So, up to this point I have been following a strict timeline. In story, I was dropped into Worm on Feb 4th 2011, Worm canon starts April 8th 2011. this chapter covers the events of Feb 25th through 27th. I'm thinking after this I will stop counting days so strictly, mostly because coming back to this in chapter 3 made keeping up the timeline a pain in the ass.

Right, because I'm sure someone will bring it up, assume that the backstory and "History" I'm spouting I am keeping the relevant people informed of. So when I say I have the backing of the Triumvirate I've cleared it with them so if anyone checks with them they wont go "What?". I'm not in the habit of writing out scenes like that, mostly because to me its common sense, you have a story and people who can discredit that story so you negotiate and have them back it instead.

God willing I will never succumb to gratuitous use of japanese when its not neccesary. Unfortunately, for jutsu names I simply prefer the japanese though I will likely flip flop between japanese and english for the names.

On with the story!

Standing in the Hebert's entryway I extend my all my senses seeking the tiny sparks of life that represent insects, only to find myself distinctly unsettled by there being several thousand on the property, a good portion of which are carefully positioning themselves in an ambush position.

"Well, this is surprising" I quip sarcastically, raising my hands carefully.

"Who are you!" Taylor demands, the insect life stirring audibly as she shunts her emotions into the swarm. Despite this she is visibly agitated, and looks a moment from snapping. Whether that would involve me being swarmed by a horde of insects or those insects fanning into a cloud as she escapes I don't know, and I'm not keen on finding out.

"Damian Black, PRT Special Investigator. I take it your father has explained the situation and my investigation?" I explain, not lowering my arms. Glancing around I don't see the mass of bugs that are surrounding me, but I know their there. Taylor looks surprised for a moment before her expression returns to the stoic, emotionless look gained by shunting her emotions fully off into the swarm. After a moment, visibly warring with herself, she sighs and motions me to sit. Taking a seat on the living room couch, I carefully reach into my duster and, as she tenses, remove a familiar folder and hold it out to her. Danny then interjects trying to be a good host to someone he views as someone who could solve his current problems.

"Mr. Black, would you care for something to drink?" Danny asks politely.

"Some water please, I get the feeling this might take a while." I answer just as politely as Taylor quickly reads over the folder's contents. She stiffens when she gets to Madison's interrogation but calms when she sees the plea deal and agreement to testify against Emma and Sophia. As Danny heads to the kitchen I feel the distinct sensation of a spider crawling across skin on the back of my neck.

"Threatening a PRT Officer isn't very smart Miss Hebert. I'll overlook it so long as you remove the spider from my neck." I comment idly, looking unconcerned, knowing that I am immune to any spiders venom thanks to the Mad Doctor Essence.

"Taylor!" I hear Danny call worriedly from the kitchen. She stiffens in anger, the spider pressing very clearly to my skin before removing itself as she calms herself.

"As you can see, the only thing we are missing is the smoking gun. Ideally, we would hook you up with spy cameras and have you goad them into confessing… I suspect that wont be happening now." I explain calmly, as Danny returns with a glass of water, taking it and sipping at it.

"So Sophia Hess is Shadow Stalker, that explains a lot. Is the PRT going to sweep this under the rug like it did the original investigation?" Taylor sneers clearly unimpressed with the PRT as a whole.

"Miss Hebert. There was no investigation. The Locker Incident was never reported by Hess's handler. Even if they did try to sweep it under the rug, I wouldn't allow it." I explain, expecting a blow up and not getting one.

"You wont allow it? Ha! You and what army!" Taylor gives an ugly, cynical laugh as she shakes her hear clearly writing this off as a failure.

"It isn't common knowledge, but I am here with the backing of the Triumvirate. They called in a few favors with my partner Goetia to get him to do a sweep of the PRT and Protectorate for corruption and where he goes I go. He decided to start with Brockton Bay, so I sold the building we were based out of and moved here. Should they try to sweep this under the rug, I have the full authority to escalate in kind.

In this situation, with the potential ramifications, that would mean taking the story and evidence to the news agencies, local, regional, and national and independently notifying the CDC about the potential super bugs bred by the incident. That would quickly escalate to arresting Director Piggot, the School Administrator, Hess, Hess's Handler, closing Winslow until it can be certified as clean of infection and probably more that I don't know about." I explain, enjoying the shock and awe I can almost feel emanating from Taylor and Danny that only grows the more I speak. Finally, they shake themselves from their awed stupor and settle back to think for a moment.

"You mean she wont get away with it? It will finally be over?" Taylor says quietly, the desperation in her tone clear to everyone in the room. I can see Danny wilt in the face of his daughters desperation, clearly seeing that she is a step away from simply giving up or doing something drastic.

"Even with all this, Hess will be going down hard. She has endangered far too many people for anything else. That said, the case isn't ironclad, we, being the PRT and the DA would prefer having a confession as well. Ideally, the same day we arrest Hess, we will arrest the school's administration as well.

I'm going to have to broker a deal with New Wave to have Panacea aid in checking all students and school personnel which will be fun, and then the CDC will have to be involved. Really this is a mess and a half and it all boils down to Hess. The Director really isn't happy with her. After this I will make my way to PRT HQ and interrogate Hess's handler to see what the hell she was thinking, that I'll at least enjoy." I explain, grimacing at the thought of dealing with New Wave, but breaking into a dark smirk at the thought of interrogating Hess's handler, something in it obviously unsettles the Hebert's because they visibly shudder. Of course, Taylor smiles brightly at the thought of Sophia's crows coming home to roost, while Danny looks darkly satisfied at the comeuppance due the school administration.

"Anyways, take the weekend to think about helping us, in the meantime we should probably talk about you, Miss Hebert." I continue, making Taylor jerk and shrink into herself as she becomes the center of attention once more. Danny looks pensive but far less worried than he was now that Taylor looks to be calming down.

"Me? What about me?" Taylor asks, trying and failing to look innocent.

"So that isn't your mask Danny had in his hand? Should I assume it was his? Then there is the increased insect presence in and around the house. Not to mention you had a group of flies flying in v formation around you as I walked in." I spoke sarcastically, motioning around me vaguely. Obviously Taylor didn't take that well, as she merely doubled down on her playing dumb.

"Very well, I'll just guess. You triggered in that locker, from the increased insect presence I'll guess you triggered as a Master, specifically an insect controller. Stand-off range is maybe a block? So a swarm approximately tens of thousand insects strong consisting of, given the weather, mostly cockroaches, and beetles, though there is probably a good thousand or two spiders of varying species and maybe a few wasp hives too.

That mask, given the evidence is made of woven spider web and insect chitin. Probably black widow which makes it damn near cut-proof and proof against small arms and that's just the web alone, add in the chitin and it probably will take a few calibers higher than that. It would need to be tested to see the actual range of protection, but if it is as I expect you would be safe against up to maybe .38 caliber or so? With the chitin that might bump to .45.

Assuming you started weaving the mask within a week or so of being released from the hospital, records Goetia found say you were in there for a week maybe, it would take another two months or so to finish an entire suit. Second week of April or therabouts. Given your school records pre-Winslow, I'm almost certain you could estimate that and so while weaving you would prepare in other ways.

Powers tend to present in certain ways, blasters that throw around lasers tend to be flashy, outgoing, and friendly even in civilian life. Brutes tend to be brash, cocky, and stubborn. Masters are more varied, but one thing powers seem to like are themes. Insects aren't strong or fast, at least not against humans, so they prepare, they ambush and hunt. I would guess that you started running recently? Probably justifying it as getting rid of a bit of pudginess or something. Unfortunately powers also seem to inhibit critical thinking a bit, because you don't walk like a trained fighter something you would start picking up at least slightly after a month or two of martial arts training. I also assume you haven't picked up a burner phone to call police with?" I shrug off their disbelieving stares and continue my rumination.

"Given I haven't heard anything, and Goetia hasn't turned up anything, you haven't done anything to your bullies, and given your age, you grew up having filled your mind with protectorate propaganda, you likely idolize hero's. So you likely want to be a hero, and given the grief teenagers have given you, don't want join the Wards. An opinion that has only grown stronger and more certain with the revelation of Hess's status as a Ward.

So you want to be a hero, but not a Ward, you seem concerned about your father so with New Wave's requirement of unmasking, they aren't an option. I guess there is maybe three options left. You can go the mercenary route and sign on with Faultline, who is technically viewed as a villain, you can go the Independent route and either get yourself killed or forced to join a gang when you eventually annoy them enough, or you can join up with Goetia, who is technically an independent loaning his services to the PRT and Protectorate part time.

You don't seem the mercenary type, and Faultline would have you serve whoever pays regardless of morality. Very hardcore merc she is. That said she would take you for the tactical reasons if nothing else, of course that would involve leaving your father and the city for months at a time, possibly serving some villain.

I've seen your story as an independent play out a hundred times, seventy of them are dead, twenty either wish they were or have grown to enjoy the gang life, the remaining ten are successful heroes. I don't see this working out well for you as an independent. Maybe if you were a bit older, and had some actual training behind you, it could work well but as you are I just can't see you living past your teens." I explain both their faces paling as I casually belt out statistics and state my utter disbelief in her chances.

"Now working with Goetia and I, that will see you more than survive. I don't exactly publicize it, but Goetia gave me an elixir that grants me the same longevity and regeneration he has. He has also made me as immune to poison and disease as him and worked over all of my clothes so they are as good as, if not better than, high level power armor. This suit and duster are both proof up to .50 caliber SAPHEI rounds, that's Semi Armor Piercing High Explosive Incendiary rounds. The kinds of rounds fired out of an anti-tank rifle to take out armored vehicles. It is actually proof against more but anything stronger would kill anyone not a high level regenerator. Combine that with actual weapons and martial arts training? Anyways, how did I do?" I casually shrug, ignoring the urge buff my nails like some cocky anime protagonist.

"Uh… your deductive skills are terrifying. You sure you aren't Sherlock Holmes in disguise?" Taylor finally answers, seeming shocked.

"I simply channeled Holmes from beyond the grave. So? …On second though wait till we're done with Hess then I'll extend the offer again. I'll have everything ready to take Hess's confession by Monday so I will be waiting for your call on Sunday if you accept. With any luck everything will be finished by the end of next week, at least as far as our involvement will be concerned and then you can answer Goetia's offer to partner up. In the mean time I have someone in desperate need of an interrogation." I stop Taylor from answering, before standing up.

"It was nice meeting you, Miss Hebert. I can see a great many uses for your power in the future. Danny, happy to help, I'll talk to you guys again soon. See ya!" I shake their hands and walk out the door offering a jaunty salute.

Leaving the Hebert's I drive back to my base and enter my lab. Around an hour of potion making later I have my truth serum modeled after Veritaserum from the Potter-verse. This version not only compels the drinker to speak, it compels the drinker to speak only what the drinker knows to be truth. The drinker will not offer speculation while under the serum's thrall unless asked to. Its potency is such that only a single drop can be used, but it will break through even someone who has an unrivaled metabolism. It will not work on me because of my spark, before my spark ignited it would have worked as normal however. Taking a moment to write up the ingredients as well to bottle up all that I had made, I clean up and get ready to leave.

By now it is nearly five in the afternoon, so I placed a call to the Director.

"Director! Sorry for calling so late, but I figured you would want to hear this. While I was out Goetia managed to crack the truth serum he was working on and created a batch for testing. I have it with me and am on my way to the HQ. I was wondering if you had any objections to using it on Hess's handler?" I explain, a hint of satisfaction in my tone.

"Is it safe? Normally it would need to be tested by the PRT scientists before it was put into use." She asked warily.

"I can give your scientists a paper that lists all the ingredients. That said I was informed by Goetia to tell you that all the ingredients are common and non-poisonous and as far as he can tell, barring some strange one in a trillion chance reaction, no one will be allergic to it. He is otherwise quite comfortable having it tested by your scientists. One way or the other though, Hess's handler is being interrogated today, serum or no serum." I answer her, shrugging even though she couldn't see me as I park in the PRT's parking garage. Stepping out of my car I walk over to the staff entrance, hooking my ID on my duster as the guards allow me through.

"Good, get that paper to the scientists when you get a chance. I'll authorize the use of it as a test case and meet you at the interrogation rooms." The Director hangs up as I arrive outside Hess's handlers office. Striding up to the door, I give it a firm knock before opening it without waiting for a reply.

"Felicia Chambers, you are to present yourself to Director Piggot in Interrogation Room 2. Please leave the computer as is and come with me. Don't make this any harder than it has to be." I order the woman sitting behind the computer in the office. The woman, in her mid thirties with blonde hair and blue eyes in sensible business wear jumps in fright for a moment before she complies nervously. As she makes it to the door way I stop her and take both her office keys and sidearm and lock her office before motioning her to take the lead. Following her, I get the sense that she is nervous but mostly confident that nothing is wrong. As we make our way down, I wave over a few computer techs waiting near the elevators.

"Search her computer, dig up everything regarding Sophia Hess. Recover any deleted data that you can, leave nothing unturned. When you finish that dig into her history, the Director wants to know everything she hasn't reported that could come back to bite us in the ass." the techs give a nod before taking the office keys I hand over and bustle off to do their jobs. At this point Chambers is visibly worried and trying to hide it, but I ignore that as I motion to continue on our way. A minute or so later and Chambers is situated in the interrogation room as the Director supervises the interrogation.

"This is an interview of Felicia Chambers, PRT Handler conducted by Damian Black, PRT Special Investigator. Interview begins at 5:43pm, February 25th, 2011. Felicia Chambers, age 38, you've worked as a PRT handler for nearly a decade with little to no complaints. Why haven't you reported anything about Sophia Hess in the last two years? More importantly why didn't you report Sophia breaking her probation after the Locker Incident?" I ask after setting up the recorder, not getting an answer back. Chambers just sits there, quiet, refusing to look me in the eye.

"Miss Chambers, if you refuse to answer I have been authorized by the Director to use a truth serum developed by Goetia to get answers. Are you sure you don't want to answer the questions?" I ask, and even though Chambers is alarmed by the though of truth serum, she still refuses to speak.

"Very well" I mutter, retrieving a vial and uncorking it. In a flash of just under peak human speed, I appear right next to her from where I was sitting, grab her chin and forcibly pry her jaws open as she struggles ineffectually and drop a single drop of the serum. The moment the serum hits her tongue she stops struggling and her eyes glaze over. Removing my hand from her jaw, I settle her back into her seat.

"Let the record show that the suspect has refused to answer questions, with Director Piggot's authorization I have administered the standard one drop of Veritaserum. The suspect appears to be docile and unresponsive as expected. According to Goetia's notes this state should last an hour, with no side effects beyond a dry mouth should the user speak too much." I recite for the recorder before continuing the interview.

"You are Felicia Chambers?" I ask calmly.

"Yes" Chambers answers the question in a monotone almost robotic voice.

"When were you born?" I ask.

"June 13th 1973" she answers, checking the paperwork passed to me by the Director I see that the date matches.

"What is the most humiliating thing you've experienced? For the record, the standard for Veritaserum questioning according to Goetia's notes, is confirming name and birthday before asking about something the suspect would never admit to without being under the serum's influence." I ask, noting the standard for the record so I wont be lambasted by the courts later. Despite remaining professional, I can't help but sit forward in curiosity.

"My father walked in on me masturbating to awful 70's porn. I was twenty one and living in my own apartment but hadn't locked my bedroom door before their visit." Chambers answered without any sense of humiliation or other emotions.

"It would appear the Veritaserum has taken well. Miss Chambers, what do you know about the Locker Incident at Winslow High School? This would be at the start of school after Winter Break." I ask, this time completely professional.

"I was notified by Principal Blackwell that another student accused Sophia as being the one to lock her in a locker filled with used tampons and other bio-hazardous waste. I was told by Blackwell that there was no evidence of this and that the student was a notorious liar and troublemaker." Chambers answered. Unfortunately, her answer just brought up more questions.

"What reports have you received about Sophia's conduct while at Winslow?" I ask trying to figure out if this is more on Blackwell than Chambers.

"I have received scattered reports of her bullying other students, shoving them around and on one occasion giving another student a black eye. Otherwise reports tend to be glowing and positive" she answered. Now we are getting somewhere.

"Did you investigate the bullying claims? If so how?" I question, wondering if she actually investigated or went about it in a half-assed manner.

"I did, I asked Sophia about it and questioned her teachers. She denied any accusations and the teachers backed her up." Chambers answered, her face blank. Curiously I could pick up a faint hint of confusion from her.

"So you didn't investigate the claims further? Just took them at their word?" I ask, incredulous at just how badly she fucked this up.

"No, I had no reason to believe the teachers were lying, and with them backing Sophia I had no reason to distrust her." she replies. This time I catch a hint of defensiveness, strange…

"In your time as a PRT Handler have you ever not reported anything like the Locker Incident or any event of similar gravity?" I ask, morbidly curious of the answer.

"No, there hasn't been any events like the Locker Incident in regards to cases I have handled." She answered. With a shake she seems to come out of a haze. Blinking she goes over her memories of the last hour and pales in horror. Shutting off the recorder after formally closing the interview I speak up.

"Well Miss Chambers, I can't exactly charge you for doing the absolute minimum work to do your job, but I can confidently say that your days here at the PRT are numbered. Miss Hess will be arrested sometime next week alongside Emma Barnes, Principal Blackwell and several if not all the teachers at Winslow High School. Hess will be charged with bioterrorism, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. The evidence shows that Sophia Hess, alongside Emma Barnes and Madison Clements, in an effort to terrorize at least one student and probably more, stuffed a locker with biohazardous material a foot deep and left it to ferment over Christmas Break. After the break, Sophia Hess proceeded to lock the owner of the locker, one Taylor Hebert, into the locker and left her in there for several hours. This has turned into a cluster fuck of completely unknown proportions. Hess has potentially infected the entire town with airborne super bugs and diseases." I explain, Chambers pales even whiter, shaking her head in denial.

"I'll leave you with the Director to settle things" I comment as I slip out of the room and am met by the Director's stare of horrified awe.

"Christ, I'm not sure I've seen a more horrifying substance in my life. That was simultaneously the most impressive and the most scary interrogation I've ever witnessed." Piggot comments, eyeing the vial in my hands like its a snake.

"Yeah, I can see that. To be honest I don't much like the mere concept of Veritaserum but it is a necessary one. Theoretically there are ways around it and according to Goetia there is a counter for it that makes you immune for up to a week or so but he hasn't made any. He alone is immune to it for some reason he hasn't told me. There is also an antidote so you can end the effect early, but he hadn't made any yet. Anyways Goetia is quite clear that the only authorization he will accept for its use is from the Director's directly. He seems to believe that will cut down on misuse." I chuckle handing the vial over to Piggot, following as she walks back to her office.

"He also told me that he wont be allowing other people to make it, but will allow the PRT and law enforcement to order more. Thankfully that vial will last quite a while, potentially years. Just remember one drop at a time and an hour between doses, it isn't particularly dangerous if you don't follow instructions but more than three drops will kill. Using more than one drop wont get any more time either so its best to just use one drop. The vial is specially designed to drip one drop at a time, don't ask how, I don't know, so ensuring the correct dose isn't difficult." I explain, taking a seat across from Piggot in her office.

"I see, still it is remarkably effective and if it is as safe as Goetia makes it out to be I don't have any problem with using it. Even if it does scare the ever living shit out of me." She agrees though not without a shiver.

"I agree, I don't fancy the idea of going under Veritaserum any more than you do I expect, that said here is the documentation on the ingredients you were promised. If there isn't anything you need me for I think I'll head back to base. I have a long day tomorrow and want the rest." I comment, handing over a folder I produced from within my duster.

"Oh? What's going on tomorrow?" Piggot questions, her eyes narrowing in thought. Giving a chuckle and a little shrug I answer.

"Goetia will be out most of the day with Panacea. I expect he will broach the idea of testing the Winslow students and staff at some point as well as giving her a few samples of potions hes made to test. While he is doing that I will be catching up on sleep and the shows I missed since moving to Brockton and otherwise relaxing." I explain, an upbeat, chipper tone to my voice, my eyes nearly sparkling at the ideas. Piggot merely snorts in response.

"Sounds like you have a plan, good then I don't have to tell you to not bother coming in for the weekend. You've given us more than enough work to do already, give us a chance to catch up." Piggot shooed me out. Chuckling I leave the PRT building and drive back to my base.

Taking some time in the lab, I create a few samples I intend to show Panacea sometime tomorrow, namely the general healing, disease cure, and limb regrowth potions. Thankfully, that doesn't take much time, because I want to research a common Naruto cliché, Blood Clones. Mostly so I don't have worry about people linking me with Goetia.

Unfortunately, creating a jutsu is a bit more involved than I thought. It takes a good three hours before I even get to the testing stage. It then took another two hours to even out the bugs and kinks, then another hour to recompile that into something sensible. Fortunately by midnight I had a workable version of the Blood Clone jutsu. It only carries my naruto bloodlines and possesses a fraction of my chakra reserves, but is just as durable as me and wont dispel after a single wound or hit like a shadow clone but it does retain the shadow clones memory transferal. Creating my first shows me another drawback, its freaking exhausting! Thankfully once created it is basically self sustaining though its reserves regenerate much, much slower than my own.

Dispelling it, I head to bed content that, for the moment, I can conceal the fact I am Goetia.

Waking up to an alarm much earlier than normal, I get up. Looking around blearily, I can see that the sun hasn't even risen yet. Trying to think and figure out the reason I set the alarm so early is nearly impossible, flaring a bit of lightning chakra through my system does the trick though. Now firmly awake, and slightly sizzling from the lightning, I remember that I set it this early so I had time to create a Blood Clone and recover, before taking a shower. Doing so, I run through a dozen or so hand signs and perform the Blood Clone Jutsu and nearly pass out on my bed. Apparently there isn't a way to get accustomed to the drain, looking closer I can see why. When I perform the jutsu I literally rip a chunk of my lifeforce, physical stamina, and whatnot alongside a good four-ish pints of blood from my body instantly, which the chakra takes and rapidly duplicates and clumps together to form the clone. Being immortal the life force isn't really an issue, it will regenerate in half a day or so, the physical stamina isn't an issue due to the Sorcerer Lord Essence, but even with high speed regeneration, instantly losing around half my blood volume can cause issues.

Anyways, the clone takes the form of my civilian identity, which as I told Piggot will spend most of his time at the base catching up on what TV there is and maybe trolling PHO for a bit while I take a shower and prepare for my date with Panacea.

Stepping out of a spiraling spacial distortion, I arrive just on the side of the street in front of the Dallon household. Pausing for a moment, I swear I heard a yelp but shake my head. Extending my senses, I immediately sense immense hostility radiating from the Dallon House, I'm guessing that would be Carol, I also sense numerous watchers that vary the gamut between curiosity and obsession. Paying the watchers no mind I stride up to the Dallon's front door, pausing to straighten my clothes, and knock twice. Once again I swear I hear a yelp, but ignore it in favor of the sudden swell of hostility now standing on the other side of the door. Cocking my head, I wonder whats about to happen, will she invite me in? Will she attempt to skewer me through the door? That would be a shame, its a very nice door. While I am debating knocking again I hear the doors locks being undone, the door creaking open theatrically revealing a figure with a dark, violent aura that spikes when it lays eyes on me. Lowering my hood though keeping the face mask up I raise an eyebrow.

"Hello Mrs. Dallon! I suppose Amy can't come out to play?" I quip sarcastically, not really hiding my dislike of her. Something she immediately picks up on, though she seems confused why. At that point, Vicky appears, silently floating down the stairs.

"Vicky! No flying in the house!" Carol calls, Vicky seeing me shrugs sheepishly and lowers herself to the floor.

"How did you know?" Vicky asks, nearly pouting. Carol turns to her, hands on hips. Meanwhile I can sense someone sneak out the back, circle the house around to the front, and finally step up right behind me. Feeling a tap on my shoulder, I glance back into Amy's brown eyes before returning my gaze to Carol.

"Mrs. Dallon. Amy and I are on the clock here, so if we can get your issues with me dealt with that would be great." I cut in, startling Carol who had completely forgotten me while bickering with Vicky.

"Yes, please come in Goetia, we probably shouldn't have this chat on the doorstep." Carol agrees, motioning me in, her eyes narrow dangerously when she notices Amy behind me. Amy merely huffs and follows me in, sitting next to me in the living room. Carol, now working herself into a towering anger sits across from us before speaking.

"Amy shouldn't be going out with you! Shes to young for you! For all we know you will leave with her and take her to china or someplace!" Carol starts ranting only to be cut off as I raise my hand.

"First, I'm twenty six and immortal. If she was eighteen, I wouldn't have even bothered with this conversation. I will literally appear twenty-five for the rest of eternity. Hell even I am a little uncomfortable with this, I wasnt exactly looking for a relationship you know! Definitely not with someone nearly a decade younger than me." I ignore Amy's flinch as I speak, but throw an arm around her shoulder in comfort, something she uses to burrow into my side.

"Second, I am a shapeshifter, I can be whatever physical age or appearance I desire. It is so complete that should my bones be dated I would appear whatever age I was shifted to when they were tested. I can even shift gender or species at will." I have to ignore the little jump Amy gives at that admission, and that she has started rubbing her thighs together.

Third, where have I ever even given off the idea that I would do that? Even if I tried, all it would take is her hand to brush against uncovered skin and I'm out like a light for however long she wants!

The Yangban are monsters who physically and mentally torture kidnapped parahumans until the break and then rebuild them into the Yangbans ideal. Not exactly something I endorse even though it is terribly effective." I retort, incensed that she would accuse me of kidnapping Amy. Amy also stiffens, her head darting to glare at Carol for her suggestion.

"How would you know that! You know far more than some random parahuman should. That alone is suspicious! But then to get so close to Panacea so soon after arriving in town! Can't you see how this looks?" Carol yells, her face red in the face of my calm rebuttals. Lightning begins to spark of her hands as her power reacts to her agitation.

"How I know that is classified. Lets just say that there are organizations and departments of the alphabet soup variety that have employed my services. As for getting so close to Amy after getting into town? I had no idea we would get so close so fast. I guess we just clicked or something?" I shrug, Amy snuggling into me, beams up at me her smile wide.

"Mooom! Let Amy go on her date, Goetia's cool. Besides if he hurts her he'll have every cape, hero or villain, across the world after him." Vicky chimes in, having hovered near the living room entrance to watch.

"Fine! I expect her back by five understood?" Carol threatens as Amy and Vicky cheer.

"Understood, I wasnt planning on having her out that long anyways." I nod in agreement, standing up.

"Bye Ames, Bye Goetia! Have fun! Don't do anything I wouldn't!" Vicky calls as Amy and I leave out the front door. As the front door closes Amy peers up at me from behind her bangs.

"You look good." she comments, I almost roll my eyes at the clichéness of it.

"You look beautiful, Amy. Shall we?" I compliment holding out my arm which she takes, her face red. Murmuring a few words allows me to scry the location I first teleported to when I visited Antonio's by making the water molecules act as a mirror. Seeing no one there, I focus my magic and step forward. With barely any sensation, and the mental image that the world shattered into fragments around us only to come together showing somewhere different, we step out of the alleyway onto an out of the way street in New York.

"Welcome to New York, New York." I gesture around us grandly as I guide her up to Antonio's, ignoring her awe as she looks around. Giving the doorman a nod, I pull the door open and allow Amy to enter first before following and offering her my arm again. Following the waiter, the same jovial man that directed me to meet with Antonio, I offer Antonio a respectful nod as I pass him, again dining on some of the tastiest looking spaghetti I have ever seen. He answers my nod with a slight tilt of the head before returning to his meal.

"Can I get you something to drink? Wine perhaps?" the waiter asks as we settle into a fairly nice room, apparently someone, probably Antonio, decided to fuck with me and made up the room in a romantic candlelit meal.

"Ah, I probably shouldn't, teleporting while inebriated is a bad idea. I'll take some tea while we decide on our meal." Amy echoes my order for tea and the waiter leaves. We make some small talk while looking through the menu, I'm fairly certain I want some of that spaghetti, but I'm not above some shrimp linguini alfredo. After deciding on my food, I send a pulsing wave of mana around the room and identify no less than six recording devices. Two only record audio, one is video only, the rest are standard video/audio surveillance. A flick of my wrist and we are shielded from electronic surveillance, and a ward is temporarily laced over the room that allows me to detect any people within it and anyone entering or exiting. A snap of my fingers and a pulse of white and blue mana allows me to mimic technopathy and I follow the links to the source and wipe the source of anything it recorded of Amy and myself. A minute later, the waiter returns. Giving him our order he tells us it will be around twenty minutes before leaving. Flicking my wrist again layers a silencing ward over the room preventing anyone from simply standing outside the door and overhearing our discussion.

"We should probably talk about this before we go any further, Amy." I speak up, ignoring Amy's sudden stiffness.

"What about?" She asks, her eyes narrowed.

"A couple points regarding this thing we have going on. If you are fine with them then I'm happy to continue this, if not, its best you know now than be blindsided later." I continue, doing my best not to shudder under her suspicious glare.

"Go on…" Amy says, not letting up on the glare.

"First things first, I am immortal, you know this. Immortality and Monogamy tend to not work well together. All I ask is that we keep each other apprised of who we're seeing." I state bluntly, getting a thoughtful hum and a motion to continue from Amy.

"Second, I have no intention of staying in this world forever. Which means either we can be together while I'm here, or you can go with me. For the moment that isn't really an issue, so we can cross that bridge when we get to it." I continue, getting an agreeing hum from Amy.

"Third, I wont do anything remotely sexual with you until you are eighteen. Beyond that, I don't have any other immediate concerns, though I'm sure we will find some others eventually." I finish, shrugging, a sad smile on my lips.

"So to boil it down, you want a more open arrangement, and you wont be doing anything sexual for at least a year. You probably want me to think about whether I want to stick around or travel with you." She clarifies, sounding more or less accepting.

"Eh… I want to keep you to myself and still be able to see other women. I'm selfish and admittedly slightly possessive like that. I offered the more open arrangement to be fair to you. Its not like you should have to stay with me even though I can be with other women. But other than that yes, that sounds right." I bluntly clarify. She pauses in thought at that before nodding to herself.

"Alright, I can work with that. Its not exactly what I was expecting, but more than acceptable. So tell me about yourself, what made you into the man I see before me?" She asks, leaning forward in curiosity.

"Well, I was born in 1994, in a small town in California…" I explained the highlights of my life over the next half hour or so as we ate our meal. She politely listened, then as our meal was finished and the desserts were brought out she began to fill me in on some of the more hidden or not really focused on parts of her life. Then as we finished our meal but werent quite ready to leave, I began talking about worlds I'd like to visit and encouraged her to talk about ones she might enjoy visiting.

"So while I might enjoy visiting the naruto-verse, the only reasons I actively want to go is to see if Ichiraku's is all its cracked up to be, and to maybe hang our with Anko. No the world I'm really interested in visiting is the Potterverse." I explain to Amy, having shifted closer to each other as we talked.

"your world had Harvey Potter too? Did the author ever finish the series? What? Why are you laughing?" Amy asks in shock before pouting as I try and fail to stop laughing. A minute later I finally manage to stop, taking a breath I explain.

"Sorry, its just in my world Harvey Potter was a semi-infamous knock off sold in china or someplace like that. For us it was Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling, a woman who really should stop while shes ahead. She finished the series and then wrote a few more books, canonized a bad fanfic, and a few other books in the series." I explain, still having to stifle a chuckle here and there.

"Oh, here Harvey Potter was written by Jack Rowling. He only got up to the Order of the Firebird before the Simurgh attacked London in 2003. the fandom almost unanimously decided that any books written post-Simurgh were non-canon because they couldn't be sure he wasnt manipulated by the Simurgh to write it that way." She explained matter of factly.

"Ah, well that makes sense." I mutter, mildly upset that the series was borked by the Simurgh. Sighing, I decide its time to go. Removing the wards and what not takes a moment, but by then Amy is waiting at the door.

"Well, its about time we leave. Now the big question: do you want to hang out at my base for a while or be dropped off at home? I have a few things to show you but they can wait if you would rather go home?" I ask as I lead her out, having tossed a wad of cash on the table. Nodding to Antonio as we leave, we walk out to an empty street.

"Huh, figured there would be someone wanting an interview out here. Give Antonio my thanks, see ya!" I murmur in surprise, something that Panacea echoes as I talk to the doorman for a moment. Walking down the street I'm still waiting on her answer.

"Uh… home please. I don't think I'm ready to go to your base just yet." she says, her face red.

"Oh, oh! Uh, didn't realize how sexual that sounded, I was going to show you around my lab and show you a few potions I created not… whatever it was you were thinking." I explain, scratching my cheek with my free hand in embarrassment. She giggled at my embarrassment before confirming that she should really get home.

"It wouldn't do to make Carol any angrier. She doesn't like you as it is, and she can't bring herself to trust me, so no its probably not a good idea. That said, you should probably come by for a family dinner so my family can get to know you. I'll ask if you want?" She explains then turns a horrifically effective puppy-dog eyes on me. I manage to hold out for a full ten seconds before her lip starts trembling and I crumble.

"Fine, I don't have anything against the rest of New Wave after all. Besides it might be fun and it let us hang out for a while." I agree, getting a tight hug from Amy as I warp us in front of the Dallon House. Almost immediately, my attention is caught by the rest of New Wave casually lounging in the front yard, seemingly waiting for our appearance.

"Nope!" I let go of Amy once she turns to see what I'm noping away from and immediately fall into my kamui dimension. Reappearing at my base, I can see my clone on the laptop, a top of the line tinkertech laptop that I purchased because I didn't like the specs of the standard ones. Looking over, I see that he is trolling PHO as both Goetia and my civilian identity. Shaking my head with a chuckle, I check the fridge, grabbing a soda and sit down to enjoy the mayhem.

"Hey! Put that up on the projector that way I can watch." I call out as my clone quickly sets it up. Soon we are both laughing our asses off as once again we get into a hamfest with Myrddin and Mouse Protector.

So, you'll have to forgive my use of cliches during the date sections. Also, you will never see smut written by me. I don't do smut, love reading well written smut, but don't write it myself. Also as noted in story, Amy is 17, and thus underage. I'm not sure how the relationship will go, but I'm hoping it doesn't crash and burn.

Let me know if you spot any glaring problems, misspellings or plot holes.

Thanks for reading!