯t refuse if she didn¡¯t allow it.


    ¡°Sure. What are you paying me in?¡± I said suggestively and my eyes roved over her body before I could be horrified with myself at being such a creep. What the fuck is wrong with me? I¡¯m not like that even with human women. She has to be fucking with my head.


    ¡°Information.¡± She said ignoring my look as though she was used to it. Which just added to my being unhappy with myself.


    ¡°I¡¯ll teach you magic. You have what is essentially a mini mana vein in your pocket so why not use it?¡± She wiggled her eyebrows at me and I felt like I wanted to do anything she wanted me to do so long as she¡¯d do that again.


    ¡°Sounds good enough to me.¡± I readily agreed and smiled dumbly.


    ¡°Then our problem of avoiding the military and the local gangs is pretty much solved. We have Haris helping us.¡± Malinda turned back to Welkin and said triumphantly. Welkin sighed and sat back down.


    ¡°Fine. How much do you know about the area?¡± Welkin asked me in a business tone.


    ¡°Ah, I have the city maps. I¡¯m also on the local forum. Someone made an online forum that you can only access if you¡¯re in the city. They spray painted the web adress all over the place. Some of us think it was set up by the South Coast gang. But I have no idea. There are day by day updates on each of the gang''s activities.¡± I explained as I stood and walked over to my computer chair.


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    I¡¯d set up my computer by the veranda so I could get some sun during the day. Because I don¡¯t go out unless my stocks of food are running low or something broken and I need a replacement. You couldn¡¯t see it from the road and the building across the road didn¡¯t have any windows. So I decided it was safe to assume it¡¯d be fine by the veranda. I sat at the computer and turned on my setup before I motioned for them to come over. I¡¯d scrounged four screens out of a looted computer shop. They¡¯d been left in the back and worked fine so I took them.


    ¡°The gangs are mostly named by which region of the city they hold. We¡¯re in Hurstville. Which is in the middle of the South Coast Vigilance territory. The North Band take up the northern part of Sydney. Ah, Sydney''s the name of the city we¡¯re in.¡±


    Malinda who¡¯d come up beside me while I was talking nodded when I glanced at her. I brought up the browser and typed in the web address for the forum. I¡¯d have bookmarked it but when it¡¯s sprayed on the side of the building across the street I just need to look outside.


    ¡°From what i know the Sydney harbor bridge is contested. Both the North Band and the South Coast Vigilance want to use the Sydney opera house as a kind of fortress to hold the bridge. The local military have been trying to intervene but they just don¡¯t have enough people. Word on the forum is that more troops are flying in but their job isn¡¯t to deal with the gangs. They¡¯re trying to fortify the city in case of alien invasion or something. Sad thing is that none the civilians are allowed to leave. Whenever I go to receive weekly rations I see a few people going into medical tents with the soldier and not coming out. For all I know they could be running some kind of experiment on the locals.¡±


    ¡°Ether from our world in leaking into yours. It¡¯s part of the reason why we were thinking this was an ancient city. The ancients used large amounts of raw mana to power their cities. Raw mana gathers the Ether and causes monsters to spawn. It¡¯s part of why we believed the ancients were so strong.¡± Malinda explained.


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised you haven¡¯t got an infestation problem.¡± Welkin added.


    ¡°They might be running tests because with high Ether levels humans with latent genes undergo monsterfication. Which is an awakening of monster DNA. At times this results in horrific Mutations. However for most it induces a transformation and on the rare occasion it simply awakens monster traits and talents in a human. The process is slow but noticeable. I believe the reason why there isn¡¯t Ether mist covering the city is because of this. The humans of this world haven¡¯t encountered Ether before and so you have almost no resistance to it. You''re absorbing the Ether faster than it can accumulate.¡± Malinda continued.


    Malinda was looking at me with a new found interest. But it was more like she was looking at something inside of me. I tried to ignore her and started looking around for signs of the military and the gang''s recent activities.


    ¡°What about the west of the city?¡± Welkin asked. Interrupting my concentration.


    ¡°Oh, thats where the military have set up. They¡¯ve been relocating people to military housing and knocking down the buildings. They¡¯re fortifying themselves and clearing the area around their fort in proportion of it turning into a warzone. In the centre of the city is the Fens Clan gang. Apparently their leader''s name is Fen. There¡¯s a lot on the forums about them killing people on sight. They¡¯re the most dangerous out of the big three gangs in charge. They¡¯ve even been in a number of skirmishes with the military. Who knows where they¡¯re getting their guns.¡± I waved a hand and went back to work looking for the latest information.


    ¡°I just realized you aren¡¯t human.¡± Malinda abruptly said just as I turned back to the screen.


    End of Part 4__________________________________________________________________________________________


    AUTHOR complains: So I''ve had a massive headache for the last day or two. Maybe I haven''t been getting enough sleep. That''s what I get for writing instead of sleeping. Sometimes free time eats into sleep time and I don''t have the time to catch up on my Z''s. Those sweet and glorious Z''s. I made an attempt at making the sob story at the very start of the first part less cringe worthy. I probably failed. Maybe it''s at least a little better. I could spent more than the two minute before I posted this part on it I guess. Then again I''d like to not do to large of a rewrite. That kind of things annoying for both me and you.

 The Line that was crossed 5

    Start of Part 5__________________________________________________________________________________________


    I took a slow turn on my chair in her direction so I was facing her, ¡°And what?¡±


    Malinda looked a bit embarrassed before saying, ¡°Um. I only just figured it out after talking about the Ether. Your magic circuit is wrong. Humans have very simple magic circuits. Yours has redundancies, back ups, secondaries and is far too ordered and symmetrical.¡±


    ¡°I only just took a look and instantly it became as obvious as day. Humans don¡¯t look like that. It was that obvious after I payed attention.¡± She pointed at something invisible on my chest.


    ¡°Really? What species is he? He looks pretty human to me.¡± Welkin grabbed the back of my chair and swiveled it around to him. He looked over me with a critical eye but didn¡¯t seem to find anything.


    ¡°Maybe he¡¯s a high vampire variant?¡± Welkin finally said. It sounded more like he was asking himself.


    Malinda shook her head, ¡°No that can¡¯t be it. See here?¡±


    She pointed at something I couldn¡¯t see on my stomach, ¡°This part looks like a merfolks circuit than anything else. But then we have over here.¡±


    She pointed at my shoulder, ¡°This looks like a Thunder Saints circuit.¡±


    Welkin nodded in agreement, ¡°Is he some kind of human form Chimera variant? If so then the fact that he retained his ego is a miracle.¡±


    ¡°You two having fun?¡± I asked dejectedly.


    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t happen to know what you are would you?¡± Malinda asked me sincerely.


    ¡°Human enough for me.¡± I said flatly.


    ¡°Oh, shut up.¡± Malinda scowled at me before continuing, ¡°What are you? You should know instinctively.¡±


    ¡°Admin Server. Apparently I¡¯m a machine. Which is bullshit.¡±


    Malinda and Welkin both froze up,¡±What?¡± I asked them.


    ¡°So he¡¯s a Machinist variant.¡± Welkin brought his hand to his chin.


    ¡°Awesome! This is first time I¡¯ve seen one with an ego.¡± Malinda squealed excitedly and bounced on the tips on her toes. My eyes locked themselves on her bouncing breasts against my will.


    ¡°This also explains why you had such little mana. Mechanists have almost no mana of their own and are known for infesting crystal mines. They use the crystals as mana containers and drain the mana from living creatures to power their construction projects and upgrades.¡± She explained.


    Malinda and Welkin started a debate about me and were off in their own little world. So I signed into the forum and checked my private messages. This is what I usually do after watching the giant hole in the sky for a few hours each night. I received a message from my informant and the guy who¡¯s really the only reason I¡¯m still alive today.


    ¡°W0UV9erboud53


    Hey there Ject0RK. Want to meet up tomorrow? Important business. Milly has big plans! We¡¯re going to have a real good time.


    Be sure to watch out for missing socks and I heard that headbands are in again. Dress well for the occasion!¡±


    Fuck. Shit. Damn. Fuck! I kept my frustration internalized and ended up just glaring at the screen. Dress well for the occasion¡­ our code yellow and Important business, our code red. The military¡¯s putting whatever plan they¡¯d been sitting on for the last three years into action, that¡¯s the code red. The South Coast Vigilance have lost the area around my street to the North Band, that¡¯s the code yellow. I had a feeling there had been more shoot outs in the area that usual. This means that this area is now the frontline in the gang fight between the South Coast Vigilance and the North band. Normally the two gangs are not too hostile with unaffiliated parties. But with the fighting between the gangs they shake down anyone they come in contact with. If they don¡¯t like you then you¡¯re dead. It¡¯s as simple as that. If they do then they¡¯ll force you to join them. You get the short end of the stick either way. I¡¯ve also been hearing bad things about the North Band. Most of them being cases of them forcing their female members to ¡°encourage the troops¡±. This encouragement coming in the form of sexual favors and outright slavery. If this information is true then the North Band are really not a group I want anything to do with. I¡¯m all about respecting women and their bodies. I¡¯m also part of team forever virgin so what the fuck do I know?


    Around five hours latter I rubbed my now bloodshot eye and looked outside to see the sun coming up. I guess it¡¯s about time for me to go to bed. When I got out of my chair and turned around I found Welkin watching TV again. Around this time there won¡¯t be any ads with scantily clad women so I guess it should be fine. Malinda was laying half on and off of her armchair and was fast asleep. At first I found it a little funny. Then I realized that was probably the only position she was comfortable in. Her tail and wings weren¡¯t getting in the way when she layed on it like that.


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    ¡°Hey. How goes the info hunt?¡± Welkin asked me when he noticed I was off the computer.


    ¡°The military is going to pulling something soon and the area around my house will be dangerous from now until who knows. The frontline between North Band and the South Coast Vigilance has moved into the area. Apparently they lost the bridge and North Band is pushing south. I won¡¯t need to move for a while but I will have to be more careful. Other than that Fens Clan has been killing people in Bankstown just northwest of here and South Coast Vigilance is struggling to hold Surry Hills to the northeast. Bad news all around. Things in the city had been cooling down after the big three claimed their territories. It seems that was wishful thinking because things are getting heated again.¡± I said. Informing him of the main points of everything relevant I¡¯d learned.


    ¡°I see¡­ ¡± Welkin turned off the TV and nudged Malinda awake.


    ¡°Hah!? What?¡± Malinda jolted awake, sat up and wiped away some drool from the corner of her mouth.


    Welkin repeated everything I¡¯d said back to Malinda and her expression scrunched up in annoyance, ¡°That¡¯s going to make getting around a bit more annoying.¡±


    ¡°Do you know any good ways of avoiding trouble?¡± She asked me.


    ¡°Most people stay off the streets to avoid trouble. But walking through the back alleys is a definite way to run into armed gang members when they¡¯re fighting for the area. During this time people like me usually keep in doors and don¡¯t go outside. It¡¯s why I have such a large stock of food here. If the army stopped supplying food I¡¯d have enough to keep myself well fed for about a year. Two if I ration it.¡± I explained.


    The looks on their faces making it evident I hadn¡¯t lived up to their expectations.


    ¡°Nevertheless I want to look around for materials and magical devices.¡± Malinda finally said after being deep in thought for a while.


    ¡°How confident are you at fighting people with submachine guns?¡± I asked with genuine interest.


    ¡°I know a few protection spells that could hold out against gunfire. I wouldn¡¯t be able to fight back though.¡± Malinda replied seriously which surprised me.


    ¡°Using my talent I could take more than a few bullets. I¡¯ll have a plethora of nasty bruises the next day though.¡± Welkin said after Malinda.


    ¡°I could take one and die shortly after.¡± I said sarcastically.


    ¡°Your talent can¡¯t help you with that?¡± Malinda asked me.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have a cool defensive talent like Welkin.¡± I sulked.


    ¡°What is your talent anyway? So that we can work it into our battle plans.¡± Welkin asked me curiously. He seemed to be trying hard to not be so obviously curious however.


    ¡°Backup Server assembly and a few other that all seem to be related to it. I have no idea what they do. What I do know is that I need materials to do it and I don¡¯t have any materials.¡± I said.


    ¡°What do you use as materials?¡± Malinda asked me with obvious interest.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s just has letters with a number next to them. They don¡¯t seem to be minerals. It¡¯s almost like they¡¯re ranked rather than anything else.¡± I said perplexedly.


    ¡°Ah. I think I know what it is. In our world materials are graded by their relative strength and rarity. That¡¯s probably what those letters are referring to. The ranking starts at S for special and then from A to G.¡± She explained simply.


    ¡°So¡­ I can just pick up something and use it as a material is what you mean?¡± I asked. Not really understanding.


    ¡°Technically that makes sense. ¡° Malinda nodded.


    End of Part 5__________________________________________________________________________________________


    AUTHOR Reminisces: Crashed into fantasy... I need more.

 The Line that was crossed 6

    Start of Part 6__________________________________________________________________________________________


    I picked up a pen with the intention of using it as materials and it turned into a golden fog before entering my hand and disappearing beneath my skin. That was relatively simple and freaky. It¡¯s one thing reading that you aren¡¯t human and having people say you aren¡¯t human. It¡¯s another thing entirely to confirm for yourself that you aren¡¯t human anymore.


    ¡°Core systems online¡­..BETA.0.4.5.72V


    Name, 52BUAAHW401SA(Haris Yurman).


    Gender, N/A(Human-Male cosmetic option).


    Age, 21.


    Species, Admin Server(Unknown Variant).


    Racial Talent, Curiosity of the Ancients, Core Programmer.


    Unique Talent, Backup Server Assembly, System link, System Transfer, Auto System Transfer, Assembly options.


    Mana, 3(28,000,003)


    Materials, 0S,0A,0B,0C,0D,0E,1F,0G.


    Primary values-/-/-/


    Physical Prowess, 37. G


    Physical Agility, 52. G


    Physical Durability, 64. G


    Processing, 50. G


    Secondary values-/-/-/


    Vitality, 95. G


    Strength, 19. G


    Speed, 31. G


    Intelligence, 22. G¡±


    So a pen is considered an F rank material? I don¡¯t know if that good or bad. Next I thought about trying to use my Backup Server Assembly talent and a black screen with grey writing filled my vision.


    ¡°Create.


    Customize.


    Cancel.¡±


    Was listed. I didn¡¯t know how to select one of them but it somehow just knew what I wanted. The screen changed over to a customization interface. Listing a number of things. Before I could do anything I was forced to chose what materials to use so I selected the one F rank material I had. This gave me ten points to use. Gender was set to female so I switched it to male. However I was denied because it apparently costs one hundred points to change it from the default. As a result I wasn¡¯t able to change hair colour, skin colour, species or ethnicity. I would have just given up and come back when I had more materials but it refused to let me leave the menu while I still had unspend points. I wasn¡¯t able to turn the points back into materials and I couldn¡¯t leave the screen while I still had points. So I was being forced into completing it. I tried just pressing complete but again I couldn¡¯t proceed without spending my points. The only thing I could spend my points on was its stats so I put a point into every one and was left over with two points. I put both in processing. Looking over its stats it was pretty bad. What am I making, a new born child? I tried going back again just in case and was again unable to leave the menu. So with no other choice I completed the customization and the screen closed. From my hands gold glowing mist flowed into the air before me and suddenly condensed in on itself and a naked young girl fell on the ground.


    ¡°It¡¯s a girl.¡± I said dumbly.


    On the floor laid a sickly young girl that looked no older than in her early teens. She took quick short breaths like she was having trouble breathing and wasn¡¯t moving. She was nothing but skin and bones. Her black hair had a greyish tint to it and was rough like straw. Then I felt it. Absolute and utter weakness. A feeling like I was on the verge of death. Like I hadn¡¯t eaten for months and was on borrowed time. The cold of the hard tiles. I felt everything she felt and I somehow knew that there was no mind to that body other than my own mind. I was in two places at once. Half of me feared for my life and the other was confused as to why.


    ¡°Whoa! Malinda, I think he just had a kid.¡± Welkin said exaggeratedly and motioned toward me.


    I snapped out of it and ordered myself. The part of me that feared for its life was small. Miniscule compared to the majority. If I focused I could stop it from spreading to the rest of me. A four to my fifty I thought to myself absently.


    ¡°Is she okay?¡± Malinda asked me seriously.


    I bent down back picked her up. She was far too light. She seemed to be suffering from malnutrition. So this is having one in every stat. I took her to my armchair and placed her in it carefully. I went and grabbed a blanket before placing it on her and tucking it in as carefully as I could. That small part of my mind quieted down a bit and now only complained about feeling weak and being hungry, so hungry. Shit. This is so fucked up.


    ¡°No. She¡¯s anything but okay.¡± I said finally turning to Malinda.


    ¡°So this is what your talent does? It makes people?¡± She asked me. Her voice held a mix curiosity, disgust, outrage and sorrow.


    I just nodded my head and turned away from her. I had no right to be angry, I knew that. But the little voice in the back of my head was begging me to cut off the rotten limb. I had every right to be angry with myself. So I walked into the kitchen and started boiling some water in a pot. I think I remember that you need to start someone like this on watered down broth before moving them onto something more. If I were thinking I probably would have looked it up on the internet to be sure. I however just wanted the part of my mind that makes up her to stop complaining. When it was done I came over with a bowl and started spoon small amounts of it into her mouth. She didn¡¯t swallow and even move. This was because I hadn¡¯t made her I realized. With little effort, as if I was moving my own mouth. I opened her lips and swallowed a mouthful of the broth. As I worked through the broth I felt her hunger die down and stopped just before she was full. I kneeled by the side of the armchair and just stared at her. This was really such bullshit it wasn¡¯t fair.


    ¡°This is because I didn¡¯t have enough materials.¡± I finally said.


    ¡°Then why¡¯d you make her? Couldn''t you have just gotten more materials?¡± Welkin asked me. It wasn¡¯t accusatory but I felt like it was.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t have a choice. Once I started I couldn¡¯t go back. So I had to proceed and this was the result.¡± I said unhappily.


    I stood and saw Malinda looking at the kid with sad eyes. I sighed.


    ¡°What kind of mechanist makes people?¡± She asked without looking at me.


    ¡°Animals can be seen as just incredibly complex machines made of renewable materials.¡± I said emotionlessly before I realized what I was saying.


    ¡°Well at least you have one thing in common with normal mechanists.¡± Malinda told me. A tear fell from her eye and she wiped it away with the sleeve of the jacket.


    I¡¯m a fucking asshole. I should just fucking die in a gutter. Ahh, shit. Why¡¯d I fucking say that? Time and place, fuck! I should have said anything but my opinion on the matter. Damn! I am an idiot!


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± I said and went to my room to catch some Z¡¯s. I¡¯m not well rested enough to deal with this interacting with people shit at the moment. Let alone weirdly human like aliens.


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    I opened the girl''s eyes and looked around with them. Even though I¡¯m asleep the girl was still awake. With my main body asleep I now felt nothing but what this sickly girl felt. It was like moving away from the noise of the highway and ending up in the country. Everything was so much simpler here. Just grass plains and fields for kilometers in every direction. I could feel myself thinking more simply and the talk Malinda and Welkin were having barely made sense some of the time. The two stopped upon seeing the girl open her eyes. Malinda came over and said some reassuring words that I didn¡¯t catch. I decided it would be best if both I and the girl slept, and so she slept.


    That afternoon when I woke up it was actually the girl that woke up first. She was awoken by Malinda who had brought food. It was a bowl of death. I mean cereal. Thankfully it was just corn flakes but I wasn¡¯t sure how the girls body would react to the milk. Unfortunately I was asleep and couldn¡¯t force myself awake. It¡¯s not abnormal for people suffering from severe malnutrition to outright die after eating something to nutritional. I don¡¯t know the science behind it but I remember it being mentioned during history class while we were doing a project on WWII. I thought of all this latter however because at this moment all I could understand was the girl is hungry and there is food.


    ¡°That mean mechanist giving you that watery soup. Let Malli feed you.¡± Malinda said in addition to a bunch of baby speak and noises that made no sense to me through the filter of the girls mind.


    I opened the girl''s mouth to eat. She was hungry and there was food. The solution was simple. Eat. I felt satisfied with solving the apparent problem. It was only after the food had gone down the girl''s throat that I realized I messed up. Pain shot through the girl''s body from her stomach and she threw up after a few tens of seconds of suffering. All of which was under my guidance. I felt satisfied with myself after throwing up because the pain stopped. Malinda freaked out, grabbed paper towels and wiped up the vomit. I felt my original body stir slightly from Malinda raised and worried voice. However I missed the timing and and couldn¡¯t rouse myself. I wasn¡¯t really sure why I needed to do that at this moment anyway. Thankfully Welkin stopped Malinda.


    ¡°It¡¯s probably a human thing Malinda. You may not be happy with our new employee at the moment. He¡¯s maybe not human. But he knows more about humans than we do.¡± Welkin patted Malinda on the shoulder in an attempt to reassure her.


    ¡°But she¡¯s just skin and bones. Her mana circuit started to repair itself after Haris fed her. Why is my food no good?¡± Malinda sulked.


    ¡°Maybe that broth had some kind of healing potion mixed in it?¡± Welkin hypothesized.


    Malinda nodded her head, ¡°I found numerous herbs in the kitchen while I was looking for more coffee. He¡¯s definitely a hobby alchemist.¡±


    Welkin scowled, ¡°I guess that means if he wanted to kill us then we¡¯d be dead. We should have been more cauious. Just because Alchemy is a dead proficiency we overlooked it.¡±


    ¡°Well at least we can trust him not to kill us. My Racial Talent and personal Talent have also taken hold of him. So he should be loyal within reason.¡± Malinda sighed and seemed a bit disgusted with herself.


    ¡°I had to push enough mana to make most people go crazy and rip my clothes off. At first I¡¯d thought he was gay. But now that I know he¡¯s a mechanist it makes perfect sense.¡± She mused after taking a few moment to settle her thoughts.


    Welkin nodded, ¡°He probably doesn¡¯t even realize his ego was altered by his racial change. You can¡¯t hold his cold outlook against him. He obviously seems to be trying hard to be the same person he was before he became like that. Even if he doesn''t realize he¡¯s doing it. Any emotional response from a mechanist is already an unheard of anomaly. Yet he seemed genuinely scared out on the veranda with my gun pointed at him. He also obviously wasn¡¯t happy with himself after making her.¡± Welkin pointed at the girl and sighed.


    ¡°Unless he¡¯s a really good actor. Then he¡¯s a new variant of Mechanist we haven¡¯t seen before. One things for sure. He¡¯s at the very least a High monster like us.¡± Welkin added.


    Malinda sighed louder, ¡°Fine. I¡¯m sorry it was just too big of a shock all of a sudden. I was still adjusting to the fact that I was in the same room as a machinist and he wasn¡¯t trying to disassemble me and use me as materials.¡± She put took the bowl of cereal, sat on the couch and started eating it.


    ¡°Our return window should be in fourteen hours. We¡¯ll have Haris lead us to some magical devices and then we¡¯ll get back to Almahawn City. And we¡¯re taking that girl with us.¡± Malinda nudged her chin in the sickly girls direction.


    ¡°We can¡¯t j-¡± Welkin began. But before he could even get mid way through the word Malinda interrupted him.


    ¡°Not hearing it Welkin. She¡¯s coming with us. I don¡¯t care what Haris thinks about it. This is our fault for making him use his Talent.¡± Malinda pointed her spoon at Welkin angrily. Standing her ground against the giant of a man that was Welkin.


    ¡°Fine. I already know I can¡¯t change your mind.¡± Welkin sighed. After a moment he sat down, turned on the TV and started getting absorbed in the afternoon airing of children''s shows.


    End of Part 6__________________________________________________________________________________________


    AUTHOR Comments: The gender was bent. I guess? Near death experiences really suck though. Especially malnutrition! I had an issue when I was starting collage where my stomach just couldn''t handle food. Whenever I ate I felt indescribable pain and I lost near a hundred pounds. I couldn''t bring myself to eat anything for near three weeks. We didn''t go to the hospital straight away because my family has a weird thing about admitting to being ill to anyone. This event fixed my aversion to that though. Nothing like mild malnutrition, a lack of vitamins, a hole in your stomach and a malfunctioning gall bladder to kick a family policy out of you. But hey what a way to lose weight! As effective as doing drugs, am I right? No, don''t do either of those things ever. Especially not just to lose weight, they really aren''t worth the issues that come with them. I was actually I pretty confident athlete before my body cannibalized my muscles to keep me alive. Never cared enough to build them back up. Though they will always be remembered for their year of service and devotion to being useless masses of flesh that I never used for anything meaningful. There''s a masturbation joke in there somewhere, regardless of how distasteful it may be.

 The Line that was crossed 7

    Start of Part 7__________________________________________________________________________________________


    I felt irritation but was unable to understand such an emotion at the moment with my main body asleep. The girl¡¯s body felt tired and the two weren''t talking anymore so I made her sleep. When I woke up I realize the confirmation of my thoughts last night. I have a feeling the degree of her control is much more limited than I¡¯d thought. Though I suppose I don''t care. I don¡¯t care if they take the girl when they leave. I will try to use that as a reason for them to take me with them. They¡¯re just giving a card to play. Or if I take a few moment to stop thinking like an evil overlord then it¡¯s honestly fine if I stay here and they take her there. Who knows? Maybe the connection can be maintained between worlds. That would be an interesting experience that I¡¯m more willing to test rather than using my two first ever RL friends. I like that plan more. Though I would really like to go there. It can¡¯t be helped if they refuse. I¡¯ll find another way somehow.


    ¡°G¡¯afternoon.¡± I said and waved at the two who were eating some kind of pasta they¡¯d made themselves for dinner.


    ¡°Morning.¡± Malinda replied. Welkin just grunted at me.


    I looked at the clock in the kitchen and saw that it was 5pm. I slept for twelve hours again today. THis probably also has something to do with the fact that I¡¯m not human anymore. If I assume that I stopped being human around the time I started sleeping twelve hours everyday. Then I stopped being human two months ago. That was also around the time I really started getting involved on the forum. Before then I was just a lurker at most and very rarely went on any forums. Now I¡¯m pretty much everywhere on the forums of stuff I¡¯m interested in. As of late I spend more time on the forums than playing games. I thought I was just lonely. But maybe it¡¯s something more than that.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t try to feed her did you?¡± I asked knowingly when I came back to the living room with more watery stock soup.


    ¡°I tried to feed her some cereal but she threw it back up.¡± Malinda frowned.


    ¡°Well at least you didn¡¯t try and feed her chocolate. She¡¯d probably die if you did.¡± I nudged the girl awake.


    I felt that tiny part of my mind that was sleeping soundly, awaken. The weakness and hunger gnawed at me again and I took a moment to restrain it again. I made her open her eyes which felt strange like opening a second set of eyelids I didn¡¯t know I had. Then I went through the process of spoon feeding her the soup again. This is really a pain. I¡¯ll be relieved when Malinda takes her off my hands. Not that I don¡¯t feel sorry for making someone who¡¯s on the verge of death. It¡¯s just that this is depressing as fuck on top of being a really weird experience. Because it feels like I¡¯m the one sitting there on the verge of death. Being spoon fed really shitty soup that tastes like the most delicious soup I¡¯ve ever eaten. It¡¯s vexing more than it is annoying.


    ¡°So what¡¯s wrong with her?¡± Malinda asked while wringing her fingers.


    ¡°Her body was created without enough materials. So it seems that this was the result. She appears to be in a state of severe malnutrition.  We need to get her body used to eating food. It¡¯s why I¡¯m feeding her with this watered down stock. It has most of what she needs and she¡¯ll keep it down.¡± I explained.


    ¡°Good. Good.¡± Malinda nodded to herself a few times.


    ¡°Why so concerned? I made her so I won¡¯t let her die. Just let me take-¡±


    ¡°No! You don¡¯t get to say that. You only made her because I told you too. So she¡¯s mine!¡± Malinda interrupted irrationally.


    I turned to her with my mouth ajar exaggeratedly, ¡°I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m on this side of a ¡°I gave birth to it so it¡¯s my responsibility¡± conversation.¡±


    ¡°You just supplied the seed. I did all the work. Need I spout anymore bitchy single mother lines?¡± I continued mockingly.


    Malinda gave me a death glare.


    ¡°I apologize for her Haris. High monsters have strong protective instincts towards children specifically. She feels it was at the very least her fault in part. So she¡¯s feeling this protective instinct even more strongly than myself because she feels it¡¯s her child.¡± Welkin said apologetically.


    ¡°She is.¡± Malinda said quietly. I ignored it.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯m just stirring you. I suppose I went a little far. If you want to ¡°take responsibility¡± as it were. Then I¡¯m fine with that. It¡¯s dangerous here anyway. You should take her with you when you go back.¡± I suggested. Knowing full well that they¡¯d intended to just take her and not caring. This way we might be able to remain friendly if we ever meet again. I also refuse to continue having this conversation.


    ¡°I intended to.¡± Malinda huffed.


    ¡°Though I¡¯d feel sad if you never called. You are after all the father of my child.¡± I said jokingly. Which got me another glare from Malinda.


    ¡°So I suppose you guys want to go to a hardware shop? Find some computers and batteries.¡± I suggested.


    ¡°No. You¡¯ll lead us to a nearby Magical device storage and help us find more of your worlds Mana Crystals.¡± Welkin corrected me with their world equivalent of what I¡¯d just said.


    ¡°That¡¯s what I just said.¡± I said dismissively.


    I took a shower and changed into a clean set of clothes. I¡¯d taken a liking to scarves lately. They do a very good job of covering my face so that is I¡¯m seen they won¡¯t know who I am at a glance. I wore my usual going out attire. Boxers and a red shirt with 1919 in an exaggerated yellow and orange font. Over top of that I put on a bulletproof vest, a black hoodie and baggy cream coloured long pants made of a sturdy fabric. I made sure they were things I didn¡¯t mind being destroyed or having bullet holes in them. I¡¯ve only been shot twice but it was a close thing each time. The first time I didn¡¯t have a vest and Wouver, whose actual name is Ashley, saved my life. The second time I took a hit to the leg, which sucked. Before leaving my room I grabbed a handgun from under my pillow that I didn¡¯t know or care to know the name of. I think I remember Ashley calling it a Golck or something stupid. I stuffed it into the pocket of my hoodie since I didn¡¯t have a holster and I stuffed my phone in the other pocket. When I got back to the lounge Malinda and Welkin looked ready to go.


    ¡°Is Rachel going to be fine here on her own?¡± Malinda asked me.


    ¡°Who?¡± I asked because I don¡¯t know any Rachel or what the fuck she is doing in my house.


    ¡°Her name''s Rachel. I decided it while you were sleeping.¡± Malinda pointed at the girl. I didn¡¯t have to look where she was pointing however because I saw what she was pointing at from ¡°Rachel¡¯s¡± eyes.


    ¡°Okay. Yeah, RACHEL, will be fine.¡± I made sure to enunciate the name so she knew I got it. I was maybe a little offended that she¡¯d named me or at least an extension of me against my will. Not to even mention that haven¡¯t gotten to telling her that she¡¯s pretty much my body double. But I just decided I¡¯ll keep that to myself because fuck her.


    ¡°Won¡¯t you Rachel?¡± I asked for no real reason to the girl. Which was equivalent to talking to myself from my perspective and made her nod her head. I gave a thumbs up to Malinda and knew I was acting like a jackass. But she was fucking with my brain so I think it¡¯s justified.


    Malinda didn¡¯t have much to say after that and just glared at me for the entire walk down the stairs and out of the building.


    The three of us came out of the apartment complex and onto the street. So long as we stayed on the main road it¡¯d be unlikely that we¡¯ll run into any gang members with the sun going down as it is. There were plenty of flashlights and other light sources but these weren''t trained soldiers. Because of how ineffective the gangs are at fighting in the dark they generally just hunker down at night and wait for morning. So long as we don¡¯t make too much noise we¡¯ll be fine. I finished locking up before taking out my phone and checking my GPS. I¡¯m not gonna bother checking any electronics stores. Everything of worth had been looted and stashed somewhere for latter within the first year or so. If you¡¯re luck you might find something worth taking. If you¡¯re the tech savvy sort you could probably find some junked electronics and repair them. I¡¯m really not. Funny thing is, I was actually one of the first few people that started looting. The city was quarantined, the police were gone and no one was gonna stop me. So being the intellectual. I naturally stoll everything I could and hid it. I checked the coordinates I¡¯d memorized and refreshed my memory of how to get there. It really wasn¡¯t far. There was however the issue that it was in what was most probably the new deadmans land of the gang war. I walked onto the main street and started walking northwest along the A3 or is it called king georges road? I¡¯ve very really been good with street names. After about half an hour of walking I looked up from my map to make sure I was going the right way. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time I¡¯d walked for an hour and realized my GPS was glitching for whatever reason.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Keeping look out for trouble the three of us talked about meaningless things as we walked. Things like the weather, the similarities in our worlds architecture and the ever reliant comment on how creepy it is to be in a city without people. As we talked I hugged my hoody close. I made sure to complain to them about how the weather was cold and not just cold, but stupidly cold for Australia. Ever since that hole in the sky opened it was colder than it should be in Australia. It wasn¡¯t rare for it to snow anymore. In fact it snowed almost every other day now. I lived eighteen years wishing I could go see the snow someday and now I can¡¯t stand it. Luckily however it was warmer today. The snow had melted and the streets were slick with the chilled water. It was 16¡ãc and a perfectly sunny day according to someone in the world. I however had found that I was used to and prefered the 28¡ãc norm of an Australian summer. At least that used to be the norm, now the snow just melts. We reached a train station without running into anyone and I could only hope that we had as much luck on the way back.


    ¡°This where it is?¡± Welkin asked me with obvious curiosity.


    I nodded my head, ¡°This is where it should be. We keep a few different kinds of batteries here.¡±


    ¡°We?¡± Malinda asked me, wanting me to elaborate.


    ¡°My forum friends and I share a few caches. I share this one with a friend of mine called Ashley.¡± I took a few steps before stopping and looking back at them.


    ¡°Actually she lives here most of the time so¡­ try to be nonthreatening.¡±


    The two nodded to me and seemed to try and back themselves visibly less threatening. Which was both ridiculous to look at and did the exact opposite. I shook my head to indicate they should stop. They thankfully got what I meant and stopped being stupid. I approached the door and then realized something.


    Looking back at the two again I said, ¡°Actually you two should wait here. I¡¯ll call you in after preparing her for it. She really might shoot you.¡±


    The two nodded with what I suppose could be an understandable amount of annoyance for someone from their world. I honestly didn¡¯t care if it annoyed them though. I didn¡¯t enter immediately, instead I stood before the door and closed my eyes. I breathed in slowly and then breathed out slowly to calm myself for what was to come. Ashley and I had a code that was more a set of actions to keep each of us on our toes more than anything else. Though it was also because Ashley shoots before she thinks. Which I¡¯m sure came in really handy for her all the time lately, especially with the North Band around.


    ¡°Is this some kind of ritual to enter a female friend''s home?¡± Malinda interrupted my thoughts. Her eyes were sparkling with interest.


    I simply glared a silent ¡°shut up and let me do my thing¡± before I ignored her and began to regulate my breathing again. Calming myself and preparing myself mentally. I couldn¡¯t help getting stuck for a moment on how someone would misunderstand this for a ritual. Though I suppose it is in a way a ritual of sorts, just without any religious connotations.This was Ashley after all, she became my trainer and my main source of information in the city ever since that night she¡¯d found me in an alley with a bullet through my chest. She taught me how to use and maintain a firearm that I¡¯ve never used since and she also taught me how to defend myself in close quarters to what she labeled as ¡°Passable¡±. She never told me where she learned any of it but I assume she was in the military at one point or another. That or she¡¯s just crazy. Which actually might be the case now that I think of it. I shook my arms to loosened up the muscles before preparing my mind and kicking in the door. I fell into a roll just as a gun fired, the bullet zipped out into the street. If I¡¯d just knocked or tried to open the door she would have shot through it. I swung out a foot mid roll kicked away a throwing knife. My roll fell apart and I stopped laying on my side before raising my gun in Ashley''s general direction. She had her gun point at me as well and we stayed like that for full minute before we both lowered our guns.


    ¡°You took your damn time getting here. I sent that message ages ago.¡±  Ashley scolded me. It was well deserved I suppose.


    ¡°I had some guests so I went to sleep a bit latter than usual.¡± I gave an exaggerated shrug as I rose to my feet from my previous position of laying on the floor.


    ¡°North Band?¡± She asked me. From her tone it seemed she¡¯d been having issues with them herself.


    ¡°Alien.¡± I smiled when I said it. Because I knew I sounded like a crazy fucker.


    End of Part 7__________________________________________________________________________________________


    AUTHOR needs a moment: The next part might take an extra day or two. Earth Defense Force 4.1 on PC happened and now nothings getting written or done. Actually was there ever anything before EDF? I can''t quite remember anymore. Being serious for a moment I''d mostly gotten it out of my system <del>yesterday</del> the day before yesterday. However then I started reading The Gam3 by Cosimo Yap/Ephemerality. At least that''s what I think they''re called in the world, place, thing. I had to stop and take a break from my binge read around mid way through the academy arc. I''m not sure if it was because I didn''t sleep or not but I just felt like I missed a whole bunch of stuff every now and then around mid way or near the end of some chapters. Like did I forget something? Or was something cut out before posting and the author didn''t smooth out the edges?


    Also the "The MC is Op as fuck but now everyone is even more OP as fuck and the MC is now under powered and absolutely fucked and now the MC needs to have a training montage but he''s actually not going to have it because the author wants to drum it into the head of their readers that the MC isn''t OP as fuck and now the MC is going on a mission instead of the training montage that no one wanted to read anyway so that the author can drill it in further that the MC isn''t OP as fuck but is actually OP as fuck and will be OP as fuck I promissssss- AHHHHHHH!!!!" *Flips a table* ....


    Maybe I''m just upset because I tried to read everything there and there are inconsistencies that drive me insane because I tried to read everything. I guess I''m upset because it''s really good but the author is a bit forgetful or something, which I get. Also the previously super helpful AI is now super unhelpful and doesn''t tell the MC anything now. Which is annoying to read though I admit I don''t miss the long drawn out drawling walls of text that explain things with no actual significance in great and highly unnecessary detail. Okay I''m gonna stop being a dick and digging any further of a hole for myself. I''m just upset because I like the story and it''s the little things that slowly but surly drive me insane. I may be having a slight mental break down and I may have slept for the last 29 hours and only just realized I missed an entire day.

 The Line that was crossed 8

    Start of Part 8__________________________________________________________________________________________


    ¡°Bullshit. The Luudesi aren¡¯t gonna show up and say hello, especially not to you.¡± Ashley scoffed and holstered her gun.


    I flipped the safety on and stuffed my own gun back into my hoodie pocket. Ashley scowled as she watched me do that. She¡¯d given me a holster when she gave me the gun. I ¡°misplaced¡± that holster shortly after. Having things hanging from my belt just feels so stupid. She hadn¡¯t been happy about it and still isn¡¯t.


    ¡°Not that kind of alien. I¡¯d be the first to run and hide if the Luudesi had pushed past the front and made it to earth. These aliens are a bit different. Think bump in the night, mythos, demons, those kinds of aliens.¡± I said vaguely.


    Ashley¡¯s eyes flashed with interest for a moment and then fear. Which confused me, Ashley isn¡¯t the kind to scare easly. So why was this different? She walked out from behind the ticket booth she¡¯d hid behind to use as cover and I noticed it. Ashley''s entire left arm was covered in dull green scales. I gaped at her and didn¡¯t know what to say. She looked at her scaled left arm before looking back at me and shrugging.


    ¡°I thought it was a rash at first. Then it ended up like this. I can believe in new aliens if I¡¯m suddenly growing scales.¡± She explained with a pained look in her eyes.


    I nodded mutely. I couldn¡¯t speak, I couldn¡¯t bring myself to form a single word. The stuff Malinda had said about whatever the Ether thing is. It had gotten her as well? I focused my sight on her and the bar appeared and slowly filled before a plethora of knowledge burst forth to overwhelm me. I couldn¡¯t make sense of it and wished I could just pick and choose what I wanted to know. I wanted to know how much ether she¡¯d been exposed to. I wanted to know what it¡¯d done to her. I attempted to wade through the information and find something relevant. Though I wasn¡¯t really sure what I was looking for. Was there even a point to doing that? Unfortunately there wasn¡¯t a convenient feature that just organized and listed everything I wanted to know. I had to do that myself and the information changed and bounced around to much for me to make heads or tails of it. This was frustrating, really frustrating. Never had I felt such appreciation for google and it¡¯s hired monkeys. I kept trying to work through it all and make sense of it before Ashley spoke up.


    ¡°What¡¯s with the glare?¡± Alesha asked me in a growl in her voice. Misunderstanding my look and returning my unintended glare right back at me.


    ¡°What!? Is this that shocking to you? You¡¯re talking aliens and my arms bothers you?¡± She asked me with disbelief and scepticism.


    ¡°No, I- No. It¡¯s fine, I¡¯m just worried what else might change.¡± I sighed and turned to the door with a meaningful look.


    ¡°I have some new friends of mine that I want you to meet. Don¡¯t freak out and shoot them.¡± I warned her. Ashley has a record of getting trigger happy when she¡¯s experiencing something new.


    ¡°Come on in.¡± I called to Malinda and Welkin from the doorway.


    The two walked in slowly. Ashley drew her gun as soon as they came into view and gave me a look like I¡¯d betrayed her. I¡¯d expected this to some extend so I moved between them with my hands out in an attempt to assure her. I realized for a moment that I was treating her like a mistreated animal and grimaced when I thought to myself that it was probably an accurate analogy. Ashley and I had similar upbringings and yet I¡¯d been taken in by the Yurman¡¯s while Ashley at lived with her own personal hell for eighteen years before joining the army so she could get away from them. Ashley and I kind of sympathize with each other and we both deal with it in a different way. I got depressed, she got angry and now we are who we are.


    ¡°What the fuck are they!?¡± Ashley asked or rather, shouted me.


    Her eyes had widened, her hands shook and her finger was on the trigger. Well at least she hasn¡¯t already pulled the trigger. That¡¯s a good start, we can work with this.


    ¡°They¡¯re aliens. They¡¯re a little different from normal people.¡± I fought to keep a smirk from my face as I said this. It didn¡¯t work however; because of my scars I always looked like I was smirking at some dark joke.


    Ashleys eyes seemed to haze over a bit and her entire expression shifted very slightly. I chucked a glance back at Malinda and purely by chance I noticed a small red box open in my view of the street behind Malinda with a red exclamation mark in it. Years of gaming tell me that red and an exclamation mark pared together means something that¡¯s gonna kill you is happening. I however in all my genius simply wondered what that mean and raised my arm in an attempt to shield my eyes from the snow of the street so I could get a better look. To my surprise I felt a burning sensation pass from my pocket and into my chest before it traveled up my arm. Somehow I could feel the air, I could feel the molecules reacting as they made contact with plasma. Electricity sparked in the form of an orderly triangle grid around and I watched as a bullet hung in the air and spun like a top. It had been coming straight for my head. I started at it and fell onto my arse, I almost just died.


    Welkin grabbed the collar of my hoodie and flung me practically across the room behind the ticket desk and into cover. From the doorway he and Ashley fired shots into the street. Welkins oversized pistol boomed like a cannon every time it fired a round and was absolutely terrifying. I thought to myself that if any human could use it without it flinging up and breaking their jaw, then they¡¯d have to be build like a tank. Malinda came over to me a checked if I was injured with a troubled expressed.


    ¡°H- How am I okay?¡± I asked her in shock. My brain was still processing the fact that I almost died just moments ago.


    ¡°That was a class nine defensive spell I put in your phone. It takes a stupid amount of mana to maintain so keep back.¡± Malinda explained flatly. Her tone had the obvious undercurrent that she was saying I owed her but I didn¡¯t care. At that moment I wanted to kiss her and my phone for saving my stupid mediocre life.


    Malinda crouched in cover with me behind an old ticket desk and started speaking in a stilted language. She took from one of her pouches a small twig with yellow leaves before snapping it in one hand. The air outside the door began to ripple, a bullet struck it and deflected at a 90¡ã angle away from the rippling invisible wall of air. The air cracked as more rifle rounds flew through the air and struck the barrier before being deflected away. The barrier rippled and let out a harsh high pitched reverberating roar at each of numerous bullet deflections. Whoever was firing at us seemed to give up after a few more shots and Welkin and Ashley slowly lowered their weapons and moved away from the door..


    ¡°These fucking bastards again!?¡± Ashley shouted over the noise.


    She looked pointedly at Welkin and then at Malinda before pointing at the barrier and asking over noise, ¡°One of you a witch or something!? I ain¡¯t givin you my first born! Go find someone else''s first born for your fucked up fetish play!¡±


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.Malinda shrunk in on herself a bit before adjusting her feet and standing taller. This made her chest look bigger and I found my eyes wander towards them more than a few times. However I managed to mostly keep my eyes on the real issues, mostly.


    ¡°I am a sorceress and Witches do not take firstborns for any reason. That is merely a stigma attached from when the dark priest were mistaken for witches.¡± Malinda tutted.


    She waved the hand toward the door and continued, ¡°This is the spell bullet barrier, created by a Dark elven mag-¡± Malinda began explaining, shouting over the noise. This really wasn¡¯t the time though.


    ¡°I don¡¯t care about your D&D speak. How long does it last for?¡± Ashley interrupted.


    Malinda frowned before saying, ¡°The spell only remains in effect until the magic used in casting spell runs out. It should stay in effect for the next few minutes unless they decide to use a larger caliber bullet. It¡¯s impossible to know for sure how long a spell will last because of varying ma-¡±


    Maybe she was used to being in this kind of situation or maybe she just really liked magic. None the less this wasn¡¯t the time to turn fantasy wizard professor and begin educating us. I glared reproachfully at the side of Malinda¡¯s head.


    ¡°Malinda I don¡¯t think this is the time for a lesson.¡± I interrupting.


    Malinda scrunched up her nose at me, ¡°Fine.¡±


    ¡°Got any better guns?¡± Welkin asked Ashley because of course he could. I mean when your gun is basically a mini cannon, everything else is just a pee shooter.


    Ashley checked her gun as she thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Not really, it¡¯s hard justify even owning a pistol here.¡±


    ¡°Not to mention it makes you seem like a country bumpkin, a coward or a wheezy rich fuck who can¡¯t feel confident without a sidearm to back themselves up.¡± I added unhelpfully. Maybe I am a bit biased? But when you go to a high school full of rich kids and most of them like to flaunt their superiority for having rich parents. Well I think you¡¯re starting to get where I¡¯m going.


    ¡°That¡¯s just city kids belittling others Haris. Only idiots pull a gun over an argument.¡± Ashley chided me.


    I shrugged. I¡¯m really not a fighter. Even when I got into fights at school I generally just gave up, even if it is kind of pathetic. Why should I have to prove myself to others? To bolster my own pride and ego? No thank you.


    ¡°Anyway, since the noise has died down at least for now. We need to talk.¡± Ashley said with an awkward smirk.


    She eyed Malinda and Welkin for a moment before going into the back of the station. From the back she brought out documents and a locked box that she had to drag across the floor. I would have offered to help but she would have refused and I¡¯ve gotten used to her doing so.


    Ashley sat on the floor next to the box and put the papers on it. She motioned for me to sit across from her. I didn¡¯t even raise a brow and proceeded to sit on the dusty floor. I glanced at Malinda and Welkin who seem to have decided they should be on the lookout for if whoever it was that had shot at us decided to try again.


    ¡°This is what the military has planned.¡± She said as she handed me some of the papers.


    I read over them. I knew not to speak about what was written, we¡¯d had exchanges like this before in the past. We don¡¯t talk about what¡¯s written and we don¡¯t exchange details through spoken word. We did speak about these kinds of things, not unless there is something that needs to be said. In the end we are doing something illegal and one fuck up will doom us.


    The military had been running tests of the cities residents. They¡¯re confirmed a substance that they¡¯ve decided to call P301C that seems to be building up in the bodies of people in the city. From observations they were able to gather that P301C slowly mutates the body to better adapt to the atmosphere coming through from the event horizon. However these mutations are often horrific and at times the subjects turn into unknown lifeforms that only vaguely resemble humanity. There was a list of subjects under observation. Thankfully I didn¡¯t recognize any of the names. The last few pages were part of an operational proposal that had been given the green light. They¡¯re going to round everyone up for observation and those that resist with lethal force will be dealt with lethal force in kind.


    I narrowed my eyes at what was written and read over it a few times. This P301C was most likely the ether that Malinda had mentioned. Glancing at Welkin and Malinda I could see the two were uneasy about staying here and they had every right to be. I¡¯ll need to repeat this information back to them when we get back to my apartment. I put the papers back on the box and conveyed my understanding to Ashley with a nod.


    ¡°Good.¡± She replied curtly before taking the papers I¡¯d just read and tearing them to pieces. She collected the pieces in an old can and lit them on fire.


    Picking up some other papers she straightened them in an uncharacteristically business like manner and handed them to me. It was a list of equipment and costs of delivery. I raised my brow at her, not understanding what this was about.


    ¡°My dad wants you to distribute this information on the forums. Fens Clan is selling arms to unaffiliated now.¡± Ashley scowled when she mentioned her dad.


    ¡°Fen asked you?¡± I asked to confirm.


    Ashley nodded mutely. Ashley¡¯s father was the sociopathic madman that ran Fens Clan. Fen Timber. I try to forget that most of the time because I actually like Ashley. Not to mention it¡¯s not her fault her father isn¡¯t right in the head and is a crime lord. Just like how it¡¯s also not her fault that the reason I was in the process of dying the first time we met was because one of her fathers men shot me.


    End of Part 8__________________________________________________________________________________________


    AUTHOR uses foot to his own face attack: Today''s been harsh. Actually no it hasn''t, I slept all day... Anyway... Funny fact! This was originally where the MC got shot in the head and died. Then I decided against doing that because it made writing further troublesome and annoying. So yay for me not being a bag of dicks! Feel the awesome power of plot armor! Tremble in fear of it''s OPness! It''s massive, pulsating OPness!


    Boasting of the size of my OPness said and done... I wanted to just say a few things about how I''m terribly sorry for any grievances entailed through my long draw out blubbering in the next chapter. I don''t write emotion terribly well in my opinion, though I am trying. Not that there will be much emotional content in the next chapter; I just wanted to share a random fact that I believe to be true about myself.


    That was the last of my back log so I''ll be delaying a day or so from now on in an attempt to build up another back log of chapters. It''d be annoying for me if I wasn''t able to write for some reason and wasn''t able to post anything.

 The Line that was crossed 9

    Start of Part 9__________________________________________________________________________________________


    ¡°Well. You can tell your dad that I¡¯m up for anything. Just don¡¯t tell him that I¡¯ll be going into hiding for the next few years.¡± I patted the locked chest and stood up.


    ¡°Hey thanks for bringing out the stuff.¡± I smiled, happy to move on.


    She shrugged, ¡°I¡¯ve been using it as a desk because some bright shit decided to take all of my chairs the last time I was out.¡±


    I chuckled awkwardly. I don¡¯t know who it was but people are weird sometimes. They just up and took all the chairs and benches, why they would need so many things to sit on? I have no idea.


    ¡°Are these the bat-erryz?¡± Malinda asked me. Saying mispronouncing words should be illegal because it¡¯s too adorable.


    She''d snuck up on me at some point and was still ducking low. It was probably the smart thing to do; but the gangs generally just fire a few shots and run away. Whenever they fire a round they alert everyone that there¡¯s an enemy nearby and it usually starts a chain reaction of firefights. Standing around talking probably isn¡¯t the best thing we could be doing right now. Fear the enemy you don¡¯t see and not the one you do see and all that.


    ¡°Yeah. These are your batteries.¡± I corrected.


    ¡°Ashley can we borrow a backpack? These two want our amazing batteries filled with magical powers.¡± I said as seriously as I could. I had to admit it sounded ridiculous.


    ¡°Sure. You¡¯ll owe me though.¡± Ashley shrugged.


    I chuckled awkwardly before saying seriously, ¡°So long as it¡¯s not something involving your father.¡±


    ¡°You and your friend heading back now?¡± Ashley asked curiously.


    I shook my head and sighed, ¡°Nah, I¡¯ll be taking them up toward Earlwood to tap into my electronics cache.¡±


    ¡°The fighting is pretty severe there, be on your toes Haris. It¡¯s not gonna be a random gangster taking a few shots before running off like just now.¡± Ashley advised solemnly.


    ¡°I have a big green walking man of iron and a red skinned girl that can deflect bullets, I¡¯ll be fine.¡± I forced a smile.


    As of yesterday my life had quickly become absurd and alien in and of itself. Knowing what Welkin and Malinda have told me I know now that this is all only going to get worse. How long before more unspeakable monsters from their world decide to pass the threshold and come to this world? How many can we expect? How powerful could they be? After seeing Malinda deflecting bullets with a few words and the flick of a hand I¡¯m not confident we could stop them. I¡¯m not even sure I¡¯d want them to be stopped. We will go to war with them that¡¯s an inevitable fact however. I know that much from my General Galactic history classes. Humanity had started the war with the Luudesi. The Luudesi had seen humanity as a sister species. To them we were derived from the same ancestors and while far more savage, stupid and ignorant than them; they had taken it upon themselves to educate us. However humanity in all is endless stupidity considered the Luudesi as a species of slavers, each of them monsters in their own right.


    The Luudesi kidnap select members of sentient species that they find suitable and turn them into Luudes. The process that turns a being into a Luudes strips away all previous personality and memories, keeping only knowledge. It stripps away the supposedly tainted flesh of base lifeforms and replaces it with the refined form of a Luudesi template. The entire process is quick, painless and equivalent to a rebirth of sorts. Luudes are both war slave and trainee to the Luudesi militant social structure. After serving in the Luudesi military for enough time and gaining enough achievements a Luudes finally becomes a free citizen of the Luudesi Empire and at that time are hence forth recognized as a Luudesi. At least that¡¯s what we had learned in regards to such things  before we cut communication with them.


    The Luudesi took offense at such stupidity from a species they considered themselves so closely related too and declared war. It was only later when humanity''s relations with other alien civilization that we realized just how big of a mistake we¡¯d made. Our most important lesson being that in our galaxy the Luudesi are in charge. When the Luudesi speak, the galactic civilizations either get in line or grab their guns. Anything less would just offend the Luudesi further.


    I reviewed the information in my memory like it had grown fur and legs. I was horrible at General Galactic history, how do I even know this? I never payed attention in those classes and I only even went once. I got an N for it which I didn¡¯t realize was a grade I could get. I thought it was a joke grade that they gave to me because I never showed up. I only learned later that N stood for None, as in that I couldn¡¯t be graded because there was nothing to grade. Not that I needed to pass it in order to graduate and so was why I never attended it in the first place. I only really found interest in the subject after graduating.


    ¡°What could go wrong? A purple elephant with horns flies through the sky and flattens us? I should be so lucky.¡± I joked darkly to myself.


    I handed the backpack to Welkin after filling it half with batteries. We¡¯ll save the rest of the space for a few phones and maybe a laptop.


    ¡°I¡¯d watch out for them if I were you. Those Yelperphand can get pretty nasty if you aren¡¯t careful.¡± Welkin said to me seriously after taking the backpack from me.


    I glared at him, he had to be fucking with me. However he looked very serious and I wasn¡¯t sure if I should laugh it off or quake in my boots at the prospect of flying purple elephants with horns. I decided for indifference. I wouldn¡¯t play their game.


    ¡°Come on. Let¡¯s get your stuff.¡± My voice harsher than I¡¯d meant it to be.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be going further south. I¡¯ll contact you once I¡¯ve found a good place.¡± Ashley told me as we waved goodbye.


    ¡°Take care of your scales.¡± I smiled.


    Malinda and Welkin muttered their goodbyes and the three of us left the train station via the train tracks. We headed Northeast East along the train tracks toward sydney airport where my electronics were I had a small stockpile of electronics. Most people in the city tend to avoid the train tracks, I¡¯ve only ever seen unaffiliated willing to walk along them. It¡¯s probably because we grow up having it ground into our heads that walking on train tracks is like courting death. Obviously the trains don¡¯t work anymore, just like all other public transport in the city; but we or at least I still have an inherent fear of getting run over by a train.


    We made it to Wolli Creek where the train tracks split off towards to north and south east. There we climbed up onto the platform of the Wolli creek train station and headed past my favorite bakery before the city went to shit, past a round about and cut through the Princes highway to Cahill Park. Once there we crouched a tree which was kind of pointless. I just wanted to play at knowing what I was doing for a bit and it seemed like the right thing. Especially considering that the gunshots and shouting had become deafening. The gangs were fighting somewhere close to the park and it sounded like it was coming from the south or maybe the south west. To south was apparently a gold club according to my gps. It sounded like they were closer than that however, so most likely they were fighting on and around Innesdale road and Flora street. I turned back towards Welkin and Malinda and noticed that Malinda kept flinching whenever she heard one of the higher caliber rifles snap the air.


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    ¡°Yeah, this sucks.¡± I said said to them.


    ¡°What are we waiting for?¡± Malinda asked, narrowing her eyes at me.


    ¡°Nothing, just catching my breath.¡± I lied.


    My first instinct was to run and hide until the gunfire stopped. We had an objective to fulfil however and somehow I felt compelled enough to do it that any fear I felt was squashed down and extinguished. It also helped that I was sitting at home and watching TV through Rachel. That was pretty relaxing other than that she was hungry again.


    ¡°We should get moving before they¡¯re done and start looking for survivors. No time to sit around Haris.¡± Welkin gruffed in his weird mutant alien scottish accent.


    ¡°Sure.¡± I shrugged. I¡¯ll find out what that shootout was about later.


    I led them through the park, noting that someone had taken the liberty of spray painting the web address for the forums over the ghastly painting alongside the walls of the City of Sydney Netball Association building. One of the few good things to come out of the cities quarantine in my opinion.


    We cut through the park, walking for a short while along cooks river before crossing the bridge. Since we¡¯d arrived I put away my phone, noting that it was now seven pm. It¡¯ll probably be eleven by the time we return which isn¡¯t ideal. Not that we can do anything about it. Driving a car around would be too risky. Not to mention that I don¡¯t even know how to drive. I led us to the customs building where I¡¯d hidden a three or so laptops and a stack of phones in a safe. We managed to fit all the phones in the bag and one laptop.


    ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want the other two laptops? I don¡¯t plan on coming back here so I might just take them with us anyway.¡± I scratched the stubble on my chin as I thought about it.


    Honestly I¡¯m not a laptop person so I¡¯m thinking I¡¯ll just leave them here. I looked at Malinda and Welkin for a bit before shrugging.


    ¡°Let¡¯s head back then. Rachel should be getting hungry by now.¡± Malinda was already at the door waiting for us when she said this.


    There wasn¡¯t any reason to stick around here and the gangs firefight seemed to have cooled off for now. It was also true that Rachel was hungry.


    ¡°You¡¯re right. We should get back quickly.¡± I conceded and the three of us started on our way back.


    I felt the tension of the day so far drain out of me and took a moment once we were outside of the customs building. I stared up at the hole in the sky. Here we were right under the center of it. I felt disconnected as I watched the alien world slowly rotate in the night sky. It was night time there as well at the moment and I could see the patterns of city lights cracking the landscape.


    I opened my mouth to say something but then closed it. I wasn¡¯t ready to say it but I knew what I wanted. I wanted to go with them when they went back to their world. But I couldn¡¯t bring myself to ask them. They didn¡¯t trust me, not yet and not anytime soon. Rachel would be going with them. I thought absently.


    ¡°So is there even any point in being Haris anymore?¡± I asked myself aloud through Rachel¡¯s mouth.


    Down this road be madness. I chuckled to myself and discarded the entire thought. I heard Malinda and Welkin¡¯s footstep come to a halt on the gravel suddenly and looked back at the two.


    ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± I asked with a raised brow.


    Did I say that aloud as myself as well? That could be bad. If they found out Rachel was me they won¡¯t be willing to take her or rather myself via proxy. Well, if my connection still works at all between worlds.


    ¡°Nothing. Just thi-¡±


    A howl interrupted Malinda and drowned out all other noise. I hunched over in pain as I covered my ears to try and block out the sound. The howling stopped only to be replaced by the snarling and barking of hounds before another howl sounded and I felt like my head was going to explode. I felt something break and the pain stopped. All the noise had been replaced with deep muted tones that I couldn¡¯t make sense of. My hands felt wet and warm and when I brought them away from my ears I found that they were covered in blood. Had it really been loud enough to burst my eardrums? I thought with not a small amount of confusion. I felt dizzy now, like I was going to faint or throw up. Since when could dogs make a noise that loud?


    End of Part 9__________________________________________________________________________________________


    AUTHOR explains: So I would have had this done a few days ago. Like four days ago or so. But I experienced something of an emotional break down after getting into a fight around eight days ago. Yeah, I wasn''t really even doing anything and the other person spat poison with their words. A bit too many of those words dealt critical blows and I flew into a rage and spoke with my fists. Apparently I''m a lot better at speaking with my fists than my brother is so I just up and left after punching him once. Anyway I thought I was above violence and learned that I don''t know shit so I was pretty depressed. We both went too far and we''ve now forgiven each other. But that doesn''t mean I''ve forgiven myself for using my fists instead of just walking away from my brother who''s 27 and was chucking a hussy fit at me for making myself a coffee at 3am.


    Anyway I sat on the beach, watched the sunrise alone, cried a few tears. Throwing punches is a big deal for me because of my anger issues. So yeah, this is why it''s been a few days later than I''d been meaning it to be. I didn''t get much writing done, actually I only just finished writing this part just now so it''s probably a bit jank. My brains still not entirely in the writing mind set so I''ll probably be having some difficulty''s writing for a few weeks. Regardless I''ll do what I can to get them out on time but I make no promises.

 The Line that was crossed 10

    Start of Part 10__________________________________________________________________________________________


    I centered myself and kept calm. This became easier when I focused on Rachel who I was watching reruns of a late night talk show through. There''s no need to feel fear. I calmed my breathing and killed the last shreds of panic. A hound the size of an irish wolfhound jumped out at Welkin from the darkness and kept him preoccupied as another circled around him and attacked. I glanced around to find Malinda was on the ground wrestling with another hound. These hounds were ugly like pugs but somehow even less good looking. Their fur was a mottled cream, yellow and brown pattern that reminded me a bit of desert camo. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and swung out a leg that connected with the snout of another hound. The beast reared back from the blow but I was also sent reeling from the collision. It felt like I¡¯d just kicked a brick wall as hard as I could without regard for injury.


    ¡°Damn!¡± I cursed.


    My own voice turning into a base rumbling with the state of my ears being how they are. I felt fluids flowing down the side of my head and wiped at it with the back of my hand. It came away with more blood smeared on it and I cursed again. The hound watched me warily the entire time, gnashing its teeth and growling at me. It seemed to be more wary of me now. Showing that it had some degree of intelligence. The hounds muscles visibly coiled and I was sure it was about to finish me off but it seemed to become distracted and I heard a dull thump before a bright flash. The hound glanced past me and made chomping motions which was more than a little intimidating. The hounds siluet blurred as it suddenly ran. I thought it was running for me but instead to moved to go around me and straight for Welkin. I run with all my might and jumped at it. I managed to get my arms around it before it got past me and the thing dragged me a few feet before stopping and trying to nip at me. I panicked and quickly reached into my hoodie pocket for my gun. It got caught on the hem of my pocket as I drew it and I had to frantically jiggle it before it came loose. Into its flank I fired a few rounds, black misty fluids sprayed back at me with each shot. I felt the hounds muscles shudder before it¡¯s entire body tensed and it reached it¡¯s head back to me and clamped its fangs onto my arm. It tored my grip from it¡¯s body and flung me across the train tracks and into the chainlink fence. The fence fence bent and broke under my weight cushioning my fall to some extent.


    There was another dull thump followed by a flash before I came back to my sense. Welkin was fighting three of them at once. One had climbed onto him and was biting him, it¡¯s claws tearing up the back of his shirt and sparking as the scored his skin. Another was under his arm and he was punching it in the head with his massive fist. The last was gnawing at his leg and was tripping him up. I shook my head and tried to bring my brain back down to earth as I noticed Malinda melting in and out of the night with a hound pursuing her. It caught up to her and using the hound as a board she flipped over it and released a blast of purple energy from her hand. The bolt of energy struck the hound and exploded with a flash. The hound recoiled from the blow but shook it¡¯s hide and started its pursuit again.  The fighting kept on for a while longer. I wasn¡¯t sure how things were going but it seemed like the hounds couldn¡¯t actually hurt Weklin, nor could they catch hold of Malinda. I seemed to have been deemed as not a threat and so was ignored by the hounds for the most part. Not that I could care because I had been feeling pretty groggy since I had been thrown into the fence. The fight ended rather quickly after Welkin managed to cave in the head of the hound under his arm. From there he flung the one on his back at the hound pursuing Malinda. This gave her enough time to cast a larger spell that took the form of an orb of flames that incinerated the two of them. Welkin stomped in the head of the last hound that was still gnawing on his leg and the battle was over. The black misty tendrils of these hounds blood slithered through the gaps in the gravel and made the screen that much more surreal. What am I doing hanging around these monsters? I lamented, a groan escaping my lips. With the battle over I relaxed and passed out.


    I sighed as I felt the bulk of my mind slip away into unconsciousness. Left with only Rachel''s part of my mind I sighed through Rachel¡¯s lips. Rachel¡¯s capabilities had progressed leaps and bounds above where they were the day before. Though this body was still sickly and nothing more than skin and bones I was now able to move around the room a bit. Though I admit standing for any length of time was rather taxing. Rachel¡¯s mind of sorts had grown exponentially with the amount of room she takes up in my collective heads would soon rival my original bodies. However unlike my original body I wasn¡¯t able to access that status menu like window. Perhaps I need a mana source for this body as well. It would make sense in a manner of speaking if that were to be the case. Emotional was a difficult thing to process for Rachel¡¯s side of my mind but I was able to slowly work through various versions of worry and trepidation towards the extent of damage my main body had maintained. I decided it was irritating to worry about it because worry was a pointless emotional weakness. I could just create another body if the need arises after all.


    The door to the room slammed shut and my head laboriously moved to self toward to door at a snail''s pace. I would need to fix this weakness at a latter time. Welkin and Malinda walked into the living room with my corps- I mean body, being carried over Welkins shoulder.


    ¡°Welcome back.¡± I said with rocky yet effeminate voice that was mismatched with my own idea about how my voice should sound.


    ¡®Oh! Hey Rachel. You can talk!¡± Malinda¡¯s eyes widened and she came to me- I mean Rachel.


    Welkin took my main body into my room and didn¡¯t say much.


    ¡°How are you Rachel? How did you learn how to talk honey?¡± Malinda seemed both curious and worried as she asked me this.


    I pointed at the TV dismissively. A perfect excuse if do say so myself, which I do. I mentally pat myself on the back for being a genius above all other simply men.


    ¡°You learned from watching the Televised Projection Relater?¡± Malinda¡¯s eyes seemed to sparkle and she smiled.


    From watching the what? I think I missed that, ¡°What?¡±


    Malinda smiled wider and gather me up in her arms for a cuddle, ¡°You¡¯re so smart my little cutie. Come here let me pinch yer cheeks you widdle-¡±


    ¡°Haris should be healed by some time tomorrow with how his regeneration progressing.¡± Welkin spoke up as he walked back into the living room.


    ¡°That¡¯s good. I would have felt bad if he ended up getting killed because he helped us.¡± Malinda said quietly with me still in her arms and holding me close.


    ¡°What?¡± I said hung up on the mention of regeneration. It wasn¡¯t even really a question any more than it was a dull witted, ¡°what the fuck are we talking about?¡±


    ¡°Nothing honey. Pappa just needs to sleep for a bit.¡± Malinda replied to me and stroked my rough brown hair.


    Really? I have a lot of complaints about that statement. However I decided to drop my question. I¡¯ll ask about it when my head feels a bit more clear. It¡¯s hard to think properly without my main body being awake.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Welkin took out a pocket watch from his pants pocket and looked at it as he said, ¡°There¡¯s 4 more hours until we our window opens again. We should start getting ready to head back then shouldn¡¯t we?¡±


    ¡°That sounds about right.¡± Malinda reluctantly let me go and stood.


    ¡°Gather our things Welkin and I¡¯ll start drawing the circle.¡±


    Malinda took from a pouch a blue stick of what I assume is chalk and started drawing a bunch of markings right on my carpet. I was a bit annoyed. Couldn¡¯t she have done that somewhere else? Does she know how annoying that will be to clean up?


    ¡°Do you know what those dogs were? I¡¯ve never seen them before.¡± Welkin mused as he plonked himself on the couch and started flipping through the channels. Now I don¡¯t have to find out how Tilar is going to react to his girlfriend cheating on him which will evidently result in more drama. I fucking hate soap operas.


    ¡°They looked like Brack Hounds. They were used during the times of the so called ancient kingdom of light. The Kingdom was riddled with corruption and dark magics. The Brack Hounds were created through dark magics and formed from the shadow of the dark god. The Brack Hounds fill a role similar to the Damoniha¡¯s hell hounds and hunt down the guilty. Brack hounds however have to be connected to some who acts as medium and binds them to their physical forms.¡± Malinda explained. Not stopping her drawing for a seconds and seemed to even speed up a bit.


    ¡°Someone from our world just tried to kill us.¡± Welkin frowned.


    Malinda made a noncommittal grunt as affirmation and just kept drawing. The sun was rising by the time Malinda had finished the magic circuit that would take us to their world. I was getting a little giddy only adding to that was that Welkin had tried feeding me from a can of soup and I¡¯d managed to keep it down. The soup tasted incredible and I felt stronger almost immediately. I could also start feeling a warm sensation in my chest that I recognized to be mana only after I woke up to find my system booting up. I grinned like a crazy warmonger. The world shall bow down to my majesty for I shall rule it. I began putting together my plans for world domination and when they seemed flawless, I stood. Welkin ignored me and just kept watching TV. No matter, he would only get in the way of my grand plan.


    ¡°Core systems online¡­..BETA.0.4.5.72V


    Name, 42BUBBNH402SB(Rachel Lumina).


    Gender, N/A(Human-Female cosmetic option).


    Age, 21.


    Species, Backup Server(Unknown Variant).


    Racial Talent, Curiosity of the Ancients, System link.


    Unique Talent, Upgrade, Crafter.


    Mana, 84(84)


    Materials, 0S,0A,0B,0C,0D,0E,0F,0G.


    Primary values-/-/-/


    Physical Prowess, 7. G


    Physical Agility, 11. G


    Physical Durability, 4. G


    Processing, 32. G


    Secondary values-/-/-/


    Vitality, 3. G


    Strength, 5. G


    Speed, 8. G


    Intelligence, 11. G¡±


    Progress. Luckily it seems I don¡¯t need an external source of mana. I just needed to recover enough I guess. If not for how unpleasant it is to recover from near death I would mass produce weaklings and rule the world within the week. That would be a wonderful plan for an idiot with the intelligence of a monkey. Instead of that I will execute phase one of my world domination plan!


    ¡°I¡¯m gon¡¯ have- shower.¡± I said as cutely as possible to Malinda who at the time was just finishing up the magic circuit for out teleportation to the other world.


    ¡°Okay. Be careful.¡± Malinda told me without looking away from her drawing.


    Though I don¡¯t know why I¡¯d need to be careful about having a shower. Does she think I¡¯ll drown? I giggled and felt sick that I just giggled like a little girl. Moving that to the back of my mind I rubbed my hands together in anticipation for the beginnings of my devious plan and had a shower. Then I went to the kitchen and made myself a hot chocolate. Carrying it back to the living room I drank it quietly while watching infomercial with Welkin. The plan is going perfectly so far. World domination is but a few steps away!


    ¡°Welkin I¡¯m hungry!¡± I complained after my drink.


    Welkin jumped slightly and turned his eyes away from the tight ass of one of the female models for a workout ad, ¡°Ah, sure. More soup?¡±


    I nodded my head clumsily. It felt heavy because I was tired again. Must be because I¡¯m forcing the recovery now that I¡¯ve learned I apparently have regeneration. Maybe it was something to do with mana? I wouldn¡¯t be surprised. I ate the soup and watched as my body visibly filled out before my eyes. I no longer looked like a human stick figure. Instead I now only looked like an anorexic young girl which was a big plus. My dried and cracked skin had recovered, now smooth and unblemished along with my hair which was now silky and golden brown. World domination achieved. I sighed and mentally pat myself on the back for proving my hypothesis.


    ¡°It¡¯s done.¡± Malinda announced like she was telling us the cookies were ready to be eaten. There weren''t any cookies though¡­


    The three of us stood in the middle of what Malinda called the targeting circle and she started sending magic into the circle. The chalk markings started to glow weakly however that glowing slowly grew brighter and brighter. Sweat started dripping from Malinda¡¯s brow as she pushed more and more mana into the circuit. Then the front door was kicked in and men in military uniforms shot us with disruptors. The world turned black and I lost consciousness, again.


    End of Part 10__________________________________________________________________________________________


    AUTHOR complains a bit: Late! I''m late! Shit! Fuck! Nah I''m kidding... actually no I''m not. That is how I was yesterday when I realized I hadn''t actually written anything yet. Been having real weird headaches. Well I suppose they aren''t headaches because my head doesn''t hurt? I''ve just been feeling light headed and sleeping most of the time. Maybe I haven''t been getting enough sunlight or vitamins. That sounds like something I''d eff up.


    Anyway! I just finished reading all of what there is so far of Vesper Walda Vasska, The Vespidian. So great! I like it too much I just don''t understand. I think it''s because I just really like super hero stories. The MC is a wasp person which is really weird but interesting. Lots of sexual shit that I''ve grown to love reading for some reason. *Shivers* Some of the stuff is a bit gross though.


    Meta-human: Brainstorm vs Omni is next on my list of things to read. The name reminds me of something I''d been meaning to write. I''ll put writing that off until I''ve finished what I''m correctly working on though. Or at least until I feel like taking a break from writing this story.


    None the less I feel like I rushed this chapter a bit but I guess I''ll fix that latter.

 The Line that was crossed 11

    Start of Part 11__________________________________________________________________________________________


    Explosion, death, war. A scorched battlefield and lines of soldiers in full battle armor. Oh, I¡¯m dreaming. The thought disrupted the flashing images of death, destruction and mayhem. I opened my eyes to find a painted white ceiling. Looking around franticly I found that I was strapped to a hospital bed an IV in my arm, in a windowless room with white painted walls and a ceramic tiled floor. I knew immediately that it was Rachel that I had awoken as. Haris was asleep and who knows where. I had no idea how long I was out for but I knew that the minimum time a disruptors stun setting will knock a person out for is around 3 hours. But that¡¯s very subjective to the person. Some people have been known to be knocked out for upwards of 12 hours with some on very rare occasion dying from the shock the disruptor inflicts upon your body.


    I took a deep breath to calm myself and killed my frantic thoughts. We can figure out the specifics latter. For now we need to not be tied to this bed. I closed my eyes and too another deep breath. This time however when I took my breath the bed, the leather restraints and the IV turned into golden mist and disappeared beneath my skin. My arse slapped the tiles jarring my tailbone in the process. With a groan a got up off the floor and rubbed my arse. That really freaking hurt! There was only one door leading in and out from the room. A sink hung off the wall near one corner and in that corner a shower head came out of the wall near the ceiling and hung over a drain.


    I sniffed my armpit and found I didn¡¯t smell any worse than before I fell unconscious. Not that I would take a shower in the base of an enemy force but if I smelt real bad I would have thought about it. No, not al all. This was just my own way of confirming my belief that I¡¯d only been out for a few hours at most. After trying the door I found it was locked. For a moment I was stumped as to what to do now until I realized I could just disassemble the freaking door. I slapped my forehead and touched the door before drawing it into myself. As usual it turned to shimmering gold mist and disappeared under my skin just like all the rest.


    Feeling a bit giddy because it was like I had superpowers I came into a hallway that had the same tile floors and white painted walls. Doors lined each wall and most likely lead into similar rooms as the one I¡¯d just left. I opened one just in case it was different. As expected however the room was virtually the same other than a few minor details. There were clothes stroun about the place and a woman was sleeping on the bed soundly. She was wearing nothing but her panties and apparently the blanket was too hot for her. Getting a good eye full of her breast for scientific research purposes I quietly left the room.


    I spent the next hour exploring before I realized I wasn¡¯t actually wearing anything. Hah, must have slipped my mind somehow. From what I¡¯d noticed while looking around this facility seemed to be more of a dormitory than a research facility. Then again looks can be deceiving and you never can know for sure what¡¯s happening under the surface. While it feels quite free to walk around without clothes and I don¡¯t actually care if someone sees me naked, I am a creature of habit. Beside that I feel more comfortable wearing clothes than wearing nothing at all. I searched through a pile of dirty laundry I found in a basket by a washing machine in what I assume in where everyone here cleans their clothes. I managed to scrounge up some jeans that only had what smelled like barbecue sauce smeared on the thigh as well as a yellow shirt with ¡°I am awesome!¡± in bold red letters across the chest that smelled of corn chips for some reason. Both were a bit baggy but their were close and clean enough I suppose.


    ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing?¡± A woman voice asked from behind me.


    Still elbow deep in the basket of clothes I jumped and did my best impersonation of a statue. If you don¡¯t move they won¡¯t notice you right? No, of course not¡­ I let out a sighed and slowly turned to the women wearing a purple tank top with brownish shorts. She looked to be in her late twenties early thirties but that was blown away by her pale blue eyes that seemed to glow in the relative dark of laundry room. Her hair and skin was dark like obsidian to the point that seemed like like she was sinking into the poor lighting of the room and on the verge of disappearing all together. At a glance it would seem she simply had really dark skin but with close inspection it seemed more like her skin absorbed the light. My eyes went wide. She looked so fucking awesome! Not to mention that she had an incredible body and fine facial features.


    I¡¯m a pretty asexual guy and don¡¯t feel the instinctual need to bone every good looking woman I see. However! I narrowed my eyes and decided. She will be co staring in my library of Malinda sexual fantasies. I¡¯ll have to get out of here somehow and find a new safehouse before I can spend some alone time on that however. I blame Malinda¡¯s brainwashing powers for the fact I even have a list of perverted sexual fantasies. Ah, though maybe I should be thanking her? I think she inadvertently fixed my impotence.


    ¡°I asked what you think you''re doing?¡± She asked me again.


    Snapping out of my thoughts I clutched the dirty clothes to myself. I wasn¡¯t going to let them go so easily, especially not after having to pick through some clothes that were kind of moldy and smelled like some unspeakable horror had manifested in the form of clothing. I¡¯d rather brawl to the death than that.


    ¡°Stealing clothes.¡± I admitted.


    She squinted her eyes at me, ¡°Is that my shirt?¡±


    ¡°Are you awesome?¡± I asked jokingly with with narrowed eyes in an attempt to be serious.


    ¡°You bet I am.¡± She said before flashing abnormally white teeth in a toothy grin that may as be screaming ¡°I¡¯m so damn smooth!¡±.


    ¡°I walked into that.¡± I admitted with a frown.


    ¡°You did.¡± She agreed.


    ¡°You must be the new girl they strapped up in a room hardly even an hour ago.¡±.


    I nodded. That was most likely me.


    ¡°Well, I can lend you some clothes so put those dirty things back in the pile.¡± She motioned for me to follow her.


    I¡¯d already been caught and with the promise of actually clean clothes I put the clothes I had clutched to my chest back on the pile.


    ¡°You¡¯re probably worried that this is some weird testing facility or something right? Oh and I¡¯m Farrah by the way.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ I was named Rachel against my will.¡± I said without thinking about it.


    I had to admit however that I was perplexed why they¡¯d tie people down if they weren''t trying to freak them the fuck out. I¡¯m pretty mellow so I can handle these kinds of things but someone the kids I knew in highschool would be having a breakdown right about now.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t we all?¡± she said giving me another ¡°I¡¯m so damn smooth!¡± smile.


    Well¡­ at least she¡¯s confident and knows she¡¯s good looking. I guess? I¡¯m a bit conflicted about this because I¡¯ve never interacted with someone like this and had them pull it off without seeming like a smug sonofabitch! I still haven¡¯t.


    Deciding on a reaction I groaned in disatisfaction with this weird woman. She led me to a door that had a note sticky taped to it that read ¡°Too awesome to be controlled¡± in rainbow letters. I cringed a bit at it before pretending I¡¯d just hallucinated it¡¯s existence.


    Farrah¡¯s room was a complete mess and ruined every illusion I¡¯d had of how a girl''s room should be. She had posters of ripped dude posing with different guns in various states of undress plastered across each wall. Clothes covered the floor but otherwise seemed clean. I noticed a cylindrical object on a small table in the middle of the room. Before I completely realized what it was Farrah blurred, the mystery object disappeared and she appeared by a draw which she closed before turning back to me and smiling as if nothing had happened. My brain felt itchy for a moment as I tried to erase the memory that this incredibly attractive woman has a drawer full of sex toys. I mean, yeah. I get that girls masterbate as well but does there need to be an entire drawer dedicated to it? Feeling like something inside me just broke and shattered into a million pieces, I sighed.


    ¡°Do you have anything that¡¯ll fit me?¡± I started looking through the clothes on the ground because at the very least they didn¡¯t seem dirty.


    ¡°Don¡¯t bother looking through those I have something for you here. I had them ready for you since I¡¯ve been assigned to help you settle in by Bailey. Bailey the facility manager by the way.¡± Farrah explained as she took out a pile of clothes from a closet that was inset into the wall.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    They were a yellow shirt with some anime character on it I didn¡¯t recognize, a dark blue skirt and underwear that was a lighter shade of blue. I gave Farrah a weird look before I reluctantly put them on.


    As I got dressed Farrah continued to explain, ¡°Your parents had a bit more exaggeration of a transformation than you and most people. Though we couldn¡¯t find anything visibly different about your father he was healing from his wounds far too quickly for a normal human so he was also taken in to be examined as well. As to the reason why we¡¯d tied you up and waited for you to wake up, you could call it a test of sorts. See we sometimes people get violent as their transformations progress. So we run tests every few days to decide whether or not anyone needs to be moved to a facility better for them. I¡¯ll never forget the days before we did this and suddenly half the residents lost their shit and started killing each other. That was a real shitty day. They don¡¯t have to worry about me going crazy or anything like that because I¡¯ve apparently completed my transformation. They got a bit more technical than that but that¡¯s the gist of it.¡± She shrugged and laid on her bed, seemingly done with her explanation.


    I finished getting dressed and just awkwardly stood there, not really sure what I should do.


    Farrah sat up after I¡¯d stood there for a bit and asked me, ¡°A military unit was dispatched to your location because of an influx of P38-9N2 that was detected in the building. They¡¯ve had to crack down on these lately because wherever it¡¯s detected usually either a lot of people end up dead or something explodes. Considering the amount they detected I¡¯m surprised they didn¡¯t just outright shoot each of you dead. What were you trying to do anyway? Destroy the city or something?¡±


    I shook my head, ¡°It was apparently meant to teleport us.¡±


    ¡°Hah, weird. Almost sounds like magic when you say it like that.¡± Farrah muttered that last sentence.


    ¡°So who are you exactly?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°Officially?¡± She asked with a raised brow.


    ¡°I- I guess?¡± I replied skeptically.


    ¡°Previously retired General Farrah Rogers at your service. I turned 43 just a few weeks ago, I look pretty good for 40 right? They forced me to unretire once they figured out what was happening to me.¡± She smirked before getting off her bed and saluting me.


    I tried not to think about a mid forties woman masterbating. It didn¡¯t work and I wasn¡¯t sure if I should feel disgusted or intrigued. Actually I wasn¡¯t sure what I was feeling about anything in general at the moment. I mean I got fucked up by the Brack hounds and then military goons showed up and stunned me. Now I¡¯m talking to a walking physics violation and Malinda will probably die of starvation. This is not to even mention that my main body is somehow still asleep and who knows when it will wake up. Maybe it was all still too complex for me to comprehend with Rachel¡¯s mind alone but I couldn¡¯t get my head around all of it. Deciding to deal with it latter I pushed all that junk to the back of my mind and submitted to my fate as a test monkey for probably the rest of my life.


    ¡°You passed the test so let¡¯s get you a room assigned. You can¡¯t use the previous one because the bed and door went missing somehow.¡± She gave me a sidelong glance when she mentioned the bed and door going missing.


    ¡°Ah, those were me. I guess you could say I ate them?¡± I had no reason to lie but neither did I have a reason to tell the complete truth.


    Though I admittedly still didn¡¯t trust her. Have I developed trust issues over the last three years? Yes I certainly have and for good reason. Because people be crazy at times. As my guild leader on TERA likes to say.


    ¡°Sure sounds like something someone around here would do.¡± Farrah shrugged.


    Farrah took me around the facility. First showing me around what she called the female altered residential building which is where we were when she¡¯d caught me searching the dirty laundry. The residential building had three floors above ground and five below, each floor having a communal shower room, lounge and forty bedrooms that could be customized to the residents specifications. Half of the fifth floor was dedicated to various kinds of games and apparently everyone had been getting into some VRMMORPG game called Dreams of Auore. I watched a few of the gameplay videos during the games beta. People tend to get really hyped about realism in games and really look forward to experiencing it for themselves but It all looked way too real for me. I mean when you have games like Dreams of Auore which pride themselves of their realism with permadeath, sex, childbirth, high pain thresholds, simulated wind and water currents, high end emulated tactile responses, the fact that each NPC is operated by a dedicated AI and die permanently once killed to make the world as alive and real as possible¡­ There is such a thing as making something too real. Game companies and their games players just don¡¯t seem to understand this somehow. I sighed and grudgingly listened to Farrah brag on about her imaginary adventures in-game and how much fun it is to crush other players hopes and dreams. Luckily Farrah seemed to realize that I really didn¡¯t care and we moved on with the tour.


    Before leaving the female altered residential building which I¡¯ve decided to just call the Fem-east cage; Farrah took me to the building office and wrote me in on the registry as occupying the room across from hers. This was apparently because I was her responsibility. Which was annoying to say the least. Regardless I gave in without a fight. I¡¯d already pretty much given up on free will the moment I saw the letters U and N in big bold writing painted on every other wall. I was now for all intents and purposes a slave of the United Nations of Earth and I didn¡¯t have a choice in the matter as far as I was concerned.


    End of Part 11__________________________________________________________________________________________


    AUTHOR uses gardening as metaphor for learning: It''s been about eight days(actually five but it feels like eight) and I have no actual reasons as too why it''s taken me this long. I guess I''ll have to admit to feeling uncomfortable about this chapter. Not for the reason you might think after reading the chapter though. I could have had this done days ago but I''d been putting it off in favor of reading and playing my games which I haven''t touched in the last few weeks/month(s). I guess I really just needed a short break? Anyway because of that I ended up writing this chapter in small chunks over eight days and haven''t taken the time to check for inconsistencies and blockages in the flow of the story other than a cursory glance. So yeah, there might be some dang bull shit floating around in this chapter that I need to spade out and throw in the garden. I just need to go get my gloves and spade and it''s all good. Those of you that''ll give me lip for this chapter? I''ll slap you upside the head with an imaginary rubber chicken if you tell me the MC should just kill everyone or something similar!


    On a more serious note I started playing TERA and ninja''s are too awesome! My only wish is that I could be a man and not a furry fox/wolf/bunny/whatever little girl in far too revealing clothing in order to play as a ninja. *sigh* We can''t have everything the way we''d like Korst. Sometimes we have to play games as virtual pedo bait so that we can play the game the way we''d like. *Re-flips table from a few chapters ago, catches it, calmly places it back where it was and eats breakfast*


    EDIT: I just realized I wrote TERA instead of making up a game when I mentioned the MC''s guild leader. I guess I''ll just leave it as that because the stories world is really similar to ours if it was sci-fi. I suppose that would be the best way of explaining it? For example the year in the story is 2018 but computers were first made more than 500 years ago, inter-stellar space travel has been a thing for around 400 years and humanity has been at war with the Luudesi for around 40 years. Despite all this however I am not quite creative enough to make a full highly detailed and interesting sci-fi universe so in most cases everything is just a sci-fi version of reality. In which case I suppose it''s fine if I just leave it as TERA. *shrugs*

 Interlude - Dragons Mound 1

    Monster Brethren - Interlude - Dragon''s Mound


    I parted way with Haris and his new and very unique acquaintances at the train station. I waved them goodbye and quickly gathered my things. That gunner had been sitting outside the building for days and had, had me pinned down. With Haris¡¯s arrival he made a mistake and retreated for the time being. He¡¯ll be back however and with more. I have little doubt that Haris¡¯s electric force field thing freaked them out big time. It sure surprised the heck out of me. I suppose I should just be glad the kids alive. Even if he is an idiot more than half the time.


    From behind the counter I grabbed my bag and slung the strap of my rifle over my shoulder. I hated taking the big guns out in front of the kid because he always seemed to freak out and I actually really wanted to see how the hulk''s cousin. Welcome I think his name was, weird name. I wanted to see how effective his hand cannon that mimicked a handgun was. Though the caliber of the thing was so ridiculous it¡¯d rig my damn arm off if I¡¯d tried to shoot the stupid thing; it seemed to work surprisingly well for the big guy. Not sure why you¡¯d need a caliber that large though.


    Rummaging through my bag I pulled out a box and took a few round for my hunting rifle. I say hunting rifle but the things an old Mosin-Nagant I got for gun enthusiast cred. It was a nightmare trying to get it past customs but eventually I managed to pass it off as a hunting rifle. Even got a few hundred rounds for it and the whole lot of it only cost me a few hundred dollars. Worth all the trouble it caused me with having to get the licenses for it. Yeah, multiple licences, I had to get a hunting license, then a hunting rifle license, then a license for storing rifles in my home, followed by a bullet license for the 7.62x54R rounds and lastly another license so I could actually fire the damn thing called an active fire rifle license. Australian gun license laws have just been getting more and more ridiculous ever since all those nut jobs started shooting up schools. Fuck those guys because they make everyone else with a gun look like a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode.


    I loaded up a magazine to capacity and stored it in my jacket pocket. Loading another a slapped it into the rifle and slung my bag over my shoulder. I just have the classic magazines for the Mosin-Nagant, five rounds per mag before reloading. After using up both I¡¯d need some time to dig into my backpack and refill them from my ammo box I have weighing down my bag like a block of lead. Yeah, yeah I get it, it¡¯s stupid the carry it around like that but where the fuck am I gonna put it where I have easy access to the stuff? Unlike Haris I go through the dangerous streets much more often, put my life on the line with nothing but my itchy trigger finger to rely on. I can¡¯t even count the number of retarded wannabe gang-bangers I¡¯ve shut down in the last three fucken years. Before all this shit happened I''d just finished my holiday and was at the airport to catch a plane over to the orbital elevator and be stationed on another ship for the next ten years to do God knows what. They wouldn¡¯t tell me but the rumor mill amongst the people I talk with were saying I was being sent to the frontline. Maybe I dodged a bullet in that regard but it would have been more meaningful to die fighting fucking aliens than to die at the hands of these fuck-ups.


    If not for Haris I¡¯d run over to the military and report for duty right this second. I¡¯d have a lot of explaining to do and I¡¯d be in a lot of trouble; but I¡¯d come out the other end. My father¡¯s doing everything he can to make sure I don¡¯t however. Once he¡¯d found out I¡¯d befriended Haris he¡¯s had people shadowing him everywhere he went so that with a single phone call he could have him killed. This is what I get for becoming friends with an idiot. I sighed and shook my head at my blissfully stupid friend. Why do I even care for the stupid kid? He¡¯s so ignorant I feel like I¡¯m gonna have a seizure just thinking about it.


    Before leaving I made sure my pistol was loaded, I¡¯d hate to reach for it and realize I hadn¡¯t loaded the damn thing. I ducked out of the building and quickly made it to cover by store front. I heard a few people shout and the zip of a bullet flying through the air before it struck the concrete footpath near my feet. I edged back further into cover behind the brick of the storefront and worked on smashing in a corner of the bulletproof glass. It took a little effort but within twenty seconds I¡¯d managed to smash and bend the multi-layered plastic, glass and reactive gel that made up the clear screen. I ran through the empty store to it¡¯s back door and could actually heard my muscles creak as I tensed them and kicked the door straight off it¡¯s hinges. I took the entire door frame and some of the brickwork down with the door and ran through the disturbed dust towards a back alley across the street. Bullets zipped by but mostly struck the asphalt as I ran faster than humanly possible. My eyes contracted as I ran a corner and came up on a ganger running to cover or maybe away from me. A gravely rumbling escaped my throat as I rose my rifle and shot a single round center mid-back between the shoulder blades, severing his spine. He dropped to the ground with a weak groan and didn¡¯t move.


    I cocked the rifle and pulled back the bolt the let loose the spent round before pushing it back to load the next. Fluidly I spun on another joker on the roof top who¡¯d only just noticed I wasn¡¯t across the street anymore and shot mid-left upper chest. Collapsing the left lung and potentially destroying the heart. He dropped off the store rooftop and stopped moving shortly after. My ears twitched as i heard boot scuffing dirt on concrete. I lept halfway up the two story store and dug my fingers into the brickwork of the wall before scurrying up to the rooftop. I came up on a store keepers rooftop garden and ducked down amongst from flowers and pot plants. I kept low as I¡¯d immediately noticed an idiot who wasn¡¯t paying attention a few rooftops away with some kind of scoped rifle. I couldn¡¯t tell from this distance but it¡¯s intention was clear. I gripped my rifle and slowed my breathing as I aimed down the iron sights of my rifle. He was near six-hundred meters which was way further than I was comfortable to aim with just an iron sight actually I wasn¡¯t comfortable aiming with iron sights at anything further than sixty meters. My sight was never incredible but the military''s combat suits visor adjusted for prescription automatically so it was never an issue until I found myself needing to make accurate shots without it. After a few slow breaths I pulled the trigger, it struck him in the arm and I cursed. Quickly I pumped the rifle and fired again after taking a short moment to slow my breathing again. This one struck the lip of the buildings brickwork and I cursed again. Screaming he dragged himself into cover and didn¡¯t bother trying to retrieve his rifle which had fallen off the rooftop during his screaming.I¡¯d have to watch him incase he decided to retrieve his rifle. For now however I couldn¡¯t afford to not keep moving.


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I gripped the brick fence of the rooftop and let myself fall from the second story. I landed on the concrete without any issues and scurried deeper into the back alleys towards where I¡¯d heard some idiot shouting. Rounding a few corners I came across a group of three that were huddled up and keeping low. One was screaming into a phone calling for backup and during the panicked plea for help I heard they were North Band. As expected but nonetheless a sadistic smile stretched across my face with the confirmation. These sick fuckers, I¡¯ll enjoy putting down these rabid dogs. Without another thought I walked out from the corner I¡¯d been peaking around. One hand on my pistol and not even needing the stability of two hands I fired a rifle round into the phone guy. He was too pathetic so I figured I¡¯d put him out of his misery. The other two jumped at the gunshot and screamed when they realized their friend was dead, really too pathetic. Without giving them a chance to defend themselves I swung my rifle to my back and brought up my my other hand and fired two to three rounds in each of their chests. Not really caring whether or not they died quickly I ran up and kicked away each of their guns before leaving the alley.


    I stood for a moment in silence as I listened for any signs of movement of breathing. I closed my eyes and slowed my breath until I couldn¡¯t heard anything at all but the wind and the rumble of clouds in the distance. It wouldn¡¯t rain here today those clouds were destined for somewhere else. I knew so because the air didn¡¯t smell like rain. The air tended to have a pungent smell when it was going to rain but I never knew how to describe it. My mother always said it was my aboriginal blood that let me smell the rain before it came but I didn¡¯t believe in that hocus pocus mysticism crap. I was a hard fact kind of girl and one very critical fact I¡¯ve learned is that magic is real. I scowled and refocused my mind, now wasn¡¯t the time to let it wander or to think about my mother misguided belief she was a shaman of some kind. I heard it, a rapid thumping, panicked and shaking breathing. The heartbeat stopped suddenly and I heard a scream. My eyes shot open and like a flash I turned and raised my scaled arm to shield my head and upper torso. I knew the right kinds of people and they weren¡¯t far from here. I could survive until I got help if it was a stomach wound. Shots fired one after another, after another. The bullets sparked brightly as the chipped off parts of my scales and deflected off to the sides. Don¡¯t ask me why they spark like some kind of movie FX against my scales. My assailant emptied their entire clip on me and cursed when they saw me still standing. They¡¯d only gone for head shots like every other dumb shit gangster that disgraced the earth by walking it¡¯s surface.


    I didn¡¯t bother I trying to reload my pistol or reload my rifle. Instead I bolted forward and let loose four years of military training. The jackass wore all black and shades with slicked back hair and look as much like an idiot as he was. When I reached him however he smirked and vanished in a puff of black smoke. Magic or something? Rather than uselessly looking for him I reloaded my pistol and made sure a round was chambered. I was ready this time as the dumbass appeared behind me again. I shielded my head and upper torso again with my scaled arm and shot a few rounds in his general direction from over my arm. My scales sparked again as they chipped and deflected the bullets again and the shooting stopped. I peeked out from behind my arm and saw a bloodied dumbass sputting and coughing up blood and he slid to the ground. He looked at me like he couldn¡¯t believe he¡¯d just been shot and I sealed his ticket to who the fuck cares where with another bullet.


    Without blinking an eye at the people I¡¯d just killed I headed to the south of the city. Anyone who associates with the North Band isn¡¯t worth mercy. Nor are they worth troubling myself over. If I were a bit crazier I¡¯d say they didn¡¯t even register as humans to me but I would be lying if I did say that. In the end when it came down to it they wanted me either dead or alive long enough for them to play with. They were the enemy and I needed to distance myself mentally from any guilt I might feel for killing other humans. This wasn¡¯t the first group of idiots that thought they could get a shot in on me and wouldn¡¯t be the last.


    End of Part 1___________________________________________________________________________________________


    AUTHOR comments: Just a shorter interlude part thingy this time. As you might be able to tell this was from the perspective of Ashley Timber. I decided to write this chapter because she won''t be showing up around the MC for some time. I actually decided to write this about midway through the next chapter of the main story so... I ended up delaying a bit so I wouldn''t be so rushed. I really wanted to just trying writing a pure action chapter though mostly and felt that Ashley with a Mosin-Nagant(Which in this setting is a slightly over four-hundred year old gun design made in the late 1500''s and gives massive gun-nerd cred to anyone who owns a replica.) would be a good character for it. There will be more parts of this latter as Ashley doesn''t show up again at all in this Arc.


    As you might be able to tell! In addition to many things I am not confident in my action scenes. To me they always seems lacking in a lot of ways and at time I feel I''m missing the point to the entire battle. So I really have no confidence in my ability to write an interesting action scene as it is from what I have seen incredibly hard to do so.


    Also I admit to maybe miscounting how many times Ashley shot her rifle and am just too lazy to reread and check to see whether she shot it more than five times. If she did indeed shoot it more than five time or even less than five times than that needs to be fixed. I''ll do it another time though because I''m sleepy and need them sweet Z''s.


    Before I go I just wanted to say that the gun law stuff in this chapter is a load of bullshit and I actually know nothing about gun laws in Australia or any country. I just tried to think of something that I thought would be as convoluted and annoying as possible for gun owners. I actually know very little about guns so forgive me for the wrong use of gun terminology and such as I am an ignorant lout in regards to guns and many other things.

 The Line that was crossed 12

    Start of Part 12__________________________________________________________________________________________


    We left Fem-beast cage and Farrah pointed out the Male altered residential building(tentatively named man cage), the army barracks, the operations and coordination center, the research building which joined with the medical wards, Drone bay which stood like a giant steel monolith that in the middle of the facility and the armoury. She also made sure to tell me that I wasn¡¯t aloud to approach the Drone bay, armoury, man cage or the operations and coordination center under any circumstances unless I was given express orders to approach them. She then took me to the army barracks to get breakfast because that¡¯s apparently where the cafeteria is.


    ¡°If you¡¯re ever hungry, even if it¡¯s not near meal times they¡¯ll give you food. Just don¡¯t eat too much or someone will arrange to have you run laps. Top brass refuses to have anyone unfit, fat or stupid on sight so if they notice you¡¯ve been getting lazy you better be ready for hell.¡± She said smiling fiendishly.


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind.¡± I said weakly.


    I was expecting the food to just be some kind of weird military ration or multi-colored cubes like how the media seems to like to believe soldiers eat. But we came in on what looked like any normal company cafeteria with various meats, vegetables, fruits and dishes from around the world. It made sense I suppose especially when you considered that UN soldiers came from around the world and even just a taste of home would help stave off homesickness.


    I ended up getting something that looked like and had a peppery smell similar to Mrs. Yurmen¡¯s beef stroganoff alongside mashed potatoes with a large dolop of butter and a can of cola. It was a bit much for breakfast but now that I knew I could take solids now, I wanted to gorge myself. Farrah just got herself cereal and gave me a funny look when she saw the mound of food on my plate that looked like too much for three of me to eat.


    ¡°I saved a seat for you and your fledgling, Void!¡± Called out a waving woman standing up from her seat at a table near the corner of the cafeteria.


    ¡°I told you not to call me that, Sam.¡± Farrah said back to the woman after she walked us over to the table.


    I noticed a girl that seemed as young as Rachel look who was sitting next to this Sam lady. Sam looked like a classic big breasted, blond haired bimbo with all the curves of a water slide. She was slovenly dressed in revealing clothes and embodied everything I assumed a clubbing girl was in the choice of her clothing. The younger girl looked as healthy as a wet rat and she wore multiple layers of clothes. A black undershirt with a white over shirt that had a picture of exaggerated cartoon mail man running away from a dog, the mail spilling from his bags. Below which she was a black, red and white plaid shirt with black long pants that hugged close to the leg underneath. I can only assume the multiple layers was to hide how skinny she was. Regardless of the state of her body her green eyes burned with a weird intensity and her dark brown hair was cut short at her chin.


    There were two others at the table, an elderly woman who looked like she¡¯d lived since the wheel was made and a younger woman who looked to be in her late teens. The elderly woman wore a tie dye rainbow colored dress that looked like a unicorn took a dump on it. Disregarding her stupid clothes she had pure white hair and looked like a shrewd woman that rather than get mugged would beat the snot out of any little shits that tried to cause her trouble. She reminded me a lot of Mrs. Yurmen, then again any old woman reminded me of Mrs. Yurmen. The girl next to her who appeared to be in her late teen had lavender coloured hair that bordered on white, her eyes were purple and her expression was flat as if she¡¯d systematically examined and categorized the world in it¡¯s entirety and wasn¡¯t impressed. Okay maybe that was an exaggeration but she looked bored out of her mind. Is it wrong that I feel like all truly beautiful women are cruel and have a heart made of ice? Well she was truly beautiful to the point where I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn¡¯t looking at a painting instead of a person. She wore a white dress and multiple bangles on each arm. Her eyes shifted towards mine and her cheeks turned pink before she looked away and acted like I didn¡¯t exist.


    Farrah set her tray down and I sat down next to her.


    ¡°Everyone, this is Rachel.¡± Farrah said cheerily and patted me on the shoulder.


    ¡°Hello.¡± I said awkwardly and waved a hand.


    Why she was introducing me to these people I don¡¯t entirely understand. I assume however that it had something to do with social circles and making me feel like I belong here with people like me or something. Each of them responded with their own dull hello¡¯s except for the Sam.


    ¡°COMME¡¯EER!¡± She shouted with her arms wide and a wide smile.


    She jumped out of her seat and picked me up off the ground in a bear hug. She then proceeded to spin around with me in her arms before putting me back down faster than I could recover from her practically blowing my ears out. Dizzy I wobbled and fell into a chair the Farrah pushed under my feet.


    ¡°So loud...¡± Muttered the skinny as a rat girl beside Sam without looking up from a bowl of cereal she was stirring rather than eating.


    Sam let out a bellowing laugh and put an arm on the girl''s shoulder. The girl cringed and tried to shuffle away from her but it seemed Sam was holding her in place.


    ¡°Then this is the girl that sat on an atom bomb!?¡± Sam asked loudly and pointed at me.


    Farrah scoffed, ¡°That¡¯s an exaggeration if I ever heard one. But yes.¡±


    ¡°There was enough P38-9N2 to blow up a Destroyer Class Starship. It¡¯s close enough General Void.¡± Said the ancient looking woman. Her face looking like it was cracking apart with how wrinkled it was.


    Farrah scowled, ¡°Not you too Christine.¡±


    The old woman shrugged, ¡°It¡¯s a fact that can¡¯t be ignored.¡±


    It did sound pretty bad. But I¡¯m at least confident Malinda knew what she was doing. I doubt she¡¯d risk killing herself unless she was confident in her ability to deal with things if it¡¯d gone wrong. Then again I¡¯m making assumptions vying on the side of my mind controling overlord and would really rather not get into the question of exactly how much of that blind confidence in her I have is chocked up to her mind fuckery. Probably all of it.


    ¡°I get it. So why are you both keeping up with the superhero name? We made those up as a joke while we were drinking in Dreams of Auore.¡± Farrah sighed and sat in the seat next to me.


    ¡°It¡¯s a fitting name and we are super heroes!¡± Said the girl beside the unicorn feces coloured dress that was wearing a tree in the shape of an old woman.


    ¡°Comic book logic dictates that we are all super heroes and villains in the making now that we have super powers.¡± She continued.


    Not know everyone''s name was getting annoying and they seemed ready to get into an argument about comic book heroes so I interrupted, ¡°Could I get everyone''s name? I¡¯m Rachel by the way.¡±


    They stopped and Sam instantly stood up. Her chair skidding across the floor a few feet and clattering against the wall with a loud crash.


    ¡°Oh! Sorry!¡± She said and quickly retrieved her chair.


    She sat down and continued, ¡°You¡¯re right we¡¯ve been rude! I¡¯m Samuel Poet. Bet you thought Sam was short for Samantha! Am I right!?¡± Sam boomed too loudly from across the table.


    Was she hard of hearing? Is that why she¡¯s shouting all the time? Sam paused for a bit and just stared at me with a wide smile on her face that seemed many magnitudes more creepy every second that went by as she stared at me. Something is not right with this woman in the head I decided.


    ¡°Well it¡¯s not.¡± She finally said after a whole five seconds of just staring at me with a huge smile on her face.


    ¡°My hero name is Call of Battle.¡± She said before giving me a thumbs up and waving towards the skinny as a rat girl beside her.


    ¡°Tasha.¡± she said quietly.


    ¡°I am Christine Mayers. Leading human scientist of nanite technology in the galaxy. You probably haven¡¯t ever heard of me, too young. I came to enjoy the beaches but stayed for the wonderful new sights and the mutations.¡± The old woman smirked at her own joke and shrugged.


    The last girl smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m Gabriel and one of the few truly great people of Dream¡¯s of Auore.that you¡¯ll ever meet.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s the queen of the Elven kingdom which rules half of the Northern continent!¡± Sam so helpfully shouted at me.


    I laughed awkwardly without really putting any effort into making it believable. Sam was making me uncomfortable and I didn¡¯t think trying to hide that fact would help me any. She was just so loud and obnoxious it was kind of driving me insane. She seemed to have already driven the other four people at this table insane already because they seemed fine with it.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m Rachel as I said. I don¡¯t have a hero name but if I did it would be something like the Incredible Chomp or Government Raptor. Something stupid like that.¡± I said to the others who were giving Gabriel a few weird looks.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Sam started laughing like I¡¯d said something utterly hilarious but I ignored her and ate my fucking lunch. If I¡¯m stuck with a bunch of fucking weirdos then I¡¯m at least going to enjoy my damn beef stroganoff breakfast. I started eating and instantly felt better. This stuff is what heaven would be made of if I was religious. I could actually feel as my bodies mana took apart the food and used the nutrients to reinforce my body. It was a strange feeling because unlike with Haris mana, Rachel''s mana felt like cool flowing water that brought with it a calming, soothing feeling rather than the pent up boiling satisfaction that my mana felt like as Haris.


    None of the others at the table commented on my body filling itself out and going from anorexic to neither overweight nor underweight with a few minutes. Though I noticed Tasha staring at me with envy.


    We ate breakfast and I mostly listened to them each talk about Dream¡¯s of Auore. It was honestly pretty boring for me since I didn¡¯t play the game and wasn¡¯t interested in it. I prefered games that focused more on fun rather than being all ¡°real¡± while being in a fantasy setting that was anything but real.


    ¡°Rachel you¡¯ll have go with Gabi and Tasha. Sam, Christine and I have things we have to do today.¡± Farrah said to me softly.


    I shrugged, ¡°Sure.¡±


    I didn¡¯t honestly care. I just wanted my main body to wake up so I could get a bit more perspective of how they treat their ¡°special¡± cases. Ah it¡¯s depressing to think about Malinda dying but she¡¯s seriously screwed. I don¡¯t know how things could turn out well for me. Maybe she¡¯ll escape somehow? She seems more than capable of it at least.


    After a while Farrah, Sam and Christine finished eating, got up and left the cafeteria. They probably had some kind of important military related thing to do because this was a military facility and I¡¯m too stupid to use my brain and think up an kind of intelligent conjecture as to what the hell they¡¯re doing. In the end however I have been effectively left with the kids. Though I suppose in this instance I would be one of the kinds and Gabriel would be the adult that was left to look after the kids. She didn¡¯t seem to mind but Tasha looked anything but fine with being left behind by Sam. Though I suppose she looked anything but fine under any circumstance at the moment. Being incredibly underweight tends to give that kind of appearance even if you wear layers upon layers of clothing. Also she just kept playing with her food and still hadn¡¯t gotten around to finishing eating it. Holy shit just eat!


    Gabriel made a choking sound and coughed, ¡°I¡¯m fine. Just went down the wrong way.¡±


    Gotta be careful of that¡­ I¡¯d go into a story of having an uncle that choked and died but that would be distasteful and isn¡¯t a good topic to talk about over food. I¡¯m already done eating though. It¡¯s just these two that take forever to eat their damn food.


    Gabriel coughed again, ¡°Sorry, I think I need to get a drink.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t let me stop you.¡± I said gruffly.


    She got up and want to a soda machine thing to fill her cup. Maybe I was losing patience a bit too easily on them. I suppose I¡¯m just used to always doing something. I mean even at home I at least still have the TV or my computer. Now I¡¯m sitting in a cafeteria surrounded by people I don¡¯t know and with little to do but wait for two people to finish eating so that they can tell me what we¡¯re going to be doing today. If I were a less level headed kind of person I¡¯d try to escape despite my severe lack of being awesome. Maybe I could dismantle part of the fence and outer wall and get out like that. THey had time with me while I was unconscious however and I know that the UN has a thing for planting trackers in inconvenient places like under your skin. So it¡¯s too much trouble and I¡¯d probably die or just get sent to one of those ¡°better equip¡± facilities. Whatever that means.


    To be fair they have been talking about a game I dislike on principle for near three hours so that might have something to do with my annoyance. I sighed and got up. I guess eating more couldn¡¯t hurt much? So I went and retrieved some more food for myself.


    End of Part 12__________________________________________________________________________________________


    AUTHOR makes a note: So I actually had this done a day after the last chapter. However I wan''t really happy with it and rewrote it three or four times I can''t really remember because it was a bad day and I wasn''t in a good mood. Anyway I put off posting this because I was going to rewrite it again since I wasn''t really happy with the way I''d written it and it was maybe a pit sillier than I''d wanted it to be. As well as being kind of pointless because nothing actually happens this chapter other than introducing a few new characters. Characters that were many times more loops before I decided I was being stupid and toned them way down. I guess that''s what I get for trying to write when I''m feeling depressed about reading a story that was really good and then the author seemed to forget the point.


    I was heart broken to find that The Nebula which starts out as what is in my opinion a very interesting story with great world building and an noticeable characters... Turned into character building the story. Add in more than a few "too convenient coincidental reunions", "They actually know each other out of game but didn''t know" and a "This NPC is actually a player and your just got played" and I flipped the table and left the office. Followed by quiting my job and turning back into a recluse with no life motivations.


    Joking aside I was fairly upset with how the author seemed to run out of motivation and ideas fairly quickly. I was ready to delve into the MC''s craft journey and path to becoming the very best there ever was. Instead I got a lot of chapters about virtual alcohol and mech''s. With wings. In space. I get that it''s a story but I also get that I really hated that gravity movie from a few years ago for kind of the same reason. Space just doesn''t work like that and I don''t care how much creative licence your trying to use to pull down the walls around my eyes. I just don''t like being bullshitted when it comes to sci-fi. Give me a made up science''y sounding reason and I''ll be happy. Otherwise I''m going to be very unhappy with you. The last straw for me was when they had to make a random hyperdrive jump thingy for reason I will not say because they make me want to flip another table. The random jump just so happened to take them to a junker planet where they''d be able to repair their ship fairly battered ship. They crash landed and assessed the damage, but almost instantly as met by a cloaked figure. This cloaked figure know the parties NPC and the party finds out that their resident NPC is actually a player that likes to roleplay as an NPC. They also played the beta together because why not make it even more absurd?


    That was exactly where I stopped reading and put the story on my maybe try and read once I''ve calmed down and probably never touch with a ten-foot pole again list. All in all it was a good story... until it wasn''t. 10/10 would not read again.


    Now that my being a bag of dicks is pushed to the side I wanted to say I''ll be taking a month break because I need to think about the rest of this arc and deal with some glaring rl issues. From even before Is started writing this story I''d had the general plan written out. Things like crtical event such as the MC being captured by the military is one such planned event. Though I had originally intended to make it much more of a confrontation than it was and a certain character was going to die in the scuffle.(Not Haris because he was originally going to die much earlier on.)


    Regardless I decided against killing off characters for now because I wanted to develop them more before deciding whether or not their death would have any meaning towards the story. Even then I may decide against it if I find myself unable to write a death scene that I feel is impactful. So it is highly unlikely any of the MC''s will ever die. I wish to flesh out a few more detail for the coming chapters because if I just wrote them without it they would be terribly boring with completely flat or over the top characters. And considering the things I''ve been reading recently that have made me somewhat depressed because a story seemed so easily ruined by a character or a terrible plot point for me. I want anything but that to happen for you my readers.


    That said however this story will always remain a genderbender and anyone who complains about it will meet the back of my figurative hand. Not to mention that the story will only continue to focus further on Haris as his female alternative, Rachel, from here on out.


    So I hope this chapter wasn''t as horrible as my currently depression clouded mind believes and that you enjoyed it. I''ll see you all in a month.

 Been a while - The reckoning of writer block

    And that''s enough of me being dramatic or whatever.


    So yeah... it''s been quite a while and you may have wondered at some point why I haven''t posted anything. Well y''see I could pass this off as having an early holiday but that''d be an outright lie; not to mention how much I''ve gushed about how writing is my favorate pass time.


    Suffice to say I''ve suffered from a relaps of depression over the last... 4-5 months? It''s nothing big or new for me to be honest as I am usually the cause of my own suffering. It started to get really bad around august and I entered a state which I call giving up on life but not seeking death. Which is my prefered method of sever depression because suicidal thoughts really miss you up and I thankfully haven''t been through that again ever since I dropped out of school sixyears ago. Funny thing how slamming the metaphorical door on all your friends and comitments can really open your eyes to how little it all matters in the bigger picture. The bigger picture being the need to get a job and function in modern society after going through a centrys old enducation system that really doesn''t ready you for life outside of school.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Ah... not that it makes you a very resposible or up-right person. If anything I feel sorry for my parents who have been so increadibly patient with me as I continue to be in my own words, a waste of space. I honestly wish I could be a better son to them but life screwed me up and turned me into an anxiety riddled and depressed mess with comitment issues. I am admitadly unreliable and so segways into the dreaded writers block. I''m having a hard time continueing this story at the moment but I believe I''ll be able to pick it back up. Reading over what I''d written did raise my eyebrows a few times as I asked myself what I was trying to write and why; but I do intend to continue and will work on cleaning up everything after I finish the first arc. I also learned that I need to take better notes because I have no way of decripting my own arcane texts after forgetting what they related to.


    So I''ll apologize now for my unnotified absence because it was pretty shitty of me to do that.


    I''ll post again when I have something.


    So see you then and thank you for your continued patience.

 Interlude - Dragons Mound 2

    Monster Brethren - Interlude - Dragon''s Mound


    I slammed the door shut behind me as I stumbled into the reception room of the old hotel I repurposed as another of the many unaffiliated safehouses speckled across the city. A quick check of the staff and office rooms informed me that they were empty. During the first few months after the sky tore open these safe houses were gathering points for the many people left behind and forgotten during the rush to evacuate the city. Seeing them so empty and lifeless now I can almost see the ghosts people left behind during their short visit to the place of refuge, a stain here, blood there, a dirty cloth left behind, a mug that was never washed. I can still remember the oppressive feeling of dread that hung in the air like a bad stench during the first few days. The rabble and refuse left behind by the world to rot under the torn skies of Sydney. I slumped against the reception desk and shrugged off my backpack and propped my rifle up against the counter. I winced as my movement pulled against the ragged tear in my side from when one of the bullets glanced me. I gripped the bloodied bandage and grimaced as blood trickled from the fabric and dirtied my already putrid smelling and sweat stained tank top. Clean bandages are a luxury no one can afford, my own bandage being a torn up shirt I¡¯d mostly managed to keep clean since the last time I¡¯d managed to sort of clean my tiny wardrobe of two sets of shirts, pants and underwear to match. Clothes and cleaning power just didn¡¯t seem important enough to risk my life for on my last scavenge run.


    I chuckled darkly to myself as I pressed down through the pain and thought of something to take my mind of it all. The first thing that came to mind was why I¡¯d been avoiding reporting into the military camp just a few streets away. I could report in and have a shower and a clean bunk by the end of the day, but I don¡¯t. I don¡¯t because I wouldn''t be coming back the next time the send me off planet. A sixty-six point two-one percent casualty rating, a three in five chance that I wouldn¡¯t survive and the fact I survived my first tour through the galaxy was about as surreal as if God itself reached down from the heavens and slapped me. When my tour was over and I touch back on earth soil along with the rest of my squad we shed tears in disbelief. We¡¯d each lost friends and more out there. Our comrades remains floating somewhere amongst the stars because we couldn¡¯t waste the cargo space to retrieve the bodies. So I ask myself everyday as I go through the motions of navigating this shitty city and cleaning out the trash that piles up¡­


    ¡°Would I rather die fighting or die because of a faulty airlock?¡±


    Dying fighting has a sort of romance to it and you feel empowered, like you have some sort of control over your life: that if you just fight hard enough then some day you¡¯ll die satisfied that you did all that you could do. If nothing else I¡¯d feel satisfied knowing that I didn¡¯t die because one of the many underpaid laborers slacked off on their job and neglect to check that a bolt was screwed, or a rivet was riveted, or that a weld would hold or whatever else of the billions of things that could go wrong on a starship. In the end I can¡¯t choose between duty or my pride. Or I could just be a coward, haaah¡­


    With the illusion of safety firmly implanting itself in my mind I allowed my eyes to drift shut to rest my eyes for a bit before attempting to clean my wound and rebandage it. When I opened my eyes again the sun was high in the sky and I realized I¡¯d fallen asleep like an idiot. Emptying half a bottle of clean enough water into a tin cup I did my best to clean my wound with more cloth scraps and then did my best to rebandage the wound with the remnants of my ruined clean shirt.


    A creak of the old and uncared for wooden floor boards shocked my eyes wide as I grabbed my gun and brought it to bare in an instant. My eyes narrowed as I stared at an elderly man with a greying beard and long oily hair. The man stood stock still with an unmarked bottle of moonshine in one bloodied but bandaged hand and a pistol in the other.


    ¡°Jus¡¯ lookin¡¯ fer a place to swig my shine gerly.¡± The elderly man said swishing his bottle slightly.


    I felt pressure build in my lungs as worked every muscle in my body to make myself seem less injured than I was. It doesn¡¯t matter how harmless a person may seem, only the refuse of the world remained after the straight laced citizens evacuated. Finding the rare person like Haris who wasn¡¯t a complete piece of shit did happen from time to time. However it didn¡¯t happen often enough for me to believe this elderly man was the good kind of company to keep. There was another issue entirely though. This elder man wore the blue armband and paint that marked him as a member of the North Band, a gang known for it¡¯s rapists and male dominance.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    ¡°Fuck off! Leave the swill and take a hike motha¡¯fucker or I¡¯ll give you another gaping maw to drink through.¡± I growled and was mildly surprised to hear a beastly growl escape my lips.


    It was becoming difficult to continue standing and the pressure in my lungs from tensing my abdominal muscles was making it hard to calm my breathing. The elderly man startled at the gravely hiss which I called a growl and took a step back, his face now pale.


    ¡°Shit! You¡¯re one of them aren¡¯t you!?¡± He exclaimed in terror.


    ¡°Who is them? Clarify!¡± I demanded with a snap.


    ¡°No, please just- you can have whatever you want, just let me live; please!¡± He pleaded as he got on his knees and placed his battle down.


    ¡°I said clarify! Who do you mean by them?¡± I demanded and another growl escaped my lips.


    The man was shaking now and unfortunately for him I was expecting what happened next. THe elderly man raised his pistol and I fired, shooting my in the leg. He screamed and as I opened my mouth to demand he answer me he shot. The bullet struck my rifle and deflected into my forward hand grip causing me to drop the gun. The pressure in my lungs shot to a peak in my frustration and panic for my life as I watched the elderly man tense his hand to fire again.


    ¡°Fuuuuuuuck!¡± I cursed as a final fuck you to the world before I died.


    To my shock green flames shot from my mouth and bathed not only the man but also the hallway out of the building in flames. The man screeched like a banshee as he rolled about in the flames and scratched ineffectively at his face to remove the fire from his eyes. I shook and broke out in a cold sweat as I suddenly felt as if what little strength I¡¯d had was drained out of me. I wanted nothing more than to lay down and sleep but the flames were spreading and if God was giving me another chance then I refused to waste it by burning to death. I wrapped what little remained of my mostly clean cloth around my bloodied hand, hefted my bag over my shoulder and although it broke my heart I left behind the broken remains of my rifle. The elder man quieted down and stopped moving as I took a moment to mourn the loss of my rifle. It was stupid but I loved that gun and I didn¡¯t have time to be sentimental.


    The flames spread quickly over the beaten and aged wood so I made for a window and smashed the glass with my hand wrapped in cloth. The pain made me wince as it shot up my arm and I noted that I¡¯d need to examine the damage latter once I¡¯d found a safe place to lay down for the night. Now free of the burning building I knew the flames would attract the local gangs, so I fled into the setting sunto make some distance and lower my chances of being spotted. I refused to die tonight!


    I made my way south, deeper into the territories of what would remained of the South Coast Vigilance gang. They were pretty mild compared to the other gangs and would leave unaffiliated alone so long as they didn¡¯t cause trouble.


    I had another safe house down there that I shaded with Mickey, an old associate from before I joined the army. We got along and he knew not to fuck with my stuff so it seemed like the best place to heal and recover. Most importantly I had medical supplies hidden in a cache near there that I was sure no one would have found and looted. It was an old basement hatch that I hid under a carpet and a fridge that I¡¯d loaded with rations. Anyone who found the place would assume that the stacks of military grade emergency rations was the stash and make off with that instead.


    It was about midday by the time I reached Mickey¡¯s hideout and I collapsed as I walked in through the door to a panicking Mickey.who had been sitting on the couch eating frogurt and watching TV. I swear¡­ some these asshats could live anywhere and be perfectly content with their life.


    When I opened my eyes again I thanked God for Mickey not being a jackass and letting me die on his carpet. I tried to sit up but my body gave out before my mind did and I grunted in pain and annoyance. A leathery hand pat my on the shoulder and my head swiveled to look at whoever touchedme, which sent my head spinning.


    ¡°Whoa, whooa. Slow down there Ash, it¡¯s just me.¡± Said the leathery skinned man, Mickey who stared back at me.


    Mickey was a torres strait islander, a classic Samoan man in every respect. His entire upper body was covered in tattoos that I could only assume told some sort of story.


    ¡°Sorry for stealing your couch for a bit.¡± I grumbled through dry lips.


    ¡°Hah hah, don¡¯t worry about it Ash. Just try not to bleed too much on it.¡± He joked with a chuckle.


    I smiled and said, ¡°Mickey, you know that medical stash I said I had?¡±


    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t start with this again Ash. I have medicine, just give me a few antibiotics when you¡¯re better and we¡¯re even.¡± He said with a huff and a shrug that indicated the finality of the discussion.


    I sighed and winced at the tenderness of my ribs.


    ¡°Thanks again.¡± I thanked one last time and let myself fall asleep.

 The Line that was crossed 13

    Start of Part 13__________________________________________________________________________________________


    Farrah Rogers AKA VOID


    Lights flickered with seemingly at random throughout the science ward. Farrah¡¯s brows furrowed as the camera feed cut out for the brief few seconds before returning.


    ¡°Can¡¯t you do something about the containment fields Lamont?¡± She asked Sgt Lamont Lance Justice a once retired enhanced human military officer.


    ¡°Unless you want me to put a bullet in P01408¡¯s skull this is the best we can do with the equipment on hand.¡± Sgt Lamont responded grimly.


    ¡°As much as these power outages annoy me I can¡¯t give that order.¡± Farrah frowned.


    The camera feed flaired back to life to reveal a young girl no older than seven contained within an energy field that warped and bend at random intervals like it¡¯s trying to contain something. The little girl was huddled up and sitting on the remains of what was once a bed with varying amounts of debris flattened against the concrete floor.


    ¡°Has the congress responded on this matter?¡± Farrah asked once another power fluctuation cut the camera feed again.


    ¡°They¡¯ve decided to label her a class 13 entity.¡± Sgt Lamont replied after reading over the report.


    ¡°Good. We¡¯ll ship her off to a comfy psionic inhibitor cell in the pandora¡¯s box.¡± Farrah replied roughly.


    ¡°It¡¯s the best she could hope for Farrah.¡± Christine Mayers tried to reason.


    Farrah shook her head slowly, ¡°Pulling her down would be the best she could hope for, Christine.¡±


    A life of confinement, unable to even touch another person without killing them. That wasn¡¯t the life a seven year old should have to grow up in. Even if she somehow remains sane her situation won¡¯t change without collaborating with Luudesi Psionics specialists and that just wasn¡¯t going to happen. Psionic inhibitor technology was bulky and far too large and expensive to be moved around conveniently. Farrah thought to herself.


    ¡°Let¡¯s hope she forgets there was ever anything outside her glass bubble.¡± Farrah grimaced.


    The three in the observation room remained silent for the next few minutes as they watched the crying girl until a man with reflective golden eyes peered through the door. Farrah turned to the man as he entered the room, seemingly happy for something to distract her from the heavy reality of a young girl dealt a poor hand in the genetic lottery.


    ¡°Doctor Golding, I trust you have news of the three we collected yesterday?¡±


    ¡°Yes General I have the reports ready for you in your office. However I wanted to ask about the young girl found with the three. The woman continues to claim that she wishes to see her daughter.¡± Doctor Golding adjusted his collar nervously as Farrah returned the inquiry with a glare.


    ¡°We¡¯ve already run the blood tests, they aren¡¯t related and the girl herself didn¡¯t seem very worried about their absence.¡± Farrah sneered.


    ¡°However tests have shown that the mutations brought on by exposure to P38-9N2 and P301C fundamentally change the DNA of affected individuals. We have no way to the prove or disprove her claims. I believe we should let the girl meet with T0492 and T0103 under observation, so we may hopefully lay these claims to rest.¡± Doctor Golding reasoned.


    ¡°Fine, do it. I want an EO standing guard in the room during the encounter.¡± Farrah said with a dismissive wave of her hand.


    ¡°Of course. I¡¯ll have it arranged.¡± Doctor Golding nodded his head and left the room.


    Farrah left Christine and the other scientists to work out how to work out how to get the lights to stop flickering. She didn¡¯t care how they did it so long as they did, even if they had to break procedure and drain power from the facilities other generators. Farrah was sick and tired of the quick flashing between hot and cold that the flickering of the lights put her through. It felt like she was sick and she was always either too cold or too hot since her mutations cause her to feel all light as an uncomfortable warmth. Sort of like standing under the scorching sun at midday on 40¡æ day. So the light on it¡¯s own was bad enough, switching between hot and cold so rapidly was torture. It¡¯s because of this that Farrah took the first chance she could to get out of the science block and push all of the duties she could onto someone else.


    ¡°Farrah! What was the issue you were called off for about!?¡± The booming voice of Samuel met Farrah¡¯s ears as soon as she reached the reception area.


    Farrah groaned inwardly as her ears already began to ring from the woman''s far too loud voice.


    ¡°Sam¡­ we have the problem under control now. Thank you for bringing her in. I don¡¯t think anyone else could survive telekinetic pulses of that magnitude.¡± Farrah said forcing a smile to hide the frown that wanted to force its way onto her face.


    Samuel smile wryly with a show of teeth, ¡°Well you know me Void; only that much can¡¯t keep down this girl.¡±


    ¡°I doubt very little can keep down a class 4 durability, regenerator like yourself, Battlecry.¡± Farrah said dryly.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°I heard the new kid can supposedly make thing disappear?¡± Samuel¡¯s voice filled the void of silence that had descended upon the two momentarily.


    ¡°After reviewing the footage it seems she can release a strange golden mist that eats away matter. We can¡¯t be sure what it does with it however.¡±


    Samuel¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°That has to be a tier 6 power at the least... Depends on the density of material she can make vanish.¡±


    Farrah reached for her back pocket and withdrew her phone. Flicking it unlocked she brought up the document to make sure she got the numbers right, ¡°The scientists are guess at 8 kg a minute at the least. They can¡¯t tell for sure at the moment so their estimates are probably vastly exaggerated or the opposite may be true. It¡¯ll require voluntary testing on the girls part.¡±


    Samuel shook her head, ¡°Very few new enhanced ever agree to getting official testing on the limits of their powers. I doubt she¡¯d agree.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± Farrah frowned.


    ¡°We¡¯ll sit her down with Julien and see if he can convince her.¡± Farrah continued after a deep sigh.


    ¡°You mean glowing red eyes, pointy white teeth, probably a vampire, Julien?¡± Samuel asked with a raised brow.


    Farrah chuckled and bobbed her head in a nod, ¡°Yes, that Julien.¡±


    Samuel¡¯s mouth gaped which she clacked shut before scowling, ¡°Are you trying to terrify the child or have her take a few noninvasive tests to get a baseline of her abilities capabilities? Fucking hell, Farrah!¡±


    Farrah hands flew up to cover her ears as Samuel spoke louder and louder until Farrah could feel a drain on her power as it protected her from a series of shock waves that would have otherwise burst her eardrums. The windows rattled in their fixing but didn¡¯t break because they were more plastic and impact resistant gel than actual glass. People in the hall however flopped onto the ground as their eardrums burst and they fainted. Farrah noted not for the first time that making samuel mad was not a smart idea, not a smart idea at all.


    Farrah sighed and called the medical facilities number for medical staff to take care of the unfortunate staff who were taken out by Samuel¡¯s outburst. Samuel took some time to calm herself and was visibly shaken by the casualties, the memories of all the people that had died during her awakening evidently resurfacing to haunt the woman.


    ¡°I need to calm down. We¡¯ll talk about this latter Farrah!¡± Samuel boomed but was obvious struggling to keep down the volume at that time.


    Farrah sighed and watch as the medical staff arrive and carried away the day''s victims with a frown. It was a weekly occurrence and people had started betting on who would get knocked flat on their arse each week. A tech support agent that worked in sub-level nine had won this week as he had for the last nine weeks and he¡¯d always bet nine dollars. People were beginning to believe the man had limited foresight and Farrah was inclined to agree with them.


    ¡°Beep beep, I¡¯m a sheep! Beep Bee-¡± Farrah answered her phone on it¡¯s second ring.


    The catchy and somewhat condescending tune from her childhood made Farrah smile. However the name ¡°Valeria Scriven¡± displayed on the screen made her scowl.


    ¡°Agent.¡± Farrah conveyed all her distaste for the woman on the other end of the phone with that single word.


    ¡°Scouts have sighted a fire in Padstow. The flames are supernatural in nature, most likely the result of another transformation. Requesting dispatch of the squad 9.¡± Agent Scriven more demanded than requested the dispatch.


    Farrah shivered at the mention of the number nine again and swore she¡¯d get Frank sent in for an examination to get him checked for any enhanced gene markers and abilities. He was starting to scare people despite how small and seemingly harmless his ¡°luck¡± was. There were far too many coincidences around him and he was even beginning to freak himself out.


    Farrah¡¯s head throbbed in irritation as she heard the tone that indicated the AI¡¯s approval of the request. A bossy AI being another one of the many things that was making Farrah¡¯s life difficult for her.


    ¡°Accepted.¡± Farrah answered and cut off the call.


    Farrah tapped the app which connected her to the dispatch line and organized team nines deployment. When she was finished she sighed and wished that she had someone else on staff that would do this stuff for her. Actually she used to but they were needed in another position and were reassigned. If the situation wasn¡¯t so dired Farrah would have demanded that she be allowed to retire again.


    Things had changed a lot in the military since she¡¯d retired and Farrah still wasn¡¯t sure how she felt about it. Most of her work was now handled by an AI that was millions of times more competent than her. Giving Farrah far more free time than she was comfortable with professionally. For the most case Farrah felt she was unnecessary and more of a watchdog to make sure the AI that was in charge of everything didn¡¯t decide to try and take over the world. Every order, command, plan and otherwise that Artemis-6 proposed had to be reviewed and approved by Farrah and it was making Farrah feel redundant. Perhaps more accurately it was that Farrah was more a fossil that had been dug up from the First encounter times and put on display for the masses than anything else. In all four hundred years of her life so far Farrah has never felt so useless than she has ¡°leading¡± the army from the front on this new ¡°frontier¡±.Farrah honestly felt like someone was playing a sick joke on her.


    The situations in Sydney was bad, worse than anyone outside of the containment was willing to admit. People were going through massive mutations when exposed to the mysterious gas billowing through that hole in the sky even when exposed for mere seconds, mutations eventually began to surface. Everyone who had been in Sydney when that hole opened has been reported developing powers or experiencing minor mutations like scales, hair and eye colour changes and the life. Even Farrah, an Enhanced, was not exempt from the exotic gases mutating properties. The mutations had strengthened Farrah¡¯s power significantly, but it had also altered her appearance drastically. Now no light escaped her skin, making her skin darker than even a night during the new moon; there was no colour there now, only darkness and the medical team had told her she was still mutating, that this was only the beginning and she should expect more drastic changes. No one was aloud out of the city, no one. Not even the very soldiers they¡¯d sent in to contain the situation.


    Perhaps because of this there had been a great deal of reluctance to send in much needed soldiers to help contain the situation. Farrah had less than a hundred soldiers under her command and more than half of them had been reserves with only half a decade in off world outposts post that saw little to no actual combat.


    The gangs in the area were a very real threat and they¡¯d been trying to get through the blockade since day one. With their personnel shortages, Farrah had little to no doubt that the gangs had found their way through the net. The war outside the solar system was just too important to take soldier away from and what little remained in the system was barely enough to keep the auto-defence systems online. If what that hole in the sky meant was another invasion then the situation was only going to get worse and with the local heroes reluctant to risk irreversible mutations, the situation simply couldn¡¯t be contained.


    Farrah¡¯s expression became grim and as her phone began ringing again she rubbed the tension out of her face and answered the call, as she always would and always has.


    End of Part 13__________________________________________________________________________________________