I was talking to a friend of mine on what I think a good raid in Warframe could look like and he thought I should share the idea here so I would like to hear what you guys think.
ALTHOUGH I DON’T THINK I WENT INTO ANY SPOILER TERRITORY I STILL WANT TO WARN THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE NOT DONE THE DEADLOCK PROTOCOL NOR CALL OF THE TEMPESTARII. I WILL TALK ABOUT THINGS THAT ARE REVEALED IN THESE QUESTS. ALTHOUGH THEY ARE NOT MAJOR SPOILERS, SOME MAY CONSIDER IT SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Assault on Parvo Granum's Ship

Tenno, we have located Parvo Granum ship's in the Neptune Proxima Sector. Your mission is to infiltrate his ship and eliminate Parvo Granum. Be cautious, he has armed his forces with all the military equipment money can buy. This may be your most challenging assignment yet; you will need reinforcements from your fellow Tenno. - Lotus
Pre-Raid
To unlock the raid, you will need to have completed all nodes in steel path, completed the quests The New War, and Call of the Tempestarii. There will be a solo quest to unlock it called "Locating Parvos Granum" where you will do a "light" version of the raid to understand how the raid will work. After you finish it, a new node will be unlocked, a Relay which serves as the Hub to the raid which has the market for the raid and a leaderboard.
The quest will be a solo quest, the normal version will be a 1 squad 4 player raid, then the true raid (Steel Path) will be a 4 squad 16 player raid. Steel Path Raid will only unlock when you have completed the normal raid at least once.

Phase 0: Raid Prep

• On the Normal Raid you will select one player to be the host for the Railjack (host for the raid will be the one with the best overall connection).
• On Steel Path Raid you will have 4 teams (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta) to pick from. Each team will select 1 player to be the host for the Railjack (host for the raid will be the one with the best overall connection across all 16 players).
  • A new chat box will also open called "Raid Team" which includes all 16 players
  • When a player types there, a [A], [B], [C], or [D] will appear near their name to show what team they are on
• On both raids you will see what gear each player is bringing into the raid and are able to edit your gear prior to starting the raid.

Phase 1: Railjack Assault

Tenno, there it is, the Creator of Enormous Opportunities (C.E.O.). It is more heavily guarded then we expected. You will need to destroy the surrounding ships to create an opening. Be careful, they have already spotted you. - Lotus
The mission will start in your Railjack. Your objective is similar to Railjack missions in which you will have to destroy Fighter Crafts, Crewships, and board the Corpus Capital Ships to destroy the shield that guards the C.E.O.

• In the story mission you will be provided with Warframe specters instead of crew members if you do not have crew members for your Railjack.
• In the story mission, there will be 1 Pillar, the normal raid there will be 2 Stanchion, and the Steel Path will have 8 Obelisk.
• The objective is to destroy the Corpus Capital Ships while not letting any of the Railjacks get destroyed nor running out of lives.
• As the mission progresses, more Fighter Crafts and Crewships will spawn trying to destroy the Railjacks.
• Inside each of the Corpus Capital Ships you will fight a Spector Warframe that will drop part of a key to disable the shields protecting the core of the ship.
• When you destroy the core, the ship will start to blow up and you need to leave before the counter reaches zero. Along the way, the doors will be sealed and you need to hack some doors, blow up doors, or kill Spector Warframes to unlock the doors. Failure to leave in time will cause the core to explode and you to lose a life
• Once all the Capital Ships are destroyed, the C.E.O. is exposed and you can now board it

Phase 2: Infiltrate

Tenno, this C.E.O. is different, it is using an adaptive firewall that cannot be hacked the conventional way. We must stop its adaptation before I can hack into the systems to disable the... Oh no, life support systems are down and multiple reinforcements are on the way! Hack into the systems, keep the oxygen flowing, and stop the reinforcement before it is too late! - Lotus
Phase 2 will have you start at a central point with 5 doors.

• The main door in the middle (Door 5) will have multiple layers of lasers (aka the Adaptive Firewall).
• Door 1 will be an endless survival mission.
  • All oxygen gain in this survival mission will be applied to all squads across the raid
    • Solo Story depletes 1/2 as fast
    • Normal Raid will deplete as normal
    • Steel path will deplete twice as fast
  • At random moments a Special Corpus unit will spawn and will deplete the oxygen faster (like the thrax on Lua)
• Door 2 will be an endless defense mission.
  • At the center there will be the C.E.O. Mainframe Computer
    • Solo Story will have 1 wave of defense sometimes towards the middle of phase 2
    • Normal Raid will have random waves that spawn and will alert the players when they are about to happen
    • Steel Path Raid will always have enemies spawning
  • Lotus will be focused on using it to hack the Firewall while the Corpus will try to destroy it to prevent you from breaking in
  • At random moments a Special Corpus unit will spawn that will either do more damage to the Mainframe, implant a virus that will cause a D.O.T. on the Mainframe, or undo some of your progress if they either get to the Mainframe or successfully use a terminal (like how the murmurs spawn the Necramechs)
• Door 3 will be an endless disruption mission.
  • Each successful terminal will give lotus data to be able to hack the Mainframe
    • Solo Story will have a fast-hacking progress
    • Normal Raid will have a medium hacking progress
    • Steel path will have a slow hacking progress
  • Each failed terminal will give less data to lotus
    • If all 4 fails, the hacking stops and the progress goes down as the Adaptive Firewall recuperates
    • At 3 fails, it slowly recuperates
    • At 2 fails it stagnates
    • At 1 fail it goes up slowly
    • At 0 fails it goes up quickly
  • At random moments a Special Corpus unit will spawn (not the Demolysts, they spawn as normal) that can only be taken down by a Necramech
    • They will head towards a terminal and destroy it even if the key was not placed on it
    • Unlike Demolysts, they do not blow themselves up but instead will move on to the next terminal
    • Unlike normal disruption, the 4 terminals will be in different rooms to prevent this special unit from destroying two terminals in rapid succession
• Door 4 will be an endless exterminate mission
  • Unlike the survival mission, this one does not drop oxygen
  • What this does though is spawn reinforcements for the other 3 doors
  • If enemies are not killed fast enough here, they will overflow into the other missions making them harder
    • Solo Story will alert you when the spawns have increased once
    • Normal Raid will spawn waves at random and you need to go there to decrease the spawns temporarily
    • Steel path will constantly spawn enemies
  • At random moments a Special Corpus unit will spawn that will cause the corpus to invade one door instead of evenly spread across the 3 doors
    • As long as this unit is alive, that chosen door will continuously get an increase in spawn, level, and have more special units spawn
    • Randomly an Elite Special Corpus unit will spawn that will apply this to all doors instead of just 1
• The mission succeeds if Lotus is able to finish hacking the Mainframe
• The mission fails if 1. The oxygen runs out
  • 2) The main frame computer is destroyed
  • 3) All player's lives are exhausted
• All 4 doors will have an extraction point unlocked from the start so you can leave and chose a different door at any time
• If a team is in a door (let’s say the exterminate door) and a second team goes in it, they join the other team in the mission

After going back and forth between these 4 doors, door 5 will open and you will move on to the last pahse.

Phase 3: Parvos Granum

Tenno. What an honor for you to join me in this important business meeting. I was about to show these investors what true power my new creations have brought except, we did not have test subjects. Thank you for investing your bodies to the Corpus cause. - Parvos Granum
Tenno. Be careful, my scanners are [static] up an [static]high energy [static]. It [static]unlike anything [long static] seen before. This [static] mistake, retreat now! - Lotus
Too late Lotus - Parvos Granum
Phase 3 is a boss battle with Parvos Granum, The Sisters of Parvos, and his new MOA, Corpus' Tenno Obliterator (C.T.O.)

• Parvos Granum will cause random debuffs such as energy drain, nullification field (aka no Warframe abilities), toxic gas, etc.
  • When you spawn in the room, a debuff will be triggered
  • Solo Story will have a long cooldown between effects
  • Normal Raid will have medium cooldown
  • Steel path will have a short cooldown and multiple debuffs can be triggered at the same time
• The Sisters of Parvos will be there to get in the way of the Tennos
  • Solo Story will spawn 1
  • Normal Raid will spawn 4
  • Steel path will spawn 4 at once but will rotate between 10 random sisters
  • Each sister will spawn with a random Tenet gun (Steel path will spawn with all 10 guns)
  • When you down a sister, one of them (picked at random) will drop a key
  • After collecting the key, you can neutralize the debuff for a short time
  • After a certain amount of time has passed, they will pick themselves up and start fighting again
• The C.T.O. will be in the center of the arena shooting the Tennos
  • It is initially immune to damage
  • To damage it, you need to hack a terminal that will dispense canisters of coolant which will cause the shields to disable for a few seconds
    • Solo Story will last for 10 seconds
    • Normal Raid will last for 5 seconds
    • Steel path will last for 2 seconds
  • If it takes a certain amount of damage in a short time frame, it goes into overclock mode
    • Overclock increases damage, increases attack speed, and becomes immune to damage
    • To stop overclock mode, coolant canisters need to be thrown at it
• The mission succeeds after the C.T.O. is destroyed
• The mission fails if every Tenno loses all their lives

After killing everything, exhausted the Tenno approaches Parvos Gran who is on the verge of death only to find out it is a specter.
So these new specters were able to fool even the Lotus. Imagine how our companies will be if we can always be there, watching over them. - Investor A
I agree, we can essentially live forever without the same drawbacks as the Queens had with Kuva. - Investor B
Though it is still in its early stages, I am excited to see how you will improve this Parvos - Investor C
Thank you. Now onto our next agenda. Oh, and Tenno, thank you too for investing in the Corpus cause - Parvos Granum
Once all that is done, we find out that Parvos left some of his investments in the ship (aka our loot). We collect it and extract

Reward

This is the part that I do not really know the best way to handle but I do have some general ideas

1. The reward here needs to be exclusive. Even if D.E. makes a new raid in the future, these rewards cannot be shared to keep each raid valuable
2. On that same note, they cannot be traded, only earned
3. The different tires will give you different rewards
   1. Solo Story will unlock the raid
   2. Normal Raid will reveille 4 rewards and you pick 1 (like how relics work)
   3. Steel path will reveille 16 rewards and you pick 4 (like how relics work)
4. The rewards are drawn from a pool of rewards
   1. The common pool will include a "Corpus Coin" which can be used to buy common rewards in the raid relay
   2. The uncommon pool will include a "Corpus Void Infuser" which can crack open a relic without you having to run void fissures
   3. The rare pool will include exclusive weapons and by getting the weapons, you unlock their skins to be used in weapons of the same category
   4. An exclusive skin for the Warframe you used in the raid (only available in the Steel Path Raid) that you automatically get when you finish the raid
5. You get a certain amount of rewards from the reward pool per week (let’s say 5 like now the Netracells are) and after that you only get "Corpus Coin" as a reward
6. In the relay shop, you can buy evergreen items like relic packs, arcanes, endo, credits, kuva, universal medallions, etc... I don't know where would be fair to draw the line but there needs to be a reason to run the raid even after you have done your weekly runs

Conclusion

Thank you for joining my Ted Talk, and I would love to hear your suggestions on how to make this better. Any edits I do I will include the old version below as a record of how it has changed (if this post gets a lot of views/comments)
Edit 1: Grammar
Edit 2: Changed the sister spawn in Steel path from 10 to 4 at once
Edit 3: Changed the ending from:
After the C.T.O. is destroyed, I can see a few different scenarios depending on how D.E. wants the story to progress

1. We find out that the Parvos Granum we fought was a new, more intelligent specter, and the real Parvos is on another C.E.O. ship collecting data for the next C.T.O./Spector
2. The investors are not happy with the C.T.O. and decide not to invest and Parvos furious escapes
3. We harm Parvos leaving him with some kind of skar and he swears he will return with an improved C.T.O.

Setting: In the fictional, beautiful, rustic, and all-around depressing city of Rongeford, there are two kinds of people: epithets and mundies. This isn't too different from most cities, but the isolation and wilderness of the Northern Forestlands make the economic and racial divide between these two sides... a bit more tense. That isn't to stay you can't live in Rongeford and any other community in the Great North, mundie or not, but the city of Rongeford is a city with small-town sentiments: you gotta work to earn local trust, not expect it to be given. This comes pre-packaged in what is known as the all-too infamous Free-Northern talk: overly friendly and hospitable manners compared to the outside world, but with a hint of aggression that honestly you can't really tell whether they're being kind, or there are several veiled threats beneath those sweet words.
This is where your party, either mundies or epithet users, will come together, as a series of wild-fires have began to pop up across the municipal district, threatening the nearby communities and getting closer to the city of Rongeford. It would seem that whatever is causing these fires is, for once, not from stupid teenagers playing with fire out in the woods; a reward of $65,000 is offered to whatever group or individual can capture the rumored epithet usegroup terrorizing the municipalities of Ronge.
These adventures will take you through the many communities of Ronge, and face being completely trapped (even in the air), and forced to travel on foot to travel from place to place, face off against the wild-life, poachers, secret government agents, and the forces of nature itself. Oh, and there's also a huge casino heist that happens somewhere inbetween with guns and fire, but we're keeping it at least 90s PG here...so there will be some blood and we'll definitely go deep on the mental and emotional route, but this is going to be played by both kids and adults so...yeah.
Now, onto my character! Who am I, you may ask?
Character Creation
Name: Noah LaScritché Epithet: Itchy
Stamina: ☆☆ Proficiency: ☆☆☆ Creativity: ☆☆☆☆
□ Abilities: Can trigger a person's inner compulsions or desires and force them to act them out for a period of time. Can activate multiple compulsions at a time, but limited by the will-power and resistance of the target, and how many "itches" Noah can hold his attention to with his proficiency.
□ The "itch" can be effected on different levels of cognition and sensation: an emotional "itch," a physical "itch," or even a mental "itch."
□Emotional itches cause the affected person to experience emotions that have either been repressed or have left a huge impression on the person's memory, causing the person to be flooded with them again and be stunned or have them affect their actions during combat or in-game. This can have bonuses, but also debuffs depending on the Emotional moment left behind or unresolved.
□Physical "itches" are sensations that the person has lingering on them, they've felt recently and left an impression, or are so small in sensation that they go unnoticed. Noah can amplify these sensations or diminish them, but the effects are temporary; for whatever reason, to diminish the sensations of the person affected, Noah must let whatever physical sensations the person feels flow into him. This includes pain, nausea, constipation, and anything from excruciating in feeling to uncomfortable.
□Mental "itches" are arguably the most unpredictable and dangerous of Noah's epithet level of abilities. Using his scratch ability, Noah can influence the cognition, memories, perception, and self-perception of the person affected. To an extent, mental "itches" would be considered hypnosis; however, the effects make the Mental "itches" not only dangerous to person affected, but also to others around them. With emotional and physical "itches," the epithet doesnt force the person affected to let these repressed/intense/unnoticed sensations be relieved; it uses persuasion, or rather the Creativity from within Noah, to convince the person that they subconsciously should have this itch scratched. Mental "itches" are entirely different; they are "itches" from within the mind itself and it's perception of the world, and thus have far more defenses and resistance to the Scratch ability.
This is for good reason, as messing with the way a person perceives the world mentally is something that doesn't have a temporary effect like physical or emotional "itches. Like brain surgery, without careful precision, scratching at some compulsion or hidden desire within the mental space of a person could permanently damage them. For example, if Noah were to draw out a memory from a person's inner conscience that has been left unresolved, the person and Noah would view it. However, Noah must ensure that he is not detected by the person within his conscience and complete the scratch ability on whatever he needs to do; otherwise, the person's mind will activate defenses within, and may even view the influence of Noah on the memory itself as a sort of mental virus, and thus decide to erase both Noah and the memory. There are many more dangers of bringing out mental "itches," but here is a warning to summarize: there are certain things within the mind, repressed and hidden things, that aren't meant to be seen. It is the most useful level of "itches" only because it can dominate a mind, but it can just as easy break Noah if he is not careful how he approaches things.
□Side-effect for Noah is he feels an itch as a result, which grows in discomfort as he draws out the compulsion of the person. Can lead to him actively scratching himself in irritation, even harming himself unintentionally. Depending on which level of itch he scratches, Noah can experience certain debilitating conditions unless he succeeds a fortitude save. Examples include: temporary loss of sight,
Background: Hello, I'm Noah LaScritché, and I'm a theatre performer in a city that doesn't normally put much money, if at all, into the performing arts. Yeah, it sucks, but it's a lot better than where I last lived...anyway, I'm also a professional clown; in fact, I take it pretty seriously, and wear it wherever I go. You'd think it would be hard and outright crazy dressing up as a clown daily, but the key is mainly just the face; my outfit is mostly interchangeable, though I'm partial to wearing emerald-green shirt/jacket, brown/tanned trousers/overalls, a pair of leather-boots, and a tanned sun-hat.
That's my side-job as a clown (mostly for birthdays), but my main job is as an addiction councilor; yes, I wear the costume, even though I've gotten complaints, I guess I just feel more comfortable as a clown councilor, but I do make sure not to wear it if people are really freaked out by it. Turns out my epithet and a Bachelour's Degree in Mental Health works hand-in-hand to being a really good addiction councilor; of course, my code as a mental-health professional only allows me to do this kind of stuff if they sign off on it with consent, or I determine that the person under my supervision is having a state of emergency and I need to give my full attention and resources to them. To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about my epithet. By helping people open up their inner compulsions, some desires that even they have no idea that are hidden within them, it can actually help them have an apifany and recover, or it could end horribly. It's why I only do in extreme circumstances when no other option is available and the environment is safe and secure.
I'm getting off topic. Let's see...what else is there about me? I really like Weeros/Cockatiels, really any member of the parrot/cockatoo family; their mimicry of sounds is amazing. If I didn't go into theatre, I'd have probably become a professional hat-maker if the automated industry didn't destroy that profession locally; regular one-bill caps are boring, but a custom-made 19th century stove-pipe hat in any colour you choose paired with a fashionable jacket? Now that is eye-catching!

The Ermes browser starts up as slowly as ever, even with the help of the Tripolar Edge Router. The front page loads eventually though, and as soon as it does I input the link:

http://dejima08646F6E2774.pmkn

Then, I wait.

It doesn’t immediately tell me to go away, so that is some progress. It is still taking an eternity and a half to load but… With enough time, a black screen appears in front of me. Then, pleasantly green vines curl on the sides of the window, while words start to load in light gray. The banner on the center reads: DEJIMA 08, which I assume is the name of the site… Dejima? Isn’t that a real word?

A quick search in Gaggle answers: yes, yes it is! A very specific island in Cipango, artificial, made specifically to deal with pesky easterners that intruded on their lands. A sort of public spot where foreigners could come and trade.

But this is not a Cipangian forum, so it is clear these people are a bunch of weebs.

“Well if it isn’t the donkey complaining about long ears!”

Ahem.

The forum is written in Dobrand, so this is a southern forum. Luckily for me, that’s my second language.

“We should always thank mom for helping us play those Dobrandian games back when we were young.”

Looking right under the banner I find the usual buttons. Buttons for the Home Page, to Search, a Link Tree, and the Sign Up and Log In buttons.

The only visible subforum is the ‘Rules’ section, with a single sub-section called ‘Terms and Conditions’. Clicking it allows me to see a few topics… ‘Closing of Topics’ and ‘Coexistence Rules’ are there, as usual. ‘Colour Palette’, probably for those who want to get fancier with their posts. The last part is strange though: ‘Sleepers and The Link’.

On the side there are a bunch of statistics: Amount of posts (respectable, if not a little low), latest posts (only on topics, not on profiles? I guess this is a private place), and the members online. No names for the members though, just numbers: 12 registered users and… oh. Only 1 guest.

That’s me.

Oh damn it I am being singled out immediately!

I better get this done quickly before someone notices and decides to check on me…

Reading the rules is a good spot to start.

The Coexistence Rules were posted by a user with a dark purple name called ‘Ventotto’. They are simple enough, easily summarized on: Don’t be an Asshole, don’t be a Bot and don’t spam. I am surprised to see actual mentions of homophobia and transphobia as punishable behaviors in this year of our Saints 2012! People really liked making the same kind of 'Oh I actually identify as an Attack Helicopter! lol' joke on the internet, all the time. This is a breath of fresh air!

“Funny. You made that same kind of joke several times in VirtualZone, remember?”

I shudder in intense guilt. Saints damn it.

“Oh yeah, sure, now you don’t find them funny because you’re in your own struggle. You had to suffer to learn to be kind to others, huh? Can you really call yourself a kind man if you had to live through something to actually be merciful? Piece of shit.”

“Focus.”

A-Anyways. The rules also mention sanctions, like temporary kicks, denial of access to the Chatbox (Oh my, they have a chatbox! That’s fancy) or even a complete ban from the forum if people failed to accept these rules.

There were special rules about protecting the anonymity of the users though: no doxxing, no sharing personal information in the forum OR the chatbox. I wonder how much trouble this rule causes…

Closing of Topics is for users to ask for their topics to be closed, that’s basic. I can’t access it though, so they seem really into security. This one was made by a Green name, ‘jeepcreep’. Like the movie? I guess even mages have a sense of humor.

Colour Palette is nice. Just a single topic with colours usable for your posts, and it had all the colours in the spectrum!

There is one outside of it though, one that the rules specifically said should be used only in moderation: that impossible light again! Brightly shining in green and purple, mixing and flashing… it was labeled ‘Octarine’.

Staring at it for too long is going to give me a headache, that thing is an epilepsy hazard for sure! I am surprised they even allow its usage!

At least now I have a name for that damn colour.

It is another post by this ‘jeepcreep’ guy, he seemed to handle the more social stuff!

The final topic, ‘Sleepers and The Link’, is interesting. It wasn’t made by ‘ventotto’ nor ‘jeepcreep’, but another Purple Name called… uh…

ογδόντα.

“Is that Helenian!?” I frown. I am good with languages, yes, but I never even thought of learning that one. “Saints damn it, I have no idea how to even begin to pronounce that…”

After cursing for a bit, I decide to focus on the contents of the topic.
It goes without saying that the sharing of this Link with Sleepers is completely and utterly forbidden. Dejima 08 and all material that comes from it are a part of the Secret and, as such, must remain undiscovered by the Sleeper populace, lest we wish for the Brotherhood to come and seize all our hard work.

I am aware that MagiNet is protected by several layers of technological knowhow and a Physical Key, but this is no reason to be complacent and forget that our activities are supposed to be confidential.

The fact that we are doing these activities outside of the bounds of local Elysiums means that we must be careful whom we trust. Share this link only with people you know are trustworthy, and know that you will be personally responsible for their actions during their stay in the Forum.

Dejima 08 is a forum dedicated to the translation and transcription of Magical Hearts, and even if we have caved to the popular demand of adding “casual” subforums for you to enjoy, you must never lose sight of the objective.

Sleepers must be the people who ain’t magic, that much is easy to understand. But magical Hearts…? What even is that? Do they mean books? The curiosity is killing me.

I don’t even think about it twice: as soon as I finish reading, I immediately go over to Sign In.

Username: Tav
Email: [simple.times@gamail.com](mailto:simple.times@gamail.com)
Password: *********\*
Date of Birth: 08-09-90

Under all of that, there is a tiny white square with a play button. Under that, there is a little instruction that reads: ‘Write the Rune’.

Clicking the square expands it, taking over the entire screen for a moment before octarine coloured lines begin to spiral in it. It forms a very specific symbol. A rune! I make sure to grab my book and quickly look for a matching one… I only find *one* case, but I do find it!
Rune 5
Thako

No way to translate it without context for what the hell that word means, but I will certainly test it after I draw it on the computer. It’s a matter of following the lines with my mouse… and there. I am confirmed.

The white screen disappears, and the Forum confirms that I have been registered. A quick check of my gamail confirms it! They sent me mail and everything! It went straight to spam though, for some reason.

I guess it’s to make sure people who are not in the know just ignore them?

After all that, I scribble the symbol in my notes and stare at it for a moment. ‘Thako’, whatever could it mean? It won’t do anything no matter how much I read and enunciate it , at least until I learn its ‘signified’. But maybe one of the people in the forum will know?

“Hold on right there, Buster. This forum is not a place for beginners! Did you not catch that from the read?”

“True. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be willing to help, right?”

“They probably will look at you like a nuisance if you barge in and immediately demand answers.”

I hate to admit it but he’s right there.

“... Look, just, don’t close yourself to the possibility of getting help, okay? Do it now, or later, I don’t care. Just do it.”

How uncharacteristically harsh of you… but, sure. I will go with that.

Now that I can log in, the forum spreads into a few more sections.

‘NEWS’, ‘SLEEPER LIFE’ and ‘TRANSLATION’.

On the bottom of it all, there os the black Chatbox waiting for people to join in! There are only two people in the box right now. On one part, that’s great! No anxiety from big numbers of people or not being able to follow conversation. On the other… oh no. I could be intruding in private conversation.

“Now now, if they wanted it to be private, they could go to more secure channels.”

That may be true, but the anxiety is still there.

“Well, there is a section in Sleeper Life that says ‘Introductions’, maybe that’s a good start?”

I guess so. Let’s see what other introductions there are!

Click!

…

My heart sinks when seeing that there hasn’t been a post in introductions in over a year…

This forum is abandoned and only maintained out of some sense of obligation by the mods. The place receives little traffic being so secret, so this makes sense! But why do I still feel so nervous about it?

Taking a very deep breath, I push myself to just ignore the dread and quickly write a post. People usually mention their hobbies, their work and where in the world they are posting from, so it wouldn’t be too hard to start, right?

Hard or not, I ended up rewriting the thing like five times before pushing myself to press the ‘Post’ button.

Alright, now to wait…

…

…

…
Waiting is going to kill me. If I just stand here begging for attention, I will legitimately die.

“I think it is time for a distraction. How about King of Legends?”

“We’ve gone over this. That game is toxic, look for something better.”

“Team Stronghold 2?”

…

Sure. Fine, why not?

“Yes!”

“Urgh.”

I disconnect my computer from the Tripolar Edge Router and, after closing everything and making sure I didn’t catch all of the viruses in my little expedition to the Dark Web, I pick up my things and return to my comfy spot in the bedroom. I’ve been way too active during the last few days, and I deserve a break.

Right?

“No. But who cares?”

With a heavy sigh, I sit back down on my lazy boy chair, closing my eyes before getting everything connected and properly wired once again… and lose myself to some mindless diversion, trying my best to avoid thinking.

With some luck, at least one of the mods will see my post and say hi…


The alarm clock rang loudly in Gal’s ears. He wasn’t ready for it, taking a sudden leap from his bed and ending up on the floor while wrapped in his covers. The young boy snarled, struggling, kicking and rolling to set himself free from the warm embrace of the mantles before getting up, looking around himself.

He was no longer in dreamland, fighting with dragons and saving princesses. It was his good ol’ room, covered from side to side in videogame paraphernalia, illuminated by the first rays of the day filtering through his thin blinds. It was a bit disappointing, considering he really was enjoying his slumber, but he would get over it.

“Hmmmngh… good morning, world.”

With a loud yawn that almost unhinged his jaw, Gal walked out of his room and went straight to the bathroom, cleaned himself up and then walked straight to the computer room. He could get breakfast later! There were emails to check and things to do even on summer vacation!

“Alright, let’s see…”

“Aron! Are you up already!?” The voice of Gal’s grandma called from outside of the room.

“Yes Gangan!”

“Oh good! Good morning sweetie!” The old lady chuckled gently. “I’ll put breakfast on in a minute then. Make sure to brush your teeth!”

“I will, Gangan!”

Ahh, breakfast, the most important meal of the day according to most Sleepers. He wouldn’t dare to challenge tradition by missing it! But before anything, he wanted to give a look to a few topics in the Forum…

…Huh, what’s this?

LATEST POSTS
HI There! by Tav , in Introductions, posted one hour ago.

A new user? Now that’s fun… and they actually used the intro forum? Gal couldn’t help but laugh a little bit, that was adorable. The mark of an absolute noob. They must be so scared right now…

Moved by curiosity, Gal immediately checked the post. This ‘Tav’ person had the picture of a big, green rabbit smiling as their avatar… from freaking Grenademan? Now that’s an old school choice, but respectable. Gal already liked this guy.

Now, onto the post itself…

Oh boy here we go. Uhm. Hi there!

I’m Tav, I am 22 and currently reside in Wohl. I am an aspiring writer, spend most of my time playing games and practicing my craft, and, well… I hope we can all get along fine!

“Oh. My Saints.” Gal’s smile curled even more. This person was an absolute, utter nervous wreck, weren’t they? Oh boy, Sou was going to absolutely destroy them if they got their hands on them. This was way too earnest!

He couldn’t allow it. No sir. He had to make sure this guy wasn’t immediately pushed off the Forum! They never got new people because of it!

Sou wouldn’t get up for a while, enough time to actually welcome this Tav in…

“Alright then. I guess it’s up to me now.” Gal smirked, cracking his knuckles and getting to tap an answer. “Don’t worry friend! The hammer of indifference will not hit you today!”

"Wade! Good to see you back buddy!" Nathan said aloud as he and F approached Wade and Tina, the two breaking their embrace before looking to their friends.
Wade chuckled a bit as he responded to Nathan's greeting, Tina giving a pleasant smile as she stood behind him. "Same to you, man. How're things here?"
"Better than any words I could use for the situation!" Looking behind him, he gazed at a group of the worker drones that were rescued from the factory, having been brought aboard in order to transport them to a safer location. Their faces were of varied gratefulness and smiles as they made conversation with some of the troops onboard. "The rescue-ees are happy to be out of that place, far as I can tell!"
"They sure look like it." Wade said with a pleased smile, admiring the success of his and the Coalition's efforts as Nathan's friend Kurtis came over to the four.
Catching sight of Tina, the veteran drone gave a sly look as he correctly guessed the identity of Wade's accomplice. "Oh, and I see you found your girl you were telling me about."
The drone in question gave a blush of embarrassment as Wade held her hand, chuckling smugly as he introduced Tina. "Ah, yeah. Nathan, Kurtis, F, this is my girlfriend Tina. She's one of the best pilots I've met and known in my life, along with her sister Jasmine."
Tina's blush intensified heavily at Wade's words, a laugh breaching her mouth as she spoke to Wade's colleagues. "Well, I don't like to boast, but my sister and I DID fly for the military a while back."
Nathan and Kurtis gave impressed laughs as F chuckled at the amusing meeting, the former of the duo speaking as he shook Tina's hand. "Heh, well it's a proud pleasure to meet you, Miss Tina! You've got quite the partner with you, I'd say. He helped save F and Gerard from an accident during our time on Ceres."
Tina raised a hand to her mouth in shock as she looked to Wade, surprised by the news of his heroics at his new job before chuckling. "Well, it's not too surprising, I'd probably be dead if he didn't come in to help us." Remembering that F was involved in her rescue too, she glanced to the disassembly drone before quietly adding, "You too, darling."
F gave a thankful smile at the pilot drone as Wade spoke up on Tina's statement on her rescue. "Well, I'd also be done for if you didn't save me back there, with that disassembly drone squad." Tina nodded as Nathan looked to the drone couple in surprise at their stated feat.
"More of them? How many? Three? Fo-" The miner drone asked as Wade answered him mid-sentence.
"Three, and they put up a nasty fight. One almost got me before Tina shot at her with one of those guns these militia guys brought. A trooper must've dropped it during the fighting." Nathan gave an uncomfortable look of shock as Wade added, "One of them looked kinda like you too."
Tina pulled out her gun before holding it at attention, Nathan nodding in admiration of her efforts as she spoke up. "Think I could keep this one? We pilots usually carry sidearms like these, but I lost mine when they kidnapped me aboard the station in orbit."
Nathan and Kurtis looked to each other before nodding in agreement. "Sure, gonna need a holster though. Wouldn't want it to fall out that nice coat there, would we?" While Nathan gave his answer, Kurtis was already heading to the storage bays at the back of the ship, planning on grabbing the sizable holster wrap for Tina's weapon.
"Of course." Tina replied as Kurtis grabbed the desired gear, shutting the cargo door as he returned to the group. Taking the holster in her hand, she handed the pistol to Wade before speaking in between her efforts to attach the holster to her upper leg. "Thanks for the compliment, by the way."
"Don't mention it." Nathan replied back as F stepped up in between the group, wanting to add her own praise as the group looked to her.
"Glad to see so many together in arms here, especially when it's work colleagues like the boys here." Looking to Tina, she continued. "And Nathan's right, Miss Tina. Your partner is quite the guy, I'm a little surprised he didn't join the service. Him and his brother would've made great men if they fought in the ranks."
The positive air was quickly shattered upon the mention of Ron. Nathan, Wade, and the others all looked to F as her eyes became golden rings, the warrior drone realizing her mistake too late as she began to raise a hand to her face.
"...Yeah. Yes, we sure would have." Wade said solemnly, nodding lightly with a slight smile in his attempt to lighten the comment and, in turn, the mood. His smile faltered once again as he saw the others still frowning in sorrow, Wade joining them shortly after before remembering something. "Uh... Nathan? You did bring his body back here, right?"
Nathan nodded hesitantly as he glanced to the cargo bays at the back of the ship. "Yeah, I uh... We put him near the others we managed to recover before we left."
Tina listened with concerned eyes as she held tightly onto Wade's hand, the former worker drone tightening his own grip while speaking further to Nathan. "Good. Maybe, after this is all over, we can... Make preparations for a service. Ron deserves that at the least."
"So... h-he's in one of... those?" Tina asked dreadfully, observing the body bags lying next to each other in front of one of the cargo bay doors before looking back to Nathan, who looked down at the floor before replying.
"...Yep." Initially, Tina started to move, morbidly concerned over Ron's exact fate before stopping herself, still holding Wade's hand as she stood next to him again. Catching a glimpse of her attempt to see Ron, Nathan raised a digital eyebrow at her. "You, uh... want to see him?"
Wade looked down to Tina, who returned the gesture as they pondered over the uncomforting idea. She admittedly didn't want to see Ron, fearful of seeing what was left of him after that battle, but in a twisted way, knowing Wade wouldn't lie to her about a close relative like Ron being dead, she desperately felt the need for even the slightest sense of closure.
Looking to each other, Tina finally built her strength up, giving the faintest nod to Wade as her answer. Accepting her willingness, Wade slowly looked to Nathan, who needed no further gestures or words as he slowly walked over to the body bags, Wade, Tina, and their colleagues in tow. Upon reaching the bags, Nathan knelt down as his friends stopped behind him, Wade and Tina watching as he slowly unzipped the bag open. Despite her effort to be brave, Tina couldn't help but let out a horrified gasp upon seeing Ron's body, immediately noticing the large wound with dark, dried blood at his chest.
Nathan shook his head in dismay as he looked upon the sight of his fallen friend in the flayed bag. "It was when we made our second attempt in raiding the factory back there. We... We managed to pass through most of the halls without much trouble, but... we we're ambushed as we got close to the conversion room."
"G, the disassembly drone that helped the company abduct me, attacked us, along with several other troopers he brought with him." Wade added, him and Tina holding each other tightly as he continued. "We fought them off well enough, but G got an upper hand on me. He almost killed me, but.... Ron got in the way." Tina felt herself beginning to cry as she collapsed into Wade's chest, the former worker drone embracing her ever more tightly as she wept for their friend.
F shook her head in dismay, disappointed in herself as she spoke up. "I could've saved him, if I hadn't let myself get beat down like that. I-"
"F!" Wade said sternly, F ceasing her self-degrading as he tried to ease her guilt. "We did the best we could. If anything, it could've gone a lot worse."
Kurtis patted F on her back as he spoke up on his co-worker. "He was a good man, tried to bring out the best in people. Taught Wade that ideal well, too." He looked to Wade with a smile, the drone taking the compliment with the same gesture as he lightly patted Tina on her back too.
"*sniff* Y-Yes... He d-did try to make life brighter with his actions." Tina croaked as she slowly lifted her head up off of Wade, wiping the digital drops off her face as she added, "He... Him and Wade did well to so many with their farm they had back home, Jasmine and I helped transport their harvests all across the colonies."
The group gave looks and nods of admiration at the labor Tina described, Wade nodding in affirmation as he added, "Yeah, we held that place up for a long while. But if it weren't for the recent storms that ran through this place, we probably would still be farming." He began to chuckle slightly as he noted the events after the storm. "Heh, then again, we probably wouldn't have gone to Ceres if that was the case. So, I'm quite glad life changed our course on that endeavor."
Nathan was about to speak on the matter, but was stopped as Kelly walked out of the cockpit area, speaking to Wade specifically. "Mr. Wade? Our operative and her boss wants to see you and some of your team, says it's about the trouble you and the others went through."
Wade and Tina looked to each other with raised eyebrows before looking to their friends, F raising a hand as she spoke to the couple. "Well, you heard her. Let's get up there." Looking to Nathan, she motioned for him to follow her before glancing to Kurtis, who nodded to her before kneeling down to seal Ron's body bag.
Turning back to Wade and Tina, F smirked at them as they quickly made their way up to the small bridge of the ship, Tina speaking to Wade about the interior and where to go. "I do remember these ships a bit, now that I think about it. There should be a smaller room at the top above us. Come on."
Holding her hand, Wade and Tina made their way into the cockpit, F and Nathan close behind as the four walked up the small steps to the pilot seats. Right next to the ascending steps were another set of such steps, albeit going the other way into another room as Tina mentioned. The lover drones walked up the second set of steps as they entered the room, catching the sound of a conversation in their ears.
"Yeah Tess, they did a number on the security forces from what I've been told by Mr. Kurtis. He seems quite pro-" J stopped as she heard a startled gasp coming from the entrance near the cockpit, spotting her requested visitors as they took notice of her.
Wade, however, was immediately in shock, Tina also spooked by the familiar face as her love drew a sword before holding it out defensively. F and Nathan looked to the two in surprise as the former raised her arms slightly as to calm down Wade, knowing this J wasn't an enemy.
"Whoa there, easy now." The human hologram said with her hands raised as Wade and Tina gave a faint glare at J, who stared unamused with her hands to her hips.
Easy, Mr. Wade. I'm a friend." J stated as Wade kept his blade trained at her.
"Didn't we just kill you out there earlier?" Tina asked as she held onto Wade's arm, J smirking as she took in the amusing detail.
"Oh, yes. I believe you must've taken out one of my clones, not surprised. I killed a few myself back there." The corporate drone replied as Wade lowered his sword, surprised at J's words as she looked to him.
"Clones?" Tina said in bewilderment, confounded by the idea of multiples of the same drone running around.
"So, there's more of you?" Wade asked as he swapped his sword back for a hand.
"Indeed there are, Mr. Wade. Effective disassembly drones get cloned more often." J answered as she cringed slightly, remembering part of the reason she ended up here. "Though, admittedly I wasn't efficient enough recently. I'm a clone of one of the old units dispatched about two decades ago, before the Disassembly Division was officially instated."
Tina raised an eyebrow at J's explanation. "Recently? If you were away all that time, what could've possibly stopped you now?"
The murder drone groaned in slight annoyance as she reluctantly explained her answer. "Well, the colony we were supposedly sent to wipe out was quite persistent. During one of our raids, some brat with a ray gun blasted me in two." Regaining her composure, J flicked her hair with a smirk. "Then again, my clones should be better than they are, the Administrator seems to have a dislike towards me, as far as I can tell."
Wade and Tina glanced at each other as they took in the news, perplexed at the story they were hearing as the former spoke up. "Well, I sure hope so. Your clone didn't put up as much of a fight as I was expecting."
"Right..." J said with a look of disappointment before clearing her throat. "But besides that, we don't have time for THAT kind of backstory. We've got a lot of talk to do, Mr. Wade."
The holographic human raised a finger, drawing Wade and Tina's attention as she spoke. "Say, didn't J tell me about a human friend you had? A 'brother' guy?"
J nodded as she now also became curious over their missing acquaintant. "Ah yes, Ron, I believe. Do you know where he is, Wade?"
The two drones looked down in sorrow as Wade answered in dismay. "He uh... he didn't make it."
J allowed a concerned look to breach her shield of confident pride as her human friend spoke up, sounding sad at the news. "Oh, I uh, I'm sorry to hear that, Mr. W- er... Carter."
"It's alright," Wade replied as he held Tina's hand, looking up to J and the hologram before continuing. "at least he's not hurting anymore."
"My... condolences, Mr. Carter." J said, calling Wade by his last name now as she recovered from the tragic news. "But, it seems you've found someone else important. Who's your friend?"
Wade perked up a bit as he prepared to introduce Tina again. "Ah, yes. This is Tina Fowley, my girlfriend. She was among those captured by the company, I got her out before they could turn her, however."
"She's a pilot too." Nathan chirped from behind Wade, J and her boss stifling laughs as they took in the amusing description of Wade's partner.
"Well, she's quite the cutie, I'll say." The holo-human said in amusement, Tina blushing at the compliment as J spoke as well.
"Indeed she is, good find, Mr. Carter." Chuckling to herself, she remembered that she hadn't even formally met Wade earlier, prompting her to return the effort. "Well, now's as good a time as any to introduce ourselves." Looking to the hologram, J spoke. "Though you probably know who I am, name's J. And this is my boss, Tessa."
Looking to the human girl with a pleasant smile, he spoke to her. "Well, pleased to meet you, Mrs. Tessa."
"Good to meet ya too, Wade!" Tessa replied energetically before bringing herself back to a more serious stance, Wade and Tina feeling a bit surprised by the change of air as she spoke further. "And as much as I hate to cut the pleasantries so short, J and I have some important things to brief you on. So, take a seat and get comfy, everyone."
Noting the pair of chairs in front of the small table J and Tessa were standing on the other side of, the couple took them as Nathan and F stood behind them, simply listening in as J began to explain the matter at hand. "So, you both are probably wondering what this whole mess was all about, correct?"
The two drones nodded as Tina spoke up. "I heard it was having to do something with being recruited for the Disassembly Division, that group you spoke of a second ago. Why did they need to steal me away from my sister up there?"
"Well, the thing is, they didn't." Tessa answered, putting her hands to her hips as her companion explained further.
"Indeed, a simple memory transfer and body scan would've sufficed, but it seems the Administrator was in a bit of a rush." Crossing her arms, J continued in disgruntlement. "From what we gathered, this was done by her as per request by the company CEO, Mr. Jenson. He wanted the Administrator to recruit more drones under a new model of disassembly drone, with slight upgrades that would presumably remove most of the persistent issues each of us have." Shaking her head in disappointment, J finished with, "But, it's clear she cared little for how they were acquired, and way too far overboard with her efforts."
Wade held back his anger as he felt his certainty on the ones responsible grow with J's explanation. "So, it's true? Your people did all this? Got my brother and countless others killed for us?"
The corporate drone seemed to give a sluggish wave of her hand as she replied to Wade. "Well, you see, this whole ordeal is much more complex than it seems." Readying a holo-projector from her hand as it showed the image of a worker drone, dressed in a maid uniform. The hair was silver, two strips of it going down the sides of its head, as well as bearing a bow at the top of it all. Though the hologram made it hard to tell certain details, the drone's eyes appeared faintly as yellow through the blue hue from the hologram light.
Wade, Tina, and their companions eyed the seemingly innocent worker drone in puzzlement as J spoke again. "Now, you should count yourselves lucky, cause what I'm about to tell you is something corporate wouldn't let me spew out to anyone under certain statuses." Looking to Tessa, she continued with a sly smirk. "Then again, it'd probably be forced out of us anyway later on even if we didn't decide to tell you. So, now would be the best time to give you a run-down of the truth we have to share."
"Truth?" Wade asked with a raised hand, J nodding in affirmation before replying.
"Yes." Clearing her throat, J began. "You see, the Administrator was not a creation of JCJenson. At least, not in the way they intended. In fact, she was once a normal worker drone, just like you and I were." Wade raised an eyebrow as J's holo-projector shifted to show a building, a large, very old looking manor that went up a couple of stories high. As Wade and his cohorts observed the structure, J continued her story about her and this Administrator's origins.
"A long time ago, at this place we'll call Elliott Manor, my boss, who was still a child at the time, brought in a few worker drones left outside in a dump near the mansion, mostly composed of scrapped worker drone bodies. Upon bringing us in, Tess would fix us up so we could be her friends. I myself, along with three other drones, were her closest companions. Her family weren't so keen on having us around, but, to keep their daughter happy and to make us useful, Mr. and Mrs. Elliott put us to work keeping the place tidy." The disassembly drone's projector shifted again to show J and her three fellow workers, dressed in the same maid attire J was shown in earlier. Wade and Tina stared at two of them, as they resembled the disassembly drones they fought earlier, most notably N and V.
"Among the four of us here, THIS one would be the biggest problem." The hologram zoomed into the worker drone displayed earlier, postured in a strange, slouched over posture.
"Her name is Cyn, and, unlike J, V and N there, she was more broken than I had surmised back then. Spoke like some old artificial voice generator thing." Tessa stated, pointing at the highlighted drone before Tina decided to speak up on the backstory.
"How broken? Was there something wrong with her coding?" She said as she put a hand to her core.
J nodded lightly as she gave her answer. "Most likely. Do you remember the protocol tape for proper disposal of worker units? Seen it at all?"
Tina and Wade shivered a bit as they thought of the presumed tape J spoke of, dread creeping in from their memories of seeing it as the latter of the duo answered. "I think so, once during a little maintenance time I had years back. I think it was called... 'Zombie Drones'?"
"That's exactly the one." J said with a nod before continuing. "Well, if you saw it all the way through, the pie chart diagram points out the outcomes for OS complications should a worker core be improperly terminated. Out of those outcomes, the smallest, least likely one was 'potentially hazardous mutations'." Pointing to Cyn on the hologram, J continued further. "As for Cyn here, she befell said mutations, and they would come to not only affect her, but all of us at the manor too."
Tina's eyes went wide as she started to click the pieces together, recalling herself reading up on the incident J was hinting at years earlier during a class she took at the college she and Wade attended. "Wait... You, you don't mean SHE was the one who caused the Elliott Gala Massacre?"
J nodded in affirmation as Wade spoke up, confused at the revelation. "Wait, I remember looking into that too. Didn't the news say it was some mass murderer that did it?"
"That they did." Tessa replied as she added to the story. "However, that was a cover-up by the company to hide part of what really happened."
Pulling up what appeared to be a large room full of people inside, J explained the tragedy shown on the projector. "Tessa's parents didn't treat the drones under their service well, and Cyn seemed to despise them for it. On that day during a gala hosted by the Elliotts, Cyn, utilizing the mutations I mentioned, slaughtered the entire attending party there." Glancing to Tessa, J finished with, "Tess and I tried to stop her, but... it was too late."
Holding their hands to their mouths, Wade and Tina looked on in horror, Nathan and F sharing similar dismay as the four looked to Tessa. Knowing their desire to hear how she was spared, Tessa spoke to them. "Despite seeing her kill my parents and everyone in that room with my own eyes, Cyn spared me from the carnage. Took me away to some place so I could be kept quiet."
Raising a hand, F spoke up. "Well, wait a minute, how did Cyn join the company after all that?"
"Good question." J replied, pulling up an image of Cyn and a man, whom Wade recognized as Halloway before the corporate drone explained. "Upon the arrival of law enforcement and agents sent by the company, they found Cyn, who had already turned me and the other worker drones from the manor into the first disassembly drones. After some chatter between the two, Dr. Edgar Halloway, a simple materials recovery officer at the time, struck a deal with her. Talking with the authorities, they managed to convince them to keep the incident on the down low while they took Cyn and her drones in for study. Through said study, addition of protocols and official installation of Cyn into higher company positions, not to mention the creation of the Disassembly Drone Division, the rest is history."
The four drones looked on in stunned shock, taking in Tessa and J's story with unease as Wade spoke up. "So, this new body, the crazy shit that we just went through... it's all cause of this Cyn being? And those who are helping her?"
"That's right." J answered as Tina raised a finger, still concerned over the capabilities of the Administrator as she spoke.
"But, how did she convert you all into what you are now? What were these 'mutations' exactly?"
Tessa sighed a bit as she prepared to explain the origins of this horrible program. "Well, from what information I could gather before I got out of Cyn's clutches a while back, the researchers put to work studying Cyn and her abnormalities came to regard the latter as some kind of program, which grew stronger and more capable quite fast as it was kept under the company's leash. Eventually, they gave it a name: AbsoluteSolver." Pulling out what looked like a smartcomm, Tessa flicked her finger over it as she explained further. "Despite all logic, the AbsoluteSolver program, or, Solver, could generate various things out of thin air, as well as manipulate objects and living beings in many ways. To be blunt, it's like some kind of freaky magic powers for drones.
"Seeing that they could learn a lot from this program, as well as use Cyn's abilities to wring out all kinds of products and items for them to sell and use, the company instated the Solver Project, a research group dedicated to understanding the AS and its potential." Raising a finger, Tessa looked to Wade as she finished her explanation on the Solver. "Said program has been branched out to several other planets over the years, helping to spread this virus as far as possible for purposes we're certain aren't good, given that one of those planets got devastated by an experiment one of the teams did involving the virus."
The news that this infection brought harm to one of the colony worlds didn't sit well with the lover drones, both of them looking on in dismay as J gave more details. "And with that in mind, this recent effort has only cemented our belief that Cyn is up to something sinister. So once we reach the base here in Nevada, we have to make preparations for bringing this Solver Project to a halt... BEFORE it can harm any more people."
Smirking deviously, Tessa raised a finger as she glanced to Wade, who looked to her with concern as she spoke. "By the way Mr. Carter, that Halloway guy you ran into earlier? He leads one of the main teams working on the project."
Wade scoffed in annoyance he was reminded of that man. "Doesn't surprise me, seemed like he was really close to the Administrator from what I saw." Then, thinking on the reason for this briefing he was attending, Wade looked to J and Tessa curiously. "Why are you telling us this?"
J crossed her arms as she explained. "Because, Mr. Carter, YOU are the only disassembly drone we managed to recover from that place. And, given your exceptional performance there, your help would be much appreciated in our mission."
"Mission?" Tina said with a raised eyebrow. "So we're not done yet?"
"For us, not in the slightest. We've got some explaining to do with the government officials stationed at the base we're heading to. As for you all," J answered before looking to the four, all of them returning the glance as she continued. "...that depends on what you all have to say. Can you lend us a hand?"
Glancing to each other, Wade and Tina gazed into one another before nodding in agreement, turning back to J and Tessa before giving their decision. "Well, after what I just went through, and what happened to my brother... I'm sure as hell gonna bring those bastards to justice in one form or another."
"Yes, Wade and I have some talking to do with this 'Dr. Halloway' fellow before this is all over." Tina added, her and Wade holding each others hand as J gave a smirk at their vigorous determination.
"I'm glad to hear you two feel the same on the matter." J said as Tessa put her hands to her hips, slumped slightly as she spoke in a disappointed tone.
"Unfortunately, it may be a minute before we see some action. Once we reach the base, you all will find a place to rest for the time being. Since it's a military base, it should be safe from any major retribution attempts by those blokes at the company." Pulling out her smartcomm again, she continued once more. "As for us, we'll talk to the leaders there and see what their decision will be on the matter."
The quartet seemed to grow concerned over that last part, Nathan raising a hand before speaking his mind. "So, if they say no? Does that mean...?"
J and Tessa glanced to each other before the former answered the veteran drone. "Well, in that case, while it will be harder without official military support, the Coalition will take us wherever we need them to in order to put a stop to the Administrator. Shouldn't be much to worry about."
Taking this somewhat comforting news to heart, Tina and Wade nodded in understanding before the latter spoke to the operatives. "Well, that's good to hear. Whenever you do get an answer, give us a heads up."
"We will, Mr. Carter." J replied to Wade before shifting in her stance, Wade and his friends standing up together as their disassembly drone superior spoke once more. "With all that said, you're all dismissed. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask."
"Thanks for clearing this up, Mrs. J. You too, Tessa." Wade said gratefully before turning to the exit, Tina walking with him as F and Nathan walked over to the operatives.
"Wade? Do you mind coming down to the bay below? I... I have something to show you." Wade nodded to her before they made their way down, the four people behind them continuing the chatter as the couple went to have their long overdue privacy.
Stepping out of the cockpit behind them, Wade and Tina sighed in comfort as they saw the troops busy with their tasks, not giving a glance to the two as they walked close to the sealed door of the transport. Admiring the enormous view the large window in the door gave for a moment, the two drones looked to each other as Tina dug into her pocket. "I was hoping to do this when we got back home, but... I got this from Eridanus while I was visiting." Finding her token of love to Wade, she pulled out the small box she showed off on the call earlier, opening it to reveal her present.
Wade admired the blue gemstone with wide eyes as Tina pulled it out with great care. "Wow... It's beautiful."
Tina chuckled as she extended the gem's necklace band out. "I knew you would, I just happened to stumble upon it while exploring the forest during a tour." Putting the two necklace bands around Wade's neck, she clipped the present together before pulling her arms back, adoring Wade's new add-on as she finished her sentence. "I felt it would be something nice for you to remember me by, while we're away from each other."
Wade smiled at Tina as he expressed his appreciation for the gift. "It certainly will." Stiffling a chuckle, the former worker drone held Tina's hand holding the box as he spoke further. "But, no matter how far apart we are, nothing could fill the space you hold in my heart."
"Same in mine, dear." Tina replied as she gazed into Wade's eyes, noting the faint green in his yellowed visor as she looked on in hopeful amusement. "And yet, even after all they did, I can still see those eyes. Changed from the soft, cool grass to the warmth of a blazing sun." She said while putting the box away, then placing a hand onto Wade's face as he looked off with a blush.
"Tina, I..." Wade began, unsure of how to put his thoughts to words as he tried to find them. "I don't know what they did to me, but I won't let it ruin our relationship." Holding her shoulders, Wade spoke to Tina further. "You're the most beautiful being I've seen in the whole universe, your warmth, your flight prowess... I want to protect that. I want to protect you."
"Oh, Wade." Tina murmured as the two touched their heads to one another, holding each other close in their efforts to provide affection. Such affection intensified as the two joined their metal lips, sharing a long kiss as they enjoyed their moment of awkward romance together.
...
Location: New Nellis Staryards, Nevada
The Chameleon transports zoomed over the large military air base as they arrived at their destination, several A-20 planes flying about over the base as they either carried out flight sorties or, more likely, investigated the arriving craft coming towards the base. After about an hour of flying over the country, the Coalition-USN task force finally arrived at the designated area to begin unloading their rescued drones to an area they could be protected more efficiently.
As the transport began to descend, Wade, Tina, and their friends observed the sight outside the window, spotting several landed aircraft and even a few docked warships. They admired the many ships resting for repair and refurbishment while they prepared to land and disembark for the base outside.
In the small bridge of the dropship, one of the two pilots tapped a button on the control panel, putting a microphone to their mouth before speaking into it. "Base Control, this is Transport Chi-729-B, we've got assets from the recent op lead by Captain Preston aboard. Request permission to land."
"Permission granted, Chi-729. Welcome back." The officer on the other end replied as the transport descended further, two lightningrod jets breaking off as they permitted the craft to land on their grounds below them.

Greetings fellow lovers of all things macabre and disturbing. Please find the fourth installment of my current work in progress below! If you'd like to catch up on previous editions, you can find part 3 here
Pertinent characters: Erica, and her Daughter Alison.

Chapter 2: Under the Scope

From what she could find, there were mostly scattered reports here and there that seemed authentic and not the ravings of a conspiracy lunatic, but the information they contained was sparse and cagey, at best. It seemed no one was confident enough in making a definitive statement regarding the pathogen’s origin, its efficacy in spreading between victims, or even a ballpark idea of when it first became known to the public eye. One obvious conspiracy insisted it was manufactured by a foreign government agency meant to be utilized as biological warfare. Another claimed it was unleashed to cleanse the earth of all sinners for the world’s misdoings, a classic Christian ploy that the general public had long since dismissed off hand as being bullshit. COVID had shown everyone that even the most pious could be struck down, and humanity had done little to prove otherwise via masking or social distancing causing the largest uproar in decades. Funny how everyone laughed at the now known harbinger of end times, years before this horrible virus would be released.
The one theory that caught her attention was that a group of researchers had uncovered previously undisturbed ruins of a city, miles underneath the ground in an almost perfectly encapsulated tomb. While in the wreckage and surveying the scene, one of the researchers stumbled upon a mass grave, filled to the brim with skeletons of every shape, size and gender. During this excursion, one of the researchers had the misfortune of losing his balance and falling directly into the mass of skeletons.
It was reported that all seemed well with the researcher and they’d had him checked out to ensure he hadn’t inhaled any harmful chemicals or mold spores- however, days after the researchers returned, the man was reported missing, and found in his apartment a week later, his flesh and skin strewn across the floor in a gorey mess, leading in a hansel and gretel trail to where he lay still in the corner. He had ripped his hair out and seemingly gnawed his own fingers to the bone, his forearms and face the evidence of his self inflicted torment and his eyelids peeled back in a permanent look of horror. After this incident, more and more members of the team befell mysterious ends, most involving gruesome acts of self harm. Eventually the last of the team was reported to have shot herself at the first signs of any symptoms. The excursion had begun with fifteen members, all varying in nationality and age- by the time the last of them died, almost all 5 major inhabited continents had been exposed when the researchers returned to their homelands.
Upon reading this, Erica felt the hair on the back of her neck prickle, and her eyes stung with unbidden tears. It had to be the most logical explanation. There was something, some insipid and insidious thing that had been sitting, underground, dormant for god knows how long, a likely ancient and indiscriminate *it* that was now freely running rampant as smoke through a jungle. There wasn’t even information regarding the excursion itself, how long the ruins had been hidden, what year the findings were from, nothing. There were several photos from the excursion but they were dark, grainy, and looked like they could be any generic archeology excavation site. The only detail that seemed to differentiate it was the obvious angle looking down through a ten foot hole, sunlight pouring through into the cavern and lighting directly upon the grave. There, she could see the hazy outlines of rib cages, skulls, appendages and surrounding them, hundreds of scrawled runes in a language she didn’t recognize as any known language carved into long pillars of stone, wood and other materials.
The city was vast, and past the grave and marketplace, there were buildings resembling temples surrounding the perimeter of the dome. The closer she looked, the more it became evident that the dome shape of the rock previously covering the city had inscriptions, carvings and sculptures covering the entirety of it, some depicting great masses of people and others depicting foreign gods and idols. The scenes varied from graphic and disturbing to breathtaking beyond measure- all from a grainy photograph. Erica felt her head grow light again with the dawning horror that this may actually be the closest theory to reality yet of all that she’d read online. It was far fetched, but how else could one explain the deaths of an entire research team?
Erica rubbed her eyes and checked the time on the kitchen stove. Almost 2:30 in the morning. Christ, she had to get some shut eye. Who knew if they’d actually get peace and quiet on this first chaotic night, where monsters guise as humans wrenched limbs off clean? She was certain she wouldn’t soon be able to erase the images seared into her corneas from today’s events, and she shuddered at the idea of what may still be to come. She shut the laptop with a quiet thump, and gasped to see Alison standing behind the laptop, peering at her fretfully.
“Alison, you scared me! What are you doing out of bed?” Erica quickly fumbled her notes under the newspaper, only haphazardly noting the headline from that morning that read “mystery archeological team identified, next of kin found deceased in homes”. Funny. What she’d been searching for for hours was just under her nose.
“I couldn’t sleep, I keep hearing a rumbling noise from upstairs and it sounds like someone is dragging furniture around their room. Do you think they’re building a fort like I do sometimes? Maybe we could check on them?”
Erica felt herself stiffen at the suggestion, and the creeping realization dawned on her that the noises Alison may be hearing upstairs might be that of burglars, squatters or worse. She felt her nerves quicken as she sheepishly responded, “I’m sure they’re fine sweetheart, and we don’t want to invade someone’s privacy. I’m sure if they need any fort building help, they’ll let us know”.
Alison nodded, rubbing her eyes sleepily and yawning “Okay mommy. Can I sleep in your room though? Some of the blankets they’re using for their fort are falling in front of my window and it keeps tapping on the glass.”
Erica stood there, contemplating what her daughter could possibly mean, knowing the blanket fort idea had been a ruse to throw Alison off the scent of any sci-fi-esque goings on in their humble apartment building. Erring on believing her daughter and investigating later, she placated with a simple “Of course, sweetie”, and deposited the small human into her bedroom, being sure to draw the blinds and curtains so no extraneous noises or lights can disturb her further.

Use this thread to promote yourself and/or your work!
(Descriptions of fictional crimes investigated by the story's main Character Max.)
Detective's Fate
It's august of 2008.....
Max is a detective living in Chicago He checks his pistol and puts on his police badge as he walks out his front door.
He has been searching for a serial killer known as the Caller for years and always been one step behind due to the red tape.....
More importantly the chief's lazy attitude towards getting search warrants and actions approved by the courts for raids. Twice Max had good intel on the suspect's locations and photo evidence showing him at the sites.
The department needs more vigilant, caring officers and leaders but no one steps up to do it, instead they just complain about the slow progress and officers. And hinder investigations.
Now Max has decided that it might be time to stop playing by the rules and catch this scumbag.... .... ....
Starting his car Max sets his GPS to the address that "The Caller" was last seen and pulls out of his driveway as the 50 miles of directions pop up.
The killer's nickname being for his signature of calling in as he is committing the crime.
As he drives he remembers his first case, five years ago now..... ..... .....
A woman, Joane Taylor, was found dead in an alleyway after going out for the night. She showed no signs of struggle leading the police to believe she had drank to much and expired from alcohol poisoning.... ...
The death was written off as a "party gone wrong".... That is until several more were found and the coroner decided on a whim to test for other substances.
Once it came out that the deaths were possible murders...
The calls started coming in, almost like the suspect wanted credit before revealing himself....
Then ways of the deaths began changing as the Serial Killer explored his twisted desires searching for his preferred method.
The last case being a young woman found stuffed in a dumpster after the killer apparently got scared off.... Max will never forget it.... .... ....
The GPS finishes and the car beeps its final direction, taking an exit off the highway. Ramps out here are always confusing... Which is funny since he has driven this one for five years now...
The chief says he should sit this one out but he can't... The latest victim 3 months ago.
Marie Spelner, a waitress out on her smoke break talking to her spouse on the phone.
Survived by her husband, no children or living relatives. ....
Max Spelner turns into the driveway of the house he was directed to... Stepping out of the car he walks up and knocks on the door. Looking at the house he knows the family must be doing well if they live here.... Raising his hand to knock again he hears a scream from inside....
A second later the door is answered by a middle aged butler holding a tray with wine glasses on it... "Hello Sir, I'm sorry but this house does not wish to partake in any offers at this time..."
Max calmly says. "I'm not selling anything."
The butler looks confused for a moment before his eyes dart over Max's shoulder seeing his unmarked cruiser and he nods.
Looking past the butler Max sees that a woman is cleaning up after their dog.
"Have you seen this man?" Says Max holds up a picture of the one suspected of being the killer.
The butler gives it a once over before replying. "I'm sorry sir, no I have not." His tone sounds like he is lying... ....
"Are you sure?" The detective asks.
"I would not lie about something like that, sir." He states, his eyes not meeting Max's.
The woman calls from inside "Fletcher, who are you talking too?"
"Some man asking about a killer" he calls back.
"The killer is an inside job!" The woman quickly states.
"What?!" Max says.
"The Killer, it's an inside job." She says again, louder this time. In the same Max also hears a child begin to cry in another room.
"We should start from the beginning, it will be easier to explain trust me." The woman says.
'She seems to know what is going on....
"How do I know your story holds water?" He asks out loud.
"Oh I wouldn't lie. I have been following the case myself and it seems like an inside job to me." She states, somehow sounding hurt.
"Is there anyone else in the house besides you two and the baby?" He asks noticing the baby isn't crying anymore.
"Just Fletcher and I live here, the baby is my cousins but he just stays the night sometimes." She replies.
Max draws his gun and enters the house upon reasonable suspicion of an emergency in progress or suspect on the premisses as the man seems to be deceiving.
While the woman still seems unconcerned that the child is now silent.
He pushes past the butler and rushes towards the area he heard the crying. passes the entryway, the dinning room, and a kitchen before finally finding a child in a playpen.
"There there..." He says in a sing song voice picking up the child. "I'm officer Max, do you know where your mommy is?"
The child just cries louder.
Then he sees the man from the photo walk out of the bathroom, upon seeing him he bolts for the door and Max sets the child down gently then gives chase.
He runs through the house, following the man as he can hear the woman screaming at him to stop but he doesn't."
"Stop or I'll shoot." The man doesn't even break stride.
Instead he runs out of the front door and jumps into his car.
Furious that the man might escape he fires at the car as it drives away.
The back window shatters and he hopes he got his tire, but he doesn't wait to find out as he runs to his car and initiates a pursuit....
He flips on his concealed lights in his cruiser as he reverses down the drive and into the street.
The suspects car is fast but he manages to keep up with it weaving in and out of traffic as people move over for the siren.
As they approach a red light there is heavy traffic in the intersection..... ....
The suspect slams on his brakes and Max's cruiser only just stops short of hitting it. Jumping out the Detective points his firearm at the vehicle running up beside seeing heavily tinted windows.
"Get out of the car and on the ground now!!" He shouts as he moves to the driver's side door.
After seeing no response....
Max throws open the door and the driver is gone with the passenger side open.
He quickly runs to the other side catching the man trying to sneak off tackling him to the ground and then takes his arms putting them behind his back.
Max grabs his radio and calls it in as the man cries.
As he is waiting he hears a noise that sounds like static.....
"Wrong guy moron.. Did you ever stop to think I wanted you close for this one. That I planned everything...Even framing the pothead..... I almost lost interest until you pulled in the driveway... The attic is kinda cramped tho... I think I'll go carve some meat. Maybe graduate to other things to. I'm not sure yet. Lets see if you can catch me before......" A familiar voice says over the radio then cuts off... ...
Max looks at the man on the ground. "Why did you run from me?" He asks.
"Cause I have like 19 grams of marijuana in my pocket." He replies...
"Do you know how stupid that is?! I don't care about that I'm looking for a killer."
Before he can answer Max hears the woman from the house screaming for her life and a child's cries on his radio.
Then from below Max. "He's in the house, he's in the house! My mom and the baby!" The man on the ground says crying.
Max uncuffs him and runs to his car heading back to the house as he lays down rubber on the road... ... ...
As he approaches and pulls into the driveway he notices the front door is open.
"Hold on I'm coming!" Max screams jumping out of his cruiser...
He runs into the house finding the woman's body arriving too late. Moving over to her he checks for a pulse but she is gone, a large gash in her neck.
As he stands up he slips in a fluid but gains his balance and tries not to think about what it is....
He rushes to the room the baby was in finding the play pen empty. He leaves the room searching the rest of the house and still doesn't find the child.
"Where are you!!!" He calls out....
"This is the Callers first kidnapping and the media would eat up the fact I failed to stop the man." He thinks as he blames himself.
Sirens begin to blare in the distance as backup is about to arrive... ... ...
"There's a woman dead and a baby missing! The woman is in the dinning room straight ahead of the front door, Hurry!" He yells into his radio...
Looking over at the mother seeing a piece of paper on the floor.
He walks over to it seeing writing.
"So close... Looks like I'm a kidnapper now.... Good luck finding me.... And... I so enjoyed killing that sweet wife of yours. Might do it that way again. Not to the kid tho....later Max. Ps. This game is so fun.." It says.
"He was here..." Is all he can muster as the team enters.
"He was right in this house and I missed it because her son freaked over weed and ran..." He says as another officer speaks to him gently.
"Don't beat yourself up Detective, it's not your fault. He must have hid before you got her and left after you arrived." The words do little to comfort him "First day back on the job and the killer escaped taking a child..." He says as he walks away.
The chief arrives in his new lexus with a screeching of rubber as he lurches to a halt.
He quickly exits and leaves his door hanging open as he rushes into Max's face....
"I told you to stay away from this case MAX!!!!....(takes a breath)...
"If I catch any flak from my superiors, I won't suspend you.... That'd be to easy. Desk duty and an entry level demotion. The new guy will have a higher rank than you if things go my way.... Now get outta my sight...". "(Sighs)...
"This job is gonna be the death of me..." He says walking away from Max and towards the Coroner's van..... ..... .....
On the way home the detective stops by the store close to his house which is unlike him because he usually follows the same routine.
He nears the front door and he hears a kitchen timer ding loudly from behind him as his car explodes throwing him through the storefront windows as they are blown out..... .....
Alarms around the lot and others nearby create a cacophony of noise. His head pounding as his body aches, Max pushes himself up and collapses as the store manager runs over to him telling him not to move as he dials 911.... .... ....
Waking in the hospital Max recalls the feeling of the Shockwave as he flinches in phantom pain.
"Who woulda thought its like holding a ringing metal bat that hurts your hands but all over and way more intense." He thinks.
He suddenly feels tired and falls asleep.... .... .... ....
The next time he wakes, he sees a breaking news story that Jane Saltani is reporting on....
"Young toddler Accidently Shoots Serial killekidnapper ending his life and Alerting residents in the Area." The news anchor says.
Sighing to himself Max thinks about how crazy that is and laughs.
Tho he really wanted to bring the guy in. He closes his eyes to get some much needed sleep as his door opens.
Max looks up to see a man with a silenced pistol pointed at him.
"Hm. Now they think I'm dead. Funny how they just assume they got the right guy. Just like.... You did Detect... ....." Max hears but then hears no more as his end comes at just over the speed of sound....
The Caller leaves the hair of another intelligent convicted murderer that he obtained in a spot that's believable and quickly leaves.....
He disables the surveillance system and sends a virus out to any device that has received video data from the hospital.
Erasing and corrupting the systems. Leaving a master hackers finger prints on a glass from his home....
"Sorry, no witnesses." He says to the security guard as he fires... ..... ..... .... ....

EDITED TO ADD: WRONG TITLE. ITS FOR COMBINED SCIENCE ONLY
Okay so here are the questions that I remember from my biology paper :) (could and could not be in order)
A company produces a drink with fructose instead of glucose. Fructose is sweeter than glucose.

• 2(?) marker - Give two reasons why the company would use fructose instead of glucose in their drink
• 3 marker - state the test that would be done for glucose in the drink

Test_________________________
Positive result_______________

• 2 marker - State the test that would be done for protein in the drink

Test_________________________
Positive result_______________

• 3 marker - plot the results from table two onto the graph. Only plot the results from 0.2 to 1.0. Draw a line of best fit. One result has already been plotted.
• 1 marker - Find the concentration of salt in solution Z in cm^3/ dom.
• 4 marker- smoking can impact the lungs (?) DIAGRAM HERE

Person B is a smoker while person A is a non-smoker. Explain why Person B breathes bettefaster during exercise than person A.

• 1 marker - something about where do plants new cells come from - answer is MERISTEM
• 5 marker - magnification question (im cooked) Diagram HERE calculate the magnification.
• 6 marker - proteins and fats from the drinks (the company thing AGAIN) are digested by our digestive system(?). Explain how they are digested (?)

In your answer, you should:

• mention what enzymes are used
• (something else that i forgor)
• 1 marker - what type of pathogen causes measles?
• 2 marker - Explain how to reduce the spread of measles. Do NOT mention vaccines in your answers.

1_________
2_________

• 3 marker - Explain the difference between a prokaryotic cell and a eukaryotic cell.

1_________
2_________
3_________

• 2 marker - A gardener is growing tomatos ??? greenhouse??? (anyways) the temperature is set to 15C. A heater can increase the temperature to 25C. Explain why a heater should not be used in the greenhouse. Do NOT refer to cost in your answers

1_______
2_______

• 3 marker - Explain how vaccines can help patients/ people build immunity against measles/ the measles pathogen.
• 3 marker - Percentage question. Something about a table with with results and you had to calculate the percentage increase of X.
• 6 marker - Angina causes chest pain and tiredness. (something about how it is related to Coronory Heart Disease). Explain how (???). In your answer, you should include: Symptoms + causes of angina, How to reduce its symptoms.

4 marker - Explain all four stages of mitosis on the diagram. Diagram HERE
1 marker - Which type of microscope was used to see the (cell???) explain why it was used.
1 marker - (multiple choice) which formula/reaction is photosynthesis?
2 marker - Measles is a virus that will make you ill. Explain how a pathogen / virus can make you ill.
I will continue updating while I remember the rest of the questions :). If there's any ones anyone can remember then please do tell me so i can add them. Also tell me if there is any mistakes in these questions.
These are only from memory, so wording will not be 100% correct :)

COMBINED SCIENCE HIGHER

[I will be updating this as I figure out the rest of the marks; so far, I've found 50 51 54 55 57 62 out of 70 marks for the paper. Please leave any questions I missed out in the comments]
Q1.1 What are two benefits of fructose from glucose (without mentioning sweetness) [2]
Q1.2 Explain the food test and colour indication for sugar [3]
Q1.3 Explain the food test and colour indication for protein [2]
Q1.4 Digestion [5; QUESTION NAME?]
Question (number unknown):

• Coronary heart disease adaptation - explain the symptoms, and how it causes fatigue and chest pain [6]
• Avelous - explain how person A, based on the figure (the avelous is less "smooth" - more indented) breathes less (person B breathes more) [4]
• Mitosis, explain based on figure (4 stages) [4]
• Percentage change question - ANSWER: 6.2% [3]
• Question based on concentration graph: 0.7 (x-intercept) [1]
• Explain how measles virus works [4]
• Explain how to prevent measles other than vaccination [2]
• What type of pathogen is measles [1]
• How does a virus infection make you ill [2]
• Explain why you shouldn't use a heater in a greenhouse (of 25 degrees) [2]
• Three differences between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells [3]
• Explain the process of enzyme digestion OF PROTEINS AND FATS (where are the enzymes made and explain the activity) [6]
• Magnification question; answer = 800x (CORRECT CONVERSION BETWEEN MM, MICROMETRES AND CENTIMETRES-1MARK, CORRECT) [5]
• What microscope has viewed the virus cell, and why? [1]
• Draw the concentration graph [3]
• When a plant is cut, and grows from the roots, what is this? (eperdemis(?) mesophyll(?) etc) [1]
• Why was the permable solid dried before it was weight [1]
• What is the formula for photosynthesis [1]

GUIDANCE:
MAGNIFICATION - (FORMULA-1MARK, 50-20-1MARK, 30*1.5-1 MARK, CORRECT VALUES INSERTED IN FORMULA AND 800X RESULT-1MARK) [5]

Some background: I live in an East Coast beach town. My dad (late 60s) lives in the Northeast, and texts that he's passing through on his way to Tampa. He asks if he can meet me at a local diner. I haven't seen him or really had a meaningful conversation with him since my nephew's second birthday party back in August. Despite my sister living in the Midwest, he showed up with two friends - we'll call them Boomer (early 70s) and Bobcat (mid-50s). Boomer married into money and has very much been in an end of life crisis since he wife died five years ago - we're talking Pit Vipers, a new Corvette, every tacky boomer luxury and fashion choice you can think of. Boomer is also the father of someone I went to gradeschool with. Bobcat desperately wants to be a cougar and/or Rock of Love contestant. She dyes her hair jet black with the emo peacock thing that was popular in like 2008, wears a glitter cowboy hat everywhere, and has had so much plastic surgery that - not trying to bodyshame - she looks more like an alien doing an offensive human caricature than an actual person; if an alien made itself look like her and walked around going "I'm a human," you'd be offended. While I won't intentionally bodyshame, as someone covered in tattoos I will gladly inkshame the stars and negative space clouds she got done to cover her tummy tuck scar - it looks like it's meant to be filler on a sleeve or backpiece, and since it's her only tattoo it draws attention towards the scar it doesn't hide (I'm sure her artist tried to reason with her that negative space designs won't cover anything by definition). Basically, both arrived wasted, and despite the pool being closed for obvious reasons, proceeded to strip to swimwear and open up the pool they don't own. Bobcat decided a one-piece thong swimsuit would be appropriate for a two year old's birthday party, and Boomer kept trying to fight parents for staring at the trainwreck (hence how I know about her tattoo). My sister hasn't spoken to my dad since, and my mom and I celebrated Christmas at her house without my dad. I texted my sister to see if she'd be hurt if I agreed to meet him, and that I wanted to try to talk sense into him about why he owes her an apology for dragging two uninvited guests across state lines in the first place.
Anyways, I meet him at the diner, and lo and behold, he's roadtripping with Boomer and Bobcat and never bothered to tell me. Maybe five minutes in, Boomer thanks my dad for helping him re-write something. This catches my ear because my dad is definitely not a creative type and wouldn't begin to understand how to draft an article, blog post, or god forbid a legally binding document. I joke that someone has been taking creative writing classes he never told me about, to which he replies that it was "just a contract," and that he "had to" because he saw that Boomer's lawyer was refusing to. When he saw my face he tried to assure me that he read an article by a lawyer on Facebook about how to do it and it wasn't hard.
Oh no...I ask to see the article. It's one of those clickbait virus trap "Experts Reveal Their Industry's Secrets" lists shared by some random AI run page featuring a bunch of tweets and Reddit posts and a likely AI interpretation of said posts. I'm not a lawyer, but based on the "bar manager" who advises you to always order "light ice" with the author's takeaway being that they have to fill your glass (no, they don't) so you get free alcohol by ordering light ice (holy shit no you don't), I'm guessing the Reddit lawyer isn't one, either.
Since my dad pulled it up on his phone, I don't have a link, but I remember the gist of it: If you want to leave an immediate family member out of your will, they can contest it and the courts will likely grant them something. The initial post acknowledges that most Americans don't know they can contest a will, but a way to prevent them from doing so is to leave the immediate family member you don't like a small sum like $5 on the condition that they don't contest the will. The author's brilliant takeaway is that the family member won't risk losing their "entire inheritance," and "who doesn't want five dollars?" That I distinctly remember because Jeeeeeeeeesusfugginchrist.
I'm so dumbfounded by it all that it doesn't occur to me I'm potentially about to help the two (three?) worst people I know screw over a kid I went to gradeschool with that appears to have grown up to be a decent human being. I ask that my dad wrote a will for one of them, and Boomer confirms it was his, and that he wanted to write out his own child because, as Bobcat explains for him, "you won't believe how much [kid's name] has changed since you knew them."
Before I wised up to the fact I was inadvertently helping them, I even asked if it was wise to draw attention to something his child likely doesn't know exists, to which he assured me "No one is stupid enough to lose their entire inheritance on a gamble."
"You mean five dollars?"
"It's their entire inheritance."
"Yeah, but if I Googled how to contest a will, I'd get your house. That's like flipping a coin - heads, I win a house, and tails, I lose five dollars. I'd gladly flip that coin."
"No No No, it's heads, you win a house that you could have just bought, but tails, you lose your entire inheritance."
"Which is five dollars?"
"That's not the point. Think of it like Deal or No Deal. If you were down to the million dollar briefcase and the penny briefcase, you'd be stupid not to take the deal."
"But if the deal is only five dollars, why not gamble on having the million dollar briefcase?"
"Because you'd lose everything if you had the penny briefcase!"
At this point I realize that the more I talk, the more likely I am to help them. I tell them I never thought of it like that, they all get shit-eating grins, and my dad advises them to tell his lawyer about the new will because "he'll probably just toss out your old one."
And as tempted as I am to give my old friend a heads up...it's insulting to their intelligence to do so. I'll reach out when Boomer dies, and aside from making sure they know he had a will with his lawyer I'll stay out of it. I imagine any judge who sees the document my dad drafted will side with the kid, especially seeing that, from what I've read, undue influence from a recent third party (aka Bobcat) and lack of legal witnesses; etc. are major cases for contesting a will (again I'm not a lawyer so any actual lawyers feel free to chime in). My only wish is that Boomer can see from beyond the grave how badly his plan eventually backfires.

Male 30 years old. 5'10" tall. 178lbs body weight. No prescriptions. Don't smoke. Dont do drugs. Just had a full blood draw panel done 6 weeks ago and everything came up clean. So no diabetes, no liver issues, no low white cell count and no stds or HiV.
I shared a can of soda with this person who has this Barr virus. How much risk am I at to contract this virus? I will be getting a blood test done when the office opens (2:36am right now).

He is a cartoony little lad, in his story there is a “Secret” apocalypse going on, where people are taken over by this weird virus, you can’t see it normally, the person is just zoned out and unresponsive but for the few that can see it (or other people in early stages) they see a completely blacked out figure with prominent eyes - unless they are mutated, the physical virus, or an animal -these kind vary wildly- I will probably make something to contain all of this information and if I do it will be linked somewhere
So he gets infected -(very slow processing) will probably make it a mutated strand so that’s how he can see them- from his friend
So he will befriend some sort of Devine spirit dude -who is actively getting re designed- HE UGLY who helps him out with the monsters
This is also my dump OC so he will go through hell 😊 but he will live for sure!
He is a bit of a scaredy cat, but extremely paranoid at the start of his infection He is extremely sweet and loves to make gifts for his friend He loves accessories but doesn’t wear them often because his dad thinks it makes him look girlie( his dad isn’t abusive he just makes comments and wants his son to be more masculine, he does care for devin) Devin loves to dress up, and his best friend (hathy) loves To dress him up He is about 12-14 His favorite color is a hot reddish pink, but he settles for red to not get bullied His favorite things to do are, art, pottery, woodworking and swimming HE HAS FUR! It’s very short and only puffs at his elbows and head(he is insecure about his elbows so he hides them) He hates certain textures (he washes his fur everyday with 1 specific shampoo because otherwise he feels stiff) He is smart, but not school smart, he can solve puzzles easily and has quick thinking but he sucks at math He hates slime, he got it stuck on him (by hathy) a little while ago and now runs anytime he sees it
He lives in a weird time, like phones exist but they are for communication and news, no social media, there are video games but they are like n64 looking and people are way more self sufficient (home gardens,really good solar power, extensive knowledge on crafts)
He does have a mouth it’s just isn’t shown to represent him not having a voice/power He is not mute, this story is him going through grief, and overcoming it, but never forgetting what/who he lost
FEEL FREE TO DRAW HIM JUST GIVE CREDIT IF ANYONE STEALS HIM I WILL CRY🥲

First/Previous
“No! Jack!” Sephy cried out as she saw them fall, quickly swapping to her plasma rifle to try and give him some covering fire.
“Sephy! Enemies close!” Nika warned with a yell as she blasted a gutter punk that had tried to rush her, destroying the left part of the amphibian’s torso with a powerful shotgun blast that stopped him dead.
“Shit!” The Skritta cursed as she dove into cover on the opposite side of the alcove as plasma blasts zipped over her head, pummelling the plastered walls where she had just been standing and spitting up dust. Scrambling to her feet and unclipping her plasma rifle she blind fired around the corner, not caring who was on the other side as she bought Alora and Chiyo time to use their powers.
Dante barked loudly, as a dome of the most translucent sparkling blue settled over the girls. Recognising it as the same kind of shield the ‘dog’ had summoned when they were ambushed by the Red Legion aspirants on the way back from the Oracle, the Skritta grit her teeth as her brain caught up to what had been pure instinct. Holy shit this was bad!
Chancing a peek around the corner she could see a scrum for the stairs as a few of the more sober and less combative-looking patrons wisely decided to make their escape while they could, meaning that the stairs were clear enough to descend quickly if she and the others could get there. Unfortunately the path to get there was packed with many, many more of the rougher-looking mercenaries, gangsters and other toughs fired up by what was going on!
“ERE WE GO BOYZ!” A loud drunken voice yelled out from somewhere nearby. “WAAAAAAAGH!”
As two heavy-armoured Xarak wearing purple gang symbols charged into a group of avians wearing green, the resulting drunken brawl quickly escalated like wildfire into a full-blown melee, drawing nearby bystanders into the mix as drinks were spilled, bottles were smashed and bodies hit the floor.
‘Shit, getting out won’t be easy.’ The Skritta thought to herself, before suddenly getting an idea as she looked to the overhead turrets that looked like they were powering up.
“Cover me!” She called back to the others, as a translucent AR feed highlighted her vision to reveal the poorly maintained and vandalised local Matrix. Looking around the display, she could see poorly coded glitches rampant throughout the area making it difficult to perceive the local connections, with what looked like years of virtual graffiti scrawled everywhere else.
‘I’m surprised that any electronics work here…’ Sephy thought to herself, sending a scouting program to work out what she had to work with, while in the real world she moved to the balcony to try and look for Jack. She couldn’t see anything through the chaos and her view of the Matrix before she had to duck down back into cover as several plasma blasts were sent her way from the opposite side.
A quick blip from her scouting program told her that it had found what she was looking for, and Sephy wasted no time as she switched her view to that of her scouting program, holding back the nauseous sensation caused by the sudden perception shift, as almost immediately she had to focus on bringing her defensive programs to bear as several hostile nodes honed in to attack her.
‘What the fuck? These IC are way too powerful for a place like this!’ Sephy thought to herself as she backed away, maintaining her defences and cursing the fact that she couldn’t fully fade into the Matrix to speed things up. Looking up, Sephy saw the connections for the local turrets defended by a wall of advanced Blocker IC too advanced to be part of the local system, and she also saw the reason.
‘Oh you motherfucker!’
Hiding behind the defences, Sephy spotted a shrouded ghost-like shape by the turret connections, working an intrusion program on them to bring the turrets under their control.
Another slicer was already in the system!
As she sent a data bomb their way, the defences quickly acted to protect their charge, intercepting the digital attack and exploding in a debris of code lines and pixels. Turning around, the other slicer grinned as his hack of the turrets continued automatically, indicating that he was fully sliced into the local Matrix.
“Ah, yes. We were informed that the outsider had a slicer amongst his group.” The figure cruelly cackled, though Sephy was unable to tell their species or gender due to them both being in cyberspace. “I would normally tell you to surrender, but our Lictor gave us orders to eliminate every single one of you. But hey, if you’re lucky you’ll be alive long enough for me and the boys to run a train on you and your friends while you stare at the Outsider’s bloody, broken corpse. What do you say?” The form gave a wicked grin even as he knew the answer, summoning more Defender IC.
“Go fuck yourself,” Sephy snarled as she programmed another data bomb. “Doesn’t matter if it’s cyberspace or in reality, you’re not leaving this shithole alive!”
“I doubt it!” The other slicer chuckled as they summoned more Attacker IC, easily done for them as they were fully immersed in the Matrix, unlike Sephy who was attempting it in synchronised real time as she stayed in cover in reality. “We were told you were the dumb one in the briefing, you are no match for me!”
‘That’s what you think…’ Sephy thought to herself as she tried a new plan, seeing that the other slicer was too well entrenched. Quickly pulling up her pre-prepared list of viruses she shot out her virtual hands as what looked like several paper aeroplanes shot out to go for the other slicer. They were weak, unable to do any damage to the slicer, and most were easily intercepted, but enough hit the slicer to do what she needed them to do. Just for a moment, the avatar dropped and she saw the slicer for a brief as he actually was, an obese toad-like being in some kind of uniform.
More importantly, she was able to pinpoint the exact direction and distance of his real body from her current location.
“Hah! Pathetic!” The other slicer cackled again, not noticing what Sephy’s attack had actually done. “Was that meant to hurt? Take this!”
Sephy grimaced as her Matrix defences took a heavy hit as she quickly backed out of cyberspace to return to the real world, grunting and shaking off the disorienting feeling of treading two worlds and being violently ripped back into one. Had she been fully sliced in, it could have caused her some serious injury.
“Guys! We have a problem!” She shouted back to the others, as she saw the turrets begin to swirl around to aim their way…
*****
“Dessenta!” Alora gasped as she finished the spell she had been casting, causing blurry illusionary duplicates of her, Dante and the other girls to randomly appear near them, before with another word of command she caused them to run out and scatter to hopefully confuse the enemies targeting them. Ever since the trick had worked when they fled from the Cult of the Destroyer, Alora had been practising this technique, though it was still far from a perfect distraction.
Some of the illusions ran off the balcony only to dash uselessly through the air, while others waded into the various fights that were breaking out, even going through some people as they yelped out in confusion before trying to attack them.
“We’ve got to get Jack and run!” She yelled out, though she wasn’t sure if the others could even hear her over the blazing music and the veritable moshpit that had formed on the ground floor under them. She turned to the crew of River Giants that were still with them, standing there with weapons brought to bear, but not really knowing what to do. “Where is your vessel located?” She asked them sharply.
The River Giants just stood there with a dazed look, and Alora realised they were probably in shock at seeing what just happened with Jack.
“Captain! Where?” Alora yelled, and that seemed to awaken the giants out of their stupor.
“Far right side of the docks, lass!” Captain Ripples-On-Salt spoke up hastily. “Largest vessel there, it’s called the Siltskimmer, you can’t miss it!”
“Alright.” Alora nodded, trying to remain calm. “When you get the opportunity, get away from the place and get everything ready to leave. Pull out of dock a little bit if you need to but do not leave without us. We’ll join you as soon as possible.”
“Lass, we’re not sticking around if things get bad!” The captain warned with a panicked look.
“If it spreads that far and you need to protect your people, then do so,” Alora acknowledged. “But we’re here for a reason, and our mutual friends won’t be pleased if you lose your nerve!”
“Alright, alright!” The captain nodded, raising a hand placatingly. “We’ll do what we can and wake all hands, they’ll be sleeping around this time.”
“Good!” Alora nodded. “Stay back and as far away from us as you can be, then make a break for it!”
“We can fight, you know!” One of the crew spoke up, as the captain rounded on them.
“You’re drunk off your ass Dips-In-Bog! And we have our orders! We’re not sticking around, but at least we’ll probably have to batter some fools to get out!”
Glad to have resolved that, Alora turned around to assess the situation. She could see Sephy covering the right side while she was looking up towards the turrets, no doubt trying to take them over, while Nika was holding the right, and was attracting the most amount of fire. Seeing where the shots were coming from, Alora quickly ran towards the edge of the balcony near a wooden pillar that would hopefully give her some covering fire as she quickly cast a spell.
“Pyrallis!” She yelled out as she pointed her wand at the group of enemies aiming for Nika, as a jet of fire roared out, zipping around, above and below anybody not shooting at them as it smacked into the trio on the opposite balcony that were, immolating two of them, but the third, a great hulking Balnath with a huge overgrown maw of teeth, was able to shrug it off. Alora dove to the ground as they returned fire, completely obliterating the pillar she had tried to hide behind.
‘Well that got his attention’. Alora thought to herself as she rolled to the side away from the pillar, out of sight of the Balnath as they let rip with their gatling plasma gun, though fortunately most of the wild shots had been intercepted by Dante’s shield. Waiting for the sounds and lights to dissipate, Alora quickly got to her feet and cast another spell…
*****
“Come on then you fuckers!” Nika growled after she dispatched her amphibian attacker, quickly switching to her plasma rifle as she checked her side of the balcony alcove, quickly dispatching a figure that looked like she was heading for them. Nika didn’t allow any sliver of doubt to shake her, this situation was dire enough that anyone even remotely looking like a threat to her or her friends was going down!
‘We need a way out, Sephy has the stairs.’ The Kizun thought to herself as she spotted a sharpshooter on the opposite balcony far too assured of themselves to be just an ordinary patron, an assumption that was proven correct as they moved to take aim at Sephy, before a burst from Nika smacked into him and threw their aim wide, though didn’t finish them.
‘They’ve got good armour, maybe shields too, these guys are professionals.’ Nika concluded, though grinned as she spotted a group of some blue-feathered avian species mob the sharpshooter, clearly looking to grab their weapon in the midst of all the chaos. ‘Stairs were at the back of the building, so my way leads to the front. Maybe we can blast a way out and jump down? That plan worked out for us before…’
She contemplated the idea, knowing that she hadn’t taken as many breaching charges as she normally would for an urban mission, having dismissed the need to have as many in a rural environment, but she had one on her just in case, with a couple more distributed among a few of the others. However, the building they were in wasn’t the most structurally sound, and she had a real fear that enough damage could bring it crashing down above their heads!
The decision was taken away from her, as from one of the far alcoves ahead of her, a group of three strangely uniformed soldiers of some kind advanced towards her, with the Kizun having no doubt they were enemies, as two of them carried tall, broad riot shields locked into place, while the third shot at her with an accurate burst, cracking her shield and thumping into her heavy armour as she retreated. Where had these guys come from? She could have sworn she hadn’t seen anyone in uniform, but realised that, like them, their opponents may have been in disguise and had needed to quickly gear up before engaging.
Immediately, Nika reached to her belt for a grenade, electing for a smaller yield as she activated the timer and waited a few seconds before flinging it back from cover with a well-practised blind throw, sending it bouncing and clattering in a straight line before detonating right on target. Grinning with the roar, she dashed out from cover, going full auto as she unleashed hell, keeping low as she pushed forward, not letting up as she saw one of the shield guys drop to the ground while another couldn’t hold on, stumbling and falling back down the freshly blown hole caused by the grenade, which must have slipped under the shields and taken out the third guy.
And as she looked at the freshly blown hole, she realised now they had a quick way down!
*****
Those are Regulators! Chiyo warned, though she had no idea if any of her friends were paying attention as the Ilithii drew her power in to assist Dante in maintaining an energy barrier, before taking out her magic staff and channelled her power to lash out with psionic power at whoever she could detect down below, sensing that they were going after Jack. She heard her friends acting and knew she had to do everything in her power to get them all out in one piece!
Sensing a lot of magical energy flaring up, Chiyo activated her astral sight to check what was happening, and cursed as she did. There was a lot of ambient mana dissipating in the air from several illusionary spells, likely from their attackers, and she detected three strong signatures in particular, and two of them were situated on the ground floor.
The third was on the other balcony!
Responding to the imminent threat, Chiyo focused on her attack as she saw the astral form of the physically obscured wizard on the other side of the room whispering words of power and weaving their hands in strange patterns for a complicated spell of some kind that didn’t look good.
Her meditations with the Essence of Water they had looted from the Pallid Pit had proved fruitful as she had quickly learned to combine her new affinity with her existing psychic powers to weave together some new tricks, her most basic one coming into play as she quickly drew in the ambient water from all around them to cluster in one great ball, before launching several blasts that shot out to catch the enemy mage completely off guard, battering their body and cracking several ribs, causing them to flail back and, more importantly, completely disrupting whatever spell they were trying to cast.
The enemy mage appeared physically as their illusion mask was dispelled, revealing a diminutive blue furry mammalian with a long, thin snout in a set of traveller's robes with the insignia she recognised as belonging to the Order of the Infernal Harmony. Chiyo saw them angrily motion at her, ordering several more Regulators on the other side of the building to aim at her.
‘Well, I’m flattered…’ Chiyo thought to herself as she put more of her energy into maintaining her personal shields and hunkered down to avoid the gunfire, which took some of the heat off Nika, before the inevitable explosion went off several seconds later.
“We’ve got a quick way down!” Nika called back after dashing back to them, a sentiment that Chiyo quickly repeated to Alora to get past the deafening noise.
“Understood!” Alora shouted. “Chiyo?”
Lead your crew to the left and drop down the hole, the Ilithi told the River Giants, imbedding the thoughts directly into their minds over the noise. We shall follow promptly. Get everything ready for a quick exit. We’ll cover you, go now!
Quickly nodding in agreement, the band of River Giants needed little prompting to run the fuck away from the ongoing shitstorm while the group covered for them, with Chiyo unleashing her power and levitating a Regulator from behind an overturned table, only for Nika to cut them down mercilessly with plasma fire.
“Guys! We have a problem!” Sephy yelled in a panic. “They have control of the turrets! I can’t take them back from here!”
We’ve got to get off this balcony! Chiyo warned the others. Nika has an exit! We’ve-
But then she sensed it.
Scatter! Now! She warned as the entire balcony suddenly collapsed violently from under them…
*****
With a roar, Jack braced for impact as the ground rushed up to meet him with terrifying speed as he struggled with The Redeemer, before they both collided with the dancefloor in a bone-jarring smash, breaking the grapple as The Redeemer slammed hard onto his back, with Jack faring little better as his shoulder took the brunt of the heavy impact, sending shockwaves of pain radiating heavily through his body. The air was knocked from his lungs as he had the presence of mind to roll away, quickly scrambling to his feet with a fierce determination as he gathered his bearings
The room span in a disorienting blue for a second as Jack blinked away the stars dancing in his eyes, but Jack could see a crowd of gangsters and mercenaries forming around him, whooping and cheering, having seen his fall but not having any idea what just happened.
“Where is he?” Jack managed to gasp, as sudden movement from the side caught his attention, springing him into action as he quickly drew his heavy rifle, dodging the Redeemer’s enraged charge at the same time as he managed to get off a risky burst of heavy plasma that caught the Redeemer dead centre of mass as they passed and crashed into a table of avian mercenaries wearing what looked like biker leathers.
“You fat cunt! You spilled my beer!” One of them squawked at the Redeemer, who simply pushed the speaker aside as he quickly assessed the hits he took, a decision he quickly regretted as Jack put another accurate burst into him, staggering him backwards with many smoking holes in his now ruined brown overcoat, but not dropping him.
“Go down you fucking wanker!” Jack growled as he levelled his gun to shoot again, before several shots smacked hard into his shoulder, sending him careening to the side in a wild spin as his shots were sent wide, blasting smoking holes through the roof that allowed the evening light to shine through as he barreled into a group of furry beings that closely resembled silverback gorillas in matching military fatigues that denoted them as part of a militia.
“Fucking kid!” One snarled as he bodily shoved Jack to the ground, flicking a telescopic baton as he approached again to try and do him more harm before Jack got his gun up.
“Back off! Back the fuck off!” He yelled in a panic as he got back to his feet, warning the gorilla-men who cautiously took several steps back as he scrambled to his feet again, as he was shoved and jostled by alien bodies writhing and thrashing around in a frenzied melee of fists, feet, tails, claws, paws, teeth and fuck knew what else.
The pulsating thudding beat of the music jarred like a rampaging heart attack to provide a rhythmic backdrop to the rapidly escalating brawl, punctuated by the gunfire, the crash of breaking glass, and the roars of the combatants locked in drunken combat as he found himself in the middle of a full-blown mosh pit.
Risking a glance to the side, he saw The Redeemer rip off the smouldering remaining scraps of his brown overcoat to reveal the dull thick metal plates of his own heavy armour. He could see that his heavy plasma rifle had done some kind of damage, though he couldn’t tell how much from the melted, blacked, smoking marks from where Jack had shot them, or if his shots had even penetrated past the layers. But he could see that the Redeemer wasn’t going to go down easily as the avian gang was piling on the Ogar, who lashed out at them with his huge powerful fists as plates extended around his neck and head for extra protection.
Suddenly, Jack caught another movement out of the corner of his eye as he spun around, before a pincer deflected the barrel of his rifle, as a spindly insectoid quickly closed the distance, hostile intent abundantly clear in their snarling expression as they snapped a pincer at Jack’s face, who ducked out of the way and shunted backwards.
‘Shit! This place is too swarmed!’ Jack cursed to himself as he tried to aim his gun through the ongoing brawl. ‘I can’t risk firing into an open crowd! The rest of these people haven’t done a thing to me!’
Realising his rifle wasn’t the best choice of weapon now as he was knocked about by the horde of bodies, Jack flicked it around and behind him, relieved upon hearing the magnetic clips on his armour do their thing, latching his rifle in place so he could retrieve it later.
“Aegis!” Jack yelled out as the pincer of the insectoid came at him again, summoning his shield to take the blow before he lashed out, taking the bug in the maw and knocking him back, before he followed through with a quick draw of his sidearm, putting two controlled shots in the thing’s chest and missing the shot to the head as several bolts of blue light smacked into him, though his shield took a few of the hits as he disengaged.
‘Shit! How many of these fuckers did the Redeemer bring with him?’ Jack thought to himself, as he heard an explosion from somewhere up above him. ‘And how the fuck did they know we’d be here?!’
His Ring of the Berserker was flaring up as Jack tried to regain his bearings, trying to spot the source of the magic missiles that had just been flung his way, before he suddenly brought up his forearm, reflexively parrying a swipe from the gorilla-man that had tried to blindside him with the baton. His armour held, only causing him to feel a slight tingle as he lashed out with a punch, clocking his attacker in the face as his gauntlets instantly reacted to cap his knuckles with a metal coating, adding to the power of the punch, sending the gorilla-man to the ground in a daze.
“What’s up retards? May I have your attention please?” A sneering voice called out over the speakers of the music, and though Jack looked for the source of the voice as he tried to get away, he could see the DJ still at his podium looking confused at who was talking. “I know you crackheads aren’t very bright, so I’ll try and use simple words so you understand."
"You are currently being graced by the presence of the Order of the Infernal Harmony, along with our very special guest, The Redeemer! The reason why we’re here is the Outsider practically shitting himself on the dancefloor of this dump, along with a few random bimbos dumb enough to tag along with him. Anyone that gets in the way of our business or takes any action against us should be prepared to accept the consequences, up to and not limited to your brutal death, so if any of you losers are actually lucid enough to understand me, I’d get the hell out of our way.”
“Fuck you, bitch!” One drunken patron yelled out above the noise as he drunkenly shot at the nearest speaker, missing several times before reducing it to slag.
“Oh golly gee, what an unexpected answer from a bunch of fucking crackheads!” The voice mocked sarcastically as Jack saw the turrets above glow with power. “Time to die motherfuckers!”
*****
First/Previous
Yep, these bad guys came prepared! Shame Jack can't just start blasting with all the people around!
Don't forget to check out The Galactic High Info Sheet! If you want to remind yourself of certain characters and factions. One new chapter a week can seem like a while! Don't forget! You all have the ability to leave comments and notes to the entries, which I encourage you to do!
I am now on Royal Road! I would appreciate your support in getting myself off the ground there with your lovely comments, reviews and likes!
If you're impatient for the next chapter, why not check out my previous series?
As always I love to see the comments on what you guys think!
Don't forget to join the discussion with us on Discord, and consider checking me out on Youtube if you haven't already! Until next week, it's goodbye for now!

An Actual 101 Omegaverse Interpretation Made By Me, please use this as a guide to get a better understanding of the Omegaverse and let me know your thoughts on this variation!
What Is The Omegaverse?
The Omegaverse is an AU (Alternate Universe) that centers around a wolf hierarchy that reinforces the idea of power, inequalities, and dynamics in modern-day society. Originally used in the Supernatural and werewolf fandoms, the subgenre of dividing people into the wolf hierarchy has risen to new limits as it grows a larger audience.
In the omegaverse, there are primary sex and secondary sex. Primary Sex describes how people biologically are born or identify as male, female, intersex, etc. Whereas Secondary Sex, describes their role in the wolf hierarchy and where they stand in the wolf-like society.
There are commonly three "second genders" that are affiliated to one's character; Alpha, Beta, and Omega. Although there are other variants, these three are the most common in fandoms. These second genders normally defy the role that people play in the wolf hierarchy and the different attributes that each secondary sex has.
Wanna Know Which One You Are?
Everyone is born with the Primary Sex at birth, sometimes having it declared differently later on if people choose to alternate their primary sex. However, Secondary Sex isn't necessarily something that is changeable, although not impossible.
Beginning at the early age of 15 to 22 years old, people often begin to develop their second gender. During this age range, people often get a yearly test done to ensure that the development of their secondary sex is coming as predetermining a second gender could be done. People begin to develop different bodies, pheromones, structures, habits, and more that are commonly associated with their designated second gender. Second genders do not defy someone as a person, but they help contribute to where they reside in society.
There are also some instances where people do not develop their second gender during that age range. Doctors associate the label of "Late Bloomers" with these people as their bodies haven't changed to develop into the omegaverse society. People can transition after the recommended age range, however, the effects of transitioning and instinctive nature (heat, ruts, scents of pheromones, etc.) are often more intense once they transition and are more sensitive tenfold.
Types Of Secondary Sexes.
Ranked By Hierarchy.
Top Of The Food Chain.
Do you have what it takes to keep your pride? Sometimes even those at the top of the food chain are affected by those beneath you.
Enigma (₰); Dominant Alphas.
Commonly mistaken as an ordinary alpha Enigma's are offspring of many generations of alphas. Both parents are often alpha's that have tried to conceive an Enigma throughout many generations. An extremely rare phenomenon to occur in a generation and they are essentially albinos in society. Unlike regular alphas, their secondary attributes are heightened and overbearing to control and handle. Although they are even able to make Alpha submit, they can often go into shock if they don't keep themselves in check due to overbearing ruts, pheromones, etc.
Alphas (α).
Alphas are the most generalized sub-gender at the top of the food chain, making roughly 10 percent of the omegaverse hierarchy. People associate them with becoming more possessive and dominant in situations as they take on more leadership roles than any other sub-gender. Alphas are more primitive of the genders and follow their pride than other people. They are natural-born leaders that others seek to follow out of their instincts.
Special Attributes; Also Applies to Dominant and Recessive Species.
➼ Have more fierce scents that easily overpower more earthy and sweet scents.
➼Experience ruts during mating sessions once a month. They develop a knot during this period to ensure the production of offspring and resort to their instincts rather than rational thinking.
➼ Develop sharp K-9s during maturity that allow them to mark and claim their mate(s) more easily than other sub-genders.
➼ They tend to become more protective of those who are close to them and want to keep everyone safe. Sometimes they feel as if they bear the world on their shoulders, yet they take pride in their accomplishments.
Gammas (Γ); Recessive Alphas.
More rare than normal Alphas but more common than Enigmas, Gammas are commonly known as "submissive alphas". They gain the attributes of alphas but it is not as intense as a regular alphas. They are the most calm and sane out of the top of the food chain and are able to remain rational during their heat. They often don't strive in the leadership positions as alphas and are known as the second in command. However, just because they don't experience extreme attributes doesn't mean that they don't experience them at all.
The Middle Ground; The Stability Of Society.
Betas (B).
The working class of the hierarchy, the majority of the population. Betas are classified as ordinary people, making up 82 percent of the population. They are people who take everyday positions and are the worker bees in the hive. People often overlook this gender as an equivalent to a regular human despite their ability to neutralize any problems between alphas and omegas. As there is lightness and darkness, Betas are often in the middle neutralizing the scents of both omegas and alphas when not in heat or ruts. They are often perceived as ordinary despite the important role they play in society.
Special Attributes:
➼ Have more calming and nature-like scents that help sedate alphas and omegas.
➼ A more lax "drive" to mate and reproduce.
Delving Too Deep; Bottom Feeders.
Those who are able to weasel out their situations are known to be the prey of many. They have their own tactics to hide themselves but are always eaten at the end.
Sigmas (Σ); Recessive Omegas.
More defiant and restrained by their omega nature, Sigmas are dominant omegas that defy their common submissive stereotype given to omegas. Like Alphas, Sigmas take pride in their actions and decisions as if they're a natural-born leader but are often treated as an omega regardless. They don't have intense attributes like an average omega, but they still experience such phenomena. They are rare than omegas considering the nature of Sigmas and how they interact with those around them despite Secondary Sex. Even when being put into place with pheromones, Sigmas normally won't go down without a fight.
Omegas (Ω).
The bottom feeders of the hierarchy, the most vulnerable of them all. Omegas make up 8 percent of the population and are generalized sub-gender to be a bottom feeder. As graceful as a rabbit in a field, they are the most exploited and oppressed gender of them all. Omegas are known for their resilience and "mother-like" nature to nurture and protect those close to them, as well as being able to produce offspring despite their Primary Sex.
Special Attributes; Also Applies To Recessive Species.
➼ Naturally have sweeter scents than any of the other sub-genders to entice Betas and Alphas.
➼ Experience heat two to four times a year in order to produce offspring. Their scenes and pheromones are heightened to coax Betas and Alphas to mate with them.
➼ Produce slick during heat to act like a lubricant.
➼ Produce offspring despite their Primary Sex.
➼ They are known to protect those close to them due to their more protective nature. Despite what others say, they express the protection of their pack in different ways.
➼ Nesting in times of stress or when experiencing pre-heat.
The Defiance Against Natural Order.
Thetas (Θ); Deadly Betas.
From what begins as a pheromone problem once they mature and turn into a dangerous virus that affects those around them.
The word Theta is associated with the ideals of death. Thetas are betas that have a genetic malfunction in the scent glands that produce a dangerous stench of pheromones that directly affect those around them. From not being able to produce scents from when they mature to having a bloom of scents during one time, Thetas emit a deadly scent that can often knock out people.
Intensity depends on their original scent, how they feel, and who it is affecting. Where Betas who smell the scent can find it as something that reeks from a mile away, Omegas and Alphas are more vulnerable to Thetas as their senses are more heightened than Betas.
After inhaling a certain amount, Omegas and Alphas overdose on scents which could force them to have a permanent loss of smell. They often would pass out before any permanent damage is done, which is also a very rare situation affecting another Beta.
There is currently no known cure besides a temporary solution involving a significant amount of scent blockers. It is not an effective method and isn't an ideal solution since it negatively affects the Theta's body, but they can pass as normal Betas in the hierarchy.
Late Bloomers.
Late Bloomers were given the title by Doctors who found out that there are people who exceed the age limit without maturing and settling into the hierarchy. There aren't many cases of late bloomers and are often believed to have a rare Secondary Sex considering how long it takes to develop. It is also not the case for all who have these second genders.
These people often experience severe attributes once they convert and are often recommended to find a partner immediately after maturing. They don't have a distinguished place in the hierarchy considering the fact that they didn't develop that Secondary Sex, yet are categorized with the Thetas as people who defy the social structure.
Mating Cycles.
Mating Cycles are the foundation of life, giving people the chance to conceive.
A big aspect of the omegaverse fandom, people often use mating cycles to spice up romantic or sexual interactions. They specifically affect Alphas and Omegas with the purpose of breeding in producing offspring as wolves naturally do.
Varying on the Secondary Sex, people are able to experience heat and rut.
Rut is referred to when an Alpha bares its fangs to their loved one, whether it is another Alpha, Beta, or Omega. Their objective is to breed their bedded partner with the goal of producing offspring during the duration of their Rut.
Heat is conceptualized as the counterpart to Ruts, an exclusive ability that Omegas have. Unlike breeding another, their body makes modifications in order to ensure that their body is capable of carrying and nurturing offspring. They also experience the thought of needing to be bred during the time of their Heat.
Alpha's Mating Cycle.
Pre-Rut.
Pre-Rut signals an Alpha that their mating period is on its way before the actual Rut happens.
During this time, Alphas tend to become more protective and obsessive with their mate as their primal instincts begin to blend with their natural personality. They have a tendency to leave marks and scent their loved ones as much as possible to claim their "territory" in order to keep others away.
They are also prone to harming others. Considering their impulsive nature to keep their partners close to them, an Alpha's main priority is to keep their partner safe in a space where they would be able to breed. It is not recommended for Alphas to go outside during this time period considering they resolve to their violent nature once they see someone else eyeing their prey.
They also begin to emit intense pheromones more often and become aroused. Not as bad as their actual Rut, a Pre-Rut intimidates what the actual Rut is going to be like in order to prepare their partners for what is to come. Intense pheromones and arousal are normally the last symptoms of Pre-Rut that most likely initiate the actual Rut. Once they have their partner under them, their mating season begins.
Rut.
Protect. Breed. Reproduce. Repeat.
This is probably the most accurate way to decipher what goes through an Alpha's mind during a Rut.
Once their Rut is initiated, an Alpha has little to no control of their actions or thoughts. Generally, there are very few who are not easily swayed by their natural instincts and can control what they do for a certain period of time, but Alphas don't keep their mindset straight. Especially when it comes to those who are easily swayed by the pheromones of Omegas.
During this time, they also have thoughts of marking their mates on their scent glands, which requires special preparation. Marking their partner represents an official relationship with each other and stays on their partner's neck for life unless removed. Baring their K-9s, Alphas are able to mark others during their Ruts to claim their territory completely.
They also develop a knot during the height of sexual intercourse. Their penis begins to swell during the time of ejaculation which is often painful without the proper preparation and swells inside their partner. Their bodies constantly produce semen when the knot is inside their partner in order to guarantee high chances of pregnancy in their partner. It takes an hour or two to deflate, however, by that time, Alphas are ready for another round.
During this time is also when Alphas are the most vulnerable around their mate(s). If they are treated a certain way, Alphas can also experience a drop. Instead of fueling with desire and prosperity with their partner, Alphas could have an indifferent rut, where they have little to no desire to reproduce. It is extremely uncommon but it does happen. If left untreated it can continue after their initial rut. Considering their primal instincts are part of who they are, it can affect their life in ways one could never imagine.
Ruts last a duration of 3 days to 1 week. Duration varies upon each Alpha but can be extended through drugs and steroids. It is not recommended to do so.
Omega's Mating Cycle.
Pre-Heat.
A magnet for trouble, a mating call to Alphas.
Pre-Heat begins a week before the actual heat and is a way for the Omega's body to tell them that their heat is underway. Their mating cycle takes a toll on not only their mentality but also their bodies as their bodies modify themselves to properly bear a child.
During the beginning of their Pre-Heat they build a safe space in which they can spend the duration of their heat in. This is called nesting. Often their bedroom or a shared one, an Omega designated a "safe space" for themselves. Once they find a spot that meets their expectations, they will begin to fill the space with the scents of their partners. If they don't have mates, then people who they are close with. These scents can often be found in the other's articles of clothing, sheets, linens, covers, and pillows. Anything that reminds them of mates or family can be kept in the nest.
Nesting is also a place where Omegas can calm themselves in times of distress. Although nesting is primarily when they go into heat, Omegas can build nests when they need comfort for any reason. They are also to be approached with caution unless directly invited by the Omega. If someone walks in on them with an inbuilt nest, their pride could be harmed as they destroy their nests. Has it always been so hard to look capable?
An Omega's scent is more dense and intoxicating to entice others into bed with them. A sweet smell that is almost bearable until the actual Heat begins. It's more dangerous to have these omegas outside considering almost anyone can be affected by their overwhelming increase in pheromones and are advised to stay inside.
They also begin to sleep more often, as well as eat and drink more than they normally do. Omegas always tend to be by themselves during this time, however, appreciate the help of their partners during their times of need. To conserve energy for their actual heat, the Omega's body begins to store as much to keep the Omega awake during the actual heat.
They also have a temperature rise, as "Heat" suggests. They are often hotter during Alphas in Rut considering how much preparation and desire the body builds. It becomes more troublesome to do things on their own once a few days pass as their body only becomes more and more hotter. Finally, they produce slick from their bottom. The slick is a form of preparation that the body modifies to act as a lubricant. The vaginal or anal area, varying on the Primary Sex, allows their bodies to be penetrated easier with little to no preparation.
Heat.
Breathe. Claim. Feel. Touch.
Unlike the Alpha's Rut, an Omega's Heat is a more delicate and nurturing mating cycle that requires more attention, delicacy, and intimacy with their partners.
Instead of growing a desire to simply breed like Alphas and use force, Omegas are in their vulnerable state where their secondary instincts to protect and nurture rise to the occasion. Not only do they want to please themselves by carrying the offspring of their partners, but they also want to prove their worth. To prove that they are worth being taken care of and what they can provide to their partners.
The Heat itself rolls off in waves like an ocean's waves. There are times when the heat is intense and other times when they can breathe and rest. At the beginning of the heat, they are the most vulnerable to the words, actions, thoughts, and feelings of their partners.
Heat also sparks a feeling, a need to reproduce and birth offspring with their partner(s). It's a time when Omega's are in tune with their second nature and are prone to feelings of intimacy with their partner. This causes an Omega to have a spike in libido and an aching for longing, preservation, and love.
This isn't to say that they are completely innocent during this time. Omegas tend to have a high sex drive with the desire to collect semen from their partner(s) in hopes of creating offspring. Drawing back to the second nature of Omegas, their priority is to get pregnant, even if their mindset tells them to not think so.
Can't you also forget how much energy you consume? Due to the little to no rest during an Omega's Heat, it is also important to keep an eye on the Omega, whether it's their partners or family. They exert most of their energy during heat almost sweating it off with a fever, to where Omegas must be supervised during their times in need.
It is also important to remember that despite the Primary Sex, Omegas can get pregnant. Male, Female, Intersex, etc. If they don't possess a vaginal hole, their body creates a sac where the sperm will meet temporary eggs that an Omega can have and where they will carry their child. At the beginning of the heat, it normally forms in males through abdominal pains and cramps that are almost unbearable at times. Only when their desire overrides the pain are they ready to be mated with careful preparation and love.
Please, keep an eye on the Omega. Before someone takes them away from you.
Post-Heat.
After the severe waves, the calmer shore arrives long after.
Post-Heat is recognized as the recovery stage of the Omega Mating Cycle. It is a time and delicacy when Omega's recover their rational senses and catch up with not only their bodies but their self-being.
During the next day or two once their heat is over, an Omega is often seen sleeping from 12 to 26 hours, depending on how severe their heat was. Their body takes the time to recuperate and replenish its energy, only waking up to eat something minimal or drink to rehydrate. Their body does the essentials to keep the Omega alive for the next two days as the body enters a semi-comatose state.
It is also essential to receive aftercare and gentle praises from their partner(s). Omega's are still sensitive and prone to drops if they aren't treated with the utmost care, the Post-Heat is one of the essential times when praise and convincing them that they are worthy to be a mate is important.
Red heat.
The term "Red Heat" refers to when Omegas drop due to lack of praise, inappropriate actions, or a feeling of self-doubt. It is a common defense mechanism that Omegas have especially when in times of crisis where their bodies forcibly stop a heat until they get into a safe area.
The severity of the "Red Heat" varies upon each situation, where an accidental slip of saying the wrong words could cause an Omega's body to overreact, or when in a serious situation of assault, their bodies completely pause the heat track temporarily.
Minor Symptoms:
➼ Omegas will go into a cold sweat as their body temperature rapidly cools.
➼ Some rational thoughts come back during the length of the "Red Heat."
➼ Their scent changes into a negative one. An extremely strong stench.
➼ Their ability to mark their mate(s) is taken away considering their body is negatively reacting to the people around them.
➼ They stop producing slick and are unable to make children during this time.
Minor symptoms show when there is miscommunication or misunderstanding between mates and can often be resolved on the spot. Although it would take some time for the Omega to recuperate back into their heat, there are no long-term negative effects on their bodies.
Severe Symptoms:
➼ If forced to continue mating, their holes, anal or vaginal will wear and tear. Rather than slick, they will begin bleeding at the sign of intrusion.
➼ There is no rational thought, Omegas will go feral once they've been violated. The second gender of Omega's to "protect and nurture" is stripped away from them as they do anything to keep their pride.
➼ An Omega in red heat can also over-exert themselves if it becomes too overbearing, their bodies becoming too hot to the point where they will burn their organs internally, which will permanently burn their reproductive system and other organs. In the most severe cases, this can be life-threatening.
Severe symptoms are the last resort of the Omega's body to protect itself, and if left untreated can cause death. This not only makes the act of violating Omegas a severe crime and a hard thing to do. Overall, the "Red Heat" acts as a drop and a self-defense mechanism for the Omegas.
You Are Mine; Marking and Scenting.
Second Genders have special characteristics to communicate with one another. Some forms of communication are limited to specific second sexes, whereas more universal forms of language can be used by any secondary sex.
Marking is a term when Alphas and Omegas mark their loved ones during their Heat or Rut. These second genders can mark anyone of the secondary sex despite it being a secondary sex higher in the food chain or below. Even Beta's could be marked.
Marking can be done in different ways and has different effects depending on who's marking who. Rather than using it as a specific form of communication, marking is an indication to everyone that this person is "taken." Marks cannot come off if marked by an Alpha or Omega, including Dominant and Recessive Species.
Betas do not have the characteristics to mark anyone, including those who are Alpha or Omega. They can only be marked. Scenting is a more universal language that can be used by any secondary sex.
Scenting is used when people rub off their pheromones upon one another which is emitted through the scent glanced located on a person's glands. They are located at the bridge between the shoulder and neck, normally known as the "cowl muscles" or the trapezius muscle. Everyone has two scent glands located on each side and can be marked by at most two different mates if wanted. If not, then by one.
Scenting also takes place near the scent glands, where the pheromones come from. Mates can rub their scent onto another's scent glands to "claim their territory". Any secondary sex can be done by anyone.
The Red String of Fate; Fated Mates.
"The string itself is a vibrant red string that connects you to your fated mate. Some say that no matter how far away you are from your fated mate, you will always be connected to them. They will always be yours. No matter how far you will travel, the string will not break. Your fate is sealed with your partner."
The term "Fated Mates" is similar to the traditional Chinese Tale of the Red String of Fate. An Alpha and Omega are confined and destined to be with one another, despite loving someone else. In the omegaverse topes, it is common for an Alpha and Omega to be together, despite Betas being the large percentile of the population.
This is likely due to the compatibility of an Alpha and Omega being higher than mating with a Beta which makes this type of relationship more ideal in the hierarchy.
Every Alpha and Omega are not bound to mate with any specific gender, however, they are more likely to be mated with their counterpart. Some people in the hierarchy look down on these ideals due to the absurdity of how small the percentage of the Omega population is, however, this is probably the most common mating couple that is found in the omegaverse trope.
The "Fated Mates", much like the Chinese myth, is a trope that is used in an alternate universe but does not define who is mated to who. It is treated more as folklore, however, most Alphas are indeed mated to Omegas. As Ying has Yang, both Secondary Sexes are commonly mated together as if it was done by fate.
How Is An Alpha Affected?
An Alpha is considered to have a "fated mate" when not only they have marked someone but also they have been marked themselves. An Alpha can mark their mate(s) during Rut.
During this time, the Alpha pierce their mate with their fangs, enhanced, sharpened, refined, extended K-9s to properly mark their mate. However, if they specifically mark an Omega, they secrete a liquid pheromone that stays with the initial bite mark on the Omega.
Although Marks can be removed, the liquid pheromone from a fated couple cannot.
The liquid pheromone acts as a bond coming from the Alpha to Omega in order to ensure that they live in harmony with one another. The liquid pheromone acts as a defense mechanism to ensure the fated couple stays together.
The liquid pheromone doesn't do anything until there is distrust or denial from the Alpha, enhancing the pheromone liquid into a venom that can slowly poison the Omega. This is called a Broken Bond. It is formed at the bite mark of the Alpha and can spread slowly or rapidly. The type of venom severity varies from the type of Alpha who made the mark and the spread rate of the venom depends on how bad the break of the Alpha is.
This acts as a way to keep an Omega in check to ensure the Omega can not only be a reliable partner but to pursue happiness between the Alpha and Omega. Once the issue is resolved, the venom dissipates back into the liquid pheromone.
Their ruts only react to their fated mates. If they are mated, their Ruts are only reactive to the pheromone liquid that the Omega emits during their heat. As they can mark Omegas, Omegas can mark an Alpha. Their ruts can happen, even with other people but that would be very hard to do when marked by someone. Sometimes their knots won't form or their rut could even temporarily stop if the ruts are normally overwhelming until they are in their mate's arms.
How Is An Omega Affected?
Much like an Alpha, Omegas need to mark and mark a certain individual themselves to be affiliated with the "fated mates" trope.
Although it might be a bit harder to break the scent gland and implement their liquid pheromones considering they don't have refined K-9s like their counterpart, they often hold a stronger grudge to prevent an Alpha from leaving them. Omegas are also only able to permanently mark their loved ones during heat for them to secrete their liquid pheromones, often indicating this process during sacred moments.
The liquid pheromones that are injected into the Alpha's scent glands, however, often spread throughout the body instead of staying intact in the scent glands. Since Alpha's aren't originally meant to hold the liquid pheromones in their glands, it instead spreads throughout their body which can affect them altogether.
Every Alpha, deep inside, dreams of feeling accepted by their fated mate. By the ones they put their pride in, to ensure that their loved ones are taken care of.
Other times they may get rejected, left, or brokenhearted by their mate; prompting deterio ration throughout their body. This is called Broken Heart Syndrome.
How deadly is this condition?
First, an affected Alpha will lose their basic Alpha instincts. They will not rut, will not react to Omega's sexual pheromones, gradually lose their sense of smell, and stop producing their scent.
The psychological disturbance will follow soon. Loss of appetite, insomnia, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. This is due to the implication that these Alpha's have not fulfilled their duties.
Eventually, their body will also collapse.
Physical Symptoms:
➼ Loss of muscle mass.
➼ Immunodeficiency.
➼ Bleeding disorder; blood unable to clot properly.
➼ Internal bleeding.
In the final stage, this syndrome will prompt premature apoptosis (programmed cell death) of the heart muscle. Ultimately leading to the death of the Alpha.
As romanticized in many scripts, "The heart finally kills itself, as it loses its reason to keep beating."
Much like the broken bond, the cure is to ensure the Alpha understands that their efforts and pride are of value to their fated partner, in which the liquid pheromones throughout the Alpha cease to help the body recover.
An Omega's heat is also restricted to their fated mate. They are not able to mate with one another as their body responds to the liquid pheromones of their counterpart. If anyone attempts to proceed with sexual intercourse with a mated Omega, their body may prepare itself to indulge in the Red Heat process to protect its body and keep its pride.
Doctor's Orders; Medication and Prescriptions.
There are many drugs and medications that are found through the Omegaverse, which help tackle any occurring issues of mating cycles and how many can counteract the biological structure of the second gender. Many people, despite their second gender, do not often resort to medication and prescriptions due to how dangerous they are. But, again, there are certain circumstances in the lives of everyone.
Serenithrol: A common medication that is known to suppress and confine the scent of pheromones coming from the scent gland. They are often sold in pills and are accessible to the common public. They can be found in common drug stores and are safe to use long-term. It is not recommended to use them excessively, commonly in large quantities since it may cause a lack of pheromones to be produced naturally.
Maliscent: A legal perfume that can be found in beauty stores or places that sell beauty products. These perfume bottles contain different scents that are extracted..? replicated of natural scents coming from other secondary genders. They are perfumes that can guise the scent of someone for several hours, a safer alternative than the Serenithrol medications. Although it may be safe, exactly where is the source of this enriching and enticing perfume..?
Heat and Rut Suppressants: Often known as a heavenly drug of Alphas and Omegas, these suppressants can temporarily or permanently disrupt a mating cycle if consistently used. The origin of suppressants was to prevent people from going into Heat and Rut in public places to lessen the crimes as people took advantage of these second genders; in the modern day, people take them as if they're a common pill to take every day.
The suppressants are often overused due to how accessible they are to the public, although it seems as if there is a major company attempting to restrict them to the common people. The tablet medications are a weaker variant of the suppressants which could only temporarily stop a mating cycle for a few hours. they are accessible in drug stores with proper identification of being an Alpha or Omega variant. There is also a syringe suppressant which is often a more intense suppressant. They can completely disrupt a mating cycle but require a doctor's referral to snatch one of these.
Doctor's Orders; Medication and Prescriptions Continued.
The following are less known in society and are not accessible to the common public. These are often sold at the top of the food chain and may only be purchased in the underworld. You have connections, right?
Heat and Rut Inducers: The opposite of the suppressants, these inducers are only available in a liquid form and are often sold in syringe needles. They essentially force an Alpha or Omega to go into their mating cycle despite how far or close it initially is. It was banned from the public to prevent secondary sexes from being taken advantage of and is only found in the underbelly of New York. They are at the cusps of a certain mafia playing the underworld and are personally distributed from them. If one wanted to get their hands on it, they'd have to personally affiliate themselves with a mafia member who is selling it.
Xenonexus: An unknown drug that's made itself to the market, shaking up the hierarchy of the omegaverse. It can slowly transition one's second gender as their body modifies itself. It is often known as "Xenonexus" due to the unknown source and how well its production is, people crave such a powerful tool to change their lives. However, they are personally only accessible to a certain few who have taken part in this project.
The only known treatment of Xenonexus known to the public is those sold in the black market, even those that are unsafe. They are sold in vials that are to be taken throughout the course of four months, all the necessary syringes taken in months are intact. Most importantly, they remain unlabeled. There have been very few wealthy people who have gotten their hands on this drug, although they don't exactly know what second gender they might transition into. It's almost as if this drug was thrown into the public to see how people react, though the creator remains unknown.
How're You Living?; Modern Day Applications.
In a world where money influences reliable resources and connections, the world is often divided by the stances of many through the polluted streets of New York. Although there is much bias that varies among Secondary Sexes, there is little to no discrimination based on it. Due to the diversity and the amount of connections that one may have, what one identifies as is not crucial.
As they say, the pockets talk as people listen.
There are very few instances where Secondary Sex matters, which is in regards to those who live their life in riches. Depending on where one resides, there could be some more.. unfortunate outcomes that often drive people into a corner. Where money can talk, but the overwhelming sense of power could signify authority over another.
Those who live in the inner circle know lip service, and prevailing as a dominant one is often the more important part at the table. After all, becoming the head means you get the last say, right?
Now, where are you planning to live in this unstable society?

Reason why he has wolf characteristics is cause wolves are my favorite animal.
Name Matthew Hammond age 15
Quirk: Power control
Has the ability to control a type of energy only he has.
Ways to use this energy is standard strength and speed by but the power into your muscle fibers and organs to enhance their performance. Matthew can also materialize this power in different ways he traniednto find out how he can do this, for example shock waves or energy tenticals.
The draw back is if he uses this power two much his body will start to fatigue, and he temporar
Mutation: * Wolf Ears and Tail: Matthew has permanent wolf-like ears and a tail as a result of his mutation.* Laser Eyes: Matthew can emit powerful laser beams from his eyes. This mutation was a rare coincident.
Also he can share his energy with others to enhance their quirks
Elemental Forms and Powers:

1. Lightning Form (Name: Volt):

• Powers: Electrokinesis, Enhanced Speed

1. Fire Form (Name: Blaze):

• Powers: Pyrokinesis, Heat Resistance

1. Water Form (Name: Aquos):

• Powers: Hydrokinesis, Water Healing

1. Ice Form (Name: Frost):

• Powers: Cryokinesis, Enhanced Durability

1. Light Form (Name: Radiance):

• Powers: Photokinesis, Illusion Projection

1. Darkness Form (Name: Shadow):

• Powers: Umbrakinesis, Intangibility

1. Plant Form (Name: Flora):

• Powers: Chlorokinesis, Plant Communication

1. Metal Form (Name: Alloy):

• Powers: Metalkinesis, Enhanced Strength

1. Earth Form (Name: Terra):

• Powers: Geokinesis, Earth Manipulation

How this works is his power works like a computer l well more like just a normal computer, then a virus AKA and elements infects this power and then it slowly corrupts his powers AKA but there until his body is able to use a different elements,the form is only as strong as his original form because the element can only corrupt what is there,not make more power. A little bit of this energy is still there so that it can take back control. Each form has a mind of its own like some dark shadow type thing. The reason why his forms have minds of their own is cause if I gave him full control his forms he would swap to frequently and that would be two strong.
The reason why he can do this is when he was 3 is quirk was developing and he was exposed to radiation messing with his quirk genes and when his quirk developed it added this.
Hero Costume:

• Appearance: Matthew's hero costume features a sleek and modern design. It includes a green suit with black accents, symbolizing his main form's green hair and eyes.
• Symbol: The costume incorporates a stylized emblem combining the symbols of all his elemental forms, representing his fusion abilities.
• Support Items: Matthew carries specialized bracers that enhance his control over his energy whips. Additionally, he has utility pouches to store various tools and gadgets.

Maximum Output Move: Master Elemental

• Description: Matthew channels and combines the energies of all his elemental forms into one ultimate attack.
• Effects: Elemental tattoos appear on his body, symbolizing each element's power. Lightning appears on his head, fire on his chest, water on his left arm, ice on his right arm, light on his left leg, darkness on his right leg, plant on his right shoulder, metal on his left shoulder, and earth on his back. The attack unleashes a devastating and overwhelming burst of elemental energy.

Weaknesses:

• Mental Instability: Matthew experiences mental strain and instability when using his maximum output move or interacting extensively with his elemental forms, requiring time to recover but main ly from the power strain on his mind its self tje only problem his minds do is give him a hard time controlling the form
• Energy Drain: Extended use of his powers, particularly when utilizing multiple elements, drains Matthew's energy reserves, leaving him physically and mentally exhausting along with the inability two use his powers until he recharges them and they automatically recharge

To make my self clear his max form when he uses all his elements he can only use 1/10 of his forms power including him as the main guy of this whole body
PERSONALITY
He's smart nice in a way sometimes a prankster if you try to roast him you will go complete PackGod on you, if he's in a bad mood don't try to comfort him you'll just make things worse and not for him for you, he's really cocky, but not bakugo cocky hes just a bit over confident. He is very creative. He loves tech to the point if you break a 30 buck phone around him, let's just say you gonna want to do a crime in front of batman before Matthew finds you.
Favorite food: Red Beans and rice
6ft 2
Hates obsesseve people.
There's some girl who likes him so much she stalks him threatens his girlfriend tried to kiss him by force kidnapped him. She did this to point he couldn't take it any more so he moved to Japan but she still found him.
Any way I hope y'all like my reworked oc
View Poll

The FNAF wiki shows specific evidence and proof that is solid evidence that people choose to ignore, as listed here:
There is evidence pointing towards Glitchtrap being, at the very least, a digital manifestation of William Afton's memories and/or soul.

• Glitchtrap has been directly called William Afton in several guides, including Five Nights at Freddy's: The Ultimate Guide and Five Nights at Freddy's Character Encyclopedia.
  • Vanny is called an "Agent of Afton" in Page 129 of the Character Encyclopedia.
  • The Ultimate Guide confirms that a Glitchtrap related Easter Egg in the Curse of Dreadbear DLC is referencing William Afton.[2]
• An unused animatronic in Help Wanted called "Leftover Glitchtrap" was an untextured model of Springtrap with a stitch on his torso. It is unknown if this is a placeholder model but it also shares Springtrap's jumpscare which suggests otherwise.
• In the first Princess Quest, the 'true' form of Glitchtrap has purple tears and drool. Purple being symbolic of William.
  • It also has a form of written language that says 'I always come back' when deciphered and says 'I always come back, let me out'. A reference to Afton's iconic phrase.
• In the Special Delivery Emails, there are mentions of a virus caused by scanning vintage circuit boards, a clear hint to Glitchtrap interfering with the service. In the very same game, the Springtrap animatronic says voicelines that reference some voicelines heard in the Ultimate Custom Night, an event that only Afton would know about.
• A key requirement to unlock the Princess Quest IV ending in Help Wanted 2, and thus finally finishing off Glitchtrap for good, is to collect all 6 Memories from Afton's victims.
• An unused tutorial card for Princess Quest IV shows a glitched version of Springtrap's head.
• The Springtrap cutout from Fazerblast FNAF3 has the same death scream as Glitchtrap.
• It's implied that Burntrap is Glitchtrap's physical form.
• Burntrap is able to remotely control and corrupt technology around him, such is the case of Glamrock Freddy. It is not an ability that Springtrap had, but one that aligns more with the behavior of Glitchtrap.
• In the Faz Force ending of Help Wanted 2, Glitchtrap's hand is seen emerging out from Burntrap's charging station.
• There seems to be a connection between Glitchtrap and Helpi, as seen in Help Wanted 2.
• After the Princess Quest IV level is completed, Helpi vanishes from the projector screen in the hub.
• The Faz Force ending of Help Wanted 2 is internally called "Helptrap", seemingly a portmanteau of Helpi and Glitchtrap. In the same ending, the Mask Bot is seen from a first-person perspective giving Cassie the V.A.N.N.I. Mask that contains Helpi.
• In the First Aid levels, there's a drawing of Helpi surviving and escaping from a building on fire, presumably Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place.

Need more Evidence? (Not from the Fnaf Wiki, but from me)

• People are saying The Mimic copied Afton? how, he was made in 1980, the children were killed in 1985 in the backroom which The Mimic wouldn't have been able to see him kill The Missing Children thus he wouldn't have been able to replicate the luring ending in Help Wanted.
• The Mimic was said to have been wearing Bunny Ears for a short time, but never a full suit, and Glitchtrap was virtual while The Mimic wasn't at that time.
• The Mimic was said to be a Virus that controls Animatronics through wires, Glitchtrap can control the Animatronics without wires (highly implied) and he can interfere with their system to make them violent (As they did with Roxy in HW2)
• The Mimic couldent have heard ``I Always Come Back´´ as it was only said in FFPS which he was not present with.
• The Mimic wouldn't immediately know how to manipulate consciousness scientifically or automatically, and he never replicated that knowledge, and only William was capable of using Agony to move his consciousness and transfer it into other things. (As when he became a Trash Rabbit in the FFN)
• Purple is William's color which The Mimic never had anything to do with at all.
• William knows how to build and mess with Robots via their systems or Remnant, The Mimic does not.
• The gravestone in Curse Of Dreadbear has a purple glitchting grave which for a few moments if you look closely you can see Bunny Ears.
• William always comes back as a Bunny
• The Mimic doesn't murder children, William does. And the Mimic ripps their limbs off, William killls them like an average murderer, or even worse.
• The Mimic didn't see the MC (Missing Children) get stuffed inside the suits, no one did except for the one doing it. (William Afton)
• The deleted voice lines of Security Breach show human behavior, it also confirms Vanessa and Vanny were two different people that worked for him. (which is most likely no longer cannon)
• The Virus that The Mimic was never was stated to be anything related to glitchtrap, it was seemingly just an aspect of he wires he used to control the anamatronics.
• The Glitchtrap Suit was used by Orange Guy to kill his son, The Mimic wouldn't have known about it. But neither would Willaim unless he was Orange Guy.
• The Mimics agony belonged to someone else's, the Agony from William belonged to himself and his rage.
• The Mimic has never shown any remnant powers
• How would The Mimic be able to replicate the Supernatural abilities of the Anamatronics, he can only replicate the things they can do and their normal abilities (like their stage behavior) The Mimic wouldn't want to control Vanessa, he would want to kill her immediately, William does not attack her as he knows he can use her.
• Williams Agony never went away as that's how he most likely escaped his Nightmare.

William was never stated to have still been in UCN, he also isn't in a personal hell, he was in a nightmare (or at least in the books, which were probably not canon) but he was exploded so he cant have been alive if there was nothing left.

• The Mimic was stuck underground the whole time so how would he have been Glitchtrap or Burntrap, Burntrap was charging and taken away, again The Mimic was underground the whole time.
• Glitchtrap waves as a reference to a rabbit, in the movie (though not cannon to the games) he had a similar pose when he first walked in.
• William always comes back.
• I don't believe the books were ever said to be cannon.
• Glitchtraps hand comes out of the Charging Station in HW2 as a reference to Burntrap.

Heres how hes not Burntrap:

• Burntrap has a male shaped skull, people say The Mimic went inside of Kelly, and people say the skull being male shaped is a bad argument, its not, Psychology exists, there is a visual and obvious difference between Male and Female. (Unless your Transgender)
• Burntrap has Remnant-Based-Powers, The Mimic does not
• The Mimic was underground the whole time, even before Security Breach, and was taken away by The Blob who didn't make an appearance after, proving that's not possible.
• Again Purple is Williams color not The Mimics.
• Burntrap can hack Anamatronics like Glitchtrap, he doesn't need wires like The Mimic, The Corpse being male clearly makes a resemblance to Williams body being even more damaged. (though Scraptraps shape was different)
• He had showed some fear of Fire as he is seemingly familiar and walking towards the door before being grabbed by The Blob.
• The Mimic doesn't have flesh all covered over him, Burntrap does, and he wouldn't be able to immediately get all of it off in just a week, there would at least be some left.
• The Mimic can run, Burntrap can only walk.
• Burntrap doesn't attempt to directly face Gregory despite being able to enter the room at any time, and GF was still being hacked so there was nothing stopping him.
• The Mimic chases after Cassie immediately without a second thought.

Heres some excuses I commonly hear:

• Glitchtrap Mimics Tape Girls Voice:
• The Mimic isnt the only one who can replicate voices, Funtime Freddy can replicate the voices of Parents and Baby can replicate the voice of the soul inside of her without her specifically voicing through Baby. And the voice distorted clearly means hes manipulating the virtual reality to alter his own voice. the Mimic would just replicate it instantly and perfectly, though it can be detected if your lucky. And the tone is different.
• Glitchtrap Wore Bunny Ears:
• This was only for a short time, and it was never said he had a Bunny Suit or related to Glitchtrap in any way.
• The Mimic Can Fit In Suits:
• The Glitchtrap we see is a Virtual Avatar, not a suit. And how would he have the real Suit that was already long gone, ad presumably never saw.
• The Mimic Can Control Animatronics/The Mimic Is A Virus:
• This was an aspect of the wires he uses in Tiger Rock´s picture.
• The Tree Being Related to The Tree In The Book:
• Glitchtrap cant manipulate the virtual game in general, he can only slightly alter this, like some code, like how he would have mimicked the voices, but cant control it to an amazing extent, and there was no specific evidence for this theory.
• The Drool.
• The Mimic presumably cant drool, hes an Anamatronic that can only mimic, he cant do normal human things like throw up or drool, The Mimic wasn't sad when Edwins son died, he only sensed and absorbed the rage or him, this created Agony that makes him violent, but William uses agony in a different way (as seen in the Silver Eyes, The Twisted Ones, and The Fourth Closet graphic novels) and uses Illusions, The Mimic is basically just someone with anger issues.
• The Mimic Absorbed The Memories Of Afton When Being Transported Into VThe Mimic Replicated Afton:
• The Mimic cant absorb memories, he can only replicate things they do. The only possible way he would have this ability is if he has a soul (Which it does not) but this ability was used by Jake and Andrew. And please explain how he replicated Afton if they never met or if he didn't see the children get stuffed or murdered.
• The Books Are Cannon:
• Please tell me where it said this.

Basically, I am dating a girl who has cold sores, presumably HSV-1. It's still early on and we have not engaged in any sexual activity or even kissing. Having never dated someone with active cold sores, I did some internet research. Alright, bear with me here, I am going to try to be as respectful as possible but I am looking for information and highly questioning what I am reading. I have been doing a lot of reading and research on HSV as well as prevention/protection and all of the associated data.
Bottom line is, I really like this girl but I am terrified of catching oral (or other) HSV. I keep hearing this line of "the stigma is the worst part," but honestly, it seems to me the worst part is the incurable, painful, blistering sores, not the "stigma." I have read tons of testimonials about how horrible it is, some people getting it so bad they can't eat, or have other seriously painful and uncomfortable issues.
Furthermore, the fact that you can still contract it from your partner when there are no blisters and lesions is extremely scary, like no matter what you are never really safe. So much of it seems individual, like some people get something akin to a big red zit, other people get horrible, painful outbreaks that also look awful. Some people say they have had the same partner for years, or multiple partners and no one has ever contracted it. Yet others seems to get it from literally one kiss. Does anyone have any input or perspective on this?
On of the biggest things I keep hearing is this fact or figure that some huge percentage of the population, usually 50-80% has herpes or HSV. This strikes me as strange for a number of reasons. I have literally only seen a few people with herpes sores or blisters in my life, and I'm in my 30's. I'm aware most of the time people are not having active outbreaks, and many who do use COVID style face masks or similar measures to hide them, or just try to avoid the world during outbreak. Still, this figure seems highly unlikely to me.
All research I did indicated that HSV is notoriously difficult to test for. Knowing that only a small percentage of the population gets STD/STI tests, and that HSV tests are not very reliable, where are we getting this crazy figure from? It seems to me like it's blowing wild extrapolations out of small testing pools. It seems to me they probably tested some inner-city community having an outbreak 40 years ago and projected all of this wildly exaggerated data into the general public. I am aware chicken pox is also a form of herpes virus, but for crying out loud we all know nobody is talking about chicken pox or shingles when we are talking about "herpes," HSV-1/2. Is this 80% figure bogus due to incorporating stuff like chicken pox that almost everyone does get? That seems highly disingenuous to me. It actually shocks me how many people repeat this sort of, "cold sores are so common, most people get them don't you know that?" It just doesn't seem true at all, none of my friends, family, co-workers etc. get cold sores.
The most realistic data I found was from the Mayo clinic, which was radically different and much more plausible than other sources. The Mayo clinic data stated that less than 1% of the population has herpes. Basically like 0.25% of the population, or roughly 1/400 people, or 2 or 3 out of 1,000 depending on how you want to do the math. This seems much more realistic to me considering how little you see cold sores publicly. I have seen other reddits where people ask the exact same common sense question. If cold sores are so common, then why aren't they actually common and almost no one has them? It seems like total junk data.
I keep looking for some way for it to be "safe," or "ok" for me to be with this girl, but the more I learn the more I am put off by it. (I'm sorry if that is potentially insensitive or off-putting but I'm being honest, not trying to be mean) It seems to me that if I am with this girl I will never be safe, and will almost certainly contract HSV at some point in a long term relationship. That, or my entire time with her I would basically never kiss her or have oral sex. I honestly don't even care about oral sex but not being able to safely kiss my partner with risking contracting some terrible, incurable virus? I just don't know if I could do that, the lack of intimacy would be so hard. If anyone could share their strategies for kissing and similar activities with cold sores/HSV-1 I would greatly appreciate it.
One very specific thing I wanted to ask was in regards to antibodies and testing. Yes I know the testing is unreliable, as mentioned above. In light of this "the majority of the population has HSV" theme, I scheduled an HSV 1 blood draw test that I will take soon. I actually want to find out if I have HSV-1 antibodies from some other unknown event, though I have never had cold sores or symptoms. If I do come back as having antibodies from some previous exposure, does that mean that these antibodies would offer protection against a strain I could get from the girl that I am seeing? Or is there no cross-coverage? Like maybe that just means if I came back HSV+ then I just have some "benign" strain of HSV like most of the population allegedly does, and it would not offer protection against a more virulent, blister forming HSV. Does anyone actually have definitive answers on this or know where I could find them?
Sorry for the blog post, but if you have read this far I greatly appreciate it. I want to keep seeing this girl but I feel like the risk is far too great. If anyone has any input or advice for me I would greatly appreciate it. I am very health and image conscious, and work with the public, if I were to contract cold sores it would be devastating to me. This whole thing has got me emotionally distraught in that I thought I finally found someone (dating in your 30's is horrible) and now I find out there is a huge caveat. Please inform and advise me.

Hello all, this is the second part of my previous post, IU had to break them into two due to the character limit.
Link to Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/PathToNowhere/comments/1clu2tn/path_to_nowhere_sfw_headcanons_part_4_shalom/
Link to Part 3: https://www.reddit.com/PathToNowhere/comments/1clua8k/path_to_nowhere_sfw_headcanons_for_shalom_part_3/
25. She has a case of Arachnophobioa, something even the Hush experiment could never fully remove from her, with her gradually returning emotions having only amplified her fear of Spider or rather anything with over 2 or 4 legs.
The Chief first learned of this phobia when an insectoid Corruptor, resembling a mutated spidehuman hybrid, appeared and Shalom froze for several seconds, only for her to snap out of her panic and have Schorl turn the surrounding area into enough glass that the sunlight reflecting off of it could have blinded someone.
Despite the best efforts of both the Chief and Shalom to keep such information confidential, it somehow managed to leak to both Langley and the Garden, with the pair forming a somewhat un-official alliance to use this newly discovered weakness to get a bit of revenge on the Hush.
Rahu very much did not appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night by a rather frantic Shalom calling her and telling her that she needed her to come rescue her, that Paradeisos sent a message that, in a rather deadpan way said Shalom did indeed require her aid but that it was not urgent, only furthered her confusion.
Rahu would arrive with the Chief to see Shalom having barricaded herself within a dresser as Schorl hovered nearby, a rather large assortment and variety of non-lethal spiders having taken lordship over her room, with sizes ranging from small to far too large for comfort for most people…particularly the Chief who bolted into the dresser with Shalom, leaving Rahu to deal with the eight-legged invaders.
She had the damndest feeling that Schorl was laughing at her, the machine having not been of any aid due to the risk of damaging the prison should it start to utilize its weaponry on the perfidious vermin…she was certain it was also because whoever was monitoring the situation was getting a kick out of it, but she held her tongue.
It would take several hours, many spider bites, a lot of cursing, and several questionable sounds from the dresser, before at last Rahu claimed her final victory over the spider invasion, the only clue she needed to know who was responsible being a lone flower she found resting outside of the Hush’s room when she was finished.
A bright yellow tulip that seemed to be laughing at her weary form.
She felt no small delight in crushing it under her boot, and her joy only grew when she aided Shalom in her own retaliation on the Garden and Langley, said retaliation taking the form of causing a sizable influx of paperwork for Langley and the 9th as a whole, such that they did not leave their offices for almost a whole week, while the Garden found themselves invaded by a large amount of bees and ants, which would take several weeks to full eradicate.
In the end the groups involved called a cease fire to this chapter of their feud when the Chief tired of the chaos they were causing, interfered and threatened to avoid spending any time with them if they continued, the potential of the undesirable outcome causing a lull in their feud…at least until something else set it off once more.
26. That her and Langley have a somewhat…contentious relationship, is rather well known, though the exact reasons are not.
A part of it is something that is largely due to their differing approach on not only how they handle their work, but also in regards to how they view the actions each other have taken during their respective careers.
In terms of their work, Langley dislikes how little Shalom shares in regards to any matter she assigns the 9th, many times she has kept the vast majority of information and secrets that could lead to an easier time completing the missions close to her chest, leading to Langley losing many valuable subordinates.
On the opposing hand, Shalom dislikes how open Langley is with her subordinates in terms of sharing information and formulating plans, believing that by entrusting the information to said subordinates the Spider is putting herself and the operations at risk, a fact Paradeisos has agreed with many times, much to her silent disgust, thus leading to her keeping the aforementioned information largely close to her chest for fear of it being compromised.
In terms of how they view their actions, it boils down to how they justify what they have done, both of them accept that they have committed, and will continue to commit, horrific deeds in the name of a greater purpose, but whereas Langley claims hers is for the good of all of Dis, Shalom admits that everything she has done was in the name of Paradeisos and their own agenda, with many others being done for her own and the Chief’s benefit later on.
That Shalom readily admits the fault of her actions does not make them any better in Langley’s eyes, especially given how many of her men and women have been caught in the middle of the schemes of the Hush and Paradeisos and either killed or maimed to the point of no longer being able to operate in the field.
Her anger is only further stoked as, instead of attempting to change her methods and approach as she has regained her emotions and has gained the Chief’s aid, Shalom largely chooses to keep utilizing methods that are either similar to, or almost identical to, her original methods of achieving her goals, with the few moments she takes a different approach only further infuriating Langley as it proves that, while difficult to the extreme, she can change her methods but seems to not want to.
On the other hand, Shalom views Langley as being somewhat too self righteous, convinced that she and her Agency are always working for the best of Dis, bending and often breaking the laws of the very city they protect, along with Paradeisos’ own rules, which has lead to no shortage of headaches for her.
In that same vein, Shalom believes that Langley can be far too gentle in her approach to how she handles certain matters, along with allowing for her fondness for her subordinates to interfere with her decision making process, something that Langley has argued is not the case many times.
However, having said all of that, the pair are still able to work together remarkably well given the correct circumstances, from a major threat to Dis, to something choosing to target their Chief, these moments displaying just how formidable they could truly be, if they could ever bury the hatchet between them.
Though such a thing seems like it will take a miracle to occur.
27. The first time she met Oak Casket in person, the Lady of the Romanesque hall approached her and Rahu as they were walking down a hallway, with her stopping in front of them as she looked Shalom in the eye and told her that she could at last put a face to the name so many spirits had cursed to the depths of hell and beyond as they found their way to her.
She would further claim that even now, within the halls of the Bureau, the spirits of countless maniacs clung to Shalom like a shroud, with her likening her approach to that of a storm front, the wailing and crying of the maniacs being the wind, the rain being their unseen and unfelt tears, and their furious shouting the deafening roar of thunder.
While Rahu reacted with unease and prepared for conflict, Schorl similarly readying for battle, Oak Casket merely strode forward, uncaring of them, and walked past them, pausing but to say that if she was ever curious what their final words and thoughts were, she could ask the Chief where to find her.
She was not surprised when, several days later, Shalom arrived at her doorstep, the Hush vanishing into the Funeral Parlor director’s room, where she would remain for nearly the rest of the day until she left later on, finding Rahu and Schorl waiting for her at the door.
Shalom was silent and seemingly in deep contemplation for the rest of the day, with her only requesting that Rahu remain with her the rest of the night, with her responding to any of Rahu’s question with silence, Schorl, that had been eavesdropping into the room, surprisingly held its own tongue…perhaps owing to the sounds that had left its operator in a cold sweat that it had heard from said room.
It was that day that an odd…bond of sorts formed between the Lady of Romanesque and the Hush, the pair coming to spend time together discussing matters that left those who overheard them more than a little uneasy as they fled the talking pair.
28. She has a much higher alcohol tolerance than one would suspect on their first look of her, with Shalom easily being able to out drink most ordinary people and Sinners alike, with only the more heavy drinkers such as Zoya, Pacassi (When the mood strikes her), Demon (Again, when the mood strikes him), and Bai-Yi, being able to reliably out drink her.
That said, when she does manage to drink too much it is not readily apparent, she has long since mastered the art of hiding any visible signs of intoxication, even the subtle signs are held tight under her grip, with the only reliable sign that has been found being how clingy she becomes around those she feels safe around when she is intoxicated.
At a rather low level of intoxication she would prefer to brush herself against them, with a mid level being characterized by her latching on to their arm or holding their hand, and at a severe level of intoxication she will have them put their arm around her, and latch onto their side as she nuzzles into them.
The problem comes with her not wanting to let go of the one she has latched on to, with Rahu and the Chief having found themselves being pinned to a bed, chair, or any other piece of furniture that can support them by the drunken Hush as she falls asleep atop them, Christina having been spared the fate due to Shalom trying to maintain an image of a reliable older sister around her.
Though, the Chief and Rahu are not alone in having to deal with an intoxicated Hush, as at one point the Chief was informed that she was required in the Garden’s group dorm by a somewhat baffled looking Sumire.
Upon arriving in the dorm, she was met with the sight of the Sinners of the Garden looking on in dumbfounded shock as their Mentor was pinned to her bed by Shalom, the Poppy of the Garden shooting a dumbfounded look at the Chief as she approached, with her heaving a sigh as she began the process of trying to get the intoxicated Hush off of a flustered Coquelic.
Only to be pulled down and pinned by her as well, with the Flowers either chuckling silently at the scene of the Mentor scolding the Chief for getting both of them pinned, or trying to find a way to get them out of their situation.
Eventually, after much trial and error, they decided to utilize the most tried and true method of dealing with a drunken Shalom.
They called Rahu and Christina.
The pair arrived and, with a somewhat ashamed look on Christina’s face and an exasperated look on Rahu’s own face, managed to pry her off of the Chief and Coquelic before they carried her away to her room.
As for why Shalom was drunk that day, they would later learn that she had been having a conversation with Oak Casket as they drank what they had both assumed was a wine with a low alcohol content.
It did not, in fact, have a low alcohol content.
Where they got the wine, no one could ever figure out, though Nightingale and the Chief had a sneaking suspicion that it involved a certain supply office manager, who had taken a couple of days off to allow for the heat to di-*Ahem* to recuperate from a head cold.
29. While everyone is aware that Shalom has a vast collection of records, most are unaware of just how many records she actually owns, with her having not only several storage racks filled with them, but also a storage unit full of containers filled with duplicated of the ones in her room, the transferal of it from the surface unit to the Bureau was…an adventure in its own right.
Despite this frankly absurd number of records, Shalom has listened to each of them,and can even recite which songs are on each of them just by glancing at the abbreviated designation she has marked each of them with.
In addition to records for her vinyl player, she also owns a large number of cassettes, disks, and even digital copies of each of the songs she has on her records should something happen to them.
She also attends concerts and live performances whenever she gets the chance, typically dragging Christina, Rahu, and or the Chief along with her to the performance in question, though she has also extended an invitation to a rather dumbfounded Coquelic as well, the Garden’s Mentor has yet to give her a reply to the offer.
30. It is rather well known that she has something of an…odd relationship with the Mentor of the Garden, the pair able to go from amicably drinking tea together, to Coquelic attempting to throttle Shalom as the Hush smiles at her.
On one hand, Coquelic does appreciate how Shalom’s little scheme allowed her flowers and her to slip free from the Underground and to find a new home, but at the same time she is…decidedly less than pleased with the method that Shalom aided them, as well as how unapologetic she has been for the pain it caused her Flowers.
On the other hand, Shalom has a rather sizable amount of respect for not only the sheer power and skill that Coquelic possess, but also how she was able to wrest control of not only her own fate, but the collective fates of the rest of the Garden as well, an act which has earned her no small amount of admiration and, to an extent, envy from the dread Hush.
The pair have shown that, despite the occasional acts of hostility, they are more than able to have a working relationship between them, with the pair having come to work together to deal with any threat against the Chief or their makeshift home…that their methods are not what the Chief would approve of is simply a sacrifice they have deemed necessary to make for the greater good of her safety.
By combining the Garden’s, the 9th Agency’s, and Shalom’s own resources, along with the occasional input from various other Sinners, they have been able to locate and remove many potential threats before they could take any form of action against the Chief or the Bureau, the majority of said threats vanishing without being seen again, while others suffer a myriad of…‘accidents’ that can not be traced back to any of the involved parties.
The sheer efficiency with which they are able to operate is further proof of just how terrifying a force they are capable of becoming when they are not at each other’s throats, making it a rather sad thing that it only seems to happen under such…morbid circumstances.
Or whenever the Chief sits them down and forces them to work together so she can get some peace and quiet.
31. While Shalom can claim to be a woman of many talents, one talent that has always evaded her, outside of driving, is the art of ice skating, something that she has tried time and again to remedy to…very little success.
Her multiple attempts at learning the art have led to her having to either visit the medical wing for treatment for bruising, or to go to her room and spend a while laying down as she recovers from the aches caused by several falls to the ice.
Many times she has managed to convince the Chief or Rahu to assist her in the matter, Christina having long given up on the matter and declared it a hopeless endeavor, with the pair rapidly approaching agreeing with her, especially given how many times she has dragged them down with her.
That many of those falls have led to them being in compromising positions is something Shalom claims no responsibility for, something that the Chief and Rahu are uncertain of the validity of, due in no small part to how Shalom is always smiling and wearing a faint blush during these incidents.
32. She has an odd relationship with Summer, with Shalom having subtly leaked several pieces of Paradeisos technology and information to the genius sinner as a means of allowing for the Bureau to gain a leg up on Paradeisos and to develop their own Anti-Mania technology, something which Summer has been making many breakthroughs with, the rapid growth being explained as her having a bout of inspiration and her general eccentric nature.
The only request she has had for Summer is for her to find a way to either replicate, or to take control of, the Schorl that is constantly with her, an additional caveat being that she wants it to speak in the Chief or Rahu’s voice when relaying information to her, something which Summer is treating as an additional challenge.
As for how she managed to make the notoriously eccentric genius work with her, that can be chalked up to a rather sizable amount of expensive chocolate, anime (that a curious Shalom has been coerced into watching with Summer), manga, and many other treats, the promise being that so long as she makes progress, Summer will continue to receive these care packages.
On one hand, the Chief is rather cross with Shalom for going behind her back on this matter, but on the other hand, Summer has made a rather sizable amount of progress with aid from Eureka, Vanilla, and Dreya, and she has been on much better behavior since the arrangement began.
With the addition of the Bureau not having to pay for any of this, the Chief has begrudgingly allowed for the deal to continue, under the stipulation that it be closely monitored to insure that nothing goes wrong.
33. She has a rather sizable amount of wealth to her disposal, enough to be in the upper elite of Dis, due in no small part to large amounts of passive income that come from her many investments in wealthy companies, along with her running several shell corporations from the shadow as a means of further supplementing the rather generous amount of wealth Paradeisos has allowed her to draw from.
A rather large amount of this wealth is pooled into accounts for Rosa, Christina, the Chief, Rahu, and rather surprisingly Coquelic and Langley, with everything being arranged for them to receive access to these accounts should she die.
Rosa, Christina, the Chief, and Rahu, would be set to receive a rather sizable amount of wealth to their name, as well as controlling shares in the companies she has founded, along with control of her investments.
Coquelic’s account is different as it contains a mixture of money, as payment for a final contract, which is also included in an email set to be sent should she die, and a rather large amount of rare and exotic flower seeds.
Langley’s would not just include a rather large amount of money, but also several flash drives and files filled with all of the information that she has amassed over her rather lengthy stay within Paradeisos, similar files and drives being placed within Rahu, Christina, Coquelic, and the Chief’s own vaults as well, with the hope being that they would finish what she started when she dies.
She has also included several cans of bug spray, particularly designed to kill spiders, and a guide on how to make better tasting coffee within Langley’s vault, with Christina’s containing a sizable amount of novels and aids for her work, with Rahu, Rosa, and the Chief having similar personal gifts awaiting them as well.
She has also left behind a single bank account for Paradeisos themselves to access, with a flash drive loaded with enough Trojan Horse viruses to fry the servers of a third of Dis, all carefully concealed behind what amounts to her final report to her superiors.
34. She owns a variety of outfits that she has never quite had the time or reason to try on, ranging from casual everyday wear, to business attire, to formal party attire, alongside other things that one would not normally consider her one to possess, such as maid outfits and lingerie.
After she came to take up residence in the Bureau, she began to form a habit of trying on each of these unused outfits, or convincing one of those she is close with to model them for her, as she uses them as a dress up doll.
An example of which was Rahu, who found herself the center of an impromptu fashion show that started with her in a rather formal suit, it was a bit too tight but otherwise quite comfortable…though Shalom and the Chief spent a rather absurd amount of time looking at her before she was bid to try on the next outfit…a maid outfit that was much too tight and small that had her glaring daggers at a blushing Chief and Shalom.
Granted, the Chief was not exempt from becoming a part of the show, though she found herself with much more…lascivious clothing placed into her arms courtesy of Shalom, who had an oddly hungry gleam to her eyes as she watched the Chief vanish within a side room to don her new attire.
After seeing her walk out, clad in a much more revealing maid outfit, which was quite the achievement given how the one she had worn looked on her, Rahu felt no small amount of sympathy for the woman, something that soon became pity as she saw the rest of the clothes that Shalom had in mind for her to wear.
From an admittedly rather tasteful cocktail dress, though none of them could get the zipper to go up all the way, to a uniform resembling what a school teacher would wear, and even a copy of what the Hush usually wore with colors suited to compliment the Chief, something Rahu also found herself trying on…though it was several sizes too small for her.
Of course, Shalom also joined in, the scene of her wearing a Sailor Scout uniform from an anime that Summer had shown her, left both Rahu and the Chief gaping as they tried to process the sight in front of them, yet little time had they to acclimate to the scene before another blow to their mental state came when Shalom, after spending close to 30 minutes within the closet, entered her room clad in a school girl uniform of all things.
It took approximately several long minutes for the Chief and Rahu to process what they were seeing, with the pair blushing heavily as Shalom smiled to herself at their reaction, knowing fully well that she had many more things to show them.
It is safe to say that both of them needed to take a very lengthy, and very cold shower when they fled to their respective rooms amidst Shalom’s quiet chuckling.
To be Continued again, in Part 3!
I hate the Character Limit.

So as we all know, Bruce Wayan also known as batman is popular character from DC universe and he knows for not having any superpower (ignoring the fact he knew some magic spells of nullification).
So I am here to show prove and visible feats showing that batman without any gear or any help but purely his physical body is massively superhuman.
So firstly let's talk about batman have actually been discrabed as superhuman in DC many times too.
He was outright confirmed be superhuman and possibilities the greatest fighter (human) in the world.
Batman is the absolute pinnacle of human potential, the perfect human specimen, he training and pushed himself into human's perfection body.
Batman being described as “far superior to mere Olympic athlete level**.”.
Batman have immunity to all poisons and most toxins for example he completely unfazed by enough fear toxin to panic a herd of elephants.
[This all suggests Batman has an enhanced physique through Dionesium, in which he became stronger and faster than he was before after being exposed to it0(https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-75eef3577f9e8e7b8096e4edd5a1581b-lq).
Survives a week without sleep, all while drugged daily and still rips a duct
his highly developed body generates considerably less fatigue toxins and is much more resistant to fatigue than any humans, granting him exceptional endurance and lung capacity.
Survives a virus that raises his body temperature.
Goes 49 days without food or water
Survives 5x the gravity of Earth(1st scan 3rd panel says planetary gravity is 0.20K or 1/5 Kryptons, 2nd scan first panel.
He MASTERED 725 Scientific Disciplines, 36+ languages, 23+ trades, 260+ forms of martial arts and trained his body to absolute human perfection(Captain America levels, see strength section), all in 12–15 YEARS!!
He literally the most intelligent smartest two In the planet along Lex.
Batman himself possesses what’s called a photographic memory, and total recall which allows him to recall certain numbers, and act as a precognitive ability in the ability to eidetically remember ever strategy and event that’s happened in his life.
And at the same time, Geoff Johns himself said that Bruce and Lex are two of the smartest men in DC.
Batman has PERFECT knowledge in all fields, including pop culture.
[Beat the entire Suicide Squad single handily](https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-01348d246d08179bb066f92994afc88b-lq
Here batman Took on and defeated nearly 50 Ninja Man Bats alone, literally supernatural big bats creatures.
Initially by himself, beats hundreds of people with some help in the end from the Bat Family.
*Defeated 100 guards and four superhumans.
Took down around 100 armed soldiers.
Easily took down Killer Croc, Bane, Two Face, Mr.Freeze, Joker, Riddler, Poison Ivy, and the Penguin combined, this without mentioning the fact Bane alone is superhuman.
Defeats several Talons while injured and this without even his suit or stuff.
Literally alone fought giant vampire bigger then house and beat him.
Fought and harmed Etrigan the demon with his punches and took multiple hits from him and keep fighting.
One Punch KO Deathstroke so hard that he break his nose and Deathstroke as knowing well for being superhuman, especially in this fight he broke soiled stones while fighting batman.
Made Deathstroke bleed again.
And we all know Deathstroke is massively superhuman that can take down armies alone and Jumping from over a dozen stories up and cracking the ground.
Takes out 15 superhuman Man-Bats without a suit.
Here he holds up a collapsed building long
Rip off metal twice his size.
Break though wall.
Dents a bulletproof helmet with a head butt.
Again Takes out 30 superhuman Ninja Man-Bats.
Here here he one kick trees to half and smashing gravestone pure hands without his suit
Again he kick trees In half and again gravestone.
[He one kick stone pillar]https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-3db33557ce44f1f740880e28d92c1d39-lq) and motorcycle in half.
Kicks metal doors with one kick easly, Again he do it. So if Bruce one kick seriously an average human he spilit him into pieces.
He can crack Bazooka (RPG) proof glass with his bare hands
Kicks Jack in the Box through a solid stone column. (with his left side paralyzed).
So yeah, if Bruce seriously kick an average human he would be split to pieces
Threw Doctor Hurt through an RPG proof reinforced door.
Batman consistently break down metal doors.
Again and again he do that.
He bend steel metal with his hand easily.
Shatters a armored cars door while underwater. (which once again takes 20 tons of force to do).
Crushes the skull of a Metahuman
Shatters this large Robot, with his attacks.
Craters a dudes head into a concrete wall.
Crushes a gun with his grip.
Shatters a helicopter blade with a simple knife
Shatters this Gargoyle with one punch, literally solid stone being.
Breaks out of metal/electrical restraints, while being tortured by the Joker
Punches a hole through metal mechs and androids:
One, twice and third.
One hand lifted up Solomon grundy.
I recommend to read this, because it's to long but it shown consistently feats of batman lifting strength, lifting literally range from 30 tons to 42 tons and many many others lifting strength, such punch and rip off airplane door or Pushes over a water tower that is 41.5 tons and others and more physical strength feats and him consistently fighting toe to toe Deathstroke.
This is for speed.
Also we also have Batman immediately catching a getaway car after a drive-by. Assuming the car sped off immediately after., they likely hit 35-45 mph before Batman caught up. So once again, a ~60 mph pace.
His brain adapts to perceive bullets in slow motion after so many firefights, something that NO human can adapt to do
He STRATEGICALLY dodges bullets, confirming his bullet timer status
Dodges bullets from behind him and sees normal people in slow motion.
Again and again and again and again and again.
NKVDemon II (a super soldier) thoughts on Batmans speeds.
He literally said so fast that He dosen't believe he is a human.
Like just look to this, Jumping like Spiderman
Steals the guns away from several armed gunmen, before they could pull the trigger.
Catches Green Arrows arrow from behind his back.
Soon after his injury by Bane Batman, disguised as Sir Hemingford Gray, catches a ball thrown at him without directly looking.
So yeah he isn't peak human but definitely superhuman consistently.
The same with his durability taking from clearly above superhuman creatures can break steel and the ground with there foot steps and stand still.
Survived being his face literally pushed and broke the ground by Wonder Women, of course she wasn't trying kill him but his face literally broke the ground being pushed down and he was stoll consiousness and able speak and he wasn't even wearing his suit.
Tank explosions on blink eye.
Batman survived A TANK literally a tank blasts in the face in the vary meaning of the words, and he stood up fine from the stones and keep fighting fine
Here he is after a nasty fall from a skyscraper-level height after someone cut his grappling hook.
Survives moving at near sonic speeds as welll as a building collapsing on him and is already disguised and fighting.
Stamina.
Fights for 28 hours straight.
Fights for several days before tiring.
Fights for 37 years (this mostly outlier tbh).
Willpower.
Resist the assault of 90 MILLION MINDS.
Resists temperatures that were freezing his cowl, simply because he didn’t accept it.
Can increase his temperature high enough to melt snow and ice around him.
He also have Mastered 127 martial arts and combined them to form his own unique style to the point of perfection, of all forms of combat.
From a single vantage point knows 463 WAYS to incapacitate someone WITHOUT drawing blood.
Batman said to be quite possibly the greatest martial artist alive and a master of every fighting style on earth
Learned from Manhunters,and Martial Artists, mastering every fighting style".
(DC Comics Encyclopedia vol 2).
Has spent years perfecting every known fighting discipline (The Ultimate Guide to the Justice League of America).
Is a master of all fighting arts with his courage being said to be the only thing that matches his skill (Detective Comics #411).
He also likely possesses a form of Adoptive Muscle Memory/Photographic Reflexes(Taskmasters ability to mimic any and all physical movement perfectly after a single observation), given he was able to also master over 260 individual forms of martial arts in the same 12–15 years. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking “He’s only mastered 127 forms.” It’s been repeatedly stated that he’s mastered every form of violent combat.
One, two, three.

“It’s overreach. They don’t need to do that. They need to back off,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a former rodeo cowboy who is a possible pick to lead the USDA if former President Donald Trump wins the presidential election, said in an interview.
Texas, the first state where the bird flu virus was detected, has not invited the CDC to conduct epidemiological field studies there, even though its health department is open to the research, because, “We haven’t found a dairy farm that is interested in participating,” said Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/06/bird-flu-dairy-farms-cdc-00156119
——-
There isn’t many infections in order to draw a conclusion and comparison with Covid but here’s some interesting facts
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN11283881/#
Ninety percent of the people infected with bird flu have been under the age of 40, and 60 percent of them have died, according to the latest analysis from the World Health Organization.
—————-
Moderna is working on a vaccine
https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/24/h5n1-bird-flu-vaccine-preparedness/#
——-
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/05/02/1248538298/the-u-s-may-be-missing-human-cases-of-bird-flu-scientists-say
Alarming news:
Officially, there is only one documented case of bird flu spilling over from cows into humans during the current U.S. outbreak.
But epidemiologist Gregory Gray suspects the true number is higher, based on what he heard from veterinarians, farm owners and the workers themselves as the virus hit their herds in his state.
"We know that some of the workers sought medical care for influenza-like illness and conjunctivitis at the same time the H5N1 was ravaging the dairy farms," says Gray, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. ——
Remember, before Covid became a thing, we heard about many pneumonia related hospitalizations since that is what Covid causes, which is the same case with bird flu.
Another pandemic with these crazy lunatics will be the end of so much. I know for sure many hospital workers will quit their jobs and there isn’t anymore of the hero mentality that there was before the pandemic. Many hospital workers know how much hospitals have treated them like shit after the pandemic and they won’t go through another pandemic again and then add on to all the freedumb truckers who are not going to adhere to guidelines.
Going to be interesting if this is the next one. This ain’t any doom gloomy stuff, everyone knows another pandemic is bound to happen. We are going to be dealing with this like we deal with climate change from now on.

So as we all know, Bruce Wayan also known as batman is popular character from DC universe and he knows for not having any superpower (~~ignoring the fact he knew some magic spells of nullification](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/vsbattles/images/3/37/96975D4F-AC22-4FDD-B1A8-ED20B1E330D0.jpeg/revision/latest?cb=20190325184217).
So I am here to show prove and visible feats showing that batman without any gear or any help but purely his physical body is massively superhuman.
So firstly let's talk about batman have actually been discrabed as superhuman in DC many times too.
He was outright confirmed be superhuman and possibilities the greatest fighter (human) in the world.
Batman is the absolute pinnacle of human potential, the perfect human specimen, he training and pushed himself into human's perfection body.
Batman being described as “far superior to mere Olympic athlete level**.”.
Batman have immunity to all poisons and most toxins for example he completely unfazed by enough fear toxin to panic a herd of elephants.
[This all suggests Batman has an enhanced physique through Dionesium, in which he became stronger and faster than he was before after being exposed to it0(https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-75eef3577f9e8e7b8096e4edd5a1581b-lq).
Survives a week without sleep, all while drugged daily and still rips a duct
his highly developed body generates considerably less fatigue toxins and is much more resistant to fatigue than any humans, granting him exceptional endurance and lung capacity.
Survives a virus that raises his body temperature.
Goes 49 days without food or water
Survives 5x the gravity of Earth(1st scan 3rd panel says planetary gravity is 0.20K or 1/5 Kryptons, 2nd scan first panel.
He MASTERED 725 Scientific Disciplines, 36+ languages, 23+ trades, 260+ forms of martial arts and trained his body to absolute human perfection(Captain America levels, see strength section), all in 12–15 YEARS!!
He literally the most intelligent smartest two In the planet along Lex.
Batman himself possesses what’s called a photographic memory, and total recall which allows him to recall certain numbers, and act as a precognitive ability in the ability to eidetically remember ever strategy and event that’s happened in his life.
And at the same time, Geoff Johns himself said that Bruce and Lex are two of the smartest men in DC.
Batman has PERFECT knowledge in all fields, including pop culture.
[Beat the entire Suicide Squad single handily](https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-01348d246d08179bb066f92994afc88b-lq
Here batman Took on and defeated nearly 50 Ninja Man Bats alone, literally supernatural big bats creatures.
Initially by himself, beats hundreds of people with some help in the end from the Bat Family.
*Defeated 100 guards and four superhumans.
Took down around 100 armed soldiers.
Easily took down Killer Croc, Bane, Two Face, Mr.Freeze, Joker, Riddler, Poison Ivy, and the Penguin combined, this without mentioning the fact Bane alone is superhuman.
Defeats several Talons while injured and this without even his suit or stuff.
Literally alone fought giant vampire bigger then house and beat him.
Fought and harmed Etrigan the demon with his punches and took multiple hits from him and keep fighting.
One Punch KO Deathstroke so hard that he break his nose and Deathstroke as knowing well for being superhuman, especially in this fight he broke soiled stones while fighting batman.
Made Deathstroke bleed again.
And we all know Deathstroke is massively superhuman that can take down armies alone and Jumping from over a dozen stories up and cracking the ground.
Takes out 15 superhuman Man-Bats without a suit.
Here he holds up a collapsed building long
Rip off metal twice his size.
Break though wall.
Dents a bulletproof helmet with a head butt.
Again Takes out 30 superhuman Ninja Man-Bats.
Here here he one kick trees to half and smashing gravestone pure hands without his suit
Again he kick trees In half and again gravestone.
[He one kick stone pillar]https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-3db33557ce44f1f740880e28d92c1d39-lq) and motorcycle in half.
Kicks metal doors with one kick easly, Again he do it. So if Bruce one kick seriously an average human he spilit him into pieces.
He can crack Bazooka (RPG) proof glass with his bare hands
Kicks Jack in the Box through a solid stone column. (with his left side paralyzed).
So yeah, if Bruce seriously kick an average human he would be split to pieces
Threw Doctor Hurt through an RPG proof reinforced door.
Batman consistently break down metal doors.
Again and again he do that.
He bend steel metal with his hand easily.
Shatters a armored cars door while underwater. (which once again takes 20 tons of force to do).
Crushes the skull of a Metahuman
Shatters this large Robot, with his attacks.
Craters a dudes head into a concrete wall.
Crushes a gun with his grip.
Shatters a helicopter blade with a simple knife
Shatters this Gargoyle with one punch, literally solid stone being.
Breaks out of metal/electrical restraints, while being tortured by the Joker
Punches a hole through metal mechs and androids:
One, twice and third.
One hand lifted up Solomon grundy.
I recommend to read this, because it's to long but it shown consistently feats of batman lifting strength, lifting literally range from 30 tons to 42 tons and many many others lifting strength, such punch and rip off airplane door or Pushes over a water tower that is 41.5 tons and others and more physical strength feats and him consistently fighting toe to toe Deathstroke.
This is for speed.
Also we also have Batman immediately catching a getaway car after a drive-by. Assuming the car sped off immediately after., they likely hit 35-45 mph before Batman caught up. So once again, a ~60 mph pace.
His brain adapts to perceive bullets in slow motion after so many firefights, something that NO human can adapt to do
He STRATEGICALLY dodges bullets, confirming his bullet timer status
Dodges bullets from behind him and sees normal people in slow motion.
Again and again and again and again and again.
NKVDemon II (a super soldier) thoughts on Batmans speeds.
He literally said so fast that He dosen't believe he is a human.
Like just look to this, Jumping like Spiderman
Steals the guns away from several armed gunmen, before they could pull the trigger.
Catches Green Arrows arrow from behind his back.
Soon after his injury by Bane Batman, disguised as Sir Hemingford Gray, catches a ball thrown at him without directly looking.
So yeah he isn't peak human but definitely superhuman consistently.
The same with his durability taking from clearly above superhuman creatures can break steel and the ground with there foot steps and stand still.
Survived being his face literally pushed and broke the ground by Wonder Women, of course she wasn't trying kill him but his face literally broke the ground being pushed down and he was stoll consiousness and able speak and he wasn't even wearing his suit.
Tank explosions on blink eye.
Batman survived A TANK literally a tank blasts in the face in the vary meaning of the words, and he stood up fine from the stones and keep fighting fine
Here he is after a nasty fall from a skyscraper-level height after someone cut his grappling hook.
Survives moving at near sonic speeds as welll as a building collapsing on him and is already disguised and fighting.
Stamina.
Fights for 28 hours straight.
Fights for several days before tiring.
Fights for 37 years (this mostly outlier tbh).
Willpower.
Resist the assault of 90 MILLION MINDS.
Resists temperatures that were freezing his cowl, simply because he didn’t accept it.
Can increase his temperature high enough to melt snow and ice around him.
He also have Mastered 127 martial arts and combined them to form his own unique style to the point of perfection, of all forms of combat.
From a single vantage point knows 463 WAYS to incapacitate someone WITHOUT drawing blood.
Batman said to be quite possibly the greatest martial artist alive and a master of every fighting style on earth
Learned from Manhunters,and Martial Artists, mastering every fighting style".
(DC Comics Encyclopedia vol 2).
Has spent years perfecting every known fighting discipline (The Ultimate Guide to the Justice League of America).
Is a master of all fighting arts with his courage being said to be the only thing that matches his skill (Detective Comics #411).
He also likely possesses a form of Adoptive Muscle Memory/Photographic Reflexes(Taskmasters ability to mimic any and all physical movement perfectly after a single observation), given he was able to also master over 260 individual forms of martial arts in the same 12–15 years. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking “He’s only mastered 127 forms.” It’s been repeatedly stated that he’s mastered every form of violent combat.
One, two, three.