Becoming Monsters: In The Mirror 2, Chapter 55

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the exceedingly cute creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

Also of note is that the zoo they are visiting is a real place. Point Defiance and Northwest Trek are awesome, and I’m happy I got to go to them several times while scouting ideas for this chapter, but it takes place at Woodland Park Zoo.

And before anyone asks, yes, I was listening to Daft Punk while planning this chapter.

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Chapter 55: Around the World

My eyes snapped open again, and for a moment I didn’t know why. It wasn’t like I’d overslept. Quite the opposite, unlike the past couple of mornings I woke up before anyone came to help me. The sun outside the bedroom window was itself struggling to wake up. Lucy’s scarlet form was still breathing deeply, not yet moving herself. Once more, I padded softly over to take my notes. The circle was filled.

I called my Status. The screen still read 99% progress on every meter. It still said I was Shattered. The circle might be done, but I wasn’t. I banished the screen and kept my eyes closed. It hurt. I didn’t know what I would need to do the next night. Maybe the night after that, again and again until I managed to fix my fractured soul. The tears wouldn’t come, the frustration stayed locked in my chest. No matter what was happening to me, though, I had to get ready. We had things to do today.

It seems stupid and petty to worry about a trip to the zoo in the face of that, but it’s what was in front of me. I had two hours to get ready to get on a bus to a place I’ve never been, to meet the mother of one of the women in my life. My track record with talking to parents was… well, call it “mixed.” Maybe I could eventually make a good impression. Maybe it would even be today, even if a good or bad impression wouldn’t really change Emily’s place on the team. Maybe.

I silently padded out to the kitchen to get the coffee started. No sense trying to fall back asleep when there were things to do after all, and I wasn’t entirely sure my body would let me. I paused when I got close, though. The coffee maker was running, the sounds indicating that it had just been started. Made sense, since I hadn’t smelled it. Well, if it wasn’t my wife, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t Nibbles, that just left six candidates. No sense debating who it was, though, since all it took was two steps.

Standing at the counter was Emily, but she was behaving oddly. Specifically, she was in her petite Human form, a shape I never really saw her take. At least, not when it was just the family.  Her pajamas in this form consisted of a plain white tee shirt and comfy gray shorts, again not exactly something I ever saw her in. I made sure to breathe a bit deeply so she could hear something before I scared her out of her skin. “You couldn’t sleep either, huh?”

She jumped, but only slightly. “Oh! No, I don’t think that’s it. This is just sleeping in for me, my shifts usually demand I’m up early, then…”

“Then you know you’re headed to a zoo to go see your mother. I get it. Any specific plans other than just walking around?” I started pulling down cups for the people who liked coffee in the house and pulling out ingredients for our typical breakfasts. Gloria would smell the brew soon and shoo us out, but until then we could have a relatively quiet conversation.

She shook her head. “I’ll be honest, with everything that’s been going on it was a miracle we even got to the point that we’d meet up. Meet up, walk around the zoo, chat, hopefully it all ends well? Oh, and if we can, Lucy should get her treatment before we go.”

“Before? Wasn’t expecting that.” Man, that coffee was smelling good. Maybe it could help me track this conversation.

Emily nodded, the long black hair of this form seeming to move in waves. “That would put her to four months of effective pregnancy if everything holds steady, and that’s the point that making sure she walks more gets important. It’s where the major physical changes really start to hit for Humans, and her particular variety of Succubus isn’t too far removed where that’s concerned.”

“I guess that makes sense. You talk it over with Whitney already?” I could hear the sleeping room door open and close, Gloria was likely awake and about to interrupt.

Emily nodded again. “She’s the one who suggested it, actually. As long as Lucy’s doing well this morning it should work.”

At this point, Gloria did in fact arrive in the kitchen. She proceeded to take one look at what was out, grabbed a bag of flour and baking powder to go with the eggs and milk, and started on making pancakes. In about the amount of time it would have taken me to get the ingredients together, she had already whipped up the batter, started the pan, and was halfway through chopping fruit. Even for her, this was some serious levels of industry this morning. “You have some walking to do, so I’m making sure you’re fueled. Don’t waste it!”

“Gloria, if I try to slack off Whitney will drag me to the Quarry and make me regret it. No worries there.”

The others woke up and came out in fairly short order, the magical ritual of making delicious smells waft out of the kitchen being a rather reliable way to do so. When Lucy woke up, came to the kitchen, and gave one sexy yawn (seriously, five years married and I still don’t know how she can make YAWNS looks sexy), both Emily and a slightly ruffled-looking Whitney were quick to give her a once-over and talk about their recommendation. Ultimately, it was her body we were pushing along, and no matter how willing she was it was her Health and Stamina meters we were bound to obey. She had to sit and ponder it for a few moments, aided by coffee and hand on her womb, but ultimately her impatience won out. I helped Sarah set her up while Gloria finished cooking.

The Battery was still over half full, and it was the work of moments for everyone to cycle through and drop more power in. The attachments took only a minute more, and given that we knew how this was going to go we didn’t all need to watch. That, of course, meant that Emily, Whitney, Sarah, and I were watching like collective hawks.

Lucy did try to hide the strain the process was putting on her. Probably even worked on the others, but by the time breakfast was called and the equipment was put away I asked to talk to her for a moment. Whitney, Sarah, and Emily all went to eat easily enough, but as soon as they were in the dining room it was my turn to give my wife the Look and the Eyebrow. Enough of those had been turned on me that I had quite a bank of them saved up. “Don’t make me Scan you, love. Are you okay?” I kept my voice low, hoping the table chatter would keep the more perceptive members of our Guild from hearing.

She was seated in the rocking chair, breathing deeply and recovering from the strain. “I… will be. Kind of glad we have a bus trip between us and the zoo for me to recover. It knocked my Stamina under half.”

“I’ll tell Sarah we need to slow this down. At this rate you only have one or two more before they’re knocking you unconscious.”

“No!” Lucy almost shouted. She took another deep breath to steady herself. “No, Jay. I have my reasons, but unless it’s literally threatening my life or our daughter, don’t do that.”

I crossed my arms. “I’m going to quote someone I love more than the rest of the world combined right now: you have two minutes to make your case.”

She looked down at her belly, now unmistakably swelling even if only slightly. “The doctor said the longest part will be right at the end, Jeremiah. The way this is going it’s going to be the hardest part, too. Yes, I know, listen to me complaining about long, hard things.”

I smirked. “I would have said it if you hadn’t.”

She smiled. “Here’s the thing. That means this is the easy part. If I can’t take it, it means that all we did was rush our way to the bad part.” Her stomach decided to take the opportunity to growl loudly, interrupting her two minutes but making its own point. “And you’re about to insist I eat at least five pancakes, aren’t you?”

“I saw the size of them, so I’m only going to insist on two. I’ll accept your reasons, but love? Now I’m the one begging you to take it easy if you have to. I’m not asking you to sprint across Seattle, that would be a tad hypocritical.”

“I was there for it anyway.”

“My point exactly. I’m just asking you to protect our daughter. She can’t live without you. Now let’s get you to breakfast.”

If nothing else, the fact that she had not two but THREE of the flapjacks of the titans told me her body needed it. I was twice her size, even counting recent additions, and had problems with my third one. Planning went quickly: Lucy, Sarah, Emily, and I would be headed to the bus in ten minutes. Whitney was off to the Hospital to make sure we stayed current on hours to keep the apartment. Gloria had Amber and Paige (and Nibbles) for keeping the home and restocking supplies. After everyone helped clean up from breakfast, of course. In the flurry of activity, I ended up back in the bedroom, staring at my equipment closet. It was a trip to the zoo, how much trouble could it possibly be?

You know what? The fact that I even asked myself the question tells me the answer.

Undershirt, mail shirt, manashed over it. Shield gauntlet on, baton at my hip, both my gun and my sword in the Extradimensional Space. Already had a spare healing and mana potion there, I was feeling paranoid. Finally, I put on my badge. This was a public place, it would be best to advertise that I was there. Lucy saw what I had done and put her badge and shield charm on as well. Sarah actually had a utility belt on with her gadgets, but I wasn’t sure if she was gearing up for a fight or just wanted to make something on the bus ride. Emily? She put on no special gear. Then again, the most dangerous thing she had was herself, and that was something she could carry concealed.

The bus trip was… surprisingly boring. All four of us were distracted, though I will say all of our reasons were wildly varied. Sarah, as predicted, was braiding something she pulled from one of her belt pouches. Emily had a certain pensive anxiety written across her features, while Lucy was the exact opposite and more than half asleep as the bus rolled on. Honestly, good for her. She needed the rest. As for me? Well, a history lesson decided it would be the best time to review itself in my head.

Before the Change, zoos were important to preserve and study wildlife. After the change, after the initial chaos when half of them got either destroyed or abandoned? People across the US realized that they got way more important, now that there were a LOT of folks now in possession of bodies and instincts imitating those animals. Veterinarians, biologists of every stripe (including ones now wearing stripes), and other zoo staff were holding one of the keys to humanity’s survival, and once they realized this it made a lot of lives a lot easier. There was a story, and I’m not sure how true it is, that one particularly bold zoologist demonstrated how valuable his knowledge was by performing courtship rituals at five Beastkin in a week. Successfully.

The bus pulled up to our destination, and people filed off. Behind us was a sign indicating that this was the Penguin parking lot. In front of us was one entrance to the zoo. Somewhere ahead was Emily’s mother, we just had to find her.

“EMILY!”

“MOM!”

Okay, that was easy. From the crowd emerged a small Japanese woman, just a few wrinkles and a few gray hairs away from being the mirror image of my Guild’s healer. Her Human form, at least. The two ran at each other like two enormous magnets on a collision course, practically flying into each other’s arms for an enormous hug. Lucy, Sarah and I walked up much more slowly, but the moment had been heartwarming enough that other people in the area had tears in their eyes and warm fuzzies in their souls.

A moment or two later, I coughed gently to get their attention. “Mrs. Johnson, I presume? I’m Jeremiah, from what Emily says she’s told you about me.”

“Yes, she has.” Mrs. Johnson replied evenly as she let go of her daughter. Her voice held a heavy mix of Japanese accent in it over the practiced Pacific Northwest English, no matter how hard her daughter had assimilated I could tell that she wished she didn’t have to hide. “You have turned her life entirely upside-down this past month. Put her life at risk half a dozen times that I know of, put her job at risk, and took entirely excessive liberties with her multiple times.”

I reflexively took a half-step backwards. “Ma’am, I…”

“Save it, please. Do you know what else my daughter has told me?” Mrs. Johnson had the instincts of a predator, stepping in to maintain the distance.

“I… don’t, ma’am. Those conversations are private, so she doesn’t show them to me.” It was a struggle to keep my own panic out of my Aura. I did not want this to go this badly!

The small woman looked me straight in the eyes from her position over a foot shorter than me. “Emily has told me that she is happy. For the first time since the Change, she is secure and joyous in her personal life.” The woman looked me up and down, openly and appraisingly. “And from what else she tells, it’s no wonder she lets you take those liberties. Oh, don’t give me that look. All I’ve ever wanted is her happiness, and you are giving it to her. Call me Ellen.”

If the spiritual whiplash had been physical it would have launched my skull all the way back to the apartment. “Ma’am… uh, Ellen…” Ah, so THIS is why Nathan had such a hard time not calling me “sir.” Got it.

“Good effort. I have a park pass and four Guest slots left, let’s go!” She spun on her heel and immediately strode towards the Members Entrance. Sarah and Lucy both strode after her to follow.

I looked over at my Kitsune, now openly smirking and letting her amusement out of its tight control so that I could read it in her soul. “Did you know she was going to do this?”

“Not specifically, no, but I knew she liked what she heard of you and she did something like this to my last two boyfriends.”

“So ‘yes’, got it.” I looked back at the three figures getting close to the gate. “I’ll get my revenge later, just so you know, but for now we need to stick with the others.”

“Looking forward to it.” We both turned and scooted to catch up. While I was fairly sure she wouldn’t leave her daughter hanging, The chances weren’t zero and I didn’t want to risk it. We got there just in time for Ellen to scan a little card to let us in, amusement bubbling under the surface to match her daughter. Also matching both Sarah and Lucy. Joy, I was even MORE outnumbered today. We stepped through the archway, and into the zoo itself.

To the left was a store we would almost certainly hit on the way out, selling books and trinkets to help fund the zoo. To the right was a penguin habitat, which Lucy immediately started heading towards. My practiced eye could tell the difference between her normal sway and the gait she had started to take as her hips and stance widened, as her belly swelled. It wasn’t a waddle, but it was certainly a half-step slower than usual. Add the fact that Sarah would never be called “quick”, and it was easy enough to keep up. I’ll also admit that I was probably enjoying myself a bit less than the ladies. Call me paranoid, but I couldn’t help but keep my head on a swivel. Too many people, too many places they could come from. Even now, when I wore my own face openly and my own badge publicly, I couldn’t shake the nerves. I was being seen. Heck of a thing for someone who had gone viral three times in a month to be nervous about, but there it was.

Past the penguins were butterflies and flamingos, every display having a mix of people in front of them. Children having fun. Researchers taking notes. The occasional Beastkin taking much more specific notes. It was as fascinating to watch the people as it was the animals. I think the animals agreed with me, but I couldn’t readily ask them about it. Sarah was also taking notes, and given what I’ve seen her notes do that was slightly terrifying. All the while, Emily caught up with her mother. There was a lot that could be sent over text, but there was much more that could only be said in person. A few of the topics needed confirmation from our local Succubus, which meant I was making sure no children were within earshot.

We kept walking, ahead of us was an enclosure full of red pandas. In front of them was a different bunch, mostly women, who were doing guided meditation of some kind. In front of them was a large and fluffy Red Panda Beastkin woman sitting cross-legged, no big shock, but she seemed to be leading the meditations in a mild Canadian accent. “We are here to center ourselves. This place survived chaos, we can banish the turbulence within ourselves…”

The words got to us, and to be honest the woman was pretty soothing, but when Sarah looked up from her notes her expression was not soothed. Her eyes were wide, her face and emotions shocked like I’d never seen from her. “Lin?” The Red Panda leading the meditation was still tranquil, but one thing responded. One ear twitched, turning towards us. “LIN! IT IS YOU!”

The meditating woman ceased her tranquility, turning her head to stare at us with a look of equal shock on her face. “Sarah? Sarah Castellan? I thought you were dead! Ladies, I’m sorry, but solo meditation for a few.” She sprung to her feet. And ran in our direction. Much to my own shock, Sarah ran to her, burying herself in nearly eight feet of fluff.

“I missed you so much, Lin! What are you doing in the States?” Sarah was audibly crying into Lin’s fur.

“I actually came down to see these guys in the cage and lead some meditations, Sarah. Why didn’t you let us know where you were? After you disappeared, we looked for a long time. Your parents…”

“I know. I found out a couple of weeks ago. I… it’s really hard to explain, but I wasn’t myself. I didn’t have my phone, I didn’t have my passport, nothing.” She stepped back out of the (admittedly comfy-looking) fur to be visible. “That gray guy behind me led the team that rescued me. I've been with his guild ever since doing Enchanting work.”

“Is that Jeremiah Kithkin? Sarah, I THOUGHT I saw you in those videos, but there was no way! My best friend just disappears for months and suddenly pops up in an American guild fighting demons in the streets? Nobody in Vancouver believed it! Just wait until I tell them! Come on, give me your new number, please!”

They continued their animated chatter about old classmates, boy bands, concerts, and their home city. Neither seemed interested in pausing for breath. Ellen looked at Emily, wearing a confused look on her face. “Is this… normal for her?”

“Nope. She wasn’t even this emotional when we were fighting the demons.” Emily was looking at Sarah as she was jumping up and down excitedly. The reunited friends were singing an old boy band hit I vaguely remembered from when I was in high school. Even the women who were still sitting and meditating were looking on curiously.

The huge Red Panda finally slowed down. “Okay, Sarah, I’ll be in town for a while, part of what I’m doing here is going to Dungeon Expo West. We NEED to meet back up again, but my Class… gotta keep a lid on the emotions. I’ll call you later?”

“I’d love it, Lin! You’ve gotta meet the rest of Shield! Actually, two things. First up, we’re probably all going to be at the Expo.” She pulled out her notepad, scribbled some information down, and handed it over to her fluffy friend. “Second, that’s where the twins put up our info, see for yourself. We even have a team pet.”

We eventually managed to peel them apart after the fourth or fifth “later.” Couldn’t blame them. It was a much more excited group that I escorted through cranes and an aviary, past monkeys and jaguars and gorillas. To a break room, where at Lucy’s insistence I distracted Sarah much more thoroughly for a few minutes.

When Sarah and I left the room, we found the others chatting lightly on a nearby bench. Mrs. Johnson… Ellen… was asking some exceedingly specific questions of Emily and Lucy. I couldn’t hear the questions specifically, too much noise in the area as I was walking towards them, but I could see my wife blush two shades deeper red than before. Considering that she’s A SUCCUBUS, that took some doing. I finally got within conversation range and decided to take my job as the guild’s main tank seriously. That meant drawing attention to get the pressure off of my guild mates. “Ellen! I did mean to ask, what have you been doing the past few years?”

“I assume you mean for my profession and not who I’ve been doing.” I suddenly understood why my wife was blushing. “I’m a veterinarian, mostly domestic types but I’m slowly learning to help Class-enhanced pets. Your yarrb, for example, has he had his shots yet?”

“I can honestly say he has, yes.” The vet at the hospital had managed to walk away from that encounter with only five puncture wounds from Nibbles’s quills, which Emily had guiltily healed before he got back on rotation. “Really didn’t like it, but he did.”

“Huh, color me impressed. You’re the second person to say yes to that in the last three years, and the other was my assistant.” She stood up, dominating the group despite being as tall standing as most of us sitting. “Now come on, you used up enough time having fun with Sarah that we need to step it up if we want to see the next feeding times.” She began striding off towards the main loop again, leaving us to hustle after her in the shifting midday shadows.

African animals were next, and those gave me a bit of a pang. Some few of them had been endangered before. Now, the First Year had led many of them to be effectively extinct in the wild. It didn’t matter how important the animals or how devoted the conservationists were, when your other problems included zombie hordes in the Sahara certain things had to be re-prioritized. Now these zoos often existed as their only refuge, hopefully to be reintroduced where they belonged once our world was tamed once again. Next was South Asia.

Past pigs and rhinos and cranes we walked, eventually finding a broad loop around an open enclosure. The siamang, the sign said, was a one-meter primate that needed the room. The loop took us around the open area so that we could see three of them playing on a climbing tower. At the furthest point, away from all cover, I noticed an oddity.

A man was walking towards us, following the loop in the opposite direction. He looked Japanese as well, older and wearing jeans with a graphic tee shirt, but what struck me was that he wasn’t looking at the exhibit. He was looking at us. No, not us. At Emily.

I saw a flicker of motion, his right arm seeming to vanish for the slightest fraction of a second. On pure instinct I dove in front of Emily with a shout, Shield Gauntlet raised. Three sharp impacts, three metallic tinging sounds, and a trio of shuriken fell to the ground. If I hadn’t intervened, two of those would have gone to my healer’s chest and one to her forehead. “Contact!” As I reached into my Extradimensional Space to pull out my sword, Lucy’s hands ignited with the flame she favored and Sarah whipped out her wand.

The man yelled something in Japanese, Emily and Ellen recoiling in shock. Behind the man, three more Japanese men walked up. Behind us, four more, these in light armor. Two became visible in the trees to our left, two more atop the roof to our right. I didn’t need to understand the language to know what had just happened.

Emily’s past had caught up to her, and the odds were ten to four.