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Prologue - Trapped in the Gullet
"R9 to RX, can you hear me?" crackled a wavering voice over a heavily distorted intercom.
"Loud and clear, Delta." Snorted a slightly sardonic reply.
"R9 to R13, holding up alright, Daniel?"
"Positive. The Cerberos stands ready for order to retreat."
Pitch blackness had a new name as the R-Forces battled what they hoped would be the Last Dance. Three busted up fighters dangled in the emptiness of another dimension, their forms barely visible against the nothingness.
"Sir, I'm not sure if we should hang around for much longer. I don't think the Bydo Core survived that."
The object in question, the Bydo Core, was humming in place, suspended on tearing tentacles before the three ships. Inside the 'belly' of the odd ball was a glowing orange sphere of pure energy. It flashed up brightly for a short period of time, illuminating the ships. The R9 Delta, with its six small wings, looked about ready to fall apart at the seams as it sparked violentlv. The RX Albatross, with a reflective mirror coating on its armor, seemed a little less beaten, though its top-mounted Wave Cannon was destroyed from an overcharge. The menacing black and red R13 Cerberos barely even glimmered in the flash of light, its paintjob made for stealth work in inky blackness.
"R13 to R9. I think it's over."
"Wait on that..."
The core flashed a few more times, and then the skin that held it together split, its flesh disintegrating and freeing the ball of energy. After a few moments, it dispersed into several spheres of yellow flames.
"Alright!" Came a fuzzy comm message from the beaten R9, "Let's scat!"
With that, the engine systems of the three ships lit up with a brilliant light, and they sped on past the balls of energy, which flew off in separate directions.
"RX, listen to me. Your Wave Cannon's fried, so you won't be able to get out of here yourself... Your reflective coating will come in handy... try to tail me as closely as possible, so that you can escape from this damned place when I fire my gun." Came another comm from the Delta.
"I copy that. I would have suggested it myself if you hadn't beaten me the transmission button," sneered the RX's pilot.
"R9 to R13. You can get out on your own. Drop back a bit so that your cannon won't hit us when we try to get through."
"Gotcha."
Bright blue droplets of energy started to form around the R9 Delta, drawing in to its cannon like dewdrops sliding into a funnel. The Albatross kicked up its speed and pulled up right behind the charging Delta, and indeed, the RX's mirror armor had the slight advantage of throwing off some of the force from the Delta's thrusters. The blue energy glimmered for a few moments, the sheer amount of energy causing ripples in the dimensional fabric...an image of Earth shimmered into view beyond the shimmering veil of darkness. With a burst, the Delta fired its gun, releasing such a massive amount of wave energy that it pierced the very dimensional wall, creating a large tear. With a boost of speed, both the R9 and the RX passed, through, though the latter only barely as the rip quickly sealed itself.
Under the black canopy of the R13, the young man Daniel sighed and checked the flickering screens inside his cockpit. It was his turn to get out. Though his voice came out strong and firm over the telecomm, his expression was wrought with quite the opposite. He glanced down to his side once as his hands expertly handled the craft. Sitting beside him was a framed photograph of him and a beautiful woman that could only be his wife. They were hugging each other and looking at the camera, expressions of joy on their faces.
"It's my turn now. I'm coming home," he sighed to himself as he began to charge his ship's Lightning Wave Cannon. He ran the orders given to him through his head once more to make sure. He was told to charge his cannon to the absolute highest, despite computer warnings. Only that amount of energy would be able to break the ship free from the Bydo Dimension.
Taking in a deep breath, Daniel started charging the cannon, eyes fixed on the meters and statistics glowing upon the monitor in front of him. The meter for energy levels rose, numbers flickering away at high speeds. He waited, intently, for the energy bar to flash red...
--WARNING--
The screen suddenly flashed with a horrifying message.
--Unidentified organisms in Wave Cannon Discharger. Releasing stored energy-
"No!" Daniel suddenly choked. It wasn't high enough! It couldn't be released now! But he wasn't given enough time to be horrified at this when the screens suddenly and simultaneously flickered out, bright white sparks flying from some of the cockpit instruments. Before he knew it, Daniel was hit with something that felt like a high charge of electricity being forcefully jammed down his spine. Then he blacked out.
-----
"Any news from the R-Forces, captain?"
A few men wearing military uniforms gathered around a blonde-haired man sitting at a computer. The screen showed various statistics, with windows popping up and closing every two seconds.
"It looks like Hiroshi and the R9 have gotten out... And Michael and the RX have gotten out as well! Oh dear, the RX lost its cannon... that must have been a risky but necessary move, to try tailing the R9 out of the Bydo Dimension... But I don't see Daniel..." The man at the computer sat and tapped a pen against his teeth, staring at the monitor. After a few more moments, no sign of the R13 came through.
"Oh god... He must have been trapped!" cried out a burly man that was standing behind the guy at the computer. "The poor sap! I knew we shouldn't have sent him in there, his ship was too unstable to go much further than the space station! And he was so young, with a wife, too!"
Putting his face in his palm, the large guy turned away, looking angry with himself. The man at the computer let out a raspy grumble and shook his head.
"Damn! This is most unfortunate... While I mourn greatly for the pilot, it is also dangerous to have that ship left with the Bydo... We can't risk them figuring out how our R-Types work, or they may discover ways to counter them, and they're out last line of defense..."
"What do you suggest, captain?" Growled a lanky general that stood behind the computer chair.
"Open a quick dimensional rip..." The captain muttered incoherently for a while, shaking his head some more.
"And then?" questioned the burly man.
The captain paused for a short while longer.
"... Nuke them."
Chapter 1 - Narrow Avoidance
"... Nuke them," buzzed a voice through a strange, brain-like fleshy device. Sitting on opposing sides of the odd apparatus were a pair of extremely...interesting organisms. One was a black blob of semi-solid flesh, with a flashing pair of tiny, glowing cyan wings, a trio of flaming orange eyes, numerous spikes jutting from strange places, and a scorpion-like sting-tipped tail. It was rolled up into a ball on top of a 'stool' that was made from raised flesh, and was staring at the brainy object.
On the other side was something even more disturbing. It was what appeared to be a red xenomorphic skull, with a pair of large and piercing blue eyes. Coming from the skull base was a long 'tail' of what appeared to be spiny red vertebrae. At the very tip of this were some exposed nerve cords. Its general appearance looked like someone cruelly ripped some creature's head off, with the entire spinal cord with it. It balanced, skillfully, on its long neck/tail/spine as it stared at the brain thing.
"Most peculiar," mused the spinal monster. "They've lost an R-Type in the Dimension..."
"It is very intriguing, Professor wormie... It might even be useful, if we can get it out of there before the nukes hit. Think of what we could do against the Militants if we get that and find out how to work it effectively!" squeaked the blob in a surprisingly high-pitched voice. The skull snorted.
"Oh yes. We could even use it as grounds for our talks with the humans... But we need to GET it before that sector of the Bydo Dimension gets nuked. Micahan! What do you say about that?" The skull rocked back and forth slightly as it turned around, addressing something that stood behind it. Said creature was a 32-foot tall pile of strangely twisted purple flesh, with many eyes of different colors glowing from multiple heads that dotted its form. It blinked a few times, then just let out some low-pitch garbles.
"Oh, forget it. I forgot that you never talk unless you think of something on your own," the skull creature sighed. It turned to the black sludge on the other side of the brain telecom device.
"Mendelleaous. I want you to gather seven Cansers and a Gauper. Tell them to get in there as quickly as possible and steal away the R-Type. It could be a great asset to us. But send them off on their own, and don't go with them. Being the last of your kind, it would be very detrimental to us if you didn't make it out in time. We only have enough energy to transport them to and back from the dimension once. The rift cutter will need to charge for a while longer to do any more traveling of that sort."
The blob, Mendelleaous, nodded sharply, then rolled into a tight ball and bounced off.
------
"Captain Jensen, sir! The nuke it ready and waiting in the launching bay! It can be launched any second now!" Reported a youth that looked like a trainee. He made a somewhat haphazard salute as the blonde Captain Jensen nodded and sent him off.
"Well, the quicker the better. When the dimension is opened up for its short time, look for signs of the R13, and aim the nuke towards it. These tactical nukes aren't strong enough to blow up that entire damn dimension, and we're only trying to ensure that they don't get our R-Type. We don't have quite enough resources to send multiple nukes, so we can't afford to miss."
"Yes, sir!" The trainee scampered off to tell those launching the missiles.
"Gah... Damn kids," muttered Jensen as he slouched back and extracted a cigarette from his pocket, pulling out an intricate lighter and lighting it. Taking a long drag, he turned around to his computer, puffing a long plume of smoke at the monitor as he grumbled.
------
The pod chamber in the Bydo Dimension could be described, simply, as rows upon rows and columns upon columns of massive fleshy spheres suspended between the roof and ground by thick cords of muscle and sinew.
A glint of metal, unnatural in such a flesh-filled environment, sparkled from behind one of the giant pods. The shine belonged to a large robotic being, with an elongated head and a somewhat humanoid build. Instead of legs, it sat upon a platform covered in various directions by propulsion units. Its arms ended in small energy guns, and its single red ocular unit flashed a few times when it noted that the coast was clear.
"Move it, and scan for signs of the R-Type," came a mechanical voice from the robot. From behind other pods came other robots, identical to the first. "When you find it, open the rift and call in our Gauper. It's big enough to carry an entire ship of that size back."
After some searching and examining each pod, the various robots closed in towards the center of the chamber, one red ocular suddenly flashed blue.
"Picking up a signal," one robot, the one with the now blue eyepiece, paused in front one particularly large pod, "This must be it."
"Right," bleeped the first mechanoid, apparently the 'leader.' "Let's bust it open and get the ship out. We are running out of time."
The small force of armed machines encircled the pod, all running their scanners. One by one, all their ocular discs flashed blue. When they all verified the ship's location, all their 'eyes' flashed back to a glowing red, and they leveled their cannons. Each of them started to fire at the edges of the pod, trying to make some tears without damaging the precious vessel inside. Soon, enough rips were made in the flesh to show a glint of black metal.
Then the shrieks began... The pods, at feeling one of their own under attack, started to screech loudly, like an alarm.
"Quickly. Call in the Gauper. They'll find us any second now."
One of the robots started to click away at buttons on its wrist with a hand that sprouted from its gun-tipped arm. Not a second too soon, a massive beast trampled in between the pods and screeched to a halt by the circle of silver machines. It had a blade-like head with a single eye. Its arms were huge and muscular, contrasting the surprisingly and almost ridiculously small legs in the back. What stood out was the fact that its bone-matter and a few organs were showing through the creature's skin.
"Get the ship, Gauper. We need to get away as quickly as possible, before the nukes come, and before the Militants arrive."
Without uttering a word, the Gauper threw itself at the pod, using its massive claws on its arms to tear open what was left of the fleshy sphere. The coverings came away to reveal a very badly worn R13, covered in slime and gooping up wherever there happened to be openings in the armor structure. The vicious monster snagged the ship in its arms and, opening its rib-lined chest cavity, inserted the ship into itself. It couldn't carry the vessel in its arms, as it needed its arms for locomotion.
A large tear, at that moment, appeared amidst the large pods, showing open space and a faint outline of earth. Something sleek was headed through that rift, and at high speed.
"We're getting out of here now!" Shrieked the lead robot over the wails of the distressed pods. The other robots nodded and spun about, preparing to flee. The leader followed suit, flanked by the tremendous Gauper.
"Professor! Get us out of here!" The lead robot cried into its wrist.
A faint red aura surrounded the retreating figures. As they moved, the air around them began to ripple. They slipped into the folds of air and disappeared from the Bydo Dimension.
Three seconds later, the pod chamber was reduced to cinders.
Chapter 2 - Nearly Beyond Aid
"Okay, bring it in," the skull-and-spine professor nodded to the robotic Canser Drones, then looked to the Gauper. The professor started to garble something that was not any normal language, but the Gauper seemed to understand, and it opened its ribcage and removed the ship, placing it down on the mushy ground. The Professor nodded to it, and the Gauper slunk off.
"Very, very intriguing," reflected the professor as he inched up, caterpillar style, to the ship and examined it. "It looks pretty beaten, but it can probably be cleaned up. Mendelleaous! Come look at this piece of equipment!"
The black semi-solid blob bounced into the room at the mention of its name, and looked over the black and red ship with its three orange eyes.
"Ahh, yes, mister worm... It's a nice piece. But I wonder.... it was captured while fleeing.... Do you think that, perhaps, the pilot might still be inside?"
"I never thought of that!" Started the skull creature. It looked about, trying to find a way to get up to the canopy and find out how to open it...
"OW!" Yowled Mendelleaous suddenly, causing the Professor to whirl about so swiftly that he lost balance and fell over with a dull thud.
A large creature, looking like a seven-foot tall, four-legged, mutant cockroach, was hunched over Mendelleaous, with its very toothy maw chomped, playfully, over his scorpion-like tail.
"EVE!" Scolded the professor, in a very fatherly tone of voice, "EVE! Get out of here! You shouldn't be around when we're trying to get work done!"
Of course, Eve didn't understand this, and just continued to munch on Mendelleaous' tail, looking quite content with itself.
"Eve," boomed a loud, deep voice. "Get back over here. The Professor and Mendell are busy." The voice originated from Micahan, who finally decided to talk.
"Ohh, the nanny finally talks!" Spat Mendelleaous, who hated it when Micahan called him "Mendell." "It's such a pity that Eve only listens to you, and you rarely speak up, anyway. She should be locked up in some giant crib somewhere!"
"Calm down, Mendelleaous," assured the professor. "Eve's only a baby. She'll learn with time."
"Well, I KNOW she's only a baby, mister WORM," scowled Mendelleaous, "But her childish attempts at TEETHING really hurt!"
With those words, Eve lifted her head, pulling Mendelleaous into the air slightly before she opened her jaws and dropped him roughly. She trotted over to Micahan, her roach-like abdomen wagging like a dog's tail as she did.
"Agh... damn kids..." muttered Mendelleaous.
The professor went back to examining the R13... It wasn't a horribly gigantic machine. The cockpit was about as long as an average family car, and slightly narrower. Dropped unceremoniously on the ground by the Gauper, the canopy was relatively close to the ground. The skull-and-spine monster glanced about a bit, then inserted the nerve endings of his tail into the fleshy ground, and it raised up, giving him a nice view over the black canopy of the ship.
"Mendelleaous! Can you find a way to seep into the cockpit and find the controls to open the canopy? I want to see the pilot of this machine..."
"Sure thing, I can squeeze through just about anywhere," asserted the black blob, and he oozed up the side of the R13 and did just that. He closed his eyes tightly and flattened himself, using the force of his body to open the cockpit canopy just a crack large enough for him to get in... After a few moments, there came a hydraulic hiss and the canopy slid open smoothly.
"Oh man... Professor, you might not want to see this... It's pretty bad..." peeped Mendelleaous as he perched on the side of the cockpit. When the professor glanced into the ship, he was met by a less than pleasant sight.
The pilot was human, or at least, WAS human... He looked a little more dead, but his raspy breathing and open eyes proved a bit differently. His helmet was off, tossed to the side, most likely as a measure against suffocation in the cockpit. His face was somewhat handsome, or at least, was. His skin seemed to be either bubbling slightly, spotted with painful looking skin boils, or just simply melting off in some areas. His ebony hair was extremely grizzled, looking caked with blood and matted. The pilots eyes were open, wide open, in an expression of terror, and would have looked normal if they weren't glazed over with a sickly greenish film. Blood, both dried and fresh, seemed to be seeping out of his eyes, nose, and ears, as well as his mouth.
"Oh god. He must have been sitting in there for too long... Bydo energies and poisons contaminated him..." nodded the professor, mournfully, as he examined the dying pilot further. The pilot was decked out in a brownish red and cream-colored flight suit, armored here and there with silvery armor... Some pieces of armor, specifically those that were strapped to the thighs and upper arms, had been removed and tossed to the side, just like the helmet. The pilot's right hand was clamped like a vise over the armor on his chest, as if trying to pry it off. His other arm was dropped, stiffly, to his side, and was resting upon something next to him. Occasionally, he would arc his back or toss his head in a spasm.
"Poor guy... I usually never feel sorry for humans, but this one looks like he's really suffering..." murmured Mendelleaous, with a bit of real pity in his high voice. As if to punctuate that statement, the pilot suddenly moaned loudly, his open mouth gurgling up some quantities of blood, which seemed to be laced with other various fluids and contaminants. The professor winced, then shook his head. He slunk off the fleshy platform that he sat upon and entered the cockpit, examining the sickly human. With his tail, the professor attempted to see what his left hand covered, but his attempts were met with stiffness. The pilot's arm muscles were seized up, and had not the professor felt the yield of flesh under the flight suit, those arms could have been mistaken for those of a marble statue.
"What should we do with him?" inquired Mendelleaous, who cringed as the pilot convulsed again, puking up more blood, a whimper sounding from his throat as he did so. "Should we just kill him and save him this agony?"
The professor pondered the question for a moment, "We could... It would be most humane. But this man could... could be a great help in figuring out how to pilot this... I think we can save him, if we used some of our other resources..."
"Save him?" Boomed Micahan. Even though he was quite a ways from the R13, his many large eyes were of some use. "He is well beyond help at this point. He's been too infected with Bydo toxins. Unless, of course, Professor, you have... other plans..."
"Other plans?" Twitched Mendelleaous. "What do you mean... other plans..."
The Professor turned, his blue eyes meeting Mendelleaous' orange ones, "We can save him. He might not like it, but he might see our reasoning. There are other ways. I hope you remember." The professor stared into Mendelleaous' eyes for a while longer, and the black blob seemed to think it over before realizing what he really meant.
"O-oh..." he whispered, worriedly.
"Remember, Mendelleaous. The Gatekeeper came to us with a proposition not too long ago. He's sick of dying, remember? He may know how we can help this one, and may even lend a hand in the process, as well," the skull-headed Bydo reminded. "But first, we will need to get this man out of this cockpit.
"Yes, mister worm.."
The professor gazed, mournfully, down at the pilot as he went into another mild seizure, "You may not be liking this... But I hope you'll find it for the better when it comes...whoever you are."
Chapter 3 - A Harsh Blow
Numbness. That's all Daniel could feel when he awoke from what felt like a vivid and tortuous nightmare. Actually, he was just about numb all the way through, save for his head, neck, and stomach. His stomach felt strangely tight, as if he had just been horribly sick, and his head throbbed. His neck also felt extremely stiff, as his head was turned on its side, facing right. He noticed that, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring his head around to face up.
As his eyes fluttered open, he noticed that they didn't seem to want to focus... all he could see was a dull blur. Though he did come to the conclusion that he was lying flat on his back... which meant he was no longer in the cockpit of his ship. But how could that be? Was his ship somehow saved from the Bydo dimension, despite its mechanical failure during escape? He moaned and tried to sit straight up, but found that he was a bit too groggy, and he relaxed. As long as he wasn't in pain, pain which seemed too vivid earlier.
"I think he's coming around," came a voice unknown to Daniel, originating from his left. The voice was high and scratchy. It didn't sound even vaguely like any of the workers in the hospital wing, as he was often sent there whenever his ship malfunctioned during practice runs.
"Ah, good. It means he should be well enough. Hopefully he'll listen," murmured another voice, deeper and more professional, coming from his right. Again, it wasn't a voice he recognized, but it seemed to be somewhat more reassuring than the first. He opened his eyes again, trying to focus on the figure that spoke. But all he could see was a faint blur of red. He closed his eyes again.
"Whe...where am I?" Daniel managed to barely grind out his question. Every part of his body seemed either extremely tense or excessively limp, he couldn't tell. He was just so numb. He cringed and tried to at least lift one of his arms, but even that seemed impossible. It felt as if suffering from morning sickness back in high school, waking up early after two hours of sleep following a long night of cramming.
"He can speak! That's a good sign," sighed the voice to his right. Was it, indeed? Daniel couldn't see how so, even his few words were extremely forced. His limbs refused to move at his will. Even his tail didn't feel like giving as much as a twitch.
....His tail?
That was enough to jar a few more senses into Daniel's bogged up mind. His eyes snapped open, and due to the position of his head, the first thing he saw was a blue-eyed, mutated skull balanced precariously on a barbed spinal cord. His eyes snapped open wide at this, and he stared, horrified, at the thing in front of his face, frozen like that for a couple of seconds.
"Oh, his eyes are open again. That's very g-" the red creature wasn't allowed to finish his sentence as Daniel suddenly screamed.
"AAHHH!!! WHAT THE F-" Despite being unable to move just seconds earlier, it was probably the sheer force of will that caused Daniel to hoist himself upright with his arms, away from the monster. His blunt statement was cut short as he found himself falling a couple feet and onto something unpleasantly squishy.
"ARGH!" Squealed the high voice from Daniel's former left-side... It was now originating from somewhere underneath him, but Daniel didn't pay attention to that. He was still staring, wide-eyed, at the hopping skull, his mouth agape.
"That...wasn't the reaction I was hoping for," muttered the skull, rolling his eyes somewhat.
"You weren't supposed to SCARE him, you moron!" Came the other voice again, and this time Daniel noticed that it was, indeed, coming from underneath him. Taking his eyes off the red abomination for just a second, he noticed that he was sitting on a big black blob with little glimmering wings. One annoyed-looking orange eye popped up out of the gunk and glared up at Daniel. "Could you get off of me now?!"
Daniel really was at a loss of what to do, as panic was halting most of his mental activity. All he could manage were a short and terrified squeak and another burst of movement as he stumbled backwards, getting off the blob and eventually backing roughly into what seemed to be a wall.
"Wha-? Wha-? Aahhh!" Daniel managed to choke out as he continued to back against the wall, even though it was obvious that he couldn't go any further, his feet sliding uselessly against the ground as he attempted. He looked down at himself, and noticed that he was still wearing his flight-suit, minus the armor, though there was a strange set of flexible metal plating covering his stomach. But he noticed that his hands, devoid of gloves, were formed out of metal and wires twisted together smoothly with flesh, looking as a human's in shape, but ending in razor sharp claws. He also noticed that he did, as a matter of fact, own a long, whipping tail. It was split into segments, and looked like a strange mash of flesh and machinery, ending in a club with two large spikes and a jewel-like object at the tip.
"Thi-this can't be happening!"
Then a third voice, deep and booming, echoed from above Daniel. "Good morning, sunshine. And before you ask, no you're not dreaming. That IS what you were about to say, wasn't it?" The shocked man jerked his head upwards, straining his neck and noticing that when he did so, the back of his head felt exceptionally heavy... And as he looked up, all he saw was a towering wall of flesh, with tiny arms and strange green heads with many different-colored eyes sticking out of random places. One main head at the top, on a ridiculously thin neck, stared down with a singly, massive green eye.
"AHHH!!!" Daniel couldn't bear it... He was surrounded, and he didn't know what to do. He was sitting in an unknown place, faced with a pair of creatures and backed up flat against another, all of which could only be Bydo! The enemy!
"Great job. You've just officially scared him out of his wits, Professor Worm. I just KNEW he wouldn't take this crap lightly. And, of COURSE, he had to fall on ME in the process! Why does EVERYTHING have to FALL ON ME?!" The black blob wailed, turning to face the red skull as two more orange eyes popped out of its body along with the first.
"Well, I wasn't expecting him to take it lightly, in the first place! I just...wasn't expecting him to use you as a cushion," grated the skull, apparently called "Professor Worm." A considerable amount of sarcasm laced his voice.
"You! You! Y-y-you! You're.... You're... BYDO!" Daniel screeched as he stared at them, his eyes darting between the professor and himself rapidly, "Why have you brought me here?! What have you DONE TO ME?!"
"We just saved your life, you ungracious twer-" the black blob was cut off as the spinal professor slunk over the table Daniel was lying on, clumsily sliding off and falling on top of the blob with a noticeable amount of un-grace, "AHH! Not you too?!"
"Thanks for breaking my fall, Mendelleaous. Thanks a bunch," muttered the professor as he steadily tried to stand back up in a balancing position. He wavered back and forth for a couple of seconds before becoming stable, then looked up at the multi-headed mountain of flesh. "Micahan! Anything to say to our guest?" But the eye-dotted Micahan was no longer paying attention, each of its heads having occupied themselves with staring off into random directions of empty space.
"Gah, not now.. Oooh, you're no help at all when we need you do be, you big clairvoyant tub of lard," Mendelleaous curled up into a ball and spat.
Daniel blinked, "What... the... Hell?"
"Exactly," garbled Mendelleaous.
These were not like any Bydo Daniel had ever seen before. Then again, his only personal experiences with Bydo were from within the relative safety of his ship, where he could blow the monsters to gory chunks with the ship's various cannons.
"That's not very nice...," mumbled Micahan, eyes still seemingly fixed on something far away, even though there really wasn't anything there.
"What... are you?!" Demanded Daniel, harshly.
"I thought you already knew... I mean, you blurted it out earlier. 'You're Bydo!' you screamed. And yet, you don't know what we are," regarded the professor in a mentor-like voice, shaking his head.
"So you... you a-are...! But h-how! Wh-why?" At this point, confusion was taking over the summit of Daniel's mind, slowly kicking panic off.
"Let's just say we aren't all the bloodthirsty beasts you humans stereotype us as."
The professor spoke just a little too soon. Just as Daniel had even the slightest notion of calming down, looked up to see a large toothy maw bearing down upon him.
"EVE! NO!" Cried the professor as the 7-foot roach-mutant lunged down at Daniel. But an inner drive in Daniel kicked in, and he was on his feet and out of the way before he could become a snack. He didn't even know he had that kind of agility in him. Something like that would have seriously saved a lot of trouble during military training back on earth. But that wasn't the end. When Daniel focused his eyes on his attacker, he recognized it. He had battled even larger versions of that exact same organism on the mission directly before the attack on the Core!
"Now what was this about NOT BLOODTHIRSTY?" Snarled Daniel back at the Prof, looking extremely put off as Eve readied for another lunge.
"That's different, she's only a baby!" The red skull tried to assure, but it fell flat as Eve lunged again. But this time, instead of leaping out of the way, Daniel felt something bubble up within him.
Stand your ground, stand your ground, stand your ground....
Before he realized what he was thinking, Eve was upon him, and he held out his biomechanical arms, catching the charging monster by her jaws and stopping her still. What power, Daniel thought! What on earth is this?
Use ... your ... tail...
Again, without stopping to think about this, Daniel arced his new tail back and up, like a scorpion's over his shoulder, and shot three bursts of green energy into the gaping maw. Eve cried out and jerked back, releasing her jaws from Daniel's grip and reeling backwards to Micahan.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Daniel didn't notice who screamed that until he received a sharp blow to the back of the neck. He howled and doubled over, biomechanical hands clutching the back of his neck. Micahan snarled and retracted the rootlike tentacle that it whipped Daniel with, "EVE IS ONLY A BABY!"
"Oww..." Daniel whined, and then he noticed... there was more than just his head as he felt his neck. Actually, there was just his head, but there was more TO that head than he had noticed before. Most specifically, his head was extending to the back, much like that of a Geiger Xenomorph, or perhaps the giant monster his ship helped dispatch during the same mission that he encountered the massive Eves.
"Micahan has a point. She's only a baby. And we can't have you attacking any of us, as you don't know what kind of power we gave you in the process of saving your life," growled the professor, his eyes narrowed menacingly.
An awkward silence followed.
"Wh-Who are you guys?" Daniel broke through the stillness of sound, trying to recover from the swift hit.
The professor looked up at Micahan, then to the side at Mendelleaous. Then his gaze fell back on the former-human.
"We're the Bydo Refugees Peace Corps."
"R9 to RX, can you hear me?" crackled a wavering voice over a heavily distorted intercom.
"Loud and clear, Delta." Snorted a slightly sardonic reply.
"R9 to R13, holding up alright, Daniel?"
"Positive. The Cerberos stands ready for order to retreat."
Pitch blackness had a new name as the R-Forces battled what they hoped would be the Last Dance. Three busted up fighters dangled in the emptiness of another dimension, their forms barely visible against the nothingness.
"Sir, I'm not sure if we should hang around for much longer. I don't think the Bydo Core survived that."
The object in question, the Bydo Core, was humming in place, suspended on tearing tentacles before the three ships. Inside the 'belly' of the odd ball was a glowing orange sphere of pure energy. It flashed up brightly for a short period of time, illuminating the ships. The R9 Delta, with its six small wings, looked about ready to fall apart at the seams as it sparked violentlv. The RX Albatross, with a reflective mirror coating on its armor, seemed a little less beaten, though its top-mounted Wave Cannon was destroyed from an overcharge. The menacing black and red R13 Cerberos barely even glimmered in the flash of light, its paintjob made for stealth work in inky blackness.
"R13 to R9. I think it's over."
"Wait on that..."
The core flashed a few more times, and then the skin that held it together split, its flesh disintegrating and freeing the ball of energy. After a few moments, it dispersed into several spheres of yellow flames.
"Alright!" Came a fuzzy comm message from the beaten R9, "Let's scat!"
With that, the engine systems of the three ships lit up with a brilliant light, and they sped on past the balls of energy, which flew off in separate directions.
"RX, listen to me. Your Wave Cannon's fried, so you won't be able to get out of here yourself... Your reflective coating will come in handy... try to tail me as closely as possible, so that you can escape from this damned place when I fire my gun." Came another comm from the Delta.
"I copy that. I would have suggested it myself if you hadn't beaten me the transmission button," sneered the RX's pilot.
"R9 to R13. You can get out on your own. Drop back a bit so that your cannon won't hit us when we try to get through."
"Gotcha."
Bright blue droplets of energy started to form around the R9 Delta, drawing in to its cannon like dewdrops sliding into a funnel. The Albatross kicked up its speed and pulled up right behind the charging Delta, and indeed, the RX's mirror armor had the slight advantage of throwing off some of the force from the Delta's thrusters. The blue energy glimmered for a few moments, the sheer amount of energy causing ripples in the dimensional fabric...an image of Earth shimmered into view beyond the shimmering veil of darkness. With a burst, the Delta fired its gun, releasing such a massive amount of wave energy that it pierced the very dimensional wall, creating a large tear. With a boost of speed, both the R9 and the RX passed, through, though the latter only barely as the rip quickly sealed itself.
Under the black canopy of the R13, the young man Daniel sighed and checked the flickering screens inside his cockpit. It was his turn to get out. Though his voice came out strong and firm over the telecomm, his expression was wrought with quite the opposite. He glanced down to his side once as his hands expertly handled the craft. Sitting beside him was a framed photograph of him and a beautiful woman that could only be his wife. They were hugging each other and looking at the camera, expressions of joy on their faces.
"It's my turn now. I'm coming home," he sighed to himself as he began to charge his ship's Lightning Wave Cannon. He ran the orders given to him through his head once more to make sure. He was told to charge his cannon to the absolute highest, despite computer warnings. Only that amount of energy would be able to break the ship free from the Bydo Dimension.
Taking in a deep breath, Daniel started charging the cannon, eyes fixed on the meters and statistics glowing upon the monitor in front of him. The meter for energy levels rose, numbers flickering away at high speeds. He waited, intently, for the energy bar to flash red...
--WARNING--
The screen suddenly flashed with a horrifying message.
--Unidentified organisms in Wave Cannon Discharger. Releasing stored energy-
"No!" Daniel suddenly choked. It wasn't high enough! It couldn't be released now! But he wasn't given enough time to be horrified at this when the screens suddenly and simultaneously flickered out, bright white sparks flying from some of the cockpit instruments. Before he knew it, Daniel was hit with something that felt like a high charge of electricity being forcefully jammed down his spine. Then he blacked out.
-----
"Any news from the R-Forces, captain?"
A few men wearing military uniforms gathered around a blonde-haired man sitting at a computer. The screen showed various statistics, with windows popping up and closing every two seconds.
"It looks like Hiroshi and the R9 have gotten out... And Michael and the RX have gotten out as well! Oh dear, the RX lost its cannon... that must have been a risky but necessary move, to try tailing the R9 out of the Bydo Dimension... But I don't see Daniel..." The man at the computer sat and tapped a pen against his teeth, staring at the monitor. After a few more moments, no sign of the R13 came through.
"Oh god... He must have been trapped!" cried out a burly man that was standing behind the guy at the computer. "The poor sap! I knew we shouldn't have sent him in there, his ship was too unstable to go much further than the space station! And he was so young, with a wife, too!"
Putting his face in his palm, the large guy turned away, looking angry with himself. The man at the computer let out a raspy grumble and shook his head.
"Damn! This is most unfortunate... While I mourn greatly for the pilot, it is also dangerous to have that ship left with the Bydo... We can't risk them figuring out how our R-Types work, or they may discover ways to counter them, and they're out last line of defense..."
"What do you suggest, captain?" Growled a lanky general that stood behind the computer chair.
"Open a quick dimensional rip..." The captain muttered incoherently for a while, shaking his head some more.
"And then?" questioned the burly man.
The captain paused for a short while longer.
"... Nuke them."
Chapter 1 - Narrow Avoidance
"... Nuke them," buzzed a voice through a strange, brain-like fleshy device. Sitting on opposing sides of the odd apparatus were a pair of extremely...interesting organisms. One was a black blob of semi-solid flesh, with a flashing pair of tiny, glowing cyan wings, a trio of flaming orange eyes, numerous spikes jutting from strange places, and a scorpion-like sting-tipped tail. It was rolled up into a ball on top of a 'stool' that was made from raised flesh, and was staring at the brainy object.
On the other side was something even more disturbing. It was what appeared to be a red xenomorphic skull, with a pair of large and piercing blue eyes. Coming from the skull base was a long 'tail' of what appeared to be spiny red vertebrae. At the very tip of this were some exposed nerve cords. Its general appearance looked like someone cruelly ripped some creature's head off, with the entire spinal cord with it. It balanced, skillfully, on its long neck/tail/spine as it stared at the brain thing.
"Most peculiar," mused the spinal monster. "They've lost an R-Type in the Dimension..."
"It is very intriguing, Professor wormie... It might even be useful, if we can get it out of there before the nukes hit. Think of what we could do against the Militants if we get that and find out how to work it effectively!" squeaked the blob in a surprisingly high-pitched voice. The skull snorted.
"Oh yes. We could even use it as grounds for our talks with the humans... But we need to GET it before that sector of the Bydo Dimension gets nuked. Micahan! What do you say about that?" The skull rocked back and forth slightly as it turned around, addressing something that stood behind it. Said creature was a 32-foot tall pile of strangely twisted purple flesh, with many eyes of different colors glowing from multiple heads that dotted its form. It blinked a few times, then just let out some low-pitch garbles.
"Oh, forget it. I forgot that you never talk unless you think of something on your own," the skull creature sighed. It turned to the black sludge on the other side of the brain telecom device.
"Mendelleaous. I want you to gather seven Cansers and a Gauper. Tell them to get in there as quickly as possible and steal away the R-Type. It could be a great asset to us. But send them off on their own, and don't go with them. Being the last of your kind, it would be very detrimental to us if you didn't make it out in time. We only have enough energy to transport them to and back from the dimension once. The rift cutter will need to charge for a while longer to do any more traveling of that sort."
The blob, Mendelleaous, nodded sharply, then rolled into a tight ball and bounced off.
------
"Captain Jensen, sir! The nuke it ready and waiting in the launching bay! It can be launched any second now!" Reported a youth that looked like a trainee. He made a somewhat haphazard salute as the blonde Captain Jensen nodded and sent him off.
"Well, the quicker the better. When the dimension is opened up for its short time, look for signs of the R13, and aim the nuke towards it. These tactical nukes aren't strong enough to blow up that entire damn dimension, and we're only trying to ensure that they don't get our R-Type. We don't have quite enough resources to send multiple nukes, so we can't afford to miss."
"Yes, sir!" The trainee scampered off to tell those launching the missiles.
"Gah... Damn kids," muttered Jensen as he slouched back and extracted a cigarette from his pocket, pulling out an intricate lighter and lighting it. Taking a long drag, he turned around to his computer, puffing a long plume of smoke at the monitor as he grumbled.
------
The pod chamber in the Bydo Dimension could be described, simply, as rows upon rows and columns upon columns of massive fleshy spheres suspended between the roof and ground by thick cords of muscle and sinew.
A glint of metal, unnatural in such a flesh-filled environment, sparkled from behind one of the giant pods. The shine belonged to a large robotic being, with an elongated head and a somewhat humanoid build. Instead of legs, it sat upon a platform covered in various directions by propulsion units. Its arms ended in small energy guns, and its single red ocular unit flashed a few times when it noted that the coast was clear.
"Move it, and scan for signs of the R-Type," came a mechanical voice from the robot. From behind other pods came other robots, identical to the first. "When you find it, open the rift and call in our Gauper. It's big enough to carry an entire ship of that size back."
After some searching and examining each pod, the various robots closed in towards the center of the chamber, one red ocular suddenly flashed blue.
"Picking up a signal," one robot, the one with the now blue eyepiece, paused in front one particularly large pod, "This must be it."
"Right," bleeped the first mechanoid, apparently the 'leader.' "Let's bust it open and get the ship out. We are running out of time."
The small force of armed machines encircled the pod, all running their scanners. One by one, all their ocular discs flashed blue. When they all verified the ship's location, all their 'eyes' flashed back to a glowing red, and they leveled their cannons. Each of them started to fire at the edges of the pod, trying to make some tears without damaging the precious vessel inside. Soon, enough rips were made in the flesh to show a glint of black metal.
Then the shrieks began... The pods, at feeling one of their own under attack, started to screech loudly, like an alarm.
"Quickly. Call in the Gauper. They'll find us any second now."
One of the robots started to click away at buttons on its wrist with a hand that sprouted from its gun-tipped arm. Not a second too soon, a massive beast trampled in between the pods and screeched to a halt by the circle of silver machines. It had a blade-like head with a single eye. Its arms were huge and muscular, contrasting the surprisingly and almost ridiculously small legs in the back. What stood out was the fact that its bone-matter and a few organs were showing through the creature's skin.
"Get the ship, Gauper. We need to get away as quickly as possible, before the nukes come, and before the Militants arrive."
Without uttering a word, the Gauper threw itself at the pod, using its massive claws on its arms to tear open what was left of the fleshy sphere. The coverings came away to reveal a very badly worn R13, covered in slime and gooping up wherever there happened to be openings in the armor structure. The vicious monster snagged the ship in its arms and, opening its rib-lined chest cavity, inserted the ship into itself. It couldn't carry the vessel in its arms, as it needed its arms for locomotion.
A large tear, at that moment, appeared amidst the large pods, showing open space and a faint outline of earth. Something sleek was headed through that rift, and at high speed.
"We're getting out of here now!" Shrieked the lead robot over the wails of the distressed pods. The other robots nodded and spun about, preparing to flee. The leader followed suit, flanked by the tremendous Gauper.
"Professor! Get us out of here!" The lead robot cried into its wrist.
A faint red aura surrounded the retreating figures. As they moved, the air around them began to ripple. They slipped into the folds of air and disappeared from the Bydo Dimension.
Three seconds later, the pod chamber was reduced to cinders.
Chapter 2 - Nearly Beyond Aid
"Okay, bring it in," the skull-and-spine professor nodded to the robotic Canser Drones, then looked to the Gauper. The professor started to garble something that was not any normal language, but the Gauper seemed to understand, and it opened its ribcage and removed the ship, placing it down on the mushy ground. The Professor nodded to it, and the Gauper slunk off.
"Very, very intriguing," reflected the professor as he inched up, caterpillar style, to the ship and examined it. "It looks pretty beaten, but it can probably be cleaned up. Mendelleaous! Come look at this piece of equipment!"
The black semi-solid blob bounced into the room at the mention of its name, and looked over the black and red ship with its three orange eyes.
"Ahh, yes, mister worm... It's a nice piece. But I wonder.... it was captured while fleeing.... Do you think that, perhaps, the pilot might still be inside?"
"I never thought of that!" Started the skull creature. It looked about, trying to find a way to get up to the canopy and find out how to open it...
"OW!" Yowled Mendelleaous suddenly, causing the Professor to whirl about so swiftly that he lost balance and fell over with a dull thud.
A large creature, looking like a seven-foot tall, four-legged, mutant cockroach, was hunched over Mendelleaous, with its very toothy maw chomped, playfully, over his scorpion-like tail.
"EVE!" Scolded the professor, in a very fatherly tone of voice, "EVE! Get out of here! You shouldn't be around when we're trying to get work done!"
Of course, Eve didn't understand this, and just continued to munch on Mendelleaous' tail, looking quite content with itself.
"Eve," boomed a loud, deep voice. "Get back over here. The Professor and Mendell are busy." The voice originated from Micahan, who finally decided to talk.
"Ohh, the nanny finally talks!" Spat Mendelleaous, who hated it when Micahan called him "Mendell." "It's such a pity that Eve only listens to you, and you rarely speak up, anyway. She should be locked up in some giant crib somewhere!"
"Calm down, Mendelleaous," assured the professor. "Eve's only a baby. She'll learn with time."
"Well, I KNOW she's only a baby, mister WORM," scowled Mendelleaous, "But her childish attempts at TEETHING really hurt!"
With those words, Eve lifted her head, pulling Mendelleaous into the air slightly before she opened her jaws and dropped him roughly. She trotted over to Micahan, her roach-like abdomen wagging like a dog's tail as she did.
"Agh... damn kids..." muttered Mendelleaous.
The professor went back to examining the R13... It wasn't a horribly gigantic machine. The cockpit was about as long as an average family car, and slightly narrower. Dropped unceremoniously on the ground by the Gauper, the canopy was relatively close to the ground. The skull-and-spine monster glanced about a bit, then inserted the nerve endings of his tail into the fleshy ground, and it raised up, giving him a nice view over the black canopy of the ship.
"Mendelleaous! Can you find a way to seep into the cockpit and find the controls to open the canopy? I want to see the pilot of this machine..."
"Sure thing, I can squeeze through just about anywhere," asserted the black blob, and he oozed up the side of the R13 and did just that. He closed his eyes tightly and flattened himself, using the force of his body to open the cockpit canopy just a crack large enough for him to get in... After a few moments, there came a hydraulic hiss and the canopy slid open smoothly.
"Oh man... Professor, you might not want to see this... It's pretty bad..." peeped Mendelleaous as he perched on the side of the cockpit. When the professor glanced into the ship, he was met by a less than pleasant sight.
The pilot was human, or at least, WAS human... He looked a little more dead, but his raspy breathing and open eyes proved a bit differently. His helmet was off, tossed to the side, most likely as a measure against suffocation in the cockpit. His face was somewhat handsome, or at least, was. His skin seemed to be either bubbling slightly, spotted with painful looking skin boils, or just simply melting off in some areas. His ebony hair was extremely grizzled, looking caked with blood and matted. The pilots eyes were open, wide open, in an expression of terror, and would have looked normal if they weren't glazed over with a sickly greenish film. Blood, both dried and fresh, seemed to be seeping out of his eyes, nose, and ears, as well as his mouth.
"Oh god. He must have been sitting in there for too long... Bydo energies and poisons contaminated him..." nodded the professor, mournfully, as he examined the dying pilot further. The pilot was decked out in a brownish red and cream-colored flight suit, armored here and there with silvery armor... Some pieces of armor, specifically those that were strapped to the thighs and upper arms, had been removed and tossed to the side, just like the helmet. The pilot's right hand was clamped like a vise over the armor on his chest, as if trying to pry it off. His other arm was dropped, stiffly, to his side, and was resting upon something next to him. Occasionally, he would arc his back or toss his head in a spasm.
"Poor guy... I usually never feel sorry for humans, but this one looks like he's really suffering..." murmured Mendelleaous, with a bit of real pity in his high voice. As if to punctuate that statement, the pilot suddenly moaned loudly, his open mouth gurgling up some quantities of blood, which seemed to be laced with other various fluids and contaminants. The professor winced, then shook his head. He slunk off the fleshy platform that he sat upon and entered the cockpit, examining the sickly human. With his tail, the professor attempted to see what his left hand covered, but his attempts were met with stiffness. The pilot's arm muscles were seized up, and had not the professor felt the yield of flesh under the flight suit, those arms could have been mistaken for those of a marble statue.
"What should we do with him?" inquired Mendelleaous, who cringed as the pilot convulsed again, puking up more blood, a whimper sounding from his throat as he did so. "Should we just kill him and save him this agony?"
The professor pondered the question for a moment, "We could... It would be most humane. But this man could... could be a great help in figuring out how to pilot this... I think we can save him, if we used some of our other resources..."
"Save him?" Boomed Micahan. Even though he was quite a ways from the R13, his many large eyes were of some use. "He is well beyond help at this point. He's been too infected with Bydo toxins. Unless, of course, Professor, you have... other plans..."
"Other plans?" Twitched Mendelleaous. "What do you mean... other plans..."
The Professor turned, his blue eyes meeting Mendelleaous' orange ones, "We can save him. He might not like it, but he might see our reasoning. There are other ways. I hope you remember." The professor stared into Mendelleaous' eyes for a while longer, and the black blob seemed to think it over before realizing what he really meant.
"O-oh..." he whispered, worriedly.
"Remember, Mendelleaous. The Gatekeeper came to us with a proposition not too long ago. He's sick of dying, remember? He may know how we can help this one, and may even lend a hand in the process, as well," the skull-headed Bydo reminded. "But first, we will need to get this man out of this cockpit.
"Yes, mister worm.."
The professor gazed, mournfully, down at the pilot as he went into another mild seizure, "You may not be liking this... But I hope you'll find it for the better when it comes...whoever you are."
Chapter 3 - A Harsh Blow
Numbness. That's all Daniel could feel when he awoke from what felt like a vivid and tortuous nightmare. Actually, he was just about numb all the way through, save for his head, neck, and stomach. His stomach felt strangely tight, as if he had just been horribly sick, and his head throbbed. His neck also felt extremely stiff, as his head was turned on its side, facing right. He noticed that, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring his head around to face up.
As his eyes fluttered open, he noticed that they didn't seem to want to focus... all he could see was a dull blur. Though he did come to the conclusion that he was lying flat on his back... which meant he was no longer in the cockpit of his ship. But how could that be? Was his ship somehow saved from the Bydo dimension, despite its mechanical failure during escape? He moaned and tried to sit straight up, but found that he was a bit too groggy, and he relaxed. As long as he wasn't in pain, pain which seemed too vivid earlier.
"I think he's coming around," came a voice unknown to Daniel, originating from his left. The voice was high and scratchy. It didn't sound even vaguely like any of the workers in the hospital wing, as he was often sent there whenever his ship malfunctioned during practice runs.
"Ah, good. It means he should be well enough. Hopefully he'll listen," murmured another voice, deeper and more professional, coming from his right. Again, it wasn't a voice he recognized, but it seemed to be somewhat more reassuring than the first. He opened his eyes again, trying to focus on the figure that spoke. But all he could see was a faint blur of red. He closed his eyes again.
"Whe...where am I?" Daniel managed to barely grind out his question. Every part of his body seemed either extremely tense or excessively limp, he couldn't tell. He was just so numb. He cringed and tried to at least lift one of his arms, but even that seemed impossible. It felt as if suffering from morning sickness back in high school, waking up early after two hours of sleep following a long night of cramming.
"He can speak! That's a good sign," sighed the voice to his right. Was it, indeed? Daniel couldn't see how so, even his few words were extremely forced. His limbs refused to move at his will. Even his tail didn't feel like giving as much as a twitch.
....His tail?
That was enough to jar a few more senses into Daniel's bogged up mind. His eyes snapped open, and due to the position of his head, the first thing he saw was a blue-eyed, mutated skull balanced precariously on a barbed spinal cord. His eyes snapped open wide at this, and he stared, horrified, at the thing in front of his face, frozen like that for a couple of seconds.
"Oh, his eyes are open again. That's very g-" the red creature wasn't allowed to finish his sentence as Daniel suddenly screamed.
"AAHHH!!! WHAT THE F-" Despite being unable to move just seconds earlier, it was probably the sheer force of will that caused Daniel to hoist himself upright with his arms, away from the monster. His blunt statement was cut short as he found himself falling a couple feet and onto something unpleasantly squishy.
"ARGH!" Squealed the high voice from Daniel's former left-side... It was now originating from somewhere underneath him, but Daniel didn't pay attention to that. He was still staring, wide-eyed, at the hopping skull, his mouth agape.
"That...wasn't the reaction I was hoping for," muttered the skull, rolling his eyes somewhat.
"You weren't supposed to SCARE him, you moron!" Came the other voice again, and this time Daniel noticed that it was, indeed, coming from underneath him. Taking his eyes off the red abomination for just a second, he noticed that he was sitting on a big black blob with little glimmering wings. One annoyed-looking orange eye popped up out of the gunk and glared up at Daniel. "Could you get off of me now?!"
Daniel really was at a loss of what to do, as panic was halting most of his mental activity. All he could manage were a short and terrified squeak and another burst of movement as he stumbled backwards, getting off the blob and eventually backing roughly into what seemed to be a wall.
"Wha-? Wha-? Aahhh!" Daniel managed to choke out as he continued to back against the wall, even though it was obvious that he couldn't go any further, his feet sliding uselessly against the ground as he attempted. He looked down at himself, and noticed that he was still wearing his flight-suit, minus the armor, though there was a strange set of flexible metal plating covering his stomach. But he noticed that his hands, devoid of gloves, were formed out of metal and wires twisted together smoothly with flesh, looking as a human's in shape, but ending in razor sharp claws. He also noticed that he did, as a matter of fact, own a long, whipping tail. It was split into segments, and looked like a strange mash of flesh and machinery, ending in a club with two large spikes and a jewel-like object at the tip.
"Thi-this can't be happening!"
Then a third voice, deep and booming, echoed from above Daniel. "Good morning, sunshine. And before you ask, no you're not dreaming. That IS what you were about to say, wasn't it?" The shocked man jerked his head upwards, straining his neck and noticing that when he did so, the back of his head felt exceptionally heavy... And as he looked up, all he saw was a towering wall of flesh, with tiny arms and strange green heads with many different-colored eyes sticking out of random places. One main head at the top, on a ridiculously thin neck, stared down with a singly, massive green eye.
"AHHH!!!" Daniel couldn't bear it... He was surrounded, and he didn't know what to do. He was sitting in an unknown place, faced with a pair of creatures and backed up flat against another, all of which could only be Bydo! The enemy!
"Great job. You've just officially scared him out of his wits, Professor Worm. I just KNEW he wouldn't take this crap lightly. And, of COURSE, he had to fall on ME in the process! Why does EVERYTHING have to FALL ON ME?!" The black blob wailed, turning to face the red skull as two more orange eyes popped out of its body along with the first.
"Well, I wasn't expecting him to take it lightly, in the first place! I just...wasn't expecting him to use you as a cushion," grated the skull, apparently called "Professor Worm." A considerable amount of sarcasm laced his voice.
"You! You! Y-y-you! You're.... You're... BYDO!" Daniel screeched as he stared at them, his eyes darting between the professor and himself rapidly, "Why have you brought me here?! What have you DONE TO ME?!"
"We just saved your life, you ungracious twer-" the black blob was cut off as the spinal professor slunk over the table Daniel was lying on, clumsily sliding off and falling on top of the blob with a noticeable amount of un-grace, "AHH! Not you too?!"
"Thanks for breaking my fall, Mendelleaous. Thanks a bunch," muttered the professor as he steadily tried to stand back up in a balancing position. He wavered back and forth for a couple of seconds before becoming stable, then looked up at the multi-headed mountain of flesh. "Micahan! Anything to say to our guest?" But the eye-dotted Micahan was no longer paying attention, each of its heads having occupied themselves with staring off into random directions of empty space.
"Gah, not now.. Oooh, you're no help at all when we need you do be, you big clairvoyant tub of lard," Mendelleaous curled up into a ball and spat.
Daniel blinked, "What... the... Hell?"
"Exactly," garbled Mendelleaous.
These were not like any Bydo Daniel had ever seen before. Then again, his only personal experiences with Bydo were from within the relative safety of his ship, where he could blow the monsters to gory chunks with the ship's various cannons.
"That's not very nice...," mumbled Micahan, eyes still seemingly fixed on something far away, even though there really wasn't anything there.
"What... are you?!" Demanded Daniel, harshly.
"I thought you already knew... I mean, you blurted it out earlier. 'You're Bydo!' you screamed. And yet, you don't know what we are," regarded the professor in a mentor-like voice, shaking his head.
"So you... you a-are...! But h-how! Wh-why?" At this point, confusion was taking over the summit of Daniel's mind, slowly kicking panic off.
"Let's just say we aren't all the bloodthirsty beasts you humans stereotype us as."
The professor spoke just a little too soon. Just as Daniel had even the slightest notion of calming down, looked up to see a large toothy maw bearing down upon him.
"EVE! NO!" Cried the professor as the 7-foot roach-mutant lunged down at Daniel. But an inner drive in Daniel kicked in, and he was on his feet and out of the way before he could become a snack. He didn't even know he had that kind of agility in him. Something like that would have seriously saved a lot of trouble during military training back on earth. But that wasn't the end. When Daniel focused his eyes on his attacker, he recognized it. He had battled even larger versions of that exact same organism on the mission directly before the attack on the Core!
"Now what was this about NOT BLOODTHIRSTY?" Snarled Daniel back at the Prof, looking extremely put off as Eve readied for another lunge.
"That's different, she's only a baby!" The red skull tried to assure, but it fell flat as Eve lunged again. But this time, instead of leaping out of the way, Daniel felt something bubble up within him.
Stand your ground, stand your ground, stand your ground....
Before he realized what he was thinking, Eve was upon him, and he held out his biomechanical arms, catching the charging monster by her jaws and stopping her still. What power, Daniel thought! What on earth is this?
Use ... your ... tail...
Again, without stopping to think about this, Daniel arced his new tail back and up, like a scorpion's over his shoulder, and shot three bursts of green energy into the gaping maw. Eve cried out and jerked back, releasing her jaws from Daniel's grip and reeling backwards to Micahan.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Daniel didn't notice who screamed that until he received a sharp blow to the back of the neck. He howled and doubled over, biomechanical hands clutching the back of his neck. Micahan snarled and retracted the rootlike tentacle that it whipped Daniel with, "EVE IS ONLY A BABY!"
"Oww..." Daniel whined, and then he noticed... there was more than just his head as he felt his neck. Actually, there was just his head, but there was more TO that head than he had noticed before. Most specifically, his head was extending to the back, much like that of a Geiger Xenomorph, or perhaps the giant monster his ship helped dispatch during the same mission that he encountered the massive Eves.
"Micahan has a point. She's only a baby. And we can't have you attacking any of us, as you don't know what kind of power we gave you in the process of saving your life," growled the professor, his eyes narrowed menacingly.
An awkward silence followed.
"Wh-Who are you guys?" Daniel broke through the stillness of sound, trying to recover from the swift hit.
The professor looked up at Micahan, then to the side at Mendelleaous. Then his gaze fell back on the former-human.
"We're the Bydo Refugees Peace Corps."
Staffie, why didn't I win? This wouldn't have happened if Loki was still around. What have you done with him, Schroeder?
It took me two weeks to write and I don't win. I need a win soon.
Locky
Locky
Why didn't I funking win?
The next instalment is a while off. Locky (but check out my RPG topic...)
Fantastic!! I'm impressed. The only thing I can say is I wanted it to go on further.....What happens next?
A deffinate GAD winner if I ever read one!
A deffinate GAD winner if I ever read one!
I take it your all still reading this, and not that it's crap and your ignoring it?! BTW, why can you say crap but not a**?
Prologue - Trapped in the Gullet
"R9 to RX, can you hear me?" crackled a wavering voice over a heavily distorted intercom.
"Loud and clear, Delta." Snorted a slightly sardonic reply.
"R9 to R13, holding up alright, Daniel?"
"Positive. The Cerberos stands ready for order to retreat."
Pitch blackness had a new name as the R-Forces battled what they hoped would be the Last Dance. Three busted up fighters dangled in the emptiness of another dimension, their forms barely visible against the nothingness.
"Sir, I'm not sure if we should hang around for much longer. I don't think the Bydo Core survived that."
The object in question, the Bydo Core, was humming in place, suspended on tearing tentacles before the three ships. Inside the 'belly' of the odd ball was a glowing orange sphere of pure energy. It flashed up brightly for a short period of time, illuminating the ships. The R9 Delta, with its six small wings, looked about ready to fall apart at the seams as it sparked violentlv. The RX Albatross, with a reflective mirror coating on its armor, seemed a little less beaten, though its top-mounted Wave Cannon was destroyed from an overcharge. The menacing black and red R13 Cerberos barely even glimmered in the flash of light, its paintjob made for stealth work in inky blackness.
"R13 to R9. I think it's over."
"Wait on that..."
The core flashed a few more times, and then the skin that held it together split, its flesh disintegrating and freeing the ball of energy. After a few moments, it dispersed into several spheres of yellow flames.
"Alright!" Came a fuzzy comm message from the beaten R9, "Let's scat!"
With that, the engine systems of the three ships lit up with a brilliant light, and they sped on past the balls of energy, which flew off in separate directions.
"RX, listen to me. Your Wave Cannon's fried, so you won't be able to get out of here yourself... Your reflective coating will come in handy... try to tail me as closely as possible, so that you can escape from this damned place when I fire my gun." Came another comm from the Delta.
"I copy that. I would have suggested it myself if you hadn't beaten me the transmission button," sneered the RX's pilot.
"R9 to R13. You can get out on your own. Drop back a bit so that your cannon won't hit us when we try to get through."
"Gotcha."
Bright blue droplets of energy started to form around the R9 Delta, drawing in to its cannon like dewdrops sliding into a funnel. The Albatross kicked up its speed and pulled up right behind the charging Delta, and indeed, the RX's mirror armor had the slight advantage of throwing off some of the force from the Delta's thrusters. The blue energy glimmered for a few moments, the sheer amount of energy causing ripples in the dimensional fabric...an image of Earth shimmered into view beyond the shimmering veil of darkness. With a burst, the Delta fired its gun, releasing such a massive amount of wave energy that it pierced the very dimensional wall, creating a large tear. With a boost of speed, both the R9 and the RX passed, through, though the latter only barely as the rip quickly sealed itself.
Under the black canopy of the R13, the young man Daniel sighed and checked the flickering screens inside his cockpit. It was his turn to get out. Though his voice came out strong and firm over the telecomm, his expression was wrought with quite the opposite. He glanced down to his side once as his hands expertly handled the craft. Sitting beside him was a framed photograph of him and a beautiful woman that could only be his wife. They were hugging each other and looking at the camera, expressions of joy on their faces.
"It's my turn now. I'm coming home," he sighed to himself as he began to charge his ship's Lightning Wave Cannon. He ran the orders given to him through his head once more to make sure. He was told to charge his cannon to the absolute highest, despite computer warnings. Only that amount of energy would be able to break the ship free from the Bydo Dimension.
Taking in a deep breath, Daniel started charging the cannon, eyes fixed on the meters and statistics glowing upon the monitor in front of him. The meter for energy levels rose, numbers flickering away at high speeds. He waited, intently, for the energy bar to flash red...
--WARNING--
The screen suddenly flashed with a horrifying message.
--Unidentified organisms in Wave Cannon Discharger. Releasing stored energy-
"No!" Daniel suddenly choked. It wasn't high enough! It couldn't be released now! But he wasn't given enough time to be horrified at this when the screens suddenly and simultaneously flickered out, bright white sparks flying from some of the cockpit instruments. Before he knew it, Daniel was hit with something that felt like a high charge of electricity being forcefully jammed down his spine. Then he blacked out.
-----
"Any news from the R-Forces, captain?"
A few men wearing military uniforms gathered around a blonde-haired man sitting at a computer. The screen showed various statistics, with windows popping up and closing every two seconds.
"It looks like Hiroshi and the R9 have gotten out... And Michael and the RX have gotten out as well! Oh dear, the RX lost its cannon... that must have been a risky but necessary move, to try tailing the R9 out of the Bydo Dimension... But I don't see Daniel..." The man at the computer sat and tapped a pen against his teeth, staring at the monitor. After a few more moments, no sign of the R13 came through.
"Oh god... He must have been trapped!" cried out a burly man that was standing behind the guy at the computer. "The poor sap! I knew we shouldn't have sent him in there, his ship was too unstable to go much further than the space station! And he was so young, with a wife, too!"
Putting his face in his palm, the large guy turned away, looking angry with himself. The man at the computer let out a raspy grumble and shook his head.
"Damn! This is most unfortunate... While I mourn greatly for the pilot, it is also dangerous to have that ship left with the Bydo... We can't risk them figuring out how our R-Types work, or they may discover ways to counter them, and they're out last line of defense..."
"What do you suggest, captain?" Growled a lanky general that stood behind the computer chair.
"Open a quick dimensional rip..." The captain muttered incoherently for a while, shaking his head some more.
"And then?" questioned the burly man.
The captain paused for a short while longer.
"... Nuke them."
Chapter 1 - Narrow Avoidance
"... Nuke them," buzzed a voice through a strange, brain-like fleshy device. Sitting on opposing sides of the odd apparatus were a pair of extremely...interesting organisms. One was a black blob of semi-solid flesh, with a flashing pair of tiny, glowing cyan wings, a trio of flaming orange eyes, numerous spikes jutting from strange places, and a scorpion-like sting-tipped tail. It was rolled up into a ball on top of a 'stool' that was made from raised flesh, and was staring at the brainy object.
On the other side was something even more disturbing. It was what appeared to be a red xenomorphic skull, with a pair of large and piercing blue eyes. Coming from the skull base was a long 'tail' of what appeared to be spiny red vertebrae. At the very tip of this were some exposed nerve cords. Its general appearance looked like someone cruelly ripped some creature's head off, with the entire spinal cord with it. It balanced, skillfully, on its long neck/tail/spine as it stared at the brain thing.
"Most peculiar," mused the spinal monster. "They've lost an R-Type in the Dimension..."
"It is very intriguing, Professor wormie... It might even be useful, if we can get it out of there before the nukes hit. Think of what we could do against the Militants if we get that and find out how to work it effectively!" squeaked the blob in a surprisingly high-pitched voice. The skull snorted.
"Oh yes. We could even use it as grounds for our talks with the humans... But we need to GET it before that sector of the Bydo Dimension gets nuked. Micahan! What do you say about that?" The skull rocked back and forth slightly as it turned around, addressing something that stood behind it. Said creature was a 32-foot tall pile of strangely twisted purple flesh, with many eyes of different colors glowing from multiple heads that dotted its form. It blinked a few times, then just let out some low-pitch garbles.
"Oh, forget it. I forgot that you never talk unless you think of something on your own," the skull creature sighed. It turned to the black sludge on the other side of the brain telecom device.
"Mendelleaous. I want you to gather seven Cansers and a Gauper. Tell them to get in there as quickly as possible and steal away the R-Type. It could be a great asset to us. But send them off on their own, and don't go with them. Being the last of your kind, it would be very detrimental to us if you didn't make it out in time. We only have enough energy to transport them to and back from the dimension once. The rift cutter will need to charge for a while longer to do any more traveling of that sort."
The blob, Mendelleaous, nodded sharply, then rolled into a tight ball and bounced off.
------
"Captain Jensen, sir! The nuke it ready and waiting in the launching bay! It can be launched any second now!" Reported a youth that looked like a trainee. He made a somewhat haphazard salute as the blonde Captain Jensen nodded and sent him off.
"Well, the quicker the better. When the dimension is opened up for its short time, look for signs of the R13, and aim the nuke towards it. These tactical nukes aren't strong enough to blow up that entire damn dimension, and we're only trying to ensure that they don't get our R-Type. We don't have quite enough resources to send multiple nukes, so we can't afford to miss."
"Yes, sir!" The trainee scampered off to tell those launching the missiles.
"Gah... Damn kids," muttered Jensen as he slouched back and extracted a cigarette from his pocket, pulling out an intricate lighter and lighting it. Taking a long drag, he turned around to his computer, puffing a long plume of smoke at the monitor as he grumbled.
------
The pod chamber in the Bydo Dimension could be described, simply, as rows upon rows and columns upon columns of massive fleshy spheres suspended between the roof and ground by thick cords of muscle and sinew.
A glint of metal, unnatural in such a flesh-filled environment, sparkled from behind one of the giant pods. The shine belonged to a large robotic being, with an elongated head and a somewhat humanoid build. Instead of legs, it sat upon a platform covered in various directions by propulsion units. Its arms ended in small energy guns, and its single red ocular unit flashed a few times when it noted that the coast was clear.
"Move it, and scan for signs of the R-Type," came a mechanical voice from the robot. From behind other pods came other robots, identical to the first. "When you find it, open the rift and call in our Gauper. It's big enough to carry an entire ship of that size back."
After some searching and examining each pod, the various robots closed in towards the center of the chamber, one red ocular suddenly flashed blue.
"Picking up a signal," one robot, the one with the now blue eyepiece, paused in front one particularly large pod, "This must be it."
"Right," bleeped the first mechanoid, apparently the 'leader.' "Let's bust it open and get the ship out. We are running out of time."
The small force of armed machines encircled the pod, all running their scanners. One by one, all their ocular discs flashed blue. When they all verified the ship's location, all their 'eyes' flashed back to a glowing red, and they leveled their cannons. Each of them started to fire at the edges of the pod, trying to make some tears without damaging the precious vessel inside. Soon, enough rips were made in the flesh to show a glint of black metal.
Then the shrieks began... The pods, at feeling one of their own under attack, started to screech loudly, like an alarm.
"Quickly. Call in the Gauper. They'll find us any second now."
One of the robots started to click away at buttons on its wrist with a hand that sprouted from its gun-tipped arm. Not a second too soon, a massive beast trampled in between the pods and screeched to a halt by the circle of silver machines. It had a blade-like head with a single eye. Its arms were huge and muscular, contrasting the surprisingly and almost ridiculously small legs in the back. What stood out was the fact that its bone-matter and a few organs were showing through the creature's skin.
"Get the ship, Gauper. We need to get away as quickly as possible, before the nukes come, and before the Militants arrive."
Without uttering a word, the Gauper threw itself at the pod, using its massive claws on its arms to tear open what was left of the fleshy sphere. The coverings came away to reveal a very badly worn R13, covered in slime and gooping up wherever there happened to be openings in the armor structure. The vicious monster snagged the ship in its arms and, opening its rib-lined chest cavity, inserted the ship into itself. It couldn't carry the vessel in its arms, as it needed its arms for locomotion.
A large tear, at that moment, appeared amidst the large pods, showing open space and a faint outline of earth. Something sleek was headed through that rift, and at high speed.
"We're getting out of here now!" Shrieked the lead robot over the wails of the distressed pods. The other robots nodded and spun about, preparing to flee. The leader followed suit, flanked by the tremendous Gauper.
"Professor! Get us out of here!" The lead robot cried into its wrist.
A faint red aura surrounded the retreating figures. As they moved, the air around them began to ripple. They slipped into the folds of air and disappeared from the Bydo Dimension.
Three seconds later, the pod chamber was reduced to cinders.
Chapter 2 - Nearly Beyond Aid
"Okay, bring it in," the skull-and-spine professor nodded to the robotic Canser Drones, then looked to the Gauper. The professor started to garble something that was not any normal language, but the Gauper seemed to understand, and it opened its ribcage and removed the ship, placing it down on the mushy ground. The Professor nodded to it, and the Gauper slunk off.
"Very, very intriguing," reflected the professor as he inched up, caterpillar style, to the ship and examined it. "It looks pretty beaten, but it can probably be cleaned up. Mendelleaous! Come look at this piece of equipment!"
The black semi-solid blob bounced into the room at the mention of its name, and looked over the black and red ship with its three orange eyes.
"Ahh, yes, mister worm... It's a nice piece. But I wonder.... it was captured while fleeing.... Do you think that, perhaps, the pilot might still be inside?"
"I never thought of that!" Started the skull creature. It looked about, trying to find a way to get up to the canopy and find out how to open it...
"OW!" Yowled Mendelleaous suddenly, causing the Professor to whirl about so swiftly that he lost balance and fell over with a dull thud.
A large creature, looking like a seven-foot tall, four-legged, mutant cockroach, was hunched over Mendelleaous, with its very toothy maw chomped, playfully, over his scorpion-like tail.
"EVE!" Scolded the professor, in a very fatherly tone of voice, "EVE! Get out of here! You shouldn't be around when we're trying to get work done!"
Of course, Eve didn't understand this, and just continued to munch on Mendelleaous' tail, looking quite content with itself.
"Eve," boomed a loud, deep voice. "Get back over here. The Professor and Mendell are busy." The voice originated from Micahan, who finally decided to talk.
"Ohh, the nanny finally talks!" Spat Mendelleaous, who hated it when Micahan called him "Mendell." "It's such a pity that Eve only listens to you, and you rarely speak up, anyway. She should be locked up in some giant crib somewhere!"
"Calm down, Mendelleaous," assured the professor. "Eve's only a baby. She'll learn with time."
"Well, I KNOW she's only a baby, mister WORM," scowled Mendelleaous, "But her childish attempts at TEETHING really hurt!"
With those words, Eve lifted her head, pulling Mendelleaous into the air slightly before she opened her jaws and dropped him roughly. She trotted over to Micahan, her roach-like abdomen wagging like a dog's tail as she did.
"Agh... damn kids..." muttered Mendelleaous.
The professor went back to examining the R13... It wasn't a horribly gigantic machine. The cockpit was about as long as an average family car, and slightly narrower. Dropped unceremoniously on the ground by the Gauper, the canopy was relatively close to the ground. The skull-and-spine monster glanced about a bit, then inserted the nerve endings of his tail into the fleshy ground, and it raised up, giving him a nice view over the black canopy of the ship.
"Mendelleaous! Can you find a way to seep into the cockpit and find the controls to open the canopy? I want to see the pilot of this machine..."
"Sure thing, I can squeeze through just about anywhere," asserted the black blob, and he oozed up the side of the R13 and did just that. He closed his eyes tightly and flattened himself, using the force of his body to open the cockpit canopy just a crack large enough for him to get in... After a few moments, there came a hydraulic hiss and the canopy slid open smoothly.
"Oh man... Professor, you might not want to see this... It's pretty bad..." peeped Mendelleaous as he perched on the side of the cockpit. When the professor glanced into the ship, he was met by a less than pleasant sight.
The pilot was human, or at least, WAS human... He looked a little more dead, but his raspy breathing and open eyes proved a bit differently. His helmet was off, tossed to the side, most likely as a measure against suffocation in the cockpit. His face was somewhat handsome, or at least, was. His skin seemed to be either bubbling slightly, spotted with painful looking skin boils, or just simply melting off in some areas. His ebony hair was extremely grizzled, looking caked with blood and matted. The pilots eyes were open, wide open, in an expression of terror, and would have looked normal if they weren't glazed over with a sickly greenish film. Blood, both dried and fresh, seemed to be seeping out of his eyes, nose, and ears, as well as his mouth.
"Oh god. He must have been sitting in there for too long... Bydo energies and poisons contaminated him..." nodded the professor, mournfully, as he examined the dying pilot further. The pilot was decked out in a brownish red and cream-colored flight suit, armored here and there with silvery armor... Some pieces of armor, specifically those that were strapped to the thighs and upper arms, had been removed and tossed to the side, just like the helmet. The pilot's right hand was clamped like a vise over the armor on his chest, as if trying to pry it off. His other arm was dropped, stiffly, to his side, and was resting upon something next to him. Occasionally, he would arc his back or toss his head in a spasm.
"Poor guy... I usually never feel sorry for humans, but this one looks like he's really suffering..." murmured Mendelleaous, with a bit of real pity in his high voice. As if to punctuate that statement, the pilot suddenly moaned loudly, his open mouth gurgling up some quantities of blood, which seemed to be laced with other various fluids and contaminants. The professor winced, then shook his head. He slunk off the fleshy platform that he sat upon and entered the cockpit, examining the sickly human. With his tail, the professor attempted to see what his left hand covered, but his attempts were met with stiffness. The pilot's arm muscles were seized up, and had not the professor felt the yield of flesh under the flight suit, those arms could have been mistaken for those of a marble statue.
"What should we do with him?" inquired Mendelleaous, who cringed as the pilot convulsed again, puking up more blood, a whimper sounding from his throat as he did so. "Should we just kill him and save him this agony?"
The professor pondered the question for a moment, "We could... It would be most humane. But this man could... could be a great help in figuring out how to pilot this... I think we can save him, if we used some of our other resources..."
"Save him?" Boomed Micahan. Even though he was quite a ways from the R13, his many large eyes were of some use. "He is well beyond help at this point. He's been too infected with Bydo toxins. Unless, of course, Professor, you have... other plans..."
"Other plans?" Twitched Mendelleaous. "What do you mean... other plans..."
The Professor turned, his blue eyes meeting Mendelleaous' orange ones, "We can save him. He might not like it, but he might see our reasoning. There are other ways. I hope you remember." The professor stared into Mendelleaous' eyes for a while longer, and the black blob seemed to think it over before realizing what he really meant.
"O-oh..." he whispered, worriedly.
"Remember, Mendelleaous. The Gatekeeper came to us with a proposition not too long ago. He's sick of dying, remember? He may know how we can help this one, and may even lend a hand in the process, as well," the skull-headed Bydo reminded. "But first, we will need to get this man out of this cockpit.
"Yes, mister worm.."
The professor gazed, mournfully, down at the pilot as he went into another mild seizure, "You may not be liking this... But I hope you'll find it for the better when it comes...whoever you are."
Chapter 3 - A Harsh Blow
Numbness. That's all Daniel could feel when he awoke from what felt like a vivid and tortuous nightmare. Actually, he was just about numb all the way through, save for his head, neck, and stomach. His stomach felt strangely tight, as if he had just been horribly sick, and his head throbbed. His neck also felt extremely stiff, as his head was turned on its side, facing right. He noticed that, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring his head around to face up.
As his eyes fluttered open, he noticed that they didn't seem to want to focus... all he could see was a dull blur. Though he did come to the conclusion that he was lying flat on his back... which meant he was no longer in the cockpit of his ship. But how could that be? Was his ship somehow saved from the Bydo dimension, despite its mechanical failure during escape? He moaned and tried to sit straight up, but found that he was a bit too groggy, and he relaxed. As long as he wasn't in pain, pain which seemed too vivid earlier.
"I think he's coming around," came a voice unknown to Daniel, originating from his left. The voice was high and scratchy. It didn't sound even vaguely like any of the workers in the hospital wing, as he was often sent there whenever his ship malfunctioned during practice runs.
"Ah, good. It means he should be well enough. Hopefully he'll listen," murmured another voice, deeper and more professional, coming from his right. Again, it wasn't a voice he recognized, but it seemed to be somewhat more reassuring than the first. He opened his eyes again, trying to focus on the figure that spoke. But all he could see was a faint blur of red. He closed his eyes again.
"Whe...where am I?" Daniel managed to barely grind out his question. Every part of his body seemed either extremely tense or excessively limp, he couldn't tell. He was just so numb. He cringed and tried to at least lift one of his arms, but even that seemed impossible. It felt as if suffering from morning sickness back in high school, waking up early after two hours of sleep following a long night of cramming.
"He can speak! That's a good sign," sighed the voice to his right. Was it, indeed? Daniel couldn't see how so, even his few words were extremely forced. His limbs refused to move at his will. Even his tail didn't feel like giving as much as a twitch.
....His tail?
That was enough to jar a few more senses into Daniel's bogged up mind. His eyes snapped open, and due to the position of his head, the first thing he saw was a blue-eyed, mutated skull balanced precariously on a barbed spinal cord. His eyes snapped open wide at this, and he stared, horrified, at the thing in front of his face, frozen like that for a couple of seconds.
"Oh, his eyes are open again. That's very g-" the red creature wasn't allowed to finish his sentence as Daniel suddenly screamed.
"AAHHH!!! WHAT THE F-" Despite being unable to move just seconds earlier, it was probably the sheer force of will that caused Daniel to hoist himself upright with his arms, away from the monster. His blunt statement was cut short as he found himself falling a couple feet and onto something unpleasantly squishy.
"ARGH!" Squealed the high voice from Daniel's former left-side... It was now originating from somewhere underneath him, but Daniel didn't pay attention to that. He was still staring, wide-eyed, at the hopping skull, his mouth agape.
"That...wasn't the reaction I was hoping for," muttered the skull, rolling his eyes somewhat.
"You weren't supposed to SCARE him, you moron!" Came the other voice again, and this time Daniel noticed that it was, indeed, coming from underneath him. Taking his eyes off the red abomination for just a second, he noticed that he was sitting on a big black blob with little glimmering wings. One annoyed-looking orange eye popped up out of the gunk and glared up at Daniel. "Could you get off of me now?!"
Daniel really was at a loss of what to do, as panic was halting most of his mental activity. All he could manage were a short and terrified squeak and another burst of movement as he stumbled backwards, getting off the blob and eventually backing roughly into what seemed to be a wall.
"Wha-? Wha-? Aahhh!" Daniel managed to choke out as he continued to back against the wall, even though it was obvious that he couldn't go any further, his feet sliding uselessly against the ground as he attempted. He looked down at himself, and noticed that he was still wearing his flight-suit, minus the armor, though there was a strange set of flexible metal plating covering his stomach. But he noticed that his hands, devoid of gloves, were formed out of metal and wires twisted together smoothly with flesh, looking as a human's in shape, but ending in razor sharp claws. He also noticed that he did, as a matter of fact, own a long, whipping tail. It was split into segments, and looked like a strange mash of flesh and machinery, ending in a club with two large spikes and a jewel-like object at the tip.
"Thi-this can't be happening!"
Then a third voice, deep and booming, echoed from above Daniel. "Good morning, sunshine. And before you ask, no you're not dreaming. That IS what you were about to say, wasn't it?" The shocked man jerked his head upwards, straining his neck and noticing that when he did so, the back of his head felt exceptionally heavy... And as he looked up, all he saw was a towering wall of flesh, with tiny arms and strange green heads with many different-colored eyes sticking out of random places. One main head at the top, on a ridiculously thin neck, stared down with a singly, massive green eye.
"AHHH!!!" Daniel couldn't bear it... He was surrounded, and he didn't know what to do. He was sitting in an unknown place, faced with a pair of creatures and backed up flat against another, all of which could only be Bydo! The enemy!
"Great job. You've just officially scared him out of his wits, Professor Worm. I just KNEW he wouldn't take this crap lightly. And, of COURSE, he had to fall on ME in the process! Why does EVERYTHING have to FALL ON ME?!" The black blob wailed, turning to face the red skull as two more orange eyes popped out of its body along with the first.
"Well, I wasn't expecting him to take it lightly, in the first place! I just...wasn't expecting him to use you as a cushion," grated the skull, apparently called "Professor Worm." A considerable amount of sarcasm laced his voice.
"You! You! Y-y-you! You're.... You're... BYDO!" Daniel screeched as he stared at them, his eyes darting between the professor and himself rapidly, "Why have you brought me here?! What have you DONE TO ME?!"
"We just saved your life, you ungracious twer-" the black blob was cut off as the spinal professor slunk over the table Daniel was lying on, clumsily sliding off and falling on top of the blob with a noticeable amount of un-grace, "AHH! Not you too?!"
"Thanks for breaking my fall, Mendelleaous. Thanks a bunch," muttered the professor as he steadily tried to stand back up in a balancing position. He wavered back and forth for a couple of seconds before becoming stable, then looked up at the multi-headed mountain of flesh. "Micahan! Anything to say to our guest?" But the eye-dotted Micahan was no longer paying attention, each of its heads having occupied themselves with staring off into random directions of empty space.
"Gah, not now.. Oooh, you're no help at all when we need you do be, you big clairvoyant tub of lard," Mendelleaous curled up into a ball and spat.
Daniel blinked, "What... the... Hell?"
"Exactly," garbled Mendelleaous.
These were not like any Bydo Daniel had ever seen before. Then again, his only personal experiences with Bydo were from within the relative safety of his ship, where he could blow the monsters to gory chunks with the ship's various cannons.
"That's not very nice...," mumbled Micahan, eyes still seemingly fixed on something far away, even though there really wasn't anything there.
"What... are you?!" Demanded Daniel, harshly.
"I thought you already knew... I mean, you blurted it out earlier. 'You're Bydo!' you screamed. And yet, you don't know what we are," regarded the professor in a mentor-like voice, shaking his head.
"So you... you a-are...! But h-how! Wh-why?" At this point, confusion was taking over the summit of Daniel's mind, slowly kicking panic off.
"Let's just say we aren't all the bloodthirsty beasts you humans stereotype us as."
The professor spoke just a little too soon. Just as Daniel had even the slightest notion of calming down, looked up to see a large toothy maw bearing down upon him.
"EVE! NO!" Cried the professor as the 7-foot roach-mutant lunged down at Daniel. But an inner drive in Daniel kicked in, and he was on his feet and out of the way before he could become a snack. He didn't even know he had that kind of agility in him. Something like that would have seriously saved a lot of trouble during military training back on earth. But that wasn't the end. When Daniel focused his eyes on his attacker, he recognized it. He had battled even larger versions of that exact same organism on the mission directly before the attack on the Core!
"Now what was this about NOT BLOODTHIRSTY?" Snarled Daniel back at the Prof, looking extremely put off as Eve readied for another lunge.
"That's different, she's only a baby!" The red skull tried to assure, but it fell flat as Eve lunged again. But this time, instead of leaping out of the way, Daniel felt something bubble up within him.
Stand your ground, stand your ground, stand your ground....
Before he realized what he was thinking, Eve was upon him, and he held out his biomechanical arms, catching the charging monster by her jaws and stopping her still. What power, Daniel thought! What on earth is this?
Use ... your ... tail...
Again, without stopping to think about this, Daniel arced his new tail back and up, like a scorpion's over his shoulder, and shot three bursts of green energy into the gaping maw. Eve cried out and jerked back, releasing her jaws from Daniel's grip and reeling backwards to Micahan.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Daniel didn't notice who screamed that until he received a sharp blow to the back of the neck. He howled and doubled over, biomechanical hands clutching the back of his neck. Micahan snarled and retracted the rootlike tentacle that it whipped Daniel with, "EVE IS ONLY A BABY!"
"Oww..." Daniel whined, and then he noticed... there was more than just his head as he felt his neck. Actually, there was just his head, but there was more TO that head than he had noticed before. Most specifically, his head was extending to the back, much like that of a Geiger Xenomorph, or perhaps the giant monster his ship helped dispatch during the same mission that he encountered the massive Eves.
"Micahan has a point. She's only a baby. And we can't have you attacking any of us, as you don't know what kind of power we gave you in the process of saving your life," growled the professor, his eyes narrowed menacingly.
An awkward silence followed.
"Wh-Who are you guys?" Daniel broke through the stillness of sound, trying to recover from the swift hit.
The professor looked up at Micahan, then to the side at Mendelleaous. Then his gaze fell back on the former-human.
"We're the Bydo Refugees Peace Corps."
"R9 to RX, can you hear me?" crackled a wavering voice over a heavily distorted intercom.
"Loud and clear, Delta." Snorted a slightly sardonic reply.
"R9 to R13, holding up alright, Daniel?"
"Positive. The Cerberos stands ready for order to retreat."
Pitch blackness had a new name as the R-Forces battled what they hoped would be the Last Dance. Three busted up fighters dangled in the emptiness of another dimension, their forms barely visible against the nothingness.
"Sir, I'm not sure if we should hang around for much longer. I don't think the Bydo Core survived that."
The object in question, the Bydo Core, was humming in place, suspended on tearing tentacles before the three ships. Inside the 'belly' of the odd ball was a glowing orange sphere of pure energy. It flashed up brightly for a short period of time, illuminating the ships. The R9 Delta, with its six small wings, looked about ready to fall apart at the seams as it sparked violentlv. The RX Albatross, with a reflective mirror coating on its armor, seemed a little less beaten, though its top-mounted Wave Cannon was destroyed from an overcharge. The menacing black and red R13 Cerberos barely even glimmered in the flash of light, its paintjob made for stealth work in inky blackness.
"R13 to R9. I think it's over."
"Wait on that..."
The core flashed a few more times, and then the skin that held it together split, its flesh disintegrating and freeing the ball of energy. After a few moments, it dispersed into several spheres of yellow flames.
"Alright!" Came a fuzzy comm message from the beaten R9, "Let's scat!"
With that, the engine systems of the three ships lit up with a brilliant light, and they sped on past the balls of energy, which flew off in separate directions.
"RX, listen to me. Your Wave Cannon's fried, so you won't be able to get out of here yourself... Your reflective coating will come in handy... try to tail me as closely as possible, so that you can escape from this damned place when I fire my gun." Came another comm from the Delta.
"I copy that. I would have suggested it myself if you hadn't beaten me the transmission button," sneered the RX's pilot.
"R9 to R13. You can get out on your own. Drop back a bit so that your cannon won't hit us when we try to get through."
"Gotcha."
Bright blue droplets of energy started to form around the R9 Delta, drawing in to its cannon like dewdrops sliding into a funnel. The Albatross kicked up its speed and pulled up right behind the charging Delta, and indeed, the RX's mirror armor had the slight advantage of throwing off some of the force from the Delta's thrusters. The blue energy glimmered for a few moments, the sheer amount of energy causing ripples in the dimensional fabric...an image of Earth shimmered into view beyond the shimmering veil of darkness. With a burst, the Delta fired its gun, releasing such a massive amount of wave energy that it pierced the very dimensional wall, creating a large tear. With a boost of speed, both the R9 and the RX passed, through, though the latter only barely as the rip quickly sealed itself.
Under the black canopy of the R13, the young man Daniel sighed and checked the flickering screens inside his cockpit. It was his turn to get out. Though his voice came out strong and firm over the telecomm, his expression was wrought with quite the opposite. He glanced down to his side once as his hands expertly handled the craft. Sitting beside him was a framed photograph of him and a beautiful woman that could only be his wife. They were hugging each other and looking at the camera, expressions of joy on their faces.
"It's my turn now. I'm coming home," he sighed to himself as he began to charge his ship's Lightning Wave Cannon. He ran the orders given to him through his head once more to make sure. He was told to charge his cannon to the absolute highest, despite computer warnings. Only that amount of energy would be able to break the ship free from the Bydo Dimension.
Taking in a deep breath, Daniel started charging the cannon, eyes fixed on the meters and statistics glowing upon the monitor in front of him. The meter for energy levels rose, numbers flickering away at high speeds. He waited, intently, for the energy bar to flash red...
--WARNING--
The screen suddenly flashed with a horrifying message.
--Unidentified organisms in Wave Cannon Discharger. Releasing stored energy-
"No!" Daniel suddenly choked. It wasn't high enough! It couldn't be released now! But he wasn't given enough time to be horrified at this when the screens suddenly and simultaneously flickered out, bright white sparks flying from some of the cockpit instruments. Before he knew it, Daniel was hit with something that felt like a high charge of electricity being forcefully jammed down his spine. Then he blacked out.
-----
"Any news from the R-Forces, captain?"
A few men wearing military uniforms gathered around a blonde-haired man sitting at a computer. The screen showed various statistics, with windows popping up and closing every two seconds.
"It looks like Hiroshi and the R9 have gotten out... And Michael and the RX have gotten out as well! Oh dear, the RX lost its cannon... that must have been a risky but necessary move, to try tailing the R9 out of the Bydo Dimension... But I don't see Daniel..." The man at the computer sat and tapped a pen against his teeth, staring at the monitor. After a few more moments, no sign of the R13 came through.
"Oh god... He must have been trapped!" cried out a burly man that was standing behind the guy at the computer. "The poor sap! I knew we shouldn't have sent him in there, his ship was too unstable to go much further than the space station! And he was so young, with a wife, too!"
Putting his face in his palm, the large guy turned away, looking angry with himself. The man at the computer let out a raspy grumble and shook his head.
"Damn! This is most unfortunate... While I mourn greatly for the pilot, it is also dangerous to have that ship left with the Bydo... We can't risk them figuring out how our R-Types work, or they may discover ways to counter them, and they're out last line of defense..."
"What do you suggest, captain?" Growled a lanky general that stood behind the computer chair.
"Open a quick dimensional rip..." The captain muttered incoherently for a while, shaking his head some more.
"And then?" questioned the burly man.
The captain paused for a short while longer.
"... Nuke them."
Chapter 1 - Narrow Avoidance
"... Nuke them," buzzed a voice through a strange, brain-like fleshy device. Sitting on opposing sides of the odd apparatus were a pair of extremely...interesting organisms. One was a black blob of semi-solid flesh, with a flashing pair of tiny, glowing cyan wings, a trio of flaming orange eyes, numerous spikes jutting from strange places, and a scorpion-like sting-tipped tail. It was rolled up into a ball on top of a 'stool' that was made from raised flesh, and was staring at the brainy object.
On the other side was something even more disturbing. It was what appeared to be a red xenomorphic skull, with a pair of large and piercing blue eyes. Coming from the skull base was a long 'tail' of what appeared to be spiny red vertebrae. At the very tip of this were some exposed nerve cords. Its general appearance looked like someone cruelly ripped some creature's head off, with the entire spinal cord with it. It balanced, skillfully, on its long neck/tail/spine as it stared at the brain thing.
"Most peculiar," mused the spinal monster. "They've lost an R-Type in the Dimension..."
"It is very intriguing, Professor wormie... It might even be useful, if we can get it out of there before the nukes hit. Think of what we could do against the Militants if we get that and find out how to work it effectively!" squeaked the blob in a surprisingly high-pitched voice. The skull snorted.
"Oh yes. We could even use it as grounds for our talks with the humans... But we need to GET it before that sector of the Bydo Dimension gets nuked. Micahan! What do you say about that?" The skull rocked back and forth slightly as it turned around, addressing something that stood behind it. Said creature was a 32-foot tall pile of strangely twisted purple flesh, with many eyes of different colors glowing from multiple heads that dotted its form. It blinked a few times, then just let out some low-pitch garbles.
"Oh, forget it. I forgot that you never talk unless you think of something on your own," the skull creature sighed. It turned to the black sludge on the other side of the brain telecom device.
"Mendelleaous. I want you to gather seven Cansers and a Gauper. Tell them to get in there as quickly as possible and steal away the R-Type. It could be a great asset to us. But send them off on their own, and don't go with them. Being the last of your kind, it would be very detrimental to us if you didn't make it out in time. We only have enough energy to transport them to and back from the dimension once. The rift cutter will need to charge for a while longer to do any more traveling of that sort."
The blob, Mendelleaous, nodded sharply, then rolled into a tight ball and bounced off.
------
"Captain Jensen, sir! The nuke it ready and waiting in the launching bay! It can be launched any second now!" Reported a youth that looked like a trainee. He made a somewhat haphazard salute as the blonde Captain Jensen nodded and sent him off.
"Well, the quicker the better. When the dimension is opened up for its short time, look for signs of the R13, and aim the nuke towards it. These tactical nukes aren't strong enough to blow up that entire damn dimension, and we're only trying to ensure that they don't get our R-Type. We don't have quite enough resources to send multiple nukes, so we can't afford to miss."
"Yes, sir!" The trainee scampered off to tell those launching the missiles.
"Gah... Damn kids," muttered Jensen as he slouched back and extracted a cigarette from his pocket, pulling out an intricate lighter and lighting it. Taking a long drag, he turned around to his computer, puffing a long plume of smoke at the monitor as he grumbled.
------
The pod chamber in the Bydo Dimension could be described, simply, as rows upon rows and columns upon columns of massive fleshy spheres suspended between the roof and ground by thick cords of muscle and sinew.
A glint of metal, unnatural in such a flesh-filled environment, sparkled from behind one of the giant pods. The shine belonged to a large robotic being, with an elongated head and a somewhat humanoid build. Instead of legs, it sat upon a platform covered in various directions by propulsion units. Its arms ended in small energy guns, and its single red ocular unit flashed a few times when it noted that the coast was clear.
"Move it, and scan for signs of the R-Type," came a mechanical voice from the robot. From behind other pods came other robots, identical to the first. "When you find it, open the rift and call in our Gauper. It's big enough to carry an entire ship of that size back."
After some searching and examining each pod, the various robots closed in towards the center of the chamber, one red ocular suddenly flashed blue.
"Picking up a signal," one robot, the one with the now blue eyepiece, paused in front one particularly large pod, "This must be it."
"Right," bleeped the first mechanoid, apparently the 'leader.' "Let's bust it open and get the ship out. We are running out of time."
The small force of armed machines encircled the pod, all running their scanners. One by one, all their ocular discs flashed blue. When they all verified the ship's location, all their 'eyes' flashed back to a glowing red, and they leveled their cannons. Each of them started to fire at the edges of the pod, trying to make some tears without damaging the precious vessel inside. Soon, enough rips were made in the flesh to show a glint of black metal.
Then the shrieks began... The pods, at feeling one of their own under attack, started to screech loudly, like an alarm.
"Quickly. Call in the Gauper. They'll find us any second now."
One of the robots started to click away at buttons on its wrist with a hand that sprouted from its gun-tipped arm. Not a second too soon, a massive beast trampled in between the pods and screeched to a halt by the circle of silver machines. It had a blade-like head with a single eye. Its arms were huge and muscular, contrasting the surprisingly and almost ridiculously small legs in the back. What stood out was the fact that its bone-matter and a few organs were showing through the creature's skin.
"Get the ship, Gauper. We need to get away as quickly as possible, before the nukes come, and before the Militants arrive."
Without uttering a word, the Gauper threw itself at the pod, using its massive claws on its arms to tear open what was left of the fleshy sphere. The coverings came away to reveal a very badly worn R13, covered in slime and gooping up wherever there happened to be openings in the armor structure. The vicious monster snagged the ship in its arms and, opening its rib-lined chest cavity, inserted the ship into itself. It couldn't carry the vessel in its arms, as it needed its arms for locomotion.
A large tear, at that moment, appeared amidst the large pods, showing open space and a faint outline of earth. Something sleek was headed through that rift, and at high speed.
"We're getting out of here now!" Shrieked the lead robot over the wails of the distressed pods. The other robots nodded and spun about, preparing to flee. The leader followed suit, flanked by the tremendous Gauper.
"Professor! Get us out of here!" The lead robot cried into its wrist.
A faint red aura surrounded the retreating figures. As they moved, the air around them began to ripple. They slipped into the folds of air and disappeared from the Bydo Dimension.
Three seconds later, the pod chamber was reduced to cinders.
Chapter 2 - Nearly Beyond Aid
"Okay, bring it in," the skull-and-spine professor nodded to the robotic Canser Drones, then looked to the Gauper. The professor started to garble something that was not any normal language, but the Gauper seemed to understand, and it opened its ribcage and removed the ship, placing it down on the mushy ground. The Professor nodded to it, and the Gauper slunk off.
"Very, very intriguing," reflected the professor as he inched up, caterpillar style, to the ship and examined it. "It looks pretty beaten, but it can probably be cleaned up. Mendelleaous! Come look at this piece of equipment!"
The black semi-solid blob bounced into the room at the mention of its name, and looked over the black and red ship with its three orange eyes.
"Ahh, yes, mister worm... It's a nice piece. But I wonder.... it was captured while fleeing.... Do you think that, perhaps, the pilot might still be inside?"
"I never thought of that!" Started the skull creature. It looked about, trying to find a way to get up to the canopy and find out how to open it...
"OW!" Yowled Mendelleaous suddenly, causing the Professor to whirl about so swiftly that he lost balance and fell over with a dull thud.
A large creature, looking like a seven-foot tall, four-legged, mutant cockroach, was hunched over Mendelleaous, with its very toothy maw chomped, playfully, over his scorpion-like tail.
"EVE!" Scolded the professor, in a very fatherly tone of voice, "EVE! Get out of here! You shouldn't be around when we're trying to get work done!"
Of course, Eve didn't understand this, and just continued to munch on Mendelleaous' tail, looking quite content with itself.
"Eve," boomed a loud, deep voice. "Get back over here. The Professor and Mendell are busy." The voice originated from Micahan, who finally decided to talk.
"Ohh, the nanny finally talks!" Spat Mendelleaous, who hated it when Micahan called him "Mendell." "It's such a pity that Eve only listens to you, and you rarely speak up, anyway. She should be locked up in some giant crib somewhere!"
"Calm down, Mendelleaous," assured the professor. "Eve's only a baby. She'll learn with time."
"Well, I KNOW she's only a baby, mister WORM," scowled Mendelleaous, "But her childish attempts at TEETHING really hurt!"
With those words, Eve lifted her head, pulling Mendelleaous into the air slightly before she opened her jaws and dropped him roughly. She trotted over to Micahan, her roach-like abdomen wagging like a dog's tail as she did.
"Agh... damn kids..." muttered Mendelleaous.
The professor went back to examining the R13... It wasn't a horribly gigantic machine. The cockpit was about as long as an average family car, and slightly narrower. Dropped unceremoniously on the ground by the Gauper, the canopy was relatively close to the ground. The skull-and-spine monster glanced about a bit, then inserted the nerve endings of his tail into the fleshy ground, and it raised up, giving him a nice view over the black canopy of the ship.
"Mendelleaous! Can you find a way to seep into the cockpit and find the controls to open the canopy? I want to see the pilot of this machine..."
"Sure thing, I can squeeze through just about anywhere," asserted the black blob, and he oozed up the side of the R13 and did just that. He closed his eyes tightly and flattened himself, using the force of his body to open the cockpit canopy just a crack large enough for him to get in... After a few moments, there came a hydraulic hiss and the canopy slid open smoothly.
"Oh man... Professor, you might not want to see this... It's pretty bad..." peeped Mendelleaous as he perched on the side of the cockpit. When the professor glanced into the ship, he was met by a less than pleasant sight.
The pilot was human, or at least, WAS human... He looked a little more dead, but his raspy breathing and open eyes proved a bit differently. His helmet was off, tossed to the side, most likely as a measure against suffocation in the cockpit. His face was somewhat handsome, or at least, was. His skin seemed to be either bubbling slightly, spotted with painful looking skin boils, or just simply melting off in some areas. His ebony hair was extremely grizzled, looking caked with blood and matted. The pilots eyes were open, wide open, in an expression of terror, and would have looked normal if they weren't glazed over with a sickly greenish film. Blood, both dried and fresh, seemed to be seeping out of his eyes, nose, and ears, as well as his mouth.
"Oh god. He must have been sitting in there for too long... Bydo energies and poisons contaminated him..." nodded the professor, mournfully, as he examined the dying pilot further. The pilot was decked out in a brownish red and cream-colored flight suit, armored here and there with silvery armor... Some pieces of armor, specifically those that were strapped to the thighs and upper arms, had been removed and tossed to the side, just like the helmet. The pilot's right hand was clamped like a vise over the armor on his chest, as if trying to pry it off. His other arm was dropped, stiffly, to his side, and was resting upon something next to him. Occasionally, he would arc his back or toss his head in a spasm.
"Poor guy... I usually never feel sorry for humans, but this one looks like he's really suffering..." murmured Mendelleaous, with a bit of real pity in his high voice. As if to punctuate that statement, the pilot suddenly moaned loudly, his open mouth gurgling up some quantities of blood, which seemed to be laced with other various fluids and contaminants. The professor winced, then shook his head. He slunk off the fleshy platform that he sat upon and entered the cockpit, examining the sickly human. With his tail, the professor attempted to see what his left hand covered, but his attempts were met with stiffness. The pilot's arm muscles were seized up, and had not the professor felt the yield of flesh under the flight suit, those arms could have been mistaken for those of a marble statue.
"What should we do with him?" inquired Mendelleaous, who cringed as the pilot convulsed again, puking up more blood, a whimper sounding from his throat as he did so. "Should we just kill him and save him this agony?"
The professor pondered the question for a moment, "We could... It would be most humane. But this man could... could be a great help in figuring out how to pilot this... I think we can save him, if we used some of our other resources..."
"Save him?" Boomed Micahan. Even though he was quite a ways from the R13, his many large eyes were of some use. "He is well beyond help at this point. He's been too infected with Bydo toxins. Unless, of course, Professor, you have... other plans..."
"Other plans?" Twitched Mendelleaous. "What do you mean... other plans..."
The Professor turned, his blue eyes meeting Mendelleaous' orange ones, "We can save him. He might not like it, but he might see our reasoning. There are other ways. I hope you remember." The professor stared into Mendelleaous' eyes for a while longer, and the black blob seemed to think it over before realizing what he really meant.
"O-oh..." he whispered, worriedly.
"Remember, Mendelleaous. The Gatekeeper came to us with a proposition not too long ago. He's sick of dying, remember? He may know how we can help this one, and may even lend a hand in the process, as well," the skull-headed Bydo reminded. "But first, we will need to get this man out of this cockpit.
"Yes, mister worm.."
The professor gazed, mournfully, down at the pilot as he went into another mild seizure, "You may not be liking this... But I hope you'll find it for the better when it comes...whoever you are."
Chapter 3 - A Harsh Blow
Numbness. That's all Daniel could feel when he awoke from what felt like a vivid and tortuous nightmare. Actually, he was just about numb all the way through, save for his head, neck, and stomach. His stomach felt strangely tight, as if he had just been horribly sick, and his head throbbed. His neck also felt extremely stiff, as his head was turned on its side, facing right. He noticed that, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring his head around to face up.
As his eyes fluttered open, he noticed that they didn't seem to want to focus... all he could see was a dull blur. Though he did come to the conclusion that he was lying flat on his back... which meant he was no longer in the cockpit of his ship. But how could that be? Was his ship somehow saved from the Bydo dimension, despite its mechanical failure during escape? He moaned and tried to sit straight up, but found that he was a bit too groggy, and he relaxed. As long as he wasn't in pain, pain which seemed too vivid earlier.
"I think he's coming around," came a voice unknown to Daniel, originating from his left. The voice was high and scratchy. It didn't sound even vaguely like any of the workers in the hospital wing, as he was often sent there whenever his ship malfunctioned during practice runs.
"Ah, good. It means he should be well enough. Hopefully he'll listen," murmured another voice, deeper and more professional, coming from his right. Again, it wasn't a voice he recognized, but it seemed to be somewhat more reassuring than the first. He opened his eyes again, trying to focus on the figure that spoke. But all he could see was a faint blur of red. He closed his eyes again.
"Whe...where am I?" Daniel managed to barely grind out his question. Every part of his body seemed either extremely tense or excessively limp, he couldn't tell. He was just so numb. He cringed and tried to at least lift one of his arms, but even that seemed impossible. It felt as if suffering from morning sickness back in high school, waking up early after two hours of sleep following a long night of cramming.
"He can speak! That's a good sign," sighed the voice to his right. Was it, indeed? Daniel couldn't see how so, even his few words were extremely forced. His limbs refused to move at his will. Even his tail didn't feel like giving as much as a twitch.
....His tail?
That was enough to jar a few more senses into Daniel's bogged up mind. His eyes snapped open, and due to the position of his head, the first thing he saw was a blue-eyed, mutated skull balanced precariously on a barbed spinal cord. His eyes snapped open wide at this, and he stared, horrified, at the thing in front of his face, frozen like that for a couple of seconds.
"Oh, his eyes are open again. That's very g-" the red creature wasn't allowed to finish his sentence as Daniel suddenly screamed.
"AAHHH!!! WHAT THE F-" Despite being unable to move just seconds earlier, it was probably the sheer force of will that caused Daniel to hoist himself upright with his arms, away from the monster. His blunt statement was cut short as he found himself falling a couple feet and onto something unpleasantly squishy.
"ARGH!" Squealed the high voice from Daniel's former left-side... It was now originating from somewhere underneath him, but Daniel didn't pay attention to that. He was still staring, wide-eyed, at the hopping skull, his mouth agape.
"That...wasn't the reaction I was hoping for," muttered the skull, rolling his eyes somewhat.
"You weren't supposed to SCARE him, you moron!" Came the other voice again, and this time Daniel noticed that it was, indeed, coming from underneath him. Taking his eyes off the red abomination for just a second, he noticed that he was sitting on a big black blob with little glimmering wings. One annoyed-looking orange eye popped up out of the gunk and glared up at Daniel. "Could you get off of me now?!"
Daniel really was at a loss of what to do, as panic was halting most of his mental activity. All he could manage were a short and terrified squeak and another burst of movement as he stumbled backwards, getting off the blob and eventually backing roughly into what seemed to be a wall.
"Wha-? Wha-? Aahhh!" Daniel managed to choke out as he continued to back against the wall, even though it was obvious that he couldn't go any further, his feet sliding uselessly against the ground as he attempted. He looked down at himself, and noticed that he was still wearing his flight-suit, minus the armor, though there was a strange set of flexible metal plating covering his stomach. But he noticed that his hands, devoid of gloves, were formed out of metal and wires twisted together smoothly with flesh, looking as a human's in shape, but ending in razor sharp claws. He also noticed that he did, as a matter of fact, own a long, whipping tail. It was split into segments, and looked like a strange mash of flesh and machinery, ending in a club with two large spikes and a jewel-like object at the tip.
"Thi-this can't be happening!"
Then a third voice, deep and booming, echoed from above Daniel. "Good morning, sunshine. And before you ask, no you're not dreaming. That IS what you were about to say, wasn't it?" The shocked man jerked his head upwards, straining his neck and noticing that when he did so, the back of his head felt exceptionally heavy... And as he looked up, all he saw was a towering wall of flesh, with tiny arms and strange green heads with many different-colored eyes sticking out of random places. One main head at the top, on a ridiculously thin neck, stared down with a singly, massive green eye.
"AHHH!!!" Daniel couldn't bear it... He was surrounded, and he didn't know what to do. He was sitting in an unknown place, faced with a pair of creatures and backed up flat against another, all of which could only be Bydo! The enemy!
"Great job. You've just officially scared him out of his wits, Professor Worm. I just KNEW he wouldn't take this crap lightly. And, of COURSE, he had to fall on ME in the process! Why does EVERYTHING have to FALL ON ME?!" The black blob wailed, turning to face the red skull as two more orange eyes popped out of its body along with the first.
"Well, I wasn't expecting him to take it lightly, in the first place! I just...wasn't expecting him to use you as a cushion," grated the skull, apparently called "Professor Worm." A considerable amount of sarcasm laced his voice.
"You! You! Y-y-you! You're.... You're... BYDO!" Daniel screeched as he stared at them, his eyes darting between the professor and himself rapidly, "Why have you brought me here?! What have you DONE TO ME?!"
"We just saved your life, you ungracious twer-" the black blob was cut off as the spinal professor slunk over the table Daniel was lying on, clumsily sliding off and falling on top of the blob with a noticeable amount of un-grace, "AHH! Not you too?!"
"Thanks for breaking my fall, Mendelleaous. Thanks a bunch," muttered the professor as he steadily tried to stand back up in a balancing position. He wavered back and forth for a couple of seconds before becoming stable, then looked up at the multi-headed mountain of flesh. "Micahan! Anything to say to our guest?" But the eye-dotted Micahan was no longer paying attention, each of its heads having occupied themselves with staring off into random directions of empty space.
"Gah, not now.. Oooh, you're no help at all when we need you do be, you big clairvoyant tub of lard," Mendelleaous curled up into a ball and spat.
Daniel blinked, "What... the... Hell?"
"Exactly," garbled Mendelleaous.
These were not like any Bydo Daniel had ever seen before. Then again, his only personal experiences with Bydo were from within the relative safety of his ship, where he could blow the monsters to gory chunks with the ship's various cannons.
"That's not very nice...," mumbled Micahan, eyes still seemingly fixed on something far away, even though there really wasn't anything there.
"What... are you?!" Demanded Daniel, harshly.
"I thought you already knew... I mean, you blurted it out earlier. 'You're Bydo!' you screamed. And yet, you don't know what we are," regarded the professor in a mentor-like voice, shaking his head.
"So you... you a-are...! But h-how! Wh-why?" At this point, confusion was taking over the summit of Daniel's mind, slowly kicking panic off.
"Let's just say we aren't all the bloodthirsty beasts you humans stereotype us as."
The professor spoke just a little too soon. Just as Daniel had even the slightest notion of calming down, looked up to see a large toothy maw bearing down upon him.
"EVE! NO!" Cried the professor as the 7-foot roach-mutant lunged down at Daniel. But an inner drive in Daniel kicked in, and he was on his feet and out of the way before he could become a snack. He didn't even know he had that kind of agility in him. Something like that would have seriously saved a lot of trouble during military training back on earth. But that wasn't the end. When Daniel focused his eyes on his attacker, he recognized it. He had battled even larger versions of that exact same organism on the mission directly before the attack on the Core!
"Now what was this about NOT BLOODTHIRSTY?" Snarled Daniel back at the Prof, looking extremely put off as Eve readied for another lunge.
"That's different, she's only a baby!" The red skull tried to assure, but it fell flat as Eve lunged again. But this time, instead of leaping out of the way, Daniel felt something bubble up within him.
Stand your ground, stand your ground, stand your ground....
Before he realized what he was thinking, Eve was upon him, and he held out his biomechanical arms, catching the charging monster by her jaws and stopping her still. What power, Daniel thought! What on earth is this?
Use ... your ... tail...
Again, without stopping to think about this, Daniel arced his new tail back and up, like a scorpion's over his shoulder, and shot three bursts of green energy into the gaping maw. Eve cried out and jerked back, releasing her jaws from Daniel's grip and reeling backwards to Micahan.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Daniel didn't notice who screamed that until he received a sharp blow to the back of the neck. He howled and doubled over, biomechanical hands clutching the back of his neck. Micahan snarled and retracted the rootlike tentacle that it whipped Daniel with, "EVE IS ONLY A BABY!"
"Oww..." Daniel whined, and then he noticed... there was more than just his head as he felt his neck. Actually, there was just his head, but there was more TO that head than he had noticed before. Most specifically, his head was extending to the back, much like that of a Geiger Xenomorph, or perhaps the giant monster his ship helped dispatch during the same mission that he encountered the massive Eves.
"Micahan has a point. She's only a baby. And we can't have you attacking any of us, as you don't know what kind of power we gave you in the process of saving your life," growled the professor, his eyes narrowed menacingly.
An awkward silence followed.
"Wh-Who are you guys?" Daniel broke through the stillness of sound, trying to recover from the swift hit.
The professor looked up at Micahan, then to the side at Mendelleaous. Then his gaze fell back on the former-human.
"We're the Bydo Refugees Peace Corps."