Protecc, Attacc, and most importantly Tentacles

[symphonicCrusader]

So some warnings upfront about this story, I don't really plan to have a romantic relationship between Guardian spirit and Annie, I also don't think this story will contain any lewdness that would need to be switched to the NSFW forum but if it does come up I will make a thread for it in there. With that out of the way I hope you enjoy the story!

I'm also not very good at the mechanical act of writing, as in grammar and structure and such so if you do spot issues that need to be corrected please let me know.

I don't have a set update schedule for this story but I will try my best to have a somewhat regular system. This will end up being a crossover but I won't spoil what that crossover is it should be apparent in the next few chapters.

Spoiler: Character sheet

Living Hyperion Adventurer mode

Alter power
Beyond 2 (Use as many CYOA's before or after this one)
Pocket Dimension 1
Invulnerability
Psi
Blank
Reality shifting

The Guardian spirit CYOA

Become the Guardian
Astral Bond
Intimidating Aura
Ethereal
Masculine
Characteristics

• Wings (With halo at full size)
• Horns
• Eldritch (Lots of tentacles, could be considered too many tentacles except that could never be true)
• Huge ( 330 ft tall, or 100m)
• Slender
• Extra limbs (6 arms total)
• When in full base form 4 legs made out of tentacles instead of 2
• Mask can be removed to show that there is no face and is only a hole with a large bright glowing sphere where more tentacles can come out of

Earth Manipulation
Water Manipulation
Aether Manipulation
Weapon Summoning

Aegis
Intercept
Restoration

Shapeshift
Space Manipulation
True Sight

Independance
Consequence Free

Charge is Annie Sinclair

Spoiler: CYOAs

https://imgur.com/a/kLDJTp9 https://imgur.com/a/Qf17s

I tried not to smile too much, looking at the slightly bored angel worker who sat behind the desk in front of me, the woman had just gotten through explaining to me how I had recently died. Since I hadn't done much remarkable in my life that would mark me as bound for either Above or Below, I was being given the option to go back as someone's Guardian spirit. If I did this well according to the woman then both me and my charge would be given a free pass beyond the pearly gates. I say "my life" but in all honesty I'm not too sure what that life may have been, since I had used one of the powers granted to me by being a Living hyperion to choose this CYOA setting to happen.

I should also probably mention that as well, this wasn't the first CYOA I had been offered, the first CYOA I had been offered was that of the Living Hyperion, a very lovely and overpowered selection of abilities. Since I figured that going for the outright mega-broke option I instead chose the most basic, don't get me wrong I could have made do with just the zero-rank of Alter Power and just grown from there, but my selection should give me a decent boost. I just hoped that this lady wouldn't notice that I wasn't just your average mortal joe.

As she finished giving me her speech she handed me a small tablet with the options that I could pick. I easily chose the option of becoming the guardian since that would give me a lot more leeway with the fact I had strange powers, and I wouldn't have some Guardian spirit asking a bunch of questions like "How are you setting all those people on fire?!" or worse. "Oh my god, why are you setting all those people on fire!!". Well… I was being mostly facetious I had to be at least mostly "good" but the point still stands. Next up I chose ethereal and masculine just for the bonuses to my forms usability and the extra offensive ability. Intimidating would work better for what I had in mind, while still not making whoever my charge was some pariah like horrifying would. While this had been pretty easy to decide so far I had to stop and blink once I had gotten to the Characteristics section. I had stopped at one beautiful word, Eldritch. There was no way I wasn't picking this beautiful trait, it took me some time to come up with a wonderful idea for my base form but once I did It made the ability choices a lot easier.

I finished all of the forum, except for the last part about choosing my new charge. The selection wasn't big but it made me really have to stop and think, on the one hand, there were some interesting stories that could progress from certain choices, as well as two that stood out to me as more necessary to me. I was stuck between the Drunkard professor, his story tugging at my heart, but I always was a sucker for cute girls and annie was just too adorable not to choose. I mean it doesn't sound like her issue is too bad, clearly some shady family trouble but asking me to read her bedtime stories because she was lonely made me feel like I had a duty to fulfill.

I handed the tablet back to the woman and she gave it a quick look through, she raised an eyebrow once she got to the characteristics section and simply raised and eyebrow at me. I gave her a sheepish grin. "Lovecraft may have been horribly xenophobic but you have to admit, nothing says don't fuck with me than a giant horror from beyond space and time." She gave a very un-angelic snort at that but didn't comment anything further as she put the tablet down and looked up at me.

"Now, I know that you are going to be excited to use all these new impressive powers but remember the goal is to do some overall good to the world okay? We aren't asking you to be the most holy of holy, or the most lawful of the goods, but please don't just go throwing cities into the ocean or something just because you are bored." I gave her a serious enough nod to show I understood, the sections talking about powers and abilities had mentioned that my overall goal was to try and improve the world, but that conflict was inevitable when it came to guardian spirits so they weren't expecting pacifism.

The angel woman, after seeing my nod of agreement stood up and opened a door on the wall that hadn't been there before that was currently overflowing with light. "Well, I'll see you when you finish with your charge. You will have a small bit of frozen time where you can introduce yourself to your new charge but only a bit."

I stepped out through the light and suddenly felt my body shifting and changing into my new base form. This wouldn't do for the first meeting between me and Annie, especially since she was a small child and my...let's call it war form would be horrifying, plus being about as tall as a skyscraper would make conversation hard. So I quickly shape-shifted into something that looked a bit less lovecraft. I felt my body morph and shape, shrinking down to instantly fit the image in my head. I had a swanky 1920s era fedora perched on top of some shoulder length black hair, as well as a completely blank white mask covering my face. Keeping with the early 20th century look I added on a black wool overcoat that wouldn't have looked out of place on the set of the Maltese Falcon. I was happy with the look, and once I had thought that I could feel the light starting to fade from around me.

Looking around, I saw I was in a bookstore. It was gorgeous, it had aged wooden shelves and rows upon rows of books. It wasn't a chain bookstore with their wide spaces and sleek shelves, there was a warmth and closeness here that gave a wonderfully cozy feeling. It was cozy except for the fact that it seemed like Annie was the only person in the store.

Annie had white hair and bluish grey eyes, she seemed to still be in a school uniform, and looked like she was the only person in the store right now, not that time was moving yet. I wasn't sure really how I appeared but I wanted to make sure she didn't get the wrong idea and think I was some predator so I let a pair of angelic wings grow from my back and I gave her a low bow, her stunned expression turning into one of childlike wonder. "Good Evening Miss Annie Sinclair. I am your new Guardian Spirit."

It honestly warmed my heart to see her childlike amazement of me, and to hear her slightly timid but still rapid-fire questions directed at me. We stayed talking next to the bookcase she had been putting books back onto past the point of the time stop, but neither of us really noticed all that much as Annie was doing her best to learn everything about me and guardian angels. I was in the middle of trying to explain to her that I was pretty new at this when something struck me in the back, and I heard the store's front window shatter along with the muffled sound of a gunshot.

I quickly stepped forward and pulled open my coat and wings to shield Annie from any repeated shots. The bullet had done nothing to me other than simple letting me know something had hit me, so I did my best owl impression and swiveled my head around just in time to see a black duffel bag being thrown through the new broken front window, as it flew through the air I could see through the partially opened zipper some kind of material and a red LED timer attached to it and I knew I had to act quickly.

I said a quick sorry to Annie as the inner lining of my coat came alive as a tentacle blanket that covered her back and sheltered her head, I made sure that there were tendrils pressed against her ears to block out the explosion that soon filled the store.

 

[symphonicCrusader]

While I wasn't debilitated by the explosion, it still made it hard to see what asshole might have tossed the bomb through the window since I now had bits of building falling down around my head. I could also feel Annie go limp in my arms, whether from shock or injury I couldn't tell which meant I also didn't have time to try and look. Getting my charge somewhere safe would have to take precedent, so with a silent prayer of vengeance both for Annie, and all the books now turned into ash in the wind I quickly pulled us both into my Pocket Dimension.

The shift came easy, it felt like I was simply flexing a muscle that I had always had within me, once I felt the shift take hold I unwrapped my tentacles from Annie and instead scooped the child up into my arms as the world around us was changed into a small wooded dirt path. Looking through the trees on the path I could see a quaint looking mansion in front of us, it was actually quite pretty all things considered, but as my thoughts swirled to process the rapid series of events I also came to another problem. While Annie hadn't said if her Mother and Father were in the store, judging by the bio that had been given to me when I was picking her it had said that the were most of the time in the store or apartment above it. This was a problem for a couple of reasons, the most obvious being that my young charge might have just been orphaned which would be hard on anyone even if it seemed the relationship with her folks wasn't the best, the second was that I hadn't chosen homemaker as an ability.

While I knew how to do the basics of house care such as cooking, cleaning, and washing clothes, it was the part about helping with raising kids that I didn't really know how to do. I knew some basics for that too, I had worked as a camp counselor for a number of years when I was a teen but that wasn't the same as raising them. That wasn't even getting into the issues that would arise with me having been a male in my previous life so there were going to be things outside my own personal experiences with being a kid... and the whole being an orphan bit on top of it all. I held her a little closer to my chest as I stepped onto the front porch of the mansion. Looking down at her face I was struck by how small she was, she was an adorable little thing but something about being aware of her situation made her seem more delicate than she had before, emotions were funny things like that. They changed the way you perceived the world and people around you, even if they didn't literally change the visuals.

I used a tentacle to wrap around the handle of the door and open it, the inside of the house bathed softly in the warm glow of what looked like Victorian era gas lamps on the walls. They gave a much warmer glow than any incandescent bulb would and I couldn't help but give a metaphorical smile at that. There also seemed to be some extra perks that hadn't been mentioned in the power description that I noticed when stepping past the threshold, as I was wondering about where would be a good room to put her in I suddenly knew that on the second floor was a master bedroom that held a small fireplace on one side and had various other bits of furniture that seemed that they would be a good size for her. I walked up the stairs as I pondered this development, I thought about the yard out back, which was about an acre of land enclosed by a fence and closer towards the back door there was a patch of tilled soil that was ready to grow whatever I wished in it. The effect wasn't like I was suddenly having memories downloaded into my mind, I just simply now knew it, if I thought about it. Had my power given me intellectus, like Demonreach had granted to Harry in the Dresden Files, after he had bonded with the Island? Thinking about the Dresden files made me remember all the books that those fuckers had torched with their bomb, now I'm not some hardcore bibliophile but I love books. There is something almost sacred to me about them, sure they can get damaged and beat up through normal use that was fine, but outright destroying one? Let alone who knows how many was just icing on top of the shit cake.

As I climbed the stairs I tried to learn more about the mansion I lived in now. It seemed to be modeled more in a Victorian style when it came to furniture, The kitchen had an old stove inside it that looked like it should take wood to fuel it, but I knew that I would be able to simply turn it on, and it would work just fine. There was a large "Ice box" that still had two doors like a more modern style and would stay as cold as was needed for whatever was inside there, of course on like the stove there was an actual block of Ice inside the top compartment, but that was just for if we needed some. The house itself had four stories total, if you included the basement underneath of the whole place, which was the size of an entire floor itself, most of the basement seemed to be empty space except for one small corner of it I could tell was also temperature controlled, full of wooden casks and specially arranged glass bottles. Now that was exciting to think about... except could I even drink or eat as a Guardian Spirit? Could I get drunk? This would require some experimenting for sure.

I had to stop for a moment when I entered the room, It looked like something out of a fairy tale. Sure I had known about all the plants and decorations, about the wide windows and just the sheer size of the room because of the intellectus but actually seeing it still made me feel a little childish wonder myself. I walked up to the bead and gently pulled the covers back with some tentacles that flowed out from underneath my shirt sleeve, and I set her gently onto the large bed and pulled the covers back up over her. I gently brushed some of the hair back from her face and watched her face. She seemed to be wincing and frowning softly, and I could see some movement behind her eyelids. She didn't need bad dreams ontop of all of this, so I gently touched her mind with my Psi powers, I didn't try and read her mind or change it. Doing so to my charge, and someone so young didn't feel proper, instead I just gently pushed the dreams away, pushing her mind into a deeper, dreamless sleep. She was going to be out like a light for the next few hours which gave me some time to get some things done.

I took the time to use Alter power on it's self, changing it to be more like the Alter power I had read about in another CYOA. The one I currently had worked plenty fine on people, but I needed it to also work on things rather than just beings. I could sense it would take some time to improve that aspect of it back up to the same level as it works on people, but I didn't need any crazy enchanted items right now so it would work just fine. Looking over at her pillow, I added a sensor power that would tell me when she was getting close to waking up, regardless of where I was at the time. This should give me time to get back here so she wouldn't wake up alone after an attack. With that in place I gently stroked her head one last time and disappeared from the Mansion.

 

[symphonicCrusader]

As I reappeared in the ruins of the bookstore that I and my new charge had recently departed from, I made sure to make myself immaterial and invisible to everyone as I took in my surroundings. It seemed that the fire department had come and was starting to put out what had begun to spread to the other buildings since it looked like the bookstore itself was mostly blown to shit. I stepped out of the building's shell and onto the street. I could see a couple of police cars outside on the road, and multiple officers were interviewing people who must have been in the other buildings at the time of the explosion. I could also see some bystanders on the opposite sidewalk looking at the wreckage and whispering amongst themselves. One guy, however, in a pair of aviator shades and a simple suit was watching the building, not with apprehension or fear like the rest of the people on the other side of the street, but with barely disguised anger maybe he was a friend of the Sinclairs?

As I walked closer to hear what the people were saying, I thought to myself about what options I had to figure out what assholes had done this and what ways I could impress upon them the magnitude of my displeasure. I could use reality shifting and go back in time, but I was wary of even touching that aspect in any direct way, at least for now. I don't have fresh enough shades or the patience to deal with time shenanigans, so I didn't want to try it until I could practice my ability to string together stable time loops. So, what options did that leave me? I knew that the Sinclair's were probably up to something shady, I just didn't know what.

I stood on the sidewalk, next to the angry-looking man, and looked over the scene before me. The bookstore had been situated between two other stores, and it looked like the explosion was controlled enough that It had barely damaged the buildings on either side of it, besides the pressure wave knocking out the glass. It looked like the bomb hadn't destroyed all of the buildings since I could see a bit of the backroom through the rest of the wreckage. I continued to ponder as I looked it over. If they were involved with something shady, it was likely to be crime-related, and most likely organized crime at that. Although that could just be my detective shows and stories, leading me to believe that, I just don't think most low-level gangs use things like "fronts" like was mentioned in Annie's little text blurb. So... if it were organized crime, they would probably send one of their people out to the scene to look it over and report back to them, which meant they would probably be one of these bystanders or one of the cops most likely.

Reaching out with my Psi powers, I lightly touched my mind against the people around me, plucking out their surface thoughts.

"Just awful, that poor family..."

"Who could have done such a thing...?"

"Those Inverted Circle fucks are going to pay for this. Do they think they can attack the Amante like this and get away with it? Fuckin stupid name, what the hell is an inverted circle even supposed to be?"

Well, that was easier than I thought. I used my Psi powers to make everyone, but the angry mobster ignore anything to do with him and me and then made myself material again. It took the guy a second to notice my sudden appearance, and I could see him reflexively reach towards the inside of his suit until he stopped himself.

"Where the fuck did you come from?!" He said to me in a hushed angry tone.

He had no way of knowing that none of the people on the street could even perceive us now, but it said something about the man that even after being startled, he was trying to keep a low profile. Of course, when he turned to look at me and saw my strange out of fashion attire, and the weird blank white mask that covered my "face" I saw his hand inch a little closer to the gun he probably had in a shoulder holster. I nodded my head to him and rested both of my hands on the cane I had planted against the sidewalk.

"I walked over here, Mr. Shades, now you wouldn't happen to know anything about the unscheduled demolition of that lovely bookstore over there would you?" I kept my tone light and conversational while my whole body was kept unnaturally still.

I knew in my mind that I was doubly protected from bullets because of my powers, and from taking that bullet to the back earlier, but it still made me feel a little anxious. Mr. Shades narrowed his eyes at me, at least that's what I think he did since I could see his eyebrows draw down slightly.

"Look pal, I don't know who you are, but I think you best start walking the other way before someone gets hurt." I might have to re-think my opinion of this guy, was he really threating to shoot me not 10 feet away from a bunch of cops? I kept myself still as could be and stared him down. "First off buddy, I'm not your pal. Second, if you don't tell me what you know about the people who were behind the bombing, I will do a lot more than hurt you."

"Oh yeah? You're going to hurt me? I'd like to see yo-." He was cut off by the sensation of something crawling up his leg like a vine in fast motion. I had started slipping a black tentacle out from underneath the leg of my pants and up his own. The tentacle was cool to the touch, and it felt a bit like silk if that silk covered a solid Iron core that was now locking his leg in place with its grip. He tried to stumble backwards, but because I was so much stronger than him, he ended up tumbling back onto his ass instead. He let out a startled yell and drew his gun while the rest of my body stayed where it was.

"You can shoot me if you Like Mr. Shades, but it won't do you any good, and I should probably mention neither would screaming. However, what will help is if you tell me what I want to know." I didn't really need him to tell me, I could probably pull the information straight out of his brain but how often do you get to do something like this? And if he was working for the same family as the Sinclair's, they might be willing to give me some new identities for Annie and me since I sure as hell wasn't going to be able to homeschool her. Mr. Shades took a moment to quickly look around at the other people on the street, probably trying to see why no one was looking towards the source of his startled cry. That's when he noticed the other tentacles I had let out that had wrapped themselves around everyone else on the street, from arms and legs to torsos and even one of the police officer's necks, and because of my Psi powers, none of them had any idea of it.

He looked back to me, and I could both feel and see him shaking as he aimed his gun at my "face" and began shooting his pistol at me. I let him squeeze off a few shots before a tentacle whipped up to grab the gun out of his hands and split into a couple of smaller tentacles which started disassembling the firearm. It was some model of 1911, which is how I knew what to do to take it apart, and judging by the soft whimpering noise he made when I did so, the action had the intended effect. I wasn't done however, I probably shouldn't have been taking so much pleasure in looking like something out of a nightmare, but if you are going to do something right you can't just stop halfway. So with the tentacle wrapped around his leg, I dragged him towards me and used one more to wrap around his torso and lift him to my face for the finale. When we were almost nose to mask, I had the tentacles inside my face slowly starting to peek out of one edge and start pushing the mask to the side, revealing the hole I had instead of a face. I still had skin like texture covering it, but the hole itself was like that of a Giant from Darksouls, but also filled with lots of small wriggling tentacles that started to slowly extend out towards his face, at which point the fucker passed out in my grip.

Great job, me, now I was going to have to wake him up.