Ray frowned at the current situation, seeing that he had just been drafted into the military without any say, he couldn't exactly describe himself as pleased.

Things are moving much too quickly, too quickly to be normal. A mere one day has passed from their perspective and yet here they're already instituting a draft on people with special powers. It's overly competent. They already distributed picture print-outs of the rings, the primary method on how to identify us, not to mention they're already making use of any power users they find within their own ranks. No matter how organized they are, logistically speaking this should be impossible.

The emergency alert he received on his phone just before the integration immediately came to mind.

They knew beforehand. He wasn't sure how many knew, or even how they knew. But they knew.

Whatever it was, Ray didn't like the feeling of falling into their hands like that. Even if he was to be working for them, he wanted it to be from a position of mutual respect.

"You wanted to see my summon? I do have to warn you, it's not the prettiest thing you've ever seen." Recalling his spider's strikingly evil appearance. "If you want to see it, everyone needs to get to the walls." It might be childish, but he was looking forward to seeing their reaction.

"Why?" The bald commander looked at him quizzically.

"It's too big, the room is barely large enough as it is."

"Now you're just making me want to see it more." A smile creeping onto the commander's face.

Letting out a small sigh, Ray shrugged.

"Promise me that you won't shoot it at first sight. It won't attack unprovoked, but I can't say what'll happen if people start shooting."

Jonathan, the spectacled man who had done his initial interview frowned the more he heard. When one of the familiar's was a small worm the size of a pinky, how threatening exactly could the other be? But seeing the kill count floating in his peripheral vision, a shadow of a doubt began creeping into his mind as he took one step back towards the door.

With everyone in agreement, Ray finally made the motions to begin summoning his second summoned creature. The back of his hand lit up with runes, casting a web of light around the room, patterns skittering across the walls of the room before a sudden pressure descended upon the room.

Practically the entire center of the room had gone from completely empty to fully occupied, and the eight-legged monstrocity that filled it stood perfectly still while it took in its new surroundings. Its head just scraping the top of the office-styled foam ceiling panels, dislodging a few and causing them to clatter to the floor heavily. The sound of the falling tiles being the only thing that broke the room's sudden silence.

He knew what they were feeling, he felt the same fear towards it that they did after all. But unlike yesterday, the fear wasn't nearly so paralyzing. Rather, he seemed to be enjoying it.

Bits of green flesh and goblin carnage covered the bottom of its previously golden legs, clearly it had been having a bit of fun after he loosed it upon the town overnight. Seeing as the kill count only started in the morning, the true number of goblins it had killed could easily range in the hundreds.

The spider clicked its mandibles together questioningly, wondering why Ray had summoned it here, and right on cue Ray snapped his attention back to the group. Deciding to give a bit of theatre for the crowd.

"You might be hungry, but these people aren't for eating." Ray motioned broadly to the room while half-addressing his spider summon. His words putting everyone on edge.

"I know that already, I'm not some mindless beast." It replied haughtily through mental communication, its voice sounding like that of a raspy young woman's, somewhat unsettling given its appearance. Apparently Ray's assumption it would eat everyone it came across had offended it somewhat. The way his summons spoke was somewhat strange to him, close enough to telepathy but it actually felt like they were speaking to him within the same room. Not to mention the voice was range limited just as physical sound would be. Still, it was better than trying to decipher whatever sounds and clicks they made normally, seeing as neither spiders nor a worms had vocalcords.

Everyone aside from Ray appeared to be holding their breaths, and the soldiers who had stationed at the door with guns were raising them already despite his earlier warning.

Taking a small amount of pleasure at the fear he could see in the bald man's eyes, Ray turned to him with a smile. "No need to worry commander, I can assure you this is quite safe. Now tell me, seeing how the world has changed, doesn't it fill you with confidence to know something like this is on your side?" In other-words, stay on my good-side.

"What. In. Motherfucking. Hell. You're telling me you can control a goddamned monster like this?" The bald commander finally snapped out of fear induced stupor, his excitement now exceeding any fear he might have had. Anyone who had a gun lowered it gradually, still keeping an eye out towards the massive eight-legged fiend.

"Someone take a picture of this thing, I can already tell the Pentagon's going to love it. Fight monsters with monsters. Now tell me that's not the best goddamn idea you've ever heard."

With his familiar stealing the show, Jonathan approached Ray and spoke quietly. There wasn't enough privacy to avoid being heard completely, but one would have to be actively listening to make out his words.

"The policemen who brought you in happen to mention being attacked by a giant spider, am I correct that this spider here and the one they described are one and the same?"

"It's the same one they saw, but I don't think it's fair to say they were attacked. I truly doubt anyone could survive against this."

They both knew it was true. Just one leg could tear a man apart, let alone those jaws. "Do you truly think it's safe to have your creature here?"

Ray just shrugged.

"I've given you your demonstration, so what happens now?" Ray said loud enough to bring the attention in the room back to himself.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was determined that the information about the spider was to be kept confidential, although Ray doubted how long that could last. A giant spider was fairly conspicuous after all.

Second was what to do with the spider now that they had brought it into the heart of their regional command center. Ray had informed them to some dismay that he in fact could only summon the creature, un-summoning it was another matter entirely; not something he was capable of. As far as Ray could tell, summons were all living beings that firmly existed at all times. They had lives before being summoned, all that the summoning magic did was transport them across a vast distance over to his position. Though one of the benefits they received as part of this summoning was the enhanced regeneration, or even possible immortality that the familiar-summoner contract granted.

That being the case, it was decided they would leave the spider in the building for now, while Ray and a contingent force would head to a far off location before summoning it away safely. Avoiding the dreadful situation of needing to parade a giant monster through the military and refugee camp, which would undoubtedly lead to panic.

As far as their destination, they were going back into the city. Downtown.

The suburbs had been secured already, military patrols still sweeping back and forth while warning people on loud-speakers to stay within their homes. People who were caught out got sent back along with an armed escort to the ad-hoc refugee camps that had just sprouted up yesterday. It was too dangerous at this point to let people attempt to return home on their own, and the military wasn't in the business of chauffeuring civilians back to their home addresses.

They crossed into the city limits within 15 minutes, while Ray ate a few MRE rations he had snagged from the hastily constructed mess hall. He had taken extras despite the stern looks and scoldings it had earned him from the people who he assumed were in charge of distribution.

"You sure can eat." One of the young soldiers sitting next to him remarked.

Ray just nodded through a mouthful of heated spaghetti he had poured out onto a plastic tray. Trying not to spill while the humvee they were in rolled over a sidewalk to save time.

"Name's Matias, you're Ray? How'd you get that power? If you don't mind me asking."

Ray noticed the man, he was one of the soldiers who had brought him in this morning. Apparently they wanted to limit the number of soldiers who were exposed to him.

"The integration." Ray answered briefly, not wanting to elaborate. Strictly speaking only his personality change seemed to have come from the integration, the summoning power and ring came separate. Thinking back on the woman who had the ring on, 'Melissa', her condition to unlock it was probably pretty similar to his own. Killing a goblin. But why did only she have the ring on then? Shouldn't everyone have one on if all they had to do was kill a goblin?"

"Matias, do you know what a mission reward is? Has the system ever asked you to do anything?"

"No idea what you're talking about man. Is that how you got your powers?"

Well, I guess that makes sense then. Most people don't get a mission... then what's the determining factor? The military was asking a lot of questions about his rank during the integration, he wasn't sure how it was for 'easy' but medium difficulty had the concept of a ranker. He would bet money on that being the reason why they were searching for them. Even if you didn't have powers from the start, you could get access to powers through completion of any missions you happened to be assigned.

Ray listened as the sound of gunfire echoed out in the distance, growing louder the farther into the city they drove. Seems like it's going to be a busy day.