Wild Soul (Worm/Celestial Menagerie/OC) (2024)

Author's Note: Alright, I've been working on a few different ideas for a story, including a few Worm CYOA based ones, but ultimately, I decided to try something different. Zagan on Sufficient Velocity started up The Celestial Menagerie, an interesting idea I've already seen two others create fun stories with on the forums here. I decided to give it a try, while I was also interested in the Celestial Forge, I felt I would not be able to do it any real justice. I am not entirely convinced I will manage that here either, but I am curious enough to give it a try.

Fair warning, this story is a bit of experiment for me, and while I have a gridwire idea of where I want to take it, the fact that the allies gained will be random will undoubtedly alter my plans and cause some plans to be dropped and new ones picked up in time. I intend to try and write my story to a conclusion as I have with the previous two, but we'll see how this ride goes. I did have some alternatives in mind, so if this idea feels like it is not working out, I may write it to an earlier conclusion and switch over to another idea.

Note, the opening speech is almost directly copied from what Zagan wrote to the introduction of the CM, and belongs to Zagan.

Lily was fairly certain she was dead. Floating in an apparently empty, misty space with some unseen source of light giving a faint illumination to the surroundings certainly gave that impression to her, along with the fact she was weightless, just floating in the air. She had tried to move around and look for answers, shout, plead for aid, and nothing had come of it.

Working at an office, she was a young woman in her late twenties, and had done reasonably well for herself in professional life. She was not too ambitious but worked hard and was diligent about her duties when on the clock, but perfectly content to just relax on her time off. She didn't really consider herself a saint by any means, but neither did she regard herself as a bad person. Somewhat selfish at times, but hardly more than anyone else, and willing to reach out to help another from time to time.

Yet after all that, she found herself stuck in what seemed to be some sort of a limbo. Lost and forgotten. She had raged, pleaded, cried, tried to shout out and bargain for a second chance at life, anything. It felt like it had been a long time already, despite the fact there was no real way to tell, with the unchanging nature of the place she found herself in.

Sighing quietly as she looked at her hands, she saw the translucent look about them. Her hands were still there, but she could see through them. Closing her eyes still concealed things from her, she wasn't seeing through her eye-lids, but holding her hand to her face had let her still see through it perfectly fine.

It was just one of those freaky oddities that made her pretty certain she was dead. She was having some difficulties accepting it at first, but after all the crying and raging, she had come to a point where she had started to admit that it was likely true. True acceptance was not quite there yet, she was reluctant to leave a life behind if there was any chance to get back among the living. Yet at the same time, she had shouted so loud and so long, she was pretty sure if she had an actual body her throat would be so horrifyingly sore by now she didn't like to think about it.

Worst of all, she couldn't recall how it might have happened. She had vague memories of heading out to work the start of the day, getting to her car in the icy weather, and reaching her place of work. Going through the day at the office, preparing to leave, and then, nothing. The rest of the memories seemed to cut off, blacked out.

She was not sure if she had been in some car-accident on the road, killed by someone in the parking lot, or what had happened. She had even considered the possibility someone had simply yanked her from where she was, and dropped her off in this damnable limbo without any warning. The aggravating fact was that she simply did not know.

Lily had waited and screamed out for someone to explain things to her eventually, with no effect. She had tried to just wait patiently and politely, but with nothing going on and all the horrifying thoughts about existential dread pushing to the surface looking at her translucent hands, she had ended up shouting.

She had made plenty of mistakes in her life, but tried to keep going without giving them too much power over her. She had made the best of the situations as they came, and had managed to get herself in a comfortable enough position that she had not been feeling too much pressure on her life. True, things might have been occasionally a bit boring, but she amused herself with various means.

She enjoyed her share of movies, watching some interesting series, reading, browsing the net. She had enjoyed looking up things on a few forums, enjoying the stories and fan-fiction that some people put together. She had lurked and followed a few stories quite eagerly, waiting to see where the authors would take their characters next.

Now, she was left cursing in the empty space about boredom, uncertainty, and the frustration of so many stories she had been amused by now being left in unfinished state in her mind as well. It was just a little extra push of misery on her, but she would have really wanted to keep following those stories at least, but of course this damned limbo denied her even such means of entertainment. Left to suffer alone and bored.

"Congratulations, Congratulations, you've been chosen to be the newest member of the Celestial Menagerie! Isn't that great?"

The sudden booming voice caused her to yelp and flail her arms as she spun in the air doing a flip, before managing to stabilize herself. Looking around confused, she saw nobody else around, only concealing mist.

"Who am I and what's the Celestial Menagerie, you ask. Well, allow me to explain. I'm an omni-dimensional being and one of the founders of the Celestial Menagerie. It's an organization dedicated to the preservation of life across the multiverse. To do so we search for individuals like you."

She blinked while still trying to find the source of the voice, finding her own voice failing her, no sound coming from her throat even as she tried to speak up and ask some questions, both about what had happened to her and this apparent offer.

"You see you possess an extremely rare and unique quality, your soul is at the same time very resilient but also very adaptable. Once we find someone like you, we engrave on their soul the pattern of a living creature so this pattern can be forever preserved, and should something happen to this particular species, we can use the pattern to recreate it elsewhere."

Lily was shocked and began waving frantically on hearing that idea. The idea of someone messing with her soul did definitely set her at ease, she was not thrilled by that idea.

"Hum, what do you mean you don't want to have anything engraved into your soul? I assure you the process is completely painless and it's for a good cause. In addition, it's not without benefit for you, once the pattern has been engraved you can use it to summon a copy of that creature completely subservient to you. Does that help?"

Lily was gritting her teeth together, annoyed, still waving her hands, and pointing at her throat, wanting to be able to talk.

"How can the Celestial Menagerie help preserve countless creatures, if people like you are that rare and can only preserve one creature? And what happens when you die? Ah, I see the confusion, but I didn't finish explaining. After the first pattern has been engraved your soul will slowly adapt and grow, allowing us to engrave one more creature and continuing like that we can preserve an impressive amount of creatures. As for dying, well first most of the creatures you will be able to summon have unique ability and power, and can help protect you. And second, as I said the pattern will be engraved on your soul, and a soul is eternal. A few exotic effects can damage or in rare cases destroy a soul, but the very fact of engraving patterns on your soul will reinforce it, making you way more resistant to such effects. Does that answer your question?"

Not really, she thought grimly. She lowered one arm, waving the other in the air in a manner similar to a student trying to get the teacher's attention. Apparently the panicked waving wasn't working after all. She still pointed at her throat.

"No, sorry we don't give you the possibility of refusing, souls like yours are too rare for that. I'm mostly talking to you as a courtesy. Now you're going to wake up, and you'll gain the knowledge on how to summon your first creatures. Two things before I need to go, first you might want to revisit your definition of a living creature, you might be surprised otherwise. Second, we also include in the Celestial Menagerie a number of minor powers to help you, think of it as a bonus. I'm going to continue my search for more beings like you and I wish you luck with your new power."

After the voice quieted down, Lily felt herself suddenly falling at the mist, like gravity had just suddenly been returned after all that time waiting around, a yelp escaping her throat again, an indignant annoyance towards the voice and whatever being that was for denying her the chance to even ask some questions properly before it dropped this all on her, but as she fell through the mist, she felt herself falling asleep regardless, everything going black.

Waking up on top of a bed in an unfamiliar bedroom, Lily let out a small groan as she got up and out of the bed. Dressed in her underwear and a simple t-shirt, she looked about a bit confused, the bedroom was relatively neat if sparsely furnished, but a mirror close by on a closet door allowed her to get a good look at herself.

She had changed, that much was obvious. Her hair was straight and black, reaching just past her shoulders, the previous dark brown shade and the curls she was used to both obviously missing. Her eyes had taken a cold blue shade to them, replacing the old light brown shade she was used to. Not to mention her face had changed. It was little things, small adjustments to her nose and her cheekbones. She looked nicer, a little more attractive. The smooth, clear skin had a fair bit to do with it most likely, the fair complexion she had. Gone were little imperfections that had bothered her slightly before.

Leaving the bedroom, she looked around the place she found herself in. It appeared to be a small one-story house in a somewhat poorer neighborhood from the looks of it, the house itself in a somewhat worn down state. She had a bedroom, a kitchen, a decent living room, as well as a small bathroom with a shower, and a small utility room that was more of a closet really, with a washing machine.

She confirmed the closet held clothes matching her current size, and decided to start the day with a quick shower, trying to clear her head. Taking a moment to cook up something to eat, she had a bit of toast and some fried eggs ready in a short order.

Looking around a bit for more clues about her location soon after, she paused as she noticed a few that had her shiver a little uncomfortably. On one of the walls, a calendar stated it was March 2011. On the living room table, a folded up map had its cover up, 'Brockton Bay' marked on top of it.

That was enough to give her a pretty good idea of where the hell she had been dropped. This was not back in her old life, her body had changed, her apparent place to stay had changed, but more importantly, the world she found herself in had definitely changed. That in itself had her tremble and clench her hands into fists, trying to calm down her heartbeat and steady herself.

She was in Earth-Bet. The place where everything seemed to be getting worse, a world occupied by super-powered villains, ruthless gangs and murderhoboes, as well as huge monsters dead-set on destroying what was left of the civilization, bit by bit. Without even trying to mention the surviving Entity and the potential outcome of a confrontation in the future.

Lily shook her head and shivered, this was not good at all. She kept searching for a while, finding a wallet and a flip-phone in the bedroom in a drawer at the night-stand. There was also a bunch of papers in a file folder awaiting, along with a pair of keys in a key-chain. Bringing these over to the living room, he laid the items down on the table, checking them through.

The wallet contained a debit slash ATM card she could use, as well as a post-it-note with a pin-code. There was a driver's license, issued to Lilian Forester. It was not her old last name, but apparently it was what she had been given here. She kept her first name, though she still preferred the more familiar Lily. In addition to that, there was some cash, $50 in total.

The flip-phone had no past calls, no recorded messages. It did note it was Saturday 26th​ of March. Giving her a more exact date. That gave her roughly two weeks before things kicked off, if she recalled things right. She was pretty sure the story she remembered reading got started on the 8th​ of April. That didn't give a lot of time to prepare for what would likely follow. If things were going to go as she recalled, in bits and pieces, she would have to be really careful about the way the bombs would start going off eventually.

Checking on the papers, she found she had some manner of background and history in this world, though she had no real memories of it. Grimacing, she flipped through the papers a bit disgusted, and sighed after a moment. There was a lot of details thrown in to remember, some pictures to show her about things she should logically know, but ultimately it could be summarized in a rather short form.

Her old life sucked. She was born to a small town, with parents that had stayed together when her mom got pregnant with her older brother, and she and her brother had often heard them fighting and arguing growing up. Her brother headed off to college full of hope, but got into partying and using drugs, starting a rather nasty descent. She had headed elsewhere to study, getting into a small-time college herself, and studying Business Administration.

Then the Slaughterhouse 9 had rolled in at her home town, and butchered everyone there. Her parents had died, and all she had left of her family were a few distant cousins that wanted nothing to do with her, as well as a mooching brother who was possibly a reason why her other relatives were wary of her as well.

She was 21, she had got herself a three year degree in Business Administration which wasn't really all that helpful when she arrived in Brockton Bay. She had come after a job offer she had got at a local office. Being an office drone paid her bills, covering the rent, the utilities, and the groceries, without leaving her too much extra.

Her key-chain contained a house-key as well as a car-key, to an old used car that was still in decent repair that she had been using to get to work and back. She was still more or less regarded as a newcomer at the office, getting all the annoying work shoved onto her, and was just trying to get through it.

Putting the papers down, she rubbed her forehead while groaning out loudly. She thought she was done with the gopher-work that early stay at the office had been like, only to find out she had to do it all over again it seemed. Worse, this world wasn't exactly safe, and the work was not necessarily all that stable. It might put some money in her pocket and cover some basic bills, but she was hardly thrilled by it at all.

As her thoughts turned back at the matter of the engraving on her very soul, she thought about what she had experienced, and trembled a little. She could vaguely sense something was there, connected to her, just waiting to be called. Thinking about it, she could envision a tether reaching towards her, touching on it, she felt a bit of curiosity and eagerness, a sense of warmth. She could vaguely see a mental image of an upright slug, only with small arms at its sides, as well as a shade of green. She was fairly sure it had a rather large lower jaw, but she felt she would need to summon it to her presence to really see and know.

It didn't feel hostile though, and the windows were covered. Taking a breath, she hesitated a moment, and then mentally gave the tether a small pull. She had a moment's feel of something approaching, and a need to choose where it would appear close to her, choosing an open patch of floor quickly, almost instinctively, before the creature just seemed to fade in, one moment there was nothing, then the next second a translucent image appeared and became more solid before it was no longer translucent at all, and the creature moved.

It was indeed an odd, upright slug, with small arms at its sides. It had a large pair of lips, the lower jaw more prominent because of these lips, a peachy underbelly and arms, but green back with black spots along it. The creature was looking around curious, seeming rather excited. She could feel the curiosity through the bond, even as she approached a bit hesitantly.

"Uh, hi there?" She waved a little, looking at the creature, that looked back at her curious and attentive.

"You don't really talk, do you?" She asked a bit awkward, and saw the slug-creature shake its head at her. Great. At least it seemed to understand her, and be able to answer her.

"Figures. Okay, so, we are living in a somewhat dangerous place now. I may need to call upon you to help me out later, I would rather avoid getting in any trouble with the people on this world, but I figure chances are that we might get involved one way or another. So I may call you out to help me in some tense situations. Can you handle being in danger?" She felt a bit guilty about the thought of summoning this creature in the middle of a fight later on, but at the same time she was pretty sure if the choice was between calling upon this creature engraved in her soul to protect her or dying horribly at the hands of one of the gangs in the city, she would definitely call on the creature and then try and make her escape in a hurry.

Seeing the creature nod and proudly pat its fist on its chest, she smiled a bit at it. It was willing, though she did not know if it would prove capable of really doing more than being a distraction really. Time would tell. She would honestly rather avoid getting involved in the scene of heroes and villains, but she would prefer to have at least a basic plan in mind if things did go badly.

Lily did recall that she would likely gain more summons in time, so perhaps things were not as bleak as they looked to be at that present moment, but she wasn't going to count on that. She'd rather prepare for the worst even if she hoped for the best. That included considering packing up a bag and preparing to leave town in a hurry later on. If Brockton Bay was going to go through a bomb tinker's rampage, she would much rather get the hell away from it if she couldn't protect herself otherwise.

Another thought hit her without warning. Did she have any protections against being detected by one of the more dangerous presences in the world? She did not know, and that in itself was a scary thought. Thinking of it, she swallowed and looked at the creature at her side, before focusing on sending it back where it came from. The experience was a little odd, she saw the creature vanish with a quiet pop, a lot faster than the first time arriving.

She felt the connection was still there, but it was muted. She instinctively now knew that she could not summon the creature again until tomorrow. Roughly 24 hours since it had last been summoned. From the start of the time it had been summoned instead of the end though, so if she summoned one in the morning and kept it till a late hour, she could still summon another again the following morning.

It would take some getting used to. She was quietly wary about the thought of attracting attention from a winged monster in the sky, or a certain suit-clad, fedora-wearing woman appearing through a portal to put a bullet into her head.

Neither of them seemed intent on appearing to ruin her day on the spot at least, so she figured chances were they were not paying attention to her at least yet, and given her power might not be shard-based like theirs, perhaps they were not aware of it. Yet.

She would have to hope she would get her hands on something that would block their sight just in case however, because what feeble protections the anonymity brought her right now would likely not last too long if things started getting in motion and things began to happen.

Lung's capture would be lighting a match, Bakuda's bombing spree would be dropping it into the gasoline soaking the city, and Leviathan's arrival would put out the fire but wash away many who would have survived the flames only to die in the tide.

She wasn't exactly keen on staying in the city, but she doubted her account held enough cash to do a runner anytime soon, and if she wanted to keep getting more money, she probably had to get to work the coming Monday. Which would likely see her stuck trying to get through that annoyance for two or three weeks. Chances were that when the bombing spree began there would be a lot of people either not showing up to work or trying to work remotely to avoid the worst of the danger. Speaking of, she glanced about and smirked a little finding an old laptop computer around at least, on a shelf in the bedroom.

Booting it up at the living room, she was relieved to find there was even a wireless signal that it caught right away. She didn't need the charger at that moment, the laptop's battery had a fair bit of power. She noted the laptop didn't appear to contain that much work files, not much in the way of games either. It did have some bookmarks though, including a few news-sites, as well as Parahumans Online forums.

She had a work email, as well as a more casual one, but she did not have an account on PHO. Neither was she intent on making one. She did take a little bit of time to browse that though, trying to calm her nerves, and get a better feel for things.

There was no real mention of the Ruby Dreams casino, but some comments were made how ABB had looked particularly ticked off earlier that month. That could be them, but she had no way to say for sure. Unfortunately the Cornell University bomb-threat had happened, and was debated on the forums already.

The bomber in question was supposedly arrested, but there had not been any statements since then. She was pretty sure Lung had sprung the woman from jail later on, having her join, or it could be she was lucky and she was in custody. She wasn't going to put any money on that guess however, she really didn't think she would be that lucky.

There was sufficient evidence that she was having a real hard time denying her new reality being as sh*tty as it seemed. She had been dropped off in the setting of Worm, on Earth-Bet, without even knowing if she had any sort of protection against the abilities of a few scary boogeymen in the setting. She could only hope so.

Author's Note: Alright, I'm giving the Celestial Menagerie a try, and will be writing this story with a more loose plan in mind for what may happen in the future chapters, subject to change as dice-rolls indicate. I will write a chapter, and the points gained through it will be spent to roll for new creatures and powers to appear in the next chapter.

EDIT: Corrected a Typo

Lily spent a while browsing the net, and scouring through what local news she could get from PHO, before closing the laptop down. Examining the map, she found that while she was at south docks area, closer to Arcadia and the downtown area than Winslow. It was a neighborhood that wasn't as badly off as some of the others, but still not exactly in a good shape. A bit more distant from the Trainyard and the Merchants hanging around there, but uncomfortably close to areas that the Empire 88 held, if the information present on the net was to be trusted.

Not that she was likely to be first on their list of undesirables to attack, but she really didn't like the idea of living anywhere near actual Nazis. She detested the idea that the abominable ideology had not died with the second world war, but at the same time, she believed people were free to believe in what they wanted. She personally just found their intent to inflict violence on anyone different to be disgusting.

Unfortunately, the bay was in a bad shape, the ABB, the Asian gangs united under one banner, under Lung's iron grip, were definitely trouble. She would avoid any areas belonging to them unless she had some serious power at her disposal, and even then she would prefer to keep her distance. She was not keen on learning whether or not the persistent rumors of what went on in their territory were true or not.

Merchants were drug-peddlers who used their own product. The fact they were willing to do that might have made them seem too messed up to pose a serious threat, but unfortunately being drugged up like that also left them highly unpredictable, and liable to cause a lot of trouble in the city. She was not keen on running into any of them either, but with any luck, she would not have to, not anytime soon at least.

She had powers, so she was pretty sure she would eventually get involved in some way. She would prefer to see her powers actually grow to be somewhat more useful first however. At the present time, all she had was her slug-creature, and she wasn't really sure it would help too much, beyond possibly freaking someone out the first time they saw it. Unfortunately it would also out her as a cape most likely.

Distasteful as it was, she would need to bide her time, just keep on doing her job and watching how things unfolded, before trying to get some more power. Perhaps some other creature would eventually add to her options and give her a chance to try and make some changes. Unfortunately she was not convinced her powers offered a reasonable mask to her against a few people that might intervene and stop her on the spot if they considered her an actual threat.

Though chances were, that they would, hopefully, disregard her presence for the time being. They might not see her, or might not consider her important enough to merit any attention now. That didn't really improve her odds of surviving too much though. The world of Earth-Bet was not a kind one to bystanders either. Being in an Endbringer shelter when an attack came might just make her one of the statistics of lives lost in an attack. Wandering out in the city might make her a statistic of the gang-violence going on.

Drawing a deep breath and sighing quietly, she looked at the map, and noted where her workplace was. The map had a few spots marked with little stickers, making them easier to locate. Driving to the commercial district meant going further away from the shore, so if she was at work when Leviathan eventually came wandering in, she might be at a better place for evacuations. Though the effectiveness of those shelters still troubled her.

In all honesty, she hoped she would gain more from her situation, the mention of gaining some power alongside the engraved patterns of various creatures certainly had her wonder what might be possible in time. She had a few weeks before Bakuda got going, more than a month before Leviathan, but at the same time she got a rather strong feeling that trying to inform Protectorate of either of those two events ahead of time would cause ripples and have people looking for a new Tinker, or more likely claim it a simple hoax, since the Endbringers and their attacks were a blind-spot for vast majority of people.

That wasn't going to help. Sighing quietly, she glanced at a few other landmarks. Small smile crossing her lips briefly as she noted the bank, the gallery, and a few other places were marked. Including the Undersiders base. Redmond Welding huh. Not that she had any interest in meeting with any of them.

Frankly, she felt very strong reluctance to deal with Tattletale, and had no interest whatsoever in drawing Coil's attention towards her. If she did, she would have to start making preparations to have the man dead as soon as possible, because she honestly did not like the possibilities the man's power offered him, and she had no interest in finding out about them either.

Getting up from the couch, the map folded up again, she stretched out and considered whether to just stay indoors for the day, or to take a look somewhere in the city. She felt getting cooped up inside would be a safer option, but also a boring one. She was in another world, albeit a reasonably normal looking one, on the surface.

Going to the boardwalk and having a look around, taking a look at the Protectorate base in the bay itself, and other ideas played around on her mind as options.

Lily was considering this when there was a small shiver going through her, a curious feeling of something attaching itself to her, feeling a new tether linking her to something else. She felt it in her mind, but this time, more inanimate than alive. The vague outline resembling a card.

Pulling on it, she blinked when she found herself holding what appeared to be a rather fancy tarot card of some sort, with the sun and the moon hanging off of a winged image above, a scale of a sort. The name beneath, the Libra, making her blink. She could also feel a bit of power within the card. Just touching it, she felt it course through her.

She could use it to discern truth, but it would expend some form of energy. Simply having the card out, summoned, did not require it, but using it would. It didn't come alone though. Lifting her other hand, she felt a black wooden wand appear in her grasp, smooth and polished, a comfortable grip on it, and another touch of power felt running through it.

She snorted. Okay, she got a weird creature at first, and then she got a card dealing with truth and a magic wand. She found it a bit funny, but but not really all that helpful. She was pretty sure she could use the card a few different ways, being able to detect lies would not expend much energy, but forcing someone to tell the truth would. The wand would help with targeted effects, and possibly otherwise, but a more passive effect that just called for a little bit of energy to initiate in the first place wasn't that draining.

Humming, she swung the wand's tip down, and blinked as she followed a bit of what appeared instinctive know-how given to her when she held the card. The wand grew into a staff, not particularly long one, it resembled a gentleman's cane more than a full blown wooden stave of some fantasy wizard. Holding it, she could tell that she could switch the wand and the staff between those forms easily, and on knocking on the ground she could expend the energy she had in herself in a short order to create a short term area effect enforcing truth within it as well. That would drain her of said energy fast, but it could certainly prove useful in some cases.

Unfortunately she didn't believe she had much use for it right now. Letting go of the staff saw it vanish, but she didn't dismiss the card yet. She had it, and as long as she did, she could freely call the staff or wand back as needed, and use its power. Slipping it to a pocket for now, she let out a breath.

Okay, the powers would grow, she would gain more summons, and possibly more powers to go with the creatures, in time. She wasn't sure of the rate she would gain things at, but she was hopeful it would let her grow in power in the time she had to prepare, and prepare her better for what lay in the horizon. Surviving things she knew about was just the beginning, because in all honesty, a large part of her was just screaming for her to get the hell out of there.

To leave Brockton Bay, and to try and find a way to live elsewhere, to try and gain in power and get strong enough to leave Earth Bet behind. The thought of what might happen in two years time did trouble her, but that would be a matter to worry about when that time drew closer. Frankly, she didn't know enough about her power just yet to really know what to expect from the future.

She really needed to clear her head. Sighing, she decided to head on out. Checking that she had the keys, the phone, and the wallet with her, she got a coat on to add to her current outfit. Old jeans and a blouse worked well enough for now, she was just having a look around anyway. The coat was warm, which would be good since she was planning to go by the coast at the boardwalk, to see the Rig at the distance.

Getting out of the house, she made sure to bring the map with her. She had looked at the route she would have to take, and got on the move quietly. The drive seeing the state of urban decay going on in the city, the many closed store-fronts, the boarded up windows in some cases, and buildings that had been damaged a long time from the looks of it, but abandoned rather than repaired. It was a grim reminder of the fact things were not good in the city, or the whole country honestly. Then again, other nations were not really much better off, they had their own share of issues, with the Asian countries in particularly nasty predicament dealing with the Yangban and the Chinese Union-Imperial forces. That was a powder-keg just waiting for a match if she'd ever seen one.

Driving on following the street-signs, she pulled the car to park in front of a small shop that was open at that time, and checked on the map. She was going the right way alright, just needed to go down further along the way than she expected.

Continuing quietly, she drove as close to the boardwalk as was reasonable to do, pulling over to a parking garage that looked to be in somewhat decent shape. Sure, it had some graffiti and tags on it, but the cars seemed to be largely left alone. Could be it was because the board-walk was close enough that a car-alarm tripping might bring some people to respond to trouble in a short order, perhaps. After all, it would hurt tourism is a visitor's car got stolen while they were enjoying the local scenery.

Getting out and walking out onto the boardwalk, she found a definite change in the surroundings. The place was a lot cleaner, and there were small crowds going about, even if it was a Saturday morning, when he expected most folks to stay away for a while yet.

There was definitely some tourists, a fair number gathered on a wooden deck by a small restaurant there, lots of cameras held up taking pictures at the direction of the Protectorate Rig, and the light-bridge that was currently in use too.

Excited gossip about Armsmaster being on his way to patrol seemed to be spreading, but she paid it less attention than many of the others. Exciting as it might be to see an actual hero, and tinker-tech, she was not exactly a fan of the man. His behavior before he learned a little humility had cost peoples lives, and at the present time she preferred to have the first hero or heroine she saw to be someone a little more respectable in her eyes, so as to not taint the image in her head.

Not that things were ever simple. Things were tense in this world, and the line blurred with the circ*mstances. She visited a small bakery relatively close, getting herself a simple muffin to eat and paying for it briefly, walking around looking while nibbling on her meal.

Looking around a few people walking about and talking, she could feel the card in her back pocket reminding her of its existence. Of being able to connect with it and by feeding it a little magic, discern truth and the lies from what she heard. She brushed that thought off of her mind, but smiled quietly. It might prove useful at some point, but right now she didn't really see a reason to do so. She was fairly certain if she spent the energy it had, she might not be able to call upon it again until it had recovered. Which would be tomorrow, she idly noted, a passing though that just felt right.

There was no comprehensive guide to this in her mind, but little helpful nudges did aid. At the same time it left her more than a little wary about the future. She wasn't really sure what to expect.

Seeing a pair of enforcers on patrol, she continued walking past them while finishing her muffin, and dropping the paper the pastry had come with into the trash-bin, she continued on her way. They didn't seem interested in her, she wasn't a bum making the scene look worse, nor was she causing trouble or even littering. She might not be a wealthy tourist, but she had shown some patronage in the area.

There was some little show going on further off, some kids gathered to watch. For a moment she was thrilled thinking it might be Sabah, or rather her cape identity, Parian. Unfortunately it turned out to be another performer, this one juggling a few pins. She could respect the skill that went to it, but she had no real interest on watching that, and so she continued on.

No obvious gang-members were walking the boardwalk, but she felt a few people she passed were possibly linked to E88. She took a seat relatively close, ordering herself a coffee with the passing waiter, and resting back a bit, while focusing on trying to overhear the men.

Unfortunately the distance between them, the bit of noise going on around the area, and their lowered tone meant she was not really hearing anything clear enough. She didn't plan to try and move closer either. Waiting for the coffee, she took a small sip on it while resting back in the seat, opening her flip phone and idly checking on a few of its options.

She certainly missed having a smart phone in her grasp, but she'd make do. She was fairly certain there would be something on the market, the question was what the prices might be. Tinker-tech options were likely studied closely by tech-companies for any ideas outside of the black-boxed pieces, but she didn't expect the tech here to be more advanced than back home, outside of the actual tinker-tech. She figured the prices would also be a bit much for someone living on a more tight budget at the time.

Her phone chimed at the time, and she blinked in confusion, before noticing that there was a message from her brother in this world. She grimaced slightly at the message, sighing quietly and staring at it for a moment.

Hey Lil sis, sorry to bother you but really need some cash. Can't cover my rent this month and the landlord's getting kinda pissed off about it. The job I had going for a bit paid decently but some uptight old lady messed it up for me. Complained about bad service. f*cking hell, she was in foul mood and took it out on me, I'm innocent here. Still left me in trouble. Just need $200. Please sis?

She silently closed the message without replying to it right away. She didn't really even know what her bank account held, and she was pretty sure any money sent her brother's way would not be money she would be getting back. Then again, if she refused to help him, then chances were he might just turn up in Brockton Bay and crash on her couch and eat her fridge empty.

Then again, she might just be assuming too much about the situation, but the papers she had read did leave an impression about her newly gained relative that was far from flattering. She considered just visiting the bank to check and see about her finances, idly wondering if she should instead try logging in on her laptop at home to the bank on-line, and check the account that way. It would certainly be more convenient. The problem was she didn't really recall finding the papers with the numbers to type on the screen, the account nor the pass-code.

She paused momentarily and silently groaned. She could just check it at an ATM anyway. Keep it simple, she reminded herself. Ugh, that was an embarrassing bit of confusion to have, but it did remind her that there were parts of her new life here that would still need to be checked.

She noticed the group of men that had been talking together departing, and caught sight of a sleeve on their suit only partly covering a tattoo of some sort on their wrist, but it was too brief to really say anything. She could just be a touch paranoid, but she preferred to keep her eyes and ears open when in a new city.

Walking along for a bit, she found an alcove holding an ATM machine, having figured there would be one set up close by where the tourists tended to roam. Carefully checking her surroundings, she then moved forward to enter her card, tapping in her pin code while covering her hand tapping the code in with another.

The total was soon visible on the screen, and she grimaced. Alright, she saw a few past transactions and what was on the account. Her pay was monthly at the end of the month, and she paid her rent at the start of the month. What remained, she took a chunk of in cash for grocery bills, and spent a bit more on gas. She idly noted her account had roughly $250 in spending money, and what she saved up after groceries and gas was roughly $100 a month. Not a big increase, her pay sucked. While she did have a little cash, if she 'borrowed' that money to her brother, she would take a large chomp out of what she had saved up. She probably already had to budget what she spent on food rather sharply. She grimaced. Yeah, seriously not fun.

She withdrew another $20 and added it to her wallet, before getting ready to leave. Taking her card and her money, she stored them away and headed off. Seeing a girl running a bit fast further ahead she moved back to the wall her hands in her pockets. Seeing the girl pass, she was not sure but she figured chances were they were a pick-pocket. Something about the way they had looked around at people, and seemed to focus at rushing the way she had come from after she left the ATM, she was more than a little wary.

At least she seemed to have figured the opportunity was lost when she dodged aside fast, likely going after some easier prey. Then again, she might be wrong, and accusing an innocent person of a crime they were not going to commit in the first place.

She preferred to be a bit cynical and wary regardless. Making her way back to her car, she headed back home quietly, thinking about the state of her groceries. She was fine for the weekend. She wasn't too keen on getting back to work on the Monday, even less so with the whole office scene here unknown to her. She'd just have to see how it turned out.

As she reached the residential area, she soon followed a few somewhat familiar road-signs she had noted when she got on the move earlier, and arrived to the still unfamiliar front yard of her house here. Pulling the car on the driveway, she got out, and headed back inside. Closing the door behind her and letting out a weary sigh.

Little fresh air, a look around, it helped but at the same time it didn't really provide any good answers to her. She was torn between caution and a desire to act, but she was not planning to rush ahead when changes were she would just manage to get herself killed if she acted rashly. She lacked a companion that she could expect to actually make a difference in a fight if things got rough.

At that thought, she felt a small shiver go through her body, and a new tethering sensation, a connection taking place. This one giving her a little chill momentarily, before a sense of excitement and curiosity came through the connection. She wasn't sure what to think of it at first, but focusing a little like she had done with the card, she saw the vague shifting outline of an orb surrounded by misty cloud of a sort.

Focusing on it there indoors, she pulled gently on the tether, calling on it, and saw the little creature appear with a poof. Flying in the air, she saw a creature that seemed only partially solid, a sphere with a simple face in it among mist circling it and seeming to shift like a burning flame. She felt a chill around it, but not enough to harm her. The creature itself seemed to maintain enough distance to not harm her.

She stood silent and smiled, marveling a bit at the creature. This time she was rather curious, the creature was both eerie and otherworldly, and yet in its own way kind of cute. She felt the excitement and caution within the creature before her, intent on not accidentally harming her in any way.

"Hey there little fellow. I'm Lily. Nice to meet you." She smiled a little, and saw the little sphere nod slightly in a manner that might have been a bow given its lack of a real body. Still no words to answer her though.

"I wish the circ*mstances were a little better, I am still trying to figure out what to do. Having a connection to you and others is amazing, but at the same time I am a little overwhelmed because not only did this connection come to me by surprise, but I also found myself far away from home and familiar situation, in a life that is not looking exactly comfortable for me in the short-term at least." She smiled a bit awkwardly as she looked at the little creature, feeling it was good to vent.

"I am not sure how dangerous it might turn out to be just yet. Chances are I might have to call upon you another time to ask you to help me out of some trouble. There are some people in this city that would do a lot of harm to others if it made them some profit. People who would harm others for their own twisted amusem*nt. Even if I did leave, there are more out there in this world, and I don't exactly have a lot of resources or options at my disposal right now." She let out a heavy sigh at this.

"So I am hoping you would be willing to help me out if I ever get in danger, help me get away from troublemakers or helping take them down. If it is in possible." She looked at the creature a bit uncertain. Flying in the air freely, it seemed quite interesting, but at the same time she did not know what the creature was capable of. The light chill around it certainly seemed to suggest it might have some control over ice, but it might just be that the creature naturally cooled its surroundings.

In answer, the little figure floated a little higher and she suddenly saw what seemed to be thin edges in the air, wind blowing, before she realized they were like thin icy blades that slashed around fast before breaking apart and vanishing only to be replaced by others. She blinked quietly at this and looked at the creature a bit relieved.

She wasn't sure how effective the wind-blades partly coated in ice might be, but it was more options than she had a moment before.

"Thank you." She smiled and nodded in grateful manner.

Author's Note: We are starting off a little slow, but I do plan to get things moving a little faster with a single protagonist than I did with previous stories with multiple characters giving their point of view. Lily is in a situation that she feels is overwhelming her a bit, but at the same time she hasn't had that much time to digest it all yet.

We've got our first new summons, and the story is off to a start. I don't know what my update ratio for this will be, I aim to try and keep the updates at least weekly, but if I am feeling more inspired, I will drop additional chapters in. I don't plan to commit to more than a single update a week given I don't know what lays ahead, but that's a starting point. Any extra chapters will depend on my muse and the current circ*mstances.

BelligerentGnu said:

Ehhhh....SCP-299 has exactly one use that I can see, which is wiping out Ellisburg. It's other use is to convince everyone else that she
is the next S-Class threat. I don't know how great I'd call that.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I base things on power usage. Like Telekinesis that can only work up to 10 tons. You might not think it's that great, but pay attention to the "up to" part. I didn't say how low. Which means you can affect things on a ridiculously small scale. Like say, your molecule, genes, etc.

After dismissing her floating little ice spirit, Lily spent a little time just resting back, browsing a little more wikis on the net, and checking on the television shows going on. Additional information about the world she was in and the current events might prove useful at some point, but in all honesty, she was mostly just trying to take a little time for herself, and let it all sink in with its implications.

So far, it seemed like she wasn't about to freak out and start screaming, raging, pleading, begging, or anything such. After the experience in the endless space within the mist she felt like a grim acceptance had just slipped in place all too easily for her to be all that comfortable about it, but at the same time she was aware of it.

Chances were, there might be more going on about her powers than was readily available for her inspection at the time. Still, she needed to figure a few more things out. Sighing quietly as she glanced at a clock on the wall, she decided she might as well test one of her powers. Holding up the card, the libra, she called her brother's number in silence while trying to push a little energy into the card, a small touch of innate know-how it provided letting it connect, and she felt the effect settling in place. Just in time too, as she heard call connect.

"Hi sis. Any chance you could send me the money I asked? I really need it. I had some money, but I was supposed to get a paycheck soon, and figured I'd cover the rest of the rent I owed with that, so I spent it. Can't really get my money back either. So yeah, kind of would really need the money."

She knew what he said was true. The fact remained she was pretty sure that he was leaving a lot out, including what he had spent that money on, or why he had not thought to pay the rent with it first and making any other purchases after he had got his hands on the paycheck.

"What did you buy that you can't return, and please don't tell me it was drugs." She needed to confirm this one right away.

"No, it wasn't drugs, I'm clean sis. Mostly. Just a little weed, for the nerves, none of the big stuff. But this was for real, I had to get new work clothes, managed to mess the old ones. Had to spend money to make money. At least I thought it'd work, before that nasty old bitch ruined my job."

Partial truth, the first part was partly lies, but the part about needing some work clothes was real. As was the admission about the weed. So chances were he had got himself some weed with the money in addition to the work-clothes. Hopefully he wasn't using anything worse. It genuinely made her feel a bit sorry for the guy, getting addicted to stuff like that was something she definitely wanted to avoid.

"Ugh. I will see what I can do, but at most I can give you a hundred bucks, I don't have any more spare cash around, my job isn't paying well here. I'll need you to pay me back as soon as you can, too." She decided she would stretch that far, keeping some money at hand in case of surprises, but a hundred bucks she could offer, and it would either confirm to her she could not trust her brother at all, or show that the papers were exaggerating the trouble he could be. Unfortunately she was pretty sure it would be the first result.

"Aw come on, sis, please, I need two hundred, I don't think the landlord will accept me not paying the full amount soon, and I already checked I can't squeeze out another hundred anywhere else either."

Truth, though she was pretty sure he was also laying it a little thick in desperation, trying to play on her guilt.

"Sorry, but I really don't have the money. I've spent my money on rent, groceries, something decent to wear to work, and had my own share of extra expenses with my car before. I don't have the money to lend you more than a hundred, and even that I will need you to pay back as soon as possible. If I lend you that hundred, will you promise to pay it back? Will I get it back?"

"f*ck, fine, fine. Send me the hundred bucks and I'll try and reason with the landlord and get another hundred somehow quick. I'll pay you back as soon as I can, promise."

Lie. Complete and utter lie. The guy was not only not going to try and convince the landlord to take just a hundred, nor was he going to pay her back. She felt a little uncomfortable chill go down her spine. She would lend him that money, and it would be gone, but she worried what kind of idea he might have in his head to try and get out of his situation then.

"Alright, I'll send it as soon as I can. Just please don't spend it on drugs or get caught up in anything criminal alright? I don't want to lose the last remaining member of my family here." She really hoped it was not going to come to that, but she was still waiting for reply with a sense of dread.

"I promise sis, I'll do what I can to get out of this hole, the damn bitch ruined my work but I'll find a way. Look, please try and get the money sent today, I promise this is the last time I'll bother you about it."

She felt the lie about the last part, but he wasn't lying about someone else ruining his job. Though she was pretty sure if she pressed, she would not like hearing the full circ*mstances behind his loss of a job either. She also noticed he avoided directly answering her questions about where she'd spend the money or about doing something criminal. It in itself was telling.

"Alright. Just don't get yourself in more trouble." She finished the call, and sighed.

This life was not really her own, but something she had been dropped in. She didn't really even know the guy beyond what she had read in the papers or observed then and there. Yet she didn't want to leave the guy entirely on his own to suffer, especially when she considered the possibility of them trying to move in with her if they got kicked out of their own apartment back wherever they were.

She sighed wearily, and went to check on the laptop. Thankfully, the local bank's web-page was easy enough to find. The request for login required a few numbers, which she looked through her papers for a while to find. Tapping the numbers in and hitting confirmation, she was logged into the web-bank, and found her past transactions and account details.

$230.00 sat in her account at the time, her paycheck apparently tended to come on the last workday of the month. She paid her rent by 3rd​ of the next month, and withdrew enough to cover groceries, and paid a few bills on-line. Resulting in a net-increase of $100 in the account monthly.

Checking back further in the history, she winced. She had lent out $100 to her brother 3 months ago, and $200 just 2 months before that. It was obvious the mooching part had continued for a while. Given her limited finances, she figured her brother already knew to not expect to get much more out of her, but she was still pissed at not having checked before to confirm this pattern.

Sighing, she directed a transfer of $100 to her brother's account, and confirmed it. Leaving her with $130 in her account, when she logged out.

That was when she felt a new connection snapping in place, making her blink. She felt a brief emotion of curiosity through the link, and saw a brief image, distorted as it was, in her mind of a creature with rather wicked claws, hovering in the air with what appeared to be a jet of flame at the bottom of its feet, holding it aloft. Something rather fast and mobile, and vicious by the looks of those claws it had. Not something she would be letting loose in her apartment, she had already felt the chill earlier, those flames might set something on fire.

Still, she was fairly certain it would prove an effective surprise for any would be muggers or worse she might run across within the city. She would prefer to avoid outing herself as a cape if she could, but if it came down to it, she'd rather call a summon and deal with the aftermath than allow herself to be harmed.

Lily was relieved the amount of creatures she could call upon was growing relatively fast, at least at first. It gave her a lot more options. She wasn't exactly confident her slug-creature would be very helpful in the event of a fight, but perhaps it might just surprise her. Still, more options meant she would feel a bit more confident going forward.

She had no idea of whether or not the rapid growth of her soul was an initial effect that would slow down later on, or if it would be like this for a while. Either way, the whole situation was a lot to swallow, and she had to wonder how she would handle it in the long run.

She might eventually need to get herself a costume just in case, if she had to call upon her creatures somewhere in public. In all honesty, she figured that situation might push her to step up at some point. She didn't really feel confident in staying a rogue, especially without something worthwhile to offer, nor did she have any interest in villainy, screwed up as the laws already were she did not feel interested in making things worse herself. As for the Protectorate, she was not interested in all the red-tape that would drop on her, along with all the other issues, involving her privacy and more.

Though perhaps she might eventually sign up as an independent, register herself and admit a few powers, making herself known but maintaining some distance from the bureaucracy that tied people down. The appeal of some more money at her disposal certainly interested her more than the drone-work at the office, but she wasn't going to let herself be bound by their rules just for a little extra income, especially when chances were that it would get her killed sooner or later.

So, she would take some time to think things through still, but the path she could consider for the future was that of an independent hero, if the laws permitted a hero to confiscate some funds from a crime-scene as she had read in some stories, it might offer her some support. Although having extra funds at her disposal might raise more than a few eyebrows, and draw attention to her.

For now, she would pay it relatively safe for a couple of days, see what the weekend brought with it, and go to work on the coming Monday. The papers had a bit about the office, including a small drawing of the work-space on the floor she would be getting off at, and where to find her desk. The papers had noted she had finished another project before this weekend, so she likely would be getting a 'new assignment' sometime next week rather than being thrown confused and lost into an older one that she had no idea about.

Not that it was a big improvement, she had very little idea about what to expect from the work. Sure, she had worked at an office before, but it took a while to get used to the people and the details of the work and all that. Hopefully it would become clearer when the time came.

Sighing a bit wearily, she wondered why her arrival here was without any convenient memories of the 'life already lived', or a blank slate with a bigger bank account. Then again, she might just have to be grateful she did not get dropped down in an alley somewhere without any local money at all and without an actual identity existing at all.

Trying to reassure herself that she would be fine, she stretched out a bit and then moved to turn on the television and watch it for a while, to distract herself from the whole mess for a little while. Worrying too much would do more harm than good anyway.

Checking the programs for a while, she found herself rather annoyed. Lots of annoying and boring shows, some crazy ones, and documentaries about various stuff. The last one might have been of some use, if not for the fact that he wasn't really sure what to think of them. Propaganda, wild theories, and misunderstood bits and pieces of real information. She found herself growing a bit aggravated at it in a short order, turning the television off again.

That wasn't really any relief. She wasn't keen on watching cartoons or some backstabbing drama or the exaggerated comedy routines either. It might be she was just not in the mood to relax with television shows, so she decided to return to her laptop and check up on a few other things.

Her wiki-trawling before had provided her with some information, checking the PHO had given some idea of things going on in the bay, but looking around for a bit, she looked up information on Uber and Leet. What she found had her grimace slightly.

Yeah, the gamer-duo of villains was pretty messed up. More so than most stories she had read showed.

They were not puckish rogues trying to live a life of mirth and whimsy with video-games and pranks, they were juvenile bullies who had got their hands on some power and were perfectly happy slapping the world in the face with more misery with their escapades to make their own lives a bigger thrill. Amoral, cruel, and thinking themselves funny, they were definitely not people she would want to run into.

Looking around, she did find a site where they showed broadcasts, but most of their older videos were for subscribers, a few high-lights and clips were available for perusal though. She grimaced a bit at checking a few of them, further reinforcing her idea that they were reckless idiots and amoral bastards. There was little regard for civilians getting hurt by their stunts or even their own minions suffering from malfunctions of their gear, though majority of the malfunctions seemed to happen only when Leet himself was close.

Huh, perhaps there was something to the theory that Leet's shard wanted to kill him. She didn't really feel sympathy towards the villainous gamer-duo however, as they were a hazard that she too might run into during her stay in the city. They staged their crimes seemingly randomly while looking for fame and some fortune in form of loot, and innocent people could easily get caught in crossfire.

The gangs were bad enough, but even small time villains were obviously a blight on the city. The fact that the Protectorate and local PRT forces were left underfunded, understaffed and overworked was not raising her opinion about the Protectorate as a whole any higher. She could tip her hat off to the heroes for achieving what they could, but there was too much messed up stuff going on for them, and too many traitors selling them out to the gangs or other crooks.

Nonetheless, as she finished the last of the free clips on their site, she grimaced slightly. They didn't flat out announce when a new stream was going to start, but there was options to subscribe and follow their antics. She was pretty sure it would not be going out live most likely, or at least not starting before they were already in motion, to give the Protectorate or PRT precious little time to get in motion once their broadcasting began at another crime-scene of theirs. Might also be they would just show the recording after action rather than doing things live.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a new connection settling in, this one feeling a lot more ominous, and she winced as she suddenly felt like someone had thrown a bucket's worth of cold water on her head, leaving her pinching her eyes shut and reaching up to rub her forehead.

SCP-299. She had gained a freaking SCP. An anomaly that could potentially turn an area into an S-Class hazard, and get her into a lot of hot water. The information she gained was in form of reports, similar to what she recalled reading on the 'Secure Contain Protect' web-page in the past, though she hadn't read that many, a few amusing ones when she got pointed at the site in the past.

These things, these anomalies, were serious danger in a lot of cases. She wasn't sure what to think of it, but hoped that things would not go wrong in a short order. At least her power gave her a comforting feeling that she could dismiss the creature on the spot when she wanted, and it would not leave anything behind. So even if she did summon it, it would not leave lasting presence in the world.

Still, she was pretty sure if she summoned this thing somewhere, and someone got scratched by it, this anomaly could leave someone writhing in horrible pain.

The thing was, this whole thing was like a strange tree, thick upper branches hiding it from view from above if hidden in a forest, but anything scratched by lower branches, that were changed, would result in the victim starting to shift into another copy of the creature. At least normally.

She wasn't sure, but she was pretty sure the limitations to not allow creatures to reproduce might hinder this effect, but chances were it would still shred the insides of a creature that got too close and got stung by the anomaly.

Which meant it would be on the list of things to leave the hell alone unless she was in rather extreme situation. Not that she expected much help from this either, it was a freaking stationary tree.

Then again, the files did mention some slightly alarming comments about the roots and their ability to spread the infection. Yeah, she wasn't really keen on calling upon this creature at all if it could be avoided. Even if its effects vanished when it was dismissed, she was pretty sure the experience of getting stung would likely be rather horrifying, and she wasn't keen on seeing how that would turn out.

It might be something to throw down if she was chased by Crawler from the Slaughterhouse 9, but besides that, she wasn't keen on trying to call upon it at all. She could see too many ways that could potentially go wrong, and far too many thoughts about a signed kill-order or a one-way ticket to birdcage.

Best to leave that thing be. She winced and rubbed her forehead, before letting out a long-suffering breath. She wasn't sure why this was something that ought to be preserved and kept alive as an engraving in her very soul, but she would accept it, she had little choice. She was still a bit wary about it, and preferred to leave it be.

Moments later, another rush of information came, though this one was different. Memories that looked like experiencing life as a scout of some sort, wilderness survival lessons. If she was out on her own in the wilderness, it would help her out a fair bit. Those lessons sank in her mind surprisingly easily, there to call upon if needed, but a lot less invasive than the apparent report shoved into place like that. Perhaps it was due to it seeming like recalling taking lessons rather than a printed out lessons that were burned in place along with the new connection she had formed.

So far, she had mainly gained creatures, but this was the first time she learned new skills. Perhaps in time she would gain some powers independent of the creatures themselves as well, though she wasn't going to be counting on that. The creatures seemed to take priority, and while the skills learned were useful, they were not supernatural or really thinker-worthy either.

Closing the tab in the browser, she let out a short breath while starting to check on a few other options. Seeing if there were various services available on-line that she was used to in her old life. Not looking for them by name directly but a description. A few had something similar, others provided no results or results that were way different.

Parallel paths, some ideas were likely not present yet at all, others might be in the works, and some had been tried with varying results, some more successful than others. She had given it a look at least. Checking on a few familiar boards, she snorted. Okay, some familiar ones, but vastly different kinds of stories and content. Some stories based on various books, movies and so on, and more than a few promising looking ones about Battletech for instance.

Might be worth looking into later. She could appreciate a little distraction away from all this after all, and the television wasn't doing it for her. Nothing really written about Worm, which was hardly surprising. Lots of cape-fiction on some sections, but most of that was on PHO, rather than the other more familiar boards.

Smiling a little nevertheless, she decided to waste some time reading what the local boards had to offer. She missed a few good stories from back home that she would not get to see continued after being dropped here, but checking what new options were there was going to prove interesting.

At least for a short time, but she was soon gritting her teeth together frustrated. She should have figured. More than a few of the stories flat-out jammed Parahumans and in many cases rather well known parahumans into the stories and set them loose to change the world they were in for the better without Endbringers or S-class threats around in those world, though they did have some of their own.

Though it seemed some settings like Warhammer 40k were still around and considered even more grim that the world they currently lived in, resulting in some people joking that compared to that, their lives were rather comfy and luxurious. She winced a bit at those comments quietly.

Earth-Bet was not in a good state, and while those worlds in stories they joked about were grim, their own world might only have a few more measly years to go if things were to unfold the way they had in at least one that had been documented in the world of her origin by Wildbow, whether it was a matter of everything written being true somewhere else, or the author having some inspiration from nightmares about the world she now found herself in. She didn't know what all lay out there, and what was the reason behind things known on the other side, but since she was here on Earth-Bet living it, she was going to treat what she knew as a warning of just how bad it could go, and just how close to the edge it had all come down at.

She silently wished she could distract herself, but after having seen what drugs did to her brother and recalling her father's behavior when he had drank a bit too much, she wasn't keen to cloud her mind in such ways. True, her father wasn't a violent man even drunk, but the kind of things and attitude the old man got when he had drank more than was reasonable had soured her opinion of such.

She would have just gone to lay down and try and rest a bit, but it was too early in the Saturday to do so. Unfortunately the troubling thoughts were floating around in her mind, refusing to let her just unwind and relax. Sighing a bit irritated, she looked for some paper and a couple of pencils, and then began to write. Best to not commit anything of it in writing in electronic form.

She needed to write down a few things to get them out of her head. Just in case, she didn't really elaborate, using short terms and one-word notes in her notes, just lining them up one after another. It only had to make sense to her. Having it all written down and seeing it before her might help her put it together, sort it through in her head and get some peace from it.

She might not be freaking out, but she was definitely feeling the pressure and tension, and it was not fun at all.

Author's Note: I'll keep the offered advice in mind going ahead, I do intend to try and keep things a bit random as it is an extra challenge and interesting in its own way. I will still consider it a smart policy to not let the dice rolls rule to the point of ruin.

Skipping ahead a bit with the next chapter, to the next day.

The Sunday morning saw Lily feeling a bit more clear-headed. She had expected to freak out at some point or another, but ultimately it seemed that whatever changes were being brought upon her by the changes to her soul also gave her a measure of control that kept her from reacting that way. Sipping on the coffee the next morning, she felt a fair bit better. Worrying on things and having all sorts of thoughts in her head, she had tried to read through all the papers and do some looking around on the net for a while, before finally crashing into the bed and surprisingly, getting a rather good night's sleep despite her concerns.

Which left her feeling a lot better. The warm shower, followed by a simple enough meal and some coffee in the morning had her feeling a remarkable improvement to her mood compared to the previous day. Alright, she had been more than a little tense through the first day. Perhaps excessively so. It was not everyday a person woke up to another life in another world, let alone a world they knew to be potentially just a few years away from their personal apocalypse.

Lily was still not sure what to think of her power. It was definitely different from the powers generally encountered in this world, and the fact it would keep growing certainly made her wonder about potential implications. She was a master rather than a brute or breaker however, she summoned others to assist her, rather than getting on the battlefield herself as it were. The bit of skill in wilderness survival was one thing, but unless her power decided to surprise her with a physical boost to her abilities as well, she would likely need to be rather careful about things.

She did want to take a bit of time to test out her powers somewhat. Unfortunately she was also rather certain that there was a solid chance that it would draw attention, and places like the boat-graveyard would be carefully watched by multiple parties for just that sort of things. Trying anything in the trainyard would get likely get the Merchants attention too. Leaving the city and trying it somewhere in the wilderness might work, but it was hardly a guarantee.

Lily might still do that though. It would be better to take a bit of precaution after all, and the worst she 'd lose from it would be a bit of gas driving off and returning. She was doubtful they would pay attention to a single car leaving the city for a short while and returning. It was unlikely they would be that paranoid.

So far, she had three summons she could consider calling upon. The slug-creature, her cold spirit, and the newly gained flying figure with vicious claws. She considered the anomaly a bit too hazardous to call upon at least in most circ*mstances, and while the card and the wand that came with it were interesting, they were not ones that she could test that easily alone. The phone-call had given her some ideas, but to a limited degree. She would probably need to try them out more in the future.

If her growth continued the way it had so far, then chances were that by the time things kicked into more swift motion she might have a lot more companions at her sides, but chances were it would slow down at some point. Though she did consider the possibility of going through more interesting, dangerous events might possibly push it to grow faster.

If it was a matter of experience and letting the soul grow through facing challenges, then it would make sense for things to improve faster when things were tense and there was more at stake. She'd see how it would turn out. In that way though, it would certainly make sense why she was dropped into the setting she had found herself in. It was certainly full of challenges and surprises that would push a person to their limits.

She was definitely very intent on keeping a long distance from some of the folks out there though. Heartbreaker was one person she was never intent on allowing anywhere near her, and if the Slaughterhouse 9 rolled into the city, she might be torn between fleeing for her life, or throwing away caution and using all the summons at her disposal to try and remove their threat in a hurry.

At the present time, she was more inclined to run, but if she gained more powerful summons before that came to be, she would certainly consider the possibilities of removing those murderous maniacs from the board not only to preserve a few more lives by stopping their murder-spree, but by denying Jack Slash the chance to influence Scion into kick-starting the apocalypse ahead of schedule.

Finishing the last of her coffee, Lily took a short moment to check on her attire in a mirror. Smiling and nodding at her reflection, she let out a small breath, and then moved over to snatch a book off of a shelf, to check on the maps inside. The collection of maps inside showed a good view of the different states, while she flipped over to the local map, and nodded quietly to herself.

She didn't really need to drive that far away from the city to find some areas that would be somewhat obscured, having some woods around would help conceal her actions somewhat. While she did consider it a little risky to be going out to test things, there was a touch of curiosity she felt that needed to be sated.

Taking the map with her, she headed over to the car, and was soon on the move. She didn't keep any of her creatures summoned and with her, but could feel their comforting presence tethered to her, a light connection she could feel offering some comfort and support in emotions, along with a hint of curiosity by a few. It was a bit amusing considering these creatures genuinely felt eager to be out, making her feel a little guilty about keeping them resting within, so to speak, but at the same time she was not interested in getting the Protectorate pressuring her to join, or the E88 showing up to try and convince her of their rhetoric.

White woman with a power to summon all sorts of creatures might make them curious to take her in and see if she would prove useful, but she did not appreciate their hateful nature towards others nor have any interest on joining their group. If anything, she'd rather see them all destroyed and driven away. They were a disgusting presence in the city, but then again, she wasn't feeling particularly fond of any of the gangs.

She focused on driving and trying to push those thoughts of her mind for now. It was a sad state of affairs when the local PRT and Protectorate were left with so little support and set up to fail by their superiors as part of an elaborate test on how superhuman feudalism would work out. She was personally keen on seeing that it would be a failed experiment by messing with the variables, but that would potentially bring her to the map for people she would rather avoid.

Still, if Coil could be taken down and removed from the city, she was pretty sure she would take the chance. Removing Lung and his human trafficking efforts would be a definite improvement. Removing any trace of Nazis from the city would be a push for a better state. Removing the Merchants would see a disgusting group of thugs removed.

Yet at the same time she would quietly admit to herself that removing criminals would not be the same as removing crime. It would just create a power-vacuum that other gangs or would-be-villainous capes might try and fill in themselves, to seize territory to call their own and try and build up their own power-base in turn. Honestly, she felt more than a little tired at just how messed up the whole situation was to her sensibilities, but then again she was not originally from this world, and viewed it through a different sort of a lens than the locals would. She had access to information she could hardly share, but which colored her views and opinions of things to a notable degree from time to time.

Having reached the city limits by now, she kept going, and followed the main road towards Boston for a while, before slipping off at an intersection, towards the wooded area. Continuing on, she paused at the side of the road a while later to check on the map, assuring herself that she was going the right way, and had not missed the intersection she had to take. There was just more little side-paths on the road than she had realized at the first glance before.

Continuing on, she eventually arrived to the area she had chosen for this. An old camping ground that had been left be for a while already, it might see some activity later in the summer, but not at this time. The gates were closed, but there was nothing else around for a fair while, and she parked the car at the yard outside the gates, moving a bit back. Walking to the woods a bit of way aside from the camp but close enough to get to her car without issue, she focused on calling up her connections.

In a rush, the three creatures she had thought about earlier each appeared, her big-lipped slug creature with two hands, the familiar sphere with misty flames of a strange sort appearing along with a light chill, the third and new creature appearing like a strange bug, flame-jets at their feet providing them flight, their arms like a vicious pair of pincers ready to snap and rend, claw-like in their making.

She was grateful all of them appeared to be perfectly willing to obey her and not harm her, more curious and eager looking around when called out so. She smiled a bit before drawing a breath, and then spoke.

"Alright, I haven't exactly been able to let you out to show what you can do out in the city. I hope that you are alright with that, the situation is just that it is not easy to call upon you without drawing a lot of attention that might cause trouble later. However, today we are a bit of a distance away from the city, and I was hoping that you would be willing to show me what you can really do." She smiled a little looking at the three creatures each responding happily, the slug creature nodding and parting its lips to let a long tongue flop on the ground before it, making her blink. The spirit of ice or whatever it might be seeming to twirl happily and float a bit higher, before nodding its apparent head excitedly. The last one, the newcomer, actually saluting her with its pincer-claw, making her blink.

"Okay, so, we'll start off by doing a bit of demonstration. Do you feel you can do some damage to the trees here showing your capabilities without harming yourself?" She smiled a bit and they began.

Her slug-creature slashed its tongue in the air at the direction of tree before it, splattering it with some spit, but not doing any real harm that she could see. She was a bit unsure about calling on that creature to help her out in a fight. Really not sure if it would be able to help her, but she got a small feeling it might at the very least disgust some of her enemies with a sloppy kiss or a lick, and brought a short chuckle from her lips at the thought of an upset, pissed off Hookwolf going nuclear at being target of such treatment.

The little flying orb displayed vicious slashes of cold wind cutting into the tree before it, hacking away with force that she was pretty sure could prove lethal to any non-brute in a short order, and the pace at which it could deliver those strikes might make lesser brutes hesitate as well.

As for the last creature, it dived down from above in a harsh slash with both claws, cutting a thinner young tree in two in its passing, slashing deep gouges into another thicker tree just as easily. Those claws looked perfectly suited for tearing through metal, let alone flesh or wood. She was pretty sure that the last creature would be an overkill against most normal thugs, but then again, it was also armored, its carapace-armor looking strong enough to protect it from some strikes. She was hardly sure of that theory, but it was something to consider.

Following that, she asked them to show what else they could do, watching at their demonstrations. She let out a small sigh soon enough and dismissed her slug-creature who looked a bit tired and bored while the other two were demonstrating different ways to use their own abilities.

Dismissing the slug-creature, she had to admit, her little spirit was rather vicious when it wanted to, but it seemed it could also send those wind-blows more blunted and seemingly intent on pushing and slamming, not quite so lethal that way. Still hardly perfect, it showed it took the bark off of the trees it hit, so it might cause internal injuries with the force needed to shove.

As for the jet-fire slasher, the swooping strikes made that creature a rather useful skirmisher, but it appeared to rely more on its mobility than the protection its armored looks might provide, making her wonder if the armored look of its carapace was misleading. She wasn't keen on injuring her creature just to figure out its tolerances, although learning it the hard way in a fight was hardly any better. Still, she was feeling rather proud of those two.

"Great job you two. I am relieved to see that the two of you are ready for trouble if it comes snooping around. I am hoping it will not be necessary, but in this world, in the city I'm staying at in particular, it might become a necessity to be ready. So if I am summoning you in the city, it might mean that things have gone wrong and I need help. I'll let you know when I call you however." She smiled at the two, and received a solemn pair of nods from the two. Smiling, she let out a small breath.

"Okay, now, I need to see how far away from me you can go. Can you start heading directly away from me, in that direction, and stop after either a mile or as far away as you can go without vanishing, whichever comes first?" She asked the two of them, and made a gesture towards where the woods were somewhat sparse, and the map said the path itself was forested but clear for a while.

The two of them nodded, and got off, flying along that way. She waited a while, before feeling a connection strain, and pause. It didn't vanish. She took a breath, and began walking along after the two. There was a bit of rough terrain to cross, but hardly excessive. Following along, she made her way towards them, she was not sure how far they were, but she got a general impression of comfort and some guidance. She came close soon enough, and found the two of them paused in place, waiting on her. Her spirit a bit closer to her, the skirmisher flying in place a bit further ahead, its claw waving in the air.

Okay, she wasn't sure of exact length, but it was more than a quarter-mile, but not probably by a lot. Fifteen or sixteen hundred feet or so perhaps? She was just guessing though, she'd have to figure out a better way to measure, especially given the uneven terrain made it harder to really get a good impression of how far she had traveled.

"Alright, thank you. Lets head on back towards my car. Can you show me the way there?" She smiled a bit, and the two of them joined her, flying a bit ahead of her, back towards the way they came. She was quietly following along behind them, soon enough returning to the area that they had torn partly apart with their earlier demonstrations. Her car wasn't too far away, along with the camp.

"Okay, thank you. I think I shall be headed back to the city now, so until next time." Lily waved at the two of them, and smiled watching the skirmisher wave back, before she dismissed the two, returning them back to where they came from. Feeling of comfort and amusem*nt within the connection they shared after the little time out, taken for a walk, so to speak.

She was planning on leaving when she felt a pair of new connections reaching towards her, forming. She found herself surprised, but pulled on those connections lightly, calling on the creatures to appear before her, and took a step back in surprise when they appeared from thin air.

First of them was a lizard of some sort, three horns adorning its head like a crown, a green shade of scales covering it with a purple line back along its spine giving it an interesting touch of color, its underside a paler shade.

The second one was a large wolf-like creature, with a muscular build, large ears, and vicious claws and powerful jaw that clearly hinted at it being a dangerous predator. She was lucky it appeared to be perfectly willing to listen to her rather than devour her, because she was pretty sure if that thing was hostile, that would be it for her. Hell, she wouldn't bet money on most lower-tier brutes being willing to engage that thing without some serious back-up just in case either.

"Okay, hello. I was just testing out things with others who have joined me, so you had a rather good timing." She smiled at the two creatures, which looked around a bit curious at their surroundings, the lizard shifting its gaze from one spot to another, the large wolf-like, canine creature sniffing and glancing about curious as well.

"Would you mind demonstrating some of your attacks on some of these trees here, if it doesn't harm you in turn?" She glanced at the large canine creature and its claws, before glancing at the lizard.

The horned lizard seemed almost smug for a moment, lifting its head and seeming to inhale deep before lowering its head and blowing, but instead of puffing out some air, a shimmer in the air appeared for just a fraction of a second before a blast of light scorched a hole through a tree, and another behind it, and had managed to carve a hole through a rock behind that as well, making her jump.

"Damn." She swallowed. The attack was a direct line, but the damage it did was definitely noteworthy. She went to check the closest tree, only to pause on hearing it snap, and fall over at the spot the hole had been blown through it, the other, thicker tree beyond surviving still standing, but she was pretty sure it was going to die too, with a hole like that put through it.

The canine creature snorted, and moved over, slashing at the damaged remains, causing the tree to fall over. Slashing a few smaller trees cutting them down without effort, and leaping at a larger tree swiping down in a raking pattern, tearing deep gashes after its claws before sinking its teeth into the bark, tearing away a good chunk of wood seeming to show off as well.

Okay, if her skirmisher was a threat to a low-tier brute, her canine creature was likely able to give a more serious brute a definite challenge. As for the horned lizard, the lack of wings and the relatively small size were the only reason she didn't outright call it a dragon. Because that looked a scary lot like a breath weapon in form of a lightning bolt of some sort, except it wasn't really lightning given the way it acted, as much as an energy lance of some sort. Still scary.

"Alright, you can consider me impressed." She nod her head and chuckled. "Question, can you do that again?" She asked the lizard, which seemed to make it seem a bit curious, before tilting its head a bit, before shaking it. She got the impression from the feelings it kind of could, but it would require something. She wasn't really sure, the impressions based on feeling and an inhuman body-language was a guess-work with riddles involved that she could misunderstand completely. At the very least, it felt like it could, if it got a chance to rest, or if something else happened.

"Is it the energy? You need to replenish it somehow, eating, sleeping?" She asked this, seeing the creature nod at the options other than eating. So not up to food, but sleeping would help.

"Something else helps too though?" Another nod. Considering it a bit, she felt the bit of energy inside of herself, and called up her wand. The creature seemed to almost smirk in a smug manner.

"You need energy, magic? You can refill yourself and blast again if you get more magic? You get more magic by sleeping, or from another?" She wondered, and saw the creature nod. Sighing quietly, she wondered about that. She wasn't sure she could really transfer any of it so easily, and it was unlikely there were other people with actual magic here.

"Most people here don't have magic, they have parahuman powers. I am not sure if you can use that." She blinked as she saw the creature simply nod at that last part.

"Huh. You can?" Another nod. "How do you-" She saw the creature make a swiping gesture with its claw grinning.

"Steal? You can steal energy?" She blinked at the nod. "Okay, that might help against some of them, but freak out others." She considered the possibilities of it however. If the creature could flat out deny parahuman powers to some opponents and use it to fuel its own abilities, that could be a definite asset in a difficult situation.

"As for you, well you are definitely distinctive, distinguished. Those swipes and bites would scare of a number of troublemakers. I don't think it would scare of all of them, but it would limit the number of people willing to step up to try and cause you trouble. Just not sure if you could put down some foes without harming them though. The locals tend to prefer crooks brought in alive."

The wolf-creature merely huffed, and lifted its paw near a thinner tree-trunk, back-handing it with its paw, the smack breaking the tree-trunk with force. That'd bruise, possibly damage organs inside too, or break bones. A bit more moderation to its power in those swipes or slams though, and it could definitely be a scary foe, while teaching it non-lethal methods might be a more challenging task. At least the creature seemed smart enough to try and figure out ways how that could happen.

She had dismissed the two of them and sent them back home, getting back in the car to get on her way back home to Brockton Bay, when she felt a little shiver rushing through her. She didn't really gain memories and skill like the first time around, but instead, she got a vague feeling that anything she tried to teach to her creatures would have increased gains for them now. She could help them squeeze out the most of any training she could provide for them, and surpass some limitations.

That was definitely a game-changer again. If her creatures were able to improve and get stronger still, then what she had with them now was a starting point. Not only was she growing as more creatures were engraved upon her soul, but her creatures could rise in power as well. Capes who could grow in power were rare enough already, but a master that could grow in strength with creatures that could grow in their own strength as well, she quietly felt that the power at her fingertips was definitely far more than she had initially thought.

Perhaps even enough to help tilt the odds in her favor and open up some options, in time, to changing the looming threat facing the world itself. Though that would still likely be years away if it was even possible in the first place.

Getting behind the wheel, she got on the move to head on out, quietly wondering about what she had learned, and silently wondering what people would think if and when someone found the devastated area her creatures had practiced at.

Author's Notes: I'm not really keeping any clear schedule for this, but I do try and keep writing when inspiration is flowing. I make no promises for more than 1 update a week, but I hope the inspiration is sparking more often.

Additionally, I'm considering making an informational post at some point, gathering up the creatures gained so far as well as the powers themselves, for easier perusal later. Though I wager it would need updates after reach chapter. Still figure it better than to cram all the information in each chapter even if under a spoiler.

The week had started with a bit of awkwardness, with Lily returning to work at a place she did not remember working at before at all. Thankfully it seemed that her first day didn't offer much surprises. On Tuesday, she got her new assignment, and began to go through the papers. She had spent most of the yesterday familiarizing herself with the systems, and finding them reasonably familiar, and a few handy notebooks in her drawers containing a number of passwords and how-to guides she found rather useful.

Thursday rolled around, and the end of March. The original story had kicked in motion in April, and she figured things would start to get more active then. She had been a bit unsure what to think of the fact there had not been any new connections formed since her practice in the forest, but given that she had already gained a lot in a relatively short time, she had not really felt like complaining too much, as she had to admit her power might be weird by local standards, but not a bad one to have at all.

She had done some casual chatting with her co-workers, brief comments about the previous project having been a pain and how everyone was just glad it was done. Comments about the new one and what surprises they could expect. She had felt more than a bit wary about someone asking a question she should know but did not have an answer for, but thankfully that had not happened.

Lily felt rather relieved when she got out of the office and headed over to the small parking lot nearby, getting to her car. The first week would soon be over and she was fairly confident she could settle to a routine doing work along the week there if necessary, though she did hope she would be able to make herself money to live on without spending all those hours at the office at some point.

Her thoughts on it were interrupted when there was a loud bang and sound of twisting metal somewhat further ahead, making her pause and glance that way. There was an armed and armored bus driven up through the wall of a shop she was pretty sure supported the Empire 88, if somewhat subtly. The racist owners still provided service for 'undesirables', but their attitude while doing it was rather clear, and unwelcoming. She had seen it before.

So given that the vehicle-tinker in the city was Squealer, who's boyfriend and boss was Skidmark, the black-skinned leader of the Merchants, she grimaced at the thought of a gang-fight starting up at the same block as where her workplace was.

The crashing and banging noises inside the building gave way to gunfire and shouting, the front of the bus firmly wedged inside the building, the back windows partly opened, armored plating lowered enough for gun-barrels to poke out, firing shots into the air scaring people off and causing panic, but not outright shooting into the crowd at least.

sh*t. Lily wasn't really sure she was ready to go out as a hero, she didn't have a costume or anything such ready. However, she had accepted that things could go wrong in a hurry in the city, and had a small bag in the car. Opening it, she pulled out one of those plain white theater masks that seemed suited for newcomers without a clear identity yet.

It was a question of if she wanted to get involved or not, it was probably Nazis versus drug-dealers, but at the same time, she was pretty sure innocent people would get hurt too, civilian casualties pushing her to act.

The first thing she did, was rapidly phone the PRT line. The call connected rather quickly, a polite male voice heard on the line.

"PRT ENE, how may I help?"

"There's a gunfight going on near the corner of 11th​ and Reyes street, an armored bus just drove right into the storefront, and there's been a series of rather noise bangs and other noises in addition to gunfire from the building. I haven't got a clear sight of any parahumans but I figure chances are that Squealer might be involved with a vehicle like that being involved."

"Alright Ma'am, we've already got a notice of the incident and helps is on its way. Please stay clear of the incident site and don't put yourself in any danger, but if you can provide any other information you believe might help it would be appreciated."

She considered a short moment, then speaking back.

"The gunmen at the back of the bus fired out from the opened slots in the windows but aimed up enough to not hit the people, just scaring them away, but I think the fighting inside is more bloody given some of the yells and screams that can be heard from the distance, but I don't know if there's anything useful in that. I'm going to move back and get some distance from the site, just felt I needed to call it in just in case nobody else had done so yet."

She heard the person on the other end tried to say something more but she ended the call. She let out a small breath and grimaced. She really didn't want to mess with the gangs, and draw their attention upon herself, but at the same time, she wasn't keen on just standing aside and letting things like this continue.

She had called the incident in as a civilian, but glancing at the bag with the mask she considered her response as one of the capes in the city. She inhaled deeply and then let out a sigh. She could move away and let this go on, and hope there would not be notice about civilian casualties in the papers later. Or she could step in and possibly escalate the already volatile situation further, but also possibly prevent some casualties by her own intervention.

Grimacing a bit, she considered the situation, and bit her lip. She took her bag, hurrying along a bit out of sight to an alley close by. Once there, she opened the bag, and pulled out the white theater mask, the joyful grin of comedy evident on it rather than the frown of tragedy.

Putting the mask on quietly, she felt out her connections to her creatures, and called upon her frosty little ice spirit first, followed quickly by the skirmisher of hers. She had found during the passing few days that by examining her connection and feeling it, she could get a name for them. Holding the connection, it took a bit of focus, but it gave her some idea of what they were, even without calling upon them.

Her ice spirit was, ironically enough, called Frosty. As for her flying skirmisher with natural flame-jets, it was called Geruta, a name that had no real meaning to her, so she was pretty sure they were not something right out of her own head.

"There's a group of criminals, gang-members inside a nearby building, attacking others. They drove a damned bus right into the building, and probably unloaded a bunch of people inside in a hurry. I want you two to break in and try and disable those criminals, try and keep it non-lethal if you can. You can definitely hurt them, but try not to kill them." She gestured at the end of the alley, and saw the two creatures flying off in a hurry, heading for the site.

Taking a breath, she considered things. She had sent a couple of creatures to try and see if they could make a difference, but the bus was blocking the way and might allow the gang to make a hasty exit afterwards, pulling out of the building and driving off again, if it hadn't suffered damage from the crash. Which would normally be pretty certain, but with the potential tinker-tech involved, she wasn't going to bet on it.

Pulling on her connections again, she summoned two more in a hurry, causing her two newcomers, the wingless dragon, Therva, appearing before her. Besides it, a wild canine creature, a hulking wolf like creature with excessive muscle stretched and growled slightly, seeming to sense her emotions in turn. Ravager. Yeah, that was a name that inspired confidence in the creature's self-restraint and control alright.

"Alright, we got a bit of trouble ahead, a bus crashed into a building with armed thugs unleashed inside to do damage and cause trouble. I am not sure what their objective here is other than to make trouble, but the building might be a business belonging to another gang in the city, they certainly appear racist enough to make it plausible. The bus itself is pretty well armored and there's gunmen inside it, making it dangerous for any police that might arrive to get close." She inhaled deeply, hearing gunfire behind her as well.

"I need you two to make sure that bus isn't going to go anywhere, slash tires, tear holes through the armor and get in, and disable the gunners inside without killing them, whatever you can do that should help. I sent Frosty and Geruta inside to attack the thugs fighting in the building already ahead." She looked at the two creatures nodding quickly at her words.

"Go, your first priority should be to prevent civilians from being hurt, but taking down the thugs without killing them and wrecking their ride is right after it. I would rather these thugs aren't in any condition to resist arrest, but in a condition that they aren't going to perish on their way to the prison or the hospital." She admitted to herself that she didn't genuinely feel too much sympathy for drug-peddling bastards but at the same time crossing the line to killing people was something she felt should be reserved for the worst offenders only. People who couldn't be changed away from the path they'd taken, or who threatened too many other lives if they kept living to allow such a risk to be taken.

As her summons hurried out of the alley, she hesitated to follow, choosing to instead wait a moment. Soon enough however, the gunfire intensified and creaking and whining metal got loud, making her move to the alley entrance and have a look for herself.

Ravager had torn off armor plating and leaped right into the bus itself, tearing through the insides and one gun-man thrown out through the open window onto the street as well, with the her dragon-creature, Therva, having slipped inside the building itself by now. Though given some of the creaking came from the forward section of the bus, she felt somewhat confident that the vehicle would not be going anywhere, with or without the thugs.

"f*ck! f*ck! sh*t! YOU DAMN MONSTER!" The screaming voice of an angry woman came out loud a moment before she felt her connection with the Therva snap back at her, a near deafening boom sounding out loud from inside.

"f*cking thing wrecked my RIDE!" The angry squealing voice inside made her grimace slightly, but even if she was aware that her Therva had been violently dismissed and sent on cool-down, it had apparently managed to do its job. It also made it seem more apparent that Squealer was present then.

She only had two more summons at her hands, and her frog-creature was unlikely to play a large role in things anytime soon. As for her wand and the card, she didn't feel they would offer much help at the time either.

Ravager smacked the last of the gunmen at the back of the bus into a wall hard enough to likely leave them with a concussion. Tearing through the guns, and getting a few shots into its chest on approach, the muscular build and tough flesh kept the bullets from doing much more than pissing it off. At the same time its companion had torn through the controls with its claws, swiping over the panels and blasting the engine block with enough force to melt a hole right through it and into the storefront.

It was only at that noise that the screeching woman had rushed back there from the storefront, dressed in torn, trashed clothing with multiple oil-stains and tools hanging at her side. The one the ride belonged to most likely. Ravager saw her pitching a fit and lifting a weird looking gun, before a blast at close range tore into the open mouth of the lizard creature, Therva.

Trying to intimidate the crazed woman with its teeth had proven a bad idea, as the shot shredded the inside of its throat and caused the Therva to jerk back and vanish a moment later. Its hide could probably handle a shot like that, but swallowing it like that was not going to work out well for it.

Ravager rushed forward as the woman screeched and yelled some words, trying to reload her gun there, bright red shells of some sort stuffed in the back of the four-barreled thing that was way too short, looking like a scrap-creation of nightmarish intentions. At least it was not able to fire again right away.

Leaping at the woman, the Ravager grinned, only to let out a surprised "yip!" as the ground before the woman sent the hulking wolf-creature smashing into a wall, as its feet lost all traction on the ground and it was sent flying against the bricks and concrete, smashing through the paneling and into the support wall with force.

"Mothaf*ckin' mutt's goin' home in a doggybag!" The dark skinned, tall man with yellowish, partly blackened teeth yelling at the side was lifting up a large long gun of its own, aiming at Ravager, even as it jumped hastily out of the way, the first blast breaking a nasty hole in the wall where the Ravager had just been.

"Sit, bitch, sit!" The man growled and shot again, and the next dodge from the Ravager had it step on another slick spot that sent it slamming into a wall with a new yelp, moment before a gunshot in the head gave it a monster of a headache, blood dripping down. "Play dead!"

f*ck it, no more mister nice beast.

Slamming through the upstairs window and shoving a gunman back when they had been aiming at a group of unarmed and panicked people, Geruta took care at not swiping at them with its claws, delivering a more blunt punch with its plated claw's back. Twisting and turning, it swiped down at another gun raised at it up close, a gunshot hitting its leg but barely scratching its hide.

Twirling in close quarters, its flame-jets burnt people and made them panic and scream, but they were the robbers and thugs, so that was fine. Not like they were going to die. Flame in the face might ruin their eyes and leave them gasping for breath but it was not like they were going to-

Oh, okay, that guy died. Inhaled the heat and the flames in their lungs probably. Um, sh*t.

Geruta's momentary distraction cost it, as another gun-man got its sights on its back and unloaded a full burst, not caring they were hitting their buddies on the ground near it as well, laughing manically instead.

Screeching and trying to turn, the Geruta kicked its jets into narrower, hotter burn and delivered a hammer-like slam in their chest. The sound of breaking bones and the figure hitting the wall was satisfying, before the Geruta realized it wasn't supposed to kill. Yeah, that wasn't going as planned. Not as planned at all.

Frosty snickered to itself as it floated in the air, the group of six gunmen on the floor, their guns covered partly with ice and hail, their bodies bruised and battered. Unleashing bursts of cold wind at them with force, Frosty had hammered the gunners down in a short order, keeping it from being lethal force, but the cold and the bruising discouraged them from pursuing the people that Frosty had managed to protect from their attacks.

The outfits they wore were professional for service industry, waiters, cooks, a clerk of some sort. They had taken the time that Frosty had given them to seek shelter.

Looking around, Frosty could see some gun-men killed before its intervention. While the attackers were trashy, there were more gunmen inside that were less well armed, but armed nevertheless, with curious tattoos and some of them with rather short hair. The other gang-members most likely.

Frosty wasn't happy that so many people had already died, but it felt good at what it had done. It was following orders and making sure nobody had to suffer worse than some frost-bite when it was around, the criminals seemed to learn not to fire at it again after it had dodged a few initial bursts and started to hammer in on them with its wind.

Inside a PRT van hurrying towards the scene with another, the guy on the passenger seat up front held the radio in his grip a bit shaken, swallowing.

"Say again console, please repeat that."

"A witness on the phone from a second floor window above saw a number of unknown creatures entering the building, two fliers at the second floor level, two on the ground breaking into the bus and from the looks and sound of it, attacking the possible merchant thugs."

The trooper grit his teeth together at that. Facing the unknown was a regular thing for them, but information helped them prepare and respond to various threats better, having something completely unknown and new in the situation would make it more difficult for them to intervene. They had Assault and Battery on board so they should be able to handle it, but unfortunately the others were busy elsewhere. At best, they might get Velocity added to the site, but Miss Militia and Armsmaster were busy on ABB territory trying to chase down Oni-Lee and a couple of Empire capes that had been pushing into Lung's territory after something.

"What about the police?" He inquired to check on that.

"Some basic barricades are being set up a bit further off, not approaching the storefront itself, they expected to not be able to do much to stop it if its one of Squealer's vehicles, but they did want to give some of their improvements a try. Might not be necessary, the way those things are tearing into the bus though." Another voice responded.

It was sounding like they were going to have some interesting time ahead of themselves soon.

Lily grimaced as she felt the anger off of her Ravager, and the apparent shock from her Geruta. She could not communicate with them like this, and the connection from a distance gave less impressions than she would have preferred. She didn't know what they knew, what was going on, what they faced. She lacked the communication abilities for that.

She was not planning on going closer and getting in the line of fire however, she was far too squishy for that. Instead, she waited quietly for the reinforcements to arrive. The police sirens had come relatively close before, and then paused, so they were likely near but more focused on stopping the thugs from fleeing, and possibly waiting on the PRT to arrive.

Biting her lower lip as she considered what she could have done differently, whether or not she would have been better off following her creatures to battle, if her going in close enough to summon her creatures to the site was a mistake, even if masked, she wasn't really changing her looks enough to avoid being recognized if someone did snoop around local cameras later, and caught sight of her in just that mask and her regular clothes.

While she considered the multiple what-if situations, she felt a new connection reaching towards her, a new creature engraved upon her soul. Shivering slightly and swallowing, she felt it settle in place. Another flier, a feel for it a bit more mystical, energized, if she had to try and describe it. Axe Flapper, the name came to her, and the mental image she got was a bit peculiar. Pear shaped lower body and axe-like blades for its feet, and sharp wings, as well as sharp head. The whole thing was edgy, quite literally.

The first connection had barely settled in as she felt another one reaching out to her, and curiosity mingled with a strange sense of calm and ease, before a stabbing headache hit her. Information flooding her mind in a short order, having her gasp for breath, trying to keep her balance in the alley.

After several days with no new connections, she got more the moment she got into a fight, and her creatures were facing thugs in a violent combat. She grimaced. Perhaps her power did have some form of conflict drive, or perhaps it was just that the experience she was having somehow bolstered the soul to grow stronger.

Nevertheless, she knew she had gained a new SCP anomaly, and while this SCP-173-DE was less likely to get her a kill-order on the spot, it was still an anomaly that she would have to study more carefully before even considering summoning it. Yet this one she felt she should get in touch with, to try and understand it at least. It was exciting and different after all, even if potentially dangerous and alarming presence.

She knew she would need to face her share of trouble in this world, in this city in particular. She had not been keen on diving head-first into it, especially when she felt she was still unsure about herself and the power she had through her creatures, but reality was what it was, and the call to arms had been made.

She had chosen to respond, not wanting to take the risk of further civilian casualties, putting aside her suspicions of the gang-affiliation of these people, because there was a real chance that there were unarmed people being shot and killed by drug-addled lunatics. Hell, chances were their initial attack slamming through the front wall had already killed innocent people.

She felt her connection with Geruta twitch, as the creature was dismissed. Violently so. Something had hurt it badly enough to cause a second summon to vanish. The loud screeching and gunfire on the store-front had her wincing a bit, but the loud cursing by a man and a woman along with the beastly roars of her Ravager at least sounded like her creature was keeping some of the worse offenders occupied for now.

Then she saw the PRT vans pulling over close by, a group of troopers rushing out one, a man in a red suit as well as a woman wearing a darker blue one with more electric circuit-lines in her outfit following right after.

Assault and Battery were on the scene. She tried to stay back, out of sight. She didn't really feel like stepping up to talk with them without a costume, and just a mask, but she was pretty sure one of the troopers noticed her. Sure enough, a moment later she found herself face-to-face with the woman in the circuit-showing outfit, standing before her wary, ready to act. The man in red rushing up closer as well, standing there ready to offer his own support, though grinning slightly.

"Well now, first day out and getting involved in a scene like this? Ballsy, but that's the excitement of youth. Those creatures yours?" Assault inquired a bit flippantly but grinning in a friendly manner, while Battery seemed to be sizing her up as a threat.

"Yes, I only got my powers recently. I told them to try and disable the bus and prevent the gunmen from killing more people. To try and take the gunmen down alive as well. Unfortunately my creatures are losing, I've already lost two of the four, and I can't call them back right away." She responded a bit warily, not wanting to admit she had more summons at her disposal, but figuring if they had been spotted, then the chances they knew of all four were there, and a more open and honest front would serve her better here.

She still intended to limit the information she was going to give out.

"Alright, anything you can tell us about the situation inside?" Assault inquired, only to have her shake her head.

"I don't know, I am as vulnerable as any other civilian, I sent my creatures in with instructions but I stayed outside myself."

She felt a small bit of heat in her body, a new power settling in. Similar to the way she felt earlier she could train creatures to be better, stronger, faster, tougher, smarter and so on, now she had an apparent boost just waiting inside to be placed upon one of her summons, to make them stronger and tougher in a hurry. Only one at a time, but if she had that earlier, perhaps the fight would have been going better for her creatures.

"We'll talk about this later, don't leave the scene." Battery cut Assault off, nodding towards the storefront where a loud crashing sound could be heard along with a new pained 'yip', while she felt a spike of pain from her Ravager, mixed with shock and a lot of anger and fury. Damn-it, she really needed a better way to tell what was going on when she hung back.

Author's Notes: Lily did gain a power to train her creatures faster, but has not been able to do so much with that during the work-week, not without taking frequent trips out of the city and possibly catching other people's attention earlier. Yet she's taken a step in response to something happening too close for her to ignore it, and we'll see the aftermath and fallout that will come from that soon enough.

The Ravager scratched the floor with its claws trying to charge and take a swipe with its claws at Skidmark again, only for those claws to be pushed back even as they scraped over the floor digging lines into the surface, the floor itself trying to push it back while Skidmark shot the beast in the head again at close range, backing away a bit another hand gesturing ahead in front of him.

The damn bastard was really getting on the canine creature's nerves, the string of expletives and annoyed shouts getting to its ears too. The woman that had shot down the hound's companion earlier was trying to yank something out from beneath the large vehicle they had rode in on, or some kind of hollow section at the bottom of it maybe. There was a large hatch lifted and she was cussing while dragging out some two-wheeled thing from there, shouting at the man.

At that time the new shot in its face had the Ravager cursing and losing its grip on its advance, being flung at a wall with force, causing it to collapse a bit out of sight behind the trashed counter, while the man laughed mockingly. Ravager really wanted to go out and claw the man's face off, but kept trying to remind itself of what it had been told.

Taking these bastards down would be good, but it was having a bit of difficulty pulling that off, because that weird guy kept making the floor betray Ravager. It had leaped over a couple and surprised the man, getting a good chomp in on the man's left arm, but the bastard shot Ravager in the mouth and made the canine back away spitting out the burnt taste and blood from its mouth, the shot failing to kill the Ravager but it had left it in a worse state.

At least the cursing bastard was not escaping without some harm even if it irritated Ravager to even consider the possibility of being beaten, but it would need to learn more of its foes later. Too bad the boss wasn't close, the boss could tell it what to do, instruct it better. Listening to boss would help, but the boss wasn't strong enough for this. Cunning though, that was what the Ravager expected from the boss. The others made the big bastard's pack lose, and Ravager would keep the big bastard from going up and messing with the smaller members of the pack.

Just then, two new arrivals came in, a man in red and a woman in blue. The woman rushing in and smacking a wrench out of the other woman's hand in a hurry, while the man in red kicked off the ground and onto the back of the other man. Grinning widely, Ravager looked at the scene.

They might not be allies exactly, but they were enemies of its enemies, and if taking down those two was what boss wanted, then helping those two new arrivals do it was certainly going to get Ravager some praise.

Rushing in and surprising the two men trying to fight one another then and there, fast strikes exchanged between the two and the big bastard trying to cause more slippery pushy floor effects around it, they turned to look just in time for Ravager to tackle the big ugly trashy-guy, and sit down on his chest barking happily, claws on the man's shoulders.

The incredulous look from the man in red was amusing enough that Ravager snickered and laughed in a manner similar to a hyena, seeming to make the man focus again, while the trashy big bastard beneath was bellowing a new line of insults and trying to wriggle free. Thankfully the woman in blue had also managed to detain the trashy woman who had hurt Ravager's companion before and caused them to disappear.

Yes, Ravager was feeling pretty confident that there would be some 'good boy' comments ahead, and wagged his tail eagerly.

Skidmark was shouting things that Ravager didn't understand but he was pretty sure the bastard's complaints were not worth listening to anyway. The man in red meanwhile had began to grin and pulled out a pair of hand-cuffs from a pocket, holding them up. Ravager nod a bit and moved enough for the man to snap the cuffs on one wrist, and then the other, holding the man secure. Only then did Ravager move entirely off of the man he had sat on.

Yep, at the end, Ravager was proud of what it had achieved, and panted happily looking at the two newcomers, listening them talking to one another. Though Ravager tilted its head confused on hearing the man calling the woman in blue 'puppy'. She looked all grown up to him, and human, not one of its kind.

Lily sighed quietly as she waited silently for any news. The PRT forces close by entered the building following the heroes. There was a bit of noise and loud yelling from inside, followed by a sight of the guy in red, Assault, being thrown out through the broken window with force. Banging noises followed by loud hiss, followed by a bit more noise as Assault rushed back inside.

She shook her head. She really needed better insight on what was going on in there, but at the same time she also preferred to maintain a bit of distance since she was a relatively soft target herself. Having one of her creatures stay around close to protect her might have worked, but she had limited number of soul-engraved creatures at her side for now who would also be able to put up a fight. She wasn't keen on putting them in harms way, but at the same time she knew how things were in the city, and she did need to get stronger.

Sooner or later a fight would have found her anyway, and it was better that she and her minions were better prepared for it. She did note the arrival of another cape on the scene. The rushing figure of Velocity appearing in a short order, talking with the PRT commander on the scene, and moving inside.

Lily muttered quietly to herself, before maybe ten minutes later the PRT forces began to head out, escorting a number of cuffed crooks from inside, more than a few suffering from some nasty frost-bite from the looks of it. Her floating little ice spirit, Frosty, following along twirling in the air amused. She let out a breath in relief. No conflict between her creatures and the 'good guys' at least.

Ravager left too, looking rather bloodied and beaten, but also giving off a feeling of smug satisfaction that had her blinking, but reaching over to pet on the Ravager's head once it stepped before her, she smiled at it amused, and waiting. Caressing the Ravager's head like petting a puppy, despite the fact its muscular frame was definitely intimidating enough that if she didn't feel their connection, she wouldn't have dared to come close.

It was weird how much easier it was to trust the creature to not harm her when she could feel the positively joyful response she got from just scratching right behind the ears, almost making her chuckle. She didn't, because she didn't know if it would hurt her creature's feelings. She was happy how well they had done, even if this had been a rushed engagement with less advise for them than she would have wanted to give.

She had not known what to say, and could not really follow them into the scene with so many guns around and feeling all too vulnerable herself. That was something she'd need to fix in time. Sighing quietly at the time, she waited silently for a time, figuring they'd want to talk to her at some point, especially given her creatures had been involved in the fighting.

Waiting for a moment, she saw Velocity stepping outside, followed shortly after by Assault. The man in red bodysuit headed over towards her, and she watched him a bit warily, arms crossed, a bit wary of the man, despite him being a hero. The city wasn't exactly in the best shape, and the PRT and Protectorate were barely holding onto status quo. So she half-expected a recruitment attempt that she wasn't too keen on.

"Those creatures of yours are quite surprising. Strong enough to do enough damage to the battle-bus those junkies managed to put together, despite all the protection and Squealer's tinker-tech device supposed to give it more durability." He chuckled in a relaxed manner, looking at her in a relaxed fashion.

"I figure its best to start off with good news. So! We got the gangers present, a few may have rushed off through the back door at some point or another, but we got those that were in the building. We also got our hands on Squealer and Skidmark, which is a bit surprising in itself. Skidmark did try and put up a lot of resistance even once cuffed, using his power, but he got foamed and they're now chipping him out just enough to carry his foamed figure into a van later." He flashed a grin at this.

"Now for the bad news then. Sorry to say but your creatures managed to not only disable people, but seriously injure and apparently kill a couple of them. Given that there was firearms being used and your creatures were likely attacked themselves, it might be passed off as self-defense." He paused.

"Unfortunately, that gets pretty iffy right quick when it deals with creatures rather than people, and master's projections might not enjoy the same level of protection." He winced. "Given you didn't appear to have any real control or oversight of what went on indoors, it should hopefully not reflect back on you, but you might be pushed to attend some training and power testing by the boss lady in exchange for forgetting about what took place. She doesn't exactly like capes crossing any limits."

Lily was fairly sure it could be just said Piggot didn't like capes, and leave it at that. Her reaction was not likely to be a good one, even less so if her creatures had actually managed to kill someone. She had hoped it would not come to that, but it had been a possibility when she joined in the engagement.

"Given how they charged in and guns were firing inside the building, I found it best to try and at least stop the attack on civilians and try and hinder the crooks enough to buy time for a response to get here." She spoke up in turn, sighing briefly at the time. She wasn't too happy about how this had all turned out, and not having a costume and a name to go with it wasn't helping. Hell, even the mask was just something that had been acquired just in case something happened.

"Admirable intentions, but there's a reason why they insist on training. Hey, I am all for less criminals around and more behind the bars, but the higher ups want things done clean and presentable. Dead bodies don't exactly inspire a lot of confidence." He remarked a bit more sharply, while Lily fought down a wince that she felt coming up at that thought.

"Given the way they were shooting, I imagine they already managed to kill a number of people. So it might be my creatures tried to disarm someone and found themselves pressed at a corner where the choice was between allowing someone to kill others, or to take a single life. I do not know, I cannot see through the eyes of my creations here." She let out a breath. "I gave them instructions and I know they try and follow them to the best of their capabilities." She watched him a bit warily.

"That may be, but unfortunately I am going to have to ask you to come ride along to the PRT HQ to explain this all and take part in a debriefing."

She sat back in the room she had been left in, annoyed after repeating her story four times already. Starting off when she had mentioned being in her civilian identity, which she refused to share, witnessing the attack. Putting on the mask in a hurry for some privacy, and calling upon her creatures, sending them in to intervene. She had remarked she was pretty sure an alert had already been made at that point, and was aiming to either stop the crooks or buy the officials time to get there.

It was an irritating matter of repeating herself, having already dismissed her remaining two summons. Leaving her with just her wand and the card for truth, as well as her slug-creature, that with its arms almost reminded her of a frog actually, especially given its large mouth.

Lips. Her ridiculous first creature was called Lips. Embarrassing enough, but she wasn't keen on summoning it here because after the others, she didn't feel comfortable showing that creature to the others here, especially as she didn't get a strong impression it would be able to provide her much help anyway.

She had come along mainly because she didn't want to try and run, and trying to maintain a more cordial relationship with the PRT and Protectorate might be good. Though after all the interrogation attempts wearing at her, she found her patience truly tested. These people seemed to want to make her repeat herself over and over, and it was making her feel more than a little annoyed.

Not to mention her car was still close to the scene and she didn't exactly have powers that would allow her to move around the city at ease, so after this she would have to see if they'd provide her a ride back close to the area or what, and ultimately the whole scenario just left a foul taste in her mouth. She would have much rather avoided any complications of having to deal with the PRT this early.

She was starting to feel a bit hungry, when she felt a familiar feeling of a new connection forming, before blinking quietly. She was wearing the mask, but right at that time she really wished she could have dropped her face against the counter and groan.

Her newest creature was a little cutesy creature resembling a cherry, and was named Cheery. She wasn't really sure that it would be much help here either, and worse, she felt like it was something that made a pun about her hunger. She shuddered as she wondered if her power offered her an edible creature just for a cheap laugh at her, or if the universe was just perverse enough that this was all a matter of random luck.

Sighing quietly while she waited, she wondered just how long they intended to keep her waiting.

"So walk me through this one more time." The interviewing person before her was a pencil-thin man in an officious suit and with a somewhat nasally voice that was really starting to get on her nerves, as she listened to them talking.

"We've been over this six times already. What do you expect me to say that you haven't already heard?" She looked at the man in annoyed manner, while he coughed and adjusted his glasses.

"Ma'am, we have a protocol we need to follow, and seeing as you were involved in an incident that caused a fatality, I strongly suggest you co-operate with us fully in this investigation."

"I've already told you what took place, and I am getting pretty damn tired of repeating myself." She inhaled deep and let out a sigh. "I did not intend to come out as a cape anytime soon, I wanted more time to prepare, and think things through, and get ready. I ended up responding to a situation that had sparked right in front of me, and got involved. I am tired, and annoyed, and I really would like to get out and back there so I could go about my business." She remarked a bit more sharply than was perhaps necessary.

"I am sorry ma'am, but we have to go through this again." He responded, and she barely held in a growl out of her own throat, feeling a lot more sympathetic towards the thought of Ravager taking a bite out of Skidmark after dealing with an irritating bastard of her own for long enough. The guy might not be as bad as Skidmark, but as far as irritation went, they were both rather top-notch.

The whole situation was ridiculous in her opinion, as she lay back in the small 'guest room' that was a glorified jail-cell in her opinion. They insisted on keeping her there on the grounds of wanting to investigate the matter fully, and yet there had been a few pushes already towards unmasking and possibly joining the Protectorate for continued supervision and guidance that would result in more lenient treatment to her.

If she had been feeling negative towards joining the Protectorate before, she definitely was now. She was getting to a point where she was about ready to call for a lawyer. They had tried to insist on her handing off her bag and other items, but she had flat out refused, declaring they had no business on touching any of it as none of her belongings had been brought into the scene itself, and she had stayed out of it personally as well.

They had insisted and tried to pressure her, but she had not relented, and so she had kept her phone for instance. Not that it helped her position any, with the battery out and the little chip removed so it wasn't giving her location and identity constantly. She was pretty sure anyone half-competent at rooting out a real identity would be able to already put together her real identity anyway, but the smaller the possibility was and the more trouble she would give to anyone trying to get it, the better in her opinion.

She was just so damn fed up with the Protectorate and PRT for their treatment of her. Hell, she had helped them catch Skidmark and Squealer, and they were treating her like she was a criminal herself. In all honesty, she could see why some people might be pushed over the edge to go vigilante or villain simply because the bureaucracy going around here was such effing bullsh*t that she was just fed up with it already.

Feeling another connection settling in, she silently snorted. Teagore. She got a weird pig-like creature with weird bits of armored plating, and silently shook her head. Yeah, that was about what she thought of the PRT and Protectorate right about then. Armored Pigs. It was insulting, and more than a little hurtful, but f*cking hell, they'd shown her very little courtesy and way too much suspicion and pressure on her shoulders for her to be willing to consider them in a nicer manner.

At least they couldn't keep her there longer than twenty-four hours, but that would mean missing work most likely, and given how the boss was, an unexplained and unexcused absence would reflect rather poorly on her. She wasn't looking forward to seeing the outcome of that either.

Part of her felt a bit bitter, it seemed that there would be no real benefit for handing over two criminal capes and helping the Protectorate capture them, nor was she able to make money off of captured thugs handed in, no bounty, no loot, nothing. The whole thing stank and she wasn't happy with the end results at all.

Grumbling quietly, she closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

The next day came, and with it, another set of interviews and questioning, before finally, 23 hours and thirty minutes after her arrival to Protectorate, on the 1st​ of April, she was finally allowed to go. She had refused to unmask, refused to join the Protectorate, refused to take any power-testing they offered, and flat out refused to go to any of the offered courses and training.

She was just so damn tired of it all, and the nasally voiced irritating twerps drunk on their imaginary power and bloated sense of self-worth were just making her feel like taking a swing at someone soon if she didn't leave. Of course, they offered no real courtesy like a ride back, instead, she was let go at the lobby, and free to walk out on her own. Mask still in place.

It was like they were intentionally giving her a middle-finger refusing to even let her leave through a less public entrance or dropping her off somewhere else, instead they made her leave out in the open drawing attention to her when she didn't want any, and raising more questions and comments, people even taking photos.

Yeah, screw Brockton Bay, and Screw director Piggot, and the rest of the sorry lot. She might have been dropped into the city and left with a rather lousy start to a new life there, but she didn't really feel any strong roots in this place for herself, nor any real warm fuzzy feelings that would make her feel like she needed to stay. Hell, knowing some of the stuff that might be laying ahead, she was even tempted to leave just to avoid having to deal with some of the bullsh*t in the first place.

It was amazing how the people in charge managed to piss her off so bad in such a short time, but in all honesty, she was also confused about it. If Piggot saw her as a serious threat that needed to be shackled, then she would have expected her to press even harder down on her, but she had not. If she intended to try and press her down to force her to sign something and be recruited, she would have expected someone more reasonable.

Instead, the whole thing smelt heavy-handed and crude, stupid and flat out messed up. She had been somewhat respectful towards Assault and Battery, had not really talked with Velocity, but had ended up at PRT rather than Protectorate's care, and had not been confronted by cape talking to another cape, but bureaucrats, and instead of a more jovial friendly atmosphere or even pressure from a gruff more veteran cape, they threw people at her who were not likely to bend her to their will but to infuriate her.

She gave some thought to the possibility of someone like Coil managing to pull some strings to get her side-lined and treated with such hostility she would leave the Protectorate and PRT behind with a bad impression of the two in her mind, but even so, she would have expected the man to try and dig in more into her through some cat's paws if that was so. Sighing in irritation, she headed out quietly, with as much dignity as she could muster.

Getting away from the building, she felt more than a little tired and worn out. She really didn't want to be there, didn't want to deal with any of that sh*t. Slipping away a bit further, to a small alley, she quietly removed her mask, and sighed, storing it away. She was tempted to just call a cab to get home or to get to her car, when there was a bit of noise, a drunken hobo with a knife getting up.

"Your wallet or your life missy!" He growled, missing a couple of teeth, while eyeing her in a manner that she found particularly disgusting.

Her eyebrow twitching, she barely kept herself from summoning her Lips to give the guy a kiss and a tight hug then and there, would serve the bastard right, but she wasn't going to abuse her powers like that. Seeing how the guy was barely managing to even stand straight, she instead turned and walked out at a fast step, hearing the guy shout and curse behind her, before stumbling over the trash loudly as she kept walking away in a hurry.

f*cking hell, it wasn't her day, but she was fed up with that matter for now. She grit her teeth together continuing on. Damn, it was a bit away from PRT HQ but this was supposed to be among the safer neighborhoods, and yet a bum like that could just start trying to intimidate her on the spot and expect her to comply? Yeah, it really about summed up her thoughts about the amount of effort the PRT and Protectorate put into trying to make the city a better place.

As she was walking towards a bus-stop as she planned on looking for a route to get closer to her car to retrieve it, she felt a new connection settling in yet again. Different from before, it was not a creature, but instead, a small rush of information into her head.

Now, after all that, she was suddenly given the power to know exactly where any of her summoned creatures were, at any time, as well as a new boost she could grant them. She had gained a boost that she could put on any of her creatures to improve their strength before, but this one was different, giving them more energy. She silently wondered if she could stack them together on the same creature, to make a single one of her summons that much more scary to face for any would-be thugs bothering her in the future.

Such a shame she couldn't put any of that on herself, it might have meant she would be less vulnerable target without her creatures close.

Author's Note: Considering whether or not to add an Interlude chapter to follow this one to give a view of the others involved in the matter. Might continue with a regular chapter, but the thought of interlude is there since I figure it might be good to answer some questions that might have sparked from this.