Dominic was alone in his apartment, pacing around his large foyer, sipping wine from his glass as he contemplated whether or not he made the right choice. He knew the things that Civs were capable of despite not having one himself. But why would one just teleport behind him and do nothing? Thomas was starting to get to him. Should I call him back? he thought. What if someone is in the apartment with me? No, I shouldn’t call him. I don’t want to waste his time. God, I can’t believe I could be so stupid. ‘Gold isn’t a status symbol, nyeh.’ I probably made him feel terrible. Dominic took another sip of his wine and felt something send him flying backwards, breaking his jaw and throwing him into one of the kitchen islands. His wine glass shattered on the ground.

User: Glass Assassin Heart Machine

Civ: Heart of Glass

The user is able to enter a pocket dimension through any reflective material, such as mirrors, glass, or even somebody’s eyes. Any person viewing from the outside is able to see a figure of the user inside of their reflection. Inside this pocket dimension, the user can walk to the positions of other reflective surfaces and exit through them, allowing them to use reflective surfaces not only as ways to hide but also as a means of teleportation. The user is required to exit the glass to attack, however. The user is also able to turn parts of their own body into glass, allowing them to slice through enemies and bury portals inside them, or turn parts of their own body into portals to move other parts of themselves through.

Dominic opened his unit and made a phone call as he felt blood dripping down his face. He had crawled back from the shattered glass, but he felt a shard embedded in the underside of his chin. The call went to messages. “Aria! I need you to come over, now! There’s a Civ user here. They stabbed me in the face! I think they can hide in reflective objects. Come quick.”

Suddenly, Dominic heard a knock at the door.

“Dominic! Are you all right?” Thomas shouted, knocking at the door.

“Yeah, I’m all right! You were right, Thomas there’s a Civ user here! You have to get out of here. I called someone to handle it. It isn’t safe here.” Dominic shouted, looking at the glass shards on the floor.

“Dominic with all due respect: no,” Thomas said, forcing open the door and walking inside, his eyes instantly widening as he saw Dominic with blood streaming down his face. “Holy fuck! Are you okay!?” he shouted, sprinting through the mess of glass shards on the tile in a blind panic.

“Thomas, stop! They attack through reflective surfaces!” Dominic shouted, holding his hand out, but it was too late. Dominic watched as glass appendages flew out of the shards on the ground at extreme speeds, their movements trapping Thomas in a cage of limbs as he was stabbed multiple times in the sides and legs in the span of only a few seconds, before tumbling onto the ground. Dominic ran away from Thomas, sprinting up the stairs as another set of glass limbs extended from the shards around him and held him to the ground, digging into his back.

“Good idea, Dominic. Get away! I’ll handle this!” Thomas shouted towards the spiral stairway as Dominic disappeared into the second floor. Suddenly, Thomas felt the limbs disappear just as he was preparing to launch a counterattack.

Dominic had gone upstairs to his bedroom to grab the heat gun under his bed. He had no intention of leaving Thomas behind. He was going to kill that bastard. His bedroom was large and had a deep green colour to it, standing out from the rest of the apartment, and to the left of the bedroom was a master bathroom connected to it. He rummaged under his bed, pulling out a silver heat gun before turning to his left and seeing the full-length mirror of the master bathroom. Not only did he see himself bleeding with a shocked expression on his face, but he also saw a dark silhouette standing on the other side of the bed. It’s a trick. He isn’t really there. He’s in the mirror. Stay focused on that, Dominic thought, holding his heat gun up towards the mirror. And suddenly, the figure started sprinting towards Dominic from behind him. Don’t look away. The second he comes out, fire. Then, Dominic felt a massive glass shard stab through his stomach from behind. Dominic turned his head slightly to see that an extremely tall silhouette shrouded in dark clothing had donuted him and was now holding him off the ground. He also saw a vanity mirror by his bedside. He wasn’t in the mirror at all. Well, he’s still an idiot, Dominic thought, aiming the heat gun behind him at the assassin’s head, but a half-second before he could pull the trigger he fell to the ground, the figure vanishing as Dominic fell onto the carpet, which his hemorrhaging blood stained a deep red. Thomas appeared in the doorway a second later, limping against the doorframe. “Thomas, get out of here, someone will be here soon who can handle this,” Dominic groaned.

“Stop talking. You’re injured! And I can handle this, all right! I’m good enough!” Thomas yelled. “PHANTRANA!” Thomas shouted, filling in Dominic’s wounds with phantom matter before collapsing to the ground himself from the agony of doing so. Suddenly, Thomas saw a glass hand wrap around the handle of the heat gun before him, placing its thumb on the trigger. It was aimed at Dominic’s head.

“PHANTRANA!” Thomas shouted once more, sending a phantom hand to adjust the gun’s aim and lift it high into the air, before throwing it and the thing was both holding it and inside it across the room. “Are you all right Dominic?” Thomas shouted, extending a hand as he slowly crawled over. His own blood from the many deep lacerations in his sides was leaking out as well. Then, Dominic started screaming into the carpet as he was suddenly pulled facedown into it. “Dominic!” Thomas shouted louder this time, anger rising in his voice as he grabbed Dominic’s head and lifted it up slightly, and saw that a glass finger was extending from Dominic’s eye, stretching it as the rest of the hand crawled its way out of Dominic’s iris. It was barely reflective. Thomas screamed in anger and powered his hand, attempting to shatter the arm, but it retreated too quickly, slicing Dominic’s face before hiding away. Thomas couldn’t stand. Too much damage had been done to his legs. “Ph-Phantrana . . .” Thomas groaned, filling his legs with enough power to stand and lift Dominic up with him. He pulled the pieces of glass from out of Dominic’s face and took a look at his damaged eye. It looked as though they could have even very large parts of their body exit from small reflective surfaces.

“Are you okay, Thomas?” Dominic asked, clutching his eye with his hands. “There’s a room here without mirrors or windows, it’s down on the main floor,” Dominic said, pulling Thomas by the arm and out onto the balcony that overlooked the main foyer. The thing was standing on the chandelier, holding the heat gun from Dominic’s bedroom. It let out an inhuman screech as it turned from what resembled a dark android into a figure made of glass. It was transparent, now almost impossible to see. Shots rang out from atop the chandelier towards Thomas and Dominic, missing them as the two ducked into another room. “How are we going to get over there?”

“I have an idea. I just need you to follow me, and it’ll be okay. And Dominic:”—Thomas turned to meet his one-eyed gaze—“Whatever you do, don’t worry about me. I have everything under control.”

“But—”

“No buts. I got this. I can do this.”

“It really seems like this is a pep talk for you as much as it is for me.”

“Maybe it is. Just trust me, though. This will only work if you let me handle this. Now follow behind me and then get to that room once I break away.” Thomas exited the side room and took a running start at the chandelier, Dominic following behind, both of them trying to move out of the way of the shots coming in their direction. Suddenly, Thomas powered up his legs and leaped forward over the railing, diving on top of the chandelier while Dominic sprinted down the spiral staircase. Thomas was on top of the extremely large and well-secured chandelier and began trading blows with the almost invisible android that stood on top with him, the chandelier swinging back and forth as Thomas attacked with his phantom fists before being struck in the abdomen with sharp fists made of glass. He wasn’t trying to hit that thing, though. He was trying to keep it busy with the prospect of an easy kill while Dominic retreated to the room. The Glass Assassin eventually struck Thomas off the chandelier, sending him flying onto the couch. He barely had time to collect himself before the gold and crystal centrepiece fell from its socket, striking the ground and sending reflective glass and crystal shards in all directions.