Grahnt Street Wellness Center. A sort of children’s hospital but more like a rehab center and also somewhat of a mental health facility as well. Clarita’s fake name was listed as an owner of the building, Yara knew what this place really was. It may have been a decade, but her methods didn’t change much.
This was how she found new test subjects. In Yara’s case she needed specific combinations of mental ability and genetics. A place like this was the perfect way to gather more potential subjects. Normally the true intentions of this place would have been so securely hidden it would be impossible to uncover the secrets without alerting her. Yara however, she knew all of the secrets because she lived them.
Yara looked at the building from what was the large man’s car in the parking lot. As much as she wanted to tear everyone working there apart, she knew it wasn’t a good idea. Not only would it make her arrival more obvious, but she knew most if not all people there were people trying to help. This place provides legitimate care for the ones she doesn’t select. Still, someone there has to know what is going on. She needs to be informed on any potential candidates after all.
Yara took the form of a man she had encountered while out getting food this morning. A bounty hunter who noticed Yara when she was undisguised. She had a bounty on her head due to the numerous murders she had committed as well as the numerous criminals she had angered in the past. He tried to sneak up on her in an alley, now his body is rotting in a dumpster.
Using her magic, Yara changed her body to look like the man but not her clothes. She stepped out of the car and walked into the building, her staff kept safely concealed inside her robe. She entered a simple reception area, thankfully no one else was in the room aside from the secretary. Yara’s usual attire would show anyone that she was a wizard, though no hint as to what kind. Clearly seeing this, the lady at the desk looked at Yara with curiosity. Yara however, did have a plan to get inside. All it took was a phone call with one of her disguises.
“Excuse me sir, do you have an appointment?” she asked.
“I’m an associate of Frances, she should have said I was coming.” Yara said as she tapped into her acting skills.
“Ah yes! You’re here to replace the magic conduits on some of our equipment. Which ones were they again?” she asked.
“None in particular, she just asked me to go around and feel if anything was out of whack. It’s hard to tell when one needs work if you’re not a wizard so she couldn’t get me an exact list.” Yara said.
“Very well, the equipment should be on the opposite side of the building on the floor above.” the secretary said as she pointed towards a set of double doors.
“I won’t be long.” Yara said as she walked through.
She quickly studied a map on the wall to see the layout. Yara needed to get to the one in charge of this place since they would be the closest lead to her. Yara sees that it is on the third floor and wasted no time in navigating the building. If she taught her anything, it was always to never waste time.
Yara passed by youths ranging from toddlers to young teens who were too distracted to notice her, doctors and other staff were too busy with their work to give her more than a glance. Yara briefly considered causing some kind of damage to the building itself, something to force it to shut down for a while. If only to give anyone already selected a chance to get away, but those kids don’t know just how much danger they are potentially in anyway. Yara quickly pushed those thoughts out of her head, she needed to be subtle more than anything right now.
She entered a large atrium in the center of the building. A massive play area so all these youths can work out some of that energy they have. Yara walked along the perimeter of the area to reach a door on the other side. She passed piles of bean bags, monkey bars, slides, jungle gyms, all sorts of things a proper playground would need. Yara always wondered what it was like to be a kid playing on one, but it’s too late for that. She walked by a young girl lying down on a cushioned mat with another girl beside her.
“Those pills are stopping me from seeing them. The things from those strange stars that I saw one night.” she said.
“I heard that’s a thing that happens to wizards, can you do magic?” the other girl asked.
“Not yet, I’m going to try and learn once I go back home.” she said.
Yara wondered if that was true. Despite having immense magical power, she wasn’t born with it. While anyone can learn magic, some possess the affinity for it needed to perform the high level stuff. Yara wasn’t born with it, she forced it into her. It was a miracle she survived such an act.
Yara stepped through the door and saw the stairs just ahead of her down a short hall. She walked down and passed by a doctor with dark hair who had her gaze focused on a clipboard. Then the doctor stopped and turned towards the person she just passed. Yara sensed this too and stopped as well.
“Yara? Is that you?” she asked.
In an instant Yara recognized that voice. She bolted around and rushed at the doctor. She grabbed the dark haired woman by the throat and slammed her against the wall before dragging her to the stairwell. She clawed at the hands gripping her throat and tried to call for help but found it difficult to make any noise. Yara brought her to the stairwell that was thankfully airtight due to the doors and lack of windows, fire safety is good and all but it makes indoor staircases unpleasant. She loosened the grip on her throat and let her catch her breath.
Yara knew this woman, she was one of the ones who oversaw the children like her. The fact this woman was here confirmed all of Yara’s suspicions about this place. She’s doing the same thing here. Yara kept a firm grip on the middle aged woman.
“Why…. Why are you here? We all thought you were dead!” she asked.
“I’m surprised you remember me at all.” Yara said.
“Your aura is unique, not even your disguises can hide it.” she said.
“Where is Clarita.” Yara demanded.
“Not here. She was very angry when you ran out on her. I’m sure I could get you a meeting if you agreed to it.” she said.
“I will not give her any warning at all. Tell me where she is now.” Yara demanded.
“You think I know? After all those people trying to rat her out, she’s been real paranoid about letting info like that get loose. I haven’t seen her in person or even heard her voice in years.” she said.
“Then you’re useless to me.” Yara said.
Yara used her magic to form a small latticed spike in the corner of the stairwell. She turned the doctor around and slammed the woman into the corner, driving the spike through her chest. Yara held her in place as she squirmed and twitched until finally dying. Yara then tossed her body down the staircase, she walked down to the corpse and pulled out a dagger the bounty hunter had on him. She dug the blade into the wound on the doctor’s chest and made the spike vanish back into the wall. With no blood on her clothes, Yara climbed up the stairs to her goal.
To her surprise she saw a pair of teens sitting on the staircase above where she had murdered the doctor. They both looked shocked and were staring her right in the eyes. Yara guessed they were frozen with fear, she hoped those two were here for physical reasons and she didn’t just make any mental problems worse. She looked at them both and decided to give them a warning.
“The people who run this place work for a monster, most of them don’t even know that they do. That monster turned me into a monster and I’m trying to make her pay for that.“ Yara said as she took off her mask and briefly returned to her normal form. ”I won’t harm you, but unless you want to risk being made into a monster too, I suggest you leave this place and never return. But be sure to not let the monster know that you know she’s a monster, or else she will come after you.”
Yara put her mask back on and re-assumed her disguise. The two teens stared at her wide-eyed, unblinking and not making a sound. Yara climbed the stairs past them to the floor above. The third floor was mainly for staff, so hopefully she won’t have another incident like those two.
There was the complication that she wasn’t supposed to be there. Her disguise was only told to go to the second floor. There likely weren't any magically attuned medical devices up there. Yara would have to rely on stealth to get through that place.
She peered down a hallway and saw a group of people at the end having a conversation, Yara decided not to go that way. The room she needed to get to was down that same hall, but she couldn’t get past those people unnoticed. She would have to find another way around.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Then that word in her head echoed “unnoticed” she realized a distraction might be what she needed. Yara’s eyes were drawn to a break room just across from the stairwell. She peered through a window on the door and saw no one was inside. She walked in and instantly had an idea on seeing the microwave. She formed a crystal from the glass on the door to the microwave, thinning it out as it was pushed into the spike and converted to crystal. Soon, enough was converted to make a large round hole in the glass. Yara converted the crystal spike into a glass spike and held onto it for now. She opened a drawer and found one full of silverware, she piled it all inside the microwave and angled the device towards a sink. She set the timer for 99 minutes and pressed start, then she quickly bolted out of the room and back to the stairwell.
Immediately, sparks and pops began flying from the break room, the staff in earshot quickly heard and saw the commotion inside. They rushed over to try and stop it from going, but the outlet it was plugged into was behind the fridge. Yara considered it a worthy distraction and bolted down the hall to the administrator’s office.
She ran inside and saw a man sitting at a desk, the one in charge of this place. He barely had time to ask who she was before Yara made a spike grow out of his desk and through his head. The spike rescinded and he fell to the floor. She then stabbed the glass spike through the hole in his head and looked at his computer. Just her luck, he was writing an email to her when she barged in.
Yara grabbed a USB drive she had brought with her and plugged it into the computer. She copied all of his emails and files to the drive and then unplugged it. She also saw a folder open on his desk, she saw medical charts on various patients here. At the top she saw a handwritten note saying “acceptable candidates” Yara grabbed the folder and tucked it inside her coat.
No doubt someone will come to tell the administrator on the incident in the break room. Yara pushed a chair against the door to buy her time to escape. She opened a window and stepped out parallel to the wall. One by one she formed and unformed spikes out from the wall to act as steps. She carefully stepped down to the ground, sprinted to her car, and sped off into the city. She’ll have to go through what she found, but hopefully it was enough of a lead on where she is.
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Hictor opened a dumpster in an alleyway, inside he saw the still bleeding corpse of a bounty hunter one of his summons had identified last night. Hictor could tell he had been killed only a few hours ago, the numerous deep holes across his torso were still wet with blood. Hictor could tell something strange killed the man, he looked like he fell into a spike pit yet the bloodstains on the ground behind him hint that he was standing up when it happened. His armor and other valuables were still on him, but his weapons were missing. This would be one hell of a case for someone to solve.
But Hictor wasn’t a detective, he couldn’t care less how or why he died. None of his summons did this or saw it happen so whatever happened had nothing to do with him. Hictor reached in and searched through the corpse’s clothes, hoping to find a lead. He had wanted to interrogate the man but his sudden death forced a change of plans.
He heard the sound of a phone vibrating. Hictor reached into one of his coat pockets and saw the hunter’s phone was getting a call from someone named “Ymbaz” Hictor didn’t answer, he just set it to speakerphone and let it go to the voicemail.
“Dammit Krantt, answer your damn phone! The police are up our ass saying you broke into a children’s hospital and killed two of the staff there! I know you’re not dumb enough to do anything like that so get yourself back here and have a solid alibi in the next five minutes or we’re coming to get you ourselves!” an angry woman said over the phone before hanging up.
Hictor quickly regretted having just touched the corpse. The police were going to be there and find Hictor’s fingerprints all over it. Nearly all law enforcement groups had his prints on file. He could easily be convicted of whatever murders and burglaries the real culprit did. Hictor had to do something quick to not only erase the evidence of him being here, but also leave something behind since this could distract the bounty hunters for a good while. Things like this can mess up their operations for a very long time.
Then he had an idea on what to do. He only touched the areas around his pockets, he just needed to dirty up the area a bit. Hictor opened a trash can and found a wad of slightly used paper towels. He soaked them in the blood from the man’s wounds and painted the areas where Hictor had touched with the blood, including the phone which he put back inside the dumpster. Now his prints were gone. Hictor took the wad of bloodied paper towels further down into the alley and put them in a different trash can, they likely wouldn’t find it.
Hictor looked up at one of the buildings overlooking the alley and decided this could still be salvaged. The bounty hunters were coming to look for this body, he could simply wait for them in a discrete location and follow them to wherever they were based out of. Then it’s a simple matter of throwing them off his trail. Bounty hunters dying tend to attract more dangerous hunters, so driving them off was Hictor’s best option.
He climbed to the top of the building he had observed, thankfully the fire escape prevented any need to enter the building itself. Once on the roof, Hictor sat down and waited. It was about fifteen minutes before he heard some people walking into the alley. He peered over the side carefully as he saw three police officers and two bounty hunters find the body.
“Oh fuck. So that’s why he wasn’t picking up.” a hunter said.
“Shit, did he go break into a hospital and somehow get himself killed after?” the other hunter asked.
“No, these wounds aren’t that fresh. This must have happened this morning. Someone must have killed him and copied his form with illusion magic or something.” the police officer said.
“You sure it was that?” a hunter asked.
“His phone is still here, and I can see his wallet sticking out of his pocket, whoever did this wasn’t mugging him. I’ve been getting calls from the morgue, the wounds on the two people killed don’t match the weapons that were seemingly used for it. These wounds look the same.” the officer said.
“Then who the hell did this?” a hunter asked.
“My guess. It’s the Lattice Mage. A woman geomancer who impales people with crystals and can take their form. A cruise ship that docked here a few days ago reported that one of its passengers was found on a previous stop with the same wounds as this guy, yet they had records of her leaving the ship when it came here.” the officer said.
“So she’s the one who did this?” a hunter said.
“She’s a prime suspect for sure. No one really knows who she targets or why. We now know for a fact she arrived here a few days ago. She’s dangerous as all hell but really good at not being noticed. Has a pretty high bounty too. ” the other officer said.
“Shit, that must be why he went after her. He must have known about her bounty and happened to spot her. Krantt was always a bit too eager to jump into fights like that.” one hunter said.
“And it got him killed.” the other hunter pulled out their phone. “I’ll call the boss, tell him to get this lady’s bounty info. If we can grab her and clear our name from this incident, we should do it as fast as possible.”
Hictor couldn’t believe his luck. Their efforts being focused on whoever this other person is should buy him plenty of time. Hictor could use this time to get out of the city, but this also presents a prime opportunity to take care of the hunters. Hictor could leave a false trail as well, make them think he slipped out of the city in the confusion. He had no doubt this incident will be on the news soon, they will know that he would know that they are in the city.
Hictor backed away from the ledge and pulled out the crystal. For now he had to summon something to track their hideout. He gazed into the crystal’s silver sheen as he wondered which being to pull out. Then he noticed something in the reflection of the crystal.
Hictor jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a hatchet. He turned around and saw one of the bounty hunters staring him down from behind a simple wooden mask painted white with two large eyeholes cut out. Hictor quickly deduced that the hunters must have sent him ahead in case Krantt tried to run, Hictor had been on the receiving end of this tactic before. The hunter leaped towards him with inhuman agility, he assumed this hunter must be an elf using movement enhancing magic.
Hictor dove out of the way and quickly cast a summoning spell on the crystal, nothing was being focused on in his arsenal of creatures since he had no time to choose. His only shot was to pick one at random and hope it could fight the hunter. Hictor was hoping he could dispatch this hunter quickly before they alerted the others in the alley below. The entity selected by the spell had appeared and Hictor was disturbed as he always was when seeing this particular one.
During his experiments, Hictor not only confirmed the existence of alternate realities but also what he called “Copy Realities.” Whereas an alternate reality can be the regular world but some events have changed, a Copy Reality is the exact same as the original. Alternate reality duplicates of the same thing can exist in other alternate realities, since they are both technically different things. Things from Copy Realities however, are far more volatile and two of the same thing existing in one reality can cause some very strange side effects.
What stood before him was a person, a copy of a real estate worker from a continent away. His body was coated in a violently shifting aura flashing in an array of what is likely seizure inducing colors. His body twitched and rapidly shifted between a pure black and a pure white silhouette of himself. He tried to shout, but only made a noise resembling a corrupted audio file in a video. Hictor had no idea if this was painful for him, but that’s not why he didn’t like summoning him.
The hunter was frozen in place, in pure shock at what he was seeing. Hictor pointed towards the bounty hunter and uttered a simple command: “Attack” to which the man responded by running towards the hunter in an unnerving motion, like a rapid drunk shuffling. The bounty hunter snapped out of his stupor and decided to lunge at the man with his hatchet. The man simply reached out with a hand and grabbed onto the hunter.
In an instant the hunter was overcome with the same violent multicolored aura as the man. The hunter flew back and landed onto the ground. He too tried to scream but only made the same strange sound as the man. Then the aura froze for a second and imploded onto the hunter, liquefying every part of his body and only leaving behind his clothes and tools. Hictor quickly dispelled the man and he was sent back to his own reality. Even Hictor was disturbed at what had happened to the hunter.
He didn’t dwell on it long, no doubt their fight made some noise. Hictor summoned a tall being covered in dark chitin, it grabbed hold of Hictor tight before the top half of its head split open. A blindingly bright white light from within shined and it made a sound like a generator starting up. In an instant Hictor found himself on another rooftop, three blocks away.
The creature released Hictor and he de-summoned the being immediately. Hictor felt the strong urge to vomit, but was able to hold it back. He quietly lamented how that creature would be great if it weren’t for the fact he nearly puked his guts out every time it teleported. Hictor again had to suppress the urge to vomit before finally seeming to move past the feeling.
“My atoms are not supposed to move like that. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that outside of modifying my entire atomic structure.” Hictor quietly said to himself.
While he would have liked to have sent a creature to track down the hunters, that interruption prevented that plan from going through. He figured that at least the hunters will be busy trying to catch this other wizard. Hictor began to slowly climb the fire escape down to the street. His plans had been interrupted twice today, while things are still working out he believed they would be better if that had not happened.
“I’m heading back. Today clearly isn't a day for doing stuff.” Hictor said.