It was easy for Yuriko’s Anima to hook into the fabric of reality, tough as it was. Nearly half a year of living in Dragon Fall City had made some of her reflexes sloppy when it came to flying, but she adjusted quickly. She’d been able to fly even before she Actualised, though not as well as she could have now that she was in Transformation. Her incarnation body had less Anima to work with but even so, it was more than enough to carry her weight and propel her at speeds that crossed the distance in the blink of an eye.

She infused Swordlight into her Invisible Edge, expanding it to several paces long. She unleashed it by snapping her fingers, allowing her to maintain control. She slid it over at head height, the edge undulating as it adjusted to different elevations. It cut right into her foes’ skulls and the inclusion of Swordlight annihilated whatever connection the zombies had to their bodies, and turned them instantly to dust.

She whirled around as her toes touched the ground. She unleashed more Invisible Edges, some by snapping or flicking her fingers, and others by how her muscles clenched. She restricted her attacks in number to less than forty a minute since that was the limit to keep her Intent from plummeting below the first regeneration threshold.

The Edges carved into golem skulls, twisted a little bit in the middle of the brainpan, adding just a bit more damage to make regenerating the bodies harder. She leapt towards the golems that had a hold of Zachary and Graham, even as Alexis rallied at her appearance. Electricity spilled from his fingertips and charged zombie skin, but didn’t penetrate past it to truly destroy them.

Yuriko’s Animakinesis grabbed the cameraman, who was still unconscious. Zachary yelped as he scrambled to his feet. He stumbled when his knee failed him. His jeans were ripped and she could see it was wet with blood. Yuriko grabbed him and tossed him over her shoulder, then yelled to Alexis, “Come on!” Her kinesis grabbed a few pebbles and slammed them into the remaining zombies, not quite destroying them but it did throw them back.

The lightning-fingered young man didn’t hesitate, or even pause to stare and ran after her. They moved to the centre of the courtyard as there were fewer zombies there. She knocked several down with thrown pebbles.

“Wait, let me down!” Zachary yelped. “I’m going to be sick.”

“Aim away from me,” Yuriko yelled.

“Blargh!”

He didn’t aim away, or rather, couldn't summon the wherewithal to. Yuriko rolled her eyes and used her Anima to keep the sick up away, absently noting that her reach had expanded to about thirty-one paces and change, exactly a tenth of her true body’s reach, even if her Anima density remained at three times the norm. The increased density helped with forming barriers and keeping away unwanted filth, though she had to be careful about layering it close to her skin. In fact, once she did some research on Altered Human powers, she created a filter over her mouth and nose, and nothing that passed through it could do so without her knowing exactly what it was. Her true body did the same, but there was less reason and danger there. A brief bout of Elementalisation would eliminate all harmful substances that managed to make it into her body. The same wasn’t true for her incarnation body, not yet, at least. She was still a few weeks away from completing her physique forging, though she was close to seventy percent there.

Yuriko jumped away from the splash zone to keep up appearances though it also allowed her to avoid a swipe from a golem. She stomped down on its extended leg and heard the bone snap as the thing fell down.

“Blargh!”

The zombie was then covered with a layer of puke. How much did Zach eat for dinner? She knew he enjoyed the steaks, but he’d chowed down on the veggies, too. Come to think of it, food had been cheap in Lockweed, especially compared to the markets in Neo Prism City.

Dragging Graham along behind her with a hold on his leg while her kinesis levitated him along, she made her towards the main building’s rear entrance. Alexis seemed winded, panting loudly as he ran behind her. She eliminated any golems that came close, using a mix of brute force and Invisible Edges once her Intent pool regenerated. They made it into the building a few minutes later and soon returned to the third floor. There, she found the other five had barricaded themselves in one of the intact suites, and the hallway was filled with golems.

“Swarmfodder,” Yuriko muttered as she pulled a strand of Swordlight from her core. Regenerating a strand took hours of waiting, or much shorter if she focused on it. Sadly, doing the latter meant she couldn't do anything else. Still, she had an inkling that holding out inside Hotel de Lune would be a foolish endeavour, and if the exit to the interstitial space couldn’t be found here, then surely, it would be somewhere else.

Energy flowed within the limited space, and if there were no entrances or exits, the flow would not exist, nor would the veil between the space and the rest of creation be so robust. Ah, there was an idea. If she followed the energy flows, would she find the exit?

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She snapped her fingers while swiping her arm, which resulted in an Invisible Edge the width of the hallway. Instead of increasing her control over the Edge, she bolstered its durability. The Edge flew across the hallway and bisected every zombie that clamoured to get to her fellow victims.

“Effing…” Alexis muttered at her display.

“Blargh!”

Zach was still barfing… Well, dry heaving now as he’d finally voided whatever was in his stomach.

“We’re here.”

Yuriko pitched her voice to penetrate the barricade, basically a door and several nearly rotted furniture, plus Michael, and Victor’s weight. Christine, Haley, and Sandra held several broken-off table legs to club any zombie that managed to enter, and from the ashen residue, some had. She noticed Sandra’s jeans and shirt were torn, but the skin underneath was unmarred. There were also wood fragments and dust on Christine’s hands.

“Lily?” Michael called out. “Hurry inside!”

Despite her reservations and thoughts, Yuriko waited for the barricade to open, while Alexis fired off electric dregs at the surviving zombies. A minute later, and after clearing the rest of the hall, they entered and unblocked the room.

“Thank the gods,” Michael said as he leaned against the furniture. He spotted Zach’s wounds and winced. “Good that you’re mostly unharmed…”

“Unharmed?” Haley said, her tone pitched high. “She jumped off the window and flew! I don’t think we should worry about her.”

Yuriko shrugged, but before she could say anything else, the others piped in.

“Are you a superhero?” Christine asked, “Or a…villain?”

“Neither,” Yuriko said.

“A vigilante?”

“I don’t really see the difference between a hero and a vigilante…” Yuriko muttered. While doing so, Zach finally got control of himself and moaned. His leg was still bleeding, though not profusely. The camera woman, Sandra poked at his wound and drew out a low roar of pain and annoyance.

“How did you Alter? You look no different?” she asked him.

“Did you all manage to discover your newfound power?” Yuriko asked.

“Yes, I have,” Michael answered before the others could. “I…”

“Wait, tell me in a bit, if you please,” Yuriko interrupted, then ignored the slight pout he sported. “We have to leave the hotel. I’m not sure how far we have to go but the zombies feel like guardians. And I saw more of them materialise after I destroyed some.”

“How do you know that?” Haley asked, voice tight with tension. “How do you know anything? You…have you been Altered for long? You’re actually younger than most of us…”

Yuriko shrugged, but she couldn’t think of any argument that would have them follow her without question, not unless she used her Mien to force the issue. They were all panicked and were forcing themselves to calm, and Graham still hadn’t…

“Argh!” the cameraman shot to his feet. “Hah! Hah!” His eyes widened, pupils dilated. “Wha…where…who…?”

“You’re safe, for now,” Christine said. “We’re in a room, inside a dark and monstrous reflection of the hotel.”

“Lilibeth insists we have to leave, otherwise…well, otherwise what?” Michael asked.

Yuriko answered easily. “The golems won’t stop coming, and killing, or destroying them isn’t a permanent fix, not to mention I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this.”

“You…you’re awfully calm, aren’t you?” Christine accused. “Have you…no, how could you? You said you weren’t a superhero…”

“Hmmm, well, no, I haven’t encountered anything like this in Astoria,” Yuriko admitted.

Christine eyed her sharply and was just about to retort but changed her mind a moment later. “You still are experienced in fighting. Unusual.” Her gaze shifted to Haley, who eyed her nervously, then to Alexis, who didn’t react. “You three remained conscious.”

“I fainted!” Haley protested. “Though I woke up before anyone else did. Lilibeth protected us.”

Yuriko glanced at Graham, who had calmed down after Sandra took over easing his fears. His gaze danced around, then suddenly fixated on Zachary, who was cleaning his wound while muttering curses. Graham’s hand rose and he moved, as though in a trance, towards the younger man. His fingers took on a silvery glow, which caused Sandra, who saw it out of the corner of her eye, to yelp.

“What are you doing?!” the woman yelped. Before anyone could do anything, and Yuriko didn’t act since she felt no malice within the light, Graham touched Zachary’s skin and the light left his hand only to stick to the younger man’s wound.

“Ahh! It’s hot!” Zach screamed in a high-pitched voice. “Eh?”

The light faded and the blood dried and crusted off, revealing seamless skin.

Graham grunted and fell to his knees, his face pale. He swayed and would have fallen if Sandra didn’t grab him.

“My Owc…er, wound’s gone!” Zach said.

“Yes, genius, he healed you,” Haley snarked. Her voice reverberated oddly, and while her tone was obvious, something in her voice made it really stand out that she was being sarcastic.

“And he drained his reserves doing so,” Yuriko observed. “Anyone got water or something?”

Victor reached into his pocket and drew out a plastic bottle, half squashed and a third empty. “All I have,” he muttered, but he graciously gave it to Graham, who nodded his thanks. A couple of swallows and the paleness left his cheeks. The ordeal seemed to have calmed him down, though.

“I…I’ve Altered? Ah, I’ve got a healing power.” He tilted his head. “I’m not sure if I’m lucky or not.”

“Why ever not?” Yuriko asked, and the older man chuckled.

“Now, after we get out of here, the feds will force me to a facility to study how I do what I do.”

“Why not hide it?”

Graham sneered and looked at the others. “I don’t know if that will work—oh, but all of us Altered.” He grinned viciously, “If one of us squeals, all of us will get caught.”

Yuriko snorted, “I don’t really care.”

The others looked at her with an odd look, and she continued, “I am my own self. I won’t allow anyone else to determine my fate.”

Behind her, Alexis grinned but didn’t do anything else. Her words sobered up Graham and grounded the others.

Christine said, “You think we should leave? You…”

Michael interrupted, “Lilibeth…you’re with the Occult Research Club…you’ve read about something like this?”

“I guess you can say that. Now, unless you all want to stay here forever, I suggest we head out now, before we get trapped here.”

After another half hour of waffling about, they agreed. Of course, the halls were full of zombies again.