After a quick online map search (and a facepalm for not thinking about it earlier). Ty found out that his castle was situated in the mountains of eastern North America.
The rest of the next day went by without much incident. Ty spent most of the day either planning or “toying” with his new maids. He grinned as he basked in the fact that he was in control, and they were terrified of him. He didn’t even need to issue any sort of specific commands, they were so terrified that they would do anything they could to appear busy, afraid of their new master’s wrath.
It would be nightfall by the time he issued his first actual order. “Evening ladies. As promised, tonight we will begin our first recruitment drive. There is a town not far from here, within viewing distance of our castle. The plan is for you all to accompany me as we begin our search. Does anyone have a problem with that?” Ty said, standing on front of them. He decided that he would spend his “off nights” lounging around au naturel, (it’s his castle, who was going to stop him?) but on “work nights”, he would dress in full body leather armor and a cape, making him look like a rogue or sorcerer. The three girls shook their heads.
“Excellent, we’ll be off then. Another snap, another bright light and gust of wind later, and the four monsters found themselves on a rooftop in the small town.
“Alright, first things first, I’ll need a moment to concentrate to see if I can lead us to our next member.” In his monstrous form, Ty had the ability to see in into the minds and hearts of others within an immediate area. That is how he would choose those who would join his fledgling kingdom.
However, before he could begin to concentrate, a scream rang out from below. Peering over the edge, the small group of monsters could see what looked like a human girl being chased by three young men into a closed off alley.
“Welp, that’s our cue.” Ty said. Without a second thought he jumped down from the rooftop and put himself between the girl and her pursuers. The three monster girls shared a look of uncertainty before reluctantly joining their master.
“Evening gentlemen.” Ty said casually, as if he weren’t a blue skinned monster boy staring down three thugs.
The three men stared for a few seconds before the one at the front, presumably the leader, approached Ty. “Nice costume, kids. Now beat it.” He said, smirking.
“Oh this is no costume. Now I’m going to give you guys to the count of 10 to leave this poor girl alone.” He briefly shifted his gazed towards M4R5H4. When he “created” her he had “installed” a few “features” that she would be made aware of shortly.
Predictably, the three thugs didn’t take his threat seriously and put up their fists. “All right, it’s your funeral. Booyah.” He said, a smirk of his own forming as he said the code word.
As the thugs charged M4R5H4 suddenly stepped in front of Ty and stuck out her arm. Her arm instantaneously began to change shape, looking more like some sort of sci-fi arm cannon. The thugs barely had time to dodge as she fired a blue beam of energy from her cannon, putting a hole right through a nearby trash bin.
The three thugs looked at each other, then at the trash can, before bolting, Ty laughing after them as they ran. Meanwhile, the three maids stared in silence at M4R5H4’s cannon.
Satisfied that the thugs would not return, Ty approached the girl. She was still on the ground, in shock at what she had witnessed. Ty noticed that her face was beaten up and that her clothes were ragged, and her shoulder length blonde hair was messy.
“Here let me help you up.” Ty offered. Still silent, the girl wordlessly took his hand. After a few seconds, making sure she was in the company of non-hostiles, she finally spoke.
“W-who, are you?”
“A friend, here to help.” Ty offered. “Looks like those goons roughed you up pretty bad.”
The girl looked at the ground, her expression changing to one of sadness. “No, they didn’t do that. That…….was my dad.”
“Oh…..I’m sorry.” Ty said sympathetically.
“No don’t be. I…..never had the best home life, to put it lightly, and tonight I decided I had enough………he tried to stop me. I was on my way to the train station when those thugs attacked me.
“Where you headed?” Ty asked.
The girl sighed “I dunno. Anywhere’s better than here.”
Ty moved his eyes towards her open backpack, which contained a train ticket among other things. Ty’s eyes landed on what appeared to be a book about different mythological creatures.
“What’s your name? I’m Ty by the way.”
“Eileen.” the girl said.
“Well Eileen, I have a bit of a proposition for you. As you might have noticed, me and my associates aren’t exactly human. We are on a mission. A mission to help those in need, to rescue them, and to help them reach beyond the limits of their potential and become more than human.
“Become more than human? Are you saying that you can…..change people to be like you?” Eileen asked. Her tone seemed to be half disbelief, half excited. Ty honestly didn’t expect his shoddy pitch to instantly win anyone over.
“Not just like me.” Ty continued taking a moment to reach over and pick up the book from Eileen’s pack and showed it to her. “You can become anything you like. Would you like that, an opportunity to become stronger, to help others escape situations like yours?”
Eileen hesitated for a second, but then quickly recovered, her fists clenching, her face an expression of steely resolve. “Just tell me what I need to do.” she said coldly.
Ty could feel the magic welling within him once more. “Just think of what you want to be. I’ll take care of the rest."