I sat in someone’s living room, relaxedly committing a B and E, unconcerned about being caught because I was pretty sure the wraiths had gotten to all the former residents and any authorities who could catch me.

I flipped through the channels and found static. I pressed the switch input button, and found a cartoon playing on the dvd player.

I wasn’t sure what I was watching at first then I looked over and saw the box for the dvd. Complete with the well-drawn, well-endowed main character on the cover.

Cartoons here were a lot like cartoons in my old world, so I was unsurprised to find it was another tale about a student who was ‘a little different’ trying to balance the overly complex fantasy-opera that was her home life, with the travails and burdens of being a ‘normal’ teen.

It looked kind of bad and the plot summary was convoluted, but I settled in to watch it anyway. I was kind of tired and didn’t think I wanted to go anywhere just yet.

******

I think I must have passed out because when I woke up, episodes four through thirteen had gone by and the show was already in its second season.

“Come on young Kumiko, You have to believe in yourself!” said the bearded old man on screen.

Kumiko was dressed like some combination of circus clown, gladiator and ballerina and was facing up against anything that looked like it was made entirely out of fried-squid.

She jumped up to fight it and was immediately caught, which was the point where I realized that I was watching a porno.

I finished the episode though.(I was already kind of invested and had to see how she got out of it.) It turned out that the monster’s semen was highly flammable. And self-confidence in that world apparently materialized as fireworks.  

*****

The credits rolled down the screen and I turned off the tv. With a sigh, I stretched and then headed up the stairs. I was kind of hungry but I was more tired than I was hungry.

I entered a random bedroom and flopped down onto the bed.

Ah...if your wondering what happened to the wraiths, it should be obvious that I got away. I 'am' still alive, right? (The POV didn't suddenly stop or ominously change?)

The lead wraith bore down on me, and I flailed, wildly swinging my fists because going out, screaming with my eyes closed, wasn't my prefered way to go.

The plain physical force I brought to bear wasn’t exactly effective, but the flames that came out of my hands the very next second, were.

Which was the point where I was reminded that I was supposed to be Magical now. An Augmented.

*****

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Like any delicately balanced horror, the fear kind of went away once In realized that I was armed. I spent the next four hours experimenting with my new powers.

I’d idiotically injected myself with seven gene altering Awakening Serums. And instead of just dying for my stupidity I got seven new powers instead.

I have no clue about the caliber of the serums I took because my monstrous nature was always going to exaggerate them and boost them. I guess it doesn’t matter. What does matter was my powers could do.

The first blow I landed on that first wraith, exploded, spitting flame and smoke. Making my flesh sizzle, burning me though I almost immediately healed from it. Apparently I’m not entirely immune to my own powers.

The second blow on the second wraith, was accompanied by the appearance of a sharp white spike and a explosion of quickly melting, white powder.

One fist brought fire, the other ice. The third wraith was killed by a swarm of ravens, or considering the chitinous hide beneath their feathers, and their compound eyes, they might have been insects. Bugs.

Either way they were somehow magical enough to sting the wraith until she was paralyzed and tear her apart. Her insides melting from the venom.

After killing those first wraiths I wandered through town, resuming my search for survivors. I didn’t find any.

Instead I found more wraiths, which I used to explore my new powers. On top of my new ability to control fire and ice, which my anomalous nature had immediately consolidated into a wholesale if slightly limited, and very painful, ability to control energy and entropy.

Which came with the freebie of also allowing me to control electricity as well. (Which was also painful.)

There was also my ability to summon bugs, that could apparently be combined with either my fire, electricity or my ice. I had an ability manipulate and exude a magical force of some sort. (Telekinesis? Wind Control?).

I’d gained an ability to sort of slide sideways through space. Teleporting for short distances. Or at least teleporting as far as my essence would carry me.

And apparently I could heal things, something I realized when I accidently brought one of the wraiths I’d nearly killed, back to its feet.

As for my sixth and seventh new powers they were just highly redundant and extraneous boosts to physical strength and regenerative ability.

In short I’d been turned into a stock wizard from any rpg, anywhere, nothing groundbreaking but all in all a very serviceable turn of events.

I kind of wished that I’d gained the ability to fly but I guess short-range teleportation was fine too. And I could always just keep using my old standby of jumping really, really high and then aiming carefully for the landing, to get around when I was traveling in the outer-wastes.  

As I drifted off to sleep dead exhausted, my only complaint was that my monster nature had boosted everything to the point that I’d likely need to concentrate on power-leveling myself so I didn’t nearly die of exhaustion each time I used these new powers of mine.