A strange girl awoke to the sound of news. The ongoing self-destruction, of her stranger world that she's now, beginning to decide whether to save or not.
"Evacuation plans due to the spike of Meta Crisis activity have accelerated. We repeat, the Shifting Meta Crisis has the potential to have a false start: meaning that Noumena may emerge ahead of the planned date of emanation…"
The strange girl's sighs couldn't penetrate the tension in the air, let alone the reverberation of this broadcast within her empty, dark house. The only light was her smartphone, and she was barely able to keep said light on, let alone keep the emergency broadcast stabilized. She was the only one that refused to depart, her family easily used the world's fear of them to their advantage.
The strange girl wished that she had that darkness in her still. Still possessing that selfish, empty mindset didn't erase years of her doing her best to get better than she used to be. Especially during times like these.
A time like this, where it seems like there is no "after" this. A time that feels like this distressing, hopeless, existential dread will simply be the norm from now on.
"EXTANT is once again struggling to meet the spatial disturbances, causing more unease and somehow more scrutiny of the pan-global 'last bastion' for humanity. Once again bring up the recurring question aimed at them—if they can't handle 'simple' Noumena outbreaks, where are they putting all of their energies—all of their resources—into…?"
It was funny. Only because of this broadcast, it made the strange girl aware of her surroundings. Since her mind was exploding, wandering about, thinking about the various paths this disaster could go: her expanded mind was used to collecting information even if she wasn't mentally present for it.
She was aware that outside of her house, there were radio transmissions surrounding her on all sides.
The strange girl already knew what EXTANT was devoted to, above all else. Maintaining their messes, no matter how much they're willing to throw at them.
She shut her weary eyes. There wasn't even relief from letting them rest, as they still burned from nonstop staring at the news cycle, the act of blinking was more or less sacrificed for convenience--until her body had to physically shut down, despite how strange it is, it needed rest at some point. Even without eyes, she piloted her odd body. Lanky in some regards and bulbous in others, all unified by her enlightened state of being.
Able to effortlessly rise, avoid any object she thought could be in her way, and find herself opening the door—all without her eyes. And the commands to execute these actions at the back of her mind, as she used most of it, wracking her brain over how a collection of people could be so thoughtless.
The strange girl opened her eyes to the sight of a hundred men and women. So armored, that their exposed lower face, or any skin, was coated in a silvery metal finish. Their visored eyes all trained to focus their gaze on the strange girl, raising their weapons all at once. Completely littering an already narrow abandoned neighborhood, spilling into unkept lawns, barely standing on cracked and untreated asphalt and sidewalks.
This is a sight that normal people have only recently seen, the Enforcers. Adding to this unstable air of things never being the same again. Military forces, turning into literal metal men… If that's the case, what ARE we up against that necessitates that?
The strange girl sighed once more. But, it was different. She forced her face into a smile, one of her eyes shut. A hand on her wide hip as she shifted weight to her side, changing her disposition in a matter of seconds—so stark—that some of the army twitched in response.
"Guys. Guuuuuuys…" The strange girl raised her free hand. "They sent, what—wait hold on—"
She quickly counted while mouthing the number she was on at that moment.
"—151 people when a single person could've talked to me about all this?" the stranger girl finished.
She knew that discussion wasn't an option at this point. But she still had to try.
Unlike the others, she didn't partake in the pleasure of doing supernatural ultra-violence.
The strange girl stepped forward from her porch and heard a chorus of weaponry being readied. She wanted to shake her head at that, because of the misinformated approach that these poor, brave people had to follow. If they really wanted her dead—they should've detonated her home from afar, days ago.
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The strange girl's dark caramel skin began to shimmer and become unfocused.
As a typhoon of laser-guided, explosive pellets headed her way—her now shimmering body faded into constantly shifting, segmented pieces. No matter how odd, little, or adjacent these pieces of the body were—it still made a human being. A human being in transient, a shimmering white silhouette with a shifting outline and pitch-black eyes.
With such an alien sight and appearance… The strange girl merely continued to step forward as the gunfire seemingly repulsed from her presence. The pieces not only gathering at her already pudgy legs, but outlining how her body works as she walks. The pieces colliding and connecting, showcasing what normally muscle did, but only briefly, sinking back under the skin. This was complete exposure.
Now she had to create a message.
She knew from the Enforcer's perspective, the strange girl just flickered in and out of existence. But all she did was plant her left foot in front of the right.
Using her abnormal movement, the strange girl danced about in the storm of bullets. Pellets that were condensed energy that exploded on contact, smaller than a US dime, and this girl shifted and twirled as her puzzle-like body granted her the ability to contort, go beyond her usual scope.
She found herself in the crowd, simply dodging to allow the more frenzied officers to hit their own kind—then moving about, literally around some of the sentries by extending her arm and her sense of gravity become anchored to them, using them as an invisible slingshot as she lanced her arms out to dart around. Becoming her "center point" of gravity caused the victims to fall over once the girl unlatched, crashing into the gawkers that were too scared to understand what was going on.
Making a mess of the mess within moments, as the strange girl stood in a pile of the dazed and very confused. The girl slowly turning into "normal", as she combed her bony fingers through her wild auburn mane.
As soon as she caught her breath, feeling up her own back, the strange girl let out another heavy sigh once more. As if that was the most exhausting thing she's done this night.
With hands in her PJ pockets, she carefully walked the street, on her way to climb up her porch.
Only for her back to flare up into shimmering pieces, and she instructively looked behind herself.
Such an angry yet resigned expression as she witnessed the polygon-shaped bomb barreling toward her.
As she shifted about, her body quickly responded to the threat—twisting herself as she used both her hands and feet to hoist the explosive in the air without a second thought, her back completely against the porch with a wince.
With her cosmic ability, the strange girl twisted the bomb just enough for it not to explode, crushed it enough for it not to explode, and kicked it directly into the dark skies ahead.
Only for her to reach her hand upward once it gained enough distance, hitching a makeshift ride into the air—her enlightened eyes searching for the culprits.
She saw through a team of Enforcers running from their perched position, abandoning their massive tri-pod device, what would've been in the cover of night.
Letting go, now sailing across the air as she casually twirls with a forward trajectory—she made an impossible angle where she went through the tri-pod's legs, immediately anchoring herself to the device.
As her shifting, enlightened body weaved about the mounted device—orbiting it until her very pull started to strain the object, the strange girl experienced constant perspective changes that would've immobilized the average person. Would've left them confused, disoriented to the point of it being crippled. But her expanded mind allowed her to experience—to understand her alien senses.
Allowing her to rip the tri-pod from its bolted-down position by sheer weight alone, waiting to sail around it until she was directly at its side.
Curling up her legs, as the pieces fastened—snapped—swelled up with power until she kicked at it with full force, the device that was as tall as 6 feet to rocket off the condemned house—causing the roof to crumble as the tri-pod shot from the right.
What would've been a blindspot or something to be overlooked, the strange girl managed to shove the tri-pod off in such a way that it also accounted for doubling as a makeshift ballistic. Immediately colliding with the other tri-pod from another home, rock, and dust cake the night air. And yet another tri-pod was dismantled in the same way, as the strange girl looked on with disgust.
Such a set-up meant to be an all or nothing offense for the worse-case Noumena… And they consider her that much of a threat.
She looked on as the devices fell to the ground, destroyed… Yet, the damage to the roofs, still just hung in the air. Suspended mid-air, motionless.
The damage snapped back, piling onto the made holes, restructuring itself—not new, but clearly as it was before the attack. Still aged.
The strange girl held her head, as she stiffened in pain. Back to her relative normal.
But she looked down at the mess. Some still down, but other stirring soldiers. The attempt at her life, when all she wanted to do was live it. Maybe even try to improve others.
And yet she's just going to be regarded as a thing, to these people.
Yet another sigh ensued.
"Alright then…" the strange girl jumped from the roof, landing gently on her ruined street. Calmly walking back to her house. "I'm doing what everyone's afraid of me doing. I've finally decided."
Without closing her door, the strange girl went back into the stark darkness, with a slow and heavy sense of her movement. Somber, but not remotely surprised.
This stranger never found her place in this life. But she might be one of many strange things that will survive, amidst this tragic transition into this stranger world.