Start of Part 12__________________________________________________________________________________________

We left Fem-beast cage and Farrah pointed out the Male altered residential building(tentatively named man cage), the army barracks, the operations and coordination center, the research building which joined with the medical wards, Drone bay which stood like a giant steel monolith that in the middle of the facility and the armoury. She also made sure to tell me that I wasn’t aloud to approach the Drone bay, armoury, man cage or the operations and coordination center under any circumstances unless I was given express orders to approach them. She then took me to the army barracks to get breakfast because that’s apparently where the cafeteria is.

“If you’re ever hungry, even if it’s not near meal times they’ll give you food. Just don’t eat too much or someone will arrange to have you run laps. Top brass refuses to have anyone unfit, fat or stupid on sight so if they notice you’ve been getting lazy you better be ready for hell.” She said smiling fiendishly.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I said weakly.

I was expecting the food to just be some kind of weird military ration or multi-colored cubes like how the media seems to like to believe soldiers eat. But we came in on what looked like any normal company cafeteria with various meats, vegetables, fruits and dishes from around the world. It made sense I suppose especially when you considered that UN soldiers came from around the world and even just a taste of home would help stave off homesickness.

I ended up getting something that looked like and had a peppery smell similar to Mrs. Yurmen’s beef stroganoff alongside mashed potatoes with a large dolop of butter and a can of cola. It was a bit much for breakfast but now that I knew I could take solids now, I wanted to gorge myself. Farrah just got herself cereal and gave me a funny look when she saw the mound of food on my plate that looked like too much for three of me to eat. 

“I saved a seat for you and your fledgling, Void!” Called out a waving woman standing up from her seat at a table near the corner of the cafeteria.

“I told you not to call me that, Sam.” Farrah said back to the woman after she walked us over to the table.

I noticed a girl that seemed as young as Rachel look who was sitting next to this Sam lady. Sam looked like a classic big breasted, blond haired bimbo with all the curves of a water slide. She was slovenly dressed in revealing clothes and embodied everything I assumed a clubbing girl was in the choice of her clothing. The younger girl looked as healthy as a wet rat and she wore multiple layers of clothes. A black undershirt with a white over shirt that had a picture of exaggerated cartoon mail man running away from a dog, the mail spilling from his bags. Below which she was a black, red and white plaid shirt with black long pants that hugged close to the leg underneath. I can only assume the multiple layers was to hide how skinny she was. Regardless of the state of her body her green eyes burned with a weird intensity and her dark brown hair was cut short at her chin.

 There were two others at the table, an elderly woman who looked like she’d lived since the wheel was made and a younger woman who looked to be in her late teens. The elderly woman wore a tie dye rainbow colored dress that looked like a unicorn took a dump on it. Disregarding her stupid clothes she had pure white hair and looked like a shrewd woman that rather than get mugged would beat the snot out of any little shits that tried to cause her trouble. She reminded me a lot of Mrs. Yurmen, then again any old woman reminded me of Mrs. Yurmen. The girl next to her who appeared to be in her late teen had lavender coloured hair that bordered on white, her eyes were purple and her expression was flat as if she’d systematically examined and categorized the world in it’s entirety and wasn’t impressed. Okay maybe that was an exaggeration but she looked bored out of her mind. Is it wrong that I feel like all truly beautiful women are cruel and have a heart made of ice? Well she was truly beautiful to the point where I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn’t looking at a painting instead of a person. She wore a white dress and multiple bangles on each arm. Her eyes shifted towards mine and her cheeks turned pink before she looked away and acted like I didn’t exist.

Farrah set her tray down and I sat down next to her. 

“Everyone, this is Rachel.” Farrah said cheerily and patted me on the shoulder.

“Hello.” I said awkwardly and waved a hand.

Why she was introducing me to these people I don’t entirely understand. I assume however that it had something to do with social circles and making me feel like I belong here with people like me or something. Each of them responded with their own dull hello’s except for the Sam.

“COMME’EER!” She shouted with her arms wide and a wide smile. 

She jumped out of her seat and picked me up off the ground in a bear hug. She then proceeded to spin around with me in her arms before putting me back down faster than I could recover from her practically blowing my ears out. Dizzy I wobbled and fell into a chair the Farrah pushed under my feet.

“So loud...” Muttered the skinny as a rat girl beside Sam without looking up from a bowl of cereal she was stirring rather than eating.

Sam let out a bellowing laugh and put an arm on the girl's shoulder. The girl cringed and tried to shuffle away from her but it seemed Sam was holding her in place. 

“Then this is the girl that sat on an atom bomb!?” Sam asked loudly and pointed at me.

Farrah scoffed, “That’s an exaggeration if I ever heard one. But yes.”

“There was enough P38-9N2 to blow up a Destroyer Class Starship. It’s close enough General Void.” Said the ancient looking woman. Her face looking like it was cracking apart with how wrinkled it was.

Farrah scowled, “Not you too Christine.”

The old woman shrugged, “It’s a fact that can’t be ignored.”

It did sound pretty bad. But I’m at least confident Malinda knew what she was doing. I doubt she’d risk killing herself unless she was confident in her ability to deal with things if it’d gone wrong. Then again I’m making assumptions vying on the side of my mind controling overlord and would really rather not get into the question of exactly how much of that blind confidence in her I have is chocked up to her mind fuckery. Probably all of it.

“I get it. So why are you both keeping up with the superhero name? We made those up as a joke while we were drinking in Dreams of Auore.” Farrah sighed and sat in the seat next to me.

“It’s a fitting name and we are super heroes!” Said the girl beside the unicorn feces coloured dress that was wearing a tree in the shape of an old woman.

“Comic book logic dictates that we are all super heroes and villains in the making now that we have super powers.” She continued.

Not know everyone's name was getting annoying and they seemed ready to get into an argument about comic book heroes so I interrupted, “Could I get everyone's name? I’m Rachel by the way.”

They stopped and Sam instantly stood up. Her chair skidding across the floor a few feet and clattering against the wall with a loud crash.

“Oh! Sorry!” She said and quickly retrieved her chair.

She sat down and continued, “You’re right we’ve been rude! I’m Samuel Poet. Bet you thought Sam was short for Samantha! Am I right!?” Sam boomed too loudly from across the table. 

Was she hard of hearing? Is that why she’s shouting all the time? Sam paused for a bit and just stared at me with a wide smile on her face that seemed many magnitudes more creepy every second that went by as she stared at me. Something is not right with this woman in the head I decided.

“Well it’s not.” She finally said after a whole five seconds of just staring at me with a huge smile on her face.

“My hero name is Call of Battle.” She said before giving me a thumbs up and waving towards the skinny as a rat girl beside her.

“Tasha.” she said quietly.

“I am Christine Mayers. Leading human scientist of nanite technology in the galaxy. You probably haven’t ever heard of me, too young. I came to enjoy the beaches but stayed for the wonderful new sights and the mutations.” The old woman smirked at her own joke and shrugged.

The last girl smiled and said, “I’m Gabriel and one of the few truly great people of Dream’s of Auore.that you’ll ever meet.”

“She’s the queen of the Elven kingdom which rules half of the Northern continent!” Sam so helpfully shouted at me.

I laughed awkwardly without really putting any effort into making it believable. Sam was making me uncomfortable and I didn’t think trying to hide that fact would help me any. She was just so loud and obnoxious it was kind of driving me insane. She seemed to have already driven the other four people at this table insane already because they seemed fine with it.

“Well, I’m Rachel as I said. I don’t have a hero name but if I did it would be something like the Incredible Chomp or Government Raptor. Something stupid like that.” I said to the others who were giving Gabriel a few weird looks.

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Sam started laughing like I’d said something utterly hilarious but I ignored her and ate my fucking lunch. If I’m stuck with a bunch of fucking weirdos then I’m at least going to enjoy my damn beef stroganoff breakfast. I started eating and instantly felt better. This stuff is what heaven would be made of if I was religious. I could actually feel as my bodies mana took apart the food and used the nutrients to reinforce my body. It was a strange feeling because unlike with Haris mana, Rachel's mana felt like cool flowing water that brought with it a calming, soothing feeling rather than the pent up boiling satisfaction that my mana felt like as Haris.

None of the others at the table commented on my body filling itself out and going from anorexic to neither overweight nor underweight with a few minutes. Though I noticed Tasha staring at me with envy.

We ate breakfast and I mostly listened to them each talk about Dream’s of Auore. It was honestly pretty boring for me since I didn’t play the game and wasn’t interested in it. I prefered games that focused more on fun rather than being all “real” while being in a fantasy setting that was anything but real.

“Rachel you’ll have go with Gabi and Tasha. Sam, Christine and I have things we have to do today.” Farrah said to me softly.

I shrugged, “Sure.”

I didn’t honestly care. I just wanted my main body to wake up so I could get a bit more perspective of how they treat their “special” cases. Ah it’s depressing to think about Malinda dying but she’s seriously screwed. I don’t know how things could turn out well for me. Maybe she’ll escape somehow? She seems more than capable of it at least.

After a while Farrah, Sam and Christine finished eating, got up and left the cafeteria. They probably had some kind of important military related thing to do because this was a military facility and I’m too stupid to use my brain and think up an kind of intelligent conjecture as to what the hell they’re doing. In the end however I have been effectively left with the kids. Though I suppose in this instance I would be one of the kinds and Gabriel would be the adult that was left to look after the kids. She didn’t seem to mind but Tasha looked anything but fine with being left behind by Sam. Though I suppose she looked anything but fine under any circumstance at the moment. Being incredibly underweight tends to give that kind of appearance even if you wear layers upon layers of clothing. Also she just kept playing with her food and still hadn’t gotten around to finishing eating it. Holy shit just eat! 

Gabriel made a choking sound and coughed, “I’m fine. Just went down the wrong way.”

Gotta be careful of that… I’d go into a story of having an uncle that choked and died but that would be distasteful and isn’t a good topic to talk about over food. I’m already done eating though. It’s just these two that take forever to eat their damn food.

Gabriel coughed again, “Sorry, I think I need to get a drink.”

“Don’t let me stop you.” I said gruffly.

She got up and want to a soda machine thing to fill her cup. Maybe I was losing patience a bit too easily on them. I suppose I’m just used to always doing something. I mean even at home I at least still have the TV or my computer. Now I’m sitting in a cafeteria surrounded by people I don’t know and with little to do but wait for two people to finish eating so that they can tell me what we’re going to be doing today. If I were a less level headed kind of person I’d try to escape despite my severe lack of being awesome. Maybe I could dismantle part of the fence and outer wall and get out like that. THey had time with me while I was unconscious however and I know that the UN has a thing for planting trackers in inconvenient places like under your skin. So it’s too much trouble and I’d probably die or just get sent to one of those “better equip” facilities. Whatever that means.

To be fair they have been talking about a game I dislike on principle for near three hours so that might have something to do with my annoyance. I sighed and got up. I guess eating more couldn’t hurt much? So I went and retrieved some more food for myself.

End of Part 12__________________________________________________________________________________________

AUTHOR makes a note: So I actually had this done a day after the last chapter. However I wan't really happy with it and rewrote it three or four times I can't really remember because it was a bad day and I wasn't in a good mood. Anyway I put off posting this because I was going to rewrite it again since I wasn't really happy with the way I'd written it and it was maybe a pit sillier than I'd wanted it to be. As well as being kind of pointless because nothing actually happens this chapter other than introducing a few new characters. Characters that were many times more loops before I decided I was being stupid and toned them way down. I guess that's what I get for trying to write when I'm feeling depressed about reading a story that was really good and then the author seemed to forget the point. 

I was heart broken to find that The Nebula which starts out as what is in my opinion a very interesting story with great world building and an noticeable characters... Turned into character building the story. Add in more than a few "too convenient coincidental reunions", "They actually know each other out of game but didn't know" and a "This NPC is actually a player and your just got played" and I flipped the table and left the office. Followed by quiting my job and turning back into a recluse with no life motivations.

Joking aside I was fairly upset with how the author seemed to run out of motivation and ideas fairly quickly. I was ready to delve into the MC's craft journey and path to becoming the very best there ever was. Instead I got a lot of chapters about virtual alcohol and mech's. With wings. In space. I get that it's a story but I also get that I really hated that gravity movie from a few years ago for kind of the same reason. Space just doesn't work like that and I don't care how much creative licence your trying to use to pull down the walls around my eyes. I just don't like being bullshitted when it comes to sci-fi. Give me a made up science'y sounding reason and I'll be happy. Otherwise I'm going to be very unhappy with you. The last straw for me was when they had to make a random hyperdrive jump thingy for reason I will not say because they make me want to flip another table. The random jump just so happened to take them to a junker planet where they'd be able to repair their ship fairly battered ship. They crash landed and assessed the damage, but almost instantly as met by a cloaked figure. This cloaked figure know the parties NPC and the party finds out that their resident NPC is actually a player that likes to roleplay as an NPC. They also played the beta together because why not make it even more absurd?

That was exactly where I stopped reading and put the story on my maybe try and read once I've calmed down and probably never touch with a ten-foot pole again list. All in all it was a good story... until it wasn't. 10/10 would not read again.

Now that my being a bag of dicks is pushed to the side I wanted to say I'll be taking a month break because I need to think about the rest of this arc and deal with some glaring rl issues. From even before Is started writing this story I'd had the general plan written out. Things like crtical event such as the MC being captured by the military is one such planned event. Though I had originally intended to make it much more of a confrontation than it was and a certain character was going to die in the scuffle.(Not Haris because he was originally going to die much earlier on.)

Regardless I decided against killing off characters for now because I wanted to develop them more before deciding whether or not their death would have any meaning towards the story. Even then I may decide against it if I find myself unable to write a death scene that I feel is impactful. So it is highly unlikely any of the MC's will ever die. I wish to flesh out a few more detail for the coming chapters because if I just wrote them without it they would be terribly boring with completely flat or over the top characters. And considering the things I've been reading recently that have made me somewhat depressed because a story seemed so easily ruined by a character or a terrible plot point for me. I want anything but that to happen for you my readers. 

That said however this story will always remain a genderbender and anyone who complains about it will meet the back of my figurative hand. Not to mention that the story will only continue to focus further on Haris as his female alternative, Rachel, from here on out.

So I hope this chapter wasn't as horrible as my currently depression clouded mind believes and that you enjoyed it. I'll see you all in a month.