Jack wandered aimlessly down the sidewalk, looking around for something to do. Building after building passed by, each slightly different from the others, displaying advertisements for all to see. An occasional car passed by, causing him to flinch slightly in expectation, but ended up being nothing, and he would return to his previous relaxed state.

‘I’m going to get PTSD from all this excitement.’

(You know, it might be a little less exciting if you stop picking up girls.)

Ellis said it like he was some sort of player, but jack didn’t really think of his relationship with them in that way, not because he wouldn’t want to be with them, but more because he thought they’d never want to be with him. He was a college freshman with average grades, and no discernible future to speak of, not to mention he’s always going to be pursued by rampaging mythical monsters, and apparently aliens too. He didn’t really blame them, and was just happy they decided to be his friends.

(Jack, I think your cognitive improvements just help you find more reasons to disprove obvious truths.)

‘Are you really sixteen?’

(Shut up.)

Jack chuckled to himself as he passed a fast-food restaurant with a giant yellow M on the front of the building, and stopped for a moment, thinking about whether he was hungry enough to go in. After several moments, his stomach growled, making a very good point, and convinced Jack to go in. The morning sun was beginning to rise higher now, casting a long shadow on the building, and making the usually playful-looking store seem slightly menacing. Jack dismissed the memory of the furies in the other fast-food restaurant, thinking it would be ridiculous for an event like that to happen again.

(You don’t have to worry, there aren’t any monsters nearby.)

Sensing his discomfort, Ellis confirmed his safety, and with that, Jack entered the restaurant. The entire place was void of life, aside from a bored employee playing on his phone behind the counter, and a grey wolf that was wandering around the tables. Jack thought it was odd such a big dog was allowed to wander around the restaurant, but then again, he was in a small town, and even his apartment looked like an old motel, with off-white walls and creaky floors.

The restaurant’s walls, besides the one to his left which led to the kitchen, were all made of glass, which allowed the sunlight to illuminate the room far better than the overhead lights could. Jack approached the counter, and the employee lazily put down his phone, and approached the counter, looking slightly irritated.

“Whad’ya want?”

He placed his hands on the small screen that sat on the counter, and asked quickly. Jack dug his hands deep into his pockets, and looked up at the menu board behind the counter for a moment, while the guy behind the counter impatiently leaned against the counter. After deciding his order, Jack turned back to the guy, who made a look that was more than slightly pissed off at Jack’s temporary indecision.

Jack opened his mouth to give his order when he heard something move rapidly to his left, and fly toward him. Barely having time to react, Jack braced for the impact, turning his head away, and using his shoulder as a shield. Something heavy collided with Jack’s shoulder, and he lost his balance, flying off to his right, and straight through the glass door, sending glass and twisted metal flying into the parking lot with him.

Jack landed heavily, and rolled a couple of times before quickly getting back on his feet, and looking in the direction of the attacker. Jack saw the grey wolf standing where he once was, staring at him with a penetrating gaze as it slowly approached. The employee saw the interaction, and ran the other direction, disappearing out the emergency exit.

The dog shook, waving it’s fur back and forth, but continued to walk, shuddering and twisting with an audible cracking noise before starting to grow. It continued to approach, growing larger and larger, it’s back paws becoming thick and flat, while it’s front grew long claws and got significantly longer. Jack watched as the grey wolf stood on it’s hind legs, now no more than twenty feet away from him, but could no longer be called a wolf, because this was clearly not an ordinary wolf, but a werewolf.

The beast was hunched over, and snarling at Jack, drool running down it’s face like a rabid dog, as it occasionally snapped at him.

“You are the one, the one I’m supposed to kill! Kill! Save the arm, the rest is mine! Mine!”

The werewolf raved madly, shaking it’s head from side to side in anticipation while shifting it’s weight back and forth.

‘Ellis.’

(It’s doesn’t give out any magic, so my best guess is it’s an alien.)

Ellis kept her sentence as short as possible, not wanting to distract Jack from the situation any longer than she had to.

‘It said something about my arm, I think, so I’m willing to bet someone sent it here to kill me so they could collect my arm.’

Jack forced magic out his left arm, and pink electricity shot up and down it rapidly, and burning his left sleeve off his shirt, revealing his bare arm. He was bleeding a little on his right arm from where the glass and metal cut him, but the wounds were superficial, and didn’t effect him much. He opened his right hand, and instead of bringing thread out, he prepared to release magic from his palm, bringing his right arm around behind him, and turning his hand away from his body. The werewolf saw Jack prepare to fight, and crouched down, baring it’s claws and fangs in a fighting position.

‘You know, I’m starting to like this excitement.’

(You’re whole personality contradicts itself, you know that?)

Jack smiled, releasing magic from his right palm and rocketing toward the beast with his left arm pulled back, ready to strike, as the werewolf roared in retaliation, and lunged with incredible speed to meet him.

“Cooperation?”

Jenny asked after listening to Fae’s offer. Val had exited her suit, and placed it back on the table, but was still standing next to it, not letting her guard down. Most of the conversation was being done between the brunette and the cat-woman, and Val was wise enough to keep away to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

“Yes, there are certain things you can’t do in this world, but outside...”

Fae’s smile broadened and her tail flicked a couple of times before she continued.

“Lets just say the rules are more lenient.”

Jenny thought for a moment, never taking her eyes off the woman. The offer was obviously very tempting, and would take less roundabout methods to achieve the same goal more effectively. Slowly, Jenny raised her hand just above waist-height, extending it in Fae’s direction.

“If you wait until the right time, then we have a deal.”

Jenny spoke her compromise, staring down Fae, who accepted the hand without hesitation, shaking it and confirming the contract.

“Good.”

Fae spoke after a few moments, releasing Jenny’s hand and taking a step back.

“I’ll call him.”

Jenny pulled out her phone, opened her speed dial, and tapped on the first name that appeared: Jack. The three stood in silence as the phone rang, Jenny tapping her toe impatiently on the floor. The phone rang for several seconds before Jack’s voice appeared in a recorded message, and Jenny immediately hung up, already moving towards the door. Seeing Jenny move, Val stepped into her suit, and followed her out the door, with Fae close behind.

Jack always answered her calls, or immediately called her back if he missed one, so either one of three things had happened: Jack lost his phone, is in a fight, or has died. That may not be completely true, but that was Jenny’s current thought process, and Val didn’t want to argue, also worried about Jack’s wellbeing. Fae watched as the girls quickly left the building, Jenny entering her car, driving off to the left while Val turned invisible and jumped off to the right, both in search of Jack.

‘This guy is either a really good guy, or, more likely, a really bad one to have these girls so devoted to him. I’m interested in finding out which one it is.’

Fae thought to herself before vanishing into black smoke.

Jack stood, facing the werewolf, catching his breath. Blood trickled down his forehead, and around his left eye, before running down his cheek and dripping off his chin. The werewolf was tougher than he though, matching him in power and speed, but Jack had the upper hand when it came to brains, not to mention magic.

Jack changed his strategy, holding his right hand at his side, and focusing the magic on a single point of each of his fingertips before pushing out long threads that reached the ground, cutting into the concrete. The ground around the two, along with the restaurant were torn to pieces where the fight had been raging on, and both sides were growing a little weary from the exertion.

Jack flicked his right wrist, flipping the threads outward to a ready position.

‘I really didn’t want to do this... this is my last pair of good shoes.’

Jack release the magic from the soles of his feet, dashing with explosive speed and obliterating his shoes as he brought the threads around to the werewolf. Seeing the threads, the creature slashed it’s claws at the threads, but only succeeded in losing it’s arm in the process, and crippling itself. The beast was distracted, and Jack twisted quickly kicking off the ground, and bringing both his feet up to the side of it’s face before releasing magic from both, directing the explosion away from himself.

There was a loud explosive noise as the werewolf’s head was turned into mush, and sent flying across the parking lot, spraying blood and brains across the ground. Jack landed with a heavy thud, rolling a couple of times before stopping, lying on the concrete and feeling thankful that none of his wounds were serious. The sun was still rising, though it was still hidden on the other side of the building, so Jack figured he would be safe from the heat for a couple seconds.

‘I should probably call Jenny, and get her to give me a ride back.’

Jack reached to his pocket, but didn’t feel his phone. He then remembered it was destroyed when he escaped the horde of furies earlier, and decided he would just wait until the sun came over the building, then head home. As he was lying there, he thought about everything that has happened in the past few days, and came to a conclusion.

‘I’m glad I met you, Ellis.’

Jack waited for a response, but when none came, he simply smiled to himself, and rolled on his side.

‘If it weren’t for you, Jenny, and Val, I would probably be at school right now, without a goal or anything to fight for.’

Still no response.

‘Thank you.’

There was a long pause before the response came, in a small, timid voice, completely out of character for Ellis.

(You’re welcome.)

Jack rolled back to his previous position, planning on looking up at the clouds, but instead saw a tall, dark-haired woman standing over him with a mischievous look on her face. Two ears stood up on her head, and a long black tail flicked and waved behind her with a mind of it’s own as the two stared in silence for a few moments. Jack hadn’t even heard her approach, much less notice her stand over him, and was about to say something when the girl suddenly plopped down on his lap, and laid down on top of him, pinning him down with a surprising amount of strength.

Her arms grabbed his wrists, pinning them to the ground as she brought her face close to his, and Jack was able to feel her breath on his mouth.

“You shouldn’t do such foolish things.”

She spoke in a playful voice, teasing him while warning him at the same time, and Jack couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward in this position, and tried in a futile attempt to break free. After he realized his attempts were useless, he quit struggling, and relaxed his muscles, letting himself rest.

“What if something happened to the girls while they were running around this monster-infested town, and you were too preoccupied fighting something else to save them? Or worse, what if you had died? Isn’t that Val girl relying on you to survive?”

Jack tensed upon hearing Fae’s words, but she still didn’t stop, continuing with the examples.

“I know what’s in your head, a girl, right? You seem to have a lot of those, and this one’s life is tied to yours. Doesn’t that mean when you risk your life, you risk hers?”

Jack made eye contact with the woman, trying to see what she was trying to accomplish, but instead of the mischief he had expected, her eyes were soft, and sincere. Her voice remained playful, but a trace of seriousness could be detected as she continued, listing things Jack should have thought about already.

“What about Jenny? Do you think that friendship is one-sided? She has her issues, but she genuinely cares for you from the bottom of her heart, and your stupidity could crush her. Yet you continue, despite all these things, to risk your life unnecessarily.”

Jack looked up at her, knowing she was right, and feeling the weight of his actions all at once.

“I’ve only fought when it was necessary.”

It’s true Jack had been risking his life, but only when he needed to protect something, or when the fight was unavoidable, like just now with the werewolf.

“No, Jack, you haven’t. I already know plenty about you, so you can’t fool me the same way you fool yourself. You could have avoided the fight with the furies in the restaurant, just remained calm and ate your food, but you didn’t, and because of that one of the employees died a gruesome death.”

Jack flinched.

“You were unprepared when Timothy Grant showed up, and dropped your guard enough for him to put in earplugs, and paralyze you, even though you could have stopped him the moment he started acting suspicious, and because of that, Val suffered through hellish psychological torture, and nearly died yourself.”

Jack’s jaw clenched when he thought of the image of Val flying by on the helicopter, curled into a ball and crying profusely. The playfulness had long disappeared from Fae’s voice.

“Just now you fought a werewolf, which you could have easily run away from, or even killed instantly if you wanted to, but you didn’t, and because of that, you caused a couple of beautiful young ladies to worry about your safety.”

Jack was beginning to feel sick, anger boiled up inside him at his own ignorance, his mind flashing to when he decided to just lay on the concrete for a while without a care in the world while Jenny and Val probably tried to contact him without success.

“This isn’t a game, Jack. The people that die are real, the things you do can’t be taken back, and the things you lose are gone forever. You seem like a good person, so I don’t think you did these things on purpose, but even if it’s an accident, it is still your responsibility, so be aware of your actions, and don’t do anything stupid unless it is really unavoidable.”

Jack and Fae stared at each other in silence for a couple of seconds before another voice came from somewhere nearby.

“Fae!? What do you think you’re doing to Jack!?”

Jenny appeared in her car, pulling into the parking lot, and promptly exiting the vehicle. A smile spread across Fae’s face as she turned to face Jenny.

‘Yeah, I like this dynamic much better.’