As it turned out, there wasn’t a procedure in place for mediating assault by one superhuman, tenuously-above-the-law person against another. The main reason for this was no one could think of a time this previously happened. I’d be utterly shocked if this really was the first time ever, so it was much more likely that any other incident was quietly swept under the rug by whatever organizations the MGs were working with.

In the absence of official guidelines, I stacked my chances of getting out of this easily by immediately calling the rest of my group along with Miracleworker and telling them what had happened. I was particularly interested in the doctor and Rebecca getting here as fast as they could just to be sure the MG that attacked me only had a concussion and hadn’t been put in a coma or something.

Making use of the time I had until anyone else arrived, I started recording what I was seeing and hearing and asked the one witness, “are you okay? I just want to make sure you weren't hit by their attacks. Probably should have asked sooner…”

Still not quite comprehending what just happened, they placatingly said, “no, no, I’m fine. Just a little shaken up…” As they started tapering off, I shifted my shoulder and neck to position my still faintly bleeding cuts towards them. I saw a faint twitch of their face when the wire wrapped around my neck caught the light, and they followed up with, “are you alright? You still got their… stuff on you.”

“Oh, right,” I exclaimed with false surprise, adding a wince as I was overly-carefully unwound the thin strand from my neck. “Don’t you think their reaction was a bit much for literally doing what they asked?”

“Yeah… that went from zero to one-hundred fast.”

“You can say that again. Attacking me because they thought I was a demon… Do you think I look like one? I mean, none of the ones I’ve seen were my particular brand of messed up.”

They let out a small chuckle at that before catching themself and quickly saying, “Not a demon, but you’re also not the most… uhh, normal looking…”

Taking advantage of their awkwardness I slightly narrowed my eyes and exasperatedly asked, “that still not grounds to hit first like they did, right?”

“Of course not!” My supply of evidence quickly assured me- definitely trying to move past their almost insult. “They should have talked or at least not gone for a kill right away…”

I laughed a little to put them at ease, then stopped the recording and grabbed the unconscious MG under the arms- depositing both them and myself into chairs to wait for people to arrive.

Less than ten minutes later, a few of the people I called started showing up. The other MG was still knocked out, so I talked with my squad members about what to do. We eventually narrowed down the options since I didn’t need or want to deal with trying to sue, get an apology, or really any form of reparation. All I wanted was to not have to fight them again, then have everyone forget it.

I got my minor injuries patched up, dismissed everyone except the MGs I was familiar with, then asked Rebecca, “when we wake them up to chat, can you try using your ‘emotional healing’ thing to see if they have a problem beyond inflated self-worth?”

“Yeah? Can I ask why?”

Skipping over some of the details I had already told them, I explained, “I think they might have a particular hatred for humanoid demons- which they accused me of being when I turned off my obfuscation perks.”

As she nodded in thought, Miracleworker put away his tools and proclaimed, “they’re all good. Had a small concussion which I fixed. Want me to wake them up?”

“Actually, give me a sec. I’ll be right back,” I requested as I ran off to a water cooler a few rooms away for some cups of water.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

When I got back, I signaled Miracleworker the go-ahead. As the other MG I hadn’t learned the name of yet started to come to, I turned off [Unremarkable] and leaned down to hand them some water. Only after downing the entire thing did they actually look at who I was. There was a flash of recognition in their eyes and I could see their heart rate start speeding up for a few seconds before they calmed down. I shot a quick text to Rebecca asking what she thought their deal was.

As she quietly and absurdly quickly typed an answer, I offered what was originally going to be my cup of water as well. Before that one was also gone, I got a text back with my answer: some sort of trauma.

Breaking the silence, I asked the other MG, “feeling alright? Sorry I wasn’t able to cushion your fall.”

With a small stammer, they got out, “y-yeah. S-sorry…”

Burying my resentment, I waved off the apologies. “Don’t worry about it, I was more worried about the receptionist’s safety than what you could do to me.” I casually took a seat on the short table in front of them, toggled [Unremarkable] back on, then continued, “what do you go by? I never had the chance to ask last time.”

“Briar.”

“Neat. You don’t have to worry about getting in trouble- there’s not much legal precedent for MG-on-MG violence, and I don’t want to press changes anyway. What I do want is for you to understand that SEYA is one of the safest places you can be. Unless one of us does something… ill-informed.” Taking a small break before shifting to a more comforting voice, I probed, “I get my appearance is a little off-putting- hence the disguise perks- but I’d hazard a guess it was more than just that prompted you to take a swing at me?”

Shaking nearly imperceptibly, they muttered, “y-yeah…”

“I’m guessing it has to do with some of the Breaches you’ve been in?”

“Yeah…”

“Can you talk about it?”

In a very small voice they explained, “two of them- one before and one after contracting- had a lot of human looking or controlling demons.”

“Damn. I take it that made dealing with everything much more difficult?” Getting a nod in response, I sent the doctor directions to a vending machine and an order of a few cookies. “It’s a hard and stressful job, but there’s plenty of resources available to help you, got it?

“Actually, I’ve had to deal with some of those mimics. It looked and sounded like someone who was very hurt, but my Semiseelie urged me to kill it. Made me feel awful, but there wasn’t much choice… Feel free to not answer, but how many Breaches have you been in?”

Sounding a little more confident, they offered, “three. One before becoming an MG and two after. How many have you done?”

“Hmmm… six? Two before and two after. I think my parents mentioned that when I was very young- like right as my mom was getting out of the hospital after having me, one hit. Similar to some of yours, there were some mind reading or altering demons. They weren’t the strongest, so only those that couldn’t really resist were affected. It would have been much worse, but on that day a team of MGs were doing a visit to the hospital and got everything cleaned up fast.”

“Were you controlled by them?”

Seeing them opening up more I continued, “maybe? I was super young, so my behavior was probably indistinguishable from normal and I’m pretty sure actually-factual mind control isn’t a thing demons can even do. Anyway, even better, a few years later I was supposedly caught in another Breach during kindergarten. Apparently, it was a few blocks to the shelter- and the warnings were much shorter notice back then- so demons started appearing on our way there. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been because this was planned for and some police immediately came to help escort us when the alarms went off.”

Miracleworker had come back with a round of sweets for everyone- now enraptured by my story, “anyway, out of everyone a scouting-bird-like-one swooped me. It didn’t really have a way to hurt me besides the initial impact, but one of the cops decided to take a shot at it, and splattered it all over me. Some got into my mouth. Apparently, that got me really sick and it was touch-and-go if I would make it through. Obviously it turned out alright.”

Almost incredulously, Briar asked, “and you still became an MG?”

With a small laugh, I said, “well, it’s not like I remember any of it. The other two I was caught by before contracting went about as good as they could have for me. And now being a Breach magnet should be a benefit.”

Now fed, watered, and made to feel they were part of the group, everyone relaxed and offered their own stories of bad Breach experiences. I mostly sat back as more and more MG kept appearing seemingly from nowhere. At the point my attempt at manipulating my victim into believing they were at fault became an impromptu party, I switched on [Act], and left without anyone noticing.