Mutagen

<strong>Day 251 - 7:21 PM - Rebel Settlement, Barangay Napo, Municipality of Pandan, Province of Catanduanes</strong>

More than eight months into the apocalypse and three months since Earth had changed. The peaceful faction of the New People's Army managed to maintain its roots in the northern areas of the province of Catanduanes tight and strong.

With a community tightly knit not only by everyone's goals but also a singular belief, it was no surprise that their land survived the catastrophe. The settlement might have been damaged by the earthquake three months ago, but they all worked together, united for the rebuilding efforts.

And now, the newly rebuilt base and its community composed of a few hundred people stood stronger than ever.

With the Pandan District Hospital at its center, the NPA Settlement expanded, encompassing several hundred meters in all directions with securely walled land.

There was no doubt. In this island province, this group of people was the ones thriving the most and not the other two settlements in the south supposedly managed by the military. It was not a surprising result since while the people in the south were busy scheming against each other, the people here were occupied by stocking their warehouses with as many supplies as they could gather.

All because of the predicted incoming disaster from the sky.

Normally, while interesting, people would be skeptical of things that could possibly hint at the incoming future. But here, everyone was now gathered under the veil of a fortuneteller, who saved the settlement not once, not twice, but many more times than all their fingers could count.

And as time went by, her predictions only became more and more on point, and the accuracy began to feel scary to some people. Even so, none of them questioned the authenticity anymore as they all witnessed what happened three months ago when the Earth changed.

In this settlement, the [Fortuneteller] might be more important than the actual leaders of the Peaceful Faction. Nonetheless, none felt disparaged by that fact, as even the leaders knew they needed her for their own survival. They all follow her predictions and words as priorities since the pros weigh far much more than the cons.

And today, as night came, lights of torches began to illuminate the whole base once more.

At the training grounds, two people started their nighttime training. A time when there were no other people to use the training grounds.

It was a woman and a man. One would think of indecent things if two people of the opposite sex go to a dark place at this time of the night. However, it was not in this case, as the two were siblings. And they were here to secretly train their newly acquired abilities.

The woman raised her hands, and the gleam of eight small knives held between her fingers shone. The targets were barely visible due to the darkness of the night. However, she stared straight at the targets a few dozen meters in front of her as if she could clearly see them.

She waved her hands fast, and the knives in the woman's hands were released. The throw was pretty clumsy, showing that she was not used to it. Most of the knives did not even fly towards the target, getting thrown towards the ground and other directions.

But as the three knives falling were about to hit the ground, they suddenly accelerated forwards. The knives did not fall to the ground and made a shining curve as they changed their trajectory towards the target. It was the same for the other supposedly missing knives as they all flew into a curve towards the target.

<strong>TAK! TAK! TAK!</strong>

The sounds of the knives hitting the wooden target eight times could be heard.

After all the knives hit, the woman approached the target. She could not help but sigh, seeing that none of the knives hit the center, neglecting the fact that her knives mystically hit the target despite being thrown in the wrong directions.

The man focused on his own training on the other side of the training grounds. He held a stick in his hands while standing in the middle of a structure. The structure was like scaffolding with dozens of sand-filled cloth balls hung by strings.

He shook the structure, causing the cloth balls to swing violently towards him from all directions. Then, the man surprisingly closed his eyes. And as the cloth balls swung towards him, he began hitting each one away. Each hit stopped the cloth balls from hitting him, but it caused the cloth balls to wing faster when the gravitational force pulled them back.

The man hit the cloth balls repeatedly, making the training harder as time went on. Finally, he was hit. That one hit definitely hurt as it caused the man to get hit several more times in succession. In the end, the man lay down on the ground, clutching his head that was hit several times.

"Training is really hard."

The woman approached the man with a complaint. She looked tired. While her abilities consume little stamina, it drains a lot of her mental power. The man was no different, but he was the complete opposite. His abilities might consume less mental power but require large amounts of stamina and endurance.

A regular teacher and an I.T. agent, without a doubt, were the kinds of people unfit for combat.

"We have no choice but to train if we did not want what happened before to happen again."

The man replied, still lying on the ground.

But suddenly, the man turned his head in a certain direction. Not towards the entrance of the training grounds, however. He stared at the walls separating the settlement from the dangerous outside world.

"You're still alive, huh?"

The man suddenly said to the woman's confusion, making her turn to where the man was staring.

There, a silhouette of a man emerged from the shadows. The woman looked in surprise and disbelief before turning into relief.

"You want to kill me off that much?"

The figure that emerged from the shadow approached the two while observing them.

"Not really," The man said as he stood up. "It's just if you're still alive, give us a visit."

"You know I don't live anywhere near here," The figure replied. "Don't ask for the unreasonable."

"Big Brother."

The woman greeted the figure with a smile. A smile that was not that easy to be seen within their family.

This was the first time the woman, Marian, met their eldest sibling, Mark, ever since the apocalypse began.

It was the reunion of the three siblings, Mark, Michael, and Marian, since the Earth changed.

"You two got strange powers," Mark said, looking at the targets and the structure with swinging cloth balls. "Did Addy develop one too?"

Mark asked about their fourth sibling and youngest brother, who was supposed to be around eight years old now.

"Addy hasn't developed one yet."

Michael replied.

"He's a scaredy cat and our sheltered brother. It's not surprising he hasn't yet."

Mark said with a shrug.

"You say that we got strange powers, but the strangest one is you."

Marian said, looking at Mark scrutinizingly.

Surprisingly, Marian's eyes had a slight glow in them.

"What? You can see magical things now?"

Mark asked, noticing the glow in her eyes.

"No," Marian shook her head. "Your aura. I can't see through your black-colored aura."

Mark paused for a bit. It seemed that Marian could see people's aura, but since Mark's body had [Miasma], his aura was stained with black color.

And surely, a black aura was a weird thing.

"Why did you come here?"

Michael asked.

"To visit? What else?"

Mark replied.

The siblings stared at Mark's expression. However, there was nothing they could make out of it.

"That's all? Really?"

Michael inquired further, unable to believe what Mark was saying.

"Yeah?" Mark tilted his head. "I really just came here to see how you guys are doing. But I guess everyone here is doing pretty fine."

Mark said those words while looking at the surroundings. The place did not look bad at all, and all nooks and crannies were guarded by guards.

"This place looked safe, and it would be hard to enter this place without getting spotted."

Mark said, looking at the watch tower in the distance.

"And you are here."

Marian said, looking at Mark skeptically.

There was no doubt that Mark entered this place without anyone able to see him.

The three took a seat at the corner of the training grounds to catch up. Mark's relationship with his family was not that close, but in the least, he had a pretty normal relationship with his siblings. While Mark would not divulge his secrets to the two, he could at least tell them many things. It was the same for the two.

An hour passed swiftly as the two listened to Mark's stories about the [Infected] and the [Mechids]. The two listened carefully as this information should be valuable to them, specifically since they had to deal with such troubles on a daily basis.

It was also the first time for Michael and Marian to hear that those robotic creatures were called [Mechids]. They wondered how Mark knew or if the name was something he made up. Nonetheless, the information he had was far more valuable than they imagined.

<strong>CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!</strong>

Sounds of bells were heard, taking the attention of the three.

"It's time for curfew."

Marian said, looking in the direction of the hospital.

"Don't you two have to go?"

Mark asked.

"Nah," Michael shook his head. "It's only for the others. Because of Mom, we're above the rules here. Of course, if it's not anything detrimental to the settlement. Staying outside past curfew is one thing, but we'll still get punished if we were to slip anything out of the warehouse."

By the looks of it, having the [Fortuneteller] as their mother came with such benefits.

"Ah, right," Mark exclaimed, remembering something. "You two, take these."

Mark then handed four crystals to the two. Two of the crystals were clear, while the other two seemed to have a glowing orb inside them.

"What are these?"

Marian asked as she looked at the two crystals Mark gave her. It was the same question Michael had in mind as he stared at the ones on his hand.

"Remember Darna? Swallow the stone, and you will become a superhero ."

Mark said with a serious face.

Of course, his siblings were not laughing at his joke. There was no way they would swallow anything without knowing what it would actually do.

Mark shrugged and decided to stop the jokes.

"I'm not joking about swallowing these. Swallow the clear ones first, and it will turn you into an [Evolver]. The ones with glowing orbs turn you into a [Mutator]."

Marian and Michael were in disbelief. Being [Evolvers] and [Mutators] was a good thing. However, the process of becoming one was extremely risky, and there was no guarantee for it to succeed. Yet, Mark was saying that these fancy stones could give them those powers. It was unbelievable.

"Are you still joking?"

Michael asked.

"You think I am?" Mark sneered. "I won't force you two to believe, but that's what these crystals are for. I already took a few of them, you know?"

"Where did you get these?"

Marian asked, starting to believe her older brother.

"That's a secret."

Mark smiled mischievously.

Knowing that Mark would not answer, the younger siblings did not ask more questions.

At this time, a figure landed near then from the sky, surprising Marian and Michael. And to bolster their surprise further, the one who came was a beautiful girl with rainbow wings.

Giving a respectful nod to Marian and Michael, the girl approached Mark.

"Gege, the [Giant Mechid] seemed to have made another move."

Mei said to Mark.

Mark looked at Mei, knowing why she was here instead of the usual Deriellio to bring the information.

"Alright, we're returning."

Mark said to Mei before turning to his siblings.

"Swallow the clear crystal first. Be careful since it will be painful for a few hours. After that, wait another day or two before using the second crystal. I'll have to leave already."

"Wait, Big Brother, who is she?"

Marian could not help but ask.

Mark turned around, and a pair of wings came out of his back. As he flapped his wings, he turned his head.

"Mei, my wife."

Then, he flew up to the sky.

Mei turned to the two and nodded.

"It's nice meeting you two, brother and sister."

Mei then followed Mark to the sky, leaving the petrified siblings.

"That- that guy's flexing, isn't he?"

Michael said, gritting his teeth.

"But you have a girlfriend too."

Marian said to Michael.

"And you have to find yours."

Michael snapped back.

"No, I don't have any plans to marry anyone."

Marian snarkily replied.

In any case, the two stared at the sky where Mark and Mei flew. Then, they turned to the crystals in their hands. Mark might not be close to them as a brother, but he's not someone who would lie about this kind of stuff. Still, they wondered where Mark got these crystals from.

Unknown to the two siblings, someone was watching the whole thing.

"It looks like he's still alive. It's all good then."

The figure in the shadows said with a sad voice.