"...Ah. I don't see your name on 'em. Any chance I can, uh, buy them from you? Kinda hungry, here."

"They were in a garden! Do you think they grow in rows like that on their own?" 

"Not really but I did think that whoever did that was probably dead!" (this is a lie.) "Understand that I'll give you stuff for them, but if you don't want any of my stuff I'm taking them anyway because I am hungry."

"...What kinda stuff?"

He describes his wares! Knives! Lighters and matches! Clothes (mostly adult-sized) probably looted from somewhere! A few books! A spare backpack! A broom! Cans of diet coke! A microwave! A gun! Cold medicine! A pair of headphones!

It's not clear where he's storing any of this stuff he says he has. Certainly not on his person, he's dressed in something only moderately less raggedy than actual rags, and not carrying a backpack or anything.

The cold medicine bemuses Overgrowth. "Why would I want medicine?"

"I dunno, maybe you have squishy friends. It was in a car I looted... Probably gone bad to be honest. You're right, I'll dump it."

He wrenches his face into a picture of focus. His arms start changing.

The other Miracle looks on with curiosity. If they do end up fighting, it'd be good to have an idea of his powers.

The arms settle into some kind of scaly form, with three claws, and screwy bone structure - no wrist. He flexes one and there's - a hole in the air - he reaches in and grabs a pill bottle and then shrugs and throws it over his shoulder.

"...The Hell is that?"

"It's my inventory! I have to go all lizardy to get into it, but it's super convenient."

"...Why?"

"Why's it convenient or why do I need to go lizardy? 'Cause the first one is kinda obvious by itself unless you're dumb."

"Why should you need to have scales and crap to access a pocket dimension or whatever?"

"Because powers are stupid. It's so annoying. And it hurts too."

"Really? Does the lizard thing do anything else?"

"I can't go telling you all my secrets. Do you want the stuff? Or how about directions to an old farm I saw a while ago, maybe you can add potatoes or corn or something to your list."

"That could work--"

He's interrupted by a platinum blonde, glowing girl in a shiny blue bodysuit leaping down from the sky. "You're supposed to be fighting!"

"Okay miss pushy, if I fight him I might get to eat dinner. If I don't fight him and we make a deal I definitely get to eat dinner. Maybe if you promise to feed me if I lose I'd be more up for it."

Overgrowth's eyes dart between the other two children. "...Do you know each other?"

"She's bugged me before. I don't like her very much," he stage-whispers.

"Hey, I saved you from those bandits!"

"You put me there in the first place!"

"It was a test."

"And I tried to negotiate with them too. I'm a negotiatey kind of person. Deal with it."

"Your power doesn't seem negotiatey."

He says in a fake-sweet voice, "Oh but I always wanted to run a store!"

"But you have lizard claws. Therefore it is your job to lizard claw people."

"I say! You cast asperations on my character!" He contorts and stretches in faked pain.

Disguising another transformation.

"Don't try that on me!"

He tries that on her.

The pair of wings that shred his shirt are different than before! Feathery! He twists into the air, doing something strange to space, and tries to punch Moira.

He is attack hugged! "Birdy boy!"

He twists out of the hug and starts falling back down. It's like for an instant there's twice as much room. "Be punched dangit! I practiced that!"

Overgrowth catches him with a tree that's suddenly there. "I'm gonna side with you, I think. You seem more sane."

The branches tangle his wings. "Oof! Agh. Great. I can give you a little bit of my powers. Want some temporary cat ears? Give you reflexes."

"...Does it hurt?"

"Not as bad as wings."

He untangles himself from branches and clumsily uses those wings to land just slightly less hard than a straight fall. "Like getting punched hard. But it goes away quick."

He nods, eyes screwed shut.

Touch. It hurts. But it's over in one second.

Nick has cat ears too, and a dog tail sticking out of the rags serving as pants. Kind of a hodgepodge mess when you add in the claws and wings. "Let's do this! You're defense I'm offense!"

"Right!" 

Long spindly trees reach out from the soil, their branches reaching out at the girl like witch's fingers.

Which she dodges with blinding speed. "Hey, he's our nemesis!" she shouts, pointing at Overgrowth.

Space twists as Nick tries to punch at where Moira is going as soon as she starts moving. "Enemy of my enemy is my ally for now!"

His fist makes his target, though she dissipates most of the impact. "And I'm your stalwart ally!"

"You're the fickle troublemaking antihero ally! Not the pure of heart one!"

He actually flies, straining with the effort, back towards the thicket of trees. Hoping that Overgrowth will defend him.

He erects a sort of protective cage for him, like what they use for shark encounters.

"Thanks." He talks to Overgrowth in a voice quiet enough Moira should have trouble hearing. "I can only do the warpy thing like once or twice a minute. Hit and block. It's worked once! She's a tough one though!"

"I can't tell if she hates you or likes you."

"She probably won't hurt us much when she wins. Especially if we put up a fun fight."

"...You don't think we're gonna win, do you?"

"No, we are not. She's Moira Sokolov. Her mom made the Amazing Association. She's having fun though. Might as well play along."

...What's Moira doing while they chat anyway? Nick tries not to lose sight of her.

She's just floating above them. Smiling. 

Why, is that bird song in the distance?

"Can you throw lots of dirt and dust in the air? Confusion to our enemies. Enemy."

"I'll try," he says nervously, not taking her eyes off Moira. 

A thicket of weeds burst from the ground all at once, the force of their unnatural sending much dirt into the air. 

And then the birds arrive to aid their queen.

He was expecting this. That's what the dog tail transformation was for.

He howls. It should be terrifying beyond reason to most animals.

And then under cover of the flying dirt twists around behind Moira and punches again.

The birds retreat! 

"Traitors!" Moira cries after them, which distracts her long enough for Nick to land a decent hit.

"Strike from the shadows with the help of my ally! Know the enemy and know yourself and then you will have victory!" Another punch! (He's gloating, pushing too aggressively.)

Moira then proceeds to dump a large amount of KE into the air. Or in other words, lots of wind.

This sends Nick flying. The wings don't help. He whacks into one of Overgrowth's trees pretty hard.

Overgrowth rushes to his side. "Ceasefire, ceasefire!"

Moira rolls her eyes. "Don't be a sook."

"I'll be fine. Just. Ow. That was three and a half wings."

"Do you concede?"

"Fine, fine. You win even past my best tricks. I can't repel firepower of that magnitude! Your power level is over nine thousand!"

"Good fight!"

"It was!" Wince. "Now leave us alone please?"

"Don't you want your runner up prize?"

"Well, duh, I won't turn down a prize. I wasn't going to ask for it though. We lost."

She speeds off, returning a few moments later with a small but heavy bag of food.

Nick sketches a little bow. He tosses the beets back to Overgrowth. "Fifty-fifty?"

"Sure. Beets only take a few minutes, really."

"Ah, so it's the principle of the thing. Well, I think I might be able to arrange positive sum transactions exchanging vegetable matter for consumer goods with interested parties." The haughty voice drops at the end of that sentence. "Selling your veggies and bringing back stuff, that is. I'd need to look around and talk to people some, first, but if that's something you could be interested in..."

He shrugs. "I could come with you. Two is safer than one out here."

"And prolonged proximity increases the chance of you fighting! Yay!"

"I thought you were leaving!"

Moira crosses her arms. "Fine. I don't stay where I'm clearly not wanted. Nearest settlement is ten miles south, FYI."

"I knew that already," he asserts to Overgrowth.

"Not very fun, though." 

She bursts into the sky.

"That happen often?" Overgrowth asks.

"Yeah. She does whatever she wants." Sigh.

"Stupid high Miracles."

"I manage to get favors out of her once in a while at least. Like this food."

He shakes his head. "Baselines. They think once you Manifest that's the end of it. Like there isn't some insane little girl with better Miracles waiting to mess with you. How long have you been one?"

"Four months, three weeks, two days. And in that time I only have four reliable transformations and two more I've been practicing."

"Shit, you're less green than me. That wasn't a pun, by the way."

"Unintentional puns are often the best puns."

He stretches and lets the wings and dog tail disappear. "Ahhh. Geez, wings are tiring..."

"Least you can fly. I tried making myself some leaf sails last week. Spent three days hiding in a shack while my leg knitted back together. I got so sick of beans."

"You got stuck with beans? What, not enough room? They're exhausting to have though. I didn't realize Miracles can get tired until I flew around a bit. Also I crashed a lot too."

"There was a vine growing in the window. So, were you being honest when you said you knew about that town?"

"Well, I'd heard of it. But all I know about it is 'fake Christian lady with cloth powers who tries to Manifest kids'."

"Oh. Abbie, I think she's called. Nobody I asked could agree how serious she was with the religion thing." 

"Safest to act like the answer is 'very'. Hey, can you make up new plants?"

"Like what?"

"My first idea was a bean that tastes like strawberries or something but there's tons of opportunities if you can do it. Bacon tree! Candy flowers! Steakmelon! Or more boring, doesn't-need-much-water-corn, bugs-can't-eat-it potatoes. Those'd sell."

"I could try, I guess. You can sort of make stuff out of plants that taste like meat."

"I dunno biology. Couldn't find books on it. I kind of wish I was an Inventor. I like science stuff."

"Weird you didn't end up with that, then."

"Maybe God's having a laugh at my disappointment and woe. I'll show him. I'll show them all! Menagerie's Market will be the commercial powerhouse of the modern world! Mwahahahaha!"

"Ooh, that your Miracle name?"

"Menagerie! It might be taken by someone somewhere but I'll beat them up and make them change it if so. It fits, what with all the transforming into things, doesn't it?"

"It does! Still undecided between Overgrowth and Aboricide!"

"I'd go for 'Overgrowth'. Aboricide makes you sound like someone who shouldn't be messed with, but also someone who you can't make a deal with. And wheeling and dealing is better than fighting sometimes."

"True. So, shall we head on over to Thread Witch land?"

"Yep. Gotta make sure we have a good exit strategy though. Can you, like, prepare ground without it being obvious? Roots? I'm thinking you do that as we go up to the place and we run away into the forest that wasn't there a minute ago if a fight happens and it looks like we'll lose. I really don't think Thread Witch will be as nice as Moira."

"Yeah, but at least she won't try Manifesting us."

"Hmm. Am I gonna annoy you by going 'trade, buy, sell, exchange, trade' all the time? 'Cause trade is great and I hope we can do that with them. But mostly people fight me."

He smiles. "It's fine. Fighting is tiring."

"It's fun! It's just not always the best way to get what you want."

"And the power granting thing or whatever is not fair."

"Yeah. All those poor, powerless baselines."

He laughs. "Forget them for a sec. Who the Hell thinks the Sokolovs are fair?"

"The Sokolovs, presumably?"

"Oh, let's give that one plants, and make that one fly, be really fast and strong, and have birds, and like half a dozen other things!"

"As my dad used to say, life ain't fair. Deal with it. And do the laundry before I get back or no dinner."

"They know you Manifested?"

"Yep." There's a note of challenge in his voice.

"They kick you out, too?"

"Nope. I was sick of them so I stole a bunch of stuff and ran away."

Overgrowth smirks. "Real edgy."

Eyeroll. Nick squints at Overgrowth and the latter's cat ears disappear with a very weird but not painful sucking sensation.

He rubs his ears. "Your power is weird."

"Yep."

"Like, what do you even call it?"

"Screwy animal transformation based grab bag of random other powers?"

"Try not to pronounce that in the middle of a fight."

"Explaining your powers is stupid anyway. I'm Menagerie, that's enough."

"So, shall we get going?"

"After I finish eatin'."

He eats from the bag of food quietly.

Then he stuffs the rest into his pocket dimension and starts walking.

Overgrowth follows. Humming.

Walking is kind of boring isn't it.

"Hey if you can't do weird superplants you can probably make, like, furniture. And walls. Furniture's made of trees."

"True. Might grow too much after it's the right shape, though."

"Can you kill plants?"

"Why would I do that? That's mean!"

"Farmers really hate weeds... Or parts of plants? I'm thinking you make a tree branch into a table, and then we kill the branch and have a table to sell, easy as pie- Easy as beans."

He shuffles his feet. "I guess." 

"Well, you don't have to. It's your power. Maybe if we act nice enough, you can make some farmer's crop grow real good and they don't think it's a trick, start with that? I'm not sure how I could sell my powers except maybe the animal-scaring one. It works on rats so I could de-rat a house."

"Storage?" Overgrowth suggests. 

"I don't think anyone will trust me to give their stuff back. Not unless I do a bunch of stuff for them for free. I'm carrying around a bunch of junk in Nick Space that might be what someone needs, being a shop on two feet. So I guess I'm sorta already doing that."

Overgrowth giggles at "Nick Space".

"It's handy stuff! I'm a walking basement crawl space."

"Crawl Nick space."

With a slight smirk, a hole in the air opens above Overgrowth and water pours out of it into his head.

He sputters. "What, did you pour a bunch of water bottles in there?"

"Ten-gallon jugs sitting in there. I tilted it enough to pour."

"You can tilt the pocket dimension thing?"

"Yep. Usually a bad idea since it'd make a mess. It's, like, a not-room room that only I can see? I can open doors into the real world wherever I want in it. Have to push though. I can shake it up real good, or turn it around and around, but I have to actually reach in to grab stuff."

Overgrowth rubs his chin. "Could you stick a person inside?"

"Wanna find out?"

He hesitates, before saying "...Kay."

"...That was a joke. I can put living things in there. They stop. Like, time freeze."

"That's still useful. You could be, like, an ambulance or something."

"Yeah. But, meh."

"Taxi?"

"Service industries are so much less profitable after the revolts."

"Some baselines or lower Miracles might like safe, quick transport. Well, quick from their perspective."

"I could probably make money doing that, but, meh."

"And what would happen if you died with stuff in there?"

"That is an experiment I do not intend to make."

"Clearly we should find a cloner."

"Also an experiment I do not intend to make. For entirely different reasons."

"Competition! Potentially zombie competition!"

"Also theory of mind and existentialism."

"Ah, yeah, those things... you born in a library or something?"

"Well, I was born in a school bus. Even if they weren't using it to go to school."

"That doesn't explain anything."

"Were you under the impression I give explanations for free? Information is not fungible but it is a sellable good like any other."

"What am I going to do with the life story of a random first-gen? Write the Who's Who of Nobody?"

"I don't care what you'd do with it. My not wanting to tell you about it has to be overcome by some other reason. Stuff would do. More friendship than a fight an' a couple hours walking probably will do sooner or later. But currently there is none."