Glen sat down. “Okay peeps, let's do this. Debrief time.”

They were all at Jay’s house. All was dark and quiet outside and the lights were dimmed so as to not wake the household. Charlie was somewhat subdued. Not because of what had just gone down. No, that was water off a troll’s back. No, rather it was because she was only just realising now how well off, no how rich, Jay’s parents were. “Dragonballs, Jay,” Charlie was astounded, “are you like a [Secret Prince] or something? This is a freaking mansion.” To think she had mistaken the hospital for a palace. It had nothing on Jay’s house.

Jay shrugged it off. “Yeah, nah I'm just me Charles,” dismissing her question.

If Charlie was subdued, then Rachel was downright moribund. Glen had discretely checked she was still breathing a couple of times already. Apart from the occasional eye blink, Rachel was catatonic with a blank and vacant stare. The shock of her attack had been completely eclipsed with a far greater one. Werewolves were real. Are real. It was looping in her head. She couldn’t snap out of it. Charlie, this tiny cute girl, was as scary as hell. Rachel shivered violently. She must be dreaming. She clasped her arms around her legs, trying desperately to be still. She couldn’t even look at Charlie. Not even sideways. She focussed on her knees, drawn up just in front of her nose. This was a nightmare. She needed to wake up. This couldn’t be happening. And to think she had such a massive crush on Jay. What would he think of her now? She stole a quick glance at him.

Jay was grinning madly. This was sick. Charlie was a [Werewolf]. She could transform at will. It was cool as. Man, he was still getting little thrills running down his spine as he remembered her holding up her hands like a boss and freaking turning into a sweet-as monster. She had totally dominated. And that aura of fear that she had emitted; it was mean. He had had to clench his bladder hard, lest he have a little accident. He chuckled; a wee accident. That was funny. But he was pleased he hadn’t. That would not have been funny at all. And he had been somewhat ready for her to unleash. He glanced at Rachel; she had been totally unprepared, no wonder she fainted, with shock upon shock. He didn’t blame her in the slightest. It had been more scary than he expected.

Their eyes met and they both flushed slightly.

Glen continued, ignoring Charlie’s exclamation. “So… who wants to go first?” He looked at Charlie. She was still lost in wonder. He nodded. He remembered the first time he came over. It had been a bit of a culture shock for him too. It must be even more for her, based on what he gathered of her life prior to her transmigration. Jay and Rachel were stealing looks at each other. Stupid eggs. It was obvious they liked each other. It had been obvious for years to everyone except each other. He sighed, this was going to be a grind. “Okay, I’ll start,” he announced. “That went both way better and way worse than I expected.” He nodded again, he had their attention at last.

“Why better?”

“Why worse?”

Jay and Charlie both asked at the same time. Glen sighed again. Of course Jay was perplexed. Glen doubted whether Jay had a pessimistic bone in his body. In Jay’s worldview everything sort of fell into place just as it should. He probably hadn’t even thought about worse outcomes so how could it have gone any better. And Charlie… Well, she still didn’t see the issue in transforming in front of Rachel.

“We did well in subduing Rachel’s attackers,” Glen continued. “They were older, stronger and more experienced.’ He looked at Rachel. “You were extremely lucky I saw you get grabbed. A couple of seconds later, I would have missed that initial lunge and thought you were with them.” Rachel shivered. She hadn’t even had time to cry out. It had been a mistake to be out there by herself. That sort of thing happened to other people. The ones you read of in the news. Unlucky ones. Not people you knew and never to you. But she knew now how lucky she was. She glanced at Jay. He was a hero. They all were. Even the girl. No, Rachel shook her head. She needed to call her by name, not distance herself from her. She was Charlie. And she had saved her too. Just as much as Jay had. Even if she was a monster. No, not a monster, Rachel corrected herself. Monsters didn’t save people. They preyed on them. Charlie wasn’t a monster. Rachel was feeling more like herself. Charlie was a hero. Deliberately she looked at Charlie.

Charlie was picking at the couch. She was uncomfortable in this rich house. She didn’t fit here. She felt like an imposter. Any moment guards would storm in and manhandle her out into the street for a beating. “We did good. You did especially good Glen; in fending off all three of them. How did you do that?” Charlie asked.

“They were just toying with me,” Glen answered. “I had no real chance of stopping them if they had charged me. They thought I was funny. Mocking me as a try hard hero. I was very pleased and relieved to see you guys.”

“Why was it worse than you thought?” Rachel's voice was almost a whisper.

Glen turned to fully face her. “It was worse because we traumatised you even more.” He gestured at Jay, “we were somewhat prepared for Charlie. You were not. And it was, and still is, a scary thing. Very scary.” He paused. “Monsters are real. And I’m not talking about human monsters like what attacked you, I’m talking about the real deal. Monstrous monsters.” He paused, “the world is changing Rachel. In a way it hasn’t before. And we are right at the very front of it.”

“Harbinger of doom,” Charlie murmured, almost to herself.

They all turned to look at her. She was tiny, in her cut-off jean shorts and oversized hoodie, on a couch that dwarfed her. It was difficult to reconcile this with the terrifying memory of her hands transforming. She looked small and alone. She blinked at them. “What? Oh, did you hear that?” Charlie smiled at them. “Sorry, I was just musing, that's all.”

Jay, for all his obliviousness, could be surprising insightful. “You're not alone Char. We got you, babe,” He smiled. “We can be Harbingers too.” Then he frowned; “not of doom though. That sounds sort of a bit of a downer. How about Harbingers of Hope?” he said brightly, “or too cheesy?” he paused looking at them.

Glen groaned. Good intentions but the focus of a goldfish. “How do you think we went, Jay?”

“Man, we owned them. They were bullies and braggarts. I thought communication was good and we backed each other up well.” He paused, “you should have waited for us but Glen. It was dangerous to confront them on your own. What if we were a bit later?”

Glen nodded. He agreed. He hadn’t really thought it through properly. “Good comment. I agree. I didn’t think it through at all.” He turned to Charlie. “What do you think Charlie?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Charlie sat up straight. “I think three things.” She listed them off on her fingers; “one, we did good, like a proper crew. Two, no-one was badly hurt and we won handily and three,” she paused looking at each of them, including Rachel. “Three, we should have looted and killed them.” She was defiant. Charlie knew that Glen and Jay had an aversion to killing, and she respected them and had obliged despite her better judgement. “Your world is changing. You can’t afford to be soft and precious. Leaving enemies alive is just about the worst thing you can do. Now they will recover and get stronger and you’ll have to do it all over again.”

Glen knew this was coming. He could see her point. But it was a matter of principle. He tried again. “If we change our behaviour based on perceived risk, if we escalate things, then it's on us. And starting to kill our opponents, no matter how evil they are, is a huge escalation. If we use the [System] to justify that, then it will become easier to use it to justify other things too. I’m not saying things won’t change, but at the moment, everything is still normal.” He looked at Rachel and then Charlie, “well mostly normal,” he amended.

Rachel was still wide eyed but she had lost that catatonic look. She turned to Charlie and with a deep breath asked her, “you said your world is changing… What do you mean? Isn’t it your world too?” She stared at Charlie, “are you an alien? From a different world? And why is it changing?” the questions spilling out like a torrent.

Charlie slouched back into the couch. They were valid questions. “The world is changing because the [System] is here. Because I am here. And yes from a different world. From Kentron, the centre of the universe… but I think a different universe maybe. So yes, I am an alien. But this is my world now. I don’t think there’s any way back…” Charlie twitched as a [System] notification pinged her. That didn’t sound good.

UNCLAIMED WORLD [EARTH]

Earth is currently an unowned, uncontested world.

You have claimed ownership.

As the highest classed individual on [Earth] your claim is valid.

Do you want to proceed?

Yes

No Yes No

“What…?” Charlie froze. How was this possible? She hadn’t claimed ownership. This was the [System] trying to manipulate her again.

“What's what Char?” Jay asked. All three of them staring at her.

“The [System]’s trying to force something on me yet again.” Now that she got over the initial surprise, Charlie was feeling distinctly annoyed. If she hadn’t taken her [Sanctuary of Self] skill the [System]’s override of her choices would have stuck rather than being in turn overruled by her skill. Such manipulation went against all the principles she had been taught. Like the quest she refused, it was a matter of principle. She was her own person, rot it.

“Like the [Newell Pillar] quest? Glen asked. Neither he nor Jay had been given the option of saying no to that either. Charlie had dismissed it because she could and because the [System] had tried to force it on her. Just like this. She was not a tool.

“Yes,” she replied, “nothing too serious though. We can talk about it later,” downplaying it as much as she could.

Glen frowned and then nodded. It was something big. “Sure thing Charlie, let’s do that.” He cycled through his mental list.

They had talked over the confrontation. There were things they, he, could have done better, so that was good. Glen really wanted to talk about builds now, and levels and skills too, but first, what was needed was to make sure Rach was okay with this absolutely earth shattering change. It was a paradigm shift.

Looking at Rachel, it was apparent to him that she had somehow woken out of her stupor. That was good. She had regained some of her normal vivaciousness. “You okay if we talk shop a bit Rach?” Glen asked. “I mean, we can wait and stuff but, if you’re cool with it, it will probably help you get an idea of what’s going down.”

“Yeah,” Rachel somewhat hesitantly replied. “I’m cool. You do your system talk thing, I’m okay just listening.” She glanced at Jay again, it certainly didn’t hurt that she could spend some more time with him. She would put up with a lot for that. Jay smiled at her. Rachel felt all melty, ahhh, he was so dreamy. Yes, even the freaky monster-girl was worth it.

Glen sighed. Jay was distracted by a pretty face. Even with how excited he was with the [System], he was still a teenage boy. Charlie was watching him curiously. Then she looked at Glen raising one eyebrow questioningly. He shrugged at her. What could you do?

Well, perhaps instead of talking it over, he would just show them. He waited until Charlie turned back to Jay and then once no one was looking directly at him he activated his [Skill]. The room greyed out and he carefully slipped out of his armchair. Hugging the shadows he softly stole into the recess beside the mantle. Charlie noticed almost immediately. Stiffening and then sniffing, of all things. She cocked her head, ears twitching. This was a challenge. Glen froze, deliberately keeping his breath regular and shallow. Her eyes were searching for him but she didn’t otherwise move or alert Jay. Jay was completely ignorant. Silly twat. Glen carefully reached into his pocket and withdrew three small bouncy balls. Time to test out the extent of the Skill. He suspected that if he made an attack it would cancel the skill. But what about an indirect attack? With a discreet flick he launched the ball at the wall, trying to bounce it off and into Jay. He missed. Jay didn’t even notice. Charlie did, tracking the trajectory back to the wall but not beyond that. Glen gave a mental fist pump. Waahoo it worked. [Sneak] had not dropped. But he could feel his skill stretching. It was about to time out. He launched the remaining two balls. This time he hit Jay who started up in surprise turning towards the wall in confusion.

Jay shook his head. Glen had disappeared and now was playing silly buggers. Where had he got to? “Glen, you muppet. What are you playing at mate?”

Rachel was just as confused and then her eyes widened as Glen ended his skill and materialised beside the curtain across from them. How had he got there without them noticing? And fading in like that? That was super spooky.

Jay was grinning as wide as ever. “Whoa! Dude! You got a stealth skill! That’s crazy mad! I couldn’t even see you at all. Even after you hit me! That’s so broken bro!” He was exuberant. Glen laughed with him. This was massive. It was one thing to see Charlie wolf out but altogether another when it was your own [Skill] in action. This was unreal.

Charlie was still curled up on the couch. She smiled at the boys’ antics. It was pretty special alright. It looked like Glen had selected his level one skill. And it was a good one too. She had never heard of a stealth skill that survived an overt action before. As soon as Glen had disappeared, she had guessed his skill. It suited him, with his quiet, deliberate and watchful demeanour.

And then of course he gave a quite unglenlike cheer; “Level up baby!”

— -O- —//— -O- —

Ross sighed. What a bizarre dream… he blinked the last vestige of sleep from his eyes. His eyes widened and he sat up with a start. He had been laying with his head in Paul’s lap and James, “arrggghhh,” James was still drooling on his. With a cry of dismay he shoved him off. What sort of sick joke was this? Ross shook his head again, and then carefully checked his Mohawk. It was important to keep it straight. A floppy Mohawk was a serious embarrassment.

Man, his throat hurt. His ears and face too. Like he had been through a tenderiser. He checked his face feeling out the sore bits gingerly. His fingers came away bloody from his eyebrow but all his studs and chains seemed good. Someone had done a number on them all. They had been jumped that was for sure. Last thing Ross could remember was checking out that blonde. She had been hot. And then that weird kid had showed up like he was going to protect her or something. That had been funny. But what had happened next? Absently he licked the blood off his fingers. James was stirring now. Perhaps he would remember more.