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Chapter 58 - Grey Goo

  Juniper locked her eyes unto the strange boy, tracking the direction of his flight. Leaping from the balcony of the apartment, she used the railing as a means to propel herself further. She tapped into [Gravitational distortion]

  She didn’t make it far.

  Juniper fell to the ground, like a stone skipping on water, she wobbled in the air, and lost her climb. Altitude crashing and she descends and she descends. She braces herself. Her hands hurtled, firmly on the asphalt, her legs buckled. As she loses her balance, her slippers offered little stability.

  “What–?”

  Something was wrong, all wrong, the effect didn’t kick in. [Gravitational distortion]

  She kicked off the slipper’s, there were mild creases and folds on them, they would break apart if she got into a fight anyway. Leaving her barefoot. She’d worry about them later.

  [You know, since time is kinda, sorta, stuck? Turns out gravity gets shy when time’s not moving forward, you are already pushing the physics engine here, beyond what should be possible, but let’s assume it’s his doing]

  The floating boy, flew around the corner, giggling and waving at Juniper. He flew effortlessly, like he was swimming in the air.

  Out of breath, she raised herself from the ground.

   [Quickly test, Solar-powered Sentinel]

  “Right,” Juniper agreed. She wanted this creeper far away from her family, she didn't care how old he is.

  [Solar-powered Sentinel]

  Her power was fizzling away, but there was a minor reserve of energy she held within herself. It tended to fade over time.

  It was going to be the driving force of her woes here, she needed to find some optimization. She had just enough energy to try and catch him, and not nearly enough to prepare for a fight. It was a good thing Sys-chan advised her to copy “panzer’s” ability.

  She chased after the boy, flying past the apartment complex, she had lost sight of him. Frozen, traffic lined up the road, as everything to her seemed to be suspended in time. A pedestrian was in the middle of jaywalking. A car threatened to plow him into the road.

  “Shit!” She intervened, side tracking and stalling. She pushed the man over to the sidewalk, his expression, uncanny, unchanging.

  [Who are you kidding, both the driver and this sorry man, will have a heart attack once time resumes.]

  “Unfortunately, I can’t worry about that!”

  She returned to pathfinding her way towards the direction of the boy. His stuck out behind the traffic, unbothered, uncaring. He had gone on foot this time, settling a block away and running into a large alleyway.

  Juniper pursued. Fast. He was way too fast, for her at least. Her power flickered, on the verge of collapse. Her light expenditure was fleeing fast. She followed him inside, dropping to the ground, her landing was awkward. She stepped on littered trash below her feet, and stumbled horribly.

  Juniper ran after him into the dark passage of the alleyway, her visibility dimming, but her ears were sharp. He was walking ahead. He stopped, just as she did.

  A dead end, no way out. No balcony, no lower walls. The boy, stood against the wall, staring at vacant space, his back turned to Juniper, his hands loosely tucked behind his back. Like he was a carrier of authority. He turned, smirking at her… Up close, he didn’t appear to be older than 11, maybe 10 if you were pushing his age.

  She stopped, out of breath, hands on her knees. She was tired, and ill-prepared. The cape girl huffed. “Stop!” she walked closer approaching him, [Iron drive]

  [Ohhh, no, no, no, ] . [He’s a threat. Tiny threat, but a threat. That whole ‘I’m an innocent little lad’ act? Nope. Not buying it.]

  Her eyes didn’t leave him.

  “Who are you! Answer me! Now!” She stomped her right foot on the ground, cracks formed below her feet. A mild threat. The cold concrete below, chilling her foot.

  With a sudden zap, he disappeared from her sight. She turned her neck, awkwardly. On guard. Noise buzzed from afar. Reappearing on the rooftop behind her.

  He spoke, his voice mimicked a child's voice at least“Who am I? Here’s a better question–who am I not?” He asked. “But, if you want to give my presence a name, you may call me the traveler? My names. My birth names. I threw it away centuries ago.”

  “Centuries?!” Juniper questioned in disbelief

  [Traveler?? That’s not even a And excuse me, ? I am throwing SO MUCH doubt at this right now]

  As if sneering at Sys-chan, he made a small grunt. “What an impudent little thing you have in your head…”

  [He can hear me!?]

  The traveler, he ‘jumped’ through space again, and reappeared in front of her in a heartbeat. Juniper recoiled back, freaked out. She struggled to move, she wanted to punch at him. Yet her limbs wouldn’t budge. He stepped forward, scowling and put his hands on her forehead, as she tried resisting. His hands were strangely soft.

  “Let me ease your pain, Juniper.” he whispered. The way he spoke, it had numbed her somehow.

  [Ju-ni-per?]

  He pressed hard on her forehead, something flooded inside, and then everything went quiet. There was a hole in her brain, somewhere inside, tunneled away. Something fundamental was taken. There was no pain, she just felt hollow.

  She stumbled, a bit disoriented, he did something to her body, but what?

  He disappeared again, this time several feet away from her, and she found herself moving again. She didn’t know what he did to her, but she wasn’t going to allow him to do it again. She stood, and jumped into the air, flying towards him with the intent to collide.

  His body, warped, in an almost cartoon fashion, bending away. Just wide enough to avoid the arc of her attack. Then he jumped again, gone.

  There was no response, her eyes widened, at the realization of what he could have happened, just now, under her nose.

  “Sys-chan!” there is no answer.

  “Sys-chan!” silence greeted her.

  “Sys-chan!!!” Her voiced echoed into the soundless cityscape.

  Her eyes widened. There was a hole in her brain, how could she forget.

  “It’s futile, I shut her up permanently,” The traveler boasted. “I had one, just like that long ago, kept him around for a century, he drove me absolutely mad, so I got rid of him.”

  “You monster, what did you do to me!? What is this!?” she shouted. No one could hear her scream.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “If you’d stop being hostile, we can converse.”

  Juniper refused. She amped up with [Iron drive] [Solar-powered Sentinel]

  “Juniper, Juniper… It’s futile. I’m in charge of everything that you are perceiving, I get to be a god of the world for the moment. Control everything in the world for the moment, fighting me is a death wish.”

  She stopped, before she got ahead of herself. She had to be rational about this. He could stop time, move at incredulous speed, fly, and teleport. Multiple powers, claimed to have a system by the sounds of it, yet she refused to believe. But if there was a chance, he was another system user like her, but much more powerful, then she was outmatched. She’d have to bargain for whatever he wanted.

  “Why did you stop time! Why do you come after me?”

  He ignored her, refusing to answer a single question. Then asked her a question of her own. “What do you want, Juniper?”

  Her lips parted, she tries to calm down, but there’s a hundred things going through her brain. She felt fragile and above all nervous, why was it this way, one situation after the other situation, she wanted some peace.

  “Your brother? Is sickly ill, maybe even dying, and yet you’ve done nothing, you promised, you’d find him a cure, and yet have you even started looking?”

  He continued. “Kanako? Ran away from you. Because she saw you for what you really are, to her, a mutant, a freak, why would she like you? You've been lonely all your life, and you didn't honestly think you had a chance at love. Did you?”

  There was no Sys-chan to answer her assure her...

  Juniper snapped. Why was she even listening to him?

  “Fuck you! Have you been spying on me!”

  Everyone had been spying on her. SCRA. Arkangeal. Annemarie when she got her powers. The Paragons. It was like she had no privacy anymore. No agency. Like she wasn’t a person, just some file on a screen.

  “I don’t want to take your privacy or your agency, but seeing you in this state is pathetic”

  Juniper, you nearly let your siblings get caught in the crossfire because you’ve been taking sloppy steps to project yourself as a hero–you’re playing pretend, open up to it…”

  It was true, she'd made choices that lead her down that path.

  “So what?!” she snarled. “I’m not in control! The world pushes me, and all I can do is push back!”

  His smirked fell away, and sad eyes, in its place.

  “You let the world shove you around. You let them all mold you into what they wanted—Arkangeal, the Paragons, your past. And you wonder why you’re lost?”

  She clenched her jaw.

  “Everyone up until now has pushed you into a terrible state.” His voice lowered. “Because you refuse to take control of your life.”

  He stepped towards her.

  She stepped backwards, frightened, this thing that appeared in front of her, it wasn’t human, didn’t feel human, it’s voice distorted sporadically.

  The traveler tilted her head.“Are you happy, Juniper?”

  The truth was she was already fed up with cape nonsense. But she fondly remembered, that her siblings were alive, and kicking. Everything could be worse, so much worse, she needed to be thankful for what she had left.

  She grits her teeth. Who did this fool think he was? “Yes.”

  He snapped his fingers. And her nerves twitched, her power slipped from her, her muscles shrunk. She was left powerless. She tried grasping it, activating it, but nothing happened.

  “Your guardian abandoned you. I won’t.” He stepped forward to her, hands behind his back, unconcerned about how she felt about this. He berated her for being vulnerable and yet, he was doing the same.

  “You’ve spent all this time stumbling. You follow, but you don’t lead. You take power, but you don’t understand it. I’m offering you a way out. All you have to do is accept a deal. When the time comes, you do something for me in turn. Anything you could possibly want could be yours tomorrow.”

  “Why would make a deal with a Devil!?”

  He laughed at her. “I’m no Devil, Juniper, there are so much worse things out there than little old me.” He offered his hand forward, holding out his palm.

  She slapped it away. Sending him staggering backwards.

  “I refuse! Now Give Sys-chan back now!” She screamed as high-pitched as she could

  He didn’t like that, he frowned, and gazed into Juniper’s face, she did the same. “One last chance: Will you cooperate?”

  Juniper doesn’t hesitate. “No.” She slapped him in the face for good measure, and he fazed backwards.

  “It's been so long, since I let someone touch me.” he rubbed his face. “You chose the wrong answer, again!”

  He pointed his index finger at the empty space on the opposite end of them. The air started shuddering, quaking. Reality started cracking like a warping mirror, shifting eerily. A black tear in reality opened and a ‘paw’ stuck out.

  Large, Furry, all hairy?

  A popup appeared in front of her.

  [!!!]

  [SYSTEM ALERT: Stop the [Entity: unknown???alien wildlife] before it rampages and cause potential deaths.]

  [RISK LEVEL: Low. Chance of User Mortality: 11% within the immediate area]

  [Reward for Defeating Xeno-threat]

     _Unique reward: Environment relevant skill.

  Quest Details:

  Xenofauna appears to be emerging from a dimensional rift. It’s nature and behavior is unknown, expect severe instability, in reality, as it threatens to level everything in its path. Act before it, affects any civilian life.

  Accept Y/N

  She froze–how was she supposed to deal with that? Did she have any other choice at the moment?

  It started crawling out completely, it’s missing parts revealing, bulky, as tall as a very large Pit bull, hairless, grotesquely malformed. However, it had six limbs, and an almost apelike posture, way too many joints on it’s body. Its skin was wettish, like strands of hardened wax, hanging.

  It had no eyes, and it had started sniffing.

  “Give it a few hours—things will return to normal.” The traveler, waved at her. “I’m not a monster. Consider this a push in the right direction. One of many to come, until you are able to reason with me. Use this time, preciously, to think about your actions.”

  “I’ll get you bastard.” she yelled at him

  “I have no doubt, about that, how may be the issue. Now until you’ll see me again.” he waved at her.” Then disappeared into a void himself.

  The creature stops, turning its head to her, it stood still, constantly sniffing in her direction, she doesn’t move. As the presence of the traveler went, her powers slowly came back, but Sys-chan still wasn’t inside her head.

  She amped up. [iron drive]

  It stood in front of her, dark red wet fur, drooling near her face, the alien drool threatened to fall on her feet.

  Juniper sped into the wind. Her body heavy and sore. She sprinted into the streets, The beast gave pursuit, making large leaps behind her. Out in the open, it stopped—but Juniper kept running. It let out a dry howl behind, which sounded more like a whimper.

  She turned her head. The hound had turned its attention on the pedestrians. “For fuck sakes!” she shouted to herself. She turned back, circling and running at it full speed.

  The six legged beast tackled a time-frozen women. It lunged, claws ready to rip into the defenseless civilian. She intercepted it, throwing herself at it, slamming it away, the thing staggered into the lamppost, it glitched distorting itself inwards. Then it twisted midair and ran towards her as it already knew what she would do next.

  It’s slashed into her. Its claws raked across her skin. It felt eerily cold. Something foreign had seeped in, juniper fell backwards. The wound around her arm made her veins darken. Her skin started crawling.

  Her breath was practically emptying, and her vision spun in front of her. Her ears were ringing with confusion, centered on the alien being's insides. There were multiple things beating in its body. Organs maybe?

  Could she, though, she felt like she was ready to fall into a grave?

  Her powers were dim, but present once again. She amped up [iron drive]

  She grabbed the hound, her muscles burning, as she felt her energy deplete rapidly. It struggled against her, wrapping its own limbs around her, four of its claws rapped around her back. She squeezed fingers pressing into his flesh, it was surprisingly fragile and squishy, just overly large.

  It's hot breath against her face disgusted her. Revulsion twisted her gut. This was vile—wrong. No girl or woman should have to touch something like this. She wanted to vomit, but she held out. The thing convulsed, and greyish goo came out of its mouth. She threw it, sending it flying against the car.

  It crashed into the car, it let out a low whined in agony, its steam ejected from its body, and it splattered in an explosion against the car, CRACK and SPLAT. Leaving strange wax fur skin and grey goo bits everywhere, the smell was sweet like a fruit, it didn’t disgust her, at all.

  She dropped her power, her muscles sagging inwards, deflating.

  Juniper stumbles forward, gasping for air, her ribs were still burning, her clothes were a mess, and her feet were fucking freezing in the cold, she may as well have been standing on ice blocks. Maybe she should have work out her slippers.

  Time stood still for a moment, and reality set in again. At least the panic was over.

  [Quest update]

  [Success, congratulations, user Juniper.]

  [Stop the [Entity: unknown???alien wildlife]

  [Reward: [Passive Skill: Otherness Recognition]

  [Passive Skill: Otherness Recognition] You do not see the truth. You feel its weight. Your mind brushes against the edges of things that do not belong.

  The skill whatever ever she had gotten, was annoyingly vague, there was no clear-cut, instruction, all left up to interpretation it seemed more like a medium's thing, not a cape thing.

  Juniper shook her head, then she started giggling. “Oh my god, why do this keep happening to me. It’s fucking ridiculous.” she kept giggling, as he watches the thing dissolve into goo.

  Then screams.

  “OH MY GOD! WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO!”

  The alien things, body didn’t vanish, its corpse stayed ever present. Its blood was leaking all over the pavement. People would be seeing this, questions were going to be asked? Its body would no doubt make national news, then the spooks will be all over the place. And then, she couldn’t take responsibility for this, could she?

  But what if this traveler freak would come after her again, and with Sys-chan gone as well, a part of her brain was missing, she didn’t know if she could bear it.

  She fell to her knees, hopeless.

  Juniper started shaking.

  Then she felt a ripple besides her. Another presence, heavy and imposing.

  “I’m sorry Juniper.” A soft, squeaky voice behind said. It didn’t sound like the traveler kid. She turned her head, in anticipation.

  The ripple glowed, like an orb of light, It was shaping itself. A familiar cute red fox had appeared. Squishy and bubbly like he was before, the dancing flames reshaping into dynamic patterns resting on his body…

  His ears were flickering, and his tail stiff, golden eyes staring at her.

  “I’m really sorry, Juniper.” he said again. “I failed you. ”

  Juniper wheezes, threatening to collapse on the floor… Then she snapped.

  "… Now? You show up NOW?! I’ve been waiting three weeks for you to show up! You little–”

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