Bootstrapping Book 1

by Tersin22

An insert wakes up on the first day of her new life in a world of magic, with none of her own. No advantages, no starting place, knowing nothing but that she's out gunned at every turn and power is out there to grab. One way or another she'll drag her way to safety and arcane power, over the bodies of everybody in her way if she must.

11. Power

This hunger thing is now officially a problem.

The good news is that acquiring the Siren's beauty did exactly what I was hoping. I'm no longer a nine foot tall muscle bound behemoth. Now I'm a much more reasonable six foot three. Which is still more than a foot taller than I'm used to.

Ku's exercises for adapting to physical changes are going to get a real workout.

The rest of my appearance has enjoyed a similarly dramatic change. My raptor yellow eyes have turned to a beaten gold, though the slit pupils are unchanged. My hair has gone from a mousy auburnish brown, to a red so dark that it looks black in most light. My features haven't changed really, they've just been... refined? Polished? Okay, somehow the Siren's beauty has taken my thoroughly unimpressive features and made them beautiful without changing anything. Magic is the only explanation I can come up with.

I'm also ripped. I've always been in fantastic shape, but female bodies don't always show that well. Now I'm chiseled, I have a freaking six pack! It's awesome. And while I actually need a bra now, they still aren't big enough to get in my way. As far as I'm concerned, it's perfect.

Which is not to say everything is. It's been a week since Greece and I'm hungry constantly in spite of also eating constantly. The only time I'm not eating is when I'm asleep, and I wake up starving. I have a headache almost constantly, and that ache in my middle never goes away.

Worse, I'm slowly losing ground.

Fortunately, it's easy to determine what's wrong. I'm attempting to run a troll's strength and regeneration, a Siren's voice, plus whatever active effects their beauty comes with that changed my body this way, all of my previous animal based enhancements, and whatever I'd gotten from the Sidhe, on the energy a normal human body can produce via calories. Suffice it to say that I quite simply, physically, cannot eat enough to power my body.

Which means that I need a better power plant. The obvious answer would be to run down a stray devil and tear whatever they use to make magic out of them. I can probably pry the Script to make my own out of the analysis of the rook piece instead, but I have no idea how long that would take. I'm once again on a clock, this one just ends in days instead of years.

I end up discarding the idea of a devil core altogether because I have no idea if the next universe I land in will support magic. If wherever I find myself disallows magic, then I'm back to square one and starving again, at best. I probably won't have as many options to fix the problem, either.

So, no devil magic. Holy power and whatever Yokai use is out for the same reason. It's a problem with a lot of the sources of power available.

In fact, in the week that Cait, Pua, and myself have been searching everything we can lay our hands on, we only find one good answer.

Vampires.

Vampires are odd creatures from a magical perspective, and not just because they have a natural way of accomplishing what took the devils several millennia and an unparalleled genius to accomplish.

'Vampire', when not speaking to a layman, is the term for any creature that subsists on the life energy of other beings. Either because they no longer produce any of their own, or they have some additional passenger that requires more than they naturally have. The method of extracting said life energy is immaterial to the definition. Which is why hungry ghosts which feed via possession, hopping vampires which feed on breath, and the standard European variety which feed on blood, are all considered 'vampires'.

And then it gets interesting. Vampires, as it turns out, do not actually possess 'supernatural' strength or speed as a discreet ability. However, the life energy circulating through their bodies the way it does, passively enhances everything about them. Thus, the longer they live, the more life energy they saturate themselves with and can hold, the more they improve. It's also a process that doesn't ever stop. When muscles can no longer be improved, they naturally develop metaphysical systems that will allow them to use that life energy to continue to improve their strength, more like devils and other more normal supernatural entities do. Which is why the older a vampire is, the more powerful it inevitably becomes.

And then they get even better. Vampires also use this life energy system to fuel the widest variety of powers of any known supernatural species. I mean come on! Regeneration, strength, speed, enhanced senses, mesmerism, telekinesis, shape shifting, weather control, flesh shaping, there's even one vampire on record who can cause earthquakes at will. All of them running on the same energy source.

So, a supernatural system that will improve everything about me passively, if slowly, and fuel any powers I care to pick up. And the best part, if I end up in a universe that doesn't support life energy, I have bigger problems. So the life energy system will work anywhere I can. I even have ideas about Scripting up a weapon that would take the life energy of anything I kill with it, and feed the energy to me via my already present tattoos, to recharge me while I fought.

First I need a vampire though, and wouldn't you know it, I just happen to know where to find a lot of them. I doubt L.A. has changed that much in the last two years.

###

Sarah and I have an agreement that before I pop in from the transit Script, I'll call or text, and this is the important part, wait for a response before heading over. I only needed to surprise her once in the middle of... things once, before we agreed that it's something that needs to never happen again.

This time I text. I'm not sure she'll believe that I'm me unless she sees me using the Script that only I know how to use. My voice, much like my features, is still recognizably mine, just musical now. How can it still be my voice when it has tones and qualities that mine has never possessed...?

Magic, moving on.

I've packed the last two testing knives and enough clothes to last long enough for Sarah to take me shopping for more. She'd hurt me if I didn't let her help rebuild my wardrobe.

My phone dings. Checking it shows that Sarah is ready for me to head over. I shoulder my bag, wave to Cait, set my cell phone camera pointing at where I think Sarah will be, and activate the Script. It's a very new experience. The cut on my thumb heals almost before I can get my blood on the Script. My voice, now beautiful as I sing the Script, pulls energy through it faster than I've ever seen in an externally powered Script.

There's the bizarre sensation of being in two places at once, and then I'm in a dorm room.

"Ericka! I haven't heard from you in a month or... HOLY SHIT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?" Sarah starts greeting me from where she's working at her desk, and has started talking before she turns around. Her expression when she does turn to look at me is totally worth the beating I'll get for taking that picture, "No seriously what happened to you?" She stands from her chair, plants her fists on her hips and I have the unique experience of having Sarah glare up at me. Her five foot nine frame doesn't seem so towering any more.

Imagine that.

"First!" I hold up a finger, drop my bag, and take half a step to scoop Sarah up in my arms. When we were teenagers she had always hugged me like this. Picking me up and walking off with me, or just rocking me back and forth like a pendulum. I'd always told her I'd eventually be tall enough to do it to her.

She laughed at me.

Which is fair, there's no way I could have naturally grown this tall. However I've done it though, I have, and this needs to happen before anything else. Priorities, you know. I finally give in to her smacking me in the ribs and put her down.

"Now," Sarah primly sits herself down on her bed and waves me to the chair she'd been in, "tell me what the hell you've been doing to yourself. This is somewhat more extreme than cat's eyes and bat's ears," she says waving a hand at me.

I grab a power bar out of my bag, and in between bites I find myself recounting what the last few weeks have been like for me. I describe my encounter with the Sidhe who's name I never learned. I'm torn between tears and rage as I speak about him, tears for what almost happened, and rage for what had. I talk about the trolls, and the unforeseen results of absorbing the troll's strength. This has Sarah rubbing her nose and sighing in exasperation and waving me to continue. I tell her about my brawl with the Sirens and what I gained there. Finally, I tell her about how I've been getting hungrier and hungrier, how I'm slowly starving from all the things my body is trying to support, and my solution to it.

"Jesus fuck Ericka. You sat in Hawaii for two years, and I thought you were finally slowing down. Then you do this in... what? Three? Four weeks?"

I shrug, "Something like that."

"Are you trying to make up for lost time?" Sarah demands, exasperated.

"Well no... It's just... after the second troll, I was basically playing catch up. I couldn't really function in the world at nine feet tall. So I had to fix that, and now I'm going to starve to death while eating if I don't do something about that." I pause for a moment, then pull another power bar out of my bag and start in on it, "Like I said, always hungry."

Sarah stares at me for a moment, then slumps and sighs, "Fine. You're lucky I love you, you little menace."

I smirk at her, "Not so little anymore."

"That reminds me!" Sarah glares at me and surges to her feet sticking a finger in my face, "You scared the crap out of me when you showed up like this with no warning! And you took a picture! You better have a way to make it up to me," she leans in, eyes narrowed, "or you will suffer my wrath."

"I need to replace my entire wardrobe, and have a lot of the money I've saved since I was fifteen to do it with," I deadpan.

"Shopping spree on you? Even if it's also for you? Sold!"

###

Shopping is a lot of fun. Sarah is less pushy than she had been when we were younger, and I'm less self-conscious than I had been. Now that I actually look good, I'm more than willing to show it off. The only things that mar the day are my need to always have food, and the strange painful catching feeling I keep having. I have no idea what that is, but if the trend continues it's going to get worse until I do something about it.

One problem at a time, though.

Finishing our initial outing, somehow I end up in the guy's position carrying the bags, we head back to Sarah's dorm. Like we had when moving Sarah into her dorm, we get ready to go clubbing.

The last time we'd gone clubbing it had been a nightmare. Vampires were everywhere. I was terrified that one of them might take an interest in us, because at that point in time there had been nothing I could have done to even slow them down. There'd also been the issue that nobody wanted to dance with me, even people I wasn't attracted to. That was less dangerous, but far more damaging to my ego.

Now, as we enter the large warehouse club that had the highest vampire population the last time we were out, I'm immediately surrounded by guys, each of them trying to grab my attention, or dance against me or offer me a drink.

It is true what they say, you don't understand what you have until it's gone.

Seriously though, I'm detecting an unexpected problem with having supernatural beauty. I'm used to unexpected problems, unexpected problems are the story of my life. This one still feels different.

Maybe I can make a Script that has a mild aversion field to balance this...

Sarah yanks me out of the crowd and onto the dance floor. "Sorry I took so long, those assholes didn't want to get out of my way," she shouts and leans against my front to get closer to my ear to make sure she's heard over the music. Then she pokes me in the forehead, right on the tattoo over my third eye, "And no working. That was your magic scribbles face. None of that until you find a vampire."

I just smile at her and nod. I've never been good at dancing. After years of fighting, movement without purpose is something I just can't make myself do. Sarah, however, never had my issues despite having been fighting for as long as I have. I blame cheerleading. She works some magic that only she possesses, and somehow coaxes me into dancing with her. Though the catching, pulling pain in my body somewhere that keeps cropping up, certainly makes it harder for her.

I let Sarah lead as I keep watch on the people around us. Sarah's amulet has activated more than a dozen times since we entered the club, so I know that there are blood suckers in here somewhere. They're being subtle, though.

So, how to draw them out.

Some small voice in the back of my head insists that kissing Sarah would get everybody's attention. That, however, is the way one attracts boys, which is the opposite of what I want.

Vampires... Blood?

I don't think I'll keep a small cut long enough to bleed sufficiently. I'm not about to ask Sarah to shed blood. Aside from just not wanting to hurt her, I don't want to attract a vampire to her.

...But I don't need to get them to come to me, I just need them to stop blending in so well.

I lean forward to Sarah's ear, "Can you find an excuse to break somebody's nose?"

Sarah leans back to get a look at my face, so I can see the moment the penny drops and she figures out why I want her to assault somebody. A quick nod and she starts looking for a believable victim. Not that she has a shortage of choices. We're exclusively dancing with each other, which somehow doesn't translate to 'we're here with each other, leave us alone'. Instead the guys seem to think it means, 'convince us to dance with you instead'.

How that works, I don't know, but it does result in us being surrounded by a crowd of guys. Some of whom are getting increasingly handsy. It only takes a few moments for one of them to volunteer.

I can spot when she finds her target. She straightens up suddenly, her eyes widening. Then they narrow in fury. She spins on the ball of her foot to face the man behind her, who looks like he's won the lottery.

Instead of... whatever he's expecting, he gets a right cross to the face.

His nose explodes in blood, and he goes down like a felled tree, at least that's what it sounds like. I'm busy scanning the crowd. Most of the folks around me are recoiling in shock, or laughing and cheering. The scent of arousal also spikes, which confuses the hell out of me. But there's one guy who's head snaps around, nostrils flared.

And we have a winner.

The bouncers are on us almost immediately, more than a little pissed. However we're hot girls, and the guy was seen groping Sarah's ass by at least a dozen people. So the bouncers drag the guy off, glare the crowd of guys back a few feet, apologize for letting the asshole in, in the first place, and leave us to our dancing.

While Sarah placates the bouncers, I watch my suspected vampire. I watch where he goes, who he talks to, and perhaps most importantly, how he talks to them. The differences between a young vampire's 'you look like totally delicious prey' behavior, his 'you're my equal and I hate you for it' behavior, and his 'you are an older vampire than me, please don't kill me' behavior, is easy to spot after a little observation.

The first is depressingly similar to the way any desperate, partially drunk college guy behaves trying to get laid.

The second involves the veneer of comradery while the two seethe at each other.

The last involves a lot of submissive behaviors and groveling.

Watching various vampires interact with each other lets me map out who's who, with only an hour or so of observation. Fortunately, there don't seem to be any vampires too powerful here, so I don't need to worry about being ambushed by something I just can't fight. They also all seem to frequent something through a guarded door, probably a VIP room. I also see three different vampires take humans back through that door while I'm watching, so probably also a private place to feed.

Why can't they have done that in an alley where I can easily sneak up on them?

Still, that's evidently where I need to go, unless I want to chance shanking one of them in the middle of the club. Which sounds like just the worst idea.

"I've found what I'm looking for. I'm gonna try and do this quickly. If I can't, or get caught, I'll meet you back at your dorm room," I tell Sarah, pressing my mouth right up against her ear so she can hear me, without me having to shout anything incriminating. Sarah looks at me for a moment searchingly, but finally nods.

We separate, Sarah to go dance with a guy she's been eyeing and is free to pursue, now that she doesn't have to help keep the rest of the club off of me. Meanwhile, I try to sneak through the dancing crowd without attracting the attention of any opportunistic blood suckers, or vampires.

My sneaking mantra, I'm not here, I'm not here, runs through my head as I move through the dancing mass. I have a lot of people run into me during this, which combined with my insides catching against themselves has me nearly face planting into the floor. Still, I'm not here, I'm not here, I manage to make it across the floor without incident. I'm gasping for air by the time I get to the VIP door, my stomach feels like it's been stabbed, and it isn't stopping this time.

Apparently, two hours of dancing without eating anything is way more than my body is willing to put up with at this point. Why it suddenly gets worse now is an explanation that I don't have, but I have to work around it anyway. I'm not here, I'm not here.

I loiter by the door, trying to look like I'm just checking my cell phone as I wait for another vampire to open the door for me. I'm not here, I'm not here. The bouncer stationed next to the door kindly ignores my presence as we both wait for the next vampire to come by.

I'm not here, I'm not here. By the time one does, I'm nearly doubled over from the hunger pains. This can't go on much longer. My hands are beginning to shake, and my head is pounding. I'mnohere, I'mnothere. Finally though, the bouncer opens the door for an extraordinarily pale girl, about my original size, supporting a muscled guy at least twice her size, without apparent effort.

The girl vampire carries her dinner through the door and I sneak in behind them. I'mnothereI'mnothere. I'm gasping for air, sweat pours down my face and my hands won't stop trembling. My headache is so bad I'm seeing double. Still, I manage to draw one of my knives from where I have them hidden in my club gear, which is hard but possible, if uncomfortable, and move on vampire girl.

I wrap an arm around her neck, pulling her off her feet and causing her to drop her man-snack. Before she can catch up to what's happening, I drive the knife into her back between her ribs and into her heart.

She jerks once, and the Script lights.

I feel better almost immediately, my body altering itself again as a number of what feel like threads uncoil from my heart and spread throughout my body. There aren't very many of whatever they are, but they're enough that my trembling and headache start fading almost immediately.

I let out a sigh of relief and relax. I'm still hungry, but not nearly so cripplingly as I have been. Vampire girl slides from my slackened grip and hits the floor with a thud, next to her attempted juice box. She doesn't turn to dust or burst into flame... this could be awkward. In my desperation I haven't really been paying attention to the hallway I'm in. It hadn't seemed important next to imminent starvation.

"How many times have we been told to not feed in the hallway... Oh shit." Which is why I only notice then how effective the sound proofing on the door behind me is. Or that there are numerous other doors in this hallway, one of which has just opened. Out of it comes one of the guys I pegged as a vampire earlier. He takes in the living and dead bodies at my feet, the bloody knife in my hand, and comes to an obvious and accurate conclusion, "Hunter bitch!"

Okay, not entirely accurate.

Well, that shout no doubt warned every other vampire in here that something is up. I'll have to worry about that later, though, because he's lunging at me, his fingers stretched out before him having turned to claws.

I plant a hand in his chest to stop his charge, but he manages to sink his claws into my shoulders and starts pulling himself forward. I just barely can't stop him with one arm, his exposed fangs slowly inching closer to my neck. That I'm just stronger than a fledgling vampire is good information to have, but not really what I want to experiment with right now.

I stab this vampire in the armpit, knife angled to pierce his heart. He doesn't even try to defend himself, too focused on biting me to see what I'm doing, and the Script lights again. What I'd stolen from the first vampire... improves in some way. It stretches to more places, covers more of my body, and just feels... like more than it had before.

I'll have to think about it later, because other doors are opening in front of me, and even more that I can't see. Vampires emerge in ones or twos, and like the one that had come before them, come to mostly accurate conclusions.

I try to turn to run the moment the vampire drops, but my insides catch against each other again, harder, more painful this time. I nearly go crashing to the floor, but catch myself. Another attempt gets me two steps before it happens again.

Apparently, running isn't an option.

I focus on the dozen or so vampires visible in the hallway, analyzing what I'm up against. They're snarling and showing their fangs and inching forward, slightly hesitant from the two already dead on the floor. It's a narrow hallway, they won't be able to come at me more than two at a time, and will probably get in each other's way if they do. They all have the same stance as well, feet parallel to each other, leaning forward, hands spread like they're going to try and tackle me, with fingers spreading and curling into claws. In essence, nothing that indicates even a bit of competence in fighting hand to hand. They probably rely on their strength and speed to take on humans.

I have them beat in strength, if only just. They probably still have me beat in speed, and even if they don't, I can't move that much without feeling like there's a fish hook in my guts. So I'll need to beat and kill a dozen or so vampires while moving as little as possible. At least the wounds in my shoulders have healed in record time, and my headache and trembling have stopped completely.

The first lunges for me, thrusting a clawed hand at my head. I slide my front foot forward and out, taking myself off of the line of his thrust. At the same time I lift my knife enough for the vampire's own charge to drive the blade into his heart.

The Script triggers again, more improvements of my new vampire... circulatory system? Sure, I'll go with that.

The next lunges for my waist and gets stabbed in the heart through his back for his troubles.

Another Script trigger.

The next comes with a friend. I move to put them in each other's way, but find that even that much movement triggers the catch and pull of my internals. The one in the lead has to be suffering from some sort of blood frenzy because he lunges teeth first at my neck. I slap him off course with my off hand and into a headlock. My knife arm wraps around his neck and drives the blade up into his chest.

The Script lights.

The second takes advantage of the free shot at my ribs that my planned movement would have prevented. Troll bones save anything from breaking, but they sure as hell bruise. I drop the vampire corpse that I still have in the headlock, letting it slide off the knife. Pivoting on the balls of my feet, I slap the second vampire's follow up strike to the side. I grab his arm and pull him further off balance so he falls onto my knife.

The Script lights.

This is something of a disaster. The knife seems to be stuck on the first thing I had it steal, and now won't stop. Each activation steals from the victim, and adds to the vampire life energy system I now have. Each improvement spreads the vampiric energy system through my body more thoroughly, and the further it spreads the less movement it takes for my body to start catching on itself.

I can't just let them kill me though.

So a stab, and the Script lights.

A slash, the Script lights.

A lucky stagger, the Script lights.

All the while I take blows to my head and chest. Bites to my arms and shoulders. Slashes with claws to anything they can reach.

It keeps going until I can barely move at all, and there are only three of them left. The bravest of the three swaggers forward as I fight to keep myself upright without moving anything.

When he reaches me, ignoring the bodies and the blood on his way, he grabs my hair and tilts my head up to look at him, "Well. You were quite scary!" Condescending prick. I'd be less pissed at him over it if I thought he gave a shit about any of the vampires on the floor. "Not too smart though," says the man, monologuing, "attacking a coven all by yourself..." He shakes his head, clucking at me as if in disappointment. If this is a full coven, I'm the Easter Bunny. This is just an easy hunting ground for new vamps, I can tell by how I'm still alive. "Still, you did better than I would have thought you would. You know, I think I'll turn you." This vampire is way too smug, "You'll make a great toy." His grin turns savage, and he leans in towards my neck.

I can't move, that painful pulling feeling stopping me... Well, that isn't quite true. Nothing stops me from moving, I just don't because of the pain. Pain is a warning against doing something damaging. Usually, I never advocate ignoring that warning... Well no, as Sarah would say that's a dirty, dirty lie. I push myself through pain all the time in training, and regret it almost every time.

This time it seems like the lesser of two evils.

I can feel the hot breath on my neck, the points of sharp teeth teasing skin. I clench my jaw and jerk my arm upwards, the knife going in through his stomach and up. Something inside me, catches, pulls taut, then tears as I force myself to keep moving anyway. I scream in pain through gritted teeth. Something inside of me feels loose and burns with pain, though my regeneration is already starting to soothe the hurt.

The Script lights again.

The vampire only gasps once, then slides to the side, off my knife. I straighten slowly, I wish just for effect, but it's more because I can't move any faster. The two remaining vampires don't know that, though. They also don't know that, at the moment, a month old kitten can probably kick my ass. All they see is a human that had offed ten or eleven vampires, I wasn't keeping track, stand up, apparently ready to come after them.

They do what I hope for, and run.

No way that will come back to bite me later.

###

For the second time, Sarah has to collect me, barely moving and covered in blood, from an alley after a fight. She encouraged me to not let there be a third time. She gets progressively less snarky and irritated, and more worried as we make our way back to the dorm room, though. Her humor vanishes altogether when she has to half carry me up the stairs. I barely move until I'm dumped onto her bed, and even then I manage to tear two more things inside of myself going up the stairs.

"You're covered in blood, can you get to the shower?" Sarah asks, crouching next to me on the bed, one hand on my shoulder.

I try to shake my head, feel something in my neck catch and croak out, "No," instead. God, I hope I haven't crippled myself.

Sarah lets out a strange whining sound from somewhere in the back of her throat, "Did they get a piece of you?"

"Yeah," I carefully don't nod, "but that's not what this is. I don't know what this is, but it's a problem."

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she mutters, "I'm going to get these clothes off of you." I murmur a 'bow chicka bow wow' and get gently smacked upside the head for my troubles. "Shut up. If you're making jokes, you can't be that hurt."

She pulls off my shoes, then pants, and finally helps me sit up to peel the remains of my bloody shirt off. As soon as the scraps of shirt cloth are gone she stalls, "Oh my god." I tilt my head down and find my torso is a mass of ugly bruises that, for whatever reason, aren't fading like everything else has since I got my regeneration.

"Oh, that can't be good," I murmur, leaning back. Sarah takes the cue and lays me back down on the bed.

"Ericka," Sarah's voice is tight and high, "I'm freaking out here. What should I do?"

"No idea," I quip to cover the terror that's slowly growing in me.

"That's not helpful!" Sarah half shrieks.

"Right." If I breathe slowly nothing seems to catch, which is good because breathing is one of those things that I can't really do without. The inability to move is bad enough. "Get my phone, go to my contacts list, find Pua, then hold the phone so I can talk into it."

With something to do, Sarah scrambles, and moments later I have the phone pressed up against my ear. I lay very still with my eyes closed while the phone rings. Fortunately it doesn't take long.

"Aloha!" Pua's happy voice comes over the phone, "How is your hunting going, Ericka?"

"Both well and horribly," I rasp out.

The cheer is gone from her voice immediately, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, that's what's wrong." And isn't that frustrating? I'm so ready for things to just work for a change, "I can't really move without injuring myself more. I have troll healing but my torso is a giant bruise that is only going away very slowly."

Pua makes an interested sound over the phone, "Did you get the vampire to power it? Could it not be working because you don't have the energy?"

"I got ten vampires, and I'm not hungry at the moment which is awesome, but this got worse the more vampires I killed. Pua, I can't move without tearing my insides apart, I..." I swallow, glancing up at Sarah, who's looking down at me, very worried. I'm about to make that so much worse. "I'm terrified I've broken myself," I whisper.

Sarah blanches and there's no reply from the phone for a moment, "Are you somewhere with one of your travel Script anchors?"

"Sarah's dorm room," I tell her and rattle off the 'address' in spoken Script.

"All right, we'll be there in a few minutes." Pua hangs up and I relax into Sarah's suddenly comfortable dorm bed.

"So?" Sarah asks, putting the phone away.

"Get the transit Script out. Help's coming." God, I'm tired. But I can't really sleep with all the adrenaline in my system.

God, I hope Pua can help.