Another year, another problem. This year was the start of a turbulent time that would last a long time. Vegis was playing a video when several alerts popped up and forced Vegis to get out of VR. The alert appeared in his head as he got up and went to grab the others. It beeped louder and louder until Vegis couldn’t ignore it so he finally read it. “Warning: Abnormal spatial activity has been detected in your system. Please stay where you are and take cover”, was on the alert and when he was done reading it, a loud rumble could be heard from the morning sky. A light green color flooded the window as the group headed into the basement. As they headed down, a small portion of the light hit Boreal’s left shoulder and caused their skin to sizzle and burn. By the time they closed the doors to the surface, the affected area turned to ash and fell off Boreal’s back, revealing the inner workings of the child.

  The markings that passed through the damaged area were just floating in their spot. It moved as it had when there was skin and glowed like it was actively being used. The uncovered flesh was a dirt brown color that seemed to pulsate slightly with every breath they took. Vegis grabbed a plant that was kept here and handed it to Boreal who shifted its form to act as a bandage for the open wound. When the morphed plant touched to opening, its fibers intertwined with the skin around the edge and roots dug into the flesh under it. After a couple of minutes, it soon perfectly fused with the skin and flesh. Boreal moved the shoulder a couple of times before giving a thumbs up at the other two. Vegis immediately turned to a small noise that came from a corner far from their current location. Vegis walked over and saw a small crack that began to form on the wall. As it slowly expanded across the wall, Vegis was able to see into it. All he saw was thick, worm-like things pressing against the walls of the basement. As he focused on it, Vegis realized that these were roots that seemed to have gained sentience.

  The roots eventually burst through the wall and dragged themselves to the feet of Boreal. The roots naturally warp themselves into the shape of a chair and force Boreal to sit and slide back to the crack. Vegis and Mitra were about to attack it but Boreal told them to stop and that the roots will not harm them. The roots formed a staircase that slowly dragged Boreal down with Vegis and Mitra following them. At some point, they could not see the basement anymore and the roots started to form a room with Boreal placed in the middle. Boreal was slowly being enveloped and when asked what was happening, they answered that the roots wanted to help them. Vegis connected to the web and looked at what others were experiencing.

  From what he had gathered, there were large rifts that appeared over 2 areas. These areas were the Sanctuary, a continent-sized lagoon just east of their current location, and a space of empty sea just east of the archipelago. Some of the news from space says that they can see an island where the rift was, other news from the islands talked about how the fish were acting strange and the sea was changing color. It did not cause any harm but it did bewilder them. Over the course of a week, the rifts slowly shrank and finally disappeared. Vegis and Mitra stayed in the basement. There were some supplies and a bathroom down there, but they didn’t have their spare clothes and their other needed items were still on the floor above. To grab them, Vegis controlled the clones to get them. Vegis also got one of the clones to contact one of the guards to see what if they needed anything.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  When they left the basement, it was only a couple of days before they had to leave. They surveyed the property and say that all the plants seemed to have changed, for lack of better descriptors. They moved differently, the sound released and texture felt when they were stepped on was not the same. Vegis stared at the trees, and saw that they released more haze in a denser form. Other than this, nothing looked wrong and so the days flew by and they have arrived back at the southern labs. The cold air pricked at their skins but they didn’t really seem to notice compared to the graffiti that was written on the doors of their building. It was a mural of what seemed to be of them, but their eyes were crossed out. Vegis called Drake and what he got in response confused him. Drake told him that it just appeared after the rifts happened and they couldn’t get it off the wall. They were currently waiting for the supplies to be delivered as the materials used to make up the building was something not from the area.

  The work was normal but there was something that felt off. The sun rooms seemed to have gotten stronger, with the materials of the room no longer able to stop the gaze of the gems piercing the rooms and staring at him when he passed by. The newer animals that were brought in during their stay seemed to have progressed a lot further in their mutation and saturation than what had been found in other subjects that were under the age of 30. This was something that fascinated the scientist but they couldn’t for the life of them see any cause that was in them. One of their hypotheses pointed out that the only change that happened on the planet were the rifts. There were more strange events that happened like a large wave of mana leaving the tears, the prisoners located from across the mountain somehow found their way near a watch tower, and a clone finally underwent a kind of change. It was one of Coltman’s clones that changed. Coltman liked to directly control his clones so when one of them gained a kind of independence, he immediately got it checked by the lab and a small change was observed in them.

  When they had to leave, Coltman was commanded to keep a close eye on the clone since they did not know what may happen the more it absorbed from the poles. Vegis spent a good portion of this break trying to figure out how their new second basement was doing. The center of the room held a large table that could wrap around anyone who laid on it. The only ones who could open it were Vegis, Mitra, and Boreal. The clones couldn’t do it so they guessed that it wouldn’t work for anyone else. Boreal spent the break going to the daycare or learning and Mitra walking around the property or trying to learn how to cook. The memories taken from Vegis didn’t give her control over her strength so she ended up breaking the kitchen appliances a lot. Some of the guards would come by when they were changing shifts and talk with Vegis. Through this, Vegis got in some gossip from others about the fake continent that now exists near the archipelago. There wasn’t much information about it, but there was now a new group made to study this illusion.

  When the break ended and they had to go to the northern lab, a cave-in somehow happened in one of the newer cities that were being made. This accident made leaving harder since they now were doing screenings on people leaving the continent. They were finally able to leave after an hour-long process looking through everything, from their personal record to their belongings. Vegis was swapped from his spot from the wall to the underground labs since the animal activity around the entire continent had died down and they needed more hands to deal with the plants. It was much easier to deal with the plants than the animals since the automated systems and the botanists were constantly watching them like a hawk and would intervene themselves if there was a problem. This led to a very uneventful stay at the north and only very small things unrelated to Vegis happened.