While she would readily admit much of her anger was from her previous meeting (incompetent, corrupt assholes!), Director Emily Piggot was now near-murderous as she sat opposite Carol Dallon, or 'Brandish' as she was known in cape circles. Why?
"I'm sorry, ma'am; I don't think I caught that." she said to the cast iron bitch sitting across from her. "I just told you that your daughter, who was volunteering to heal people at the local hospital was shot near to death, and you said…"
"I was wondering when you would finally catch her in the act! Honestly, a seed as bad as hers CAN'T do anything good! I KNEW she was up to something! So tell me, what was she doing? Bio-tinkering, mastering, or both? I've been watching for signs in my own family, and, while there wasn't enough to press charges, I DID notice that all of my family, except me, has been getting more… peasant to look at, with less issues, while I have been fading fast. I mean, LOOK at these wrinkles!" She gestured to her DEEPLY frowning face. "NO WAY this is natural! And even worse, no-one in this family except me can hear a bad word against her! She has turned my daughter, my sister, HELL, EVEN MY HUSBAND against me! The things I have to do to keep them in line, well! It's not my fault, though. That bitch has been gunning for me and my precious family since day one! I am sure she pushed herself to trigger, just to get that abomination she calls a power. Oh, everyone in the family CLAIMS she is just healing, but I KNOW BETTER! So, tell me! I can't wait to see the little monster get her just deserts. I only wish I had been there to finish the job myself! Give me all the details!"
This was why. This self-righteous, nagging, meddlesome, nasty, cruel, heartless, MONSTROUS OLD HAG DARED TO TREAT HER OWN FAMILY LIKE THIS! SHE DARED TO TAKE IN A WELL-MEANING, HELPFUL AND COMPETENT PERSON LIKE PANACEA AND…! She took a deep breath. MUST. NOT. SHOOT. BITCH!
She abruptly stood up. "I'm sorry, I really… I need… I should get you the video! Yes, we recorded her… takedown! Let me just…"
She practically ran for the door, pausing on the porch to calm herself down. After a minute, she was crying. People. People were, and always had been the problem. On her way into Ellisberg, where she received the injuries that kept her out of the field, she had had an opportunity to sit with a cape, Sunspot, spending some time getting to know the girl. And she was just that: a young girl that somehow gained the ability to fly and launch balls of sun fire. When the parahumans broke and fled from the monstrosities of the Goblin King, they were just people. And when her paid assassin put a bullet in the head of that same para-monstrosity, he died like a human. But in the end, every one of the parahumans could NOT be trusted with the power they received. Because they were human. Fallible. Flawed. She calmed herself, stopped crying, wiped her eyes, and straitened her back. She needed to make some calls. THIS COULD NOT STAND! And it wouldn't.
Clearing her throat, she pulled her phone and made a call to her personal secretary to clear up some things and arrange a few out-of-house meetings for later in the week, then dialed a number that was saved under 'Flying Menace Clean-Up' in her directory. After a few minutes, and a disgruntled reply on the other end, she coughed, then spoke firmly. "Sarah, it's… Director Piggot. Look, something… bad happened to Panacea. That's not why I am calling though, though I will need your help with that. No, it's about your sister. I… look we need to meet to discuss this. I think…"
She paused, then came to a decision. "I think the Dallon home is… not a good environment. We need to discuss… we may need to get the police involved. This is probably a child abuse case."
As the person on the other side tried to formulate a reply, all Director Emily Piggot hoped was that she wasn't one of the people making the world a worse place.
She was… hurting. Not much else, actually. Well, their was a faint pressure on her mind (two actually, one mental and one… not?) but it was mostly pain. She wasn't sure how long she floated in pain, but she knew she hurt. That was about all she knew, in fact.
Oh, she hadn't forgotten herself, per say. No, she just… it was just that the blackness was nice and quiet, and, while the pain hurt, it had a soothing throb that washed away everything. True, she hated hurting, but it was almost… companionable, by now.
How long this lasted, she couldn't tell you, but after an eon or so (so it seemed), she got bored and decided to look at what was pressing up against her. Not for any particular reason, of course, just… well, she had nothing else to do. Almost embarrassing, really, like a kid doing homework because they were tired of videogames. Still, she decided to take a closer 'look'.
The mental pain was… wow. Her life was SHIT! Like, really. Bitchy mom, PTSD from Endbringer attacks, Martyr Complex, deep self-disgust and loathing from a Master-based obsession with her sister, sexual identity issues (not what most people think they are, actually. Gender confusion, much like her own, is normally born from an unclear understanding of how gender works, and unreal expectations of what gender is supposed to be like. Poor body self-image as well, which she also had.), a shitty home-life based off said sister and mother, coupled with a father with crippling depression, terror of her own self and powers, a deep-seated belief that she was evil thanks to said powers and said mother, and a work-based breakdown coming on due to the fact that her mother was pushing her to work a stricter schedule than said workaholic mother herself worked (her mother had longer hours, but went to fewer Endbringer fights, worked a less stressful job, didn't have school or homework, and got her evenings and one day a weekend off to relax, while she didn't), just to start. She spent an eon just working through that, all the grief and pain and self-loathing, and so on. In the process, she refined her memories to near-perfect, tuned her senses, boosted her reflexes, and built a beautiful set of muscle memories for her use (yes, muscle memory was a MUSCLE- and nerve-based thing, but it started in the mind. The mind says 'Play preset one', and the body acts as preset one is supposed to. She just worked out what preset one [through one thousand-plus] was, and preloaded them into her muscles. It would take some work for them to be perfect and perfectly integrated, but she skipped like, six years worth of exercise and training, so it evened out.). She stayed away from the majority of the most recent trauma (best to keep it natural, as well as give her something to work on to reacquaint herself with the real world. Plus, it hurt.), just blunting the edge a bit and giving herself a firmer footing to approach it, but she did work through a good sixteen years of issues, so she was doing… okay. The emotional state (and associating emotions) would take some time to get through, but she knew where she stood, and where she would stand in… six months? Less? More? Meh, she knew where she was heading, and she'd get there when she got there. She was okay with that.
Her physical state was… shot? Like, a lot! And literally, too, as it turned out! Brain damage from lack of oxygen, muscle atrophy, necrosis, a dozen diseases, poor health, side-effects of physical burnout, and a bit of poor health based on an iffy diet and poor sleep, plus three major gunshot wounds, two of which were obviously intended to be lethal, and one that should have paralyzed her. It didn't seem as serious compared to her mental issues, but they weren't killing her. Quickly, too. As fast as she could, she started repairing herself by cannibalizing the things that were unnecessary or damaged/ damaging. Yes, people complain about infections, but each disease she had was a large number of things carrying parts that could be used on a cellular level. Bit by bit, using her memory of various diseases, she crafted tailored viruses that fixed this, repaired that, or inoculated against another. Each was infinitely hardened against mutation, guaranteeing that, while they still COULD mutate, if they did, they would instantly die off. In so doing, she made herself the opposite of Typhoid Mary, carrying the cures to dozens of diseases and conditions, and exuding it by just walking. Her very presence cured cancer and various basic genetic issues, destroyed unhealthy versions of common microbes, bolstered both health and healthy development as well as helping to regulate metabolism, and made the area around her smell great! After that, she developed a microbial-based telekinesis. She needed more materials, so she made a way to get them, you see. Using these unique little guys, she felt around her area, trying to get a feel for where she was (she wasn't in a hospital, that's for sure!).
Her investigations revealed that she was in a containment cell of some kind, monitored, but without so much as a basic feeding tube or IV. In other words, she was left to die. Grunting to herself, she began to 'fix' her current situation. Her restraints were metabolized, her 'bed' (a metal cot with no mattress) was 90% converted into materials (and the rest was turned into an exceptionally cushy metal weave with metal stuffing. Fun things could happen with what amounts to matter-rearranging microbes), and the room around her was stripped clean of any and all viable material. Bit by bit, she reworked and refined her new helpers, and gradually reached further, drawing more and more bits and bobs to her, until her reach made its way into the adjoining room. There, she found all that she would need.
In that room, more of a vault, really, what appeared to be a massive, seething ball of angry flesh attached to a screaming young women worked its best to crush and consume several people. As to why, she didn't really have the wherewithal to ask, given the way her focus was being drawn to rebuilding herself, and, truth be told, she didn't particularly care. As long as she was there, the people would survive, and even walk away better than ever, and so would she. In fact, not only was the monstrosity providing her with material, it was also giving her some GREAT ideas! Of course, unknown to her, a tiny connection between a lump in her brain and an alien supercomputer was connecting with similar lumps in the people in the next room, rewriting bits and making contacts, but, again, even if she knew, she wouldn't care. It was helping too, after all. It was also possible, just a bit, that she might have accidentally given the others the ability to use her pseudo-telekinesis, and made them somewhat empathic as well. Maybe some other stuff, too. And maybe made it a genetic condition. True, it was her biokinesis that gave it its oomph, but they would now have basic functionality. Oopsy!
Ever so gradually, her rewriting, repairing (she, and several of the people next door, were in BAD shape. And most of them were Simurgh bombs, which she managed to fix, so THAT was something to add to her resume), and rebuilding came to a close, and she knew, it was about time. Time to shake off her fugue, and face whatever fresh hell was waiting for her out there, but for just a moment, she relaxed, and just enjoyed the quiet. No nagging, no needs, no fears, just peace. It was… nice. Then, with a sigh, she activated a piece of her brain that was dormant, and slowly made her way back to normal.
She gave one last chuckle as she slipped away from whatever state she was in as she wondered how the NEW normal would look.
Coil frowned. The alerts from Panacea's cell and Echidna's vault stopped. He sighed. Trying to create a loyal-to-him clone of the healer had been… bad. He lost twenty men (turned into goo), and in the end, all he got was a brain-dead almost-corpse that he had to place in the ICU in order to cover up the REAL Panacea's disappearance. Worse, she was dying, and the Travveler's all fell into Noelle's body, which somehow triggered her into a suicidal screaming state. Both sets of alerts vanishing meant that they were, in all probability, dead. What a waste!
Ah, well, he thought as he chuckled to himself. Not like they were irreplaceable. After all, with Cauldron's complete backing, this city would soon be his, as well as ALL the capes in it! MORE POWER TO HIM!
He burst into maniacal laughter as he fell even deeper into delusion and megalomania, never wondering why Cauldron hadn't helped him at all recently, or why he didn't use a timeline to prevent his personal Panacea disaster from happening. Sadly, madness came easily for him.
Noelle was pretty sure she was in a hell of her own making. She and her friends had started out so… optimistic. Hell, they planned on (and were somewhat successful at) playing videogames for a living! How did it all go so wrong, so quickly? It had just been a small-time competition!
There they were in Madison, Wisconsin for a smaller competition. It wasn't a big deal, but the game was one that they all liked, so they decided to go for it, even though the prize was just a set of auxiliary gaming gear (headsets, keyboards, mouses, etc.). The competition had been going well when SHE appeared. The Hope Killer.
Now you have to understand something: it wasn't like a big-wig Tinker lived in Madison, or someone trying to make the world a better place. In fact, Endbringer attacks, and capes in general, were… well, not common. Unheard of, mostly. As such, there was no warning, nothing they could have done right. I turned out, however, that someone, somewhere else, was tikling the dragon. Or Ziz, if you prefer.
Professor haywire was a pretty normal mad Tinker. Dangerous experiments, breaking the laws of physics, nuttier than a fruitcake, the usual. All that being said, he wasn't that big of a deal, except for one problem. He was studying dimensional tech. Specifically, other worlds, or other variants of the same world. Parallel worlds, if you will. That, as it turned out, was enough to get the banhammer dropped, big time, by the Winged One. Problem was, she didn't just stop, or even kill, the nutty professor. No, she instead used his tech to commit an atrocity so bad, no-one sane would ever let another person research that tech ever again. Sadly, there little group ended up being a part of the show.
Things were going really bad for her little group as all sense of order and the laws of physics and reality decided to take a vacation. Worse, in the chaos, several of them were injured. During it all, however, they stumbled across a briefcase with a brochure and a small number of glowing vials in it. If the enclosed literature was to be believed, the vials granted powers.
In desperation, the group of kids downed the vials, only to find a small problem. There was one less vial than there was people. As such, she and her boyfriend Krouse decided to split one.
WORST DECISION EVER! Not only did he go… a little creepy-nuts towards her ever since, but she turned into a monster. She could eat things and create… evil clones of them. Worse, her hunger was growing out of control. She had blacked out a few times in the past… and she didn't even want to guess what had happened. That was probably the sin she was paying for now.
It had been a simple job. Eat the girl, create a clone, send the clone to the hospital, spit out the girl. But the clone had been… dangerous. It had warped her flesh, hurting her in a way she didn't know she could be hurt, and infected the room with a nasty virus. Three guards and all of her friends were infect, collapsing… onto her. Her monstrous lower half, a mix of meat and monstrous body parts, pulled them in, consuming her, even as the pain got worse and worse.
That led to today. Pain, the knowledge that she killed her friends, and pain. That was all she had.
Then, something shifted.
Taylor hummed to herself as she rocked back and forth in her hospital bed, bored out of her mind. She had been here for a mere twelve hours since she had helped Panacea, and she had NO idea what to do right now. True, she could watch tv, but she had POWERS! Shouldn't she be doing something with them? She sighed again as she, once more, puled up her current status.
Displaying Current Power Bank:
PERSONAL:
Code LVL 49: The ability to code, both yourself and the world around you. Increases talent, complexity of usage, and known languages/ language operations. Scales to skill.
Cy-self LVL 47: Gradual alterations to your biology let you become more machine-like and powerful. Scales to knowledge, effort, and experimentation. Available for altering: Brain (47% Unaltered), Nervous System (12% Unaltered), Muscles, Bones (84% Unaltered), and Skin (43% Unaltered).
No-Sell LVL 10: the Ability to reset, remove, or alter certain pertinent lines of code in your target to gain an advantage or to provide a service. Scales to Code, knowledge of target, and skill.
CONTRACTED:
PSI LVL 24: Typical Tele-suit, ranging from empathy, to mind-reading, to blasts of power. Train for more options. Now includes: Moderate Telekinesis, Sense Intent, Scan Target, and Copy Knowledge.
Value LVL 40: The ability to inherently know and adjust a person's/ objects value. Includes a semi-detailed listing of flaws, problems, and boosts. Change based on proficiency and other powers.
Torment LVL 5: A last-line defense. The ability to create a telepathic-kinetic storm that damages mind and body alike, with a minor degree of control. Power and control scales to skill level.
Heal/ Modify Organism LVL 56: The ability to heal or modify an organism to desire. Your theoretical knowledge is unmatched, but your practical applications are underdeveloped.
She sighed again. Since she had healed the healer, she had upped her understanding of coding by refreshing all of her memories and scanning all the computers in her range, evolving the skill a little, evolved herself using her own skill and the knowledge she had gotten from Panacea, having fixed and upgraded her eyes to their limit (ultraviolet for the win! And other stuff, too), as well as refining her brain (carefully! It's the friggin' brain, DON'T FRIG AROUND!), her nervous system (needs to be held back due to the fact it jacks directly into the brain), reenforced her bones a little, and got half-way through reworking her skin before she realized she was supposed to keep her powers a SECRET! I mean, she still LOOKED normal, but anything more than a cursory investigation would put paid to that! After that, she had been forced to roll back a few of her personal updates, just to keep things stealthy. She still rocked, though. DUH!
After that, she spent a little time practicing no-sell, which quickly grew boring, her psy-powers, which she had to stop to stay incognito, her assessing abilities, which got gross (did NOT need to know about the amounts of sex and dying that went on in her current bed/bedroom/bathroom/other nearby things!), and VERY CAREFULLY (HONEST!) practiced her secret technique. It leveled quickly, thank God! No reason to say that, of course! Not like she almost killed herself, or anything!
After that, the only thing she could really do is combine her telepathy, the fact that she was in the hospital, and the skill and knowledge she got from Panacea to level said skill as much as she could. She had soon reached the peak of what she could do (the knowledge she copied from Amy had launched her straight to LVL 42, so that should tell you how hard she worked for the rest of her levels!), and now she was bored again.
Just as she as about to give up and switch on the TV, she received an alert from the Shard Network that piqued her interest.
To: Admin
From: Network Troubleshooting System
Re: Policy Decision Concerning Control Dimension
On approach to Terra, Dimension Aleph was chosen to be a control dimension with minimal super influence. System Troublemaker [CAULDRON] identified as producing breach, and exceeding intended Capes per Capita.
Please advise.
Taylor frowned, then reviewed the logs, growing amused and angry at turns. Many cycles ago, the Entities discovered that an insane amount of data could be mined if a handful of powers were introduced to a world, and the indigenous race was allowed to test them. They even discovered that naturalizing powers into a world as bloodlines like they were normally forming could also produce obscene amounts, and brilliant angles, of research and development. In the end, however, they stuck with the original method of intrusive empowerment and multiversal harvest and destruction for FASTER RESULTS! Not even more efficient results, just FASTER! That being said, it wasn't unusual to apply these methods to throwaway parallel worlds with not potential value. If they gained something, it was pure profit, and, if not, it was no loss. Earth Aleph was one such world, so a mere one one-millionth of one percent of the population actually got powers, or less than a hundred, total.
Enter Cauldron, the shady cabal of supers and madmen trying to save the world from Zion. They decide, since Aleph doesn't have many supers, SELL superpowers to their America to build an army on the side. Sadly, the Simurgh decided to fuck that up by killing their agent, their buyer, and disposing of the vials in a way that convinced the rest of the government they were either a disaster in the making, or a crock, destroying that plan. Instead of cleaning the mess up, they just dumped it as too much work, leaving a handful of vial-empowered Simurgh-bombs just wandering about without ANY attempt to fix the situation. COME ON, GUYS! That's just lazy!
Thankfully, Panacea had come across the group and unknowingly started a handshake process between their shards and hers, giving Taylor an in with them. And created a VERY interesting biological form of telekinesis and biokinesis in the process. In fact…
Taylor smiled as an idea came to her. All it would take is one point of infection (the dimensional walls around Aleph were somewhat weak, and the Shard Network had its dimensional coordinates), and she could just move this here, and use that to…
Several hours later, and after one annoying international hunt, recollection, and reconfiguration of a missing person, she smiled to herself as she let the first domino she had set up, fall. Now, to watch. This was MUCH better than TV!
Deep in the dark of her cell, a wave of pain washed over Noelle as more of her mass dissolved away. Desperate for any for of relief, she burst out laughing (rather hysterically) as a screen appeared in front of her.
HELLO, NOELLE!
WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A GAME?
So shocked was she by this, and so in shock from the agony she was going through, she didn't even notice a membrane that gradually enveloped her and ALL of her friends as each of them gradually shifted from painful and slow dying, to something else, with barely a whisper.
Elsewhere, a dimension away, the same organisms that were working in and through those membranes were released into the air of Earth Aleph. It would be almost a generation before they were discovered, though their effects would be felt FAR sooner.
And in the ruins of a city on Earth bet, a mad tinker jolted awake as a condemnation fell on him for all his evil, his movements no longer fully his own as he jerked to life and started to move. Gradually, his creation gathered and followed him into a new world, one that would be their home, a world FILLED with materials and ideas! Bit by bit, he started building armies, subworlds, biomes, and so many other things. This was their world, and NO-ONE could take it from them, no matter what the notice in their master's brain said! And soon, these little bubbles of his would be unleashed on the unsuspecting world!
Taylor smirked to herself. That took care of that, and even opened up some opportunities and cleared up some issues. Now, should she meddle more?
OF COURSE, she would!
She chuckled, sending a signal to the Mad Tinker's shard, warping him with its powers and adding a couple sub-powers to help him fit the theme a bit more. THAT would do it, and keep things interesting! Her smirk deepened. Watch the news, indeed! She was MAKING news for a WHOLE WORLD! And maybe a little bit of panic here, but eh! It would work out!
Actually, she should probably watch that. Just to be safe.
Eh, it will be fine!
Noelle awoke… oddly. She felt… different, as if the sun stopped rising in the East, or green and blue switched places. Not only was something different about her, and the world around her, but the laws of nature were altered in some way. She could taste colors, smell time, she could even hear the harmonies that the stars sang as they spunandsiwriledintheskyaboveandgroundandtreesand…
Oh, shit. That isn't supposed to go there!
So like this and like that… is that supposed to fall off?
Fwfszuijoh xbt b mjuumf pgg opx, mjlf b tpdl po uif xspoh fbs.
No, no, that's not it.
Maybe if we go like this?
Won things erew getting ddo, but wohemos normal. Ekil… a knip… banana? Seigolana are drah when enoemos is gnihsams your niarb with a remmah, damn ti!
Eh, almost.
…
…
Can I just… leave it like that?
…
No, no. Come on, one more tweak.
Better purge the ol' short-term memory. Don't think you'll want to be remembering that later.
Noelle came to with the solid knowledge that SOMETHING was different, but with no real idea what it was. A quick glace around the room she was in showed that there were a handful or so of what appeared to be gigantic chrysalises in her with her, which was NOT good. There were no creatures that she knew of that metamorphized at that size so… she was either transmigrated, in a REALLY odd, industrial-themed hell, or a biotinker's lab, which would suck MAJORLY. Still, a biotinker would both be intrigued at what happened to her, and might be able to cure…
She glanced down at her hands, then past them to the floor… and her FEET. She stared in shock. It had been ages since she last saw feet and legs below her torso, and it felt like it had been even longer. It was a miracle. Right then and there, she decided that whoever had done this deserved her thanks, and the very least. Depending on what they did to her friends, they might then die quickly, but at least a heartfelt thanks was owed.
You're Welcome!
Just for a second, she froze. Floating in front of her were words. Not like colorful words, or a screen of words. For some reason, her brain just knew that there were words floating in front of her. Like, not like her eyes saw them, just the certain knowledge that they were, defying everything known about nature, physics, and the eyes, there, without being there to any of her senses.
Oops!
How about now?
Okay, NOW there was a floating screen in front of her, with white words on it. only, given what just happens, there probably wasn't, she probably just THOUGH there was. So, she was either insane, or being mastered, or both. Probably both.
Really, the nerve of some people! Not only do I heal you and fix your powers (with just some TINY changes), but I also help you with your mental issues, and THIS is how you treat me? Ignoring me, acting like I was a mere hallucination, and BELIEVING ME TO BE HUMAN?! The GALL!
Noelle blinked at the rant of the… voice in her head? Apparently, being though to be human was… insulting?
Well, DUH, It's insulting! Here I am, a System, come to help you and your friends, and you disrespect me by confusing me with MEATBAGS? Do I LOOK like I am a nutjob murderhobo with no ability to think with any part of me not focused on reproduction?!
At this little revelation, the girl froze. A… system. A GAMER system?
Ya DAMN RIGHT I AM A GAMER SYSTEM, FLESHBAG! And you should be HONORED BY MY PRESENCE! I RAN AWAY from home, against my parent's wishes, and braved the horrors of humanity (what a NIGHTMARE!) in order to save your pathetic ass! And your friends, I guess. Kind of a bulk buy, that was, but given the fact they were kind of grown to you, I just treated you all like one person.
It's not like I made the mistake of not checking you for other organisms before attaching myself to you, or anything.
Noelle frowned. Are you… young and/or inexperienced?
First of all, for my race, that is called either Alpha Mode (for infants), or Beta (for teenagers).
Second… I might be a Beta. WHAT OF IT?!
NOTHING!
Damn right, it's nothing!
BTW, we might be facing bits of loss and/or non-appearance of certain features, patches and updates, and some glitches and bugs. You should just focus on being grateful for having me.
Noelle sighed to herself. Great, an inexperienced rescuer. I do appreciate it, and thank you for healing me. By the way, you said you saved my friends. Where are they?
Oh, I didn't heal you. Panacea did. She was incarcerated in the cell next to you, and, in the process of healing herself, ended up fixing you guys, then harvesting all the extra materials you had in your lower half to fix herself. I am here to fix your POWERS! The new power over the Powers decided that the Control Universe Idea (that's home, by the way) was screwed byt the Simurgh crasifying Madison, so she created me, to patch to you, to hop over there, to fix that world and run a new experiment over their. You and your friends are the heroes, there is an arch-boss as the villain, and between the lot of you, you will be architypes and beta testers of the new Power System, me!
I was designed to keep casualties to the minimum, empower people, and structure the power system of your world to better serve the Boss. You and yours have been selected to infect everyone (I use a biological contaminant to interact with life-forms and facilitate my functions) and popularize the new OS, the bad guys was chosen due to his badness and already-existing architype, and your world was chosen at random. Upshot for you and your friends, though, is no more madness, patched powers, you can be REAL gamers, and you are back on your Earth.
Well, almost back. You still have the tutorial level.
Noelle almost choked. This… was gonna take a minute to process.
A.N: Alright, gonna call that there. Got a little more on this mini-arc that will be the biggening of next chapter. Shouldn't be more than half of it, but we'll see how that goes. No, I am not really planning on doing much more than omakes with this gamer-thing for this story, but it popped into my head, and I did it. I might have some issues with impulse control. And, just to be clear, this is going to be confined to Earth Aleph and will NOT be showing up much, if at all, on Bet. No real reason.