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Egg Hunter: Cluster Headache

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Chapter 1: Ready or Not

 

Hunter hefted a box marked as fragile up the stairs towards the apartment, his twelfth trip already. He could hear the clinking of something made of glass with each step he took, but it felt like the box might have been full of books instead. Was the box really that heavy or was he just getting tired after so many trips? At least their door was in sight. Once he set the box down, he was determined to take a breather, they both needed one.

 

Hunter glared at the closed door in front of him and shifted the heavy box in his hands uncomfortably. He focused his senses outward to listen for his new roommate and could hear their own labored breaths below him… at least one floor down still. He turned to face back forward as the apartment door lazily swung outward, just enough for him to fit his foot into the gap and pry it the rest of the way open.

 

Mark’s head crested the lip of the stairs just in time to see Hunter awkwardly fumbling with the door, his own hands full with a few smaller boxes stacked precariously atop one another. Hunter held the door open with his body just long enough for Mark to close in before he marched into the apartment as fast as his legs would take him. He let out a groan as the box slipped from his hands onto a free space on the couch… that was a close call.

 

Hunter let himself collapse onto the coffee table as he stretched his fingers. He was definitely grateful to finally have a new roommate, but their move becoming a rush job was something he could have done without. At least things worked out for the both of them. If they hadn’t come to this arrangement, Hunter knew he’d have had to cut back on his food budget or he would risk exhausting his savings once the next month’s rent payment was due… plus Mark would probably be coming home to all of their belongings on the curb outside of their old place. Neither of those would have been good…

 

“That’s the last of the boxes for now,” Mark started, “Thanks so much for helping me bring this all in. I promise I’ll have my half of the rent rea-”

 

“Don’t worry about it Mark,” Hunter said with a sigh, cutting the taller ‘guy’ off, “ I’m just glad you didn’t end up on the street.” 

 

Hunter stood up to make room as Mark moved the box he had just dropped on the couch over to the coffee table. He couldn’t help but let out another sigh tinged with envy when he saw how easily they had handled it.

 

The two of them plopped themselves onto the now cleared off couch, careful to maintain the distance expected of two ‘guys’ lest someone make the mistake of thinking they were anything but perfectly straight… which they both obviously were. That thought almost led Hunter to letting out another sigh. He felt bad for adding those mental quotation marks, but even from their first meeting to discuss the apartment and do a brief tour, he’d felt something was off about his new roomie.

 

Literally. He literally felt that something was off with them. Not that he could quite explain it to Mark directly. After all, Hunter was a closet psychic. Not a particularly strong one mind you, but his powers were enough to read minds, sometimes even enter them, and with a bit of telekinesis thrown in as well. Just enough to thwart an errant cat’s attempt at gravity assisted glassware destruction or to open a door when his hands were full of boxes.

 

The thought of getting a cat took on new appeal as Hunter eyed the box across from him with a hint of venom… but he was letting himself get sidetracked.

 

He looked at Mark again out of the corner of his eyes as he let a thoughtwave flow from him and get stuck like a fly in honey without even reaching his roommate’s mind. He didn’t try to force it either like he had when they first met. He knew since then that the day-to-day thoughts he was used to picking up from people were nothing like the stuff happening in Mark’s mind and now wasn’t the time to try to figure out why. That could wait until later, when he wasn’t completely exhausted.

 

For now, Hunter didn’t dare to try a deep dive into this curious new mind before him. After all, he barely knew the ‘guy’ and whatever was in there was immense on a level he hadn’t seen before. Diving into a person’s mind was risky, especially with someone as hard to read as Mark was proving to be, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t eager to try it.

 

Hunter hadn’t seen a mind so compressed and shut off since his friend Chelsea in high school, back before she even was Chelsea. She had been the first time Hunter had felt compelled to dive in and mess around in a mind. He did it again in college with his roommate Geosha, another ignorant trans-woman in denial.

 

Hunter had a good reason for not doing that kind of thing too often, it was after all rather invasive of privacy and from what he’s read online, many psychics have seriously damaged the minds of those they’ve tried fixing on a whim. Still… Mark seemed like they needed a monkey wrench taken out of their gears. Hunter just needed the right opening, when Mark was firmly distracted, to take a good peek and see if there was some easily fixable problem that he could help with. It wasn’t like he could just say, ‘Hey, I think you might not actually be a man. Mind letting your guard down so I can make sure?’

 

Mark gave his shoulders a good stretch which pulled Hunter out of his thoughts, as he asked, “Did you wanna cook something? I know I said that I’d help out with that, but I’m not really up for it after all that heavy lifting.”

 

Hunter didn’t even think about it before the words left his lips, “Nah, let’s just get pizza again.”

 

“Again?” Mark looked at him in confusion as Hunter realized he let himself answer on autopilot. It was only a moment before they continued speaking, “Pizza’s fine with me, but,” their eyes narrowed as they stared directly at him, “which place were you thinking?”

 

Hunter froze under his new roommate’s stare, knowing that this was some kind of test but not knowing what the right answer was. Normally, it would have been trivial to find out what answer would satisfy the other person… he might as well give it a try at least. Hunter pushed a thoughtwave towards Mark with just a bit more force than his last one, enough to not get stuck this time. Mark might have had a bit more mental resistance than the average person, by a fair margin, but it was trivial to push past those barriers with a bit of effort.

 

The rebound that hit Hunter’s mind would have been enough to stagger him if he hadn’t been bracing to keep from making a fool of himself. Whatever had been on Mark’s mind had been echoing in their head and causing a feedback loop that made it impossible to make out anything coherent in a short amount of time. Well, that didn’t work at all.

 

Realizing that he was failing this test by not answering fast enough, Hunter let himself just answer on instinct again, “...Dairy Street Apizza?” The look of disgust that appeared on Mark’s face was almost instantaneous.

 

“No! God no!” Mark said firmly, “Have you even tried Mike’s over on Roberts Ave?” They shook their head as they muttered, “Can’t believe you like Dairy Street. Their stuff tastes like wet cardboard.” 

 

Mark’s look of disgust crawled over him from head to toe but Hunter couldn’t help but chuckle in relief as he said, “Oh, I never get the pizza there! I get the wings every time. They rock at making wings!”

 

“Then why’d you say pizza?” Mark asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

Hunter let out a sigh, “Just a force of habit from my last roommate. Anytime we didn’t want to cook, she’d always insist on getting a Dairy Street pizza and wings. I kinda just gave up on recommending anything else.” Hunter waited hesitantly, hoping that answer would satisfy them, “So… do you like wings?”

 

“Yeah sure, that works,” Mark’s eye’s didn’t leave Hunter’s as they continued, “So, you never really said why she left-”

 

Hunter held up a hand to pause Mark as he went to grab his phone. He always felt uncomfortable when others kept eye contact for too long and really hoped that Mark didn’t turn out to be one of those people. He quickly dialed the pizza place and placed an order for wings, fries, and a silly amount of garlic bread before hanging up. It took just long enough for Hunter to regain his cool.

 

He chuckled as he got off the phone, and started replying to the question that was already a couple minutes old, “Neither did she, but at the same time it wasn't much of a surprise when she said she was moving out. Cathy was always a grumpy woman. Kept muttering weird things under her breath around me, but at least she had excellent taste in wings.” It took him a moment to realize that his answer kinda suggested that she left because of him, so he added, “She used to be a coworker leading a project team a bit similar to mine, so there had been a bit of friendly competition there. It’s weird though… after she moved out, I haven't seen her at the office since.”

 

Hunter couldn’t believe that that thought hadn’t crossed his mind before. He wasn’t sure if he should be concerned about her or not. She did suddenly disappear completely with almost no notice. This probably wasn’t the best time to be having these thoughts so Hunter made a mental note to follow up with her later, just to make sure she’s alright. Deciding that the best thing to do would be to change the subject, he asked, “So what do you do for a living?”

 

Mark’s sudden tension as they answered was alarming, “Promise you won’t laugh?”

 

“Why would I? That’d just be rude,” Hunter replied, affronted. In his experience, 9 times out of 10 when people were reluctant or embarrassed to share information like this, it was usually no big deal.

 

Mark let out a sigh, “I’m a kindergarten teacher,” they said as they seemed to brace themself.

 

Hunter beamed as he exclaimed, “That’s wonderful!”

 

“Really?” Mark asked, seeming genuinely surprised, “Most people either laugh at me or just complain about how much they hate kids. They usually think it isn’t the kind of job that a real man should be doing.”

 

Hunter had to force himself not to roll his eyes. Most people were just stupid, why would you care about their opinion. Still… he couldn’t help himself from thinking that this was just another point in favor of his little hypothesis about Mark, “Nah, I think working with kids is a great profession. Don’t let people give you shit about it. That kind of thinking just ends with you being forced into middle management, which believe me, it gets really dull.”

 

Mark smiled at him, “You really mean that?”

 

“Yeah!” Their smile broadened even wider and for a moment Hunter could feel his heartbeat begin to race. He forced himself to break eye contact again.

 

“In that case, we could really use a few extra hands on Friday, if you’re available.” Hunter glanced back and could see a hopeful look in Mark’s eyes that prompted his heartbeat to quicken again, “Our school tries to do an Easter egg hunt every year on Good Friday, but it always ends up going overboard. The kindergarteners especially… it’s like ‘nam in there. We’re a bit short staffed at the moment, so if you wanted to liven up your day, we would certainly appreciate the help.”

 

Hunter gulped down the saliva that was pooling in his mouth and tried to will his heart into returning to a normal pace as he began thinking. This could be just the kind of thing to distract Mark enough for them to lower their mental guard. He tried his best to focus on that angle and to not think about the fact that another part of him wanted to see firsthand just how good Mark really was with kids. He couldn’t even begin to describe to himself why such a thing would even be important or appealing to him so he blocked that thought off completely and focused on his task instead.

 

“Oh sure! We’ve got Friday off since the boss is catholic. I’d love to help out!”

 

Mark beamed again at that answer as he stood up and started walking towards the apartment door, “That’s great! I can get you the details about it later, but for now, let's go get our food. Come on, I’ll drive!”

 

Bingo! Hunter had his in. Now all that was left to do was work on a plan-

 

“Hey! Are you coming or not?” Mark shouted from the doorway, drawing him back out of his thoughts.

 

Hunter tried and failed to hold back his blush as he got off the couch and scrambled after them. A gentle, invisible push kept the door from closing in his face as he left the apartment and followed Mark down the stairs. 

 

***

 

Hunter hadn’t really believed them when Mark had claimed the Easter egg hunt was like the Vietnam war, but now he was agreeing that it was a rather apt description of the carnage that was playing out before him. Three teachers and Hunter versus a class of around 30 or 40 tykes in an auditorium full of fake foliage. How could something so tiny be so fast and brutal?

 

The doors were locked, thank god, so none of the kids could escape, but Hunter felt like he was the one trapped in there with them instead. He had no room to catch his own breath, let alone mind jump into his roommate; who was currently dealing with a kid hanging off their leg, convinced that the phone in Mark’s pocket just had to be another egg.

 

Hunter turned in the other direction, holding back a snicker from the sight. No chaos visible from this angle, which was a good enough excuse to him. He eyed a folding table with chairs not too far away. Hunter cracked open one of the chilled water bottles that had been set up there and sat down to take a drink - completely normal behavior for an overwhelmed volunteer in need of a breather. 

 

He watched as one of the rugrats dived right under the table to grab a green striped egg near one of the legs. It was completely ignoring a pair of red eggs inside of one of the fake potted plants only a few feet away and in plain view. No, instead the kid sat down, leaning against Hunter’s leg as it admired the colorful piece of plastic. This wouldn’t do… he needed absolute concentration for what was to come next. Being so close to this kid was starting to stir up strange feelings in Hunter that he couldn’t really identify.

 

Hunter looked directly at the pair of eggs nearby and for a brief moment projected what he saw into the kid’s mind. The little one stood up and started waddling toward the eggs like an adorable little penguin. It worked! Hunter could feel his heart melt a little at the sight but quickly brought his mind back to focus.

 

He took another sip of his water as he sat alone at the table. Now that the distractions were gone, he let his eyes go out of focus and allowed a figure to be projected in his view, standing on the other side of the table. The person that appeared was only visible to Hunter himself and was the form that he had last used when he had gone into someone’s headspace… namely his own. He eyed the figure with satisfaction, an androgynous figure, casually dressed, about half a head shorter than his actual body, if the ears were discounted. Including the foot long ears sticking out of the top of its head, it could actually be almost as tall as Mark was. The figure rotated in Hunter’s view, letting him admire the cute little pink nose and tuft of creme fluff that poked out of its shorts just above the butt.

 

This wouldn’t do at all this time. While the bunny-person before him was cute, something he had damn well made sure of when designing it, it still looked too much like the real him. If the real him had softer facial features, smaller shoulders, and wider hips. Hunter needed to make sure that on the off chance Mark became aware that someone was messing around in their mind, they wouldn’t be able to associate that person with himself.

 

Hunter glanced back at the tyke that was holding two more plastic eggs in its hands as a thought came to him. It was almost Easter after all and if his hunch about Mark was right, he was on his own little egg hunt. He turned back towards his projection and willed it to change. He watched with a smile as creme colored fur sprouted all over its body, it shrank an entire foot, and its ankles lifted into the air as its legs stretched out. Its eyes changed from its old shade of blue to a bright pink which matched the slight tinge that accented the tips of its ears. He was now looking at a fully anthropomorphic white rabbit. He added a few finishing touches and had to hold himself back from coo-ing. The rabbit was now dressed in a ruffled white shirt with a blue tailcoat on top and a tiny black top hat to complete the look.

 

His heartbeat was starting to race again as he felt himself become flustered… something about the ruffles on the shirt was doing something to its chest that unsettled him. He quickly willed the ruffles away and his heart calmed back down as his bunny’s chest flattened without the ruffles adding false volume to it. Much better!

 

Hunter was almost ready. All he had left to do was create some simple pre-programmed responses for his real body to react with should it be necessary, and orders to pull his mind back should anything that require his attention come up.

 

Hunter brought his eyes back into focus, taking another sip of water and glancing over at Mark. It had felt like he had spent a few minutes adjusting his mind-form but in reality it had only taken seconds. As long as Mark wasn’t busy daydreaming right now, his mind dive should also be just as fast. If Mark was in their own headspace right now… well Hunter would be forced to move at the speed of Mark’s thoughts without the advantage of thought acceleration. Judging by the kindergartener still trying to steal their phone, that seemed unlikely at the moment.

 

Hunter took a deep breath as he sent out a thoughtwave at Mark, this one carrying his consciousness with it as it crashed through Mark’s mental defenses and into their mind.

 

***

 

Hunter knew exactly what to expect when jumping into another person’s mind. At least he thought he did. Usually the mindscape was just a dull gray void that Hunter would have to manually summon a floor onto before he could even begin exploring to search for the other person’s consciousness. Occasionally, if the host was daydreaming, there would be a small bubble of scenery existing around that consciousness floating somewhere around in that void. That’s what it’s been like with every person he’d ever done a deep mind probe on, but he should have realized that it was foolish of him to assume that there even was such a concept as ‘usual’ when it came to the human mind. Three people had been too small of a sample size to base any kind of assumptions off of, as was clearly evident based on how different Mark’s mind was.

 

Instead of the void he was expecting, Hunter found himself standing on a wide road directly in the middle of a suburban neighborhood. Looking behind him he could see that the road stopped at a dead end and beyond that was a roiling fog stretching off to both sides. The fog seemed to surround the entire scene if he had to make a guess. Looking forward again, he could see a row of single-family houses on one side of the street and on the other side was an arcade that seemed to be attached to the side of a squat office building. On the roof of the office building, Hunter could see a staircase made of clouds rising up into the sky, its heights obscured by the wall of fog.

 

It wasn’t just the surprisingly detailed scenery before him. To Hunter’s shock there were also people around… lively people. In an ordinary mind, a daydream’s ‘NPCs’ as he called them, would always be stiff. Nothing more than expressionless dolls unless the host was directly interacting with them. The people before him were definitely more. An older boy, barely a teenager, drew on the sidewalk with chalk some distance away, while a couple of men chatted as they strolled past the child towards one of the houses.

 

The sudden bang of the office building’s doors flying open caught Hunter’s attention as one of the natives, a man in a pastel blue suit, walked out of it and began striding purposefully towards him. Another person drew his eyes as they came out from the arcade but the one that shocked him the most was the third who simply popped into existence not too far away and was staring him down.

 

Hunter would have expected at least one of these three men to have at least resembled Mark, and yet none of them did. Hunter’s small pink nose twitched in irritation as he wondered just what the hell was going on here. Sure, he himself could look however he pleased in a mindscape, but that was an advanced skill that took effort for him to learn. If the real Mark was disguising themself the same way, it would take more time then he was willing to spend to ferret them out. Based on how detailed this headspace was, Hunter was confident that trying to force any kind of thought acceleration might just fry Mark’s mind. It was almost certain that everything that was going to happen here would be going on in real time, which meant he didn’t have time to waste.

 

The first of them to reach Hunter was the businessman that had come out of the office. The man was clad in a light blue three piece suit atop a white collared shirt with a pastel pink tie completing the outfit. Physically, he bore a slight resemblance to Mark, but the differences between them were obvious. The ones that stood out the most were the thick rimmed glasses, curly brown hair, and chubbier figure, not to mention his overall style of dress. Hunter immediately dismissed this one as a possibility of being the real Mark. If Mark had any real understanding of the meaning of that color scheme, they either wouldn’t be wearing it or would have chosen a much more feminine mind-form. Then again, it could just be a coincidence… it was almost Easter after all, so pastel colors were literally in season right now.

 

The man briefly examined the tablet in his hand and was muttering, “Huh, I don’t think we’ve ever had a rabbit come out of the fog before. That’s… weird. Where’s your bag?” The look of confusion on Hunter’s face must have been clear as the man just held the tablet out to him and continued, “Oh nevermind, just fill out this form and I’ll take good-”

 

“Don’t listen to that guy! He’s a dumbass,” The one who had teleported in cut the other man off as he stepped closer to Hunter. This one had a scruffy but futuristic look to him. Surely there was a term for this style that ended in -punk, but whatever it was Hunter didn’t know it. The man looked like he had come from some utopia that had just finished going through an apocalypse. He wore a bomber jacket on top of a silver jumpsuit with bright orange boots and a bandolier covered in pouches. The look was completed with a pair of large, square goggles that rested on top of his scruffy neon orange hair which looked like it was stuck in a permanent state of bedhead. Very little of his skin showed, but what did was far paler than Mark’s was. He was also short, about as short as Hunter’s own newly shrunken mind-form. If the guy’s prominent cowlick was included, he might be barely five foot tall, and by the same standard, Hunter’s ears would place him as the taller of the two of them. Hunter couldn’t help but think that the guy was missing some kind of dinosaur companion to complete his cosplay-like look.

 

The last person said nothing and just squinted at him. A waft of air blew out from the same arcade doors that they had come from, and carried past him, bringing the scent of freshly smoked weed to Hunter’s sensitive nose. Apparently you could smell a lot about a person when you had a rabbit’s nose and Hunter could smell plenty about this man. He reeked of weird and broken aspirations, burnt electronics, and of course the ever present musk of marijuana. It was a surprise that his eyes weren’t redder than Hunter’s own. He looked like the kind of bum that would loiter around all day in an arcade, dressed as he was in a Hawaiian shirt, with an admittedly gorgeous sunset on it, and matching bermuda shorts. This one could also be eliminated as a possibility for the real Mark.

 

“Mr. Jones, we’ve been over th-” the businessman began with an exasperated sigh.

 

“The name’s Eternity, you square!” the orange haired time-traveler looking guy cut him off once again before turning to Hunter and asking, “So, you’ve got to be a fellow psychic right!? I’ve felt at least three probes washing over the nexus from outside in the last week. It can’t be a coincidence that you show up at the same exact time that another one came through.”

 

Hunter was shocked to have been caught so quickly. Apparently this one had been onto him since his first psychic probe when he had given Mark the apartment tour. But that had to mean… this one couldn’t be the real Mark either, could he? Surely if Mark knew he was being psychically probed, he would have called Hunter out on it after the first time. No, this one had to be someone different, and if it was a fellow psychic it'd be best not to get on their bad side. They might be the one controlling this headspace after all. Who knew what they were capable of if this was their domain.

 

“Huh, Eternity… Nifty,” Hunter replied to him. He might as well give his attention to the only confirmed real person here instead of one of the NPCs, “You’re right, I’m a psychic.”

 

The businessman let out another heavy sigh, “Not this shit again,” he said as he adjusted his wireframe glasses. He turned back toward Hunter and reprimanded him, “Don’t feed into ‘Eternity’s’ delusion, please. It was bad enough with just one so-called psychic.”

 

Hunter started to reply, but the man in the baby blue suit continued on as if there were more important things to do than hear him out. The man straightened his pink tie and addressed them all in a calm voice, “Ahem! We’re all residents of Mark’s mind here and since you came out of the fog to join us, you must be one of us. That’s how it’s always worked. Isn’t that right Mikey?”

 

The one who hadn’t spoken yet sucked in a breath, then blew it out slowly, “Uhhh… dude, I don’t know. Like, I don’t think we’ve ever had a talking bunny here before. That’s weird, right? Maybe we could just, like, listen to the rabbit and see what he has to say?”

 

Hunter crossed his forelegs and muttered, “Jeez, came here to figure out what was up with my roommate, and wasn’t expecting something like this.” He cleared his throat before projecting it to make sure they all heard him, “I really am a psychic! My name’s Hunter and I’m Mark’s roommate. I came in here because the psychic vibe they were giving off was similar to a few deeply closeted trans women I know.”

 

The businessman appraised him anew, “Well, that's a new one. Never had someone come in here knowing the current situation in Mark’s life. Most of the ones who emerge from the fog only have some of his old memories, if they have any at all.” He squared off his shoulders and stood even taller, as if to intimidate Hunter, “I’m The Admin, and if you really are a psychic like you say, you should be able to leave Mark’s mind just by willing it to happen. At least, that’s what ‘Eternity’ here claims, despite numerous failed attempts to actually put his words into action.”

 

Eternity huffed, “I keep telling you square, I have a good reason why I can’t leave.” He turned to face Hunter as he explained, “I’m a psychic, but my body’s in a coma. I had to hop bodies to get here and got stuck.”

 

Hunter stared back at him, “I’m not sure that’s how it works…” he began. Then again, his assumptions had been disproven multiple times already since meeting Mark. The Admin breathed a sigh of relief, before choking on it as Hunter continued with conviction, “...but if it is, I’ll do everything I can to help you get out of here, okay?”

 

The Admin let out a groan of defeat.

 

“Works for me!” Eternity said brightly, holding his arm out for a fist bump.

 

“Well, glad that’s settled,” Hunter said, not leaving Eternity hanging too long as he tapped his own clenched paw against the fist, “Now, the reason that I came here was because I wanted to ask, has anyone in here ever wanted to be a woman?”

 

The Admin and Eternity both seemed taken aback by the sudden question, but Mikey just stared at him hard, fighting off a grimace.

 

“I mean, like, yeah,” The arcade stoner said, “bein' a dude sucks, dude. Who wouldn’t want to be a rockin’ dudette instead? But we’re like, stuck as a guy, so no reason to make a biggie of it. Y’know?”

 

Hunter stared at the ‘dude’, taking a moment to comprehend what was actually being said. Was this really the one? The source of that feeling that had been coming off of Mark? There was a simple way to find out for sure. He tucked a paw behind his back and forced an object into existence. It wasn’t something that he could do in reality but in a mindscape, child’s play for him.

 

“If I gave you a button that turned you into a woman, would you press it?”

 

“Yeah, but it’s not like-”

 

Hunter held out a rabbit paw with a big pink button labeled ‘Girl’. He couldn’t help but grow a Cheshire grin as Mikey’s eyes went wide.

 

The Admin took a step back and stammered in disbelief, “N-no one’s ever been able to do that on their first day before. Just pulling shit out of thin air like that…”

 

Mikey gulped, and then, before any of the others could react, he lunged forward and slapped the button. Nothing visible happened, yet the smile on Hunter’s face grew even wider as he watched. Mystery solved! It was even easier than he expected. Mikey slammed the button a couple more times, clearly growing more and more frustrated with each hit.

 

“Slow down…” Hunter said, trying not to let the glee show in his voice despite it being very visible on his face, “It’s a magic button and only girls can hit it. Since you’ve already hit it, that means that you’re already a girl!”

 

“So you’re a liar, huh?” said Eternity, venom clear in his voice… along with something else? Did he sound hurt?

 

Mikey just stood there, frozen, staring blankly at the button in Hunter’s paw.

 

Then something happened that nobody expected, Hunter included: Mikey exploded with a shockwave that sent the entire small crowd flying.

 

Hunter groaned as he picked himself off the ground and looked down into the crater he was now standing at the edge of. The thing was large enough to reach both sides of the wide street. At the center of the crater, down on one knee, was… a woman. A grinning woman. A grinning woman with modest curves. She wore off-white thigh highs, the same color as Hunter’s fur, sandals, short shorts, and a graphic tee with the bright pink pixelated words “GAMER GURL” printed on it. A familiar, unbuttoned, sunset colored Hawaiian shirt was worn on top of the tee, slightly shrunken so as to barely be oversized on this mysterious woman who seemed to have taken its former owner’s place.

 

“This… RULES!” the girl shouted from down in the crater as she examined herself, “Hell yeah! Oh, I need, like, something better to go by than Mikey, don’t I? Zoey oughta do it!”

 

On the opposite side of the crater, The Admin just stared at Zoey, slack jawed.

 

Closer by, Eternity turned to stare at Hunter, “What… how did you do that!?”

 

“I-I didn’t!” Hunter protested, “It’s just like… a thing from the internet… to make trans-girls self aware of what they are. I’ve never seen someone explode like that before. That’s new…”

 

Eternity pondered for a moment as the two stared at each other, they were both perfectly at eye level with the other, “Alright… I believe you. I believe you enough to let you know what’s going on here.” The two of them kept their eyes locked, and Hunter strained to not let himself break eye contact for once, “I’m pretty sure this street is some kind of psychic nexus. I’m stuck here, because my body out in the real world is in a coma. Look for me and try to wake me up… please!” Eternity begged, “Look for Marvin Jones!”

 

Hunter laughed bitterly as he finally allowed himself to look away, “Sorry, Eternity. It might take me a while to find you... I haven’t heard of anyone falling into a coma recently, and I’m sure this…” He gestured at Eternity before doing the same at himself, “looks like the real you just as much as this looks like the real me…” 

 

Eternity grabbed his head in frustration, and Hunter noticed that his cowlick didn’t even move despite being handled so roughly, “I can’t!” Eternity spat as he forced himself not to hyperventilate, “I can’t change this form! I haven’t been able to since getting stuck here.”

 

Hunter tried not to let any pity creep into his voice or onto his face. Eternity probably wouldn’t appreciate it, “You’re the only one of us who knows what you actually look like. And unless you can jump heads again, it might stay that way… Look, I’ll do what I can but I don’t have much to- Hey! What’s Zoey doing?” He hadn’t even noticed Zoey climbing out of the hole, but there she was striding purposefully away from it with something in her hand.

 

Zoey walked up to the teenager who had been drawing on the sidewalk with chalk earlier. She leaned over, whispered something in his ear, and then a moment later the boy burst into a cloud of glitter. When it settled, there was a skater girl in his place, holding her own board and grinning ear to ear.

 

That… that wasn’t normal at all. Hunter started to worry that whatever he was doing here in Mark’s mind might have more repercussions than he expected when he first made his plan to enter.

 

The sound of someone clearing their throat broke Hunter out of his thoughts once again. The Admin loomed over Hunter, even more menacing than when he was trying to intimidate him earlier. He grabbed Hunter by the collar as he said with deadly seriousness, “Alright, that’s enough. You’re going into time out, rabbit. You’ve done enough harm here already.”

 

He felt himself rise up as The Admin lifted him off the ground by his scruff. Hunter stretched out his ankles, trying to reach out for the ground with his foot paws to regain some leverage but ended up achieving nothing but kicking at empty air below him. He looked down and saw that he was being lifted at least a few inches up, but that glance downwards also drew his attention to something that was in The Admins’ other hand.

 

The Admin held his tablet and was flicking through options with just his free thumb. It only took a few moments for him to find what he was looking for before a large red button arrived to take up almost the entire screen of the tablet. A button labeled TIME OUT in bolded text large enough to be seen even from the odd angle that Hunter was facing it from. As The Admin’s thumb pressed down onto the touchscreen, a chime rang out followed by a crunching sound directly below them.

 

Hunter watched in horror as the road beneath him started tearing itself apart, creating a rift in the asphalt with jagged edges resembling the jaws of some nightmare monster. On the other side of the opening was nothing but jet black darkness. Without another word, The Admin let go of Hunter’s collar and let him fall unceremoniously into the void.

 

Hunter kicked and flailed wildly, trying to find a wall to grab onto with absolute desperation in his eyes. It did him no good though. Despite the rift that he fell through only being a few feet wide, from the moment he dropped beneath the surface, there were no longer walls within his reach. His eyes darted around wildly but saw nothing around him but pure blackness. 

 

As he took another glance upward, it was just in time to see iron bars close over the place he had just fallen through. At first, they looked like nothing more than the kind of bars that would be over a prison window. Like nothing more than the bars that his parents had placed over his own bedroom window. And then the illusion that he was back in his childhood home broke as more iron bars appeared above him, filling in the gaps. After a few seconds, the bars closed the hole off completely, locking him firmly below them and locking off all light above. Hunter was now in pitch black darkness. He tried looking around in panic but found nothing. He couldn’t even see his own paws inches from his face.

 

Terror was starting to set in now. Hunter pushed outward with his mind, trying to will himself to appear above the street once more but found that his attempts were completely fruitless. Whatever The Admin had done was meant to keep him here and it was working.

 

Tap… tap… tap…

 

Hunter’s rabbit ears sprung upward in alarm and turned, focusing his hearing directly behind him. Something was in here with him and whatever it was was stepping towards him.

 

Oh fuck this!

 

Hunter couldn’t control himself any longer. If he couldn’t warp himself to a different part of the mindscape, he would exit it altogether. It took only a brief moment for Hunter to will his hand to change forms. Claws started sprouting out from his rabbit paws and he slashed at the void with his entire being focused on rending open an escape route.

 

Tears opened up in the space before him and from those wounds in the fabric of Mark’s mindscape, fog poured into the void, bringing with it a miniscule amount of light.

 

A gasp, or perhaps a growl, sounded out right next to Hunter’s ear. He didn’t even bother turning to look at what was upon him, he instantly shot outward with his mind, the psychic thoughtwave pulling his consciousness with it as it broke from the prison, through the fog, and then completely out of Mark.

 

Hunter’s consciousness shot out of Mark’s mind, crashing back into its home, and he had to force himself not to flail around wildly in alarm. He felt like his heart should have been beating at a hundred miles per hour, but with the autopilot still controlling the body, his heart remained at a normal pace.

 

When the fear and panic finally faded away, Hunter took a moment to refamiliarize himself with where he was and was surprised to see that not only was he still seated at the folding table, screaming toddlers running through the auditorium all around him, but also that the girl from earlier was cradled in his lap. His hand was on top of her head as if he had been petting her.

 

Mark came up to Hunter with a wide smile on their face, and the psychic braced himself for the inevitable chew-out. Messing around in someone’s head wasn’t something people took kindly to and he had even declared who he was in there. One of those people had to have been the real Mark, and it was time to face the music.

 

Mark kneeled down next to Hunter, “Aww, he likes you doesn’t he?” they said instead of any kind of accusation, “That’s Robby. He’s a sweetie, but a bit clingy. Lemme give you a hand. It’s just about over.”

 

Mark pulled the little tyke out of Hunter’s arms and set her down on a blanket, next to a basket full of colored eggs.

 

Hunter couldn’t help but let his heart race as he watched Mark with the child, thinking about how good of a mother Mark could make, once they stop lying to themself. He couldn’t stop the chuckle from escaping his throat either as he realized that he’d been using they/them to refer to Mark in his head this entire week. He had meant for it to be used as a gender-neutral pronoun, but now it felt even more appropriate for them. Hunter continued musing to himself as he watched Mark move along towards another burnt out kindergartener.

 

There were multiple people somehow living in his roommate's mind, and at least two of them had been eggs. That didn’t even include Mark himself who apparently doesn't know that he has a psychic nexus in his head. For that matter, the other psychic fellow and The Admin had both seemed to have abnormal reactions to the girlification button test, and Hunter fully intended to follow up on that the next time he was able to gain access to Mark's mind. Just how many eggs would he actually find in there when all was said and done?

 

This is far from over, Mark. Far from it! Hunter thought, Ready or not, I’m going to figure out everything you're hiding in there…