It all started when I woke up from a nap on a bench. Insomnia and night shifts tended to be a horrible combo, but the economy hadn't been going well since last decade, and I was desperate to earn something resembling a stable life. A few gray hairs never meant much to me in the long run of things; as long as I relaxed afterward, I could catch up on whatever I wanted to do, and disregard pretty much everyone else. Very few people would notice my absence, and I rarely missed my quota by a small margin if at all, going to my wit's end to ensure I got everything done. My schedule was cramped, but my pathways rarely were, so I just kept at it. Even if I was practically breaking my body trying to make progress, I at least never felt trapped. Never felt as if I was going to be stuck in one place, even as my schedule demanded chaos.

Then I woke up and realized nobody was there. No one around to help, no one around to talk, not even a car on the street, even my work clothes and wallet were left intact and on me. I blinked a bit, wiping away the crust from my eyes as I groaned, standing up and taking a look at my surroundings in confusion. It was the middle of the day, so why was I alone? A thought that should've set me entirely into despair and confusion... but it just simply didn't. I was curious, rather, perhaps because I had indulged too much in fiction. I was even looking forward to immediately finding out the reason why.

So I walked, and as I did so, I noticed crystal and rock formations as I explored my surroundings, checking for every crevice and faraway detail to begin understanding what had happened. Formations that were unnatural to every extent imaginable and signs that should've told me what I was missing out on, but I just didn't listen. I didn't even raise a hand to touch or pick up anything. At the time, the feeling of sheer loneliness in a strange environment that looked nothing like what I was used to didn't register. The scenery I was in felt more like I was in a lucid dream of a place left unbuilt, of a world forgotten as construction machinery laid about. This wasn't surprising to me; I often dreamt of empty streets, as I always liked to imagine a world without people, so I could enjoy the solitude that comes with it. It was the kind of feeling that set me most at peace; like I was a spectator to humanity's forgotten triumphs.

Then I noticed somebody. He seemed to be some kind of... punk. Gang member? He was big and athletic-looking but also the only sign of life I could find, as there wasn't anyone else around besides myself. He seemed to be sorting through some kind of cargo that he had left on the ground while sporting a pair of modified gauntlets made of metal, designed to deal heavy-hitting damage based on how heavy they looked. To his right was a smaller, thinner guy that seemed nervous. They both wore some kind of helmets; pots reshaped into headgear perhaps? I stayed in the shadows, watching the exchange.

"Looks like we got the proper amount of dennies and ether crystals from here. We should head back; I heard from the others that there's an Ethereal roaming about that looks unnatural." The thin one said, keeping his focus on the big guy. "Rumor has it that it looks oddly human, and is a walking cloud of etheric darkness without any discerning features. Nobody has dared to approach or attack it yet, and I'm not sticking around to look for trouble."

"What, you scared of a small fry?" The big one chortles. "Here's one thing you should know, rookie: The smaller the Ethereal, the easier it is to take 'em out."

"I'm just saying, Damon." The thin guy urges on. "We shouldn't mess around with the unknowns. It could be-"

"We're in a literal unknown of a space, and you telling me that?" Even though I couldn't see his face, I could practically feel the annoyance. "Go piss your pants elsewhere, rookie. I'm going to finish up here so we can report to the boss later."

Sure enough, the rookie just sighed and walked away while grumbling something under his breath as Damon went back to checking inventory. Probably about it being his funeral? I couldn't hear him well. He didn't seem that important, so I just ignored him and walked up to the big guy, moving to get his attention. "Excuse me-"

The moment I spoke, he jolted as if he were shocked. "Gaah-!" He just about stumbled to the side, before focusing on me. "Who- what in the?!" He crawled backward in flight, but I didn't pick up on it.

"Hey, easy there." I reached down to grab his hand, swiftly trying to help him- be assimilated. "I just need something from-"

I noticed too late as my hands were made of shadows themselves. As he tried to rip my grip away from him, instead of simply slipping out, his arm... for lack of a better word, detached. After that, it was a blur, sheer panic and dread setting in, mixed with a twisted sense of disgusting euphoria. I tried my best to help him, but he was terrified to his core as he desperately fought against me, and everything I seemed to do seemingly put him in even more pain, causing him to scream even louder. Somehow though, we were combining, as the more I tried to fix him, the more I felt myself... becoming him, for lack of better terms until I saw the inside of his helmet.

I sat there for what felt like an eternity, trying to process the situation. Until the thin man returned, this time with a group of other people like him armed with various weapons, mainly crossbows and sticks with blades. The thin man himself was holding a crossbow, and aiming it at me. "Damon! What the hell is all that noise?! You sounded as if you were getting mauled!"

I said nothing for a few seconds as I looked around, before slowly getting up, trying to get used to my new body. "It's... nothing. I think I might just be feeling a bit ill right about now." I then dusted myself off, speaking in Damon's voice. "Too much time standing around here."

"Aren't you supposed to have a high ether aptitude?" He just stared at me for a while longer, before finally lowering his weapon. "...Then again, you haven't taken anything from the supplies yet in regards to corruption for a while. Head back to base; the last thing we need is you turning into a goblin or a maniac while raiding. Then the boss will be real pissed."

As they left, I looked down at my hands, noticing how much more... human they looked. "Goblin?" I thought aloud to myself as I began thinking. "How is it that a regular guy like Damon can turn into a small, green-skinned, and long-nosed goblin? That doesn't make any sense… unless I'm supposed to turn him into one. What happened to my body just before I reached out and touched him? What's happening with me…"

I then looked around as I tried to get used to my new body, holding my head, instinctually expecting a headache from the many questions I was bringing to myself, yet… nothing. My old stuff was on the floor, though the only thing that remained was the wallet that I had on me and... whatever remained of my work clothes after that struggle. I picked up the former and put it into Damon's pockets. "I'm surprised nobody noticed the mess. Or maybe they did, and are planning to interrogate me if I follow them..." I double-checked the scenery around me to ensure the coast was clear; and looked around some corners to see if anybody was still nearby. Nobody around. "I should run."

I didn't hesitate when I thought I was alone and quickly began just trying to get as far away as possible, making sure to grab Damon's stuff and check it later. I went up some construction elevators that were surprisingly still working, and went past some kind of weird portals, until eventually, I came to a dead end up at the top of a building, an unfinished office building of some sort. This was when I realized something, as I stared at the chaotic scenery before me.

The place I was at had a lot of construction going on, but nothing on the scale of what I was seeing in front of me, and likely far more than I was seeing with my own eyes at that moment. Construction machinery and framework buildings were everywhere, cranes, inert machinery, cars that were seemingly reduced to pieces, either by crashing, crushing, or simply being cut in half… it looked a lot more like an apocalypse rather than a dream all of the sudden. A nightmare, even, if it were a nightmare without any fire happening.

"I'm not dreaming about home... none of this is like home. Where am I really?" As the perplexing realization settled in, I heard some sort of strange noises behind me and spun on my heel to face a small group of... something.

Based on their appearances alone, they weren't human, but they certainly would give that thin man a lot of trouble. They looked like crystalized monsters of a type, only resembling a twisted reflection of humanity. Their 'faces' were replaced with black, abyssal voids that glowed with purplish energy, their bodies lined with nauseating lime and dull grey stone, with one of them having blackish shield arms. "They're like me from what I heard... but they don't seem friendly." Was all I could think of as I raised my gauntlets to fight, and almost as if in turn, the creatures then proceeded to rush me down, crystalized blades and shield arms at the ready, as only a couple stayed in the back, almost lurching.

Outnumbered as I was, though, I wasn't scared shitless. Anybody with Damon's body could handle this, and the creatures fought more like zombies holding weapons than actual fighters. I have muscle power, and the friendship of Newton's Law, after all, who was of great use as I weaved past a couple of blades, before grabbing two of the creatures and throwing them off the ledge. I felt some kind of spit land on my left shoulder, which caused my new body to convulse slightly before I hit one of them in the face with my knee, causing it to fall to the ground prone with its shield arms. I then looked at the one in the back, some kind of bird creature with a humanoid head that was spitting at me.

I countered in kind, side-stepping the spit as I lunged after the creature, pounding on it mercilessly before the creature with the shields came from behind, forcing me off it as I blocked its oncoming attack before using its momentum against it, throwing the creature on top of the bird-looking one before jumping up and slamming down on top of them, causing them to both... flash and slowly turn into purple dust?

A voice was heard inside my head shortly after inhaling it, causing me to jump in shock. 'Mommy, daddy, where are you? Everyone around me turned into these scary monsters. I just want to live like I did before, free and as beautiful Major Mitchell and her pink crest…'

"The hell was that? Am I hearing a ghost?" I stood up and looked around, confused and worried as to why a child is in a place like this, checking myself for injuries and noticing the spit had somewhat burnt the flesh of this body without me realizing it. Not even a shred of pain, only that something landed there. But then I heard more of them coming from within the building, before realizing that the more I fought, the more enemies there could be… as these creatures seemed to not like humans.

So I took the only obvious option and ran before I got overwhelmed.

More and more of those creatures appeared in my way as I tried to find some place of reprieve, my brute strength being more than enough to overwhelm them even with my little combat experience. As Damon had said earlier, there were larger ones that could tear me apart, fighting with much more skill and strength than the creatures I fought initially, and forcing me on the defensive as I tried to make sense of their movements. The more I fought, the more injuries I'd eventually take even if I was careful, and the more creatures I'd face all while dealing with more of the random voices sounding scared and depressed. Soon enough, desperation was slowly, yet surely settling in, as I had gone from using a perfectly fine, healthy body, to one that was having obvious wounds in several places, some from direct attacks, some from spit.

Eventually, I found myself surrounded and outmatched, no way to escape much less a way to outlast them. Before I could escape the building, some kind of four-legged animal creature appeared that looked like some kind of armored lion, about roughly three times the size of an average person and with the same bottomless voids that all the other creatures had, except it could shoot them from its mouth. It was incredibly ferocious, much faster than me too, and I wasn't prepared for its vicious assault, causing all sorts of gashes and claw marks on Damon that made him bleed heavily. Not to mention the fact that Damon's punches did nothing to the thing, as it seemed to almost play around with me.

I needed out NOW.

"Where the hell do I go through though?" Panic began to settle in as I realized this would be the swift end of Damon; before almost as if heeding thoughts alone, I heard something that made absolutely no sense from a wall near me. It had the sounds of cars coming from it like there was some sort of busy street, and it was coming from a wall I swear looked slightly off, but I couldn't see it precisely. So seeing as I couldn't place my finger on it, I threw my whole body at it, hoping I get the least lethal out of the three options that this gamble presented me.

I landed in front of some kind of street prone, which seemed to finally have signs of normal life from the outside of it. The time was the afternoon, I saw cars and people walking about from the alleyway I found myself in, seemingly minding their own business as if there wasn't any threat about... or, as I looked behind myself, apparently a humongous void wall that seemed to stretch up to the skies themselves. I stared at it in silence.

"...This is one funky ass, shit ass dream I'm in," I grumbled to myself, before deciding to take my helmet off and make my way to the streets. It didn't matter at this rate; the most important thing was only to keep on moving. After all, it's not like there's anything else waiting for me on this street.

I saw a construction site up ahead. "Miles away, but worth a shot if anything else. Maybe I could get answers there?" I used some of Damon's supplies to heal myself up; apparently, he had carried some equipment to help deal with wounds, so after wrapping the wounds up in bandages, as well as spraying them with some AGONIZING antibiotics from a blue spray canister that felt like potent acid that I just put on myself for no reason, I made my way towards the construction site.

Little did I know, I would get more than I asked for.