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Stranger Than Fiction (Worm Tinker of Fiction SI) by Throwaway1971

Books » Private Rated: M, English, Romance, Words: 110k+, Favs: 105, Follows: 131, Published: Dec 24, 2023

5Chapter 5: Fifth Page

Disclaimer: I own Jackshit

AN: Ok, firstly, before anyone says anything, yes, I'm alive... ish. Well, either that, or the Necromancers were slower than usual, God knows that they sure weren't helping me write this chapter, and I'm still not sure about how well some of it came together, but there are only so many times one can pull their hair out before one goes completely bald and/or insane, yes?

Secondly, MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! I hope you all have a very, Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year, hopefully, this should be a decent opening for it. Enjoy!

XXX

In truth, I didn't manage to go through the rest of my shopping list. Things had to be prioritised, and someone breaking into my apartment was a hell of a lot more important than a few odds and ends, even if I might need them for some future endeavors. As such, it didn't take more than a thought to determine what to do next.

My face didn't even twitch as I smoothly shifted track, altering direction towards one of the many exits to the market as SECOND clicked and whirled in my mind. Multiple feeds sprang to life in my mind as a map was dragged to the forefront. A red line appeared on it, shifting through a dozen configurations as the line moved from street level to the rooftops as speed was prioritised over subtly as different rules of engagement took precedence. Finally, the line settled, connecting me to my apartment as it shifted from a 2D to a 3D projection, its many details only possible thanks to the growing sensor network that was spreading through the city.

Icons appeared along that line, a timeline following as I took a turn out of the market, leaving it behind and walking down a side road. Going from a sedate walk to more of a power walk, sensors checked the world around me as I shifted down a side alley as soon as I got the all clear, no one watching and nothing observing. The moment I was out of sight from the street behind me, I dropped all pretence of sedateness, picking up speed until I was at a dead sprint, my footsteps only muffled thanks to the traces of Biotics I was pulling up, lightening me as I sped up further. Ahead of me, a drain cover opened as I swung the straps of my backpack off one shoulder, the other strap falling into the same hand as the carrier bag in my right hand. The cover hadn't even opened completely before both bags were suddenly in the air, having been thrown into an arc that would land them in the hole.

Free from the extra weight, artificial muscles in my legs pulled taught before releasing all the stored energy in a single motion. Suddenly airborne, I had enough time to look down as the drain cover fully opened, allowing a Worker-Drone to snatch both bags from mid-air, before disappearing down below once more in a flicker of motion. At the same time, my body rippled as I twisted my body around, foot impacting a wall before kicking off once more in the opposite direction, the force being enough to carry me onto the rooftop of the building opposite. Clothes disappeared in the same motion, my body slipping into, what I called, 'action mode,' leaving my me looking like a caricature of a man, covered in a minute hex-pattern as my form shimmered and disappeared from sight. Biotics flared once more, lightening me as nano-weave muscles allowed me to laugh at the square-cubed law.

Enhanced reaction times and sensor-augmented, path-finding algorithms caused my surroundings to blur passed me, even as I noted them down with perfect clarify. Every step of the way, I could see the path dynamically changing to take advantage of a dozen little factors that all helped cut down on travel down. Here, momentum and Biotics meant I skipped over the entire rooftop of one building and onto another. There, a low wall was perfectly placed to let me rebound, changing direction and wasting less energy and momentum as a result. A dozen little things all making a big difference to just how long it would take me to get back to my apartment, to find out just what the hell was going on.

And even as I moved, jumped, skidded and flipped over the rooftops of Brockton Bay, I was still very much aware of what was happening in my apartment. The sensors I'd installed in my apartment may not have been as advanced, or evolved, as those that the Typhon Hive had deployed in my workshop, but they worked for most things. They couldn't tell me if someone was a Parahuman or not, but, with SECOND crunching the data, figuring out things like gender and age range was certainly possible, even if they were covered in loose clothes, hoodies, gloves, boots and balaclavas. Not to mention, it was also fully possible for them to give me a live, 3D stream of what was going on in my apartment as it happened. Something that, while helpful, was also adding to the mental list of questions that were floating through my mind as I watched the two female burglars.

Admittedly, my apartment really didn't have all that much of value lying around in it: A few notebooks filled with old designs for clockwork toys, some books from a range of genres, a small stash of money, and a few other bits and pieces. Nothing truly valuable, but a few seconds of observation showed that, in actuality, these two weren't after anything of monetary value. Or, at least, not primarily. One of them quickly find my stash of hidden notes, rolled up and taped to the underside of a kitchen drawer, only to slide a few notes free from the roll before putting the drawer back in place and seemingly undisturbed. While that was happening, the other had slipped over to the cabinets and was going through them, pulling out tins of Tuna and Spam, jars of herbs and spices, tubs of evaporated milk, before placing them into one of the backpacks the two had brought with them.

Hands moved fast, with methodical precision that told me that either these two weren't new to this, that they were just naturally this fast, or a mixture of the two. Just watching them, I was leaning more towards that last option, more than anything else, especially after the pattern in their work started to become more obvious as I watched them. For everything they took, they always left the majority, never taking from the front of any groups of items, and never even touched singular items unless there were a dozen others that were also available. SECOND ran the numbers, data-mining information as I jumped over an Air Conditioning unit, the arc of my jump letting me land in a shadowed alley as Eezo flared, lightening my body until I landed without a sound.

Walking out of the alley, Nano-weave dermal layers rippled and shifted, reverting me back to my original appearance as I gave the appearance of looking both ways before crossing the road. With every step, SECOND compiled more information as I drank it in, giving me a greater picture of just how smart these two were. Based on that same information SECOND was digging up and presenting me with, there was good odds that what they were doing was a memory trip. Basically, they were only ever taking from places that would have been out of immediate view, or notice, and unless someone had a perfect photographic memory, wouldn't realise were empty until much later. By that point, it was good odds that someone would be more willing to believe that they might have miscounted, or misremembered, how many tins of Tuna or Spam they'd packed away. And given that they had gone for my apartment, good odds were that they'd been watching and had guessed that I'd been away for a while, or would be awhile for a while longer, making it very likely that I'd just shrug off any inconsistencies I might have seen after coming back.

If it wasn't apparent before that these two were not the run-of-the-mill burglars, then it was now, especially since the Burglar Alarm had yet to go off.

Heading through the front door of the apartment block, I quickly reached the stairs and started climbing, taking three steps in stride as I went. By the time I reached the third floor landing, my two uninvited guests had finished clearing out what they wanted from the kitchen and had split up, one having padded through to my bedroom, while the other had gone for the bathroom. By the time I'd made it to my own front door, the one in the bathroom had already finished scanning through the few cupboards present, having grabbed a few tubs of medicine and some unopened bars of soap bars. At the same time, the one in my bedroom had just started looking through my cupboard, pulling out a few things before packing them into their own bag, while seemingly checking the cupboard itself for any false surfaces or hidden compartments.

However, while interesting to watch, neither of them got much further as I inserted the key into the front door and turned, unlocking it. The moment the lock turned, I found my interest growing once more as both intruders froze for an instant, having apparently heard it from the other side of the apartment, over the sounds of the busy street outside. The one in the bathroom didn't even wait for the door to open fully before she was in motion, jolting from the bathroom to the bedroom in near-silence. Something made even more impressive by the fact she was carrying a backpack full of items, but had managed to pack it tightly enough that a baseline Human wouldn't have heard anything.

Unfortunately for both of my intruders, I was far from a baseline Human.

In-built sensors were brought had been brought to bear from practically the moment I'd speed walked into the apartment block, delivering a level of detail that the older sensor net just couldn't match, as I stepped into my apartment. Closing the door and locking it behind me, I made a show of looking around as a mass of nanotech formed in my hand, shifting until it took the appearance of a duffle bag filled with clothes from a long trip as I carried on, into the rest of the apartment. Data flowed from sensors as I moved, putting down the mass of nanotech on top of the living area table as I advanced towards the window.

"What the hell...?" I muttered aloud softly, looking towards the window as I moved towards it, putting on an act for the two intruders as one of them stood by my bedroom door, peering through the thin crack between the door and it's frame. "Has this been open the whole time...?"

Peering out the window as I approached it, the method of entry became obvious as the first thing I saw was the rooftop of another building on the other side of a thin alley that ran down the side of the apartment block. Relatively speaking, any moderately healthy and fit person could have made the jump across, the hard part would be not immediately falling and breaking a leg, at the very least. The outside of the apartment block was pretty bare of handholds, not devoid of them, but not enough for someone who wasn't a professional free-hand climber or parkour expert could do. The window itself was probably the easier part to figure out, since I could see where the two had peeled back the window's seal before physically unlocking it by sliding the locking bolts back.

Pulling the window closed behind me, I turned back to the apartment and headed for the bedroom, detaching the nanotech mass that had formed my jacket as I went. The moment I came into view, the intruder at the door jumped back, diving for the cupboard and pulling it closed behind her, while the other slide under the bed. This close, and getting closer with every step, there was very little that I couldn't see as SECOND started running down-to-the-molecule sensor sweeps, DNA analysis and comparisons, and a dozen other types of scans on both of them, hijacking processing power from Typhon to speed things up. Air sampling easily picked out the pheromones that were quickly filling my bedroom, leaking out through the crack in the door as internal processes converted them into information that I could more easily understand, especially when combined with heart rate readings, pupil dilation and a thorough scan of what was currently racing through both of their bloodstreams.

In short, they were cornered, they were stressed, they were panicking, and were on the edge of a full-on fight-or-flight response. Even as augmented as I was, there was definitely some potential for things to go badly wrong, something that was made even worse by the fact that my two intruders weren't baseline Humans either. They weren't Parahumans, as any Shard connection would have been visible to me well before I'd even entered the apartment block, but their DNA showed signs of alteration. SECOND was still running through the data in the back of my head, but there was a high probability that both of them had been Designer Babies, gene-engineered from the ground up to be better than the rest of Humanity.

Suddenly, this whole situation was taking a darker turn when one considered the implications of that, along with the well known stances of the government in regards to any Bio-Tinker capable of doing just this, never mind their potential creations. And now, I had two scared, cornered Bio-Tinkered Humans in my apartment to deal with, and I doubted either of them were in much of a talkative mood.

Well, here's hoping they would be a bit more talkative after being shown exactly why it was a bad idea to break into my apartment.

Stepping into the bedroom, I idly threw my jacket on to the bed as I sighed aloud, keeping a close eye on the positions of both girls as I moved around to the foot of the bed and opened the small chest I kept there. Kneeling down and with the chest open, I was hidden from the sight of both girls as I quietly laid down on the ground before disappearing from sight and hearing as I crawled around to the other side of the bed. With both girls focused on where they expected me to be, having disappeared behind the chest, neither of them was paying attention to the rest of the room as much. As such, I took the one under the bed by complete surprise when I reached out, grabbed her, and pulled her out from under the bed as I turned visible once more. She barely had a chance to yelp before she was suddenly being held up in the air by my right hand holding her by the neck.

"Now that we're done playing 'hide and seek,' you mind-" That was about as far as I got, before the fist of the other girl who'd previously been hidden in the cupboard slammed into my jaw hard enough to break a baseline Human's jaw entirely. My head rolled with the punch, if only to prevent bones from being broken, as my free hand came up to catch the follow-up side kick that had been aimed at my stomach in a flash of motion.

"Let her goooOOARGH!?" Was about as far as my attacker got, before I used my new-found grip on her leg to flip her onto the bed. To her credit, aside from the squawk of surprise, she reoriented very quickly as she bounced back on to her feet as the mattress launched her back into the air and back at me, only to be launched back once more with a front kick to the gut. The impact launched her back into the wall on the opposite side of the room, forcing all the air from her lungs in a single motion as she struggled to stand, one hand on the wall for support while the other cradled her gut. Looking up a moment later, she had all of a second to recognize the mass of nanotech I'd thrown at her before it impacted her straight in the face, knocking her unconscious as her head slammed into the wall before collapsing to the floor.

With that done, I turned my attention to the other girl still dangling from my hand, who'd yet to say a word beyond grunts and growls, but had been trying desperately to get free by clawing at my arm and stabbing any pressure point within reach. Key word being 'trying,' since she wasn't having a whole lot of success with that, considering that, at this point, I was basically a walking mass of Lovecraft-infused nanotech. Sighing once more, I looked back at the girl in question as my hand shifted slightly.

"Maybe after you two have a nap, we'll actually be able to have a proper conversation." I remarked as my finger's lengthened, wrapping around three quarters of the girl's neck and letting me do a one-handed sleeper hold. For a moment, the girl's actions became frantic as I watched her eyes widen with desperation, nails pressing at my 'skin' through thick gloves and legs kicking at me, only for the movements to become sluggish as she quickly ran out of air. Within seconds, the second girl was unconscious as I released some of the pressure on her neck, letting her breath more easily as I pulled her closer, slinging her over one shoulder and I walked around the room to pick up the other one.

Now, here's hoping that this didn't blow up too badly in my face...

XXX

The moment that she regained consciousness, she forced her body to remain still and keep her breathing shallow, but constant. Hard-earned experience and practice helped, letting her project the illusion of unconsciousness while her mind went to work, cataloguing, first, the condition of her own body, and then the world around her. Quickly, a mental image of her own condition started to form in her mind's eye as she documented aches and pains that ran through her body. Two were distinctly prominent among them, the first being the slight faded, burning sensation from her lungs and diaphragm, while the other was the slight throbbing in the back of her head. Nothing serious, but the latter of the two was definitely making it just a bit more difficult to think clearly, at least until the pain went down, but she felt fine aside from that.

Knowing that, she turned her attention outwards, taking in what she could without opening her eyes, or giving away that she was awake to any watchers. Immediately, she noted that she had been propped up against something, her legs out straight in front of her and her hands pulled behind her back. Bands of some kind wrapped around her wrists, ankles and shins, preventing her from moving to any real degree, while something else wrapped around her hands, keeping them curled into tight fists and preventing her from trying to untie herself. Further, her facemask was missing and her hood had been pulled down, showing her face to the world and letting her hair hang freely as it brushed against her exposed neck. Thankfully, that was all that seemed to be missing, with the rest of her clothes being present and accounted for. Something that her sister seemed to share, if the weight and shapes pressing against her side were anything to judge by. Regardless, the subtle scent of her sister's choice of shampoo for the day was a reassurance in its own right.

Still, she hated how relieved she felt at that, trapped and bound as they both apparently were, but at least it confirmed that neither of them were about to be raped, at least, at the moment. Something that wasn't as unrealistic as some might believe, given that she was well aware of her own looks, and was also well aware of the kind of crimes that escaped notice in the less pleasant areas of Brockton Bay.

With the condition of herself and, more importantly, her sister confirmed, she turned her attention outwards. The sound of paper being flicked and the slight creek of a sat-on chair were immediately obvious, telling her that their captor was in the same room as them, reading a book, of all things. Not that it really helped her, all that much, with her hands bound and tied behind her back. Even with the fact that she could still feel the Swiss Army knife pressing into her side, she couldn't think of any way she could reach for it without giving away that she was, in fact, awake. Or, at least, waking up.

Then again, a part of her considered, would it even do any good? Her head might still be throbbing, but she hadn't been hit hard enough to have forgotten her previous encounter with her current captor, and how badly it had gone. In all honesty, looking back on it with a head no longer clouded with adrenaline, fear and desperation, she could easily see just how outmatched they had been right from the start. Even with the enhanced capabilities that they'd both been born with, neither of them had stood much of a chance against their current captor, let alone even managed to inconvenience him in the slightest.

Punches that should have broken bones, and clawing fingers that should have gouged out long trails of flesh, had had next to no effect. In fact, if he hadn't let his head roll with her punch, she was very sure that her hand would have been broken, at the very least, given the utter lack of reaction he'd had from everything else. The number of things on Earth Bet that could do all, or at least some, of those things could be counted on one hand with fingers to spare, and left her, and her sister's, luck for picking the one apartment out of the entire block with a Parahuman living in it. And then, for having the luck to still be in that same apartment for when he came back, after having been gone for the past few days.

A Parahuman that now had both her, and her sister, at his mercy.

It was that realization that sent a chill down her spine as classifications flashed through her mind, Brute and Mover being the most apparent as she remembered the course of their previous... Encounter. Thinker might have been a possibility, but there was always the chance that wasn't the case, and he might have been observant enough, and had a good enough memory, to notice something out of place. It was optimistic and naive thinking, but, if it meant that her captor didn't have one more edge over her and her sister, then she'd pray for it to be so with all her heart, with everything she had.

Still, they might have had a chance, one helped by their potential location in the kitchen of the apartment, if she recalled correctly. That still left the twin problems of their bindings and the Parahuman in the room, but maybe...

"You can stop pretending, I know your awake." The words came out of nowhere, spoken casually, but the effect they had on her couldn't be understated as her mind ground to a halt for an instant. Possibilities flashed through her mind in that same instant, trying to understand how her captor might have known before considering Occam's razor. In this case, the simplest answer to her current problem was that her captor, along with being a Brute and Mover-capable Parahuman, was some kind of Thinker with some degree of enhanced senses. Frustration flared within her for a moment, only to be brutally repressed under a sea of icy calm and serenity a moment later. Whatever happened next, letting her frustration and fears of potential 'what-ifs' effect her judgment would not be allowed, especially with her sister's life in the balance.

Sighing aloud, she opened her eyes as she sat up properly, as much as her restraints allowed, so as to not be slumping over her sister. Rapidly, her eyes adapted to the light levels in the wider room as enhanced peripheral vision let her take in details without ever shifting her stare from the source of the voice, her captor. Looking at him now, she couldn't help but feel some level of dissonance between his appearance and his previous actions as he sat at the table just opposite her. Putting his book down on the table, he turned to regard her fully, meeting her eyes and giving her the first clear view of him she'd had without her body flooded with adrenaline and her heart pounding in her ears.

As their eyes met, she couldn't help but notice just how... Average, her captor looked. Brown eyes and hair, along with no truly defining features or scars, created a sense of blandness despite the objective understanding that her captor didn't look too bad. Likewise, his choice of clothing was just as average-appearing as his features, a generic grey T-shirt and pair of jeans with no visible brand labels, with a black jacket hanging from the back of his chair. It was an appearance that seemed to be sculpted to be ignored and forgotten in short order... Something that made her previous experience with her captor all the more terrifying as implications started coming together in her mind.

This wasn't the face of some random person, Parahuman or not; This was the face of someone who didn't want to be noticed, and had gone through a lot of effort to make it so. For what reason, she couldn't even begin to guess at, but the fact that both her and her sister had stumbled straight into him, wasting all that effort, did not bode well for them.

"I take it, I have your full attention?" He spoke, voice still casual and calm sounding, but still seeming to carry some undercurrent of... Something, that sent a chill up her spine, triggering some subconscious instinct that, even now, was screaming only a single thing to her: Danger.

"... Yes." She uttered, her throat and mouth suddenly dry as she licked her lips, thoughts spinning in her head as she tried to figure out what to do next, even as what-ifs spun off inside her mind, painting grim pictures of what could-be.

"Good, that makes things simpler." He stated as he flipped the book in his hand closed, before placing it down on the table in front of him as he turned to face her fully as he continued after a short pause. "To put it bluntly, both you and your sister have left me in something of a predicament, since both of you now know something that I'd rather be kept secret. Killing you both would be the simplest, and easiest, way to ensure my secret remains a secret, but that leads to its own problems, such as how to cover up the deed and dispose of the dead bodies without being caught. However, that still leaves us with more than a few options..."

"'Options?" She repeated warily, his easy identification her sister's relation with her, and the casual way he spoke of murdering both of them putting her on guard. Even so, there was little she could do at this point beyond play whatever game her captor wanted, hence, the obvious question.

"Two, at the very least." Her captor calmly explained. "Option one is that, once this discussion is over, you and your sister leave with whatever supplies you might need, preferably to another city, and we never interact with one another again. No contact in any way, shape or form, so long as both sides keep what they've discovered here, today, a secret for the rest of their days under the threat of a form of mutually assured destruction. You don't talk about what happened during our... Encounter, and I don't talk about the fact that there are Bio-Tinkered, Designer Beings running around. Simple as that."

While she was very tempted to simply demand option one right off the bat, she stayed her hand. Getting her sister to safety was her top priority, but leaving both of them living with a sword of Damocles hanging over them, one that could fall as a consequence of even a single slip-up or moment of emotional instability, was not something she wanted for her. This went doubly so when one considered what was at stake. The PRT and Protectorate already had harsh rules and regulations in place for anything that even remotely resembled Bio-Tinkering, and came down hard on anyone that attempted such, regardless of what they'd done or made, member or not. Assuming, of course, that the PRT and Protectorate even gave said Bio-Tinkers a chance for due process and a fair trial, if they decided you'd broken one of them. She still remembered the records she had read once, detailing the many examples of Bio-Tinkers in the early days of Parahumans that had chosen to 'resist arrest,' forcing the PRT and Protectorate to 'put down' both the Bio-Tinkers and their creations.

"... And the other option?" She cautiously inquired as variables ran through her brain, trying to work out the pros and cons of the option she already knew against whatever this new option might be, and whether or not it would be worth it to ensure her sister's safety.

"Option two, is that you and your sister come work for me, and comes with a rather extensive list of potential bonuses and perks that include, but aren't limited to, a new identity and protection from your progenitor, one Henry Lawson, I believe." Whatever she was expecting, this was not it as her mind first stuttered at the offer of employment, then staggered at the mention of perks and the offer of a new identity, but halted completely at the mere mention of her male DNA-donor. So great was her shock that she wasn't even able to maintain a neutral expression, shock overriding her locked features as her lips parted and jaw dropped as her mind tried to reboot after the hammer blows it had just taken.

"How...?" Was all she managed to squeeze out, still trying to process what had just been said as her wide eyes took in her captor as a sly smile played over his features.

"Facial recognition software can spot family resemblances, and there are a lot of old pictures of people still floating around the internet. Having a series of programs run a search through the various social media and news sites for any potential matches, or resemblances, eventually turned up a picture of Mr. Lawson. From there, a bit more discrete digging found archived copies of old news articles, talking about a potential connection between a long-dead Bio-Tinker and Mr. Lawson, before being retracted under accusations of Libel and Defamation. Given the dates involved, from the reports I was able to dig up, my guesses as to how old the two of you are, and your expression, I'm assuming I'm correct?"

"I..." For once in a long time, she was honestly struck speechless as her enhanced mind took in the train of logic and investigation, struggling to imagine the true scale of her captor's capabilities that was just implied oh-so-casually to her. It boggled the mind, leaving her reeling even as thoughts ran at lightning speed, in an effort to understand how the situation had diverged so suddenly from what she'd expected, to... Whatever this was. However, slowly, and with great force of effort, she forced down the competing thoughts that circled in her mind, driving her to near-distraction and preventing her from focusing on the important details in the maelstrom of information she'd just had dumped on her.

"... If I... If we, agree to work for you, you'll protect us from our... Father, and provide us with new identities? Just like that?" She asked, feeling a thread of traitorous hope bloom within her heart as she voiced the question as she licked her lips, mouth suddenly very dry. Unconsciously, her eyes flickered over to her still slumbering sister, her face a younger reflection of her own, a result of effectively being clones of one another, produced at differing times.

"Just like that." Her captor repeated with a nod as a soft, slight smile played across her lips as his eyes held a seemingly knowing glint to them, the only confirmation she needed to know that her action had been seen. It filled her with dread and dreadful hope in equal measure, the thought that her captor might be sympathetic to their plight, but this...? This offer was just too good to be true, even if it was given while she lay there, a captive audience with no way to escape.

"And... And what would... What would I need to do, in exchange? For the both of us?" As she spoke once more, she measured her words, dropping her voice down until it could be considered seductive as she pressed her chest as far forwards as she could, moving her arms to pull her hoodie tight against it even as she shifted her weight slightly. The effect was obvious, even with the normally loose and baggy clothing she'd chosen to wear, now pulled tight to showcase her well-toned figure.

Her actions were just as much as question, to go along with her words, as they were an offer. A part of her felt disgusted by what she was offering, but the deal being offered was one she couldn't turn down, not with the implied, and semi-confirmed, capabilities that her captor, soon-to-be-employer, held. Plus, she wasn't completely blind, she could see the writing on the wall and knew how attractive her and her sister were. Others had tried something similar in the past, but had never been able to measure up to the grand promises they'd been all too willing to proclaim to the heavens. At least this time, it seemed to be no idle boasting or bragging, which made her all too willing to make the first move, even if it meant offering herself as a metaphorical sacrifice.

However, instead of reacting how she expected, with some manner of grin or self-satisfied smirk, her captor frowned with narrowed eyes. A flick of motion caught her eye, his finger twitching and she felt her own eyes suddenly widen as she felt her restraints disappear. Pulling her arms in front of her, she stared down at her now-free wrists in incomprehension, trying to understand just what had happened, only to snap back to the present as her captor spoke.

"While I... Appreciate the offer, that wasn't what I had in mind. " Her captor stated, instantly shattering her assumptions as he stood from his chair, walking over to her before offering a hand down to her. Tentatively, she took it, still trying to understand what was going on, even as her captor pulled her to her feet, continued onwards as he did so. "To put it bluntly, while there are a lot of things that I can do on my own, there are also more than a few things that I can't, either because of a lack of resources, or not having the right kind of resources to use. And while I can use what I've got to get things done, for the things I have in mind, that would be the equivalent of using a nuclear weapon to dig a flower bed. You and your sister, on the other hand, have already shown yourselves to be self-sufficient, intelligent, methodical, careful, and, most of all, subtle. That, more than anything, was why I was offering to employ you both."

"... I see..." She offered absently in return, taking a moment to go over the new information and alter her own views accordingly. "... You mentioned 'perks and bonuses,' correct? What would those be, exactly? And how would your offer of protection and new identities fit into them?"

"Comparing me to the competition?" Her soon-to-be-employer offered jokingly, drawing a snort from her in return.

"You already saw what I was willing to do to protect Oriana, and you already turned it down, so anything else you're offering will just be bonuses on a deal that would have still been cheap for twice the price." She remarked firmly, nodding her head to emphasis just how serious she was.

"Then I'll try not to disappoint." Her employer remarked with a smile, offering a hand across the table. "You can call me Nathan, if you want."

Smiling a true smile, for what felt like the first time in eons, to someone not her sister, she reached back across and grasped the hand in return, shaking it.

"Then you can call me Miranda."

XXX

It took Oriana a few minutes longer than Miranda to wake up, but, after calming Oriana down, apologizing for choking her out and informing her of what I was offering, the next few hours were spent in discussion as I explained what I was willing to offer in exchange for their services as my... Agents? Subordinates? Enforcers? Something to that effect. They asked questions about what I was willing to do to protect them, how I was going to give them new identities, what kind of perks I offered, what kind of bonuses could they expect, and many more things beyond that. They were methodical and thorough with their questions, highlighting once more why I was hiring them, even if it had been more of a spur of the moment decision. However, for all that the conversation was pleasant, that did not detract from the fact that, had SECOND not been keeping me calm, I would have probably collapsed to the floor in a mixture of horror and dread.

I mean, really?!

I've already got the Entities, their Shards and Cauldron to deal with, but, somehow, I find myself meeting Miranda Lawson, and her sister, who are both Bio-Tinkered designer beings, who had both run away from their father, Henry Lawson. Even as I talked with the two girls in question, I still struggled to understand just what this all meant, both now, and in the long term. Did that mean that I on a version of Earth Bet that was located in a Mass Effect universe? Did that mean that the Reaper Cycle was just as real here as the Entity's own Cycle? That the Reapers were real? Were they the basic canon-Reapers? Or were they the dread-inspiring God-Machines that some fanfics had portrayed them as? That the Leviathans were real? Was I suddenly going to run into Human members of the Normandy crew? Was I going to run head first into Shepard the next time I went for to the library, or something?

Those questions, and more, were just the start of my worries as my thoughts circled back to my own abilities, knowing that the train of logic should fill me with a sense of mounting dread as more possibilities filled my mind. For instance, did that mean that, along with Charon being an iced over Mass Relay, a hidden colony of Migou on Pluto? The Deep Ones? Was this the prelude to even more things suddenly cropping up randomly, making things ever more complex?

By the time the two girls had left my apartment, bags full of supplies, satisfied with the answers they'd gotten and willing to give me some time to get the ball rolling on what I'd already promised them, my mind was still going around in circles. Questions were generated from questions, and every possibility was giving me plenty to worry about as nightmare scenes played out in my brain for several minutes, until I pulled myself back from it. Forcibly, I pushed the possibilities that the Lawson sisters represented to one side, locking them away for the time being as I moved away from my front door, having just stood there after the girls had left, and retook my seat at the table. Exhaling as I took a seat, I slumped back into the seat as I looked up at the ceiling, questions still raging through my mind, but manageable for the time being as plans started to spin in my mind.

Already, possibilities started floating through my mind, not creating answers, but possible solutions as I considered the challenges I now faced, if my worst fears were true. Webs of thought lanced out as I linked with the Ceph Hivemind, transferring orders, instructions and command-chains. Instantly, I felt them get to work as the number of Minds started growing rapidly as new Drones entered production, followed by the growing discussions between Minds. Even from this distance, I could feel them, already gathered in council and running over the new data I was injecting into the Hivemind, calculating potential paths of evolution even as I handed them information on a new type of Magic, one that offered to be game-changing in its own right.

And yet, it was only the beginning.

Standing from my seat, I rose with a clap of my hands, a slight smile on my face as new ideas flickered over my mind, synergies between different tech-bases and what they could do when combined in just the right manner. In all the sudden bleakness I'd just discovered, it was a bright spot, and, in all honesty, I'd take what I could get.

XXX

AN: Well, there you have it, bit of a Christmas surprise, but I hope the wait was worth it. Still, hope you all liked it and, as always, feel free to give suggestions, feedback and comments as the story progresses. Cheers, and, once more, have a Merry Christmas!

Chapter 47 - 5