As the lab reached its full height, perched on mechanical legs like some behemoth of ancient lore, the neighborhood around it was laid bare in the morning light. The park's green was now overshadowed by the metallic gray of the lab, and the sounds of children playing were replaced by the mechanical cacophony of the lab's transformation and the crunching sounds of domesticity being crushed beneath it. The public announcement system crackled to life, breaking the tense air with its blaring interruptions.

  Protocol Zeta has been initiated.

  Cloning sequences activated.

  Mana Pulse in 5, 4, 3…

  I didn’t wait to see what was going to happen. It was going to be bad that was all I knew. I also knew I couldn’t save everyone. I streaked forward flying as fast as I could and swooped up a mother and her child. Something about them reminded me of my own mother and Cece. I conjured a force shield and shaped it as a bubble around us to protect them from the strain of my rapid acceleration as I shot straight upward as fast as I could fly.

  The woman and child in my arms didn’t even have time to scream or if they did, my entire focus was on what was going on below.

  The disco ball device was swelling and had been doing so as soon as the countdown began. It doubled in size every second. At the same time. I felt all the mana in the air being sucked into the portal. It even tried to latch onto the mana which made up my force bubble and I had to fight just to maintain control.

  Then the countdown hit zero. All of the cages holding Emil’s shop of horrors fell away.

  A brilliant sphere of blue light exploded outward from the supersized disco-ball. It flashed by in an instant and spread for at least a mile in each direction. I’d manage to fly above it but only barely.

  I stopped to look down as the sphere of light receded. A system notification slammed into my head, but I forced it down. It continued to assert, flashing warningly in my periphery. At least for the moment I was able to resist. The woman in my hands now began to scream at me. “What’s going on? Who are you? How is this possible? Please don’t hurt my baby.”

  I pulsed Adorably Harmless. Even that wasn’t enough to fully soothe her, but at least it took the hysterical edge off. There were tears in my eyes. I’d been used and as I looked down, I could see the destruction far more clearly than she could. Where there’d been houses before, there were now just smoldering ruins. It was almost like a nuke had gone off except it only seemed to destroy non-living matter.

  All of the people were still alive, but they were thrashing on the ground. The same was happening to the dogs and other pets, even over in the park. I could only imagine that their bodies were absorbing massive amounts of mana in a completely uncontrolled manner. Did that mean that they’d all turn into mana-infected monstrosities or would they become forcibly inducted to the system?

  I looked at the woman. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know this was what he’d intended.”

  She didn’t seem to know how to respond. Her young son was giggling in my arms as he looked down. To him this had been a brilliant light show and he was probably just enjoying it. My aura would have put him completely at ease.

  She stumbled over her words, “I’m sure you didn’t mean it. But can you put us down.”

  I nodded. “Yes, but I don’t think it’s safe here.”

  She looked down and started crying herself. Her son reached out. He couldn’t have been older than two. He stroked his hand along her arm. “Mommy sad?”

  The were both secure in one of my arms. She reached out and squeezed her sons hands. “Mommy will be fine, Anders. Just be a brave boy.”

  Then she looked at me. “I was just out for a walk with my son. He likes all the animals you can see at that park. Our car is …” She went to point to an area near the park but all that was there was the twisted metal remains of a handful of cars.

  “I’m going to take you to the nearest hospital and then I have to figure out what happened.”

  Without waiting for a reply, I streaked off through the air. It didn’t take long to find a hospital. I set her down in front. Medical personal were already being mobilized. A police officer saw me fly down and tried to stop me but I put up a shield keeping him at bay. “I’m sorry, I don’t have time to stay here and answer questions now.”

  Then I was off into the air again, activating camouflage and my Stealth Ability. When I reached the lab again, I saw that each of the test animals had started splitting. They were each forming multiple clones. It was bizarre, some type of spontaneous cellular generation, far beyond anything I understood.

  Eventually, I dropped my shield, fully prepared to raise it again, but found that the mana concentration was much more like it had originally been in Anwich when I first went there. It was vastly more than Earth but more like a common level. Some of the people were starting to stand up and try to move but most seemed like they were horribly drunk or suffering from a severe loss of equilibrium.

  The system notification slammed into my head again. I couldn’t resist it any further.

  Earth is in breach of Multiversal Induction Procedures. Penalty being assessed.

  Wild influx of mana has saturated Earth.

  Conclusion: the process of planetary induction has been started. This process cannot be halted once it has commenced.

  Determination: Earth and all other planets in the current competition will have their time line to induction accelerated by 242 days. Sapient life forms exposed to sufficient mana will be forcibly inducted. Non-sapient flora and fauna will mutate pursuant to standard multiversal construction.

  Earth and all other related planets remain sealed until the new deadline for induction has arrived.

  Punishment: Earth loses 3 million world points.

  I didn’t have time to dwell on the messages flashing through my head. It was bad, beyond bad, but I couldn’t do anything about that. What I could do now, was play super-hero as I helped as many people as I could. I pulled out a cube of bio-metal and focused on it. As I pushed life mana into it, I forged a partial mask which would cover my face up to my nose. While doing so, I focused on my Stealth Ability trying to imbue it into the mask. Then on a whim, I also tried to push Adorably Harmless into the mask at the same time. That seemed to click and the metal almost became fluid as it took on the perfect shape as though it has been custom made for my face.

  When I put it on, it attached itself and I realized I didn’t have to worry about it accidentally falling off.

  You have successfully created an item using the Junkman Artificer occupation. You have touched upon lesser trade skills- design and metalworking.

  You have gained sufficient experience to reach level 7 in your occupation.

  New item created: Mask of Obscurity (uncommon)- this item has been crafted by Silas Renner. It will cause the eyes of those with less than 100 Perception to tend to skip over the wearer.

  Stealth and Hide Skills: +10

  Charisma: +10

  I would have smiled, if I didn’t have to start rushing around saving as many people as I could. I’d made the choice to try and get as many people out of the affected area rather than to start hunting down the monsters. Maybe in the long run that was going to turn out to be a bad choice, but I couldn’t in good conscious ignore the screaming pleas for help.

  Those who were being inducted were all unconscious. Others suffered burns or other injuries as the homes and cars around them had exploded. There were too many dead for me to worry about but I managed to get over three hundred civilians into some kind of triage tent that the local authorities were setting up. The first responders were all clearly overwhelmed, but between my abilities and my mask, none of them tried to stop me for long. It helped that I was many times faster than any of them.

  After three hours, I decided, I’d done the best that I could. My mana was still fully charged because of the increased mana concentration in this area and I personally felt slightly nauseous, but I pushed that down as I leapt into the air to fly home. I could have tried to portal, but at the moment, I wasn’t exactly trusting of portals, or of any of my fellow Forerunners.

  I needed time to think. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad…

  When I arrived back home, I checked in with Cece who hadn’t come home. The news media was going crazy. First some middle-eastern terrorist group which no one had ever heard of called the Caliphate of Light, or at least that was the translated name, had attacked Oslo prison. The story that was being played was that they’d been trying to free one of their comrades in arms. Suicide bombers had driven trucks into the walls and then the building. Much of the staff and many of the other prisoners had been executed. So far they didn’t have a count on which prisoners were missing, although a mention was made that Emil Larsen hadn’t been found.

  As big a deal as that was though, the bigger part of the story was the claim that some type of nuclear weapon had been used on a suburban neighborhood of Oslo. No group including the Caliphate was claiming responsibility for that, but the media was in a frenzy about it.

  Cameras of any sort that got within a five miles of the blast area would stop working if they didn’t outright explode. The same went for any type of technology. There was even a satellite which had fallen from orbit when it passed over the area.

  Military experts were being called upon to speak, the President of the United States pledged whatever support was needed for our friends in Norway and various members of congress were trying to out-hawk each other in their approach.

  I spent a couple of hours with my mom and sister, trying to be soothing to them. My presence seemed to have that effect on them. Of course, I’d retracted the mask, which turned out to be exceptionally convenient. It took the form of twin buds of metal under my skin at the top of my jaw line and could expand almost instantly.

  Eventually though, I went out to the shed. I had a message waiting from the Crembori demanding to know what had happened as their tech was starting to pick up more of the irregularity on Earth. I ignored that for now. I nervously walked down to my portal, afraid of what I’d find.

  Then I breathed a sigh of relief as the portal didn’t seem to be active. But what was odd was that sitting in front of it was a disc of metal about the size of an Olympic medal. I looked down at it and hesitated before picking it up.

  Entry Token to the Wild Hunt. All Forerunners must enter this mission. It will happen in real time without any time dilation and can last up to 90 days. Make whatever preparations are necessary. You may not bring your team for this event.

  Wild Hunt begins in 6 days, 16 hours, 47 minutes.

  Looks like the clock just got pushed up, but hopefully Samvek could help get me ready. I didn’t want to go into this as one of the weakest Forerunners. I had some serious concerns about how that would end up playing out.

  I took a deep breath. I could do this. I had to do this.

  Epilogue

  Bar’jek- World points: 31,632,870 Forerunner points: 3,728

  Forerunners: 1/5

  Nargossa- World points: 22,919,050 Forerunner points: 1,064

  Forerunners: 2/5

  Furloon- World points: 18,964,000 Forerunner points: 1,882

  Forerunners: 2/5

  Earth- World points: 17,816,400 Forerunner points: 9,540

  Forerunners: 5/5

  Crembor- World points: 18,897,800 Forerunner points: 2,129

  Forerunners: 5/5

  Samvek walked back into this father’s office. The news about the accelerated timeline for the competing worlds had already sent ripples through the multiverse. All of the groups which were attempting to gain a foothold on the various worlds had to adjust their plans. Clan Rayden was no different, although, in Samvek’s mind, it was more about helping his disciple and fellow clan mate than it was about resources.

  He waited patiently until Lord Rayden looked up from his paperwork. The older man sighed. “This is the bane of my existence.” He glanced at the ever increasing pile of paper on the right side of his desk. “I hadn’t been off world for years, so closing that hell incursion brought back why we do what we do. It reminded me that our clan is built upon our ability to act. Thank you for finding that opportunity. It netted me a new title and put Bahran and the entire Sect of Veiled Infinity in our debt.”

  Samvek lowered his head in acknowledgment. “The praise really belongs to my disciple. Without him, we wouldn’t have gained access.”

  “And I haven’t forgotten that. I know you’re likely worried. How we handle his situation will have to change due to the shortened time frame. That much we agree upon. It is more imperative than ever that we identify which quadrant of space his world is in, so see if you can have him identify any constellations for us. It’s a long shot, but worth trying.

  “The main issue, is that you’re going to have to take off the kid gloves. He’ll never survive the Wild Hunt. It’s one of the worst culmination challenges and he’s among the lowest leveled of the Forerunners. You need to push him to the cusp of rare.”

  “I don’t want to weaken his foundations,” Samvek replied.

  “That’s why I said to the cusp. If you can help him get close, then the hunt will provide its own opportunities for advancement. Find some shards for him and make sure he’ll have everything he needs.”

  “Aren’t there still limits on what resources we can provide?”

  Lord Rayden nodded, “Yes, but if you take him to Kimbora, he’ll grow more than ever before.”

  Samvek muttered, “If he survives.”

  “There are always risks, especially for Forerunners, but if you can manage this then, I’ll approve you forming an epic class core.”

  Samvek’s hand trembled. It had been years since he hit rare. He was so ready. He thought about Kimbora and how unprepared Silas was, but the boy had surprised him more than once. Yes, he’d just have to make him ready.

  ______________________________

  Emmett stared across the large table at the three operatives in front of him. This was too important. He needed a big win, like a newly inducted world under exclusive terms in order to get moved up out of middle management on the frontier. He wanted to make his point clear, so he jumped from his chair up onto the table.

  He might only be two feet tall, but he was proud of his accomplishments. Physical might was so limiting, but the mind was the true battleground. He swung his pink beverage around as his small green body gyrated on the table. He shoved his head directly into the face of the much larger operatives, shouting at them.

  “You will not fail me. I’ve leveraged everything I own with the Bur Bank and I will not go down alone. Do you understand me?”

  He looked at them one at a time. “Do you Morgan?” The small man was deceptively powerful and Emmett knew if he ever had the guts to act that he’d be able to rip him in half before security would ever arrive. His thick beard and bushy hair along with deep amber eyes were evidence of his true Lycan race.

  Morgan slowly wiped the spittle off his face, growling under his breath. “I’m loyal, but when you saddle me with these two fools, it’s hard to get anything done. I’m scheduled to meet with the human tomorrow to get an update. I’ve arranged for her to have sufficient credits and to gain access to a store portal, so that she can buy gear before the hunt. With Morvarg apparently missing, she should be the strongest Forerunner in the hunt.”

  Jeff and Lester both nodded rapidly, but Emmett simply glared at them, causing them to shut up. The two couldn’t be more different in terms of physical appearance, but they both looked disgusting to Emmett’s tastes. He couldn’t even be bothered to remember what their species were.

  “Very well, but if you don’t succeed at this, don’t bother coming back.”

  ______________________________

  Nuri knelt on her prayer mat. She repeated her prayers as she had every day since she was old enough to say the words. Inside her mind, though she was feeling anything but peace. This might have been necessary, but she wondered why things had to be accelerated so quickly. Her husband was still busy training up fighters for the ultimate conflict.

  A war of holiness was coming, and it would be time to purge the world of all unbelievers. What else could the induction mean? It must be God’s will. Now, she just needed to deal with the others. Silas was proving to be more resourceful than she’d expected. Jiang was wounded, perhaps now would be the time to strike against him, but no, he was probably hidden away behind as many system barriers as he could have created. Maybe her time would be better spent trying to find Emil. The man had somehow escaped the attack.

  Yes, she nodded. That was what she’d do.

  ______________________________

  Jiang laid on the cot next to his portal. For a week now, he hadn’t been able to go on a mission, and it pained him that his status was now inactive. He was the hero of humanity, after all. It was his fate and he would defy the heavens. But then Morvarg had caught him.

  Jiang felt shame that he’d been forced to flee, but the monstrosity was unnaturally powerful. When he’d escaped, he’d only had 5 points of Vitality left and was still as weak as a child. Some effect of the weapon was making it impossible for his natural healing or even rare healing potions to patch him up quickly. He was still at only 25 Vitality after a week and felt as weak as a sick child.

  For the millionth time, Jiang considered asking for help. Yet, Nuri and Anika made it plain for him to see, they were jealous of his combat prowess. They might be weak women, but he wasn’t sure he could trust them in his current state. A viper brought close to your breast was a sure way to die.

  If Dan were still alive, he would have asked him for help. Emil was unpredictable, and Jiang simply didn’t know the new Forerunner well enough. He’d been doing well, but now that Earth was being punished for something he barely understood, Jiang was starting to get desperate. He was working himself up to swallow his pride and send a message to Silas, asking for help. Supposedly, the man had some healing abilities which might be able to restore his health. Without that, Jiang knew he would die, and that was not his destiny.