Path to the Apocalypse

The hunt ended without any further incident. No sudden Beast Tide, no weird new abilities, no acts of uncontrolled strength putting Andrew in awkward situations. They all just left the base camp and returned to the City with bags full of crystals and hope for the future. Now that they'd completed their first hunt, they were qualified to fully enter into Bonded society, free to hunt on their own, get jobs, learn a trade, or whatever else they happened to want to do with their time.

"Andrew!" Helen exclaimed, rushing over and pulling him into a tight hug as he arrived in the portal square. "Are you okay? Arose told us about the Beast Tide."

"I'm fine, Mom." Andrew replied with a grin. "Better, actually. I got a new form and a new ability. Neat, right? Which reminds me, I should probably talk to Elder Barry about sorting all this out, plus I have some questions about abilities."

Helen pulled away with a frown, trying to process all that, before stopping and deciding to just go piece by piece. "You have a new form and ability?"

"Yeah. I can now turn into a Lizard, but with fur instead of scales. It lets me make blasts of air." Andrew replied with a nod.

Helen blinked once, then twice. "How?!?"

"Well, it tried to kill me and… that didn't work out for it. I'm not clear on the details though… part of the reason I want to talk to Elder Barry. Not that I expect much on that one. Seems to be part of my weird 'never happened before so who knows what's up' deal, but it can't hurt to ask, right?" Andrew shrugged.

Helen nodded slowly. "Right…" She muttered before letting out a sigh and pulling him into another hug. "I'm just glad you're alright. Weird we can deal with. Losing you, we can't."

Suddenly a voice came from behind him. "Andrew." He turned to see Li Jing, accompanied by an older man he assumed was her father. "Remember, next Saturday. 10 am." She reminded him.

Andrew nodded, grinning slightly. "Don't worry, I'll be here."

Li Jing nodded. "Good." She then turned and nodded to the older man, and they left towards one of the portals.

Andrew turned back to his mother, who was giving him an evaluating look. "And who was that?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, that was Li Jing. She was on my team." Andrew explained.

"Is that all? Why are you planning on meeting her here next week?" Helen continued.

"Uh… well, we are kind of dating. We decided to do things in the City, since there isn't really a better place to meet up regularly." Andrew explained, flushing slightly in embarrassment.

"Oh, so cute! You have your first girlfriend!" Helen laughed, before turning serious. "You're not taking things too fast are you? I know it's tempting to just jump into bed, but it's so much more satisfying after you've developed a real, deep bond with the person first."

"W-what? No! We- all we've done is kiss so far!" Andrew exclaimed, before pausing and letting out a sigh. "And I can barely handle that. Whenever I get excited, I end up using too much strength and- well, I haven't actually hurt her, but that's just from kissing. If I did anything else… I'm worried I'd slip up."

Helen's gaze turned soft. "Oh, Andrew… listen, as long as you keep trying, I'm sure you'll get there. Besides, there's ways to enjoy each other where you don't have to worry about controlling yourself. Why not let her be on top? As long as she's in control, your strength isn't even in the picture!"

Andrew flushed. "Mom! That- you can't just say stuff like that!"

"Oh don't be a prude." Helen waved dismissively. "Sex is natural! It's good to discuss it every now and then, or you end up getting strange ideas. Don't believe everything you see in porn."

Andrew's flush deepened. "Can- can we just go see the Elder now?"

Helen snickered, but nodded. They walked out of the courtyard, heading into the City, giving Andrew his first real look at it. A wide variety of architecture mixed throughout the city. Ancient buildings sat side by side with modern ones. Ziggurats rose from the midst of office buildings. An ancient arena was surrounded by fancy restaurants, while stadium lights rose from the walls. It was as if the best from every era was taken and placed together, giving the city a unique and timeless quality.

Helen led him to one of the Ziggurats, the interior of which was converted into a modern looking lobby, where she talked to one of the attendants. "Hello, we'd like to speak with an Elder please, preferably Elder Barry?"

The attendant nodded, picking up a phone and making a quick call. "Elder Barry is free, would you like to meet him in his office, or do you require testing equipment?"

Helen glanced at Andrew. "Testing equipment." He told the attendant. They were dealing with abilities after all. He didn't think Elder Barry would be able to figure anything out just by looking at him.

The attendant nodded, searching through her computer for a moment, before turning back to them. "He'll meet you in testing room D4."

They thanked her, before making their way deeper into the ziggurat, heading up to floor D and finding testing room four. "Ah, Andrew! I've been meaning to get you into one of these rooms at some point." Elder Barry greeted them with a chuckle as they arrived. "But first, what can I help you with?"

"Uh… well, I'm looking at options for mutating my ability- well, abilities. That's the problem actually. If I attempt to mutate, will the mutation affect one or all of my abilities? If one, is it random or can I control it? If it's all, what mutations would be good for all my abilities, instead of just one?" Andrew asked his questions in rapid order.

Elder Barry paused. "Those are some good questions… Hm, first, we should get some basic information." He gestured towards a set of equipment. "To start, if you would transform into your Monkey form and hit that plate as hard as you can three times." Andrew nodded, slipping behind another machine to get undressed before transforming and heading to the plate. His first hit came out as ninety-nine point four four, his second a little above that, and his third a little below at four six and four three. "Remarkable control." Elder Barry muttered as he took notes, before gesturing to another machine. "Focus your abilities on that one. Send emotions to it, or try to create a territory in it. There's a specially enchanted crystal in there that will absorb the ability energy and give us an idea of the power of it." He explained. Andrew nodded again, first sending his emotion ability at it, reading a twenty seven point three eight, then his territory ability, reading a twenty eight point nine two. Elder Barry frowned. "That's-"

"Wait, I have one more." Andrew interrupted, sending an air blast into the machine, which read twenty-four point seven.

Elder Barry's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You- you have three abilities?" He asked incredulously.

Andrew nodded. "Yeah. I- basically, I acquired a fourth form, and the ability that came with it. I'm not exactly sure how I did it, and I'd really rather not try to replicate the event either, in case it was a fluke… but yeah, I have three abilities now."

Elder Barry stared at him for a moment, not entirely sure how to process the information, before shaking his head and turning back to his clipboard. "Yes, well… ahem, even with your three abilities, you're still… eighteen point four four ability points short. There is some wiggle room in all this, but not that much. You- you would happen to be hiding a fourth ability, now would you?"

Andrew froze, before looking into his aura, at the cores. Nope, still just the four. Human, Monkey, Tiger, Lizard. He let out a sigh of relief. "No, it should just be three. Unless my human form somehow had an ability." Andrew chuckled, his chuckle quickly turning nervous as he felt a spike of shock go through the two adults. "Uh… humans, humans don't have abilities, do they?"

"No." Elder Barry shook his head. "But… they did. Once."

Andrew's eyes widened. "We used to be Beasts?" He asked hesitantly.

"No, not once as in the past, once as in once, a singular time. The Father of all Bonded, Long." Elder Barry explained seriously. "If you somehow inherited his ability…"

"You can't be serious. Long was unique! A one in a trillion chance! No one else has ever been born with his ability!" Helen exclaimed.

"Is Andrew not unique?!?" Elder Barry retorted. "Look at him! Beast and human all mixed into one! If you think about it, Long's ability is almost the perfect explanation for this! If he naturally was born with that ability, along with the Bond, then it would almost make sense that instead of Bonding with a Beast, he became it!"

"Uh, what was Long's ability?" Andrew asked hesitantly.

"He could copy abilities." Elder Barry explained. "He would gain them at the same strength as the Beast he copied it from, and he could keep it for as long as he wanted, until he copied a new ability. He didn't gain the related strength, but his ability had the side benefit of making him perfectly compatible with any crystal, allowing him to quickly rise in strength."

Andrew paused. He guessed he could kind of see how that might lead to his condition… except- "How does that explain me gaining a new form and ability?" Andrew asked with a frown. "I mean, you're saying I might be able to copy abilities, but… if that's the ability I have, then it should have factored into my ability tests, right?"

"Ah, but you're forgetting you get the power at the level of the Beast you copied it from! The reason it reads lower than it should is because the ability you copied is weaker than your copy ability!" Elder Barry announced happily, as if he'd figured everything out. "Your ability to transform into that form as well is probably a mutation of Long's original ability from combining it with the Bond. You must copy the entire Beast, ability and form."

Andrew frowned. He could see how that could be the case, but… how did he kill the Lizard then? Why did he have four cores? Elder Barry's idea was interesting, but Andrew didn't think it fit the facts. Something else was going on here. Unfortunately, he didn't have any proof. No one else could see his cores, and no one else had been there when the Lizard died. Hell, he was barely there… He was going to have to figure this out on his own. "Okay, then, what about my mutations? I still have three abilities. How is that going to work?"

Elder Barry paused. "Hm, yes… Well, you won't have to worry about Long's ability. It doesn't mutate because it's perfectly compatible with every crystal, meaning no extra bits to fiddle with your abili- oh. Uh… that might actually be a problem then." Elder Barry frowned.

"What's going to be a problem?" Andrew asked warily.

"Ahem, well, you see, the way mutation works is that you flood your ability with strange energy until it adjusts to it. However, if you have Long's ability… that isn't possible. All the energy that your other abilities don't absorb will be absorbed by Long's ability, leaving none to stick around for your abilities to adjust to. If you truly do have Long's ability… it may be impossible for your other abilities to mutate." Elder Barry explained seriously.

Andrew paused, thinking back to when he'd absorbed crystals… there wasn't anything like excess energy sticking around. All of it got absorbed. Did- did he really have Long's ability? Was that really the explanation for all this? A part of Andrew still couldn't accept that, but… maybe it was at least partially true? He could have Long's ability and still have something else going on too. Still… Andrew let out a sigh. "This is going to be a problem."