I pulled the door open the rest of the way, letting the trio into the house.

“Nick, go set Taylor on the couch. I’ll go get the first aid kit and a lamp.”

It was starting to get dark out, and I wanted to make sure we had light before it became a problem. As I went through my supplies, my mind went to dark places, assuming the worst. I murmured assurances to myself under my breath.

“Stop it Vic. Get yourself together. She’s going to be okay.”

I took the first aid kit into the living room and began to look over Taylor. She was still only covered by a scattering of ivy, but she did also have some small jewelry on her body. Fortunately, she was bruised and unconscious, but otherwise was unharmed. In fact, between Taylor and Nick, Nick was in a far worse position. He definitely needed stitches, and I really was not the person to help with that.

Surprisingly Kaitlyn stepped up and started helping out. She grabbed the kit out of my floundering hands, and took charge, bringing Nick over to the sink to start washing out his wounds so they could be bandaged. Eventually, she managed to finish up with Nick and start on Trevor who was much better off.

Nick came down and sat on one of the chairs, letting out a shaky breath.

I decided that now was a good time to ask, “Nick, what happened? Were there monsters spawning on the streets? Is that what happened?”

Nick was still out of breath as he started explaining, trying to keep the anger out of his voice and failing wonderfully. “We were on the way back to drop Taylor at the apartment when we ran into a group of guys about three blocks out. There were about 20 of the bastards altogether, and I guess they were out looking for monsters, trying to level up. They all wore these necklaces with what looked like pieces of quartz on them, but I couldn't see anything else. I thought I’d seen them around the area hanging out in alleys and some of the abandoned lots and stuff. They called out to us as we walked past, trying to get Taylor to join them. She spat in their faces, and their leader I guess took it a bit personally. He was made of some kind of crystal, and he shot it at us. It was like knives or pieces of broken glass. James took the brunt, but Trevor and I got peppered too. We started running away, but they started shooting more magic crap at us. One of them shot some kind of net at James, and he went down. I don’t know where he is. I saw Taylor get peppered by some kind of earth magic, and it knocked her out. I was able to scoop her up and keep running, and I headed straight here.”

That certainly wasn’t good. I wonder if these were the people I saw with that Dragonborn a few days back?

“Were you followed?”

“I couldn't really say, Vic. Honestly. I don’t think they followed us, but I didn’t really stop to check with those fuckers hot on our heels. I just wanted to make sure that Taylor made it back safe. Fuck, I hope James is okay. I swear, if they did anything to him, I’ll kill them all.”

As he talked, his eyes literally burned. Like, with fire.

Nick actually wasn’t a beastkin. He was the first super that I’d seen since the change. It seems like beastkin was the more common of the two. I quickly used to identify him.

Skill Alert! Level Up!

General Skill: identify – lvl 5 -> lvl 6 – can find more detailed information about natural items and objects

Race – Human; Job – Musician; Class - ???; Level - 0

Well that wasn’t helpful at all. Obviously, he was human, but it did not indicate his powers or statistics. I suppose I wouldn’t know more until I was able to see people’s skills or affinities.

I also looked over into the kitchen, identifying Trevor as well.

Race – Bearkin; Job – Musician; Class - ???; level - 0

I was honestly at a loss for what to do. Killing a few bandits in the wilderness did not mean I could take on 20 people in the middle of downtown. I needed help, and lots of it if I wanted to save James, but first I needed to check with the police to see if they could help. Time was of the essence, and there were only maybe one and a half hours of daylight left. I found an old city map in one of our kitchen drawers and got some general directions to the nearest police station, and then I bid my farewells.

As I flew out of my window, I looked out through the neighborhood to see if I could find anyone that looked suspicious. If they kidnapped someone over a girl they didn’t know, then the idea that they tried to follow them when they ran away seemed very possible.

Looking across the street, I saw two people wearing really shabby clothes, and they seemed to be looking around. I got within 30 feet, and could make out small crystals on their necklaces, and knew that I had found some members of the gang.

"Hey Evan, I think we're getting close. The smell is really strong now."

"Got it. Keep your eyes peeled Big Dog. We need to do this job right or the boss is going to end us."

At that, Big Dog audibly gulped, and it wasn't without reason. Recently the boss had been getting more and more violent, and he had killed a couple of the boys already in fits of anger. Thinking about my possible impending death made me look back at my life so far to see how it came to this shitshow.

I had grown up in the city, went to public schools, and while there fell in with a bit of a rougher crowd. By the age of 16 I was a certified gangster, doing petty crimes for the pay. I had run with some friends right outside of school but eventually found a larger group to run with, called the Gems. They operated in the southern part of downtown peddling mostly meth and cocaine but also committing some thefts, and it was good work for the money. I was 18 when I killed my first person as a rite of passage. What I was particularly upset with was that during the waves, of all things, I had been turned into a ratkin. I never disliked rats, but when all of my friends turned into wolves, dogs, or even superheroes, I was a fucking rat. My character archetype was ‘Goon', which was bullshit, as it spits in the face of my aspirations but was, unfortunately, also quite helpful in my current line of work.

Earlier that day, the boss had seen a freaking hot plant bitch walking through the streets, and he wanted to have her. The bitch had friends around, but they were grossly outnumbered. In the end, they only managed to capture one of the bitch’s boy toys and were holding him at one of the houses. The boss sent me and Big Dog, who was a bloodhoundkin, to try and track her down so we could bring her back to base. We were following the scent of one of the guys, and we were getting close. He had been pretty injured, and it was easy.

Suddenly I heard the whooshing of air, like a strong breeze through the trees, and out of a window on the building across the street from us came a strange blue/grey woman. She was freaking tall, I could already tell, and she had those perfect proportions that could either come from amazing genes, or the change being very kind. She put out this dark imposing aura; almost like a black fog around her, and her glowing white eyes surveying the streets moved like spotlights in the dark. Her glowing hair flipped around her, moving almost as if underwater, pushed by a breeze I could not feel. Eventually her eyes settled on me.

She began to fly closer, almost at a leisurely pace. Big Dog leaned over, and whispered in my ear, “She has that dude’s blood on him. She knows where the girl is. She’s probably in the apartment that fly girl there just came out of.”

I quickly nodded in confirmation. “Big dog, let me do the talking. I have always had a way with the ladies.”

Eventually, the girl was in front of us, still about four feet off the ground. There was a gem set in her forehead, and lightning crackled around it moving through her skin and eyes.

“Hey there girlie. My friend and I here are looking for a plant whore that was in the area. My boss wants her as a pet, and we’d be willing to pay to get her. Now, we know where she is because we can smell the blood on you. So be a good girl and give us what we want.”

She landed on the ground and closed her eyes. That’s right be a good girl and give me what I want.

Her eyes slammed open, and I could only feel pain, before I felt nothing at all.

I was already furious leaving the house, but after hearing what the awful ugly rat said, I was ready to kill all over again. I immediately arced two lightning bolts into the rat before I even responded. They knew where we were, and I needed to deal with this now before more came here.

-15, -30

After that he was down on the ground. I don’t think he died, probably just passed out from the pain.

The dog ripped out a howling growl before he pounced at me. I activated flight, staying right outside of his range. I charged two storm fists and tried to bait him into swinging at me.

I saw my opening and managed to hammer three fists into his body, one into the face with my right, and two in the chest with my left.

-26, -26, -52

He fell to the ground and did not move.

I allowed myself a moment to panic. What the fuck did I just do? I just killed two people in the middle of the city, with lightning none the less. How fucking suspicious is that? It’s not like there are loads of people I’ve seen that have lightning powers like me. I decided to go to leave them there for now and go to the police for help.

Combat Complete! Experience Calculated!

Opponents Defeated:

BloodHoundKin Bandit– lvl 2 – 153xp

Level Up: lvl 8 -> 9 (157/200)

Skill Alert! Level Up!

Archetype Skills: Lone Wanderer – lvl 24 -> lvl 27

Not particularly fruitful combat, but at least I got a level. It seems like the dog had some levels too. Either he had killed some monsters, or he had killed people already. I also noticed that the ratkin wasn’t dead just yet. He was surely injured, but he wasn’t quite out of it. I decided to tie him up and leave him somewhere. I found some electrical cables laying around the street and bound his arms and legs tight. Then, I threw him into the large empty dumpster in the alley, placing a couple of cinderblocks over the doors to make them harder to open up. That should hold him. I dragged the body of his friend further into the alley, to hopefully keep it out of the way as long as possible, then I headed towards the police precinct.

I flew into the air and rocketed off in the direction of the precinct. As I pushed towards the building, I managed to level up flight again. It was becoming harder and harder to increase levels. I would need to have another training session or go hunt some monsters if I wanted to increase them further. After this madness has been dealt with, some monster-slaying sounds like great stress relief.

Skill Alert! Level Up!

Race Skill: Elemental Flight – lvl 44 -> lvl 45 (100 miles/hour, 100 ft)

The precinct was in an older building. It was only one story, but it took up a large area. On the face was a large police logo and the words “Austin City Police Department”. Out front, I could see some barricades put in place to keep vehicles from driving into the building. There were some squad cars parked outside, but fewer than I thought there should be. I landed by the front door, and immediately put up my guard. The front window was blown in, and from what I could see inside there had been some fighting here.

The lobby was large, and all of the chars for people to sit in were stacked against the wall. I was surprised to find there were actually lights on. They must have a backup generator that is running.

I called out to the air, “Hello? Is there anyone there? I need help.”

My calls were met only with silence. I decided to explore deeper into the precinct. Maybe someone needed help.

Cautiously, I walked behind the front desk, to the back of the station where the holding cells and the offices were. The walls were covered in a mixture of burns from a flame, burns from something like acid, and peppered with glass and crystal. The crystal was a bit of a dead giveaway. It was just like Nick described. It makes sense that the first order of business of the local gang would be to destroy the local precinct. Their guns wouldn’t be as effective as they were in the past, and the gang members would definitely have the number advantage.

I didn’t find the first body until I was a bit further in. I almost threw up when I saw it, it was so bad. It was a cop, a man about 50 years old or so. He looked like he took a crystal blast to the chest. I could smell the blood and refuse from the dead body. I stepped past him, and moved further in. I found fifteen other bodies, all scattered around the office space, ten that were cops, and another five that were gang members. It looks like they just left their corpses where they died.

At the end of the hall was the way to the cell blocks, but there was a barred door blocking the way. I wanted to check the cell block too, so I grabbed a card key off of one of the cops and opened the door.

The inside of the cell blocks was basically untouched. The off-white cinderblock walls were unmarred, and it looked like the gang members that attacked the precinct didn’t go deeper in to check or didn’t care what they found.

The cell block was arranged in a rough ‘H’ shape, with a large holding cell in the middle. I thought that the whole block was empty, but as I walked, I heard the sound of someone weeping.

“Hello? Is there anyone there? I’m here to help. The bad guys are all gone now.”

There was no answer, but the crying did get louder. At the end of the right-wing of cells, furthest from the entrance, there was a cell with a pair of very strange members. One looked to be around 17, but she was wearing a business suit and had a formal badge on the front. She appeared to be fully human, except that she had a strange glow about her, like a pale aura. She was cradling in her arms a young boy, probably around 5 years old. He had dark purple hair and small black horns coming out of the top of his head. The boy was weeping, and the woman’s eyes were closed. There was no way that the little boy was here for a crime, and I had no problem letting them out. This place was basically a morgue at this point.

“Hello? Miss? Are you okay? Do you need to get out of here?”

I startled her out of her meditation.

She looked up at me with appraising eyes. A shiver went through my body. Was that an inspect? I went ahead and inspected them both back.

Race – Human; Job – Federal Agent; Class - ???; level - 0

Race – Black Flame Abyssal; Job – N/A; Class - ???; level - 3

The girl was human, and I was surprised that her job as a federal agent. The boy was definitely in the beta test, and I was equally shocked to see that he had levels. I wonder what the story behind that is?

“Who are you? Identify yourself! What are you doing here?”

“My name is Victoria. I came here to get help from the police, but they were all... dead... when I got here. What happened? Why are you in a cell?”

Her face went emotionless and gaunt at that, all signs of anger fading.

“Did you find anyone still alive?”

My expression sank as I remembered the carnage. “No, I didn’t find anyone besides you two. Let me get the door, and we can find somewhere safe. I can take you back to my apartment if you’d like, but it’s probably getting pretty crowded now. I’ve sort of been taking in strays.”

“I don't like to impose, but that sounds like an excellent offer. I was staying in a hotel, and don’t have anywhere else to stay present. If you’d allow us, we could sleep there for tonight and try and find a place tomorrow.”

“That’s fine with me, but if you don’t mind people you can stay as long as you like. My neighbors turned into foxes, and they could probably spare a room for you to sleep in.”

She gave me a funny glance. I guess she thought I was joking. Well, it’ll be more of a surprise that way.

I walked back into the precinct to the control room and opened up her cell. Upon returning, I saw that the young boy was now asleep. She was carrying him in her arms.

“Let’s get out of here. I’m warning you, it’s pretty gruesome out there.”

She gave a grave nod and set her expression. “I understand. Let’s be quick, then.”

We left the police station, but she was still pretty shaken up at what we saw. I could tell that she knew some of the people there. I just hoped none of them were her parents. That would be too much to deal with right now, two orphaned girls at the same time.

Eventually, we made it out of the precinct. It was dark now, and my eyes, hair, and gem were casting strange lights on the surroundings. I also notice that she was glowing ever so slightly with a golden light.

“Alright. Before we talk, we need to get off the streets. My apartment isn’t too far away from here. Do you have any abilities that allow you to move quickly? I can fly pretty fast but want to make sure you have a way to keep up, so you don’t get lost.”

She smirked slightly, saying, “Yes, I can fly as well, so you needn't worry. You lead the way. I’ll hold the boy.”

We both rose into the air and flew through the city streets. She was only moving around thirty miles per hour to make sure the kid was okay, but we still made it back in about twenty minutes.

We landed on the fire escape and entered the house.

Cindy was in the living room. Taylor thankfully was awake and was laying in one of the reclining chairs. Nick and Trevor were nowhere to be found.

“Hey Vic. I hope you don’t mind, but since you kind of levitate to sleep now, I went ahead and made up your bed. Nick is passed out in it now.”

“Nah, it's fine. But I’ve got some bad news on my end that can't really wait. The Cops can’t help us. The gang that went after Taylor went after the police first. The whole police station was wiped out, and I haven’t seen any cars driving around in ages. If there are cops from the area still hanging around, they are definitely hiding. I pulled these two from the cells there where they hid during the attack.”

At that, the girl from the cells stepped up. She was beautiful and had wavy blond hair. Her green eyes seemed to glow with an inner light. “Thank you for saving us. I'd like to start with some introductions. Firstly, believe it or not, I am actually 50 years old. After the change, I became much younger, and while all of my identification is practically worthless now, I can’t really complain about the return of my youth. I work, or I suppose, worked with the federal unexplained phenomena commission. I was investigating changes in the Greene wave over the central Texas area when all of this happened. I went to the local precinct to hopefully get in contact with someone higher up using their CB radio, but then the second wave hit, and they went on backup power. What's more, communication with the radio failed for some reason.”

I remembered that the Federal Unexplained Phenomena Commission was a small group of government-sponsored researchers that tried to investigate different unexplained environmental factors. They were founded after the Greene wave panic and have been pretty quiet since. Maybe she would know more about what caused all of this?

“The officers brought in this little one after he caused a strange fire in his apartment building. His parents were killed by their neighbor as soon as the first wave started, and in fear for his life I believe that his magic activated. I decided to watch out for him in the precinct. When the attack started, I took him and fled to the cell block. I locked us in the furthest cell from the door and hid us using one of my abilities. Then, you showed up.”

“Well, I’m glad that I did. What do we call you?”

“Unfortunately, the boy hasn’t said a word since he entered the precinct. The housing records were all online, and that got lost with the power, so we won’t know his name until he decides to tell us. My name though is Stephanie Williams. You can call me Steph if you’d like.”