Lilith was bored. That wasn't a good state of affairs for... pretty much anybody. Before her 'emergence', she would have happily just gone off to either play video games or go bother her boss and coworkers, but now... Her idea of what 'fun' was had changed quite a bit.
If she guessed accurately, then she should currently be right next to Morocco. After all, while she wasn't going as fast as she could, she was still a 300+ meter long titan of a snake traveling at quite the fast speed. Furthermore, it had already been an entire two days since she'd met up with her most recent victims.
She'd also been thinking, mostly because there wasn't much else to do other than gawk at the cute little sharks, fishes, and other marine lifeforms.
She didn't know what she wanted to do with her life. Fortunately for her, that had been the case for more or less her entire life, so no biggie there. What did change, however, was the fact that she would likely either be deified by some people, and portrayed into a mindless monster by others, and that's without even thinking about what the governments or other powerful groups would try.
Hence, her choices were limited. She could just try and transform into an ordinary person and live her life... But that didn't sit well with her. She'd done that for her entire life, and besides, she had the opportunity to be what others could only wish to be.
She'd have to think further about this, for sure. Letting out a sigh, she took the opportunity to rise above the water's surface, enjoying the coastal sight.
She was mostly keeping herself to the coast, following it and trying to avoid being sighted by humans too many times, but it was probably for null. She'd knew at least a few boats had spotted her, and judging by the fact that there had been a few helicopters trying to find her, she was probably not being as sneaky as she thought she was.
Still, it wasn't hard to escape their notice. She could easily just swim down into the depths of the ocean, go forward a few dozen miles and then continue on. The fact that she preferred to stay near the surface had everything to do with her trying to enjoy the sights, especially because she had no need to breathe, and the water's weight really didn't matter much to her.
Although, as her eyes drifted upward, catching sight of a duo of quickly approaching helicopter, Lilith decided that, perhaps, she could very well just make herself public. After all, she was currently a 300-meter titanic snake. Perhaps, if someone decided to nuke her, she might be in trouble, but otherwise, she would likely be fine.
Hence, she didn't bother hiding as she continued swimming forward, creating massive waves wherever she went. The hydrodynamic laws that should have stopped her from going as fast as she currently was were entirely ignored simply due to the fact that her current body was made of pure, extremely dense muscle.
Smirking inwardly, Lilith allowed her head to rise above the water, staring directly into one of the cameras currently being pointed at her from the helicopters that had, for obvious reasons, decided to follow her.
She briefly debated whether to spook the crews on the helicopter before deciding that it would be too much effort, and that it would probably backfire quite a bit considering that, while she wanted to make an impact, she didn't want to make a negative impact. Or, at least, not an extremely negative one.
Decisions, decisions...
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"Holy crap, mom! Look at that thing! It's huge!" Luke exclaimed. Besides him, his sister bobbed her head up and down, face filled with wonder as she stared at the TV.
"Language, Luke." His mother rebuked briefly, although she was also watching the TV with far more interest than she allowed to show on her face. The boy pouted before being drawn back into the live-action report on the TV by the reporter speaking.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, it seems the rumors and videos were all true! Look at this big guy, he's as real as they get! Although, if the Seafarer's video is true, then it might not be a guy." The reporter said, obviously trying to crack a joke. Before the reporter could continue, the small family heard the soft chimes that indicated someone opening the doors to their home.
"Daddy! Daddy! Quick, come look! There's a huuuuuge snake on the TV!" His annoying sister shouted before once again trying to hog the best spot all to herself. Frowning, Luke tried to push her away and make space for himself, but that obviously didn't work.
As the two children descended into a small fight for their favorite spot, their father sat down on the couch next to his wife, eyes locked onto the TV. "Damn. That's big indeed." He commented lightly.
"Yeah. Apparently, it's coming to Europe. Didn't specify where, though." His wife commented, a light smile on her face. "Apparently, it's one of those American shapeshifters that escaped. I saw the video posted a week ago." She added after a moment.
He chuckled. "Who hasn't? Anything involving metahumans is basically guaranteed to hit hundreds of millions of views."
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
She leaned slightly onto her husband, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "Indeed... Say, do you think it's going to come to Britain or go to the mainland?"
"Who knows. I still think the media's overreacting a bit to this." He shrugged.
Around the continent, many similar scenes were occurring. People worldwide watched the titan-snake leisurely swim, gigantic arms briefly appearing on the water's surface, slitted eyes sometimes locking onto the cameras, seemingly staring into the souls of the watchers themselves.
"Fucking hell, what do you mean 'I had no choice'?! Do you have any idea how much pressure is being put on us because of your incompetence?? The public is going crazy that a metahuman escaped, or worse, even had to escape one of our faculties! People are accusing us of being... Augh!" The man in front of John screamed bloody hell, eyes bloodshot.
John shrunk back. It was true that he could have handled the situation better, but he'd done what he could with the resources he had and the knowledge that was available.
"S-sir, what was I supposed to do!? It was either risking the entire staff's life or giving up!" He said, trying to gather courage. The man glared at him in response, steam practically coming out of his ears.
"Fuck if I know! It's not my job to figure this out, it's yours! Now, I've received an order from the president himself, he wants to meet you to discuss the recent flight of our metahuman. If you fuck this up, I swear to god John, you won't like it." The man hissed, and John could only nod meekly, looking anywhere but his eyes.
Abruptly, someone slammed the room's door open. The man's secretary, a rather pretty woman with spotted glasses, stumbled in. "Boss, you'll want to see this! Hurry up!"
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"Careful there, Mike. Don't fall down!" His friend murmured good-naturedly as he stepped back into the depths of the helicopter. He'd been recording live for the past few hours, and he'd desperately needed a break.
"Yeah, yeah." He said, waving away the concerns of his friend. After all, this was a, no, the golden opportunity he'd been looking for. Being able to stand in front of an audience of billions of people with a topic that was practically making worldwide news with the smallest event, and luckily for him, his event was quite, well... big.
He stared down from the window as another one of his colleagues took to the stage, hanging dangerously from the helicopter along with a camera, trying to capture the best shots possible of the titan below them. Honestly, they probably should have taken more safety precautions, but what was safety in the face of overwhelming opportunity?
As it turns out, quite important, as the newby reporter excitedly waved his hand about as he narrated about the events, acting more like a comedian than a reporter. Unfortunately for him, the helicopter took the opportunity to jolt slightly right when he let go of the rails for a moment.
Everyone's eyes widened simultaneously, even as the cameraman lurched forward in an attempt to catch the reporter as the poor man stumbled back, his feet not finding anything but air as he fell down.
"George! Damn it!" The cameraman cursed as his hands just barely missed the other man's body, helplessly forced to watch as the reporter fell the hundreds of meters between them and a whole lot of water and monster.
Abruptly, the titan below the seas erupted upward, flesh rolling as it shrunk inward. Thousands of arm erupted from the writhing flesh, forming into a large, tight net that shot upward. Within a few seconds, the man fell right into the fleshy net, and judging by the lack of a comedic 'splat' or screams, he was likely fine.
The first reporter stared down with gleaming eyes, torn between worry for the man and utter glee at what was happening. The fallen reporter had fallen unconscious, and was, fortunately for everyone involved, being treated with a gentleness surprising of such a creepy thing as he was held by a car-sized hand that was gently rising upwards, directly towards their helicopter.
"Clear the area! Quick!" Someone shouted, chaos quickly erupting as people tried to move the large, incumbent camera away. The pilot had also been told to make the helicopter stop, forcing it to hover awkwardly in the air.
The massive, fleshy hand that was attached to an arm that must have been at least a few hundred meters long gently entered through the opening, depositing the unconscious reporter down a bit further into the helicopter. Then, instead of retreating, the hand began to transform.
With little fanfare, Lilith formed her regular 'human' body, keeping the creepiness factor of her transformations to more... normal levels. Needless to say, she wasn't particularly amused at what just happened.
She opened her glowing red eyes, staring down at the people in front of her. She swept her gaze across the entire helicopter, finding basically nothing resembling a medical kit or something of the sort.
She began to quickly re-absorb the remainder of her leviathan body into the human one, feeling that this was a pretty good opportunity to be both lazy and go through proper channels to immigrate into Europe rather than sneaking in as she had originally planned.
"Alright, guys. Let's make this clear, I'm not big into human sacrifices. Let's not start throwing people down at the big-ass snake below, yeah?" She said, raising an eyebrow. She dully noted how one of the cameramen was, for some reason, still recording her.
Paparazzi, man. She'd never understood their kind.
"So... Whose in charge, here?" She asked, feeling the remainder of her flesh come together. It didn't particularly matter if she was whole or in a million different bodies, but she preferred the former simply due to habit.
"That... would be me, mam." One of the people stepped up. Lilith was too lazy to even bother examining him further than a glance.
"Yeah, you're an idiot. You guys clearly need better safety here. Anyways, carry me over to... Hm... France. Yup, France. Hippity hoppity guys, hurry up." She urged. The men shifted awkwardly while the man-in-charge frowned slightly, backing up.
Lilith rolled her eyes at this. "You guys were taking photos and videos of me without my consent for, like, the entire day. I even saved one of your men from becoming a darwin's awards holder. Would you kindly do as I say? It's not like you were gonna do anything but follow me."
She sneaked a look at the camera, raising an eyebrow at the practically salivating cameraman standing behind it. Feeling an idea being birthed in her mind, she raised her hand to her forehead, acting as dramatic as possible.
"Oh, woe me. I escape the slavery of a country for something I didn't choose nor can control, only to be refuted by another. Poor me, boohoo." She said, fake tears springing to her eyes.
Hey, if the paparazzi could act insane without repercussions, why couldn't she? It wasn't like anyone could stop her, after all.