While Chuck moved to join his wife and transformed daughter, Adam nudged Michael’s hip.

  The old man turned, blue eyes expressing the intelligence within the bestial form.

  “Yes?”

  Adam wanted their conversation to be private so he sent his thoughts towards Michael before he turned back to watch the family's interaction. “What do you think?”

  “About what?”

  “Well, you got to talk to the parents a bunch before the kid and I got here. Do you think this is going to go well?” As he watched on, Ellie started trying to move, exploring the way her new body worked. She kept trying to move more like a human would, with her first attempt to stand on two feet causing her to lose her balance, resulting in a humorous situation where she fell over. As she fell she instinctively balled up, becoming a grey morningstar, her quills stabbing straight into the floor with little effort.

  Adam glanced back at the old professor, “Once the other survivors find out, they might try to hurt her.” The two of them moved to help the fallen girl as she appeared to be stuck in place. Distressed squeaks filled the area as Ellie couldn’t seem to get up from where she had fallen. “Those spikes look crazy sharp. Hell, they just stabbed through solid concrete, Michael. Even if she is super careful, a single accident could hurt or even kill any of the others.”

  Michael’s slow steps never changed their cadence as he responded, “Adam… you have no connection with this family. No reason to help them, or their child, at all.” Now close enough to the situation, Adam watched as Michael turned his body and placed his tail directly over the struggling girl. Her four little paws, each barely bigger than a cell phone, latched onto it. A slight tug lifted Ellie straight into the air, freeing her quills from the floor. Chuck helped her release from Michael’s tail so she didn’t repeat her previous mistake. Back on all fours, she started crawling around the room. “Even with no prior connection, answer me this.” And for the first time Michael lowered his head until he and Adam were eye to eye. “If those people out there tried to hurt her, simply because of her chosen pursuit, what would you do?”

  Adam’s brows furrowed. What would he do in that situation? Ellie, just like he and Michael, had made the best choice she could in a time where there was no one to help her. If he really thought about it, her new beast transformation was hardly the most dangerous thing in the building. When he and Michael were transformed, Adam had a hard time thinking of anyone that could stand against them. Everett and Henry were both powerful, and Sylvia had magic now, so the three of them might stand a chance, were they to gang up on one of them. However, even though they were not the highest leveled people in the Arts building, it was hard to see them as anything but the strongest. At least for now. The heron that he, Henry and Everett had seen before was clearly the strongest creature in the region. His instincts, newly invigorated by the Instinct stat, gave him the impression that other than Michael, Henry and Everett, there were no people that could seriously harm him amongst the group of survivors. How he knew that was a mystery, but if something happened, he knew he could hold his own. That said, when he thought about Ellie, he knew that she would ultimately stand no chance.

  At the moment, Ellie’s little snout was sniffing at her mom’s face, tickling her in the process causing her to laugh. The laughter was strained, likely due to stress, but was genuine as it mixed with the sounds of her husband’s chuckling and her daughter's squeaking vocalizations. The girls' own laughter was obvious, even without the ability to speak.

  With that, Adam had his answer. He shifted his thoughts back towards Michael, saying, “I would help her. Keep her safe.” He placed his hand on top of Michael’s head before turning back to the family. “If those people outside tried to hurt this little girl, I think I might get a little violent myself.” Adam recognized that his thoughts were a little dark but couldn’t bring himself to do more than just acknowledge it. “You know, I don’t know what to make of the changes I’ve experienced. This morning, my biggest concern was whether I was going to stay in Yaquina all break or not, and yet now, a mere four or five hours later, I’m considering fighting a room full of strangers to help a kid I don’t even know.” The two men finally made their way to interact with Ellie as he finally asked, “Do you think it’s a good or bad thing that I’ve changed like this?”

  Feelings of agreement and understanding were laced through Michael’s reply, “I get the feeling that we have yet to experience the true hardships we will face. Fortunately, we won’t face them alone. Now, let us speak once more with the others.”

  Their private conversation had lasted for about a minute but the Bains hadn’t noticed a thing. They were too distracted by the changes that their daughter had undergone. Upon closer inspection, Adam noticed that while Ellie’s new form took up a lot more space, her actual body was roughly the same size as before. Her shape had changed and her abilities had most definitely grown, but the only reason that Adam could see as to why she seemed to take up more space, was because of her quills. They varied in length and thickness but all seemed to be about the length of his forearm. With the two other beasts joining them, Ellie turned from where she was pawing at her dad’s hands towards Adam, allowing him to truly see the final features that separated her from a normal hedgehog. The first thing was obviously her size. While she wasn’t big compared to Michael or himself, Adam couldn’t help but note her increased size.

  Maybe, Path of the Beast awakeners can’t get smaller than their base form? He wondered.

  The second difference was her coloration. From what Adam knew, hedgehogs were all different shades of brown with hints of grey and white, while Ellie was primarily shades of grey. Thirdly, she had an extended tail. It was about half as long as her body was and had the same quills along its length as the rest of her did. Lastly, Ellie’s face had a single prominent change to it. Her eyes. In this quilled form, her eyes were pitch black, similar to how Adam remembered hedgehogs were supposed to look, but instead of being solid, hers had clear and obvious irises. This made her face very expressive and emotive, despite the fact that her sclera were black while her irises were a pure white. The most interesting part of it was that Adam had not been able to see the almost glowing irises until he was close enough to touch her. Somehow, they were hidden from view when she was observed from a distance.

  She squealed at Adam as he sat down in front of her, expressing what Adam could only assume was excitement as Michael translated for everyone.

  “She says that this is not what she expected and that it hurt a lot when she changed. She also says she has a hard time moving right now because, and I quote, ‘Everything feels wibbly-wobbly and nice’ whatever that means.” She turned her head to look at her parents before turning back to Michael and squeaking. “She says that you would know what that means, Marissa?”

  The woman sat next to Adam and reached out to stroke her daughter's snout as she smiled, “We always say things are ‘wibbly-wobbly’ when someone gets lightheaded or dizzy.”

  “So would, uh, adult beverages also cause this wibbly-wobbly sensation?” asked Adam.

  Chuck, who was inspecting Ellie’s quills, answered, “Oh yeah. That's where the term came from in the first place. I had gotten a big promotion at work and had gone out to celebrate with my coworkers and I when I was dropped off that night, I was a step or two past sober. Ellie was Will’s age at the time and she had woken Marissa up because of a nightmare. I lost my balance when I got into the house and fell on the couch and luckily, she thought it was hilarious and my silly behavior helped her forget her nightmare. Wibbly-wobbly has stuck ever since.”

  “Even some of her friends use it too,” Marissa added.

  At the mention of her friends, Ellie stopped for a moment, her whiskers drooped as she looked up at Michaels towering form.

  “I’m sorry, Ellie. I don’t know about anyone beyond the walls of this building.” His emotions briefly turned sad before he got them back under control. Ellie didn’t seem to notice the emotional shift, but the three adults shared a quick look.

  The likelihood of all her friends being okay is pretty low.

  Quickly to change the subject, Michael asked the girl's parents, “Would you like for your son to join us? It might be a good idea for him to know that this,” he tilted his head toward Ellie, “ is still his big sister. That way if she ever has to change around him, he doesn’t get scared.”

  Marissa stood up from her seated position on the floor, “That’s a great idea. I’ll go get him and try to explain on the way.”

  “There's no need. I am going to try something. I’m going to attempt to contact Henry to bring the boy here.” The man’s tone changed as Adam instinctively knew, he had made the rest of his statement private. “ Adam, have you used your Empowered Sense skill as a human yet?”

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  “No? I haven’t had a reason to.”

  “I recommend using whatever skills you have as often as possible. My class is one that forces me into a leadership role, so any and all uses of my abilities that could be seen as the job of a leader, helps me grow. To compare it to a conversation from back in the Student Center, I feel that we gain experience from performing acts associated with our Pursuit and Class, even when we aren’t killing monsters. Through the use of my communication skill and some rudimentary experiments with my enhanced senses, I can feel that I am close to another level up, already.”

  Adam raised his eyebrows, “Damn, Professor. You sound almost like you are enjoying all of this.”

  Ignoring the jab from Adam, Michael engaged with everyone once more, “Ah, it seems line of sight is not always necessary for communication. Henry is on his way with Will.”

  As she was already standing, Marissa moved to meet the two of them at the door, allowing for Chuck to stay with Ellie. At this point, she was just laying down on the concrete floor on her stomach next to one of the chairs. Her father sat beside her, ready to step between her and Will in case the boy tried to approach too fast. With her being covered in quills, the risk she posed was too great to allow the boy to get too close too quickly.

  With her splayed out on the floor, Adam squatted down beside her, “After your brother gets to meet you, we should get you back to your human form so we can all talk. Do you have any ideas for why you became a hedgehog?”

  To his surprise, Ellie nodded her spiky head and let out a little grumble. Chuck smiled at Adam saying, “Her mom and I asked a bunch of questions earlier and while she's no cat, she seems to like being a hedgehog. If that's truly what she is. Her tail’s too long and those eyes obviously aren’t normal.” He sized up Adam once more, a contemplative look on his face. “You know, I’ve never been the best at connecting with people, but I’ve always felt that I had good instincts. Actually, 'instincts' is probably the wrong word for it. More like intuition.” The large man rested his hand on top of his daughter's transformed head, giving her some scritches behind her ears as he continued, “Once the Integration started, I felt that my intuition is more important than ever.” Chuck glanced between Michael, Adam and Ellie, “As of this moment, I’m positive it was the right decision to trust you both. Ellie is going to need people to help her through all of this and while we are all new to these powers, you two have already been a huge help to us, and for that Marissa and I thank you. If there is ever anything we can do for either of you, please just ask.”

  With that, Chuck reached to shake Adam’s hand. As their hands came into contact, Adam sensed a similar energy emanating from Chuck's skin. Though there was nothing visibly happening aside from a normal handshake, the two men instantly felt that there was a resonance of some kind that happened due to the contact.

  Adam watched as Chuck's eyes lost their focus for a second, an obvious sign that he had received a system notification.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” said the burly man, “Did you do that?” he asked Adam.

  “No sir, I didn’t do anything,” he responded. “What exactly do you think it is that I did?”

  Chuck stared at his hands, “As soon as we made contact, I got a notification telling me that I had discovered my Affinity. Turns out, there is a real reason why I have always hated my construction job. I have a Stone affinity so it makes sense that I have so many fond memories from when I worked in the old quarry. It was the last time I had a labor job that actually felt right. General contracting was always all about metals and wood.”

  “I’m assuming that you have a Stone affinity as well, since contact with you awakened mine. Is that right?” the man asked.

  Adam nodded, “Yeah, Stone is one of my affinities.”

  “Wait, you can have more than one?” Chuck asked in confusion.

  “I guess so? See, when I check my status, Stone shows up in my affinities column but also has an arrow pointing to some question marks. That makes me think that my actual affinity is somehow derived from stone? Or maybe it's an evolution of stone or something.” Adam shrugged. He had only learned about his affinity a short while ago, so he was basically in the same position as Chuck. Clueless.

  “I believe a further conversation about affinities will be necessary later. To my understanding, the two of you , Everett and myself are the only people that have learned their affinities. Until we get the chance to have that conversation, we should focus on the current situation. Will and Henry have arrived.”

  “You awakened your affinity as well, Michael?” Adam asked.

  “Yes, it was part of my Class Awakening, now, let’s stay on track.”

  The sound of the door opening brought with it the sound of Henry's voice, “Alright little man, are you ready to see your super cool big sister?”

  “Yes!” a high pitched voice full of excitement echoed through the room.

  Marissa’s stern voice carried in right after Will’s, “Okay bubba, let's go in but remember, you have to listen to anything that the adults say and you have to promise to keep your hands to yourself at first. Can you promise me that?”

  Despite the fact that the three of them were still backstage and not yet through the doorway into the shop, Adam had no difficulties hearing Will’s voice turn deathly serious as he responded to his mom, “Mommy, I promise. Can we go in now?”

  A heavy sigh from the music professor was followed by a chuckle from Henry, as the boy's mother acquiesced, “Go ahead.”

  Instantly, little footsteps rang out in the room as Will sprinted in, as fast as the four year old’s legs could carry him. He quickly scanned the room looking for his sister before exclaiming, “WOAH! ELLIE TURNED INTO TOOTHLESS!” Then the boy launched himself towards Michael.

  You know, we really should have seen that coming.

  Following the outburst from Will, Marissa and Henry entered the room. Henry quickly made eye contact with Adam and with a humongous grin on his face, mouthed the words, I told you so.

  Seemingly forgetting the promise he made with his mom, mere seconds beforehand, Will ignored Marissa’s calls to get him to stop as he made his way to the creature he thought was his sister. However, he quickly came to a halt when Michael sat up tall and sent a mental message to everyone in the room.

  “William Charles Bain!”

  Having come to a screeching halt, the boy stood at attention and whipped his head around, looking for where the voice was coming from.

  Michael reached a large paw toward the boy, pointing at him with one claw in a very human-like gesture as he continued, “You, young man, ignored your mother and broke your promise to her. Before you entered this room, you told her you would listen to the adults and you would keep your hands to yourself.” As he spoke, Adam realized that Michael had not yelled at all. While he had shown that he could project his thoughts so that they were louder, he had not done so with Will, keeping his tone even and his words at a conversational level. However, Adam also noticed that Michael had substituted volume for emotion. Injected into each of the words he spoke was a deep sense of disappointment. A feeling that hit the young boy like a fire truck as he seemed to wither on the spot, his excitement doused instantly. Michael dropped his paws to the ground and then got really low, crossing them over each other before bringing his head down to lay across them directly before the frozen child. This time, when the elderly man spoke, his words were full of concern, “Will, you came in here not knowing what your sister looks like. What if I had been a bad guy? You would have gotten hurt before anyone could help you.”

  The boy dropped his head in shame. Personally, Adam thought Michael had been a little too strict on the boy, but he also knew that it was necessary. Chuck, standing beside Adam was tense but didn’t say anything either, clearly he too understood why the old man had done it.

  Surprisingly, the person that reacted to it the worst was Ellie. As soon as Michael started berating the boy, she jumped to her four little feet and scurried towards the canine creature. Just as Michael layed down before the child, Ellie rushed right up next to Will and loudly hissed at him.

  The loud noise so close by brought Will out of his pouting as he looked at his sister who was standing up for him.

  Compared to Michael’s almost ten foot long body (if you ignored the tail), Ellie’s small five foot frame looked tiny. Though even with the size difference, Ellie looked positively ferocious as she glared at Michael and bared her teeth. Ferocious in the cutest way.

  Wide eyed and frozen, Will slowly looked to his dad who had followed Ellie when she charged Michael. While Adam knew that Chuck had understood why Michael had jumped on his son, he also saw pride shining in the father’s gaze when he looked at Ellie. Of course he was proud of his daughter for standing up for her brother. Even if the boys chastisement was well intentioned and well deserved, it was nice to see that Ellie was willing and ready to stand up for and protect her baby brother.

  “Ellie? Are you Ellie?” the boy asked as he stared at the living ball of spikes.

  “Yeah, dude, that's Ellie. She can’t talk when she is like that, but she can still understand you.” Chuck stepped over and picked the boy up.

  Curious eyes stared down at her as he said, “But… why isn't she blue?”

  Henry, who had been silent throughout the entire exchange, once again burst into laughter.

  Ellie squealed in indignation as she stomped her little feet at her brother, receiving a playful smile from Chuck and Marissa, who had joined them.

  Seeing that they were all getting acquainted once more, Adam gestured to Michael before meeting up with Henry across the room.

  “Yes?” he asked.

  “I was thinking about what you said before. I haven’t used my abilities much as they are pretty… niche. Luckily, there’s something nearby that I think can help me test them out.”

  “...Interesting. Do you think it will take long?”

  Adam shook his head, “Nah, it should be pretty quick. Just a simple fetch quest.”

  “A what?”

  “Never mind. As soon as I grab the thing I need, we will come back here. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to actually use the thing in my human form, so the open space here is kinda mandatory for my skill testing.”

  Rather than respond with words, Michael did something a little bit different as he sent feelings of understanding and well wishes as he turned to interact with the family again.

  Meeting up with Henry, he gave him a fist bump, “Wanna help me with something?”

  “I just got back here dude. I haven’t even been properly introduced to Ellie the Hedgehog yet,” he grumbled, instantly following Adam as he made his way back out through the doors he had just entered through. “Where we going?”

  Adam, the straightlaced stick in the mud, sent his most Henry-like grin at his friend.

  “We're gonna steal some really old stuff.”