......Of course, in Sylvia's panicked mind, she forgot to take into account that maybe the abandoned building rumoured to have ghouls in it......had ghouls in it.

Sylvia burst into the warehouse, and ran almost headlong into a pair of feral ghouls staggering around a blind corner. Sylvia broke free from their clutches in a panic, and tore away from them, hopping from room to room in hopes of finding a back exit.

However after two close calls with more ghouls, Sylvia had been herded into a large, dimly lit office. She shut the door, barricaded it with a desk and a couple bookshelves, and then hurriedly looked around the room.

There was a boarded up window on the opposite wall, and Sylvia hoped it would lead to a way out......only to find that underneath the boards were thick wooden 2-by-4s that shut out a lot of the outdoor light. Sylvia could peek through and see outside......but she couldn't remove the damned 2-by-4s!

In a state of pure panic, Sylvia checked around for something to remove the boards with, as she heard a pounding on the door. She knew there couldn't be much left around an abandoned building, but she had to try.

However, all she found in the remaining office shelves and cabinets was a rusty knife, some battered-looking books written in a weird language...... and a small golden sculpture that resembled a feathered serpent.

Despite the pressure of the situation, something caught Sylvia's attention with this sculpture. It was shiny gold even in the dim confines of the office, and Sylvia could swear she saw wispy flecks of golden light pouring out of it...... and flowing towards her?

At that moment, a voice rang out in Sylvia's head.

"I have awaited you, young one. I am the spirit of the Naga. Heed the call of my totem, and gain the willpower to overcome your enemies!"

Sylvia had seen the Naga before on a documentary. It was a creature looked at, in a list of creatures that were thought to be mythical before the Awakening in 2011. Sylvia didn't know much else about them, but she did know that she needed help from anyone willing right now, be they spiritual, mythical, physical...... whatever it took.

Sylvia grasped the golden sculpture tightly, without even realizing she was doing it.

Then her vision exploded.

Sylvia felt as if a dormant pair of third and fourth eyes within her had suddenly opened wide. She could see stars in the air infront of her, she could see the swirling essence of the rusty knife and gold sculpture she was holding, she could see particles in the shape of humans shambling near the blockaded door, and she could see small figures dancing in the air, holding red fire and purple lightning in their hands.

......Was this the astral plane?

Sylvia had vaguely heard about it whenever she was lucky enough to watch a show that talked about magic. Mages and shamans could only use magic if they awakened themselves onto the astral plane somehow, which would make them capable of seeing the spirits within the plane. "Awakened" could then harness the power of those spirits to perform spells, ranging from shooting fire and lightning out of their hands to turning ones self invisible.

Sylvia had kinda wanted to be a magician, but never thought in a million years that she would Awaken. Now she had, and felt all her worries and panic simply wash away, as Sylvia was lost herself in the wonders of the astral plane. Seconds passed by that felt like days, as she took in her magical surroundings. It was a whole new world for Sylvia, one that she had been unaware of all this time, and one that she found much more interesting than the dreary world which shunned her for so long......

"You must face the manifestation of your fears." said the voice in Sylvia's head. "Destroy your fears, and the ability of the Naga will be forever at your call."

Sylvia was snapped back to reality by a powerful voice that seemed to emanate from her little golden sculpture. She didn't know what the manifestation of her fears was, but had a pretty good idea, as Sylvia concentrated hard enough to sense a mass of particles in the shape of a woman go over to her carefully constructed barricade. The human particles threw aside other human particles gathering around the door, before it did a series of lightning-quick kicks straight out of a martial arts film. Sylvia's vision from the mundane plane saw her carefully constructed barricade get blown back away from the door, as the woman entered the room.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Sylvia would've been scared of this about 5 minutes ago, but 5 minutes ago felt like a different lifetime. Sylvia was changed now, and she confidently got into her interpretation of a combat pose, knife in one hand, golden sculpture in the other, Magical particles shined all around Sylvia, as she prepared to face her fears......

~~~

A female vampire formerly known as Janice Weathers stalked through the abandoned building she controlled, pissed off at the situation. She was upstairs reading some magical tomes when the damned feral ghouls downstairs began acting up. These days they generally did so only when uninvited and unexpected guests showed up, as her magic had kept a pretty tight leash on them otherwise. This probably meant more shadowrunners had stumbled in trying to clean out the place.

It was always annoying to deal with stuff like this. It wasn't like Janice had CHOSEN to be a vampire, and its not like her ghoul minions had chosen to be ghouls. They were infected with a virus that made them that way. They all did their best to fight the effects, but the facts were there in black and white: Vampires could only consume blood without falling ill, and ghouls needed to eat a couple pounds of flesh each week or they'd die.

Janice had made deals with blood banks and chopshop medical clinics to keep her and her community fed safely. They did not attack anyone that didn't attack them, and they had to suffer being viewed as monsters terrorizing the city, when they almost never ventured outside their building. What a crock. And the metahumans thought THEY had it bad......

Suddenly, Janice's keen nose picked up the unmistakeable scent of human blood. A drop of it in the hallway, near a ghoul who had been hurt in some way and was leaned up against a wall, taking shallow breaths. Janice cast a quick healing spell on him, before moving on, following the scent of a couple more drops of blood. And these drops seemed to be leading to the......

Uh oh.

Janice made double time to the back office. She had stored some books and a magical artifact in there that she had yet to figure out, and she hoped whatever garbage wandered into the place hadn't stolen those items yet.

Quickly, she reached the office, saw two ghouls pawing at the closed door, and shoved them aside. Enhancing herself with an adept chi casting trick she had learned recently, Janice gained even more speed and power on top of a vampire's natural high physical abilities, and launched a vicious set of kicks at the door with her combat boots until the door finally was open enough to let her in.

Janice took two steps in the room before recoiling back, as a sunbeam flashed across her arm and burned it! Janice looked at the window it came from and noticed the plywood board had been removed......then looked around the office and noticed a ratty-looking, black-haired elven girl in the corner, holding the golden sculpture and a rusty knife.

"You did this, I presume?" said Janice to the girl.

The girl didn't move. She just stared back, in a ludicrous fighting stance with her knife held wrong......but something about her worried Janice. The girl had a certain determined glow in her eyes, and magical particles floating around her. Could she have figured out the golden Naga totem's power?

Nah, couldn't be. She was probably some kid here on a dare trying to act tough.

"You're lost little girl, I get it. Put back the totem, and I'll let you walk out of here. I won't even have you pay for the window you broke. Now-"

Janice was interrupted with a roar, as some ork with a broken tooth busted through the door, covered in blood. The ork gave Janice a quick look, before looking over to the far wall and exploding with rage as he saw the ratty elf at the back wall

"THERE YOU ARE, YOU LITTLE BITCH! YOU BROKE MY TOOTH! GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES, AND APOLOGIZE RIGHT NOW!"

"You stay out of this!" shouted Janice.

The ork gave Janice a second look, and gave Janice an awful-looking grin.

"You can't tell me what to do. In fact, as soon as I've dealt with that ugly bitch, maybe I'll tell you what to do......and how I want you to do it......"

"Don't even try me, pin-dick. I'll have your disgusting blood emptied from your carcass before you can even get your pants off. The girl will leave as soon as she's returned something to me."

"Got it."

The elf piped up at that moment. Janice smiled and turned to the girl, but then her expression turned to horror as she noticed a huge gathering of magical particles around her, indicating a big spell coming.

Damn, she had figured out the Naga totem somehow!

Janice surged towards the elven girl, but was too late. A lifetime too late. The resulting curtain of fire spewing from the elf's hands turned Janice and the ork Billy Bones to ash. Along with 15 feet of real estate behind them, two ghouls standing near the door, and four more upstairs above the office.

The curtain of fire was really quite an extraordinary sight, even to those who saw death incarnate rushing towards them......