Start of Part 4__________________________________________________________________________________________

“You’re both going to need to avoid the military.” I said seriously. Taking this lull in the conversation to talk about something that needs to be talked about. Malinda and Welkin both looked at me like I’d slapped them.

“They might not react well.” I said weakly.

“You did say that there were only humans here.” Welkin said while wiping his jaw.

“They’d treat us like animals?” Malinda asked. She looked offended at the notion.

“Maybe not. If this was fifty years ago you’d probably be treated as such. You’d observed, dissected and put in a draw somewhere in a classified location. Now if the government doesn’t end up killing you through some kind of misunderstand or something equally stupid. Then someone will try to kill you for one reason or another. You’re not human in the end so people will either idolize you or fear you. Or they just won’t give a shit.” I shrugged and slumped in my seat.

“You seem to know a lot about this kind of thing. Are you a government worker?” Welkin asked me, his expression sharpening.

“No. I’m unemployed. I just making guesses based on various hearsay and the generally accepted consensus that the government is never to be trusted. Really I have no idea what would happen to you. But I’d be surprised if you got to go home anytime soon if ever. Not to mention Malinda would probably die of starvation regardless of how things go.” I said with some resignation.

“Well, fuck.” Malinda said dejectedly.

“We need to return. Right now Malinda.” Welkin said forcefully. He stood and checked his gun holster and waited for Malinda to get up.

“The windows closed by now Welkin. We’d end up in the forest of dawn if we went back now.” She looked at Welkin and sighed.

Welkin visibly tensed at the mention of this forest of dawn and scowled, “I don’t care! I can deal with those bigoted fuck munchers. The forest of dawn is also the homeland of the Oru. We’re going back. Right now.”

Malinda gave wry smile and chuckled, “You couldn’t force me to enter that forest even if you bribed me with a lifetime's supply of chocolate. I can’t stand elves Welkin. You know this. We’ll be fine. We just need to watch out for the local gangs and the military. Besides there’s probably a bunch more things like Haris's phone.”

Welkin glared at Malinda. Malinda just smiled and kept sitting with her arms crossed.

“Haris.” Malinda said without looking away from Welkin.

“Yes?” I replied on reflex. A reflex I didn’t realize I had.

“You said you were unemployed?” She asked me. Still not breaking eye contact with Welkin.

“Yes.” I said again. I began to get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“How would you like to be employed?” Malinda turned to me now and gave me a large toothy smile. 

I noticed she had perfectly white and straight teeth. Her gums however her a deep purple. Strangely that unnerved me. For some reason I wanted to truster her though. Maybe it’s her talent working. Now that I think of it she never did tell me what her special talent was. But considering what she is I probably couldn’t refuse if she didn’t allow it.

“Sure. What are you paying me in?” I said suggestively and my eyes roved over her body before I could be horrified with myself at being such a creep. What the fuck is wrong with me? I’m not like that even with human women. She has to be fucking with my head.

“Information.” She said ignoring my look as though she was used to it. Which just added to my being unhappy with myself.

“I’ll teach you magic. You have what is essentially a mini mana vein in your pocket so why not use it?” She wiggled her eyebrows at me and I felt like I wanted to do anything she wanted me to do so long as she’d do that again.

“Sounds good enough to me.” I readily agreed and smiled dumbly.

“Then our problem of avoiding the military and the local gangs is pretty much solved. We have Haris helping us.” Malinda turned back to Welkin and said triumphantly. Welkin sighed and sat back down.

“Fine. How much do you know about the area?” Welkin asked me in a business tone.

“Ah, I have the city maps. I’m also on the local forum. Someone made an online forum that you can only access if you’re in the city. They spray painted the web adress all over the place. Some of us think it was set up by the South Coast gang. But I have no idea. There are day by day updates on each of the gang's activities.” I explained as I stood and walked over to my computer chair. 

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I’d set up my computer by the veranda so I could get some sun during the day. Because I don’t go out unless my stocks of food are running low or something broken and I need a replacement. You couldn’t see it from the road and the building across the road didn’t have any windows. So I decided it was safe to assume it’d be fine by the veranda. I sat at the computer and turned on my setup before I motioned for them to come over. I’d scrounged four screens out of a looted computer shop. They’d been left in the back and worked fine so I took them.

“The gangs are mostly named by which region of the city they hold. We’re in Hurstville. Which is in the middle of the South Coast Vigilance territory. The North Band take up the northern part of Sydney. Ah, Sydney's the name of the city we’re in.” 

Malinda who’d come up beside me while I was talking nodded when I glanced at her. I brought up the browser and typed in the web address for the forum. I’d have bookmarked it but when it’s sprayed on the side of the building across the street I just need to look outside.

“From what i know the Sydney harbor bridge is contested. Both the North Band and the South Coast Vigilance want to use the Sydney opera house as a kind of fortress to hold the bridge. The local military have been trying to intervene but they just don’t have enough people. Word on the forum is that more troops are flying in but their job isn’t to deal with the gangs. They’re trying to fortify the city in case of alien invasion or something. Sad thing is that none the civilians are allowed to leave. Whenever I go to receive weekly rations I see a few people going into medical tents with the soldier and not coming out. For all I know they could be running some kind of experiment on the locals.”

“Ether from our world in leaking into yours. It’s part of the reason why we were thinking this was an ancient city. The ancients used large amounts of raw mana to power their cities. Raw mana gathers the Ether and causes monsters to spawn. It’s part of why we believed the ancients were so strong.” Malinda explained.

“I’m surprised you haven’t got an infestation problem.” Welkin added.

“They might be running tests because with high Ether levels humans with latent genes undergo monsterfication. Which is an awakening of monster DNA. At times this results in horrific Mutations. However for most it induces a transformation and on the rare occasion it simply awakens monster traits and talents in a human. The process is slow but noticeable. I believe the reason why there isn’t Ether mist covering the city is because of this. The humans of this world haven’t encountered Ether before and so you have almost no resistance to it. You're absorbing the Ether faster than it can accumulate.” Malinda continued. 

Malinda was looking at me with a new found interest. But it was more like she was looking at something inside of me. I tried to ignore her and started looking around for signs of the military and the gang's recent activities.

“What about the west of the city?” Welkin asked. Interrupting my concentration.

“Oh, thats where the military have set up. They’ve been relocating people to military housing and knocking down the buildings. They’re fortifying themselves and clearing the area around their fort in proportion of it turning into a warzone. In the centre of the city is the Fens Clan gang. Apparently their leader's name is Fen. There’s a lot on the forums about them killing people on sight. They’re the most dangerous out of the big three gangs in charge. They’ve even been in a number of skirmishes with the military. Who knows where they’re getting their guns.” I waved a hand and went back to work looking for the latest information.

“I just realized you aren’t human.” Malinda abruptly said just as I turned back to the screen. 

End of Part 4__________________________________________________________________________________________

AUTHOR complains: So I've had a massive headache for the last day or two. Maybe I haven't been getting enough sleep. That's what I get for writing instead of sleeping. Sometimes free time eats into sleep time and I don't have the time to catch up on my Z's. Those sweet and glorious Z's. I made an attempt at making the sob story at the very start of the first part less cringe worthy. I probably failed. Maybe it's at least a little better. I could spent more than the two minute before I posted this part on it I guess. Then again I'd like to not do to large of a rewrite. That kind of things annoying for both me and you.