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What used to be Emily's house is buried deep in the residential maze of urban Canberra. A nice corner house on Westgarth Street, clad in yellowish bricks. Dark green creep crawls up the walls, and a large growth is beginning to take root in what was once the front yard.

Emily stops on the street and looks at the house, clutching my Ratling to her chest. She doesn't say anything, but I can feel her heart pounding.

Other Ratling press themselves against Emily's leg in support. I try to envision how the place might have looked before the Simurgh.

Intact, undamaged houses on a narrow residential street, bordered by large evenly placed trees and manicured grass. The sidewalk well away from the roadway, and by the way the creep has piled up in places, there might have been a hedge fence, perhaps some large trees providing privacy.

My Ratling turns the handle, only to find the door has been locked. Because of course people fleeing an Endbringer will still take the time to lock up, as if it will keep out the looters. The hole in the roof where something struck the building, and the shattered windows demonstrate the futility of such.

"Do you still want to go in?" I ask through Face.

"Um…" Emily looks unsure, she's shifting her stance from one foot to the other, and I can smell indecision mixed in with fear and sorrow. "Home, it looks… worse than I imagined. Can… can you open the door?"

My Ratlings slip in through the broken windows, and while one goes to open the door, the others spread through the house. No sign of dangerous animals — as if there were any left — or squatters. The brick is not just a facade after all, the building might withstand Emily's power for a while, though the broken roof exposes a battered and cracked support beam.

"It's safe for now." I tell her, even as I orge Creep to grow through the damaged structure and shore it up, both against the damage sustained and Emily's power.

I let her step through the door first. She enters, and looks around at the filthy, rubble-covered interior, much of it overgrown with tendrils of creep. "… I'm home… mom…" Her voice breaks as she speaks.

I wrap Face's arms around her in a hug. "Emily…? You know your mom…"

Her body shakes gently. "I know. I know she was with me and William when… on the boat. I just… hoped… maybe…" She squeezes Face's arm, then pulls away, and continues into the ruined house.

The living room is partially open to the sky, and sunbeams illuminate dust and Creep spores stirred up by her footsteps. Emily wanders through, futility trying to pull creep off the furniture until my Ratlings do it for her, allowing her to dig through drawers and cupboards.

My eyes are drawn to the ridiculous fact that somebody ripped the TV off the wall, leaving just a bent wall mount behind. Who the fuck has time to loot when Ziz decides to stop by and have a chat with the nation's government? Some people truly have no survival instincts.

With the Ratlings help, Emily has gotten a large cupboard next to the kitchen pried open, exposing… a collection of broken china. "Oh… Mom would be so heartbroken…"

"Because of… broken plates?" I ask.

"Mmmm. My grandmas wedding gift, when she married grandpa. Mom only pulled them out for special occasions." She carefully digs through the shards, finally pulling out an intact cup caresses it before passing it to the nearest Ratling. "I never got why they mattered to her so much… but now I think I get it. Please keep it safe?"

My Ratling performs a passing imitation of a salute, and carefully takes the cup into its paws. "Careful when looking for memento's Emily, don't forget your power. With the Symbiote, you won't harm anything by just being in the same room, but if there had been something organic in that cupboard you wanted to save…"

"I know Alexei. Everything… well most things I want are in my room. This way." Emily leads Face and my Ratlings through the house, till we stand before a partially ajar door. "This… this is my room. I've… never had a… um… boy over before." She blushes at her own words.

Ah… I wish Abzu was ready to go, this could have been… no, no, not the time or place. She's trying to be strong, but my Ratlings can smell the sadness and sorrow on her, and I've seen the wetness of unshed tears in her eyes as we wandered through the house. "Hey, if it's too much, I can just have the Ratlings salvage everything from here, now that I know where it is. You don't have to force yourself to…"

"N-no! I… It's hard but… I want to get it myself. To… say goodbye I guess?" She has to put her shoulder into the door to get it open, and enter her own room. Face follows behind her quietly.

Here the house is in better condition, and I can see portions of posters peeking between Creep patches. "Cape fan?" I ask. The poster of Eidolon is rather prominent, not that I would have recognized him, having never seen the man. The poster title however portrays his name quite clearly. Besides, a tendril of Creep has grown partially over the picture.

"A bit." Emily giggles. "Aww but… so many are overgrown with Creep. Even the one of Eidolon… Daddy sent me that one, it was autographed."

A shiver runs through me at her words. Oh Ziz, does that mean her father is someone with connections after all? No, certainly it wouldn't be too rare to get a hold of an autographed poster of Eidolon right? He probably does picture signings and stuff all the time as part of his PR.

Unfortunately, most of the pictures — including Eidolon — are unsalvageable, the Creep having already consumed most of the material it grew on.

Emily sits crosslegged on her bed. The synthetic structure of the frame and matres serving well to protect it both from her, and to a lesser extent the Creep which covers it. A Ratling lays in her lap as she directs me to retrieving various objects from around the room. When she's picked out everything she considers worth saving, and Face has packed it all into a suitcase, she collapses a bit, curling in on the Ratling. At last, the tears that had been in her eyes since we entered the house come flowing out, and she starts crying.

My Ratlings swarm over her, nuzzling their carapace bodies against her in support, until eventually she falls asleep.

Long-distance travel by Mutalisk has one rather major problem. Namely, none of the maps I have access to in Canberra are really… detailed on North American cities and highways. Oh sure, there are a ton of maps showing the general shape of the continent, and even where major cities are on it. Unfortunately, the elevation needed for a Mutalisk to actually see the same view those maps offer is well above their current capability, even if there wasn't the threat of the Simurgh taking offense. She… does work to keep humanity contained right? Or is it just space exploration and colonization she puts a hard stop on?

My knowledge of where to find the cities — and by extension people — that I am looking for is… non-existent. I could continue to follow a coastline but… to my embarrassment, I don't even know which coast I need. East or west?

Whelp… I need a map.

Best place to find a map when traveling across America? A gas station. This one specifically is rather isolated on a smaller back-country road. The setting sun casts long orange shadows over the lone building and the single, rusty pickup truck parked in the back.

My Mutalisk drops out of the clouds with wings humming loudly, bringing it to a complete stop right outside the glass lined doors of the gas station. The flickering neon sign tells me it's open and I can see the attendant leaning back on a chair behind the counter, with a set of headphones over his ears, deaf to the world. Blind too, seeing as his eyes are closed. Can't say I blame him, he can't get many visitors out here. It would be ideal if I could get in and out without being noticed. If he does spot me… hmm…

Opening the door is a simple matter of webbing it and pulling. A small bell announces the opening of the door, but the attendant doesn't react. If it wasn't for the fact that he continues to balance on his chair, I'd wonder if he's asleep. Or dead of boredom. Getting through the door is a bit more challenging, Mutalisks were not designed to walk.

Maps, maps… the interior of the gas station is small, with two shelves of assorted — and more often then not, expired — snacks and basic essentials. I double-take at the price tag under the jerry-cans. Either prices are very wonky in Earth Bet, or this guys charging a premium idiot tax to anyone that realizes they need one only when it's too late.

Thank Ziz that google maps does not seem to be a thing — or have a local alternative — on Earth Bet yet, so the magazine rack also includes a selection of road map booklets. I clumsily pull them out, an action that the Mutalisks grabbing arms — intended for human-sized targets, not pieces of paper — struggle with. There's a crack and quite a racket as the entire rack comes down, magazines and leaflets collapsing to the floor.

This of course gets the attention of the attendant. His eyes fly open at the noise, and he surges to his feet. There's no way he can overlook the giant, mutated dragonfly awkwardly hunched by the collapsed rack.

"Aaaaaah!" He screams like… well I'd say a little girl, but Emily has never made a noise near that shrill. He stumbles backwards, tripping over his chair and falling to the ground. I have to give him some respect, most would probably just hunker down behind the till and pray to their god of choice. Not this guy, he's back up again within a moment. Of course, this being America, he's got a full sized pump action shotgun when he does so.

"Do… not… try. It." My Mutalisk's vocal cords and insectoid mouth-parts introduce a hard inflection to it's pronunciation. I'm not overly concerned about the shotgun, shot shouldn't puncture my Mutalisks carapace and people rarely use shotgun slugs in weapons meant for self defense. It's more likely to be rock salt. Still, shot at close range could damage the wings enough to make continued flight difficult, and that would put the entire trip on hold for days, at least.

"Wh-what in tarnations?" The attendant gapes when my Mutalisk speaks, and I think this might not even come down to violence. "Gods damned bugmen! Earth is ours!" Ah nevermind, guess it's violence after all. His finger goes for the trigger, and I am out of position to web him or his gun.

My Mutalisk rears up enough to take the load of shot to the thorax. There's a dull stab of pressure, but the carapace holds with only minor cracking. Before he can pump the action for another shell, I lunge at him. My wings deploy and send shelves toppling over. The target is too close to have any chance of reacting, and my Mutalisk slams him against the ground. His head bounces off the tiled floor, and for a moment I fear that I'd killed him, despite going out of my way to not just bite his head off.

But no, he's alive, he'll have a nasty bump and probably a concussion, but he's still breathing and my Mutalisk can feel his heartbeat.

Fuck. That… could have gone better! But seriously! This is Earth Bet! It's got real live super heroes — and villains — running around, many of which have weird or inhuman forms. But no, the dude has to assume aliens of all things? I mean… he's not wrong… technically… but still! Why?

Well he's not dead at least. On the bright side, any memory of what he saw is going to be rather suspect after the head trauma, so… with a bit of luck, leaving him alive won't bite me in the ass later.

Maps secured, I check the premises for security cameras and fail to find any, before taking to the air, leaving behind a groaning man, and a completely devastated snack food shelf. My Mutalisk is a lot less hungry now.

A group of capes — presumably heroes, going by the bright colors — have just been spotted by Ratlings, making their way into the city. Two man, two women, and a… Case 53? The path they have come from is ridiculously easy to follow, as the earth itself seems to be moving in a small radius around the one bright yellow cape, carrying him and his companions along at significant speed, while leaving a trail of upturned and broken asphalt, concrete, dirt, and Creep.

Backtracking where they came from, my Ratlings find a transport truck with the same shield and stars logo and A.D.V.P. label. This one however is much larger and the inside contains a dozen sturdy cages. It also lacks in the hover function seen before, and… has become truly bogged down in the thick creep covering the streets. Creep that is already extending tendrils into and over the stalled vehicle.

I pull my Ratlings back from the group and send a Mutalisk to observe them from on-high. I can guess at what their objective is, lets not give them any easy capture targets right away.

The yellow-armored man — actually, his costume reminds me of construction equipment — is just standing still with his arms crossed over his chest while the ground surges under him in a perfectly straight line. Interestingly, he seems to be able to go right through any obstructions in the path, be it wrecked cars, collapsed buildings, or craters. Everything simply gets broken down and left behind.

The other male cape is wearing a dark spandex suit covered with bright orange specks in patterns reminiscent of clusters and galaxies. No real clue on what his power might be yet.

Of the two women, the first must be a tinker, going by the very obvious — and certainly modeled to look sexy — power armor. It's got boob-plate! She's the only one of them carrying weapons, specifically two revolver-like constructs on her hips, and a sword on her back.

The second seems to be leaning heavily into duality, starting with a white and black costume, and ending with the alchemical sun and moon symbols on her chest. It just screams duality of some sorts, but what it is… I'm guessing changer?

A probable Case 53 is wearing no visible clothes at all, it's vaguely humanoid body is made up entirely of what seems to be sand. I could be wrong, but I'd put money down on it being a brute, out of shear size alone if not actual power effects. It stands twice as tall as it's companions.

My question on the dual-colored capes powers is resolved pretty quickly, when the probable tinker points up at my Mutalisk flying overhead. She swings her arms, and a crescent shaped wedge of brilliant light explodes from her, and strikes my Mutalisk before it can even begin to evade. That's some frightening projectile speed!

Thankfully the damage is quite minimal, even with the Mutalisks reduced armor, there is only some light singing of the wings.

Then the woman swings her arms again, and releases a crescent-shaped void absent of all color. I'm better prepared this time, and the Mutalisk almost manages to evade this time, the dark projectile only skimming a wingtip.

My entire Mutalisk explodes into finely shredded meat and carapace!

My swarm begins to converge en mass on the traveling group. How nice of them to be moving in such a straight line, even if their speed of movement is increasing, it is doing so at a rather steady rate.

"Don't munch on that ya daft galah! Who knows what it'll do to ya!" Juul slaps the fleshy purple bulb out of her brothers hand.

"She'll be right Juul, the 'roos are devourin' it and they ain't crook. "

"You ain't no 'roo!"

The Ratling watches the pair from a third story window. A lone cape and what appears to be a civilian photographer? A bit uncomfortably close to passing right by the house Emily is currently asleep in. They shouldn't be difficult for a couple of Zerglings to take care of, but capes can be a bit unpredictable, and her costume is rather… generic. I refuse to believe a normal photographer would — or even could — enter the quarantine zone either… on the other hand, he seems to be a bit of an idiot, so he very well might have.

A lucky idiot I correct myself when he grabs another of the fleshy bulbs and dances out of his companions reach, since I have been making sure most of the fruity Creep growths are safe for consumption. For Emily, if not the enclaves and other future inhabitants. Also kangaroos apparently. How the fuck did they figure out it's safe to eat so fast?

"Emily, wake up." Face nudges Emily, who blinks her eyes open slowly.

"Mmm? Alexei? Wh-what? Sorry I…"

"It's alright Emily. I know, lots of emotions to deal with coming back here, right?"

"Mmm." She nods her head, and leans against Face's robe-clad shoulder. "Thank you Alexei… for… everything."

I'm a bit unsure what to do, normally I would kiss her right now, but… Face's mouth is not one I want to use for that. Instead I hug her tight. "You're welcome… love." Heh, I can feel her face heating up as she presses it against me.

Alas, there is a reason I woke her, and this — while pleasant — is not it. After too short a time, I gently push her off. "A group of capes is making very rapid progress through the city, I think they were supposed to capture samples, but their truck got… stuck. I'm not sure what their plan is now, as they've abandoned it and the cages."

"Oh! Are they coming here? Or your bunker?"

"Neither, they'll actually pass a good way east of the bunker. A lot of my swarm is going to intercept them before too long. No, rather, there is another cape, probably two, that are actually walking down the street right out there."

"Probably two?"

"A woman in full costume and… what looks like a civilian photographer. I don't believe he's not a cape too. I'd think the first team is being a distraction for them but… there's no way those two are government agents. Still, they managed to get suspiciously deep without being spotted by Ratlings or Mutalisks. I've already got Zerglings on their trail getting ready to attack."

Emily is quite for a while, her face scrunched up in thought, and I can smell indecision off of her. "I… Um… Could I try… talking to them?"

"Talk to…?"

"Yeah, I… haven't talked to another human is so long… Maybe… maybe they can tell us about what's going on outside the quarantine if they snuck in?"

Ah, social isolation, there it is. "I can… introduce you to the Enclaves later, there's no need to talk to these two unknowns."

"Them being unknowns could be good Alexei. They are… expendable if it doesn't work out."

She's not wrong on that front. A couple Mutalisks peel off the force heading to intercept the odiously government hero capes, and head in our direction as backup, in case of emergency. "Against my better judgment… but if anything goes sideways, you retreat and let the Zerglings clean up, alright?"

"Thanks Alexei!" Her kiss on Face's covered cheek is… I check Abzu's cocoon impatiently.