[Thought I released this already. My bad]
For the first time ever in my life I had the power to teleport. Not, just any teleportation but shadow teleportation. It took some time to get used to being able to go from one shadow to the other. I failed a few times, in getting the technique right. Teleporting wasn't as easy as the media made it out to be, but it wasn't too difficult to figure out.
Once I had my fun on learning my new skill, I decided to use another skill that I got. Shadow limbs, it was weird having them out. It was like suddenly realizing that you had extra arms. It just felt strange, controlling the extra limbs wasn't hard. The problem was with fine motor skills, like carefully picking up a rock or shutting a door without breaking it. The shadow limbs were stronger than my normal arms, so everything I picked up either broke or got crushed by them.
I decided that I would practice with them later. Right now I wanted to see if I could teleport back to the real world. Closing my eyes to focus. I could feel a pull, I could vaguely feel the pull, it was in Ludwig`s office or at least felt like it. The one that held Ashley at the starting chapter of the game. Figured it was best to go there. With that I let myself be pulled into the shadow.
I came out of the shadow, and into Ludwig`s office. There were still pictures that kids had drawn for him on the wall. The room was neat and clean. Ashley had a habit of coming in here to clean and just sit here from time to time.
I don't know what she did, and never bothered asking her. I think she just wanted to keep the good memories of her father alive. We never told anyone about prototype being Ludwig, or anything really. It was probably for the best.
The test had been a success. I could now go from 'otherworld' to 'real world' without having to sleep to get there. Now, with that all out of the way I decided to check myself out.
There were no mirrors in 'otherworld' and it wasn't something that I thought of until now. I didn't want to scare the other kids. That would suck.
Going into the bathroom, I was able to finally look at myself. What I saw wasn't something that looked human. My healthy brown skin, had become deathly pale. The dark veins had spread across my face. My eyes were completely black, except a glowing light were the iris should be. My hair and facial structure was the same, thank god.
I didn't understand, the grafting ritual shouldn't have turned me into this. Grafting the demon wolf only changed my voice, and I could control that. How? I thought I only got black veins, this…I looked like an SCP.
Not a normal human looking SCP, but those SCPs that give people nightmares. I couldn't show myself to the other kids, this would definitely scare them. I went back to 'otherworld', and made my way to the library.
The moment I got there I made a beeline to the Beholder.
"I need a mask. Now. Something plain, simple, easy to use, no eye hole. I don't want people to see my face or eyes. Understand."
"Acknowledged"
"And, where are the remaining clothes, wands, and jewelry I asked for. I need them as soon as possible. In four days!"
The 25th of December was only five days away from today. I had gotten the kids clothes, made from the fur of the demonic wolf. I also got necklaces, bracelets, and wands.
The clothes took a while to get, but I got them for all the kids. The clothes weren't robes like my, and certainly didn't have any special features. No, they were just basic black shirts, pants, and socks. The necklaces and bracelets were made from the finest materials. They would sell for at least a hundred thousand dollars easy. The wands had only the safest spells in them.
The only things the wands could do was shoot out water, basically a water gun. It had another feature were it could shoot harmless light spells. The spells did absolutely nothing besides shoot spells that looked like they were from Harry Potter. If the spell hit the wand, then the wand would change colors. I basically made Harry Potter wand laser tag.
Hell, even if the spells were shot directly into the eyes, it wouldn't do anything. They weren't like laser beams or anything like that. The worst that would happen was the feeling of looking into a light, when you flipped on the switch in a dark room. However, for that feeling to happen you needed to look that bitch directly point-blank.
If you didn't then it was fine. It took me a while to make the first set of jewelry and the Harry Potter laser tag wands, but when I did, I had the beholder make as many as possible.
The wands broke pretty easily. Hell, they looked like plain old sticks with a small gem where the handle was. The gem was the thing that would change colors if you got 'hit' by a spell.
The Beholder came back with a giant box. On top of the box was a white mask. There were symbols on it, with a gem in the middle of it. The mask didn't have any eye holes or mouthpiece. It reminded me of the anti-magic mask from the anime about a guy reincarnating as a slime. I miss that show, along with all the other shows from my time.
I put the mask on my face. Even though there were no holes in the mask I could still see and talk normally. It felt as if the mask wasn't even on my face, and I had to touch it to make sure that it was on. The box on the other hand, when I opened it up had all things I asked for. It had all the clothes, jewelry, and wands. This was perfect, now I just needed to bring this box back to Playcare. I didn't want to leave it here in this place. No, I wanted to bring it back with me. Maybe I could come in like Santa Claus with my magic box. That would be fun to do, and I am sure the younger ones would go crazy.
Yeah, I like that idea. I decided to had back to Ludwig`s office to hide the box until Christmas. When I emerged from the shadows all I heard was a scream
"AAAHHH!!!"
Confused I looked around to see that Ashley had hid in a corner of the room. I quickly put the box down and slowly walked towards her
"Ashley calm down its me, Max. I am just wearing this mask."
"W-w-what! How did you…why are you…what?"
"Breathe Ashley. You are safe, there aren't any monsters here."
She took a few breathes to calm herself down, then looked at me.
"How in the world did you do that? Why are you wearing that mask? What is in the box?"
"Okay. Okay. Look, I got new magic abilities. The box is a secret and finally…I am wearing this mask because it makes me look cool. How do I look" I did a few spins to show-off my new looks.
"You look like a Disney villain. Seriously take that thing off, its weird."
"Nope. I like it."
"HMPH! Whatever, where have you been? We didn't see you this morning, and some of the others got worried about you."
"Oh! Yeah sorry about that. I was in the magic world. Had to work on a project with my professor"
"The one that is like a robot?"
"Yup that one, he wouldn't let me go. Said I had to practice more to use this ability. Sorry about that"
"Hmm..I guess that is okay. What is in the box?"
"Like I said this is a secret. I got this from the magic store, you know the one with the giant friendly tentacle monster."
"Fine. Come on lets go to Playcare."
"Do you want to stay here, and I can go. I can show everyone my new cool looking masks.
FEW DAYS LATER. Morning of December 25th, 1995
The last few days was just me killing and cleaning up the rest of the demons. The city was now mine completely. I would need to start exploring beyond the city walls soon. That wasn't important right now, what was important was this.
"OH OH OH! Merry Christmas" yesterday the kids were so excited about what I was going to get them, and what they got me that hardly any of them slept. I had shown them the box and told them that the box had secrets in it. Well, it was hard to get the kids to not try and open it. Lucky for me Ruby and Emerald were able to prevent the kids from trying to peek inside.
The kids had also got together and made me something. Not sure what it was or what it will be though. Either way I was excited about it.
My voice was like a summoning bell, the kids woke up and started to run downstairs towards me. I was in the main lobby part of the 'Home Sweet Home' building. When all the kids were here, I had to ask.
"Are we going to eat break-"
"Present!"
"PRESENTS!"
"ohh..I have been waiting too long to know what is in that box."
"Okay…Okay" I said trying to calm them down. When they did, I continued.
"NOW! In this box I have for you." I opened the box, and pulled out the clothes first
"Clothes!"
There wasn't much excitement from them, but some of the kids were still happy about it.
"These clothes are from the same materials as my robes. Meaning that they are fluffy and super cozy. Here." I tossed the clothes to Jack who grabbed it.
He grabbed in his hands and started to feel it, then started rubbed it on his face.
"Wow! This feels so soft and warm"
"Give me, let me try" Kevin said to him
"There are clothes for everyone. Now, the second present is necklaces and bracelet!"
"AWW! They are pretty."
"Quick Riley how does this look on me?"
I continued with the final one.
"Finally, The last present...is….a…..WAND!"
"YES! I TOLD HIM TO GET US WANDS! SEE I TOLD YOU!" There was a very excited voice in the crowd of kids.
Most of the boys, and some of the girls tried to grab the wands. Before they did though I stopped them and said.
"Hey, the wands shoot water so be careful. They also have a feature, if you say 'duel' and select your team color then you can have a wizard duel. Just point the wand at the other person wand and say 'fire' or 'thunder' or any other spell and you will 'hit' your opponent. When your opponent is hit then the light right here will change. If the light turns off you lose."
"Thank you Max"
"Thank you"
Ashley and Marie came up next to me. They looked at each other, before Ashley said.
"Alright Max now it is your turn. We didn't know what to get you. So we decided to get you this."
She handed me a large scrapbook. It had some papers hanging outside of it. On the front was a picture of all of us together. The words on the top read, 'To Our Favorite Hero Max'. With each letter looking like they were cut out from a learning alphabet book. Each letter was also colored differently. Some of the letters were neatly colored and others had some of the colors outside the lines.
I opened it up and saw pictures. Photos taken by all of us. Some photos having been taken by Marie, others by Samatha and so on. It showed us playing, having fun, goofing off. There was even a photo of me hugging Jack. There weren't just photos in the scrapbook though, there were drawings, doodles, and other pictures. They were pictures of me holding hands with smaller figures. Some pictures were of me being a superhero, fighting bad guys.
It was all..I…is this is what its like to have children, I looked up from the scrapbook and couldn't help but look at everyone. I had butterflies in my stomach, my heart beat faster as I looked at all of them. I wanted to cry, I wanted to hug and hold all of them. I wanted to be there for them forever, protecting them, guiding them like a parent. I saw them all as my children and wanted the best for them.
"Do…do you like it sorry we-"
I stopped her from speaking.
"I love it. All of it. I will cherish this forever and ever."
That day saw a lot of water splashing around. There were also a lot of wizard duels and 'spells' being thrown around too.
I cant draw, so I had AI make my shit.
Here is Max`s new appearance
Here is his Mask.