Path to the Apocalypse

The rest of the morning was fairly uneventful, mostly just the teachers getting them back into the swing of things. Andrew was a bit distracted due to two much different, but equally aggravating factors. The first was obviously Benjamin, who had waves of fear literally billowing off of him as he sat stiffly in his seat, avoiding looking anywhere near Andrew or Cathryn. It was like he thought he was about to die or something! The other was Cathryn herself, who refused to let him into her head, but wouldn't stop thinking about whatever Li Jing had told her! His Monkey ability still let him feel her nervousness and excitement, as well as Li Jing's amusement at the both of them, which wasn't helping either!

"Would you please just tell me?!?" Andrew begged as the three of them headed to lunch, heading towards one of Andrew's favorite, isolated spots.

"Surprise." Li Jing retorted with a smirk.

Andrew scowled. "I already have it half figured out anyway!"

"Do you?" Li Jing asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Andrew hesitated, before letting out a groan. "Damn you, you evil woman!"

Li Jing giggled. "You're cute when you're frustrated."

Andrew scowled. "This surprise better be good." He grumbled.

Cathryn hesitated. "It's not-" Li Jing shot her a look and Cathryn sighed. "Look, just don't overthink it, alright?"

Andrew's scowl deepened. "That only makes things worse!" Li Jing let out another giggle as they arrived, all three sitting down and beginning to eat. A squirrel jumped out of the bushes, jumping onto Andrew's shoulder as he held up a chip for it. "You won't mess with me, right Squirrelten? You're a good friend."

"You have the worst naming sense." Cathryn sighed, shaking her head.

"Not naming our kids." Li Jing added with a nod.

"What? You don't think Boyone would be a good name?" Andrew asked with a smirk.

""No!"" The both of them declared in unison, both glaring at him sternly.

"Kidding, kidding!" Andrew laughed, raising his hands. "Come on, there's a difference between a random squirrel and my own child. I'll give them good names, I promise." He assured them.

Li Jing snorted. "You better."

The three continued eating, Cathryn experimenting with her emotion sense to get Squirrelten comfortable sitting on her as well. Andrew suddenly paused as he felt something tickling the edge of his aura sense. Frowning, he focused on the sensation, and immediately swore. "Shit! There's a Beast!" He exclaimed, jumping to his feet and releasing his aura. "Jing, stay with Cathryn!" He snapped, rushing towards the Beast.

Andrew carefully made his way towards the Beast, avoiding the other students as he headed towards the edge of the campus. Andrew couldn't see the Beast yet, but it seemed like it was lurking in a nearby patch of trees, just watching the students. However, as he got closer, and the Beast became clearer to his aura sense, Andrew frowned. The aura felt weird… condensed… *Is- is it another one of those machines?* Andrew wondered as he recognized the aura. It felt just like the machine that had tried to grab Cathryn back at the mall! What was one of those doing here?!? Andrew snuck closer, trying to stay out of sight of the machine, making an arc so he'd end up behind the machine, maybe see what it was up to.

Suddenly, just as he was sneaking by a tree, it exploded! "Shit!" Andrew cursed, dodging as more attacks headed his way, destroying the trees around him as he rushed towards the machine. A few students noticed the commotion, looking over towards the trees frowning in confusion. "Shit, shit, shit!" Andrew cursed, trying to stay out of view as he tackled the machine! He rolled the thing into a pile of bushes as its invisibility broke, getting on top of it as his hand grew talons, piercing into the machine's chest and tearing out the core. In the next instant both the machine and core disappeared into his storage ring before he immediately rushed away, avoiding the students that arrived to check out the commotion as he made his way back to the girls.

Andrew plopped down next to Cathryn, breathing out a relieved sigh. "Okay, all taken care of. It was one of those weird machines again, but I don't think anyone saw it or me. There's some destruction, but… well, we need to report this to the Clans anyway, so they'll figure something out."

"Wait, hold on." Cathryn interjected. "You mean like the machine that tried to grab me back at the mall?!? Why would one of those be here!?!"

Andrew shrugged. "To grab someone else? Or maybe to observe people? It didn't seem to actually be doing anything, just… watching. Until I got close, and then it tried to blast me. Hence the destruction."

Li Jing frowned. "Strange."

Andrew frowned at her, before pausing as he thought about it. "Huh… why did it blast me? I should have just looked like a normal student…"

Li Jing shook her head. "Strange that you've encountered two, when other Bonded have encountered zero. Both in the same area as well."

Andrew's frown deepened at that. "Do you think they're targeting me or something?"

Cathryn's eyes widened and she gulped. "Or me!" She hissed. "At the mall… it tried to grab me! And now… this is like the first time we've actually been out since then! If it was here for anyone else… it wouldn't need to lurk around the school! There would be plenty of other opportunities to get to them!"

"But why would these machines be targeting you?" Andrew asked, a bit of a skeptical edge creeping into his tone. "Whatever these things are, they've proven they can sneak around pretty easily…" Andrew trailed off as his eyes widened. "Oh, shit! What if- what if the issue isn't that they aren't around, but that no one else can actually find them! These things are perfectly invisible, no scent, no traces left behind, no thoughts or emotions to give anyone any idea they're there… the only way I find them is through my aura sense! These machines could be everywhere and no one would know!"

Li Jing frowned. "But why would you only be finding them now?"

Andrew paused. “Because… I wasn't looking for them? I honestly didn't pay much attention to my aura sense before, and there's nothing particularly noteworthy about the machine's aura. Plus, my aura sense isn't that wide. Only like… forty meters? Ish?” He frowned slightly, only just now realizing that his aura sense hadn't actually grown with the rest of his abilities. Weird. “Could be a ton of machines out there I'm not seeing.”

Cathryn shuddered. "This does not make me feel better."

"Cathryn, again, why would these things be targeting you specifically?" Andrew raised an eyebrow at her. "No offense, but you're- you were just a normal mortal."

"Was she?" Li Jing interjected thoughtfully. "We've been assuming that your Bond has something to do with you, but… what if it has something to do with her?"

Andrew blinked. "I don't follow."

Li Jing rolled her eyes. "If Cathryn is the reason you two could Bond, if she could Bond with any Beast, and whoever is behind these machines knew that…"

Andrew's eyes widened. "Oh, that's terrifying."

Cathryn glanced between the two of them nervously. "Why?"

"Because that would mean someone could be out there, making their own Bonded!" Andrew explained, frowning as he considered the implications. Bonded were scary because their Beast side was almost impossible to kill. As long as they had the opportunity to return to their human side, they'd survive. Other than that, their abilities were fairly average. However, if someone was making Bonded… it'd only taken a single moment for the Bond between him and Cathryn to form. If you tricked something like the Black Dragon into forming a Bond… a previously undefeatable Beast would suddenly have a fatal flaw! If you kept control of the human, then you could force the Black Dragon to fight for you! Andrew's mind went over all the terrifying Beasts that lived in the Outside, his mouth going dry.

Of course, that was just the worst case scenario. Still, the Bonded had already proved that even with average abilities, the Bond was more than enough to provide a stable foothold for development. Most major groups in the Outside needed a Beast Lord to keep them stable. The Orcs had the Orcgod, the Elementals had the Walking World, and the Nature Alliance had the Great Ent King. Any one of these Beasts could single handedly face off against entire armies! The Bonded could stand shoulder to shoulder with these groups because even if they were defeated once, they would be back to fight again and again, constantly wearing away at the enemy until they had nothing left. The only way to truly defeat them was through absolute, overwhelming power. If someone else was kidnapping humans to form an army of their own… Andrew wouldn't go so far to say they were screwed, but it'd definitely be an issue, particularly since anyone who was kidnapping humans would automatically become the enemy of the Bonded. They could be drawn into a conflict that would never end!

Andrew rubbed his temple, feeling a headache coming on. "This is bad."

Li Jing nodded. "We need to inform the Elders."

"Right." Andrew nodded. "Hopefully we caught this early. If not…"

Li Jing grimaced. "There will be trouble."

*

The moment they got out of school, the three rushed home, Cathryn even letting Andrew drive. After calming down a bit, they realized they were making a lot of assumptions, so they decided not to immediately go to the Elders, but instead to talk to Arose first. If nothing else, he'd be taken more seriously than a small group of teenagers panicking over a strange machine that could be flattened by a Beast that hadn't even been hunting for an entire year yet. Both machines hadn't been much of a threat, maybe around fifty points physically, a little bit stronger on the ability front, but that's it. Terrifying for mortals, but for Bonded? Barely even a blip on their radar. That actually made them even more worried though. The machines seemed designed to stay under the radar for Bonded, while targeting mortals, which seemed to confirm their theory.

"That's an… interesting theory." Arose muttered, leaning back in his chair as they finished explaining everything.

"Look, I know it's a little… we don't really have much to go on, but this is the second machine I've run into. There's something going on, and with what happened to me and Cathryn… I don't know, I just think it's worth investigating." Andrew shrugged helplessly.

Arose let out a sigh. "I agree, but how? You seem to be the only one who can actually find these machines, and even then, only in a limited radius. We aren't going to have you walk around the entire world just on the chance there might be more of these machines out there."

"But if they're kidnapping people-!" Cathryn began.

"People get kidnapped all the time, by humans." Arose stopped her, shaking his head. "If your theory is true, it would be bad, and no one disagrees with that, but… bad things happen. Tragedies happen. You will all see your fair share as life goes on. If you live and die on the well being of every individual, you will live a miserable life. Do what you can, when you can, but don't let it consume you. That way lies madness."

Cathryn's expression twisted. "That's a little cynical, don't you think?"

Arose shrugged helplessly. "Time makes cynics of us all. I watched my children die as Beasts raided our tribes over and over, until we found Earth. Then I watched as my children turned on each other, the moment they grew accustomed to their security. I've seen more horrors than you can imagine visited upon my descendants by their own brethren, worse than any Beast could conceive of. I've tried to fix it, tried to make things better, and only made them worse. Do I want all of humanity to live safe and secure lives, finding all the happiness they can? Of course I do! But after millennia of making mistake after mistake in pursuit of that goal, I have learned that unintended consequences follow every decision we make. Helping one person may very well damn another. So we have patience. We take time. We observe. So that when we do act, we don't make things even worse than they were before. I understand this is hard for you. The folly of the young is that they want every issue solved now. But I promise you, if you act hastily, without the proper forethought, you will regret it, as so, so many of us already have."

"But-" Cathryn began again.

"Listen, I understand your frustration, but Andrew won't be useful until he grows. The stronger he becomes, the wider his range will be, and the more effective he is. He's already shown a rapid pace of development and this situation won’t change in the next five years. When his ability can stretch for tens or even hundreds of miles, then he can effectively track down these machines. We will, of course, look into other methods to find these machines in the meantime, but none of that is your concern. All you need to focus on is helping Andrew grow.” Arose talked over her, shutting down any protest. “I know simply working on one's self seems selfish, as if you're ignoring the needs of others, but if you never develop yourself, you will never develop the capacity to help anyone else. The idle thought of the wealthy can match the lifetime dedication of the poor."

Cathryn glanced at Andrew. If he was the only one who could find these things… it was smart to grow the range at which he could sense them. Right now he'd have to spend days searching a city, but if his aura sense kept growing, that could shorten to a few hours, or even minutes! With the portal network, they could cover most of the world in an hour or so if his aura sense was powerful enough. Arose was right, it just made sense to focus on Andrew getting stronger. It just didn't sit right with her to just ignore a potential threat while they focused on themselves… which was exactly Arose's point. "Ugh, being Bonded is so complicated." She groaned, rubbing her temple.

Arose chuckled. "If it was easy, then we would have solved all the world's problems ages ago. But I will say, we are getting better. Slowly, yes, but it's happening."

Andrew coughed awkwardly. “Not to ruin your point, but I actually have no idea how to grow my aura sense… It doesn't grow with my other abilities.”

Arose blinked. “Well… that does complicate things, but your aura sense is currently the only method we have to actually detect these machines, so… Figure it out? There's really nothing else to be done. Unless you think your current range is sufficient enough to search the entire Earth for these machines?”

Andrew grimaced. “Not really, no.”

Arose shrugged. “Then my point still stands. Focus on yourself until you have the power to actually make a difference. Until then, your contribution is essentially pointless.”