The cryogenic tube hummed in a low tone, constantly at work, monitoring the life held slowly suspended within.

It had been two months since it had been checked on, with nothing to be reported on. Those who had stolen it long ago from its previous place in Wundagore Mountain did have plans for it, but they were unaware of the consequences of their actions.

Key parts had failed to compensate for the growth of the person within, and their increasing resistance to the fluids which prevented crystallization of their cells. During a power surge some time ago, the rough diagnostics had crossed and begun to feed back into themselves, failing to register that the brain waves of the occupant within had flatlined, and the slow, slow heartbeat had stopped entirely. The nutrient feeds had frozen solid and been blocked by back pressure as life had slowly faded from the person within.

Light hissed, a flash of silver, drawing a pattern and schema upon cold flesh. Ancient energies writhed and imprinted themselves, and sent bolts of life twisting through the frozen body within, kickstarting it from its frozen state. A soul surged into there, eldritch powers contorted and began to layer into the body, shifting and changing... and then froze.

The pattern of blue-black Runes extending right through the skin of the young woman paused as something else, something just as old, or even older, more primal, rose out of the depths of the frozen blood, and touched the power of those Runes. They began to shift, from a strangely irregular pattern, into something clearer, sharper, and more defined.

Long blue-black legs extended out from the tattoo-like pattern, with the head, abdomen, and thorax clearly identifiable to anyone who knew anything of Phylum Arthropoda.

The red hourglass was particularly eye-catching.

The Tattoo moved over the suddenly thawing body, playing over the skin and reaching deep into every cell, guiding the energy according to its needs and desires, moving like a living thing. It did not take overlong to play over everything, and then shift itself over and behind the young woman, onto her back, unseen.

And then her eyes snapped open.

---------

It was cold.

It was a clinical fact, I acknowledged it even as the Ceremony of the Frozen Soul rejected it completely. It and the Ritual of the Burning Heart made me a creature of Fire and Ice, and naturally completely immune to extremes of temperature as a result. The liquid around me was definitely below normal freezing, and might as well have been perfectly balmy bathwater.

I was in some kind of supercooled fluid, probably a liquified gas at this temperature, and there was literally nothing for me to breathe. I was probably getting intravenous oxygen if this was a cryo tube, but that wasn’t exactly useful when I wasn’t in superslow hibernation mode.

I needed to breathe now, and that meant I needed air. Being immune to cold didn’t make me immune to suffocation.

I focused, and something ignited inside me. I looked inside at where a Pactspace should be, and there was definitely something there supplying me energy, sparking and surging through me suddenly.

The container was made to be temperature-resistant and strong, but the force of my blow was completely beyond the design tolerances of the tube’s makers. I punched a foot-wide hole right through it, spraying shattered glass all over the place, and immediately the fluid within the tube began to boil as the warmer outside air evaporated it rapidly.

I kicked out then, my Cold Template instantly overcoming the cryo-freezing of this thing, opening another long split in the strong glass. The fluid gases drained rapidly out the new opening even as they boiled and steamed in heavy white clouds before dissipating.

I inhaled, felt the semi-corrosive nature of the ambient air, and also that the poisonous effects of it were a little heady, but not dangerous, getting neutralized even as I registered them. I explosively expelled the super-oxygenated fluid in my lungs even as my instincts were screaming for air, and a gushing gout of some gaseous mix expanding in an angry change of state billowed out of my mouth, wanting to push me back into the tube like a balloon letting go as it left me.

I couldn’t inhale until the stuff was gone, and Focused, denying the instinct to breathe until whatever was sparking inside my lungs drove all that shit out and I could inhale. The incoming breath only helped expel the remaining liquid in my lungs faster, and I crashed through the remnants of the glass tube loudly, falling to the floor naked on all fours. I thoughtfully added a stinking mass of odd stomach contents and bladder retention to the mess all around me.

There was no reaction from the quiet equipment around, which continued to beep as if nothing had happened or gone wrong.

Far more annoyed than embarrassed, I sat there on all fours as freezing liquid and crackling stomach acid that wouldn’t freeze and way too much and too hot bodily waste vented explosively from everything that could. I had streams of warming goo and gas venting out my tear ducts and squealing in my ears, my skin was almost popping, and steam was exploding out of everything at the other end of my digestive tract.

I counted to one hundred and twenty-three slowly before all the venting gas managed to work its way out, in whatever most uncomfortable bloating way it could do so. The whole process also made me very acutely aware of some differences between whoever I’d been so unceremoniously stuck into and the person I’d been severed from.

I wasn’t exactly wet, except I was the only warm thing around with all the frozen air, so all the condensation was gathering onto me to go drip drip, instead of freeze freeze. Warm was relative, as my body temp was around -50 C right now, and I started raising it slowly, letting my heart heat up and blood and internal fluids start reverting to something normal, instead of being magically liquid at nitrogen-freezing temperatures.

Long brown hair, steaming with rapidly evaporating supercooled fluids, hung on either side of my face, crinkling and thawing as it froze and thawed in quiet waves of contesting influence. I focused on my hands, smaller and unfamiliar and with a different wrist structure, pale arms and smooth skin...

Wonderful. Sylune was making fun of me for not being Her Champion again, if Einz’s report was any indication. I still didn’t know what had stuck me in here after falling into that web...

---

The gas escaping from me eventually faded to merely irritating eruptions and bloated sensations in my gut.

I flexed inside, and fire suddenly flowed through me.

I opened my mouth, and a gout of burning gas erupted out of me forcefully, unable to burn me or harm me with its expansion, but finding the quickest escape it could. There was a woosh of cold energy collapsing from all directions, and the fire snuffed out as rapidly as it vented, leaving the air a mixture of warm and cold currents balancing themselves out quickly.

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I coughed up black filmy smoke, made a gesture, and nothing happened. I looked at my hand, and frowned.

I reached out mentally... and there was nothing there.

I looked between my eyes reflexively, focusing on the Matrix floating there. It was basic and undeveloped, waiting for Karma to remold it into something independent of what it was a starting reflection of, but the Core was there and intact. A simple Cantrip to clean me up should have been nothing at all.

But magic wasn’t where I was ‘looking’ for it. I could feel it there and around me, but I wasn’t reaching it.

Well, that sucked. Even Cantrips made the world an easier place.

I looked inside at my Pactspace again.

The shadowy traces of a Heavenbound Pact were scrawled all over my soul... and completely overwritten by a completely new Pact I had no memory of, all weblike bands of light and shadow that seemed to be pumping a lot of power, except it wasn’t manifesting anything like a Pact I was aware of.

I suppose I was lucky that my Ritual and Ceremony had been fully empowered and saved me from staying a popsicle...

Whatever. No magic. Sucked. Life went on. I could mope about it when it was safe to mope, and I would definitely be moping. I was a Caster main. I LOVED my magic...

Just what was this Pact giving me? Where was I? Was I anyone important? Was there a bigger reason I was here?

I had a Pact I didn’t remember swearing. Of course there was a reason I was here...

I sighed, hacked another cough, and fire and cold circulated through my system, forcing out the last traces of the stuff that had been inside me. I could only sit there as it all pushed out both ends, and reflect that I was at the moment of Character Creation, only I didn’t have an Assay to guide me on my current status.

I was definitely going to have to get my magic back.

The fact I had a Matrix meant I had a Caster Level. I eyed the empty Spell Slots, and concluded it was a Wizard Level, which was par for the course. Once I could access magic...

But, no. Right now, I needed to survive, and that meant adjusting to my current circumstances. The only problem was that without an Assay I didn’t know what those circumstances were, exactly, except I was in someone of the opposite gender, my Icefire Template had saved my life, my hair was brown, my skin looked like I got no sun, and I had a Pact that was pumping a remarkable amount of energy into me, doing who knew what.

Oh, and I felt like a used sock run through a bunch of washer cycles. Blagh.

As everything relatively stilled, I pushed myself up (it was easier than I expected), and slowly got to my new feet.

Well, she definitely had some curves, and surprisingly enough seemed to be in decent shape. At least, I was having no problems staying on my feet, even though I seemed pretty wasted.

I flexed my fingers once, testing, and was startled to hear them pop. I looked at my skinny arms, blinking, bent over to look at equally thin legs. I wasn’t in much better shape than someone who hadn’t eaten for a month or something, but I was having no problems walking.

There was a growl from my stomach at the thought, letting me know that my guts were totally and completely empty, and I was totally and literally running on empty... except for the energy being pumped through me, saying I had the energy to move.

I blinked as I looked at my toes while bent over, slowly straightened back up, then lowered myself down as far forward as I could, to ninety degrees.

Not only did I not have any problems with my balance at all, my weight wasn’t even shifting, despite coming out of cryosleep. My feet were as nailed to the ground as if I was using heavyfoot, and the pull on my tendons was basically non-existent.

I tried to lift my foot, and for a moment there was actually resistance, as if something was holding my foot to the floor. I focused on the sensation, Concentration always and forever my strength, and cut it off.

My foot released so abruptly that it snapped into the air, and I spun sideways before I could regain control of it, astonished at the force. When I froze again, I was doing the splits sideways, my left leg at full extension over my head, and holding my balance perfectly.

That energy was still running through my other foot, and it was glued to the floor, anchored as solidly as a heavyfoot master.

I disengaged it much more gently this time.

Instantly I could feel the floor beneath me was incredibly slick, and any shifting of weight and I’d instantly fall down as my feet kicked out. I froze instantly.

And I didn’t fall down.

I blinked despite myself as I stood there on one leg, high-kicking, fully sideways, knee bent just a little to adjust to the sudden shifting of weight after I released it, and I didn’t fall down.

Huh...

Very slowly, I brought my very skinny leg back down, and as my center of balance changed, so did my posture, keeping me exactly centered and balanced on the slick floor. There was no risk of me slipping or sliding at all.

Still on one foot, I raised myself up, and my foot even moved a little bit as I did so, but I still didn’t fall, staying perfectly balanced.

I was fully aware that a sense of balance like this was totally unnatural, easily a 25+ DC that I couldn’t possibly be able to meet at this time.

I engaged the energy on my feet, and they were nailed to the ground again. I leaned forwards as far as my ankles would allow, well past my center of balance, and had no problem supporting my weight as I did so, like a dancer extending well past their center of balance with a weird MJ Smooth Criminal move.

I then rotated around my unmoving feet without any difficulty, finding myself looking fully up at the ceiling at the oddness of all this as I made a full circle, and then came back to the center without any strain.

Totally killer dance move.

Okay, this was pure physical ability, no active TK that I could sense, which meant an inhuman strength to body ratio. I didn’t know how much, but I was way, way stronger than I should be... and that energy from the weird Pact moving through me had to be the cause of it.

I released the energy on my feet, and carefully took a step forward.

I had no muscle memory to speak of, my leg and feet kind of floundered as they came down, yet the perfect balance took over instantly, and I didn’t slide or stumble. Oh, my feet wanted to skid, but I just locked my muscles and my leg refused to extend out, so the slick tiles could only shake a fist at me and swear to get me with my next step.

I gave it the lie by transferring weight carefully to that foot, not falling down, not sticking to the floor, and one step, two, and I was out of the messy and slick section of the floor.

Still nude, still... where was I?

I finally took the moment to look around, having so much to bloody do right now-

FEAR!

It came crashing out of my back brain, the sensation that something was going to reach out and kill me, pluck my soul right back out of this body and eat me like a kibble! Less! Just not even thinking about it!

I’m sure I screamed, rational thought utterly evaporating at the overpowering, maddening terror and horror right behind me, and I bolted away from it.

I didn’t open the door, I tore it off its hinges in mad desperation to get out of there.

“AAAAAAH!”

Following, following, getting ready to strike!

RUN RUN RUN!

There was another door at the end of the hallway. I zeroed in on the door knob as I closed in, not slowing down, reached out, and pushed that door knob away from me.

The whole lock mechanism blew out of the door, and I smashed through!

From below! Everything pulling, scrabbling, chittering, huntering! Eyes, red red eyes piercing through my soul, wrapping me up, the way out getting smaller, smaller...

My skin was burning, hissing, a thousand fiery insects crawling over every nerve. I screamed louder yet, and the closed doors in front of me almost exploded to the sides as I drove my fingers into protesting metal and repelled them away from me.

Behind, below!

I leapt into the yawning shaft there, grabbed the hanging cable, and began to run up the sides of the shaft, not caring how I was moving so fast and bouncing and rising and-

NO!

I jumped sideways as something loomed above, ripping open a door, and as metal squealed and shadows grew in an awful light behind me, I ran, off to the left, around a corner where a lurid red light was glowing, and something brighter was coming from behind, above, caught between light and shadows...

Stairs, up, up, up! Chittering from below, uncaring of the red light, up and up and nownownow turn, crash through the door as the redness came flaring down after me, filling the tunnel as I ran, mindless with fear, and there was another door ahead. I crashed into the middle of it, and then the red caught me and blew them both open, me riding with it.

Oh, that was hot. Oh, did that still hurt. The pain was so white-hot that the black of fear was completely overwhelmed and went away.

---

The fireball coming down the tunnel vented up into the sky, joining several others in doing so as a column of plasma came down from a burning figure up above. Beneath those flames, wood, steel, and cement were no impediment at all, and a great flaming pit fell into slag and ruin below, taking with it any trace of where the nude young woman lying off to one side had come from, and nobody saw her red skin turn back unnaturally quickly to paleness, completely unharmed by the flames... or by the massive dose of radiation from the leaking mini-reactor being atomized by the golden fires coming from the woman flying overhead.