The Enclosing One was growing as its colonies were growing, and that pleased it. With more power to immerse its subjects in, it could make changes at a slightly greater speed, and it could experiment more easily. It soon realised that it could created variety in its colonies by changing the pattern in which some of the cells linked together, making it more complex. It could make colonies with folds and ripples and fibres. It soon discovered that it was limited, however, in that it ran the risk of separating the codes too far, splitting them away and dividing its power with them. The Enclosing One did not feel like it had enough power to share between two groups of species, not this early, not while it still needed that power to learn and experiment. The new group with its muddled and separate code was bound in the Entity's immersion, and it held the Enclosing One like a lock, just as tightly as its primary species. With haste the Entity scrambled as much of the code as it could, destroying the new colony... Or most of it. The survivors had adapted, enough to separate further, but they had left its expanding bubble of energy, become like the amoebae when the Enclosing One first found them. [i]...No matter. My power is intact again. They do my Purpose no harm.[/i]

So the Enclosing One continued to enclose, for a time, and think. The little cells in the water that grew with the sun still puzzled the Entity. It liked that ability, to take energy first-hand, and it would look into it, in time. It viewed the dry, harsh surface of the almost-waterless Land, and concluded that growing from the sun would be its answer to holding presence there, too. But there was always movement, and in the waters too; The air pushed and pulled as wind, agitating the surface waters into waves. The colonies would need an anchor if they wanted to spread into less calm waters. And there was certainly a faster way to spread than simple outwards growth... There would need to be considerably more complexity in the enclosing growth if the Entity wanted to achieve this. All in time.

Soon enough something caused the Enclosing One to act, but not in the way it would have liked. Something was acting on its farther colonies. It approached, and observed something odd. Complex cells, like its own, but not under its power... But nor where they neutral like the amoebae the Entity had cast away. [i]Interesting.[/i] But these newcomers were disruptive, large, and singular. As they moved they consumed not only the simple cells, but fed upon the Enclosing One's thin layer of growth. Some, it observed, were more inert, but they rent surrounding amoebae, predator and fractal alike, with a sharp solid structure before they consumed them. [i]...No. I do not like this. Pests.[/i] Anger flared in the Enclosing One, but these newcomers were not free and neutral for him to disrupt and destroy, even if it had power to spare, which it did not. [i]Very well then![/i] 

Working comfortably, with more experience, the Enclosing One began to change the pattern of connection again, not in play or minor speciation but with purpose. The connections now allowed for double and triple layers of cells over the film of amoeba, but the outermost members were hard-programmed to become inert and densely connected wherever they could not complete the correct pattern- Where there was new growth, or damaged growth in the fractal. It solved the problem... Until, perhaps, the predators became larger. The Enclosing One had its doubts about that.

The Enclosing One considered what it had done, and the growth it had made. A fractal layer of amoeba may have spread quickly, but if the Enclosing One wished to make its coverings complex, it would have to abandon the process of linking that it was using. That patterned growth which followed the same rule at every scale did not allow for much structure or internal variation. [i]No matter. I shall experiment further. Just more problems to be solved.[/i] This Entity could be patient, if it needed to be. It had much work to do.

[hider=Enclosing One]15% - Fractal Amoeba Colonies
0% - Unused
85% - Undeveloped

The Enclosing One has experimented with minor speciation in the amoeba colonies, and with making the colonies react by producing a layer of dense, inedible cells where the pattern is disrupted.[/hider]