Chapter 3: Disturbing Discoveries

“That was weirdly easy”, Cassie said as he looked at the pile of bodies in front of them.

“Turns out high-powered automatic rifles are kinda good at mowing down humanoid targets”, Elaine said. “And you weren't kidding. That was some great shooting.”

“Thanks”, Cassie said. “Those crystal swords were crazy. And what's with those weird glowy threads swirling around you two?”

Elaine blinked. “You can see them?”

“Shouldn't he?”, Abigail asked. “I mean, these are these Winds of Magic you've told us about, right?”

“Yeah”, Elaine said. “But Cassie hasn't bought any magic yet. He shouldn't be able to see them yet, unless...” She looked at the tomgirl. “Can you open your stat page for us?”

“Sure”, Cassie said and fiddled with his AR displays. When he found his status page he scrolled through it, let out a little “Huh”, and then pressed the Share button.

“That doesn't make sense”, Elaine murmured. “Unless...”

“Unless...?”, Cassie asked.

“Ah, I got it”, she said, then waved away the AR display in front of her and then explained: “So, there are two genes that confer magic aptitude. One is a recessive gene. If you have it, you will gain magic sometime during puberty, guaranteed. But that's only about 0.015% of the population.”

“That's the one you have?”, Abigail asked.

“Yeah”, Elaine said. “But there's another one. It's a dominant gene and a significant percentage of the population has it.”

“Then why--”, Abigail began but Elaine cut her off.

“This one doesn't directly confer magical potential, but it will awaken magic within you if you've been in a serious life or death situation, usually one that involved magic. What happened to Cassie back then more than qualifies. So, I guess I'm no longer the only one in our party who was born a mage.”

“Come to think of it, the first time I saw these glowing threads was when I watched you fight that bastard cultist and his pet eldritch horror”, Cassie said. “So, what does that mean?”

“It means you aren't bound to the same tight rules of magic as normal Shard Bearers”, Elaine said. “I'll probably be able to teach you a lot more than the others.”

Cassie smiled under his helmet. “I'm looking forward to it.” He paused, then looked around. “So, are we done here?”

“Almost”, Elaine said. “I want to check out a hunch I've had. We need to look through some of these houses.”

“What kind of hunch?”, Abigail asked.

Elaine decided to tell them of her hypothesis, leaving nothing out.

“Fuck”, Abigail muttered.

“Yeah”, Cassie said, “let's hope you're just being paranoid.”

So they made their way down the street, walking into every house they passed. Whenever they found tins of food that hadn't gone bad yet Elaine placed them in her Ring of Holding, but mostly they searched for any Outsider activity.

Finally, a good ways down the street, almost at the lake shore, they found it. The house looked perfectly normal on the outside but inside it was a scene of carnage. Half-eaten bodies, some no more than collections of sinew and bone, littered the living room.

“Oh god almighty”, Abigail muttered as they made their way through the house.

They made their way up the stairs, past more blood and bodies, and finally, in the bedroom, they found Elaine's worst fears confirmed.

“I think I'm gonna be sick”, Cassie said when he saw it.

It looked like a cocoon connected to the walls and ceiling of the bedroom by strands of silk, but... not. The strands were made of meat and skin and sinew and connected to an equally fleshy cocoon that pulsed as if in time with a heartbeat. Elaine created a short, serrated knife out of crystal and cut into the cocoon, then pried it apart.

What was inside had clearly been a Thrall at one point, fattened up and blubbery rather than half-dead and emaciated as the others had been. But the thing was halfway through a transformation into something much worse, something pale and lithe that was much more uniform and much less cobbled together than the normal look of the Thralls, the canker on its chest sunken in and covered by a layer of skin so that it looked less poorly grafted on and more like a giant pustule right underneath the skin.

Worst of all, except for the parts that had yet to fully transform, she'd met creatures like this before.

“Wendigo”, Elaine growled out. “These Thralls turn into Wendigo after glutting themselves.”

“Like that thing we fought on our first outing?”, Abigail asked.

“Exactly”, Elaine said.

“So they're breeding more powerful monsters?”, Cassie asked.

“That's what it looks like”, Elaine said. “Which strikes me as smarter than what they would usually do.”

“Maybe you're overestimating them?”, Abigail suggested. “Maybe they just mindlessly transformed every person they could find and this is just a random occurrence.”

Elaine shook her head. “I would believe that if it had happened in a big city, but somehow they went out of their way to infect all these tiny little towns, places they could very well just have ignored. But if someone is directing these things and making them turn small towns in order to breed more powerful monsters it'd make sense. I know it's just speculation but I have a feeling I'm right.”

“So what do we do about it?”, Cassie asked. “Burn the whole building down?”

“Fuck no”, Elaine said. “We'll bring this cocoon to the Professor. Maybe he can puzzle something out about this.”

“Is that a good idea?”, Cassie asked. “What if it wakes up?”

“Then we kill it”, Elaine said. “The last time we brought the Professor a research specimen like this he gave us a hefty chunk of Credits in exchange.”

“Alright, I'm sold”, Cassie said.

And so they began to work on cutting the cocoon loose.

**

Subject 259 hurried along a hallway, trailed by four cyborgs. Three of them were the usual garden variety one could purchase from IDS' catalog but the fourth was special. The fourth wasn't just more advanced than the other three, it was also a reminder, for she had once known the fourth cyborg as Subject 202.

The three standard cyborgs were unnerving enough, in part because they were clones. Cloning, as a concept, didn't really work. Any type of artificial insemination worked out just fine but trying to create a body from scratch using DNA that belonged to a being living or dead ran into issues. A soul could not be duplicated. Once sent to the afterlife it wasn't able to return except through the foulest spellcraft of Hastur, the King in Yellow. As such, while it was possible to create a clone body in a vat such a clone would not have a soul and even on the off-chance that the body didn't reject a soulless existence and shut down immediately it would never be anything more than a mindless automaton. Which was exactly what her creator valued about them.

Just for good measure he also lobotomized them, carving out some of the parts of their brains necessary for higher brain functions. The vacant space was then filled with a highly advanced computer that was able to co-opt the brain tissue and use it as its own CPU while also having the ability to use it to steer the body. Said body then had several limbs and organs replaced with metal parts and sometimes bio-engineered growths. The three that Subject 259 had been given as an escort were fairly standard, with metal legs that would never tire, reinforced bones and synthetic muscles in the arms and shoulders to allow them to carry heavier loads than humanly possible. Each of them wielded a PSI device allowing them to cast a few basic spells as well as a weapon that required said inhuman strength to carry.

The fourth cyborg, the one that had been Subject 202 once, was much different. 202 had disappointed their creator and he'd made an example out of her. She was not lobotomized, though 259 was certain she wished she would have been. Her body's entire nervous system was rerouted to listen to a computer affixed to the back of her head rather than to her own brain, making her nothing but a silent spectator in her own skin. Her limbs had been taken off, replaced with spindly robotic limbs that didn't even pretend to be human. The cyborg walked on all fours, looking more like a robotic dog than a human. A muzzle was affixed to her mouth and connected to a tank on her back, taking away her ability to speak and force-feeding her as necessary for her body to retain its functions. Similar tubes connected all over her body in various ways, most of which 259 tried not to think about.

In fact, she tried not to think about the fourth cyborg at all and she certainly tried not to think of it as Subject 202. The idea of a thinking being having been reduced to this was just too cruel. Not only did she have sympathy for her former comrade, she also understood the message loud and clear. If 259 failed in her mission, this was going to be her fate. Reduced to an obedient dog that could do nothing but scream silently into the void as her body degraded itself according to her master's wishes.

But she shook off the existential horror of her situation. It was something she had gotten very good at. Instead of succumbing to despair she continued onward. The unit of cyborgs had been given to her in order to help her on her mission: Investigate what had happened in Albion and find out if the rest of Operation Seedbed was compromised. And so she headed to what her creator generously called a vehicle, another thing 259 tried desperately not to think too hard about, and once there she and her unit would go and fulfill her mission.

**

There was a knock at Stollos Cypher's door.

“Come in”, he called and Sergeant Caldwell entered.

“Sergeant Caldwell”, he said with a nod. “I didn't expect to see you again so soon.”

In fact, he had already decided to go talk to her the next time he saw her in the training room and offer to spar with her. As of right now he hadn't even gotten to properly examining the research specimen she'd last brought him.

“Sorry”, she said. “On our last mission we found something we thought you might be interested in.”

He chuckled. “I've barely even had a chance to look at the last sample you brought me. So, what is it?”

“Well”, she hedged. “It's a bit messy so I've been keeping it in a special bubble of my Ring of Holding. Do you have somewhere I can put it?”

“Messy?”, he asked, then fiddled with a few AR displays and then a wall slid back and opened to reveal a rather high tech laboratory. He pointed at a vat in a corner. “Will this do?”

“It should”, Sergeant Caldwell said and fiddled with her own AR displays and then a fleshy sack of some sort flopped down into the vat, making some rather vile sounds as it hit the ground.

“This is...”, he muttered as he got closer. “Some sort of cocoon?”

“We found this in Knowlesville”, the sergeant said. “It's a Thrall, halfway through a transformation into a Wendigo.”

His eyes widened and he moved closer and confirmed that it was just as she had said. “Fascinating.”

“I had a theory about this, and I wanted to share it with you. If you could debunk it that would help me sleep at night.”

“Please, go on.” Normally he didn't like amateurs theorizing in front of him but so far he'd gotten to know Sergeant Caldwell as a rather intelligent and driven person, so he humored her.

And then she launched into an explanation of her theory and with each sentence Stollos' mood turned a little sourer. Not because what she was saying was hogwash, but because it all made sense. In fact, he'd had similar suspicions and this find further solidified them.

“If you were hoping for peace of mind”, he said, “I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. Your theory seems plausible, maybe even likely. I will investigate this further. But first I need to thank you for bringing this to my attention. This is beyond valuable, once again. Is the same reward as last time acceptable to you?”

Sergeant Caldwell blinked, then nodded. “Certainly!”

**

Later that day Elaine had a nice dinner with her team. Abigail was sitting slightly off to the side but Cassie at least was busy being the life of the party. Elaine was very curious about the young man but she was worried those questions might be offensive. Then again, tiptoeing around it wouldn't do anyone any favors, so finally she decided to just come out and say it:

“Cassie?”

“Yeah?”, he asked.

“There's a few things I've been wondering, but I'm not sure if it's okay to ask. I don't want to offend you or anything.”

He chuckled. “Just go ahead and ask. I'm kind of hard to offend.”

“Alright, if you're sure”, she said. “So, I don't really know how I should think of you. You know, pronouns, gender identity, that sort of thing.”

He took a deep breath. “I'll tell you if you really want to know, but be warned, I'll probably go on one hell of a rant if you let me.”

“Please do”, Elaine said. “I want to get to know the real you.”

He shrugged, but smiled. “Alright, you asked for it. So...” He made sure to look each of the women at the table in the eyes and then pronounced, very clearly: “First of all. I. Am. Not. Trans. I am male. I was born male and I have no desire or interest to change that. I consider myself a 'he'.” He paused, then continued: “That being said, if people mistake me for a girl or call me a 'she' I'm not offended. I'm flattered. I put a lot of effort into my appearance and it's always nice to see it pay off. But just because I like looking like a girl doesn't mean I want to be one.”

“Okay”, Elaine said. “You seem very emphatic about that.”

“I am”, he growled out. “See, before the Invasion I was a streamer, you know, playing videogames for an audience. And every single stream, like clockwork, I had at least one asshole in chat trying to convince me that I'm trans. To this day I don't know who these people are and where they get off. My money is on them being people who realized too late they weren't trans and are trying to spread the misery around. Either way, these “every crossdresser is secretly trans” morons just rub me the wrong way. I have never, EVER met a crossdresser who was trans.” He was shaking with anger and only when he noticed that all eyes were on him, even some from other tables, did he take a deep breath and relax. “Sorry. I warned you I'd start to rant if you let me.”

Elaine was the first to recover. “It's okay. I can't even imagine how much that sucks.”

“What about the word 'trap'?”, Ophelia asked. “I hear tell that that's a slur.”

Cassie scowled at her. “Don't you start”, he said. “The idea that 'trap' is a slur comes, again, from people who think crossdressers are trans. And again, I am not. I am tricking people with my appearance. That's not a slur, that's just a fact. If I can make someone who is attracted to women interested in me because they didn't know I was a guy I'm excited, not offended.”

“So the word 'trap' is a badge of honor for you, not a slur?”, Elaine asked.

“Exactly”, he said. “I won't pretend I'm speaking for everyone with this but I know I'm not alone in thinking it either.”

There was a moment of silence as everyone digested what Cassie had told them. Finally Ophelia spoke up:

“So, what about sexuality? What way do you swing?”

Cassie blushed a bit at that. “Well, not to put too fine a point on it, I'm bi. But you won't have to worry about me. I can control myself around pretty women, I promise.”

“Don't try too hard”, Ophelia said, flicking her eyes over to Elaine.

Cassie's blush was now pronounced. “Well, anyway, was there something else you want...ed...” He trailed off as notifications began flashing in front of him.

“Well how about that”, he muttered, then shared the notifications.

“Awesome”, Elaine said. “That's the next thing I wanted to talk to you about. We can allocate your EXP now.”

“Oh, right”, he said.

And so Elaine explained how the process worked and soon Cassie had opened up his ability menu. An ice blue sphere with a pink center appeared and surrounding it were red, green, blue, pink and white orbs. Then, under Elaine's guidance, he shifted it to list view and things instantly became clearer.

“Um, why do I have so much EXP?”, Cassie asked.

“I mean, fifty of those you just earned”, Elaine said. “Then we have the achievements for surviving your first outing, but other than that...”

“I guess I saw a whole bunch of Outsiders already before I officially joined you guys”, Cassie muttered. “I do remember getting a message about that.”

“Maybe you got the EXP for the head cultist and the Shoggoth since you were with us when we fought those?”, Alexis suggested.

“That... might be it”, Elaine said. “That's convenient. That means you won't lag behind nearly as much as I feared.”

“Question is”, Alexis said, “do you want to spend it all or keep some in reserve until your Bond Level increases?”

“Would that help?”, Cassie asked.

“The abilities get way better later and not everything new requires old abilities”, Ophelia said.

“On the other hand, he can buy everything currently on offer and then he still has 150 points in reserve”, Evelyn chimed in.

“True enough”, Elaine said. “Either way, you want those apples as soon as possible. The sooner you get them the more you can get out of them.”

“I guess we need to choose how to share them first”, Cassie said.

“No”, Elaine said. “Right now you're lagging behind all of us. You get all of them until your stats catch up with the rest at least. Your skill set looks like it's meant for a tank, so you probably want all the health and endurance you can get for that.”

“Yeah, that's fair”, Cassie said. “Alright then. I think I'll leave that taunting ability out until I'm tough enough to survive drawing all the aggro.”

“Sounds good”, Elaine said.

“He's already tougher than me”, Evelyn grumbled.

“Shush, you”, Elaine said. “You still have a couple hundred EXP left to spend.”

“Sweet Jesus, Elaine, your stats are huge!”, Cassie exclaimed as Elaine shared her stat window.

“Her stats aren't the only thing that's---MMMPH”, Ophelia began before Evelyn grabbed her from behind and clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Will you keep that shit to yourself just this once?”, the redhead hissed.

Cassie only just managed not to smirk. He knew what that comment had been about but he was pretty sure Elaine wouldn't appreciate it if she learned this way that he already knew. He was going to tell her – he had no interest in that coming out later and ruining things between them – but he wasn't going to do it when they had an audience. Especially since he was pretty sure Abigail at least didn't know about Elaine's... little big secret yet.

“So, what now?”, Cassie asked instead. “Do you all want to spend your EXP?”

“Not yet”, Alexis said. “I'd rather wait until my Bond Level gets a bit higher.” And she almost managed to finish the sentence without making shifty eyes at Elaine and Ophelia.

“Speaking of”, Ophelia said, “I hope you're free later, Elaine. I want to drink your blood again if you'll let me.”

“D-drink her blood?”, Cassie asked, letting out a nervous chuckle. “Is that a very specific kink or something?”

“No”, Ophelia said and smiled, showing off her unnaturally long canines. “I'm a vampire.”

“O-oh”, Cassie stammered out.