"Your order is ready, miss." The waiter said, voice curt and obviously a bit tired, and Lilith could relate easily with the man. He probably was working part-time to pay off part of his college debt, something that Lilith herself was still trying to do.

"Thank you very much." She answered happily, taking the coffee and croissant from the man, who quickly skedaddled over to another waiting customer. Lilith eyed the man's retreating back for a moment longer than what was appropriate before focusing back on her newly delivered meal.

Carefully picking up the coffee mug, she took little sips of it, trying to enjoy the taste. It wasn't necessarily a great coffee, but it did the job of forcing her still half-asleep brain to get up.

Her shift started late today, thankfully. As a lab assistant for the local university, being late to even a single session would likely cause her to lose her job and probably ruin her career forever, which would obviously suck.

Letting out a satisfied sigh after finishing the coffee and scarfing down the mediocre croissant, Lilith leisurely sat back on her chair, waiting for some waiter or waitress to come and take her money.

All of a sudden, Lilith's brows furrowed. She twisted her head around, idly noticing that everyone around her seemed to be doing so as well. There was a strange sound, one that was impossible to describe. It was faint but definitely hearable, as Lilith could attest to.

For a moment, she thought that maybe some kid was just playing some sort of prank on them. Scoffing to herself, she tried to pick up her phone from her pant's pocket. 

Unfortunately, fate seemed to have other plans as, within an instant, Lilith's entire world turned to pain.

She screamed, and screamed, and screamed some more as everything began to burn as though it had been stung, burnt, electrocuted, torn apart, chopped to pieces, and thrown into acid at the same time. Her eyes felt as though they were melting, her insides felt as though she had swallowed molten gold. and her brain felt as though a bomb had gone off in it.

She could hear voices around her yelling, and someone tried to hold her down as she thrashed but failed miserably as a stray hand slapped him hard enough to send him careening towards the wall.

Had Lilith been more conscious of her actions, she would have been stunned. Sure, she went to the gym every once in a while, but she was still weak. No way could she send people flying with just a slap.

Of course, as it stood, Lilith was in no way mentally capable of understanding that fact. Instead, her every brain cells was stuck in a loop going like this: 'Pain pain pain pain suffering why why pain pain pain suffering'.

"Fuck! Someone call the hospital, hurry!" The cafe manager shouted angrily, as he and several other men, most of which had rushed into the previously empty cafe when they heard the screaming, tried to hold down the insanely strong woman.

"I got it!" One of the waitresses, obviously a bit spooked, shouted from a safe distance away. Not more than ten minutes later, an ambulance rushed down the street and several paramedics hurried out, rushing to the still trashing woman who's pain had only worsened during that time.

Together with the tired men, they attempted to wrestle the still screaming woman into submission. However, just when they were about to shove her into a straightjacket, something happened.

Lilith wasn't even aware of what she was doing as she just wanted everything to go away. However, for the other people, they saw arms literally grow out of Lilith's body and harshly punch and throw everyone around her away.

Now, instead of just Lilith, it was also the other people in the cafe that were screaming. Before long, someone had the bright idea to take a picture of the strange event and immediately began snapping photos of it from a safe distance.

Lilith had calmed down enough by now and was huddling into herself, eyes closed shut as the pain slowly began to ebb away. The arms that had grown out from her back, sides, and front were still waving around threateningly, daring anyone to come closer.

After another ten minutes, Lilith was finally able to come back to herself. Her head felt completely blank, and her body felt... strange. Different. She didn't know what to make of it just yet.

A harsh light shone briefly onto her face, and Lilith's eyes shut close for a second. Blinking, she stared back at the source of the light, finding a whole crowd of people staring at her, whispering and pointing at her.

There were hundreds of people surrounding her, and she could even see some paramedics amongst the group snapping pictures. With a dreadful feeling in her stomach, her eyes fell to her own body.

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'WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE THINGS?!' She screamed inwardly, seeing the strange arms popping out of her. Cautiously, feeling as though her heart was going to stop, she tried to will one of them to move.

Immediately, the arm that she'd been looking at waved slightly, the clawed fingers on the hand closing into a fist. With another thought, they opened once more.

For a few seconds, all she did was stare at the dozens of arms surrounding her. Then, as if she'd always been able to do it, she willed them to return back to her.

With an ease that would have scared her had she not just felt more pain than she'd ever felt in her lifetime, multiplied by a million, the arms all gently yet quickly retreated back into her body, leaving no signs that they'd ever been in there in the first place.

She didn't even feel different. Despite being stared at by hundreds of people as though she was a particularly unique object, she couldn't bring herself to care as she experimented with this... weirdness.

She held out her palm, facing upwards. She stared at it, and silently willed for one of those arms to appear from it. With ease, an arm shot out of her palm, essentially making her look like a deformed mistake of nature. 

The crowd seemed to love it anyway, as they went absolutely bonkers over the show. By now, everyone was taking pictures, and in Lilith's tired and already strained mind, the only acceptable answer looked to be to shoo them all away.

Sprouting from her back, dozens of the same arms emerged. Then, arms emerged from the arms, who grew yet more arms. Then, with but a thought from Lilith's part, the hands shot out towards the spectators. 

Screams erupted as people tripped over each other to flee. Lilith was still just staring blankly at the ground though, barely noticing as her arms grabbed onto a few stragglers and threw them towards the doors with enough strength to hurt but not cause anything too bad.

Within minutes, the entire cafe was empty. Lilith recalled the arms back into her own body, still feeling completely out of it. Her mental faculties were back, but they were barely functioning.

After what felt like a few minutes to her, but were actually two entire hours, a squad of armored policemen holding shields and batons burst inside, followed by what Lilith would have guessed to be a military officer based on the suit.

"Stand back! She's dangerous, and judging from the other reports, god knows what can happen." The officer barked as the policemen surrounded Lilith, holding their shields in front of them. After a few minutes of nothing happening, the officer cautiously stepped into the circle, looking particularly grim.

Crouching down, the officer hesitated for a few moments before speaking. "Hey. Can you hear me? Nod if you can."

Lilith just kept staring blankly at the ground, lost in her own thoughts. The officer didn't seem to be bothered by this as he continued to speak. "There have been a few cases like yours that happened today. I don't know the full details, but we've been ordered to pick you up so that we can help you. There's a helicopter waiting for you at the station, and trust me, those things aren't cheap. And yet, you get to ride one for free. I'm jealous, you know?" He rambled gently, continued to stare into Lilith's eyes.

"I saw the video from the people you kicked out of here. Those arms are pretty cool, you know? I saw the video with the other emergent, which is what they've already taken to calling you guys already, and his power was nowhere as cool. I mean, really, all he did was make a few objects float. His reaction wasn't even as bad as yours, he just claimed to get a bad headache, and then he was fine. You, on the other hand, are acting like someone who was able to survive from extreme torture."  He said seriously, finally garnering a reaction from Lilith as her head rose a bit, staring at the officer straight in the eyes.

She blinked for a bit, then, all at once, her actions came crashing down on her. She couldn't hide the horrified and disgusted grimace on her face as she hugged herself tight.

"I... What did I do..." She whispered to herself, but the officer didn't fail to take the opening. "You did nothing you have to worry about. You were obviously completely out of it, but I need you to cooperate. Can you do that?" He asked gently, stepping forward to try and grab her arm.

He jumped back when hundreds of arms exploded out of Lilith, the clawed fingers sharper than tiger nails that acted as fingernails curling threateningly. He hid a grimace as the policemen tightened their holds on their shields and batons, looking ready to intervene. "Stand down, idiots!"

"I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean to! I'm sorry!" Lilith cried out, attempting to reel back the arms. They obeyed her will with ease, retreating back into her body.

The officer smiled, but it was a tense thing. He knew he was fast, his training made sure of that, but had he been just a tad bit slower, he had no doubts that he'd have been skewered, and that wouldn't have been a happy ending for anyone.

"It's fine. I won't approach you now, though. Can you stand?" He asked, forcing his tone back into the kind lullaby he had before. Lilith nodded, feeling ashamed of herself, as well as confused. What the fuck?

"I'll explain what I can later, but for now, come. We have an armored car, and I'm going to have to ask you to sit in the cell area, is that okay with you? It's for both yours and our safety." The officer explained as the policemen led them out of the cafe and towards the waiting armored truck.

Lilith stared at it with a bit of fear, still not really comprehending what, why or how this was all happening, but nodded nonetheless, quickly crawling into what was essentially a holding cell.

"We'll close the doors, okay? There will be a few bumps on the road, and the journey might be a bit long, so please, don't start destroying our car when you start getting anxious. Just shout, and we'll stop to check up on you. Okay?" He said. Lilith was starting to feel as though he was treating her like a deranged, dangerous, sociopathic child. The sad part was, she couldn't even disagree with what he was doing, because it made her feel a lot better to have someone ordering her around.

"Y-yes!" She said, watching as the doors shut close, leaving her inside of what was essentially a dimly lit metal box. Huddling into herself, she thought back on everything that happened.

It was... scary, and yet, somehow, also exciting. But then, the real dread hit.

'Oh, shit... I'm going to be late at my shift!'