Chapter 1: A Newborn Babe

You crack open your locker with a flick of your tongue out past your lips, an irate expression immediately forming on your face as you see numerous pictures of Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion plastered all over the inside in copious amounts. Your head snaps around, your eyes running over the crowd, but nobody’s immediately obvious as the perpetrator.

Your fingers dig lightly into your palm for a few seconds as you do your best to resist the urge to just start screaming at all these fucking morons you go to school with. You want to find the guy responsible and just make him eat shit, but at the moment, you can’t, so you instead walk to your next class.

When middle school had come and you were socially obligated to at least claim some romantic experience… you’d made up a girlfriend. You were good at lying, so nobody ever really questioned your claims of a cute Japanese-American girlfriend who went to another school. You weren’t bragging, after all.

Unfortunately, the absolutely moronic younger version of you gave her a name - Rei Ayanami - that was that of your favorite girl from a certain anime… then NGE went on Netflix and somebody realized that your girlfriend had the same name… and the whole school is making fun of you for it now.

You’ve gotten in one, or two, or three, fights on school campus as a consequence, but even if you’re fast on your feet, you’re not exactly a physical titan so you don’t generally win those confrontations.

School was never fun - the material is too easy and the people too stupid - but these days it’s even worse than normal. It’s just a drudge that you have to get in and out of.

* * *

When you get home, you start absently browsing the web - or, more accurately, the subdirectories of various websites. You wikiwalk around from site to site, blowing time by bouncing around. It’s something you do for fun. Technically illegal, sure, but who gives a shit. It’s basically cyber-voyeurism, no big deal.

Then you stumble upon something strange in an otherwise-ordinary website. An image pings a little script you wrote a while back, just for fun. It notices when there’s hidden data inside the image itself - not the metadata, but slight variations that allow you to determine something useful if you have the original. You start playing around with the website you found it on, and soon enough, you’re reading an active chat:

chr: absolutely braindead

chr: really?

znm: yes

chr: cripes. we'll have to take care of the witness

znm: yes

wwt: Are the cops going to ignore that?

chr: they better, for what the prince is paying them

znm: cops suck so bad

chr: we want them to, though

wwt: What about the antitribu?

chr: i know a guy, we'll have him wacked

chr: oh. just found a pic, wanna see?

znm: yes

wwt: Show me.

"chr" then posts an image link. When you click it, it looks pretty much like a black screen, so you download it, play around with it for a few minutes, and finally manage to get something to actually show up - namely, a mutilated corpse. No, beyond mutilated - mutated. The limbs are elongated, the torso twisted around in an inhuman fashion. It looks like some shit out of an anime, a creepy monster the protagonists have to deal with. You'd think it was Hollywood SFX if it wasn't so perfect. Some reverse image searching turns up nothing, too. You check back in the chat, catching up quickly.

znm: ffs

wwt: Are all Tzimisce so dumb?

chr: lmao are all tzimisce dumb

chr: the answer is yes

wwt: Why not just suck blood like a normal person?

chr: because you're not a normal person. you're a tzimisce.

wwt: Was it alive when it got spotted?

chr: YES

znm: lmao

znm: sorry dude. gonna be a huge pita for you.

wwt: Only one witness?

chr: it killed the others, right?

znm: yes

chr: wait

chr: you guys got any friends? we have 4 connections

wwt: No.

znm: no

chr: IP is 91.207.175.41… vpn, yeah

chr: lol, like a vpn is going to stop me

chr: hey. if you don't have the right to be here, you're about to die

chr: just so you know

chr: if you do, say hi so I don't waste my time

You snap your laptop closed then, your breath hitching in your throat a little. It's… just some guys playing some RPG. Tough guy talk. Nothing worth worrying about. You'll be fine. You shake your head. Can't believe you got spooked by such a dumb post.

* * *

The thing in front of you looks like an Elder Scrolls elf, if the game it came from was an unholy lovechild of Oblivion and Skyrim - in the sense that it is unbelievably hideous. You're tied up, squirming fruitlessly against your bindings as you half-snarl at the thing. It just chuckles, a male voice emanating from its inhuman throat. "Oooh, I'm so scared." It absently plays with a smartphone in its hand. "You're pretty funny, kid. Fake girlfriend named Rei Ayanami? Come on."

"I was eleven," you snap at it, the response coming out on automatic.

It just chuckles. "You were past middle age, then," it says, with a vindictive smile. "Since you're not going to live past tonight." It crawls towards you, an alien, loping movement, and you try to kick at it, just earning more laughs from it. "Guess you're not the kind to go down without a fight, huh? That's fine, Brighton. Go on. Kick at me. I'm way, way, stronger than you." You kick at its face as it comes close, both legs slamming into it, and while its neck turns slightly to one side, it grabs your ankle and just crushes it in its grasp, overwhelming agony running through your body as you jerk and sputter. It chuckles again. "See? Way stronger." It repeats the process on your other leg, sending a howling, mind-shattering pain right through your whole body.

You twitch in agony, your expression still curled up in a vicious glare. "What the fuck is the matter with you? Fuck."

"I have to clean up my messes. Should've noticed you before I posted that pic, you know. Well, not to worry. Nobody'll even miss you."

"My parents will." It's a lame response, but it is technically true.

It just giggles in reply. "I'm sure Mommy and Mommy will be very tearful over their adoptive little boy disappearing without a trace. Ah, I'll just put up some goodbye note on your computer or something, I dunno." It shrugs, leaning forward over you. Its teeth seem to tease at your flesh, and you squirm, wriggling as much as you can, pain intensifying as your shattered bones twist unpleasantly.

Then it pierces your flesh, and there's a feeling like sweet, sweet release. Pleasure courses through your body, taking away the pain, and your mind briefly succumbs to the narcotic bliss before you realize that this thing is very likely killing you, whatever this is a painkiller intended to make you not resist. You jerk, managing to get your teeth up to its ear and you just rip at it, biting down and yanking. It pulls back with a yelp of pain, scowling down at you. "Fucking little shit," it snarls, kicking you as you lie there…

And something happens. It's hard to describe. An incandescent silver radiance seems to emerge from your body. Hot breaths escape your throat, filling the cool air of this unknown hole you were dragged into. The thing steps back in fear and confusion, as your body ripples and morphs. You can feel your jaw unhinge, your flesh twisting, and you just wriggle out of the ropes binding your arms to you as though you were a snake.

It stares up at you, and for some reason you can't quite place, you tower over it. Your own, far too large mouth, threatens it, and it spits a curse and backs away hurriedly, keeping its eyes on you. "A fucking… what are they? Weresnake? Fuck."

You snap forward, your open jaws reaching for its arm, and it just books it, fleeing as swiftly as it can from your sight as you rush after it. It rushes down through dark paths hidden to you, and though you surge after it, it soon loses you in a twisted, unidentified maze. The thick scent that hits your tongue tells you that it's probably some part of the sewer systems, the smell of refuse and feces and all the rest mixing together.

Something's wrong, though. The radiance quiets, but something remains, hot on your flesh, searing your bare skin or scales or whatever it is. Your body is uninjured, but something is wrong, a scalding alien sensation that sends shivers up your spine, that tells you that you need to move or die. Your eyes cast around frantically, and your body twists down the winding passages, your brain moving on automatic, on instincts. You need to move, to get away from people, from the city. You slither through the sewers all the way to the Pacific on some instinctive sense of direction, plunging into the cold waters below, and then you feel that same silver energy strain out of your body, snapping at the air, ripping a hole in reality that you're soon plunged into.

The waters change their character, going from placid and cold to alien, wriggling and alive, rainbow colors running across the surface while oily blacks stretch beneath them. Surrounding you are thin, ribbon-like streamers of light, silver with a soft blue or gold glow at the very edges, twisting like each and every one is alive. They swarm towards you, wrapping around your flesh, alien energy surging and scalding you, silver marks left behind in their wake. The pain is almost pleasant, cathartic, like peeling a band-aid off, and you wince and suffer under it, unable to do much but swim frantically against the deep black sea beneath you.

The feeling that brought you here - the panic, the alien, broken body - it finally leaves you as the last of the ribbon-streamers do, as your body seems to finally calm itself. In this, less panicky state, you notice that you don't actually have any legs. Your arms are coated in scales, your vision is more wide than it is forward, your tongue is catching scents instead of your nose. Your hands come up to your mouth, feeling it out, and you have a snout or muzzle or something.

You're a giant half-man, half-snake, and you're in some alien environment. Almost on instinct, you spot the very same tear that dragged you in here - you make the obvious conclusion, and lunge back into it, emerging on the Pacific coast, only a few minutes of swimming see you surging across the beach. The moon is dead in the sky, a black orb with just the tiniest sliver of life on one edge.

You try to twist your body back to its old shape, and after a couple attempts, you do, sagging in relief against the sand beneath you, heavy breaths rising and falling as your fingers dig into the sand beneath you. Your tongue flicks out on automatic as you shake your head and try to figure out just what to do.

After you get your wits about you, you realize that you pretty much just... rushed out here. It can't be that far from home - you were only running (undulating? Slithering?) maybe an hour, and that monster didn't drag you that much - but you really have no idea what beach you're on.

Part of you just wants to hunt and tear and kill that fuck, but you already lost it once. It could be anywhere by now, and if it's smart, it will be, because you are going to teach it a lesson when you find it again, now that you're a... weresnake, or whatever. It ran, so you must be stronger.

The beach is empty at the moment, at least. Not that many people come to the beach at night. Your clothes are... fine, actually. There's some minor blood stains on your pant legs and near your throat, but other than that, you seem to be presentable. You start walking towards the city.

It takes a little while to work out where you are - it's part of the same city, at least, though not a part you know at all - but you do still have your pocket change, so you can just get on the bus and head back home. You're heading towards your room when you hear Chanelle moving around - you've lived with her for the past decade, so you can recognize her footsteps and tell them apart from Alexandra's (or some stranger's). You don't want to deal with her right now, so you just will yourself to keep quiet, taking a long, slow breath as you march up the steps in a creep.

"Brighton?" She calls out, and your head snaps around as you pause your movements. She's at the foot of the staircase, and you're only halfway up, but her eyes slide right across you as if you're not even there. "That you, or do I have to call Alex?" There's a playful note to her voice as she speaks; she's not really afraid of a robber or anything.

Chanelle is the third child of some rich fuckoff family - she took Alexandra's name in the marriage, you can't even remember what hers was, something Italian? - and she looks it, even if they've pretty much disowned her for marrying another woman. Long dark hair done in an elegant braid, an elegant sense of style - but you're much more focused on the fact that she's looking right through you. You wave your hand, almost in disbelief, and then you realize that your hand simply isn't there. Or, it is (you can feel things) but you can't see it. You turned invisible?

You quietly step back down the stairs, and Chanelle pouts a little. "Brighton, no need to be moody! I'm your mother, I love you." You're standing right in front of her now, but her gaze is on the staircase. You wave your hand right in front of her face, and she doesn't respond at all.

Huh. That's pretty cool. Bet that fucking monster doesn't know you can turn invisible. You smile, invisibly.

You make your way back upstairs as quick as you can without making any noise. Which, admittedly, isn't very fast. You peel off your shirt and pants, and as they leave your body they become visible again. You stretch a little, wearing just your underwear, though you can't actually see what you're doing... you try to will the invisibility away, and then you're present again. You get dressed anew, with clean clothes (including a sweater - there is a little blood sticking to your neck even if the wound seems to be gone, and you don't want to waste time cleaning it up) and quickly head back down the stairs.

Chanelle's left the base of the stairs by the time you get back. A little wandering shows she's in the library, already lying down with a book, her head on Alexandra's lap.

Alexandra's fit, with tanned skin, short brown hair, and hazel eyes. She used to be in the Air Force, you think, before settling down with Chanelle and adopting you. She gives you a little wave, a small smile on her lips as she absently runs her fingers through Chanelle's hair. Chanelle pretty much won't respond to anything except her name or a touch once she starts reading.

"Hey, Chanelle," you say, making her jerk up a little, then smile as she spots you. "Sorry. I was thinking about some stuff, completely zoned out."

"Oh, that's perfectly fine," she says, leaning up from her place on Alexandra's lap as she does. "You went to the computer store, didn't you? You were out for a while. Did you pick up anything good?"

Superpowers. Which are pretty good. Ability to turn invisible, and into a giant snake, probably more that you haven't figured out quite yet because those two things don't seem that related to one another. You're not sure you should tell her, but on the other hand, you're an X-Man or something now, and you've got a monster to track down. Why not just tell her?

Well... if you tell them, then maybe that monster will come after them? It did seem to be pissed. You don't want to risk them getting killed while you're out hunting it, so maybe you should leave that part out of things. Still, you do love them. They took you in when you were just a wee seven years old, after all. You can at least tell them about what happened to you. You can't think of any good reason not to - that monster didn't seem to have much awareness of whatever you are, so it should be fine.

"Something happened. I got superpowers," you say, making Alexandra give you a cynical and tired look, and Chanelle just quietly purse her lips. "No, for real," you snap, instantly. "Let me show you." You reach for the feeling that you drew on earlier. Now that you're not drawing on it from instinct, it feels like there's a wellspring of power, deep inside you, that's now threatening to uncoil into something more. You manage to just barely draw on what you have to without passing that threshold, sucking in a deep breath as your entire being fades from visibility altogether.

Since Chanelle's already removed her head from Alexandra's lap, Alexandra gets up, reaching out for you. She pokes at you, surprise visible in her features as she feels something. Her hand begins to run along your body for a few seconds, her expression furrowed. "Wow. You do have superpowers. Any other tricks?"

"I can turn into a snake-monster," you admit.

"A... snake monster." There's something in Alexandra's voice beyond mere skepticism, her brow furrowed and her lips slightly pursed. She squints at you. "Can you show me? I mean, turn visible first," she adds, after a second.

You let whatever's cloaking you fall slack. You come back into reality, and concentrate on the form you drew on before, the shape of an elephantine snake-thing. It came instinctively the first time, but it's harder to do it on purpose.

"You don't have to prove anything to me, Brighton," Chanelle says, as you close your eyes and grit your teeth in concentration. "I'm sure you really managed it before..."

"Actually, Channy," Alexandra says, "maybe you should go into the other room. No offense."

"Why would I possibly need to go into the other room?"

"It might offend your delicate constitution."

Their chattering does not help you to concentrate, but you feel a shape that's easier to reach than that of the snake monster, and just stretch out for it. A heartbeat later, and you're strewn out along the floor, a long, serpentine green body stretching out behind you. By a glance, you'd think around two meters long?

"That's... a snake, Brighton," Alexandra says. "Not a snake monster."

You turn back into a human just to argue with her. "I was having trouble turning into it! Especially with you two arguing."

"We weren't arguing," both of them say, instantly.

"Anyway," Alexandra says. "Is that all? Turn invisible, and into a snake?"

You're reasonably certain there's not. When you tap into the source of your power, it feels like an incandescent light burning bright inside you, protean and formless, ready to be reshaped into whatever you may need. Except it's hard to just... will whatever you feel like, into existence. It needs direction. You have some feelings of purpose, but you're standing on the threshold of it bursting forth and you're not sure if it would stop, or what would happen... no, you just draw on the tiniest wisp of energy, and your senses suddenly sharpen. You can smell everything - Alexandra, Chanelle, the dried blood on your neck, dinner... your vision grows more precise too, as if you can see every pore on your mothers' skin. You can hear their heartbeats.

You shake your head, banishing the sensation. "I can improve my senses too, and..." you almost resist just going to try even more things, for fear of whatever light is inside you burning bright, but fuck it. It doesn't feel dangerous, just obvious. You reach inside yourself, drawing on that wellspring of power, directing it in the most natural way you can, letting your body stretch. You instantly snap up about a foot in height as you will your energy in that direction - and as you do, you begin to glow, a glow of silver surrounding your body. You have plenty more energy where that came from, and you meet Alexandra's eyes, boring right into them as you flicker out inside her. You can suddenly see yourself from outside, and you can see that the streams of silver that those ribbons branded you have appeared again, looking like silver tattoos that criss-cross every inch of your flesh.

It's strange, seeing yourself from the outside, but you're not done yet. You can feel a blander, more placid power, something that would speed your mind up - but also something else. You reach into the power burning inside you, and you split it in twain.

In the same moment, your body does as well. A second you emerging from your flesh. The light inside you is starting to gutter out now, like a dismal ember with only a little left in your flesh. You can't see through the eyes of the other you, but he gives a little, bored, wave. "Yeah, it's me. You. Whatever, you know what I mean."

Both Alexandra and Chanelle pretty much just gawk at you. Yous?

"Hey, me," you say, waving at yourself. Feels weird. Anyway. "The important thing is, you probably shouldn't go spreading this around."

"Wasn't planning on it," Alexandra says, shaking her head. "Wow. Pretty... good bag of tricks."

"Oh. I got distracted, showing off," you say, "but I got these powers when I was mugged. I'm totally fine now, but-" you're interrupted by Chanelle just glomping onto you, holding you tight in her grasp.

"Oh, sure, he gets a hug," your copy says, and sure enough, Alexandra wraps him in a tight hug from behind. Since you're still riding her senses, you can feel her breasts press into his back from her perspective, the way her bra tightens just a little. You try to ignore that feeling as Chanelle holds you tight. Which is its whole own thing.

"Don't worry, baby. You're safe now. Alexandra has that... um... what's it called."

"An AR-15," Alexandra says, letting your other body go as she does. "Anybody tries to break in here, they're going to learn about the Second Amendment the hard way."

Fuck it. Why hide things from your moms? They love you even if you turn into a bigass snake and are all glowy and have a clone. "The thing that attacked me didn't look like a normal person, it had weird elfin ears and a gnarled, ugly face. It attacked me because I stumbled on some evidence that weird shit was real, so definitely don't go spreading this around. They probably come after you for that, like in those dumb paranormal romance stories you like to read."

"They are not dumb!" Chanelle denies, making Alexandra laugh a little. "A monster? Really? Maybe you were just panicked..."

"He broke my legs with his bare hands," your clone says. The women both look at your legs, which, despite now being longer, are perfectly fine. "They healed when I transformed. He also tried to suck my blood," he adds, pulling at the neck of his sweater. "I all but bit his ear off."

"Right, well, I'll aim for his head, kiddo." She ruffles the other you's hair with her hand, despite the fact that you're now taller than her by a good few inches. "Don't worry. I've got plenty of experience, hunting with my family and they don't let you rest on your laurels in the USAF."

"Shouldn't we call the police?" Chanelle says. "If somebody came after Brighton-"

"They specifically mentioned paying off the cops when they didn't know I was listening," you interrupt her. Chanelle's expression darkens, and she purses her lips.

"Come on, just pop him in the head. Don't we go to the range together sometimes?"

"Yes, and my thumb hurts every time," Chanelle says.

"If you could figure out how to hold the gun right-" Alexandra starts.

"I hold it how you tell me to!"

"Obviously not, or your thumb would be fine."

"I really do think we should do something more than just own a gun."

"What, do you want to go out and hang with my family?"

"They hate me," Chanelle says.

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"Yeah. Look, your family hates me, my family hates you, and I don't think they'd be big up on protecting Brighton anyway. I've got a gun. How'd you get away, anyway, Brighton?"

"I turned into a giant snake monster and chased him," you tell Alexandra.

"See? Pussy. Probably won't even come around. Probably wet his pants. It's fine. He can just turn into a snake again and scare him."

Chanelle pouts a little, but doesn't argue, instead glumly nodding after a few seconds.

"Why are you acting so glib?" You say, mostly to Alexandra. Chanelle takes directions from her when it's serious, but it's weird for her to respond this way.

Alexandra just shrugs in an exaggerated fashion. "What do you want? Cops no good, me family no likey us, her family no likey us, what? You want me to bring over a few of my old Air Force buddies for a gangbang? Well, I guess that'd work. Tell them to bring their guns - haha, just kidding, you don't got to tell them. Would get some extra muscle." Chanelle pales a little as Alexandra (pretends to?) consider it.

"This guy could kill us."

"If he was going to kill us, don't you think he'd have tried to finish the job on the snake monster instead of a couple random lesbians?"

"You're not random. You're my parents."

"Thanks sweetie." She tossles your hair, instead of your clones, and he gives you a look. "Look. Kid. Confession: I know a little bit about stuff like this. You're totally fine. Vampires are scared of shapeshifters. Only reason he didn't offer to lick your toes in the hopes of you sparing him is that you don't have any as a snake."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because my fucking family are a bunch of shapeshifters." She gestures vaguely at the air. "There, it's out. I picked up a little when I used to live with them. Vampires were never, ever, treated like a serious threat by them, and they never acted like one. They're chickenshit."

"Like me?"

"No," Alexandra responds, instantly. "They're werewolves. They, uh, I don't know that much since they kept their relatives kind of in the dark, but I know enough to know that they don't get along with other shapeshifters. So, steer clear."

"Is it hereditary?"

She shrugs. "I know there's other weresnakes, I don't know how they make more of them." She pauses, squinting as she looks into the middle distance. "They might be extinct? That... I don't know. Anyway, if they're extinct, it's because the werewolves killed them. Had a whole big secret war."

There's a faint thrum inside you. It's hard to put into words, exactly, but weresnake isn't quite right... it's just one form of many. There's almost an ache in your throat, on your tongue, your teeth, as you contemplate hunting and biting and feeding and taking on a new shape from your victim.

You restrain the urge, though. You just let out a long sigh, and with that exhalation, the glow that's surrounded you fades to naught. The silvery tattoos criss-crossing your flesh remain in place, and you grunt in irritation, trying to make them disappear again. After a little concentration, they fade, prickly under the surface of your skin, as if they're desperate to get out again. "So... that guy was a vampire, then?"

"He tried to drink your blood," Alexandra says. "What else would he be? A zombie?"

You let out a little laugh. "Guess Twilight really is trash."

"It's actually quite good," Chanelle argues.

"Anyway. Um." Alexandra glances between you and your clone. "You can sleep on the couch? Or in bed together? Your choice, I guess. Like I said, don't worry too much." She yawns, an exaggerated stretch, and you can feel the way her bones almost crack in response. Through her body. Because you're still riding her senses. "Not all of us are as spry and able to keep going as you, Brighton. Some of us need to sleep a whole eight hours a night. Come on, honey," she says, grasping Chanelle's wrist. "I'm tired, and I want some fun before I go to sleep." Chanelle blushes a little, but goes along without complaint.

You cut off your connection to Alexandra before she can actually start stripping Chanelle. There are just some things you're not ready to see. You look to your clone, who sort of lolls his head to one side. "Can you keep lookout until morning? We can sleep in shifts."

"Great, so I get to be the one who goes to school." He doesn't actually resist, though, just settling down onto a seat, taking in a deep breath, and opening his eyes a little wider - his pupils dilate slightly, and his nose twitches.

You head back up to your bedroom quickly, collecting your laptop, and set to work. You can feel a thrill of energy rush through your body as your fingers begin to rush across the keyboard, your mind seeming to increase the pace of its labor, suddenly becoming that much faster and smarter and more focused. You find the same hole that you previously crawled into the chat through, but it's patched up - you don't let that stop you, going through HTML and servers and a half-dozen other things that aren't worth describing in detail. Your brain seems to be running a mile a minute, information uncovered at your fingertips. This time, you manage to obscure your presence in the chat, letting you watch in silence as the three talk about you.

znm: idk shit about shapeshifters

wwt: Should the Prince be informed?

chr: it'll make me look bad

znm: better than being dead

chr: is it really

chr: look, i didn't say anything identifying

chr: it's not like i can go outside much

znm: lol. i'll bet

wwt: I suppose that's true.

wwt: Doesn't it mean there's a shapeshifter out there, though?

chr: wow. one shapeshifter in a million people. better get out ALL the stops

chr: especially the ones that publicly humiliate me!!!

wwt: No need to be so rude. I'm new to this.

znm: he's just pissy because he got caught with his pants down

chr: i updated security, won't happen again

znm: let's hope

It feels so good, seeing the little fuck squirming in panic at having come after you. Doesn't really make up for him breaking your legs or drinking your blood, though.

You start worming your way through the various firewalls and other cybersecurity defenses this little prick put up. It's not enough to protect him, though. Maybe before... whatever happened, but with your brain running at its current speed? You isolate him to a net cafe. Then to the basement thereof. There's no security cameras in that room, but a quick check of the floorplan shows that there's direct access to the building's electrical systems down there, and direct access to the sewers.

Should you go after him now? God, but you fucking want to make him taste boot. Your hands absently clench and unclench at that thought, a vibrant, excessive energy urging you to go find him and kill him. It's hard to say if it's whatever's changed inside you, or just part of your normal character. You always have had a vengeful streak, and this guy ticks every box for making you want to indulge in it. Verbally humiliated you, treated you like dogshit, broke your legs, oh, and tried to kill you, and would have managed if not for a miracle.

On the other hand... what's the other hand? Oh yeah. He might kill you back. You didn't actually fight him, just wound up spooking him.

You decide not to go after him, for now. He seems to do a lot of stuff online, and that means that keeping access to his systems will let you learn all kinds of important factoids about the supernatural world. Once you've gotten things figured out, though? He's dead.

You lie back in bed, putting an elegant little worm on his computer, something that he almost certainly won't notice. It should let you keep an eye on things.

Then you close your eyes, and go to sleep.

When you wake up, you have a brilliant, genius, idea on how to use your newfound powers to make people at school stop making fun of you. Namely, use your clone.

When you get back downstairs, he's lounging on the couch, slowly and methodically plodding through a book. It's the wee hours of the morning, and he perks up a little as he sees you. "Your turn on watch," he says, cracking his neck. His eyes shift up towards the staircase, but he's not going to go to sleep just yet.

"Actually, there's something I need you to do."

"Okay, what?" He asks. There's no irritation in his voice - he is, kind of, an extension of you, after all.

"Use the self-shifting power to make yourself an Asian girl. That way, you can pretend to be Rei Ayanami, and we can finally stop having to take shit about making up a girlfriend."

There's a few seconds as he considers it, slightly squinting at you, then at last he shrugs. "Alright. Let's give it a go." He closes his eyes, fingers outstretched, and you can feel as he sups on exactly the same pool of energy that you do. His sex and build and race change, features all subtly shifting as he becomes an Asian, female, version of you; then he loses the height you just gained, putting him down at a petite five foot even (153cm). It's hard to even recognize him, at this point, and he licks his lips in a minor tic you've had since forever. He looks over his own body, then frowns. "My clothes are too big."

"Mine are straining at the edges too." You tended to wear baggy clothes that were too big for you, and you grew tall, not wide, so it isn't like you're squeezed in too tight. You wind up taking her with you and buying a fresh change of clothes for each of you. It's just whatever you could find that fit, since you have zero sense of style.

"I'm going to call you Rei," you tell her.

"Obviously. What else were you going to call me?"

"Is that how Rei talks?" You prompt.

She pauses. You share all your knowledge, so it doesn't take much effort for her to remember the spaghetti stream of lies you've told about Rei Ayanami, your totally real Japanese girlfriend who goes to another high school. "No. It isn't how Rei talks. She is very soft-spoken and gentle in her speech patterns. I'll do my best."

"Great," you say, smiling, clapping one arm on her shoulder. Damn. Getting incredible supernatural power is really cool. You get to be tall, and have a girlfriend. Fake girlfriend. Well, whatever. You should probably be getting to school, show off that you actually DO have a girlfriend (you never admitted you didn't), and then let Rei go home to sleep. "Let's get to school."

* * *

She was a clone of Brighton Maxwell, but she was now Rei Ayanami. She got in character quickly, and walked right into school alongside him, even holding his hand. She'd show all those fucking assholes who thought she didn't exist. Which she didn't, but that was no excuse for humiliating her...self? Him? It didn't matter. She'd teach them all a valuable lesson.

"Whoa, somebody got taller." It was some stupid meathead type, one of the football players who was probably serially concussed. He was tall enough that even at Brighton's newly-enhanced height, he was eye level with him.

"Growth spurt," Brighton replied, with a careless shrug. Just say the absurd and since there's no alternative, they'll have to accept it.

"Hey, who's that, Brighton?" The meathead's girlfriend, some blonde bimbo with more popularity than brains, who she was reasonably certain had been one of the people that started sneaking photos of a certain NGE character into her - Brighton's locker.

"My girlfriend. Rei Ayanami," Brighton replied.

"Yes. I was told that Brighton was being bullied, simply because I have an unusual name... it made me feel very upset." She sniffled a little - affected, but it seemed genuine. Even the morons standing in front of her seemed to be a little taken aback, which was good. Was it more or less fun than beating them up would have been? It was hard to say, really. She could only know if she tried, but it would be really stupid to start a fight on campus... though, technically, she wasn't Brighton Maxwell any more, so if she started a fight, he wouldn't necessarily get in trouble...

She smiled innocently at the set of little bitches in front of her, giving Brighton's hand one last squeeze before she brought up her free hand to flip them both off.

"What the fuck, you little bitch?!" The girl snapped at her, and she just smiled innocently back at her.

"I don't think I'm a bitch... I don't bully people, after all."

"Claire," her meathead boyfriend said, putting his hand on her shoulder, even as Rei kept her finger up and out. She could tell that Brighton was inwardly laughing at the scene, even if other people couldn't - she knew her (his?) tells, after all. "Come on, she's not worth it."

"Yes, Claire. I'm not worth it. Unlike Brighton, who's worth bullying, despite having the gentlest soul in the whole world."

"I thought she was supposed to be nice," Claire spat.

"Oh? I exist now? I thought I was all made up..." She gave her her best puppy eyes, which were of excessively high quality - honed by years of practice in a household with two mothers.

"Claire, c'mon," the meathead said, yanking her along. She went.

Once they were out of sight, Brighton let out a quick bark of laughter, and she joined him, their own happiness ludicrously infectious since they had the same sense of humor. "I wonder if the teachers would let me visit your classes, Brighton. It would be nice to play that out again, and again, with all the other people who made fun of you."

"Let's just try it by sheer audacity," he said. "If they tell you to go away, they tell you to go away."

As it turned out, the teachers at their school clearly didn't care much at all about their class composition, because an extra student in the back row, who they'd never seen before, didn't attract any notice. Or perhaps it was just because she found that, with the burning bright thing in her chest, she found it shockingly easy to step in behind people, to make herself small and unnoticed. She was even shorter than she'd been as Brighton, after all, and even with her change in sex, she wasn't the kind of girl that anybody looked twice at.

During lunch, apparently some people hadn't got the memo, because a group of band geeks came over. "Hey, hey Brighton," one of them said, holding out a boxed blu-ray of Neon Genesis Evangelion. "Can you get your girlfriend to autograph this? I mean, THE Rei Ayanami..." He was surrounded by a gaggle of people with less fashion sense than common sense, which was saying something given how little of the latter they'd displayed.

"It's true," she said, in a soft voice. "I am a big deal." The geeks turned to look at her, confusion on their faces. She took a marker from Brighton's backpack, popped the cap, and scribbled her name in Kanji. Brighton knew Japanese, so she did too, and obviously she knew the characters for Rei Ayanami. She sighed it, With best wishes to all, even these haters and losers, 綾波 レイ. "That will be twenty dollars," she said, her voice plain and simple.

"What?" The boy replied, dumbly.

"For my autograph," she said, as if she didn't understand what was so confusing. "You were asking for it, weren't you?" She tilted her head. "Oh... you were bullying Brighton. Why is everybody so mean to him? I'm the one with the funny name..." She started to form tears in the corners of her eyes, doing her best to wet her face as she stared at the people.

"A-a-ah," the band geek said. "No, no, we weren't bullying him, hahaha, no, I really did want your autograph! Thanks!" He reached desperately into his pockets, collecting the cash quickly and then handing it over to her without hesitation. She smiled as she took it.

"Would anyone else like an autograph?" She smiled warmly, doing her best to pretend like she didn't have the slightest idea what they'd been doing. Once they inspected the autograph, they'd probably realize that she had been playing them, but that wouldn't get them their twenty dollars back in the end. "I'm sorry for misjudging you."

"No, that's fine," the guy said. "We'll just be going. Thanks!"

Rei smiled pleasantly as she watched them go, glad to have put them in their place properly. Brighton just smirked pleasantly. Being a girl was a lot of fun. Nobody bullied you, and it was easy to just turn on the waterworks to get what you want. If she'd been Brighton, she would never have been able to do as much.

By the time that the school day ended, everybody seemed to have confirmed for themselves that Brighton did, in fact, have a girlfriend named Rei Ayanami, and that she was more or less exactly as he'd claimed. There weren't even any more people fucking with him, which was unfortunate. It was really fun to fuck with them right back. Nobody hit or fought girls.

She was slinking her way through the halls behind Brighton when the girl from that morning - Claire - showed up, flanked by several female friends of hers, the kind who definitely weren't interested in teaching her to show restraint. "You listen to me you ugly little bitch-" she started up, getting ready to go all in on some rant.

She stared into the other girl's blue eyes, flicking her awareness out into her own, just as Brighton had done to Alexandra. She didn't have any awareness of the connection once she'd been split off, but she was pretty sure the ability would last a long while.

She saw herself through Claire's eyes, in the literal sense. Her gawky little body, the bags under her eyes, the untidy mess of her hair. She heard Claire's words almost in stereo as the other girl spoke, the effect taking a little to get used to. "I! Am! Better than you. You are... maybe you're real, but you're just a gawky little girl. Look at you. You have the body of a twelve year old boy, and the boobs to match! You think you can flip me off? My family's rich, you know?!"

Rei picked her ear, letting Claire rant and rave even as she inspected her fingernail for the earwax she'd collected. That just ticked her off more. "Oh, you think you can just ignore me, huh? Well, I decide whether your boyfriend gets to live a calm, quiet life at this school, or gets to be miserable because my boyfriend and all his buddies beat him up every day."

Rei just yawned. She made it a good, nice, deep yawn. She hadn't exactly gotten a full night's rest, after all. Claire's threats were all shallow bullshit. You didn't need to be a social genius to figure out that much. "I'm really tired," she said, blandly. "I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

"I was saying..." Claire grit her teeth and let out an irate grunt. "Whatever! Go on! Get out of here! Don't come back to our school again, you little bitch!"

Rei shrugged and left, finding Brighton and holding his hand, even as she watched and listened through Claire's eyes and ears while the girl in question conspired with her friends. She decided that, sure, she couldn't really get at Brighton any more, but they'd find out where Rei went to school, and report her for playing hookie! They could probably find out which school she went to online, by looking through Brighton's old posts! It was so pedestrian and boring, and then Claire's boyfriend showed up.

"Hey, babe." His fingers dug into the flesh of her ass, and Rei swallowed at the sudden surge of, well, pleasure. Apparently girls really did enjoy having their asses squeezed? "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing, my big handsome hunk," Claire said, practically throwing herself over him. "Want to go watch a movie?"

"I'd rather watch a little something else." His fingers teased at the collar of Claire's shirt. She could actually feel the blood flow down to the other woman's crotch, the strange wetness it produced, the way her breath became a little shallow just from those words. It was a strange, pleasant sensation... it was tempting, so very tempting, to keep watching.

Plus she was hoping to find out something good to embarrass Claire with later, anyway, and if she severed the connection she'd lose that chance.

When you thought about it, what choice did she have? She couldn't risk losing valuable information. By the time Rei got back to Brighton's house, the pair of Claire and... her boyfriend, whose name was Ted, apparently, had similarly gotten to Claire's house. "Ooo, baby," she purred into his mouth, kissing him hungrily on the lips while his hands explored the back of her body. All the feelings were just like Rei was there herself, and she could feel the thick thing between Ted's legs rubbing against Claire's stomach. He practically threw the girl down onto the couch, earning a pleasant giggle from her, as his hands roughly tore at her skirt.

Rei quickly made her way to a restroom and locked herself in it. She didn't want Brighton to notice her... reactions to what was going on. Or for her moms to see her, for that matter. That would just be confusing and hard to explain.

Ted's cock wasn't that big, she mused as she saw it. Smaller than Brighton's by an inch or so. It was soon teasing at Claire's sex, sending electric currents of pleasure right up through her whole body. She shuddered at the feeling, her body wiggling a little. She could feel her body responding to the sensations, the wetness between her thighs...

Rei had expected Ted to take his time, to gently get started on the sex. She'd always assumed that was how girls liked it. Instead, though, he just slammed into Claire, filling her up in a heartbeat. She could feel what Claire felt, the sharp spike of pleasure as she was suddenly and roughly filled. It wasn't painful in the least, something Claire was clearly quite used to.

Rei wasn't, though. The pleasure was intoxicating, her breath hitching as Ted didn't simply rest on his laurels, but began roughly pounding away. She could hardly control herself, peeling off her panties if only so they wouldn't get completely stained in her juices. Her body stuttered on the toilet where she sat (lid down), as if she was the one getting fucked by Ted. The warmth in her groin was joined by a warmth in her cheeks as she felt the pleasure surge, higher and higher with each passing moment. Her lips parted and she squirmed, her legs kicking a little at the air. Claire was getting close to the edge, but her hands were pinned by Ted, letting him control her pleasure. She wasn't sure if he was teasing her or what, but she wanted to come. She had all the memories of a boy, after all, the desperate search for orgasm being the entire point of every masturbation session.

Her hand went down to her cunt then, her fingertips running along the shape of her lower lips. Her touch was fumbling, her body jerking a little as she rested there, twitching again. Her fingertip just brushed against her clit, a sharp breath escaping her throat as she squirmed in place, all but writhing in pleasure in response to the electric jolt that came with it. She was so close. She rubbed at that point again, a little harder now, and then she promptly came, her whole body jerking and spasming on the seat. She dug her teeth into her lower lip, straining not to make a noise as an incredible orgasm rushed through her.

It felt better than coming as a guy had, though that might just have been that she was also experiencing real sex at the same time. She panted heavily in the afterglow, wincing a little as Ted kept pounding... but Claire hadn't come yet. He shifted his body a little, changing his angle inside her, and that was what prompted Claire to orgasm for the first time, the other girl's orgasm ramming into Rei's head like a force of nature. She was lucky that she'd already been biting her lower lip because otherwise she would have just squealed in surprise and pleasure.

Perhaps she should have stopped it there, pulled her hand out of her sex at least, taken a cold shower to control herself... but she didn't. She slipped her fingers inside her sex, doing her best to mimic the movements Ted was taking. He was rubbing and scraping all over Claire's insides, certain points more pleasant than others, and Rei tried her best to mimic exactly how. She closed her eyes, trying to focus on what Claire was feeling, as her fingernails slipped deeper and deeper into her slick sex, as she masturbated voyeuristically to another person getting fucked. To a woman getting fucked.

Ted grasped the base of Claire's stupid tight top with the "I Heart Doggies" printed on it, peeling it up partway, but stopping as her arms got tangled in it, her face covered. Claire could only smell herself, only see the pink fabric of that shirt, and it made the sensations of Ted's hands become all the more intense in the moment. His hands reached for her breasts, and she didn't try to move, just resting there, limbs bound, face hidden, as he undid her bra and let fresh air rush across bare flesh. Every sensation was intense, almost-mind-numbing, as it came through to Rei. She was salivating, she realized at some point, but she didn't care enough to gather her wits around her to stop.

"That's my girl," Ted grunted, as he played with her nipples, gently rubbing them between his thumb and forefinger. "That's my sweetie pie. My adorable little dork. My beautiful bodacious dweeb." The words actually pushed Claire further and further towards ecstasy, somehow, which naturally dragged Rei along. She could only squirm and jerk as she managed to make herself orgasm again, her whole body twitching wildly as a quiet little noise escaped her throat, her brain whiting out for a moment.

Ted kissed her, deeply, and she learned that kissing felt even better if you did it while you were fucking. His tongue seemed to wriggle around freely inside her mouth, pressing at Claire's palate, the inside of her gums. Rei's toes curled in pleasure as it felt like every part of her was getting played with and fucked. Fuck. Fuck. She pushed her palm down against her pubic mound, teasing her clit with her fingers as she frantically frigged herself. At some point, both her hands had wound up down there, and currently they were both doing their level best to get her off as quickly as possible. She was sweaty, senseless - ecstatic and uninhibited.

She came over and over again, Claire's feelings mixing together with her own, pleasure redoubling pleasure, until at last she felt the wet squirt of Ted's cum inside Claire's cunt, the man groaning as he found release and finally, at long last, pulling out of her. Her head swam as she rested there, reclining her head back against the wall. Sex felt... amazing. She licked her lips, imagining having it for real...

She shook her head. There was no way. She took off her clothes, waddled into the shower, and turned on the cold water to try to regain her senses. She listened to Claire and Ted talk about various boring school things, and then Claire started talking about... World of Warcraft? Apparently she was a very avid player, with several max level characters, while Ted played only a little, and clearly mostly for her sake.

That was... certainly a surprise. What was even more surprising was that, when Claire got up to go to the kitchen, she passed by a tall stack of D&D books. On first pass, Rei had assumed they belonged to somebody else, but she noticed Claire's name written up at the top as "Player" on the top sheet in the pile. She handed a lemonade over to Ted, who slurped at it hungrily. Rei was by this point quite calmed down, leaning up in the shower and shutting off the water, drying herself off before collecting her clothes to put them back on.

She only had the one pair, after all.

* * *

Your lower lip stings a little for some reason, but you just recline on your back in your bedroom, looking over the results of your little spycraft. There's been zero activity from "chr" (Charles Hawkins Radcliffe, apparently) since sunrise. You guess vampires really are nocturnal. You absently tap your fingers against the keyboard as you try to think about what to do.

You remember the feeling of hunger and surge of desire to hunt and feed and take on a new shape, and close your laptop. You head out, the sun still hanging in the sky, and start to search for fresh meat.

In an urban environment, the available hunting materials are fairly rare, but you're a bright young man in the prime of his life, supernatural power surging through you. You spend a few hours out hunting, shifting between your own body to get around, and the form of a (very) poisonous snake, snapping out and killing a crow that was foolish enough to get near you, as well as a stray cat and a big old mutt of a stray dog. The dog manages a decent fight, but doesn't get in a proper grip, so its teeth just grind off your rather vulnerable flesh before it succumbs to the venom. Each kill is a delicious feast, filling you with all kinds of wonderful, alien feelings, suggesting an infinite potential, a whole new shape that's all yours...

Towards the end of your long hunting experiences, you happen to spot an otter on the shoreline. You know they're endangered, but, fuck it. You take your snake form and manage to kill it again, curling up around its cooling corpse as you sup freely on its blood, biting and gnawing and swallowing in an orgy of ecstatic, alien wonder.

You get home after spending three hours out hunting, four new shapes in your repertoire. The sun's only just begin to crest on the horizon, and you head up to your bedroom to get in some well-deserved shuteye. Rei's lying in bed too, apparently having gotten tuckered out herself. You guess she didn't get to sleep before you went to school, so you just get under the covers with her, closing your eyes and going to sleep. You'll check on "chr" when you get back up.

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