Infiltrator of Authority finished the slaughter of the humans. They were tougher than it had expected, wielding powerful weapons and even the occasional personal shield. But none of it was enough as it controlled dozens of its limbs simultaneously while pushing its speed to the maximum. It took a few minutes, but it eventually finished off the last one, tearing the man in half by gripping his torso with two limbs and twisting hard.

It turned back to the house and burst back through the door, sending its exposed limbs seeking out the hidden spaces for little Alice and the other humans. Nothing. One limb found a recent footprint in the lawn behind the house. Infiltrator of Authority retracted its limbs all at once and ran out the back door. They had run into the woods, but they wouldn’t make it far. It focused the questing tentacles in front of it, and moved forward as they felt out and investigated the correct path along which they had fled.

It followed the broken twigs and footprints for some time until it reached a fork in the path. A larger path, and a smaller single sets of footsteps. Infiltrator of Authority paused. Which to follow? After a moment’s indecision it followed the fainter path. The larger group would be slower and it could track them down easier afterwards.

It made its way forward following the faint path until it heard a twig snap and pants of breath. Infiltrator of Authority leapt into action and charged towards the sound until it saw little Alice fleeing. She had abandoned the group for her own survival? Perhaps it had misjudged her after all. With a flick of one of its thicker limbs it struck her back and sent her falling to the ground as its main body rapidly approached. It retracted the limb quickly and came to a stop as little Alice came to a stop and saw it standing there.

Infiltrator of Authority spoke, genuinely regretful that she had chosen to expose it so soon. It had shown up to the house only to frighten her and taunt her about the death of her father. But upon seeing the trap from the soldiers as it approached, it unfortunately had to take the shorter path. It had been too arrogant, not expecting the soldiers to be so well equipped and able to hold its attention for so long as little Alice attempted to escape.

“I’m sorry, little Alice. The game was too short. I had planned so much for you if not for this interference… But here is where it ends. Goodbye.”

Before it could leap forward for the killing blow a sudden pain and heat lanced into Infiltrator of Authority’s chest. The Devouring Flame! It quickly began to harden its lower flesh to bone as the Devouring Flame quickly spread and began to merrily consuming the outermost layer of flesh.

Infiltrator of Authority began to stumble away from the source of the gunshot as it was blinded by the Flame surrounding it. Another gunshot shattered Infiltrator of Authority’s hastily prepared bone firewalls. Another ember roared to life within it, and Infiltrator of Authority could only lament as it felt all the Potential that was being consumed. It kept moving and decided to retreat before it could be shot again.

Dealing with this much Flame was already a massive waste of its accumulated Potential, more could be devastating. Two long limbs burst out of its sides and began to immediately begin to burn. But Infiltrator of Authority used them to rapidly speed up its pace until the burning limbs couldn’t sense the humans chasing humans behind it. Once it was far enough ahead, it settled down and dealt with the burrowing Flame. With a groan, it ejected the outer layer of flesh violently from its form to remove the outer layer of flame.

The ember of Flame that had pierced the plating continued to spread, but Infiltrator of Authority was forced to spend even more of its potential surrounding that region with a calcified ball of bone walls to contain it. With another burst of gore it ejected the orb the size of a human’s head from its side. It rolled on the forest floor before the Flame began to eat through the flesh and began to lick through its bone cage. Infiltrator of Authority ran from the area before the Flame escaped and began to attempt to reach it again.

— — — O — o — O — — —

Infiltrator of Authority engaged in a running battle with its pursuers. None of them had any Devouring Flame with them, which was the only genuine threat to itself that they possessed. It killed a few that drew too close, but their gunfire and Potential based weapons did nothing more than stagger it and waste its Potential in healing. The two circling helicopters were frustratingly out of range from even its farthest extended tentacle to grab.

That’s what this was, it realized. A waste of its resources. Why else were these soldiers so lackluster? Where were the fighter jets? The long range missiles? The last trap the ADF had sprung on it had immediately poured all their available firepower on it as soon as it thought it was alone. But the ADF didn’t have this many Potential based weapons either…

Finally it reached a highway and stood in the center of the road. Two of the cars crashed upon seeing it, but one managed to stop in time. Infiltrator of Authority opened the car door and flung the human out of the driver’s seat and to the side. It climbed in and used four of its tentacles to start to drive away. One for each pedal and two to control the steering.

The two helicopters followed, intent in following it. But the cordon of soldiers on foot was avoided. Occasional small arms fire hit its vehicle, but the helicopter didn’t seem to have larger guns on it. It glanced in the mirror. Correction. A long tube on its underside was lighting up with a golden glow. Infiltrator of Authority shot its tentacles out the window and dragged them against the ground as it went to make an abrupt U-turn to cross to the other side of the highway. The tentacles on the ground kicked up the dirt of the middle strip, and the car tilted to one side as Infiltrator of Authority made it onto the concrete on the other side.

There was a deep thump, and glancing back Infiltrator of Authority could see a massive crater behind it as the car lifted into the air for a moment before crashing back to the road and briefly swerving side to side as Infiltrator of Authority tried to maintain control. The helicopter that tried to fire the weapon was spinning around wildly, shoved back wildly by the recoil. With a screech of metal, Infiltrator of Authority watched as the long tube welded to the helicopter's bottom came free and crashed to the ground.

Looking to the helicopter’s underside, Infiltrator of Authority could see the crude plates that had welded it into place on the vehicle. There were humans in their vehicles swerving every which way as they observed the attack. Infiltrator of Authority watched as one car crashed into the jersey barrier and crumpled. It gave it an idea. Still pressing down on the gas full force, Infiltrator of Authority extended its tentacles outwards and picked up any item it could. Ripping doors off crashed cars, loose stones, heavy items in the cars. All of it was grabbed at the cloud of tentacles bursting from the center of its car. After a few seconds of collection, Infiltrator of Authority flicked its tentacles and whipped the objects towards the following helicopter all at once.

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Most of the projectiles missed or did little damage, but one of the car doors was caught in the propellors and with a massive screech of metal, Infiltrator of Authority watched as the helicopter rotor began smoking. In moments it had fallen and smashed into the ground behind it in the sound of crumpling metal.

The other helicopter had just recovered itself without scratching from its missed shot with the Potential based cannon. Infiltrator of Authority kept driving and collected more debris until it had enough for a second assault. But the helicopter didn’t give chase. Instead it hovered above the downed helicopter and lowered. Humans crawled from the wreckage and climbed in as the helicopter landed briefly, assisted by others inside. Then the vehicle lifted into the air again and flew away in the opposite direction as Infiltrator of Authority. A massive explosion followed behind it as someone from the surviving helicopter launched a bright flare into the wreckage, triggering a massive explosion.

Infiltrator of Authority retracted its tentacles and resumed a somewhat humanoid form. Every moment it stayed exposed like this it lost a little Potential. It kept driving for ten minutes as the fighter jets it had expected earlier began to fly overhead. There was a truck stop ahead that would be a good place to acquire a good new skin. One that would last long enough to get it out of this area and away from scrutiny.

Infiltrator of Authority could feel the net the ADF would be deploying even now. It was unfortunate that it had to flee and that it hadn’t even gotten the Potential of little Alice. And such a waste of its resources in time and Potential too. Smuggling all those mercenaries and weapons into that town under the noses of the ADF hadn’t been easy for its allies.

It was unfortunate this had all been for nothing, but the list of survivors of Harmony was still long. Maybe this was for the best. It had gotten greedy by going for the big prize first as soon as it got word of her location. Now it could keep working its way steadily up the more unprotected survivors as it had originally. Infiltrator of Authority could save little Alice for near the end of the list.

And maybe… Maybe it could even continue their game when it returned. After she had marinated in the fear a little. It parked into the truck stop, driving to the back. There was an overweight balding man back there smoking a cigarette. His eyes widened and the cigarette dropped from his lips as he saw Infiltrator of Authority’s roiling form. It shot out a tentacle and grabbed him by the neck and lifted him in the air before drawing him through the windshield of the car.

A few minutes later, Dave Dusfuti stepped out of the car pockmarked by bullet holes. His shirt was ripped and his neck was bruised, and his eyes cold. He walked up front to the parking lot and made his way to his car, clicking the alarm on the key so he could tell which one it was.

“Dave? What are you doing out here? If your smoke break's over we need you to keep stocking!” A man in a company uniform shouted, coming out of the store.

Dave turned his head and kept walking as he finally found his pickup truck. Not the fastest, but it would have to do. Dave didn’t know the shouting man behind him, so he tried to stay unspecific as he responded.

“Sorry, I'm sick man. Got to go home for the day. See you tomorrow.”

The man was confused and rushed to catch up as he saw Dave wasn’t going to stop talking.

“Dave, you can’t just call sick mid shift. Look, it’s swamped today you really…”

Dave unlocked the door and stepped inside, putting the key in the ignition and starting the vehicle.

“Dave, look at me damnit! You can’t just leave without even asking me!”

Dave rolled down the window and stuck his head out the door to see the supervisor standing behind the car attempting to block him from backing out of the parking spot.

“Jesus Dave, you need to leave this badly? At least give me something to work from here.”

“Move.”

“No, if you leave without any explanation like this you’re fire…”

Dave put the truck in reverse and hit the gas and the truck jerked backwards. The supervisor fell to the ground as he was clipped in the side by the vehicle. Dave turned the wheel until he was ready to drive off. He looked to the ground and saw the Supervisor rolling over, seeming relatively uninjured at least externally. Dave switched to drive and gunned forward. The supervisor’s eyes widened and he dived to the side as Dave drove over where he had been. Dave drove back onto the highway as he heard the supervisors shouted curses faintly in the distance.

He merged into the lanes, and sped up. There was little traffic here due to the blockage from the crashed helicopter and explosion. Dave drove as fast as he could. He had to make it somewhere he could blend in before he got caught. He was hardly subtle in taking this skin, and had no doubt the ADF would be back on his trail in under an hour. If they were slow.

— — — O — o — O — — —

A few days later, Infiltrator of Authority finally shook the last of its pursuers and made a clean escape. The increased number of high definition cameras that could send footage to the ADF in urban areas had been hindering its movements over the last year more and more. It used to be able to escape in a few hours at most once it made it into a major city. It was no longer that simple. But at least it only had to spend a little more of its Potential during the long chase. Only its time was wasted.

It drove up the safehouse. Its new allies had only provided a few of those for its use. It walked inside and saw the secure phone on the table as it should be. There should be little chance of the government intercepting its calls, so it picked up the phone and dialed the number. Its feminine voice sounded through the phone as the other side answered the call.

“This is Infiltrator of Authority at Safehouse Gamma. I’ve escaped. I need secure extraction and a debrief on what happened with the target.”

A deep baritone sounded from the other side. “And are you prepared for payment?”

Infiltrator of Authority nearly rolled its eyes. The mortals did so much for only a few extra decades of lifespan possible from its manipulations of their pitiful cores of Potential.

“Yes, five rejuvenations as standard. You already know my other requirements for treatment. How long?”

There was some clacking of a keyboard on the other side for a few moments. “Four hours. We have to move more carefully. The ADF has eliminated some of our moles after that fiasco, so there is far more risk than usual.”

Infiltrator of Authority let out a feminine grunt. “Fine. I’ll wait. But prepare the list of more opportune targets before I arrive or I will be displeased.”

“Fine. We can discuss when you return.”

The phone clicked as the call ended from the other side. Infiltrator of Authority walked over to the couch and sat down. Now it just had to wait.