As Jasper hovered under the shadows of the massive skyscraper, his newly transformed Nyz form barely able to stay stable. Tendrils of his shape flickered and distorted, warping reality around him with each surge of movement. His limbs jittered, vanishing for brief moments as though reality itself couldn't quite decide if he should exist. The building before him pulsed with an intense electric current—its spire throbbing with energy. He felt drawn to it, like a moth to a flame.
Warning: Energy Reserves - 7 Hours, 46 Minutes
The system's alert echoed through his fragmented consciousness. Jasper's vision glitched again, fragments of space-time folding and unfolding around him. Colors inverted, and the world spun for a moment before righting itself. He grimaced—or the alien equivalent of it.
Recommendation: Immediate Energy Replenishment Required
"What do I do?" he thought, or rather projected, his thoughts more like ripples through the system than coherent words.
Analyzing… Source Identified:
Urban Electrical Grid Directive: Interface with Electrical Conduits to Absorb Power
He twitched, jittered again, and bolted towards a power station. "Wooooaaaahhhh!" he explained as he went flying through the busy streets of this strange city. As he rushed through the streets he noticed neon signs flickered messages in languages he partially recognized, though others seemed... wrong, as if scrawled by minds that didn't think linearly.
"What the?" He tried to stop but he wasn't able to and instead kept rushing by. Looking around as he was hurtling at high speeds he noticed an alleyway where a homeless man was sitting cross-legged in the dark, muttering something with his eyes closed. His hands moved like a puppet's, twitching in precise geometric patterns. Jasper blinked. Before he could find out what was going on he had passed it. Down another alleyway another old homeless man was sitting but in his hand was an old book. There seemed to be little white figures within a circle drawn in front of him. Then down the street a group of people had gathered around a rusted fountain. They stared at the water as if it held secrets. One dipped their hand into the surface, and the ripples shimmered with symbols—impossible shapes that hurt to look at. These were not eldritch gods. Not like those Jasper had glimpsed in his initial transformation. But their presence lingered in these strange people like aftershocks of an earthquake. Hints of the eldritch. Human minds touching things they shouldn't.
He emerged near the top where thick electrical lines pulsed with city-wide current. The vibrations of millions of human lives flowed through these wires—lights, communications, movement. Jasper placed a trembling limb against the conduit. In an instant, raw energy surged into him. His form flared like an unstable beacon.
He twitched violently, sparks jumping from his body. His head phased slightly left, then right, as if two versions of him were flickering out of sync. He dropped to one knee, glitches rippling through him in jagged waves. Buildings around him appeared briefly transparent. The surge continued... and then the lights went out. The towering skyscrapers flickered once—then blacked out completely. Street lamps dimmed and died. Neon signs sputtered, casting chaotic bursts of color before vanishing. The city fell into a rolling darkness, and panic took root. From apartment balconies and high-rise windows, heads turned. People stared out in confusion, some shouting in alarm. Emergency sirens wailed, and automated drones flew erratically, trying to recalibrate. Jasper screamed—but the sound fractured into mechanical clicks and deep underwater echoes.
The world finally stabilized around him. His limbs solidified briefly before stuttering, fading in and out like an old hologram. At the same time the city lights flickered, as a massive strain was placed upon it.
The system flashed new information:
Energy Reserves Replenished: +1 Hour, 37 Minutes
Minutes Stability: Partial. Molecular cohesion at 47%
Jasper slowly looked up, surrounded by the spreading blackout he had caused.
Alert: Grid Overdraw. Local Electrical System Failure
Detected Energy Source: Now Inaccessible
"It's not enough," Jasper hissed in a warped voice that barely echoed beyond his own perception. A painful tremor wracked his body, causing his form to split into overlapping versions of himself before collapsing back into one. He had drained too much. In his desperation, he'd taken down part of the city's grid. And now everyone knew something major had happened. Because of the massive scale of the city, he had no doubts that they would be able to quickly find out what happened. Along with the various strange sights within the city, he had no doubt some of them might try hunting him. He tried to move, but his body glitched again. He rippled in and out of view, like corrupted data on a broken monitor. Colors separated from their objects, forming afterimages that refused to leave. His breathing—if it could be called that—grew rapid. More distortions rippled through him.
Energy Source Insufficient for Full Stabilization.
Recommendation: Human Energy Harvesting.