The Clock Tower July 30th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

I was in shock. I officially got twenty points over the last day. Each time I got more it was ten instead of five. I'd leveled up again and put all five of my stat gains into the points section. It took hours to do it, even with me taking most of the XP. We didn't challenge The Butcher yet obviously, but still. We had been down there for another few hours last night, but we had to go after a while because Zee needed to get home.

Aside from school, which was getting more annoying and seemed less worthwhile but which I went to anyway to both keep up the charade that I was normal and because my mom wanted me to, I mostly wanted to spend all my time in the dungeon. Sadly that wasn't possible. Zatara was home today and Zee made me promise not to go without her so I was stuck back at the tower trying to pick my next power.

Rather than close my eyes I mentally said Character and the same gray window popped up. After I'd put my stat gains in I'd unlocked a point total box on my character sheet. Which was pretty weird, but the whole thing was useful, it helped me keep track of my cash and the way my body worked and even my armor class, which was stupidly low in cargos and a hoodie but oh well. My point total was at forty right now, which was nice. I wasn't alone though Artemis was here with me.

She rolled her eyes as she watched me stare into space "Morgan. I'm still sitting here you know? Can we try paying attention please. Now, I have the gear to do my ritual but you want me to wait. Why? Because I kind of want to be a kickass elf chick right now. Which I could, at this moment, but somehow you think dragging this out is a good idea." I'd been trying to convince her to put the ritual off for a bit and she wasn't taking it well. But I did have my reasons and I needed the best way to put this.

I furrowed my brow a bit, thinking "There are items in the dungeon that surpass magical. Unique they're called. They're mostly random, but there's a few that always drop. One on each of the next two levels. First is the one The Butcher drops. His cleaver gives plus ten strength and does crazy amounts of damage. Second is The Undead Crown dropped by the Skeleton King in level three. That one gives life steal on hit, and the two of them are pretty strong, unique pieces that I think will improve the ritual."

Artemis moaned in misery "No! Don't tell me that! At this rate I'll have to wait the whole dungeon to do it. I want to be an awesome elf NOW." I just stared at her, raising an eyebrow, and she slumped to the table. "Fine. I can wait I guess. I'm just lucky this dungeon is around. This way I can tell my boyfriend I found a potion down there that transformed me or something." She paused, looking concerned then looked over her shoulder. "I should try to find some kind of magic sex appeal item to throw in.I know the dungeon doesn't have them but my butt is a little flat,I could do with some thickening."

I rolled my eyes at my best friend "Or maybe wasting one of the foundation aspects your new custom race will be built on on getting a bigger ass is petty and won't help you survive. You're plenty hot enough, and becoming an elf will already make you hotter. Giving up a potential long term power up for some junk in your trunk is just stupid." Not that I didn't get the impulse, but my power took care of that for me luckily. Still she only got one shot at this and I was loathe to let her waste it on magical butt implants.

She just glared at me "That's easy for you to say Mr. 'my power can make my dick bigger whenever I want and my girlfriend has a dumptruck ass that would be at home in a rap video.' There's a charisma stat on my sheet so adding in a little sex appeal makes sense. Don't want to make it a dump stat. I'll ask Madame Xanadu if she has something we can use if that's cool. Or should I not show her the ritual? I don't want to give up the ghost so to speak about your power." I hadn't considered that but it made sense. Madame Xanadu was the last person we should show the ritual to.

I considered it but finally shook my head. "Maybe ask her about something you could buy to help with impressing Wally? Don't mention the ritual it'll raise too many questions. But fine, it's your show, if you want a sex appeal artifact in there you can have one, but if you do that you have to use the Butcher's Cleaver and The Undead Crown. I think Unique and powerful artifacts with a story will have better effects." I wanted Artemis's new race to have the best possible foundation. Partly because she deserved it, and partly because this was the first time I was designing an entire species and I wanted to do it right.

She huffed a bit but nodded. "Fine. You're right I know, I'm just excited. This is going to change my whole life. Hell it might change the whole world. We're inventing a race of elves, how cool is that? I want them to be badass, my kids will be this race if I ever manage to have any. Or half anyway. But enough about that for now. You said you doubled your point gain, do you know what your next power is going to be?" She seemed almost as excited as I was, and I couldn't help but laugh.

I pulled up my phone and showed her a list. I'd spent the day flipping through various offers and trying to find something that would fit with what I was already doing with my abilities. "A few things actually though they're all expensive. First up I found a serum that gives short range teleporting powers. Sort of a blink thing, only within line of sight and within a hundred feet or so. Really drives home how lucky Reggie got with that random power because its two hundred fucking points. Apparently even with severe limitations getting a specific superpower is pricey as hell."

I pulled up the next one "Second, and my personal favorite is a magical ability set called Shadow Dancing. The email comes from some weird fictional sect of underworld monks offering to train people in the disciplines of the dark. Shadow manipulation and shadow teleports which harmonizes really well with my current abilities. That one is only three hundred actually, I had figured it would be pricier because it's less limited but I would assume that it costs points per use and probably a hefty amount."

Finally I pulled up the final email I had marked. "This one goes in a totally different direction. It's called Raven Wing. Some kind of weird animal totem scam where people offer you the ancient secrets to transform into a bird. It's five hundred, which I assume means the actual transformation is either free or only costs a few points each time, because there's no downside there from what I can see." I shrugged "I have no idea which to pick honestly, they all work with my current abilities. I have no clue which one to go with, any ideas?"

Artemis put on a contemplative expression. Despite being so excitable about her own progression Artemis tended to really mull over anything about other people's advancement. It was harder to be objective when you were excited but she was someone I could always count on to tell it to me straight when I asked. "I'd say probably the Shadow Dancing ability. It'll take a ton of saving but I think you're right about it harmonizing with your other powers. Besides you can always get the Raven Wing power later right? They don't disappear or anything do they?"

That was actually a really good point. The teleportation power wasn't necessary with the shadow porting but the Raven Wing ability could work with my build even after I added the Shadow Dancing. Of course the whole thing would cost eight hundred points, which meant I would need to do some serious leveling. But if I got Shadow Dancing first it should help me kill things a bit faster. I grinned at her "That works then, thanks Arty, I can always count on you for good advice. I hadn't considered doing both. I guess I'm just so used to being forced to choose I got into that mindset after helping you do your shopping on here."

I was gleeful at the thought of the kind of gear I could earn once I had these new powers. Not to mention the Shadow Dancing power mentioned something about "reinforcing your flesh with the power of darkness" and despite how edgy that sounded I was damn sure it would be useful. I turned to face Artemis "So, we have three of your items picked out. What are the other two?" I was curious what stats she would go with. I assumed something with dexterity in it but the rest was up in the air.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out two pieces of gear. "First up is the Amulet of Precision. Plus ten to dexterity. Not crazy but pretty damn respectable. Second I got the Ferocious belt of the Angels. Ten percent damage and plus three holy damage on hit. Which seems like it would be an interesting thing to throw into the mix, what with the undead stuff and the murder stuff from the cleaver and crown. As long as I get my sexiness artifact I should have a full layout to make something amazing. I wonder what species we're gonna create?"

I was wondering that myself. Undeath, slaughter, holy, damage, and dexterity. I also had to wonder how the use of these pieces of gear would interact with the leveling system. I considered letting Artemis know she might be able to level up like I could but it wasn't a sure thing so I didn't want to get her hopes up. We finished going over the details of the ritual again just to be safe, and then headed out to talk to Madame Xanadu. I was actually tempted to tell her about the ritual because I knew she had something that would be perfect for Artemis.

I had seen some of the new stuff in Madame Xanadu's back room when I helped clean up the shop, and I knew for a fact that Aphrodite's Girdle was back there. An artifact like that would be an amazing foundation to make Artemis's new race if we could get it, but I was positive she wouldn't hand it over to Artemis just to make her boyfriend drool a bit. If she didn't know about the artifact...then I froze. I still had the choice to take something from that room. One thing. I'd owe her a favor but for this it would be worth it.

I went to intercept Artemis and told her my plan, she seemed a bit worried but Madame Xanadu had been pretty decent to us so far so a favor wasn't the end of the world. I pulled out my phone and called her. I didn't know why I was so obsessed with this, but like I told Artemis she only got once chance at this, and I wanted the species I created to be something earthshaking. Plus maybe the whole desire and love aspect would help with fertility and I could tell Artemis worried about never having kids even if she didn't say it. I got the response from Madame Xanadu and headed to pick up the girdle. This was going to be amazing.

The Cathedral July 31st 2010 8:00 PM EDT

It was time. I had hit my next level on the way over and I was now a decent way into level four, and just in time to reach the end of the second level. It was time to fight The Butcher. Much like in the game using the Town Portal prevented monsters from respawning in the level, so we'd been able to clear this place with decent speed. Of course the levels only got bigger and harder from here, but we'd be getting stronger too.

I stopped next to Artemis. "You ready for this? We have it all planned out and we managed to get Zee all the gear she needs to make this work. We won't be able to glitch him in place or anything but we have everything set up to pin him down. I even put one levels worth of points into my dexterity to bring it up to eleven. Combined with my reflexes having more than human speed should let me keep him occupied perfectly." It had pained me to waste the stat points, but I didn't have time to save up for a new power.

She nodded, patting the weapon in her hand. "Of course. Raiding Hunter's Bow of Storms for the damage. Increases attack speed by thirteen percent and deals lightning damage with a chance to stun on hit. I can only use the thing because of my ring and amulet and it's way better than my normal bow." She lowered her voice. "Honestly I like it better than the The Undead Crown for my build. I think I'm going to sub it out, I don't really want life steal or death powers. Increased attack speed and lightning damage is way better especially with the holy damage thrown in."

That was actually fair. I could have fought her on it but since she was clearly thinking ahead and she was at least waiting for the Butcher's Cleaver I just sighed and nodded. It was her life, as long as she gave it some thought I couldn't complain. I turned to Zee, who was staring worriedly at the door. "How about you babe? You ready for this?" We'd gotten her the Fire Wall spell after some farming, and her natural twenty five magic put her well within range of casting as long as she had her Ring of the Mind on. Fire wall was crazy useful for crowd control so it had been a great find.

She gave me a nervous smile. "Yeah, I'm good. I'm more worried about you. If I can't keep him pinned he can swat you like a fly." She bit her lip, suddenly looking pale. "If something happened to you because of me..." She swallowed hard and looked panicked and I stepped in close and pulled her into my arms. She rested her head on my chest. This wasn't fair of me really, giving her such a pivotal role, knowing if things went wrong she would blame herself. But Zee was the only one with the mojo to make this fight practical anytime in the next month or two. Plus I believed in her.

I kissed her on the forehead. Then caught her chin and pushed it up so I could meet those bright blue eyes. "Hey. This is not on you. This is a team effort. Every single person here has a job to do, yours is important but so is mine, and I can't bail on it. But I'll be fine." I shot her a wink. "I'm just as capable as you are you know. Besides, I have a secret weapon." I patted my hip where my Royal Dagger of Demon Slaying was sheathed. "The Butcher is a demon, this thing combined with my new speed will make taking him out a cakewalk."

I was using the stat gains in dexterity to explain my reflexes, since I was the only one who could level it worked out well. Of course I was infinitely more dangerous than another person with my dexterity stat thanks to my reaction speed, but they had no way of knowing that. I kissed Zee on the top of the head, smiling at the smell of her lavender chamomile shampoo and then stepped back. I nodded to Reggie and Kit. My cousin was standing back with a fucking assault rifle and Reggie was getting ready to open the door and then translocate with one of the nearby chests to provide cover and escape.

We weren't sure if the assault rifle would do much but it couldn't hurt. Well it couldn't hurt US, it could definitely hurt The Butcher and hopefully would. I also had new bullets in my Holiday gun. I was going to put a full clip into the bastard as soon as he was visible and hope it helped. With that last bit of reasoning out of the way we started our plan. First up we had dragged one of the big bronze chests into the eye line of The Butcher's door and jammed it open filling it with rocks to weight it down. The things were so absurdly heavy it had taken four of us but we got it done.

When he got my nod Reggie (who was wearing a shit ton of armor to put him closer to the weight of the chest) pulled the door open, then swapped locations with the chest, effectively pinning the thing open and putting a big ass chest in the way of the exit. Once he was clear Zee slammed a fire wall down on the other side of the door, not only forcing anyone trying to get past the chest to climb through fire, but also super heating the metal of the chest itself turning the already big heavy chest with the open lid into a white hot six foot high roadblock to leaving the room.

The Butcher himself came charging at us, but was stopped in his tracks by the chest and stuck in the wall of fire as he tried to muscle through. The rock filled chest which couldn't close because the rocks had levered open the lid completely, stopped the bastard in his tracks. Since he was like eight feet tall he was still more than visible and the first wave of the plan kicked in. Artemis dumped about fifteen arrows into him in that first split second, I put my whole clip into his upper chest and head and Kit emptied the magazine of her assault rifle into the horned son of a bitch.

The fire, lightning, bullets, weird dark magic of my gun and sheer impact seemed to stun him for a bit, leaving him stuck in the flames for a minute taking fire before he finally roared with rage and leaned down, ignoring the heat and levering his fingers under the chest, flinging it away with a massive amount of brute strength. We had luckily considered that already, Reggie used his power, swapping me into the position the chest had been in (only a foot or two outside the door) before the rocks had time to fly free. Since I was at the back of the group on purpose the chest and rocks smashed harmlessly against the wall.

Now within range of the red skinned bastard I slipped out my dagger and my tanto and darted in to get to work. My increased dexterity gave me not just speed but flexibility, making the dodges that would have before been tough and incredibly tricky almost as easy as breathing for the first few seconds. My muscle was more streamlined and mobile, more so than a normal person, and with my reflexes I could move out of the way with ease. I dodged his swing with the big ass cleaver and slammed my dagger into his side before darting back to avoid an attack.

Artemis circled around to put arrows in him from the side, Kit reloaded and put another magazine into him in bursts when I wasn't in the way, Zee was laying down slowing spells, Reggie was shooting him with buckshot, and I held his attention with my dodges while I wore him down. The plan was going perfectly so far. Of course no plan survives first contact with the enemy, and ours was already hitting a snag. The Butcher was even tougher than expected.

His hide and muscle created a sort of natural armor and while my enchanted dagger and the tanto (which also benefited from the enchantment) were doing damage, all the bullets and even the arrows were barely having an effect. Not to mention that while my dexterity was definitely above human, my vitality was not, and I was actually starting to get tired. Putting every ounce of power into dodging something as strong as The Butcher was exhausting. He was big and slow in terms of regular movement but his strength propelled his attacks along at a very high speed. I was barely hanging on.

Zee's spells were what clinched it for us. Her slows and paralysis mixed with Artemis's lightning arrows slowed him down enough for me to start getting in more damaging blows. My tanto was razor sharp and cut through even his hide, and I poured every ounce of assassination experience into my attacks, even using my doom fist techniques to focus all my weight and force into my stabs. The extra damage from the demon slaying dagger helped a ton as well, but even with all of this going for us the fight was a slog.

It took us a full thirty minutes to finally bring the big bastard down. I mentally thanked every god I could think of that the demonification seemed to have turned him into a slavering psycho and that his cleaver was such a straightforward weapon. Big and dumb was scary but manageable with the proper preparations just like I knew it would be. Next level we had Leoric and that was a whole other ball game, magic immunity and intelligence would make that fight a nightmare. For now though we finally managed to wear The Butcher down and finish him off, and he dropped dead at our feet.

I was panting by the time it ended, caked in sweat and exhausted but unhurt. My reflexes and all our preparation had gotten me through this without any damage, which was good because I was fairly sure a single blow from the giant ass cleaver would have split me in two. We'd put as much effort into this as we had specifically for that reason. I slumped against the wall in exhaustion as Zee rushed over to catch me, burying her face in my chest worriedly.

I knew sitting back and playing ranged crowd control while I was on the front lines had been hard for her and I felt terrible putting her through that. Artemis stepped forward slowly, circling around until she reached the cleaver, which in her hand looked more like a fucking long sword just from the sheer size of it. She shot me a triumphant grin and I returned it before wrapping my arms around Zee and burying my face in her hair. That had been...scary. In a way the Talons hadn't.

The ninja stuff was my bag, I was more than qualified to deal with them because of my powers, I even had the memories and the reflexes to know how to handle that and it had never quite seemed real somehow. The Butcher though...there was something unspeakably horrifying about putting your life on the line in front of a big fuck off demon with horns and red skin. It was like taunting a mac truck.

I was still shaking a bit at the sheer terror of the experience. I held my girlfriend close and closed my eyes and let the tension drain from my body. Two down fourteen to go. But I was pretty sure we were due for some time off. Tomorrow we would do Artemis's ritual and then I was going to enjoy some downtime with my lady.

Slaughter Swamp August 1st 2010 11:30 PM EDT

The preparations for the ritual were incredibly extensive. We needed a place untamed by civilization and steeped in magic, we needed to do it at midnight, and we needed help. Luckily we had already decided to tell Zee what was up and ask for her help. Madame Xanadu was such a legend using her name in regards to a magic project was basically the equivalent of an author using the word magic to explain a contrived plot device. Zee was happy to be involved, but she had a condition. One I wasn't necessarily against.

Artemis looked dubious however. "What do you mean you want to be in it? The ritual is single use. If you do it then I can't right? Because no offense Zee but no matter how much I like you I'm not sharing the gear I got to use for this. It may not be the best stuff but it's all been hard to get." Artemis looked...jittery. Like she couldn't believe that this was about to happen and she was expecting something terrible to take away her chances to become something more. I personally would love to see my girlfriend gain the ability to level up as I suspected Artemis would, but this was her ritual, I wouldn't make the call for her.

Zee shook her head. "You guys read that part wrong. I've been studying this book. The items are single use sure, but they aren't limited use. You get one shot at the ritual but more than one person can use it." She turned to me, the look on her face serious. "Look. You didn't get this from Madame Xanadu. She's amazing but the principles of magic this functions on...aren't. As in they aren't principles of magic. They make no sense. I get what you guys were trying to do but this spell isn't calculus. It's one plus one equals fish. It's nonsense. But I can feel magic from these materials somehow."

I opened my mouth but she cut me off. "I'm not asking where you got it, I don't expect you to tell me everything. I like you a lot Morgan but we've been dating like a week, I get that. But this is magic like I've never seen and I need to be a part of it. That said, I'm not asking for something for nothing. Aside from helping I'll kick this in." She reached behind her and pulled out a staff from seemingly nowhere. "Naj's Puzzler. It's a unique long staff daddy got me in the dungeon. He gave it to me as a present because it adds resistance and has a built in teleport."

I checked the stats on the thing and whistled, handing it to Artemis. She looked unsure but when she saw it I could tell she was excited too. It made sense Zatara would bring home presents for his precious baby girl, and this was a nice staff. I wondered how many League members had been delving to find something like this. Still, it was a good offer. I looked at Artemis, this was on her. She bit her lip "That is really nice. But how would the ritual work for two people? There's only one sheet."

Zatanna just waved that off. "Not an issue. The sheet isn't a physical object so much as sort of indicator for the ritual. Once it's performed the sheet can adjust to fit the specifications, and that includes changing size or shape, or even quantity. Granted the magic requirements are way higher with two people but given where we're standing it shouldn't be an issue. Slaughter swamp oozes magic, hell using up more of it will probably be good for Gotham." She stepped forward to put her hands on Artemis's shoulders. "Please. I know we don't know each other that well but being part of magic like this...this is a once in a lifetime chance."

She was right. More right than she knew actually but Artemis seemed to understand the same thing. She sighed. "Fine. If you give up the staff you can be in the ritual with me. Being able to teleport and having a twenty percent resistance to everything is pretty nuts. Even if it will shave off some of our health." I sighed in relief when she agreed. I wasn't going to force her but honestly I was glad she decided to do it. Partially because my magic nut of a girlfriend would have been devastated if she said no and partially because that girdle was going to be destroyed in the process.

It might be petty but I really wanted my girlfriend to become a new super sexy species of elf with divine powers of desire. If I'd know the ritual worked like that I would have given it to both of them probably anyway. I swallowed hard at the thought of how gorgeous she was going to be. Part of me really wanted to try it with them, but if the ritual for just two of them would noticeably deplete the magic even in a place like this there was no way it would support all of us. Zatanna grinned and pulled Artemis into a hug before darting off to set up the ritual, staff included.

Artemis stepped up next to me and grinned. "You owe me. Sharing my new powers just so your lady can get sexier. I really am a saint." I laughed when she revealed her thoughts were the same as mine, at least a bit, but he smile dropped. "No, in all seriousness I think this will be better. With your powers you'll definitely find a way to live longer. Having your girl become long lived and stronger will be nothing but good. Besides, it's actually kind of nice knowing I won't be the only one. I've heard how lonely that can be in Superman's interviews. Having a new sister might be nice." She smiled wistfully.

I decided not to mention that her old sister still thought about her, because I'd said I wouldn't, but it was nice to think of my best friend and girlfriend being close like that. Artemis had been with me from the start, even if that wasn't such a long time. She liked Kit and Reggie fine, but she didn't have a female friend she was as close to as she was to me. This might work out in more ways than one. Plus this would give Zee and active role in my power. This way when I told her she would have a reason to keep my secret. I knew hedging my bets like that wasn't ideal in a relationship but after Annabel it just seemed smart. I would probably need to get over that at some point.

Zee started setting things up according to the book. I could do the actual reading part easily enough, but Zee had the skills for this kind of prep work so we let her do her thing as we started taking out the gear for this. First we had her Ferocious Belt of the Angels. The holy damage seemed like it would go well with Aphrodite's Girdle, and extra damage didn't hurt. The Amulet of Precision we decided we didn't need since Naj's Puzzler already gave ten dex on it's own. The Butcher's Cleaver gave strength and added a certain violence and the Raiding Hunter's Bow of Storms, gave lightning damage and attack speed, and hopefully an affinity for ranged combat.

It was literally anyone's guess how all this would mix together, but at the very least I was sure the resulting race would be unique and probably powerful. Not to mention partially divine given the provenance of the girdle. Zee looked as manic and excited now as we did, clearly as excited to be a part of this as Artemis and I. I really should have thought to include her, given her obsessive love of magic something like this was basically a dream come true for her. Watching her almost sprint back and forth to set everything up was honestly adorable.

I glanced around nervously, we'd had Zee teleport us out of town to avoid being followed, and I was pretty sure the Slaughter Swamp would be the very last place we would end up seeing the Court, but I was still slightly worried. Another major upside to this was the fact that Zee would be safer from the Talons and their ilk if she had more power and especially if she could level up. I still wasn't positive about the leveling but it made a ton of sense that having dungeon artifacts baked into your DNA would give you the ability to get XP and level up.

Finally she finished the setup and the girls stepped into the circle together. Zee stopped to go through the book with me, giving me pronunciation notes on the Latin incantations which due to having a perfect memory I only had to hear once. Once the clock struck midnight I officially started the ritual. The incantation was...odd. Some of it was Latin, some was English, some was other languages I'd never even heard of but that we had managed to puzzle out because they were similar to Welsh. For the odd languages there seemed to be a pronunciation key which definitely helped, the last thing we wanted was to blow ourselves up.

I activated my aura sight, almost flinching at the tangible aura of blood and death in this place. The ritual seemed to drink it all in, most of it seemed to be sucked up by The Butcher's cleaver, and I was suddenly very glad that we were going to be consuming the thing soon because leaving it here to drink up dark magic like that seemed like a bad idea. Luckily the holy aura of the girdle and belt seemed to be purifying the magic inside the circle to a large extent. Including that holy energy had been a good call.

As I chanted the words though the energy around us began to shift. Slow at first, just drifting a bit around the circle, then a bit faster. The faster the drift the further out the energy started to move, and as I spoke I realized why. The circle was forming a whirlpool in the magic of slaughter swamp. I could see so much like this, standing at the center of the ritual, the Swamp itself seemed to be resisting the pull, but my power was a law of nature. It said the ritual would work and so it would work. The energy around us was dragged in despite its resistance, like it was being dragged kicking and screaming into the vortex.

The whirlpool began to pick up speed and the candles and stones flared to life. The aura was so thick in the circle if it had been solid it would have been a liquid, but all the blood lust and death had been soaked out of the energy by the cleaver with the rest all purified by the two belts. The spell started to build, gaining momentum, and I could see something behind the ritual, a vague outline of something huge and powerful, but it felt...familiar. Like I was looking at myself. The rhythm of the magic finally reached its climax thirteen minutes past midnight and I finished the ritual with a flourish.

I felt something give way under the magic. I'd used my power more than a few times but I'd never seen any of the resulting abilities or objects work on this scale. Reality was being rewritten in front of me, and I somehow knew that if I hadn't been able to supply all this energy I wouldn't have seen this kind of shift in the world with my own eyes for a very long time. The world turned, moved just a bit on its axis by my power as if shifted by a giant lever and the magic snapped like a rubber band. The my girlfriend and my best friend changed forever, and the entire planet changed with them.

Slaughter Swamp August 2nd 2010 12:30 AM EDT

The aftermath of the spell left me feeling drained. It was odd because I hadn't taken any magic into myself or used any of my own, but the sheer act of moving all that power was like lifting a heavy weight. I was exhausted as hell. The circle was gone of course, burned up in the ritual, from what I could tell those bones came from creatures that didn't exist and not all of those stones had real world counterparts either. With them having exploded and burned up there was no chance of recreating the ritual for someone else.

Which given the ramifications of making a new race of people with magic was probably good all things considered. As Zee had said the character sheet had split into two identical sheets and each one had filled in with details. The girls themselves were in a kind of energy cocoon where the circle used to be, presumably being transformed into a new race of elves. I skimmed over the designation for the race itself. Race: Elf- Heavenly Punishment Tribe. The character sheets were more dungeons and dragons than the bare bones level up screen from the dungeon and they had plenty of information.

There was even a little lore section. Apparently Heavenly Punishment Elves were divine hybrids. Their ancestor had been a goddess of love and death. Sort of a "so beautiful it hurts" "love is a weapon" kind of lady. Aside from a natural disposition for archery and an inborn ability to teleport short distances, they were considered the most deadly and beautiful warriors in the elven kingdoms. Their beauty was a fatal lure for any mortal and any offense was punished with a taste of their holy lightning.

The race was defined by their fierce beauty and deadly speed and strength, though they were something of a glass cannon. Moved fast and hit hard but only a bit more durable than a normal person. As divine descendants Heavenly Punishment Elves didn't age past majority and because of their love goddess ancestor could decide when they wanted children, though they were limited to one baby per century. I was in awe. The details of this race were amazing, everything I'd been hoping for and more.

They had potent magic, though Zatanna's sheet included something called a medulla jewel which Artemis didn't have. I wasn't sure why but I suspected it had to do with her old evolved human race. Homo Magi were apparently distinct from magic using humans, though Zee never mentioned having a gem in her brain. Still it meant she should still be able to use her old magic style, which literally none of us had bothered to consider before she jumped into the ritual. I heaved a mental sigh of relief it worked out, I couldn't imagine what her dad would have done to me.

There was some sex appeal stuff too and their charisma apparently had a native ten per level increase. It was currently sitting at twenty one and thirty respectively after the transformation. Zee's was higher, probably because she was a more gregarious and friendly person as well as being just objectively better looking. Not that Artemis wasn't gorgeous but Zatanna was the kind of woman men wrote songs about. Even Artemis admitted Zee was prettier than she was. It seemed like the native transformation had tripled their base charisma.

Doing the math I cackled internally that the ritual apparently rated them out of ten and Artemis had been a seven. I was going to tease her mercilessly for that. The whole holy lightning thing was kind of amazing, apparently a mix of the lightning from the bow and the holy nature of the angel belt mixed with the divinity of the girdle. It seemed like a powerful skill and I was anxious to see them use it. They also each had three native abilities, with the holy lightning and teleportation being two.

The third was called fatal attraction, it provided a flat damage increase equal to their charisma. I imagined that was a mix of The Butcher's cleavers death aura and Aphrodite's Girdle. The relative fragility of their bodies was also somewhat offset by the resistances from the staff, which basically made them tougher against anything but physical damage. I was really jealous of them honestly, I kind of wished there had been enough energy for me to take part in the ritual.

I made a mental note to get a transformation ability for myself. I'd seen a really cool fallen angel one from some goth forum, but it had been crazy expensive. All in all their new stats were nothing to scoff at. Aside from charisma which sadly I didn't actually have, their abilities were all heavily boosted. Vitality was their lowest stat at a flat ten, with magic being highest for Zee at fifty and dexterity being highest for Artemis at thirty. That medulla jewel clearly had a crazy effect on Zee's magic. Artemis had twenty five strength and Zee was at fifteen, and her magic was at twenty while Zee's dexterity was the same.

All in all they were both way stronger than me, and the fucking magic stat increased damage as well as capacity so Zee was basically a walking cannon. I was foreseeing a much easier time clearing level three. As I stared at the sheets, comparing the new stats and descriptions I felt a subtle shift in the energy around me. The ambient magic in Slaughter Swamp was basically bottomed out though I could sense it starting to ooze out again, but even the thin energy around me was starting to writhe and shift. I turned to see the cocoons beginning to dissolve. The transformation was over.

I headed over to greet them bringing over the character sheets with me. The dissolving of the cocoons seemed to speed up as the proximity of the sheets grew closer, like they knew it was time to wake up. I admit I was a bit excited to see how this had all turned out. As the energy melted away the two girls stepped free of the cocoons. As I took them in I was admittedly shocked, they both looked amazing, Artemis was so gorgeous now that it was almost painful, though contrary to her wishes she apparently hadn't gotten a bigger butt.

But honestly I barely even glanced over her, my eyes were drawn to Zatanna, and they would not move. My girlfriend happened to be pretty much the epitome of my taste in women, she was perfect to me and I literally couldn't think of a more beautiful woman, but her new features were so overwhelming that I literally almost fell to my knees. Like Artemis her body hadn't changed, whatever charisma did it wasn't the old book standby of bigger tits. But despite her body being mostly the same she was a completely different person.

Her skin was still milk pale, but it looked somehow softer, like it was silk, and her hair rolled over her shoulders like pitch black thunderclouds of curls. Her eyes were still blue, but they'd gone from that stunning cerulean to an almost glowing electric blue that seemed almost alive and crackling. Like that holy lightning was dancing in her irises. Her lips were soft and delicate like rose petals, but full and her cheekbones were sharp but not overpowering and lead up to her new pointed ears.

She looked like the worlds most beautiful storm in human form, and I found myself so mesmerized I barely noticed the changes to her body until I forced myself to look. The impact was a bit less honestly, yes she had the body of a goddess, but she always had, her breasts were a bit perkier and her legs were more toned under the fishnets but the biggest change was the kind of feline grace she moved with now. She saw me staring and smiled wickedly stepping up to drape her arms around my neck. She leaned up and gave me a slow deep kiss, before pulling back and biting her bottom lip as she stared into my eyes.

Her face was flushed with excitement and something about kissing her was intoxicating. Like I was drunk on her or something. When she spoke her voice was still sweet and friendly, but it had a more musical quality to it. "This is...amazing. I feel amazing. You are amazing. I don't know how you did this but I know I've never heard of anyone doing something like this before. I feel like so much...more." She pulled me in for another deep kiss. "The chance to be a part of something like this. To feel this. I can't put it into words."

Artemis made a gagging sound off to the side. "I feel so overshadowed. I'm super hot now, though apparently being an elven sex goddess doesn't even take you up a cup size, but I have to stand next to...that." She was grumbling but I knew her well enough to hear her happiness in her voice. Artemis was excited. I passed them each their paper. They snatched them from me and pored over them, comparing notes and ooing and ahhing over their new powers. Artemis was very jealous of Zee's magic score. "Damn Zee, what's with this medulla jewel thing?"

Zee mostly just looked confused. "I...don't actually know. I've never heard anything about it before. I don't think daddy has one, or at least he never mentioned it." She grimaced. "Speaking of daddy I somehow doubt my new species will thrill him. Luckily I have a shit load of magic power now, I should be able to swing an illusion or something. I'm totally jealous of your dexterity though, mine must be low because I was so unathletic before." She shrugged. "Either way thank you both. I respect your need to keep some things secret but letting me part of this means a lot."

Artemis shrugged and pulled my girlfriend into a hug. "Hey don't sweat it. We're the only two Heavenly Punishment Elves in the world. That makes us sisters in a way. Besides you're sickeningly infatuated with Morgan and he's basically my brother so you'd be family sooner of later anyway." She shot Zee a wink, drawing a dark blush from my girlfriend, made even more obvious by her incredibly pale and delicate skin. Much like everything else she did, the blush looked pretty damn fetching on her.

But it seemed to be an after thought. She seemed mostly touched by Artemis's declaration. She stared at her with joy on her face for a minute then pulled her into a tight hug. "I've always wanted a sister! We are going to have so much fun! Thank you, thank you, thank you." It was easy to forget how isolated and alone Zee had been kept for her whole life, locked up in that big spooky house. It broke my heart to see how excited something like this made her.

Artemis for her part hadn't had the best luck with family and she looked joyful to have another shot, hugging her back tightly. I made a decision then. Zee was officially onboard whether she knew it or not. My power had turned her into a completely unique race, the first of her kind, and that meant we were all on the same boat here. Given how happy she ways about Artemis's declaration and how helpful she had been here I decided to do something I'd been incredibly torn about doing.

I was going to trust her. Artemis was the only person who knew about my power, but I'd decided to share what it could do with Zatanna, if nothing else she might be able to tell me more about it with all her magic knowledge. I just had to hope I was making the right choice this time. I cared about Zee a lot, and she wasn't Annabel. I'd been observing her steadily with my aura sight to make sure, something I'd never bothered to do much with Annabel, and I trusted her. It was time to let another person in on my biggest secret.

Shadowcrest August 2nd 2010 8:00 PM EDT

I expected her to be angry at me for hiding things. Or hurt or something, but Zee being Zee skipped all of that and moved onto geeking out. She was fascinated by my power, pacing and babbling about the details and how it might function and just generally being her amazing self. Admittedly with her new race features it was even more distracting than normal. Aside from being more toned her body wasn't actually different, but the way she carried herself was.

Watching her was mesmerizing, the grace and beauty and the way it made her ass stand out. Admittedly that last one had been on my mind before the transformation, my girlfriends dumptruck booty was a favorite viewing pleasure of mine, but somehow it was on a whole other level now. She snapped her finger in front of my face "Morgan! Focus! Sweetie it's very flattering how much you like my butt, but now is not the time! I have so many questions. How do your points work? How does your power know what is and isn't spam? Why spam?"

She was gleeful to the point of mania, and I vaguely predicted I might come to regret telling my girlfriend my secret for a whole other reason than betrayal. I was genuinely worried she might hound me to death with questions. I reached out and grabbed her wrist, yanking her into my lap. She squeaked and landed on me. "Ok, you're making me dizzy babe. Calm down. I told you I'd tell you what was going on and I'm perfectly willing to answer questions, though I might have less answers than you would like."

This close I was thunderstruck by her beauty. She had her new illusion necklace off since it was just us, and it was all I could do not to get lost in her eyes. I'd have blamed to ritual but honestly I found her beautiful to the point of distraction even before she took a level in sexy. She giggled a bit and took a deep breath. "Sorry. You're right." She wiggled in my lap, getting comfortable and leaning against me. Despite the physical changes her hair still smelled of lavender and chamomile. I loved that smell. "Ok, now, those three questions please, in order."

I laughed and kissed the top of her head, putting my arms around her. "Fair enough. Firstly the points seem to be some kind of universal power. They work for anything I want to use them for. Because of that I'm able to level in the dungeon which I can use to expand my point total. For you guys that's the magic stat. Yours is fucking insane now. You're at fifty which is almost ten levels of dumping points purely into magic. I suspect that being dungeon born elves so to speak you should be able to level now too."

Her eyes widened in excitement. "Wait really? That is so cool! I feel so strong right now already, I can't imagine getting more powerful!" She pulled my into a quick kiss. "This is so exciting! We can get stronger together and go on adventures and...oh I'm so excited! Keep going though, the points seem to be a native energy source, it's odd that it's so versatile and convenient but that could be subconscious. What about the other two questions? Why does your power only work on spam and how does it know?"

I shrugged. "That's what I meant when I said less answers than you might like. I have no idea about either. My power almost seems to be alive, or at least aware. Like it changes based on what I need at that moment. It's not a consciously directed thing. I've been trying to envision a life bar for weeks and it won't come up. I'd be willing to work with you to try to figure some stuff out, but honestly with the Court and all the nonsense with the Labyrinth it hasn't been a priority. Superpowers are weird, I just kind of accept it as it is."

She pouted at that, clearly unhappy with my lack of curiosity about the nature of power and it's metaphysical origin, but finally she rolled her eyes. "Well fine. I think it's weird not to be curious but I guess you do have bigger fish to fry." She frowned for a minute then her eyes lit up. "Oh! Daddy has his month League meeting on the eighteenth, we can go to Salem and visit my Uncle Kent! I'm his favorite so he won't tell daddy about us coming to see him and I bet he could help you learn something about your powers."

Honestly that sounded worrying, but out of my mask I wasn't wanted for anything so it should be safe enough, and we could bring Artemis and Reggie as backup. I said as much and Zatanna just smiled. "Of course! I want to introduce Uncle Kent to my new sister. He's known me since I was a little girl and he's taught me a ton about magic. I bet he'll be fascinated by use being Heavenly Punishment Elves now." She held up a hand as I opened my mouth "And yes, I remember we're supposed to tell him it was done by a shrine in the dungeon."

There wasn't a shrine that did that obviously, but since the dungeon was instanced no one could prove that. Things changed from person to person. In the end I shrugged. "Alright fine, we can do that." Of course assurances or no I was packing my Holiday pistol and I needed to make sure I got my new power before we left. I'd hit level five killing The Butcher and had dumped the resulting stats into my points bringing me up to twenty five a day (ten at noon fifteen at midnight) so I could afford it within two weeks for sure.

Zee squealed with happiness, cuddling against me and I smiled softly. The idea of introducing me to her Uncle was clearly important to her. My aura sight told me as much. I think because her dad was such a hard ass all the time she kind of thought of this as a trial run of meeting the parents. Speaking of which. "I actually wanted to talk to you about something else." My face flushed a bit. "My mom is going to be coming back to town from her cruise in the next few days. I was hoping you might...want to meet her."

She looked up at me wide eyed and I flinched, backtracking. "I mean if you want. No pressure or anything, you're just really special to me and I wanted her to get to know you because you're both important to me. But if it makes you feel weird meeting my mom this soon, I totally get that and I won't bring it up again. I just know she would love you and-" My babbling was cut off with a soft kiss, which she held until I stopped trying to talk. She pulled back from me hands on my face, her electric blue eyes boring into mine.

Her aura looked...intense. Like this was a huge deal and she wanted to get this right. Her face was serious. "I would love to meet your mom. Maybe we could have dinner together. I have to wait until the next time daddy leaves so it might be a bit last minute." Her face flushed and she leaned up to kiss me again. "I've never met a boy's mom before. I mean obviously you're my first boyfriend. It's just exciting. You talk about yours all the time and you love her so much. I hope she likes me." She smiled sadly. "I think my mom would have liked you."

Zee didn't talk about her mom much. I pulled her tighter against me. "Tell me about her. I haven't heard much but I know she was important to you. She must have been quite a lady to have raised a daughter as amazing as you." It was one of the reasons I couldn't really hate Zee's dad despite everything he'd inadvertently done to her by keeping her so isolated. What he and Zee had lost...I'd felt a flash of that watching Annabel die, but it was nothing compared to losing your wife of decades to cancer while you sat by and watched.

She smiled sadly. "She was amazing. Daddy was inspired by Superman to take up the hero game when I was real little. He was out so much of the time, but mom was always there with me. She was my whole world. She taught me how to read and write and taught me magic, she was Homo Magi like daddy and I though she was kind of retired. She would take me to the zoo and the aquarium and on adventures to other countries to see amazing things. Just field trips we took together so I could learn and see what life had to offer."

Her voice was hoarse talking about it, but I didn't interrupt. Sometimes you just needed to cry it out, to prick the wound and let it drain when it got uncomfortable. She stared out her bedroom window, the moonlight shining across her milk pale skin, making her look every bit the elf she was now. Otherworldy and perfect. "Every day was a new adventure. Every day was a fun experience. Mom wanted me to have the childhood she never did, and dedicated her whole life to making sure I got to really live. She did everything for me."

I stroked her hair and when I saw she was pausing I prompted her a bit. "You said the childhood she didn't have, did your mom grow up in a bad area?" Zee's eyes were shining and I knew she was going to cry soon. It felt like a knife in my chest seeing her so upset but I knew she needed this. I couldn't imagine losing my mom, and I could tell from how Zee was talking that Sindella had basically raised her on her own. She'd been every bit as important to her daughter as my mom was to me.

She took a deep shuddering breath. "Mom grew up in a sort of magical commune. A cult almost. They live in this secret city in Turkey. One day she got out and was exploring nearby and she ran into daddy fighting one of his old enemies. He saved her and she fell for him right there. They ran away together and had me and never looked back." Tears had started to fall from her eyes. "I used to ask her if she regretted giving up all the magic and wonder for a simple life with me and daddy, but she just said that we were more magical to her than an entire city of Magi could ever be."

Her tears were falling freely, but quietly. Not interrupting as she talked. She gave me a fierce look. "That's what you did for me Morgan. You came into my world and you rescued me, just like daddy did for mom. I always had sorcery around but you made things magical. After mom died daddy became so afraid, so paralyzed, that he didn't even see he was suffocating me. Hell even I didn't see it."Her voice was sad but resolute. "Don't get me wrong I love daddy and I know he does his best, but I never realize how confining this house was until I met you."

She put a hand to my cheek. "You put your lips to mine and suddenly I could breathe." She pulled back with a laugh, wiping her eyes. "Listen to me I sound crazy. I'm surprised you aren't already bolting for the door. But I just want you to know that you made the right choice to trust me. I love magic more than anything Morgan. And you're the one who brought the magic back to my life." I didn't know what to say to that. How to respond to that level of trust or intimacy, so I just held her tight. Apparently that was the right response, because her smile took my breath away. I wondered if this was what being in love felt like.

A bit of insight into princess in the tower, and the connection between two sad lonely people who found each other after a lifetime of having almost no one. I'm enjoying writing their relationship, to clarify something the pairing is set here and this relationship will effect the entire story for literally hundreds of chapters to come, so I'm putting in the time to set the foundation properly. Also I know some people disliked him confiding in Artemis, but I thought it was about time to tell Zee. Meanwhile in the advance chapters Morgan arrives at the auction with his crew. has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent.