Chương 7: Not the Same

Consciousness came all at once. Even with her eyes still closed she could read the floating text in front of her.

[Initialization Successful] Interface Status Name: Scarlet Bourne Level: 1 Tier: 0 Stats Per Level (SPL): 8 Free Stats (FS): - Titles: Early Adopter (+3 SPL) First Bond (+2 SPL) Traits: Anomalous Soul Primordial Psion Psionic Shroud System Guide Stats: Strength (STR): 4 Dexterity (DEX): 6 Vitality (VIT): 3 Perception (PER): 11 Intelligence (INT): 9 Willpower (WIL): 9 Mana (MAN): 6 Skills: Empathy (T1) Bond Communication (T1) Bond: Maus The window appeared in her head, and it felt different from the initial system notifications.

Those felt surface level, like something she'd been shown versus something that was a part of her like this new window felt. One moment there was nothing but crushing pressure and the faded image of Maus convulsing beneath her hand, then she was fading, and now there was this. This Interface that showed her a Status? How were they different? What did that mean, and how did she find out? She knew instinctively that they were different, in the way you know your fingers are not your hand.

However just where the distinction lay, she was clueless. She pushed her questions away. First she should open her eyes. For all she knew the world had gone up in flames and she was currently laying in a giant fiery crater and the only reason she wasn't in excruciating pain was because the terrible burns had already incinerated all her nerve endings. She blinked her eyes open and took in a deep lungful of air. Her heart hammered against her ribs as she looked around the room and saw, nothing had changed?

Okay that wasn't quite right, the air itself felt, strange. If felt a little like walking through fog but stranger. There was a density there that hadn't been before. That wasn't the only change, however. Everything about her felt more somehow. She couldn't pinpoint exactly what the change was though. Focusing, she pulled up the Interface and stared at the text. Some distant, pragmatic part of her noted that if this was a hallucination, it was at least a consistent one.

She dismissed the screen once more before summoning it again. She did this a few times, getting used to the mental command before reading through once more as the initial panic subsided. She settled in to go through the thing in more detail when her eyes snagged on the last entry. All nine of those intelligence points finally made themselves known. Maus. The 'Bond' entry registered just as the memory followed. The last thing she had seen before everything went dark had been his body seizing beneath her hand.

Small and fragile and utterly out of her control. When she'd gone under, he had been on her chest. He was no longer there. The interface vanished with her attention as she pushed herself off the lounge.

"Maus?" She called. She was already moving. The transition from lying to standing happened in a single, fluid motion that surprised her. Her first steps nearly had her stumbling from sheer shock. There was no flare of pain, no familiar hitch she had spent years compensating for. Yeah, there were a number of things that warranted closer examination, and she set all of them aside as she crossed the room in sure, steady strides.

Her hand closed around her cane where she had propped it against the wall, the weight familiar. Instead of leaning on it she slung it over one shoulder. Then she reached for the firearm she'd hidden underneath the table. She checked it, loaded it, turned on the safety, then holstered it before moving on. The bunker felt different. No, that wasn't quite right. Scarlet was different, and something about that made everything else feel strange. She ignored it.

"Maus?" she called again, louder this time as she moved toward the door. She knew with a surety she couldn't explain that he was not inside. Only, how the hell could he have gotten out? Her pace quickened. The door to the bunker was still closed. The keypad beside it remained intact, its surface unmarked, its mechanism as secure as she had left it. There were no obvious signs it had been tampered with.

There was only a short list of possibilities she could think of that would explain how Maus got out, and none of them were reassuring. She punched in the code, unlocked the two deadbolts, and released the swing bar. The moment she stepped past the threshold she nearly went down. Something small and solid darted across her path. It was moving with a speed that defied reason.

Scarlet caught herself on instinct, her weight shifting cleanly as she stumbled back, and nearly tumbled into the opening she'd just come out of. She was both ecstatic that she could stumble without pain and confused about what the hell was going on. Was that Maus? Her gaze snapped downward. A tiny bullet circled around, darted forwards and then just disappeared. Instantaneously he reappeared several inches to the left. Like he'd taken a step and then glitched.

Or like the space between those two points didn't exist.

"What the…" More than the doom timer, more than the Interface. This single moment was more incomprehensible than anything she had experience since that first System announcement three days ago. For a brief, disjointed moment, her mind attempted to reconcile what she had just seen with reality as she understood it. Her mind came up blank. Her only coherent thought was that yeah, that would get him through the door.

She didn't get the time to think about it any further because she'd finally seen just what had Maus so riled up. The largest, meanest raccoon she'd ever seen was no longer aiming for Maus. Maybe it thought she was an easier target. Scarlet would have to agree. The creature only took a moment to reassess before it lunged. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Up close, it was uglier.

It was closer to the size of a midsize dog, and its body was thick with an unnatural density that made it look grotesque despite its fur. Its eyes caught the light with a wet, reflective sheen, and beneath that there was something else, something that did not belong in an animal that should have been governed by instinct alone. Scarlet could feel it pouring off the creature in waves that smashed against her consciousness. Greed. Not hunger or territorial aggression, but overwhelming, all consuming, naked greed.

Luckily for Scarlet the roided up raccoon – roidcoon? – was much slower than Maus. It went for her legs, and she swung for the fences. Her cane came down in a clean, decisive arc. The impact landed with a solid, jarring thwonk that travelled up her arm and into her shoulder. It managed to stagger the creature and send it tumbling sideways, but other than that the impact wasn't enough to put it down. It hit the ground with a grating chitter; its claws scrabbled for purchase in the grass as it tried to recover.

Something told her that her four in strength wasn't nearly enough to do any meaningful damage to this creature. She could feel its greed shifting into anger. Even so, she adjusted her grip, shifted her stance to give it another solid blow and– Maus was there. He moved like an arrow. There was no warning before he appeared and no hesitation as he shot forward. It had been her and the beast, then suddenly a small, grey-brown and white blur had crossed the space between them.

She watched Maus's teeth sink into the roidcoon's throat with a precision that bordered on surgical. The sound the creature made was wet and ugly. Scarlet was both alarmed and relieved that it was quickly cut short. Scarlet watched the one-sided mauling with a kind of distant clarity, her mind filing away the details while the rest of her tried to detach from the gory display she was unfortunate enough to be in the splash zone of.

Once the roidcoon was dead, Maus released his grip and landed lightly in the grass before turning back toward her. There was blood on his muzzle, and he took a moment to shake himself out, going from 'fur-matted-with-blood' to 'fur-spiked-with-blood' which wasn't much better from an aesthetic standpoint. She could feel the satisfaction radiating off him. Scarlet stared at her mouse, her Bond, and exhaled slowly. The breath carried a fraction of her tension away, not that the immediate threat was resolved.

"… well," she said after a beat, "that's sorted." The moment the words left her mouth she felt it, a wave of rage and greed. It was getting closer. Scarlet reached out with this new, sharper sense of hers, and turned to face the tree line. Maus copied her, his ears twitching. It didn't take long before a sharp, chittering sound could be heard. Emerging from the forest came the first, followed by another, and then more.

Scarlet looked down at the still bleeding corpse of the roidcoon in front of her before glaring grimly back towards the approaching threats. She closed her eyes briefly.

"Of course it wasn't alone," she said, with quiet resignation. Her grip on the cane tightened in one hand as she drew the gun with the other, the motion controlled despite the tension running through her arms. She flicked the safety off with her thumb and lifted it into position, her gaze locking onto the shapes emerging from the edge of the clearing. They came in a loose cluster, low to the ground, their bodies coiled with the same twitching, restless aggression as that first one. They were but no less wrong.

The same thin fur stretched too tight over muscle, the same intense rage and greed, and those glassy, wet eyes with a glint of something more behind them. Six of them. Her heart was beating faster than she would have liked, but her stance remained steady as she adjusted her aim. They were clustered close enough that so long as she had decent aim she'd hit one of them. The shot cracked through the clearing, jerking her arm back. She absorbed the recoil and watched as the nearest one jerked mid-step.

The bullet had caught it center mass dropping it hard enough that it did not rise again. Its companions reacted instantly. The cluster broke apart, the remaining five scattering enough that her second only caught one in the leg, sending it stumbling, but not taking it out. The spacing changed the fight immediately. Rather than charging headlong, they'd begun circling, and probing. Her finger rested on the trigger as she tracked them.

A flicker of movement caught her attention, and she watched Maus dart forward to meet one of them. His small body accelerated over the ground as he closed the distance. For a moment, she thought he was gearing up to leap, when once again he vanished. This time she caught the distortion. This, whatever it was, hadn't been as clean as the last time. However, that didn't matter as he hit the roidcoon head-on, teeth bared as he launched himself halfway through the creature s neck. The thing went down.

Scarlet didn't have time to appreciate the show as there were three others still circling her. The one with the limp hanging back. The fight continued like this until one of the remaining roidcoons let out a sharp, keening yowl that was more than just sound alone. Scarlet could feel the noise more than she heard it as it pushed briefly against her awareness in a deeply unpleasant way. It was like a toothless bite trying to break skin. It failed.

The agitating sensation slid off her, but while she had brushed it off, the not-sound had staggered Maus. His movements became clumsy as he stumbled, disoriented. Now her tiny buddy was exposed in the middle of the yard. Scarlet moved without hesitation. Stepping forward she placed herself between him and the nearest of the advancing creatures. Her grip tightened on the cane as she brought it around in a clean, controlled arc. The strike connected solidly, forcing the beast back with a sharp, pained yelp.

It was not a killing blow, but it bought them space. They were circling now, waiting for an opening. The one she had wounded with the gun was dragging itself along slowly. Scarlet's gaze flicked toward it, then back to the three closing in on her. It was a choice. Finish the crippled one or deal with the immediate threat. She chose the latter. Another shape lunged from her right, faster than the others, and she turned into it, pivoting on her back foot as she brought the cane up to meet it.

The cane thwacked feebly as the creature twisted midair to land awkwardly rather than taking the full force of the strike. Thankfully that was when Maus recovered. He blipped again, and this time it was steadier, his aim much better. He hit the roidcoon she had just deflected, his teeth finding purchase in its throat. Scarlet did not look back to confirm the kill as another yowl cut through the air, the same unnatural pressure pressing against her senses.

Again, it slid off her with no effect, but she felt Maus falter again.

"Annoying," she grumbled. She focused on the one that had made the sound. It was already moving, trying to reposition behind her while the others kept her occupied. She did not see it directly, but she could feel it like an impression at the edge of her awareness. A sensation she was only beginning to understand. She re-holstered the gun, grabbed the cane with both hands and waited. Instinct moved her before conscious thought. The roidcoon lunged, jaws wide, aiming for her gut. Scarlet was already turning.

She met it midair. The cane came around with the full momentum of her body behind it, the hooked end catching the creature squarely in the face. There was a brief, sickening resistance as it struck, then the hook drove in, embedding itself deep into its skull. The impact tore the cane from her grip. She quickly unholstered her gun as the two remaining creatures both moved. They were both close enough to shoot. One was going for her legs, the other her waist. She chose quickly.

The gun came up, her finger tightening on the trigger as she fired into the nearer one. The shot rang out with a bang, dropping the beast just as the other one reached her. Its jaws closed around her and the sharp, immediate pain had her gasping through her teeth as it found purchase before darting back. Her foot lashed out on instinct, the kick not powerful enough to send it flying but sufficient to daze it. The damage was done, though. She could feel her own warm blood seeping through the torn fabric.

Worse, it had absolutely destroyed the pant leg and ruined the clean lines of her suit in a way that, in most circumstances would have drawn a far stronger reaction.

"Ouch," she gritted out, glancing towards her cane. Just then Maus re-entered the fight with ferocity. His small body was a blur as he launched himself at the one that had just taken a chunk of her leg. The impact drove it sideways, and for a moment Scarlet was envious of the power he managed to display, then she came back to herself. As Maus dragged that one down, Scarlet dived for her cane. Her hand closed around it as she planted her foot against the body it was embedded in and wrenched it free.

Her leg nearly buckled as the movement carried her into a harsh pivot, the weapon already in motion as she brought it around on the last of the creatures. It was the crippled one. It had managed to leap at her. Scarlet's strike connected, though not cleanly. The roidcoon took it along its flank, the impact enough to knock it off balance, but not enough to finish it. That was fine. It would all be fine.