Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

a foe and defeat them. He wasn’t expecting to feel guilty, however. Fighting the Shamblers did not feel like he was actually killing something. It was like they were already dead, but they just didn’t get the memo.

But what did they want at the manor? He didn’t think they would have the intelligence to do anything once they got there. Weird. With an ominous undertone. The Mantids were obviously intelligent, though. They planned and attacked. He had managed to fight the other zombies without even considering they were humans at one point, because they were mindless. It was easy to dismiss them.

But even though the Mantids physically resembled humans less than the Shamblers, it made him question himself.

Did I enjoy killing those things, just a little too much? It was me or them, so self-defense is different, isn’t it? His attempts at justification felt a bit hollow, and he couldn’t erase the worry and concern about how his choices would shape him. His conscience also reminded him of the questionable things he had done that were ‘just part of the job’ as a henchman. That type of thinking didn’t work out so well for the Nazis either. He also felt conflicted with the whole ‘ends justify the means’ argument. His mind kept pointing to people who had done worse things, and that he wasn’t so bad.

Everyone knew about the supers who had hunted many of the large cats to extinction, testing their new skills in single combat. It wasn’t until the Factions organized and came to an uneasy agreement on which crimes would be punished that certain atrocities stopped being committed. Some of the damage was irreparable by that time, both to the planet and the loss of some animal species.

Was the new taste of power the Nth gave him revealing something about himself? Were his true desires hidden only by his lack of power to bring them into reality? The questions kept on coming, making Gus more and more uneasy. He always had difficulty dealing with strong emotions and always tended to push them away and not deal with them.

Some of his biggest fights with his father had been the result of an explosive release on the pressure cooker of emotions where Gus stored all his pain and angst. His father always backed down when things got too heated, treating him with kid gloves. Probably pitying his poor reg disappointment of a son. It made Gus feel even more helpless and weak when his father did that, though. Like he wasn’t man enough to deal with any important issues.

He didn’t feel helpless anymore. Sure, he was worried about the future and making poor choices in his build. His powers kind of felt all over the map and he wasn’t able to see a clear picture of how they all could work together. But there wasn’t time to mope around. He had to level quickly and, in the process, try to find some synchronicity in combining and using his powers together. That goal grounded him a bit, and he felt a little better, even if he did not have all the answers. He had something to work toward, and he knew he would figure something out.

Turning his thoughts to the recent battle, Gus had some questions that troubled him. “Nick, when I first used Wreck-luse, it was more of a defensive mechanism and I didn’t think much of it. But in reading the skill description, it mentions a toxin causing the effects. How is this toxin introduced in my target? I didn’t touch the creature, my spear did when it collided with me, so what was the method of delivery? It doesn’t make sense,” he asked.

“You are too used to comic books. In that genre, one of the primary ways supers get their powers is due to mutation, often by radiation of various forms. Some are aliens and it is accepted this is part of their genetic nature. Years before an Nth colony reach a planet, a probe is released which contains Nth whose sole purpose is to mentally prepare the apex lifeforms to accept the possibility and even create a culture that embraces supers. In reality, all powers follow concrete laws, but many are beyond the understanding of humans as a whole. Some supers understand a few of these laws, but usually on a subconscious, anecdotal-experience level.

“Many concepts are introduced which help open the door of possibility that something could exist. Zombies, for example. You could recognize and had some basic idea of what a zombie is and how it acts. You accept that they like brains, because that’s just what zombies do in the movies. Kernels of truth like this are seeded through a planet’s culture, usually through its entertainment. You have no context to understand what a Dark Nth is, so other origins of how zombies come to be are imagined. This information has to be delivered very carefully, as Nth are not supposed to direct societal development. That is why these concepts are often introduced in entertainment modalities.”

“So how long have Nth been on Earth? Did you wait to activate powers until you had prepared our culture to understand and accept them?” Gus twirled the spear in front of him as he ran, trying to get used to the weight as Nick continued.

“An advanced wave of Nth arrives years before the main body to start the process, stimulating the creativity and imagination of receptive individuals. They transmit this to the world in various fictions that become commonplace. This information is intended to allow the first generation supers to hit the ground running, and start using their powers productively, instead of selfishly. What these Nth do not do is explain the science behind the powers, so this is often poorly described by those who are inspired and create art, music and entertainment surrounding the super culture. It is generally accepted by most species, and falls under a willing suspension of disbelief due to the ideas being perceived