Path to the Apocalypse

Andrew woke the next morning, Li Jing still wrapped in his arms, snoring lightly as she drooled into his fur. He smiled contently, holding her a bit tighter as he simply enjoyed her presence for a moment. Still, the sun was rising and it was time to begin the day, so after that moment, he lightly shook Li Jing awake. "Good morning sleepy head." He greeted her as she looked up with a cute groan.

Li Jing blinked up at him, as if trying to process where she was. Her hand rubbed his fur, before she suddenly sat up, eyes widening, then calming down as she remembered where she was and who she was with, a bright smile spreading across her lips. "Morning." She muttered sleepily as she leaned in to kiss him.

"Ugh, morning breath." Andrew made a disgusted face as she pulled away, before bursting out laughing as she smacked his chest, pulling her in for another kiss.

"Okay, go." Li Jing finally sighed as she pulled away from the kiss, climbing out of the bed. "I need to get changed."

"I don't mind." Andrew grinned, sitting up, not taking his eyes off her.

Li Jing rolled her eyes, before pointing at the door. "Go!"

Andrew chuckled. "Fine, fine." He got off the bed, heading towards the door. He considered making a joke about having seen it before, but… he reconsidered as he realized that might hit a bit too close to home. Best not to remind the woman he wanted to be with of the time he betrayed her trust, especially not in a way that might make it seem like he did it on purpose. Particularly since she knew he had two sensing abilities that should have let him know she was in there. It'd be hard to explain that those sensing abilities required attention just like anything else. Everyone had ears to hear, but if you weren't paying attention, you could miss what someone was saying right next to you.

Andrew grabbed a change of clothes and hit the shower, before heading to the living room/kitchen area to get some breakfast. "Good morning." He greeted Cathryn cheerfully, sitting down across from her with a bowl of cereal. "How was your night?"

Cathryn flushed. "It was fine. I- went to bed early. Did- did you have a… fun night?"

Andrew smirked. "Yes, but not in the way you're thinking of. Me and Jing just cuddled last night. It was nice. She drooled on me."

"Rude." Li Jing commented, poking him as she walked past to grab her own bowl of cereal.

"True." Andrew retorted with a grin. "Is that my shirt?"

Li Jing flushed slightly, picking at the shirt he'd tossed to the side last night. "You only wore it for a few hours. It smells nice."

"I'm sure it does." Andrew chuckled, returning to his breakfast. "So, what's the plan for today? More hunting? Check out some organizations? I could use some time to test out some abilities, but other than that I'm open to suggestions."

"We should look at organizations first." Li Jing replied. "Work first, then play."

"See, I've always been more of a 'play first, work a little, play again' type of guy." Andrew commented with a grin, yelping as he earned himself a pinch.

"Work first, then play." Li Jing repeated with a small smile.

"Yes, dear." Andrew replied obediently, with a smile of his own.

Cathryn was a bit lost, not sure whether she should add in her opinion or not, but seeing as the other two didn't seem to expect her to, and she didn't have much of one either way, she just continued to eat her breakfast. Ever since they'd gotten to the Outside, she hadn't really been sure what to do. She felt more like Andrew's accessory around here, like an extra. Even with all of Andrew's lessons, there was just so much she didn't understand about the Bonded and her place in all this.

After breakfast, the three headed towards the center of the base camp, where the organizations' headquarters were based. Part of the reason they'd come to this base camp was because a conglomeration of several of the organizations they were looking to join had come together to found and manage it, saving them multiple trips. Of course, they could always visit the headquarters in the City, but unlike in the base camps, the organizations had no obligation to place their headquarters in a central location there, meaning they'd need to run around all day to visit all of them.

Every base camp needed experts in enchantment, logistics, management, and defense in order to be viable, and Base Camp Fortuna was a classic base camp. Four organizations had come together to form it, Enchantments4Less, Supply and Demand, MortalsRUs, and the White Tiger mercenary group. Enchantments4Less was, obviously, in charge of maintaining the various enchantments around the base camp. They kept the portals running, maintained the various machines needed to run the camp, made sure enchantments were up to code, and so on. Of course, Andrew and them didn't have the expertise to even come close to touching any of that. Instead they would be tasked with pouring ability energy into Enchantments4Less's power grid, which the various establishments around the base could tap into to power their own enchantments, for a small fee of course. The perk of this organization was that they could learn some basic enchantment as a part of their payment.

Supply and Demand dealt with logistics. They transported goods to and from the City, hunted the surrounding wildlife for food, purchased crystals and rare materials, and so on. Their jobs with them would involve hunting purely for meat, not crystals. That wasn't to say they couldn't also hunt and gather crystals, but they had a certain quota of meat they needed to supply each week. The non-Beasts could also work as assistants, learning how to manage logistics from the higher ups. The perks of this job was that both the Beast and the human could work, right from the start, plus they would receive a storage ring right off the bat.

MortalsRUs managed the various mortals that served the Bonded in the base camp. They made sure they had food and housing, managed their benefits, gave them skill training, and so on. The job they would do there would be to perform random inspections to make sure the mortals were both performing their tasks satisfactorily, and to make sure they weren't being abused, or put in abusive situations, by their employer. The perk of this job was that they would essentially be paid to roam around the base camp and enjoy the services the mortals provided. Andrew noticed in particular that these services did include the mortals who provided 'accompaniment', which… Well, Andrew wouldn't lie and say he wasn't interested, but it didn't exactly seem like a healthy option to him.

Finally, the White Tigers maintained the defenses around the base camp, coordinated everyone during Beast Tides, hunted down any particularly powerful Beasts that decided to take up residence nearby, and so on. Their job with them would be to regularly patrol the area around the base camp, looking out for anything that might threaten them. The perk there was regular hunting, plus combat training. Unfortunately, the White Tigers didn't have any low level jobs for humans, because humans were expected to monitor their Beasts while they worked, since usually low level Beasts didn't have enough intelligence to properly investigate threats. Still, they would get pay plus any crystals they hunted. The White Tigers were probably the most profitable option available.

"So, what do you guys think?" Andrew asked as they sat down for lunch after visiting each organization and talking to the recruiters. They could still look at other organizations tomorrow, but from what they'd heard from their parents, the other organizations would be pretty much the same, with slightly different benefits. Enchantment organizations would use you as a battery, logistics organizations would have you hunt for meat, management organizations would have you check in on the mortals, and mercenary organizations would use you as scouts.

"We're not joining MortalsRUs." Cathryn immediately stated, glaring at him.

Andrew sighed. "Yes, I know. You've said it several times now. Which one do you like?"

Cathryn hesitated. "I- I wouldn't mind Supply and Demand. They have jobs for both of us and they'd teach me skills I could use even back on Earth."

"I'd prefer Enchantments4Less." Li Jing commented, before pausing. "At least, an enchantment organization. I want to learn."

Andrew frowned. "I actually like White Tiger. Everything else kinda just felt like work. White Tiger is more like an adventure!"

Li Jing frowned. "I would need to constantly monitor Li Mei. It gets boring."

"I wouldn't even be able to do that. You don't need me in your head to help you. I wouldn't have anything to do!" Cathryn complained.

"You could watch?" Andrew offered tentatively.

"Andrew." Li Jing gave him a look.

He sighed. "Alright, fine. No White Tigers." He paused, considering the other two options. "I think, between the two, I'd have to go with Supply and Demand. It's the most flexible, which will help during the school year. Plus… no offense, Jing, but the enchantment jobs are demanding, and there are other ways to learn how to enchant. Hell, my mom is a Master Enchanter, you could learn from her!"

Li Jing paused, before flushing. "I could do that." She murmured.

"Alright then, so, we'll go with logistics." Andrew nodded. "I guess tomorrow we can head to the City and check out a few of the other options before making our decision. Sound good?" Both girls nodded. "Good." Andrew nodded as well.

*

After lunch, the girls headed back to the cabin while Andrew and Li Mei headed out of the base camp, with Andrew taking a proper bag with him this time. Once they were outside the walls, the two split up, Li Mei heading off to do her normal hunting, while Andrew had some experimenting to do. Supposedly his Human side had an ability, which may be where his aura abilities came from, or it could be Long's copy ability, possibly both. The only thing Andrew thought was weird was that Cathryn didn't seem to get any of his aura related abilities… His theory was that since the Bond was formed from the pieces of Long's ability, then it's possible it didn't pick up on his aura abilities because technically she was already supposed to have it. It wasn't a great theory, and he barely even convinced himself it made sense, but it was the only reasonable explanation he could come up with.

Andrew stowed his bag, before transforming into his ant form, searching for a Beast. It didn't take him long before he found what could only be a velociraptor, except with feathers instead of scales. Wait… weren't people saying velociraptors were supposed to have feathers? Doesn't matter, there was a dinosaur in front of him, and he needed to figure out how to copy its ability! It couldn't be too hard, right? The first thing he tried was to take a small thread of aura, and poke the Velociraptor's core with it. He'd realized that even if a Bond formed, he could just steal the core, and it'd fix itself, right? It'd probably work with Cathryn too, but… he wasn't about to go murdering someone just for a little more private time. Plus, their Bond was more beneficial than not.

Andrew carefully guided the thread of aura towards the Velociraptor, reaching towards its core, hesitating for a moment before firmly poking it and… nothing. "Eh?" Andrew cocked his tiny ant head in confusion. He poked again. And again. And again. "What the shit!" He exclaimed in aggravation, sending the thread of aura probing around the core. Maybe there was some sort of slot he was missing? Suddenly, his aura brushed up against something and… the Velociraptor's aura flickered, withdrawing slightly before pushing back as the Velociraptor's head shot up. It released a warning hiss, eyes narrowing as it searched for its attacker.

Andrew paused. "Huh…" He moved his aura back over the spot, but nothing happened and he frowned. Well, he tried to frown. Ants don't really have those facial muscles. He saw the Velociraptor's aura retract! He knew he'd done something. Andrew frowned as he sent his aura searching around the core again, but he couldn't find that feeling again. He stopped to think, wondering what the problem was, when he paused. Maybe it was the intent? When he was searching before, he was looking for something to go in to. Maybe somehow he'd told the core to retract the aura, just like he told his own cores? Andrew considered it for a moment, before doing just that. He focused on the Velociraptor's core, telling it to withdraw, just like he would any of his cores, and… it did! Or at least, it tried.

The moment Andrew began to press his will against the core, the Velociraptor's will pressed back, violently resisting his manipulation! Andrew frowned as he pushed back, concentrating on retracting the Beasts aura and slowly, he began to win! The Velociraptor roared in fury as it felt its strength decrease, shooting out wild blasts of mental force all around it. A wide arc caught Andrew, but barely shook him, the blow weakened by the wide area it covered. If the Velociraptor had been able to concentrate the entire attack on him, it might have been an issue, but his ant form was so small, the Beast had little to no chance of actually finding him. As panic set in, Andrew was able to weaken the Beast's aura more and more, until finally it snapped, and the resistance broke, the entire aura retracting into the core, before it popped out of existence.

Andrew's eyes widened as the Velociraptor fell, dead. "Uh… oops?" He apologized to no one in particular. Be hadn't actually meant to kill the Velociraptor, at least not like that. Maybe he would have fought it after he was done experimenting, but to slowly drain the life from his opponent like that… It seemed kinda cruel. And wasteful, because after all that he was exhausted! Would have been easier to just kill it. He'd just gotten a little too caught up in the sudden battle of wills, and… he just couldn't let himself lose. Andrew sighed. "Well, what's done is done." He muttered, about to fly off. "Wait, almost forgot the-" He froze, staring at the body. "Uh… why can't I sense a crystal?"

Andrew shifted into his Monkey form, growing talons as he cut into the Velociraptor, checking the brain, the heart, and the gut, but he couldn't find any crystals! He searched even further, ripping the Beast's body to pieces, but it wasn't there! "Did- how-" Andrew rubbed his temple in distress as he tried to process the situation. The Beast had died, but no crystal had formed. The Beast had died from its aura completely retracting, and no crystal had formed… "This… this is way above my pay grade." Andrew groaned. All he got out of this was 'don't kill things by retracting their auras'. He paused. Would this happen if he stole a core, too? Probably, right? He wished he'd stuck around long enough to check the Lizard's corpse, but he'd been so disoriented at the time he hadn't gathered any of the crystals there.

Andrew stood there, pondering the problem for a moment, before clicking his tongue. This wasn't even what he was here for! He was trying to see what his Human ability was! Of course, he couldn't say that what he'd just done wasn't his Human ability, but an ability that took that much effort and didn't even leave him a crystal afterwards seemed pretty crappy, so he was kinda hoping there was something else going on. Of course, then he'd have to figure out where that ability had come from… Andrew sighed. His abilities were a mess and all he wanted them to do was make sense!

Returning to his ant form, he began to search again, before finding a Squirrel. There were an ungodly amount of Squirrels around the base camp. Around every base camp so far. Admittedly, their ability didn't match any of the Clan abilities, making their crystals practically useless, plus their meat was rubbery and they were annoying to kill, so no one particularly wanted to hunt them, which probably led to this situation. Still, it was annoying. Andrew hesitated for a moment, before sighing and focusing on the Squirrel. It was still a Beast.

Andrew considered his options for a moment, before switching to a different tact. Instead of focusing on his aura ability, he retracted every aura but the Human one. He was trying to use a Human ability, right? Might as well use a Human mindset. Funnily enough, Andrew realized this was the first time he'd actually brought his Human side to the fore. It just hadn't seemed to have any notable qualities, so he'd never thought of it. The Monkey was goofy, the Tiger was responsible, and the Lizard was detached, but the Human? What was the Human?

Andrew, the Human Andrew, turned his focus inward. What was he? He looked into himself, and saw emptiness. A void craving more. The need for companionship, for love, for some sort of connection, a bond with those around him. Andrew fell into the void, the desperate need filling him, calling out, and his ability answered. A new sense opened up, like his aura sense, but further reaching, and more basic, focused purely on ability. It was like a cover had been stripped off, showing the workings underneath. Things he saw using his aura sense, but couldn't quite make sense of, suddenly laid bare as his new sense broke each ability down for him, telling him its nature, how it had changed, how he could use it, how he could connect to it, and make it his own.

Andrew suddenly came back to himself. That was Long's ability?!? No wonder he could keep the Clan's at bay! The sheer range… he could see at least two miles all around him. And he could connect with any ability within that range! Tactically, this ability couldn't be beat. Any opponent could be seen long before they arrived, their ability analyzed, and a counter found. Even if you couldn't find a counter, you could just steal their ability and fight them on equal footing! Or, if they were too strong, simply run and fight another day.

Andrew paused for a moment, considering the ability from another angle. He felt the heart of the ability, of humanity. Let me find you, let me make myself like you, so we can be friends. The ability was strongest when surrounded by allies, by a diverse group of different abilities to pull from as needed. Yet, when Long had it, all he'd been surrounded by were enemies… Andrew sighed. "Maybe I'm overthinking this." Whatever. It was what it was.

Andrew quickly connected to the Squirrel using the new ability, confirming that it worked. A small ant twisted itself around and around, confirming he'd acquired the Squirrel's stretchy ability. Through his aura sense, he saw a small thread between the Squirrel and him, much like the one between him and Cathryn, but more basic. Additionally, it didn't connect core to core, but aura to aura, making it much less obtrusive. It was a simple sharing of ability, not of thought and feeling. Andrew nodded, releasing all his auras again as he turned into a streak, piercing through the Squirrel's head. It was time to return to the hunt.

*

"What is that?!?" Cathryn asked as Andrew walked into the cabin after returning from his hunt.

He tapped the hard covering over his crotch with a grin. "Carapace. Covers everything that needs covering, so I don't need to worry about being naked anymore!"

Cathryn gave the area another look with a twisted expression. "You look like a poorly made action figure."

Andrew snorted. "You're just jealous of my ingenuity." He turned to Li Jing as she stepped out of the bathroom. "Hey, Jing, what do you think?" He asked, spreading his arms. Li Jing froze, looked down, before beginning to shake as she attempted to hold in a laugh, giggles bubbling out of her as she utterly failed. Andrew's arms fell in defeat. "I'll go put on clothes." He sighed. He quickly retreated to his room to get changed, before returning, sitting between the two girls on the couch and wrapping his arm around Li Jing, pulling her close. "So, what do you guys want to do tonight? Watch a movie? Go bowling? Chariot racing?"

"You guys can go out. I'll just stay here." Cathryn immediately replied.

Andrew rolled his eyes. "Cathryn, we aren't going to abandon you every night. That'd just be rude!" He turned to Li Jing. "Right?"

Li Jing nodded. "We could all stay in and watch a movie if you don't want to go out." She suggested, leaning around Andrew to look at Cathryn.

Cathryn shook her head. "No, no, guys I don't want to make you guys stay in because of me! Go, have fun! I'll be fine!"

"Who says staying in won't be fun?" Andrew asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "We can order pizza, put on a dumb movie, it'll be great!"

"Action movie." Li Jing retorted, poking his side.

"Funny, action movie." Andrew countered with a poke of his own. Li Jing paused, before nodding in agreement. "There, see! It'll be great!" He turned back to Cathryn with a grin. "Come on, I'll order the pizza, you guys pick out the movie. Pepperoni okay?"

"Anchovies!" Li Jing immediately retorted.

"You're disgusting." Andrew stuck his tongue out in disgust. "I'll get them on half. Cathryn?"

"Pep-pepperoni is fine…" She replied.

Andrew nodded, moving to the kitchen and activating an enchantment, pulling up a small screen before selecting a nearby pizza place and putting in their order. Electronics never quite made it to the Outside, the Bonded opting to adapt enchantments to emulate technology, or vice versa. It was generally accepted that technology was for Earth while magic was for the Outside. Things just generally worked better that way, probably something to do with the mismatched physics now that Andrew really thought about it. It wasn't bad enough that they couldn't work between the two, but it seemed like the more you did, the more likely things were to fail. A single device could work fine in the Outside, but an entire electrical grid would require constant maintenance to stay functional, and the reverse was true on Earth. It was like they weren't meant for the other environment, so everything that could go wrong, would.

Once Andrew finished ordering the food, he returned to the living room to see the girls seriously studying the screen as they tried to decide which movie to watch. "Wait, hold on, what language will the movie be in?" Cathryn asked as she suddenly realized a problem. "Do they translate the movies into Outerwords?"

"No. There are translation enchantments in the TV." Li Jing explained. "Everyone will hear what is said in their own language."

Cathryn paused. "Oh, right, magic… that's still taking some time to get used to."

"You'll get there." Andrew assured her with a grin. "Hell, even I didn't know about the translation enchantments. I would have been just as stumped as you are."

Cathryn frowned at him. "You didn't?"

Andrew shook his head. "Nope. My family tends not to use enchantments all that much."

It was Li Jing's turn to give him a weird look. "Didn't you say your mom was a Master Enchanter?"

"She is, but for her that's work. Electronics are the fun new toys they get to play with. My parents still use a fax machine because 'it's just so fascinating'." Andrew chuckled. "Plus, they aren't very 'Outer focused'. They prefer to stay on Earth, making babies and doing what they can to help. They both have side jobs to get credits, though they're more like hobbies at this point, but overall they're happy with the level of power they're at and just kind of want to sit back and enjoy their lives, at least for now."

Li Jing nodded in understanding, but Cathryn looked incredulous. "You have access to literal magic, and you just ignore it?!?"

Andrew rolled his eyes. "It isn't magic magic. We aren't casting spells or anything. Abilities produce energy and we can use that energy by sending it through a series of runes to create an effect. It's just like electricity, just different."

"We can't make storage rings with electricity!" Cathryn protested.

"You can't make storage rings with electricity, yet." Andrew countered. "Sure, it's harder to do with electricity, but we've only had like a hundred years to develop it so far, and it's already practically caught up with enchantment, and we've had millenia to develop that!"

"But enchantment can do things electricity could never do!" Cathryn exclaimed.

Andrew shook his head. "They're just different ways of using energy. See, enchantment is all about converting energy to get the effect you want, while electricity powers a machine to produce an effect. In enchantment, energy can be converted, directed, shaped, moved about in really any way you like, but it only does the one thing. Mental energy stores information, light energy makes images, barrier energy makes barriers, portal energy makes portals, translation energy translates, and so on and so on. Weaving all that energy together, you can get some pretty sophisticated effects, but all of it is coming from individual energies doing whatever it is they do.

"Electricity, on the other hand, doesn't actually do anything. All it does is move and things happen based on that movement. Energy in enchantment moves to, but all it does is get the energy from one place to the next. It might get converted on the way there, but that's it. So if you want a new effect in enchantment, you need a new type of energy. However, if you want something new using electricity, you just need to know how to power it. Enchantment is more useful on the low end, while electricity is more useful on the high end. The problem comes when you try to use one in the other world. Enchantments on Earth want to move when they should have an effect, and electricity in the Outside wants to have an effect when it needs to move."

Li Jing gave Andrew another weird look. "And you didn't know about the translation enchantment."

"Hey, I'm good with theory, not in practice." Andrew shrugged. "Mom likes to talk shop every now and then, but it's always concepts, not how things actually work or are used. Also… most of that is just off the top of my head. I don't know if it's actually true or not. Makes sense though, right?"

Li Jing rolled her eyes, while Cathryn frowned. "I still don't know how electricity could ever power a storage ring." She grumbled, crossing her arms.

"It'd probably be something along the lines of breaking things down and then rebuilding them when needed." Andrew shrugged. "I also don't think you could trap a small space in something you could fit around a finger using electricity. Maybe a backpack though? Eh, we'll see."

Cathryn sighed with a nod, before freezing. "Holy shit, we will see, won't we? We're going to live that long!"

"Yup!" Andrew grinned. "Isn't it exciting?"