They left me in my cell for a long time after that and I finally had some time to think, not that it did me that much good. I had already thought of a few reasons why they had kidnapped me. The first is that they planned to use my abilities and incorporate them into other creatures. However, it would be a bit weird as we have the subject you are drawing DNA from being used for testing that could jeopardise your entire project.
This brings us to the second and much more likely reason, one that trumps the rest when it comes to possibility and probability.
This is that the lizard people had enrolled me in a sort of living weapons program, which given the other test subjects, as stated above was more likely, though for this one I still couldn't figure out the end goal of it.
I wasn't exactly planning on being cooperative, so how were they planning on controlling me? And for that matter, who were they planning on fighting?
If we were to believe that this was a species that was living under the surface of a planet, more specifically plane Earth, was there an impending war with the surface world?
If this wasn't the case then were they making living weapons for someone else or just the fun of it?
Ugh, I didn't have enough information. And considering I didn't really want to think about all those monsters and maybe people I killed less my human side having another tedious mental breakdown, I fell back on the other thing I really wanted to try out: Shapeshifting.
And I quickly found out that it was bloody difficult. Well, the more difficult things. Such as to see if I was able to fuse my DNA. More specifically to see if my DNA-altering abilities were able to create a hybrid.
That is what I wanted to figure out. Progress was slow and painful, however.
Very painful.
Turns out that my body wasn't prepared for such a strange change. Boy, am I glad I figured that out after what I think was a day or two of personal testing. My, such a great use of my time.
Now, some might ask why I would try or even need such a thing. When you could turn into the biology peak of any given species, why would you be willing to turn into an inferior hybrid? Well, in terms of a human hybrid, anyway. Wouldn't the species' abilities be hampered by the random mixing of DNA?
While yes, that would be the case, hell, some abilities may even be locked off due to this. I can even think of an example in Superboy. But I'm my, superior opinion, it was better to be able to do it and rarely to never need or use it than to need but be incapable of doing so. What if I could become a perfect biological hybrid of a Celestial Sapian and any other species? Unlike that fraud Ben 10K.
And besides, I could use it to hide myself if the appearances of my regular transformations were commonplace.
So long as I hid my Ultimatrix well, no one would know it was. You aren't exactly going to be looking for a Florauna and Methanosian hybrid now, are you? Not to mention, I'd be an even better version of Ben 10K! Why only stop at 2? Why not 3 or 4, even 6? And unlike the Osmosian, Kevin E Levin, I wouldn't have to worry about the mental strain that would befall me.
Now, let me tell you, I had been wary to experiment on my own after the first time, and after a few tentative transformations resulted in no electric shocks. I suspected they wanted to see what I could do as much as I did, and would only punish me if I tried to tamper with what I had dubbed the control orbs.
So, I spent most of my time seeing how far I could push it before my body rejected it. Just how much I could do. And the answer was not nearly as much as I felt I should have.
One of the first things I tried to do was resume my efforts to change into at least something resembling a hybrid close to human, but I was met with only mild success and once more pain.
I managed to recreate the light blue ice patterns of the Necrofriggians. Though this did result in me nearly freezing to death. So yay for that I suppose.
Imagine that you need to sculpt or draw something, a human face in this example. Now imagine that you have no art training, and have to do it in a pitch-black room by sheer memory alone and no tools. Now imagine that your hands have been replaced with seal flippers. That was what it was like trying to manually shape my flesh in such a way. Worse still was how long it had taken me to change; though I could alter/transform every part of my body partly or at the same time with no extra effort, so long as I wasn't too specific on the details, getting even close to a hybrid had taken hours.
And oddly enough, I could change back into a human or any other species with ease in an instant, no matter what.
Which came in handy when I accidentally made two tower-shaped conductor coil generators pierce through my back in a bloody display of force and started to electrocute me.
Which wasn't great when it came to my safety and health, but hey! No pain, no gain and all that, right? Though to be fair, a lot of that might have been because I had only a vague idea of how a hybrid looked and might feel like. It was a small mercy that I had somehow managed to get them to turn off from just randomly trying things. I wasn't exactly familiar with this transformation. Transylians aren't exactly my forte.
Note to self, make sure I'm somewhat familiar with a species before I try and turn into a hybrid of one.
This leads me into my next note. I somehow, don't really know how, managed to recreate the same mouth tusks as the B-Bear. Hurt like no other, but hey, if I ever needed them to do... something with, I guess they're there.
Which was a bit suspicious in and of itself. I thought back to the fight earlier when those bits of flesh and tech resonated with the machine inside my chest. I wasn't certain… but it seemed to imply that…
Well, we'll get that when we get to it. Though it did give me an idea of what to do with those control orbs lodged in my chest.
I was snapped out of my thoughts, however, when I felt a sudden tremor, followed a split second later by the sound of an explosion. I tensed and waited, and soon after that, I heard what could only be alarm sirens.
Hmm, I guess one of their experiments didn't go quite as planned. That or we're being attacked. I thought with a vicious grin on my face.
O', I'll get my revenge soon. If I was going to break out, now was the best time to try… but I still had to get out of my stupid cell.
And unfortunately, even with my newfound transforming skills, I was just as successful as last time. No matter how much I slashed, smashed, or stabbed at the door, the damn thing didn't budge. I was starting to consider trying even more extreme means before I heard something through the door. It was faint, but I swore I could hear slight shouting, impacts, and a few other things I couldn't really identify.
There was a moment of silence before a massive impact dented the door inwards. A second one followed it, and it bent even more. I managed to duck to the side of the cell before the third one hit, and the metal slab flew into the room. And standing right in the doorway was the woman from before, her first extended, breathing heavily and looking incredibly pissed.
I had no idea how she managed to get free or find my ce,ll given how I was unable to do so, 'Maybe if I had tried some of my more physically powerful transformations but most were inaccessible due to the height of the room', but I was not arguing with the miracle. I walked towards her and nodded. "Thank you. I hope you know how to get us out of here." I said, not being able to hold in the happiness in my voice. Now we could actually talk to each other.
She looked at my right arm for a brief second, confirming it was indeed me before speaking.
"Toresh nor cor nock nava sal voerkeni." She replied.
That… was very unhelpful, good to see that the translator function was working. And what even was it? Russian? Klingon? Well, looks like we'd have to stage a breakout from the lizard base using nothing but sign language, body language and pure vibes.
I gave her the 'lead on' gesture, seeing as she was probably a little more familiar with wherever we were than I was,s and she did just that, which resulted in me sprinting after her as she tore down the corridor with remarkable speed.
Although I might have been faster if I turned into one of my alien forms, I felt far more comfortable just running with human legs. I've already mentioned it, but it needs to be reinstated. For all I hate Tennyson for, I can't say that he wasn't in peak physical condition; the boy was literally dodging lasers while in his natural form. And I had a feeling that I would need every advantage I could get if I wanted to get out of here. Judging by the number of alarms going off, I had a suspicion that escape wasn't going to be easy.
And sure enough, after the woman led me through a number of corridors, we turned a corner and almost ran straight into a group of lizard people. There were five of them in total, and each was carrying a sort of strange thin rifle, with three slanted barrels and prongs sticking off of it. Perhaps some kind of taser or stun rifle? At least given the make and model of the weapon.
I dove to the side to take cover in a doorway as one started to level their weapon at me, a loud hum gave from the weapon and the air next to me suddenly spiked in temperature. A Laser?! Really? Why the hell would they use such things? wouldn't their main priority be getting us back in our cells?
My companion did not immediately take cover, and instead raised her hand towards them. Looking up at her with a raised brow, I watched on as the space around her hand seemed to ripple with green energy before several bolts or blasts of something streaked towards our captors. Most of the lizards managed to scramble out of the way, but one was too slow and took several shots, which detonated on contact. I might not be a foremost expert in the subject or even what kind of energy she was shooting, but I knew enough to know that the smoking body of the charred reptile was now dead.
I briefly turned my attention to the woman as I wondered why she hadn't shown that ability the last time we met, 'Maybe she couldn't control such abilities?' I thought before I refocused on our opponents and charged out of cover while activating my Ultimatrix, trying to close the distance before they realized it.
There was no way I was going to just hide and let my saviour only risk herself after she had already freed me. My body quickly began to change; in a flash, I was in my new body. An Arachnachimp.
In my new form, I was smaller, about half the size of my human form. I now had four arms, each having two fingers and a thumb, as well as the addition of four new eyes. My face is now more ape-like as a long prehensile tail bounced up and down.
Black fur covered my body save for my face, chest, upper arms, hands and now three-toed feet showing my now greyish skin. The fur on my head was slightly curved with the stripes in the middle of my hair, and the two stripes near the end of my tail were a light grey.
My Ultimatrix were now on two red sashes crossed over my chest in an "X" shape.
As I got closer, I noticed that one of them tried to reach down to a device attached to its arm. Dodging another laser, I raised my tail above my body and shot out a short stream of webbing from it and right onto the lizard's body with enough force to push it onto its back and sticking, Barney's fifth-removed cousin, to the floor and its arm to its chest.
Taking the opportunity, I jumped onto the lizard man next to it and started to maul it to death with surprising strength. Not something I was used to doing but it was something that I had to do. And this did remind me that even if I've overlooked some or most of my available transformations, that didn't make them any less powerful.
The remaining three reptilians looked on with a mixture of horror, fascination and studiousness as I rampaged. Though they quickly snapped out of this as they raised their weapons in my direction, as I looked over at them, blood, flesh and brain matter clinging to my body.
I ignored the disgusting matter as I revelled in their looks. I can't deny that this scene would look great on stage or even in a show or movie. Perhaps when I get back, I'll make a book or stage show about this.
Acting fast before I got blasted, I flipped over the first two and landed on the third scaley, digging my thumbs into its eyes as my tail curled and shot webbing into the face of the one behind me.
The one I was on began to fire shots in randomly. Injuring both of the remaining lizard people.
As my fingers dug deeper into the eyes of the reptile, I heard two sizzling shots hit the remaining lizard people, exploding on contact.
Most likely my ally, given the noise that the shots made. And just in time to as the one I was riding eventually passed out from the pain and fell onto its back. My ally, however, was still at it. Bashing in the reptile's heads with glowing green orbs around her fists, most likely made up of the same energy as her bolts, until they stopped moving.
Filling up its mouth and nose with webbing so it'd die in its sleep before I started to walk to the first one, I downed.
I… had definitely just killed two sapient beings. Taking a deep breath to calm my human self down as I whipped off the ick from my body. I knew I was going to have to deal with all of this later. My, wasn't that becoming the theme of my life as of late, but we needed to escape first. I didn't have the time nor right to freak out right now.
Seeing my companion start moving away, I quickly grabbed the device from the webbed-up lizard man before continuing after her.
_________
It wasn't long before we came to a much bigger set of doors than the ones we had just been passing before. The young woman stopped in front of them and raised her hands, another series of bolts rippling in my vision before they exploded against the metal. However, it didn't seem terribly affected by it. Barely an inconvenience for it. Perhaps they could rip through it with time but as of right now, they were too weak.
She roared in frustration as her fists smashed into the door, but it was a lot sturdier than the one to my cell. Actually... now that I think of it... couldn't I have phased through the door? I rubbed my chin in thought as I mulled it over. Would they have the technology to stop me? I mean, I have a variety of transformations that can use different forms of phasing or intangibility.
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You know what? I'm not going to think about that right now.
After a few more tries I held out my hand to get her to stop, to which she frustratingly relented. After a few moments of investigating the area, I identified what seemed to be a control panel next to it. Quite convenient but that's just me being cynical.
Without pause, I detransformed and started to type onto the panel. It wasn't anything that complicated. I wasn't familiar with the systems but the language was similar enough to some other species, at least when it comes to the characters, that I was able to navigate it.
It was… difficult to understand even when I turned my hands into those of a Galvan Mechamorphs; my hands now nanite melding into the machine; crimson-red and black lines appeared on it as did my hands. Still, I pushed deeper and deeper, trying to understand as much as possible of this new language and push further into its inner workings to get the door open.
And sure enough, with the next button press, the door opened, revealing a wide, circular room with a number of consoles lining the walls, and several lizard men looking at us in surprise. Didn't they have security cameras and systems? How did they not know we were right outside? Surely they would have gotten some kind of notification.
The young woman strode into the room, her hands rippling with a green glow as she extended them towards them. "Koreshik na mor t'alc! Ta'l Vaashen!"
I walked up beside her, arms returning to normal as I put them in my pockets. I couldn't help but smirk at the situation. "I suggest you all evacuate before you become a splatter on the wall."
Could they understand me? Probably not, but I couldn't help myself.
As it turned out, these particular ones were not the security forces like the ones previously being dressed completely differently and all. And it didn't take too long for them to flee from our presence as fast as their legs and loping gait would allow.
After they were gone, the woman walked to a console on the far end of the room, pressing buttons and tapping at panels as I looked up at the panels. I had no idea what she was doing as I was focused on the screens, and different camera feeds were shown on the monitors. However, she wasn't at it for long before she let out a grunt of frustration and stepped back before looking at me. "Te lai tor?" She said as she pointed at the console.
Understanding the request, I walked forward and re-transformed my hands into those of a Galvanic Mechamorphs, becoming nanites once again. Once more thick crimson-red and black circuitry lines appeared on my hands, changing as they ran over the opposite colour. Turning red when on the exterior of my body and black on the interior.
I placed my hand on the device, this time melding my hand with it much more smoothly than the last time, as I was now far more familiar with the technology. Whether or not that helped, though, I found myself reeling slightly as my mind connected. I had thought the door was complicated, but this was a whole order of magnitude more complicated, though nothing that someone of my calibre couldn't figure out.
I did, however, feel the beginnings of a headache as I was bombarded with information, sensations, and ideas that I could barely parse. I was looking at a puzzle that I could barely understand, let alone solve.
"Vaen? Ce'lca orthos?" The woman next to me asked.
"Hey, this is actually a lot more complicated than it looks, ok? And I don't see you doing anything." I said back, slightly agitated while thinking if I should just fully turn into a Galvanic Mechamorph to speed things up.
"Tol'rack mel. Tornesh na reima!"
I just ignored her insane rambling as I tried to navigate the systems and layout of wherever we were to see if there were escape pods or a way for us to get out of here. Or at least a better understanding of where the hell we were at the very least.
Looking over to her slightly, I could tell from her stance that she was frustrated, that she wanted to get out of here now. She looked between me and the door, hesitation easily seen in her green eyes, and, I can't lie, a small bit of fear ran through me. Would she just up and leave me? At that moment, I expected that she would either do just that or start yelling at me more in a language I couldn't understand to do... something.
What I didn't expect however, was for her to suddenly grab the back of my head and mash her lips against my own.
I froze, all of the thoughts and processes running through my mind suddenly coming to a halt at the contact. I felt something ripple through me from the point of contact, like an imagined electric jolt running through my body, and the machine in my chest rumbled to life. And perhaps that sensation shook something loose in me because after I felt a moment of lightheadedness, I got a clearer view of the console's systems.
Her solid emerald green eyes and darker green iris staring into my own red ones. As I stood absolutely dumbfounded in place as our lips separated. My brain trying to wrap around and understand what just happened.
"Take control of the security if you can, and try to make your escape. I must go back to save my sister." She said as she rose into the air, her hair trailing off into fire around her as she pulled away from me. A second later she shot off back through the door we came from and disappeared out of sight.
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What.