Cookie and Hannah were sitting on the top floor of their new headquarters. They had moved their main office to downtown Dubai in anticipation of the start of their plan. This particular building was just finished. The previous leadership had developed it as more of a safe haven than just an office. In the event that world leaders turned on them and attempted to take them out, they wanted a building that was impenetrable. The walls were made of an experimental material capable of withstanding anything less than a nuclear blast.

The lower 50 floors were rented out to civilians to stave off any attempt at demolishing the entire building. Failsafes were built in to lock the entire building down should the need arise. Cookie was also able to increase the strength of the material used in construction by infusing it with mana produced by her core. The Tri Core she held within her could produce three types of mana, two of which were not yet known by Sim. One was the Mental/White mana, and the other two had many names throughout the multiverse: Light and Dark, Angelic and Demonic, Creation and Destruction. When she paired both of these mana types with origin mana, she had the full power of creation at her fingertips. She had utilized the dark mana to try and block her father's ability to access both these types but had ultimately failed. He had already become too powerful and had narrowly foiled her attempt.

As they discussed the next step of the plan, Cookie froze. She stood there with her eyes closed for a few minutes, not answering when Hannah attempted to communicate. As she opened her eyes, she finally spoke.

“They have found our first test area. After Alec defeated the mutants, my father was able to remove the anomaly and cure the subject.”

“That’s good, right? It’s a little quicker than we thought, but we’re ready for the next steps, aren’t we?” Hannah asked.

Cookie had a small and almost unrecognizable smirk appear on her face before she began to speak again. “Yes, I anticipated the possibility of a much quicker reaction on their part when deciding on our timeline. As soon as they found the pool and Peaches absorbed it, I released the others. They should keep busy with the smaller ones long enough for the Amazon to gain enough power.”

Cookie once again went still. She closed her eyes and started emitting a strange glow. It had a mixture of white, blue, black, and an almost radiant blend of all three that phased in and out of the visible spectrum. As the glow subsided, Hannah looked at her in confusion. Cookie fell to the floor. Hannah rushed to her, and her face fell in absolute horror.

“What happened? You look like your life force was just sucked out!”

Cookie, barely able to speak due to using every bit of power she could muster, tried to explain what she had done. “I just created a powerful distraction. I need my father and his pet to stay out of our way until the root system can infect the entire environment. Only then will it be powerful enough to survive the oncoming mana storm.”

Hannah still didn’t understand the long-term effects of the plan. She knew that Cookie's father was the admin and that his plan to increase the readiness of the world was flawed. Cookie never explained the reasons why they had to prepare so quickly, though. Why creating a new race of intelligent plant life was so important. Why they needed Yggdrasil to help stabilize everything. She didn’t dare ask Cookie what the end goal was. Cookie had changed too much to risk damaging the trust they had built up over the years of working together. They were put in the field together when they had just started and worked their way up the ranks at the same time. But Cookie was different now, almost singular-minded. She didn't talk like she used to. Everything had to be about the plan.

“Hannah,” Cookie said, “I try very hard not to read your thoughts out of courtesy to our friendship, but when you pretty much scream them at me like that, it's hard not to.”

As Hannah stared at Cookie in absolute horror, Cookie started to speak again.

“I assure you, once this is past the critical point, we can relax a little, and I’ll explain exactly how this will ultimately save humanity. My father would never agree to let as many people die as is needed for true independence. So we need to do everything we can to prevent him from interfering.”

Hannah had a look of desperation on her face before she began speaking. “I’m sorry! I know I don’t have any reason to question you; I just don’t understand so much of what’s going on.”

Cookie looked at Hannah with as much of a sympathetic demeanor as she could muster. She knew exactly how Hannah was feeling and had not taken the time to express her understanding. “It’s fine. Let’s just finish the last steps, then we will take a nice long break from all of this.”

Hannah just smiled as she looked at her friend. She trusted her and would stick to the plan.

……

Sim had just finished teleporting Alec and Chris back to the house. Down in the basement, Jeff was still working on Mia’s channels, and Peaches had just returned home, begging me to go hunt for the bird with her. I decided I had time and told her we had to go to the last place she actually saw the bird to have the best chance of finding it.

“Really?! DADDY’S COMING TOO!” she screamed. “Do you wanna ride on my back? I’m huge now. I can go so fast. I have six tails now, remember?”

I laughed before I explained the plan. “Okay, you teleport both of us to the last place you saw the bird. I’m going to fly beside you, and if we see the bird, I’ll shoot ahead and cut it off. Then you catch up and eat it. Sound good?”

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“Oh yes!!! We’re gonna get that bird this time. He’s so dead. Taking my fox friend. Daddy? There were no people where I saw it last, so can I use a bunch of my powers? I think he gets away because I don’t use all my powers.”

As I looked at her to see how I should respond, I saw desperation in her eyes. I knew I needed to let her do it to help her progress. “As long as we fix anything that gets destroyed and no one gets hurt, go ahead.”

“Yay!” she said as she bounced around. Then she started singing again. I really loved how happy she got over the smallest things. “Birdie’s gonna get it, birdie’s gonna get it, you’re dead, you’re dead, I’ll eat your face yum.”

The next thing I knew, we were back in what looked like Yellowstone forest. I glanced around and did a quick scan to make sure there wouldn’t be any collateral damage if Peaches opened up and let loose some massive power. I mentally sent a desire to every creature in the area, making sure to shield it from Peaches. “Hide and go where it’s safe; there are predators in the area.” I could hear a bunch of rustling in the trees, and then everything went silent.

Peaches closed her eyes, and I could see her emitting a multicolored glow. Tendrils of light formed and shot out in every direction. They spread out into a dish-type configuration and began pulsing. It appeared to be a form of magical sonar. She was scanning for the bird. This particular skill was amazing. She had added scanning capabilities with multiple types of mana.

“Hey Sim, did you give her this skill?” I asked.

Sim replied immediately. “Mike, I have stopped granting skills to Peaches altogether. She is creating them on her own now. She is advancing faster than is possible to predict.”

I contemplated that for a few seconds before Peaches’ eyes shot open and she spoke.

“Found you!”

Peaches shot forward at a blazing speed. Had I not been prepared, I might have lost her. I teleported up to her and matched her speed. “Where is it?” I asked.

She sent me a mental image, and to my utter shock, I could see it. A bird so clear it almost blended in with everything. It had some type of chameleon skill engaged. I shot forward to get in front of it just like we had planned, and just before I could block it, it teleported away. It looked like it couldn’t go far. Maybe its teleport skill wasn’t advanced enough, or maybe it didn’t want to get away. Now that I knew what to look for, I immediately picked up its silhouette in the distance. This time I teleported next to it and grabbed at its throat. My hand passed right through it. It then shed its camouflage and burst into flames. Peaches had shot some type of magical beam at it, and just as it made contact, the bird ignited, staving off any damage.

As my eyes opened in utter shock, the bird let out the loudest screech I had ever heard. If I had not been able to block incoming magical attacks completely, I would certainly be deaf. As I looked over at Peaches, I could see her shaking her head. She must not have blocked the attack in time. When I turned to look back at the bird, it was gone. It appeared directly behind Peaches. It locked its claws onto each of her wings and started charging some kind of attack in its beak. Its beak began to glow and then turn black with a void-like substance. Black then white, over and over. I recognized the black. It was the same dark void substance that Cookie had tried to attack me with when she awoke in the basement. I hurried and teleported between Peaches’ wings directly in front of where the attack would land. I grasped the bird's throat. This time I forced it to be corporeal and started to squeeze, anger flashing in my eyes. Somehow this bird had become just as powerful as Peaches and was attempting to attack her with a void-like attack. I had no idea how these attacks would affect anything because Sim was still lacking the info required.

As I grasped its throat, I forced origin mana through my hand. I was going to overload its core and explode it from inside. The bird's attack instantly ceased. It let go of Peaches and attempted to claw at me. As its claws raked across my chest, there was a tearing sound, but I felt no pain. My eyes went wide, and I pushed more and more mana. I activated my divine sight and saw that the core of the beast was starting to crack. As more and more splinters appeared, the bird channeled as much power as it could back into its phase skill and managed to slip out of our dimension, so my hand passed directly through it. It hurriedly teleported and was gone.

I scanned again to see if I could find where it had teleported to this time, but there was no trace of where it had gone.

“Peaches, are you okay?” I asked with a high-pitched twinge, tingling at the edge of my voice. “It’s gone. Let’s go back home.”

I teleported us directly to the backyard. I didn’t want to disturb Jeff and Mia, and I needed answers.

As I inspected Peaches for injuries and saw that nothing had actually damaged her wings, I started in on Sim. “Sim, where did that bird come from? I could tell that you didn’t create it and it was way too powerful to have just appeared.”

“I’m afraid I have no data at this time. I could detect the bird and that it had much higher than master tier power levels, but I am still limited while creating the system,” she responded.

“I told you, Daddy. That stupid bird just disappears. I’m gonna get 'em next time. I forgot to block the screech. I hate that screech. It makes me think bad for a little bit. Then it’s always gone after I can think again. I really wanna eat 'em, but I need more power.”

I was really frustrated after the encounter. I had been sending Peaches out into a fight that she could have possibly lost. I thought she was imagining everything or Sim was the one creating a false bird. “Sim, has that bird really been this powerful the entire time?”

“No, Mike. The bird Peaches has been after this entire time was simply a construct. This, however, was a full manifestation created directly with mana. It is now a true creature of mana. I was able to detect different types of mana usage, but there were two types of mana being used that I have no information available on, nor do either of us have access to.”

“It had to be Cookie. It was the same dark mana that she attacked me with. But it doesn’t make sense. Why would she create an animal like that?”

“Unknown,” replied Sim. “I will be able to track the creature should it use any mana now that I have information on some of its skills. I will inform you of any sightings.”

I was a little worried. If Peaches were to have been struck by that skill, what would it have done to her? “Okay, let’s just be careful. Peaches is not allowed to hunt the bird until she powers up a little bit or at least until we understand more about that dark mana attack. If you detect it at all, let me know and I’ll fight it myself.”

“Understood,” Sim replied.

Peaches managed to pull off a shocked and disgusted look at the same time. “Aw, but Daddy, I wanna kill the bird. At least take me with you. He’s a bad bird and a meanie. I wanna eat him, and if you kill him without me, then it won’t be fair.”

I looked at Peaches and felt sympathetic. I knew how much beating this bird meant to her, and if I took that away, she might never forgive me. “Alright, but you better get as strong as possible before it comes back. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Yay. I will be, Daddy. I’ll be super-duper stronger next time. I’ll go practice right now.” Even as she spoke, she was growing in size and then teleported away.