It took a while to find my room as the directions I was given were, incorrect. My room was actually the twenty-second door on my right and the first unlocked door I had come across.

The room itself was quite a step up from my previous dwellings. A queen bed sat centered against the back wall with more pillows than any one person could possibly need. The bedding consisted of a thick down comforter and Egyptian cotton sheets with a thread count of at least seven hundred per square inch.

A set of tall arched windows sat in the wall opposite the door, silky curtains hanging from a bronze bar above. A large oak desk sat between them, its marble top covered with stacks of folders that I assumed were organized in some way that I couldn't seem to comprehend. The only item on the desk that I could make sense of was a thin black laptop sealed in a plastic bag that sat on top of at least three separate piles, my name scribbled across its surface.

Placing my case on the bed, I grabbed the sealed laptop and removed it from its protective sleeve. Looking over it I saw faint letters etched into its surface S, F, S, so it was a company laptop.

Figuring I had a few hours until my meeting tonight I sat on the bed and opened the computer. The stylized SFS logo appeared before expanding into the full name Summit Financial Services LLC.

After a moment, it folded back into the SFS logo and files appeared on the screen. Looking them over I saw available private assets, financial records, and acquired third partie assets.

reading the clock in the corner of the screen I saw it was only three twenty-one so I started combing through the files and finding what little I could of the corresponding files on the desk.

Four hours later I was ready for the meeting, a portfolio of all our current available resources in hand along with a few questions about some discrepancies between the digital and physical files.

Double-checking my appearance I left my room and started my trek back to the foyer. The hallway’s perfect symmetry reminded me of walking through a hotel, the mind-numbing repetition of the doors and repeating carpet patterns far nicer than anywhere I could have ever afforded to stay even before I mutated.

Not that I wasn’t well off, but when you live in New York, New York you almost have to be, to afford anything decent.

Between the mind-numbing effect of walking without seeing any true sign of a change and the thoughts of before, old memories flooded my mind and filled my vision unbidden.

Images of the Cresada bank and its grand opening in NYC financial district. How the ground shook. falling, then I looked up and saw it, a weave of green like an intricate spider's web filling a piller that reached past the sky.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I saw it ripple, then it in an instant it unraveled sending out a shockwave so powerful it distorted my vision of the colored mass stampeeding behind it from blocks away.

The sound it made still so clear It was the shattering glass and the rumble of bulldozers. It didn’t stop or lower or rise; it was steady like a wave of sound that never seemed to stop crashing against the world. Then the dark.

“Yo, Alastor, you good?” Coming to, I saw that I was standing in a large dining room, Alexander shouting at me from about six feet away. “Yes, I apologize, I was just lost in thought,” I replied. He looked at me with both suspicion and what looked like, worry.

“Ok, then why don’t you get off the demonic magic carpet and come sit down?” Demonic magic carpet? What was he talking about? Looking down, I saw a something like tree sqaure foot section of the hallway’s carpet suspended about four feet off the ground by thirteen human arms whose flesh was made of the same carpet I was apparently riding, there nails where made from literal nails.

“Ah, yes. Sorry, Alex. I got tired on the way so I commandeered some of your carpet. Hope you don’t mind too much.” The suspicion in his gaze seemed to quiet in place of what I believe to be, utter horror.

“Yeah, no problem, as long as you can put it back, I guess.” Carefully stepping off, I prayed to any being who would listen to please let this work.

“That shouldn’t be a problem, Alex.” Turning around, I faced the otherworldly abomination. “Alright, Kreg, thank you for the lift. Please return to the hallway.” For a moment, the creature just stood there, then to my chagrin, it turned, seeming to head back to wherever I had pulled it from, my weave tightening with my triumph.

“Alright, now that that’s taken care of, do you have any questions you would like to ask before our meeting begins?” I said, heading to the chair two down from the head of the table where Alexander sat.

“Yeah, yeah, I think I have a couple.” Sitting down, I fixed my jacket and pulled out the full portfolio I had put together on the table, along with a notebook and pen I found in my room before I replied, “Go ahead with the first and I will answer the best I can, Alex.”

“What the heck is your class? I saw you were all gassy and such and just figured you were some class of elemental, but then you're riding some kind of demon rug around the house.” Facing him, I could see a mix of confusion and surprise in his wide eyes.

“I believe I would be classified as an astral class but I fail t see how its of any importants to our current business .” His confusion seemed to fade away, giving way to intrigue. “Wait, what do you mean you believe you are?”, he asked the intrigue I thought I saw in his eyes filling his voice “I haven’t been registered by P.A.P.I. so I don’t know for sure.”

The look on Alexander's face morphed once again, this time into jaw-dropping shock. “You haven’t been registered! How did you manage that? My father couldn’t even do that. The moment you gained or used your power, the rust bucket should have immediately scanned and categorized you. It has eyes literally everywhere.”

The Power, Analysis, and Placement Intelligence, or P.A.P.I., was the collective response of the world’s governments to the rise in xenos. With it, they could find and tag every xeno that popped up retroactively, and should they choose to become a threat to public safety, they could respond with the corresponding xenos or weapons to stop them.

“Well, I was in New York when my powers emerged, post fallout”, Not much to use for eyes in a smoking crater.

“New York! How did you survive, the feedback of the wrift was bad enough but after that all those things started apea.” Before he could finish I interrupted, my weave beginning to roil.

“Alexander, we are here for business not my personal life. Should you have any professional questions feel free to ask, otherwise I politely ask that you keep them to yourself.” At some point I had turned towards the items in front of me, the leather of my gloves creaked with the grip I had on my pen.

Loosening the grip and taking a moment to breathe I did my best to discreetly look at Alexander’s expression. I couldn’t see much of Alexander in the warped periphery of my vision but I could still tell he was shocked at my outburst.

“Understood, Alastor, and in that case I don’t have any more questions.” I took a moment to breathe and tighten my weave before speaking again “Good, then let's start with our current privately owned assets.” I opened the portfolio i had put together and separated a copy of all listed private assets that I believed could be useful