The shimmering notification vanished as the drop of rainbow energy suddenly accelerated, impacting the tip of David's snout. For a fraction of a heartbeat, he felt nothing. Then, before he could even form the thought 'fuck', his body locked down. Through a haze of rapidly fading awareness, David vaguely registered Gideon swinging the crystal back into place, shouting urgently at Wally and Kozlov. But the rodent's voice was quickly drowned out by a deafening roar that filled David's ears as his vision blazed white. Vertigo slammed into him like a physical force, and he felt as though he were plummeting through an endless void, a small part of him remaining aware of the cold concrete beneath his feet and wings. Coherent thought became impossible as the sensation overwhelmed him.

For an infinitesimal instant, David found himself connected to a nearly limitless source of energy, and his mind flailed out in shock and horror. The world around him ceased to exist, only the searing light, the thunderous roar, and the terrifying colorful vastness of whatever he had inadvertently tapped into. He felt his mind reach out in ways he couldn't understand, and was suddenly aware of hundreds, thousands of beings that seemed to be observing in some way. A snatch of music filtered through the sound of the blood pounding in his head, and David's confusion doubled at the celebratory sound of it. No words were exchanged, but he got the impression they were celebrating something completely unrelated to what was happening to him, though they didn't seem to mind that he intruded for just a moment.

The sheer alien nature of the experience left David reeling. Here he was, grappling with forces beyond his comprehension, while these amicable presences partied on, neither oblivious nor indifferent to his struggle. For the briefest of moments, he felt like a bug that had accidentally flown into a human birthday party, he was noticed but of no real consequence to the revelers.

As quickly as it had come, the connection began to fade. David's awareness snapped back towards his physical existence, leaving him dizzy and disoriented from the odd brush with something…other. One final, frantic thought echoed through his mind as reality started to reassert itself, and he found himself on his back a dozen feet away from where he’d accepted the notifications.

What the actual fuck was that?

“David? Kid, you okay?” Gideon was perched on the fur of his chest, looking down at him with wide-eyed concern, “Do you know where you are?”

David blinked rapidly, his vision swimming as he tried to focus on the tiny creature perched on his chest. He groaned, the sound rumbling through his entire body.

"Heppy berfdae." He managed to croak out, his throat feeling raw as he shook his head and continued more coherently, "Yeah... yeah, I'm here. What the hell happened?"

Gideon's whiskers twitched nervously at David’s nonsense before he leaned in closer in concern. "Well, that's what we were hoping you could tell us. One second you were standing there, the next whatever it was zipped right into your mouth and vanished. You just... froze up. The light was coming out of your eyes, mouth, ears, through your skin, everywhere."

David struggled to sit up, wincing as his muscles protested, and he slowly pulled in his wings and collected himself. He noticed Kozlov a short distance away, the bear looking distinctly ruffled and favoring his left side.

"Then," Gideon continued nervously, hopping down to the floor with a tiny patter of feet as David moved, "you started talking, for about ten seconds or so? It was... bizarre, multiple languages, all at once. Sounded like you were congratulating someone? Or something? Kozlov tried to pull you away and got slammed into the far wall, and you landed over here."

Wally chimed in from nearby, his voice tinged with awe and a hint of fear. "It was like watching a fountain of light, man. Never seen anything like it."

David's head was spinning, trying to process what they were telling him as his brain slowly rebooted one step at a time. He remembered the vastness, the alien presences, but it all felt so distant now, like a half-remembered dream. By comparison, the tiny concrete testing chamber he found himself in was like a pile of dirt with a few sticks scattered triumphantly on top, and it took a few seconds for the notion to fade away entirely.

Kozlov, having apparently recovered enough, lumbered over. His earlier aggression seemed tempered, replaced by a wary curiosity and he limped a bit, favoring his left leg.

"I think it's time you gave us some answers," the bear rumbled, though his tone lacked its previous hostility. "What exactly happened to you? What did you see?"

David rubbed his face on the inside of his wings, trying to organize his thoughts. "I... I'm not entirely sure. It was like…if an ant suddenly understood the conversation going on in the room. There were... others. Watching, I think? And music, celebration..."

He trailed off, aware of how insane it all sounded. The others exchanged glances, a mix of confusion and concern on their faces.

"Others?" Kozlov pressed, his brow furrowing in the now almost nonexistent illumination. "What kind of others?"

David shook his head, frustrated at his inability to actually explain it. "I don't know. They weren't... hostile. Just there, observing. Celebrating something unrelated to me. It was like... like accidentally stumbling into the biggest party in the universe, but nobody really cared that I was crashing it."

Gideon's tiny paws were furiously scribbling notes on a plastic panel he'd produced from somewhere. "Fascinating," he muttered. "Some kind of extradimensional contact, perhaps? Or a glimpse into a higher plane of existence?"

Kozlov snorted, though there was a hint of unease in his eyes. "Or perhaps our friend here simply had a very vivid hallucination induced by whatever that energy was."

"Maybe," David conceded, though he knew in his gut that wasn't the case. "But it felt real."

He struggled to his feet, his wings stretching out instinctively to help him balance. As he did so, he became aware of a new sensation, and the deep warmth spreading through his body, centered around his core.

"There's something else," he said slowly, focusing on the feeling. "I did manage to identify it, I got a System notification. It was a Shard of Supremacy, whatever the hell that is."

The others tensed at this, Kozlov's hackles rising slightly. But before anyone could speak, a series of chimes rang out in David's mind, accompanied by a flood of notifications. His ears perked forward, and the rapid twitching of his eyeshine made it extremely obvious he was reading something.

–Shard of Supremacy successfully integrated–

–Ability Expansion: +1–

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

–Mutagen Expansion: +1–

–Gained 20 Pts–

–Congratulations User David–

–36/100 Shards Remaining–

David's eyes widened as he processed the implications, his voice coming out as a vicious hiss of understanding. "Hey Kozlov…you guys had this before the integration, didn’t you?”

David's question hung in the air, and Kozlov's massive form seemed to deflate, his earlier bravado evaporating as he stared at the now-darkened crystal shard. The bear's eyes, once fierce and suspicious, now held a mixture of defeat and bewilderment. No further sparks emerged from the overloaded machinery, and the emergency lighting seemed to dim a little bit more every few moments as the stored power slowly depleted. Gideon scrambled over Wally, using the lupine man to climb back onto the equipment that he rapidly began using to shunt systems around, cutting power to everything but the lights as he threw makeshift breakers rapidly.

"Two years," Kozlov finally muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. "They appeared two years before... all of this." He gestured vaguely at their transformed bodies and the bizarre situation around them.

I fucking knew it! They did know! Fuckers! Were they trying to warn us it was coming? Allow us to back out? I don’t get it, what the hell would those shards have done to a full-on human? I can’t even imagine, what if–

David's ears perked forward, hanging on every word as Kozlov spoke swelled in volume, not giving him time to get absorbed in his thoughts.

"Perfect grid pattern. Equidistant. Covered the entire planet." The bear's words came out haltingly, as if each one pained him. "Didn't fall from the sky. Just...appeared. One day, nothing. The next..."

Gideon and Wally exchanged worried glances, clearly uncomfortable with how much their commander was revealing. But Kozlov seemed beyond caring, lost in the memory. The man seemed to relive the last few years of his life on fast forward, David swore he aged five years in less than ten seconds, and even Spooky backed down a bit as he took in the look in Kozlov’s eyes.

"Threw everything into chaos. GPS, and magnetic readings all went haywire. We thought..." He let out a bitter laugh. "We thought they might be weapons. Some fire-and-forget technology here to snuff us out indiscriminately, some kind of beacons or mapping technology. We had no idea, except that you could barely get near them without protective equipment at first."

David's mind raced, trying to process the implications. "But they weren't weapons, were they?" he prompted quietly as his hackles began to raise slightly along with his anxiety.

Kozlov's gaze snapped back to David, a spark of his old intensity returning. "No. No, they weren't. But that didn't stop us from nearly tearing the world apart over them."

The bear began to pace, his massive paws leaving dusty tracks on the concrete floor. "None of this was worth it," he muttered, more to himself than the others. "Those fuckers lied to me. To all of us."

David remained silent, sensing that Kozlov needed to get this off his chest. After a moment, the bear collected himself, squaring his shoulders as if preparing for battle.

"We eventually figured out they were... messages, I guess you could say. Like bottles tossed into the ocean." Kozlov's voice was tinged with a mixture of awe and bitterness. "Messages we were too primitive to open, let alone understand. We couldn’t even figure out what they were made of, except that it was basically magic."

The implications hit David like a physical blow. "And everyone wanted them," he breathed.

Kozlov nodded grimly, expression surprised that David had put it together so quickly. "It nearly caused a world war. One that nobody even knew about. Every country, every power bloc, and even religious leaders were scrambling to secure as many shards as they could. We came so close kid..."

The room fell silent as the weight of Kozlov's words sank in. Gideon had long since stopped fiddling with the switchboards and machinery, his tiny form trembling slightly. Wally's ears were pinned back, his tail tucked firmly between his legs as he whined slightly under his breath. Both of them shuffled a bit farther away as David approached to within a few feet of Kozlov, cocking his head curiously as he folded his ears back.

"And now?" David asked softly. "What happens now that I... ate it?"

Kozlov's laugh was hollow, devoid of any real mirth. "Now? Now we're in uncharted territory, kid. You've done what teams of scientists and military specialists couldn't manage in two years of intensive study, with all the money in the world and no restrictions."

The bear's eyes narrowed, studying David with renewed intensity. "Which brings us back to the question. Who exactly are you? And what do we do with you now?"

David felt a surge of power coursing through him, acutely aware that he could easily overpower everyone in the room if he chose to. Spooky stirred in the back of his mind, urging him to assert his dominance, but David pushed the instinct aside, remembering his own early days of fumbling through this new reality, and how many times he had overestimated himself. He looked at Kozlov and saw someone who had been thrust into a world he didn't fully understand, trying desperately to maintain control, not just some shadowy military figure still attempting to cling to power. At that moment, David felt a surprising wave of empathy.

"I'm just a guy trying to survive," he said slowly, choosing his words with care. "Same as anyone else in this mess. I've made plenty of mistakes and overestimated myself more times than I can count. But... maybe we can figure this out together?"

David extended a wing, not as a threat, but in a friendly gesture. "I know you're scared. Hell, I'm terrified too. We're all in over our heads here, but people are still people. Even if we’re all fucked up and weird now, heh. Actually, we were fucked up and weird before, too, but you know what I mean."

Kozlov stared for a long time, glancing back to his men briefly as Wally nodded and Gideon shrugged in response. He turned back to consider, staring into David's eyes for a bit too long, and sensing the danger of Blood Memory taking hold, he resorted to his secret weapon. Looking like an absolute doofus. With all the grace of a malfunctioning animatronic, David began to blink. First, his left eye closed with exaggerated slowness, as if it were fighting against an invisible eyelid weight. Then, just as the left eye creaked open, his right eye slammed shut like a faulty garage door.

Kozlov's intense gaze faltered, his expression morphing from stern consideration to utter bewilderment. At one point, it appeared he was trying to spell out "SOS" in some sort of deranged eye Morse code. Despite the obvious calculated nature of David's actions, he couldn't help but look like he'd just discovered his own face and was taking it for a test drive. As David's unhinged blinking marathon continued, Wally let out a muffled snort, trying desperately to maintain his composure. Gideon, on the other hand, looked genuinely concerned that their potential ally might be having some sort of aneurysm.

Yep, bet that makes me look totally sane and well-adjusted…eh, I’ll explain it later when Spooky stops trying to put him in the ‘threat’ category. Maybe I’m the one who doesn’t actually trust him all the way yet, or maybe you just have to get used to the way I look before it stops working like that. It never does that to Claire…oh hey!

“It’s uh…it’s a Mutagen thing.” David chittered lamely, “I’m trying not to let it go off…”

Finally, Kozlov's shoulders relaxed, and he let out a deep sigh. "Alright, David, maybe you're right. We've been down here too long, clinging to outdated tactics. It’s strange, I can’t bring myself to care about the shard at all now that it’s…depleted? I’m glad it’s not my responsibility anymore, truth be told."

David nodded, relieved. "Look, I think we can help each other. …there's actually someone I'd like you to meet outside. I may have misled you a bit, I’m actually traveling with a friend."

Kozlov raised an eyebrow. "Outside? Who?"

"Well," David said with a hint of mischief as his eyes sparkled in the darkness, "Have you ever seen that one movie?"

The bear frowned, confusion evident on his face. "I'm... not sure which one you mean."

David couldn't help but grin. "Well, let's just say life, uh... finds a way."

Kozlov's eyes widened in recognition, a mix of excitement and apprehension crossing his features. "You can't be serious."