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The three of them approach my kneeling clone, weapons out. As they get closer, I can see the faces of the other two go from concerned but confused to simply hostile. The one with the hat, who called out the weirdness, seems to be their speaker.

"You're right, it's no city for loners. It isn't any city for strangers either. I don't know you, and my gut says I don't want to." He says in way of greeting.

"I know my appearance is… unsettling… I'm a low level brute with some unfortunate side-effects." I answer. There's no point pretending to be normal, so maybe I can talk them around to just accepting it as a weird power thing.

"Right, mate, ya might have drawn the shortest straw in the power lottery, but there's no way I'm letting you anywhere near the folk here. My gut has never failed me before, and it says you are dangerous." The leader says.

"I'm just looking for some company, and I can work too. Having a cape is useful, right? I can help protect the place. Keep all them folks safe."

"Don't need another cape. Especially not one we don't know and can't trust. Besides, how much help can you be if your other group got taken out?"

Crap should have seen that coming. It'd be something else if I had a few survivors from the supposed previous group with me to show my ability to help. Of course there isn't any such since I made it up. For a moment I consider telling them I've got at least one other survivor hiding out while I make contact… But I already implied to be alone, besides who would I show as proof? Another clone would help not at all. The idea of bringing Emily is not even worth considering. Melting them all would be completely counterproductive. If I wanted them dead, I'd just call up my zerglings.

"Only so much I can do against them bastards from the hill. They came in heavy, with guns. I didn't even know there was as many guns in the city as they've been throwing around. We were a small group and I was the only cape, we stood no chance. They've been hitting groups all over. You must have heard the battles, seen the fires. One of them throws around fireballs like some kind of artillery." I say.

"I have. I've seen the ruins, been to some of them myself after it's all cooled down." Replies the leader. The others seem to be fine with letting him do the talking, both seem to want to not be near me.

"Then you know they're dangerous, we need to band together, there are dozens of camps and enclaves around the city. I might be just one cape, but I'm willing to help. Surely there's some way we can reach an understanding? You say you don't need another cape, how about asking the ones with you if they want more muscle for backup?" I keep pushing, but honestly, based on the reactions of him and the two guys, I don't think I'm going to have any luck. When ancient instincts rear their head, people will go to any means to justify their reactions, and the uncanny valley is a rather visceral reaction amongst most.

"Don't need to ask and the matter is not up for debate." The leader says. He takes a step forward, his stance low, large hefty knife pointed at me. "We take care of our own. You… I have been all across the continent, deepest bush to the newest city. Never have I seen something that my instincts hated as much as you. I think it's best if you were removed… permanently." He practically snarls.

Uh what? That went south fast, and really, we're talking about killing now? Oh. Oh. His skins turning leathery and gray, his teeth are reshaping into conical and pointed, and muscle shreds the vest he was wearing... Oh come on, calling me out just because I look off when you look like your shard read a copy of DC featuring Killer Croc and got inspired? That's just unfair.

Unfortunately, it looks like he's done talking. I suppose the unwritten rules don't apply in quarantine zones, if they ever did in Australia. His human buddies are backing away rapidly from what is brewing into a no-holds barred cape fight. I sigh. Wait… killer croc… in Australia… "So what do they call you, Crocodile Dundee?"

He actually pauses for a moment. "…. Just Dundee actually." Any hope of re-opening dialog is dashed when he lunges at me.

I duck under his swing — seriously, he's got jagged claws on his hands, but he's still using that damned giant knife. I backpedal right after, as he turns with impressive speed and slashes at me with his off-hand. Claws tear a shallow groove along my chest, but the reinforced skin — which is probably part of the original problem — deflects the worst of it.

"Hey hey, let's step back a bit and…" I try to de-escalate. I came here to make friendly contact, not pick a fight. A glance to the other two armed men again. "I'll leave, there's no need to fight, tell him to back off!"

Dundee, however, is having none of it. "You're going no-where. You leave, maybe you come back later, stealing around at night like vermin. Maybe you join up with those hill buggers and bring them here. I'm not taking the risk. You're not the first stranger I've buried in the past few years. You won't be the last."

Ah. Well, I tried. Guess it's time for my first cape fight then. I don't quite manage to dodge the next blow, and the blade cuts deep into my shoulder. I retaliate by a straight up kidney punch with my other arm, which makes Dundee grunt and let go of the knife.

I leap back and grab the hilt, pulling it free from the shoulder with a yank. It was really in there, probably would have completely taken off my arm if I was a regular human. I wouldn't be in this situation if I was a regular human!

Now armed with his discarded weapon, I go on the offensive instead, slashing — I admit wildly and with little finesse — in his direction. He's big, strong, and knows his way around a fight. I, however, am expendable. I launch a full strength swing for his neck, aiming for a decapitating strike. He raises his forearm and blocks the cut; the blade sinking an inch into thick armored hide, but not even drawing blood.

Before I can extract the weapon, he reaches forward, his large clawed hand getting a grip on my face. He tries to crush my head but my skull is strong enough to resist and instead he shreds swaths of skin and flesh off. Suddenly, claws pulp my eyeballs, returning me once again to blind darkness. I desperately wrench on the knife, pulling it free and stabbing in the general direction of his toothy maw to return the favor. I feel resistance and put more force into the strike, pushing harder and deeper.

I hear an inhuman roar, then a large hand grabs onto my outstretched arm and another grabs the damaged one. The world shifts, and I slam into something hard with my back.

None of my zerglings are in the vicinity. This was supposed to be a peaceful 'meet the neighbors' type of outing, so I didn't bring along reinforcements. That was a mistake. The only nearby organism is a lone Ratling out scouring for nutrients. It gets within sight just in time to see the large crocodilian cape smash my clone into the ground, one large clawed foot stomps onto my chest, then he pulls and slowly, with great resistance, the injured arm starts to tear and give way where the knife wound already damaged it. With a last wrench, it comes free.

I kick upwards. Using the Ratlings' eyes to see while fighting is difficult, but doable. I have no regrets, in a life or death — for him, not me technically — struggle there's no shame in trying to kick a guy in the balls.

Unfortunately, he either doesn't have any in his Changer form, or they are as armored as the rest of his body. He understands what I tried though, and — understandably — doesn't appreciate the attempt at all. When the ribs start to crack from the assault, I pull away my focus, letting him finish his gristly work. The Ratling watches quietly as he slowly and systematically pulps my first foray into having a human body.

I crave his Essence.

The clone heading to meet with Emily has gotten within sight of the boat, but I am suddenly having second thoughts about using it at all. Considering how bad the reaction was… I don't want Emily to react that badly. Perhaps she would be fine. She does think Ratlings are cute. I'm not a complete stranger to her either. Better safe though, and hell, even if she has a much more reasonable reaction, just her powers kicking in could insta-kill the clone. Achieving nothing, wasting time, and probably traumatizing her.

Another detour then. I'm not going to give up entirely, the clone can still be useful. There's no residential buildings this close to the river, so it takes a while, but I manage to scrounge together what I am looking for. The clone steps forth, wrapped head to toe in hotel linens ripped to suit, a thick low hood and shawl hide every part of its face.

The Ratlings with Emily have been doing surprisingly well. Once I figured out the duration they can stay around her in close proximity between rotations, and as long as she kept her power tuned down, they can regenerate the damage done once away.

I walk by the Ratlings currently recovering on the far end of the boat. Six of them, one's with her, one… was an unexpected and unfortunate casualty when her power spiked. I examine my clone's disguise through the eyes of the Ratlings. It looks like a Benedictine monk's habit. Most importantly, it obscures anything likely to trigger an unpleasant reaction from a human.

Trepidatiously, I knock on her door, she's inside trying to brush out her hair, something she hasn't done in a while by the state of it. The Ratling that is 'on duty' is splayed out on the bed, doing its best impression of a lazy pet.

As soon as I knock, she drops the brush with a yelp, and there's a spike in her power effect. Oddly, I can feel it quite strongly outside the door, while the Ratling inside seems much less affected. Interesting, I had thought it was a universally equal field, but maybe she's had some success in controlling it? It would make sense to focus the effect on whatever startled or scared her.

"Emily, I figured…! Oh no, wait! Emily! It's me Alexei! Try to relax. Your field is amping up!" I start out, but then have to change my intent quickly when her field quivers and amps up at the sound of my voice.

Inside the room, the Ratling has hoped to its feet and is rubbing its head against Emily, trying to help her relax. "A… Alexei? Is it you? I… I'm trying!"

Urk. Ok, focus, keep it together clone, the Ratlings were exposed to much longer bursts… I count the minutes as the field slowly floods and ebbs. "Emily, that's good, very good. Try to focus it away from the door."

"Focus? Umm, what do you mean? I'm not… I don't think I can focus it at all? It's just always everywhere Alexei!" She's lying on the bed, eyes closed, her skirt has ridden up one leg and exposed much of her tanned thigh, which I am extremely aware of, especially in combination with her fingers running across my Ratlings carapace. This is not however the time for such distractions. If my Ratling nuzzles up against her hands just a bit harder, that's completely by coincidence.

"Emily, it's alright, relax, there's no harm done if you can't manage it. Just try to…" I search for words or ideas. I have no idea how her power works for her, hell I barely understand my own. Non-cauldron capes are supposed to understand their ability instinctively, right? "Try to feel the field you're projecting. The Ratling is in there being barely affected, but I can feel it rather strongly out here. Try to recognize the differences."

Emily's arms come up and grab hold of the Ratling, pulling it into an embrace as she's trying to — I assume — focus on or feel out what I described. In doing so, she presses the Ratlings' face into her chest, and I suddenly develop a rather strong dislike for carapace, which keeps me from feeling the vast majority of that.

Damn, she must have it turned up pretty high. It's nearly at the same level as the first Ratling that made contact with her. Even a few minutes of this will probably cause complete failure in the clone. "Emily, I'm going to step outside, take your time to relax and get your power under control. Let the Ratling know when you're ready. Don't worry, there's no rush."

"O… okay. I'm sorry…" I wouldn't actually be able to hear her mumbled response if she hadn't done so right into what passes for the Ratlings ear. The Ratling is feeling a light itch, but the effect is so much weaker, it could still last for an hour or so at this exposure level.

All that effort into covering up my clone to prevent any uncanny valley induced freak outs, and in the end she never even sees it.

An hour later, the Ratling has to disengage from Emily, she's been trying to relax her power the whole time to no result. Any time she asks me to come back, I run into the almost immediate itchy feeling of cellular collapse.

I send in a refreshed Ratling first, to charge through the wall of her power that she can't seem to take down… only to feel nothing? The two Ratlings pass each other at the door, but the new replacement is none the worse for wear. On a hunch, I have the returning Ratling take its time and pause outside the door. Gritting my teeth, I send the clone to join it.

The clone and Ratling stand there, side by side, while I feel out what I can of their status. The result is… interesting. No matter the position, orientation, even height when I have the clone hold the Ratling above its head, the Ratling simply doesn't seem to be affected as much.

"Emily?" I call out.

"Y.. Yes? Is… did I do it?"

"I think I made a mistake. I don't think it's your power."

"Not my power? Wha…? Of course it is! I can feel it! Just not… control it like you want!" She calls back, there's a small spike in her power as she does, I expect from the frustration of the situation.

"No, no, sorry, I didn't say that right. I mean, I think your power is exactly like it's always been." I correct myself.

"That's what I'm saying! It hasn't changed!" Her power spikes again.

"Yes, and I am sorry for not listening when you said that. I think it is…. My power instead, I think the Ratlings are either more resilient than this form… or… they might be adapting from having been in and out of your presence a fair bit." I do think the zerg were always rather good at the whole adaptation to all environments thing, and if the faded Essences are anything like them…. I pulled the entire general body upgrade from there and applied it wholesale to all my organisms.

"Oh. Oh! That's great, right?" Unfortunately with the Ratlings having swapped out, the new one is not pressed against her body this time, but she does pet it a bit.

"It is, but I have to test it. I… have to pull back again. I'm sending another Ratling that hasn't been around you at all to check which it is." Several Ratlings from all over my territory start moving towards the boat. Better try a few and check any variations.

"Okay! I'll… be here…"

"Cheer up Emily! This is great. Finally getting some feedback on how our powers interact means I can find a solution. Don't worry, I'll be able to properly introduce myself soon!" Even if the Ratlings in general are just more resistant, that's still something I can work with. It just means I will have to isolate what makes them resistant and then spread it throughout the entire swarm. "Hey bonus, I also came to tell you that I found a safer place for you to move. It's a pretty nice house, all solid stone structure. I hope you like the ultra-modern look of glass and steel furniture."

The last of the Ratlings get to Emily's boat by nightfall, and I waste no time in seeing what happens when they are brought into the range of Emily's field. Upon first entering the field, they are just as susceptible as the clone. So adaptation then. Requiring repeated exposure over time…

I spend the night exposing Ratlings to her field, varying exposure time, number of exposures, and trying to understand the results I am seeing. Emily spends the night sleeping, which fortunately keeps her field rather stable.

Over the past two days, the original Ratlings have undergone repeated exposure. In that time, they have been able to become resistant enough to spend an hour or so in her proximity before damage becomes insurmountable. This is, of course, at the lowest field effect.

The newly arrived Ratlings catch up to that level of resistance overnight. The clone does not.

Three Ratlings stand before my main body. I reach out with tentacle-roots and grip their bodies to examine their essence in minute detail. The first is one of the survivors that originally encountered Emily, the next is one of last night's experiments, and the last is a fresh new Ratling that's never been near her.

There are minute differences in their Essence. Where the last is a 'baseline' of the Ratling Essence I created, the first and second have both… mutated. It's a minuscule difference in Essence, no wonder I didn't notice it earlier. I still don't understand how Emily's field does what it does, by what process it does so. Luckily I don't need to, as the Ratlings biology is handling the process on its own, and even producing new Essence as it does so. How fascinating. There also seems to be a lot of lateral gene transfer going on between the Ratlings as they interact, the improvements that allow the growing resistance spreading to those nearby as they are exposed.

It's all coming from a combination of the accelerated growth Essence and physical enhancements Essence. I should make a habit of spending at least a few hours of any free time I have digging through the faded essences. Or… maybe… maybe I could create an organism with the same access and the sole purpose of doing so? It would have to be more… independent or self-aware than any of my previous organisms.

Once the Ratlings have developed complete immunity, I should be able to extract the Essence and apply it as a low level rapid evolution to all my organisms.

I take the time to examine the clones while I am not dealing with anything pressing. What caused the catastrophic reaction from Dundee and the humans? Stripping them down, I examine them with all six — rat, human, and zergling — eyes. Looking for it, I can see the slight… irregularities. The skin color is off, the texture is off, the light diffusion is way wrong. And that's just the skin. I lack the proper reference materials to be certain, but I think the musculature is also different, muscle groups that shift oddly, with placement that makes them better at the expense of not being human. It's not any one thing really, just about everything is slightly different than it should be. It really is a very bad imitation of trying to look human.

I examine the Essences to determine what caused the oddness, and find it easily enough. Once again, the unexpected element is the physical enhancements Essence and accelerated growth Essence. Both have mandatory alterations that simply must happen to grant my organisms both their enhanced physical condition, and the ability to grow from eggs to larva to full organisms in a matter of hours or days — depending on the organism complexity.

Without the enhanced Essence, they'd be regular, plain, humans. Without the accelerated growth, they'd take… I look at the still incubating rock-flesh cape. Fuck it. I need to know how far along he is.

I stick a tentacle-root into his cocoon and find… nutrient fluid and a tiny embryonic organism. Months then.

His cocoon is recycled into the Hatchery. That is not an acceptable time frame. So… actually human looking organisms are mostly out of my reach if I can't devote months of time to their evolution, and even then they are practically useless as anything beyond normal spies.

Right, obviously non-human forms that won't trigger humanity's evolutionary history it is, and if I absolutely need to fit in as a human I'll develop some sort of parasite instead.

Once Emily awakes in the morning, I call out to her again. "Emily. Do you want to gather your things? We should move you from here today."

"Oh um, morning." She responds through the closed door. She sounds sleepy, but I haven't sent a Ratling in yet. I… really should explain how my minions work. She's already spent a lot of time playing and cuddling with the Ratlings. She's going to be absolutely mortified when I explain.

"I gathered a… selection… of clothes that should last you. They're out here when you want to grab them. Ah, I have no idea about sizes, so just pick out whatever works?"

"Okay, gimme a moment. I'll be right out."

When she emerges from the boat's interior, she's wearing one of the few synthetic jeans that looked roughly the right size, and a tight — perhaps a size too small — pale green tee. She's also managed to brush her hair into something reasonably neat, though the lack of showering over the past… at least two days has left its mark.

Well, it's not like the Ratling's aren't quite familiar with her body scent. She looks around. "Alexei?"

My clone is standing off on the shore, cloaked in his all obscuring monk's habit. "Over here. The Ratlings are adapting, but this body will take too much time." I shout up at her. Ha, at least I get some good use out of the clone!

"What with outfit? Oh, is that your cape costume? What's your cape name?" She asks.

"No, it's not my costume, and I don't have a cape name. This minion's form is just really unsettling."

"Oh, so it's not actually you… Umm unsettling… you have no skin! Or… you have eyeballs all over!"

I laugh at her wild guesses. "Nothing so pedestrian, I'm afraid. It… have you ever heard of the uncanny valley?"

"Nope! Where is it? What's it got to do with you appearance?"

"Nothing nothing. Just… the last person that saw this form decided it needed to die right there and then. I… don't want you to think the same."

"Aww fine. So where are we going?"

"It's going to be a bit of a walk. Sorry but… This minion will have to keep its distance. And we should try to be quiet, not shouting across the street as we go. The Ratlings will stick close to you."

Talking with Emily had — almost — distracted me from three major points.

One, the raiders across the river are still doing their thing, whatever that is.

Two, Dundee had killed my clone, me as far as he was aware, and I absolutely desperately wanted that Essence. A shard-backed crocodilian Essence? I must have it.

Three, my first batch of Roaches was nearing completion and would probably be ready to go in a few hours, and a bit of low-threat combat practice for them and the zerglings would be appropriate before I moved on the raiders.