Chimera winced as Sarah started laying into Aden.

“The hell are you doing with that girl?!”

Chimera turned to stare at Aura as she held onto Aden protectively.

“Lay off redhair! He’s my boyfriend!”

“Aura please…”

“Boyfriend?!”

Aura raised her voice as she started shouting back at Sarah, all while Aden was trying to calm them both down.

Chimera decided she should be anywhere but here.

“Okay! Have fun arguing!”

She turned to walk into the Machine Labs when Aura grabbed her arm.

“Pinky, protect me from the screaming hag!”

“Wha?!”

“Did you just call me a hag, monochrome?!”

“Both of you stop it already!”

Chimera was stretching herself to reach the Machine Labs as Aura held on tight to her stretching arm.

“Let go, I’m not qualified enough to deal with Sarah’s brocon bullshit!”

Chimera felt a twinge as Sarah grabbed her other arm.

“B-Bro-con? I love my brother platonically, thank you very much!”

“Talk it out with him then and leave me out of it!”

“Please help Pinky~!”

“Chimera, talk sense into them please!”

“Chimera~!”

“Chimera!”

“Chimera…”

Chimera was almost to the door to the Machine Labs when Meghan slapped her hand away from the door.

“No!”

Meghan smiled, “oh no, not this time Chimera, this is my hiding spot!”

She grinned mischievously, opening and shutting the door behind her as Chimera heard the door lock shut.

As the group began arguing again, Chimera roared and grabbed all of the people around her, carrying them in her tendrils five feet off the ground.

“Alright, enough of this stupid crap.”

She pointed to Aura, “you! Start explaining yourself.”

Aura was wiggling as she tried to get loose, but ultimately capitulated.

“Well, I was going for a walk… I even thought about turning myself in at the Hero’s League when…”

She turned to look at Aden, “I met a pretty boy who was talking about his parents.”

Aura went to explain how the two of them went on a date, and how Aden was kind and sweet.

“He was so handsome… and I never felt that way about any boy before, so… ohh it’s too embarrassing to say!”

Aura placed her hands on her face, her cheeks blushing noticeably.

“Oh, nice sis! You finally found a man then?”

It was at that moment that Crysa moved next to Chimera and gave Aura a thumbs up.

“B-Big sis?! What are you doing here?”

Crysa pointed a thumb at Chimera, “lost to the brat and her thousands of clones. Found out my long lost friend wasn’t actually dead, and now we’re here.”

“I also found out that today, thank you Crysa… bitch!”

“Whore bag!”

“How are you both endearing and frustrating at the same time?!”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“I learned it from you!”

Chimera placed Sarah down as she and Crysa started to insult each other again.

“So, you two just met?”

Aura looked over at Aden, who nodded at Chimera.

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“He’s a hunk so yeah!”

Chimera put her hand on her face, “Aura, that’s not how you get a boyfriend! You’re supposed to go on dates, meet and greet, or at least spend more than one day with each other!”

Aura turned her nose up to the ceiling, “you’ve just never been in love before Pinky, how would you know, failure?”

“She’s got a point, Chimera. You really don’t know anything, do you?”

“W-What?”

The room stretched, the walls caved in, and soon Chimera was falling down a hole as her friends were all switching into monstrous forms of themselves.

“You don’t know anything Chimera, you’re just an experiment.”

…

Chimera woke up in the Machine Labs with a blanket over her, a dim light shining above.

It was nighttime as far as she could tell, the low orange of the sun ekking through one of the ceiling windows.

She got up, her heart still beating fast after the dream she had.

What the hell was that?

She clutched the blanket and wrapped it around herself, a faint chill running through her at the image of the last part of her nightmare.

Yeah, that’s what it was, only a nightmare.

She shook herself as she moved to the Labs.

Most of what her dream happened, but the moment of the distortion at the end there.

And that voice…

Chimera had to get away for a bit, and she knew just what to focus on.

She walked over to where she could see a light still on.

Meghan had fallen asleep with a piece of tech still in her hand, her Bottys already taking it out and placing a blanket over her.

Chimera smiled as they picked her up and started to carry her off, her mouth hanging open with a soft snore.

“Mmm screws…”

She smacked her lips as one of the Botty’s turned to face Chimera.

Its eye glowed green, and for the life of her, Chimera thought the little guy shifted in mannerisms.

“Oh, hello Creator Chimera, It is good to see you well once more. Creator Meghan was worried after you had fainted when the others had returned. It was quite a shock.”

Chimera gapped at the little thing, “Jade? Is that you?”

The Botty nodded, “Creator Meghan has given me a few of my own to work on my own projects. She is very kind!”

Chimera smiled at that, “good to know, but I need to do something. Can you give me a hand with it?”

“Of course, what do you require?”

Chimera grabbed a bit of paper on the table and took a pen nearby.

“I’m trying to think of places where we can find the flesh broker Mr Flesh, the one that was in your data. Do you have anything about a location?”

Jade shook her head, “nothing conclusive based on the messages, but I do have an area we can search in.”

Jade grabbed the pen with a small claw and started to draw on the paper.

It was becoming more detailed by the moment, and soon Chimera saw a small topographical map of the port district.

“It would have to be in this area,”

Jade’s small leg pointed at the port district, but it was in the area near the underground fighting ring.

That ring was no more after it collapsed, so Chimera knew it couldn’t be there.

So where could it be?

None of the buildings around the harbor could support a full submarine, and Chimera could tell from the map that there wasn’t much in the way of sewer entrances.

Though…

She gazed at the map, “Jade, what’s this area?”

She pointed to a pier that was labeled abandoned shipyard on the map.

“That is the location of a branch of Teletech Industries, a direct competitor to both Pharmasol and ChemTech. It was bombed in a superhero brawl by a local villain, and brought the entire company under, as it was their only shipyard. Because of the extensive damages, no one ended up buying the land, and it was abandoned.”

Chimera nodded, “that would likely be a good place to smuggle goods if no one was interested in the property.”

Jade swayed to the left and right, “It is, however it also has several gangs that work in the area, which is why many don’t bother to move into the property. The Carcano’s and the Sifters both operate in the yard district.”

Chimera tilted her head, “who are they?”

Jade pranced around the map, “these two are rivals in this area according to certain message boards. The Carcanos have access to some super abilities, while the Sifters, for some unknown reason, are all cybernetically augmented.”

“Cybernetically? They have metal parts?”

Jade nodded, “even more so, they have replaced entire parts of their bodies according to some eyewitness accounts. It is said that the two are currently in a gang war over the shipyard.”

So one groups has a bunch of supers, while the other’s are half robots.

“This definitely sounds suspicious. Someone’s got to be supplying them with tech to make something like the Sifters. Superpowers that appear in a gang? Most people would choose to be a hero if that had happened… which means that someone's feeding them gifts too.”

Like I was.

“It’s settled, I’m heading out to the abandoned shipyard district.”

“I will inform the Creator when she awakens. Fight well Chimera.”

Chimera nodded, “take care Jade. If all goes well, we’ll have more to go on.”

Chimera bounded down the lab as she made her way to the roof access lift.

As she shot upward, she was greeted by someone she had not seen in two days.

Her friend, Glow.

…