Stranger in a Stranger Land (Worm/Fate/Grand Order)

[NOTTHISWAY]

Yo!

This is a story-only version of a quest currently being run on my patreon!

You can find the Patreon Post, where you may submit your votes, at this link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/149708773?pr=true

All votes are counted, though they don't all count the same, and the poll is run every sunday after every chapter, like a proper quest! You don't have to go over to my patreon if you don't care about voting, but I'd really appreciate it if you did.

Tarot wasn't my thing. I wasn't superstitious, my reluctance to go into the Fortuneteller's tent was not because I was afraid of any supernatural forces, rather, I just didn't want to spend my money on it, but with it being free and me having nothing better to do, I went into the tent.

Right now, I can't even remember where I'd been. The last thing I remember as I fall is that tent, is walking into it... The fortuneteller's face was shrouded in shadow, hidden underneath a thick hooded cloak. When I stepped past the curtains that hid her from outside view, she had a set of golden cards spread out in front of me on a circular table, sitting on a purple cloth.

She spoke only a few words, "pick a card", with a measured, calm and collected voice, and as soon as my finger touched the card that I didn't even notice I chose, I saw a ruby red eye within a keyhole that suddenly opened up, like a swinging door and then I fell deep into the abyss.

I woke.

Standing, on my feet. I woke suddenly. There was nothing behind me, no past. I stepped out of the tent, and I looked around me. Buildings made of brick and mortar. An inner city, the architecture being a vaguely western mishmash of old and worn down buildings as well as more modern, slightly less run down and worn down buildings.

It wasn't familiar. But then, nothing really was familiar.

I brought a hand to my face and adjusted my glasses - glasses? I was wearing glasses. Did I need glasses? I didn't remember. Pulling them off, the world around me remained vivid and defined, the glasses were just for show then.

My hands were encased in red gloves, my fingers were thin and my hands were slim, feminine. Looking around myself, I caught sight of a window. I had to know what I looked like, the window was a bit dirty but clean enough to reflect my visage back at me. The sidewalk under me felt like it was moving as I took my first step, and I cast my gaze down.

Greaves and shin guards in black steel with glowing green cross marks, red high heeled boots that were a little hard to work on... I was waering black tights, no, as I noticed, looking at myself, I was wearing a black bodyglove, with detailed cross markings of duller black, a bright lime green torso cover, complete with a breastplate molded to my chest, and a half-jacket in red and black sitting on my shoulders.

Powered servos hissed along my wrists as my huge green and black vambraces let me have full range of motion, how had I not noticed those from before?

Shaking my head, I tried to collect myself, walking step by step, moving as if I was trying to walk through thick, sweet and delicious molasses, gaining control of my body with each step, approaching a severely run down brick building next to a steel warehouse, the closest window to me.

My own visage looked back at me. Pale skin, golden eyes, glasses, a petite nose... I thought I could even describe myself as cute. The X motif across my armor was even more obvious now that I could see it directly.

I touched my face, making sure that, yes, that was me.

I ran my fingers along the pale blonde tresses that fell beside my ear, my own golden eyes almost glinting in the glow of the phosphorus streetlights as if I was glaring at myself. Trying to relax was pointless, that was my resting face... My hair was very long, I could tell, and as I tilted my head forward, I noticed much of it was tied behind my head into a bun, held together with a tight braid.

I could hear the sound of vehicles, cars, in the distance. The failure of an exhaust pipe caused it to be much louder, almost deafeningly so, as I saw a car rip through the street past me, blasting unintelligible garbling that might've been rap, it was filled with idiots in black, green and blue getups, laughing and partying.

My nose scrunched, the stench of piss was reaching it as the sights, sounds and smells of the city around me became all the more evident, as if I was falling off of a trance, the daze leaving me as I caught up with the world around me.

I didn't know where I was, but it was a city, a very decently populated one if the din and hubbub around me was anything to go by. Car noises never ceased even as the car that had just sped past me faded into the distance. The district around me seemed mostly abandoned, but some of the warehouses were still in use.

Sniffing the air, I caught the salty scent of the sea, a body of saltwater nearby, with a hint of rotten fish, urine, feces and the vague scent of street foods.

I needed a vantage point. Looking around, I searched for an emergency exit from the taller buildings, ladders or stairs or anything I could use to get up, finding nothing, the only one that even had an escape stairwell on the ally next to it was broken and only the upper half remained, the rest only debris at the mouth of the alley.

Could I-

No, a thought flashed across my head. I didn't need stairs, what was I thinking? The Quantum Armor I was wearing was equipped with boosters, I could, no, I didn't even need boosters to clear that jump. I knew, I knew immediately, I was strong, strong enough to make a three stories leap... so I did. I jumped, using as much strength as I thought I needed, clearing the jump and going up, and up, and up- well past twice the height I'd attempted to go.

Flailing in the air, pure instinct guided my thoughts as I activated the thrusters on my boots and the Gravity Manipulation program of the Quantum Armor, stabilizing myself in mid air and then releasing the world's grip on me, giving me a feeling and sensation of weightlessness that was really nice actually.

A little lost, I tried to kick my feet and grab at the air with my hands, trying to swim across the air, comically failing to get any movement done, I really was unstuck and unbound from gravity, pushing the air around me only moved me just a little.

Right.

Thrusters. This is why they were there. I activated them and with my mind tuned them to the lowest setting, giving me actual control of myself in mid air. My armguards had extra boosters as well, and I could slowly but surely gain control of myself, and with that, I could start to lower myself back down to the building, decreasing the power of my thrusters and anti-gravity device.

As I came down slowly, I could look around, and realize, I really had no idea where I was. I could tell I was almost certainly in a city, a coastal city. A HUD on my glasses informed me of the conditions, screens appearing right in front of my eyes, somehow perfectly fit to match my field of view without obscuring anything.

Most of the information wasn't exactly helpful. Mostly just telling me the temperature, humidity, wind speed... No location information. No useful minimap popping up somewhere to guide me in real time.

Instead of going down, I activated the thrusters and flew up a little. To the south was an affluent area, with many high rice buildings, probably the rich downtown area of the city if I had to take a guess. To the west, a residential district that faded from an urbanized area to the south to affluent suburbs to the southwest, and a poorer inner city closer to my own location, seemingly sprawling towards the north as well, where a heavily industrial area had once been, though now, it seemed most of it was lost, derelict and abandoned.

Right under me was an industrial center, most of which seemed to still be active, I seemed to be in a large bay, I must've been in the industrialized area of the docks, the commerical areas to the south was a lot nicer.

Looking to the east, I saw, almost like a beacon, a monolith built out of an oil rig, a massive fortress... my glasses immediately began presenting me with data. Some sort of shield was running interference, and its properties were immediately presented. Repulsor shield, would withstand most forms of attack, more experimentation would be needed.

I could at least get my bearings. I was in a city. I think I can understand the language, the signs I saw were in English. That means I'm in an English-speaking country.

A city with what appeared to be... or to have been a thriving maritime industry, because as I looked down, I saw a massive graveyard of ships of many sizes, abandoned shipyards, warehouses... a humongous oil supertanker was blocking most of the entryway to the industrialized part of the bay.

Road and car size, as well as the small sidewalks, suggested I was in the USA.

Okay.

That was a start at least.

The Gravity Manipulation device was a bit overtaxed, so I had to slowly let it drop me, generating a counter-gravity pull that negated the world's grip on me was causing it to overheat, and my chest was feeling a little strained.

I got the idea, using too much power too quickly was not a great idea. Coming down to the roof of a three story building, the tallest in my immediate area and for a few blocks, I had to think about what I could and what I should do.

I...

Didn't know who I was. No idea really. In fact, I couldn't tell you my name, I couldn't tell you where I was from nor could I even tell you where I was going.

But I can tell you just what I am. There's a determination within me that tells me what path I have to follow... I could even tell you that this was something I had chosen for myself, maybe I wasn't even aware of what I was choosing when I did, but, while I don't know my name, I can tell you what I am.

I am a Villain.

Unbound by the rules of society, opposing the Heroes who stood for all things Good and Healthy, championing Sweets and defending Snacks from all who would insist on a balanced and nutritious diet... And I could certainly tell you what I want.

I definitely want to eat something sweet. I can already feel my energy levels depleting, even as the pressure in my chest and the heat emanating from within lessened, I could feel that pang of emptiness. I needed something sweet, delicious... I needed sugar, carbs and everything nice. I needed to eat!

Good thing I'm a villain, otherwise I'd be worried about how I could go about obtaining food!

It was night, but the world around me was still moved. The streetlights illuminated the world around me, though there were many that weren't working quite well, some were flickering every few seconds, others were completely out.

The first matter on my list of problems to solve was obtaining food, and that meant finding a place that had food. The warehouses around me were either abandoned or, based on what I could see, not exactly stocked. They probably had security inside, but I couldn't see anything overt beyond security cameras on a few of them, so they were in use.

The signs were all about hardware and equipment and that sort of stuff, none of them had anything I cared about in them. None of them seemed to be food companies of any sort.

While I definitely wanted sweets, and I wanted them as soon as possible, I could satisfy my hunger at least temporarily by just eating whatever I found that was edible, it would not be anywhere near close to as energy efficient, but I could definitely tell I was running on fumes as it was.

To the northeast there was a fish market, and while the stink of rotten fish was strong, I might be able to find fresh fish from the day and be able to eat it. The whole area still had activity in it, not much, but, enough that I knew I would definitely be able to find a store that was still open, I could perhaps take the food I needed from them.

Another option was to go hit the suburbs in the hills to the southwest. I could probably break into a house and find something to eat, it would probably generate less attention and be less likely to bring me into a fight.

Northwest however was a more urbanized residential area, which contained large department stores and shops that I could no doubt find a meal in, but, undoubtedly, it would provoke a reaction from law enforcement.

Directly south in the big downtown area, the city was bustling as its nightlife was in full swing. Certainly, I could find something, probably might even find delicious, high quality sweets, chocolates, candy, perhaps even something exotic, but I'm guaranteed to find some sort of opposition there.

Conversely and opposite was directly going north, where I would find the most ethnically diverse and poorest section of the city. The poor were unlikely to be able to offer any resistance at all.

Or I could try to stay in the relatively central location I was at. I could see what appeared to be the asian quarter of the city. Surely they would have some delicious Japanese sweets... those were my favorite. Of course, I also expected the area to defend itself, depending on how tightly knit a community it was.

Whatever choice I made, I had to make it soon. I have enough juice to last me for a little bit, but I had to get some food in me. A cool breeze blew past me, the strands of my hair covering my vision for a moment, forcing me to tuck it behind one of my ears.

For all intents and purposes, whoever I was before didn't matter anymore. There's a part of me that still wonders who I was, what I was doing or how I ended up here, but what mattered in the present was survival, not pondering about the life I'd had before. Calming my hunger came first. Then shelter. Then I'd start worrying about everything else.

Carefully considering my options, I chose my next step...

 

[NOTTHISWAY]

Our Protagonist

Name: (Unknown)
Height: 154 cm/5'
Weight: 48 kg/105 lb
Sex: Female

STATS:

STRENGTH: A+	ENDURANCE: A+
AGILITY: C+	MANA: C
LUCK: E-	NOBLE PHANTASM: (UNKNOWN)

Strength (A+): An absolutely immense level of Strength, incomparable to that of normal humans, somewhere in the range between five and ten times greater than peak human physical strength, conditionally. The feats of strongmen might as well be child's play.

Endurance (A+): Physical endurance, resistance and stamina are all off the charts. Even low levels of superhuman strength would barely make an impact at this level. Conditionally, it could rise to an even higher degree.
Agility (C+): Speed of movement and reaction is three times greater than peak human level, conditionally rising even higher to above six times greater than peak human level, even the fastest of cats are in awe.

Mana (C): A considerable large capacity for Mana, much greater than peak human but not so immense as to be considered infinite

Luck (E-): Defying fate requires a great deal of effort. Throwing off the shackles of destiny is possible, but at a great cost.

Noble Phantasm (?): DATA UNAVAILABLE

SKILLS:

Quantum Armor (B):

An Assault-type powered suit fueled by the Altreactor. Semi-autonomous, magnifies all of the user's abilities and assists in the summon and manipulation of gravitational fields.

Gravitational Manipulation (B):

Freely manipulates gravity via the creation of virtual black holes. It is incapable of reducing the user's weight, making its usability as a flight enabling tool limited.

Extremity of Villains (A):

To live is the ultimate evil. Leave the scars of life in a hostile galaxy behind, take all of its treasures (read: sweets) for yourself!

Existence Outside the Domain (D):

ï̵̢̡̨̤̟̰̙̰͔͈͉͊̈̈́̓̈͑̓̉̆͋͊̂͜͜͠ ̸̨̨̧̱̥̗̗̰͈͉̖̠̙̳̻̙͑͛͑̇̍̄͋͛͂̆̎̂̈́͊͠͝c̸̛̻̱̬̰͖͎̹̭͇̠̿̌̂̎̔̚͝a̸̡̼̫͚̙͕̘̻̦̮̖̭̜͎͓̪̪͋̀n̴̛͈͕͊̈̅̉͛̚ͅ ̶̢͖̈́̔̽̽͌̍̾̐̈̅̈̇͐̔̚͝͝ͅs̴͈̠̮̯̯͔͌̾̊͆̈͒͘̕ẹ̴̡̨̨̝̭̝̤̯̰̞̞͕͕̐̉̅̄̽̋ḛ̸̖̈́̄͜ ̴̞͓̫͉́͑̏̿̂̔̂͠ỵ̴̡̢̰͇̹̥͖̘̭͖̬̒̃̽͒̊̈́̊̇̒͗̾̈́͠o̵̧̢̲̹̻̹̤̮͔̜͇͖̺͈̮͒͂̓͆͌͐̿͗̚͘͠ų̸̛̞̏̾̊͑̑͆̎͋̊̉͗̉͠

Mad Enhancement (C)

Your thoughts are your own... mostly. As long as nobody gets between you and your sweet, delicious sugary treats, anyway.

Magic Resistance (B):

You are highly resistant to esoteric effects of all sorts, diminishing the effect of abilities ranked lower than your own and entirely negating abilities perceived as much weaker than your own.

Altereactor (A+):

A source of infinite energy... powered by sugar. Produces infinite mana to constantly refill your reserves, but consumes large amounts of calories to do so. Effect is disabled if hungry.

 

[Zelretch_VPT]

I might be wrong but is she our favorite gluton space idol ?, (xx alter )

 

[Nephthys8079]

Ahhh ecchan....earth bet is fucked

 

[NOTTHISWAY]

I might be wrong but is she our favorite gluton space idol ?, (xx alter )

Click to shrink...

You are not wrong. The protagonist doesn't know who he is, but the chosen servant was indeed MHXX Alter.

 

[Sypho.uad]

Feels so weird whenever you post a sfw fic lol!

Thanks for the chapter!!

 

[NOTTHISWAY]

Surprisingly the mostly SFW ones are the most popular, so I figure, maybe I should do a little more.

Edit: wow that came out wrong, you'd think a writer would be better at communicating.

Basically I used to dismiss a lot of non-NSFW stories because I feared they wouldn't be very popular, ever since my cat reincarnation story had moderate success I've taken to doing a lot more of them.

 

[NOTTHISWAY]

Yo!

This is a story-only version of a quest currently being run on my patreon!

You can find the Patreon Post, where you may submit your votes and read the latest chapter, at this link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/150876040?pr=true

All votes are counted, though they don't all count the same, and the poll is run every sunday after every chapter, like a proper quest! You don't have to go over to my patreon if you don't care about voting, but I'd really appreciate it if you did.


Robin Hood stole to the rich to give to the poor, or so the legend went.

I am the poor, therefore, I will now go steal from the rich, wealthy and more importantly, the unwary. Good thing people didn't look up as a norm, otherwise someone would've seen me leaping across roofs, conserving my energy and keeping my use of the anti gravity device to a minimum so that the Quantum Armor didn't drain my already dwindling reserves.

Sugar beckoned, and as I approached the rich parts of the city, the buildings started looking newer, more well cared for, more solidly built.

Towers of glass and steel, brightly painted storefronts, large signs glowing with neon lights... The bright lights, paradoxically, made it easier for me to sneak by, because they would blind the people walking along the street from the roofs of buildings, and jumping two stories, jumping three stories or even five made no difference, if need be I could use the Gravity Well Generation function of my armor to pull myself up to a skyscraper.

It's not like I was looking for something special, really, I was looking for any place that served food, but I must've come in through an inconvenient side, as I headed to the center of town, the largest building in the city, I was seeing mostly retail stores that sold domestic appliances, a lot of clothing stores... Toys, gaming...

Finally, after what felt like hours, even if the HUD on my glasses told me it'd just been a couple minutes, I found a bar, one that advertised food. Not my first choice, but beggars can't be choosers, and I certainly was a beggar. The place from outside looked surprisingly clean and large.

I don't know why when I saw the word bar I expected some dingy hole in the wall, poorly lit and even worse furnished, but as I slid down the side of a building to touch the ground on an alley that was only a few buildings away and across the streets from the bar, I noticed it had a large parking lot, mostly filled with large trucks and motorbikes.

The bar had a sign on it that said it'd been there for at least four decades, and it had a lot of decoration on it. Mighty warriors with horned helmets and bear pelt capes, its sign had a logo with a pair of axes in front of an oval shaped shield, though even from where I was I could tell the decor was fake, no edge on those axeheads.

Now, were I some kind of stealth expert, a ninja, a thief or an assassin of some sort, I might have had a better idea of how to sneak into the place and take food without being seen. That might've been easy, simple, convenient and resulted in me getting into way less trouble.

But, you see, that's not how I do things. Not because I don't want to, mind, but rather, because I'm really, really hungry and I have neither the wherewithal nor the patience to take things slowly and carefully.

I hunger, and I must feed.

So crossing the streets after looking both ways to make sure no car was coming, I went past the big trucks, a lot of which had multiple decals, and then moved past the bikes, almost skipping as my entire mind was consumed with thoughts of finally putting an end to my hunger!

Or maybe it was the smell that came from inside. Junk food, fried fish and fried potatoes, fried chicken, roasted meat... There was a large man, with big muscles, bald, tattoos all over his exposed arms and neck, the biggest and most prominent being one of a wolf on his right bicep, with a sword gripped between its teeth.

"Who the fuck are-"

"Do you serve food here?" I asked, simply and clearly.

"You a cape or just playin'?" the man hissed, "we don't take kindly to wannabes 'round these here parts, girly, so-"

"That doesn't answer my question, do you serve food here?" I asked again, looking at his beady little brown eyes.

"This a bar, girl, and you don't look like-"

I grabbed his wifebeater and used it as a handle to toss him out of the way. I did not use my gravity manipulation to soften the impact either, he hit one of the bikes and the noise it made as it knocked several of them over was deafening, crashing of steel on steel and screeching of metal getting bent.

The door was stylized to look like it was an old wooden gate, but it wasn't heavy, I stepped forward, planted my left foot, raised my right, placed it on the door near the handle, then with a burst of strength accompanied by the whirring of my armor's servos and motors, I pushed the door open, with a kick, and totally didn't just kick it off its hinges.

The deafening slam of the door hitting the ground even made me flinch, and I was expecting it.

Caught in how awkward the situation was, I stepped in and cleared my throat.

"I'm here for your food, hand it over!" I declared, not even looking where I was pointing, just following my nose, the nearest table had a fairly large guy with a scarred face, with a woman in each arm, all three of them wearing thick riding leathers, black with wanna be tough guy spikes and metal bits decorating it.

"The fuck are you?!" the guy shouted, pushing the two women aside.

He was wearing what I could only assume was an attempt at a vaguely cat themed mask, seemed to be missing the lower half that would go over his mouth, but it did a good enough job at hiding his identity I suppose.

"CAPE!!" someone screamed, and then, there were people diving under the tables, near the back a bunch of guys dove behind the counter, and some people knocked their tables over, sending their precious food and their less precious drink tumbling to the ground, dirtying it as if to deny me the food!

Huffing, I stepped forward. "Hey! Don't do that! That's my food!" I shouted, though I technically hadn't stolen it yet.

"Light that bitch up!!" the dude with the cat mask shouted, as he pulled a black pistol, I couldn't see what kind as the bar's lighting was deliberately kept dim and low. Before I could tell what was going on, I first heard the sound of the gunshots, and then, the pings on my glasses' HUD.

I was getting shot at. A quick scan with my eyes showed me there were eight guys, three behind tables they'd knocked over, four more sticking their heads out from under two tables, and the final one just standing out in the open, all firing with guns of varying sizes and styles, mostly just pistols and revolvers.

The cat mask guy then fired a couple shots, his gun was bigger than most but it just bounced off my chestplate anyway, two of them ricocheting into the ceiling and the third shot ricocheting off into a window.

"Can you not?" I asked, as the shooting stopped. I found myself strangely calm despite having so many people attacking me, those piddly little things just did not register as a threat at all, I thought guns should be a threat and yet-

Oh.

Two of the people who dove behind the counter stood up, one of them was holding a big two handed gun that he pumped, causing an unspent shell to come flying out of it, and the other had a smaller but no less threatening looking gun, one that had a huge magazine attached near its front.

The first slug hit me and my armor immediately felt it, the hit was dispersed but immediately I felt the slight strain, it became obvious that small arms fire was no issue, but big slugs like that actually drained my energy in order to block them.

That was a problem.

I didn't just stand there much longer, however, even if it's intimidating as heck to stand there and just shrug off gunshots, I didn't want to chance running out of energy before I had a chance to recharge the reactor in my body that would refuel my suit, so to that end I dove out of the way when the guy with the submachinegun opened fire.

As I did, I heard a horrified scream behind me, no doubt the doorman had just stupidly come in through the door, I turned to glance back and yep, there he was, holding his arm, he'd been shot.

Well that was his problem, not mine, my problem was the fact that as I dove and rolled out of the way along the hard concrete floor of the bar, I kept getting shot at, the gunfire followed me.

Good thing was, they didn't lead their shots, so I could just roll back up to my feet and jump towards the wall, then the ceiling, then the other wall, then back down next to two guys who had knocked their table over and were shooting their pistols at me from behind it.

I used their own table as cover as I rushed forward and then planted my hands against the hard wooden surface, it was thick and heavy, but nothing I couldn't handle even without manipulating its gravity, so I pushed it and the two people behind it, forcing them back and against another table, slamming the two tables together.

The mighty wooden crash and crack heralded the cries of pain and horror, those two guys behind that table were caught in the middle, and with my position I could leap over the wreckage of the two tables and get at the guy firing from behind the other table, kicking him in the head and sending him flying back, bleeding from his nose, his gun flying off his hand as he rolled on the floor.

"Fuckin' Bitch!"

I didn't need my armor to warn me about the danger, I could feel the shift in the air as it happened, and I turned around as a table and several chairs were launched at me, first a strong gust of wind hit me, then in a panick, I closed each of my hands around a weapon that seemed to manifest out of thin air, two long stylized iron rods with big heads that opened up and flashed reddish magenta laser blades.

Neither knowing nor caring where the two scythes in my hands came from, I slashed them forward in a cross shaped pattern and sliced the incoming tables and chairs to bit, burning most of them to ashes, cinders and black unidentifiable burnt bits, doing the same when the follow up came in the form of slashing blades of wind.

I could see the distortion in the air but only just barely, so I was mostly just guessing, the scythes should've been awkward weapons to wield but swinging them around came as easily as anything, I could even step forward and dodge around the debris forming around me, it was like I knew just where to put my feet and even when to put my weight on my soles or on my toes.

My body knew how to move almost by itself, and even my armor activated, allowing me to counter a large whirling ball of wind blades by jumping in the air and becoming a twirling tornado of red laser blades that cut the wind and sapped its force away, leaving only a stiff breeze that moved my bangs out of my sight for a moment.

"Bro is that dual laser scythes!? That's the coolest fucking shit!"

"Stop looking at her and shoot you retard!"

Right, the shotgun guy was still a threat. I wondered if... I took a step towards him then threw one of my scythes at him, the laser blade seemingly spinning with unreal precision and accuracy, the fantastically well timed throw managing to hit his weapon, and I only took one of his fingers off as I knocked the weapon away!

I'd hoped for a total of no fingers chopped but a win's a win.

Submachine gun guy was shocked and horrifed by what he'd just seen and by the time he raised his weapon to start firing upon me again, I had more than enough time to jump towards him, throwing my other scythe without looking at the wind blades guy, cutting through another of his attacks, somersaulting forward and high in the air as I caught the scythe I had thrown before and then landed right in front of submachinegun guy.

"Fu-"

I crashed through the counter and into him, knocking him to the ground, following him down and then rolling off of him as he groaned.

I think I heard something snap and crack.

Again, not my problem. I'm a villain I don't worry about the damage I cause when I'm doing villain things.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU HUH!?"

It seemed like the cat mask guy had managed to block my attack, there was a table mostly split at the middle with the emitter of my laser scythe caught and stuck between the two halves. He grabbed at it and turned my own weapon on me, holding it with one hand while he had some sort of claw on his other hand, two bladed.

That must be where he's firing the wind blades from. He throws the scythe at me and swipes his claw behind it, as if to throw it at me with even more strength empowered by his wind attack.

But I just raised my hand somehow knowing that if I willed it, the weapon would just return to my hand and it hit my palm almost gently, I clasped my fingers around it and then stood before him, wielding both scythes.

"Fuck you want cunt?! You some nigger loving bitch huh!?" he shouted. "You think you can attack an Empire bar huh!? I'll kill you you stupid-"

I leaned forward and dashed forward, clearing the distance between us in just an instant, and as he started to swipe his claw at me in response I shoulder checked the man, caring little that he was twice my size, crashing him through a table and against the wall, he gasped, then puked, and then fell over, and I barely managed to avoid getting vomit all over me.

There were a few people still up, some were still pointing their guns at me.

"I'm here for your food, hand it over, and I'll walk away and nobody else has to get hurt," I called out. "I'm going to start getting hangry now," I hissed, "you guys wouldn't like me when I'm hangry..!"

"W-Wait, you're not some jumped up hero?!" one of the guys called.

I huffed. "I won't ask again- pack up all the food you've got!"

One of the non-fighting counter guys went behind the counter and then as I kept everyone in sight, they got to gathering, and after a few minutes, came back out of the kitchen, holding a huge bag, the kind normally used for trash, on his hands.

"H-Here! This, this is all we've got to eat ready to go, I swear! Please don't hurt me!!"

Then he plopped the bag on top of the counter.

"Jessie you cowardly shit!!" another of the employees shouted.

"Goddammit Aaron you're gonna get us killed!" the smart employee shouted.

I didn't need to wait to know what the idiot was about to do. He tried to reach for the shotgun, but I didn't wait for him to. I dashed forward and, with the emitter for my scythe turned off, I struck him in the face, probably breaking his nose based on that nasty crack and the bleeding.

"Good, I'll be taking these," I said.

I scanned the bar one last time. It was a mess. But nobody seemed to want to fight anymore.

Good enough.

I grabbed the bag and then prepared to leave.

I couldn't, however, stay downtown.

I'd need to decide on an area, hopefully far from this one, to hunker down on and wait until the heat I've generated dies down.

 

[recon1]

imagine getting beaten up and then all they take is the food you were about to eat.

 

[NOTTHISWAY]

Yo!

This is a story-only version of a quest currently being run on my patreon!

You can find the Patreon Post, where you may submit your votes and read the latest chapter, at this link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/151421793?pr=true

All votes are counted, though they don't all count the same, and the poll is run every sunday after every chapter, like a proper quest! You don't have to go over to my patreon if you don't care about voting, but I'd really appreciate it if you did.



I was already thinking about Robin Hood before, might as well do as he did and hide! He hid in a forest full of trees, I, instead, will hide in a concrete jungle! Okay maybe not quite a jungle, but, still, the easiest way I could think of at the moment to hide was to go where I wouldn't stand out.

Throwing the bag over my shoulder, I kicked the doors open and ignored the ping of a few bullets bouncing off of my Quantum Armor as I leaped high into the air, creating a gravity well as I did to slingshot myself around it, dissipating it just in time to fling myself towards the north east, towards the coast that this city was built right next to.

I specifically aimed where there'd be the highest concentration of people, where it'd be hardest to arrive with a bunch of big bikes with sidecars and stuff... I fled to the boardwalk, the commercial area with a lot of businesses, limited access and a ton of people.

It took a little bit more gravity manipulation to come to a gentle landing, and then, just using the motors and servos from my power armor, I could simply just run across buildings and cover the rest of the distance.

It struck me as I ran in basically a straight line that perhaps I should've thrown myself in a different direction and gone on a roundabout direction, maybe even zig zagged, in case someone was following me.

I stopped and looked up. Looked down. Looked to the street, behind and forward.

Nope, no followers. Not punished!

Continuing my run, I kept jumping from building to building, sometimes having to go up a story or two, or go down a story or two, and having to put in just a little bit more effort to jump across the street when I came to the end of each city block, until finally I could smell the salty breeze that came from the sea.

Not my favorite smell.

But at that point, it smelt like freedom from the consequences of my actions.

Thanks to my gravity manipulation capability, or rather my armor's, the bag slung over my shoulder was light as a feather and didn't impede my movement at all, as I jumped on the roofs of a couple more buildings. I decided to settle down on a block that had a bunch of flamboyant looking shops.

A relatively wealthy area, with a bunch of roofs that looked accessible but not used very often. Some shops had strange shapes to them, but for the most part, the part of the block that I settled on had the most boring, brick and mortar buildings, and only the storefronts were decorated.

The reason why I settled there was that there was an abandoned building that seemed to be in reasonably decent shape, probably not so much abandoned as simply being between tenants.

I didn't know and frankly, didn't care. I simply went to the protrusion on the roof, like a canard on a plane or a ventilation roof scoop on a car and tried the door, jimmying it open with just a bit of effort. It wasn't even locked, just rusted shut.

Bringing my free hand to my glasses, I wondered if they had some sort of function that could show me if there was an alarm trigger. Huh. Turns out my armor could do that, but the alarm system of the building was so primitive I actually could not hack it.

Knowing I can hack technology is nice, I really hope that I don't run into the problem of technology being unhackable via my armor due to hardware and software incompatibility often. It feels like a problem I'm going to run into frequently.

While there were no invisible lasers that could be revealed to me, I could already guess that whatever security system there might even be in that building was probably at the bottom floor, the storefront, the one that had windows and a door to the outside which were accessible normally.

Part of me wondered briefly if I should find a way to cut off the power, I know there was a cable running into a pole on the roof that was probably where the building was getting power from, but sometimes alarm systems react to power cuts or have batteries or just other means of remaining effective even with the power cut.

And I couldn't be sure if any of that was applicable. I couldn't even be sure if my knowledge was in any way accurate either, since it was just based on how I felt.

So I moved slowly, creeping down the stairs and into the building. My glasses let me see perfectly in the dark, but only if I look through them. It was actually quite the strange experience, it wasn't a green tinted hellscape but rather looking through them it was as if everything was perfectly lit.

Shadows weren't quite correct and it was fucking with me though, everything had a shadow but it was as if everything was being struck with a light source that came from the same direction and didn't have any distortion whatsoever, it was almost as if I was looking into a screen that created a very realistic image of the room rather-

Wait that was exactly what I was doing.

Oh that made it much easier to deal with actually. The glasses weren't showing me the actual room, just an approximation of it based on the data compiled from my suit's sensors. Following that I managed to make it down the stairwell and into the second floor, which was a studio apartment that was still furnished, a small kitchenette, an old bed with a dusty looking mattress and a bathroom that had a single paper thin wall to separate it from the main room.

Beyond the barest essentials, which looked old, a little bit busted and clearly left there because they weren't worth the cost of moving them, there was nothing else. But it had electricity, it had running water and the only window it had was actually boarded up.

Good.

Spying the wooden boards of the walls, I noticed the stairs to the storefront. I thought for a moment about trying to block them somehow, but the only movable pieces of furniture in the room are the bed and the old nightstand beside it, and I'd probably be needing those to rest later, so instead, I just left it as it was, and thought about possibly blocking it off in the future.

Going down to the storefront wasn't the wisest of ideas if it'd trigger an alarm. I didn't know if it would, it was pure assumptions on my part. I'd worry about it later.

My chest was still feeling tight and my tummy was very empty, I needed to fuel the Altereactor. Luckily for me, the bag I'd managed to liberate from those violent guys at the bar contained a lot of very calorie dense foods, mostly fried chicken and potatoes, a lot of different cuts of meat cooked to different temperatures, though most of it was a bit on the overdone side after resting too long.

I didn't have a table and everything was covered in dust.

It was uncomfortable, and a little bit off putting, to just put the bag on the floor and eat off the floor, and while there were kitchen counters, they were downright filthy... I didn't have any sort of rag or anything to wash them off either.

It wasn't great, but it was a start, it was a base to live off of. I'd need to work on getting some to make it properly livable, but it was a start. Since I'm a villain and not some silly hero, I wasn't worried about how I'd procure the goods to set my base up.

Putting my bag down on top of the nightstand, careful not to knock the rickety wooden nightstand over, I got to work, I had running water so I'd be doing some very rough cleaning of the usable surfaces so I could eat off of them, just cupping some water in my hand and then pouring it over the dusty surface to see what I was dealing with.

There was so much dust and dirt on them that the handful of water I poured into it was just absorbed, and it took a second to make some liquid mud rather than just wet but still solid dirt. Using my gloved finger I scratched some of the dirt off, it was thick, it was deeply set, and it also had some sort of slimy texture to it, there were probably remnants of something besides just dirt and water on it.

Okay, next item on my list, steal some cleaning products.

Aborting the attempt to clean those surfaces I just washed my glove with the water from the sink and left the kitchenette for later, instead, I would just eat... everything, about a good twenty people's worth of food, without even really looking at it. Most of it was actually quite terrible, the meat was cold now but it'd had enough time to overcook, most of the fries were soggy, the chicken was underseasoned.

I'll never steal from those guys again, I'll need to steal from some place where they actually knew how to cook.

Washing my gloves off of the grease, which was easier than expected, didn't even need cleaning products of any sort, no detergent or soap or anything, I looked at the bed.

It was in a little bit better state than the kitchenette. Standing the mattress up I smacked it with an open palm, beating the dust out of it. It was old, it was worn, but it was still good enough to use, even if it wasn't what I'd prefer to lay down on, and as I beat the dust out of it, I was forced to activate my armor's systems just to not inhale that much dust.

In the end it was clean enough that I could lie down and rest.

I frowned, however, when I realized I was wearing armor... but if I took it off, I'd be vulnerable.

Looking into it and querying the system itself with my very mind, it actually responded, the Sleep Mode function of my armor would keep the passive perception system active, it wasn't strong enough to detect anybody using esoteric means to hide, but it would detect anyone who wasn't using any sort of cloaking method quite easily.

And it would also retract my armor into the Altereactor within my chest by reducing it to energy particles and reabsorbing them into the reactor. Something I kept in mind I could do for later in case I was really low on energy. Not having gotten a goodly amount of sugar, I was still basically running on low energy mode, but as my armor faded into green particles, I did feel slightly better.

Very slightly.

I was also now acutely aware of what I was wearing under my armor, which I hadn't really thought about until now.

Okay, so I had to get clothes, because the only thing under my armor was a black bikini. I'm also a bit more acquainted with my body. There wasn't a mirror I could use, but I could just look down. I wasn't sure if it was the glasses or if it was the effect of reabsorbing my armor, but my skin looks quite tan contrast with the almost corpse-like pallor I had before.

Maybe the bikini wouldn't be too out of place during the day, if it was warm out, this city didn't really seem to have a big beach but I didn't check thoroughly, if it had a culture of swimmers or surfers maybe I could blend in with them with my tanned skin and black bikini. I think most people wouldn't question my presence there either, I don't have a supermodel's height but I'm pretty sure being a tanned blonde with large breasts in a bikini will get people to overlook my lack of a backstory.

Hopefully.

Putting the mattress back on the bed, I laid down, and after making sure all the passive perception systems I could run without straining my energy reserves were active, I laid down on the... still dirty but not unusably so mattress, and closed my eyes, counting sheep as I drifted off to sleep.

Until I was woken up a bit rougher than I expected.

Not by my suit's alarm, actually, but by my ears, as I heard someone break into the storefront below. Unfortunately I didn't get to rest much, I was still a bit tired, but the reactor was active and I could feel it take over and start fueling me and bringing me energy to combat the sleep, like a jolt of coffee directly to my core.

I had to make a split second decision, if the enemies I'd made had somehow tracked me down and found me, I'd have a fight in my hands, and while I could probably handle them, I didn't want to waste a bunch of energy until I could recharge back to full.

But they hadn't and instead it was just someone breaking in looking for something to loot, I might be able to just scare them off or something.

Whoever had come in wasn't making a lot of noise, but the rusted front door had made a lot of noise when it was opened, and that had woken me up in the quiet of the wee hours of the morning.

 

[recon1]

thx for the chapter

 

[NOTTHISWAY]

Yo!

This is a story-only version of a quest currently being run on my patreon!

You can find the Patreon Post, where you may submit your votes and read the latest chapter, at this link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/152002482?pr=true

All votes are counted, though they don't all count the same, and the poll is run every sunday after every chapter, like a proper quest! You don't have to go over to my patreon if you don't care about voting, but I'd really appreciate it if you did.


I didn't need to turn everything into a fight. Not when I'm low on energy and in need of conserving it. If this were a fight over some black anko I wouldn't hesitate, but instead I had to look around the dusty studio apartment. There wasn't a super obvious hiding place like a big armoire, and the bed would only hide me if nobody searched the most obvious place.

As the Burglar downstairs seemed to be dealing with the security system and working slowly at that, I had to make the split second decision of where to hide.

The only place which I thought could possibly hide me was the kitchenette. It wasn't like I could go into the oven, but the space under the cabinets was empty and without the Quantum Armor's active form I could just about squeeze into it, leaving only just a crack open so I could look out of it.

Once I was securely hidden in that cabinet, I relaxed and tried to even out my breathing as much as possible, taking long and slow breaths to make sure I was making the least noise possible.

I could hear the steps on the stairs that lead up to the studio apartment, I realized that whoever was going in wasn't satisfied with what they found down below.

I couldn't see from my position who it was, but it was someone who was lightfooted, or perhaps just light in general... I could hear a little bit of shuffling and the steps were loud but not stomps.

I was wracking my head trying to figure out what it could be just from that information, but it really could be anybody.

At least, until I heard a sigh.

"Augh, so weird, those assholes just wouldn't give up..."

And an accompanying voice. Young girl, probably teenager, she had that slight little crack to her voice like it wasn't quite fully settled yet, and she sounded exhausted as she came up the stairs.

She walked into the room and as she rounded around the railing of the stairs she stepped into my field of view, and I saw her, definitely a young girl, blonde, a bit on the taller side. The shuffling I was hearing was from the thick hoodie she was wearing, a large one, obscuring most of her form.

She was also wearing a short skirt and black tights under it, while wearing some old and worn looking slippers.

If I had to guess, she was trying to look as unrecognizable as possible, but her bright blond hair and green eyes were quite distinctive nonetheless, she had a very light smattering of freckles dusting her nose and cheekbones.

"Hm- I didn't expect it to be clean but I also didn't think it'd be this bad..." she muttered as she looked around, sticking her hands in the kangaroo-pouch-like pocket of her hoodie, "guess I'll have to do some cleaning, some dusting and-"

Suddenly she pulled something form her pocket, grasping it firmly in both hands and sweeping the room, before she slowly but surely centered her aim on the cabinet.

I was in the dark, there was no way she could see me.

"I got you motherfucker come out with your hands up or I'll shoot!"

I looked her in the eyes, I was shrouded in the dark, how could she see me?

No, she didn't see me, I could tell she wasn't actually looking at me, only looking in my direction. Had I left any clues? Maybe she was fishing?

"I know you're there asshole!" she half whispered, half hissed, her arms trembling as she held that handgun with both hands, her finger resting on the trigger, the end of the barrel pointed in my general direction, at the same cabinet I was hiding in, even if not directly at me. "This thing's real, don't think I won't use it!"

Well.

I didn't have my armor on. I didn't know if I was bulletproof without its active systems out. And honestly, I didn't want to find out.

"I'm coming out now!"

"That's right, slowly now, don't go making any abrupt movements or nothing!"

I tried to shuffle forward and then pushed the cabinet door open.

"A-Ah, what, a girl..?" she muttered.

I pushed the cabinet door fully open, and then was about to come out when I realized something problematic.

I'd needed to contort myself and actually try really hard to fit myself in there. My knees were up to my chest, my toes were touching one of the walls of the cabinet, my back and face were against the other, my right side was exposed, and while I could move my right arm, I could not move my legs. My knees were locked in place.

After just a few minutes of being like that apparently I'd relaxed enough that I got into a bad position, slid into place in such a way that I couldn't get leverage to move at all.

I was stuck.

I was stuck inside a kitchen cabinet.

"What're you doing, are you- oh you're stuck."

There was a moment's pause.

Then she started laughing.

I could feel the burning embarrassment flood into me, you could cook an egg on my cheeks right at that moment.

She wouldn't stop laughing either!

"It's not that funny..." I muttered.

"Are you kidding me, it's the funniest shit ever, I was about to lose it, you scared the daylights out of me, and now you're stuck in a kitchen cabinet!"

I could feel the anger coursing through me, felt the wrath that took the form of lightning bolts, I knew then, I could channel that anger out and blast it at her out of the tips of my fingers, if I were to just extend my right hand out-

But I stopped. I controlled myself. That sounded like it'd use up a lot of energy, energy I didn't have.

"O-Oh okay, okay, I'm shutting up now," she said, suddenly sobering up. "Come on I'll help you out," she stepped forward, still keeping her gun in hand, and pointed at me, "gimme your hand... No sudden movements I WILL shoot!" she said, as she approached the cabinet, continuing to keep her weapon trained on me, one handed now, as she extended her hand and reached out to me.

I took her hand, it was a little gritty, a little dirty, as if she'd been climbing something or maybe picking something up that was dirty.

"Easy now, slow movements," she spoke, coaching me out as she pulled, giving me the leverage I needed to manage to crawl out of the cabinet.

Halfway through, and the instant her gun wasn't pointed at me, she seemed to realize what was about to happen, but it really doesn't matter that you know what's gonna happen if you just don't have the reaction time to do anything about it, and by the time she realized I was going to kick off and tackle her to the ground, it was too late to aim the gun back at me.

I brought her down and before she could fire her gun, I grabbed her wrist and twisted it, the shock of pain causing her to let go of her weapon, and I pinned her down to the ground, pushing her down and then as she cried out in pain, I used her arm as a lever to turn her around and flip her on her front, grabbing her flailing left arm and bringing it to her back.

My leg landed on her thighs and I slid my knee to the back of both of hers, while holding onto her thin wrists with one hand.

She was actually really thin, it was very obvious, even her thick hoodie couldn't hide the fact that she was quite underfed. Not the skeletal build of someone who didn't eat at all, but she was entirely too thin, malnutrition most likely, probably a result of unbalanced diet.

"Ack- bitch- I-"

"Hold on there," I called, "who are you, why are you here? Are you with those weirdos from the bar?"

"Weirdos from the bar- what're you talking about, I thought you were with the guys that have been chasing me!" she shouted.

"Huh. You too?" I asked. "Who are you? What's your name?"

"Shit, you- you really have no idea huh? You sound honest at least. So who'd you piss off?" she asked. "Lessee you said weirdos at a bar, so that rules out the ABB. Shaved heads, all white guys?"

"Uhh... I wasn't looking but I guess?" I more asked than responded.

"Right, you pissed off the empire, what'd you do? Steal?"

"I don't know what that is, I just stole food from some bar," I said. "You still haven't told me your name."

"If you want my name maybe introduce yourself first?" she responded, clearly starting to get more comfortable, even as I held her in a very uncomfortable position. I was starting to get a little annoyed at how she was acting. "C'mon now, don't be like that!" she said, "you've got me dead to rights, and with how fast you are, you're a Cape right?" she asked.

"I'm- I'm not a cape, not the clothing nor the geological- formation?" I shook my head.

"Er- I mean, like, a superhero- not a hero?" I was about to correct her. "A supervillain then!" she said.

"I guess, I mean I'm a villain I'm not so sure about super," I said honestly.

"What's your name?" she asked. "You've gotta have a name right?"

Did I? Maybe I'd had at some point. But I certainly couldn't remember it. "I dunno. Only thing that comes to mind is..."

What did come to mind?

"Nothing," I finally said. "It's like a Mystery."

"Alright, Mystery," she said cheekily, "the name's Lisa, see, we're friends now, we're no longer strangers, that means you can let go of me now."

I considered it for a moment.

Nodding, "okay," I let her go, and then stood up, taking a step away.

She sighed and relaxed for a moment. Just in case, I deployed my armor.

And predictably, the moment she thought I was distracted she dashed for her gun and then turned around once she grabbed it, brandishing it at me. "Aha I- ah shit."

I looked down at her, as one of my scythes was digitally constructed into my hand, cubes of red light solidifying into the black handle that ended in the beam scythe emitter.

She very carefully put her gun down and then raised her hands, especially as she saw the pulsing glow of the scythe as its wicked blade erupted from the emitter.

Once she was up on her feet, she kicked her gun away, and kept her hands raised.

Nodding at her, I used my other hand to adjust my glasses.

"See? I'm disarmed, it was just a little joke, just a little- uhm, you don't believe me do you?" she said, her green eyes looking around frantically. "There's pretty much no way in hell I can do anything, you've got enhanced senses, reaction speed, and physical faculties, don't you? Probably a pretty decent Brute and Mover rating... likely a Thinker rating too," she said.

"I don't know what any of those words mean," I said. "I was looking forward to having a place to rest. This place yours?"

"I mean I'm not paying for it if that's what you're asking," she said, hands still raised. "I just know about it because I heard, uhm, some gangsters talk about it," she said, pursing her lips slightly, looking aside for a moment. "So did I wake you up? Sorry about that. Can I lower my hands? I promise I don't have another gun or nothing. Not that it'd do shit to you in that armor, would it?"

"It might ricochet and hurt you instead," I said, speaking honestly. "Okay, you can lower your arms."

"Thanks, lovely really," she said, sighing. "You really don't know anything that's going on, do you?" she asked.

"I don't know, I don't know who you are, you talk a lot," I said, "I don't know if I like people who talk a lot."

"Err- I'm likable! I promise!" she said, "please don't hurt me."

I didn't really plan on hurting her. Hurting young girls who are no threat is like, the lowest tier of scummy villainy, the kind of thing that only two bit thugs did, what the shitty villain that got offed by the bigger villain did to get the audience to sympathize with the big villain and give them complexity!

She sighed, seemingly understanding the idea, trembling a little and almost relaxing enough to fall over the kitchen counter of the kitchenette, but she caught herself. She wasn't going for her gun, so I let her recover.

"Sorry about that, just, legs went wobbly all of a sudden," she sad, leaning against the counter. "Anyway, so, you don't know your name, huh? Tell me, you happen to have a tattoo somewhere?"

I thought for a moment. "Not that I know of," I said.

"Right. I got a pretty good look at you in that bikini," she said, "I didn't see one but it could- nevermind," she shook her head. "I think we got off on the wrong foot."

I tilted my head.

"The name's Lisa, Lisa Wilbourne- I'm a Cape, erg, a Super, just like you," she said, seemingly understanding that word still didn't make sense. "Cape's the word we use for people like- us," she said, "with powers."

"Powers?" I asked.

"Yeah, like your armor, and, uhm- your enhanced abilities and your everything I guess," she said, "some are luckier than others. I've got something like super detective senses."

"Oh! Like Sherlock Holmes!" I said, the connection forming instantly, and I could get a good idea. "So you can basically take clues and quickly form correct conclusions out of them?" I asked. "Like if I gave you A, B and C, you'd be able to guess D!"

"Huh- that's, yeah, that's a surprisingly easy way to put it. It's not perfect though, you're a bit hard to read, you don't have very many microreactions, so I'm flying a bit blind here," she said, "but I can still get something out of you."

"Is that how you found me here?" I asked.

"Yeah," then she gestured at where the bag was. "That told me someone was here, then I looked at the disturbed dust on the ground," she then gestured under us, where there was a slight path of steps in the dust from the bed to the cabinet. "See? I can look at this and my power tells me which of these foot marks is older, and then when I pick up the details I can put together an idea that there's someone here currently hiding in the cabinet."

I nodded. "Understood."

"I guess your powers are a lot more extensive than mine though," she said.

I pursed my lips. "Maybe," I spoke. "But- what do we do now?"

"I'm not your enemy," she said, "see- usually, people like me and you, we keep our names hidden, as much as possible. But you're lost and alone -and so am I. I'm smart, you're strong, we can work together you know?" she asked.

"It feels like there's something you're not telling me, I'm not sure I like that," I said.

There was that feeling in me, my instincts were telling me that she wasn't being entirely forthcoming. My intuition was telling me she was a little bit too eager considering I technically was still holding her at scythepoint.

"I- er- you heard me when I said I thought you were chasing me, right?" she asked. "Well- I'll be open, there's some weird guys after me," she explained, "people in suits, big, strong, I'm guessing some sort of mercenaries, they've got guns and I've been avoiding them by the skin of my teeth," she spoke.

"So you want me to stand between them and you?" I asked.

"Swear I'll be useful," she said, "you don't know anything and I've got an entire power about gathering info," she said, "that's what I'm good for, I'm a Thinker - that's the name for people with mind powers like mine," she added. "See? I can explain things!"

I gripped my scythe tighter.

It came down to whether I thought I could trust her or not...

In a way, she was absolutely trying to use me, she wanted me to be protection for her, of some sort, against her enemies, and in return, she would use her powers and her knowledge to help me.

That's how villains do things, I guess, we don't rely on the goodness of our fellow man or the kindness of strangers, we make deals, and only hold onto them as long as they are beneficial.

Question was - would she betray me as soon as she found a more beneficial deal? And even then, would it be worth to keep her around until that betrayal, considering the usefulness of her abilities?

"Please, Mystery," she spoke, "I'll help you, I can be super useful, I promise!"

 

[Kurogane_Psi-ki]

Huh, Lisa had quite some good luck to run into our MC this early. Also is there a reason why you aren't running this quest on QQ onstead of patreon? Saw the posts and all the chapters had only around a dozen voters.

 

[NOTTHISWAY]

Because it is my sunday patreon poll. There's no great big logic behind it beyond the fact that the poll it replaced was run on my patreon and I thought it'd be interesting to run a quest directly from patreon.

Also considering I wasn't exactly forthcoming on the timeframe or what would happen at each safehouse location, it really is some ridiculous happenstance that people chose to go where Lisa was going to be and wound up dodging everyone else.