In a different part of the city, a man sat at his computer. He was a scientist, as was evidenced by his white lab coat. Upon looking more closely at his security badge, one would discover that his name was Dr. Felix Mendez.

Dr. Felix Mendez was a scientist much like many others. He was simply studying the particles to determine new uses for them.

On his computer display was a scan of the power grid for the city. It glowed in multicolored lights representing the current energy output. He seemed bored as he sipped his coffee and thought to himself.

*bloop*

His computer made a sound. Dr. Mendez say upright and looked at the screen more closely.

"That's odd." He leaned in and clicked the replay button. Sure enough, he hadn't been wrong.

"Stephen! Take a look at this!" He called across the lab towards a cubicle across the way.

His assistant Stephen rolled his chair out from the cubicle and looked his direction, "Be right there, boss!" He took off his headphones and walked across the room to Felix's work area. "What's up?"

"Check this abnormality out. What do you think about it?" Felix clicked replay again. The recording played from the selected point in time.

Stephen's eyes opened wide. On the display, for just a second or so, part of the grid appeared to surge and turn red with additional power. Then it flickered and went completely dark before returning to normal.

"What happened?" His voice carried a mild sense of trepidation. The energy levels generated by the particles were known for being extremely stable. Sure, some poor portions of the city occasionally lost power due to poor connectivity, but they never experienced an increase in power!

Dr. Mendez thought for a moment, but couldn't even come up with a hypothesis. "I have no idea... we're going to have to go take a look!" He grabbed his coat and headed for the door, "You too! Hurry up!"

Stephen ran across the room, grabbed his coat, and then followed him out the door to his car.

---

Gareth blinked at his reflection; DEE glowed in his pupils brightly. It was so bright that his entire eyes appeared to be back lit with a bright neon green. It was eerie. Almost as eerie as the thought of a transdimensional parasi… sorry, SYMBIOTE, living in Gareth’s body with him. He shuddered slightly. This was going to take some getting used to.

‘So, DEE, um… what do we do now?’ Gareth asked. He had been planning to go to the park, but… well, that obviously was something now subject to change.

*I highly recommend departing from this location immediately. There seems to have been a… um, let’s just say “a mess”… left across the street. Due to particle interaction with the energy grid, and the potential for witnesses. It’s probably a good idea to not be here when others arrive, right?*

Gareth’s eyes widen. Holy crap, DEE was right. He, no SHE, had just killed a man. However, there was no way that the guards patrolling the city would accept the idea of another being inside him. If he didn’t make himself scarce, there was a high possibility that the next few years would be spent behind bars. Gareth gulped nervously. The idea of prison didn’t seem like a friendly one.

‘Crap, we’ve got to run! Shoot, uhm, where should we go?’ He looked around frantically.

*If I may suggest an option, heading to the park wouldn’t be a bad idea. Thankfully, no surveillance was in the ally. It was also sheltered from the snow, so there will be no tracks. Based on my analysis of current technology, if we aren’t seen leaving the scene the odds of being caught and questioned should be minimal.*

‘The park? Ok, I guess that is as good as any other place to lay low for the moment.’ Gareth shook off the mild confusion. He was the victim here, after all, so he didn’t feel particularly guilty. He could have died!

*Alright. One moment! Activating HUD… priming visual cortex for added user interface. HUD active. Quests updated!*

‘A quest?!’ To Gareth’s surprise, a yellow glowing shape appeared on the ground towards the opposite end of the alley. At first it was just a vague yellow fog, but after a few moments the vague blur crystallized into a three dimensional object hovering above the ground two meters away. When he stepped to the left or the right, the arrow adjusted to his position. It was obviously leading him to the end of the alley. He stepped forward, and the arrow maintained the same distance from him.

DEE giggled. *Don’t be so confused! Remember, I’m already integrated with your visual cortex. I just made a few slight adjustments. *

‘Oh! What did you mention about quests?’ Gareth thought.

*Updating quests list!*

The words floating in front of Gareth’s vision suddenly rearranged. Along the right side of his vision a new list appeared. So far there was only one item in the list with one sub-topic.

Quests:

Retrieve a second energy particle mass from Dawnstone Park (1/7) Step 1: Travel to Dawnstone Park Step 2: Unavailable until Step 1 is complete

Reward:

Obtain one additional bioenergy integration and related skill. One-time first-quest bonus: 1800 PPH

‘A new skill? Huh, I don’t know if this is good so far as quest rewards go, but I guess any progress can’t hurt? I guess we’ll have to see what happens?’ Gareth walked to the end of the alley. As the arrow approached the end of the alley, a translucent green circle appeared on the ground in front of him. As the arrow crossed into the circle, an update displayed on his quest screen, and the arrow smoothy transitioned to a new position in his view.

*Ting!* DEE played a delicate chime notification in his consciousness.

Quests:

Retrieve a second energy particle mass from Dawnstone Park (2/7) Step 1: Travel to Dawnstone Park (Completed) Step 2: Surveillance has been detected near the exit of the alley. While avoiding surveillance, cross the street and jump down onto the walking trail. Step 3: Unavailable until step 2 is complete.

Reward:

Obtain one additional bioenergy integration and related skill. One-time first-quest bonus: 1800 PPH

‘Huh, well that was easy. Wait, surveillance. Hmm, let me see.’ Gareth looked around but couldn’t detect any sort of surveillance. ‘DEE, any suggestions?’

*Certainly. I can assist in guiding you through this obstacle. The surveillance camera that I detected is a small monitor eye in the entry of the book shop two doors down. It appears to be on a set rotation of 3 seconds. I can count down to let you know when it’s safe to cross?*

Gareth nodded, ‘That’s convenient. Let’s do it!’

*Alright! Syncing. Ready? 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Cross now!*

Gareth rushed across the alley, and took a quick glance over the railing at the walking trail. It was only a two meter drop, thankfully.

*Please, hurry! Coming back into surveillance range in 5… 4… 3…*

Gareth couldn’t afford to wait any longer, so he aimed at a snow drift next to the trail and vaulted over the railing.

*Ting!*

Quests:

Retrieve a second energy particle mass from Dawnstone Park (3/7) Step 1: Travel to Dawnstone Park. (Completed) Step 2: Surveillance has been detected near the exit of the alley. While avoiding surveillance, cross the street and jump down onto the walking trail. (Completed) Step 3: Surveillance has been evaded. Proceed down the walking trail to the park. Step 4: Unavailable until step 3 is completed.

Reward:

Obtain one additional bioenergy integration and related skill. One-time first-quest bonus: 1800 PPH

Once again, the yellow arrow swung to point down the walking path.

‘Heh! So far so good! This is easier than I thought it would be! DEE, you’re sure handy to have around!’ Gareth grinned and started walking.

*Thanks! You’re handy to have around too! By which I mean, you actually have hands… and legs too! Hehe!* Gareth got the distinct impression that DEE was smiling at her own joke.

After walking for 15 minutes, he arrived at the park.

*Ting!*

Quests:

Retrieve a second energy particle mass from Dawnstone Park (4/7) Step 1: Travel to Dawnstone Park. (Completed) Step 2: Surveillance has been detected near the exit of the alley. While avoiding surveillance, cross the street and jump down onto the walking trail. (Completed) Step 3: Surveillance has been evaded. Proceed down the walking trail to the park. (Completed) Step 4: Defeat the crazed squirrel. Step 5: Unavailable until step 4 is completed.

Reward:

Obtain one additional bioenergy integration and related skill. One-time first-quest bonus: 1800 PPH

‘Wait! What? Crazed squirrel!?’ Gareth looked around in alarm. Nothing happened at first. ‘Um, DEE…? What’s this about a-‘

Suddenly the bushes next to the road rustled and a bright red blur shot towards Gareth.

*Warning! Attack imminent!*

Gareth threw up his hands in alarm as the red blur leapt off the ground towards his face. “Agh!”

He felt a sudden tug on his coat sleave and was knocked back a step. ‘DEE! What the heck is this thing!?’

The red blur rebounded away from him and shot up a nearby tree. Gareth glanced at his sleeve. The heavy fabric had a large chunk torn away and the stuffing inside was shredded. His eyes widened, ‘Holy crap!’

He looked at the tree. Sitting on a branch was a squirrel. Its eyes glowed red. Bright red glowing fangs hung its upper lip. They were at least three inches long and looked razor sharp. Normal squirrels didn’t glow red. They also were not typically prone to attacking humans. Normally, they would have a slight blue tinge to their otherwise grey coat of fur. They definitely didn’t have fangs.

*Hey! You may want to arm yourself? That thing doesn’t look friendly!* DEE’s voice seemed entirely too chipper for the situation.

‘Thanks a lot for the help!’ Gareth looked around frantically for something to protect himself. A bench. The path. Some large boulders. Crap! There didn’t seem to be anything! A dead tree branch almost within reach! That would have to do! He jumped, grabbed the tree branch, and yanked on it as hard as he could. A 1.5 meter section broke off. The branch was about four centimeters thick, and weighted quite a bit. It would have to work.

Gareth was just in time too! The squirrel turned into a red blur again as it ran down a branch and launched itself towards him through the air.

‘Shoot! Now what?!’ Gareth had never fought a wild animal in his life. He figured he should hit it, but at the moment he couldn’t figure out how to position himself correctly.

*Initializing combat guidance! Activated.* Suddenly time seemed to slow down.

‘Um, DEE, what just happened?’

*I’ve simply overdriven your brain for a moment to increase your perception and comprehension speed. Don’t worry, there won’t be any aftereffects… well, maybe a mild headache, but nothing too severe at least.*

‘Ok… um, next question, why?’

*Oh, right! Check this out!*

Suddenly there was a flicker of light and a transparent glow surrounded Gareth. As he watched, the glow separated from him and shifted a step back and to his left, while simultaneously swing the branch like a baseball bat. The branch intersected with a dotted line that appeared to be predicting the path of the squirrel’s travel.

*That’s what I’d recommend doing! You can ignore it, too. This should work though!*

‘Ok. So are you going to do that for me, or…?’

*Nope! I can’t take control of your body for you completely. That would require me to possess you entirely, and well, that’s what happened to the squirrel. It doesn’t end well for either of us…*

Gareth’s eyes widened, ‘Yeah! Let’s not do that! I’ll just have to try my best.’

*Ok, this is as far as I can push your brain, so I’m resuming time now! Good luck!*

Gareth winced slightly. DEE’s attitude was certainly going to get annoying eventually. He could tell already. He didn’t have time to dwell on it though and the speed of the advancing squirrel appeared to slowly be increasing again. Gareth focused on his memory of the maneuver that DEE had suggested and tried to imitate it as close as possible.

He crossed his right leg behind his left and rotated his body, swinging the branch back at the same time, Then he stepped forward with his left leg while swinging the branch as hard as possible on the approximate arc the projection had swung it. By now, speed had completely returned to normal.

Crack! The branch connected with the squirrel’s head! Success!

The squirrel never even saw it coming, it was launched through the air and impacted the trunk of a tree. The red glow slowly seemed to be fading.

To Gareth’s surprise, it slowly seemed to immerge from the squirrel and a slightly red fog flew towards Gareth and entered his body.

*Wow! Lucky you! Your first kill of a mutated creature and we gained an integration supplement!*

‘Intergration… what is that!?’ Gareth again gave another confused look.

*Just a moment, you’ll understand shortly. Initializing integration. Comprehensive integration technique gained. Applying to host. Success!*

Gareth considered his body carefully. He didn’t detect any obvious changes. ‘Ok? So… I’m not understanding anything?’

*Heh! Trying running down the path as fast as possible!* DEE smirked in his head.

‘…fine?’ Gareth braced as hard as he could and launched himself forward down the path. To his surprise, he flashed forward in a green blur and stopped 20 meters away in less than a second!

‘Whoa.’ Gareth’s mind was completely blown.

*Hehe. Now do you understand? Your body was augmented with the squirrel’s biological capability! It’s a little different than my integrations with your body. You can think of it as more of an improvement to your body’s innate capabilities instead of a skill! Essentially, you just unlocked a minor aspect of your genetic code!*

Suddenly, Gareth’s legs cramped and he groaned in pain. ‘Ow! What is happening?!’

*Oh, that. Yeah. You unlocked a new genetic ability, but your body isn’t quite built for it yet. It’ll take time for you to be able to use that more frequently. Don’t worry, the muscle cramps should fade in a bit. Also, as you grow stronger, the number of times you can use that will increase. Both time and our continued growth will help improve the number of times you can do that in a row without the side-effects.*

Gareth groaned and hobbled to a nearby bench. ‘Thanks. That’s exciting, but could you tell me the details first next time? I know you don’t feel my pain, but I’d sure like to be prepared for it!’