A lady in a dark hood and jeans walks past a window filled with pedestrians watching the local news.

“Welcome to Gumtrap News Channel 402, Today we have some new info on the terrorist group, Bagel Comrades…” A grey haired newswoman says from a screen.

“As we can make out at the crater left over from the recently exploded gas volcano, it is very likely that there may have been some external force that has driven this active volcano to explode earlier than expected…” Says a geologist being interviewed on a channel.

“A new hero has been sponsored by Gumtrap Mining Co. be sure to be on the lookout for the new and aspiring hero, Steel Hands, he’s rough and tough with crime and gentle with the people, really looking forward to seeing what he can do for people.” Says an anchor from the popular network, The Hero’s Backyard.

“The hero’s are just wack job nutcases being controlled by orcas in the government to put a stop to the so called villains, who are just villains because the government says so to further their agenda, and these weaknesses are just a PR attempt on their part to make them seem human when they are in fact created in a lab by orcas!” Says a man while wearing a burrito hat, on his show, Keep your Frogs out of my Pond!

As the lady in dark clothes knows, that simply isn't true, villains are just as bad as the news makes them out to be. She would know because after all she was the one who stole the documents.

Since then, a week has passed and she has been resting and laying low in preparation for her trip to an erupted volcano, but she has one more thing to do before making her way back to the secret base.

"How. School?" She asks her sister as she walks out of the college campus.

"What are you doing here?" Her sister asks startled to see her standing right outside the campus waiting for her.

"I. Worry."

"Worry about what, arent you the one who sent me here!?" She says angrily at her big sister.

"Bad. Experiences."

Knowing that her cryptic sister has been through alot as she raised her from an early childhood after they were both thrown out of the house and put up for adoption in a city that already has a overpopulation problem, did not take a genius to figure out that her big sister has been earning money illegally using her geomancer power that she gained.

She would beg her sister to let her help even if she knew that the work her sister did was dangerous and illegal, she did not want to be sheltered as her sister worked for both of them. Once she even tried to sell her body to the neighbor, but the day before it was scheduled to happen their neighbor myseriously got murdered. She knew her quiet sister killed him to keep her from doing anything bad and it stung that she had to be confined to live an ordinary life while her sister did all the heavy lifting.

However even if her sister is a villian, she still loves her dearly, thats why she reverts back to the first question her sister asked.

"School has been great, I have met so many new people and my classes are super interesting. Did you know that singer that has been blowing up on the internet, also goes here!" She says excitedly talking about the person that she is a fan of.

Her quiet sister cocks her head in confusion as she doesnt use the cities provided internet as it can be used to track her, but eventually relents and just smiles knowing that her sister is happy with college. Her little sister continues to talk about her college experience but, eventually they have to go their seperate ways and the lady in dark clothes makes her way to the dillipated building, where the secret base is located.

As she walks down the metal stairs and heads into a lab where her boss, Mr. Yankee, is working with beakers and a mysterious liquid.

“Ahh Brooklyn, you're just in time can you shift the half the gallium in this beaker over to the one on the right.” The man in the lab coat moves his finger along the beaker containing liquid gallium, but that is not what surprises Brooklyn.

“How? Name?” Hearing her name when the interview never required her to divulge personal info about her background which included her name, both surprised and scared her.

“Oh, don't worry I only looked a little into your past. Your little sister just started college, right?" He says while stirring the gallium.

Brooklyn doesnt say a word to her boss and gives him an angry scowl at the thought of her sister being harmed.

“I just had to make sure that you aren't a rival or a spy, luckily I have no evidence to support those claims.” Mr. Yankee says. “I still have a need for your geomancer abilities?” He says in a way that questions whether she is going to move the gallium in the beaker or not.

“Yes.” She states as she comes and touches the warm glass that contains a metal with an incredibly low boiling point, and moves it along the interconnected pipes.

Mr. Yankee quickly finishes with his experiments and cleans up noting it as a failure; whatever this experiment was for, only he knew.

“It is time for your new mission, I hope you had a relaxing week because it is about to get hectic.” He starts to walk away from the lab and into the hallway as he explains to Brooklyn, following him. The immense dangers this gas from the volcano exposes to humans.

“...even a leak in the suit given to you could very well kill you. Electronic communication will also be heavily interfered with by the gas as well. You are going in alone due to us only having one suit that is able to hold back the poison emitted by the volcano.

“Yes.” She replies

“Great, lets the suit will be on the helicopter and you will change on board to not waste any more time.”

“Helicopter?” She says surprised but also confused.

In this world you are far more likely to be rescued and picked up in the arms of a flying super hero than to ride in a helicopter making it a luxury only the most powerful can afford, like her boss.

He clears his throat before speaking, “Mhmm. Yes, you will be flying with me as your pilot as I am the only one I trust to be able to fly one.

She can only agree with him that it would not be best for them to waste such a valuable piece of engineering, especially since they are going outside the wall.

‘The wall’ is a massive wall that surrounds the city to keep out the barren wasteland of monsters and other creatures. It also allows for greater peace of mind as most citizens dont need to know about the barren hellscape of destruction on the other side of the wall.

They make their to a underground garage that has a helicopter stationed there on whells that are rolled out by personnel, out to a destroyed parking lot.

Brooklyn gets in the back with two guards and Mr. Yankee gets in front and starts the engine.

They make their way to the gas volcano, where hundreds of meters underneath a certain monster and its pet crab are hunting for Crab-Bits.

===

Whooo…

You know I never thought it would be this time consuming to care for a hermit crab but here I am carrying it around as I show it the weak points in its species design and how to always aim for the eyestalks.

It seems my link with it allows for some simple ideas and concepts to be learned such as.

‘Your name is Cake.’ I mentally send over the parasite link to my little crab.

‘Cake. Cake. Cake.’ It seems to get the idea. I hope.

‘Cake, make sure you put your Biomass in your legs, I can't keep carrying you when you get bigger.’ I try to explain.

‘Cake. Cake.’ It sounds affirmative but I have no idea how much of what I said Cake actually got.

Anyways, The great war of M&H still rages on as I destalk-inate a few more hermit crabs and another snail, using the good old throw a rock at it then run away at max speed strategy.

[You have gained 26 Biomass]

[You are now level 10]

Whooo! I can evolve. Look at all these cool new evolutio… wait a minute.

…

GladOs, where is the evolution path text?!

===

Name: Joy

[Species: Lola Fetus

[Gender: N/A

[Level:10

[Stats:

[Health: 70/70(100) (Radiation Poisoning)

[Stamina: 70/70(100)

[Material Storage: 62/100

[Mutations]

[Appendages

-Draining Spike: Draining( Medium) Breakthrough:( Slightly Strong)

-Suction Cups: Grip: (Medium) Power:(Medium)

[Internal

-Regeneration Gland Speed:(Slow)

Usability: (Weak)

-Flesh Motor: Speed: (Slow) Usability: (Very weak)

-Radar Sense Clarity:(Medium) Distance:(Slightly Far)

-Lola Core: Defense: (very Weak) Usability: (very Weak)

(Ability)

-Flesh Flash: Distance:(Very Weak) Speed:(Medium)

-Monster Egg Latcher: Amount:(1) Progressor: (0)

(Perks)

-Tier 1 Mutation Store