WormXWere Part 2 | Rated M

So, how do we start this? Like, just jump in with the characters in their cells/other forms of confinement?

Note: This is rated M for major violence, nudity, swearing, and possible romance, drugs/alcohol/tobacco, or other adult concepts.

((Sure, I suppose. Should we put up character forms, or anything?))

If you want. I wouldn't mind either way.

((Alright. I suppose that we can get started, then! You want to start, or should I?))

((I'll start. I have to go to work soon.))

"Scalpel."

...

"Hand me that."

"He's waking. We'll have to finish for today."

"What? ...Alright. Wheel him back to his cell."

Blurred shaped moved in front of his eyes. Lights came and went, piercing him, till he shifted to his side. He regretted it instantly. A horrible pain rang out, and a hand pushed him back into his former position. He shut his eyes and let it happen.

Some time later, he woke up in his cell. He was laying on a small cot, facing the steel bars. He could see "scientists" and armed guards pacing back and forth. Other creatures looked out of their cells, and any who came too close were zapped with a cattle prod. They screamed and shouted for help, but no one listened.

Lambda tipped his head to the side and looked at his new wound. This "surgery" was in his side, where a kidney would be on a human. The incision was large and painful, but properly sealed. At least they bothered to stave off infection. His immune system wouldn't stand a chance against this Earth bacteria.

Someone else was returning from "surgery". The humanoid-thing directly across from his cell. He shakily stood and hobbled over to the bars and watched. One of the scientists was there, with five armed guards as usual. The scientist injected her (I'm assuming your character is a girl) with something, then took an empty needle and drew some blood. Then they left, locking the cell on their way out.

When the guards left, he moved closer to the bars to look at her. She seemed to be stable, but what did they give her? Painkillers? They gave that stuff out like candy...But they also gave other things. Drugs, viruses, weird chemicals...

"Hey! The human-like one!" Lambda called. Most guards didn't care if they spoke, as long as they were not "causing trouble". Whatever that means...

"This one, the Vortigaunt, wishes to know if the human-like one is feeling healthy. This one was taken to "surgery" too." He finished. His grasp on English was...awkward, to say the least, but understandable.

((Thank you! And yes, she's a girl.))

Words, for her, were no longer words, no longer sounds.

For her, as she was half-dragged, half-carried into the cold, unyielding, steel womb, the words, and the beeping, and the screams, they were jellyfish. Jellyfish of sound, borne on the aether around her, delicate bells pulsating with color, to the rhythm of the cacophony about her.

She was watching them, in a strange way. Half-open eyes, bleary from the opiates, as well as pain, watched the drifting jellies. She wished she was among them, drifting mindlessly through their own world. They did not feel pain. They did not feel fear. They knew nothing of the sharp, needling pain of the surgeon's blade, of the harsh, chemical smell combining with the stink of excrement, and the stench of fear, of the bite of electrical vipers, of the neverending agony of existence in the cages.

She did. She knew intimately all of these sensations. She knew the bite of the surgeon's scalpel. She knew the bite of the prods used to make the creatures of this place submit. She knew the screaming, and the stenches, and the tortured wails, and she knew the velvet oblivion of the opiates that were given out like candy to small children.

Now, as she drifted in the alternating waves of surgical agony and narcotic bliss, she felt the cold steel against her body, the womb-cage welcoming her home. She did not like the cage, did not like the touch of its embrace, but there was little she could do to maneuver; she was aware of the grip of the true-humans on her arms, legs, and neck, pinning her where she was as the white-coat injected something that burned like fire in her veins. The white-coat then drew scarlet ichor from her arm, already covered in needle tracks from many prior injections and withdrawals. It was a painful exercise in futility to struggle against those who pinned her, and she knew that it would get her precisely nowhere she wanted to be.

So, she laid still, submitting until the hands, and medical instruments, were removed from her body. Hearing the clicking lock of the cage snapping behind her, Svenja fully opened one bleary eye, the jellyfish slowly fading in harsh florescence to reveal the true room. Slowly, after she realized that she had not been moved to an unfamiliar location, she opened the other eye, twin storm-grey orbs looking out at the world, bleary with pain, and heavy medication. She was aware of new aches and pains in her body and bones, of the feeling of changes to her facial bones and cartilage, of the dull agony that was her skull clamping around her brain as dehydration set in again. She just didn't care at this point about the pain. Her surroundings were proving much more interesting than the pain.

As Svenja surveyed the room, she saw, across the walkway-hall from her, another cage's inhabitant shuffling over to the bars, then croak something out to her in English that was passable enough to be understood by someone who was sedated. She wasn't honestly sure, though, whether or not the inhabitant really had brown-green skin, along with those oddly-glowing eyes, or whether that was just the drugs in her system.

It took her a moment to process the words that had been thrown at her like darts, her ears moving and twitching to catch all of the sounds. Finally, when she felt like she could reply, Svenja slowly levered herself up into a more comfortable sitting position, before grasping a steel bar with a powerful hand to haul herself to her feet. Shaking for a moment, she returned the creature's gesture of getting closer to speak, and shuffled forward.

"I'm assuming you mean me," she called back, a wry smile crossing her face. She was aware that she wasn't like most of the other humans that worked in this place anymore; none of them had the stocky, muscle-bound figure, or the bristly strip of fur over their shoulders and down their spines, to speak nothing of the thick, dark, soles of her feet. It was this knowing that amused her enough to smile.

"Healthy is a matter of opinion, at this point," Svenja continued, wavering a little as she stood, deciding to hold onto the bars with both hands at this point. "I'm not dead, if that's what you mean." Pausing for a moment, Svenja's brow furrowed as she realized that she had no idea what a Vortigaunt was, although she guessed it wasn't human.

"Wait, what did you call yourself? A Vortigaunt? What is that?" she asked, figuring that it was better to ask a stupid question than to live in ignorance.

The furry human looked rather woozy at first, but then pulled herself up. She responded in a dry tone, but with a smile. Lambda thought that was a good thing. That's why humans smiled, right? To signify good things? His mouth could not form that shape.

He came loser to the bars as the nearest guard left. They wouldn't come closer for a minute. Then he would have to back away again, or risk getting tazed.

The human asked what a Vortigaunt was. He nodded a bit, understanding her confusion. They were rare in this universe, "This one is a Vortigaunt, like the female speaking is a human." He explained.

Watching out of the corner of her eye as the nearest guard walked away to harass more of the inhabitants of this wing, Svenja followed the Vortigaunt's lead, and took a step closer to the bars, using them to support her weight.

As the creature across the hall explained, barely, what a Vortigaunt was, Svenja tilted back her head, a growling bark of laughter escaping her throat. "Human? Oh, I do dearly wish!" she chuckled, the wry smile on her weary face again, eyes concealing a deep sadness far beneath.

"I haven't been human for a long time, since... Well, since as far back as I can remember. I don't remember much from before here," she continued, the sadness from her eyes sweeping across her face, her ears drooping slightly, a disconcertingly inhuman motion.

Sighing, Svenja looked up, meeting the odd eyes of the Vortigaunt across the polished, antiseptic floors. "Do you have a name, Vortigaunt?" she asked, managing to shake the sadness from her face, but not from her eyes.

Lambda tilted his head to the side, confused. What did she mean, not human? Of course she was human, just not completely, "That one is human. Not a full human, but human." He said.

She looked sad. Or maybe constipated; hard to tell on such a different face. Hers was so...flat, like a wall, or a painting with no perspective. Faces should be more spherical, like his. And what was that triangle in the center? He didn't have one of those...Though it was kinda cute, in an ugly sort of way. Like seeing a cute fish. *

A name? What's a name? Wait, he remembered something about them...An individuals title. The humans explained this consept to his species. They had never heard of such things. The humans gave them names, too. His was Lambda, after the symbol of the resistance.

"Lambda. This one is named Lambda. What is the human-like girl's name?" He responded.

((* That's how I feel about the Vortigaunts. I figured one might feel the same way about humans. ^^ Especially noses, since they don't have any.))

"Nice of you to say so," Svenja chuckled, that sad, wry smile crossing her face again. Even though the brief smile had, most assuredly been a smile, there was no joy in its flickering appearance, only a sarcastic mirth that passed poorly as happiness.

In the long pause that followed her question, Svenja watched as the Vortigaunt's odd face twitched and moved, alien musculature moving in minute ways, presumably as the creature thought about the question. Grey, glazed eyes watched pupil-less ovoid ones, seemingly fascinated by watching the Vortigaunt's tiny movements.

"Lambda," she murmured after a moment, blinking as she rolled the ancient Greek word off of her tongue, releasing it into antiseptic air. "My name's Svenja." Once, a surname might have resided proudly after Svenja's first, but those times were long gone, lost in a haze of pain, and narcotic-induced hallucinations.

((Makes sense to me, in an odd way. Kinda like cute planktonic life, I suppose!))

((In one scene, you can see a whole bunch of Vorts doing different things in a rebel base. Some wear lab coats and do science, some wear chef hats and make food, and a couple were wearing mechanic belts and working on cars. It was so cute! Like this video on YouTube, where a cat is in a bee suit and riding a Roomba, and then a Jack Russel Terrier dressed in a shark suit gets on another Roomba, and the Roombas bounce off of eachother and the cat and dog playfully swipe at eachother!  ))

Svenja, huh? What an odd name. He wasn't sure he could pronounce it properly. Oh well.

The guard walked by. Lambda rushed to the back of his cell. The guard looked at him and chuckled. He turned away and looked at Svenja, raising his electric billy club preemptively. Lambda scooted a little closer and watched with wide eyes. What was gonna happen to her?

((Weird... I can't imagine a Vortigaunt in a lab coat, I really can't. It's kind of like trying to see Hircine in a suit and tie. It just doesn't compute for me!
I've seen that one!))

Catching movement out of the corner of her eye, Svenja turned to face the guard that had just scared Lambda into scuttling away. As the human chuckled in that annoyingly-supercilious way that guards and goons everywhere have perfected, something small, but very important, in her subconscious decided to snap.

Instead of backing away from the guard and his sparking weapon, she stayed where she was, a low growl filling the airwaves. She had locked eyes with the guard, storm-grey eyes flashing with internal lightning. Hands that had held the steel bars of the cage were now curled into half-fists, and her lips had pulled back to reveal canine teeth far too large for a normal human's dentition.

As she continued to stare at the guard, Svenja's growling kept getting louder, an animal sound stretching back to primal days, days when that growl spelled the end of the line for a human. Her skin seemed to be darkening, although a casual observer wouldn't have been able to tell why...

((They have to leave them open, cause of the third arm. It's a little weird!))

Lambda's eyes grew wide. What was she thinking? Was she high!? That could be true...Sometimes they test hallucinogens on the "patients." The guard seemed to think the same thing, too. He stared at her with this "are you serious!?" face, then laughed and trust his billy-club at her abdomen. Lambda visibly winced. He couldn't watch. He shut his eyes and covered them with an arm, waiting to hear the inevitable sound of pain.

((Yeah, that sounds more than a bit weird...))

Usually, when a 'patient' was accosted by a club-wielding guard, the resulting sound was a high-pitched wail, or scream, or, very occasionally, a rather disgusting death rattle that echoed down the corridors. Usually, the scream was followed by the dull thump of meat hitting metal, and a guard's vague chuckle, followed by retreating footsteps.

The noise that erupted from Svenja's throat was none of those. The sound that split the beeping of the monitors, the footsteps of the guards, and the yowling of other 'patients' was a roar, a true roar. It was a sound of vocal cords stretching to their completeness, then going farther, of jaws straining against connective tissue in an effort to release the sound. The sound was primal, wild, a sound from the halls of human memory, reaching back to the time of flickering flames on cave walls, and spearpoints tempered in the fire.

As this mighty sound echoed down the hallways like the wrath of a thunderstorm, Svenja's body convulsed again and again, her body one with the electricity, the voltage rolling through her form like a tidal wave. The darkening of her skin continued, its cause becoming rapidly apparent; fur, long and dark, was growing over her body, even as bones, muscles, and sinew grew, stretching and changing her form into something far different than the humanoid female she had been.

The transformation, sped up by the trauma of the electricity flowing through Svenja's body, did not last very long. The cage that held her now seemed far too small to encompass its occupant, and with very good reason, for its occupant was now truly enormous.

Where Svenja had grasped the bars, there now stood a bear-like humanoid, a mountain of cinnamon-chocolate fur and muscle, studded with ivory-dagger teeth, and obsidian claws. The creature's eyes were closed as the last vestiges of transformation pain washed over it, and it was still barely identifiable as female beneath the thick fur. Suddenly, one eye snapped open, revealing one angry, storm-grey eye, followed shortly by the other...

A horrifying sound filled the halls, quieting all guards and "patients". Lambda had never heard such a sound before. It was not pained, or afraid...It was enraged. A sound of pure anger, that filled all who recognized it with fear.

But not him. His instincts were very different. They had different triggers, different urges, and different beginnings. His primal enemies made high-pitched noises, or none at all. Lambda felt safe to open his eyes to see the state that Svenja was in.

Svenja was...gone. Replaced by a wall of fur. The guard stared in pure terror. She's going to kill the guard. This was his chance. Lambda started to build power in his hands, stealing electricity from nearby objects--the lights, the billy club, the very air--forming green arcs. As soon as it was charged, he fired at the guard, stealing his very strength. The rush hit him fast, and he set to work on breaking free of his cage. Soon more guards would flood the area and attempt to stop them.

Lambda was, unsurprisingly, correct. It was Svenja's intention to eviscerate the hapless warden in front of her, a task for which this new body was supremely well-designed to do.

Even as the Vortigaunt began to vampirize the electricity in the room, massive paws had reached around the guard's head and shoulders, pulling the human roughly towards the dripping maw of the were-bear, the creature ignoring the howls of pain as the guard's collarbone snapped. Just as Lambda was taking the life-power of the guard, the killing blow came, and the copper-iron scent of blood blossomed in the air, mirroring the stain that grew on the floor like some obscene flower.

The ripping and tearing sounds that followed the initial burst of blood were horrible enough, but the crunching that followed would probably have been enough to send most humans either into shock, or running down the hallways as fast as possible. Looking up from her kill, her maw bloodied, Svenja's eyes still held that pure and primal rage as she beheld the gathering guards, another low growl growing in her throat.

Out of the corner of her eye, Svenja saw Lambda beginning to break out of his cage, and a similar impulse triggered somewhere in that rage-bound brain. With another growl, the were-bear began to push with mighty paw-hands at the door to the cage, a wall of muscle and fur pounding on fallible hinges. It was rather unsurprising as to what the result was, and it was not very long until a living nightmare stood upon the formerly-immaculate floors, grey eyes burning with fire, mouth curled into something terrifyingly like a smile...

A dozen--possibly more--guards gathered around Svenja's cell. She broke out just as some tried to break in-a task which was quickly stopped as the broken bars impaled the humans. The others--armed with sparkling clubs and small pistols--attempted to stop her by alternating between shooting and jabbing. Neither worked very well, though, as the fur seemed to absorb most of the blows.

Lambda, though, only saw this out of the corner of his left eye. He was busy attempting to heat the bars with electricity, and some heat he stole from the air. Heat itself was very hard to control, so he moved slowly. But, he managed to get a nice red sheen to the steel. Now, to cool it and make it brittle. This was easier than heating; he simply stole the energy from the atoms. The metal lost its red tinge and turned a slightly darker grey than before.

Lambda smiled a Vortigaunt smile; a glow in the eyes and an upward turn of the ear-like organs and teeth. Vorts were notoriously weak, but there was one physical trait they had that surpassed all others; the kick. Their pseudo 'toes' are pure bone, and one swift kick could kill. Lambda launched such a kick at the bars; one, twice, third time's the charm! The bars broke and he was free...For now.

Even as she was shot at, and jabbed with the sparking clubs, Svenja continued on with her unintentional diversion. Only the shots were actually making it through the fur to pierce the tough hide, and the number of shots that hit her was few enough for her to ignore.

Her assault back was less easily ignored. Massive paw-like hands swept across the crowd of gathered wardens and guards, flattening or occasionally decapitating members of the tightly-packed huddle of humanity. Svenja's fur was covered in blood now, some her's, most not, the sticky, red ichor dripping into foul puddles on the floor. Baring bloody teeth, she plunged into the mass of guards as she dropped onto all fours, lashing out with fangs and claws. Death blossomed out from around her, blood streaking the walls like banners for some horrific party, and vast clawmarks gouged into the walls for decoration for the same cause.

Svenja's attack was quick, quite vicious, and enabled Lambda's escape to be completely ignored by the guards in the area. By the time he had made his escape, she had reared back into her usual stance, and was watching him with an uncertain look in her storming eyes. She wasn't sure if he should be considered a threat, like the one she had so terrifyingly dealt with just moments ago.

Lambda caught one second of Svenja's attacks before his stomach churned and he knew he couldn't watch. He shut his eyes and held an arm over them, wincing a little at the sounds, and the suspiciously warm fluid that hit him. Once the noises were gone, he slowly removed his arm.

A huge brown beast stood before him, covered in blood and singed fur, watching with familiar stormy eyes. Lambda met her uncertain gaze. His heart pounded. Where was Svenja? Her eyes were there...but not her. He could sense it. Her essence was gone...changed with her body.

She might think Lambda a threat...Not good. He had some experience with frightened animals, but they were reptilian or insects. This was a mammal, something completely different. But, he had to give his best shot.

He took a deep breath and pulled it into a special sac in his chest and started singing. It was nothing like humans singing; no, this was a low vibration, a loud purr. He moved his voice up and down, all while slowly stepping closer to Svenja. Finally, he put one hand on her stomach and tried to push her into a sitting position.

((This is the singing I was talking about. Except this guy is really, really old and starts coughing. Skip to 0:57.))

((Freeeeaaaaky. But awesome!))

Meeting the Vortigaunt's many eyes with her own, Svenja drew in a large breath through her sensitive nose, filtering the air for any signs that this strange creature before her was an immediate threat. Finding none of the scents she was looking for, the werebear lowered her upper lip, hiding much of her ivory fangs, mercifully covering the scraps of cloth, and chunks of meat, that had gotten stuck between her teeth.

As Lambda began singing, or at least the Vortigaunt's closest equivalent to singing, the massive creature's ears perked up, all of her attention focused on the one making the strangely hypnotic sound. With her head scraping against the ceiling, Svenja drew closer to the Vortigaunt, her storm-grey eyes holding more curiosity than animal rage.

Lambda's attempt at pushing Svenja down into a seated position, however, would never quite work, due to major sizing issues. Even with the tall ceilings of the lab wing, Svenja's head still touched the drop-in tiles; if she had been on all fours, Svenja would have been perfectly capable of carrying Lambda on her back. Growling a little as the Vortigaunt pushed on her, Svenja stared down at the alien, before sitting down of her own volition.

((It reminds me of the Hypno-Toad's noise mixed with a cicada mating call. Weeeiiieerrrdd!))

Lambda soon realized he was not strong or big enough to push Svenja over. Still, he kept at it. Her growl startled him and his singing faltered. He continued, though, and stopped pushing on her. He slowly lowered his voice, minute by minute, until he quieted.

Lambda took a breath and gave Svenja a Vort-smile, "There. Is the Svenja calm now?" He asked as softly as a Vort could. Their voices tend to cut through the air.

((I can see that, yeah!))

Visibly relaxing as Lambda stopped pushing on her, Svenja sat quietly, sitting like a true bear would, her eerily-human eyes watching the Vortigaunt carefully. When he stopped singing, she shook her head a little, like she was attempting to clear her head.

Focusing again on Lambda, she gave him a wide, vaguely terrifying, smile, showing off most of the teeth in her mouth. Pausing for a moment, she closed her eyes, her attention focusing inwards. The fruit of her attention was shown a moment later, as she opened her eyes and said a single word.

"Maybe," Svenja replied, as softly as she could, her new voice putting her in the same place as Lambda, where whispering was concerned. She paused for a moment, then spoke again, a note of something sounding like urgency in her voice. "We leave..." she growled, her hackles starting to rise; she had caught the scent of more guards, this time accompanied by scientists who knew the secrets of how to recapture them, converging upon their position.

"Maybe." She said. Lambda wasn't sure how to feel about that. Still, she wasn't killing him, or acting like...whatever she was know. She had retained some humanity.

Then she started to grow angry again. Lambda took a step back. Was she going to attack? No...She spoke again, this time ordering them to leave. Trouble must be coming, and she can sense it. He could, too, but he would have to meditate to truly know what was there.

"Yes." He responded, and turned to look down the hallway. There were two ways to go; left or right. Both headed...somewhere. He remembered coming from both ways after a dissection. But which way would lead to the exit?

Oh well. No time to pick. Lambda started running to the left and turned down the hall. At the far end, past many more cells, were more guards; this time better equipped. These guards had armor and weapons; what type he did not know, nor did he want to think about it. Lambda instinctively charged electricity in his hands; the same green arcs that would steal energy for him to use. He would need as much energy as he could get to survive this attack.

Giving a short barking growl of acceptance as Lambda replied positively to her command to leave, Svenja waited for a moment before loping after him, her long strides covering the ground easily. She didn't particularly care that she was leaving a trail of blood down the hallway; stealth was her last concern at the moment.

Pausing as she smelled the metal-fire smell of gunpowder up ahead in the hallway, and as Lambda began to charge up his own unique attacks, Svenja seemed restless, shifting from foot to massive foot, her paw-like hands stretching, as if she was anxious to charge ahead. Deciding that Lambda was taking far too long for her liking, she moved past him, her bulk moving with surprising grace.

Growling softly, she moved towards the assemblage of guards, the claws on her feet clicking menacingly on the floor. Somewhere in her tortured brain, neurons gave the signal to charge to her limbs, and Svenja charged ahead without warning, her jaws stretched wide, claws ready to rend and tear, a terrifying roar echoing afresh down the halls.

Lambda took nearly fiveteen seconds to charge his attack. By that point, the guards were loading their weapons and starting to charge at him. At the same time that he fired, Svenja entered the hall. She ran straight at the mob and roared, buying Lambda a few seconds to attack. He fired on two armed guards, vampirizing their energy. That energy hit him so hard he felt like he could do anything.

The guards were surrounding Svenja now, trying to take her down with their sheer numbers. Lambda charged on them started clawing at their easiest weak point; their necks.





((Blegh. Post sucks.))