Pacing feels weird to me for this chapter. My fault.

“I don’t think this is the healthiest way to deal with your trauma,” Rosemary said with a grimace, watching me work on myself in the mirror.

“I don’t have trauma,” I mumbled as I reworked my eyelashes to not look so feminine. “I’m doing this for other reasons.”

“And what are those reasons?” she asked as she watched me work.

I rolled my eyes as I picked up a long blue scarf and began to wrap it around my head, only leaving my eyes exposed, “just my own reasons.”

“You do know I can see your thoughts?” she asked, crossing her arms as I leaned forward and looked myself over in the mirror.

“So what?” I grumbled as I cleared my throat and took on a much deeper and rougher voice. “My name is Shane Beltosh.” Shaking my head I adjusted my voice a bit, “Hello, I am Shane Beltosh.” Not that one either.

“Shayla, I know what happened was-”

“Stop,” I said, holding up a hoof as I stared at myself in the mirror. Clearing my throat a few more times, I took on a more natural voice, letting my normally raspy voice take the lead. “I am Shane Beltosh, a male Kejtdra.”

That one was perfect! Looks like just making it a bit deeper has the desired effect of making me sound like a guy.

“This honestly is the worst possible way to handle this,” she groaned, not enjoying that I was ignoring her.

“Now,” I said in my new masculine voice, “let’s fix the next problem.”

I opened my stats menu, seeing that I had twelve unspent skill points.

“Please, do not do what you’re thinking about doing,” she begged as I began to pump all of the points into strength.

“I have to, if I’d been stronger back there he’d never have gotten that far with me,” I grunted as I finished and smiled as I hit accept, actually feeling much stronger now.

“You need to go up gradually, and balanced, doing it this way is not the most efficient-”

“This is how I’m doing it,” I stated simply, smiling behind my scarf as I looked at myself once more in the mirror, admiring how I actually looked like a male Kejtdra now.

Now, no one would think to try any of that shit with me again.

“Drop it, please,” I said sternly as I glanced at her, seeing she had a sad look on her face.

“I’m here when you’re ready,” she said as she faded away.

“Yeah yeah,” I muttered, walking for the door and pushing it open, walking back into the dinner I’d been sitting around in for the last few hours.

Now that I was sorted out, I needed to get back to work.

I walked across the dinner, looking out the windows at the compound across the street. I’d come straight here to finish the job, but the moment I tried to confront the guards out front, I lost my nerve. Which is weird, because that’s never happened before.

So I ended up sitting at this dinner for hours, trying to build up my nerve. But now that I've changed up my appearance, I’m pretty sure I can do this.

Stepping outside, I took a deep breath and then power walked down the street, heading for the front gates of the compound.

I had a foolproof plan of getting in and out with the data.

As I neared the gates, where four male Kajtdra stood laughing, I gave a loud whistle.

Yet they ignored me as they kept up their conversation. So I whistled again.

Still, no response.

Fine then.

With a growl I sprinted toward and dashed into the middle of all four of them, catching them all off guard. Before they could react I went on a rampage, hitting each one with a fury of punches and kicks, moving between each of them as I alternated on who I was hitting.

It didn’t take long for all four of them to be out cold, laying around me in a little circle.

“Huh, that was easier than it should’ve been,” I grumbled, stepping over one of the men as I walked into the compound, finding a large courtyard before me with a large building in the middle. And also at least forty Kejtdra walking around as they worked on moving boxes between a loading zone and a warehouse.

No one seemed to care about me just standing there, so I just shrugged and walked forward, heading for the main building. Not one person even looked at me, just ignoring me as I walked through them.

“Okay then,” I said with a raised eyebrow as I made it to the front doors of the building. I honestly expected at least some kind of resistance, so this was turning out to be way more simple than I intentionally thought it would be.

Stepping through the doors I found myself in a lobby of some kind, with a receptionist sitting behind the desk. Right next to her desk was a door labeled ‘Admin & Records’.

It can’t be this easy, right?

I walked over to the Kejtdra behind the desk and leaned on it, getting her attention. “Hey, babe, got a data center thing around here?” I asked in my most charming guy voice.

She looked up at me with a raised eyebrow. “Do you have a pass, sir?”

“Sure I do,” I laughed, patting at my pockets. “Ah drat, looks like I left them in my other pants.”

“You’ll need to go retrieve your pass before I’m able to open the doors for you,” she said in a bored voice.

I frowned a bit, not that she could see my face through the scarf. So I leaned over the desk, getting a foot away from her face, “come on, do I gotta run all the way home to get that stupid pass?”

“Afraid so,” she said firmly.

Before I tried to charm her anymore, I saw there was a red button right next to her that seemed to be connected to the door I wanted to gain access to.

She saw me looking at it and put a hand over it. “Sir, either get your pass, or head over to your work area to get a new one.”

“Eh…” I reached out with my hand and slowly pushed down on her hand, making her push the button. The door next to her desk popped open as the locks were released.

“Sir!” she yelled as I began to side step towards the door awkwardly. “Sir, do not go down that hallway!”

I gave her finger guns as I grabbed the door and slowly side stepped into it as she yelled once more. Closing the door gently, I let out a nervous laugh.

“That was odd…”

Turning around I saw that I was in a hallway with a few doors running down it on either side. With the one at the end being labeled ‘Records’.

“This is so dumb,” I said aloud as I casually walked down the hallway, looking in each door as I passed by it.

There were other Kejtdra in each of the rooms, all working on various tasks. Once I reached the door labeled ‘RECORDS’ I stopped.

‘Isn’t this all a bit… weird?’ I thought to Rosemary as she appeared next to me.

“It is,” she agreed, rubbing her chin. “This is going very smoothly, and no one is really trying to stop you.”

‘Think it’s a trap or something?’

“It crossed my mind.”

I sighed as I shrugged, “Ah screw it.”

Pushing the door open I stepped in, ready to see some kind of filing system or maybe a super old computer set up. But nope. Not anything normal like that.

“Oh did not expect that,” Rosemary said as she stepped out of sight.

“What the fuck is this?” I muttered as I walked into the room.

There were ten bug-like people sitting in chairs with helmets over their entire heads with glowing wires attaching to each of them, all leading to a pulsating barrel.

“Those must be Halwen’s,” Rosemary said as she appeared between two of the bug people. “This worlds other race.”

“But what is this shit?” I asked as I walked in and began to examine the strange set up.

“If I had to guess,” she began, also looking it over. “It’s some kind of organic version of a computer. I’ve seen things like this in other dimensions. They’ve linked their minds together and are using them as both a power source and as processors for whatever information they’re storing in here.”

Stepping up to the glowing barrel I realized it gave off a strong warmth, almost as if it was breathing right on me.

“I don’t like this,” I said as I looked around the room again.

“Plug in,” she suddenly said as she tapped at the side of the barrel where a little port lay. “I’ll do all the hard stuff, all you need to do is make sure we don’t get disconnected.”

“You got it,” I said with a little salute as I pulled out the wire in my wrist and plugged it into the barrel.

Rosemary made a grunt as she faded away, now in the back of my mind as I felt a weird feeling wash over me, coming from the cable connected to the pulsating barrel.

“Hey, you’re not supposed to be here!” someone suddenly yelled from the doorway, causing me to spin around to see four armored Kejtdra stepping into the room with me.

“I’m not?” I asked in my raspy male voice. “Then up your security, I literally just walked into here.”

“Step away from the database,” one of them said as he popped out a baton-like weapon.

“Hey, she’s connected to it!” another yelled, causing all of them to rush towards me.

“Ah shit,” I grumbled as they neared me. The first one to reach out for me got his arm broken in three places and kicked backwards.

I smirked at the other three as they were now a bit more hesitant on approaching me.

“Come on, guys, we can talk this out,” I said in a charming voice, but this just broke them out of their stupor as they all three moved in on me.

It was hard to move or fight with my left arm out of commission as I had to stay connected to the barrel, but I was confident enough that all I’d need was my right.

With a yell I slammed a fist into one of their faces, causing him to crumble to the ground. But since I couldn't move like I’m used to I wasn’t able to dodge the baton of the largest guy as he began to beat me in the face with it.

Grunting, I brought my arm up to block the hits, which left my mid section unguarded as the other began to lay into me with his baton. Now I was getting pummeled from all angles.

As one of them brought his baton down towards me I exploded into action, grabbing the weapon and ripping it from his grasp. He yelped as I swung the baton into the other guy, catching him in the throat.

He made a gurgled yelping sound as he lost the will to fight and fell to the ground, choking and coughing violently.

Before he could react, I kicked out with my foot, breaking the now weaponless Kejtdra’s leg at the knee. He let out a wail as he tried to get back, but I slammed the baton into his head, breaking the weapon in the process. This sent the man crashing to the ground, out cold.

The only one still standing was the one’s arm I’d broken, but he wasn’t coming near me anytime soon.

“Done,” Rosemary announced.

“Good,” I grunted as I disconnected from the barrel and moved for the door. As I passed the one with the broken arm I kind of jumped at him, causing him to scream in terror and fall to the ground. I just laughed as I continued on my way.

Just like when I entered the compound, it was just as easy to leave, with no one trying to stop me.

“This was literally a waste of my talent,” I groaned as I stepped through the gates. “I guess I should head back to-”

I snapped my head over to see a strange person leaning against the wall next to me.

Neither of us spoke as we stared at each other, his mask giving nothing away just as my own covered face gave nothing away.

He was almost entirely comprised of the color green, with a bit of fluff at his shoulders and headpiece.

“Got a problem, pal?” I asked in my gruff voice as I stepped past him, keeping my eyes locked on the eyes of the mask.

Yet he didn’t respond as I walked past him.

“Okay then,” I said as I walked backward, his head following me as I moved. “Don’t fuck with me, bud.”

The strange man, who was clearly not a Kejtdra, just laughed in a thick accent, seeming to find me amusing or something.

“Screw off,” I said as I flipped him off and continued walking backwards, keeping my eyes on him.

He never said a word to me or followed me as I turned the corner, losing sight of him.

“Fucking creep,” I mumbled as I turned and began to head down the street at a steady pace.

Something made a sound behind me, causing me to snap around, ready to fight. But there was no one there, just an empty street. I narrowed my eyes as I turned to continue on my way, and slammed face first into the chest of the large man.

I yelped and instinctively threw my fist up at him. But he just gracefully moved his body out of the way of my hit. I jumped back, getting into a fighting pose.

“What the fuck, bro?!” I yelled in my gruff voice, which cracked a bit since I was so caught off guard.

“Which name do you prefer?” he asked in a thick accent I couldn’t place. “Shayla or Shane?”

“How do you…” I began, but then narrowed my eyes as I realized he must have been spying me. So I did the one thing I’m good at, I sprang forward and attempted to grab him. But my hands just grasped at the open air as he easily moved out of my reach.

Growling I pushed after him, trying to hit him with both my fist and feet, but he just kept dodging everything. No matter how I attacked, I was unable to even brush against his armor. It was like I was fighting a magnet and my attacks were repelling it.

“Are you almost done?” he asked in an amused voice, causing me to start attacking him faster, my speed increasing with each punch I threw. “I’ll wait till you’re done.”

“Shut it!” I growled as I kept up my assault, getting more and more frustrated that I wasn’t even touching the guy.

“He must have some kind of dodging ability,” Rosemary observed as she reached out to touch him, but he even dodged her hand. What the actual fuck?!

The guy just chuckled as he pulled out a book and began to read it, completely ignoring me as I attacked him.

“Have you read this comic book?” he asked as he turned it around to me, but I paid him no attention as I yelled in frustration, my body going at full speed now. “It’s Corn Justice Man. It’s about this wacky little superhero and his little sidekick, Popcarl.”

I just let out a loud yell of anger, causing him to just shrug and go back to reading the comic book.

“Shayla, just stop, he’s clearly far above us,” Rosemary said with a frown as she tried to touch him again, causing him to just move away from her.

Huffing and puffing, I finally relented and backed away, my body coated in sweat.

“Ah, got it out of your system?” he asked in a cheerful tone, followed by me spitting at him, which he also dodged. “Done?”

“Yeah, I’m done I guess,” I grumbled, trying to calm my breathing.

“Beautifully excellent!” He said loudly as he put his comic book away and stood up tall before me. “Now that you’re not attacking me, I want to offer you a little deal.”

“No deal,” I said, walking around him and continuing on my way. “I’m already working on something right now.”

“Yes, for Rig Fanden for a VIP access card,” he said casually, walking next to me without a care in the world.

I didn’t say anything, since I didn’t know how that contract would react to something like this. I’d rather not just die.

“Yes yes, you can’t speak about it. But you can listen,” he said cheerfully. “Finish up this contract of yours and then I’ll help you with your little goal of getting home.”

“Pass,” I said flatly. “I’m not teaming up with you, or anyone here. Especially someone I can’t even hit. Plus, I do not trust you.”

“Very valid points,” he chuckled as he walked ahead of me. “When you’re ready to talk, just say my name.”

“Yeah? What name would that be?” I asked with narrowed eyes.

“Talio, my crossdressing friend,” he said with a little bow.

“Oh fuck off,” I grumbled, popping my collar up and turning down a different street to get away form him.

“I will see you later, Shane,” he said from behind me, causing me to turn to say something. But he was gone now.

“That guy must be avoided at all cost,” Rosemary said with a shudder. “There’s something very off about him.”

“I felt it too,” I said, continuing on my way. I don’t know what it was, but that guy was not normal.