Jessica heads to the station, and I put up an illusion of my old body over my new self.

"So why am I 'conundrum'?"

"Besides the fact that you fly in the face of physics and reason?" Jessica scoffs, then answers a little less flippantly, "You’re a good person, but also an existential threat to society due to your power. Seriously, what's stopping you from going on a killing spree?"

I pause at that… I can pretty much waltz through any modern security, can't I? I would make a very scary assassin or thief, but… "What’s stopping you? You run homicide with your partner. You could quite easily cover up a murder." She takes a breath to answer that, but there's the obvious answer, which I give: "But you’re NOT EVIL. Oh, sure, society would eventually catch up to you if you went on a spree, but you of all people are going to know there's no shortage of unsolved cold cases. One or two more wouldn't attract any attention unless they were high profile. But fundamentally, the risk of getting caught at it isn't what stops you. You stop you.  Society's guard rails are less effective in my case, sure. But that’s not what's actually stopping you, or most folks for that matter.  Society works because the vast majority of people want to follow the rules. You deal with the exceptions a lot because of your line of work, but it's, what, one percent of the population in law enforcement?"

"Much less than that; 2.4 sworn officers per thousand people nationwide. You're not wrong. But if I go insane, the damage is limited.  You?  You could pretty much ignore all rules of society at this point. I am bending some rules to help you out, mostly so you don't get desperate and feel the need to break society's rules entirely."

"And because you're a good person, and because you want magic."

"Those too, yeah."

We continue the rest of the drive in awkward silence until we get to the station. Jessica handles her portion of the release paperwork for my wallet, phone, and keys; the person handling the Evidence desk doesn't argue with her, and my portion of the paperwork is straightforward. We leave the station, my bag in hand. I dismiss the illusion in the car.

Jessica then parks us out in the middle of nowhere. "So: You ready to spar?"

"You really need me to hit you?"

She takes a breath, "Not just hit. I need cracked ribs. By all rights, my chest being nothing but bruises after that fight you were in would be getting off absurdly easy. There's no way I can explain having no injuries at all."

I shake my head, "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well… let's get this over with."

She takes off her vest and shirt, giving me a nice view of her no-nonsense cotton bra, before she considers and removes that, too, letting me see her pink little milk taps in the moonlight. I start to feel warm, despite the situation.

"I'm not sure I can…" I begin, but I'm cut off by her fist going through the air where my face was a moment prior.

"We're sparring. I get to punch too."

I curl my Eidolon's claws into fists - cutting her would be undesirable - and we're on. She's actually quite good for being mortal.

But I'm not mortal anymore. I don't miss, and her chest is quickly full of red marks that will soon form bruises. I make about half of my attacks deal lethal damage, and feel a little sick as I hear her ribs crack. She keeps moving, though.

She even lands a blow herself: gets my upper-left milk maker. I barely feel it, and she shakes her hand like she just hit a wall.

After a little while, she groans and says, "Enough," and I stop.

She looks at her hand - her knuckles are slightly bloody from where she hit me, and inquires, "You were gutted just last week, how is it bullets and fists do nothing now?"

"I leveled up. I really didn't like the sensation of being gutted, so I invested in my defense."

"So now you're a steel statue?"

"Only when something hits hard enough to cause damage."

"So if I just…" she reaches out and caresses the same giant globe she hit earlier, and my knees shake a bit.

"Then I'm soft and sensitive, yes. And I still have some relatively vulnerable spots, so a few lucky - or sufficiently skilled - shots with a firearm could still bring me down. But for the most part, I could probably go toe to toe with a tank.  Also, keep going, that feels nice."

She chuckles, "Sorry sweetness, I need to get to the hospital. You good to visit your apartment solo?"

"Yeah. It's not far. Meet back at your place?"

"You’re not staying at yours?"

I shake my head, "I can only pretend to be my old self for a little while, people will sometimes see through it, and… well, it’s not me anymore."

Jessica smiles a little at that, but doesn’t comment on it. She goes with, "See you at home, sweetness," kisses my cheek, gets back in her car, and drives off.

I should probably tell her I have my own room now… eh, it can wait.

I take a moment to look myself over… yeah, I need a new shirt. The bullets put holes through to my skin, and splashing lead ripped apart my shirt and the wrap I use in place of a brassiere. The liquid lead worked as body paint, though, so I look like I'm wearing skin tight gray over my girls. I'll need to get cleaned up and changed. Maybe Clothier's Closet?

For now… I cast Invisibility on myself, and run to my old apartment, renewing the invisibility spell every few minutes. I unlock the door and go inside. Once the door is closed, I let the invisibility lapse, and consider:

I can't really keep this place, the landlord will see through any disguise eventually, and I now have my Sanctum. May as well move out of the apartment and into my Sanctum.

I take the minute to summon the door, and walk in to make sure it turned out the way I pictured: It did. I have a twenty by twenty 'driveway', with a house on the left and a warehouse on the right. Straight ahead between them is a mechanical room, where I eventually plan to set up water and power production. But the space already has all the mundane accouterments I could ask for, which includes electronics, pipes, motors, and so on.  It runs power and piping along the warehouse side to the door, where there's a hookup station to match what might exist at a trailer park: Both halves of it, as after I have a generator and a Decanter of Endless Water, I will be able to use this place to supply things, too. For now, though, I'll need to plug in somewhere to run everything.

I go through my house, and yes, that turned out well too. Just four of my sixty-six twenty foot cubes… but they're twenty foot cubes. Even one would be bigger than my old apartment. And they're set up to work together, split into two stories with a drop-tile ceiling like in an office building in case I ever need to make modifications. So it's a 3200 square foot luxury house - well, more like 3000, because walls take up space, but still. Living room, kitchen, dining room, master bedroom, a master bath, and a guest bathroom all on the ground floor; several guest bedrooms (each with their own bathroom) and an office upstairs. It's sweet.

I go back into the real world, give notice to my landlord, employer, and various utilities via email that I'm no longer doing business with them (I keep my cell plan) rent a PO Box online then get all my bills and notices I'll maintain  redirected to that; and clean the place out, loading everything into my Sanctum. I also deep clean the place with Prestidigitation, and fix all the holes with Make Whole. When I'm done, the apartment is perfectly clean and in better shape than when I rented it.

It's also morning.

I cast Clothier's Closet in a closet, and - because that lets me make arbitrary outfits - get clothes that properly fit: Including a brassiere that actually accommodates my four girls!

I wear a simple explorer's outfit, and pull out a noble's outfit. Huh. It comes with precious metals and jewels worked in, and the clothing is explicitly perfectly normal and unaffected by the spell duration. I wonder if I can harvest this stuff for crafting? It'll probably sell well even if I can't. Regardless, with most of my old life laid to rest, I pocket my phone and wallet - once I have my new ID, I should be able to use my existing bank accounts and things, as the name and birthday will match - dismiss the door to my Sanctum, and head to Jessica's. I leave the noble's outfit on the floor. It's faster for me to make a new one than it is for me to put it in and out of storage. I wonder what the landlord will make of it?

Also, it's nice having pockets again.