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There are faint sounds of movement within the cabin, but no other response for long enough that I am starting to consider sending the Ratling out of its hiding place to bump the door again.

Finally, the door opens a crack, and I assume the occupant is peeking out, but the angle isn't right to see. It doesn't matter if I can't see her though, because she can easily see the opened can — it's cold beans — and the note sitting on the floor, illuminated by the sun's morning rays.

I was expecting a pretty high level of caution. If it was me, I'd be progressing very carefully, ready for an ambush or hidden attacker. Instead, the door is thrown all the way open, and the until now unseen woman dashes to the can. I realize I forgot to grab a spoon, but she doesn't seem to care, grabbing the can and hungrily using her fingers to scoop the contents into her mouth.

At last, I get a decent look at her. 'Woman' is a strong word, rather a girl, somewhere between tween and early teens by my uneducated estimate. Blond-haired, blue-eyed, pretty if she wasn't in such a state, her hair is tangled and unkempt, her eyes bloodshot and puffy. Her clothes are mostly intact, but much too large for her. Either she has better control than I figured or — more likely — she found some clothes made mostly out of artificial fiber.

Seeing her kneel on the ground and make a mess shoveling the cold food into her mouth, even as the beans begin to break down from her field effect pulls on my heartstrings. Er… no actually, I think that's the Ratling's internal tissues starting to collapse.

She's not paying attention to the note. Too busy eating. I can understand that, she's hungry, and the food… well creep and my organisms have no issue eating the resultant slurry, but I guess it would be kind of off-putting for most people. Will the paper break down too? It's organic, but so processed, maybe it will endure well enough to be legible?

When the girl finishes eating — well more accurately the contents of the can finish liquefying to the point she just drinks the rest with a grimace — she finally looks at the note. She reaches for it but stops short of picking it up. Instead, she pokes a corner which instantly disintegrates into dry flakes. Much like the wooden flooring then.

I can't tell how well it survived her prod, but her eyes are tracking across it, so presumably, it's still legible.

"Um… hello? Thank…. Thank you." She says, her voice is quiet and she looks around the room as she speaks, looking for something — well someone — to focus on. I remain quiet despite the Ratling starting to twitch from the damage it is accumulating. "Thank you for the food but… it's dangerous. I'm… dangerous. Everyone…" She breathes heavily, I don't think she's even speaking to me anymore, just getting the words out to anyone that is listening really.

"When the alarms sounded, mom wanted us to get out of the city, but mom's boyfriend… uh William, he said there's no point. Said roads will be impassable. His… friend had this boat, invited us along, and said we can go upriver to get out. But then…"

She continues for a while, things just did not go their way, and damn girl I know you have a lot on your mind and talking helps, but I — well my Ratling — is literally dying here and you haven't answered any of the questions I asked!

"And I was so scared, and the leader dragged mom off to one of the cabins, and… William, he told them that they can… they can… he… he tried to bribe them to let him go. He… he tried to trade me for his life. The one, he laughed and said they don't make deals with prisoners, and then he shot William. There was blood everywhere and… Next thing I know I wake up on the floor, and there's goopy stuff everywhere, and I have powers and I melt people, and I know the range and I know the strength, and mom's gone and William is gone and well everyone that was too close is gone…"

She finally winds down, wiping her nose with a sleeve. "Sorry, I just had to…. Talk. Umm, are you still listening? Oh god I hope you're ok, I've got the power down as far as it will go but I don't know where you are and if you are in my range."

Finally! Ok, I feel really bad for being so impatient when she's baring the worst day of her life to me, but… my Ratling is unconscious at this point, any normal animal would be long dead, it's only the upgrades I pulled out of the faded essences that are keeping it alive. Muscles are mostly liquefied, and visions failed, I'm impressed the brain has enough functioning tissue for me to still listen in.

"Please be alright, please! I don't… you came to help and if I… hurt… melted you too… You said you have powers too right? Are… are you immune? Or can you hear from really far away? Oh no, should I have been yelling? The note didn't say!" She's getting into a panic now, my connection to the Ratling wavers, and… yeah as she's getting more panicked, the effect of her power increases. "Please can you speak at least? Let me know you're still here and okay?"

I'm not alright at all. The Ratling finally gives up the fight, whatever neurons were still holding it together in its brain rupture and collapse into fluid. Shit shit shit, the other Ratlings are well off from the boat, and out of range, but that means I don't have any idea on what she's doing. She might go back to her room or… What if she's searching for 'me' and finds the melted Ratling puddle? She'll think she killed someone who tried to help her. I don't want to know what a second trigger would do to her, or if she becomes suicidal.

Ok, ok, what's the status of the rock-flesh cape? Still gestating. I swear I am never skipping out on the accelerated growth rate Essence again, even if I am trying to keep the DNA as untouched as possible so the shard will reconnect with the clone. Not like it would matter, it would take him too long to get to the boat anyways. Oh look, zerglings are about to hatch, but they can't speak and are just as far away, though significantly faster.

So… Ratlings are the only resource on-site still. Do I… Ok, one Ratling climbs aboard and makes its way to the door. I can hear frantic pacing from inside and mumbling. I rap a pattern on the door — shave and a haircut, I can't help myself.

"Wha…? Is… is that you? Umm… you didn't write your name. Can you speak? I… I need to… Wait… Are you… Oh god, you knocked on the door, that's way inside the range! You've got to get away! I'll… I'll be in the room. Umm… please don't take too long to answer… I… don't want to be alone." Her field warps up and down, I think she's trying to weaken the effect, but her emotions are running all over her.

I knock twice more, then have the Ratling retreat out to a safe distance again. Sigh… this shit has already cost me one Ratling, it's a good thing I have a lot of those running around at this point. At least most of the nutrients that went into that one can be easily reclaimed.

How to handle the situation with… Damn it I didn't get her name either. Melting everything organic with no control, yeah that sucks, right up there with that one side story from Marvel. I refuse to take the role of Wolverine. So, solutions. Forget about her, let her be someone else's problem. If she can't control it, there's no way that any of the other groups will be able to use her. The downside, if she's still alive and about when I reveal myself, she could decide to throw herself at my forces on her own as some kind of redemption.

It's not like I can use her in her current state either, if she can't control it, then she's doomed to a life of exile and solitude. Hopefully, she can learn to turn it off, or I can figure out a workaround. It seems to break down cellular walls, either slowly or with increasing rapidity when she's emotional. Maybe reinforced cellular walls? It does seem to affect wood differently, so stronger cell walls seem to have an effect. I'll have to play with some Essences and experiment.

The Zerglings are done, I have one head over to join the Ratlings by the boat. With the power of hands, the message is much easier to write. I'd queue up some of the new opposable-thumb-Ratlings, but all the nutrition I can spare is going into Zerglings.

Examining the Zerglings once hatched… Well, they look pretty good in my opinion. Shiny blue carapace and all smooth curves give them a pretty heroic look… outside of the whole 'abominations against nature' of course. I'm not sure if having fur at the joints will help in public opinion, but people seem to prefer fur on animals. Even if I personally found those hairless Mexican dogs amazingly cute.

There are over thirty of the Zerglings in the first batch, and after putting them through their paces — I was fairly confident the wrist-scythe joint would work but wanted to see to be sure — I have as many Larva as my creep can sustain begin the evolution as well, while the Hatchery spews out more. I'm still not even close to the Hatchery's daily maximum output. A queen ant can produce eight hundred eggs a day. With all the fine-tuning and improvements, my Hatchery should be able to reach eight thousand. Of course, when I reach that limit, I can just produce more Hatcheries.

In the interest of having the nutritional input to reach that limit, I examine the creep's progress. It's… made impressive headway, I don't think there's a sewer on this side of the river that's clear of it, and the river itself has a pretty thick carpet growing along huge swaths of the bottom. I'm… even getting some Essence returns from it. Huh, I didn't realize that was an ability it had. It seems to be passively absorbing microbes and other minuscule organisms from the water.

Water which has a not-insignificant population of blue-green algae. That's the toxic kind, though it's more of a waste metabolic product than the intended effect. Should I make the creep toxic?

On one tentacle, creep being toxic and killing wildlife that tries to eat it means an immediate boost in biomass, and even in just the sewers many critters aren't afraid to take a bite. Up until my Ratlings jump them anyways. It's worse in the river, most fish — carp especially will eat anything — have no issue with nomming on the creep.

On the other tentacle, the creep being toxic will force me to completely replace the ecosystem — something I'm not entirely opposed to — and have a small impact on the creep's efficiency. It will also move me even further into the villain side of things, or rather 'existential threat to all life'.

I'll hold off on it for now. Creep being edible is luring prey closer making it easier for my Ratlings to hunt. Might even be a net positive.

Being able to provide food for humans however means I may have an in with various groups, and proving functional cooperation may keep me from getting nuked. Could I make organisms that survive that? Yes, the basic improvements already make them extremely resilient to radiation, and the rest is just a really big fireball. That I would prefer not to have to take to the face.

I'd be more worried about that possibility, but I am inside a pre-cape bunker, so at least a conventional weapon is unlikely to be effective, and I use conventional to mean non-cape, rather than the traditional meaning of non-nuclear. As long as some thinker — Contessa — or tinker — Dragon — doesn't notice me and decide to investigate personally, I should be fine.

Why… hasn't one of them shown up yet? I've been being sneaky, but… well Contessa doesn't need to see me to take action, and Dragon probably has some fancy tech that can see the gut flora inside a hiding ninja.

Unless… they're not… paying attention? Contessa only follows her path, so… is there a possibility I'm a part of that? Or obscured from view? I thought only Eidolon, Scion, and the Endbringers had that trait. I might be wrong though. Dragon, on the other hand, can't instance herself or operate too much faster than a human if I recall, otherwise, Saint would have lost it and killed her already. With that in mind, she already has a lot of jobs… running the birdcage, being a hero, keeping an eye on the Endbringers, and she still finds time to work with Colin. Unless that's fanon.

If she's not the one building the dome, then who is? Is it even parahumans doing it, or is it some lowest bidder contractor the government hired? The tinkertech could be purchased, but even if made in-house, the tinker might never leave his lab and just have normal people running it.

Hydralisk spine attacks are still proving impossible. That's fine though, I've got Ratlings as drone equivalents… of sorts, a Hatchery as pretty much the only 'structure' I need — and I could make them mobile if I needed to, and Zerglings as melee infantry that can take the field with just raw numbers.

What else do I need… first, improvements to creep. Some of the river weeds are much better at absorbing sunlight than my current baseline, especially through the water. Applying the Essence also turns the Creep a deep dark green, so deep in fact that it's only the Zergling's improved eyesight that I can see it's not quite black. Unfortunately, the new variant is only useful underwater, as its energy-capturing ability is too high for use on dry land. I'm pretty sure it would spontaneously ignite during a hot day.

Second, and before I send out the update for aquatic creep to turn black, something which I suspect will be very visible from high up, I halt the expansion of creep downstream, and send just a single growth tendril tunneling deep under the mud. Once sufficiently — I hope — far from the main mass, I have it take on the new Essence — with an additional minor tweak — and disconnect from the rest.

If nobody investigates the sudden growth of a large dark and rather warm spot under the water surface, it will be a decent test to check if anyone's even paying attention. If someone does investigate, the capsules of hydrochloric acid growing throughout the mass will split open, and there won't be a whole lot for anyone to learn from it. I don't think I'll make those a standard part of the creep though.

Next plans… I need a flyer for air superiority — or at least to contest it —, something heavy-duty to strengthen a Zergling wave, and something humanoid that can speak and interact with people.

Design for a flier, I'll look at birds or insects as a base… both have advantages, and both will be used. Looking through my Essence, there's nothing that beats the humble dragonfly in most metrics though. Perfect maneuvering in all six directions, incredibly fast flying speed, and at least one of the species I got my hands on have instincts for intercontinental flight. They're also creepy as fuck when you look at them close up, which is probably not a good thing if I want to not scare the shit out of everyone.

The fastest flier would be one of the birds instead, its corpse was small and brown, and I have no idea what the species is. Can I mix the two to get the best of both? Both fliers rely on their wing structure to provide the majority of their advantages. Those are of course, completely contradictory. Maybe I can finagle an organism that has both and switches modes as needed? Or just go with two different flying organisms.

At least the attack options are easy, acid-loaded sacks provide air-to-surface capabilities. For more traditional air-to-air, I thank nature for the wonderful insect known as the bombardier beetle. It's got all the Essence for launching a spray of boiling liquid at its enemies, including the targeting instincts all packaged together.

All I need to do is replace its usual spray with something just as — if not more — reactive such as hydrochloric acid again, it's strong and easy to produce organically. Instead of boiling nauseous chemicals, it will launch a spray of boiling acid.

Vastly better against organic targets than mechanical though. I… don't have much that can deal with a fully mechanical opponent beyond sharp claws to rip and tear.

For heavy-duty support, I can easily create something like a — what were they called — Roach. Yeah. I can definitely do a walking tank with thirty centimeters — or more — of armor, as opposed to the zergling's relatively thin layer. Something that can tank a hit from vehicle-mounted weaponry. Or tinker weaponry. Or a brute. Or any other heavy striker type. I can give it the acid shooting from a bombardier beetle too, that gives me at least some range.

For humanoid, well I can just be boring and grow a human body…. Or I could get creative with more 'interesting' additions. Maybe a snake or centipede lower torso, go for the naga look. There might be some value to easily identifiable 'battlefield commander organisms' as a decoy and to obfuscate the hive mind too.

Before I can get too far into the specifics of my next few organisms, my Zergling reaches the boat. With the power of hands, the next message is much easier to write. I'd queue up some of the new opposable-thumb-Ratlings, but all the nutrition I can spare is going into Zerglings.

"My name is Alexei. What's your name?" That's an easy start, introduce myself. Should have done that right away. "I was sure to stay safe from the effect of your power, no harm came to me."

The Ratling of course was quite liquid, I had the others clean it up. Should I just… yeah let's just be honest, I'll have to reveal my minions eventually anyways. "I am sorry for using this awkward communication. The truth is my powers changed my form a lot, I think monster cape is the term used? I have secluded myself and am interacting with you through my minions. They unfortunately can't speak, but are entirely safe and harmless." Well as long as I want them to be anyways.

I look at the Ratlings. "They aren't very pretty either, and I didn't want to scare you. If you would like, I can show one to you." What else… "We should move you away from the river, the… people who attacked you reside just across it in the capital building."

That will do for now. She didn't really ask any questions beyond my name, or ask for anything.