Two weeks. 14 days. That's how long it's been since Michael had been transported into the new world in the body of a low-level Ethereal, a Tyrfing.
And right now, as Michael observed a dormant, slime-like purple creature on the ground, Michael's chance to maybe change his looks to something he would like may be soon upon him.
Michael doesn't exactly know what an untransformed Doppelganger looked like, but he would bet big money that it would probably look something like a shapeless blob.
It had taken him some time to locate one, not just because he didn't know what they looked like, but also because he didn't know if the occasional lone soldier he saw in the Hollow was actually a Doppelganger and not just a regular soldier. But now he had found one.
Right now, the only problem is that the Ethereal is inactive and stationary. Probably waiting for some poor soul to wander into its territory.
"Come on... Do something." Michael repeatedly poked the blob with his hand, hoping for a reaction, preferably non-hostile, but it only jiggled and inched away from him slightly.
He then put a hand under where his chin would have been. "What to do? What to do?" The one thing he could do was wait until the Doppelganger did something, but that would be boring as fuck. The other was initiating combat with it and seeing if it would transform into another Ethereal, but he quickly dismissed the idea.
The problem with the idea was twofold. One, Michael doesn't know if the Doppelganger can transform into other Ethereals. He assumed so, but even if it can, it transitions nicely into the second problem. Hoping that it would even transform into him specifically, a Tyrfing, and not into one of the myriad of absolute monsters that were also all around him. One of which is a very, very big hound with a very thick armor around its body and a set of sharp teeth.
Let's just say, he would not like to experience what it's like to be mauled by a crocodile's slightly more brutal canine relative. No sir.
But that begs the question: what can he do to force it to transform?
"Maybe I can lure it? But with what?"
Michael was honestly stumped on what to do. He could just leave and hope he finds another Doppelganger, but considering it took a better part of a week to find one by sheer luck, he'd rather just wait until something happens instead of taking his chances on finding another one. Besides, he only needs to observe how it transforms once for him to hopefully understand its mimicking ability.
"Sigh. I guess I'll just hang out there a bit. It'll be nice to just stop and relax after a few days of travelling." Taking a seat on a ruined bench nearby, Michael opened his bag to check on all the items he had.
His MP3 is still fine with no Ether corruption since he had begun to make a habit of purging it daily. Still out of battery, though. He had gone on searching for a way to charge his MP3, but so far had no luck since any abandoned electronic devices or generators he found were either long Corrupted or out of power themself.
He had thought to convert Ether into electricity since everything in New Eridu's power source came from Ether before realising that it was a terrible idea. He had only just come to grips with controlling Ether in his own body; trying to convert it into something else is just asking for trouble. Maybe he can try with other devices, and after he has a little bit more mastery over Ether.
Safely tossing his MP3 back, he then went over to his gun, or more specifically, a submachine gun.
Finding it in a somewhat recently abandoned military outpost in the Hollow, Michael decides that it would make for good upgrades to his handgun. Even uses the same 9mm rounds! Although he has to keep it a single fire for now, though. Full auto recoil with one hand is a b...
Thud Thud Thud
Before Michael could finish the sentence in his head, footsteps coming from multiple people alerted him to their incoming presence.
Acting quickly, he dolphin dived into a nearby window of a clothing store. Peeking his head over, if Michael still had eyes, they would surely bulge out at what he was seeing.
A soldier wearing a visor of some kind with platinum blonde hair tied into a single ponytail. But that wasn't what caught Michael's eye. What caught them was the clothes she was wearing.
She wears a turtlenecked orange vest with long black sleeves that cut off at her midsection, exposing her well-toned stomach. A tactical vest filled with pouches barely covers her massive chest, and Michael was pretty sure she was wearing nothing underneath those. Not only that, but she also wears a pair of tight black pants that are unzipped, leaving little to the imagination.
'Yeah... Definitely not a standard issue uniform.' Michael thought to himself. It was only after a few seconds that Michael finally got his eyes off her form and saw the weapon she was holding. With how big the gun is and the length of the barrel, it was obvious what role she occupied. "A sniper, huh?"
Behind her was also a group of people whom Michael presumed were her squad members.
One of them was a silver-haired girl with orange goggles on her eyes, wearing a somewhat normal combat gear with a backpack that had a sword attached.
Next to her was a blue-haired girl riding a scooter. She wears a non-standard uniform, but that pales in comparison to what was accompanying her.
A giant humanoid-looking mech strides alongside her, and from what Michael could see, it was packing some serious armaments. Definitely not something he wanted to fight head-on.
Next to it was a Bangboo, possibly more combat-oriented, judging from its appearance.
Lastly, and perhaps the weirdest, was a red-haired girl. Honestly, aside from the elf ears and horns and maybe the slightly tight clothes she's wearing, she was a pretty normal-looking soldier, if not for her tail, which had a robot attached to the end of it. A tail that was currently talking to the sniper.
'Is that an Intelligent Construct?'
All in all, this group of misfits is definitely not a group of people he wants to fight with.
Still, he was curious as to why they're here deep in Hollow Zero. From his knowledge of wandering this area in particular, there's no place of interest here. No military camp, research lab, or anything to that effect, which left a single unsettling option.
'Are they here for me?' It was the only explanation that made sense in his head. He did accidentally have a run-in with the Defense Force in one of the bases that one time, after all. Maybe that's why they've sent a squad after him to track him down.
Of course, all of this was just Michael's theory as to why they're here. For all he knew, they could've just been here to search for any number of reasons. One thing is certain in his head, though. He needed to absolutely avoid getting their attention by any means necessary.
"Although..." Michael could see the Doppelganger slowly inching its way closer to the squad. And so, he decided to stay and observe the group for now to see how the Doppelganger uses its ability. That and he was also interested in how the squad's fighting prowess.
He just had to hope not to get caught.
.....
A few minutes earlier
As Obol Squad walked through the ruined street, Magus couldn't help but be frustrated at the mission they had been given.
"Captain Magus? Is there something wrong? You've been making that face ever since we set off on our mission."
"Nothing. It's just... Sigh. Do you all think Iso- I mean, Colonel Isolde is obsessing over this single Ethereal a bit too much? Ever since we've seen the recording and the incident at one of the bases, she has damn near practically only assigned us capture missions for that Tyrfing."
"Oh? Is Captain Magus questioning orders now?" Seed jokingly teased.
Magus took offense to it as she opened her mechanical mouth to retort before Orphie stopped her. "I mean... Captain Magus isn't wrong either. It is a little bit weird how much Colonel Isolde wants to capture this Ethereal, even if it was a bit more special than others. What did you guys think about?"
"No comments." Soldier 11 replied.
Seed went next. "I think I kinda understand why Colonel Isolde a little bit. Its kinda like when I really want a really exotic flower, but I have a hard time finding it."
"As for my thought. Perhaps Colonel Isolde saw something in that Ethereal. After all, it did try to help those soldiers, and even went as far as to attack its own kind. Not only that, we all saw how soldier-like its movements are in the recording of the base incident." Trigger shares her thoughts.
"Maybe you're right, Trigger. Maybe I'm just not getting the bigger picture in all of this." Magus then went silent for a moment before speaking up again. "Alright, squad, no more chit-chat. The faster we can confirm that the Ethereal is either here or not, the faster we can finish the mission. Double time it."
Obol Squad obeyed as they proceeded to jog to one of the last points of interest in the area.
When they reached it, Trigger raised her right hand up to signal Obol Squad to stop.
"Trigger, did you find something?" Asked Magus.
"Negative, captain. But there's a group of Ethereals at our 12 o'clock. A few low-levels, a couple of Goblins, and an Armored Hati. Wait, no, there's one more..." She pauses for a moment. "Watch out, team, there's a Doppelganger among them."
Just as she finished warning them, a blob of purple goo slithered in front of Obol Squad. Instantly, Obol Squad was on guard, waiting patiently for the Doppelganger to attack.
It sat still for a moment before a swirl of Ether energy enveloped its form. Slowly, it rises from the ground, its form changing from a shapeless mass to something much more concrete and intimidating.
When it was all done transforming, Obol Squad was now looking at another Seed Sr.
"Ohhh... Another Seed Sr. It kinda reminds me of when two identical flowers bloom right next to each other."
When the fake Seed Sr raised its hands and fired Ether projectiles at them, Obol Squad immediately took action, scattering in all directions.
"Soldier 11, Orphie, flank around it! Don't bunch up together and hit it from all sides to keep it distracted!" Magus ordered. "Trigger, fall back and give us supporting fire from behind!"
"Affirmative!" Trigger replied.
Magus then looked at Seed. "Seed, you and Seed Sr know what to do, right?"
Seed nodded. "Aye aye, Captain. Seed Sr, let's do this."
"Order received. Initiating combat." Seed Sr raised his hand and began retaliating at the Doppelganger, firing his machine gun at it.
The Doppelganger, upon being hit by the hail of bullets, fixed its attention on Seed Sr, shooting back with its weaponry.
With it distracted, Orphie, Magus, Soldier 11, Trigger, and Seed took the opportunity to overwhelm it with their combined attack. Their attacks tearing chunks out of its thick armoured exterior, weakening it.
Seeing as it was being overwhelmed from all sides, the fake Seed Sr decided to unleash all of its weapons at once, firing Ether missiles and Ether bullets everywhere.
"Seed! Now!" Magus ordered as the rest of Obol Squad went into cover.
"Bye-bye, fake Seed Sr!" Seed climbed into the cockpit of Seed Sr and unleashed their own salvo of missiles at the Ethereal.
Boom Boom Boom
After the explosion stopped, Obol Squad got out of cover to assess the damage. The area where the Doppelganger was prior was dusty from the blasts, which proved difficult for Obol Squad to determine whether the Ethereal had been eliminated or not.
When the dust had settled, the only remnant of the Doppelganger was the colorful Ether particle on the ground that quickly disappeared into nothingness.
"High value Ethereal destroyed. Good job, squad, but we're not out of the woods yet." Warned Magus, as the surrounding Ethereals that Trigger had warned them prior circled around them during the commotion. "Don't attack them head-on. Let them come to us."
Obol Squad obeyed Magus' commands, Seed positioning herself at the front while Orphie, Magus, and Soldier 11 were at her back. Trigger, meanwhile, positioned herself further back to better provide supporting fire.
As the Ethereals started closing in, it was then that Magus spotted an oddity in the enemies.
A Tyrfing.
A Tyrfing wearing a backpack.
A Tyrfing wearing a backpack that was slipping to the back of the Ethereal is making an escape.
Magus widened her eyes, her mind unable to comprehend that she was actually seeing their target for a moment before snapping out of it.
"Obol Squad! Target located!"
As if knowing what she had just yelled, the Tyrfing froze for a moment before booking it out of Obol Squad's sight.
"Trigger!"
"On it!" Switching her Rifle to non-lethal mode, Trigger aimed down her scope to get a good aim on the Ethereal.
As if sensing that she was aiming at it, the Ethereal began moving erratically and even used other Ethereals as cover, ducking behind them whenever, like a soldier would when being targeted by a sniper.
"Damnit. Can't get a good shot on it!" Trigger relayed back.
To say that it didn't frustrate Magus would be an understatement. "Grrr. Squad, new orders! Clean up these guys as fast as possible. We are not letting that Tyrfing escape! Not after all the trouble we went through to find it."
Magus then snapped her attention to all the Ethereals in front of her. Her eyes were red, and fire was coming out of her mouth.
"C-captain Magus, w-wait!" That was all Orphie could say as Magus dragged her into the horde.
.....
After an intense battle, Obol Squad headed in the direction the Tyrfing was going.
Upon finding a Fissure, Obol Squad didn't hesitate for a bit before diving straight in, now finding themself in another empty streets with the Tyrfing nowhere in sight.
"Ehn-ne ne." (There are multiple Fissure up ahead.)
Hearing that from Mercury, Obol Squad already knew that the Tyrfing had already escaped from them and finding it now while it was still running away would be next to impossible.
Obol Squad cautiously stepped back from their captain, who looked as if she was close to exploding.
"Uhh... Captain Magus?" It was certainly the wrong choice of words as Magus then exploded into a rant for the next 30 minutes filled with all kinds of expletives that Obol Squad had never heard before.
.....
"You know, it feels weird having both of my arms back after 2 weeks of not having them." Said Michael to himself as he examined his newly made left arm.
After making sure to get as far away as he could from that squad, he found a secluded spot and immediately went about transforming his left arm from a blade to a normal, albeit Ethereal hand.
The Doppelganger had used its own Ether and the Ether from the surrounding environment to shape its own form like clay, which, while instinctual to the Doppelganger, was damn near impossible for him to do without much trial and error.
It had taken him nearly three dozen attempts and almost the entire day, as, even after seeing the Doppelganger transform with his Ether Vision on, he still very much was winging it all the way.
"Five fingers, not backward and even symmetrical to my other arm. I think I can call this one a success." Celebrated Michael as he plopped on the ground, staring into the night sky, his head filled with thoughts about his newfound power to transform.
'Now that I think about it, my power to transform is pretty much limited to my own imagination.' Michael thought to himself. 'Wonder how far I can take this power.'
The Doppelganger was only able to copy the person it bumps into, but Michael? He can choose any appearance he wants. Although what he really wished was to transform into his old appearance, whatever it was.
Unfortunately, after weeks in this new world, one thing was made clear, and it was something he had accepted once he confirmed that it was happening.
For some reason, his old memories were getting more and more blurry as the days passed. It won't be long before he forgets them all one day. Already, the oldest memories of his life were beginning to slip away, with more soon no doubt to be lost, replaced by the memories of his new life.
"I need to find a notebook to write on."