Chapter 34: Chapter 34 - Expanding The Hive
Ignoring the woman Lily made her way down the street in the other direction, towards the general direction of her house. She made sure she wasn't being followed— her paranoia making her wary about the woman due to her association with the X-Men.
Only stopping when she had walked quite a distance away, in an empty alleyway.
She glanced at her status to see how much Mass she had collected, feeling the relative amount due to the fact that the System she held was merely an extension of herself.
'500.'
It was a lot more than when she ate a normal human, and that was from eating three mutants. Three weak mutants to boot.
'Could it be mutants offer more mass depending on how strong they are?'
It was a logical assumption— Mass, while it was called mass, was more like a form of energy that things held within them.
She was able to devour and store this energy within herself for later use. The more she absorb this energy from the same source, the more her body adapted to it and the less energy it would give her— less mass.
That was why dirt and such no longer benefitted her, and why her species eventually ran out of things to devour and grow.
They had eaten so much of the same thing for millions of years that they had adapted to it— they could no longer grow.
If mutants, and super beings in general gave her more Mass then it would be yet another reason to devour them— an increase in her growth.
She wasn't worried about her body adapting to eating humans, mutants, or other races, because things like those had a variety of energy in them, and adapting to it would take a long time.
Hundreds, maybe even thousands of years before she could no longer gain from them— but that didn't matter now.
She had enough mass to do what she had planned to do. Create new units.
The units she had in mind for her hive this time were rather simple, a small yet capable flying unit that she could use to scout a wide area without it being seen.
It wouldn't take much mass, and she didn't need to put a lot of different capabilities into them, so she could create a bunch and cover a wide area, maybe even the entire city if she was lucky.
She got to work in the empty alleyway, the black liquid dripping from her body as they took the form of the small fly-like creatures made out of flesh and covered in hundreds of tiny eyes.
Each one was around the size of half a fingernail, maybe even smaller. They were so small that they could easily be overlooked as normal flies unless you use something to look at them closely— or had special abilities.
Thousands, that was how much she made.
Each one didn't even take a single point of mass to make, for each mass she used she could make 5, and as such she was able to make over two thousand five hundred after spending all the points she had.
All five hundred.
That wasn't all, she wanted them to be useful scouts so she gave each of them some alterations to make them better. Enhanced senses, eyes that could see in the dark, eyes that could see heat and generally good eyes.
They were the perfect scouts in a city such as this, they could cover miles at a time, seeing and transferring all the knowledge back to her.
Once she had finished making all, she told them to split up and spread out, cover the widest area they could without interfering with each other— and they did.
Miles were covered, the sewers, the rooftops, the buildings, alleyways, streets, and even parks— they made sure to spread out the best they could and scout everything they could.
All the information that was sent to the hivemind was disorienting at first, but her mental capabilities had since improved. She could sort through them and get a good layout of what each was doing.
Most were normal, people doing things, eating, sleeping, gaming, working, reading, people doing things you would expect them to do, even some things you wouldn't like seeing people do.
But she also saw some other things, things hidden in the darkness of the city. Crimes— robberies, break-ins, assaults, drug deals, and even murder.
So many things were happening, so many things to observe. She was even able to locate some figures she remembered from the Marvel series and comics using the scouts, minor figures, ones she could watch from a distance without them noticing the bugs.
But that wasn't a matter for now.
Her main concern was currently finding someone she could use to make a fake ID for her so that she didn't have to hold off on acting for a long period of time.
She needed a fake ID to get some of her business plans in motion, at least the plans that required money.
And while she could rob a bank and get a ton of money, that would make things complicated and she didn't like complicated. So she planned to invest, and do dark market dealings to get a foothold in the world, then she will start her own companies and earn from them.
But ID comes first.
Thankfully after searching for a while, she found a man that seemed like he was the right fit, selling fake IDs to people as a side hustle while he was at college.
It wasn't hard to find him, she had scouts covering at least half the city at this point in time, and more will be made soon enough as long as she ate.
Chapter 35: Chapter 35 - Visiting The ID Maker
Once she had located the man, she decided to go to him right away— there was no point in wasting time, so she quickly made her way over to him.
He was about an hour away from where she was, and since it was already late evening, he wasn't attending college classes but instead doing his side hustle, making fake IDs to sell.
He mainly sold them to underage kids trying to use them to sneak into places they shouldn't be, buy things they shouldn't buy, or the such— but he also sold them to criminals.
From observing him for a while, she couldn't exactly tell how he did it, but he seemed pretty skilled in making IDs that worked— well enough.
She quickly made her way over to him, using the alleyways and side streets she ran to test her enhanced speed, moving much faster than any average human could.
Usually, it would take a human an hour to cover the distance she had covered in 20 minutes— that was simply how much faster she was than a normal person.
And she planned to keep improving that.
Regardless she had reached the man that was selling fake IDs, his apartment that was.
He lived in a shared apartment building— himself only having a small room that could barely fit himself, let alone multiple people in it. The average college student's living station, one could say.
Using her thermal vision and enhanced eyes, she could see that he was the only one in his room, so she climbed up the side of the building and went in through the window with ease.
She didn't mind him seeing her face— he needed to anyways to make the ID— plus, this wasn't her natural form, so she could easily give up this form if anything went wrong.
Forcing his window open and entering his room, she startled the man, causing him to stand up and grab the closest thing he could to use as a weapon— a lamp.
"Who are you!"
He said in a loud and threatening voice.
At least he tried to make it sound threatening, but to her, it just sounded panicked.
Now that she could see him closely, she realized he looked pretty young, around 20 or 21 at most. He wasn't some handsome guy or anything, but he wasn't ugly; average would be the best way to describe him.
He had short and messy brown hair, and his skin was slightly brown as well, so it matched pretty well. He wore black glasses that were now messy on his face because of his panicked stand-up.
His clothing was an old, tattered grey shirt and dirty sweatpants with multiple stains on them— which she would only hope was from food or snacks.
"Don't panic— I'm not here to hurt you."
'If you listen, that is.'
Was something she left out, and it was better left unsaid.
His panic was understandable; she had just climbed into his window that was on the fourth floor.
"I hear you make fake IDs; I'm just here to get one made. I need it as soon as possible, that's why I entered the way I did. I apologize for surprising you."
She held her hands up slightly to show she wasn't armed with anything— and tried to be as pleasant as possible so that she wouldn't come off as threatening.
She didn't want him running away or making noise.
Plus, who would think a short and unarmed girl could be dangerous? Well, they would be wrong, but that's beside the point.
"Where did you hear that?"
Replied the man as he lowered his guard, seeing that she didn't have any weapons, but he didn't drop his lamp just yet.
She could notice his eyes glancing her over a few times, examining her body for weapons or anything that might be dangerous to him. He seemed used to dealing with criminals— maybe this wasn't the first time he was held up?
"That's the word on the street, is it not? I'm trying to get the best fake ID I can, and I heard you're the best around. Can you help me with it? I'll naturally pay."
She couldn't give away how she actually got this information, so she just made a story up, adding in the best at it because it might fuel his ego enough that he would drop his guard entirely and give in.
As for paying, she did plan to pay for it. She didn't intend to kill the man after he made it cause he could come in handy in the future— and it wasn't good to kill everyone she came across just because she could.
She planned to get the money from robbing some criminals around the streets— she wasn't below doing that if it benefitted her.
"Maybe, that depends on how much you're willing to pay for 'the best.'"
He said as he slowly lowered the lamp and placed it down— yet his eyes never moved away from her in case she suddenly made a move.
"I can pay any price you call as long as you make something that can be used to fool most verification systems, and I mean banks as well."
She replied— only for the man to raise an eyebrow at her request.
He was used to making fake IDs. However, the ones he usually made for criminals didn't go beyond being used to trick cops or the like. Rarely would he work with something so big.
"I can do that, but it'll cost you a lot."
He said that as he got into his business mode, he liked money.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
12 Power
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