Each of them plead—no, prayed to their bodies for them to move. So of course, they were still too tired to completely rise to face a monster.

All they could do, respectively tense up using siVis—their illuminated body parts appearing bigger and defined by muscle. Maybe it would work, on some animal—or even some misinformed human, causing them to run away.

It would mean precious little, to a literal monster.

In the realm of the Shift Noumena, Nulgarrt are just suffering life forms that have no idea to survive. siVictims are dangerous humans, but are still subjected to human folly. What made N’atural so beyond any of those, was the fact she could just turn into a thing that doesn’t need to eat, doesn’t need to harm. She’s just designed to do only just those things. There’s no strategy, there’s no active mind… Just a thing that destroys everything in it’s path.

And has already done that in the past. It was months later, and people are still suffering from what she did to them.

The roar stopped moments ago, but the girls didn’t care. They shook as they held up their fists, and not because of the strain.

Jackie looked towards the rest, as the rest eyes at her. Expecting eyes. Wanting to know what to do.

In fact, Tracy didn’t even need her eyes. She used her scarred up lips.

what do we do what do we do what do we do what do we do, Jackie read from her stammering lips.

Another roar echoed throughout the halls, causing the girls to become startled again, some audibly whimpering despite themselves.

Maddie quickly waved her hands at those people, trying in vain to get them to calm down.

Do we run—do we use—my ability—what do we do—

Jackie shook her head violently. Miming the fact that it would make ungodly amount of noise.

Once again, it stopped. This, made Jackie to perk up her eyebrow in confusion.

Something outside of her vision wavered, causing Jackie to flick her head towards it.

It was River, waving her hand to get everyone’s attention.

She mouthed, she sounds like she’s in pain, not rampage

The roar happens again, they all jump and tense again, but actually listened close…

There was a notable whine at the trail end.

Maddie nodded and mouthed, yeah-yeah-yeah—she’s basically a dog right now, holy shit

So what are we DOING

Jackie stared at Tracy, at a loss on what to do herself…

They were more or less sandwiched. If they run back up, then they’ll be faced with Extant Forces, locking them up and in turn leads a vengeful N’atural to take a chance to attack. Or they follow, they’re backing a monster into a corner—and even if they survive this time, then the Extant Forces come down and it’ll lead into a blood bath.

The roaring acted like an hourglass that Jackie could only feel. Weighing her down.

It wasn’t until she squeezed her eyes shut out of stress, did she note something really, really important.

The roaring, was sounding more human each time they heard it.

She didn’t tense like the others, and continued to take in the sounds as much as she can, to gleam something out of them. But she realized another detail—the fact that it is far away.

Jackie gritted her teeth. A sigh managed to whistle pass and against them.

“We have to see what’s going on—” Jackie whispered, shocked that her voice is still ruined.

“NO—no!” Tracy corrected herself, her whispers still rather loud. “God no--!”

Maddie mouthed, GOODWIN, as she sneered at her—not helping in the panic of the latter.

“I’m making a decision, and I’m making a firm one—” Jackie whispered, stern. “We creep along, trying to find out what’s going on—if we see where she is, we book. In fact…”

Jackie looked towards River, causing the girl to look back.

“No, not a smoke escape—” Jackie shook her head. “I need your phone.”

“Mhm…?”

“Because it’s the most broken, and you’re the type that has it on silent 24/7—so when I leave it there, it either looks like throwaway junk or she’ll easily break it and not trace it back.”

“Why leave a phone there at all—” Tracy strained, having trouble to keeping her shrill voice down.

“Because we’re not only running afterwards, but we’re gonna find some hole in here and rest—” Jackie explained. “We’re doing our recess now—a court version. We pass out, we get up, we find the phone and it’ll tell us if she moved or not.”

“Iunno Jackson,” Maddie pipped in, low as can be. “Is it really on us to act like some nature documentary--?”

“We have either two options—” Jackie verbally put her foot down. “We run away, she follows, and we crash into Extant—get more of them mangled by her. We run in, get cornered by her as we try to corner her, we get mangled—and we won’t get the luxury of Extant finding whatever’s left because they’re joining in. This is the only option that we could get a decent say in.”

Aiko nodded her head. “I’m with you.”

“Ah yes, the seal of approval of Aiko ‘Is this cliff high enough’ Kobayashi—” Maddie quipped.

“… I never heard you say my first name before—” Aiko turned to her. “It feels like what my parents talked about in Japan—”

“I know, it feels weird, I’m having an off day today…” Maddie snarked. Her tone lingering concerned.

“You feel weird about my country--?” Aiko said with a cheeky sneer.

“Don’t—” Maddie squinted, and then chuckled a bit. “Okay, that was good, Kobayashi-Maru…”

“Anyways, back on track…” River didn’t remotely have trouble in making her voice quiet. “We’re weak enough to walk slowly and hide anyways. We use siVis for every movement, every step. That can help our chances as long as we hold it together. We’re pretty good at that.”

Maddie pointed with her thumb at River. “Now that, that I have confidence in.”

Jackie smiled. “Thank you, River.”

“Nah, it’s cool,” River shrugged. “You were 100% right about using my phone—that’s pretty freaking clever—”

Jackie rose up, her legs reinforced with siVis use. It still outlined the stress, the pain, but it always felt like she was given more control over to respond to it or not. There was always the natural tensing, or crumpling—getting into any position to stop it, ease the pain. Here, she can still force herself to stand up. Be strong.

Jackie looked at Tracy, who had her shaking hands together.

“You can always stay here. Or even leave. I’m not going to stop you.”

She wheezed out an uneasy laugh.

“Well, you put it perfectly yourself…” Tracy giggled in concern. “We’re fucked either way…”

With that, they all struggled to rise. They begun lurching forward, down the path that could end up killing them.

The innerworkings of their legs, highlighted into pieces, were showcased as they kept moving. Pieces becoming into parts as a foot was lifted up, and soon separating as they put them down.

The halls were brown, the ceiling lights coating the area in the most disgusting yellow. The walls, sometimes had indents to them. Which always came in handy, when the following happened.

Now less of a roar, but an inhuman scream, the girls quickly hid themselves into the massive indents that were able to fit two each, but cramped Maddie into a side rather successfully despite everything. They waited. And they had to wait so long, not going as soon as the screaming stopped, but long after.

They resumed creeping down the tunnels, the ambience of humming and the sound of dripping liquid. Hoping that they won’t step into a puddle, hoping with the little—whatever’s left, they had left in their beings.

But they stumbled onto something that was somehow more terrifying.

The tunnel became damaged—torn into pieces—the walls caved in, scratched deep, creating a massive, gaping way forward.

Jackie looked back, and mouthed, Well we’re close

She then used her two fingers, and then made her other hand flat, creating a pair of legs walking on the flat hand.

Shit is everywhere—walk slow—soft

She turned around, walking forward.

Feeling the slow crumble under her shoes, and tried her damnedest to lessen the impact.

Looking back, the others followed suit. Tracy sweating bullets, Aiko was double-checking herself as subtly was never her strength, River was mumbling, and Maddie had her hand on the still-intact wall of the back.

She sighed in relief, nodding.

They waited, standing in the mess, and took another step.

They repeated this, over and over, as they agonizingly got closer and closer to the source of the scream. They knew, they were getting close, as they heard the now-audible panting.

Jackie raised her hand, signaling to stop. She extended her arm back, towards River. It took a minute, but she felt the round, activated phone being placed onto her palm.

These were disposable smart devices, something River herself found online and suggested we have. Low-key, low-tech, does what it can. They were pretty much perfect.

She whirred her arm around, looking down as the camera app was already opened. She pressed record and shifted the camera focus onto it’s back.

Looking up, they were facing a wall, the hall on their left. The panting so loud, they could feel it.

Jackie slowly but surely, peered over the side.

There, she saw the partially transformed talons of N’atural’s foot. The rest of her form completely face down on the ground, panting with her entire body.

Jackie quickly retracted her head, crouching down, and angled the phone against the corner at the bottom, the phone’s back leaning against.

She pointed back from whence they came, and they all turned on their heels.

They carefully scooted across the broken floor.

They crossed that, and slowly walked away.

But as soon as they got far enough—

“PERSPECTIVE FLIP—PERSPECTIVE FLIP—PERSPECTIVE FLIP—” Jackie said under her breath.

“N-now--?” Tracy said tersely.

“Now her hearing isn’t as enhanced by the beast--!” Jackie continued to say. “We have to find a room or something—”

Tracy made a noise. It was pained and pathetic.

PERSPECTIVE FLIP!

Tracy pulled her arms up, causing the floor below them to flip them all down.

They fell onto the middle of a vacant, underground parking lot. Slamming onto the asphalt.

“Y’know…” Maddie groaned. “I wish I could’ve chimed in there—to point how many fucking times we’ve fell into things over and over—”

“It’s becoming a pattern, isn’t it…” River agreed, sitting up.

“Doesn’t matter—got away…” Jackie coughed up, getting up.

“I hope that was a lung or something—”

“Love you too, Maddie~!”

Soon, the place became silent.

Just waiting. Just alert. For anything to start following them.

After a few minutes, they finally caught a break.

“Okay…” Jackie sighed. “Find a place. Find a lot… And just sleep.”

“Like homeless cats…” Maddie said groggily, holding her limp head in her palm of hand.

“Wait, what--?” Aiko tilted her head.

“Cats put their heads on the car-bumps or whatever—the white things.”

“That’s cute and very sad…”

“City living, babeh—” Maddie weakly swayed side to side.

“This is like…” Tracy whined. “The sixth time we’ve slept outside…”

“And it gets easier to do every time, Goodwin,” Maddie quipped. “We deal. It’s what we can do now.”

Jackie crawled away, finding a small corner in the lot.

She leaned against the tiled walling, resting her head as she closed her eyes.

It seemed like resting was easy for her, in a very long, very difficult night.

So of course “dreaming” was just as bad.

***

It was the past. Distorted, tainted.

She found herself against the tree, within the forest on that night.

The others, the girls, all closed off and at their own areas—as they all waited for the same thing.

Cursing, as the Shift they waited for past them by. Solidifying that their lot in life was to just be the runts, their only chance in trying to survive something they each knew they couldn’t.

But as they tried to leave this forest, they couldn’t.

They were trapped, by some glitch within the universe, constantly in a cycle of repeated motion until they were grounded down and spirited away from this reality.

They found themselves in a fake city, as buildings and landscapes crumbled away, running and running until the streets themselves tipped upward, but they had to find away to get out.

Jackie was hit hard with a slab of street—covering her and in the others in blood. An exaggeration, but reflected how bad it was when it happened.

They sailed across this fake void, until the got swallowed up by some event horizon.

Suddenly, Jackie found herself home.

All of it—the stress she had, this experience she was forced to go through—that proved to be the ticket. She awoke her siVis, screaming as her eyes glowed white, with tears becoming just as.

She found herself alone, looking around. Expecting the flashback to go into the rest of it.

Until she was peppered with the various debris of their first experience in this fucked world.

Hospital items, then movie items, then warehouse bits—all piling onto her, causing her to be on her hands and knees.

“They know, you understand, right~?”

Due to the voice, she found the strength to raise her head, brow furrowed.

It was N’atural—with crocodile tears coming out of her fake, monster eyes. Her face twisted into a snarl, with her mouth curled into a smirk.

“You all—starting so badly, so off—” N’atural growled and mocked. “It’s all build-up, foundation. It’s the way you carry yourselves, so pathetic and weak…”

She crouched down, her smirk turning her face into nothing but it as it stretched and stretched.

“After all—why else would I lie to you so good, when we met all those months ago--?”

All Jackie saw was the maw prowling towards her.

***

Jackie jerked awake. Looking around, with alert eyes that were glossy.

They, along with her face, steeled in seconds.

She glanced at her marked, numb arm. Feeling was starting to return, the pressure that pressed against her skin alieved.

Wasting no time, she balled her fist and started punching randomly in the air. Her strikes creating whips within the air before settling down.

“Girls?”

Taking in the fact her voice was back, pressing her fingers against her neck, as it simmered white briefly.

Runts or no, they benefit from siVis as well.

They weren’t so far, but they each rose up from their quick rest.

“… Let’s get a win in. I have a plan. And I have a shopping list to prove it.”