El?thian is the eldest of the Elvenhan and father to the rest of the Pantheon save his wife. He claims to have been a mortal at one point, a powerful wizard beyond the scope of what we can do now that was king over his people and his people venerated him. Over time and generations this turned to worship, and he ascended to divinity. While the dwarven gods accept his story, the Althaen Pantheon almost unanimously declare it heresy of the highest order. This has led to many executions of the elven faithful and more than a few crusades; most performed by orders of the Holy One.

  Adrian

  The bleeding slows as the clots form under the spell but Bryan, nor Shadow Bryan, does not return in the few minutes it takes me to make sure she is not going to get herself killed tonight. At least she is either too unstable for her meager skills with mana to work or she burned all of her pool on that add magic missile earlier and a pair of handcuffs is enough to hold her as a regular human. Well that and a gag to save my ears and hopefully not draw anything more towards the area.

  The shade-lich ritual probably drove most everything away but that isn’t a guarantee. Now what to do with my friend’s quickly going insane girlfriend? Wait for him to show back up or return to the others? I probably should stay but babysitting Abagail shouldn’t be my problem and K has been smelling particularly appealing all day. . .

  So I do the only thing I can think of to finish this up as soon as possible, I pick Abagail up and walk towards Bryan, or at least the direction I can feel him in. I. After all, I am still maintaining a hold on his life force at the moment.

  It takes only a few minutes before I find him under a tree, more bestial than before eating a small family of rabbits. I don’t care about the scattered blood as I place Abagail on the damp earth, ignoring her muffled protests and taking note of how he still maintains the spark of intelligence in his eyes.

  “You have to look after her. I expect you to make your own way back and not intrude on my tent when you do. Do you understand?”

  “Yes” he somehow manages to say without stopping his feast and I happily turn to leave for some fun time with K and Ria if I can get K to agree to it again.

  If only I could remember how I got her to back in Daerth. . .

  ???

  I grin when the Ravnos leaves me to finish my meal and watch over Primary's bitch. Savoring to warmth of the blood running down my neck with each bite I take, the crunch of the weak bones as they yield their marrow to me, and the taste of flesh as I slowly eat the rest of the small colony of rabbits I caught with my shadows.

  Oh how easy it was to bind them and pull them to me. Too bad they died as they passed through the shadows to reach me, but the distance was short enough nothing took part in my prizes. With each I feast upon, I can feel how Primary will take longer to take back over. With each I grow stronger, but it also adds strength to Primary, so I can never truly become Primary.

  Once my feast is finished for the moment I stretch ignoring how I’ve shifted further into my natural state of a wolf and look over at Primary's bitch to be. She reeks of fear and has soiled herself as she was watching me eat. I don’t get what Primary sees in her. Intelligent but stupid, she is smart enough to understand what everyone has been trying to teach her over the last week but refuses to acknowledge it.

  I look over her body and can feel Primary’s physical attraction to her but surely that can’t be it. There are prettier girls in his memories, but they weren’t as willing as she seems to be before actually being mates.

  I close my eyes for a moment to feel if there is anything in the nearby shadows, but it seems that I’ve already taken what is in range of that ability. Great so now I’m alone with a girl that while pretty I don’t want. I can only hope that the shadow wolf that forms from her will be more interesting.

  Bored and with maybe two or three hours before Primary takes back over I run my eyes over his bitch again, would it be worth it?

  No, but I can still have some fun. . . With a claw I cut the rope that binds her and growl, “run little girl and hope Primary takes over before I catch you. I’ll give you a head start.”

  I grin as she finally decides to do something other than scream and shout. She runs even if she is crying and I give chase. Never quite catching her even if I do give her scrapes and minor cuts. . .

  Her muffled screams are also rather fun when I jump out of a shadow just barely out of reach . . .

  Bryan

  When the shadowy tendrils finally stop attacking me, the wolf is long gone and they have covered the entirety of wherever it is that I am. I don’t however have much time to look around before this strange world spins and falls apart revealing the woods that I remember traveling through earlier today and the slowly brightening sky of dawn.

  I sit up and feel queasy but strangely strong and powerful, then I notice Abagail laying in the dirt covered in small cuts and grime. Flashes of running through the night, howling and laughing, the scent of blood both her’s and something else’s flash through my mind.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  What happened during that ritual while I was wherever my mind went? I rush over to her and my guilt skyrockets as she flinches from my touch as I pull on the divine sphere of Healing. Her wounds were only superficial, but she cowers from me.

  “Are you okay? What happened?” I whisper, and she shivers.

  What did I do? Could she have been right and turning to the powers being offered me be wrong?

  “Please no, don’t do. . .” Abagail mutters by doesn’t otherwise respond to my touch and the healing.

  Abagail doesn’t end up waking up before the others stop by and Analais says we need to start moving. So, I spent most of the day carrying her around as we walk.

  Adrian

  When K and me leave our tent in the morning to find that Bryan had not returned during the night I am not overly worried but when we go to him after packing up camp, well Abagail’s appearance of being treated as a play thing is concerning. I had not thought that Bryan was capable of doing such a thing.

  The frowns on everyone’s faces however does not come from some sort of judgement on the state Bryan apparently left her in, at least the frowns of Pack Bloodclaw doesn’t. Kylana actively tries to leave us off worse went martial practice comes up but the frown on the elves might be a condemning one. Ria, like always, ignores it completely as she is perfectly happy just following me around.

  Bryan quickly ends up carrying Abagail for the day, but I am far more distracted by the conversation that Kylana starts with me and am not paying attention to Bryan or really anyone else.

  “Adrian, there is something about the Pack that you need to know” the conversations starts.

  I turn to Kylana and she continues, “unlike most werewolf packs, we know our progenitor. The first werewolf that is the source of the lycanthropy that we share. His Gift was given to him by another, one who created it.”

  “Why are you bringing this up now?” I ask, and it is K who answers saying “the Giver of the Gift to the first werewolf of our line visited last night while you were off helping Bryan.”

  “Why didn’t you mention that last night?” I ask, this sounds important.

  “Well, I . . .” K begins before her mother takes the opportunity to tease her daughter, “oh, were you too distracted?”

  K stammers some before Alana turns the table on Kylana saying, “no more than you were last night.”

  “Alana, not now. This is supposed to be serious” Kylana mutters towards her friend.

  “You’re the one that got on this subject, and I know you’ve been just loving every single. . .”

  “Alana, I’d rather not know what you, Analais and my mate’s mother do in your den” I interrupt.

  “Can I at least tease her some more first? She’s been trying to hog our mate all to herself.”

  “Later” K answers and Alana seems to accept that though I have no idea why.

  “You shouldn’t get to at all” Kylana says while frowning but both of the other females don’t say anything in return.

  “Kylana, so who is this Giver of the Gift and why did he visit?” I ask.

  “Dam? Rámeri, more commonly known by the title the Blood Elf.”

  Dam? Rámeri? The blood mage that wrote the fucked-up books on lichdom I have? Shit, this could be bad.

  “What did he want?”

  “Information, apparently whatever it is that you used to kill those Althaen drew his eye. Well, not it in an of itself but rather that they died, and he couldn’t determine the source. He . . .”

  “Is he hostile?”

  “No, praise the moon it is not so. None of us are demons nor do we venerate the Holy One, so long as that is true we are not his enemy. He wanted to know about you and the soon to be yearling Bryan.”

  “Yearling?” I ask, not sure what the word is for.

  “A title we call the recently turned, those who have only been in the pack for less than a year” K informs me with a whisper and I nod.

  “We told him what he wanted to know though not in as much detail as he would have liked. He knows that you are a dragon of some sort but was confused on the type that you call yourself, it is not one that he recognized. We also told him you are a Ravnos, though it only seemed to confuse him, he muttered something about all Ravnos were humans.”

  That makes sense, Gramp. . . Geldath told me the same when I asked him about magical creatures back home. He never did explain why there were very few of them still around. He hinted it was Rome who did it, pointing out that they killed strange and dangerous creatures. Dam? knows that I am a Ravnos, that could be very bad if he gets the idea of trying to steal my power, though I don’t know if he even can steal it.

  After pausing for a moment to let me think, Kylana continues, “he did promise not to be hostile towards you and he has always kept his word with the Pack. He left muttering to himself, but I don’t think that he truly left.”

  “He’s probably observing, gathering information and deciding if you can be of use in his vengeance” Analais adds in.

  “Vengeance?”

  “There are two things in existence that he hates, that he has focused his entire immortality on destroying or gathering the resources and power to destroy.”

  “And those are?” I ask as they were never mentioned in any of the books that he wrote.

  “The Abyss, and the god known as the Holy One.”

  I smile, while I am unsure if the god himself is at fault for the actions of his church I can get behind destroying it. Wanting to destroy the Abyss though, well they do have an important role in the multiverse. At least if Geldath’s teachings and the books I’ve gotten ahold of can be trusted on the subject. Without the conflicts that they are involved in the balance of the planes will shift to stagnation.

  “He wants to see if I could be an asset worth investing in to use as a weapon then?”

  Analais nods. I won’t just be a weapon that he can use as he wills though I don’t see a problem with helping him. both the Church of the Holy One and the Demonic Hoards are hostile to me. It only makes sense for us to aid one another against mutual enemies. That doesn’t guarantee that we’ll be allies though, I’ll have to be careful. . .

  C1 (What was already on Patreon)

  When I woke up as a baby, I was scared and confused; no instant plans on how to be all powerful just confusion about where and what I am and relief at being alive. After that, a childhood full of all the difficulties of being labeled a genius as a toddler. Parents trying to get me to play with other children, teaching me all the things a young child is supposed to be taught, and boredom the entire time.

  Sure, I managed to race through the worst of the academic material but what of being given instruments and being expected to pick them up as fast as the stuff I already knew? Yes, I got toys and games more often as my parents were ever so proud but never the games I actually want or the information that would be useful as an adult because I’m too young.

  At least, that was how it was until I was a bit older than five, on a cold winter day just a bit before Christmas everything changed. It was snowing, lightly just enough for the flakes to dance across the asphalt streets under the light of a full moon on the way back from piano lessons I never wanted to start. That night I learned what was different between this world and the one I came from, that night my parents died in a 'car accident'.

  But that isn’t really true, they died because their employer sent a hitman on them, I only lived because a guy in blue spandex stopped the car with his bare hands after by father was shot through the head. I can still see the image of his brains splattering over my mother and me all these years later. The taste of his blood as it hit my tongue as I screamed. How my mother's head erupted almost the same way only seconds later. . .

  But no, you’re not here for that part of my story. No, the story I’m telling starts eleven years after that night that I learned the Earth I was reborn on was filled with many different kinds of super powered freaks and that I wasn’t one of them. During those eleven years I studied all I could under the nose of my aunt and uncle.

  They didn’t like me chasing after the advanced sciences that lead to my parents’ car accident. It was to keep me safe but without powers of my own how can I be safe in a world with people that can punch with the force of a small nuke? Okay, there are only about three or four who can do that but the point stands. Roughly two percent of the population have extraordinary powers, I need some way to protect myself.

  There was always the force that allowed me to transmigrate in the first place, but my new body was not well attuned to it. Even after sixteen years of work I can barely move any mana. No, I had to rely on my mind and technology. Unfortunately, I don’t have the funds to actually build anything that could stand up to anything beyond a high human, those with high but plausible abilities for a normal human.

  The day my paranoia was proven real was also the day another piece of the puzzle that is my life finally clicked together. Our school field trip to the labs of Maxwell Marvel’s Genetic Research Institute, which was a reward for those that scored in the top one percent on a placement exam, went awry.

  As always, I had gotten the highest score in my grade, aside from a kid who participates via correspondence and turned it down, my lab group was given the all expenses paid trip. Aside from me there are four other who worked on our project on the risks of genetic hybridization. Alicia Norman, Francis Newmen, Richard Rylls, Maria Walters and Henry Davis. Francis and Henry never help with anything being jocks who suffer far too many concussions during the sports they play but being lab partners with them gives me protection from the super powered bullies of the school due to the social protections being friends with some of the jocks give.

  They’re both speedsters but weak enough that they’re only considered high humans and can participate in intermurals. Both are just over six feet and have brown hair. Henry has brown eyes while Francis's are a weird green-yellow making me think he is faking his real power level. Richard, well he's the pocket book for the group being the only child of a neural surgeon and a lawyer, he's just under six foot and is a little pudgy. No powers and enjoys the games I play when I’m not doing what I can to stay fit enough to flee for my life.

  Maria and Alicia are the two girls in our group. Maria is a short thin red head that really knows how to cook and use a computer, not that the jocks know the second detail. At just over five foot she’s unlikely to ever be anything other than vertically impaired. Still she is one of the prettier girls with her straightened red hair and lightly freaked face; and is known to party more than she should.

  Alicia is the opposite of Maia in almost every way, she’s tall well over six feet and the tallest of our group at six four, perfect slightly tanned skin, straight silver-blond hair, deep blue eyes, long legs, a rack a man could easily get lost in and curves that would make her an instant star if she had any acting talent. Which she doesn’t, I know as both her and Maria are in the drama club. Unless she is cast as someone very close to herself, she just can’t get it right.

  She is also being my friend since moving here after my parents death. She also has her own secrets I won’t get into, at least not yet. We haven’t done as much recently but she still smiles when we pass by in the hall or on the street.

  Anyways, enough about those five. Now to get onto the story, the bus ride to the facility was uneventful. Just me staring out the window my dark-haired reflection, my thoughts on how to survive and the passing landscape keeping me from taking another look at Alicia’s chest. Damn hormones, you’d think round two would be easier but no; it’s just as bad if not worse.

  We arrive at the recently waxed glass and steel building that like all of it’s counterparts has the Maxwell name in large golden lights. The sun glinting off of the blue-green glass that prevents anyone from actually seeing into the building. After a slightly overweight security guard signs us in we are given a tour of many many things that are not useful, convenient but ultimately the cost of maintaining the soil for rapid growth plants outweighs their usefulness.

  It is just as we are continuing to a project they called Maxwell’s Mutants that it all begins. Just after Alicia and me pass through the air lock for this project, an alarm goes off. The red lights on the walls light up and spin to the speed of the bleating alarm as a slightly darker than steel metal lowers over the door I just got through. The words “containment breach in sector two” repeating every fifteen seconds.

  I can see the security guard talking to the other three of our group, but I can’t hear anything. Sound tight containment, no getting out that way. . .

  Alicia is looking around, worried but strangely confident in being able to deal with whatever is going on. “We should move to the lab, it’ll have another layer of containment between us and whatever is going on” she says while taking my hand and pulling me towards the nearest door, not noticing the two to the left of it or hearing me telling her that over the alarm sirens.

  The door opens for a few seconds before closing behind us, the alarm changing as soon as the door closes to “W299 escaped confinement.” For a moment Alicia seems confused but in the gap between the announcement and when it happened again I say, “you pulled us into section two.”

  She blushes and looks at the ground mouthing sorry as the intercom prevents me from hearing her. A scream breaks out and I see a flash of my mother yelling as her husband’s blood and brains cover her. I close my eyes for a second and take a breath. I’m safe, I don’t need to panic.

  “Anthony, stay behind me” Alicia says as the footsteps of something get closer and stop. The screaming going silent as a crunching sound echoes from behind a door that cannot be locked. I glance around looking for a weapon, anything to put down whatever is going on, but I find nothing. Nothing I can use as a ranged weapon.

  The crunching stops and I hear something sniffing. A thumping of something repeatedly hitting metal wall fills the room before I see a large black wolf strut through the door as it seings on it’s hinges to let the beat through. Blood trickling down it’s snout as it’s clawed feet step on and over a blood stained white coat. The black wolf is at least five feet at the shoulder and I can’t do anything against such a creature, not without a high caliber gun.

  A feral intellect shines in its golden eyes judging how we two will taste as it is fully confident of being above us on the food chain. Alicia stands between the two of us and I feel emasculated that she can still stand so confident. She should be at least somewhat worried or nervous but I guess that’s what being powerful is like.

  The wolf charges, knocking over a steel table on the way and tries to pounce on Alicia, I try to grab something and put it between us and the beast but both it and her move too fast. She says something, “bad doggy” I think and throws it over her shoulder into a metal pipe above us.

  The wolf impacts and a kiss of green grass begins to fill the room and Alicia panics. She swears but I don’t catch what she says over my own swearing as the wolf lands next to me. It coughs the green grass in my face before lunging at me.

  I feel it’s teeth sink into my shoulder, I yell out in pain as the green grass that is beginning to fill the room burns my eyes and lungs. Then I feel the splattering of blood all over again but it’s warmer and thicker. I hear Alicia asking something as she picks me up and runs, no longer trying to hide the extent of her powers. I hear metal bend and glass break as I close my eyes. Suddenly, the air no longer burns but I feel no more.

  -

  When I next wake there is a beeping of a heart monitor to my left. I can sort of hear two people arguing outside of the room. I try to sit up and Bart manage to do so but it hurts too much to move my right arm. As soon as I do the voices go silent, the deeper voice saying something before the door opens.

  Alicia and her father walk in just as I see that the room is vacant aside from the equipment monitoring me.

  He nods as his daughter rushes to me, asking me “if I’m going to be alright.”

  “You’re the ones who have talked to the doctor. You tell me” I say with a smirk.

  “Right, they said that you’ll pull through it didn’t see like your exposure was long enough to do any damage.”

  “Exposure to what?”

  “Some radioactive gas, I didn’t catch the name.”

  “You airhead, how am I supposed to figure out what it does without a name?” I say while flicking her forehead.

  She smiles and mocks that it hurt far better than her acting in any play would be. Her father frowns at me, staring and judging me like he always does just because I don’t have a pole up my ass about the rules like he does.

  “So, do you remember anything else the doctors said or is that another thing I’m going to have to start reminding you?”

  “I’m not that bad” she says with a frown.

  “You pulled me into danger because you didn’t read a sign.”

  “Now listen here young man, that’s. . .” Gary begins before his daughter cuts him off.

  “Dad! No, he's right. It’s my fault he got hurt” she starts with a shout before pulling me into a hug and continues on to say “I’m sorry, can you ever forgive me?”

  I mumble something in agreement before I know it half from having to do this before and half from any male teen’s weakness to the desires of a super hot girl.

  She separates from me the instant the sound of a door opening and a bald older man with a lab coat on enters. “You’re awake, sooner than expected. Good I wanted to talk to you. I’m Dr. Steven Randall” the man says as he picks up a clip board by the bed.

  “Well I’ve had plenty of experience recovering from her actions” I say with a smirk as I gesture towards Alicia.

  “Anthony! You said you forgave me” Alicia says as she mock punches me.

  “You don’t learn if I don’t tease you.”

  “Yes, well I actually wanted to speak with you about what happened, and you care here. First, do you plan on pressing charges?” the doctor asks and both the Normans frown.

  “And give Mathew Maxwell the opportunity to sue me for slander? No thanks, as long as whatever the treatment cost is not paid by me that’s enough” I answer.

  “Anthony, he's a hero he wouldn’t. . .” Alicia begins, and I roll my eyes, naive airhead.

  “It wouldn’t be the first time” the doctor cuts her off while her father grumbles before he continues “you were exposed to a radioactive gas in addition to the bite of W299. As such we treated you for radiation poisoning. Your blood tests still show some signs of the toxin, so I’ll be prescribing a medication for it along with antibiotics for the bite.”

  Before I can ask any questions about the gas and what to be worried about he turns and leaves, acting like he has far more important things to do.

  I just sigh and ask, “how long have I been out?”

  “A little over a day. I’ll get a wheelchair, so we can get you home” Gary says, no doubt trying to get his daughter away from my 'corruptive influence' as fast as possible without breaking his moral code. How the guy's an insurance salesman I’ll never understand.

  “Okay daddy, can we stop of burgers on the way?” she asks, and he sighs but nods his head.

  She smiles as the door closes and I say, “he still hates me, doesn’t he?”

  “Daddy doesn’t have it in him to hate anyone. He just doesn’t like some of the things you’ve taught me.”

  “It isn’t wrong to take some personal time and do something solely for yourself.”

  “That isn’t the only thing.”

  “The rest are things he should have taught you but was putting off.”

  I am about to mention the college party invitation she got two years ago but her father’s false cough as he enters the room stops us.

  “I’d appreciate if you'd stop trying to turn my daughter against me” she says as I barely manage to sit up. The world spins a bit and I struggle to keep my empty stomach from performing a transaction it lacks the funds to do.

  “Are you alright?” Alicia asks.

  “Just dizzy, give me a moment” I answer waving off her concern.

  I then, with help, move to the wheelchair deciding it is not worth embarrassing myself in trying to walk out of here.

  Alicia begins to ramble about how the others have already taken the bus back home and that 'daddy' couldn’t get ahold of my relatives. Figures, they’re probably boozed up or to high to function. Bastards are living off the insurance payout meant to provide for my expenses and college, but I doubt it’ll last more than another year or two.

  I don’t say anything as we pass through several hallways and an elevator o. The way to Mr. Norman’s silver BMW.

  Gary doesn’t say anything as he helps me into the back seat. As soon as I sit down I ask, “did you work on the physics homework?” even though I already know the answer to the question.

  “No, we’re supposed to do it as a group” she answers, and I just say, “you’ll have to do the writing.”

  She smiles and pulls out the books from her far too heavy backpack with a smile before we begin. It’s a ten-hour drive back and there’s no way we’ll have time to do this later. At least this is far easier than my self-study. . .

  C2

  -

  When Anthony falls asleep half way through the way back home after helping me through the physics homework, daddy continues our argument from before he woke up.

  “You know you need to stop being friends with that boy.”

  I don’t answer, daddy isn’t paying attention to what I’m saying right now as he after pausing for the time it would have taken me to say half a sentence he continues, “No, you don’t get it at all do you? It isn’t just his bad influence. Yes, that is part but not the most important detail. What have I always told you?”

  “Power and duty come together” I repeat at the same time he does.

  “And what is the second one?”

  “Always remember the consequences” we once more state simultaneously.

  “Good, do you get it yet?”

  “Get what? You haven’t explained anything” I say with a bit of anger.

  “It is your duty to stay away from people that are far weaker than you. You have refused time and again to distance yourself from that boy and what has that caused? Mostly minor injuries, a few broken bones from you dragging him into stunts he can’t handle but today you pulled him into danger.”

  “He would have been here anyways!”

  “He would not have gone into the room holding that mutated wolf on his own. That was you. You are the one who lead to him being mauled by it, not once but twice. You played with the animal because it wasn’t a threat to you, allowing it to hurt him and that playing with the monster wolf is the direct cause of him being gassed.

  He wouldn’t have been in any danger at all today if it were not for you. Yes, you saved him from the danger you yourself put him in.”

  I don’t know how to respond. Daddy has never been so mean before. I feel something on my cheek and touch it. My hand is wet, and I find myself crying. It is my fault, I’m why my friend nearly died . . .

  The final four hours of our trip is silent. Daddy doesn’t say anything else, but he doesn’t have to. I finally get it, me being close to him puts him in danger. . .

  -

  Anthony Travers

  -

  After falling asleep in the car, I wake up alone in the small cot that I get to call a bed. The lights are off and I can hear some god-awful singing from downstairs. I sigh, Tim and Tammy are high and probably never even noticed when I was brought in. Useless wastes, I’d be better off on my own. Even tried to get emancipated last year but with the insurance money to hire the needed lawyers to keep me here, I couldn’t win. With a sigh I sit up and aside from being unreasonably hungry and disgusted by the smell of the house, I feel better.

  I stand up and stretch before looking at the clock, five am. Too late to have both breakfast and a run. . . My stomach growls and my choice is made. Down the stair I go and into the kitchen, which just happens to be the cleanest room in the house aside from my own. I’m the only one who ever uses it as a kitchen and after ‘losing’ some paraphernalia in the trash can I open the fridge.

  Let’s see, leftover KFC, something that looks like expired milk and a clear unlabeled container that is probably drugs. I finish off the chicken and lament as it is not as filling as I had hoped. I’m still hungry but there’s nothing left for me to eat.

  “Boy! I hear you in there. Bring me a beer!” my uncle Tim yells from the other room.

  “You already drank it all!” I yell back.

  “Then get more!”

  “Minor without any money!”

  “Figure it out, you’re supposed to be smart!”

  “Don’t come home without it!” my aunt yells as I decide that I don’t in fact want to be at home today. I glance at my phone to check the time 5:25. Damn, still early but the janitor will probably let me in early.

  I slam the door behind me as I job to school with the light of dawn slowly filling the world with color. Only then do I realize that the lights had been out back in the house. Odd, my night vision isn’t that good but it is only when I arrive at the building less winded than normal that I figure something is up.

  I check the front door to find it open, I enter and find that there is a track practice going on for a meet on Friday. Lucky me, I don’t have to talk the janitor into letting me in. I hurry over to the showers in the boy’s locker room to rinse off and change to a clean pair of clothes. No one was in there, so it was quick and easy.

  I then make my way to the science wing and check the time, 6:55. Just over an hour until first period. I walk into my biology classroom and make my way to the microscopes. I prick myself with a needle and smear it on one of the glass panes before taking a look. As soon as I do I frown, my blood doesn’t look quite right. Everything is there but there is also something else floating around . . .

  One looks like a grain of sand, probably something from the gas, and there seems to be not enough white cells for my immune system to actively be fighting something. I frown, that isn’t right. I’ll need to look at something more detailed. I take the pane of glass and clean it, I’ll need to use the electron microscope and I can’t do that right now. It is kept under lock and key and while I am trusted by the staff I don’t have keys.

  I take a seat and pull out a black notebook and open it to a new page. I need to make a list of tests I need to go over once the mind-numbing boredom of my classes is over for the day. . . The bell rings a few times and I have to walk to other classrooms but by lunch I’ve finished my list as I head to eat alone. I don’t have the same lunch period as Alicia and the others today. I end up gabbing a few extras but I should be able to snag some money from my relatives in their next drunken stupor.

  Scanning over my list it reads as follows:

  Test for radiation, if yes how much and frequency.

  Identify strange compound and determine purpose of that gas if it is connected.

  Observe cell functions, determine if compound/radiation/both are affecting cell functions.

  If yes, determine which functions. Make sure to check mitochondria, odd hunger after intake of sever thousand calories means I must be processing a lot of glucose.

  As the gas was likely meant to be some sort of mutagen, check nucleus as well. Compound my be altering my genetics though unlikely.

  Alternate cause: my mana tuning exercises may have cause a deviation. Unlikely as I am not producing more mana, but I should check for it as well.

  Should probably take a tissue sample of some muscle, they are also suffering from less fatigue than normal. Successful mutation caused by gas? Unlikely but if so I must determine how.

  The last two hours, which were history, are dreadfully boring. You’d think with supers running around it’d be more interesting but no. Everything is still focused on Hitler is a bad evil man; just this time he and his followers had powers while some of those on the good guy side did too.

  Once that is over with, and ignoring my once more empty stomach, I make my way back to the biology classroom. When I enter the room, I see that Mr. Vitles is grading the bookwork we did in class.

  “May I use the electron microscope?” I ask as I walk in that direction.

  “I was wondering what had your attention this morning. Why?”

  “I wanted to look at cells functioning in real time.”

  “There are videos for that.”

  “It wouldn’t be the same.”

  “No I suppose not” he says with a smile before motioning to go ahead.

  It takes me only a few seconds to ready a slide and set the microscope To record onto a flash drive. I only get a few moments before it’ll kill the cells so I need to make this matter.

  Half an hour later, after calibrating it multiple teams and watching those few seconds over and over with multiple sample and I can’t believe what I’m seeing. My cells are currently in overdrive but not any way I would have thought possible.

  The sand-like grains are clumps of enzymes breaking something apart and then traveling to other parts of my cells to do something to the xNA, altering both DNA and RNA strands which are then read and whatever alterations are being made implemented. The gas isn’t the cause but a fuel for something I already had in me. . .

  Whatever is going on in me it’s costing a lot of energy even if it seems to be harvesting some from the subdued but radioactive compounds in my blood, that do not in fact show on a Geiger Counter, and isn’t giving any sign of stopping right away. . .

  I quickly destroy the evidence, I’m not sure exactly what is going on but this is dangerous. I need power to survive in case I get attacked but if this gets out I’ll be attacked for sure. Ongoing mutations to a living being that so far seem to be all beneficial, that is a secret that’ll cause the supers arms race that is going on to skyrocket. Goodie goodies would kill me for the greater good of the status quo while the villains would to keep me from going against them, to a rival, or turn me into a lab rat.

  This may be the secret I need to get the strength to hold my own but I don’t know enough yet. There has to be more than just radiation, that alone wouldn’t cause purely positive changes. It has to be comparing something to my base genetics but what? What foreign genetics would be in me right now?

  That wolf or. . . no Alicia didn’t get hurt. Great so I’m stealing useful parts of that wolf's genome. How can I get as much as possible out of this? I don’t have enough details, I need to know what that gas was. For now, all I can do is gorge on food until I stabilize.

  I check my phone as I exit the room, no messages. Odd, Alicia usually invites me to whatever idiocy Henry and Francis have talked Richard into by now. Her father’s guilt trips or did one of the three guys trick her into rightly thinking I have no interest in their dumb choices. Well, aside from the involvement of some pretty girls. . .

  With that I begin an uneventful walk home. What? Even in a world of super heroes and villains, not every day is filled with the chaos of some world ending diabolical plot, epic battle, or grand heist.

  -

  Two days later I begin to notice new smells and sounds, something that continues over the next week. Each day my senses gradually becoming sharper while I begin a growth spurt that I rather enjoy the benefits of. A quarter inch a day since the accident leaving me at five-eleven which is good, taller than almost everyone else my age that doesn’t have super powers; over the week after that the hunger slowly returned to a just above what I needed to eat before. And the best part, I did not in fact turn into a homicidal wolf man under the full moon last night.

  But that I hadn’t been invited to anything three weeks from that accident made me start to worry as to why none of my friends were talking to me anymore. Sure, it was really helpful in having the time to look into what I had been gassed with, and determine that what Maxwell Marvel’s said was a lie, but three weeks with nary a word from them?

  Did I just use the word nary? Now I feel old. Alright, teenager thoughts. . .

  What would the girls my age look like na. . .

  . . .

  I pull out my phone and pull up Alicia’s number. I hit the call button and before I know it I’m impatiently waiting as it rings.

  *Ring*

  *Ring*

  *Ring*

  “Hello?”

  “Hi Alicia, it’s been a while since we’ve done anything. . .”

  “Yeah?” she says slightly worried.

  “. . . so, do you want to go to the movies with me tomorrow?”

  “Yes. . .” I hear a voice in the background, her father I think but I can’t make it out, “. . . actually, I really need to study for the. . .” she starts distinctly sad.

  I cut her off, “too late, you said yes. I’ll help you with whatever subject it is afterwards” I say in a rush.

  “But I . . .”

  “You already agreed, we’re going. I’ll take care of everything and you wouldn’t need to study so much if you had called me to help.”

  “. . . Okay” she says notably happier than before.

  “I’ll tell meet you after school and we can get a bite to eat before the show. See you tomorrow.”

  With that I hang up, barely noticing the sting in my step as I start to do my laundry. . .

  Did I just ask out my super-hot friend on a date? Wait what is even showing in theaters right now? Where am I going to get the money to pay for a movie ticket let alone the dinner?

  Fuck. What drove me to do this without thinking it through? Oh, right mental image of what she probably looks like nude. . .

  I shake my head, I’ll need to buy enough food for four to five to feed us two and the tickets. . . I don’t think uncle Tim is going to have enough cash laying around the house. . .

  C3

  -

  And so, begins my struggle of risking life and limb for both fame and fortune rather than just survival, all for a pretty face. So where can I get over a hundred dollars in the late afternoon as a teen? Nothing that would be considered legal work. But what criminal activity can you do without having problems with the law? Well, so long as you don’t fail horribly in this world vigilantism is considered acceptable. Illegal, but no one will actually bother arresting you for it unless you are just not made out for it.

  So where could I get ahold of the money I need? Well, I am in a bad neighborhood in the slums of town. I throw on a black hoodie and keep the hood up as I make my way to the not so friendly neighborhood drug dealer. Well, he probably would have been friendly if I actually was a customer or known regular or he didn’t somehow sense that I was going to really ruin his night.

  The twenty-year-old still let me into the house where he conducts his business but that may be because he was currently selling to someone else. Some teen girl, I don’t know what exactly she bought or how she is paying for her addiction but I’m not here for that. As soon as she is out the door, the drug dealer says, “welcome to Tony’s. You’re new, so what are you looking for?”

  I glance around, the room is fairly small with lots of places that could be concealing where he keeps his cash; only one guard though and his gun isn’t even easily reachable. Small time crooks, not talented enough to move up in their ranks or stupid enough to get themselves killed. Probably even decent people but they are just the target I need. Small enough that the bosses won’t notice and competent enough to have enough on them that I won’t have to ruin more people’s day.

  I sniffing the air, there isn’t anyone else home. Tony notices something isn’t right and says, “ don’t worry. No cops, relax.”

  “Sorry, I’ve never done this before” I say while making my voice slightly higher than normal.

  I don’t however manage to keep my voice level and he motions to the muscle behind me. Luckily the guy I dub Bubba does not go for his gun but rather tries to grab me.

  I turn and jab him in the side before kneeing him in the crotch. “No touching on the first date” I say as he groans and gets angry. Shit, I should have brought a weapon.

  I barely manage to dodge the man’s fist, I do however take a one to my gut and regret getting into a fist fight with someone bigger and stronger than me.

  “What do you want to do with him?” Bubba asks Tony as I barf on to the floor.

  From there I see the glint of a gun in the back of Bubba’s pants. Does he really have it tucked into his ass?

  “Have your fun” Tony answers and I take the only action I think may lead to my survival.

  I throw what little mana I have into a cantrip. “Spark” I whisper as the tiny packet of mana reaches the destination I desire.

  A gunshot echoes through the house, Bubba screams in pain and I roll out of the way as he collapses to the ground, one of his legs giving under his weight. A rapidly expanding pool of blood around the oversized man as he tries to put pressure on a bullet holes through his thigh but can’t stop the bleeding.

  “Shit, shit shit . . .” Tony begins to repeat as he panics but doesn’t actually start to do anything.

  I glance at Bubba, I think the bullet hit his femoral artery. Shit, I didn’t want to actually kill someone, but I don’t have anything that can save his life. I’ll have to cover this up somehow. . .

  With my hand covered in the thin fabric of my sleeve, I rush for the gun. Once I have it in hand I point it at Tony to see that he has gotten some of his shit together and has pulled out a phone. It’s too late to actually save Bubba by calling an ambulance but I can’t let him call the police or his boss and I can’t leave witnesses.

  One shot to chest and he drops the phone, seconds later begins to spit up blood. He'll die before the cops get here after the neighbors call in the gunshots.

  Alright torch the place or frame this as an 'I was being kidnapped, honest'? No, that would be published in the news paper and their boss will know it a lie. Torch the place then, first the cash. I toss the gun to the side and glance around the room before opening a jewelry box on the mantle.

  Bingo, I stuff the cash in my hoodie. I can count it later. Four minutes, still plenty of time. I need an accelerant. Any one will do.

  Luckily there are plenty of accelerants in a drug den; like the nearly a dozen lighters on the coffee table, or better yet an aerosol cans they are using to cover up the scent of weed.

  I rush to the back door while once more using the tiny bit of magic that this body can channel, “Spark” I whisper and the contents of the can of Red Hot Cinnamon scent explodes as I pass through the back door on the other side of the house.

  Other smaller explosions follow, and flames soon spread over the house, destroying what little evidence their might have been of my presence. I don’t stop as I rush back to the house and sneak in without my relatives noticing. They wouldn’t care but they'd steal the money I need for tomorrow.

  Once I am in my room and the door is closed I relax, and it hits me. I just killed not one but two men and burned a building to the ground to cover it up. . .

  Did I leave anything that’ll lead to me? I shouldn’t have done that, it was a bad idea to just go and rob a criminal. I should have known it was going to go poorly.

  -

  I didn’t sleep well, too worried that someone was going to come me looking for me and making sure that I did in fact get enough for tomorrow, now today. School, like always, was boring due to it being no challenge at all. It was also agonizingly long as I watched the seconds tick by until my probably a date with Alicia. That the faces of Bubba and Tony show up when I close my eyes didn’t help either but I’m coping.

  When the end of the school day arrives, and Alicia puts a hand on my shoulder I nearly jump out of my shoes.

  “Anthony are you alright?” she asks when she sees the bags under my eyes.

  “I’m okay, just nervous.”

  “Is it because of . . .” she starts looking downwards guiltily.

  “No, it’s not that. It’s just, well um. . . we don’t usually do stuff like this.” Yeah, I can’t tell her I’m terrified that I might be a murder suspect. That and I am nervous about how this goes. . .

  “Why would you be nervous about dinner and a movie?”

  I pinch my nose, goddamn airhead. “Alicia, what do we usually do?”

  “You help me study or sports.”

  “On TV, what do teens sometimes do as a date?”

  “Dinner, watch a game, ice cream, movies, . . .”

  “Stop, what are the first and last one?”

  “Dinner and a mov. . . oh, is, is that what we’re doing?” she asks while blushing once she realizes what she should have figured out yesterday.

  I can’t help but stare at her face for a moment before answering, “Alicia, why else would I have asked you out?”

  She pauses for a moment and I can all but see the greats turning in her head, as she actually does go through several ideas and rejecting them before she comes to an answer. If only she would use that brainpower without having to be specifically prompted. . .

  “You want to lower my guard before confronting me about how I managed to fight that wolf or you are in fact going to try and take advantage of me after intoxicating me during dinner.”

  “Tempting, really both sound like great ideas but no. Care to guess why?”

  “You’re really smart and observant and probably figured out the first already and even if you were thinking about the second you can’t afford that much alcohol if you even could get it but they seemed the most likely alternatives” she says with a smile proud of herself.

  “You really should use you brain more often but you overestimate me.”

  “Oh what do you think on the first one then?”

  “You have some degree of super strength and likely some level of invulnerability.” The truth but not everything I know.

  She pauses for a moment before her horrid acting flares up, “d don’t be silly. There’s no way a little girl like me could have super strength.”

  “Uh huh, sure. Why haven’t they kicked you out of the theater club again?”

  She hangs her head dejectedly and doesn’t answer my sarcasm.

  “Don’t be like that Alicia. Today is a happy day, you can order all the food you want and I won’t judge you for it.”

  “Really? Where are we going?”

  “A steak house.”

  And she is all smiles again, excited and happy like a child in a candy store as I continue to lead her towards my chosen restaurant. A nice one though not one of the more expensive ones in town, on the way we fall back into our more normal conversations which centered mostly around her telling the gossip going around the school the last few days and how Ultima, her favorite superhero, fought his nemesis Dare Dude in France.

  Personally, I think both Ultima and his nemesis are stupid. Ultima has near cosmic level super strength, invulnerability, and speed and an absolute moral code that would put a paladin to shame. While Dare Dude has similar powers and a weakness to being dared into doing stupid shit. He’s not even a villain, just some stupid twenty-year-old that’s too high on life to stop.

  If Ultima didn’t have a pole up his ass about rules and doing what is right twenty-four seven, I’d say it was a propaganda stunt. Anyways, dinner was great I have a fifty-two once steak that was probably the best thing I’ve eaten in this life while Alicia had two.

  How she managed to eat that much, I can only guess that her powers burn a lot of calories; though some part of me likes to think it all goes to her amazing curves. The movie was a retelling of one of the battles between Mathew Maxwell and her former lab tech Susan Sharess, how she after being fired turned to magic for revenge as he also broke up with her. One good thing about this world, there is no shortage of good movies though in all honesty I kept finding myself looking at Alicia more than the screen, not that she noticed. . .

  All was good, we were having a great time, but the reality of this world comes crashing down as some dumbass in a mech suit is challenging one Ultra Girl to a fight. I sigh, as I move out of the way of the falling rubble.

  I only have to dodge some smaller pieces of concrete, enough it would hurt but not kill as most of the hole in the roof is over the screen.

  After seeing that I am in fact fine, Alicia says “sorry, I uh, need to use the bathroom” as she runs off.

  I watch as she runs off to what she thinks is out of sight before vanishing in a blur of super speed. Why doesn’t anyone other than me seem to notice these things?

  It’ll be about thirty seconds now for 'Ultra Girl’ to show up. Airhead really should carry that change of clothes with her. I ignore the screaming and the masses running around in panic and look at whoever it is that thinks it is a good idea to run around causing mass destruction to get attention.

  The suit looks like it was assembled from the pieces of broken tech that so many of the tech-based heroes and villains leave lying around after a fight. It probably doesn’t even have full functionality. Is that exposed wiring on his jetpack?

  “Stop!” a loud female voice echoes off the surrounding buildings.

  “Sure, just surrender to me” the mech's speakers blare.

  “I can’t do that!”

  “Why not?”

  “You’re evil!”

  “Evil is all perception. Am I evil if I’m destroying something I consider evil?”

  “Hurting civilians and public property is wrong!” Ultra Girl yells as she finally decides to attack but she already made the mistake that would turn this into a longer fight, she let him charge a counter attack which she is forced to tank with her face.

  A beam of blue energy slams her into the ground and the guy in the mech starts laughing. No idea why he’s even doing this, but I want my date back. . .

  I look at his jetpack, can I? Well no reason not to try. . .

  As I look for the fuel line Ultra Girl gets out of the hole she made as she landed and jumps into the air to fly and fight but her for is far more agile and clearly has more practice than she does.

  He dodges her straight forward attacks, but his second-hand tech just doesn’t have the power to really hurt her. I pull out the straw of someone’s discarded drink and smirk, just what I need as a sympathetic focus.

  With a flick, the straw breaks, the force rippling through the mana of the world around me, even as thin as it is it magnifies the force and the mech changes directions as the now venting fuel affects his propulsion. I whisper “spark” and a ball of fire erupts around the man.

  He screams as he begins to fall from the sky only to be caught by Ultra Girl. She begins to look around to see what caused his suit to explode but lacking any magical talent finds nothing.

  I begin to walk towards the front of the building, to get refunded the money for the movie we didn’t get to actually watch; she can handle the rest. Unfortunately, by the time I do get to the office for the theater they had already closed it, meaning no refund for me. Out the front door I can see Ultra Girl giving a rather burnt up villain to the police, without stripping his equipment to make sure he can’t escape. . .

  An instant later she is gone in a blur of speed and not five seconds later Alicia runs out of the women’s bathroom asking me if she missed Ultra Girl.

  “By a few seconds” I answer while trying to decide if I should confront her on her subpar heroing or wait for her to come clean. . .

  I look at her and can’t help but choose the later.

  C4

  -

  I can’t help but pet out a small breath of relief when Anthony does not call me out on the mistakes I made and once more endangered him and those around me.

  “I missed her again?” I say in my best attempt at an upset voice, somehow managing it better than I do in school for the plays.

  “Yes, but don’t worry I’m sure you’ll get another chance the next time a nutjob is in town” Anthony says in a smile, trying to cheer me up even though I think he can tell I’m not really upset.

  “You don’t have to call the bad guy names.”

  “No but it’s better than complaining about how he interrupted us.”

  “My dad doesn’t expect me back. . .” I start saying before my phone rings and I just know that it’s daddy.

  “Go ahead.”

  I answer the phone and sure enough it is daddy on the other end. “Alicia, I know you were just in a fight.”

  “No one got hurt” I say, it’s a lie but daddy barely let me go on the condition that if Anthony got hurt because of me I couldn’t ever do it again.

  “Thousands of dollars in property damage to the theater, dozens of destroyed cars, unknown number of physical injuries, you’re lucky no one died and you’re not even the one who took out the villain.”

  “You were watching the whole time, weren’t you?”

  “Of course, I was. I’m your father, it’s my duty. You need to come home right now.”

  “But I didn’t break any of the things we agreed on!”

  “Alicia. . .”

  I look over at Anthony for a moment, “daddy, I’ll be home when we agreed.”

  I end the call and turn the phone to silent mode before daddy can answer before saying, “there’s still an hour. So, can you tell me about the fight?” I say to Anthony.

  I don’t really want to talk about that but he’s really smart and maybe he noticed something that would help me get better. And if I get better daddy won’t be so hard on not endangering civilians. . .

  “I can do you one better” he says before pulling out his phone and pulling up video online.

  “Did you record that?” I ask slightly worried. Daddy is already worried he might know our secret and with a side by side image he’ll probably notice something. . .

  “No, internet. Would you like commentary as it plays?”

  “Y yes.”

  . . .

  -

  On the way home, I can’t help but keep thinking about what we did together and his commentary on my fight with whoever that was. I probably should have got the bad guy’s name. While I don’t agree with some of the things Anthony said about the fight, he is right in that I really do need more practice.

  I go ahead and sit down in the living room immediately after getting home one minute before the deadline I got daddy to agree to yesterday. I already know he is going to continue what started during the phone call and there is no way around it.

  “Alicia, you should have come home when I called.”

  “I upheld the agreement we came to.”

  “People got hurt, you shouldn’t have let that happen. If you were. . .”

  “If I spent all day every day constantly looking out I wouldn’t have a reason to act!”

  “You inherited my powers, and with them comes the duty to protect those who can’t protect themselves. A duty you failed at if not shirked entirely.”

  “No one died, and the property damage will be covered by either their insurance or my own, you’ve already made sure of that.”

  “You still didn’t do your duty as you should have done. You opponent was far weaker than you and you should have taken him out in seconds rather than the near two minutes that you took.”

  I fold my arms as I say, “I know I need to get better but . . .”

  “but nothing, you insist on your social obligations constantly. You’re never going to get full control over you powers like that.”

  “Not everything is about being a super hero dad!” I yell out.

  “No but it is the most important part.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  “What? You think your friendships and high schooling are more important? None of them are in the same power league as you, you’ll either drift apart or they’ll grow jealous and turn their back. Your school is important. . .”

  “No they won’t!”

  “Oh, then which one is going to stick around when they learn that you can and will be fighting things that level cities?”

  My mind races, Henry and Francis don’t have the power set to deal with anything like that; as far as I know they just have speed. Richard has money but that’s also useless and Maria might be tech support and guidance but couldn’t help in a real fight. Henry and Francis are also too competitive and trying to out do the other, if they actually knew I was stronger and faster they would be very jealous. . .

  Then my mind wanders back to Anthony, he, he doesn’t have any powers but has no problem getting along with everyone else in our group. He didn’t panic or seemed scared when the roof was coming down or when that wolf went after us. . .

  “Anthony, he won’t.”

  “Anthony is a boy with a crush, that’ll change when he learns you can never be any more than his friend.”

  “Why? Why do you always say stuff like this?”

  Dad frowns and in one of the rare moments when his emotions get through his iron will, a tear goes down his left cheek before he says, “because you have the same powers I do.”

  “What does that have anything to do with this?”

  He sighs, “For someone who trust that the boy won’t abandon your friendship, you sure forget his advice.”

  His advice? Oh right, think before I speak or act. . . Why would my powers be a problem? Why would they cause me not to be able to be more than friends with Anthony?

  . . .

  Maybe accidently hurting him? But I already do that now and it doesn’t stop anything.

  A few more seconds and I give up. I just can’t figure out how any of my powers keep me from being withy friend, it must be daddy getting too much into his duty stuff again.

  -

  Gary Norman

  -

  My daughter sits on the other couch, staring off into space but I never see her come to the answer. For a moment I wonder if I really should be doing this? Taking away the happiness that my daughter gets from her friends?

  Then my mind shifts to her namesake, Alicia Norman, who lived for only a few hours as my wife. The dates we had and love we shared flash through my thoughts, she was the only one I ever set aside my duty for. I can’t help but smile until I once more remember our wedding night.

  How she gave herself to me, how she called my name over and over until everything came crashing down. The euphoria of my one and only sexual release followed by the nightmare of the rest of the night. Her spilled blood, the hospitals that couldn’t do anything, the hole that erupted from her chest.

  I shake my head banishing my thoughts, no, I can never let my baby girl suffer that same nightmare. No way I’ll let her fall in love with someone she will accidently kill.

  “I can’t come up with a reason” my little girl says as she gives up; too pure and innocent to realize what more than friends eventually entails.

  “Then don’t worry about it yet. Just remember daddy always has your best interest at heart. How about you go get started on your homework. . .”

  She smiles after a moment and says “okay” but I don’t think she is fully convinced of it.

  With a sigh, I can now only compromise one of my duties for another. Why couldn’t she be best friends with a girl or at least a boy with some level of invulnerability. . .

  I stand up and flip open the lead weave bag I keep all my work materials in. Like most days, I have some items in here that are not pertinent to my job as an insurance agent. I pull out one of the folders and frown. There is no going back if I do this.

  I look over the few pages of information, Anthony Travers’s personal information and some of the test results that are odd from his incident at Maxwell Marvel’s. The gas should have killed him, it should still be killing him, but it didn’t, and it hasn’t. Just the kind of test subject that so many villain organizations would want to further their research into several different illegal areas.

  I shouldn’t even be considering this. It goes against everything that is my duty; no matter how much I dislike the boy he is a civilian I am sworn to protect. But I glance in the direction of my daughter, is my duty to her more important.

  What would my Alicia say? She would probably do what was best for the family, or slap me upside the head for being an idiot. But which one?

  -

  Anthony Travers

  -

  The rest of my Friday night was calm before I went to bed, the only thing of note was that Alicia called me and asked a bunch of questions. Mostly it was about how to do her homework, but after than she started asking a line of questions that I really didn’t want to get into at the moment. How powers would affect friendships and other relationships.

  I didn’t really give her an answer on that, just said I’ll look into it and hope she’ll forget. But it did bring a possible complication to my mind, how am I going to keep her from breaking my ribs and pelvis later?

  Is it really a good idea to chase her? My mental image of her flashes through my mind.

  . . .

  Damn, hormones. Stupid teen bullshit.

  Then just as I am about to actually go to sleep, the building's power shuts down and I hear my window break. A hissing sound fills my ears and I panic as I can see the room filling with smoke.

  The sound of silencer rounds rings in my oversensitive ears from the floor below as I hold my breath. I need to get out of here but they are definitely looking at the window since they broke it to gas me.

  As I debate the best course of action, the door opens to three men that could be passed off as a SWAT team, each in a gas mask as they point their guns at me.

  “Flare” I mutter with a gesture releasing a ball of bright fire at their faces but these three men knew what they were doing and a trio of bullets go through my legs.

  I think at that point I screamed out in pain but everything went blurry and it’s hard to remember. The next thing I knew I woke up in a lab of some sort on a metal table. All I could tell was that it was owned by some very prideful but secret organization.

  How could I tell? They had a skull with a serpent wrapped around it as an emblem on every wall and door I could see. My vision was blurry but I think that was due to the needlessly bright lights in a mostly white room.

  “Good, you’re awake” a man’s voice calls out from behind me and I turn.

  As I blink away the worst of the blurring, I can see a middle aged white man that I probably could not point out in a crowd, he's within an inch of six foot with plain features and brown eyes and hair.

  I sit up, finding that I am not restrained in any way. Strange, why would they leave me so free?

  “So young Mr. Travers, you have two options; the first and my original plan try to escape as you are dissected and experimented on, or two be a willing participant wherein my associates will not get to dissect you.”

  “Why two options?” I ask.

  “Because you have somehow taught yourself magic, a nearly impossible feat without taking into account that your body has next to no affinity to mana. That information is worth more than what dissecting you will bring.”

  I frown, he’s right magic is next to impossible to survive learning it on your own, add the detail that this body should never have been able to do anything with mana. It also isn’t something I can teach. Fuck, how am I supposed to get out of here?

  “Since you know the value, you know there’s no way I’m going to give that information out for free.”

  “Of course, but think of the benefits I could offer or the persuasions possible..”

  So get bribed or be tortured. Great, though the bribe of being a lab rat is not a good one.

  “Take all the time you need to decide, my people are still deciding what experiment will have the highest chance of success” the man says before walking out.

  I, I am not really sure what to do. I whisper “compass” only to feel what little mana I have fail to do anything. The room is warded. . . I don’t have the power to overcome it, nor do I have the physical abilities to get out on my own.

  I need a plan, first I have to know what their goals are and if I can use them to my benefit. I’ll also need to do something about the ward that is preventing my mana from doing anything, antimagic or is it a disruption field?

  No headaches are forming from my pitiful manasense, antimagic then. Damn, disruption fields can be adjusted for but antimagic fields have to be overpowered, or turned off. If I can find the nexus or control for it. . . No, they wouldn’t keep it in the same room unless they’re using mana for something else in the facility nearby.

  My only chance is to agree and bide my time.

  C5

  -

  Anthony never called me back and stopped answering his phone Saturday, it didn’t even ring and went straight to voicemail when I called him. He didn’t even show up to school at all during the week and while at first, I wasn’t worried, he's missed a few days in a row before due to household problems but never an entire week and never without anyone being able to get ahold of him. . .

  So, when I flipped through daddy's newspaper Saturday to see if there was anything about the mugging I stopped the night before and found the weeks missing persons report with Anthony’s name on it I stop completely.

  Reading through the list again I don’t see his aunt or uncle on the list and I frown. They should have reported his disappearance sooner, it mentions Saturday being when he vanished but only was reported yesterday. Something’s wrong. . . Struggling to clamp down on the rising fear in my chest I flip to the obituary to see that both of them are listed as dead and to the side a note to see page twelve . . .

  I flip to the mentioned page, meth lab explosion? Skimming through the article I find out that it was at Anthony’s house but that can’t be right. His relatives wouldn’t know how to make meth, and he would have used something like that to move out. . .

  Something isn’t right here. . .

  -

  Anthony

  -

  Several days pass as one Doctor Muskave has been showing me around the parts of this base that I’ll be working in after I agreed to 'willingly' participate in their research. Luckily, I have not had to answer any questions about magical training as the man in the white suit wants me up to speed on their own attempts to see if I can push beyond the cantrip with their own experiments into awakening mages. And as that is not the primary purpose of the facility, what I was kidnapped for is currently taking precedence.

  Which is of course artificially granting individuals permeant super powers, and honestly their plan is ingenious. Using a gaseous medium to allow both rapid entry to the bloodstream and mass exposure, infect individuals with specialized retrovirus(es) that repair and improve the genetic structure that is simultaneously being damaged by radioactive isotopes included in the gas. Of course, they are having trouble with three things, they don’t have many samples of super powered genes, the radiation also damages the improvements made to the genome of the subject and lastly their method of getting the subject to use the new genetics to reshape their body is crude and wasteful.

  Which happens to be the part that I am being shown today, a detail that over turns my hitherto bleak plans of escape. I watch as a test subject is injected with what they called raw life, but I recognize as some poorly made philosopher's stone, the experiment dies screaming about voices but if they are using it for this they have to know how to make some more. Their idea is theoretically sound, but the quality of the elixir is too low, the voices are the tortured souls that were processed to make it.

  They probably didn’t even know they could or should do a second or third refining on it. I’m not going mention that, the soul shards will drive the subjects mad and hopefully one of them will cause a large enough disturbance for me to escape during the ensuing carnage. Or better yet I could get ahold of a few crystals of philosopher’s stone and use them myself.

  “Aside from the subject going crazy it seems successful” I comment to Doctor Muskave as I watch a man’s body tear itself apart as it becomes something else; reminding me of some of the more questionable studies I did in my last life.

  “Yes, we are unsure why that happens but believe it is from them not being able to hold onto the power it pushes through them” he says with a smile and he is partially right.

  “So, you want me to awaken them as mages to see if it helps any? That isn’t something that is quick, and you never did show me what your using for the genetic information the retrovirus implants. . .”

  I smile as my fishing for information is answered, this doctor unlike yesterday’s wants to show it all off. With a smile he begins to in length and detail explain the process of turning a blood sample into the retrovirus as he leads me to a holding area not far from where I am forced to stay when I don’t have an escort.

  I’d include his explanation, but I was a bit busy thinking about how to use it to my advantage rather than memorize it, that and I won’t have the needed equipment to make the changes and can probably do it with transmutation. These thoughts however stop when we reach the observation window, one the other side are several cages but one of the cages is different from the others. All but one had animals in it, some were minor magical creatures but nothing too powerful except for a single cage with a two-tailed fox. Which I of course recognize as a kitsune in fox form though the place and that labels it reads off “fire fox, illusions and fire manipulation” which is far less than what the kitsune race is capable of.

  Why is it here though? Magical races and people have for the most part kept themselves as separated as they could from the 'mundane world’. This does however open more possibilities for me, rescue and 'befriend' the creature or use it as these people are? I might even be able to do both. . .

  “I see you already noticed the animal with the most potential for augmentative traits to be incorporated into the retrovirus. We call her a fire fox for her pyrokinesis, unfortunately those altered to include her traits have had less success than the more normal creatures.”

  “Yes, I’m assuming her traits are harder to adapt to due to their supernatural nature? That it requires more of your distilled life to fuel the changes?”

  The doctor pauses and nods, “you have an idea?”

  “Not one I want to speak yet. I don’t want to rush into it without fulling thinking it through.”

  “You want to use yourself as an experiment? Ambitious but also very dangerous.”

  “Good guess, you probably want to as well. At least as soon as you can guarantee success.”

  “No I would much rather build an army of loyal super powered servants.”

  “To each his own I suppose.”

  “Yes, still you want the fire fox as the base for the retrovirus when we expose you to it?”

  “Unless you have magical flying lizards hidden somewhere.”

  “Hoping for the mythical dragon? Ambitious, unfortunately they no longer seem to exist.”

  Yeah, that’s just what they want you to they’d hidden themselves on my Earth so they probably did the same here.

  “Can’t blame me for hoping, but yes that fire fox would be my preferred choice from the menagerie you have here.”

  He nods and says, “I’ll see if I can get that set for you if you’ll tell me why.”

  “Disregarding, that the creature has more supernatural power it’s powers focus on energy manipulation. Magic, is a form of energy manipulation so out of all the creatures here it has the highest chance of aiding me in the skills I already have.”

  “Logical though would it not be better to shore up weaknesses?”

  “Perhaps but that depends on how good at magic you are.”

  “Fair point, and we really should get on with your tour. I think you’ll be one of the few that can appreciate the chamber where make the blood crystals.”

  I smile and nod for him to show the way, more than happy to be guided to where the tool I could use to escape is made. The rest of the day and the next were rather disappointing as their method of creating philosopher’s stones is the crudest brute force method likely costing thrice as much life as it manages to store in its fluid crystal form. How they are managing the logistics of supplying their trash alchemical circle with the bodies wasted as the material components?

  The following week likewise does not give me high hopes for these people to actually succeed except by accident in their project. They simply have no higher knowledge of transmutive theory nor do they even seem to understand the things that they do have working aside from their retrovirus.

  I feed them meditation tricks that while they are real and functional, don’t help with attuning to one's inner energies. Finding them, maybe but not using or cultivating them; which is their real goal but a month into my captivity is the day that ends up being the last one that I am here for.

  That day, just before dawn Doctor Muskave has me woken up and brought to the exposure chamber. A pair of the guards that were partial successes in being given animalistic powers dragged me into the chamber and strapped me to the table. Several minutes later, the observation window shows a figure walking up to the microphone. A figure I recognize to be Doctor Muskave.

  “Mr Travers, as much as I have enjoyed the talks that we’ve had, my superiors are pushing for results or at least a proof of concept.

  I’m honoring your desire to be exposed to the fire fox's genetics and tripled the dosage of blood crystal so that you should have enough energy to stay alive.”

  I laugh but my host can’t hear me. The hissing of the gas being pumped into the small room fills my ears and a bitter taste fills my mouth. A burning sensation begins to flow through my veins and I scream. Pain, lots of pain as the foreign substances enter my body.

  I pull on my pathetic quantity of mana and command it to guide and control the power raging through my veins, half in desperation to relieve the pain and half to prevent what waste I can. I need all the power I can get just to survive in this world let alone gather the things I want.

  The power rebels to my touch, with a will that should now have been possible for such a crude philosopher’s stone to have.

  Instantly, I find my consciousness in a grey void standing before a bird bathed in fire. I can still feel the pain of my body being destroyed by the power of the stones but it feels distant, almost separate as if it was not me who was suffering if I don’t focus on it.

  “Die!!” the burden sheiks in it’s tongue but it does not attack.

  How the hell did they manage to use a phoenix for the stones? No, doesn’t matter.

  “Sacred bird of flames, I am not he who forced you to suffer but am a fellow victim” I shout out into it’s raging flames.

  The bird stops and it’s fiery rage dims for it knows by it’s very nature that I spoke truth. A moment passes as the fires die down and the pain reflected from my physical form dims before the phoenix says “explain.”

  “Simply put, I’m a captive and they’re using me as materials in an experiment.”

  The phoenix cocks it’s head to the side, able to tell that there is more to it than. That simple sentence before it asks, “are you their enemy?”

  I pause for a moment, “once I manage to escape yes. Until then, I’m playing a good prisoner.”

  I can tell the bird is displeased by the answer but it like me can see the advantages. The bird then flaps over to me and stares into my eyes before it asks, “would you free me during your eventual escape?”

  “They’re still using you? No, of course they would; you have an infinite amount of life they could steal.

  If you’ll help me I’m willing to help you.”

  The phoenix glares at me for a moment before nodding, “fine, you may not be a pure soul but I don’t care anymore. Just free me, either from this place or killing me mid regeneration.”

  The bird still is attached to the main body? Any how am I even going to find it?

  The phoenix then dims, and I find myself back in the experiment chamber, being observed as the machines continue to slowly pump crude elixir into my veins and the airborne retrovirus corrupts and then repairs my genome. Yet this time the pain from the will of the phoenix directing the power stolen from it does not turn to destroy me. Instead it gently follows the paths my mana directs it in.

  A minute passes in mild discomfort as a growing euphoria that I know to be excess energy building up in causes me to start laughing. Everything is just so perfect. Being a dragon might have been better but kitsune are a lot of fun. . .

  C6

  -

  Continuing to laugh my directing of the phoenix's energies from the elixir go lax as I laugh at the flickering lights of the ceiling, my captors all but giving me enough to escape on a silver platter, the stoic look on doctor Muskave's face, he’ll even the shifting glint on the windows is funny right now.

  The booming of someone breaking down a stone wall in another part of the complex was even better, that the pain of a stubbed tailbone began at the same time was less so. That the light then go out save for a dull pulsing red light accompanied by the most deafening alarm of “intruder alert” and “proximity breach” that completely blot out the instructions doctor Muskave is shouting over the intercom, shouldn’t be nearly as funny as I am finding it. I barely even notice the machine I’m hooked up to withdraw the needles in my veins.

  It takes nearly a minute for me to compose myself enough to finally start making my escape by snapping one of the bones in my thumbs and slipping out of my restraints before the heal and I start giggling as I open the restraints on my legs.

  Once I stand up, I fall over finding my balance different from what it should be and feel something fluffy and soft hut my head. I grab it and a jolt of pain rushes up my tailbone. I let go and look at my own rear to find a red-gold tail sticking out of my pants.

  I glare at it unable to decide if I should see if it makes a good pillow or blanket or if I should get up and struggle to escape as planned. After a moment, I stand up, leaning forwards and frown at my tail it’s in the way. There has to be some way to conceal it, every kitsune can so. . .

  I smile as my tail vanishes and my weight shifts to something close enough to what I’m used to. With that I rush back to the machine that dripped elixir into me. Inside it should be the blood red crystal that will be everything I need to escape. An ill-conceived punch does nothing but make my wrist hurt before the rampant power coursing through me heals it.

  I mutter “Shatter” as I throw my augmented magical might into the machine and laugh as it does just that revealing a blood red stone the size of my hand.

  I pick it up and for a moment, nothing mattered, just the raw energy of hundreds of lives from the same phoenix and how good it makes me feel. Not unlike my experiences with sacrificial augmentation rituals but stronger. At least far stronger compared to my current level of magical power.

  I start guiding the power to expand my base, to change me into something more than I was but only a but, slowly, over time, otherwise you go mad. I can go a bit faster but the body also needs time to adjust or you have to spend far more energy on self healing.

  It takes a moment but I do manage to pull my gaze from the stone's crimson depths and run from the room. I don’t know where the exit is but if I follow the noises to where there’s fighting, there’ll be a trail of bodies and/or destruction to an exit.

  Of course I am all too happy to amuse myself with the gun wielding guards that get in my way. When the first try to stop my I have a hard time making sure to breathe. Normal human soldiers against the raw power of a philosopher’s stone guided by me? A mage who cheated death by simply preventing the loss of memories during reincarnation.

  “Surrender!” a trio, which were the first to encounter me shout in the halls.

  “Physical Mirror” my voice rings out a second before a hail of bullets would have torn me to bits but with the raw power of the stone the spell holds against the antimagic fields of the hall and the bullets make a one-eighty turn and kill the guards.

  Well, not all of them but they do have multiple holes in them from their own three round bursts. I make sure to step over the pooling blood as I continue my run through the hallway. Giggling to myself in the euphoria brought about by borrowed power.

  Can I get another stone? They made one, why not more than one? This two questions stop me in the hall, glancing down to the stone in my hand I check how quickly I’m using it up. I have enough to get away, probably but I could have more. If I could get a few, then I could destroy this place and it’s records of me. . . Fully attune my new body to mana. . . Hell since they are made out of only phoenix life force I could use it in a blood rite . . .

  I turn eastwards, it’s away from the fight but if I was them I’d have that phoenix in the circle as much as I could. . .

  That I got to see the confused faces of people who's attacks hit themselves on the way was another bonus. Though it took another five minutes and two guard patrols to get to the door which had the 'active' light on and the door locked. Which also meant the antimagic wards are currently inactive for this area.

  I place my hand on the wall as I know the door will have see sort of glyph on it and that it’s electronic magnetic lock is not suseptible to Knock, and intone “passwall” as the stone's power speads into the wall, bending space and connecting to the space on the other side of the foot thick concrete and lead lined wall.

  I take a step inside and let the hole disappear, I can make another later and it’ll keep anyone from disrupting me. The phoenix looks angry but there is a bit of hope as it looks at me.

  “Free me one way or another, mage” it chirps and I smile, oh so glad that destroying it counts as what it asked me to do.

  “Bird of Sacred Fire, by your own will I grant you the eternal peace of oblivion” I somehow manage to say with a strait face and the bird doesn’t even fight it as I press the stone in my hand to the floor.

  Red lightning races across the floor to the phoenix before speeding through the circle that held it bound as it was drained, altering the runes and lines in the stone floor as the white Marble turns black, a quarter of the stone dissipating in the rush of power that leaves me with a far clearer mind.

  “Through this you will be free forever from captivity as you will be no more” I say before tossing the stone into the circle.

  An instant later the phoenix cries put in pain one last time as the bound power of the stone shatters the soul, and then shatters the pieces dozens of time until only the energy remains with none of the will. Runes of red and gold rise and orbit the bird, as I begin the chant for the ritual

  “All power is life, and life runs in blood.

  The blood is spilt, the ground drinks, the soul is bound and essence drunk.

  From ash new life grows to be spilt anew, all is blood and the blood answers the call.

  All power is life, and life runs in blood

  The call is made, life called due. Bound in blood, blood must obey.

  Life wilts, blood flows, souls shrink

  Another’s bones will grow.

  Another’s life shall grow.

  Another’s soul may grow.

  All power is life, and life runs in blood.”

  The phoenix turns to dust, and a wind that touches nothing else blows leaving nothing behind but a single clear red stone where the heart once was. It falls to the ground, a clear ringing off a bird’s trill echoes through the chamber over the cracking of the stone. The circle reduces itself to rubble, and I call walk to the center and pick up the far smaller almost clear red stone.

  I look down at the small stone, all the power of an immortal in the palm of my hand in a sphere the size of a pea. I toss the stone into my mouth and let out a groan of satisfaction as it dissolves into a warmth on my tongue. The energy flowing to my heart in an instant to begin the process it was made to do. With each beat of my heart a tiny fraction of the power races through my veins and makes some minor adjustment to me being.

  Shit, I needed that as a power source. New plan, I need a new plan. Still don’t know where the controls are for the antimagic fields.

  Aditional Tidbits